Silly Washcloth Pictures

I wanted to put a real picture up in Ravelry for my washcloths. I was trying to take a close up of the stitch definition and no matter how hard I tried it kept being way to blurry. Here's the shot I wanted:


At that moment of frustration my husband walked into my office. I innocently asked him how I can take a nice close up picture with my new fandangled camera without it being so blurry and it all just got out of hand from there . . .

He's my go to guy for anything technical so he immediately got out the tripod and started figuring out the best angles. While he was doing that I took this picture that was ok for me:


He then took my super cool camera, screwed it to the tripod and took this picture after playing with the settings:


After several tries he thought our old camera that was bigger might work better on the tripod so he unscrewed my camera and screwed on the old clunker (it's still a really great camera - just too big for my liking). He fiddled for awhile and came up with this one that we determined to be the best quality:


Pretty cool. Way too much effort for a Ravelry picture of a washcloth but definitely a learning experience. How do those famous bloggers do this every day with their yarn and projects?I've heard of the light boxes that people set up but it just seems like a lot of work for my personal knitting pictures.

Traveling Scarf

Yarn Harlot may have her traveling socks but I find that my lace scarf works best for me when flying. The lace weight yarn takes up very little room in my purse and the pattern is just complicated enough to keep my attention for long periods of time. It's the perfect type of project when you start expecting delays every time you fly somewhere.

This time I went to Puerto Rico for work and I took my Dainty Bess scarf with me to work on. We had on time departures for the entire trip so while we were very lucky I didn't get much knitting time in the terminals. Most of my knitting was done in the air with about 10 hours total of flying time. I did get a few looks from other passengers but no rude comments this time ("I can't believe they let you on the plane with those!")

Here's my blurry progress:


I more then doubled the length of the scarf on this trip and that's even with frogging 3 rows after I noticed a mistake. I think 3-4 more trips and this baby will be done!

Working on this scarf made me more anxious for the first clue of the Mystery Stole 4. I can't wait for that to get started - first clue is Sept 5th!

12.5% Done!

I have been working on the Cable Blanket lately and just last night I started on the second ball out of eight.


I'm definitely much faster now that I've got a good handle on the pattern. It's pretty much 2 main rows with an occasionally cabled row thrown in. The only difference in the main rows is how your start the row but the basic stitches are the same. I definitely like it so far. At this rate I should have it done sometime in September, plenty of time before the baby should arrive in late November!


I liked that this Plymouth Encore yarn has some wool content because it should be a cold winter. This blanket will work nicely for covering up in a car seat or watching a hockey game. I also like the peach because I'm sure this little girl is going to get showered in pink presents since she has 4 older brothers in the house.

Finished Object - Basket Rib Hand Towel

A little house keeping today . . .


I finished the last towel this past weekend but haven't had any time to do anything else this week. There's 3 total to match the rug I knit up. Next up is the assortment of wash cloths.


This cotton yarn and quick patterns make great road trip knitting. Truly mindless knitting so I don't lose my place when the big guy starts hollering for more juice or another pretzel.


Pattern: Basket Rib Hand Towel
Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream Twists in denim
Needles: US sizes 7
Time frame: 6/6/08 to 8/10/08 (for all three)

Choices

Last night I realized that I forgot to switch to the larger needed for my Cable Blanket project. I had only knit three rows of the pattern but tinking back 480 stitches wasn't appealing to me. So I had a choice to make. Either tink back 480 stitches or frog the whole thing and start over again. For a split second I just wanted to frog because it's so quick. Then I realized I would lose 3 nights of knitting by frogging but only 1 night by tinking.

So I did the smart thing by tinking back and I actually had time to switch needles and knit 1 pattern row. It's so upsetting when you have one of these decisions to make but I'm happy that I fixed the problem and I didn't just frog.

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I mentioned to my husband that I was thinking about buying the yarn and bead for the Mystery Stole 4 project that starts up in September. I've never joined one before, never knit a stole and never knit with beads before so it would be a good challenge. Jokingly he suggested before I buy any more yarn to see if I could knit up all of the yarn I already own . . .

Uh, yeah, like that's ever going to happen in my lifetime.

Even though he was joking it stayed with me. I'm drawn to all of these new and interesting projects but my current stash doesn't fit. I pretty much have yarn for scarves, GAAA afghan squares and a few charity projects. I can only knit so many scarves. I'd like to get into more complicated lace projects along with socks and sweaters for myself but the yarn for those is expensive. In the future when I find myself at a fiber festival I need to start looking for those types of projects - or I just need a scarf knitting extravaganza and put a serious dent in my stash.

Very Exciting Blanket Casted On

Well, the blanket itself is just a normal blanket. I'm using the Cable Blanket pattern from Debbie Bliss's Simply Baby: 20 Adorable Handknits for Baby's First Two Years book. My yarn is Plymouth Encore DK in Mango - it looks like a soft peach. With the 25% wool content it's not as soft as normal baby yarn but it's for an Upstate NY baby so it's got to be warm!

The exciting part is that my friends have 4 boys now and they have always wanted a little girl. They love having a big family and the boys are great. I love each one and how they have their own unique identities but they still come together to help each other as a family. We just found out a couple weeks ago that they're pregnant again only with a girl this time!

I had purchased this peach yarn in the hopes of making a warm blanket for a baby girl. This yarn has been waiting in my stash for almost a year now. There was no temptation to make anything else with this yarn. I knew there would be a baby girl coming our way eventually - especially after attending 3 weddings this summer.

I was able to knit 5 rows of garter last night and finally got in the rhythm of knitting with this yarn. It's a very different feel from the Lion Brand Cotton Ease that I was using on the last blanket.


I expect this project to take about 2 months to complete because of the smaller needles (US 6) and cabling involved. Plus I have a few trips coming up where it's not feasible to take this project with me. The baby-girl-to-be is due November 27th so I should have plenty of time - that is unless she decides to make an early arrival . . .

Finished Object - Jack's Blanket

Let me just say that I really like this blanket pattern.


It was interesting enough to keep me engaged yet mindless enough to work on and watch TV. The yarn is very soft and I hope durable. I am looking forward to getting this out in the mail to my very pregnant friend who's not due until September 10th. I'm soooo early with this one!

The pattern calls for the finished measurements to be 90 cm x 90 cm. I think I went overboard because mine was about 120 cm by 80cm without any stretching.


Just a tad bit too big for baby blanket standards but folded in half it's a good size. I think this would work well as a crib blanket on chilly nights.


Pattern: Sam's Blanket
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Lake
Needles: US sizes 7, 32 inch circular
Time frame: 6/22/08 to 8/4/08

Yarn Purchase!

I actually squealed with glee when I saw that my package from Herrschner's arrived today!

Last week I saw the Hearts & Flowers Blanket & Pillows pattern in my Knitting 2008 Desk Calendar for July 23-25 and I instantly thought of my niece in Florida. My sister-in-law is a big fan of bright colors but I wasn't sure if this would work for her daughter. I scoured the Internet but I couldn't find the pattern online to share. I ended up contributing it to Ravelry. But I did find a picture in some one's Photobucket site here. I sent that to my sister-in-law and asked if my wonderful niece would like it.

After a huge YES that I almost heard here in NYS I decided to start hunting for yarn. I checked my local Michael's, Jo-Ann's and AC Moore but they didn't have the colors needed. I then searched online at regular shops and then on eBay. Nada. Then I remembered Herrschner's, they were my discount source for cotton yarn awhile back so I thought I'd give them a try. BINGO! They had every color I needed, the amounts were in stock AND they were cheaper then anywhere else I had looked. I still took a day to think about it and then I placed my order.

Here's my box getting inspected by Gracie:


The colors are so bright - it's like nothing I've ever worked with before:

It's Paton's Melody yarn in Magenta, Mango and Hot Pink:


They are so bright and just perfect for my 4 year old niece. The yarn is super bulky I think and very soft - those 12 skeins should knit up very quickly. Plus, this will be a color work pattern for me so it's time to work on improving that skill!

I've packed up the yarn again because I have one more baby blanket that will need to be completed first. Jack's blanket should be finished up by Sunday, then it's on to baby-girl-to-be's blanket since she's due November 27th. I'm going to try to have this bright blanket done by Christmas but if not I'll use it as a birthday present. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself with deadlines!