Navy Hat

Oops. Forgot to post yesterday. I was just so busy sitting.

Anyway, this is the start of the hat I promised Jeff for this past Christmas . . . and started two days ago. He'll live. It's nothing fancy. US 7 (4.5m) needles. 110 stitches. (I have trouble with gauge. Anyone who wants to explain it to me, feel free.) The headband it just 18 rows of knit stitch. I'm just starting the 10 or so rows of stockinette stitch with the wrong side out (so it'll be the right side showing if the headband rolls up too far) and then five or so inches of stockinette stitch before I start decreasing at the top. No big deal.

This past winter, I got back into knitting in a big way. I started knitting obsessively to stop from going crazy during the last couple weeks of the semester. However, I overcommitted myself a little bit. With most everyone else, I at least got him/ her his/her hat/headband. My grandma got lucky and got both her hat and scarf. My dad got a little less lucky, but still received his has hat before I went back to school. Jeffy was not so lucky. As I mentioned, I'm just starting his hat and forget about a scarf. But it's happening. And the sooner I get this done, the sooner I can start of my dog's puppy sweater because it's going to use this same yarn.

Lace Scarf

This is the scarf I'm making for my sister. I like this pattern a ton, and it's a lot easier than the one I'm making for my dad, but it's still pretty tricky. I'm using US 10 needles (6mm) for this. 19 stitches and the pattern repeats every 12 rows. I had to learn (or rather relearn what my grandma taught me years ago) how to knit two together (k2tog) and slip slip knit (ssk) for this pattern. That's how you get the neat lacy pattern. That was certainly interesting, and I had to restart more than once while I was figuring it out.

I made a headband first, (which can be seen on the right there under finished projects) with the same yarn and the same pattern, and it turned out really well, and I'm pleased with the way this scarf is looking. I like the variegated yarn a lot, but it's not very good for seeing these patterns I want to knit. Almost ironically, I'm using solid colored yarn for a lot of the pieces I'm not doing patterns in.

PS. I found this pattern on a knitting blog, but I can't remember for the life of me which one. If anyone out there recognizes this and knows which blog I'm talking about, I'd love to link to it. I don't feel comfortable giving the pattern myself because I didn't create it, but I'd love to share it.

Happy knitting!

Elongated Chevron Scarf

I'm knitting this scarf for my dad. I made him a matching hat for this past Christmas, but I didn't get the scarf done (or really started), and I already missed his birthday, too. I'd like to have all of these scarves done for next Christmas. I'm using US 9 needles (5.5mm). The is worked on multiples of 18 plus 1, and I'm working with 36 plus 1. And I promise to take a better picture of this soon. You can kind of see the pattern, though.

If you happened to notice the picture of this scarf yesterday, you'll notice that it's a little different today. And not in an I've-completed-more-of-it way, but in an I-ripped-the-whole-stupid-thing-apart-(not that that was very much really)-and-started-over-again-only-now-it's-twice-as-wide way. This was the scarf yesterday:

and at the top is it today. I decided that it was too thin (only about three inches) for a man, so I made it wider. I'm not super excited because this pattern is a huge pain in the ass, but it looks really cool. I'm torn whether or not to do the whole scarf in the chevrons or just do the chevrons as the ends. Again, they look so cool. But they're so hard. And it's not like this is even the best yarn to see this pattern in. Poor choice on my part when I made the hat, but the hat is made and on my dad's head, so the scarf has to match, and here I am.

I'm thinking at least two repetitions of the pattern, and then maybe switch into stockinette. Then again, maybe not. I guess I'll have to wait and see how much I freaking hate this pattern after two repetitions. Updates to follow. But not tonight.

Happy knitting!

Irish Flag Scarf

This is the beginning of the scarf I'm knitting for Shane. It's going to be a repetition of the Irish flag, you guessed it, in scarf form. He's Irish and requested that I knit him this scarf after being unable to find a similar scarf at Goodwill. We got there too late and someone had already snatched it. Major bummer. So I'm knitting him this one. Hopefully it'll be better than the other one because it will be exactly what he wants, at least as far as length and width. My cat is currently rolling all over it. I guess that means he likes it which must be a compliment.

I'm using US 8 (5mm) needles. 30 rows of 40 stitches per color, all knit stitch. I think it looks pretty nice so far, if I do say so myself. I'm just using Red Heart Super Saver yarn. It's acrylic and so a pain in the ass to block because wet blocking doesn't work, but it's cheap and more or less does the trick. I'm pretty pleased with the green and orange, but for whatever reason the white is pretty coarse, and I'm afraid it will be itchy. Maybe I'm just imagining it; or maybe the green and orange, which are very soft for Red Heart, will make up for it; or maybe it just needs to be washed. I hope it works out, though.

This is going to be the largest thing to date that I've made (and completed). I make a lot of hats. I love knitting hats. I've also done a headband which was very quick. And I have made some scarves before, but this one is wider than any of those, and I have a feeling Shane's going to want it to be incredibly long. Which is fine. As long as he doesn't expect it until next Christmas.

I'm really great about getting obsessed with things. Once it was baking. There was a period when i made cookies for everything. And not just a batch of chocolate chip cookies. We're talking elaborately decorated cookies. For example, in high school, a girl on my cross country team who I'd gotten somewhat close to had her birthday during the season, so I made cookies that spelled out "Happy Birthday E----" and a giant cookie for her proclaiming her new age. Or cooking or crocheting or knitting and sewing. Sometimes I'll hole up in my room for days or weeks at a time and take copious notes and study which has been my obsession for the last several months as I draw terrifyingly close to the end of my undergrad degree. Or I'll dig out some markers and write poetry all over my windows. (That one really weirded my roommate out when I lived in the dorms.) Sometimes I'll sit in front of my computer for days, barely taking time to eat or sleep, and just write forever. I've pumped out more than one short story that way. Or reading. There was a summer some years ago when I read no less than a book a day. Sometimes it's TV shows. I've watched seasons upon seasons of shows for days on end. Sometimes, to my embarrassment, it's FaceBook games. You know. My mother says I have a one track mind. I like to think of it as getting "locked on," to reference Skins.

Tangent aside, I really like the way this is looking. I kind of wish I had gone with stockinette stitch, but I really don't feel like starting over. I've also never worked with multiple colors before. I was surprised with how easy it was to switch colors. There will potentially be an update this evening to show how much progress I made today with this scarf. My goal is to at least to get back into green tonight.

PS. I hope the knitwitch doesn't mind me linking to her how-to's, but she's my favorite YouTube how-to for knitting.

UPDATE: I did get through the orange and back to the green like I hoped. Sorry the color's a little wonky. I had natural light earlier, but now it's dark, so I only have lamplight which makes everything yellow. And I'm using a webcam, so everything looks a little wonky always.

My Knitting Blog

I've been wanting to start a knitting blog for several months now, and I'm glad I finally have. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to write about my projects as well as I wanted to, or that I wouldn't knit enough to warrant a whole blog about it, or that you old pros out there would think I'm silly and terrible at knitting, but I finally got over it and just started writing about it. I just had to keep reminding myself that to write anything means getting over a few self-conscious issues and just doing it.


There are still some glitches I'm working through with this blog. For one, I want a sidebar that can show the projects I'm currently working on, how far into each one I am, maybe pictures of them in their current states, something like that. I also want to get some pictures of my finished projects up here.


Those things aside, I'm excited to get to writing about my projects. I have a ton because I get so excited, and I just want to knit all the thing. Additionally, if i get bored or frustrated or run out of yarn or whatever on one things, I can work on another. Hopefully writing about knitting and you, reader, will keep me accountable for my knitting so I don't fall behind and end up giving apologies instead of finished hats and scarves and things for Christmas.


Happy knitting!