Marram v 2.0

I finished another Marram for my co-worker who wears purple and/or gray nearly every day. Here is the finished result. Pictures taken w/my new camera (clearly I still have some learning to do with this thing).



The top really is where the magic happens with this hat.



I still haven't finished Manda's scarf (bad friend!) and I haven't finished or started anything else. I really need to finish it so I can work on that sock that I left behind before the holidays. Poor thing is still tucked away in a bag, heel half finished, just waiting for me to pick it up again. One day, soon.

Oh, and gift cards apparently aren't working on the joann website right now so still no ball winder. *pout* By the time the gift cards at working I can probably just afford to buy one without the gift card. But I really want to use it for this because there's not really much else I want to buy at joann's and the store here is kind of depressing.

Christmas goodies!

I only got one knitting related gift this year, but it sure was a doozy. Kevin made me a yarn swift! I was so surprised by it and the thought that he actually made it for me it nearly unseated the kitchen aid stand mixer as top present this year. I still need a ball winder (which I plan on ordering if the stupid joann's website will ever take my gift card (so I guess that might be 2 knitting related presents)). I did wind up a ball by hand this morning just to give it a whirl and make sure it works ok. It does! It's a little slow at spinning, but that was probably more winding by hand than anything. Kev was really proud to see his little device in action as he had no idea how it was supposed to work.

Yarr, there be pictures behind this cut!

Kev modeling his Marram

Isn't he a handsome devil?





I'll have to get a more detailed shot of the hat because it really is neat looking. There are two spirals. One from the slipped stitches and one from using the two colors.

Marram round 2, complete!

I started Kev's Marram Friday afternoon (we got out early thanks to the snow) and finished it Sunday evening. Pretty much all I did this weekend was knit and bake cookies non-stop. No mistakes this time around. It's the right size. No problems at all! No pictures yet since I haven't been able to get him out in the sunlight to take a quick picture.

But since that one knit up so quick, I decided to start another one last night and it's going by just as quickly. The ribbing and first 2 repeats of the pattern are done. It's fun and easy to do and the finished hat just looks so dang clever and more difficult than it really is. This one will be purple/gray (the first was gray/gray).

The cookiepalooza that I had all weekend long was fun. I did two batch of peanut butter, one sugar, one chocolate chip and one chocolate christmas tree peppermint batch. Oh, and one batch of lemony snickets last night after replenishing my butter supply. I think my urge to bake has been satisfied and all of the cookies were gone before lunch after bringing them into work. I work with a bunch of pigs. :-p

Manda's scarf is the last holiday knit I have left to do. Fortunately I've got a grace period on it and will probably use it as my Christmas knitting when I go home to see the family.

Hope y'all have a fantastic holiday!

The dishes mittens are done, bitch.

I wish I had some buttons to use as eyes, but unfortunately I didn't have 4 teeny tiny matching buttons. Beads have to do. Now I am redoing Kevin's Marram hat. it's coming along nicely and maybe I'll have it finished by tomorrow (a day too late for this super blizzard we just got last night).

Guilt free knitting

I took my last exam yesterday (I got an A in the class. Yay!) so now I can knit, guilt free, without worrying about homework or assignments or test until January 11th. w00t!

Of course there's still that work thing that gets in the way, but I'll just make due with knitting in the evenings and on weekends like 24/7.

Both mittens are finished. I just need to block them now. I should have plenty of time to do that this weekend seein' as how we're about to get dumped on (they're calling for a foot of snow! In Roanoke! WTF?).

And because my weekend plans consist of baking a buttload of cookies, I'm going to share a recipe for my favorite sugar cookies. I've made this recipe since I was in high school and I've missed it since moving out from home. I had Mom fax me the recipe so I plan on baking up a boatload of these badboys this weekend.

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVAR

Thoroughly cream one cup sugar with,
1/2 cup butter,
1/2 cup vegetable oil,
beat and add one egg,
add 2 cups flour,
1/2 teaspoon baking soda,
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar,
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix well, chill overnight (or for several hours). Roll dough in small balls and roll in sugar. Flatten on cookie sheet (if desired). Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.

They are melt in your mouth delicious. And if you top them off with a bit of powered sugar after they come out? YUMMO.

Validation

So this past weekend we had some friends over for a 'beer tasting' party (Kev needed help deciding which beer to enter into the next homebrew competition coming up this weekend). After several (I do mean several) beers our friend Mike just started positively gushing over my knitting. Complimenting my socks, stuffing his fingers into my mittens (that sounds vaguely naughty) and generally just showing off my stuff to everyone. It was nice to hear someone appreciate my knits (now I really do need to get around to making him a hat...after Christmas, first thing!). Kev shrugs and says things are nice, but Mike just went gaga over little details. He was just amazed at how fine the knitting was on my socks, exclaiming 'they're just like store bought!'. Ha! Since I don't have many knitter friends it's not often people compliment the details.

So yeah, it was nice to have a bit of (albeit, drunken) validation.

Progress:

Mitten 2 is 2/3 of the way done. I've been busy with homework and shopping and decorating and stuff so I haven't gotten to sit down and finish it off. Maybe by tomorrow if I get my exams taken care of tonight.  I've just got about 3-4 inches to go and that won't take long.

Manda's Scarf is slowly coming along. I got about 4-5 inches knitted on it this weekend. This will just require a day or two of hardcore nonstop knitting. After the mitten is done, that is what I will do.

Oh and I started a little tiny cthulhu from Creepy Cute Crochet for my friend Joe. Hey, it's what he asked for for Christmas! Still deciding on if I'm going to deal with the polymer clay eyes, or just stitch little black eyes on? IDK. This is my first amigurumi. It's nice to finally get to stuff something after buying a big bag of polyfill like 2 years ago.:)

One mitten down.

I finished mitten one. Did I mention these things go like, super fast? I started it last night after work, and finished it today after work. I could probably knit two on a weekend day if I didn't have much else going on.

Here are pictures of mitten one. As a side note, I really miss day time. Taking pictures without natural lighting blows.



And just to show you how big of a failure the original mitten is, I put them side by side.



The only thing I'm not completely happy about is the bumpy top. I don't think I like it pointy. I'd rather have a round mitten, but whatever. Blocking should smooth it out a bit.

Brilliant!

Using the thicker yarn and going up a size or two really helped things out. The first mitten is working up super quick (I'm already 2/3 of the way through it and that's since getting home from work) and it fits perfectly! For future reference I'll just have to remember to go big when making the Give a Hoot Mittens.

So I really do give a Hoot...

I finished the left mitten last night. Well, mostly finished. Still need to do the thumb but that's on hold right now because the actual mitten is just...small. My hand fits into it, but my fingers have to curl a little and it's tight across my palm. It also just feels kind of flimsy and not very warm. Judging by the comments from others who have made these mittens it's not just me. The pattern just makes really small mittens. I know my Mom's hands are probably smaller than mine, but I'm not sure if they're so small that these mittens will work for her. I thought about blocking it out but again, I'm not sure how much that will help. So for now I'm going to push the pause button on that mitten and cast on again using slightly thicker yarn (yarn form baby hats v 1.0 and 2.0) and larger needles (size 9 since that's the only other larger size dpns that I currently own and am too poor to buy more until tomorrow and gosh darn it, I'm impatient). I'm not confident enough in my knitting math to try adapting the pattern by adding in stitches so I'm hoping this technique works and I get a larger mitten out of it. I'll also probably add in a few extra rows here and there just to make sure I get them long enough.

If that works then I'll either frog the first mitten or perhaps make it a gift for my niece Kaitlyn. (Do 13 year old girls have small hands? They probably do...right?)

I just don't Give a Hoot!

So I decided to make a pair of Give a Hoot mittens for my Mom as a Christmas present. I'm using the Aliki beach Cascade 220 that I posted about way back when and so far, it's been working up really quickly. I'm concerned about the thumb. The instructions wind up leaving me with a super huge gap after separating out the thumb stitches, but I'm going with it and I'll see if I like how it turns out. They work up quickly enough that if I decide I don't like it I could frog it and redo it w/an after thought thumb or something. (I think. Not sure how much that involves changing the pattern.) The owl is super simple and cute. I may just start putting owls on everything I knit, now that I know how easy they are. Owl hats! Owl socks! Owl scarves! The possibilities are endless. (Speaking of owl socks, how cute are these?! They may have to be my first project of the new year...)

Kev's hat is still hanging out in the frog pond. Manda's scarf is coming along slowly but surely. And I'm forcing myself to ignore my socks until the Give a Hoots are finished.

Sorry, no pictures now, but maybe when I finish my first mitten.

An update finally.

So some sad news on the LYS front. Apparently there was smoke damage at the local LYS last week due to a boiler malfunction. This means this shop is closed right now, until repairs can be made. This is a total bummer for them, right in the middle of the holiday season and I can't imagine what that might have done to the yarn in the store. Is it salvageable? Washable? Who knows. Perhaps it could be sold at a discount for people willing to try to get the smoke out themselves. Or maybe they can fix it. I'll be interested to see what they do.

This also means I wasn't able to get my yarn wound up this weekend. That's probably for the best, since having pretty yarn cakes sitting about just tempt me into knitting them when I've already got enough projects going on and presents and requests to make.

So I took pictures of the yarn as is, just to have something to give to you guys. Also a few progress shots since I don't have anything finished right now.




(Manda called this the lemonade yarn. I agree with her.)


Manda so kindly got me this book as a present.


It has luxurious looking knits in it, like this one.


Her boyfriend called it a sexy knitting book (there's a chick modeling a scarf in her undies, he's not far off). The pictures are quiet lovely and the knits look really high end. Definite possibilities for future gifts when my skill sets improve some more.

Speaking of Manda.

I'm currently working on her Christmas present. Since she knows what she's getting and helped pick out the yarn, I'll go ahead and post the picture.


The pattern is fun to knit. I had a false start at first w/holy increases, but once I figured out the trick to invisible increases things started moving along quite well. This should go relatively quickly as far as scarves go, but I do have to keep picking up my socks to work on as the seed stitch gets a bit repetitive.

Speaking of socks...


This photo shows the detail a little better.



I'm currently working the heel of the first sock. When I can actually sit and knit these for awhile they work up pretty quickly and the pattern is easy to memorize. Unfortunately I didn't get as much knitting time as I would have liked this weekend so I don't have much progress to update on.

The holidays are starting to weigh down on me. Exams are coming up. Still loads of homework to do. Not to mention shopping and decorating and family stuff. I probably won't get to knit as many presents as I wanted (which isn't many at all). Kev's hat will probably be late. And the mittens I wanted to do...well see about those. May have to put the socks on hold and start actual present knitting instead. Or maybe just give the socks to somebody. (This isn't the time of year for selfish knitting.)

I need to manage my yarn projects better.

Fail!

I was two rows away from binding off Kevin's Marram. I decided to try it on. It was way too short. It came to the very top of my ears.

ARRRRRGGGGGG!!!

I ripped it up in frustration and it's going to sit in the naughty pile for awhile. Every time I knit a hat I feel like a complete failure. I am just incapable of knitting a hat in a correct size.

*headdesk*

Thanksgiving wrap up...

Just a quick post to keep Manda off my back about not posting (it's pub quiz night, no way I'll get around to taking pictures tonight!).

Thanksgiving was a wonderful holiday. Drove the grueling 12 hours to Norwell, MA to spend the holiday with Kevin's family. Even drug my Mom along for the trip. Things went quiet well. No major communication issues, even though Kevin's Grammie got on to his Mom for Not Telling Her Claudia Had An Accent! (Hello? Southwest Virginia?) Ate lots of turkey and pie. Did plenty of shopping.

I made it out to Windsor Button for the first time. (I had to resist the urge to visit Newbury Yarn when I spotted it next to Lush. I don't think the boys would've tolerated it.)  I let Manda pick out some yarn for her Christmas present that I'm knitting and I got myself two little hanks of Lorna's Laces in Clara's Garden and a hank of Malabrigo in a colorway similar to this. I meant to have them wound up into little cakes but forgot so they're currently in their weird little hank forms right now whimpering in the corner begging to be knit. I may take them over to the LYS (with those hanks from knit picks) to have them wound up this weekend. But that means I'll have to buy even more yarn because I'd just feel guilty having them wind yarn that I bought  from some other store! Such is life.

Not much progress has been made on my sock. I actually started knitting a hat on my vacation. I'm working on Marram for Kevin since I haven't knit him anything in ages. It's dark gray and gray and I like the pattern, even if I've f'd it up a bit where the rounds begin. And f'd it up even more on the decreases. But it still looks nice and he'll never know the difference. As long as it covers his ears (which is questionable at this point since we know how I suck at hat sizing) he'll be happy.

So yeah, pictures this weekend. I should have a finished hat and maybe some more yummy yarn!

Thrum Maddness!

This will be the last blog update for the week from me. Tomorrow we're hittin' the road and heading to Massachusetts for the Thanksgiving holiday. I should get plenty of sock knitting done during the 12 hour drive north (at least until I can no longer see once the sun goes down). I just wanted to post pictures of what I accomplished this weekend during my 'boyfriend free knittingpalooza'. I finished the thrummed mittens for Kevin's Mom. These mittens worked up super fast, it just took me awhile because I alternated knitting mitten/sock to afford the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.

Pardon the photos. I don't think they turned out very well at all thanks to the battery on my camera being almost dead.







They are super warm and cozy and should be excellent for keeping hands warm during the cold New England Winter. I wish I had a reason to wear them here in VA, but it just doesn't get that cold. :(

So until next week guys. Have a happy and safe holiday and I hope everyone gets to eat lots of yummy turkey!

I think it's official...

I've come to the realization that I am a sock knitter. You know, what of those crazy broads who has dozens of handknit socks and almost every WIP is a sock of some sort. I didn't think I would like socks that much while working on my first practice sock. I found it kind of tedious and annoying, but I really wanted a pretty pair of socks for myself. So I knit it and learned the basics and started on a real pair. I had fun knitting that pair. The pattern was easy yet interesting. But still, I thought 'oh, these are  just socks. I can't wait to knit a shawl!' I thought for sure my next project would be some sort of lace shawl or stole or scarf.

Nope. Once I pulled both socks on my feet and let the pride wash over me and basked in the glow of compliments I was hooked. I had hand knit socks and I wanted more.

I really wanted to start a new pair last night, but the only sock yarn I had on hand was some boring knit picks pallet and some fair isle striping yarn which would only work in stockinette. I didn't want to do just straight stockinette so I just worked on Thrummed Mitten #2 for a bit while watching Dexter.

Today I went to the LYS and picked up two skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca fine weight yarn. One in a lovely charcoal color and the other the color of...fall? It isn't really one color. It's many colors. Inside it looks kind of like a boring brown but once you get it out into some sunlight the magic happens. It's made out of yellow and purple and green and orange and red yarn. Absolutely gorgeous. And it shimmers.

See for yourselves...










(the blue is knitpicks gloss yarn in Winter Night. It arrived yesterday w/my sock blockers and I meant to take it to the LYS to have it wound up but totally forgot.)

As soon as I got home I snapped a few pictures while the sun was bright just to catch all the pretty colors. Then I sat down and cast on for a pair of Synesthesia socks using the fall yarn. The pattern is like the Spring Forward in that it's pretty simple, w/an easy to remember lace chart. It should make for good travel knitting this weekend while we're on the road to Boston for Thanksgiving. Hopefully by this time next week I'll at least have one more sock under my belt.

The gray yarn I think will become a pair of nice cable socks. Just need to find a pattern I like. The blue? Not sure yet. Maybe some Monkeys or Nutkins.

And that is my story. I am now officially a sock knitter. I think this means eventually I'm going to have to learn the two at a time method. Ugh.

I have....SOCKS! TWO of 'em!

Finished the toe on sock two, not 10 minutes ago! I kitchenered and pulled those bad boys on as fast as I could. They actually fit better than I thought before. Definitely well enough for me to keep them (sorry Manda). I'm pretty pleased with them and man, they are comfy.

Lots of pictures, just so I can compare and contrast between the two of them.



Sock One.



Sock Two.



Sock One Heel Gusset.



Sock Two Heel Gusset. I got noticeably better at picking up the stitches for the gusset on sock two.



Sock One Kitchener Toe. Had a weird ridge of purl bumps halfway through (after the tutorial video ended).



Sock Two Kitchener Toe. No weird purl bumps. Did it spot on this time.



Aw, don't they look so happy?



The only thing I would change if I do them again is to make them taller. They are a we bit on the short side. I have quite a bit of the yarn left over. Maybe enough for a pair of ankle socks?

FO pictures

As I think about it I will try to go back and take better photos of previous finished objects. I don't really have many good pictures of my knitted items so now that I have my little lighting/white backdrop set up I should go back and take better photos. Here are two cowls I finished months ago.

The first one is the Dark Side Cowl. I knit it with some Berroco Ultra Alpaca. Finished it way back in February.





And the second one is Wonky. Also knit in Berroco Ultra Alpaca. I finished this one more recently but I didn't put it on my ravelry project page so I don't remember the details.

This photo shows the texture best.


This photo shows the color better, even if it's all flashed out.


 I think both patterns would benefit from using a heavier weight yarn. I just went through this alpaca thing and had lots of yarn to use up. I still have one ball of the purple left that I haven't quiet figured out what to do with. 

Sock delimma...

So the first sock I finished is a little tight on my foot. I probably started my toe decreases a bit too early. I was knitting my second sock last night and I measured it against my first sock to and they were the same size (where the lace ended before the toe decreases started) and then I tried it on and it was still at least a half inch before needing toe decreases. Hmm...so I kept knitting on it but I'm worried about it being bigger than the first sock. Sure, it'll fit better, but then I'll have two different sized socks!

I'm wondering, will my socks get bigger once they are blocked? That could help with the fit. But if it doesn't then I'll either have to a) rip them out and reknit to the correct size or b) pass them along to someone with slightly smaller feet than me. I could just knit the second sock to the right size and then redo the first but I'm afraid of ripping it out and messing it up.

Ah, decisions decisions! Someone with smaller (size 8ish?) feet might just get  a nice present.

Crocheting? But this blog is called knitterwockey!

I finished two small presents this weekend in between sock knitting binges. My Mom asked for crocheted wash cloths like the ones that I gave to my sister last year  for Christmas (which she never used!) so I finally broke down this weekend and pulled out my hook and watched a few videos (I completely forgot everything I knew about crocheting) and made a dishcloth and bath puff.

I actually did the wash cloth before looking up stitches so I did pretty much everything wrong but it still looks nice so I'm gonna just pretend that I did it the right way.



I forgot how fast crocheting is. I did this during the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the Colts/Pats game last night. I can't remember the last time I sat down and finished a project in one session. I felt very productive.



I also got her some handmade soap from the local farmer's market to go with these. I think she'll like them quite a bit and finally, someone will use the gifts that I give them.

Happy Birthday Mom!

The second sock.

So the second sock seems to be moving along much faster than the first. I cast on my first sock around...10/13? 10/12? And was apparently working on the heel on 10/20. That's a week before getting to the heel. I cast on for the second sock on Saturday (11/7) and I started my heel flap last night  (11/11). That's only 5 days. I'll probably even finish the flap tonight and start working on the gusset decreases.

... or not. I just realized I have a test I need to take for my geography class by tomorrow. Aw crap.

Um so yeah, the sock knitting has been going swimmingly. Maybe I'll get back to it tomorrow after I fail miserably at that test.


***ETA*** Ok so maybe I did get some sock knitting done tonight. Finished the heel flap, turned it and picked up the gusset stitches. This bad boy is just flyin' on by.

Productivity

I finally got to have a boring weekend in which I had no social obligations and no need to entertain my dear boyfriend. Therefore I got to do what I really wanted to do for the past several weekends when I had 'other' things to do. I got to knit like a fiend. I worked on two baby hats (finishing the one seen here, Baby Odessa), finished my mitten from the previous entry and started on my second sock finally.

This hat was intended for a 2 1/2 year old but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's just way too small and will wind up being for her little sister once she grows into it. The other baby hat I'm working on was confirmed to be the right size by the father (I'm a TERRIBLE judge at babyhead circumference) but I do not like how the decreases are going on it at all. I've kept working on it and then putting it down after a few rows. It's not looking the way it should and I think I may be interpreting the directions wrong. It says to K3, K2TOG, Con't to end of needle. Next needle K3, K2TOG, Con't on to next needle and so on and so forth. I read that as one decrease per needle but perhaps I should be doing k3 k2tog, k3, k2tog and so on? If anyone has any input, it's the Fresh Picked Baby Hat. I think I'm at the point of ripping it back to the beginning of the decreases and starting over. I just don't like the way it looks at all.

I am super happy with the way the mitten turned out. The thrumming thing is kind of a PITA, but it makes for an awful cozy mitten. They weren't lying when they said those bad boys are warm either! I had it on for less than 5 minutes last night and my hand was almost sweating. They should be quite serviceable for those wacky New England blizzards.

Photography

Slowly I am trying to work on this photography thing. Today I picked up some white posted boards to use as a back drop for my knitted items. I also got a lamp w/a nice natural light and dug out my tripod for my camera. It's not 100% better, but I'm getting there. I'd love to figure out how to make my background completely white like Eskimimi's projects. Unfortunately I don't have photoshop and I barely know how to work Paint.net. Here's my first effort.

(edited)



(unedited)


There's only so much I can do the my point a shoot. Maybe one day I'll have a real camera to take pretty pictures with.

Brief Update...

Just a quick update so you won't be worried that some enterprising young zombie hunter has done me in.

Baby Hat # 2 (or 3? Who knows at this point) is at the halfway point (I think...). Should be able to wrap that one up by the end of the week. It will be similar to the baby hat I posted down below. Same yarn, but I'm doing a small version of Odessa since it is such a fun pattern to knit and the little girl that is getting it is rather stylish.

I also started on my thrummed mittens this week. (Right on time! Just like I planned! OMG!) The first mitt is moving along quite swimmingly! Worsted weight yarn and larger needles help it work up quickly. It's so Fluffy! and Squishy! It makes me wish I lived in some butt ass cold climate so I would have a reason to wear them. But alas it doesn't get so cold in Virginia. I'll have to knit some plain ol' mittens for myself. No smoosh for me!

I've recently been eyeing drop spindle kits on Etsy. I'd love to learn how to spin yarn, just to further my obsession a bit. But I'm making myself hold off for now as my knitting time is pretty limited between, work, homework, class and my boyfriend insisting on hanging out with friends every weekend. Maybe I'll buy one for myself closer to Christmas as a present to myself for getting all of my knitting presents done (or mostly done...or at least halfway done.)

And holy crap, I got nominated for some sort of blogger award. I will post on that soon, but gosh, way to make a total n00b feel good about herself!:)

Zombies knit too!

Happy Halloween!

Manda's Evangelines

Since Manda kindly sent me pictures of her modeling the Evangelines that I knit for her, I figured the least I could do is blog about the pictures.

Clearly they were just made for her. I'm kind of jealous, they're much more...luxurious than the pair I have for myself, even if they are knit from the same yarn (just different colors). Hopefully these will keep her satisfied while I figure out which one of her many demands will be next on the needles.

Socks and disappointing revelations...

Spring Forward sock one is finished! After an eternity of knitting (aka, two weeks) I finally grafted my toe closed on my lunch break today. And as Tim Gunn would say "I'm concerned".  It is a little tight on my foot. It fits, but it's tight. I may or may not be able to block that out. I need a set of sock blockers first. Or at this point, just A sock blocker. Another thing that concerns me is they make my feet look fat and stubby. I have long narrow feet. How can they look so fat in these socks? Has anyone ever uttered the words "Do these socks make my feet look fat?" because I was totally thinking that when I was looking over the pictures.

Anyway, on to the pictures. You can judge for yourselves.




(You can kind of see the minor laddering I got between the two needles that I used to work the sole. Right in the middle of my foot.)

This is not a very good picture but I wanted to show off my holeless toe.





See?! My foot totally looks like chubby in this photo.

I love the pattern. I love the yarn. I'm just not sure if I love this sock on my foot. There's a distinct possibility that my Mom may get some socks as a Christmas gift this year...

Oh, and I finished one baby hat. This is the smallest of the hats that I need to make. I'm thinking the other hat I'm working on is gonna have to be ripped out. It just seems way too big for a 6 month old. Then again, I kept thinking this one was going to turn out too large and it seems appropriately baby sized.