Who me?

Yes, I feel bad. I have so let the blog slide into silence again, but I have good reasons this time. Really!

I finished the Windmill bag. It is quite lovely and modern and I can only think of two changes I would make to the pattern. The first is the handles, I would have made them shorter. The second is the gauge of my yarn, it could have been more consistent between panels.

Immediately following the cast off for the Windmill bag, I decided to cast on for a box.

Yes, I am knitting a box.
It is a Rose and Espresso colored box for feminine items to be stored in. I did it in four parts. There were two sides and a front piece. The bottom, back and lid were done as a single piece. The lid boasts some stranding work of a rose.
I finished the box, but I am going to tweak it by adding some crochet edging to the lid. Perhaps the box could have been a bit shorter, but it seems to be doing fairly well.

Before I could finish the box, my Roomie who now knits, decided to start the Debbie Bliss Teddy Bear. I suggested a knit-a-long. Then I explained what a KAL was and grabbed some yarn. The next week of knitting was the bear (and since I knit faster than he does, when I caught up I would do a bit of work on the box).

What about my other projects? Like the blankie that has gotten a couple of pattern rows in the last month? Or the custom lace scarf? Perhaps I could do a bit on the socks that I want to knit for myself? Maybe I could get some progress in on the Surprise gift?
Ha!

Serious knitters know that if you don't have a deadline, you don't have to work on UFO's!

Now that I have done those, I am going to work on my first lace shawl.
Yep. I am already on the second chart of three!

If I don't look at the UFO's I won't feel bad for them. Right?

Stranges things that happen with knitting

I seem to have recently developed a gauge problem.

This is notably visible in certain projects that have been knit over time and are supposed to have shaping.
In fact, just this last Saturday, I cast on a worsted weight yarn onto a size 9 needle and started a top down knit cap for a friend's child. At first I thought it was knitting a little thin, but I felt that a thin hat wouldn't be too bad.
I finished it yesterday and it totally lacks shaping. The knit is so loose that even when I switched from increases to stockinette the hat continued to bell out. I finished it only to have to frog it. I am going to have to get yet more dpns so that I can get a smaller size going.

This shaping problem also infected my laundry soap bag. While that project was done on only one size needle and with set yarn, the top half and the bottom half do not seem to have the same tension. The bottom bells out so much that rather than looking like a jar or old Grecian urn, it looks like a knitted U.F.O. The irony is that the project is no longer a UFO as it reached the point of FO last week.

Oh, you want to see the wild hair stranding that I made?

Just remember, there was absolutely no pattern for the whole thing. Nothing inspiring to look at when I was knitting it up and deciding which color was going where. It was totally play.

An End & A Beginning

It was a seven month journey.




Even longer if you count the time spent trying to get the recipient to select a yarn.






It was an on again, off again project. Months of work and months of not touching the yarn, the needles or even the measurements.




There were highs, when precious stitches were saved and new techniques learned, and there were lows, when inches of ribbing were ripped back and stitches were left hanging in the air and needles snapped in my hands.






Was the journey worth the effort?

Perhaps.


So far my roommate seems happy with his new socks.


(Of course that might be because I have made it clear that he will be happy with them or else.) (The kitten thinks she has a new something to chew holes into.)



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A few days ago, in a fit of "it would work if I knit it this way", I cast on for a new stuffed toy.

This one is a secret surprise for a friend of mine who happens to like pink birds.

Can you guess what it is?

Now what?

As I mentioned before, I finished the red scarf.
Then I finished the green scarf.

I have cast on for the second sock, but progress is a bit slow. The math question was solved with "subtract one stitch per inch", so I am going to get this bit finished.
I am still working on the blanket and the laundry soap bag should be finished after a few more weeks (remember, I am only knitting on the bag when I am at the laundry mat).

This means I only have three projects in process.
For some people, this would be enough. Many would say it is more than enough. To me, it means I need to get planning my next project. I don't think I am feeling like a productive knitter if I have less than half a dozen or more projects stacked up. It means it takes longer to finish any given one, but if timed correctly I can get a whole week of FO joy, one right after the other.

So I have been flipping through patterns again, going through my stash and trying to pair things up. I think this is the part of knitting that is the most fun. I have some really, really nice yarn stashed up and there are some great patterns out there and sorting through them all fills me with hope and inspiration and almost lets me forget that on this second day of March everything outside is covered in ice.
As I am typing this, it has started snowing again.

While I was moving through patterns and looking at my Project Queue '09, I started eying the shawls I have lined up. They are top down, but apparently top down means the last rows are even longer as you knit down and up the triangle sides, which kind of goes against my idea of purpose of top down shawls (which is shorter rows as you reach the bottom tip). In general, the starting section confuses me a lot. A really really lot. I shall be needing help to translate what the pattern wants me to do.
Thus, I started looking at different patterns for some of the other yarn I have. I looked at a very nice beret/tam had done in entrelac, which I have yet to try.
Then I got to looking at knitted bags and such and queued up a market bag for some aran weight cotton yarn I have. The pattern is nice and just about screams for some improvisation. Which lead to me thinking about designing.
I do plan on being a designer and I need to increase my knitting skills to get there. I also need to get done with other patterns I need knit up and write out. For example, I have a few variations on my wine bottle that I want to work on. I want to make some adjustments to the pattern and see if I can make more and better wine bags.
This got me thinking that maybe I need to make a list of knitting skills I need to practice and things I need to learn to knit:
Entrelac
Drop Stitch variations
Color work
Sweaters
Top down shawls
Gloves
Cables

I am considering re-doing my Project Queue '09. As long as I knit from stash and have a minimum of one project per month (which I am already a bit ahead on), then I will be keeping to the original plan.

The other day I was lamenting to my friends that I have yet to actually knit myself a warm scarf. (So far I am planning on keeping the silk scarf, but it is not warm, really.) Of course, my knowledge of knitting has improved enough that now I can't settle for just a garter stitch scarf. Nor will I knit myself a scarf of a pattern that I have already done a few times. I think, in order to make a scarf I will be happy with keeping, it will have to be a self designed scarf.
And it will need a matching hat.
Perhaps even gloves to go along.

I think on my next day off, pending it is not a beautiful weather day that begs for outdoor exploration, I am going to pull out all my yarn and reorganize it.
I also need to recount my knitting needles as I seem to be missing some.
This will be an all day affair.

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Stay tuned: Big news coming later this week!

Progress check on the Laudry Soap Bag

You may recall, back in this post, I mentioned working with two yarns in two different colors.

It is my first foray into this skill set.

I mentioned that I might give you a sneak peak into my progress. Please keep in mind that this item is still on large circular needles and is not quite showing the full potential, yet.

Here you go:



The shaping of this item is going to resemble a pottery vase. It will have a slight flair to the top, a narrow "neck" and then it expands into the full size.
As you can see there is not a lot of progress, but I only get a couple of hours a week to work on it since it is knit only at the laundromat.
The picture is just to show off the color work I have done so far. Each bit is freehand with no charts or drawings to guide me.
I expect it will look nicer when washed and shaped.

I must say, I am getting the hang of handling two yarns in my hands and not getting them twisted up. I look forward to future projects like this.