June 2004 Archives

I love knitting tanks! They practically knit themselves on the needles, they're so easy to do. The front was finished last night and tonight I'll do seaming, peach nectar being the non-alcoholic beverage of choice for this party. Here's a detail shot on the finishing pattern. Gotta do some situps before I post any pics!

Le Tour de France starts this Saturday! We don't own a tv (and quite frankly, we don't miss having one), so we get most of our news either from internet news sites or from the papers. This event, however, is probably best on the tube because it's action! I just love seeing the peloton chugging up the hills like some gigantor amorphous creature. Wonder if Becky will be bouncing up to watch any of the stages near Lyon? BF and I are rooting for the T-Mobile Team; for him because German wunderkind Jan Ullrich is on the team; for me because they're wearing pink! Such a superficial reason, but seriously, you can spot them a mile away. (smirk) I could go into a more serious discussion, but I'll summarize: Lance Armstrong could win it, but hey, let's cheer for the underdog this year, yah?

One more thing: happy birthday to MJ #1!!! Okay, back to work.

So here's the back; I've already cast on for the front and am on the 3rd pattern repeat there. The springy yarn was interesting, I hope I kept it loose enough so I won't have to suck in my gut when I finally wear it! I made 6 pattern repeats instead of 5 for more coverage (either that or don't eat chocolate, which I can't see myself doing). It's a nice touch that the lace pattern ended with 2 completed "leaves" at each side, so it doesn't just end into reverse stockinette stitch.

I've got my eye on the Braided Pullover in the same issue of Rebecca that I'll make with Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. It's the same as the orange top on the cover, only with sleeves. My blog title is "Yummy Yarn" so I really want to explore all the possibilities! I went to the LYS a couple miles from my house and played touchy-feely with their goodies.... I fell in lust with Debbie Bliss' Cotton Angora and Cotton Cashmere! BUT I left empty-handed, but I'll be back now that I found a place to s&b.

Many thanks to Anita who kindly answered my questions on circular knitting. She's knitting her Vintage Knits Lace Camisole in the round (see June 22 entry), something I never thought of doing, but will apply to a future project. Anita also suggested starting off with socks and hats; I'm not much for knitting on 00s or 1s (can't stress the climbing fingers too much!) so socks are out of the question, but I just may try a hat.

Yay, I'm in the Knitting Blogs ring! What does this mean? I dunno really, it's fun to go down the list of knitblogs and click and read about someone's Charlotte's Web or Audrey or other things. Big ups to Booga J for starting the ring!

I joined Erica's Candy-Along because it sounded fun: candy colors and a candy exchange. Ooh! I'm looking forward to that! (So's my dentist, who has filled a ridiculous amount of holes in my teeth!) I have 3 balls of Patons Katrina in Sherbert, which is a peachy type of color. I bought them out of curiousity--the balls were squishily soft and the yarn very elastic, stretching about half its length when I measured. This means I may have to knit a size smaller if possible. I'm knitting the Wine-Red Top (the one on the left) from Rebecca 25, something with lace, since I promised myself to try something other than stockinette and garter stitches. Since my yarn isn't winey-red, let's call this the (Peach) Bellini Tank, shall we? Here are the first 2 repeats of the pattern:

I frogged this thing 6 times! You'd think I'd have learned after the first 2 frogs, but I kept making mistake upon mistake upon mistake. I experimented with cast-ons also, only to conclude that the simple twisted loop cast-on is best (according to Montse Stanley's book).

P.S.: Thanks for comments on Laurie Lambkin! The niece took one look at the thing and tried to cram the head into her mouth. A complete success!

P.S.S.: BF liked my Lace Cami; needless to say, he's now curious about my next knitting project!

Pattern: Laurie Lambkin from Nursery Knits by Tessa Watts Russell
Yarn: Bernat Soft Bouclé in #6703 Natural

Here she is! I'd almost forgotten about her when Jenifleur reminded me in one of her comments. Suffice it to say that loopy, splitty yarn is not my definition of yummy, but I really wanted to finish her up before moving on to other projects. I had stashed her body parts in a plastic bag and shoved it in the closet, hoping she would magically sew herself up into a toy. Instead, she fell out of the basket on laundry day, exposing herself to BF, and thus confirming my guilt. *sigh* So all day yesterday (day off) I finished Laurie; here's the whole story.

Thanks to all the comments on the lace camisole, it's great encouragement to have other (seasoned) knitters compliment on my efforts! Annie, thanks for your perspective (hee hee) on the climbing pictures! You had the same reaction as my mom and a few other non-climbing friends!

I finished the 3-cable hat and the circular scrubbies/spiral dishrags. They were both super quick knits and took just 2 days total to finish all. Here they are all nicely packaged for the trip to Nuremberg:

Patterns: 2-Cable Hat and Scrubbies
Yarns: Lion Brand Wool-Ease in #233 Autumn Print; Red Heart Super Saver in #318 Watercolor

I got the scrubbies pattern (this links to a PDF) through Mariko's site. The original Japanese instructions were then kindly translated by Gwen of Knitability (scroll down to her May 8th and 9th entries). I knit the small scrubbie using her directions, then did some calculation to make the bigger scrubbies. I used leftover Red Heart Super Saver in #318 Watercolor which I hope is rrrrrough enough; it's really neat-o how the variegation makes its own stripes. Red Heart acrylic is useful for some things! For the hat, I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease in #223 Autumn Print and modified this pattern to have 3 cables instead of 2.

Okay, what to knit next? I'm in the mood for C A N D Y colors right now...

Lastly, joined Annie's Anna Karenina Read-Along. Care to join? My book comes in at 840 heartstopping pages of 9 pt. Garamond (not small, but your heart does skip a beat), but hey, the Russians know how to do stories.

I finished the lace camisole! I love it! Here are the front, back and detail shots:

And of course, me in it:

Pattern: Lace Camisole from Vintage Knits by Sarah Dallas
Yarn: Patons Grace in #60008 Natural

I decided to do this all in cream. I had pink and green cotton but somehow they weren't the same tone for the cream; they were less pastel-ly and more neon-like. I think I made the right choice. It took a while to do the lace trim, and I noticed this extra eyelet (aagh!) just before I was to block the front, so I frogged back to that row. The narrow ribbon holds the lace trim up, although it still curls quite a bit. I'll have to starch or iron the trim, perhaps that will take care of that problem.

Becky asked whether this came from Sarah Dallas' book or Rowan 35. This came from Sarah Dallas' Vintage Knits, which I absolutely love! I don't have the current Rowan magazine, but judging by the picture, they look the same. The lace trim might be slightly different.

BF hasn't seen this yet, I think I'll wear it tonight when we go out! Probably with a strapless bra; those eyelets shift around when I move!

Here's a quickie post, I'll write a longer one tomorrow! I visited Claudia's blog and saw a picture of her *sexy* Goddess tank that she knit with Lion Brand Microspun in Lime. If you've ever seen it in the store, you know that color screams for attention. So I opened the picture in Photoshop and hyped up the color and ta-da!!! No wonder she's got that naughty smile on her face. I love the combination.

Artsy stuff: BF and I collaborated on an art project for the local climbing gym and we finished it yesterday evening (photo to come). I created the art on the computer, slapped a grid on it and printed it out. I also painted the figures on the left and the white type on the bottom right. BF did everything else. People loved it, they were showering him with compliments. He's the artist in the family!

Another blog: I posted photos of our Memorial Day climbing vacation over here. It's all climbing, but hey, it's like knitting: it's about choosing a project and working on it until you get it. So they're related, yah?

Lace Camisole Last night I finished the back of the cami and started on the front. I made two changes, shortening the back (and will do so with the front) by 2" for my short torso, and I added eyelets so the ribbon will wind around the cami. Because I didn't have the right needle my ribbing is a little tight, but ya know, the only person who will see me in this is BF, so it's not like he's going to say, "You should've used the #2, schnuckie putzie." I really like the yarn, so I'm going to stash up on all the colors.

Laurie Lambkin Seamin' along. Got the ears and tail done. I'll need a glass of wine for the gusset and the body, and another glass for the stuffing and embroidery. Seaming is almost as hard as knitting with the yarn, all those nubs getting in the way, the yarn splitting, and the most annoying thing of all, which is when it breaks. I have 1 1/4 skeins left, and I will probably knit a simple scarf, just to get rid of it.

I gotta get away from garter and stockinette stitch. My next project has got to have some yarn-overs and inc's and dec's and cables and knit-two-togethers. Interestingly enough, I don't have the urge to knit Charlotte's Web; in my mind I've knit 5 or 6 of them through osmosis of other knitblogger's Charlottes. I'll have knit an additional 2 once JenLa finish theirs, they've been sucked in!

We're sending a birthday box over to Nuremberg sometime in the next week, so I'm going to do some quick knitting. Maybe another 3-cable hat for the birthday boy (BF's bro), some spiral dishrags (BF's mom) and something-for-BF's-dad. I know, a beanie in June? Yes, a beanie in June; I can't think of anything else to knit in 3 days. If I was Wendy (go Wendy go) I would've knit him a sweater with some really complicated intarsia pattern using super yummy yarn, with a day to spare.

But I'm not. So I hope he likes his beanie.

We got back from Utah late Tuesday night, so yesterday was your typical lazy day. We unpacked, I worked for a bit, and then we tried to recover from the long drive. We did a lot of climbing, a few great hikes to viewpoints where you could see the entire Nebo mountain range and all the little towns and farms dotting the landscape, and ate like the starved and hungry climbing savages that we were. I pulled the tendon in my left ring finger on our 4th day of climbing, so I wasn't able to climb--or knit--on the last day. Photos from Maple Canyon are now posted in my photolog.

I made progress on the back of the lace camisole, about 6" worth. I knitted on the 10-hour drive North, and then for a few days at camp. It's sadly rumpled from being in the bottom of my backpack, and there are two lines that are visible in the knitting where I stopped on each day. All it needs is a good blocking, though. I should be able to finish the back by tomorrow, as the pulled tendon doesn't hurt as much anymore.

Jenifleur and Laura of JenLa have put together a California Knit Bloggers ring. Very kewl. It's great that they're putting together the Cali community. I've been to 3 yarn shops so far and I'm still looking for a place close by where I can feel comfortable, hang out and do the s&b.