knitting meme

I just don't have anything better to do right now. Consider yourselves tagged on this one if you are reading this. :)

Bold for stuff I've done/am doing
Italics for stuff I plan to do someday
Normal for stuff I'm not planning on doing

Afghan/Blanket (baby)
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac Knitting
Purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

new knit books

I got two new knitting books in the mail yesterday. Amazon was quite quick with getting them here, having just ordered them on Tuesday. I was updating my wishlist and saw that Stitch N Bitch Nation was on sale for $3.95! Isn't that amazing. I don't know if it still is, but go check it out if you don't have it. I couldn't quite get over having to pay more for shipping than the actual book, so I threw in Charmed Knits as well. It too was on sale, but for about $10.oo. Anyway, very exciting. I am ready to be through with my wips and start something new. On that note, I decided against frogging the sock and finished it last night. Now comes the SSS. :) The sweater is now ready to be put together. All the pieces are done except for one sleeve. Seaming, ties and bottom ruffle will be all that is left to do. Yay.

chocolate-my drug of choice

First, Vinokourev out for blood doping along with his team, Astana. Now, Teams Cofidis and RaboBank. RaboBank, the team of Rasmussen, the Tour leader. The team sacked him for missing off season drug tests and then lying about where he was.

This is making for a strange tour. Contador will be the tour leader tomorrow due to Rasmussen being removed from the Tour. Evans and Levi right behind him.

The article I read by Phil Ligget mentioned the fact that there has never been any suspicion of doping amongst the three which will hopefully help to save the face of the Tour de France.

No knitting today. I spent the day, after watching the tour this morning, with a friend. We went to a Pilates class, had lunch, then scrapbooked until about 5pm.

Last night, however, I put my sock away (until I figure out what I want to do with it), and worked on my wrap around sweater. I finished the right front and have begun on the sleeves. It may actually get done before the end of the summer. A bite of the yummy peach vodka truffle I got yesterday should help.

Chocolate is an allowed substance

to frog or not to frog

That is the question.

The ulimate knitter's dilemma. I am so close to finishing the sock and yet, I am thinking of frogging it all. Why? Because of that ugly splotch on the top of the foot.

When I first saw that pattern in the yarn coming out I figured, "Hey, it's on the foot no one will see it anyway," and I continued to knit. Now that I am on the toe and have tried it on, I hate it. It would look so much better if the same pattern followed throughout.

So why the change? Because the number of stitches along the foot after the gusset decreases is different than the leg and caused the yarn colors to line up a little differently. Urg.

What should I do? Frog, I think. I don't think I can live with that splotch on the top of my foot. I will have to frog and decrease one less time on the gusset and hope that that helps to set the pattern right. It will, of course, make the foot a little wider. Urg.

These socks are turning out to be quite the pain in the arse.

short break in my knitting

Well, since Saturday morning, at around 130am, all I have been doing is reading. Reading, crying, laughing, cheering, more crying. I finished the book last night while friends and my husband drank and played poker. I joined them after finishing and making sure my face was washed so I wouldn't give anything away to them. Now I will wait until my husband is finished to reread it again. It was wonderful.

I did take a break from reading yesterday to watch the time trial. Wow! Vinokourev was amazing. Who knew he could come back like that to win the stage? Then came today. The Pyrenese (sp?). I was so sure he would be able to stay with the rest of the gc contenders. Poor Vino, once again. He came in almost half an hour after Contador. Yay for Contador, though. And Levi! He didn't do too bad today either, coming in fourth. I am still cheering him on, even though the husband thinks he has no chance. He picks either Rasmussen or Evans to win.

I picked up the Jaywalkers while watching today's stage. The first of the pair is coming along fine. I am on the foot, a little less than half way. I would have been further along but there was some mishaps on Friday. There was something not right with the pattern on one side of the foot during the gusset decreases that I had to tink all the way back a few rows to the pick ups to fix. Yes, tink not frog. I hate frogging on socks. those little stitches can get away from me very quickly and I would have probably messed it up even more.

More Jaywalker knitting tomorrow during another stage in the mountains.

poor, poor knitter

Urg. My LYS is teasing me with their wonderful knitting classes. I just got an email from HCW about a class on entrelac. Entrelac! I have been wanting to learn how to do entrelac and this class would be perfect. Unfortunately, there is no money at the moment for doing that. I don't have $65 plus the cost for yarn. We are just about to put a lot of money towards remodeling our kitchen and it is the end of the month. The paycheck is about gone. I haven't taken a class in quite awhile. Not since the lace class. Oh well, I know this class will probably get offered again at another time. I will just have to wait.

harry potter book 7!!!!!

I am feeling the need to hide from everyone and everything that will likely leak spoilers about the Harry Potter book. There are only a couple more days before the book is in my hands. I don't want to know anything about it. I had to turn off the national news today when they started talking about the book being available on the internet. I was scared they would mention some spoilers/rumers that are going around. Ack! Who knew I would have to go into hiding?

Anyway, I am getting very excited about the whole thing. I have my book preordered at B&N and will be there Friday night to get it at midnight. My husband will be out of town so I will be there on my own. I was thinking I would take my knitting with me, park myself at the coffee bar and knit and wait until I could get the book. That is the plan. Anyone want to join me?

out of the alps

They are out of the Alps today. I was getting a little worried about Levi yesterday but he did good. He is still there and in the running for the GC. I must say, though, Contador is pretty awesome. Also, I couldn't help feeling sorry for Vino. Did you see him crying after he finished the stage? I guess Kloden will be Astana's leader now.


While watching yesterday I made some progress on Jaywalker. It looks so much better with the KnitPicks Dancing than it did with the Wildfoote. You can really see the zigzag pattern happening.

Wildfoote is a bit dark and doesn't have any lines of color when knit up so the pattern kind of got lost.

I am really happy with how it is turning out now. I just have to be very careful about getting my pair of socks to actually match up with each other when I am done. Of course, I regularly get Second Sock Syndrome so there is no need to worry about it quite yet.

jaywalker, take two

Yesterday I started on another pair of socks. I wanted to try out the Jaywalker pattern that everyone is doing. I started it with my Wildfoote yarn and got a few rounds into the zigzag pattern before i realized that this yarn wasn't a good choice for Jaywalker. You couldn't see the zigzag at all. I had to frog and put my yarn back in the bin. I pulled out the Knitpicks Dancing instead and cast on again. Still on the ribbing so not sure if this will work any better. It is a variegated yarn, so I have my fingers crossed that it will look much better.

I probably should have not started another pair of socks and continued with Ruffled Surplice. It needs to be finished, but it takes so much pattern reading that I can't do it while watching the Tour on tv or when my mom and dad here. They talk to me and I lose my place. I am very incapable sometimes of doing more than one thing at a time.

Mom and Dad are leaving tomorrow. Bright and early, I think. I am very happy I got those socks finished, even if they are a bit uneven. OOps. Anyway, mom will have some socks to keep her feet cozy on the drive back to California.

livejournal link

Before I started mariknits I shared a lot about my knitting on my livejournal account. It goes back a couple years, but it has always been friends only. Anyway, I am currently in the process of going through all those old knitting posts and making them public. Now all of my older finished objects on Ravelry will be linked to this post which includes a link to my LJ. This should make it a little easier for me or for anyone else who wishes to read them.

Mari's LiveJournal

uneven socks finished

Socks are finally finished.

They aren't exactly perfect, though. I don't know what it is with socks, but I can never get them to be the same size. I measure, I really do. I put them on and check their length, but I never fail to make one bigger than the other.

I need to learn how to knit two socks at the same time. That would solve all my problems with socks. There must be a tutorial on that somewhere, right?

I am very tempted to frog the small one and reknit it to its proper size for mom. She says they are fine. She doesn't mind their uneven-ness. I mind though. It is a bit noticeable. She can wait another month or two before getting them.

first mountain stage

The Tour has made it into the Alps. Riders are getting dropped at every mile. Looks like Levi is still in the main group and not losing time but alot of those that are supposed to stay with him, including Hincapie is gone.

I am still working on my sock. On the gusset now. I should have it all done by the end of the weekend while watching the Tour.

I found a KAL that would have been perfect for me. Tour de France KAL
Wish I would have found that before the tour started. Oh well. I will have to remember it next summer.

the tour begins

Ravelry is so awesome! I am absolutely loving it right now. I have opened a Flickr account and uploaded some projects. Still waiting for time to get my stash yarns uploaded. I am already very addicted after only a couple days of actually getting on.

It's only dad here right now, so I have had a bit of knitting time available. I managed to make some progress on my socks. I am a little under half way through the heel flap. I was able to eyeball length of leg pretty well, since I didn't have my tape measure with me. They look about even. Even with a tape measure, though, I tend to be off a bit so no worries.

The Tour de France is on now, I have to get back upstairs to finish watching today's stage. This year's favorite for me is Levi Leipheimer. Tomorrow is his turn to shine, hopefully. To the ALps they go.

ravelry

Yay! I received my invite today.

If the fam wasn't coming into town I would be down in the dungeon, chained to the computer getting everything entered onto ravelry. Unfortunately, that probably won't be happening until they are all on their way home.

Next week! My stash and projects will all be downstairs with me. This is going to be too much fun. This site looks so great!

If you are already on as well, I have used mariknits as my username. See you all there!

family visit

The family is on their way. The first of the four arrives tonight by airplane. Parents tomorrow by car and the final one by plane tomorrow afternoon. Suffice it to say, not much knitting has been happening due to the cleaning that was much needed. It is all done now, ready for them to get here.

I was going to get back to work on my second sock, but realized that I have a short sleeve cardigan, knit from the top down, that needs its loose ends all tucked away so I can finally give it to my sister. It is another one of those ufo's that only needs finishing but I can't ever seem to get to it.

This is a really bad picture of it. It's black, so it it's hard to see the details or stitches. Anyway, I think I tucked up the loose ends so they wouldn't show, but they are there. Gosh, that really is a terrible picture.

another ufo

This is my Booga Bag I finished ages ago. It was part of a felting KAL. As you can see, I have yet to felt it. One problem is that I have a front loading washer.

Not a good choice for felting, right?

So, what to do?

I have never felted before so I am a little hesitant to ask a friend to borrow their washer. I would probably do something terribly wrong and make a mess of it.

What other options do I have?

This may be one item that sits unfinished indefinitely. Urg.