So this is my Zoe X-mas Project. For those of you just tuning in Zoe is my baby neice. I find the degeneration of my original idea to what I actually have quite comical. I went from the super cute Trellis sweater to a square with some intarsia (or fair isle, colorwork, whatever). In the end I decided to make the square into a bib by adding some i-cord straps to the ends. It's not bad, but not completely X-mas worthy on it's own. I plan on making something else from the book Knitted Toys by Fiona McTague. I got it from the library along with Beautiful Knitting Patterns by Gisela Kloepper. It's another one of those books that just has stitch patterns and charts. I love it! It's inspiring to page through and drool over the lace and aran patterns. There's more stitch patterns in there but those are my favorite. Oh, if you get the Knitted Toys book you abosutely must NOT knit the clown. If you knit the clown it will come alive at night while you're sleeping and eat you. That's what my brother would tell you, which is why I should knit it for him. ;)

Next up is a knitted toy for Zoe. Hopefully, I can get a good start on that before Socktoberfest. I don't plan on starting right on the Oct.1, but I might gauge swatch or something to celebrate.

My mother is visiting this weekend so we'll be out and about today. We're checking out the Regional Farmer's Market, CNY Great Pumpkinfest, and of course, no Syracuse visit is complete without a stop by the Dinosaur BBQ. I hope she likes mounds of meat!

One Cheek on the Saddle

First knitting news: *sounds of trumpets*

I joined! Have you? Click here to learn more. Thanks to Bryony and Erin for alerting me to the existence of such a fun event! It's perfect timing too since I was planning on gift-knitting Baudelaire socks for my stepmom soon. This will be my Socktoberfest project. I'm looking forward to it. I love knitting socks. I love knitting socks for other people. I'm pretty much convinced that socks are the best knitted gift EVER! My mom raves about them and now my MIL does too. She loved her b-day socks! And she said the fit was perfect so that's a relief. In conclusion: socks are awesome so join Socktoberfest and knit some socks!

NEXT!

Moving is pretty much over. THANK GOD! We did the U-Haul portion of the trip last night and my arms are quite sore. I had to stop and take breaks when we were moving our loveseat. My hands kept slipping on the leather (alright, pleather) and my arms were going limp in protest. Of course, out of the corner of my eye I see a pair of people in the distance looking in our direction. >.<>

Remember those chairs I said I would redo? I finished those and will be pictures posted ASAP. Also, I dumped Trellis. I was just going to take me too long. The cabling slows things down a bit. So I started experimenting with colorwork (how does it go: huzzah?) so I'm making something else for baby Zoe. What it is just yet, I'm not sure. But I'll post pics soon. I also have to make some curtains for our new, rather large windows. Eek, sewing!

Ta!

Taking the Backseat

Moving is so tiring! We just finished packing and moved our first load over yesterday. We were able to spread out the move over the rest of September so it shouldn’t be so crazy. Unfortunately, I won’t have much time for knitting and I won’t even be able to post from home until our internet is setup at our new place sometime next week. I can post at work though so don’t count me out completely. ;) But no pics for YOU!

I’m starting the Trellis baby sweater today (hopefully). I have to do a gauge swatch, a necessary evil. I don’t despise gauge-swatching, but I definitely half-ass it in order to get onto the fun stuff. Some people suggest knitting a 6x6 square with a garter stitch border and then washing or blocking it. Holy crap, that’s just too much for me. I’m sure I would have better luck fitting garments if I did it the “right way”. But I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t purposely try to make things harder on myself. I’m planning on knitting Trellis with some Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in something called “Pale Seafoam”. I would call it a unisex color. If I’m feeling adventurous I might even knit up a matching hat.

Is it me or is 100% cotton hard to knit with? I’ve heard comments like cotton is “unforgiving” and it has no elasticity. If that’s true, then I should be in for quite a treat knitting an uber-cabley sweater. Not the smartest yarn choice in the world, I’m sure. Luckily it’s mini-sized. I need to get my hands on some cotton blends like TLC Cotton Plus. I like the idea of cotton as opposed to 100% wools. Cotton is softer and normally machine washable, and unlike acrylics, allows your skin to breathe instead of forming pools of sweat which isn’t fun for anyone. I am likely to not wear something at all when faced with the possibility of hand-washing something (pathetic, I know). So cotton blends seem like the way to go when it comes to sweaters and other garments.

But I’m on an unofficial yarn diet. If I buy more yarn Mr.V’s head will explode and I don’t want that to happen because I like Mr.V’s head the way it is. So for the sake of Mr.V’s head, I will be stash-busting well into the New Year. So no new yarn for me.

The magic 8ball says there will be some more sewing in my near future. It’s saying something about window treatments…?

Ms Sniffles

Argh, so I've been sick this past weekend and I actually took a rare sick day from work yesterday. I'm not sick very often so when I am I'm always reminded of how much it sucks (damn you, microscopic germs >.<). I've also been reminded that sleep quality is directly related to your ability to breathe through your nose (stupid mucus). On the cute side, Mr.V has dubbed me "Sniffles" and has taken to adding his own fake sniffles to match my own, all in good fun of course. Humor helps. Anway, enough of this pitty-party. I've actually been a bit productive this weekend, considering. First, I finished my MIL's sock. This time it's the right size.

I've started the second one and I'm hoping to be done with it this Friday so I can mail it out. That'll be quite ahead of schedule, but starting next Monday we'll be moving our stuff over to our new place I don't think I'll have a lot of time for knitting or blogging. Especially, deadline knitting. But I knit a good bit of the second sock yesterday so I think I'll have no problem finishing by Friday.

I've also started a non-knitting project. I have a pair of old wooden chairs that my Dad gave me. I've had them for about 2 years now with the intention of re-finishing them and putting them to use. I was afraid these would be destined to live in the basement with the troll, but now I actually have a use for them in our new place. We actually have a private balcony where we're going, and it faces something that we don't mind looking at: trees!



So I plan on making these chairs our balcony chairs. I have the one chair sanded down and ready to stain already. We're hoping to eventually find a little table that we could touch-up and put out on the balcony as well. As far as knitting goes. After the socks are complete I'm going to continue with the gift knits, except these will be christmas gifts. I'm not knitting everyone something for Christmas, because in all honesty I'll go freaking insane. No. thank. you. Instead, I've decided to pick a person who hasn't received a knitted object from me yet and another person (or mini-person) who is just too small to care what she's wearing, thus, choosing what to knit is really easy.

- Knitty's Trellis for my niece Zoe
- Knitty's Baudelaire for my stepmom

I'm starting Trellis next so I can give myself a break from sock knitting. Not that I don't like knitting socks, I'm just the kind of person who likes variety. Other than that I probably won't be blogging much until after we're moved. :)

PS- Have you seen the new Knitty, yet? If you haven't do it NOW! I really like Viveka and the assortment of cute socks!

Knitted Happiness

I contemplated last night while I finishing the Simple Stripes sock how much I love knitting. Specifically, my adoration for such simple and clean touches like twisted rib and the kitchener stitch toe. There is something so neat and tidy about them. Maybe I'm attracted to these neat and tidy things because by nature I am NOT neat and tidy. I am the poster girl for disorder. But I am so proud of myself when I do things like this:


Well, the colors don't make it look real tidy, but you get the idea. I love finishing toes with kitchener's stitch. At first I thought it was sort of tricky, but then I discovered that there is a certain rhythm to it: knit, drop, purl/purl, drop, knit, and so on. The seamless connection is clean and professional.


Ah, twisted rib! Oh, how I love thee! I think most knitters would agree that twisted rib is WAY nicer than plain old 1x1 rib. The knit stitches are nice and snug and don't loose their structure when stretched. Genius! So last night after completing the sock I just sat there admiring the little details. Taking a few minutes to appreciate the act of knitting rather than just the finished object.

And then I tried it on and realized that the size was suited for a pre-teen rather than an adult. So next stop: Frogsville >.<