March 20, 2006 Travel Knitting Part 2

Today I leave for a 10 day trip escorting 15 Walker Art Center volunteer tour guides on a trip to Beijing and Shanghai. We'll be viewing both traditional sights and art, as well as experiencing the incredible explosion of contemporary visual art in China. When preparing for a trip like this, the whole knitting thing can bring up some quandries. The main one being, looking towards a 16 hour plane trip to get there, another 4 hour one in the middle, a 2 hour train ride, and a 16 hour plane ride home. That is alot of time for knitting. However...that's also a lot of yarn taking up alot of valuable suitcase real estate. I have two projects to work on, one is the men's sweater with the Andre motif- I'm hoping during the trip to get the back finished, and both sleeves done, that way when I get back I'll just have the front to do.

I also want to make a hat on the way over to wear while traipsing along the great wall. I thought a hat would be a good side project to take a break from the sweater, plus something I can probably complete within the span of a few hours. But oh, where to put the yarn.

Have you seen the commercials for Space Bags? They're these bags that you use your vaccuum on to suck out all the extra air, completely flatting what's inside. Behold, the low-tech space bags, the ziplock baggy. Throw a couple of balls of yarn or a knitting project inside one, press out the air, and voila a flat and handy little packet.

March 18, 2006 Happy St. Paddy's Day

Just the thing for St. Patrick's Day, Guiness, knitting, and watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Party!

March 16, 2006 Finished socks!

Yes! I finished my sockapaloooza socks. Although there are a few flaws, I'm pretty happy with them. I hope my sockapaloooza pal enjoys the sunny springtime colors. They kind of remind me of sun and crystal blue waters- something either springy or at the very least- vacationy. I really liked making socks and will definitely do it again, in fact the 3 year old (sorry, 3 1/2!) is already clamoring for a pair. Hopefully ones that small will go even more quickly. After this pattern, I'd definitely like to try the toe up Sherman heel version. I really struggled with that pattern originally, but now that I've made it through one pair pretty much unscathed I think I'm ready to tackle it.

March 15, 2006 Sparkle #2- just in time

Just in time for a huge March snowstorm I finished Sparkle Hat #2- this one for me! I love peoples' responses to this hat- anything from "radio wave brain protector" (that one courtesy my parents) to disco ball hat (courtesy a co-worker). My sister also just finished this adorable hat from Stitch N Bitch Nation- the cabled newsboy hat. I love it.

March 13, 2006 Massive amounts of yarn

I took hubby to the lys this weekend so that he could pick out the yarn for his sweater. He decided on two nice colors of the Cascade 220- a burgundy (#2401) and a heathery tan (#2440). The burgundy will be for the main body of the sweater, with the Andre design in the tan. Should be nice. A good surprise was finding out that the shop has a swift and ball winder available for use- we spent about 20 minutes winding all 7 balls, this will be a huge timesaver! The ladies at the shop enjoyed seeing him using the ball winder. Here's a photo of the sweater pattern I plan to use- from Cleckheaton No.929. My only changes will be the design change, make the collar without ties (just a split v-neck) and to put in raglan sleeves instead of the drop shoulders. I leave for China on Monday and hope to get a bunch done on the trip.

March 9, 2006 Love the sparkle hat!

I finished the sparklt hat and absolutely love it. It was such a fun quick knit as well. I've gotten another skein of the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky and I'm going to whip one up for myself before I leave for my China trip in a week and a half. I asked hubby what I should bring on the trip to knit and he looked at me incredulously- what about my sweater!!??? Ok, ok, I was just a little bit worried about the space it might occupy in my very likely to be super full luggage. I think I'll try anyway and just bring a couple of balls of yarn. Its not like I'll finish the whole thing on the trip anyway. He did throw down the gauntlet though, we may be going on vacation at the end of May to Mexico with some friends: "Hey, that sweater would be a great thing to bring for the cool evenings!" Time's a ticking.

In case you're just arriving, I'm going to work the intarsia pattern from Knitty's Andre into the front a sweater. I don't know about you, but I had some difficulty finding a good, basic, men's sweater pattern. My LYS finally directed me to where I found a great stockinette stitch sweater with a nice collar. Should work well. Next, yarn- what to use? The pattern calls for Cleckworth Angora, but I wanted something (cheaper) and really sturdy, since I see this as a casual knockaround type garment. Cascade 220 it is! Lots of yardage to the skein, not expensive, plenty of colors to choose from, and nice to knit with and wear. I'll have either drag hubby to the yarn store or have him look online and choose his colors. Update on that aspect soon!

March 3, 2006 Sparkle hat

Between my two socks for sockapaloooza I needed a little instant gratification project. A friend has a birthday coming up and I want to make her a knitted gift. She's into funky hats so I decided to make the Sparkle Hat from Stitch N Bitch. I had a little trouble finding paillettes with large enough holes for the yarn so I bought some with smaller holes and had my trusty assistant punch holes for me. He's so useful! I'm using the yarn recommended with the pattern- Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky- which I love. I'm using 1/2 the recommended amount of spangles- 45 instead of 90. I think with my leftover spangles I might make a hat for myself.

March 2, 2006 Sock one finished

I did it. I finished my first sock. Its not perfect, its not flawless, but its done and its a sock. On to number two. I am taking a little break between socks for another (quicky) project- a birthday gift for a friend. More on that tomorrow.

March 1, 2006 Public Knitting Interventions

Have you heard about knitta? According to the website:

Knitta began in August 2005, when AKrylik and PolyCotN were discussing their frustration over unfinished knitting projects: half-knitted sweaters and balls of yarn gathering dust. That afternoon, they knitted their first doorknob cozy. Then it dawned on them… A tag crew of knitters, bombing the inner city with vibrant, stitched works of art, wrapped around everything from beer bottles on easy nights to public monuments and utility poles on more ambitious outings. With a mix of clandestine moves and gangsta rap — Knitta was born! Today, Knitta is a group of more than 10 ladies of all ages, races, nationalities, religions, sexual orientation… and gender.

I love this idea of public "knitting interventions". Have you ever thought about knitting as incorporating gangsta rap??