knit1frog2

whirlygig

While I waited for the wknd to get here (going to WW and HT w/Z on Sunday to look at the Cashmerino Aran to finish up Odessa--yay!) I started (and finished) another hat.  They're oddly addictive...

I like how the picture came out kind of in action-mode!

I changed the pattern slightly...I've never been a big fan of the holes that YOs present, so I closed those up. I also left the beads out b/c I'm just not a frou-frou girl.  And yes, my hair is naturally curly :)  (I get asked that a LOT!)

hmmm

The more I look at the urban aran, the more I think it might look best on men.  No disrespect out there for the fabulous work done by so many...but hmm.  Women have more curves, the stitch adds "weight."  I'm not so sure this is a good thing for me.  We shall see I guess.

In the meantime, I have been working on my odessa hat, but it is clear that I won't get finished with just one ball...

grrr shoulda woulda coulda

Of course, murphy's law, there was another ball when I bought this one, but I didn't buy it and I called today and it's G-O-N-E.  They won't be getting it back in either (the color).  I only have about 2.25" of the hat knitted and it will take more than 20g to finish it up.

I called to Hilltop East, no go, they don't carry DB cashmerino aran.  WW had some, but not the same dyelot.  So now I wonder...do I incorporate the 'other' dyelot?  Or...do I incorporate stripes with another color?  Hmm.  I had them hold 2 balls of the teal/blue and 2 of another for good measure.  I won't be able to go until this wknd to pick it up though.  Sigh.

casting on

Ever wonder how much yarn to pull out for your long-tail cast on?  Sometimes, depending on the size of the needle, I will use 0.5" - 1" per stitch.  However, I have heard that you should approximate in the following ways...

Try 3 x width of piece for the amount of yarn that you'll need to cast on.  (I only tried this for one item and it came up about 6" short, but I will try again on something else to see if it comes close!)

Try 1.5 x length of piece for the appropriate amt of seaming yarn if mattress style is used.  (This one worked well.)

Ever run out of tail yarn when casting on?  If you flip the needle around and purl on the remaining stitches, it comes pretty close to the original cast on method.  (I did try this, but I wasn't satisfied with the slight difference since the cast on edge would be easily seen in a hat.  I might be okay with it if it were in an inconspicuous spot like the bottom of a sweater that you had cast on a zillion stitches to knit in the round.)

I made it across the bridge Monday night to meet up with the Purlygirls.  Seriously, if you've never gone to meet them, what in the world are you waiting for?  I love that group!  It's one reason that I wish I still lived on the West side!  It's a big jaunt for me coming from the Eastside during rush hour and traffic was really bad tonight.  I had heard there was all sorts of issues on both I-5 Northbound AND I-90 that were causing problems.  I didn't get to Blue Star until 7:30PM and only got to stay for about an hour before I had to turn around to go home.  Still yet, it was completely worth it...such a lovely group of people there...

I woke up at 12:40AM feeling terribly terribly nauseous.  My head has been splitting since Friday and whatnot, so I wonder if that has something to do with it.  I have been eating crackers and drinking water until now...sigh.  Oh look.  It's 2AM.  great.

new hat

I can't seem to stop now with the hats...hmm...look what I just cast on for!!

I think I will need the other ball though.

It has the nicest little swirl starting...you can see a blurry shot here.  I wondered whether I'd need the 2nd ball...of course, Murphy's law, I didn't pick it up, so of course I will need it!  Well, I guess I can stop by AS tomorrow before Purlygirls if I need it!  I am pretty sure that I will.

My head is pounding.  What else?  Oh yes, I went to Ben Franklin b/c I had a gift cert burning a hole in my pocket since 12/05!  Yessiree.  I picked up these for what else?  A HAT!  ha!  It will be interesting how these knit up...it might make a kind of nice and crazy sweater!

adding to my stash...

I absolutely adore the colors in that yarn above...soooo pretty...I am drooling and I swear it's not the Invisalign...

p.s.  I keep checking Alison's blog for any sockpalooza4 updates.  There was one today!!  yay!  I am SO in this time, well if I make the cut off that is...

done baking!

Guess what's done cooking?

top view of tart

It's true! It's all done and ready to ship out to little F... and in case you'd like to see it from the side...

good enough to eat!

The brim was made into a crust instead of the green stem that the recipe (Fiber Trends CH-9) called for.  It was knit on US5 circs and then on dpn's as the rounds got smaller and smaller towards the top.  Oh, and to do the K5b stitch, a crochet hook in the appropriate size really helped.  The Cascade washable yarns worked really well for this!  I wanted to give the parents a break in case they need to wash it at some point.

It feels so good to get something finished!  Now back to tackle that simple sweater...   

1/2 tart

Where DOES the time go?  I cranked out another 18 rows in the last half hour then thought, "Oh! I should post an update on the berry hat!"  I wish the flash didn't drown out the color so much!!  That or I wish we had more sunny days so that I could take a picture in natural light...  :)

yay!  little berry blips!

Please let this hat fit that little noggin of F's!  Lots o' wishful thinking tonight!!

the berry has begun

(something weird has happened and all of my posts are bolded even though it's not bolded behind the scenes.  argh.  apologies in advance until i can figure out what has happened.) Yay I figured it out...there was an extra bold tag in one of the typelists...man.

The berry is most definitely cute, but I'm not quite sure how to do the K5b stitch.  Until I figure it out, I can't move much further than this:

i'm liking the color!

anyone?

Maybe instead I will try to finish up the 2nd sleeve for the simple.

side note:  I DID figure the K5b stitch out.  It was so odd...I was thinking about something else when it hit me.  yay!  more pictures soon...

knitting in seattle

This was the first time that I had been to meet the Purlygirls in Seattle and I'm glad that I did.  What a great bunch of people!  I honestly felt welcomed which was so very nice since I was a stranger to the group...I will definitely return. 

The group meets at the Blue something...Blue...I keep wanting to say Blue Hat.  It is called Blue Star at 45th/Stone Way near the U-district. 

It was there that Sasha brought me this to peruse:

so cool that I'm seeing it in person!!

Yup.  This is the reason that I bought all of the fun colored yarns yesterday!  hooray  She's even letting me borrow it!  I'm just so very excited about this...

It took 25min door-to-door which isn't that bad considering...heck even the commute across the bridge during rush hour tonight was a breeze!  It was just a great day...now...we need to get bloglessCarrie blogging...  ;)

whoops!

Wow it's really coming down outside!  But it's kind of a weird "fluffy" rain.  The kind that comes down, but flies in with the wind at all angles!  The kind that causes almost a white-out situation on the freeway.  Man that's weird.  There was lots of hydroplaning also...wowsers.

I made it across the bridge and back.  I did go with a list, but whoops, the list expanded just a tad...

First off, I've been meaning to knit this hat ever since F was born...but well, things got busy and life turned upside-down, so what are you going to do?  Since finding the original pattern, I decided I liked this one more b/c it wasn't the super labor intensive bobble-y stitch.  I still haven't decided to use green or whether I will use brown and turn it into a crust.  Time will tell.  J still needs to get me F's head measurement afterall.

can't wait to start this!!

Then I decided to finally get the pinky sock yarn b/c every SINGLE time I went to Weaving Works, I looked at it, wanted it and put it back. It was just meant to be that the 2 balls were still there, so this time I didn't leave without them.

I never liked pink when I was little, but LOVE it now!

Who could resist?  Not me, that's for sure...

Then, there is the following yarn...yikes.  I couldn't stop.  It's kind of like lipstick, you can't just have ONE.  Okay, *I* can't.

yes, fun is on the way!

These are for some fun projects that will be coming...I can't wait to get started on these!

shadow box

I had an appt yesterday at the ob-gyn and she told me that she's going to put the Uterus that I made for her into a shadow box!!  WOW!  I thought she'd just keep it on her desk or take it home or something.  That kind of made my day b/c the appt didn't go as well as I had hoped.

Anyway, I don't have pictures today, but I'm almost done with sleeve 1 of the simple sweater!  Oh, a comment about that.  Is it normal to knit the sleeves with a different sized needle than the rest of the sweater?!  I keep wondering if that is a mistake.  The sweater is knit in US5, but the sleeves are in US3?!  Hmmm.

Oh yes, and I took in the skinny scarf to show her, but I hadn't finished it yet.  I need to block it still.