Disappointment

I subscribed to Interweave Knits (finally) this fall because I ALWAYS like at least 2 patterns in each issue. I figure buying a magazine with 21 patterns in it for $6, and actually using 2 of them ain't bad, so why not subscribe? It'd be even cheaper.

I LOVED the Interweave Accessories magazine they came out with recently. My subscription was for only 4/year (8/2 years actually), so the accessories issue doesn't come with it. I was alright with that because I knew the winter issue was coming up soon, and how would I possibly keep up with all of the interweave patterns I wanted to make? (I'm a loon when it comes to buying yarn, I understand. I'm saving up for when I move to some crazy place without yarn stores. I'm not as much of a loon when it comes to buying patterns [not books]. I know [kind of] realistically what I can finish.)

Unfortunately, I think Interweave has failed me. :( They released their pattern pictures online. There isn't a single garment I like! I (semi) like one thing in the entire magazine (enough to contemplate making it, and then deciding against it)--the covers for the paper lanterns. And that was only because it was a pretty lace pattern. The light shined through the lace to get a really cool effect. Maybe I will make it. Still, I'm disappointed. :(

Proposed Project for Neha

Hello from California!

I hope things are going well for everyone back in MA. I've discovered that it is not nearly cold enough here (at least yet, but it doesn't seem to get too too cold) to make my usual winter items! Friends don't REALLY need the same gear! I am working an AWESOME pair of socks (clessidra) right now. Turns out I like knitting socks.

I ran across this pattern (when I'm sure I should have been working...on lab things...on my test...) and I thought it might make a great project for Neha...so I thought I'd share. Although, chances are, she's probably already seen them and made them....Mini Holiday Stockings!

I hope to get pictures up soon. What is everyone working on these days?!

Not quite SABLE*, but getting there

*SABLE = Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy

Oops.

Knitting Day

Today is a knitting day, or I hope so, at least. I know that Boston is supposed to be a city where people knit a lot. Unfortunately, I have never seen anything that really proves this... until today!

I was riding the T in the morning on the way to campus. I usually have my sock knitting in hand, but I opted to read a book for the Literary Society this morning instead. Voila, the lady in front of me was knitting the Circle Socks in Knit Picks Felici (the discontinued Gelato colorway--I remember thinking-that's the ice cream colorway! but I couldn't remember the exact name) on KnitPicks circs, of course. Is it sad that I knew all of that before trying to find the circle socks link on ravelry? I wanted to pull out my socks-on-needles, but I was slightly embarrassed switching hobbies in the middle of a short T-ride. A little Asian lady sat next to her and proceeded to ask her about what she was making. Their conversation turned into which good yarn shops were around the area. According to her, they were Woolcott, Mind's Eye, Stitch House, and Wild & Wooly--the best. The Asian lady even wrote down "Wild & Wooly in Lexington" on her newspaper. I was thinking 'You forgot Windsor Buttons,' but I didn't mention it. (I have yet to go to Stitch House.)

Then, today at the foodtrucks, I was waiting in line at Clover to get my chickpea fritter sandwich. There was a girl wearing a handknit shawl. I know I've seen the pattern before, but this time the yarn and the pattern were a bit more elusive. It was similar to the style of Ishbel, but the border lace was more like Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle. I also wanted to say it was knit in Malabrigo lace, but I could be wrong about that, too. She had a handknit hat stuffed in her pocket, as well. I wanted to ask her what pattern her shawl was (and proceed to ask her about the hat), but she was engrossed in a conversation with her friend. I decided not to further my stigma of being the crazy yarn lady.

Thirdly, it's finally cool enough (usually a bad thing) to wear the sweaters I made this summer! They're obviously handknits, but they're warrrmmmm and cash iroha is yummmy against the skinnnn :D One of my friends asked if I knit the sweater I was wearing and I got to reply, 'yes!' Now off to spend my Friday evening..... knitting in my room & watching episodes of Lost. :D Yippee!

exception?

.....can I propose an exception to the pact?

If I order 2 balls of knit picks essential in 2 different colors, for a specific project that I cant find the right color for :(, and I promise to finish both balls within a week of their arrival....can I get them?

thoughts/comments?!

Photography

18Aug2009 092
Originally uploaded by smiles_joy_25

Many knitters have such stunning pictures on Ravelry, I have decided to try my hand at photography, too. (A way to waste money on things other than yarn, perhaps?) Yesterday, I shelled out quite a bit of money to buy a Digital SLR. I figured it would be a nice birthday present for myself. I can't wait to get it in the mail and play around with it before school starts.

I have been packing to move to our new apartment. McCormick has a really cute little sewing room that holds a bunch of sewing supplies along with sewing machines. It's so convenient (but the room is HOT because there are no windows or air-conditioning). Well, I decided I should take advantage of McCormick's button collection from the sewing room before leaving. I went through and sorted the buttons to find some buttons that will go with one of the next projects I have in mind. I decided to pull out my point-and-shoot camera and capture the sorted colors. I wonder how this picture would come out with a better lens.

To top it all off, the MIT Student Arts Association sent out an email yesterday inviting everyone to take some art classes. My roommate and I both decided that we were gonna take one of these classes, assuming we'll have more time as grad students (ha!) So now, i am signed up for "Street Photography" on Fridays 4:30-6pm. I hope it's good :D :D I hope I can use my DSLR a lot, too. I can't wait! :D

Warning: potential future rut

Yesterday was quite the day.

First, I decided to go back to my lace project, which I started in March....and oops....apparently last time I worked on it I messed up big time. I ended up ripping out the whole project, and stowing the yarn and pattern far far away.

Second, I blocked my prairie tunic and although I haven't seamed it up yet, I can already tell its massive. And by massive, I mean humongous. I think I should rename it "maternity dress."

Third, I got really motivated that I was down two projects, or the knitting of them at least...so I cast on a pair of simple lace socks. In a gorgeous Araucania sugar cane yarn of the wrong weight.
One word: frogged.

So currently I am proud to say that I only have two projects on the needles, and one of them (a noro scarf) I dont intend on revisiting til the winter.

At least I have an excuse to start a new project? Or 3? Hopefully today will be a better day...

I'm trying

Must. Not. Buy. Yarn.

I need a new way to take a break at work other than ravelry.com, yarn.com, and knitpicks.com. I just want everything at those 3 sites. Any suggestions?

the pact

i feel the need to state this publicly in order to make it equally publicly humiliating for us if we fail: my mum, my sister and i have made a pact that we will NOT be buying ANY yarn until christmas*.

i suppose trades on ravelry would be okay, and we agree that the purchase of patterns may be necessary to maintain some level of sanity, but still NO YARN. it doesn't matter if it's a one-of-a-kind, hand-dyed, rare variety of silk and cashmere blend on clearance for $3 per 100 grams; the three of us will be knitting from our stash for the next six months.

voting poll is now open: can we do it?

i've already decided to tempt fate and made plans to go to the marketplace at Stitches East, which is in october. i can go to just look, right? still, i somehow feel that the knitting gods may strike and that i should be extra careful with gauge swatches for a while.

please wish us all luck.





*except for one skein that i have been looking for in order to make a gift. don't worry, this was part of the stated deal, despite the appearance of fine print.

Stash-busting?

I realized a simple something. I want to knit with all of the yarn I have. I don't want to die before I finish using my yarn. I want it all to myself. (Selfish, I know, but who said all knitters are nice?) Therefore, I must take some serious stash-busting measures.

At least I don't have a sock yarn stash quite this big yet. I think I can finish what I have in a lifetime.

Must....knit....
:)

UFO's

According to my ravelry, I have 14 WIPs. This means that I'm honestly trying to finish these 14 projects in the near future. (Can anyone guess how long the near future is? If I bet, this would be amusing to bet on.) I'm making progress on some of them, but sometimes, it gets a little overwhelming. I start a project thinking it's the best thing in the world, and it deserves all of my attention. I do spend a fair amount of time working on it (depending on the project, that's either 20 minutes or 5 hours), but then another project comes along...

According to my ravelry, I have 10(!) projects hibernating. This means I was trying to be realistic(!) and weeding out the projects that I won't work on in the near future (again, I wonder how long the near future is). I have every intention of finishing them and showing off their beauty (to my mother), but it all depends on how soon I finish my WIPs.

According to my ravelry, I have 58 projects. Subtract the 14 WIP's, 10 hibernating projects, and 2 frogged projects--I really only have 32 completely projects. That's actually not that bad. It's been less than a year since I've joined ravelry, and clearly, I've gone nuts over knitting.

Now the goal is to do something about the other 24(/26 projects if you include the yarn from the 2 frogged projects) in the next year. Nevermind my (evergrowing) stash.

Sockiversary...

Well guys...its been a while since me (or anyone else) has posted on this thing...but I felt like I should say hello, since its officially been a year since I started knitting socks. When I completed my first pair of socks….all I could think was “Why would ANYONE in their right mind decide to knit socks???”

26 pairs of socks later….here is what I have realized....I have my own version of “you know you knit too much when ____” .... only for me, its "you know you knit too many socks when ____"

So here goes.

You know you have knit too many socks when:
- Every roommate you have ever had owns a pair of handmade socks by you.
- You have scanned through all 204 pages of sock patterns with fingering weight yarn on ravelry.
- You have about 19 balls or skeins of sock yarn in your stash.
- You start knitting a sweater with yarn designed specifically for socks.

- You have started making baby socks for unknown babies of various sizes.

- You have made more pairs of socks than you own.

I also had to steal this one from Penny’s Blog…it was too good to pass up.

“You judge your friends by whether or not they are ’sock-worthy’”

…..nuff said.

Currently, to mark the occasion, I am knitting my first pair of toe-up socks. The thoughts going through my head right now are something along the lines of “why on earth would anyone knit socks from the toe up??”

Hopefully my feelings will change…

We’ll see.

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)