Progress

6.556 Final Project: 2%
6.334 Design Project: 3%
Thesis: 18%
Lap Blanket: 33%
5.310 Lab Reports: 80%
Lace Shawl: 100%!!!

Need to weave in ends, block, add fringe and then ship off to my mother. Just in time for Mother's Day. Hopefully, just in time to give me enough time to finish the other tasks (minus lap blanket).

Some like it hot

I have two roommates, who(m?) I love dearly (and I talk about all the time). One is from New York. The other is from Pakistan. I am from Louisiana. Naturally, we have different temperature differences:

New Yorker: cold but sunny
Pakistani: hot and dry (but not sunny)
Louisianian: warm and semi-humid

The weather is gorgeous outside. Our dorm turned off the heating system. Therefore, the temperature inside the room cannot make up its mind! (We are all doing our best to change the room's climate to our favorite.) During the winter months, our room is always just hot/warm.

No need to worry, though--any time I get cold, I have a perfect excuse to wrap my legs with the lace shawl-in-progress-that-is-getting-huge. Perfect study break! Hehe--life's quirks are wonderful. :)

Working on > 1 project at a time!

Sometimes, an excellent project comes along. The project is so excellent, that everything has to be stopped in order to finish it. This project is the perfect combination of yarn, colorways, and pattern--and even work on a thesis is secondary to this project. Meet--the uptown boot socks.

As soon as the fun part of that project is over (the last knit stitch on the first sock; grafting is not fun), another project calls: socks knit from a sock flat inspired by a friend's (Dawn's) project. It's the first time I've knit socks from the toe-up and I try doing a short-row heel. Despite the holey heel, as soon as the heel of the first sock is done, the lace shawl I was originally working on looks kind of interesting again.

I've got a stockinette stitch boring sock leg to complete and I just want to veg out and watch some tv on a Friday night, so I decide to pick up the garter-stitch blanket I was working on. The second ball of yarn is ending, so I push through and add the third ball of yarn, but somewhere between the beginning and end of lion brand fun fur yarn, 145 stitches/row in garter gets boring. Meet lace shawl once again, and during tv-watching, this means dropped stitch.

So now, it's Saturday, and I went off campus to enjoy the weather by myself (i.e. shopping) and I needed subway knitting, so the sock flat returns to the scene. When I get back home, however, I realize that the lace shawl is really close to being done, and Mother's Day is conveniently close.

So my knitting progress in the past week (yes--the uptown boots sock began Saturday 11:30pm) has been scattered. I just wish I could have finished something instead of making little progress on everything. Hopefully, I'll be able to send my mom something nice for Mother's Day (never mind that I had made a swallowtail shawl earlier in the semester with the same idea in mind.)

P.S. I still don't have the courage to wear any of my own hand-knit shawls--they all go to my mom. Has anyone had any luck with successfully wearing a hand-knit shawl?

do you ravel?

if you haven't heard of Ravelry, you should probably stop reading this right now and go check out www.ravelry.com. if you have heard if it, i'm willing to bet you've already been on, checked the new patterns, qu-ed a favorite, and commented on a project by now.

Ravelry is sort of a facebook, but for knitters, and way better. instead of looking at the sordid details of your stalkee's latest romance in her status or on her wall, you get to see what projects she's working on, which projects she plans on working on, and whether or not she finished that aran sweater. those are the important things, anyway.

Ravelry allows you to talk the knitters you're jealous of, the knitters who you know you're better than, and your baby sister's progress on her lace. it allows you to post your WIPs (works in progress) and you can identify the kind of yarn you're using so that when someone falls in love with it, they can try to re-create it. you can look up patterns, both for free and for download, and laugh at the most ridiculous ideas (chapstick cosy, anyone?)

i called home this week to talk to my mum and i said, "what are you up to?"
she said, "oh i'm on the computer doing some work."
but a moment later she confessed, "well...actually i'm looking at your shawl on Ravelry."

and this is my dear mother who had never googled anything until she started buying yarn online.

i started creating my profile last week, but then i had to stop because the "dog ate my homework" excuse stopped working in the second grade. now it's the weekend, so go update your profile.

knitting rut

well, i feel like a schmuck, having decided that blogging was a cool thing to do and we should all participate...and then not posting in, err...months? 

i've hit a knitting rut, which was brought on by the second mitten syndrome.  i'm making convertible glove/mittens for my mother (promised to her a year ago)...i finished the first one and cannot bring myself to go beyond the cuff of the second one (fingers are terrible i've decided).  i don't have any other serious knitting projects (what?!)...but i finished the following: two hats (one ear flap! pattern found here, although i had to alter it because i was using a thinner yarn), a long skinny scarf, an almost completed mug cozy, and a christmas stocking.  i finished those projects in about a week (except the stocking), then started the mittens.  after completing that first one, i probably haven't knit in at least 1.5 weeks.  what?

now, i'm headed off to mexico on wednesday.  and as i do before each trip, i wonder what i'm going to take with me to knit on the plane and during layovers.  i will have two trips at least to california after that, so i need something for those, but they're far enough away i haven't given much thought to what to take.  so, since i have this beautiful yarn for a shawl and a pattern in mind for it (picked the pattern, then the yarn, like a good little knitter), i figured, why not just pick up the pattern and take that, since lace is light and not too warm in mexico.  of course, i only decided to do this yesterday, less than a week before i'm scheduled to leave.  and of course, my local knittery didn't have it in stock, fiddlesticks knitting is in canada and can't get the pattern her fast enough, and no other store (NONE) within about an hour of my house carry the pattern either!  so of course, after waiting for my frustrating to dissipate (many hours), i decided to look for new projects and decided on a blanket, made in pieces so i could carry only small portions at a time...i was looking at ravelry for patterns and found this.  i like the first picture, and not the second.  i like both the color combinations and the stripes.  i thought about manually creating stripes by using many different balls of yarn, but threw out that idea after realizing how many many many ends i'd (shreya'd?) have to crochet in.  so now i'm thinking about self striping or hand painted yarns.  anyone have any suggestions?  hopefully something i can purchase relatively inexpensively in the next few days before i head off.

hoping this will break me free of my rut.

so everyone knows...

I bought some sock yarn today.


oops. I felt guilty all day.

also, I have been sitting at the computer for about an hour, thinking about how Shreya is getting way ahead on her brickwork repeats. The worst part is, I had caught up with her by the 1st...and now I am back to being wayyy behind.

oops.


I swear, I'll catch up and maybe knit some socks tomorrow.
I better get crackin....



(Neha)

competition is healthy...right?

This evening, my sister noted that I had not posted on the mitknit blog in a long time. Now, granted, I do not go to MIT and therefore am not a legitimate member of mitknit, but apparently, Shreya and I are the only people that post on this blog?

I don't have too much to say today, except that I have become overly obsessed with lists. This past weekend, I managed to not only sort through all my yarn, but actually create my own mini inventory of every ball or skein of yarn that I own, including its color name, dye lot, weight, and any extra information I could find on the labels. Literally any information.

(Yes, I admit I am a weeeeee bit OCD, but what if I lose the label after starting a project and not continuing it? How on Earth will I find the label within all that clutter, aka the one folder I have containing all my yarn labels? But... seriously, who am I kidding? I don't think I could lose the label to a ball of yarn if I tried. (still OCD though))

Anyway, doing this brought me to the realization that...(drumroll please).....its time to stop buying sock yarn! I have now told myself that I will not buy ANY more sock yarn, no matter how fancy the stripes are, until I have finished the 13 balls of sock yarn that I listed in my inventory (in addition to 6 balls of Noro Silk Garden and some lace yarn that I don't count since it resides in the basement). Basically, I have my work cut out for me.

13 pairs of socks. No big deal, right? That is only 130 hours of knitting socks. I could knit straight through for 5.4 days, finish all my sock yarn, and still have time to buy myself some sock yarn before heading back to school.
yeah....no.

Now that I have my priorities straightened out, and have been solely making socks since mid July (with some hats and scarves thrown in there).....instead of knitting socks right now, I am working on a brickwork scarf pattern, given to me along with gorgeous hand dyed yarn by my aunt. Shreya is working on the same pattern, but started a couple days before me, so she has a head start.

Obviously, even though I started later, this is quickly developing into quite the race. Since we are using the same yarn, the same size needles, and the same pattern, the competition is perfect. (Now all I have to do is catch up to her....) My mother is doing the shawl version of the same pattern, but since she started late last night and is working simultaneously on a cabled sweater, I will cut her some slack.

I am currently resisting the urge to stay up until some ridiculous hour in the morning while Shreya peacefully sleeps, until I not only catch up to her, but get one repeat past where she is.

I will probably have to hide my needles from myself...otherwise I might just do this.
In fact, I should probably go upstairs now.

Happy New Year and Happy Knitting!

<3 peace <3

(Neha)

Decreased productivity

I just thought I would alert the public....

This is only the second week since July that I have not made a single pair of socks.
Nope, not one.

I finished my knitpicks essential carbon twist sock number one over Thanksgiving break, have not progressed beyond ribbing on the second one. I seem to be progressing at a pace similar to Shreya....by the way dearest elder sister, hows that pair you started in September going?

Well, I guess that means I am studying hard, right ? (makin' my mother proud)


Don't worry,
Factory will re-open starting one week from today. :)

Most people make two of the same mitten...

Unlike my lovely sister, I chose to make two mittens in the same color and ...wait for it....using the same pattern!

Disclaimer: This picture is not meant to hurt Shreya's feelings. However, the owner of this photo is not responsible for any emotional damage following its viewing.

a lovely couple

i finished a second mitten!!!














now if only they matched...

Credit where credit is due...

So...at some point during a lapse of judgment, I decided that the mittens Shreya was trying to knit (she mentioned them in her last post) really were not particularly difficult, and that she made them complicated by adding stripes unnecessarily. I also decided that since they involved less knitting than socks, they would take less time and be easier. So I decided to make a pair of my own for a friend, using a solid green sock yarn.

I got throught the ribbing and thumb shaping wondering why Shreya didnt just quickly knit up the second mitten...I mean, a couple of hours is a small price to pay for warm hands all winter. By the time I got through the thumb shaping, I was already deciding what color to make my next pair in.

Then I thought that since I have never had second sock syndrome, I won't get second mitten syndrome either.

And then I hit the fingers....and realized that knitting 14 stitches in the round is rather obnoxious, and wondering why anyone in their right mind would knit gloves.

I now give my sister all the credit in the world for not wanting to make the second mitten in that set. I just thought I would announce to everyone that I will now cut her slack when it comes to finishing certain projects. She is absolutely correct. Frozen fingers are definitely not enough motivation to make those mittens.

i really must.

i really must finish that second mitten. i refuse to buy mittens because i'm halfway done with making a pair.

halfway. two hands. one mitten. it's pretty intuitive.

you'd think something like frozen fingers would be good enough motivation but i seem to have more than a mild case of second mitten syndrome. i finished the first mitten last march.

(they're really cool mittens - that kind where you can fold back the flap and have the half-gloved fingers. they're made with yarn (50/50 wool/silk) that em dyed for me last year, blue and white stripes. i'll post a picture later, but like i said, really cool mittens.)

I can't sleep tonight

I found a moth in my room.

I know, I know...

I know I am supposed to be finishing up this pset, and I know I should be studying for my test tomorrow. However, this is a perfect opportunity to work on the boring st st scarf for my roommate's birthday. Yes--the scarf is making more progress than my pset is. It really is lovely yarn, though.


I also know it's not nice to talk about politics (or religion) the first time you meet someone, and I feel like I'm still getting to know this blog. What I am about to show you is inappropriate, but adorably cute.

Hurrah! Let's hope tomorrow's last debate goes well.

Research

At MIT, research is an integral part of the amazing technologies MIT produces every year. So I figured if I'm at MIT, I might as well be doing research on the more important things in life ... knitting.

As I get more and more into knitting (and less and less into technological research), I've discovered new skills I want to acquire:

1. Always having a pair of socks on needles (and hopefully not the same pair over a long long [year?] period of time).
2. Lacework! I want to knit scarves, shawls, and then..... tablecloths for our big dining table to match the newly painted walls and china.
3. Truly get good at fairisle knitting--I'm talking like 20 sthg colors going on.
4. Get finishing down to an art! I've discovered that I hate (almost with a passion) ribbing (it's worse than stockinette stitch!) and weaving in ends. Argggh! I try so hard to match my stitches but it's so obviously glaringly a weaved-in end right there at the doughnut that hugs my hips and doesn't need the bulging weaved-in end! Okay--maybe not that bad, but my goal is to get good at it. I don't have to like it, I just want to get good at it.
5. I want to dye my own yarn! Dude-I want to make my own self-patterning yarns for the sock that will be on my needles. How awesome would that be?
6. If I'm going to be this involved in the process of making a garment, I might as well learn how to go through the whole process of collecting fibers, combing them, dying them, spinning them, balling the resulting yarn (WITH my Amazing ball-winder that everyone is welcome to come by and admire...oh, and ball up some yarn, too, I guess), knitting it, weaving-in ends (argh!), finishing it, and wearing it (granted, it's a fitted piece.) Was that the correct order of how to create a garment? Something else to learn.
7. I should learn how to get fit right, too, though I've gotten progressively better at it.
8. Learn weaving and quilting. That's not quite knitting, but it's got to do with textiles, so they're in the family. I'm a broke college student who spends her last scrapes of money at knitpicks.com. I don't need to get invested into weaving and quilting (or spinning for that matter) quite yet. I'll save that for my more tranquil, have-money-laying-around years. ;)

So all of this has nothing to do with research, but as I have been trying to acquire skills and techniques to improve my above list, I have been learning a ton. In fact, I am fascinated by the knits of other cultures. Latvian or Estonian mittens/socks are popular. Ukranian cross-stitch is popular. (I'm compiling a bunch of Ukranian cross-stitch patterns from the internet into a color-coded booklet for my god-grandmother. She hasn't discovered the joys of Google yet, but she loves the joys of her grandchildren. Hey--I get amazing brownies out of it.) So my new obsession-ish is Japanese lace:

I have thoroughly researched (googled) and found this amazing Japanese artist, Naoko Ichida. Her works are absolutely gorgeous. Her books, of course, are nearly out of print and cost $67 and $42. Too bad it's not on knitpicks.com--40% off until the end of October. Christmas present, perhaps?

Progress

I swear I have been making progress:

The dress

The second sock The ruffled scarf for the roommate's birthday
(ugh! those ends! I probably have enough weaving for another MITKNIT meeting)
The switching of summer & winter wardrobes
The Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop Installation
The MIT Work Week :D

Arrghh!

The sock was too big.
Ripping out.

Yarn Harlot is coming to Boston

from www.yarnharlot.ca/blog

Boston -- Wednesday, October 15th, 7 pm , Hosted by Porter Square Books (With Common Cod Fiber Guild)
Event will be held at St. James' Episcopal Church 1991 Mass Ave. Cambridge, MA Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Seating will be first come first serve. Portersquarebooks.com Tel: (617) 491-2220

Does anyone want to join me to go see her? I'll try and make part of a sock for the event!

:)
Joyatee

The beginnings of another WIP...

No pictures here

Yesterday in my class on how to give presentations (for course 6 people who have no social skills), our professor asked us to do an impromptu 2 minute presentation on the topic of your choice. I pulled out my knitting, and here's the outline of my presentation:

The Importance of Knitting and Why You Should Knit
1. Stress-Reliever
a. The repetitive motion is soothing to the mind
b. Studies show knitting produces the same calming brainwaves whether you're a beginner or an expert
2. Isn't limited to the Stereotypes--My mother teaches montessori school to 3-6 year olds. Montessori is a program heavily based on teaching children life skills using tactile activities. Knitting is a great activity, and the little boys in her class love it! They all made little coasters for their parents last Christmas. So it's NOT an "old granny" hobby.
3. Allows you to Multi-task
a. during movies/tv
b. during lectures
c. on the subway
4. Can get only more and more complex
a. always a challenge but can always keep it simple, too
b. I brought out my knitting at this point and compared my sweater's simple stockinette stich to a cabled legwarmer--showing them the patterns and how you can use multiple needles for knitting in the round.
c. like a video game but better---there are unlimited levels of advancing in knitting.

So I think I was too enthusiastic about my presentation. See y'all Sunday!