Dyson

I'm In!

I saw a reference to National Blog Posting Month over on Robyn's blog and I thought it sounded like fun. You sign up to post every day for the month of November and you might be selected randomly for a prize. Since I love contests I signed up, here's my profile.

Let me give you a warning now though. If I'm knitting on the same thing for a week I don't think I can make that interesting enough to talk about every day. Expect some non knitting related posts over the next month. I will try my best to stay interesting.

It's a great exercise in getting me to write again. I used to write all the time when I was younger. I found that now that I'm happy and satisfied with my life I don't have the urge to write. Somehow I got the strange notion that I have to be miserable to write passionately. I will admit that my work has a much higher quality when I'm upset but I wouldn't trade that for the world right now. It's a strange feeling being satisfied with your life. Sure I could always lose that 50 pounds and make more money but overall I am simply happy.

Anyway . . . you've been warned :)

Let me share a secret . . .

Color coding charts is the way to go!

I have never used a chart before when working with cables. The slanting box always threw me off and I could never remember which cable I was supposed to be knitting. So I would write out the pattern. Yup, what a time waster that is but that's what I did.

One day ArtLady1981 from Knitting Help mentioned that when she knits cables from a charted pattern she just takes a few minutes to color code them and she eve shared a picture. I thought that was a very cool idea since I'm super anal and that it would help with the GAAA squares. Then I came across this sweater pattern that my father-in-law loved and it only uses a chart for the cabled section. This was the perfect time to practice!


This took me probably 5 minutes at the most and has helped me knit super fast! I can't believe I didn't think of this before. It's so simple and makes it so easy to read at night. Moving forward I plan to color code all of my charts and forget writing everything out. Just a little time to prep and off knitting!

I am almost done knitting the back of the sweater, most likely sometime this week. I will take a small break to finish one of my WIPs and then I'll get back to it - or should I say the front of it :)

Sweater Progress

DSC00382
Originally uploaded by Angela & Gerald

I have been working pretty faithfully on this sweater now for a week or two and I'm still amazed at how quickly chunky yarn knits up. This picture is about 15 inches of love! The pattern is very intuitive now and I can easily knit and watch our tv shows (even Prison Break). The cable pattern is lovely.

I'm worried about how the neck & collar will work out because the person that this is intended for asked for more of a turtle neck instead of the mock turtle that the pattern is for. Much though will have to be dedicated to this I'm sure (and many phone calls to my mother-in-law to help me think it out).

I do plan to take a break from this and finish the basic hat I'm working on this weekend. I have a gift that I need to knit up in time for Christmas that I refuse to start knitting until I finish at least one project. Sad - but it helps me keep my sanity. Too many WIPs is just not fun for me.

Have a great weekend!

London

London was very cool. Our very first stop was I Knit London and my husband was very nice to accommodate my wishes. He tried to get me to purchase more but I was happy with just two hanks of yarn:

The tag says that it's from www.fyberspates.co.uk and it's 100% lace weight silk hand dyed in Wales. Each hank says "400m per 50 grams" so should I assume that I have 800 meters then? Any ideas what to make with it? It's so soft and pretty that I'll have to put some thought into it.

The shop owner was very pleasant and was having a book talk that day. His store was packed to capacity and I had to wait in line to purchase my yarn. How nice to see that his business was just thriving!

I uploaded all of my London pictures to Flickr so feel free to view them here. I was going to post some of my favorites but I'm just too lazy right now. This pounding migraine doesn't help either :)

Later this week I'll give updates on my bountiful knitting projects. I think I have 3 or 4 on the needles right now but I'm spending most of my time on the sweater. Happy times!

Where I've Been & Where I'm Going

Well, take a deep breath with me and exhale. I'm going to relax and try to update with lots of pictures for about 5 minutes and then it's off to the races again.

Let's start with what I've finished. The 4 squares that I promised Shandeh over at Knitting Help are finished and will be in the mail as soon as I take my lunch break. Here's a close up of the cluster rib pattern I used for #4:

And an artsy-fartsy picture of all 4 squares that are destined for the UPS Store in about a 1/2 hour:

Now let's get down and dirty with my current WIPs. I am starting a new love for my circular needles, especially when it involves all knit stitches for the Basic Hat pattern (2006 Pattern a Day Calendar). This one is will be eventually given to my local Rescue Mission here in Syracuse since they specifically needed men's hats. Isn't it cool how it's striping but it's not self-striping yarn?

It's like camouflage only not. Man, I love my Wool-Ease sport weight!

The biggest and most exciting WIP is that I've finally started my first adult sweater. It's the cover pattern from the Men in Knits book and for my father-in-law. I was thrilled to see how quickly it knit up. Chunky weight yarn is super fast! Here's a close up of the cable section that will be in the middle of both the front and back of the sweater:

It's in a charcoal color so it's going to be a pain to photograph but in person it looks very nice. It will be perfect for those fall/spring days when it's chilly out.

Lastly, I'm heading out to London on Thursday to meet up with my husband who's already there. I've never been there before so I'm very excited to do all of the tourist stuff. On the way over I plan to knit this Fingerlakes Soft Wool:

into the My So Called Scarf pattern that I found on Ravelry. It will be a Christmas present for my mother and the yarn is something that she picked out for herself at the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival with me. On the way back I plan to read since my knitting will be in my checked baggage. I am taking no chances with security plus I have several books I've been neglecting.

I will not apologize for not being my regular posting self but I will say that I hope to be posting more often once I get back from London next week. (I can't wait to explore the yarn shops over there!)

Finished Object - Palindrome Scarf

This has got to be the coolest thing ever. A reversible cable scarf = just cool.

I have knit up the Irish Hiking scarf before so I was familiar with the pattern. When I heard that Kristen had changed the pattern to make it reversible I just had to try it out. I would definitely recommend this as a mindless knitting project.



I used sport weight yarn so I added an extra cable to make it wide enough. I don't recommend doing this if you get bored with a patter quickly. This one took forever to knit but it was great for a travel project. I think using bulky weight yarn should make it a quick knit.

Pattern: Palindrome
Yarn: Wool-Ease sport weight (discontinued)
Needles: US 6
Time frame: 9/1/07 to 10/7/07 (not my only project)

White Christmas square #3

I started on my third White Christmas square on Sunday night and it's a quick knit. The pattern is called Vertical Weave and I found it in the first ever stitch book that I bought called "Beginner's Guide, Knit Stitches & Easy Projects". I think I got it at Michael's when I first purchased yarn and needles. Most of the pictures are in black & white but it's a handy little book to have. Here's my progress so far:


I seem to have moved on from my "lace knitting kick" to a "charity knitting kick". I keep bookmarking charities that I want to knit for but I'm realizing quickly that I just don't have the time right now. I do knit every night but I'm not that fast, nor do I want to knit fast. I like the speed I'm at since it's still enjoyable.

Besides the Knitting Help charity knitting I adding items to my To Do list for:
Project Linus - blankets for children ages 0-18 in my area
Afghans for Afghans - warm clothing for Afghan children
Warm Up America - donating men's hats to our Rescue Mission for the homeless

There are so many others that I want to knit for but I need to use up my stash first to make room for more yarn. I have some big projects to complete (GAAA & Jerry's sweater) first and then I plan to purchase yarn for charity. In the meantime I'm going to use up my stash on my mindless knitting projects and try to fit the requirements of different charities at the same time. Oh - AND get started on my Christmas knitting projects.

It's Just a Blur . . .

Wow. The last week and a half was nothing but work, migraines and eventually hanging out with my family. You know it's bad when your head hurts so bad you can't knit. It's all better now but man that sucked.

I received the Oddball Lapghan last week and knit my 3 inch section using the Large Basket stitch that I found in my Vogue Knitting book. Here's a shot of my section:

I was originally going to use the Shine Worsted in the grass color that I had left over from the Pea Pod Baby set but the previous knitter used a similar color and I thought it would have been overkill. Here's a shot of the entire afghan so far:

I really like how the white looks next to the green. I couldn't really try to find a color that would have looked good with the whole thing so I just went basic white. I had some Caron's Simply Soft left over from the White Christmas squares (on my third one already) so I figured it would save me a trip to the yarn shop.

It was a fun experience and I hope to participate in more of these projects for charity.