Monday, December 31, 2012

Year in Review

I thought I'd be like everyone else and show everything I knitted this year. Prepare yourself for lots of pictures!


The 2nd Howlcat for Stacy and Dan

Redundancy Hat

Soda Shoppe Hoodlet

Holla Back Tank

Black Swan 1

Black Swan 2

Scallop of the Sea

Wallpaper Cowl

Xia 2

Delores Park Cowl


Striped Tee

Delancy Cardigan
Happy New Year, everyone!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

My first KAL, complete!

Even with all my procrastination, I managed to complete my first KAL (again, that's a knit-a-long for the non-knitters).  As shown in an earlier post, we knitted the lovely Delancey Cardigan by Alexis Winslow.

See?  Lovely.
Pattern: Delancey Cardigan by Alexis Winslow
Yarn:  Knit Picks Merino Style
Needles: US 7

From the back with my new short hair.
Obviously I made some changes to the pattern.  Mine has short sleeves and a more simple collar/button band.  I thought it would be more suitable for the very mild weather here in Charleston.

Also, it looks OK open.

I'm happy to be finished with this cardigan.  It was fun to knit, but there are TONS of patterns out there I want to get started on.

Red pole love!




Friday, March 23, 2012

My kind of jewelry

As soon as I saw this brooch I knew I had to knit it as soon as possible.  It is just so stinkin' cute.  I quickly procured the necessary yarn and knit it up earlier this week.

I know you're jealous of the awesomeness.

Pattern: Panda Pin by Stafanie Fail
Yarn:  Knit Picks Wool of the Andes
Needles: US 6

The cuteness is almost too much!

I basically used the pattern as a guideline.  The pattern involved both stranded colorwork and intarsia.  I'm basically not down with anything more complicated than stripes.  Instead I just knit all the head in white and used duplicate stitches for the face.  I then picked up stitches for each of the ears.  Then things got messy.

Those with OCD should look away!

I decided to add felt to the back for tidiness and stability.  I am such a sloppy sewer (maybe sewist is better).  I really try to do a good job, but things always end up a mess.  I suppose the important thing is that the felt is on there and it is never coming off.

Let's not even mention the crooked brooch pin.  Here's a cat to distract you.

Bosley might just be the most handsome cat ever.



Monday, March 19, 2012

Out with the Old

Welcome to the new blog.  I thought it was time for a change around here.  Basically, I decided to switch to Blogger from Wordpress and dump my GoDaddy hosting.  This is the result.  I hope everyone likes the new look.  I still may tweak a bit here and there.  We'll see.

What else is new?  I finished my Big Snowy Owl.  Here he is.
Cute, right?
Speaking of cuteness.  Here's the newest member of the Simper Kingdom, Ripley.

She's even smaller than Moxie. 

Lewis caught her sleeping.  


Thursday, February 9, 2012

Delancey KAL Week 1

On Monday, the knit-a-long officially started for the Delancey Cardigan. If you want more info, visit Allyson's blog.

I quickly jumped right in and got to knitting.  This is my first of two triangles.  It was completed on Monday night.  In fact, I got the first done so fast I decided to wait a few days to start the second.  Once that second was complete yesterday, I realized a sad, sad fact.  My first triangle was smaller than it should be.  That tends to happen when you forget two whole rows.


That, my friends, is why you count your rows properly.  Above you see my counting method for this pattern.  I would usually use lines to count rows, but for this one I'm writing the actual row numbers down as I do them to make extra sure I get things right.
The most frustrating thing about fixing the first triangle was the fact that I had cut both colors of yarn when I finished it.  All I had was little tails left.  Not nearly what I needed to add two rows.  That's where the beautiful spit splicing comes in.


You take your tail and the start of a new ball of yarn.  Trim half the plies off the last couple of inches of each end, add spit... I know, gross!  I actually use water.  I put a few drops in my hand, then position the overlapping ends of yarn on my wet palm.  Next you rub your hands together over the overlapping yarn.  Wetness and friction cause natural animal fibers to felt together like above.  Now you don't have to weave in extra ends.  Sadly it doesn't work well with superwash wool which is one of the main reasons I don't use superwash.


As you can see from above, I finally got all my errors fixed and joined my two triangles together.  That completes this week's goals.  Stay tuned to see what happens next week.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Fail Big or Go Home

I will soon join a KAL (that's a Knitalong) for the lovely Delancey Cardigan.  It was love at first sight with this particular cardigan.  When the design first came out I immediately bought it and found some stash yarn and started knitting.  It wasn't until I finished the body that I realized it might be too big.
Before the sleeves it wasn't too bad.
Here's what I've determined as my problem.  Gauge, of course.  I knit a swatch like a good knitter.  I did not wash and block the swatch, but I did knit one.  That has to count for something.
To break things down: 
     My swatch was 17.25 sts x 24 rows = 4 x 4 inches in Stockinette stitch
     The required gauge was 18 sts x 26.5 rows = 4 x 4 inches in Stockinette stitch

The truth is I almost never come close to Row Gauge no matter what I do so I ignore it.  In most patterns this is not a problem.  In this pattern, IT MATTERS!!!
With sleeves, it is obviously HUGE!
Once I started picking up for the first sleeve, I realized I couldn't pick up the amount for the size I was knitting (36, btw).  I had to pick up the number for the next size up because my armhole was much larger than it should be.  I still managed to fool myself into thinking everything would be ok so I kept on knitting.  At some point I tried it on again and realized this thing made me look 50 lbs heavier than I am and it was unacceptable.
I think I could get about 5 arms in that sleeve.
This is my worst failure as a knitter so let's hope my second take on this cardigan will be more successful.