Ok, so I suck at updating these days.

It's only been like a bazillion days since my last update. I really don't have much of an excuse for that. I mean, there was a portion of time where I was purposefully not posting pics of what I was knitting because they were gifts and meant to be a surprise. Those items have since been given away and I'm free to post about them now. So here are some things I have been working on since I last posted:

The Londonberry Pomatomus socks were finished finally. Gee, it only took me 8 or 9 months to get those done...


Then I started working on another pair of socks which I have since finished. The lovely "Intentionally No-Purl Monkeys of Hope" using the Intentions yarn in the "Hope" colorway and the "Monkey" sock pattern substituting knit stitches for all the purl stitches in the pattern. I think these are my favorite socks so far:


Then I started working on some gift knitting for my sister's new baby who was due in mid October. I managed to get all but one thing completed by the time I got to hold him.

I started with this sweater, using the Bobby pattern in size 3-6 months and some Bernat Softee Baby yarn. It was all knit in pieces and seamed together. I hate seams. And I hate weaving in ends. SO next time I will definitely choose a pattern that is knit all in one piece or something.


Then, using the same yarn from the sweater, I decided to make some bootie shoes using the top-down Seamless Baby Booties pattern.


I still had a ton of yarn left, so I decided to make a matching hat using the Baby/Kids' Earflap Hat pattern in size 3-6 months.


And I still have yarn left in that skein...

Next, I decided to try and make some baby socks with some affordable sock yarn I picked up at JoAnn fabrics. They came out completely awesomely cute. I based the construction on the Better Than Booties Baby Socks patterns, but changed the leg and cuff design and did a kitchener toe seam on the first pair.


On the second pair, I changed the leg pattern and did a decrease toe with a kitchener stitch seam.


I still have plenty of yarn left in those 2 skeins. I think I could probably get a total of 3 pair of socks out of each skein.

Between working on these things, I managed to finish spinning up the corriedale roving that I dyed earlier this summer. I ended up with 270 yards of a light sport-ish weight yarn. I decided to call it "Vyanae" because the colors in it reminded me of one of my dark elf characters in Everquest. (I never claimed to not be a nerd...)


Currently on my wheel is the beautiful green, black and silver "Techno Zebra" superwash merino/tencel blend roving that I bought from Copperpot Woolies. Man is that stuff soft! I am trying to spin it thin and get a lot of yardage out of it.


This past week I decided to randomly knit up a headband to keep my ears warm. I used some leftover grey acrylic yarn and improvised a pattern which I lovingly named "Random Half-assed Cabled Headband". This was my first attempt at doing cables, and I inadvertently left out half of the cable so it ended up like more of a licorice twist look. I decided I liked it well enough so I stuck with it instead of ripping it out. The headband tapers to a point at each end of the rectangle, and at those ends I knit and i-cord for ties so that it ties at the back of the neck.


So what is on my needles now?

Well I am still working on my Aeolian shawl. I took a new pic of it to show my progress. I am now at the beginning of the final edging chart.


After finishing the last pair of socks I naturally had to start on another. I am using my Knit Pick's Imagination sock yarn in "Unicorn" and the Spring Forward pattern for my aptly named "Unicorns in Spring" socks.


Then I decided that I wanted to make a scarf out of my handspun yarn. I decided to use the "Purple Maize" yarn that I made along with this Falling Leaves scarf pattern. But after getting about 8 inches into the scarf, I decided that it was way too wide and that I would rather go with a simpler pattern with this yarn. I did end up taking a picture of it, but it has since been ripped out.



I started over with the same yarn and the Diagonal Rib scarf pattern. So it now looks like this instead:


I will be able to get a much longer scarf this way, since this one is less than 6 inches wide.

Earlier this week I went to Michael's craft store and got some yarn that was on sale. Now let me tell you, I've become quite a yarn snob anymore and I dislike 95% of the yarn in that store and JoAnn and any other big box type store. But I found the Bernat Alpaca and after feeling how soft it was I decided to get it. I had been looking for a chunky weight yarn to make a sweater with anyway, and this stuff was on sale for $3 a skein. I went with a dark heathered grey color called "Ebony". SO I came home and looked through patterns on Ravelry for what seems like forever before finally deciding to work on the Heather Hoodie Vest pattern from the Fall 2009 issue of KnitScene magazine. This is my first real project with cables, and it is going pretty well. Since it is chunky weight, it goes by pretty fast. My only worry is that the fuzziness of this yarn will not show the cable definition as well. But it is very soft and cuddly. I will end up making it longer than the pattern suggests, since I normally do that for every pattern due to my height. I am also considering adding long sleeves instead of the short ones in the pattern and maybe trying to make the hood a bit smaller since a lot of people on Ravelry who have made this project have said how huge the hood is. I have finished the first cable chart repeat. Here is what it looks like so far: (gives me a chance to use a bunch of my own handmade stitch markers =)




So I think that is pretty much everything that I have been working on lately. Whew! There has been no progress on the Tie Dye Dishcloth, Spruce Lelah or the Experimental Sweater that I had started a long time ago, so no new pics of those.

I'm off to enjoy this rainy day with some hot tea and lots of knitting! Til next time...

Zufflers!

What is a zuffler you ask? It's a zill muffler! Still don't know what that is? "Zills" is a word for "finger cymbals". Sometimes you may also see the word "zagat" or "sagat" used for them. They are a set of 4 small metal cymbals that you attach to your middle fingers and thumbs with elastic. I think they are one of the most exciting additions to a bellydance performance.

I've been practicing playing different musical patterns with them lately and my ears and my dogs' ears are starting to suffer. Last night I looked up cymbal cozy patterns on ravelry and found the Zuffler pattern and decided to try it. I knew of a few other really cute crochet patterns but this was the first knit pattern that I thought I would try. I used a tiny ball of leftover sock yarn and a set of 5 double points in 2.5mm size. They came out really well. The pattern calls for using thin elastic to secure them to the zills but since I didn't have any available I used a drawstring of matching yarn instead.

I only made 2 of them. I found that I really only need to cover 1 cymbal on each hand to get a nice muted sound. I can still hear it, but it doesn't have the ability to really make the bell sound and vibrate. It's effect is similar to using the "practice pedal" on my piano. So now I can work on my rhythms and cymbal patterns for bellydance and the pets and family don't have to suffer =) I'm getting pretty good at playing them, but playing them while dancing at the same time is a whole other story....

Pomatomus Sock #1 Complete

Good grief! It seems like knitting these socks is taking me forever. I don't know what the deal is. I got my "Monkey" socks done in like 2 weeks. I've been working on Pomatomus sock #1 since I left Ohio for Virginia 2 weeks ago. And I managed to finish 1/2 of one sock in that time. I had already completed up through the heel turn before I left.

Maybe it's just the pattern that is making me go so slow. It's really pretty when finished but its not an easy repeat for me since the repeat chunk is 22 rows. I think the next sock pattern I do should have less rows in the repeat and less stitches wide, something a little more simple. Right now this one seems like it takes ages to get through and I don't think I am enjoying it as much as I could be.

Might also be because the yarn doesn't thrill me right now. Yes, it is pretty yarn and I did pick it out for myself, but it's like the second skein of sock yarn I ever bought. Some of the yarn I have bought since then is really exciting in color and texture, really making me want to work with it. But this one not so much. Maybe its the dark colors that don't have so much contrast in them or something, I don't know.

But I really want to get the second sock completed so that I can start on a new pair of socks with a new pattern and new yarn. I guess I will just have to push through it, because otherwise I will put it down, pick up a different project, and then sock #1 will sit around not being worn. And that really would be a waste. I just wish I was more interested in this project right now. =/

Another random video

Today I decided I wanted to wind the second skein of laceweight yarn for my Aeolian shawl into a ball to take with me when I move. I need to get these kinds of things done so that I can pack away some of my stuff before I move. So I figured while I had the swift and the ball winder out, I might as well make a little video about how they work. Here it is:



It's bumming me out that I have to take my spinning wheel apart and pack it away. But there is not any room for it in the van with all of the family, pets and our stuff so it's going to have to get delivered with the household goods. I will miss it. I hope it travels well and the moving company takes care of it.

Lelah

After writing the last post, I decided to go ahead and rip out the turtleneck and use the yarn on a new project. I cast on for the Lelah top using a smaller gauge than the original pattern. I did some calculations based on the gauge from my purple tube top and my measurements and came up with 170 stitches on size 5 needles (for the top part) and then a slightly bigger gauge with size 7 needles for the bottom part.

The lace pattern is really easy to memorize and looks really pretty. For whatever reason, it seems like it is taking me a really long time to knit this project. I don't know if it's because of all the lace and me going slow with it or if it is simply because I haven't had a lot of time to sit and work on it. I've been trying to get my house cleaned and organized for moving, and every so often I sit down with the knitting to relax.

I've started my 5th lace repeat and the top measures about 4" long right now. I'm going to be at this lace pattern for quite a while considering how tall I am and how long I will want this top to be. But at least it will give me something to work on during the eventual travel and hotel stays etc. that go along with the move (whenever that may be...)

Punkette

I finally got around to finishing the spinning of my 4 ounces of "Punkette" superwash merino roving the other night. I ended up with 236 yards of a light dk-type weight 2-ply. I don't think it is quite thin enough to be considered fingering weight. I measured about 16 wraps per inch with the yard or so of scrap I had left over. Not sure how accurate a representation it is of the whole skein. But that would put it right on the fine/medium border. Here are the pics of the finished yarn:

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In knitting news, I started knitting a spruce green sleveless turtleneck top using the "Perfect Periwinkle Turtleneck Tube Vest" pattern by Stefanie Japel from the Fitted Knits book. I am not enjoying knitting this one as much as I did the purple tube top. I have ripped this one back I think 3 times so far.

The first time, I didn't like the way the ribbing was. I had purls along the armholes and it tended to curve upward. I followed the pattern, but somehow I was supposed to have knits there instead of purls. Now this pattern has errata and I looked that up online to find the corrections. The way mine came out was like the written instructions in the book and not the corrected pattern notes. So I ripped back to where the neck ends and shifted over 3 stitches so that I had knits at the armholes which looked better. In order to correct this problem if I were to decide to start this project over sometime, I would need to start the ribbing with purls like p3, k3, p3, k3 instead of with knits as I had done (k3, p3, k3, p3).

Then I got another maybe 12 or so rows into it and decided that I didn't like the way my increases looked. The left leaning increases (LLI) look great, but my right leaning ones (RLI) do not look the same as the left ones. I am really obsessive and nitpicky when it comes to symmetry and stuff, so this is bugging me. I ripped it out because I thought I must be doing the RLI's wrong. Then I went searching around on Ravelry looking at other people's projects and read that some other people were having issues with the increases and that they didn't look right but when the sweater was worn/stretched they looked ok. So I started knitting it again and got another 10 or so increase rows done and I am still not having a good feeling about how the RLI's look.

So I am still undecided about this pattern. I am considering ripping the whole thing out and using the yarn to make something else. Maybe another tube top like the purple one I made. This is the same yarn in the same amount as I used for that one, just a different color. And I actually enjoyed knitting that pattern. This one has annoyed me enough already that I don't know if it can redeem itself right now. But here is a pic of what it looked like when I finished the 5 inches of the neck ribbing.



The yarn would make a very pretty tube top....

Purple Tube Top Finished

I got the knitting done last night. I ended up doing 8 lace repeats and then 3 inches of ribbing at the bottom and omitted the bottom eyelet row. Today I went to the fabric store and got some ribbon to go with it. My husband photographed me in it, and I think it looks pretty nice.


It's pretty stretchy and needs the ribbon to stabilize it from slipping. I would definitely knit this pattern again but I think on the next one I would do a little waist shaping to make it a little tighter in the middle. Overall I am really happy with the result and the yarn is really nice.