February 25, 2006 Skating Break

Perhaps I was inspired by the Olympics (regular, not knitting version) to take a break from knitting for a little ice dancing with the 3 year old. This was his first time on skates and after a few tears (I think the skates just felt really wierd on his feet) he seemed to enjoy it. How one transfers from holding the child up the entire time to having him skate on his own seems a little beyond me at this point. I hadn't been on skates in quite a while myself, but I managed a few wobbly figure 8s. No triple toe loops, however.

February 22, 2006 Travel Knitting

Although I'm in the midst of two projects (socks and shrug), I'm going to China on March 20 and am already contemplating the perfect travel knitting project for such a long plane ride (and probably some bus rides as well). I will probably be bringing either my sockapaloooza socks or another pair, but it seems like a good opportunity to get a bunch of work done on a larger project. Spouse has been angling for a sweater and I'm thinking about doing one with the Andre intarsia pattern from knitty (it was originally done for a scarf, but I think it would work well on a sweater). I just need to find a pattern for a nice, plain stockinette sweater- possibly one with a 1/2 zip neck. I'd like to do this in a sturdy cotton yarn if possible, although I haven't found one I like yet.

February 20, 2006 President's Day

Today's Presidents Day so hubby and I both have the day off. We took child to daycare so we could get some things done. For me that includes a great day of just relaxing and knitting. I'm taking a little break from my socks to work on the I Do Shrug from Knitty. I got about 20 rows in at this point but decided I liked the idea of having sleeves with not such a wide opening. I saw on A Mingled Yarn, Elizabeth suggested using fewer repeats of the pattern in order to make the sleeve openings smaller. I'm going to take out what I've done and start over using this advice. For the project I'm using Tahki Cotton Classic in Old Rose.

February 18, 2006 That darn sherman heel!

Creatures added for scale...I finished the leg and of sock 1 for Sockapaloooza and started on the heel. As I was following Hipknitism's online ribbed sock class I was going to do the sherman heel suggested, but I just couldn't get it! I tried several times and ribbed the thing out a few more and the concept of the slipping stitches and wrapping continued to elude me. I've switched to using Ann Budd's sock pattern from the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. I've begun the heel flap and all is well...for now.

February 16, 2006 New Interweave Knits!

My Spring, 2006 issue of Interweave Knits arrived a couple of days ago. Always a good day! I love reading through the patterns, looking at the lovely pictures and thinking about what I'll make next. There were a couple of things in the magazine I'm really interested in doing. I've posted a couple of photos, but specifically the Wobbly Circles Tote by Leigh Radford and the Pullover Flair by Ann Budd. The Pullover Flair calls for Artful Yarns Olympic, which I haven't been able to find online, although I've sent an email to JCA, the distributor to see if they can share who carries it. I also think if I did that sweater I might consider changing the turtle neck to a deep split v-neck- more springy.

I really like the felted tote, but as hubby pointed out, I didn't have much luck with my helmet (I mean felted hat), which was my last felted project.

February 15, 2006 To Block or Not to Block

That is the question. And I'm still not sure about the answer. I hate to admit it but I've never blocked anything before now. I thought I'd try it out with good old Childhood. Here are my before and after pictures. I'm still not sure if there's a difference. I may go back and try it again with the ballet wrap cardigan from Interweave Knits and see what happens.

February 14, 2006 Socky started

Yes, I finally managed to cast on the appropriate number of stitches and have made some significant progress on my first sock. I finally gave up on the German Twisted Cast-On (maybe I can learn that at some other point) and just went with my regular long-tail method. Seems to have worked fine. I feel like I'm quite accustomed to the teeny tiny needles now and things have been going pretty smoothly. I'll actually have a good update for the next sockapaloooza update.

February 11, 2006 Frustration's a part of it...

Ok, ok, although I would hope that knitting would be just fun, and smooth, and no problems- if it were that way everyone would do it! I ran into a major problem with the Childhood sweater, a problem of my own making I should say. Because I had purchased the yarn for another probject, I ran out of the lighter colored yarn before I finished the hood. I (mistakenly) thought, I'll just make the hood smaller! It does say in the pattern after all that the hood as written is "roomy". Well, no baby, even the smallest-headed baby, could squeeze their noggin into this hood! I frogged the hood and switched over to the neckband style. I actually like it better and now that I'm finished have a positive feeling about the pattern (in other words I can see doing this one again).

I've gotten the yarn for my sockapaloooza pal and am getting ready to begin. I bought the Lana Grossa Meilenweit "Fun Cotton" in a green/blue/white mix. I did try to cast on using the Twisted German (aka Old Norwegian) method, since its recommended in the basic ribbed online sock class but had some trouble. The problem wasn't with the casting on itself, I just struggled to distinguish one stitch from another, which made it really hard to try and move some of the stitches over to another dpn. I'm going to try again with trusty old long-tail method and see how it goes.

January 8, 2006 Next project please...

I've started on the hood of the childhood sweater, which means I've reached that point in any knitting project where you start to daydream about your next "thing". Hmmm...what will it be? A factor that I need to take into consideration this time, which I don't usually, is that I'm going to China in March and will need some travel-friendly knitting projects to take along. Right now I'm thinking about a scarf, a sweater (such as the To Dye For from Stitch N Bitch above, although I think I'd skip the kool-aid dyeing and just use a nice angora-y yarn, such as suri dream from Knit Picks), and some sock projects. The plane ride is so long I'm actually thinking I could start and finish some projects during the trip. Maybe make myself a sweater on the way over to wear while I'm there. This kind of planning makes me think about the different kinds of knitting projects. Some are quick and instant gratification, others take more time, space, and effort but are "big rewards" projects, while others can be easy and relaxing, perhaps only one type of yarn and a basic pattern/stitch.

February 5, 2006 Childhood Progress

I've finished the back, fronts and one sleeve of the childhood baby sweater. I do like this pattern, however I think it would be better in a bright cotton, like in this one. I think I might actually make this one again using brighter yarns.