Winging It (Seriously, No Planning)

 I have now completed a whole left front panel. Yay! Do the happy dance!

Check out this awesomeness!

Mine is a bit more angular than the storebought one but I'm not trying to recreate it perfectly or I would go mad

 Now this may not seem like that big of an accomplishment but I had the most anxiety about the decreases around the sleeves so now that it's done I'm not freaking out as much. Also, because the pattern is entirely reversible I can just make the second panel exactly like the first without worrying about trying to flip it to a mirror image. I think picking up the stitches for the sleeves is probably gonna be the worst part but I'm working on not flipping the fragle rock out about it before I even get there so...

Size 3 needles are probably too small for such projects, and I was having some wrist issues so I was trying to avoid marathon knitting but I have spent over 4 hours in various DMVs in the last week (with more time to come on Monday) and it's been prime knitting time. Sidenote: People looked at me really weirdly for pulling out of my normal-sized handbag: a plethora of pens/markers to doodle with, my sweater project plus a sock knitting project, and a rather thick Percy Jackson book but I'm not dead bored like they are so the joke's on them. Maybe part of the problem was that I stripped my sweater off at the DMV and put it out flat on the floor to measure my knitting against. Is that normal behavior? I'm thinking no, but what would I know about that?

Aside from the panels, the sleeves and of course the back, I have to pick up and knit an edging around the front, neckline and hem. I'm thinking for that I'll do an i-cord, because you add the stitches as you go rather than picking then all up at once, but again, I'll figure it out when I get there.


I've worked exactly one cable crossing on those red socks since I last talked about them so there is progress being made. It's just at a glacial pace. For posterity, here's a picture with my hand modeling because it's easier to photograph:

 Sorry about the weird lighting on all of the photographs. One day I'll get myself a nice camera, but for now you get truly craptastic cell phone photos.

Whatever, Whatever, I Do What I Want

So just disregard everything I said about what I'm working on. I'm just gonna shove everything aside to do this next project, which is an attempt to recreate a storebought O'Neill cardigan (what is O'Neill, is that a brand or a company or what?) I got this particular sweater at Plato's Closet and I have fallen in love with it. I only have 2 problems with it. One, it's a light purple that matches almost nothing I own, and two, it stretches after a few hours of wear, especially the sleeves. I don't think my recreation will really solve either of those problems because I'm using light green yarn that probably doesn't match anything I own, and because it's acrylic yarn, so it will probably stretch too. Mostly, I was looking for a sweater project and I really liked this design. 

Pictures:

The original and my just started left front

A close up of the stitches. My gauge is tighter cause I'm using thicker yarn

 More skilled knitters would cringe at the way I'm attempting this endeavor, which is basically the 'knit and hope' method. I'm going to knit all of the pieces in the shapes that I see and hope that I can sew them together effectively. Basically, I'm winging it. Good luck to me! 

I probably will work a little on those red socks though, because they're a more portable project so they might show up in a post soon?

Also, I borrowed the new Percy Jackson book from my library and I just started it. I got a picture text from someone who saw it in the store and thought it was neat that it had my name on it. They were a bit surprised when my response was, "No! Don't ruin it, I haven't read it yet! Spoilers!" 

Mods and Math

So I swatched and swatched trying to get the yarn I have to be the sweater I wanted. Or really, any sweater I saw that didn't look halfway to horrible. But my yarn doesn't want to be any of those. It wants to be something different apparently.

I had a look at the schematic for the Julianna sweater, and it's really simple. So when the swatch of the pattern stitch turned out disgusting:

Seriously, it looks like an army of moths had their way with it

I had the thought that maybe I could do the same shape but switch out the pattern stitch.


Then I had a look through the Big Book of Knitting Stitch patterns that DM got me for Christmas last year. I looked through all of the patterns I'd bookmarked, especially the lace ones, but none of them were right. I wanted something that was moderately easy so that the project could be portable in most situations (as opposed to those projects you can't take anywhere because you get that concentration look on your face that makes you look like you're trying to lay an egg or something).

Then I realized that I could just harvest one of the lace patterns from DM's afghan, tulip lace. I adored it in the afghan, and it's pretty simple.

Today I've done the swatching and measuring, and the math:

Now I can cast on and hopefully get some progress done on this thing

In case you were wondering, DM's afghan is done. I need to finish weaving in ends and then it's taking a tumble in the washer (I'm horrible to my handknits, but that's what acrylic yarn is for anyway) and it'll be ready for the gift box. Pictures will follow, but for now I'm ignoring it because I hate weaving in ends with a burning passion (seriously, they make machines for knitting but not for weaving in ends?).

My stitch count for NaKnitMo is 13,616 so far, and since my daily goal has been 1,000, I'm well over my count. Maybe I should have given myself a more challenging goal cause I'm not having a super hard time with this one. I shouldn't jinx myself though. Maybe next year, unless I do NaNoWriMo instead.

National Knitting Month

Today I have classes and a proposal essay to write in between with whatever free time I can spare, but I'm procrastinating cause I don't wanna. (Can you hear the whiny tone to that?) Actually, my first professor cancelled class after giving us candy and bonus points for showing up today, because it's Halloween and she didn't have a voice to lecture with so I have a little bit of extra time and I thought I'd update the blog. 

I have no new projects to share, but I was excited to announce that I'm gonna participate in National Knitting Month (NaKnitMo). I actually really wanted to participate in National Novel Writer's Month, but I realized I'd be sidetracked by my knitting, and I really do have to get DM's afghan done. (It's just shy of 90%, with only 2 pattern repeats left, and the 8 row moss stitch border). Anyway, I decided to look and see if there was a knitting equivalent for NaNoWriMo, and there was! I joined a Ravelry group for it, and pledged to do 30,000 stitches in the next month, beginning tomorrow. That's about 1,000 stitches a day, which is about 3 rows on the afghan. I've been known to do 9 or ten in a day, so I knew I could manage the number of stitches. I was worried about what I would do when I finished the afghan, because I know that at that rate, I would be done in less than 2 weeks, and probably sooner because I'm an overachiever when I want to be, so I committed to actually start Juliana once it was done (using the yarn frogged from the Owl Sweater).

My overall plan for this challenge is this:

• Knit 30,000 stitches for the month
• Finish DM's afghan, using it to complete a part of the challenge
• Work on Platypus socks at school, making sure to keep track of the number of stitches knit for those as well, because I'm not sure at-home knitting will make the cut.
• Finish up my stitch count with the Juliana sweater, hopefully getting a large percentage of that project done so I might be able to use it while it's still cold.

I've decided to get Benji's teddy bear done next month unless I finish the challenge early. Because it isn't a knitting project, I doubt my ability to actually count the stitches and I actually really hate crocheting toys (sorry to you amigurumi lovers, but I suck hard core at it) so I'm putting it off until I absolutely have to do it.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. And since this post looks really boring without a picture, let me give you this:

That's my arm where mom and I played hangman while waiting in line for early voting. In our defense, we aren't actually crazy, we were just really bored and we only had a pen to entertain ourselves (I had only brought DM's afghan to knit, which I couldn't very well do in front of her). 

Accomplished

I guess it would be appropriate, now that the Ravellenic Games are over, to review what I accomplished. I only produced 3 items:

 Yarn dyed with turmeric for the Hand Dye High Dive event

 Erin's bolero for the Sweater Triathlon and the Holiday Hurdles events

And the Manly Sunset socks for the Sock Put, Holiday Hurdles and Single Skein Sprint. 

So even though I only produced 3 items, I was awarded a total of 6 medals. I think that's not bad for my first time participating in the Ravellenic Games. I'm not super impressed by the amount of items I completed. I think I should have given myself harder goals because I definitely did everything I said I would do. I just didn't do anything more than that. I think part of it was that the WIP Wrestling event requirements weren't conducive to me finishing DM's afghan. It had to be something you hadn't worked on for at least a couple of weeks. I think if that hadn't been a requirement, I would have given myself the goal of completing the afghan instead. And I probably would have done it- I mean, there was that time I completed an afghan in under a month, and this one's already more that a third of the way through. Well, maybe I couldn't have done it, but I think it might have been more productive. On the other hand, I did get some holiday projects done. 

Speaking of which, I have one other FO to show off, as promised. Salt River socks for a friend for Christmas. Actually, these are for the wife of the friend who'll be receiving the Manly Sunset socks. I finished these last night and did the weaving in ends and picture taking this morning:

I adore these socks! The colorway is just so awesome, and I have to say, they did a really good job perfecting the colors in a salt river. I also like that it's stripey, but not too stripey. And they match. This pair, of course, didn't qualify for the Ravellenics, but getting it off the needles means that I only have one active WIP. Everything else on the needles is hibernating until such time as it decides to stop pissing me off, or I have enough time for it, or both. I will now be devoting a good chunk of my time to DM's afghan. I'll probably start another pair of Tardis socks next week so I have something to work on while DM's around, but I plan on getting at least 1 pattern repeat done between now and then.

Gamed

So far, I have completed two tiny projects for the Ravellenic Games:
In the hand-dye high dive, I dyed another skein of Patons Wool with turmeric for Erin's bolero. I was so excited to have this finished before I realized the yarn colors were off. And I had run out of turmeric. And I had no intention of re-dyeing the yarn. So I left it. It's exactly one pale shade of yellow lighter than the first skein.
Here are some photos of the dye process:

I also completed Erin's bolero using both skeins of hand-dyed turmeric yarn. I absolutely love the pattern and the FO. It's super adorable and only took me 8 days (which is a lot longer than it would have taken if I hadn't been working every day. I mostly did it during naptime because by the end of the day I was too exhausted to do anything at all). The place where the two different shades of yarn are joined is just noticeable but I'm not going to worry about it:

I also started another pair of socks for the Ravellenic Games. I'm not sure whether I'll finish them in time, but I figure that if I don't, at least I'll be half a project closer to another finished Christmas present:

Once the Ravellenics are over, this channel will return to its regularly scheduled programming, beginning with at least one more pattern repeat on DM's afghan.

Moved...

Or so I thought.
So Tuesday was moving day. I had everything packed in the car from the previous day's moving fiasco, and I set up an appointment with the cable company for next Monday to set up the Internet, and I also set up an appointment at the Genius Bar to have them look at my iPod. Then I packed up my cat and off we went. (Side note: apparently my insanely huge station wagon cannot fit my bed in it. I had to pack an inflatable mattress instead).
His Highness complained the entire 3 1/2 hour journey. I learned that my car seriously does not enjoy highway driving. Then we took the exit and got off the interstate. The directions were seriously whacked out, but luckily I remembered how to get there on my own because I was moving back to a house that I'd lived in when I was twelve. I drove straight past it once I got on my street though. It just looked so different, so much smaller and sadder. I located the key and went to unlock the door, cat in tow. When I opened the door, a shower of German cockroaches fell onto my arm. Strike one, I thought. Then I walked in. Not only were there roaches on the door, but they were on the floor everywhere and scampering along the walls and windowsills. There must have been hundreds, not exaggerating. There was also a rotting stench like you wouldn't believe, and trash littered the yard. I left the cat there, put out a litter box for him and texted my mom. Not five minutes later, she called to ask how bad it was. I told her, and she sent me off to the nearest store for roach bates. She told me to return home after I'd set those out.
I went to the store for the roach bates and I had to stand in line with a whole basket of them, feeling like the most disgusting person in the world, even though I know I didn't cause the roaches, the tenants did. I have absolutely no idea how they were living like that.
 I returned, laid out the roach bates, grabbed the cat carrier and left. Jasper was so frightened after the drive and something in the house must have scared him as well because he didn't leave the box the entire time we were there. I set him in the seat next to me for the drive back and he slept most of it. I worried from time to time that maybe I'd forgotten him, he was so quiet.
So on the plus side, I didn't get lost. I managed to make it to the house with crappy directions and  I even managed to make it to the nearest dollar store and back without directions. On the downside, I spent 7 hours driving for almost no reason, and I detest driving. And my sister's pissed at me because she doesn't get a room to herself like she expected.
Monday the cable guy is coming, so I have to drive back then, plus I'm trying to find an exterminator who will come out the same day. In the mean time, my friend N recommended me for a job here. If they actually hire me, I might end up staying after all. N called yesterday to say there was a position open and that she'd been recommending me since her first day on the job, so I should apply. I talked to DM and she very crossly said I should apply, while grumbling about having gotten the utilities turned on for the house I should have been moving into. So that's today's adventure. I'm hoping I can get the job, because I definitely need it, but on the other hand, I do have to move sometime soon. This semester I can live anywhere because my classes are online, but next semester I have to take classes at university, which means living close to university.
So, for your viewing pleasure, I have a couple of pictures of a knitting project I started yesterday because my sweater was getting on my nerves:

This last picture was about 5 rows from the point where I discovered that I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish and I had to frog the whole thing. Luckily, I hadn't really spent much time working on it. Besides, I promised N that I would knit her an owl cable hat, and I've frogged that project twice since I made the promise. It's been like 3 months and I had to start over at the halfway point because it was too small. Then I cast on and had the owl cable brim finished before I realized I'd cast on the exact same number of stitches as the first time, so I had to start over again. The cast on stitches are sitting on my needles waiting to be counted and recounted so I can start this project for the third time,  and I'm really hoping I get it right this time. It's another N's (let's call her NB) birthday in a couple of days and I have to come up with a gift for her as well, which means a trip to the yarn store and some furious knitting in the works. I've had to put my socks and my shawl in hibernation for the time being so I can get all of that done.
On my sweater, I discovered that I would have to pick up and knit a neckline edging, and I was trying to come up with a pattern that would work for that but still match the rest of the sweater and the only thing I could come up with was to do another set of owl cables. The downside to that is that it's an 11 stitch repeat so I'd have to pick up a very exact number of stitches, plus the beads for the owl eyes will probably get caught in my hair. But if I did a simple ribbing it wouldn't match the rest of the sweater. I guess that's probably a question for one of my knitterly friends.

Joined

 So remember the  sweater (scroll to the bottom) I was working on a couple of posts ago. I joined all of the pieces together last week and have been knitting away at the yoke and neckline. I had to bind off about 96 stitches for the top neckline and began knitting flat, which was really strange for me because I don't recall ever switching from knitting in the round to knitting flat in the middle of a project. It definitely took some adjusting. I think I joined all the pieces together last Thursday, because I had to go to the specialty store in order to find a set of circs long enough (40") for all of the sleeve and yoke stitches on Thursday. 

 

These pictures were taken just after I joined all of the stitches. A few inches of knitting has been done since. In preparation for my big move I have pretty much abandoned all other knitting at this point. Everything is packed into my car so I can leave tomorrow morning, and I kept only my sweater out. I'm really anticipating finishing this WIP and moving on to other projects, but I will miss working on this when it's finally finished. It's such a big undertaking and it's been so omnipresent (or at least the pieces have been) that it will be so weird to be without it. Plus, it's my very first sweater. It will be exciting to try it on though, and I'm almost certain it will fit perfectly because I measured and remeasured and gauged and everything.  The pattern is based on Nina's Sweater Class at knitpicks.com I'm a math-oriented person, but I can honestly say that some of the number crunching didn't make sense to me, especially the stuff about the yoke, but one of the amazing things about knitting is that you can read and reread a pattern and it just doesn't make sense, but once you start knitting, all of the stitches fall in line and you can see how everything works. Knitting, for me, is almost like magic. You can see what's being done in small motions, but all of a sudden one day everything comes together like all of the pieces just magically joined themselves.
Aside from knitting, I did mention that I'm moving. Due to a complicated set of circumstances, the house my mom rents out has become available, and it happens to be only 45 minutes away from the university's campus, as opposed to the 3 1/2 hours it is to get there from where I live now. Since all of my classes are online, this hasn't been a huge problem, but with the house vacant, someone needs to live there at the very least to prevent squatters. I meant to move today. I had all of my things, everything I would take with me, piled on my desk ready to be put into the car this morning. Then I woke up with a queasy stomach and a horrible throat ache. I tried to get up and start packing up the car, but I only managed to make it to the corner Walgreens and back before nearly collapsing on my bed, my head spinning dizzily. I slept most of the day and woke when my sister came home wondering why I hadn't left yet. I felt better, so I began to pack up the car so I would have only a few things to worry about in the morning, or maybe Wednesday if I wake up feeling worse than today. I managed to fit a few extra things in my car because I had more room than I thought I would, which means I'll have my entire collection of books with me! I was only planning on bringing about 5 of them because I'll still have to come back for my desk eventually, but since they fit, I got to pack them. Only one of the kitties is coming with me though. Jasper has always been mine, and while I technically own one other and there are four total, I really only wanted to bring him. I discussed it with DS and DM and they both agreed that they would want to keep Emmett, and that I wouldn't have to take their cats with me as well. The 3 hours in the car with Jasper will be fun, especially since he hates cars, and mine isn't exactly designed for highway travel.  The car doesn't like to go any faster than 60 mph, so the journey will probably take even longer than I expect. His Highness seems content now, and he even tried to sleep in the cat carrier when I brought it out, but he won't be happy in the morning.
It's technically Spring Break at university right now, so I'm not too concerned about getting my work done while moving, but my first order of business when I arrive is to call the cable company and have internet set up so I can resume work next week. I'll also be looking for work and trying to find the nearest Genius Bar so I can have my iPod checked out. It's completely broken and I'm hoping they'll just replace it, but it isn't under warranty anymore, so there's a huge chance I'll just have to buy a new one. I know they're not meant to last very long, but I keep coming back to them anyway because I know how they work. Though the fact that they're insanely expensive and liable to break is getting on my nerves. That's all for now, but I'll try to keep my loyal readers posted.

Wow, it's been a while

So since I last blogged, I have completed a number of projects, with pictures to follow. I had a whole semester of college and a new semester just began last week. I'm taking a whole load of stupid classes, but they're all gen ed or required for my major. Mostly I chose the stupid ones because I had to take my classes online (long story) and the only ones available are ridiculous. I'm taking Communications, Theatre Survey, American Government and Intro to Tech for Teachers. Though they are all classes that would require very little effort at college, online they require about 8 times more work, albeit busy work. Aside from all of that, I am on my way to a Rise Against/ A Day to Remember concert tomorrow with a friend and I'm really excited for that, though I have to brush up on my ADTR because I only know a few of their songs. I had a pretty uneventful Christmas, and my birthday was around the same time, also uneventfully.

I started watching Dr. Who with a friend and have been getting very involved in it. I've only gotten about midway through the 4th season and I've been avoiding spoilers like the plague. I absolutely adore it though. In addition, my other friend was jealous that I was watching Dr. Who with someone else, so she decided we would watch the spin-off series, Torchwood, together, and we've been doing that off and on. I think the next episode we'll watch is the first episode of season 2. Really, the way it works with these two is that whenever we have time we hang out, so I generally end up watching maybe one or two episodes a week.

In books, I've been listening to the new Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince, on audiobook. I love the character of Jem. I'm also trying to reread Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld because he just put out a new one in that series and I don't remember what happens. I'm rediscovering though that it's a little bit childishly written. I read the new Inheritance book by Christopher Paolini and I hated the ending. I won't spoik it any more than that. I gave up on Atlas Shrugged because it got really boring. I finished the first of three parts, and it seemed like the book could pretty much end there. I listened to the Charlie Fletcher Stoneheart series on audiobook. That was also a little juvenile but with a good plot. I'm eagerly awaiting Crossed by Allie Condie. I requested it at the library over a month ago, but I'm still on the waiting list. I'm also excited for the Hunger Games movie, though the ending of the last book did sort of make me want to die a little.

On to yarn crafting. I created a whole series of berets with leftover yarn for myself. They're all in bright colors. I also made I think 2 scarves for myself. I also recently completed a pair of my very own socks. For Christmas gifts I gave a bright green beanie, a dark green scarf, a black scarf, a red beanie, a blue beanie, a beautiful red cable scarf, a bright orange beanie with purl heart, a multicolored lace eyelet beret, a yellow and black steelers beret and a knitted sock monkey which took forever and made me want to stab its eyes out. Right now I'm working on a gray beanie with cabled owls at the brim for my friend and a light green sweater with cabled owls at the hems for myself. I've never made a sweater so it's kind of an adventure for me. I've made nearly anything else one could think of so finding a new project is rare for me. I've also just gotten a hank of laceweight yarn to make a lace shawl. I'm still working on my harry potter scarf, but I only pick it up every once in a while. I'll post pictures in a few days I think. As soon as I figure out my sister's camera and I get her to let me borrow it.

Edit: I forgot to add a few other projects. I did the Knitty Fish Hat a couple of months ago, in pinks and purples. I also bought some gold crochet thread to do the lace shawl in another color with bigger needles. As promised, here are the pictures of all this:

Afterthought Heel socks from Kathleen Taylor's book, The Big Book of Socks

Self- designed berets. There were the only three I could find today, but there's also a bright blue and bright green and maybe one more.

These two are self-designed scarves. The first is just a double crochet pattern with a Q hook. The second is a design based on a granny square, only it is done in rows, rather than rounds

These two are the Knitty Fish Hat by Thelma Egberts.

These next two are the same shawl done in two different yarn weights and needle sizes. The first is gold crochet thread and size 6 needles and the second is an alpaca blend laceweight yarn that A from the library traded me (I gave her some leftover sock yarn for it). It's done with size 2 circular needles.

This is the multicolored eyelet beret I made for my DS for Christmas.

These are all parts of the sweater I'm working on. A close-up of the owl cables on the torso, the full torso, the full sleeve and a close-up of the owl cables on the sleeve. The last picture is a close-up of the original swatch I made before I started the sweater.

This is my Harry Potter scarf, done in a K2, P2 pattern with size 3 needles and worsted weight yarn, which makes it super thick. The other picture is the Gryffindor patch that will be ironed on to the scarf at the end. I think that's about it for now. All of the other projects I mentioned were given as Christmas gifts, so I don't have any pictures of them. Sorry about the fish background to the pictures- that was about the best lighting in the house, and the most plain background I could find.