Aimee from Fairie Knits Podcast Is Doing a Lupus Walk

Aimee from the Fairie Knits Podcast is doing a lupus walk in October.

She is also doing a wonderful raffle for each donation she receives. For each $5 donation, she will put 'tickets' in the raffle. She will draw names & give away some very cool prizes.

Check out her blog for more details.

It amazes me how generous the knitting community is. The prizes have been donated by a number of different vendors. It really is wonderful how much they come together for these things.

Afghans for Afghans Hat Done

The Afghans for Afghans hat is done. I just put it into the mail today. So it should get there by the Oct. 12th deadline.

Knit according to the 3-12 months pattern, but looks bigger. Or babies are bigger that I think? *grin* I am not sure.

Pattern:

www.needlebeetle.com/fionasfriends/free/lphat.html

Yarn:

Bought as School Products on a cone. Cone says New Relax Bordeaux. Seems to be a worsted weight.

Needles:

Size 7 Knitpicks Option circular in 32" - knit in magic loop

Pretty easy pattern. Might do it again if I want another hat. The twist is very simple but attractive.

Side View:

Top View:

Pic on Bear:

My teddy bear Bear making his modeling debut. He is a good sized bear (about 16" high seated and a pretty thick head). Paul insists that Bear needs his own hat as this one looked so good on him. *grin*

Started Tuesday, September 18th. Completed Saturday, Sept. 22.

Wow. Probably the fastest I have every completed a project.

Very quick project. Pattern is very easy & the twists provide some interest without being too time consuming.

I am definitely happy with this one. Only thing was I goofed on a row. I knit the same row twice of a 2 row repeat. However, I just sorta fudged it. It looked like stockinette. So I added the garter bumps. I am hoping it isn't very noticeable.

Feels good getting it done and shipped. Hooray.

Knitting Marzipan!!

I was listening to Episode #40 of the Lime & Violet podcast and they mentioned this site:

http://veganyumyum.com/2007/06/how-to-knit-marzipan/

Too cool!! I need to do it.

I made marzipan & sculpted it for medieval events. So this is so appealing to me. *grin*

Bruise Socks Complete

I am happy! The bruise socks are complete. I am wearing them right now!

I think it was a sign that I waited on the photos. I stopped off at Crumbs on the way home. They had a chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting that MATCHED MY SOCKS!!! *laugh*

Don't worry. These pics were taken *before* I put the socks on. *grin*

And actually, I got the chocolate with chocolate cupcake. Paul got the raspberry one. *grin* But I love that they are the same color.

Here is more pics of the socks. They are out of the first batch of yarn I dyed! I am pretty happy with the way they came out.

Yarn:

Elann Esprit Natural that was dyed with Dharma Fiber Reactive Dyes

Pattern:

Basic Sock Pattern from "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" by Ann Budd. I love the patterns as they can vary for a wide range of gauge & size.

Front View:

Side View:

Flat:

Definitely fun. Three pairs of socks are done. Woohoo!

Hat for Afghans for Afghans Charity

I started a new project last night. I decided on another hat for charity. The Lime & Violet blog mentioned that Afghans for Afghans is looking for submissions and the deadline is Oct. 12th. So I figured it would be a good project to add to the pile.

The site lists a hat pattern that I am using. I have only done the ribbing so far, but I am hoping it will be quick.

I am using New Relax Wool in Bordeaux. It is a cone I got back when I first started knitting. It is the same yarn that I knit the Dulaan hat out of. I think it should be good.

I really do love how many knitting charities there are.

Socks on the Brain

I finished my first socks out of the yarn I dyed. I am pretty excited. I will take some pics tonight and post them. They are the third pair of socks I have knit, but it was cool seeing how the yarn I dyed knit up. It also taught me a lot for the next batches of yarn I dye.

Overall, I like the dye job on the yarn. The blue is brighter than I intended, but it is sorta interesting. I am calling them my bruise socks given the colors - black, purple & blue.

Of course, Paul being the smart ass he is said I should make another set with some yellows and greens in them. *smirk*

I have about 4/5ths of a skein left and don't have a clue what to do with it (38 grams if I recall correctly). I used 2 1/5 skeins to do my socks which come up pretty high. I guess I could use the dyed stuff for a leg & then a complimentary color for the foot. But I really don't want a second set in the same colors. I am not sure I can think of anyone who would want the same colors.

I worked on the sock for Paul for Xmas during lunch. I so wish they were going to be a surprise. But I wasn't thinking and showed him the Lime & Violet Chorewars site. Which of course is where I labeled what I was working on for lunch... *groan*

Yarn:
Opal Rainforest Frosch/Frog

Needles:
Knitpicks 32" size 2 circs

I have doubts these will be ready for Xmas. *pout* All I have done is the cuff and a little bit of the leg.



The problem is that since I am only knitting them at work, I have only gotten a little done. I knit during my Weight Watchers meeting each week or on rare occasions when I have eaten at my desk. So it has been going slowly with that.

I also confess, I feel a lot less motivated about them now that he knows they are coming. Feels like some of the pressure is off. Though on the flip side, he knows they are coming. He has told me I could give them to him for his birthday and again for Xmas. *laugh*

I think I am going to drop by The Point on the way home. This will sound insane, but I am sorely tempted to buy some more sock yarn!! *groan* I know, I have two batches of yarn I died, the cotton self-patterning stuff & the alpaca. Why would I want something else??! Well, you see... There is a knit along on Ravelry with the Jaywalker socks... And you know nothing I have currently would do it justice.... *smirk*

Yah yah. I know. *smirk*

Teddy Bear Completed

The teddy bear is complete.

It was in the UFO pile for a while. I can't recall when I finished knitting all 15 pieces of this. Then I stalled.

I had picked up the filling the same day I got the yarn. But when I read the pattern more closely, I found I needed cotton tape to attach the limbs. So it sat, unfinished, in a bag for a good long while.

Paul and I were out on Friday and stopped by a Walmart. I got the tape (though it was poly, not cotton, but all good). So I spent 6 hours, yes, you read that right, 6 hours putting the pieces together, stuffing it & finishing it off.

The pattern is from Reader's Digest's The Complete Knitting Set. It said it was a beginner pattern. Yet, they didn't actually tell you how to do some of the pieces. Just said reverse the other side. *shakes head* I don't think you would do that with a beginner pattern. Though the basic stitches and such really were beginner. So I think I successfully did all the pieces.

Though I don't think I will be making another one any time soon. Lots and lots of pieces to knit. The pieces were simple, but it seemed insane that they weren't able to shape the pieces so there was less pieces at the end. I guess that was to keep it as a beginner pattern, but in the end it was more work than it should have been.

I think I will try and find new eyes for him. I had the buttons in the house and used them. These buttons are really old. I recall they were from my mom's sewing supplies and she passed away in 1982. So they are at least 15 years old and probably older. Not like I need to use them for something else. I am just not sure if they look right for the bear.

The bear needs a name. Leaning towards Frank for Frankenteddy given how long he was in pieces. *grin*

Here are some pics -





Top View:


Head Shot:




Laying Down:

More Batches of Yarn Dyeing

I did two bunches of yarn dyeing this weekend. This makes my second & third batch of hand dyed yarns.

Second Batch

I wanted to do a yarn that was self patterning & stripping in red & black with some variations on the red.

The good news is that I think it came out pretty well. The red is bright with a good deal of depth. The two other reds I mixed look good too. It worked out well.

I also loved the warping board. Paul made it for my birthday. The design is taken from Scout's site. It helped lay things out. I am not sure if it saved any time, but I think it might have. I didn't time it. But it was certainly a lot easier to lay out. And it took up so much less space than the long skein method. So I am happy with it.

I did it with the Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes again. The red is the fire red. I really like it a lot.

The down side is that there are a couple spots where I didn't get the dye deep enough into the yarn. Though overall, it actually looks pretty good. I think when it is knit up, it will look okay. And heaven knows, the variation might be nice.

I am curious to see how it looks when it is knit.

Third Batch

I think the color in the photos is a bit off. I have tried tweaking it, but it isn't working very well. The colors don't seem as light as it looks in the photos. It is deeper.

But I do admit, the blues were lighter than I anticipated. They were supposed to be deeper, more midnight. I really think the cyan dye looks darker when it is painted on the yarn than it does when it is washed. I should just get a blue I want and use that more.

That said, I still really like the way it came out. It is the 100% bamboo yarn by Sarah's Yarns. It is pretty interesting. I really can't wait to see how it knits up.

The bamboo definitely takes the dyes different than the cotton. It seems like less of the color holds onto it. But there is this shimmer to it that the cotton doesn't have which makes it so lovely.

I did this batch a lot more free form. I decided that for a couple reasons. One was that I didn't want to reskein the yarn. I figured it came in a skein and it would be easier to just use it as it was skeined.

The other was because I am really not sure how this will knit up. I tried a sample of it. It feels amazing. But I do have some doubts about how it will work for socks. The site says it is great for socks. I am just simply not sure it will have enough give. So if I need to frog any socks I try to make with it, I would rather have it in a color and design where there won't be an issue about the patterning to the yarn. The colors are just large enough to make little spots, not whole lines. So it could look very interesting.

Doing Two Batches

I think it will be a while before I decide to do two batches at once. The only way I might reconsider is if they are the same yarn & I can wash them together. It took eons to wash both sets of yarn the next day.

Part of this is about hand washing & rinsing. It is time consuming. I keep wondering if there is something I am not doing correctly. But I don't think so. I think it is just about how long it takes to wash out the dye that is on the yarn and not in it. It took about 5 hours between the two batches. Heaven knows, I think the dyeing only took about that long.

Reskeining the Yarns

I hope that I somehow goofed big time with the warping board. Because trying to get the red & black batch of yarn out of the tied skein into something I could make into balls what a nightmare. I seriously spent 6, yes 6 hours trying to untangle it and get it into something useable. *sigh* I suspect it was a couple factors.

I am really thinking about a different design for the warping board. I spoke with Paul about it before my birthday. Thing is he was already making me Scout's design. He did offer to make a different design for me. I have some ideas and I think the variations I want to do will make things a lot easier in the future. I should do a drawing and post it for suggestions.

The good thing is that both skeins are now in pretty little center pull balls! Woohoo. I got a ball winder. Knitting-warehouse.com as them for $24. I figured it would actually be more useful with the reskeining from the warping board. But because of the tangles in the yarn, that didn't actually happen. But it is actually great being able to make balls so quickly. I think it will help once I figure out what's up with the skeining issues.

More Pics to Come

The camera is literally coming apart. The battery flap is broken. So we have to hold it shut to take the pics. Most of the time Paul takes the pics as his fingers are strong enough to close it (he took the pics I have).

I took more photos with my phone. But there is some weirdness with my Palm. It won't actually transfer the photos.

I want to scoot home. I hope to have a resolution on the photo issue tomorrow. Maybe I will post more then. I took pics of some works in progress (WIPs) that I want to share too, including the socks from the first batch of self patterning yarn.

I'm on Ravelry!!

I am on! I got my Ravelry invite! It is so cool. I am akasha on raverly. I have just gotten some of my needles & stash input.

Thank heavens I got my big work project out today or it would have been delayed!! Ooopps. *evil girn*

Hooray! *happy dance*

Second Socks Pics

I finished these last Friday. Nearly a week ago. I really meant to take pics sooner. But I couldn't resist wearing them the day after I finished them. Seemed bad form to photograph dirty socks! *chuckle*

They are made out of Panda Cotton Jet Black yarn. It is 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, 21% elastic nylon. Has nice give and feels good. I am wearing them again today. And they are even softer after the washing. Hooray.

The pattern is 4-stitch elongated corded rib from Sensational Knitted Socks.

I know it is hard to see them as they are black. So a lot of the detail gets lost. But the pattern is pretty and was very simple to do. It is a 4 stitch pattern with 8 repeats and only 3 of the rows were actually different. It was mostly a 2 x 2 rib with 2 rows that were different.

I did learn how challenging it is to rip stitches with a pattern like that though. I had to go back when I did a row of the foot wrong. I think that there is an area when it can be seen if you look super close. But I don't think anyone is getting that close to my feet! *laugh*

I have to say, I love the 2 socks on 2 circular sock method.

But I also have to say, do not expect Sensational Knitted Socks to do any hand holding. If not for the wonderful Cybersocks tutorial, I would have never finished these at all. Though the beauty of it is that now that I have done it once, I understand how to tweak the regular patterns for the 2 circ method.

And the best part?! No second sock syndrome. Woohoo! I am a happy girl.

Warping Board Birthday Pressie & Dyeing

My darling hubby Paul made me warping board for my birthday. Woohoo!

He worked off the pattern on Scout's site.

I really love it. It was cool of him to make it. He did a great job on it.

Though it is funny, I was talking with him about ways I think I would want to modify a warping board to make it more adjustable. Of course, this was *after* he had already started this one. Oops. He did mention he would still be willing to do that which is very sweet of him.

I did a batch of dyeing this weekend with the board. The board makes skeining the yarn for dyeing so much easier. It took longer to layout. But it also meant things where all measured out and tying off sections was faster. So I think it worked out well. I also suspect I will get faster as I get use to it.

With the first batch, I had to wind it between 2 chairs to create a 40" loop! It also meant that the yarn stretched a lot. So the socks I am currently knitting do not line up right. Some of the areas are longer than others. I still love the yarn and it was great for my first time. I also don't think anyone but me and fellow knitters will notice the dyeing issue.

I dyed two batches on Saturday. I did the second batch of the Elann Esprit which is nearly identical to Cascade Fixation. It is cotton with 2% elastic.

I really like it for dyeing. It takes the color really well. The first batch was kinda stiff after I dyed it though. So this time I used Milsoft from Dharma Dyes. I think that really might have helped.

The new batch is red & black. Going to my gothy roots. *grin*

The second batch is the 100% bamboo yarn from Sarah's Yarns. I decided that I wanted something less formal with this batch. I am not sure if the yarn will have enough stretch for socks. So I decided to go with a pattern that was not self striping. So I just did different colors. Red, purple, deep blue. Though there are pieces that aren't so deep. I am very curious how it will knit up.

I need to take some pics of the yarn. I didn't take them yesterday. I will wait til it dyes. It should be dry tonight.

And I got a ball winder! It arrived today. So I should take pics tonight and make some balls.

Daaaaammmmmmnnnnnn!

Daaaaaammmmmnnnnnnn! *in my best impersonation of Jim Broadbent as Prince Albert* (Name that reference without IMDB. *grin*)

I have been having a lot of fun with Chore Wars as my 'party' is the one set up by Lime & Violet. So I can enter knitting stuff and level my character. Yes. It is ubergeeky. And I love it. *laugh*

So I went to enter my evening knitting on Friday. I want to show Paul as a fellow geek. I am entering some stuff. He looks. All is fine. Then I enter another hour of knitting. Then Paul looks again. What does he see? My lunch time knitting which says "Sock for the hubbin for Xmas".

Daaaaammmmmnnn...

So he knows I am knitting him socks. *pout* I am not even sure I will finish these for Xmas. I really thought I would be further along as I bought the yarn in June... But I only have an inch done of the cuff. Long saga but there has been a bunch of things that slowed me down (including a lot of frogging).

Mostly I have only been knitting them once a week at my WW meeting so there is only about 15-30 minutes of knitting a week. I kinda figured I would have to start taking them on the train during the week to get them done if there were going to be finished for Xmas. *sigh*

But now he knows. *pout* Told him he may not get them this xmas. Of course, he is saying I should just give them to him for his birthday so I can bring it home! *laugh*

I still am not sure he will actually like it. The colors are right, blues & greys. Ideal colors for him. But he says he doesn't wear striped socks. I got the Opal Rainforest Frog from simplysockyarn.com. Also, he is always warm so wool is probably not a great solution either. *pout*

Ah well. He knows. So I guess I gotta get my tush in gear on these.

*grumblegrowl*

Starting a Knitting Blog

I am debating starting a knitting only blog. I find that my livejournal has become all about knitting and is probably boring some people to tears.

I decided to give blogger a shot to see if I liked it any more than livejournal. I may just test this one one. I can see which I like one I like more.

I will have to see if there are any clients for blogger.