Knitting Square

I think I should join a knitting circle. Seriously. But, if I join a knitting circle, I'll have to talk to people and people generally don't like me, especially blue haired bitties that knit. Okay, not really about the blue haired bitties--they usually like me. Anyway, even though like 2 [edit: 3!] people read this blog...I'm looking for people or animals or blow up dolls or whatever for my knitting circle.

Wait, I don't want a circle...we're going square.



Fred made the above. He's pretty much amazing.

Fair Isle Fingerless Gloves

So, epic F- with the octopus-tossed it in the trash. I could've worked on saving yarn, but really... stupid octopus is stupid. I have no idea why it wasn't knitted in the round-um, it's freaking ROUND. Okay, I've let go of the octopus. So, Fair Isle Fingerless gloves are going pretty well. I think I picked a poor choice of colors, but we'll see. My mommy gave me this very pretty pink yarn for Christmas. Happy. AND, is it just me or do my fingers in this picture look like they have DS or something a little dirty or something a little dirty with DS? Anyway, gross... on to happier things:

Sheep calendar link ZOMG

R.I.P. Stupid Ugly Yellow Octopus of Stupid

I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
In his octopus' garden in the shade

I'd ask my friends to come and see
An octopus' garden with me
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade.

We would be warm below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head on the sea bed
In an octopus' garden near a cave

Cold!

Okay, so I should've picked knitting mittens. I'm freezing. We went to the library last night, and I got a new book on knitting--Fair Isle gloves and mittens.

Anyway, I think I'm going to save my Jamieson and Smith yarn for the real thing and use something I have for the Endpaper Mitts under "Projects to Try." That means I can start that project now, or at least, I can start that project as soon as I have a giant yellow alien octopus created.

So, this stupid octopus is freaking huge. I'm not even kidding. It's like 2ft or something. I don't know what I was thinking... and why the hell isn't it knitted in the round? Anyway, I'm almost done with the body... maybe tonight! I'm going to not work from the pattern for the legs. I think I'll just knit 20 stitches in the round for a few million rows instead. I might even make 1/4 of the stitches in seed stitch... sort've like suction cups or something. Yes, this octopus is so going to be F-.

Octopus

I rented a book from the library: "World of Knitted Toys" by Kath Dalmeny. I really like the book--pretty pictures. I'm trying the octopus, which in hind-sight might have been a little ambitious. I'm making it in yellow. I'll have pictures of the body soon (or pictures of what was supposed to be the body).

This will also be my first time stuffing something. What kind of fiber should I choose?

Stuffing Options

Use the survey on the right!


Octopus Stuffing Results:

Bamboo	2 (33%)
Poly-fil	1 (16%)
Nature-fil	2 (33%)
polystyrene beans	1 (16%)

Votes so far: 6
Poll closed

Knitting Addiction

So, my WoW addiction was about 20 times cheaper than this knitting thing. I've decided to seriously scale back and try to use what I have for projects for the next month. This means no Doily Bag or Fair Isle vest. I might have to get a couple of needles and go for the Endpaper Mitts listed under "Projects to Try." Other than needles for that project... size 0 and size 4 dpns, I think I'll just try to make it until mid Feb. If I do that, I can get the yarn for the doily bag!

Needles

I'm taking a break from difficult knitting. I'm making a hat and scarf combo right now. I'm using the Addi Turbo size 8, 16 inch for the hat (click on the title to see the Addi Turbo). It's supposed to be the fastest needle evah! I'm trying to learn continental style while I do it. It's going pretty well.

For my next real project, I want to make a Fair Isle Vest or a Doily Bag (pictured), but both are kinda advanced for me. For the Fair Isle Vest, I'll have to do math to make it fit and for the Doily Bag, I have to figure out how to knit a doily using this horrible pattern.

Done!

I finished the Fair Isle Gingham Bag for my mom for Christmas. Pictures! The flap is kinda flimsy, but overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

Fair Isle Gingham Bag Flap

I finished the Fair Isle Gingham Bag, well mostly... it needs a couple of buttons and the inside sewn up, but otherwise finished! The flap was hard, but it came out pretty good. I have some problem areas where I PU&K'd, but it was my first time doing that. The button holes were easy, but the pattern cheats them--they are barely button holes. I think it's coming out pretty nicely. Maybe I can just put it on my head and call it a hat... okay, not really.

This is the hat, looking as ugly as it wants. I don't know why I have such a problem with hats. I really have to find a hat pattern that I like.

Shetland Sheep

And this is why it's nubby knitting... so apparently there is like a Shetland jumper weight wool thing I should be buying for Fair Isle and using that and smaller needles will make my stitches prettier. Also, the wool is from the Scotland Fair Isle type place (or close enough--whatever)--so, that makes it all authentic, I guess. Anyway, yeah... I'm going to make a purple Fair Isle hat and it's not going to suck and it's going to be all authentic.

Click the title to look at the world's ugliest website and some pretty sheep.

Falling Leaf Tree Hat

I learned something: knitted stitches have an up and a down and one of the sides is pointed like an open V and the other one is like ^ and when you're making a tree, ^ makes like millions more sense than V and when you're knitting a hat in the round from the bottom up, the stitches are Vs and your tree will come out looking like a pixelated mess from Super Mario Bros. world 4. Josh says that it's not horrible and the leaves are just falling down. Yeah, um, it's a falling leaf tree hat.

So, sizing on this hat has been a monster ugly mushroom mess. But, Christ on a cracker, I think I finally have a working hat beginning. I've chosen this kinda gross camel color that knits up to have a sort of taupe look to it. I like it. The hat so far has been easy to knit. I hope to complete it tonight! I've been avoiding the flap of death for the makeup bag because it's complicated. I don't really know how to PU&K and button wholes scare the living bejesus out of me--but Christmas is almost here...So, I have to muster the courage (I so wanted to put mustard the custard, but that was too bad, even for me) to fight the flap of death. I'm in a weird mood.

I tried to make a fair Isle hat yesterday, but it was too small. I can't seem to find a nice pattern, so I'm working one out myself. I think that 72 sts is kinda the magic amount of stitches. 72 is divisible by 2, 4, 6, 8, 12. That makes patterns really easy to create. I'm trying it with some old stretched out yarn on size 10 needles. I think for the real hat, I'll go size 9, 16 inch circs. I still need to make the flap for the Fair Isle Gingham bag. I'm a little scared. I'll do a practice flap sometime this weekend. The picture is the bottom rows of the fair Isle for my hat. It's a simple tree-ish pattern.

Fair Isle Gingham Bag

My gauge came out perfectly, which was mostly just a happy accident. The yarn store didn't have size 6, 16" circs in the brand I like, so I went with size 5 and size 7 as a sub for 4 and 6 (thankfully... because it really made the gauge work).

Measurements:
Lining: just under 5" long 7 1/2" wide
Over Fair Isle: just over 5" (5 1/4) long 8" wide

Gauge:
5 1/2 sts and 8 rows per inch over St st
6 sts and 7 rows per inch over Fair Isle (before blocking)

Yarn:
Butterfly
100% Mercerized Cotton
Super 10
1 Skein each (and actually, I used a lot less. About 1/2 for MC)
Lime (MC)
White
Soft Yellow

Secret Project pt 3

Okay, no more sososoness. I finished the body of the secret project, three-needle binded and am blocking it. I think it's cute! I still have to pick up the back and knit a flap. Mom, if you're reading this, omg! don't look! I did a cute little Fair Isle pattern on my thing for David tonight. I'm probably about 1/2 way done with that part of secret project. I'm a little concerned about the flap. It has an advanced stitch pattern. I think I'll make a practice one before I go for the real thing.

Expected date of finished project:
All parts (3): December 19th

Secret Project pt. 2

So, sosososo... I didn't get as far along as I would've liked. This picture was taken at 11pm-ish. I did about an inch more after I took the picture. I've been trying to speed up my Fair Isle, but I'm scared to ruin the project. Because of my tension issues it's dangerous to switch methods in the middle. I think I should do a whole Fair Isle project using both hands knitting. I'm hoping to block it tonight.

Secret Project pt. 1

So, I started Secret Project. This is the lining. I'm working with 100% cotton for the first time. It's less forgiving than wool and tension mistakes are much easier to spot. Hopefully, it will block nicely. I have about 15 more rows for the lining. I think I'll finish that around 4-5pm today and move to the outside body. The outside is going to be a fair Isle knit in a gingham pattern. Goal: to have both done by 11pm tonight to block overnight.

Stylish Leprechaun Fair Isle Headband

So, I did my first Fair Isle experiment. It's really super duper far from stylish and it's a pretty big jump, a Dutch stone throw even, from being a headband, but it was for scientific purposes. I used the ugliest colors in the history of the world and obviously should've binded differently for symmetry, but it gets the idea across. In my imagination, I was all continental with my left, throwing with my right and amazing, but really, I put both in my right and picked up each as I went along. I really kinda like it this way, and who needs to be some snobby continental knitter. I'm starting mom's thing soon... I can't say what ;) I promise it will totally not be in this preppy leprechaun mess.

View of the back

Continental Knitting

So, is it just me or does it seem like Continental knitters are like real knitters and English Knitters are like wanna-be knitters. I wanna be a Continental knitter! Do I need to capitalize Continental every time? You know what? I'm going to not capitalize continental--take that. Anyway, I'm working on switching.

*Click on the title for a special video. Bonus: watch and wait for that scary dead animal around her neck to come to life and attack her in the face.

Ugly Seed Stitch Hat

So, I finished my blue seed stitch hat. It's ugly. I don't know if it's me or the patterns I'm choosing or the yarn or what, but I can't seem to make a pretty hat. =( I'm queen of the scarves though. Well, the one scarf that I make. I'm thinking about knitting some ears on it like a little stuffed bear to make it less ugly or more ugly--maybe push it over to the so ugly it's cute side of the ugly/cute scale. I'll spray it with water and stuff when I get home. Maybe that will help.

*2 skeins Cascade 220 wool (7816)
*size 11 circular needle, 16 inches
*size 10 double-pointed needles