Skully....

Well, I've been experimenting with different ways to do fair isle in the round and not pull the floats too tight. This hat is supposed to have a rounded top

but I pulled the floats too tight and got a peaked hat. Which is okay in the is case but doesn't work for socks....

I started the skully sock on two circs and the first skull near the cuff worked pretty well. There were a couple snug floats at the sides, but nothing too bad.

The second skull, the one in progress is a whole different process. Instead of carrying the white yarn all the way around, I knit the first row of white, dropped it and finished the round back to the skull. Then I slipped the white sts from the right needle to the left, turned the work and purled the white sts back. Picked up the black yarn, made a float across the white and continued around. Again, I have to be careful the black float isn't too tight across the white work, but it's much easier to keep an eye on that one float that lots of them at them where the needles switch.

I like learning new things!

Worked a bit on the Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl but it takes so long just to do one row now, it doesn't show much progress for a daily picture.

We got our tree, put it up and have the lights on it. It's really a pretty shaped tree. Once we get it trimmed a bit and decorated I'll share a pic with you.

There's another contest! This one's at 144 Inches of I -Cord. The prize is sock yarn, so click on over and enter!

Look at all the pretty colors

This is what the stranded knitting I started yesterday turned out to be! Now I just need to make a similar one!

Ray at Knitivity.com answered my question about the strands pulling too tightly when working on DPNs. He said that many people work stranded work inside out rather than right side out. This is accomplished by keeping your work between you and your knitting rather than holding the needles next to you. I'll try that next time.

The weather is cold...and stormy. We had hail last night. So much that it drifted up against the back door. But mostly it's rainy and cold. Finally! Although it's too dark to see right now, I'm betting the surrounding mountains have snow and will probably get more today. We're still 3,000 feet to low to get anything, but....at least winter is finally here!

Pretty Hat

Finished just in time for Eldest Granddaughter's birthday today! I think it looks gorgeous.

Any hints on how to keep the stranding even on DPNs? Everything was fine on circular needles. Once I switched to DPNs the strands got pulled in no matter how hard I tried to knit loosely. I have no issues on flat stranded knitting either. Just on DPNs.

I started this flat piece last night just because it's so much fun to do it!


And I worked on the Work Socks! All that's left is the heel! I thought it would be fun to add something to the toe on these! Again, it's really tight and I may have to frog and do again, but for now I'll leave it.

So for my Christmas To Do List: Work Socks heel, fulled slippers for 5 year old, the hoodie scarf, and then anything I can think of for three of my sons who really don't need any more knitted items.... I think Youngest Son will get a video game.

Fake Isle Hat

Stranded knitting is fun! In another attempt at procrastination from finishing my Christmas knitting I CO the Fake Isle Hat! It's really a lot of fun...simple st st with some interest thrown in.

I'm using the really nice acrylic I impulsively purchased along with an extra skein of the Patons Shetland Chunky I had. It's nice and soft, pleasant to work with and really a joy to watch the pattern evolve. Learning new things is such fun!

We went to see The Golden Compass yesterday. What a fantastic movie. Read the book and thought it was great and they did such a wonderful job with special effects and all to create such a beautiful fantasy world.

I know there has been a lot of controversy in the Christian community about this movie and these books. What angers me about controversies such as this is as a general rule, the shouters and yellers haven't read the books. They are reacting to what someone told them to react to. So, I challenge those that would say these are godless books to read them all and then make up their mind. How scary it is for someone to belittle anything based on the information given them by someone else rather than information gleaned from their own research. If your kids were saying, "So and so said such and such about Mary," you'd remind them that gossip is not a good thing. So for parents to forbid their children to read a book or see a movie because so and so said........ Well, you get my point.

Anyway, the cinematography is superb! Well worth the price of a ticket.

Oh, and I worked on the Work Socks last night! Granted only a few rounds before I fell asleep in my chair, but my heart was in the right place!

Ketchup

Guess what I finally taught myself? Colorwork...Fair Isle or stranded knitting to be exact. And as is generally the case, it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be! I especially love the contrast with the variegated yarn and the black. Stained glass! My inspiration was a couple of purchases yesterday. I added another book to my Elizabeth Zimmerman collection: Knitting Workshop. Although some of her instructions are a bit cryptic, what she does preach is to "just try it" and "it's not that hard to do". So, I tried it. And it's not that hard to do! Now I need to try it using a graph and see what I can accomplish! Then on to Intarsia!

The other purchase was this yummy yarn. It's not the yarn I used in the
learning piece above, but very similar. It's an acrylic and it just caught my eye as I was leaving the store. Impulse purchases are good for the soul!

Here's the progress on the Short Row Rib scarf I was having so much fun with.

That new yarn would look way cool in this pattern!

I've not worked on the Work Socks for awhile now. I think I was just tired of plain old st st in really dark grey. Not exciting enough. Had to have some color. I need to get out my timer and work for 30 minutes on the socks and then 30 minutes on something else.

April 26, 2007

Little Bit Here....

...and a little bit there. I have started the toe on my MicroSpun socks. Had some cream left over from the Ankh dishcloth so I'm striping the toes blue and white praying they'll be enough for both socks. Should be able to get those done today and will have a pic for y'all tomorrow.

I got a few more rows done on the sweater. I screwed up a fix on the hat I was knitting so frogged that and started over last night while watching my TV shows in the wonderful seclusion of my room.

F came over to visit yesterday afternoon. He fixed the vacuum cleaner (yeah!) It just needed the belt replaced. We thought one of the screw heads was stripped but it was just too tight. So now the fluff left behind by my fluffy dog will get picked up!

Speaking of fluffy dogs..... This is from The Knitting Fiend's <--click blog. My daughter wanted to know if it was a sheep dog....

She also has a bunch of information <--click for sock knitters. Kind of a central location for tips and tricks. There are sock calculators for several different kinds of socks. Of course, I think this Basic Sock Chart <--click is a great source of information and so portable!

And look at this sweater from The Rainey Sisters blog. There are more close ups of it there.

I have got to learn how to do color work..... Anyone know of a nice easy pattern for something I can practice on? Oh and a tutorial. Scratch that, I think found one yesterday at TECHknitting <--click but have to wait for the next installment. Oh well, in the mean time I can gather my class materials! Wool yarn (non-superwash) and needles, and some kind of a pattern......