Tag: Knitting

Hide From The Monster

The “knit monster” as I like to call it, is attempting to escape in full force. People keep sending me links to sales for sock yarn, or free shipping on sites if you order more than $25. For those of you that don’t know, $25 is roughly the equivalent of yarn for two pairs of socks. So, very easy to do. Buying yarn online is much cheaper, but I have yet to do it. I’ve been resisting. But the deals lately are getting really really good. I assume it’s in anticipation of Christmas, since the retailers know all us crafty people are raring to make some cool stuff.

I didn’t have this problem last year because I didn’t start knitting again until just after Christmas, and I was at home with no internet access and no knowledge of the outside world. Now though, it’s a completely different story. There’s some really nice yarn out there for some really great prices, and it’s getting really hard not to crack and buy a ton of it. I bought some Regia from Cloth & Clay last week, thinking that would help and it has, somewhat. The problem is I am diligently trying to avoid the huge stash that most people seem to accumulate, and if I start buying yarn before finishing what I’ve got that is bound to happen.

Besides my crazy compulsion to be a fibre consumer-whore, the Regia socks with magic loop are coming along really nicely. This colourway is really bright, and it should definitely make for some interesting conversation once they’re done. I must admit I’m in love with almost all of the Canadian colourways. They aren’t as somber as most self-patterning sock yarns. I want to try at least five of the others to see how they knit up.

Wow, reading this over it sounds like I should attempt a Christmas list for once in my life. Send me some sock-knitting love.


Completed Sweater

My knitted hoodie is finally finished! I still need to weave in the ends and block it, but it is finished. It looks good, though the shape is a little bulky as of yet. I’ll see if I can get it to shape better when I block it. It feels good to have finished a big project, though really it didn’t take all that long. I still like socks much better. They don’t have tons of seams to sew up.

I mooched toothpicks off of my grandma, so I can finally make the tiny socks for the socknitters pin. I’m pretty sure I’m going to use the leftover wool from my bed socks (if I can find it – the cat stole it) since I really love those colours. I’m not sure about the other sock, but I could try using bits from that wool for it. We’ll see I guess.

I need to make more socks.


Ramblings

Since the midterm, I’ve been working on my cross-stitch and sweater quite a bit. I now have one sleeve and the hood to go before finishing, and have started an entirely new area of the cross-stitch. I did break a needle, and another is almost broken. I need more, but everything closed early yesterday and I missed out.

Soon I get to go venturing for The Art of Breaking and see if there’s more needles at Zellers so I won’t have to go all the way down to Michael’s. Lazy, I know.

I want to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We’ll see if that happens before Friday.

We had sushi yesterday, but it wasn’t as good as it usually is. Weird. Wasabi is goood.

I’m hungry and I sleep too much. I want cheese.

Kitty loves me. All it takes is for me to look at him and he starts purring. He’s going to be lonely as hell when I move back to Waterloo.

I need to start packing. I don’t feel like scrambling trying to decide what to bring home.


I Have Sweater Pieces

I’ve started the sweater, and have come to a decision as to why knitting is so addictive. It seems to me that no matter how many things we make, the marvel is still there that all these warm clothes and useful things can be made from a simple piece of string and some sticks.

This sweater is larger and a bit more complicated than things I usually make, but it still uses the same basic things, just in a different form. It’s amazing.

Oh, and for anyone who cares, the gray colour turned out to be so dark it’s essentially black. But it’s nice.


Craft Update

The Peacock Tapestry is getting some much-needed attention lately. I’m finding it a lot more relaxing to work on than my knitting at the moment. I suspect that I’m getting frustrated with knitting lately because I’m just finishing up pairs of socks and anyone who has knit socks can tell you how trying it is to overcome SSS. Even so, I am finishing them, albeit slowly.

While in Waterloo to check messages and pick stuff up I finally ordered the yarn for my sweater from Cloth & Clay. I changed the colour scheme though, so I’m hoping it works out. The main body of the sweater will be royal violet what seems a light shade of gray [many of the darker colours are unavailable until the fall shipment, and since I want to be wearing the sweater then, the violet was replaced], with the sleeves and bottom in a mauve/lavender-type shade. The accent stripe is a pale peach or so. I looked up the colours online, since none of the places around here actually keep that particular yarn in stock, so the exact shades are a guess. I don’t mind too much. Experimenting is fun. I just hope they have all the yarn that I want and that it doesn’t get too expensive. Some places had this stuff listed for $10 a ball, and I’m ordering 11 of them, so at the very least I think I can say it will cost $100. I highly expect it will be worth it. A handmade kid merino hooded-sweatshirt for the winter? I can’t see why it wouldn’t be.

I am going to have to remember to make a copy of the pattern, since I’m doing it from the Stitch ‘n’ Bitch book that I bought for my mom. I know she’s wanted the book for a while, so I hope that she uses it, or that my sister does. It’s got some great advice and is a great resource.

At least I doubt that I’ll get anymore yarn until next year, between the sweater and the stash I have of Bernat Sox yarn. I love that it was on sale for $1 a ball. There’s maybe 20 of them here and whatever remains of the stash that I have in Waterloo. I’ll be making socks blissfully all winter long. It’s acrylic and nylon yarn, so it’s not the warmest stuff, but it does the job and it’s cheap enough for me not to feel guilty. I justify the sweater since I’m planning on making it last for years to come, and I get to make it myself. The alternative would be spending that money on another WLU sweatshirt, but since I have three already and I’ll probably want a Western one when I get there, it’s better not to take that route.

I’m making some more dishcloths, this time for the Cambridge house. All the ones I can find are falling apart or close to it. At least I know the knitted cotton ones last for years and hold up well. They get to stay after the summer, a useful gift.

I can see myself using up some of my mom’s stash while I am visiting to make a bag for carrying these projects around in. Maybe to make a purse that isn’t slightly larger than a wallet. I know that’s just asking for trouble, since it makes it very easy to carry around tons of stuff I’ll never use, but considering I’ve had positively tiny purses my entire life I’m not entirely worried about that.


Cut Your Teeth Socks

Today has been productive. In a relaxing way, which is good. I finally finished the worsted-weight blue cotton socks for my mom, and am making some real progress on the Cut Your Teeth socks from Knitty. The first one has been done for a while, and a few of the squares for the second one, but I’ve been caught up with school and cross-stitch and website stuff and haven’t really finished them.

I’m pretty sure I’m making them for my sister. They seem to be something she would like, unless she’s getting to the point where she cares if people think negatively of what she wears. The mostly-orange colour scheme would go really well with THE REJECTS shirts that we have. I’d make more for all of us, but I don’t really care for most of the other people that have them. Kyle is decent, he can have some if he wants. Though I doubt he would, seeing as they are a bit on the “girly” side. I guess me and Steph shall be the only ones to get reject socks to go with our shirts.

Sometimes, I don’t know. I know she likes the aqua colour yarn that I have, and the variegated stuff that matches it. I’ve been teasing the idea of making her these socks out of that. Maybe I’ll make both, and let her choose. The matching idea is just my fancy and isn’t really grounded on anything concrete. Giving her socks that she would actually like and wear would be much better.

It’s really hot out. It doesn’t bother me too much but I do have the A/C on. Bones is getting all lightheaded and weird from the heat and it’s bothering me. Especially since I know he has air in his car. Maybe that’s why he’s not really going to work much lately. Too much heat. Though if that is part of the reason I am pretty sure that it’s not the only reason. He drinks entirely too much. He doesn’t really give a reason other than that he likes the buzz. He said he prefers it to being high. Alcohol is his drug of choice.

People wonder why I don’t drink, why I don’t smoke, why I refuse to try any kind of drug. Did it ever occur to any of you that I have watched these things completely destroy people’s lives around me? That I have lived with rampant substance abuse around me pretty much my entire life until I moved to Waterloo? Maybe I’ve seen what can happen and would rather avoid that kind of thing for myself.


Lace

Majora's Mask cross-stitch

I’ve finally gotten brave enough to start knitting some lace patterns. The first is a simple gauge swatch with lace on the front to turn it into a useful bag. The others are a bit fancier. Some sock patterns and a skirt that I may get up the courage to wear sometime.

I’m also planning on making the hooded sweatshirt from Stitch ‘n’ Bitch since I want to try making something other than tubes and squares. I never really make anything with seams. This way I get to try using mohair and experimenting with new techniques. Learning is never a bad thing.

The Majora’s Mask cross-stitch is coming along nicely, though I am still making a few pairs of socks at the same time. Dean’s mom asked me to make baby socks as a gift for someone in Portugal, and I’m making a few extras since babies grow so darn fast. I doubt the first pair will fit for long.

I seem to have lost my only crochet hook. I shall have to find that.


Bed Socks

I finally got to finish and give away the bright pink socks that Lisa wanted. They were a little big, but that was fixed and now they should fit just fine. They really are just sooo pink. They were fluorescing like crazy when she left with them. I don’t think I have a picture, unless there is one on the camera that I missed, but Lisa will have some soon and I can try to get a digital version.

I’m making myself some bed socks too, though they aren’t anywhere near as thick as the pink ones. I’m using Regia for once. REAL sock yarn. One sock is finished, and is a little loose, but I like that idea since I am planning on wearing them to bed and I’d rather not have my feet being ‘strangled’ as it were.


Muppet Socks!

I really like these. These were a product of a very long and stressful bus trip. I brought the travelling yarn bag and decided to start another pair of socks. I had left my fuzzy yarn from the hat and scarf I made in there, and so I started the ribbing with that rather than adding it at the end. It’s truly part of the actual body of the sock, rather than being simple embellishment.

[By the way, one of these days I’ll remember to post a picture of said hat and scarf, though it’ll probably be a while.]

I have a lot of yellow sock yarn kicking around. I guess it was on sale and my sister liked the colour, because I got a package in the mail full of maybe nine balls of yellow and one orange. Since I decided to see how it knit up, it was next to be added. As well, I am finally experimenting with switching colours, and ways of better attaching them to keep projects from coming apart. Using two types of yarn in distinctly different colours was a good way to learn, I thought.

To continue that thought, I used most of what was left of the pink from the Inverse Socks to emphasize the toes and heels on these socks. The short row heels are comfortable, but I’ve yet to find out how well they wear. In any case, these socks were the product of several experiments and a couple of frogging sessions, but I think overall they turned out to be something fun to look at and wear.

The name is because they remind me so much of a muppet. I’m not sure if there is actually a muppet with this colour scheme, but it just seems so much to resemble the way they look. I think these shall be my sandal socks. [Yes, I know, the scandal!]