6/19/2006

The Black Vortex of Purls

I'm about 5 rows before splitting off the sleeves and working on the body of my sweater. Let me tell you (as I'm sure you already know), it's the purl rows that get to you. In the knit rows at least you have to look for the m1's, but in the purl rows it's just endless. I'm doing the image on the back fair isle, which means.... purling fair isle. Which just really doesn't help me not liking the purl rows to start with. At this point I think I have about 350 sts on the needle, and I still have another 32 to add in. It makes progress very hard to see.

My SP asked in the comments about what fabric I like/use. On Wednesday I'm going to go all photo-styles on y'all and take pictures of fabric and some FO's. My Branching Out scarf is all done, and maybe my Jaywalkers will be done, since I can't work on my sweater on the subway very well.

Does anyone know if Kool-Aid dying stains the pot you use? I want to try it, but I don't want to take my chances with my mom's fancy pasta pot. I also don't have a microwave, so I have to do stovetop. Any help would be great!

6/18/2006

Love is knitting a sweater twice.

So today is Father's Day. And my 19th birthday. The odvious solution to this clash of festivities was for my dad and I to go out for beers together, which was much fun. I really need to do that more often. He has to travel a lot for his work, and with me at uni, we aren't always home at the same time. He came up to York a few times during the year and took me out for dinner, but we have yet to find a good place to go. The off campus choices are Kelseys and Eastside Mario's. Thrilling I know. We went to Paupers Pub on Bloor St and sat on the patio. I wanted to sit on the rooftop patio, but only the ground floor was open.

I have discovered that either my boyfriend knows me very well, or I'm really easy to read, because Trevor got me the perfect gift. 1m of white crinkly fabric, 2m of teal paisley fabric, three balls of yarn, big dangly blue earings and a candle. The perfect crafty-ness. He leaves to work at an overnight camp near Haliburton on Saturday for the whole summer, so now I can make something and think of him. I think a skirt with the paisley and a shirt with the white.

My mom gave me the Stitch 'n Bitch knitter's diary, which is very cool. It has everything. It's perfect for travelling because it has a whole reference section at the back of techniques. Which is good for when you just need to know one thing, but don't want to lug around the entire regular book.

I also recieved some other stuff, but it's not as crafty, so not as interesting. Except for the pastel set my aunt gave me. It has a sketchbook, 8 oil pastels and a 144 page information and technique book. Very cool. I've never really used pastel, so now I can work on that.

In actual knitting news, I've started my World Cup project on Thursday. It's a few days late, but I'm giving myself an extra day and a bit to work on it. My deadline is the 11th of July, instead of the 9th. I'm re-kitting my skullie sweater. Oh don't make that face! I had a few issues with it that really bugged me, even though I loved the thing. I'm using a smaller gauge, which means that I had to do math to figure everything out. I'm almost to the point where I section off the sleeves, so we won't know if my math is right until then. I also wanted a bit more fabric in the back section, and I'm doing m1 increases instead of yo. I'm hoping it goes well.

Happy Fathers Day to everyone, I hope it was crafty. Or you know, not. Whatever floats your boat really.

6/14/2006

Finishing

So I have decided that I must finish some projects before I start the Pomotamus socks. I'm almost done the Jaywalker socks, I only need about an inch more and then the toe on one, and I think I'm going to rip the toe back on the other one and add another centimetre in length. They were a bit short when I tried them on last. Luckily I left a very long tail when I had to find the right spot to start the second one and have the stripes match, so I can just continue with that. I'm also going to finish my Branching Out scarf, which only needs one more repeat and blocking. I may just leave it unblocked though, it looks very nice just the way it is.

6/12/2006

yummy yarn

My Grandparents arrived today, for my cousin's grade 6 graduation. With them came my e-bay yarn! Woot. It is sitting beside me... tempting me. I want to cast on, but I need my needles to finish my second Jaywalker sock. I think I'm going to make some Pomotomopus.

I turned the heel of the Jaywalker on Friday while waiting for Trevor and his friends to get out of a play. I was not in the theatre because I was late. This is an example of how knitting saved my sanity. If I hadn't happened to have thrown it into my bag at the last minute, then I would have gone simply batty waiting for two hours in the lobby all by myself.

I also finished all the knitting parts of the Nautie for Mira. In the end I only knit three tenticles and didn't give it eyes. It looks pretty cool, and has already been given to her. She totally knew what it was, even though everyone else was a little confused. However, I now have a massive bag of stuffing in my room. Apparently Fabricland only sells it in size massive. At first I was shocked, but then I realised that it was 50% off with my membership, so I think I won.

I also knit a chunk in the waiting room of the doctor's office before my appointment this morning. I'm still okay! hahahaha. I don't have to have another check up for a year. I also found out that I completely missed the freshman 15 (to gain 15 pounds and drop 15 % in grades) as I am only just over a pound heavier than last year. Which kicks ass. There was a woman in the waiting room with her husband who was very large. When she came back from being weighed by the nurse she said that she had stepped on the scale twice. The second time she was a full kilogram lighter because she had taken off her sweater. That is one heavy sweater.

6/09/2006

Naughty Nautie

I have finally finished the i-pod case for my brother's friend. Thank God. That thing was starting to be the bane of my existance. I won't even try to photograph it or scan it or anything, it is the most butt ugly thing ever. I had to duplicate stitch wings on the top, but it made it really stiff. But I hope the guy likes it.

I started Nautie from this issue of Knitty for Mira's birthday. I'm doing it in Cotton instead of acrylic, since that's what I have. It's green and yellow Bernat that Meegwun gave me from his Aunt who used to crochet. I've almost finished the shell, only 8 more repeats left! However, I have run out of stuffing, so I'm going to go now and get some more. I must say, it's looking vair cool. I think I'm going to make a bunch of stuffed animals for the craft fair that I'm doing in August. I'm really sick of doing i-pod cases.


My brother just came in from school and said that the kid wants a different symbol on the front because the wings look like a bra when they are upside down. fucker. But he'll pay me 5 bucks more, so I'll do it at some point this weekend. If anyone ever asks me for another case, I'm only letting two colours.