Saturday, May 08, 2004

Phew!!! I think this is called finishing by the skin of your teeth. I totally ran out of yarn. I had to use every scrap I had to finish binding off the last arm hole. I then seamed the sides with some grey cotton I had lying around. It's totally invisible since it's a side seam. I see a few things I would change... I think I picked up 3 or 4 too many stitches on the arm holes, but I'm pretty pleased overall. I hope Mom likes it! The buttons she picked out look just beautiful. You can't see them at all in the picture, but they're iridescent teal in the center with gold around the edge. I'm just so glad I finished in time to give it to her tomorrow :)



Sorry about the lack of detail, my living room lighting sucks. I'll try to get a nice picture of it on Mom tomorrow.

Friday, May 07, 2004

(impatient tapping) pleeeeease let that last skein of fable arrive today, knitting powers that be.

I blocked the pieces and sewed the shoulder seams on the MDV last night. I'm quite happy with how it's turned out so far. I still can't get over how soft and silky it feels, I loves that fable. If the new ball isn't waiting for me tonight, I'm going to try to finish it (minus the inside pocket) with my leftovers. I love how the cables turned out, I think they add just enough interest to the basic design. I'm also pleased with the way the double seed stitch border interacts with the cables.



You know what else I can't stop touching (shhh seestor) that possum fur yarn!


I bought 2 hanks up in Victoria on a lark, but I started knitting socks with it last night, and I'm just in love with it! I wish I would have bought the whole bag they had, as it was about 40% off, and it seems to be full price everywhere online. I would love a sweater out of this stuff. It's just silky soft and fluffy. Who knew?? I'm using my knitter's handy book of patterns for the sock instructions. I know I said I'd finish the fuzzy feet first but... well, I sorta misplaced 2 of my big dpns. I stole them from the foot project to make the i-cord for the passport bag and that was the last they were heard from. Must organize knitting stuff this weekend, hopefully they'll turn up. ;)

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Assorted Knitting Tid Bits

I finished the last piece of Mom's vest yesterday, but I still haven't received the final ball of yarn from Webs yet. (I'm glad I ordered it!) Decisions Decisions... I probably have enough left overs to do the finishing (minus the inside pocket).... but I'm not positive. Plus, I'd hate to have to weave in extra ends I don't have to. I think I'll hold out for the yarn to show up for a couple more days. It should be here any time now. Maybe tonight I'll pick up stitches and knit the inside pocket, I should have enough in my biggest left over bit to do that. I'll wait to attach the sides until after the sweater's finished though. I'm a little nervous about the side seam showing on the front of the piece, so I want to make sure I weave the ends into the side seam and the seed stitch border. I'm also worried about how this pocket is going to make the finished garment lie, but it's a firm enough gage that I don't *think* it will be a problem. But what do I know, this will be my first clothing pocket ;) I'm glad that I have both my finishing book and my big vogue book now. It should make this finishing job a lot less stressful. I find that I'm a lot more worried about it being *perfect* since it's not for me.

So I left the vest project at home today and brought all the pretty little balls of wool for Karen's bag.

And in other more exciting news, I found a new yarn shop near my house!! Okay, not exactly near my house, but since I live out in the boonies, finding a big store in Silverdale, a mere 20 minutes away is a big deal. I saw it on the Seattle Knitter's Guild yarn shop list, which is odd because I know I've looked at the list before and didn't notice it. Anyway I can't wait until Saturday when I can check it out!

Hmm, my blathering to picture ratio is bad this week. I'll try to take some pictures of the vest tonight.

Monday, May 03, 2004

For some reason I was thinking that Mother's Day was a week later than it actually is, Oops! After realizing my mistake on Friday, I buckled down on mom's vest over the weekend and I'm up to the armhole shaping on the second front piece. With luck I'll be able to start the finishing at coffee on Wednesday. Note to self, no more promising knitted gifts for specific dates, heh. I'll hopefully block the first 2 pieces tonight, so I'll just have the last one to do tomorrow. Then I'll take some more pictures :)

In a moment of Hat Madness, I picked up cotton yarn to make myself a bucket hat, and to make Gordon's evil kitty hat finally. I also won the needles I need for the aforementioned kitty hat on ebay (16" #7 Addi Turbos,w00t.) I keep forgetting to send off for the short cable for my denise set, so when I saw the right needles with a low price on ebay, I threw in a bid. It will be cool to try them out and see if like them as much as others seem too. :) Gordon's hat will be black with red ears/barbs and some kind of esoteric red symbol on the front, should be fun to make.

I also picked up a thrift store silk sweater and started trying to dissassemble it. Ugh, It may be more trouble than it's worth, we'll see. Hopefully I'll at least get enough usable yarn for a festival top ;)