Unfinished Objects

As week 10 ends and the quarter winds down, I'm beginning to try and wrap up loose ends so I can start new things next quarter.

Then I looked at my knit-list. I have no idea how it happened. I used to be perfectly content with a single knitting project. I would work on it until it was finished, then I'd move on.

Those days are now long gone.

I'm starting to pack for my Thanksgiving trip back to Colorado and the sweater vest for my mom is about 3 hours of knitting from done... and has been for about 4 months now.

The pair of socks I started to be able to not feel like such a poser as the president of Hooks and Needles....

 I've been about 2 inches from finishing the second sock since June.

I just keep getting distracted. My best friend from high school is pregnant, so I selected a beautiful pattern to knit for a blanket and it keeps me busy now.

If you would also like to knit up a great, albeit bulky baby blanket, follow this link to the Norma blanket on Knitty.

I'm 9 rows from starting the edging. Only problem is it's too large to carry around in my backpack. When am I going to work on it now??

At least I can curl up with my new distractions from the Winter Sale.

I'll have a more detailed post about how to make Fuzzums, like Clyde here, as soon as I can get home in the day light to take some better pictures of the group.

The only project I've finished in the past 6 months has been for Hooks and Needles. The snowboarding team asked us to make hats.

To recreate this hat to be more specific. 20 times. After many, many hours of loom knitting (not my favorite activity, but a great place to start crafting) all 20 are done.

I need to buckle down and finished some of these projects. I want to start new ones! Well, I guess I'm doing that either way.

You Can't See an Elephant in the Dark

Spring Break is almost over now and I feel like I haven't stopped moving since I left my apartment in Rochester last Friday.

I'm talking insane amounts of travel people! BF and I drove to Phili, then flew to Pheonix, AZ, where we met my parent.

Then Flagstaff -- where we met up with many of my old friends from before I transferred away from NAU (Northern Arizona University for those who don't know). 

 Plus we saw the Grand Canyon...

All in 2 days. Then we drove down to Tuscon, to meet up with some of my parents old friends and my extended family. Poor BF. He spent the whole time we were in Tuscon being left out of conversations because he wasn't in Tuscon 20 years ago.

 Luckily he got to spend these long car rides watching me make knit roses for the people we are seeing. This is some of them in the door to the car. I'll have a tutorial for them up soon.


BF survived the scrutiny of many family members of mine during this trip, much thanks to the help of a wonderful frosty beverage called an Eegee. Eegee's are a magical substance, like a fruit based Icee, but a bit thicker. 

 

BF had never had one before, but after going from a chilly Rochester March to a 85 degree Tuscon spring, he has been converted.

If you haven't noticed the title of this blog, it happens to be a quote from my dear Aunt Paula. This woman is amazing. After she turned 50, she spent 5 years in Botswana, Africa with the Peace Core, fulfilling a life-long dream she had. When talking to her about her travels, she said something so sincerly it was adorable, but it is a quote that continually helps me with my anxiety.


"You can't see an elephant in the dark."

So everytime I'm worried about something, panicking about something I believe no one else can see, I turn on the light to see if it is really an elephant. 

Maybe that makes me a little nuts, but so is my Aunt Paula, and she's the happiest person I know. Maybe accepting your little bits of crazy that allows you to be happy.


All I know, is that you can't see an elephant in the dark.

RIP Circular Needles

Ugh! I've been sick for a couple days now, nothing too concerning, just a low grade fever... Just enough to keep me in bed.


So I've finally had some time to catch up on my knitting backlog. I am working on a skirt I promised my sister at Christmastime, trying to get it done by May. I'd made some good progress until...

Snap! There go 60 stitched I need to hurry up and catch before the whole thing starts to unravel.


After 1 and a half hours of saving the skirt, I find myself in the market for a more solid pair of circular, size 5 knitting needles.


I'll review whatever I end up with, but at some point, doing an extremely complicated pattern on beginners knitting needles just doesn't work.


Thanks for listening to me rant and let me know if you have a sturdy circular brand to recommend.

Plane Ride Knitting Projects

As you may remember, I took a much needed vacation from my summer break.

Plane rides take a special kind of knitting project. It can't be too large, need large metal needles, or may different types of yarn.

For my plane ride to San Diego, I wanted to work on lace headbands for 2 of my cousins. I wanted cute patterns so my cousins (ages 9 and 12) would like them.

Headbands don't use a lot of yarn, so I used some leftover purple bamboo yarn, and a fingerling green acrylic yarn. These yarns both have enough stretch to work well for these lace headbands.

Gimbiya's headband
 Cast on 3 stitches.

Knit an I-cord for 8 inches.

Increase Pattern:
Row 1: K1, M1, K1
All Even Rows: K2, P all middle stitches, K2
Row 3: K1, M1, M1, K1
Row 5: K2, M1, M1, K2
Continue this increase pattern until 13 stitches.

Lace Pattern:
Row 1 (RS): k1, p2, ssk, (yo, k1) 3 times, yo, k2 tog, p1,k1,p1
Row 2: k1,purl until two stitches before the end, k1, p1 last two stitches
Row 3: k1, p2, ssk, k5, k2 tog, p1, k1, p1
Row 4: k1, p1, k1, p7, k2, p1

Repeat the lace pattern until the piece measures 12 inches.
Decrease evenly until 3 stitches.

Knit 8 inches of I-cord.

Sew in ends, and enjoy :) 

I'll post pictures when I can!!!

The Friday Night Knitting Club Review

I'm currently on a splendid week and a half vacation to visit my boyfriend in San Diego. It's completely awesome, and the perfect way to end my summer.

Now, before you all start dreaming up pictures of him and I surfing, laying out on the beach, and wandering around with mouse ears for ten days, I have to break it to you. He's here for an internship, and works 8 to 5 on weekdays.

So I'm left to my own devices. :) My plans are generally to laze about, read, knit, and cook some easy meals to leave in his freezer so he doesn't starve when I head back to school.

Since posting may get lighter once school is back in session (and I'm not to regular about it when I'm doing nothing all week) I am going to try and keep updating throughout my vaca.

So, my first order of business was to snuggle up in a sunbeam on his balcony (be jealous, there is an awesome view) and get some reading done. As all other college students and most adults I've ever met can relate to, I could not remember the last time I had read for pleasure and not a class.

I wanted to read something different than the depressing works of great literature I've been reading in advance classes for years now. I wanted something with characters that are relateable in this century, possibly by a living author. I also wanted a storyline that wouldn't bore me to tears and something that could be easily shlepped to the beach if I didn't finish it before this weekend.

I selected The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, and trust me, the possibility of not finishing it before this weekend flew out the window. I was expecting a cute, little story about a group of women in a yarn shop, discussing their daily lives over yarn. What I got was a compelling, couldn't put it down, story of many strong women's lives, whose only similarity was a weekly knitting club they all attend.

There are a great many characters to keep up with, which allows the story to draw the reader in and not let go for 366 pages. It is a fictional book, yet so based in reality that you find yourself in one, if not all, of the characters shoes.

It re-ignited my urge to knit, with a beautiful reminder that the way a person knits reveals a lot about the knitter. Each character has her own, unique knitting style, which allows a special knitters-only insight into their soul. The main character, Georgia Walker, stitches are dependably perfect. She is the rock for the group, and an inspiration to those reading.

I took a look at my own stitches, on some headbands I'm working on for my young cousins, and I realized that my stitches say a lot about me too. They are perfectly even, I've never had any issues with tension. Intricate patterns to keep me interests, and like most of my projects, for someone else.

Those are the patterns I finish. I've knit entire sweaters for myself, only to end before sewing the ends in, or finishing the last sleeve. I'm a giver. I will always enjoy gifting my creations over keeping them.

You could call this book a simple story about Georgia Walker's yarn shop, but the soul of this story moves far beyond a crafting story.

I do hope you pick up this book. It's a great end of summer beach-y read, which will help you relax, even if you are at home.

Hogwarts Knit Skirt

As a child of the '90s, I grew up reading tales about Harry Potter and his band of merry men. What can I say, I was hooked. Now, many years have passed since I first began the children's series, and I still remain loyal to the films.

The Harry Potter movies and I had a long standing tradition, I would wait for hours at the theater (the past few years in full uniform) waiting with great anticipation to view the next piece of the story.

Around 3 AM, I would then stumble back to my car, robes shoved haphazardly into my bag, thoroughly disappointed with all they had left out of the story.

Year after year, this ordeal took place, until the 7th movie. While it may not have completely covered the book, I was happy with it. I didn't feel the horrible disappointment as with the other movies. Hence, my anticipation for the second installment grew.

My costume would have to be perfect for such a grand event. Since the gray uniform skirt I originally wore was outgrown year earlier, I was in the market for another skirt.

I am in college, so this would have to be a cute, gray skirt, to the knee, hopefully that I would want to wear without the costume, for cheap. This was not happening.

Since I am now on summer vacation, I do have a great deal of time on my hands. I wanted to knit the perfect Hogwarts skirt. After many afternoons combing Ravelry, I could not find the skirt I wanted. I found 2 similar skirts and decided to cut, paste, and ad lib until I got what I wanted.


Here are links to the 2 patterns that I manhandled to get my skirt.
Little Flirt Skirt
and
Flirty Skirty

Perfect "For Me" Hogwarts Skirt

Cast on 180 on size 7 circulars (around size 12, it was too big on me)


Join in the round and place marker, and knit for 12 inches. (If you are short, knit less, if you are tall, knit more. Just keep it as long as you want, planing for 3 inches of pleats.


Start the eyelet boarder:
Round 1, 3, 5, and 7: Purl
Round 2 and 6 : Knit
Round 4: *Yarn over, K2together* Repeat until end of round.

Start pleats:
Rounds 1–7: *K9, p1* Repeat until end of round.
Round 8: *K9, p1f&b* Repeat until end of round.
Rounds 9–13: *K9, p2* Repeat until end of round.
Round 14: *K9, p1, p1f&b* Repeat until end of round.
Rounds 15–19: *K9, p3* Repeat until end of round.
Round 20: *K9, p1, p1f&b, p1* Repeat until end of round.
Rounds 21–25: *K9, p4* Repeat until end of round.

Bind off all stitches.

Most importantly, TRY ON THE SKIRT NOW.


Then, pick up 180 stitches from the cast on row, and *K2, P2* for 2 inches.

Decrease at the cast on evenly as may stitches as necessary to insure the skirt won't fall off your hips. I failed at this endeavor and has to take the waistband in on my sewing machine. But it is much better to use the waistband decreases to ensure a fitting skirt.

Tada! A skirt fit for Hogwarts, and after the movie is over, a cute pair of colorful tights. ;)

I'll try to post some pictures of the whole outifit after the premiere :)