Feed on
Posts
Comments

WIP Wednesday-a day late!

August 9, 2007 by freshgroundknits

I had this whole big plan to do a WIP Wednesday post, but that was shot to hell by my lovely migraine and then I got really into knitting my Rooibos Tea Raglan and did not want to put it down!

Here it is before I picked it up yesterday:
Rooibos Tea Raglan-in progress

As you can see, I’ve added some significant waist shaping. I’ve decided that all my sweaters should have waist shaping from now on, it’s just so much more flattering! Since this picture was taken I have joined the sleeves to the body and started the raglan decreases. I don’t have a picture of it now, but hopefully I’ll be finished sometime this weekend and will share it in a FO post!

And here we have the Chevron Socks, which were previously being knit with 55sts. I frogged that one because it was just too snug and I didn’t like the way the patterning looked. I like the 66 stitch socks much better.

Chevron socks-in progress

You can see a few more photos here.

In case you’re wondering about the Print o’ the Wave stole, I’ve knit one pattern repeat on it and I’m loving the pattern. However, the yarn I’m using is coned and it still has a lot of grease on it and I’m not loving that. I’m considering skeining 600 yards or so and washing it. I could hang it outside to dry and in this heat it would probably be dry in an hour.

I’ve also heard that there is some sort of mistake in the edging chart, but no official errata. Google has helped a bit, but if anyone has any advice, please let me know!

Posted in WIP, chevron socks, lace, print o the wave stole, rooibos tea raglan | 1 Comment »

FO: Swallowtail Shawl

August 6, 2007 by freshgroundknits

Oh, my first big lace endeavor and I am ever so happy with how it turned out.

Detail shot 1

detail photo 1

Detail shot 2 (those darn nupps!)

detail photo 2

The whole shawl

Shallowtail Shawl-FO

Swallowtail Shawl-FO2
I couldn’t get the center to line up, I was using the self-timer.

It’s so cozy
tigger snuggles

Details

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark, Interweave Knits Fall 2006

Needles: Size 4, Addi Turbos

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace in Lilac. I used almost the entire ball.

Start: June 11, 2007

Finish: August 3, 2007

Modifications: none

Notes: The nupps were a challenge, but I found the best way to do them was just to knit the k1,yo,k1,yo,k1 very loosely into the stitch on the previous row. It also helps if you can catch the first stitch to kind of rock back and forth to get the other stitches onto the needle. It’s a little on the small side for a shawl, I think that if I were to knit it again I would do a couple extra repeats, which would require buying another ball of yarn since I used almost the entire ball on this one.

I have to say that I am now completely addicted to lace knitting! I love it! Right after I cast off for this project, I cast on for this one.

Print o' the wave-swatch

Posted in FO 2007, interweave, swallowtail shawl | 7 Comments »

Progress!

August 1, 2007 by freshgroundknits

I’ve been diligently working on my Shallowtail Shawl and I am so happy with how it’s turning out. I finally mastered the nupps and cruised through the last few sections of the pattern.

Here’s what it looked like on 7/25

Shallowtail WIP-7/25/07

Detail of the nupps
Nupps Detail

And tonight!

pre-blocking

I am going to block it tomorrow since I have to sleep on my bed tonight. I’m so excited. I’ve already got my next lace project planned out.

Posted in FO 2007, WIP, cast off | No Comments »

some sock work

July 24, 2007 by freshgroundknits

Is it time to turn the heel?
sockotta sock in chevron pattern

I think I’m about ready to turn the heel on this baby, but a second repeat of the orange just appeared and I feel the need to have more orange on the cuff, so I’m going to sleep on it. Not to mention that my brain currently can’t handle trying to figure out where to put the pattern on the foot of socks with 5 repeats of 11.

Oh, and here’s a little teaser of my most recent FO in SWTC’s Tofutsies. I blogged about it back in May after frogging a first attempt. I am currently in love with these socks, it’s too hot to wear them right now, but they are so soft and the yarn has a lovely drape. I almost bought more on my visit to Asheville, but I ended up with some Koigu instead.
Anyone care to guess what pattern this is? I would have a contest, but I don’t really have a prize for the winner, so we’ll just have to go with my undying awe of your knowledge of sock patterns. (No fair guessing if you’ve seen them IRL!)
FO teaser

Posted in WIP, socks | 3 Comments »

Le weekend

July 24, 2007 by freshgroundknits

The fabulous knitters retreat in the mountains of Asheville was absolutely fabulous! I enjoyed hanging out with Emily, Heather, Stacy (whose blog is corrupted), and meeting three new blogless knitters. I slept wonderfully and am now fully refreshed and ready to study for my final on Friday. I was planning to write a nice long blog post with pictures, but realized I downloaded them at work…so I’ll have to save that for another day. For now, Heather has some posted here.

I was able to get quite a bit of knitting done. I think I’ve finally mastered the nupps on my Swallowtail Shawl and after frogging one attempt at a new sock with my Sockotta, I have now made it through most of the leg (cuff down) and am pretty committed to a chevron pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. Oh yes, and I returned with some yarn! Knit from your stash hardcore 2007 is dying a slow death.

More to come…

Posted in Knitting | 2 Comments »

Are you keeping score?

July 18, 2007 by freshgroundknits

Thanks to Vanessa and Blogless Kate, I think I’ve gathered together enough Mission Falls 1824 Cotton in Merlot to cast on for the Green Tea Raglan from the Spring 2007 (or is it Summer?) Interweave. At least I hope I have enough because I’ve already did done it.

Let’s see how things are going.

First I knit two swatches:

Swatch #1: size 7 needles
26 rows=4.25″ (6.1 rows/1″)
25 sts=7″ (3.5 sts/1″)
swatch #1

Swatch #2: size 6 needles
27 rows=4.25″ (6.4 rows/1″)
25 sts=7″ (3.5 sts/1″)
swatch #2

Wait, what?

That’s right! They’re practically identical.

Swatches: 1
Amy: 0

I decide to cast on using the size 7 needles, giving myself that extra row of wiggle room. I redo the calculations of the sweater for knitting in the round and my gauge since it’s pretty off from what the pattern calls for.

IMG_1905

See my pretty little diagram and all the math? Let’s assume I did all my calculations correctly.
Amy: 1
Math: 0
Swatches: 1

I’m knitting merrily along doing my decreases every 8th row and just enjoying the seed stitch when I notice something odd on my needle cable. It’s the #6, um, what’s a 6 doing on my size 7 needle? Shit.
Amy:1
Everything else: 2

IMG_1903

I decide that it should all be okay, since you know, the gauge swatches were practically identical and decide to double check the swatches and the gauge of the sweater and then write this post. I decide to be more detailed and draw little squares to visually represent the swatches and put the numbers on them.

IMG_1908

Then I do the math again and I get this:
5.88 sts/in.
Wait, what? How can I be getting almost 6 stitches to the inch? I can’t believe this? What’s going on? I KNEW that it wasn’t right that I was 1424 with Mission Falls 1824 Cotton! What an idiot!?!

Oh, woops! I suppose I should divide the number of rows by the height of the swatch and the number of stitches by the width.
Amy: 1
Everything else: 3

After I recovered from my minor panic attack and feeling like an idiot I did the math for the gauge on the sweater. 14.5 sts=4″ or 6.11 sts/in, like on the size 7 needles. Okay, whatever I give up!
Amy: 1
Everything else: 4

Posted in WIP, cast on | 1 Comment »

Ravelry: what all the fuss is about

July 11, 2007 by freshgroundknits

So, at first I didn’t quite get what the big deal was with Ravelry. For the most part, I didn’t even really understand what the whole thing was and how it would be different from any other yarn/knitting forum and what could I get out of it that I couldn’t do on my own blog, but now I get it!

First of all, it’s really nice to have some standardized way to organize your projects, stash, needles, etc. I was already organizing it here, but it just was hard to keep everything up to date. Once Ravelry opens to the public I will probably put all my stash pages as links to my stash pages there and just keep my FO galleries. Oh, and on the stash pages you can indicate what you want to trade or sell and you can see what others are trading/selling. I actually contacted someone who had some Cotton Fleece in the Provincial Rose colorway that I need and she said she would send it to me…so that was pretty exciting (she was on vacation so I don’t think she’s sent it yet).

The other cool things are the pattern and yarn browsers. It’s really cool seeing how other people’s projects turned out and to see how other people used their yarn. You can browse and add projects to your “queue” for later knitting, which is great for someone who wants to knit almost everything she sees.

The friends feature reminds me a bit of livejournal, I’m not sure if I should just “friend” the people I actually know or if I should friend people who’s projects interest me. There’s been some discussion of making friend’s groups, so that should take care of that.

The forums feature is also promising, it’s still a little confusing to me, but I think it will be useful for when I have questions. There are also just silly, random threads like Ravelry LOLcats. :)

i-can-haz-the-clap

I’m also excited for the upcoming designers features. I have a few patterns that I’ve put together that I would like to sell, but I’m just too lazy to put everything together here and deal with payloadz or other downloading features.

So, all in all, I’d say Ravelry was worth the wait! If you are on there, add me, I’m freshgroundknits :)

Posted in Knitting, ravelry | 2 Comments »

For those who read my RSS feed

July 10, 2007 by freshgroundknits

Apparently there was some problem with the wordpress software and a bunch of wordpress feeds got screwed up. So, I haven’t taken any road trips to Vegas or Texas, started posting porn, or become fluent in French in the last week.

Sorry if it screwed anything up or confused you!

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Posted in wordpress | 1 Comment »

OMG, my nupps

July 8, 2007 by freshgroundknits

I have spent over 20 hours in a car  in the last 36 hours.  The only thing that  kept me sane was the massive amount of knitting I was able to accomplish and the brief stop at IKEA.

However, I discovered what Heather meant when she said that the only annoying part of the Swallowtail Shawl were the nupps, and I don’t think I fully understood the emphasis on the knitting the row before the purl 5 together loosely. Oh my goodness, if my needles were sharp enough I would have poked my eyes out with them. Basically, you k1, yo, k1, yo, k1 into one stitch and then on the way back you purl all five of those babies together and it’s a lot harder than just a plain ol’ p5tog because of the way the stitches are all in one stitch. Essentially I ended up using my size 1 bamboo sock needle to get all the stitches together, then I purled them all together and transferred the one stitch back to my Addi and knit on to the next nupp. I only made it through a row and a half of them because I started to get sleepy and kept messing up my stitch count. We will see how the next 20 rows or so go. My love affair with lace may end too soon.

Also, if you are anywhere near NYC you should go see The Mystery of Irma Vep it’s just brilliant and only $18, catch it before it takes off and you can’t even get a seat!

Posted in Knitting | 2 Comments »

a little lace detail

June 27, 2007 by freshgroundknits




detail 6/13

Originally uploaded by freshgroundknits.

excuse the two posts in a row, wordpress is undergoing maintenance and is being a little fussy, but I wanted to show you this detail photo.

Posted in Knitting | 1 Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »