Joy and Smiles Episode 17: Our Spring Break

This week we talk about yarn bombing, and the journey of the sweater, and dressing our men, along with the usual WIP's FO's and whatnot.

Take care guys!

Molly : )

Joy and Smiles Episode 16: Our New Format

This is the first episode with me as a co-host, I learned a lot! We are posting the videos on both of our blogs. This is the episode from February the 22nd.

FO! Cinch Socks

By the time you receive this transmission they should already be in Canada.

 They don't fit me quite right, but they should work for the recipient.

 Yep I made Cinch for a swap.I will probably make Cinch for myself too.

I danced with 2 partners for the Sock Knitters Do-Si-Do KAL, though I didn't finish by the end of February. I sorta lost my need for speed after March hit. I was close : ) I am really happy I got a chance to knit these.

Having never knit a pay sock pattern before, I was really impressed with all of the information that Krysten (check out her blog) included in the pattern. I ended up only printing half of the 24 pages.

I know the side stripes were meant for scraps, but I decided that the main part could also use up some of my impressive scrap pile. I was 2 yards short with the purple for the toe, so I ripped back the first sock toe every row decreases to make them both match.

Never have I ever knit socks flat, and you know what, it was fun.It might be my love for making socks that are in the neither category when it comes to toe-up vs cuff-down. I am contrary like that.

My other modular knitting projects were actually right side only ones. It might have been a little bit of a stretch, for that KAL.

After knitting these it is easy to see a few places where I could fiddle with the fit. I did add a heel flap and gusset, but I could tweak the circumference with the strips either the contrast or the MC. I might make a pair for me with an even number in the strips instead of an odd to make them a smidge smaller.

In terms of lessons learned, no I can't knit a pair of socks for a deadline 10 days away with only normal knitting time, I didn't leave enough time to get these out the door.

That's all for now, take care guys!

Molly : )

The agony and the irony: WIPW

I am using Noro for the first time.

I am charmed by the slow change of colors, and frustrated by the knot I came across that broke the transition.

The wee picture is to show the problem I came across. It is so freaking blurry that any larger would make you dizzy.

I tried to implement the just keep swimming method. Unfortunately  the sudden break was not going to get better the longer I knit.

So there were 2 options I could see to get around this difficulty. Both involved ripping out my work.

I decided to untie the knot and go back to the ball winder. I needed to get a sense for where the color I left off with was in the ball. Sad news, it was in the middle. I am loath to take scissors to a perfectly good ball of yarn.

So I decided to rewind to make the outside the inside. The outside was a blue/charcoal which was less jarring than jewel green.

The more I have knit, the better it looks and blends.

The pattern I am knitting is the indecisive stripes rib, and I am making an infinity cowl by knitting a strip (61 stitches to be exact on 2's), twisting once and sewing it together. Really the yarn is doing all of the work.

It is my carry around knitting for the time being, since Evenstar is not really fit for movement. I have re-done the first repeat. I have also implemented a post-it-note blinder. I need it, because I get so lost in the knitting of the border. I hope I can memorize it at some point, for now I just need to struggle through until that time comes.  Working the first repeat again proved that I was reading my knitting wrong the first time.

That is all for now. I have a FO for Friday yay!

Check out the other bloggers this week here.

Take care guys

Molly : )

WIPW: Socks Onward!

I am addicted to blog linking now. I love how a lot of fun people drop by, and perhaps some of you guys didn't realize it, but I do try to reply to every comment. I am not sure how to ensure you see my replies however. So, after a week of not linking up in time, this week I am making it.

I am still knitting the scrappy cinch socks.

I get to work on them sporadically, so it does not seem to be going as fast as the first sock.

If I was super smart I would be knitting on these while I completed my literature review. I have one and half more rows of the purple, 18 of the white, and 14 ish of purple again before I finish the foot bottom. Then 2 other strips XD.

Just so I could say I did, here is Evenstar, lying in a pile on my dining room table/desk/command center.

Everything is ready to go, for once I finish these socks.       So     many     beads!

I also had a baking win this week. I did not realize a rolling pin was a very important aspect of an even pizza crust. I stand corrected.

Om nom nom. It is the prettiest pizza I have ever made.

In super duper exciting news, I am proud to announce that I am a co-host on the joy and smiles podcast. Joyatee and I recorded Friday at lunch, and the show should be up pretty soon on her blog. So, if you are interested you should totally check us out. I think we both impress each other with our knitting, me with her sweaters (quantity and quality), and her with my crazy complicated pattern choices. We are both PhD students, so hopefully we can carve out this time every week to record.

So this concludes today's WIP Wednesday post, please go and check out the other bloggers this week here.

Take care guys

Molly : )

Knitting like the Wind!

I am knitting like the wind, because I procrastinated on knitting a pair of socks for a swap.  

Waves at partner!

Good news, I am perfectly capable of finishing them on time.

The pattern is Cinch, the yarn is from my ziplock bag of scraps

I have a decent start on the 2nd, now that I know what I am supposed to do. The striping after the heel is a little off. I needed to do a few rows in purple before launching into the stripes so it is half a repeat off. The eye seems to make it blend together though.

I want to mail these out by Friday, which means I better finish knitting them very soon.

That's all for now, take care guys

Molly : )

One down, 55 to go . . .

3 hours for that first repeat. And actually the first repeat is now a lie. I ripped it out when I realized I was way off in the second repeat, and I had done the very edge in knit instead of garter for the first repeat. So much trouble this evenstar shawl.

It is sitting in a heap on my living room floor until March.

In the mean time I am working on a pair of socks. I have been on a scrap kick. I have a lot of small balls of sock yarn.

These are just scraps that I thought could work together in a fair isle pattern. I tried something, but I wasn't entirely digging it, and a better opportunity came up.

I am using some of these small balls to knit Cinch.

Already I have done a couple of mods. I added stripes in the main color, because I don't have enough of either. I also subbed in a flap and gusset heel for the no wrap short row heel.

I will see when I add the front strip if whacking in a heel like that actually worked.

I had to do a bit back because I started the front strip out of line with the others. I think I am back on track. It has been coming together quickly.

No spinning this week, mostly because I am obsessed with getting this pair of socks done.

Department of Stashquisitions:

I got some mail this week, I won a prize for completing Beatnik!

So Megan of Stockinette Zombies sent me a skein of Dyeabolical Strong Arm Skinny in the I Love Rock and Roll colorway.

YAY!

That's all for now, take care guys!

Molly : )

Generic Blog Post

Hi guys! Life has been a bit busy lately. I had a decent amount of time to knit, and once I got back home, there was no good time to write about it. Monday was spent fixing my broken car (now fixed yay happiness!), Tuesday was movie night (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol), and Wednesday was Valentines Day slightly early.

Guess what! I knit 30+ rows of chart 3 on Evenstar. I am working the last patterned row before I have to read the directions to figure out if I am increasing before the border. The border is a good chunk of the shawl, so I am pretty far from the end still. The good news is that I won't be doing 600+ stitch rows anymore, yay!

It looks like I am going to be starting the beads soon. I have a beading hook of sorts worked out. I might just need to get one designed specifically for beading, like the fleegle beader tool. Right now I have a strand of wire with a notch filed into it for a hook. A test run months ago worked, but the true test will be the 3,000 beads for the border. I got the beads months ago, but neglected to photograph them.

My next project is going to be knitting a pair of socks for my swap partner. The 20 Something Group is having a swap, and the last time I swapped I did socks for my secret partner. This time there is no secret, so I can go off of exact measurements. If beading the shawl turns out to be a complete disaster, they might go on the needles sometime this weekend.

Not sure of the pattern, I asked her about what yarn she would prefer. There are options, ahem, from the sock yarn shelf of joy and happiness.

I also had a chance this weekend to catch up with a friend.

 I snagged a picture of a hat I knit for him in 2010.

And other funny pictures of the Mall of America.

 ALPACAAAAA! They weren't selling yarn, only knit sweaters and other random things made of alpaca.

That's all for now, take care guys!

Molly : )

FO Friday: Evenstar's Day in the Sun!

So, for the first time this month, I took out Evenstar (AKA the dark star).

It was a little rocky at first. This is what it is like to knit it. There are 616 stitches on a 24 inch needle.

I can see what it is going to become, even if it is hard to show here.

Here is it from tip to tail.

The cathedral section.

 Petals and such.

The evenstar motif.

The center, which is pretty simple.

I had to reorient myself with the pattern, fixing mistakes in a row below on occasion. Mostly it was just an extra yarn over, or missing yarn overs. As I got used to reading the lace I got back into the swing of things. That was Monday during the class I attend, but don't need to take notes in.

Then there was the rest row, which goes much faster, as in closer to an hour a row. That was Tuesday during whatever free knitting time I could scrounge.

Honestly that is all the drama I can muster here. Long rows, 28 repeats of a chart, and a vague bag of lace on my needles.

The google spreadsheet says row 30 of chart 3 has 616 stitches per row, and is the 149th row knit, and I have knit 43,080 stitches so far, which is 48% of the total work. The quantitative engineer in me is depressed and refreshed by the google spreadsheet. The only good news is that Evenstar is the only project on the needles. I started on October 4th, but it won't take me 4 more months to finish the second half. I did 1% between Monday and Tuesday!

I have been coy. So I should get this over with.

 Beatnik is done.

Mutant Monkey socks are done too.

I am still spinning the Fiber Optic. There is a good deal left, but now that I only have one knitting project  think I can make some more progress on it. I am pondering options for plying. My first half is so much different than the current half. I guess we shall see when the time to choose approaches.

Please check out the other FO Friday bloggers.

I did make a cool fractal :D

My inspiration, the apo challenge ended. It has been replaced by the apo contest. So, there will be more fractals, at least in comparison to the last month. I called this one Intermediate Demonology. Now when people search, they'll find this fractal haha!

That's all for now, take care guys!

Molly : )

Thanks Guys!

First off I would like to thank every who reads my blog. I was really excited to find out that there were over 1000 page views in January.

The winner of the 100 post contest was Beth of Iknead2knit. She opted for the $10 gift certificate to Mr. Yarn. Thanks to everyone to commented, this was fun!

If last week was nuts, let's just say next week is completely crazypants in comparison. It looks like the best plan is to write a FO post for Beatnik, hopefully with photos from the other people in my knitting group who knit it too. I am wearing it today, and well it is pretty sweet. I ran out of time to write a FO post for the 1st.

I am still working on the Monkey socks. I finished the heel turn and gusset decreases. So, just 4 inches to go until the toe. So, pretty good progress so far. I bet the superbowl knitting will be good, so I might have a new pair of socks very soon.

By the magic of slow photo taking, the sock is very nearly finished. So yeah, another FO soon.

Yes that is evenstar. Not entirely sure why I brought a lace project to work on after I finished the socks. There was wine, and wine and evenstar don't mix.

 This is probably the closest to finished I would ever take a photo of a sock.

I guess I should just finish it.

That's all for now, take care guys.

Molly : )