Tuesday, March 15, 2011



The Kertzer scarf is coming right along. I got the pattern as a free Ravelry download (for you non-knitters, Ravelry is a free website for knitters and crocheters - I may link to it quite a bit). It takes size 8 (5mm) or size 9 (5.5mm) needles. I'm using size 9.



I bought two skeins of the Kertzer yarn so I'm just going to go and go until I run out of yarn. You see where my working yarn is ? That is just about where the first ball ended. Here's some pretty cable detail:


This marks the first of my projects where I haven't used a single stitch marker. Excepting the rows where you "cluster 4" and the cable needle rows, you can pretty much knit the knits and purl the purls (except the garter stitch ends where you knit both sides), so it is very fun and is keeping my interest.

Yoshi thinks it would be better as a dog jacket and is a little put out that it isn't.



Monday, March 14, 2011

Quick Tease



Short post for today. I'm going to try to bake a cake before bed and daylight savings time is a killer! As you may have guessed, I'm working on a new project. Here's something I think we can all enjoy: I don't have to say Red Heart Super Savor Saver yarn!

Wait.. dammit.

The yarn is this beautifulness which is so soft and 100% acrylic (it's not even worsted; it's chunky!):


I wasn't going to say much about the incredible disaster(s) happening in Japan, but as my brother is there right now, and my husband and I have bought tickets to visit in a couple months, it is on my mind a lot and it doesn't feel right to set it aside. Everyone please send positive energy out there. Japan, stay safe.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

How to Knit Friday!!!

Congratulations - we all made it to Friday! I'm so proud of us. To take the load off, let me introduce you to How to Knit Friday (subtle title, eh?). Every Friday you and I will work on a little project together. It will be fun! OK I can tell you don't trust me yet... here's Yoshi and my imitation of your face right now:


But really, I will even use a ridiculous looking easy to interpret yarn that YES yes it is Red Heart Super Savor Saver worsted acrylic OK? Sheesh.

Feel free to use any color or yarn you like. You don't even really have to follow along. Even though I catch your expressions some times I can't tell what you do knitting-wise. No pressure. It might be a fun read at least. Lots of pictures.

Since this is our first How to Knit Friday, let's start with the first step (after accumulating materials); casting on. I typically use the long-tail cast on method (which uses, you guessed it, a long tail).

First step: lay a piece of yarn on your leg like so (ok your expression is mimicking Yoshi's, but don't worry the fun will pick up soon):

Loop the yarn over itself, forming a circle on your leg like so:

Take the yarn-end that is the top layer, and place it under the loop so it looks like a pretzel (yum) (in other words, the light pink end on the left of the above picture will be going under the light blue part of the loop):

Time for the needle! See that pink line across the loop? The needle will poke between the line and the edge of the loop:

Lift the needle (careful now, you don't want the pink line on the needle to fall off the needle), and pull both ends until the loop is tight on the needle. Do you know what a synonym for that instance of "loop" is? A stitch! You made a stitch!


Phew! Ok, we can take a break now and pick it up next Friday. This is a pretty picture-intensive post so for all you dial-up guys out there, why do you still have dial-up? That's crazy!

Have a greaaaaat weekend! I'll see you guys on Monday!


Nothin but Knit

As promised, here is the completed diary cover in all its glory:

Pretend there is a book in it. See the linen stitch on the left side of the book cover? That is where the spine goes. Here's an adorable picture of it open:

Isn't that cute? It looks like it is pretending to be a full-fledged grown-up book.

Look at that detail!!


The flaps are curling because they are in stockinette. Once I put it on the book (a tight fit (which is a good thing)) I had to secure it somehow. The pattern calls for a ribbon, which I was ready for (by the way, this photo most accurately represents the real colors of the yarn):

Cute, eh? Depressingly, two things happened. 1) The instructions made zero sense and were obviously an afterthought. 2) It wasn't needed, like, at all. I decided a ribbon that ended up being only decoration was stupid unnecessary, since the knitting is the main attraction and it was hard so I wanted to show it off. I secured the cover to the book like so:

That image is so poor because it's taken with a fancy dancy phone, not a fancy dancy camera, like the other ones.

Simply sewing the thing on there with a needle and an extra piece of yarn = easy! Now nothing distracts from the cover. I so smart.

For those who are wondering, that book is a 8" x 5". I wouldn't recommend the pattern for those who want to put on a book they will write a lot in because of the bumpiness, but it works excellently on the little day planner and it looks very adorable. Kathryn was greatly pleased.











Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Let's Kick Things Up a Notch, Shall We?

I bet you are as excited about garter stitch and k2p2 ribbing as I am. In other words, smiling politely while thinking about what to Tivo for tomorrow. It's ok. The simple kind of knitting has it's purposes and is perfect for when one feels like a zombie and just wants something to distract one's hands. However there are moments when one feels like learning something (foolish as that may be).

My next project is called a "Vampire Diary Protector" from the ridiculous book with cute things:


Ignore the 'Twilight" connotations, please.

Do I even need to say that it was in Red Heart Super Saver worsted acrylic? Do I still need to make that stupid typo and correct "Savor" to "Saver"? I wasn't going to this time, but my accountant way of thinking is going to make me keep answering yes to both questions so that if I want to look at these posts later I can see what kind of yarn I used. Darn me.

I am going to tease you a little bit and reveal how it all looks tomorrow, and only show you how it starts out here:

I know that it is sort of hard to see, so let me give you another chance to soak in the AWESOME:


Not only are those cables, those are DOUBLE HORSESHOE cables. Yes that is linen stitch in between. For you to TOTALLY soak it in I'm going to give you one more glimpse. Here is how the pattern gives a very important and very repeated step (note the whole, rows 14 - 69 thing). Let's follow along:

"Rows 14 - 69: Repeat Row 2 on all even rows and repeat Row 1 on all odd rows EXCEPT Rows 21, 29, 37, 45, 53, 61 and 69, which should be worked as Row 5."

Go ahead and read it again, I'll wait. Reading it again didn't help much, did it? This is how your face looks from here:


Despite all that this pattern is a blast. I feel very rewarded. I have learned a lot, even how to fix dropping cabled stitches along with a half a linen stitch repeat. I am more pleased now than I was at the time, trust me.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Irene's Israeli Beannie

It turns out I like to knit ribbing. Quite a bit. It's perfect on the little circulars while watching movies, having a conversation, even reading a blog or textbook. I think it is due to the fact that it is very obvious when you knitted when you're supposed to purl or vice versa. So obvious, in fact, that I eventually could tell by feel when something went amiss. So I decided to knit my first request; a beannie for my mother-in-law's birthday. Billy saw me knitting it and got a little jealous so I let him try it on for size:


It was a little small so I continued knitting. Here's some detail on that bad boy:

The yarn is, per usual, Red Heart Super Saver worsted acrylic. I loved the colors on it. Here it is finished, waiting for the recipient (she loved it):




I wasn't going to tell you this, but I can tell that you deserve to know a little secret.

There is a mistake on this hat.

A rather big mistake that I didn't see until a point where I couldn't fix it (for all my talk of "feeling" mistakes as they happen). Let me explain.

As you get towards the end, you're on the edge of your seat happily working on scary dpn's and as you decrease, the stitches come off the needles with little loops that eventually straighten out when you pull the last thread taut. I didn't realize this (since my only other experience with this hat is with black yarn) and thought I had dropped a stitch and picked it up and continued knitting happily along. I'm not sure how the stitches ended up with the correct amount on the needle but here's what the mistake looks like:


Fortunately, the hat is reversible so I turned it inside out and it looks great! It'll just be our little secret though, ok? Shh.



Monday, March 07, 2011

Black and Blue Beannie

My mom showed me an awesome free beannie pattern borrowed from this website (the link to the pattern is on the left). You start at the bottom, rib k2p2 for 9 1/2" then start decreasing until it's done.

I started this beannie with the same blue fleck yarn that I used on the scarf, but discovered I didn't have enough for the whole hat, so Billy suggested to do the rest in black. Progress began like this:


Since I learned how to stripe from the scarf, changing colors was no problem. I used the Red Heart Super Saver worsted acrylic again, which is handy since there is very little variance in gauge and there's a local shop with a ton of different (cheap) colors. Excellent for a beginner, anyway. I'll be branching out with different thickness and textures soon enough.

Here's how it turned out:


I wasn't discouraged, though. The brim obviously rolls up and the whole thing is very warm. I like the adjustable length so if I decide to grow my hair out I have room. Not to mention there's almost no need to swatch because it's a one size fits all (again, pretty much. Obviously changes would need to be made for a child or a baby or a giant).

Here's my happy face (accompanied by the tv):








Sunday, March 06, 2011

Sassy Striped Scarf


Behold thy first knitted project; a scarf for my husband.

I got the pattern out of "knitbook: The basics & beyond" which can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Knitbook-Basics-Editors-at-Landauer/dp/0980068835

The whole thing is in garter stitch, using worsted acrylic yarn (I am allergic to wool) and on size 8 needles. I used Red Heart Super Saver, "Earth and Sky" ID# 0928, "Spa Blue Fleck" ID# 4321, and "Grey Heather" ID# 0400. Also, by now I have weaved in all those horrible tons of hundreds of ends on the picture's right side.

The acrylic and the width makes the whole thing very stiff. So while this is not scarf which will caress Billy's cheek and drape elegantly atop his shoulders, it will protect him from any and all elements while keeping his chin, neck, shoulders, and probably nose warm and dry.

While this was an excellent first project, being rows and rows of the knit stitch, I don't think I could do it exactly the same way again. The rows are spaced apart in such a way that you cannot twist the ends together until you get to the next repeat, but have to cut the yarn after each section of color is ended, resulting in the hundreds and hundreds of ends to be weaved in. The result is that now I am very good at weaving ends, but the whole process took longer than actually knitting the scarf (as you can see by the picture, that it is not exactly a "small" scarf).