It's Finally Fall, Bring On The Knitwear!

Lots of things going on this week in my world of fiber. In conjunction with the room cleaning, I frogged a couple of UFOs (unfinished objects) that were taking up space in my closet. One was a two-side argyle scarf that I was 4" into, and the other was a few panels that were going to be a purse. It was made out of stash yarn and ugly anyway, so I'm glad it's gone. Nothing like a little Spring (I mean Fall) cleaning to remind you about all of the yarn you have!

And speaking of lots of yarn, I recieved all of the sock yarn I ordered by the begining of this week. The three skeins are each absolutely gorgeous! I have already cast-on Andy's socks and am trying to devise sneaky ways to get his foot measurements. BTW, did you know that your forearm is almost the exact same length as your foot? I've decided on a 'waffle' pattern for the socks (k 2 rows, *k2,p2* 2 rows, repeat) which I think will be nice and manly enough for him (although, my grandmother's first knitting project was a pair of argyle socks for my grandfather). As for the other two sock yarns, I was thinking about knitting the green yarn as Jaywalkers and the red yarn as the Snicket Socks. One project at a time Kristin...



Even though I am getting to knitting all of my new yarn, I am still partaking in some stash enhancement, but not in the way you might think. During my parent's visit last weekend, my mother brought me my drop spindle and some roving, which she gave me a few years ago, though it had mysteriously made its way into her stash in the meantime. After remembering how to spin, I was able to whip up some really nice two-ply yarn after only a night's worth of spinning. It's not very even (but heck, 'art yarn' is cool too!), but it will make a nice small project. I'm going to try to spin up the rest of the roving I have, then maybe order a hand-dyed colorway or commercially dyed roving to make a larger project. Again, one project at a time...


And finally, I'm excited to announce that it is cold today. I almost grabbed a scarf on my way out the door. Bring on sweater season!

Less Buying, More Knitting!

First, here are the pictures of my crochet scarf, described in the last post (which I guess was just yesterday, I must be getting blog-happy).


Yay for finished projects!

Second, my credit card is feeling some heat from more yarn purchases. I decided that I never use birthday money on exciting things, so this year, I bought sock yarn! I bought a skein of the Fred Flinstone colorway of Socks That Rock, though I am still debating if I should have bought the Seal Rock colorway. Maybe I'll try to dye my bare Merino in similar colors (if I have time for that).

But Oh! the purchasing does not stop there. I ordered two handpainted skeins from Spunky Eclectic ; a skein of Green Gables for me and a skein of Soylent to make socks for Andy. I hope that the two colorways aren't sold out, so we'll see if I actually get those skeins (crossing my fingers). Sigh. Will someone please hide my credit card, because the birthday money is now gone...

She's On A Roll...

Yes, more crochet! I knit--I mean crocheted--a quick scarf this weekend out of some cotton yarn frogged from a previous attempt at a scarf. I like how the project turned out, but I learned a valuable lesson from it: My chain stitches need to be looser, especially because my chain edge was the long side of the scarf. It put a slight curl in the scarf, but it's still super cute!

[Pictures here soon!]

I'm trying to determine what to make next, though I'm pretty sure it's about time I got back to knitting. I've been listening to back-episodes of the Lime and Violet podcast, and they're sock obsession is rubbing off on me. I'm now thinking about knitting a pair of socks for Andy out of the Merino fingering wieght yarn I just bought from Knitty (see last post, it's one of the undyed skeins). He doesn't read either of my blogs, so this should be a surprise for him. My birthday is this Friday, so I was also thinking about buying some sock yarn with birthday money. Not that I need more yarn, but I really like to knit socks.

However, not everything I want to make is socks. I came across this amazing pattern for a Coco Channel-type sweater in Greetings from Knit Cafe, which I would really love to make. But first, I have to get through the 'Green Monster'. One big project at a time, otherwise I won't get anything done!

I'd like to cast something on soon, but I'm pretty busy this week. Plus, I've got a pile of library books backed up on the nightstand, so who knows when I'll put something on the needles. Hopefully it won't be too long before I have something new to report here!

I've gone to the dark side...

Here are the words that no true knitter really likes to admit: I enjoy crocheting.

Since my last post about my initial attempt at this needle art, I decided to learn exactly how crochet works and its advantages/disadvantages compared to knitting. So, I went to my local library and took out the new Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet book. Just like her knitting book, Deb Stoller provides clear instructions and interesting patterns. I also discovered that my first crochet project was 'hybrid crochet', and that I did not create any of my stitches in the correct way. I have since learned to do it correctly and have even finished my first project--a bag to use at the farmer's market. As it was my first project, I used a cheap acrylic yarn and a very open mesh stitch just to get the feel of hookin'. The result is a large, over-the-shoulder bag that will definitely come in handy for my frequent trips to the farmer's market. As an added bonus, it only took me about 4 nights to complete!



Even though I crochet now, I am still a knitter, which means I have unfinished knitting projects stuffed in all corners of my room. In fact, I've had one big one on the needles since I started this blog--my knitted wrap. It's made of an olive green alpaca-silk blend from KnitPicks done in a honeycomb stitch, and it will be really nice if I ever finish it. The design is basically a large panel that wraps around my back, crosses in front and has sleeves for the lower part of my arms. I'll have to model it when it's finished so you can see how it works. Here's what it looks like so far:



Anyway, the real reason I am bring this up (besides that fact that I haven't shown pictures of it yet) is that I realized that I do not have enough yarn to finish it. Which naturally leads to every fiber-obsessed person's two favorite words: stash enhancement. Normally, I would just buy the amount of extra yarn I need and not deplete my poor graduate student's budget any more. But I bought this yarn at Knitpicks, which has free shipping on all yarn purchases over $40 (and you can buy A LOT of KnitPicks yarn for $40). With the yarn I needed, I was already half-way to the magic number, so I figured, why waste money on shipping when I can buy more yarn instead? Yes, I will use any excuse to buy more yarn.


The last thing that is happening on the fiber front is that I have recently discovered knitting podcasts! You can find them for free on the iTunes store and subscribe to get semi-weekly updates. I've tried out 'Lime & Violet' and 'CastOn' so far and have been pleasently surprised. These two podcasts are very different, but I really like hearing people talk about knitting, yarn, etc. Plus, is gives me time to relax and knit for a while. This could be addicting...

Wait! Those aren't knitting needles...

Well, the finger knitting mentioned in the previous post turned out to be a very cool technique. Cool and quick enough to make a long, thin scarf out of some spare yarn in one sitting. The result is nothing extraordinary, but I bet that I get some use out of the scarf once winter hits Madison.



In addition to using my fingers to create fabric, I have recently learned to, gasp, crochet! I've been knitting for over four years now, so it is about time that I learned a thing or two about crochet. Thus far, I can chain and single crochet, which is enough for me. What really inspired me to learn was a pattern for a cute little round clutch in the book One Skein. So I broke out the only crochet hook I own (the one I use to fix my knitting mistakes), a handful of my Kool Aid-dyed yarn, and flipped to the section on crochet in my Stitch 'n Bitch book. After knitting, it was easy to get the hang of crocheting and I am well on my way to having a little round clutch!


Slowly, but surely, I am attacking my stash. Even if it means resorting to crochet!

Vacation = Time To Knit ?

Unfortunately, the above equation did not prove to be very true over my vacation these past two weeks. With my sister's wedding, various sight-seeing excursions, and a long novel, the only knitting I really got done was in San Francisco.

The small amount of vacation knitting was focused on knitting a double-point needle roll. I made it out of this pretty merino-cotton blend that my grandmother gave me. It turned out very nicely, and will be handy once I actually do all of the finishing touches. So, here it is:




I also worked on a variation of this bag before I left for my trip, using up a bunch of blue/green/yellow yarns from my stash. Some of the color combos are a bit weird because I used 3 strands at a time, so we'll see how the bag comes out in the end.

Also still working on the large green wrap. I realized this weekend that I do not have enough yarn to finish it, so sometime I will have to get around to ordering more. Sigh...

In the meantime, I am enjoying the new Knitty that just came out, and contemplating the possible uses for finger-knitting.

PS. Check out the new link for the hilarious crafting blog Threadbared under the Links on the right. Thanks Mom for passing it on!

From One Quick Project To The Next

Over my mini-vacation at the Kalahari this past weekend, I decided to pack a ball of chenille yarn to start working on a washcloth. I started it on Friday night, and it was finished on Sunday. I love projects like that!


I'm not a fan of chenille, but I think that its use here will be nice. The overall pattern is nice also, though I will make a few modifications if I make another one.

After finishing this project, I started thinking about what to knit next. I have a big project (a green wrap) on the needles right now, and I have a rule against working on two large projects at the same time. So, for a bit of inspiration, I brought out my stash.


And boy, do I have a lot of yarn (I even left some at my parent's house!). There is more yarn in the Target bag in the corner, which contains remnants from past projects which will be used at a future date for wacky scarf/blanket/whatever.

I really like small projects but I've knit so many hats and scarves that I'm not really inspired to make anything at the moment. Of course I have plans and ideas for some of my yarn, but I want to be enthusiastic about the project that I am working on.

So for the moment, I am waiting for the spirit to give me a vision. Hopefully I'll have something fun to work on by the time I leave for my big trip in two weeks. I'll keep you posted...