Category Archives: Knitting

Easiest goal ever

Posted on 05 March 2006 by Kris

I went above and beyond my March goal regarding this project.

Pattern: Odessa by Grumperina
Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft DK in color #508 (Ballad Blue)
Needles: US4 Crystal Palace DPNs for the ribbing, US6 Clover DPNs for the pattern stitch
Other: 110 size 6 Darice glass beads (purchased from Beverly’s; one tube is more than enough)

The hat blocked out slightly longer than I’d anticipated, as you can probably tell from the way it’s folding at the nape of my neck. If I were to knit this hat again, I’d probably knit to 5.75″ before the decreases (yes, I’m being a bit nit-picky now, but sometimes a quarter of an inch makes quite the difference!). For me, that would require doing beaded stitches on different decrease rows, as 5.75″ puts me right in the middle of a pattern repeat.

I’d rather have a hat that’s too long over one that’s too short, though, so I still like this hat and will get good use out of it.

It’s a really easy, quick knit, and it’s not hard to modify if you need to. However, as my previous post indicates, if you’re using the recommended yarn, one ball may not be enough if you knit, say, 6″ before the decreases.

In general blog news, I recently did some sidebar and archive cleanup. According to my site stats, people don’t really use the monthly archives, so I reduced the number of months displayed in my sidebar and made a nice archive index instead. So they’ll still be available for those who care, and as a bonus, there are even direct links to the entries themselves.

I also realized that the list of FOs will eventually be a bit unwieldy, so now my sidebar displays five (random) links and a link to the main project index. I’m not completely sold on the project index yet, but it definitely works, and hey, if I change my mind, it’s not that hard to tweak the code.

The project index reminds me that I never did take a final picture of my tipless gloves, and I could use a better picture of Falling Leaves as well. I’ll probably get around to both those photographs later this month (I need to take the gloves home from my office and wash them anyway).

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The handiness of hat twins

Posted on 04 March 2006 by Kris

I got bored with the second cable-and-bobble hat, so I started Odessa. I’d tried on Jessica‘s hat and decided that it was too short for my tastes. So instead of knitting for 5.5″ before the decreases, I knit 6″.

Unfortunately, that meant that I didn’t have enough yarn for all of the decrease rows…

…as I’d only bought the one ball specified in the pattern.

Needless to say, I was a bit annoyed. Obviously, I didn’t want to rip back and start the decreases earlier, because if I’d wanted a hat that short I would’ve stuck to the pattern completely as written. And who wants to buy an additional ball of yarn for just six rows? Certainly not me.

But then I remembered that Jess and I had picked out the same color of yarn when we were at Knitting in La Jolla, so I asked if she had any left. And she saved the day!

Okay, so she just saved the hat. Whatever. Close enough, right?

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March 2006 goals

Posted on 01 March 2006 by Kris

Yay, I win!

  1. Make those long-overdue FO posts – Done!
  2. Post more frequently – Done! (Though given that I only posted two entries last month and three the month before that, this wasn’t that hard…)
  3. Complete at least two tiers of the Forest Path Stole – Done!
  4. Work on at least one other WIP – Done! Granted, it was just one underarm seam and then a couple of rows for a toe sock, but that still counts, right?
  5. Start my mother’s cable-and-bobble hat – Done!

New goals this month:

  1. Finish Eris
  2. Finish Mom’s cable-and-bobble hat
  3. Finish at least one sock (either the second River Rapids sock, or a toe sock)
  4. Complete at least two tiers of the Forest Path Stole
  5. Re-start Channel Pullover
  6. Start Odessa

Regarding goal #1: It turns out that I’m not completely crazy and that I did try on the sleeves while working on the sweater. In fact, I even ripped and re-knit a sleeve because it didn’t fit. Jessica thinks that maybe it shrunk a bit in the wash, which I suppose is possible. I mean, I did wash my swatches, but maybe the water temperature was slightly different on the day I chucked the actual sweater in the machine?

In any case, there’s only so much blocking I can do, given that it’s a cotton/acrylic sweater. So I’m leaning toward re-knitting the sleeves. It’s going to suck, especially since I already wove in the ends and grafted the cuff and everything. But it won’t be completely impossible, and I think in the long run I’ll be happier with the sweater.

I’m probably going to take Kristen’s advice for the next few days – pretend that it’s OK and work on something else. I figure that if I stop obsessing about it for a week or so, I’ll be able to look at it with a clearer head and then make a final decision.

Edit: You know how overthinking something can make you overlook the obvious? Well, Kris suggested something that should have occured to me from the very beginning. I’ll try wearing Eris around the house for the next couple of evenings to see if that relaxes the sleeves enough. It might actually work, given how close the measurement already is.

Of course, this does mean that I have to seam the other underarm first…

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Socks, lace, and the color blue

Posted on 27 February 2006 by Kris

I forgot to mention: I’ve started being a social knitter again. I went to the Whistlestop the Sunday before last, and on Saturday, I went over to Kris’s to knit with her, Miyon, Marisa, Kristen, and Jess. Fun times! I really need to go to more knitting events.

I worked on the Forest Path Stole at the Whistlestop. I don’t have a new in-progress picture yet, but Nancy has a picture of me working on it. See, I haven’t abandoned it entirely!

But in more exciting news:

River Rapids socks! Not only are they socks, but they’re lace, and they’re blue! So how can I not love them?

I finished the first sock last week, and I made progress on the second while I was at Kris’s. No finished measurements are provided in the pattern, so I had to do some calculating first, but once I figured out that a tighter gauge would give me the appropriate size, I started flying through the knitting.

The tubular cast on looks gorgeous, but it’s nowhere near as elastic as I’d like – I’ll have to cast on with larger needles if I use this method again for socks. But I can get it on my foot and over my heel, at least, and it’s snug around the ankle.

The sock looks super narrow, but it really does stretch out enough to fit. I’m very happy with the finished one so far.

Edit: I forgot to post where I got the pattern from (Kristen’s comment just reminded me). River Rapids is a Sockbug pattern. It’s written for two circulars, but it’s easy enough to knit on DPNs instead.

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Not quite there yet

Posted on 26 February 2006 by Kris

It was bad enough when Jess was pestering me about Eris. But now that I have people I’ve never even met (like Natalie) and half of the San Diego knitters blog ring wondering why the heck I haven’t finished yet, I figured I should finally get those underarms seamed before I had the rest of the blog ring follow suit.

So I seamed one underarm. Sort of – I didn’t weave in the ends so that I could pick it out if necessary. Then I tried it on to see if I’d done a decent enough job or if I needed to do it over.

There’s a slight hole near the end of the seam, but that’s an easy enough fix. I have an even bigger problem to deal with…

I’m about 99.9% sure that the upper arm is tighter than I want it to be. I certainly can’t pull it on over a long-sleeved shirt, so I think I have a bit of a problem here. How I failed to notice this before is beyond me, especially since I could swear I tried on one sleeve before continuing with the other, but it happened. So I basically have two choices: I either resign myself to wearing Eris only with tank tops, or I frog and re-knit the sleeves.

Needless to say, I’m less than thrilled with either option, and I am kicking myself for not having paid better attention while I was working on this.

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