"Your favorite color is yellow."

I actually don't have a favorite color. I just can't pick one. I have color moods where I just become obsessed with a certain color or color scheme for awhile until I become obsessed with a different one. Sometimes it's a seasonal thing, but most times I have no idea where my color moods come from.  They're just... moods.

When I bought this yarn, I was deep into a yellow mood. I just wanted some yellow socks and it had to be this certain exact shade of yellow and nothing else would do. I spent literally hours in my local yarn store going back and forth between shades of yellow- truth be told I didn't want to buy this yarn because I wanted something less expensive and with a higher nylon content- but alas it had to be this one because this was the shade I'd been craving for weeks. 

As soon as I finished these socks I was reminded of the time I met a good friend's daughter for the first time.  She was about 5 or 6 years old and had that awesome little girl sassyness that only little girls can get away with and still be considered cute. She told me she was going to draw me a picture and asked me what my favorite color was and I told her I didn't really have one- that I loved them all. She nodded once and ran off to draw me my picture. A few minutes later she came back with a picture of me wearing a yellow tutu and announced- with perfect seriousness, "Your favorite color is yellow." 

And so it is... For today anyway. 

The main color is called Egg Yolk and the contrast color is called Kelp- which doesn't sound all that appetizing, but at least it looks pretty. The yarn is Hedgehog Fibers and it's kind of a pain to work with, but I think it's worth it. These socks actually hug my feet. 

Unfortunately the camera just can't capture the awesomeness that is this color. It really is the exact color of egg yolks. 

(the famous drawing)

Oh yeah... my blog... and fingerless mitts

I just keep forgetting that I have this blog! 

Well... here's some more mitts to post.  I'm in love with mitts, especially the fingerless mitts, though I'll eventually have to make myself some flip top ones like Mr. Boy's.  

The ones below are a Christmas gift and will have a hat to match (which I will post here if I can manage to remember that I have this blog!) 

 I just love this color! And I really wanted to make myself a sweater or something out of this yarn, but (of course!) I can't seem to find it again in the stores.  It's just plain ole Patons Classic Wool in Natural Heather and I could order it, but there's no way to guarantee I'd get this exact color.  If I were a better photographer you'd be able to see how beautiful this yarn is close up.  All kinds of soft Monet-like colors all spun together to make this dreamy soft pink.  For a craft store yarn, they really pulled out all the stops on this dye lot.  Well, I'll keep my eye out for some more of it.

The above pair are the ones I made for myself because I was just so jealous of the pink ones and I was on a role so I whipped these babies up and they are deliciously warm, if not quite as pretty to look at.  These were also made from Patons Classic Wool, though I don't know the color.  This stuff has just been sitting around in my stash for years and I don't even know what it was originally intended for, but it makes a nice warm pair of mitts- warmer actually than the pink pair because over the years Patons has thinned out their worsted weight yarn considerably... (We SEE you Patons! Not cool!) 

I used this pattern for both mitts. I just adjusted it from full mittens to fingerless mitts.  The cool thing about this pattern is that it uses smaller needles than usual for worsted weight yarn which makes your mittens (or mitts) very dense and wind-proof(ish). 

More details about needles, modifications, yarn etc. here. 

I have all sorts of knitting and crocheting things planned for the next few months. So if I can get my stuff together you will see some of that soon. I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect hat yarn that doesn't itch like the dickens and doesn't stretch out weirdly and is warm and once I find it I plan to make myself a hat in every color offered and as God is my witness I'll never be cold or itchy again!  

I got the mitts!

I am extremely proud of these, my first ever, mittens. This was a big learning curve for me and I've never been what anyone would call an adventurous knitter.  Plus I've always felt super awkward when using double pointed needles so I avoided it whenever I could, but Mr. Boy needed mittens and the cheapo acrylic ones I bought from Target (twice because he lost one somewhere in Kentucky on a road trip for Christmas vacation and it was a complete fiasco!) were not going to cut it.  And I knew he would want flip-top mittens (because the infamous Target ones were flip-tops) and really who wants to take off their entire mitten just to zip up your coat or backpack? Well some people do I guess because there are a ton of super cute regular mitten patterns available, but I don't and neither does Mr. Boy.

The pattern I used for these were actually not fliptop mittens so I had to modify it which is another thing I usually don't do, but this time I did it and pretty successfully, too! I will admit to making a few hilariously ridiculous mistakes (like making the thumb long enough to almost reach the top of the mitten) and having to rip back parts of the first mitten more than once (actually more than twice) which is very scary for me because again, I'm not adventurous, but it worked out in the end and I'm feeling like maybe I've jumped up from intermediate knitter to beginning advanced.

At first I was worried that Mr. Boy would reject these in favor of the Target ones, but he loved them instantly and now won't leave the house without them, even when it's not really mitten weather.  Which makes me so proud I could burst into spontaneous song like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.

That reminds me that I have to make a back up pair (or two) so we don't have a repeat of the Kentucky Mitten Fiasco.

Mitten stats on Ravelry. 

I don't think people read blogs anymore... do they?

So... Hey there... Hehhehheh

Who wants to hear the 888 reasons why I totally abandoned this blog?  Anyone? Well, of course you don't.  Who cares? And anyway, excuses are boring.  Let's just say- Life happens.  And I'll end up giving at least a few reasons why this blog went dormant along the way I'm sure, but for now I'll just say- Hey! I'm back! I don't know for how long, or how consistently, but for reasons I'm not even sure I can explain, I've decided to go ahead and revive this silly old blog that was supposed to be about whatever I wanted it to be about, but ended up being about knitting and crocheting and then ended up being about nothing because I stopped writing it. (heh)

So, first things first: That last post was a bit of a teaser so I'll finally show you what it was:

 It was blanket I made for a dear friend who had just adopted a baby boy. These photos aren't the greatest, but they'll have to do because I don't have the blanket anymore to take pictures of it. The recipient loved it, though, so that's all that matters.  This one was actually my own design and I think I had plans to write it out as a pattern and share it here, but well... oops.  I did take a lot of notes and made a graph for the heart and everything, but I lost the notes, found them, then lost them again. So if I find them again I promise I will write this up and post it here.  I was very proud of the fact that it was completely reversible- it didn't have a wrong or right side so it looked nice no matter which way it was laid out or used.

Okay. That's it for now.  I just realized I have to completely refigure out how to post photos and stuff. But I do have lots of new stuff that I'm excited to post here so once I figure all that out I'll be posting some new projects! Yay!

(Also- I'm not sure that anyone is even out there reading this blog, so if you're there and you do want to see a pattern for this, write me a comment and let me know because that will greatly increase my motivation to find those notes and write it up.)

Ravelry link here

Heart shaped things!

As I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, but I do love me some heart shaped things.  Here's a little something I've been working on...

I was hoping to be finished by today, but no such luck.  Things have been oddly busy around here.  And I've developed an unsettling addiction to Pinterest which has significantly slowed me down as far as finishing any projects are concerned.

Soon I'll do the full reveal.
And if I'm feeling especially generous, there'll be a pattern to go with it!

Slippers!

I have been trying to write this post for the past week or two.  I've started on it 3 or 4 times, and then something distracts me or I just don't feel like it so I think, okay, I'll do it tomorrow... then repeat.

I don't have much to actually say, I guess.
So, I'm just gonna show you these slippers I made as Christmas gifts.

Nola's Slippers
Various worsted scrap yarns used
Size 9 Circular needles with yarn doubled throughout
Raveled

  

The first pair went to my mom, the second to my brother, and the third I made for myself.
If you're looking for a great easy slipper pattern these are the ones. They're basically booties made for adults.  They're knitted flat then grafted on the bottom.  You don't actually have to use kitchener stitch, but I did so there wouldn't be a seam to walk on.  This was my first time doing kitchener.  I used this video to show me how and I was so surprised by how wonderfully easy it was! Yay!

The only thing that was kind of annoying about this pattern was the picking up the stitches around the foot part.  And that was annoying only because the stitches are super tight at first and I'm still a little challenged at picking up stitches, but this pattern taught me a lot about how to do it correctly and make it look nice, so that is a good thing.

Truth be told, this pattern actually looks a lot more eh... sophisticated when you use only one or two colors, but I was determined to bust some of my stash so I decided that warmth trumped sophistication and since no one is likely to wear these anywhere but home, who really gives a hoot.

Let me say that these are wonderfully warm and comfy slippers.  They are a bit slippery on a hard floor, just like socks, but they are so warm and if you use wool then your feet won't sweat at all when wearing them. I have already worn mine so much that they look like something passed down from my grandmother.

Here's a little something I'm working on for a friend who just adopted a baby boy.

These pictures are actually just two sides of the same swatch.
Isn't it precious?

Happy New Year!

Knitting Fever, Elizabeth Zimmerman, and Ugly Sweaters

So I've been wearing my Old, Ugly, First-Sweater-I-Ever-Knitted (yes, that is the official title) a lot lately because I've discovered that Elizabeth Zimmerman was right about a couple of things.
1.   Garter stitch is awesome and really, really warm.

Raveled - (to read the whole story of this sweater click on the "raveled" link.)  

This sweater can actually be warn as a jacket most days here in Houston and it's perfectly, wonderfully warm.  So warm, in fact, that I don't even care anymore about the odd glances I sometimes get when I wear it out in public. Or about the fact that I look like a slightly smaller, slightly cuter version of the Michelen Man when I wear it.  

Yes, I've finally picked up a book by EZ, as she's affectionately known in the knitting world.  I decided to start with Knitting Without Tears because it's the quintessential beginning EZ book and I must admit I've always been a bit intimidated by EZ and her devil-may-care approach to knitting.  This woman is truly a knitting master and, as she likes to say, she is the absolute master of her knitting.

I must confess that I am not.  I'm a pattern knitter and I cringe a little every time I stray too far from whatever the pattern says I must do. I'll go so far as to change yarns or even fibers, mostly because I can't afford 27 balls of Rowan SuperExpensive Superfancy Cotton or whatever they're calling it, but that's about it.  If the pattern doesn't work for me I move on until I find one that does.  

But I've been enchanted by the garter stitch, lately, and no one loves garter stitch more than EZ.  So here I go into new territory.

Unfortunately I have a few Christmas things I need to work on before I can really dive into my new garter stitch passion.  (Oh yeah... Christmas...)  AND I do need to finish up the Abandoned Ripple (also it's now official title)

But after that everyone's going to be seeing a lot of garter stitch around here.
I'm also a little nervous about trying out my first EZ pattern so that should probably be good for a few laughs too.  

You are an obsession. You're my obsession.

A few months ago, I wrote this post about shawls and how I finally "get it" about why everyone is so crazy about them.  Well, here's my next confession:  I am obsessed with shawls now.  I honestly can't figure out how I ever survived and thrived without them.  AND I finally knitted one with some of that stash yarn I was talking about in my last post.

Ravelry link  

Araucania Atacama- now discontinued  

I was worried about trying to knit one because as I've said before I am a s l o w knitter.  Also, most of the patterns I see getting ooohed and ahhhhed over are lace knit shawls and despite the undeniable beauty of the lace knitting.  I am just not there yet and don't know if I ever will be. Aside from the mind-numbing complicatedness of the lace stitch patterns,  I'm just not a lacey shawl kind of gal so I'm not motivated to figure out how to do something that's, strictly speaking, not even really my style.  But I found this pattern for the Mara shawl and I thought it was perfect.  Exactly the kind of thing I might actually wear and easy as pie to knit.  Now this shawl consists of a whole lotta garter stitch, so if that's not your thing, then you probably wont like this pattern, but while knitting this one I discovered that I really love the garter stitch, especially with a yummy dk variegated yarn.  For the first time in a long time I found myself enjoying a knitting project so much that I really didn't want it to end.  And of course, I finished this one amazingly quickly because I was enjoying it so much.  

Here's a close up of the color and the stripes I added to make the shawl bigger. It's still not as big as I wanted it to be, but I really used up every scrap of that yarn that I had and it's now discontinued, so that's that.  A word about this yarn:  Yummy!
This is 100% alpaca, which is a very warm fiber.  In the garter stitch it is so squishy and delicious.  I put this shawl on my shoulders any time I'm feeling chilled and in no time at all I am toasty warm.
(I had no idea that just putting a little something warm on your shoulders could make you feel so warm!  I am so in awe of that new discovery.)
Alpace, like wool, can be a little itchy, but so far I'm persevering because I love the warmth so much.

Another confession:  I already bought some more yarn because I want to make another one of these, but next time in a solid color and much bigger.
Yes... obsessed.  

And just to ease my troubled conscience about the abandoned ripple blanket, I also finished a sweater that I started last year and that was languishing in my UFO pile.

Yarn:  Caron Country

I actually kind of forgot I had started this one.   I think I got discouraged because I knew I wouldn't quite have enough yarn to make the sleeves for this sweater long and at the time I really wanted it to be long sleeved, but after pulling it back out I decided that short sleeves would be just fine and in fact I really actually love the short sleeves.  I think for a long time I thought short-sleeved sweaters were kind of silly.  Like those open-toed boots that were all the rage last fall/winter?  I thought, "What's the point?  If it's cold enough to wear boots/a sweater, then wouldn't you need to cover your toes/arms?"  But living in Houston, I'm now understanding how it can be chilly enough to want a sweater, but not cold enough to need a long sleeved sweater.  And if it gets colder I can always wear a long sleeved shirt underneath and really that's about as cold as it ever gets in Houston.  (Still don't really get those open-toed boots, though.)

And that's about all I can tell you about this sweater.  I have no idea what pattern I used or if I just made it up as I was going along. All I know is that it's a top-down raglan knit in the round and that the yarn is super soft and lovely and machine washable and if it holds up well I'll definitely use it again.
Perhaps on another shawl?  

Sometimes I knit.

Not often, but sometimes, I knit.  I really love to knit, actually, but it takes sooooo loooonng to finish anything, which means that I hardly ever do finish anything knitted these days, which is why I just crochet most of the time.  I can crochet like the wind.

However, every now and then someone asks me to make them something, and inevitably that something is usually knitted.

This hat for example was made for my dad.  I made him a hat long ago for Christmas, I think it was?  And when I asked him what he wanted for Father's Day it turned out to be another hat just like the other one.  Really, a hat?  In the summer?  You want a hat?  Are you sure?  Yes.  He's sure he wants a hat, only he wants it to be burnt orange (UT colors) so he can wear it to the UT games.  And let me tell you, that was no easy task finding the exact right shade of burnt orange.  You can't just pick any old orange.  I had to take him to the yarn store and we spent quite a bit of time going over which orange is burnt orange and which is Tennessee orange and which is almost burnt orange but not quite.  (Apparently to show up to a UT game wearing Tennessee orange or not quite UT orange is a major faux pas. Who knew?)  But alas, Dad will have his hat.  (Quite a few weeks past Father's Day, but knitting takes me soooo loooonng!)

Here's the pattern I used for the hat, though instead of a rolled brim, I used a 1X1 ribbing for the brim. And the stripe sequence I chose was based on the Fibonacci sequence because it's one of those math geeky things that men think are cool.

And then once I start knitting, well, I have to make a few of these too:

Now these are dishcloths made of cheapety cheap cheap cotton yarn, and they are magic.  Magic I tell you!  Everyone loves these things, and thankfully they are extremely quick and easy to make.  I can turn these suckers out in a day or two.  Less if I didn't have a toddler to tend to.  They may not look like much, and usually when I give them to people as gifts they look at me kind of like,  "Oh... knitted dishcloths... well... thanks... I guess..."  But then they always come back to me and say, "HEY! Those things are AWESOME! I need, like 100 more of them!"  But really you only need, like, 3 of them because they are damn near impossible to destroy.  Unless you're my mother.  She always finds a way to tear them up, so I made the above for her.  But when Dad saw them, his eyes lit up!  "OH! You made us some more dishcloths! Oh I LOVE these things!"  Really?  Well, that's what I like to hear!

Anyone want the pattern?  Here it is!

(In case anyone is interested, when I make them I change row 3 so that the first knit 2 together is an SKP, only because I think it makes a more fetching dishcloth, but it's really not necessary for functionality.)

Bad Penny (badly photographed...sorry)

Voila!

As promised here is a picture of what I've been working on all summer. Yeah, it took me all summer long to knit this. And yeah, the pics kinda suck because I took them on my phone, at night, in my bathroom. I really was going to try to take some really nice pics. I was going to stage it all up and maybe figure out how to work the timer on the "good" camera. Well... I was gonna do a lot of things. But I'm finally starting to realize that if I wait for the perfect opportunity, or if I wait until I have time to do it perfectly, it just doesn't happen at all. So this is what you get.

Above is a close-up of the stitch definition. This is my first top-down raglan sweater and I'm particularly stoked with the way these things knit up. I love the little pattern created by working in the round and increasing twice in one place in the same place every other row and how that eventually makes the front, back, and two arms for a sweater. That is just the freakin' coolest thing ever.

Here's a pic of me, braless, no make-up, in sweatpants. (But we're just going with it. Remember the important thing here is that I actually finally posted the pics. We're not judging. Right? And to be fair, this is how I look probably about 80% of the time anyway.)

I have no idea why I decided to make the sweater this short. The pattern itself is a bit short, but not quite this short I don't think. I just really have no explanation for this. I'm not a belly-showing kind of girl. Never have been, even before I had a child. Even when it was the "cool" thing to do and "everyone" did it. Even when I took dance classes every day and had pretty nice abs. I just don't understand. Anyway, when I wear it in public I wear a camisole underneath.

Here's the side view. Still with no bra and sweatpants. (This is character building. That's what this is.)

The pattern is Bad Penny from knitty.com.

I didn't do the cute little lace design thingy in the bottom ribbed section. I just didn't have the patience for knitting from a chart, but I may someday make this sweater again and I will make it longer and I might even do the lacey thing because I do think it's cute.

I used two different yarns because I ran out of one and it's discontinued. So the ribbing and a small portion of the bottom of the sweater are totally different colors, but I'm pretty pleased to see how well they worked together. (The one that's not discontinued is Katia Degrade.) Both were dk weight cotton so I went down to a size 5US needle for the body and a size 3US for the ribbing and knitted the pattern in the largest size to make up for the difference in gauge.

The Katia is a really nice yarn with a velvety feel and is surprisingly light weight for a 100% cotton yarn and BONUS: it washes and dries in the dryer beautifully.

Why did this take so long?

So a friend of mine sent me an invitation to her little girl's 1st birthday party one day. It was sent a good 3 weeks before the actual party which should give me plenty of time, even with a rather rambunctious 2 year old on my hands, to make a simple baby sweater. Right? Suuuuure.....

Well let me just tell you right now, that's not how it happened. And the thing is, I still can't really explain why. I was so sure this would be a quick and easy project. So Sure. I read up about it on Ravelry, and almost universally the word on the street was that this baby could be worked up in a matter of days. Certainly 3 weeks should be plenty of time.

And how long did it actually take me? Well, I lost count, but I'd say it was a little over a month. Now there were some factors contributing to this.
1. Out of town husband for 2 weeks which means no one to relieve me and give me some knitting time.
2. Never really have knitted a baby sweater before. But how hard can it be? It's just a small sweater for God's sake.
3. Had to start over once because it was turning out way bigger than I expected according to what I thought was a "good enough" gauge estimation.

Still this was supposed to be easy, and it was NOT.

The pattern is from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts, (yet another reason why I thought it wouldn't take too long), but it's also available for free on-line. Maybe someone else will have better luck with it. Though I should say that it did turn out just as cute as it was supposed to turn out, it was just way more trouble than I wanted it to be.

I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease, which is a good substitute yarn, but it's a bit thicker than the recommended yarn. It's also a little harder to work with than wool would have been. The sleeves, which were done in the round, then attached to the body ended up being a bit of a stretch, also there were huge gaps to be sewn up under the arms aside from the kitchener attachment method in the pattern (which by the way, I totally ignored and did a three needle bind off instead). In retrospect, if I ever attempt this pattern again, I think I'll just go ahead and do the sleeves back and forth and seam them up the inside of the arm. Which will be just as much trouble as all the kitchener and sewing up gaps nonsense ended up being when I followed the pattern as written.

I also omitted putting buttons or beads on because I didn't feel like doing button holes by the time I got to that section and I didn't have any beads that would fit through the seed stitch without being too small or too big.

All I can say is... thank God, it's over.

Just in time for the warm weather.

400 things.

Today I had about 400 things that I was supposed to do that I didn't do. No good excuse, just freakin' didn't do them.

Christmas season is looming and every year I tell myself I'm going to start early and every year I don't.

We were going to put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving because I've always wanted to be one of those people that puts up the tree right after Thanksgiving. Well, Husband had to go out of town to Singapore for work on the Saturday after Thanksgiving which meant the Friday (tree day!) was spent running around packing, making sure that everything that needed to get done around the house before I'm left alone with the Boy for a week got done so no tree day. Okay so we'll do it when he gets back. Like the moment he gets back. Well that was yesterday and today... we just freakin' didn't do it. We didn't do ANYTHING. *sigh*

So, darn it, I've got to do something. So here's a post. I don't have much to show, just some dishcloths that I made for a friend for a hostess gift because she cooked up a storm for us on Thanksgiving. Cooked up a storm while taking care of a 3 year old and a 12 week old. So, girlfriend deserves some dishcloths.

I actually made her 3, but I never did get a picture of the 3rd one. The pattern is Grandmother's Favorite. I used size 6 needles and I actually did a bit of modification.

Instead of knit 4 then starting the increase, I knit 4 again on the next row before starting the increase. Then for the decrease rows, instead of using knit 2 together for both decreases, for the 1st decrease I did Slip 1, knit 1, PSSO. Then did the rest as the pattern says. Then once I got down to 6 sts, I did the first decrease, skipped the YO and did the second decrease to get me down to 4 sts again. Then BO.

It just seemed to look better, more even this way, though that might just be my imagination.
Okay, so at least now today I did one thing that I've been needing to do. I posted a blog.
399 to go...

Reminiscing...

So I'm trying to be a "good" knitter. I have a fair amount of almost finished projects and even though, with the new crisp, fall weather we've been having (which, by the way, is somewhat rare in these parts) I'm itching to start something new, I'm forcing myself to finish at least some of what I've started. I will not start so much as a pair of socks or fingerless mitts until I've finished at least 2 projects that have been sitting around for severeal months now. One of them actually has been sitting around for about a year. Part of the problem is that I'm fairly sure that once these projects are done I won't even really like them anymore. I've just gone too far to rip them and start over and I can't stand seeing them lie around the house anymore. (Yes, I keep them out in the hopes that having to see them every day will somehow inspire me to finish them. Does that actually work for anyone?)

So anyway, until I finish these projects, there's just not much goin' on in my life to blog about here at Chez Eden. Even the Halloween hubbub has died down somewhat. I lost my steam somewhere in there so some of the other super cool paper crafts I had planned for Halloween will have to wait till next year. At least I managed to get some raven and owl silhouettes up in the window before I completely lost all motivation.

So anyway, I was rummaging around in my closet yesterday when I came across my first ever knitted sweater. Man, is it ugly.

Here it is, in all it's glory. All garter stitch, in Lion Brand Wool Ease, which I thought was just the best yarn ever at the time and I couldn't understand why anyone would ever want to use anything else. I crocheted the bright pink trim on later using crab stitch, thinking that all that rusty orange just needed a little something to make it just a little bit more something. Now I do like these colors together, but I now understand that this doesn't necessarily mean I should be wearing them. Out in public on a hopelessly pilled and very obviously handknitted sweater. Ah well, you live and learn.

In the close-up, you can see just how awful Wool Ease looks after a few trips through the washer and dryer, which is why I don't use it anymore. And this photo is after I cut all the little pills off of it, though I don't know why I even bothered.

Still, I must say that at least this is a very well-made sweater. The fit is perfect, which is amazing for me because even now I rarely manage to get something to fit just the way it should. Must have been beginners luck. The seams are pretty good too. It's warm and comfortable and wearable. I just don't wear it anywhere but inside the house.

You've come a long way, baby.

Now I know that Wool Ease kind of sucks despite the fact that it's cheap and can be run through a dryer. Now I know that garter stitch is better left to blankets, babies, or edging. Now I know that many things need to be considered before choosing what color or colors will work for a pullover. Also that pullover sweaters are usually too warm for Houston.

Now I know.

BTW- The pattern I used is called Earn Your Stripes from this book. (I did it all in one color because at the time I was intimidated by the notion of carrying my colors up the side. teehee)

Frock Finished!

Finally finished the Frock Camisole. It was super easy and it was just as cute as I wanted it to be.


I"ll probably knit it again because it really went fast and it's very comfy and somewhat flattering. If I do knit it again, though, I'll pick a different yarn and knit one size bigger. The Caron Spa is lovely and oh so soft, especially after washed and dried, but I just think this top would be prettier and maybe drape a little better in a cotton yarn. The Spa makes me feel like I'm wearing a nightie top. It would be really nice for a comfy oversized pullover or cardigan, and I'm already planning to use it to knit my son some pants once it gets cool again. (If it ever does get cool again. This summer feels like it's going to last forever!) The top fits, but it doesn't fit the exact way I was planning. I have a little too much boobage for this size.

Here's a close up of the yoke:

I love the way the reverse stockinette curls up the straps like that. I made a few booboos on this part, but the pattern was pretty forgiving. I also made the straps about an inch shorter than the pattern calls for, but I might make them longer next time.

I think this is the first garment I've ever knitted in the round and I am now a big fan of knitting in the round. No seams to sew and once you're done, you're DONE! LOVE THAT! I used to avoid the circular needles because they just felt weird to me, but I'm over it. It's all about getting things done quickly now.

Here's a little preview of what I'm working on now:


I'm not going to say what the pattern is yet, because I'm just not sure how or if it's going to work out. It's a bit wild!

Finally some FO's!

Pattern:
Clapotis (knitty)

Yarn:
DMC Senso Harlequin in "Earth"

Needles:
Size 6 (straight)


I actually finished this Clapotis awhile ago, but life got busier and crazier so I didn't have a chance to download the pictures. I took this picture with my feet because I was so proud of the Pedicure I gave myself, but the scarf looks pretty good too if I do say so myself.

Here's a close-up:



Isn't she beautiful, my friends?

Oh, words alone cannot express how much I love this scarf. Now I understand why everyone in the world who knits has made at least one of these babies. (And why most people make more than one, which I plan to do sometime in the future.) Not only is it truly beautiful, but it's actually one of those things that is fun to knit, at least according to me. Some of the people on ravelry complained about the endless boredom of it, but personally, everytime I got to drop one of those stitches I got a little, eh, shall I say charge!

And as great as it is to knit, it's even better to wear. I wore this thing everywhere as soon as it was finished. It looks good with jeans and a tee-shirt, with a dress, whatever. And since I made mine in a cotton blend it's the perfect weight, not too heavy, but it keeps me warm.

The only thing I'll do differently if I make another one is to make it just a leetle bit longer, more of a stole size, because that's another fabulous thing about it, that it can be worn as a scarf or a stole. (I toyed with the idea of making this one longer, but I was too paranoid that I would run out of yarn.)

I'm also really happy about the way this yarn knitted up. DMC Senso is a lovely yarn for a Clapotis. It's sturdy and strong, but light at the same time. I guess that technically it's a crochet thread, but whatever. It's fabulous for a Clapotis.

More FOs soon!

Clap, clap, clap it's CLAP-O-Teeeee!

SO! Last week I started a Clapotis. Yes, despite the fact that I have a sweater to finish that I've been working on for months. Despite the MANY baby items I need to knit for my ridiculously fertile friends who all seem to have babies due within the next few months, despite my OWN baby who is in some serious need of some cute little knitted baby bell bottoms. Despite all this and more I started a Clapotis last week.

It happened when I went to my LYS on a whim while I was finishing up my Christmas shopping. I have no idea why I went in there. Perhaps I just needed a safe place away from all the Christmas crazy. Or maybe it was just the joy of being able to look at yarn without worrying about the baby. From my experience baby in a yarn store = bull in a china shop.

So there I was just browsing and fondling like usual when I came across a Clapotis that someone had made and just sort of draped, casually, across a display shelf. Now, I had, of course, heard of the Clapotis. And in my mind I think I thought something like this, "Hmmm... that's a clever little pattern...maybe someday, but probably not..." And I really didn't see how it had become such a craze/addiction for so many people. I mean it's just a scarf, right? And I really have no need for anymore scarves. I already have a ton that I never use anyway. I mean, I live in Houston for crying out loud. We have exactly 2 or 3 days of scarf weather per year and on those days I usually just stay home. And even though people say the pattern is easy, the directions looked pretty frickin' complicated to me, and one of my knitting philosophies is that if it's too complicated then it's not for me. But more on that later. The point is, for several reasons I just did not really ever think that I would catch "the Clap."

But then I saw that Clapotis just lying there, casually, but seductively, almost as if it didn't even really want to be noticed (but it knew that it would be.) And I picked it up and I slipped it around my shoulder and around my neck and just like that... I caught "the Clap." (It's apparently outrageously contagious, inflicting it's victims with even the most casual of contact.) I HAD to have one. Now, admittedly, part of the luxury of that particular Clapotis was probably the yarn, which was Blue Heron Rayon Metallic and about $40 for one hank, thank you very much, but seriously beautiful and probably worth every penny. And I did actually consider buying it just so I could have a Clapotis just like that slutty one in the store, but I managed to take hold of my sensibilities just in time and then I ran out of that store.

I went home and I tried to forget about the Clapotis, just not think about it at all. I mean I was seriously busy, here. I had a ton of stuff to get done and a ton of projects already started and needing to be finished and I could not allow myself to buy any more yarn right now anyway. But before I knew it I was looking up the Clapotis on ravelry, you know, just browsing, just wanting to see what everyone else was doing and thinking about it, no big deal. I should have known it was all over once I looked on ravelry. 9335 Clapotis projects and counting. So I thought, who am I to try to resist. But what really finally convinced me was that I realized I had the perfect yarn in my stash already. (DMC Senso Harlequin) I bought it probably a year ago just because I liked it. I had no idea what I would do with it and I just bought all that the store had left, which wasn't a lot, but then I came across 2 more balls a few months ago on sale and I bought those two, still having no idea what I would be using it for. So total I had 800 yards. Perfect. Kismet. I mean how could I prevent this from happening when it so clearly wanted to happen. And I would technically be doing a good thing by using up some of my stash. Right?

Well, then I had to figure out the pattern, and I'll admit, I was intimidated. I mean there was just lines and lines of abbreviations with parentheses and kbl and pfb and kfb and p2tog and all kinds of stuff that I only knew how to do in theory, having never actually done it before. And then while looking through the ravelry group for the Clapotis where people just get together on line and rave and contemplate and gush over the Clapotis, I found that there are spreadsheets for this pattern. Spreadsheets!

Ok, so I printed out my spreadsheet and I sat down to start the pattern and right at the beginning I'm stumped. Pfb. Purl front and back? WTF? How do you do that? Well, I looked it up and I'm still not sure I'm doing it right, but it's working and that is good enough for me. All in all, I probably had to do the start up rows 4 or 5 times before I stopped messing it up, but now I'm tootin' along and am almost to the part where I can start dropping stitches, which from what I've heard is one of the highlights of the joys of the Clapotis.

So far I'm enjoying the process though I can tell that it will probably become a bit tedious after awhile, but I can't wait for the finished product. The yarn I chose is technically a crochet thread, so it's very light. Almost fingering weight which is perfect because I'm really hoping to be able to wear this scarf despite the mild weather of Houston. And I'm loving the earth tone variagation of the yarn. I don't even mind the occasional pooling which I know annoys some knitters, but I think is rather interesting and pretty, especially if it's something like a scarf that won't be stretched over any bumpy body parts.

More pictures soon!

Finally!

So here are some pictures of what's been keeping me busy these past few weeks...



I made a bunch of these for our Christmas tree since my theme this year was "unbreakable things," and I wasn't sure I would have enough ornaments to make it look fully festive enough. Plus I just think these are the coolest things ever.


I made this paper chain after seeing one for sale at Gardenridge. (It wasn't paper but a sturdier pliable plastic, but I still couldn't believe that anyone would actually pay for it. Plus the store one was only in red and white. Rip off!) I had forgotten completely about these, but I thought they would be perfect for our unbreakable tree. Yes, I used staples instead of glue. It went way faster and these are never sturdy enough to last more than one year, so I say do what you have time to do. Why get precious about it.






As if Christmas decorating wasn't enough to do I also volunteered to help a friend with her baby shower. (CRAZY!) But it was actually a lot of fun and I would have gone way crazier if I hadn't had so much Christmas stuff to do. I got the diaper wreath directions here. The middle picture is of these delightful little things called oreo balls. They are SO crazy delicious and SUPER SIMPLE to make. Just check out the recipe if you don't believe me. The last picture is of the baby booties I knitted for the shower gift. The pattern is Ruth's Perfect Baby Booties and it's also pretty easy and very quick. I was nervous about it the first time I knitted it because it was the first time I had ever done short rows, but it turns out short rows are pretty easy. And everyone loves these little things. AND they really are the only freakin' things that will stay on wiggly baby feet.


YAY! The finished tree!




This is what I did with all our very pretty, very dangerous or breakable ornaments.

SO I had a LOT of fun with the decorating, but I learned my lesson.
1. Never EVER volunteer to help with a baby shower that takes place anywhere near Christmas.
2. If you're going to make a lot of homemade decorations for Christmas, start decorating in late October instead of early December.
There was actually a lot of stuff that I found on line or saw somewhere else that I wanted to try, but I just ran out of time.

All in all, though, I had a lovely Christmas!