I'm trying this again...

So I'm trying to keep a bloggish, of sorts. Since I'm knitting again. I think it should be my New Year's Resolution to try and keep knitting at school, no matter how crazy things seem to be getting. Anyways, right now I'm working on a lot of projects, and I have a lot coming. In fact, to keep track of my projects, and my TBK list. Here goes:

1. Pat's Socks

2. Kait's Hat and Mittens

3. My Shedir Hat (Which can suck it, as far as I'm concerned) 

4. My Panda Cotton Wrist Warmers

5. Jenn's Scarf

6. My Scarf

7. My Red Suss Mittens

8. Dad's remote control holder

9. Felted Bags for me and mom

10. Gift for Vicki

11. Oh, and ripping out my old sweater and redoing it. And finishing the current sweater. 

So as you can see, I've quite a few projects to keep me entertained. And probably negative time in which to do them. But I promise myself that I will. 

So as for Mr. Shedir Hat. I hate him. Not only did I screw up, but I managed to lose my pattern, so I've no idea which row in the pattern I'm on. Nice, huh? Well I'll just re do the whole thing, I think, correctly and with my brand new spiffy loopy cable needles instead of the flattish ones, per recommendation of Sam, my co worker at Noe Knit. I will update with pictures of Shedir, part I. Before I rip him out. Anyways, I've got to go, but I hope this update is exciting, seeing as how it's been like a year...

Dead Computer, Life and Such

So sorry I have not updated in a very long time. My computer was rather MIA for about 2 weeks. It was a dreadful time, and I was not very happy about it, needless to say. However, I did manage to accomplish many feats of the knitting world.

I finished my Dad's 1st sock. A few mistakes, but overall I think I did well. The only major issue was grafting the toe the wrong way. But let's pretend I didn't do that.
Here is a photo of Sock #1:
Oh. And its too small. Width wise. But no matter, Sock #2 is going to fit perfectly. Here is that one, coming along nicely.





Yayy! Now, I would update on the sweater, but I have done nothing. Its amazing how little time I actually have to do things I like. But, next year I will have much more time. Well I would write more, but like I said, I have no time. Hope this post was fun!

No Time for Yarn

So I am back at school. This means, much less time for knitting. I am about 1/3 of the way done with the 2nd sleeve, and after that just seaming needs to happen! Of course, that will probably take me years, since I already have no time and the semester has just started yesterday. In addition, I have bought out all of Noe Knit's Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra in Elm, dye lot 62 so if I need more, I'm screwed. I might have to resort to going to the yarn shop in Warren, RI and just buying the wrong lot. Which would be awful.

As for the socks, there isn't much to report. They could be socks, or mittens, or a sleeve at this point, since I haven't gotten to heel or anything yet. But I had to restart them about a million times! When I was flying over here the man sitting next to me saw me rip out 2" of the ankle ribbing and seemed more shocked than me. But, everything has turned out alright and we are about 4" into the 6" top. More updates as events occur. I hope this entry hasn't been too boring, with no pictures or anything, but at least I am writing!

-Alicia

Vacation and Name Frames

Well I went on vacation this weekend, to Los Angeles to visit my family down there. It was a great time, especially because I haven't seen them in so long. While I was there, of course I had to visit the yarn shops. I went to Knit Cafe and Suss Designs.

At Knit Cafe I got this lovely yarn:


Which is Jitterbug in the Florentina colorway. I think I will make socks for me. Eventually. The Knit Cafe was definitely not quite what I was expecting. The sales ladies were not very nice and did not ask me if I needed help, once. And then, when I asked the gauge on a yarn they looked at me like I had three heads. I was like you know, stitches per inch. So, they looked at it and said, "Oh, use size 0". I was like, that is not the GAUGE! But, whatever, I still got pretty yarn.

Then at Suss Designs I went a little crazy. The Suss brand yarns are really, really nice. I got two skeins of Suss Love in red. It's not necessarily all that colorful to look at, but it just feels amazing. It's tactel nylon, whatever that it, but its so so so soft. So I think I am going to modify the ridiculously tiny gauge pattern I have for cabled fingerless gloves and make them with this. And then, I got two skeins of Suss Twisted. In the Chocolate and like a pinkish color they call nude but really isn't. I think I will make a bag of some sortish. Suss Designs was a much nicer place, sales lady wise. It was a lady and a guy and they didn't really talk to me, until I started picking up yarns and it was clear I was going to purchase something. But then, once I did it was all talk. The guy was very friendly and overall a slightly enjoyable experience. So my yarn store adventures in Los Angeles went pretty well, I'd say.

Now, I gave some of my friends name frames this holiday season and I wanted to show on here. This one is for a family friend, Vicky. I love this paper, which I got at the Scrapbook Nook, in San Mateo. Anyways, I think she liked it and I really like how it turned out. I wanted to use as much of the paper as possible.

I think it looks pretty decent. The lighting in these photos is not so good, but oh well, I am no photographer. To end, here is a close up of the paper so you can see the detail.

- Alicia

Latte and Charity Knitting

So, I felt obligate to make a post. See, this blog really is making me write. Anyways I haven't done much more in the world of knitting. I am working on Latte, a Jo Sharp sweater done in Silkroad Ultra. Which I love love love. Here is my progress so far.

Not to shabby, I think. Here is another photo, included with all necessary resources...


In addition to this wonderful project I am working on a charity knitting project. My mom gave me all this free, acrylic yarn she got from an estate sale. So I had about 20 skeins of just random yarns, some half skeins some huge ones. So one day I'm just going online looking up patterns and things and I find this charity knitting website with a whole bunch of ways to knit for charity. Most of them are sweaters to teddy bears for kids, and then there's this one called "The Snuggles Project". What it is, is knitting blankets, or "snuggles" for homeless animals in humane societies or shelters. So I decide to try out new stitches and different ideas on these snuggles! It's a great way to fiddle around, and try and help out some kitties and doggies. I made a rather horrendous slip stitch tiny cat blanket and I am working on a medium sized cat blanket.

The yarns are knitted double, obviously, which makes the colors a bit ugly. But, cats don't care...I hope. Anyways I am doing k1, p1 for two rows and then knit a row. I think it looks fun, if not for the horrid color combinations. So here's the latest and greatest.

Sorry for the long post! - Alicia

Urban Kntting and Html

This week has been pretty eventful, craft wise. Yesterday I got Paper Crafts Gourmet magazine, tons on party invite and favor ideas with recipes to boot! I am so exicted to get cooking. Today I went to Urban Knitting - cute store! But of course, not as cute as Noe Knit. I got a pattern, just because I felt bad for staying in there for 45 minutes without buying anything. It's the Baby Bobbi Bear Pattern from Blue Sky Alpaca. Their organic cotton is amazing, and that's what the pattern calls for. It's probably a good thing Urban Knitting didn't have any colors.

Today has been an html adventure. I have trying over and over to get a percentage bar into the blog, and it just isn't working. I'm giving up on it, to work on a belated Christmas name frame for a family friend.

On the final note here are photos of my first sweater, I finished it last week. It's the Basic Instinct from Yarn Girl's Guide to Beyond the Basics, an excellent book!

The sweater!

Details of the cuff and stitch. I had to pick up stitches to make the sleeve longer, so the stockinette is going the wrong direction...whoops!

Happy New Year!

Dear Internet World,

Hi! This is going to be my internet craft blog. Among other things. I'm hoping it will force me to do crafts at school and finish my projects. In addition, it might help me chronicle my life better than my journal which I stopped writing in as soon as I got to school. This will probably be the same, but I'm still trying. Anyways. Happy New Year and see you soon.

-Alicia