C-R-O-C-H-E-T!

Well, I've decided to put off the pretty pretty lace scarf for a while. I attempted it first with this beautiful yarn

and a size 3 MeiMei Pro Bamboo 24" Circular needle. And it didn't work because the cable on that needle was too thick. Attempt #0 (not quite 1, lol): Fail.

Attempt #1- After I received my pretty size 3 KnitPicks fixed 40" Harmony Circular, I re-cast on with the pretty yarn. I had two repeats done, and was working on the third when a stitch disappeared, and after tinking and counting and trying to figure out what stitch disappeared, I finally just decided to frog, and re-wind the yarn. Then, as I blogged about here, I decided to knit up a quick dishcloth as an instant gratification to make myself feel better about lace attempt fail #1. :)

So, I cast on again, for lace attempt fail #2...and I didn't even make it through the first repeat before I realized that I was again missing a stitch. Sigh....so, I frogged again.

This time, I decided I was going to forget the Shimmer yarn and try a different lace yarn (because as one knows, I've got too much yarn that I don't need as it is). I decided on the KnitPicks Gossamer (ravelry link as this yarn is now discontinued).

The only thing that I accomplished with this yarn was proof that my long tail cast on sucks hardcore and cannot be used. Boooooooo.

I decided to take a break from the lace knitting with lace yarn to mull over what my next project should be.

I decided that one again, an instant gratification project was necessary. :) So I pulled out some Peaches & Creme worsted weight in Shaded Pastels (because I don't even really LIKE that color scheme, but I've got 12 skeins of it...so I'm always looking for excuses to use it up. Only 10 skeins left.....).

While I was knitting up my Feather & Fan, I decided that my next step was going to include CROCHETING! (gasp!)

So tonight, I chained up what I needed to, and crocheted up the first 3 rows.

And that's all the info I'm going to volunteer since the crochet project may or may not be a gift in the near or possibly not near future!

Oh, except I will let you know that the crochet project involves the following:

So far, so good. Though crocheting with a hook this big is kind of a pain in the rear. But I think the finished project will be a happy success. :)

Lace Attempt #2 - Fail...ish

Well, the bad news is that I already had to frog my pretty lace scarf. But it really was more or less my own fault for just being careless and not paying attention to the stitches on my needles. And it was only into the very beginning of the 3rd repeat. I spent about 35+ minutes trying to figure out where the dropped stitch was and how the hell I dropped it, before I just gave up, and frogged it. I figure I didn't really lose a whole lot of work in the grand scheme of things. So yes, I'm sad, but I saw a few lace projects on Ravelry where the knitter noted that they made so many mistakes, they just frogged the WHOLE THING. I'd rather frog not quite 3 pattern repeats, learn where I made my mistakes, and re-cast on later. Whew. So that is what I will do....sometime this week.

After that lace yarn fiasco, I didn't want to cast on right away again, I figured I needed something to do that was an instant gratification type project so that I didn't decide that I was a total failure as a knitter. :) So I pulled out my trusty size 6 needles and a cone of Peaches & Creme cotton and knitted a Garter Dishcloth with Pointy Corners (ravelry link) which is basically your standard Grandmother's Favorite dishcloth. I like this pattern better than the regular because of the short-rows that allow for a pointier corner. Call me a perfectionist who likes my dishcloths to have all four corners pointy. Which is odd, given that I got a D in high school geometry.... Anyway. Quick, useful, and instantly gratifying. I actually use these as facecloths in the shower. More exfoliating than a regular washcloth, in my opinion, and I can make them out of fun colors. This one wasn't so much a "fun colors" as it was "oh hey, I've got this 787-yard cone of Aqua Mist because I just frogged another project so I could get my needle cord back...let's use some up!" I do like the Aqua Mist though. Next time I think I'd go for a more fun set of colors, but right now I wasn't about to be picky. Or use Teal Ombre since it too closely resembles that lace yarn....

Last but not least, I found a fun "counter" to add to my blog: The KnitMeter! Can be normally found on the right hand side of the blog, but for your enjoyment, I am adding it to this post. Ta-da!

I'm going to try and knit 1500-2000 meters this year. So far, almost 400 meters in almost 2 months. That puts me on track to knit...let's see...200 meters a month, 12 months a year....2400 meters (there's that pesky math again!). Not bad...not bad. :)

And I lied when I said last but not least before, but oh well. If you have a fiber related blog that you'd like me to link to, I'm trying to compile a list of knitting/crocheting blogs that I follow and would like to start a "Fiber Blogs I Read" sidebar. Just let me know! :)

Olympic knitting project, some FO's and a new template to boot!

I hope you all like the new template! I had fun picking out my template...I think it makes my blog more fun looking than it used to. I had a hard time finding a template that fit my blog without having to make a lot of obnoxious changes. But I persisted and success!

Anyway, on to the knitting content, which there has been a relative amount of lately.

As you know, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics started on Friday! On Ravelry, the Ravelympics started as well. I didn't join up on a team, but I'd had a blast doing the 2008 Summer Ravelympics, so I figured I would use the Olympics to at least start a project I'd been wanting to work on for a while. I had narrowed it down to three choices: The February Lady Sweater (Ravelry link), Bella's Mittens, and the CashSilk Fern Scarf (Ravelry link). As you may remember, I attempted the CashSilk Fern Scarf last week without success. That was mostly because the only size 3 needle I had was not pointy enough, and the cable was too thick, so even once I got the stitches off the actual needle, there wasn't a ton of room on the cable...so back to the drawing board. At the beginning of the year, I blogged about staying on a yarn diet. I am ashamed to confess that I broke my yarn diet again, but this time it was so I could order from KnitPicks in order to get the size 3 needles I need. I picked up some skeins of Wool of the Andes too since those are a- inexpensive and b- good workhorse yarns. I'm developing a bit of a yarn snob complex and I like worsted weight wool a lot better than worsted weight acrylic...but I digress. In addition to the Wool of the Andes, I bought a two 40" size 3 fixed circular needles, one Nickel Plated and one Harmony Wood. And who could resist this???

Now I promise that aside from that Magenta Red Heart SuperSaver I need for another project, I really am sticking with my yarn diet for a while. Because now I really am broke...that KnitPicks order ate up my Christmas money. :)

Anyway, back to the CashSilk Fern Scarf (I have now named mine the AlpacaSilk Fern Scarf, because I am using KnitPicks Shimmer yarn which is 70% Baby Alpaca and 30% Silk. Mmmm....

More yarn p0rn:

So I cast on to the 40" Harmony Circular needle. It was rough going at first. I have never used a yarn even remotely this small, and I think the smallest size needle I've ever used was a size 5 and that was almost 3 years ago. After about the 4th row of the pattern I was about ready to frog already! But I persisted, and gradually it got easier. Hooray! I made it through one pattern repeat (12 rows, and half of those were purl rows).

I am feeling very good about this project so far! I love the color, and working with the tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny yarn is not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be! I am not sure that I will be done with this by the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics however. I am thinking a more realistic goal will be to have this done by the end of Lent so that I can wear said lace scarf to church on Easter. :)

Anyway...before I decided on the AlpacaSilk Fern Scarf as my Olympics project, I was also contemplating the February Lady Sweater. However, the gull lace pattern on that sweater involved lots and lots of slip-slip-knits (SSKs). I was very fearful of the SSK, so I decided that before I could even contemplate doing the February Lady Sweater, I would need to master the SSK. A quick trip to my Cloth of the Week Yahoo Group helped solve that problem! In the December 2009 COTW, there is a pattern called Amelia that calls for SSKs everywhere. If you are not a member of COTW, I can not say enough good things about it. As the group name indicates, there is a new dishcloth pattern every week with a variety of techniques. I have knit a number of the COTW patterns and while I have not loved all of them, I have learned a lot of new techniques I might not have otherwise attempted. Plus, a dishcloth is useful way to learn a technique, in my opinion. :) So after I found the Amelia pattern, I went to KnittingHelp and found a quick video tutorial on SSK. After watching the video once through, I realized why I had been so afraid of the SSK...I had gotten very poor instructions on it initially! Live and learn...after I knitted the entire Amelia cloth, I am now a master at SSK. :)

I picked the Mocha Swirls colorway in the Peaches & Creme Article 930 Worsted Weight Cotton. I adore this colorway, but now I have this weird craving for Neapolitan Ice Cream....

Please excuse the fact that I have not yet woven the ends in yet. :)

Finally, I finished this scarf a while ago but hadn't gotten around to photographing it yet. I bought some Malabrigo Chunky Yarn in Brilliante a while ago at Iris Fine Yarns in Appleton, but never found a pattern that claimed the yarn.

At the end of fall, I realized I wanted to make a scarf of this, so I dug through Ravelry in search of the perfect pattern for this yarn. I stumbled across the Scrunchable Scarf pattern and decided that this WAS the pattern for the yarn. It didn't take long using size 11 needles and both skeins of yarn. Soft, cuddly and warm.

Well that's all for now. Hopefully I will make some more progress with my lace scarf this week and I will try to post another project picture at the end of the week.

Sigh...cats.

This afternoon, I came downstairs and was greeted by this in the living room!

I followed the trail of yarn to the kitchen....

And was greeted by this!

And then this!

The culprit, however, was nowhere to be found....until I followed the yarn back to the living room and what do you know??

Smores, you are a bad liar and I'm not buying your "I'm innocent" look. So much for the rest of my sparkly wool-ease. :)

Lace Attempt #1 - Fail.

As I blogged about in my 2010 Knitting Resolutions, I really want to start knitting lace. I have queued a number of lace patterns on Ravelry for a while, but either I didn't have the right yarn, didn't have the right yardage, didn't like that specific pattern, etc. I finally, finally, FINALLY found my ideal pattern. Hooray! I decided on the CashSilk Fern Scarf (ravelry link) because I liked the relative simplicity of the scarf, but it is a gorgeous scarf.

So tonight, I decided that I was going to cast on for this scarf. I dug through my craft room, and found a size 3, 24" circular needle, and then dug through my yarn to find some lace yarn for the project. I considered using the Cashmere/Wool Laceweight yarn that I bought as a 26th birthday to me present from Mad Angel Creations, but I decided against it for now...I'm not sure I really "see" this pattern with this yarn, though I could end up proving to be wrong. Instead, I picked out this beauty- KnitPicks Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor.

So, I cast on the required number of stitches, and knitted the first row. The needles I picked out (MeiMei Pro Bamboo)...NOT working. I think I need a metal needle of some sort. Unfortunately, my KnitPicks Interchangeable needles only go down to a size 4, and this requires a size 3. I checked some other Ravelers project notes, and going to size 4 doesn't seem like a good plan. So for now, the project is halted until I can get a metal needle with a pointy tip. Possibly a KnitPicks fixed circular either in the Nickel-Plated or Harmony Wood, or maybe an Addi Lace. We shall see.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and figure out a different project until I can get my hands on the required needle. :)

Baby Gift Extraordinaire!

My main project for this week was to accomplish two things: 1. Finish up the baby blanket that has been sitting on my needles for over a year waiting to find a recipient. 2. Make two burp cloths to go along with the baby blanket and the onesies I bought for said baby.

Check and check. Man, I rule.

I even have pictures, because I am just that awesome.

First, the blanket. I did not use a blanket pattern for this one, just a stitch pattern and some simple math. I used the feather and fan pattern, which is, for this blanket, multiples of 18 + 20. My major mistake with this was GAUGE. And a gauge swatch that lied. This isn't a baby blanket so much as it is a small rug. But by the time I realized "oh crap, this is too big" I was almost out of variegated yarn and was over halfway done. No way was I going to frog that much work. So, it's an all-purpose, take-it-everywhere blanket. Use it while kiddo is playing on the floor, use it while kiddo is playing outside, use it when kiddo gets a bigger bed...okay maybe not the last part, but you get the idea.

Another mistake I made was mixing and matching my yarns. I used Caron Natura Baby Rainbow Ombre yarn for the varigated, and Red Heart SuperSaver for the solid. No, the problem isn't that acrylic melts babies. No, the problem isn't that Red Heart SuperSaver is actually the devil incarnate. The problem is that Caron Natura and Red Heart SuperSaver aren't exactly the same yarn weight. So the needle size I picked (US 10.5) was a bit too thick when it came to the SuperSaver, even though it was perfect with the Natura. Live and learn. Next time, either a- don't mix and match Natura and SuperSaver, or b- use a smaller needle size. That would have solved the overall size of the blanket too. Oh well. Anyway, so along with the Baby Rainbow in Natura, I used SuperSaver in Petal Pink, Pale Green and Light Blue (oh, what original names!). I had initially planned on panels of yellow, but see aforementioned "running out of variegated yarn" and that is why there were only three solid panels. :) Aside from the things I'd change if I could re-do it now, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and only hope the recipient likes it too.

The two best pictures I got of the afghan are just before I finished (a few more rows to go):

and just after I finished and folded up the blanket.

To accompany the blanket, I made two quick burp cloths out of Peaches & Creme worsted weight cotton in Spring Meadows. The first one I used a pattern called Plain & Simple Burp & Wash Cloths (ravelry link). The medium called for 36 stitches and the large called for 41, but I settled on "medium plus" and cast on 39 stitches. Quick, mindless knit. I like this color scheme for baby girls.

And a close up to show off the colors a little better:

The second burp cloth I made using a dishcloth pattern and just continuing to knit it to make it a long rectangular rather than a square. This was made using the Waffle Knit Dishcloth pattern from Homespun Living. Again, a pretty mindless knit. My trouble was actually getting the hang of the P2, K1 for the first few rows, for whatever reason I was having a difficult time with that particular row. Aside from that, the pattern was, I think, a success. I like the texture of this one a lot, and I will probably make some dish/wash cloths using this pattern.

And another one to show off the whole cloth:

All in all, I feel pretty successful in completing these projects this week (and last!). Hooray for me! Now, I am going to try and make some baby hats for Laura & Elizabeth so I can ship off that baby blanket as well. Then my project choices are wide open!

Oh, and what kind of a Wisconsinite would I be if I didn't send off some Green Bay Packer onesies along with the blanket and burp cloths! Not a big Packer fan here, but the recipient's parents sure are....

Now I need to find two more skeins of the Red Heart Super Saver in the colorway Magenta. I have located it online at Joann's and Knitting-Warehouse, but not locally. I only need two skeins, I'm not gonna pay shipping. I am going to have to do another craft store round next week in my question for this seemingly non-existent yarn. Who saw that one coming??