Category Archives: Knitting

January 2008 goals

Posted on 02 January 2008 by Kris

I know I promised Snicket pictures ages ago, but in recent weeks I’ve been plagued by technical issues, including the death of my laptop. I still haven’t resolved them all yet, but I’m getting there, and by this weekend, I should be up and fully blogging again. Good thing, too, because I have a lot of catching up to do!

In the meantime, all you get are my goals. Progress on last month’s:

  1. Finish chart 2 of the Mountain Peaks Shawl – Done!
  2. Work on Tubey v2 – Done!
  3. Work on another pair of socks – Not done.

This month’s goals:

  1. Finish chart 3 of the Mountain Peaks Shawl
  2. Work on Tubey v2
  3. Work on Fairways

You may also recall that I set some yearly goals for 2007. I’m not really going to set any for 2008, but I figured I should at least post my yearly goal roundup:

  1. Have only one project of each type (socks, lace, fitted garment, etc.) in progress at any one time. (Though I reserve the right to recategorize projects as I see fit.) – Done, technically. Yay for that loophole!
  2. Have a maximum of five projects on the needles at any given time. – Done!
  3. Finish at least five pairs of socks. – Not done. I fell pretty short, actually, since I only finished two.
  4. Finish at least two shawls or stoles. – Not done, I’m halfway through the second shawl.
  5. Finish at least one of the two WIPs started in 2005, and rip out the remaining one if no progress has been made by the end of the year. – Done, I frogged both of them.
  6. Decrease the amount of yarn in my stash. – Done, but to be honest, I just barely managed this one.
  7. Attend SnBs more regularly (at least once a month) – Done!

Hmm, I did better than I thought, actually…

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December 2007 goals

Posted on 02 December 2007 by Kris

Here’s last month’s goal roundup:

  1. Finish Snicket – Not done. I’m super close, though!
  2. Knit at least one Chart 1 repeat for the Mountain Peaks Shawl – Done!
  3. Work on Mountain Stream Scarf – Done!
  4. Work on Fairways – Done!
  5. Work on Tubey v2 – Done!
  6. Start a new pair of socks – Not done.

Not too bad, right?

This month’s goals:

  1. Finish chart 2 of the Mountain Peaks Shawl
  2. Work on Tubey v2
  3. Work on another pair of socks

I can’t put “finish Snicket” as a goal because I know I’m going to bind off and block today. Sadly, this means the FO post won’t be up until next weekend – the socks won’t be dry before sunset, and the shorter days make it difficult to take photos during the week. Oh well.

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One and a half down…

Posted on 21 November 2007 by Kris

I thought I was going to have another FO by now, but not surprisingly, I’ve been distracted by other things. So, I’m only halfway through my second Snicket sock and have been at this point for most of November.

I plan to finish the second sock over the Thanksgiving weekend, and I should have an FO post next week. But, in the meantime, here’s proof that one complete sock exists:

I really like this sock. And, I think the completed pair will be awesome. More details to come!

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Definitely worth the boredom

Posted on 19 November 2007 by Kris

I finally finished knitting the Mountain Stream Scarf on Thursday, and blocked it on Saturday. Needless to say, I am super happy about this!

(The first photo is a bit truer to color.)

Pattern:
Mountain Stream Scarf by Susan Lawrence

Yarn:
Jaggerspun Superfine Merino in Ruby

Needles:
US2 / 2.5mm Inox Express circulars

Modifications:
Finer yarn and needles, mostly. I also have no idea how many repeats I knit; I just kept knitting until I was nearly out of yarn.

 
I enjoyed knitting this until I got about halfway through, and then I got bored with it for awhile. Because, well, it’s a scarf, and scarves usually drag. Turning the corners was fun, though, and it went pretty quickly. I really liked the actual construction, it’s quite clever and I’d like to use it again sometime.

Also, I really like the finished product. It’s pretty and light and airy, which makes it a great San Diego “fall” accessory.

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Yay for loopholes

Posted on 17 November 2007 by Kris

My first overall goal for 2007 was: “Have only one project of each type (socks, lace, fitted garment, etc.) in progress at any one time.”

So, if you use broad categories, I’ve been totally cheating. I’ve had two pairs of socks on the needles for the entire year, after all. And then I had two lace projects on the needles.

However, I, um, wrote in a loophole. Because I also stated “I reserve the right to recategorize projects as I see fit.” So Snicket is “socks” and Fairways is “designing.” Mountain Stream is “scarf” and Mountain Peaks is “shawl.”

Speaking of Mountain Peaks, here’s what it looks like so far:

Believe it or not, it actually took me three tries to get to this point. Not because of any pattern issues, but because I couldn’t make up my mind about what needles to use.

I started out with 2.75mm Crystal Palace circulars (the only 2.75mm needles I had), and I really liked the fabric produced with those needles. But, the join was driving me completely batty. I would be fine with it if I were using a yarn like Jaggerspun Zephyr, but Baruffa Cashwool’s quite a bit finer and it gets caught in the join super easily. So then I tried 3.00mm Addi Naturas, and the join on those doesn’t work either (again, because the yarn’s so fine). Also, the points are far too blunt, especially for decreasing while knitting back backwards.

Then I borrowed Jessimuhka‘s 2.75mm Knitpicks nickel-plated circular, and I really liked those needles, but my gauge with metal is (not surprisingly) looser than my gauge with bamboo. So I frogged it yet again, ordered my own Knitpicks needles in a variety of sizes, and restarted on 2.50mm circulars.

But now I’m good. I’m partway through the second Chart 1 repeat and am now moving pretty quickly.

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