Today I have...

Today I have:

• Knit 4 rows on J's sweater.  Putting me at something like 100 rows total and about halfway up the back.
• knit and torn out 2 rows on the baby blanket.  72 stitches is not 71.  Nor is 70.  No, I do not know where I screwed up.
• decided to say fuck it, ripped out the entire thing and recast on, 1 repeat wider this time.  I'm using the rationale of "it was not wide enough" to justify ripping out 2.5 repeats of the pattern, something like 44 rows.  Better that than cutting it off, setting it on fire, and laughing manically at work
• tangled my yarn.
• balled my yarn and am now contemplating design changes and 

I'm currently trying to decide if adding 4 more stitches, in addition to the pattern repeat, will make the moss stitch look like moss stitch.  or if i add 8 more, i can do double moss stitch and possibly, maybe, not have the border look like ass.

I have a finished project to post, which I'll do Sunday night since I don't have it with me and I'm going to my folks immediately after work.  I don't know when I'll be back other than "by 3 on Sunday."

Pass the wine and the chocolate please.

Progress Update: Big Damn Sweater

We are at:

3.5 skeins of yarn.

Main Cable.  Please ignore the lifelines

1 Main Cable repeat

Entire Thing.

16 inches long

Not shown: the look on my face when I realized that I had screwed up 12 rows earlier, causing the entire cable to be lop-sided.  Nor the 2 pints it took to get me through ripping those stitches out and reknitting them (correctly) with grace.  I'm not allowed to work on this thing at Stitch and Bitch anymore.

I still haven't ordered more yarn.  I'm thinking after my next paycheck?

And I'm starting Baby S-H's blanket today.
(EDIT: no I'm not.  I failed to both grab the correct set of needles and stitch markers.)

General Update

In order of completion:

Sea Tide Socks: don't fit properly, and while I love the yarn, I hate the heel and how they fit.  Also, I cast off too tightly on one, so I have to work at it to make it onto my foot.  I need to find someone with long fat feet and skinny ankles.  I don't think this person exists.  So... I guess these will just kinda hang out.  Unless I decide to frog them entirely, which might happen, but is unlikely.

Fuzzy photo taking for the win!

Sweater update: am currently on skeins 2 and 3, and a little over half way through the first repeat of the main cable.  I might not need to do a full 3rd repeat, but we're not sure at the moment.  Also, the sleeves and armholes?  Still haven't worked that out.  I need to go the library and get some books.

I bought skeins 4-6 yesterday, completely emptying their stock.  And I need at least 10 more skeins I think.  The original pattern calls for about 1400 yards, at 217 yards/ skein= 7 skeins.  Double that since I have to hold the yarn double= 14.  Plus some extra because J is huge.  So I guess I'll have to do a special order.  Which is going to have to wait a paycheck, at least.

Pencil for scale again

Pirate Hat: someone gag me with a spoon.  It looks like a mini-skirt.  The pattern is overly fussy (yes, I realize the stupidity of the cosplay sweater being less of a pain than the soon to be felted hat).  Starting from the outside and working in may be the more logical way of doing this so it felts properly, but the decreases seem to be placed randomly and I'm currently at that awkward place where it's too small for the circular but too big for the dpns.  Also, that's not counting the pain finding size 13 dpns was.  And that's just borrowing them.  For a while, I was thinking I was going to need to sharpen a frickin dowel rod.  

Currently, this is on hold while I find the other ball of yarn that got moved somewhere over the weekend.  I currently don't even have enough to finish the row I'm now.  I'm pretty sure I saw it this morning, or at least the bag it should be in, but I was in a hurry and didn't have time to check.  I should be able to at least finish the knitting part of it this weekend, but probably not the felting.  I should probably go look up good instructions on how to felt.  Hrm.

Birthing Socks: These were originally supposed to be for me, in their toe and heel-less glory.  But those stupid stirrups at the dr's office get really cold.  And in summer, with it already being freezing inside due to the A/C? Screw that noise.  So these are now for Baby SH's mom.  Hopefully, she'll get more use out of them than just birthing, but, whatever.

Currently, there is no progress to speak of on these as I somehow dropped 7 stitches (or cast on the wrong number) while knitting from ball band to the heel, so when I went to increase for the almost gusset... bad things happened.  So it was promptly frogged.  I've about 3 more rows where I need to pay attention and then it drops into a much less attention needing rib.  Unless I decide to do the bottom in moss stitch for some extra cushioning?  Not sure yet.  This is definitely one of those pattern as a general guideline sort of deals.

Goals list:  I went through and pruned and updated it.  Every time I try to knit something for myself, it ends up getting turned into a gift anyway, so I just dropped most of the stuff I was doing for me.  I might add a second shawl in, as I found a couple patterns that are making me go all lustful and stuff, but that's still a maybe.  If I have time before Yule.  At this point, as long as I have a new pair of gloves/mittens and a hat by winter, I'll be happy.

Life in general: It's not looking particularly optimistic for getting a new job.  So I need to start looking for apartments.  And clearing out our crap.  If I get off early this afternoon, I should probably go find and apply for more jobs instead of playing with yarn.

Today is one of those days where you see why chemises, pettycoats and hairpins were invented.  At least then I'd be comfortable in my look like hell status.

Joys of geekery

OMG Squee.

For the truely geeky knitter in your life: Chaos Knitting.  http://www.knitivity.com/diceyKnitting.html

Essentially, you roll dice to determine what you're going to knit.  I feel a need to go to michaels and pick up some wooden d6s to play with....

Update: Big damn sweater

The continuing adventures of the big damn Washbourne.

After several days, I am one skein of yarn in.  And it only took casting on 3 times! So far, I have the bottom ribbing done and 5 rows of the pattern.  I might be able to elk out one more row with the amount of yarn I have left, but rather than have to stop mid-row, I'm stopping here for the rest of the work day.

Normal sized mechanical pencil for scale

There are definitely errors that knitters will be able to notice, and J said he could see where the pattern is different but not how I screwed up, but I decided it wasn't a big enough deal to have to rip back out.

The start of the central cable

Twisted rib?  Not my friend.  Since I finally got the gauge to work out, I'm not nearly as worried about this fitting properly (yarn held as double, size 10.5 needles) as I was, however I know the arm holes and sleeves are going to require some more editing to make work properly.  I've not even started thinking about the sleeves.  Oh darn, I'll have to spend large amounts of time watching Firefly when I get there.

I'm going to start stringing lifelines every 20 rows or so.  I've got the first one about 2 rows ago.  I'm thinking I'm going to leave them in place until everything is finished.

The longer cables for my circulars are making this much easier.  I went ahead and ordered the 60 inch length last week which is almost twice as long as what I was using.  I can now hold it up to J for sizing guess-timates without it being a huge ordeal.  Also, there's room for my backup row counter.

I'm mostly using "Knit Counter Lite" on my phone for this project.  And this might be enough to convince me to drop the $2.99 for the full version.  As I can link counters together so it keeps track of not only which row of the sweater I'm on, but also which row of the cable pattern.  The only real advantage of having the full version is the ability to have multiple projects going at once.  

Starting: J's Washbourne/ Big Damn Sweater

I love my husband.  I also have a feeling that this is going to become my mantra for the next several months.

J has wanted Wash's sweater from Firefly since he saw the show.  Long before he met me.  And now my knitting skills are finally where I'm comfortable making this sweater.

This is what he wants, only he wants it in green:

Because Cables are fun!!

Okay, good enough, I can do this.  Thank you Ravelry for useful things like more creative/talented people than me who have already figured out this pattern.

Pattern I am using is here.  This lovely thing is sized for a much smaller person than J.  42 inch chest would fit me nicely, but not him.  I need to add 12 inches around, a third repeat of the cable up and lengthen the arms as well.  It's hell knitting for an ogre.

Currently, I'm on gauge swatch number 5.  I've tried needle sizes 9 through 11, no dice.  Always too many stitches per inch.  I'm back on size 10.5 (the closest I've come) and doubling the yarn.  Hopefully, this will work.  It will make knitting it go slower, but at this point, it's more important that it fits right than he gets it soon.

It's a good thing he doesn't want this until fall.  Personally, my goal is for it to be done by Yule (Dec 21).

Yarn is Berroco Vintage.  I forget the colorway off hand, but dark heathered green.  Will ultimately need about 8 skeins I'm guessing.  Once I figure out the gauge, I'll get that part figured out.

And then, as an off project, I have a pirate hat to knit.  damnit.

The Baby Blanket that would not end (but did finally!)

It's finally done.  Finally.  Well, it's been done for a month now, but it's done and I have time to write about it.

Baby W's Circle Blanket.

overview of the entire blanket

These were all taken after I had washed it and blocked it out slightly (stretching it out on the living room floor counts right?)  Total measurement is 36 inches across, 113 inches around, 1017.9 square inches.

Close up of center

Total yarn use: Most of 1 skein each of Caron Simply Soft's blueberry, limelight, and grape.  I finished the blueberry skein making the matching booties.  There's probably enough of the limelight and grape to make another pair of booties, but I don't think I'm going to do so.

cat provided for scale.  If that's not particularly helpful, 36 inches

Overall, this pattern wasn't awful, except for the start.  The start, as I may have said before, was just infuriating.  3 hours to cast on is kind of ridiculous.  Accurately placing the stitch markers is really important for this one, as are tip protectors for when you have to put it down.  The biggest issue I ended up having was getting needles that the blanket would fit on as it grew.  I already had a 40 inch needle, but the 60 inch took over a month to arrive (and, apparently, the shop I purchased it from lost the notification that I had come to pick it up, as they called me last week to let me know it was in) which really slowed the whole process down.

The final edging I kinda just fudged.  It would have worked better if I had actually done the math and realized that 550 isn't divisible by 3 and 3x3 ribbing wasn't going to work very well.  But the end result ended up looking kinda cool and who's really going actually look at the ribbing when there's a pretty baby wrapped up in it?  Making it divisible by 3 would have involved another 6 rows and I was already in tears because I just wanted to be DONE with it.  (Knitting at 2 am because you promised yourself you'd finish it tonight?  Might not be the best idea ever)

When I make another one of these, I think I'm going to stick with 1 color and do different stitch patterns for each section.  Also, I will know better than to set arbitrary deadlines for it.

Goals 2011

By Jan 31, 2011
finish Baby W's blanket  Finished Jan 15, 2011, write up coming here

finish 1 pair of socks Finished March 27, 2011.  No write up.  Not happy with them.
pick out yarn and pattern for Baby C's blanket- Done Jan 8, 2011
Finish C&C's Christmas present
start A's socks

By Febuary 28th
corset for A started (edit 3/11/2011, may no longer be on me, nor her other garb)
finish Baby W's booties Finished Feb 2, 2011, write up here
start Baby C's blanket   Started Jan 23, 2011
paint onesies for Babies W & C (possibly S-H?)
finish A's socks  Finished 2/22, 2011.  Write up coming

By March 31st
finish Baby C's blanket  Finished 3/10/2011, write up here
Corset for A done no longer my problem
kirtle for A started no longer my problem
pick out yarn and pattern for Baby S-H's blanket- pattern picked out Feb 26, 2011, yarn picked and ordered Mar 22, 2011
start 1 pair of socks Started March 31, 2011.

By April 30th
Kirtle for A done no longer my problem
Over-dress for A done no longer my problem
Finish Baby C's booties Finished 3/20/2011, write up here

By May 31st
start Baby S-H's blanket
finish 1 pair of socks
pick out yarn and pattern for shawl

June 30th
Finish Baby S-H's blanket
finish Baby S-H's booties
start 1 pair of socks

July 31st
paint Baby S-H's onesies
start shawl
finish socks
pick out yarn and pattern for J's sweater.  Done March 13, 2011

August 31st
Knit 1 pair of socks
start sweater  Started March 14, 2011
reach at least half way on shawl
sew Starfleet Uniforms for Babies C and S-H

September 30th
start christmas/yule presents
finish shawl
reach at least halfway on sweater
start baby kimono

October 31st
start and finish 1 pair of mittens
finish sweater
finish at least half of christmas presents
finish baby kimono

November 30th
finish christmas presents
knit 1 pair of mittens

December 31st
knit 1 pair of socks.
make sure there are at least 1 photo of every FO in use
write goals for 2012

Cigar gloves

And another project done for Yule.  Well, these were done after Yule and after Christmas even, but they're done!

"Cigar" gloves courtesy of Knitty.

as an example of how off the colors on my camera are: that orange in the upper corner?  Is actually crayon red.

Pretty much made these according to pattern aside from lengthening them.  I ran into trouble with the fingers and had *a lot* of sewing to do to patch up holes.

Next up:

Stocking Cap attempt 3.

Making a simple crocheted stocking cap should not be this hard, but I somehow keep screwing it up.  Attempt 1 was too small, attempt 2 was never going to turn into a hat (maybe a bag, but not a hat) and so was completely frogged.  On to attempt 3 tonight.  Probably at Stitch n' Bitch for a change.!

Yule update 2

Yay, another finished project!  I knew this blog would be good for my productivity!

J's PSP Cozy.

Jayne's Hat in the form I could get it done by Yule

All done except the pompom and the ties on the ends of the "ear flaps".  Both of which I was planning on doing at work this afternoon, but forgot the yarn at home.  Based off this pattern I found on Ravelry.  I have to say that I'm not terribly entranced with this method of cast on (figure 8 ?) but it does create a seamless bottom, which is a plus I guess.  It's certainly better than having to seam the bottom closed myself.

Other new skill learned?  How to pick up stitches in the continuing quest to pick up basic skills in the order I need them.

And now the progress shot of the baby blanket:

Folded in half.  Only about 45 rows left.

I've just about filled the 40 inch circular needle I have it on currently.  Still waiting to hear from the shop that the 60 inch I ordered has come in.  

And off to make another coffee cozy, this one should be able to double as hand warmers.

Yule update 1 (fo: coffee cozy)

And the holiday crafting begins.  With it comes the search for quick projects that can be done over the course of a few hours without needing a whole lot of thought.

Project #1: Coffee cup cozy

Original pattern located here

Original pattern is pretty much straight up garter stitch for about 10 inches.  I changed that up a bit.

CO 18 stitches
row 1: knit 

row 2: knit
row 3: k3, p12, k3
repeat rows 2 and 3 6 times (until you have 15 rows)
row 16: knit 3, ssk, knit 8, k2tog, knit 3
row 17: knit 3, ssp, purl 6, p2tog, knit 3
row 18: knit 3, ssk, knit 4, k2tog, knit 3
row 19: knit 3, ssp, purl 2, p2tog, knit 3
row 20: knit 8
row 21: k3, p2, k3
row 22: k8
row 23: k3, m1, p2, m1, k3 (10 stitches)
row 24: k4, m1, k2, m1, k4 (12 stitches)
row 25: k3, p1, m1, p4, m1, p1, k3 (14 stitches)
row 26: k4, m1, k6, m1, k4 (16 stitches)
row 27: k3, p1, m1, p8, m1, p1, k3 (18 stitches)
row 28: k18
row 29: k3, p12, k3
repeat rows 28-29 until you've reached the length needed
row 30: k3, bo3, k6, bo3, k3
row 31: k3, co3, p6, co3, k3
row 32: k18
row 33: k3, p12, k3
row 34: k18
row 35: k18
Bind off loosely, weave in ends, block.  Sew on buttons to short end.

Blanket update

And the epic blanket continues.  At this rate, O is only going to get 1 blanket and some booties.  Although I really shouldn't say that.  Technically, I am half way done.  It's the small half, but it's half.

I think I should have run a couple rows of green between the purple and green, but it's a bit late now.

Current counts:

28 stitches to the section, 280 stitches total

16 inches diameter

On my (sole) 40 inch needle in hopes that I'll continue to have room on it until the 60 inch I ordered comes in.  Scrunching stitches as tightly as possible I can fit about 14 stitches to the inch, so I might be able to fit this all on a single 60 inch.  I hope so.  

I've about 4 more rows of green before I switch colors.  I'm trying to decide if I want to do a large row of blue and a short row of purple, or keep with the established pattern.

In other news, still working up plans for Yule/Christmas presents.  Everyone is getting fudge and nuts like normal, but I'm trying to decide if I can learn how to knit buttonholes in time to churn out a couple of small presents for important peeps.  Given the complete failure at socks last night, I don't have a whole lot of hope, but things are possible.  I'll fuss with it later this week.  It's not like my folks aren't terribly used to me sitting in the living room muttering over my crafting while watching tv.

blanket status

Progress is being made on the baby blanket.  In between random searches on Ravelry for ideas for the outer edging (seed stitch?  cable?  simple ridging?) and other baby related items.  Found an couple of different ideas for onesies, but I might also purchase blank ones and commit art upon them.

Oh!  Nifty idea.  Must speak to coworker who speaks japanese.  Also, check the veracity of google translate.

Anyway, Blanket is booking along.  I moved it to my 30 inch circular late last night and it's gone from being a stretch to actually knit it to being comfortable.  I've about 2 more rows of the purple to do before switching over to the blue for about an inch.  I think I'm going to do seed stitch for those (6) rows, as it's relatively easy to do.

Current color layout:

16 rows green (Garter stitch)

16 rows purple (garter)

6 rows blue (seed)

Current counts:

15 stitches to the section

150 stitches on needles

Per the nifty calculater I found, I'm currently at a 27 inch circumferance, which seems small.  Which means I might be making this bigger than originally planned.  *pause to do math*  Yeah, Circumferance of 38 means a radius of just over 6 inches.  NOT BIG ENOUGH.  Radius of 19 gives a diameter of 38 though... which I think was the original plan anyway.  Hrm *does more math* that means when I'm done, I'll have something like 60 stitches per section.  I'm going to need bigger needles.

Gratuitus photo of out cat:

Pinwheel Baby Blanket start

Found out exciting news Saturday.  Yay, there's going to be a baby to spoil and practice on before I have one of my own!  This completely upsets the to do list for knitting and crocheting.  I now have baby blankets and booties and sweater and other fun stuff to get done by May.

First up, Pinwheel Blanket from Ravelry.  I'm still looking for booties etc, but for the first blanket, it's going to be round and stripy and very colorful.  I'm looking at a final diameter of about 38 inches (seems big enough I think).

This should be easy right?  Knit in the round with the occasional yarn-over until big enough.  And now that I'm something like 12 rows in, it is!  The first 5 rounds however, are *very* fiddly.  Expanding 5 stitches out to 20 over the course of 3 rows is kinda difficult.  Specifically, knitting 5 stitches in the round is almost impossible.  It took me about 3 hours to cast this thing on and to get more than 3 rows in.  There are a number of different methods detailed around on the web about how to get this thing cast on, among them to do a crochet cast on, magic loop, etc.  I tried everything I could find after the first 2 attempts of knitting in the round over 3 dpns failed.  In the end, several hours later, I ended up going back to knitting in the round and just cursing a fair bit. 

The main issue seems to be that there's nothing to stablize the stitches except carefully knitting and patience.

My pattern mods (so far)
Knit cast on 5 stitches.
Join into loop.
1: K1, Make 1 (yarn over method)= 10 stitches.  Mark beginning of round.
2: Knit row
3: K1, yarn over= 20 stitches
4: knit row
5: K2, yo; repeat around.  Place marker before each yo, slide them as you come to them.
6: knit row
7: K3, yo; repeat around
8: knit row
odd rows: K(x), yo; repeat around
even rows: knit row

So far, 12 rows in, it looks like this:

This is before I added the markers so I don't have to think about where the yarn overs go anymore, but it's a good start.

uh... Hi?

Lets see how this works shall we?

It's hard to keep working on something when you never see any progress on it.  So things like shawls, snoods, and other highly repeative projects get lost in the shuffle simply due to it's boring and you're not getting anywhere!

You are, of course, actually getting somewhere every time you actually pick up the needles/hooks/pin cushion.  As long as you keep working on it, you'll eventually finish.

So time to try something new.  In an effort to actually motivate myself to finish these.

Current projects

Knitting

• K's shawl.  On needles for over a year now, and I'm overwhelmingly bored with it.  Also nearly out of yarn which is the bigger issue.
• Balaclava thing.  Really just needs to be switched over to longer needles, but is at a standstill until i find my size 5 circular needle.
• Cable practice.  Decided this morning that this is going to be the shoulder strap for another shopping bag.  Which means I need to pick up another skein of the yarn, as I only bought 1 skein and I can either have new socks or new bag at the moment.

Crochet

• Snood.  well, it might be one eventually.  currently, it appears to be a doily like what my grandmother used to make.  except uglier.  will definately need to be blocked... which I don't know how to do really. 
• J's handwarmers.  I don't even have yarn for these at the moment- his Ravenclaw yarns got lost in one of the moves over the past 4 years (only 4?  really?)

Sewing

• 2 New corsets (me).  Just need pattern and hardware for Steampunk as fabric has been picked out. Jan 2011  RenFaire is going to be standard pattern, but fun things with boning. 
• Steampunk/ Firefly/Serenity coat (me).  Have the pattern and the fabric, just lacking motivation. Jan 2011
• J's steampunk coat.  technically, I just need to offer moral support on this one, but I'll probably end up doing more to make sure it's done by SteamCon. Jan 2011
• A's Flemish garb.  this will be fun!  May 2011

Hrm.  Maybe I have reason to be kinda panicky about getting all this done.  Fortunately, only the sewing stuff has hard deadlines.