I'm exhausted from so many projects and deadlines and sick rabbits and vet bills that this post won't be nearly as long as I thought it would be at the beginning of this week.

Around Monday or so, I went to Tuesday Morning with Chris to buy stuff and found lots of ( close-out yarn )

I don't think I ever posted the second Chakra hat, so here's a two-for-one:


( more armwarmer pictures )

I finished the armwarmer things for a swap, and they ended up being a REALLY fast knit once I got the hang of them. I re-wrote the pattern so that it's more organized and fixed up some errata, and I'm sending it to the recipient of them. I'll probably be posting the improved pattern sometime soon too, but probably just in Craftster. I'll link to it.

I've been working on the reversible ribbed hat too, and I'd post pictures but it looks exactly like the scarf at this point so I won't bother. It's coming along, but I'm a little puzzled as to how to do the decreases when the time comes.

Oh well.

My special order Tahki Yarn ( from California came today )

I don't have pictures of the table cloth, but I will once it's finished. I just have one more triangle to sew on and then I need to stitch around the edges so I can throw it in the wash and have it be functional for the party tomorrow. I want to put a backing on it, but that's not going to happen overnight.

I finished Cherie Amour ( Pictures )

And I started Kate's Scarf ( More Pictures )

Blue.

Chris was at his parents' house from Monday until last night, and I spent the entire time he was gone working on Cherie Amour. I just finished the main body. Have I mentioned this thing is FAST? Anybody who's doing Cherie Amour for NaKniSweMo is a dirty cheater. I could make five of these in a month.

I posted them in my other journal without a lock

But more closely on topic for this journal, I bought lots of yarn while I was there and more importantly, did LOTS of knitting too.

The hot pink fuzzy coat from hell is taking shape. I've got the body completely done, and I'm making progress on the sleeves. Problem with the sleeves is, my yarn gets a LOT shorter when it stretches, and it's hard to measure their length when you're sitting in a car.

This was my progress when I was in Santa Cruz:







I did get a little bit of the watermelon shirt done, but not enough to take a picture of.

I bought pretty yarns:


The entire haul


Schaefer Laurel (two 400 yd skeins) in Katherine the Great


Blue Heron Egyptian Mercerized Cotton (one 1000 yd skein) in Raspberry



Maggi Knits Maggi's Linen, 5 120 yd skeins in hot pink, 2 in variegated orange/olive greenish-brownish

And two blue cascade fixations for a CHRIS THONG. Har. He'll wear it too, I'll make him.

I'm bad, bad, bad, I know. I haven't updated in a while and I've been knitting a lot. I finished the TTV (but I don't have FO pictures; hey, I said I was bad):





It ended up being a little bit longer than in that picture. I tried it on when I was halfway through the bottom ribbing, and with all my alterations it FITS PERFECTLY.

Item: Third Fourth time's the Charm
Pattern: Turtleneck Tube Vest, Fitted Knits
Needles: 6 and 4, 24" circs
Yarn: KnitPicks Shine Worsted, Ebony
Time to Complete: About two weeks?
Unusual Knitting Location(s): Cast on at a camp ground by Crater Lake
New Skillz: farking RLI's *spits* Also, first time I added this many modifications
Notes:

Alterations I made:

• After the increase rows were finished, I worked 4 more rows (2 RS and 2 WS) with no increases before casting on the stitches for armholes. I did this to avoid the bottoms of the armholes digging into my armpits and it worked PERFECTLY.
  
• When the stockinette on the front proceeded past the fullest part of my bust, I worked decreases on either side every other round until I reached 39 stitches on the front. I'm busty with a tiny waist, and without doing this I would have looked pregnant.
  
• I didn't start knitting the bottom ribbing until the stockinette had reached a satisfactory distance from my bosoms, and I did ribbing until my last skein ran out.

See also:
WIP post

I made quite a bit of progress on the Hot Pink Coat from Hell in the few days I was working on it (No pictures yet, I said I was bad). I'm completely dreading picking up stitches to do the lace panel on the outside (I CAN'T SEE THE STITCHES WITH THIS YARN!!!) and it's not a very portable project being a giant cone. So when we went to Kate's family's cabin last weekend, I brought my watermelon yarn and cast on the Drop Stitch Lace tank:





I'm working it in the round as opposed to two pieces and then seaming. I like the circle :3 And it goes fast. Wheeeeee! One problem with the bottom-up construction is I'm paranoid I'm going to run out of yarn, but I'm sure I'd be able to get more without too much of a problem.

I've been in love with the Turtleneck Tube Vest ever since I bought Fitted Knits, especially since it seems like it would be instant gratification.

This thing has been giving me nothing but trouble. It starts out with my visual thinking having problems understanding the instructions for LLI and RLI (lifted increases). I need pictures for most new stitches like this, otherwise I don't really understand how to do them. It also doesn't help that there seems to be a typo with the LLI instructions (you should be knitting into the stitch TWO rows below, right? Right???) Anyway, started this at Crater lake last weekend, so I had no access to internet things to help me out. I ended up ripping out all my progress when I realized I'd been doing the LLI's wrong. Then I ripped out a second time when I realized I'd done the RLI's wrong. Turns out I wasn't doing the RLI's wrong at all, they just knit a little looser thatn LLI's and look fine when you're wearing the garment. I didn't know this yet, since the stitches look fine the first couple rows before they loosen up. But I'd ripped out and restarted only to have NO difference whatsoever.

Observe:


LLI vs RLI


I reknit this bit THREE TIMES

I worked on washcloths out of shrug yarn leftovers until I ran out, and spent the rest of the drive home eating. Mmmmm food.

When I got home, I looked for visuals on how to do the RLI correctly, and found.... nothing. Maybe knittinghelp.com calls it something else, but I didn't find it on there. I decided to just accept it the way it was and hope that the stitches look fine after blocked and while being worn.

I was beginning to get worried that the garment wouldn't accommodate my ample bosoms, so I did the increases for the medium size, then worked a few non-increase rows so the armhole doesn't dig into my armpit (I HATE that!). Then I did the 18 cast-on stitches, and spent all yesterday on the body. After I'd gone through an entire skein, I tried it on. And it was way too big.

wtf.

I was a dork, and forgot that those 18 cast-on stitches WOULD be the accommodation for my ample bosoms.

For posterity's sake, this is how far I got before I ripped out to restart for the FOURTH time:



I love the yarn, I love the pattern, but I'm am NOT enjoying this cursed top.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Started it the day after I finished those damn socks (Sunday) and wheeee look at me go! I'm going to call it a two-skein wonder because I'm amazed I had enough yarn for it. I got two skeins of cotton-ease from a swap, and decided they'd be perfect for this shrug. Cotton ease is significantly thicker than the Cascade 220 the pattern calls for, but when I went down a couple needle sizes, it seems like it's working out JUST fine! I'm more than halfway done after working on it for barely four days.

Two-tone ribbed shrug from Fitted Knits in Lion Brand Cotton-Ease.

See my problem? My size 5 in men's feet are fitting these socks perfectly... His size 11/12/whatever huge size he is probably won't. I got gauge when I swatched dammit!!!

I normally only knit one thing at a time. I'm so bad at keeping interest in things that if I have options, I'll completely neglect one thing. In other words, I have no concept of moderation. I started those socks for Chris on Tuesday and I'm not very far yet (HELLO 00 SIZE NEEDLES AND GIANT MONSTER FEET??!?!?!):



But there's a craft challenge on Craftster I REALLY REALLY want to do and think I've got a really good chance at if I can get what I have in my head out and into yarn. Problem is, it's due on the 24th (BAH I knit a blanket in 12 days!) BUT... my idea is probably way too complicated for my current skill level. Here's the idea (psst: no stealing!)

( I made it big )
( YAY thanks guys! )

I want to knit it in the round because if I do anything with seaming, there's the chance I don't get the colors to match up. BUT intarsia in the round? Possible, but not easy OR fast. And taking into consideration that I've never 1) Done intarsia 2) Made a knitting chart or 3) Written a pattern before... I don't know if I'm being overly optimistic for a project I'd need to have DONE in *counts* 16 days. Granted, my final is next Thursday and I have a week off before my next class starts, but I'm still working 40+ hours a week with lots of overtime forecasted. I know I can do it. I just don't know if I can do it that quickly. I'm really good with math, geometry, etc., and I'm thinking I might have to sew a mock-up in order to figure out the chart for the color changes, but I KNOW I can do it.

I get the feeling I'm getting myself into trouble.

Completely unrelated, DID YOU KNOW that my first ever FO was made completely without a pattern? I didn't even realize that was at all weird until two days ago. It's my knitting bag, but when I first made it, I used it to carry around books. It fits a big fat hardcover book in it PERFECTLY! When I started knitting hardcore in the past few months, I've used it to carry around my yarn, tools, and WIPs. Considering I had no idea how to seam, weave in ends, or block, I think it turned out pretty good and sturdy.





I knit it with normal worsted weight Red Heart on size 2 needles. The sides and the strap are knit on bigger needles with two strands of yarn held together. I whip-stitched the pieces all together. I currently have a safety pin keeping one of the straps attached.

No picture yet, but imagine:

Today marks Week 2 of the second blanket, but I FINISHED IT TWO DAYS AGO. I knit an entire baby blanket in 12 days.

I SAID this one should go a lot faster. The first one, 3.5 weeks. Second one, 12 days. HA! I'm kinda working on swatching for the socks I'm making Chris, but I haven't really started on a new project. A little frustrating for me since I've been working on something for most of the year. I think I might dabble a little in project polyamory though. I've been promising Chris socks for a while, but I've got an aweome idea for the first major project I'll design on my own for the new knitting project challenge at Craftster, and it's something I'd want to make anyway.

My computer died so it might be a little bit before I get the pictures up, but imagine this: I cast on the second blanket a week ago, and I'm officially halfway done. I knew I'd zoom through it once I had the pattern memorized. It did help that we went to see the new Pirates movie, and I knit through the whole thing. That's three hours right there.

UPDATE! PICTURES YAY!!!

Yes people you heard me right, ONE WEEK.

I'm antsy to get this thing done for reasons unrelated to the expecting mother having premature contractions. I've been really REALLY really wanting to do my first cabling project so I can try out this no-cable-needle cable knitting method I've seen around teh intarwebs. I've been attracted to a lot of lace projects as of late as well, and then there's that pair of boring plain white socks I've been promising Chris. I'm going to use a test pattern for those, but I might end up trying out the knitting two socks at once thing for that. Might be a little hard since I've never doubleknit before, but I'm sure I can do it without too much difficulty.

I've been really antsy to do some sweater recycling as well. My contract at work is up soon and I want to pay off my credit card debt before I'm unemployed, so I need to cut back on any spending that's not completely necessary. And hey, second hand sweaters = cheap wool = dying and felting. Mmmmmmm. That sounds good to me. Once I get that started, I can create horrendously gross and obnoxious colorways nobody else has enough balls to do themselves. Of course this possibility makes me wanting a sweet niddy noddy, and this coincides wonderfully with Chris' plans to start up a drum making business after his contract ends a week after mine. He's been checking out some sweet wood, and some of it is PINK. Yes I want pink wood.

I'm binding off the first of the baby blankets AS WE SPEAK. It took just a little more than 3.5 weeks to do it. The second one should be MUCH faster, as I have the pattern memorized now. Once I'm done with these things I can stop doing this darn pattern that is more or less a glorified 2x2 rib + seed stitch combo and do something more interesting. The smocked rows are fun and all, but DAMN if they don't happen often enough to keep me entertained with the pattern

I just finished with the first skein, and it looks like I'll only need two. I'm slightly more than halfway done as it is. Now I'll have two new skeins of soft, soft yarn for my stash. *evil laugh*





18.5 inches in two weeks, and I have the pattern completely memorized by now. It will be done in NO time.

Not bad if you ask me.