fingers and toes

Redo

2007-12-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

Circus clown colored entrelac scarf...
...and some blue dye...
...much improved scarf! It was a lot of fun dying all those bright colors but it was a little much. Overdying it seems to have done the trick - still multicolored, but a bit more coordinated.
Now its more like harlequin or stained glass than rainbow clown. These pictures don't really show how deep and rich the color is.

pretty freaky

2007-12-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

Apparently someone has designed a hat for me. No seriously, this Magknits pattern is called Hannah. I swear, I had nothing to do with this! I wish that someone had come up with this idea last year when I had long hair and complained about not being able to fit a hat over it.

In other news, I started yet another lovely pattern by Ysolda. This is my third pattern of hers (I made a Cloud Bolero and am working on Urchin. The bolero is great; urchin may need to be frogged because I am running out of yarn.

For a few recent pics of other stuff see my flickr.

new yarn and gloves!

2007-03-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

this is some wool yarn i got real cheap from the destash blog. it's kinda rough but still a good deal and i like the colors. maybe a large felted bag? there's about 450 grams here.

i also got some noro novelty yarn from the same person, also a good deal and very pretty colors. the shiny colorful ply is rayon and the white part is soft cotton and silk.

these are the gloves i made from the koigu yarn karen got me. i made them starting with the fingers using nona's i-cord method.
this is some sock yarn i just dyed. i already starting knitting pomatomus socks.

2007-03-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

this weekend i visited my cousins. they would not let me rest until i finished what i was knitting for them...
...a bunny and a bear with little crocheted scarves.

the children are slightly cuter than the animals.

the pattern is bubby the bear with knitpicks swish.

i also gave daniel his mittens but unfortunately i did not take a picture of him wearing them. he seems to like them.

catching up

2007-02-22T22:05:00.001-08:00

a better picture of the tomoto i knit last summer, and the carrot that goes along with it. i dyed the yarn for the carrot too.

mittens i knit last semester. the yarn is lamb's pride worsted that i dyed in my microwave using 3 glass jars. the color pooling is a little funny.

lovely noro kureyon with dpns that i made last year.
linda's bag, pre-felting. it's Kureyon-Chan. i ended up with only 10" of yarn left over!

my handspun (curly b/c its before washing). i made a little bag for brittany with it (similar to linda's) which is rather too bright.

socks! made from the roving that chloe gave me for christmas, which i dyed and spun while i was in brooklyn. very warm.
the cuff is twisted 1 x 1 rib.

thats all for now... maybe they'll be pictures of things i'm knitting now next time...

from the summer...

2007-01-24T15:25:00.000-08:00

1. A tomato, which I won second prize for in the knit toy catagory in a county fair. The red is Lamb's Pride dyed with cherry kool-aid. It still smells sweet.
2. A little cotton vine lace stitch cardigan, modeled by the lovely Rebecca at Pinewoods. The yarn is a good quality 100% cotton I got from ebay. The button is a large crystal bead but you can't see it in this picture.

I really like this little sweater and I'd like to make a full-size version some day.

it is all leana's fault...

2007-01-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

...that i'm finally posting something. she's very persistent.

i left my camera cord at school so no real pics for now. i have a few i took with my computer. i've already dyed and spun some the fiber chloe gave me :) very easy to spin! this is about 100 yards, worsted weight.
these are mittens for daniel, my cousin. they fit me too. the yarns is knitpicks swish (superwash merino).

my new years resolution is to post every week!

more mittens in august

2006-08-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

this is the pattern for the double knit mittens i swatched last week. right now the pattern is prettier than the mitten.

i'm making the type of thumb where stitches are picked up from waste yarn. so, there's no gusset, but there is some shaping. Meg, my the camp director's wife, is entering something in a country fair and i'm thinking about entering this or my knit vegetables.

no pictures yet, but i'm swatching the red silky yarn from the last entry. i'm also working on a pair of cabled purple/red fingerless mitts similar to the blue/green ribbed ones.

mitts in august

2006-08-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

My alarm clock thermometer says 95 today. These are made with with the seahorse yarn I dyed last week.

Here is some more yarn to dye. I unraveled a scarf from the $2 clothing rack. It doesn't feel like 75% silk but it's pretty nice anyway. There's a lot of it - enough for a lace shawl. I think the original scarf was made with two strands of lace weight held together.

This is nautie, an ancient snail with tentacles. I'm using fingering weight instead of worsted. Almost done

I have plans for double knit mittens...maybe to make in the fall. I don't have enough patience right now.

2006-07-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

I'm at Pinewoods, a folk dance camp near Cape Cod between two lakes. I'm managing the auction (which raises money for the organization) and organizing parties. I'll try to update this every monday, when i'm off.
Last night me and my friend Amy dyed some yarn in the kitchen. It was awesome because the kitchen is huge and most of the crew was hanging out commenting on the pretty colors between beers and fiddle tunes.
This summer I'm knitting vegetables and sea creatures (suggestions please). I love the tomato I made but the pictures of it are terrible because I guess bright red objects in bright sunlight are difficult. Also I want: a carrot, beet, sea horse, cucumber (with ribbing), octopus, and arugula.

I don't know what I'm going to make with this yarn yet -- octopus?

This one I already started a carrot.

A pale beet perhaps.

Seahorse.

This is my Odessa hat. The yarn is knitpicks elegance in cornflower.

Fishy from leftover sock yarn. It needs eyes.

i'm back!!!

2006-05-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

3.4 socks:

did you miss me? i've been knitting, just too busy/lazy to post. also my laptop died a few days ago. i finished the jaywalkers that i started right after spring break. its a fun pattern, though they did end up a tiny bit too big. i used knitpicks undyed merino sock yarn and spent far too much time making it self-striping. the actual dying was fun enough - lots of walking around the dining room backwards and dying my fingernails blue. balling it required listening to all of rent and much stubborness. from now on i'm only doing variegated!
i only changed the pattern for the toes. i think the original ones are actually nicer, but this way mine are different from all the other jaywalkers
and what about that sock on the right? thats a finished (but unblocked) mini argyle sock. this is the first of the pair but the second one i've made. while i was in paris i finished one that i don't like because the gauge is too loose. maybe i'll post a picture of it and why i don't like it in a few days.
anyway, i really like this one...the toe:the heel:

no pictures :(

2006-03-08T21:06:00.000-08:00

no pictures because i haven't been knitting anything this week. how sad. i have been studying instead, which is not all that bad. after all, i'm in college to learn stuff. now all i have left is to finish my english paper...
and no pictures because what i have been knitting is white and boring. it's a ribbed silk scarf for my dad which will eventually be dyed blue. i'm probably at about 2 feet out of 5 at this point. i'll work on it on the plane with my lovely wooden needles.
the exciting news is that i received my knitpicks order today: 2 skeins of undyed sockwool, 2 balls of white andean silk (also for dyeing) and several balls of palette for colorwork socks. and of course i have to overdye the palette yarns because the blue is too crayola. so...that means possibly a lot of dyeing when i go home this weekend. i'm hoping to make the undyed sock yarn self-striping. perhaps i'll have some pretty colored pictures in a few days...

getting ready for spring...

2006-02-25T14:05:00.000-08:00

last night i decided to stay in and be a knitting dork. here's the front of the tank top i made last year while i was at pinewoods. its my first and only tank top, and i didn't follow a pattern (probably not a wise choice, but its been a good learning experience).

several problems...since its a cotton/rayon blend (knitpicks shine) i've washed it in the machine a few times and it's shrunk so that the lacy part comes up to high and exposes my bra (which is bad). to prevent this i tended to pull it down every 5 mins, which was so annoying that i did not look forward to wearing it.
this is the back. although it fits, the double decreases in the center are too lumpy and the seed stitch competes with the lace pattern. so, i decided to rip it out to below the seed st and re-knit it 2" longer and with better edging. this is what i've done so far:
you can see a line (near the bottom of the chest) where i ripped to, but i think this will disappear after a washing. i tried a simple yarnover edge instead of seed stitch. so far, much better.

a few days ago i made another swatch for the socks, this time with corrugated ribbing. not stretchy, but very pretty. i've decided on blue and light yellow but i haven't ordered it yet.

this isn't a very good picture, but i started a garter st scarf knit lengthwise with the mohair left over from the shawl. it's actually knit straight, not in the round as it appears. the ends on the right side of the photo will be fringes on either end of the scarf.

i really want to make a knit bunny.

new stuff!

2006-02-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

so i decided that it's time i do some teeny fair isle. this swatch is 8.9 sts/in on size 1 needles. i got the idea from Eunny's blog. these were just the colors i happened to have around. i 'll probably make the socks blue and light yellow.
i tried to do two-handed fair isle, where you hold one color in the left hand and knit continental while knitting english with the other color in the right hand. i couldn't do this very well because i have trouble knitting english and keeping the tension the same without dropping everything. oh well, maybe another time i'll figure it out. so for now i'm holding both strands with my left hand, which seems to work fine.
about two weeks ago at 2 am i decided i just had to start a lace scarf. hopefully it will be better after blocking...

are you tired of purple lace yet?

2006-02-12T13:45:00.000-08:00

yeah, i thought so. i'm a bit tired of it too, so i decided to photoshop the first two of these photos so you can see the sock in different colors.

blue looks pretty good, doesn't it?

it's a short-row heel with a slip-stitch pattern and a gusset. it's a tight fitting sock (51 sts on sz 1 needles) so i increased to 59 sts since that area is usually the tightest for me. also, gussets are pretty.

this is the first one. i'm almost finished, i just need to do the ribbing and on the second one i'm almost at the heel. i really like this pattern.

3 purple FO's this week!

2006-02-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

this is a fan and feather scarf made from knitpick's suri dream. its soft and fluffy and about 5 ft long. it's for either my mother or grandmother, not sure yet.i finished my second purple sock! they fit great, even though the heels are different (the one on top is a peasant heel, which is almost identical to the toe). i promise a better photo after they're washed and i feel like doing acrobatics to take pictures of them on my feet :)

this made me giggle

2006-02-03T11:48:00.000-08:00

go HERE

i was tempted to chop the head off this one...

2006-02-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

i finished my shawl. see the cute little knot and yo edge?

pretty...closeups. on the right: the yo/sewn bind off edge (on the two short sides) compared to the slip-stitch/yo edge (long side). on the left: yo v's in the center
this is an entrelace bag i started a few days ago. it's made from various green and blue leftovers and i plan to felt it when it's done. i'm also working on those purple socks but the progress photo was too boring to post.

purple sock update

2006-01-28T15:44:00.000-08:00

sock #1 is finished!
feel free to skip all my rambling - i'm discussing how i would change my methods next time...

i am mostly happy with it - it fits quite well and the worsted/fingering weight combo haven't spontaneously combusted (yet!). one weird issue is that the lace pattern takes up more space lengthwise than plain stockinette stitch, so the top part of the foot is longer than the bottom. this isn't a huge problem, but i could probably fix it with some occasional short rows on the bottom. i'm not sure if it's worth it.
also, the cast-on is messy and on the heel the transition from thinner to thicker is smoother than going from thicker to thinner (you can't see it very much in the picture but i'll take another one when i finish the second sock). i'm thinking that on the second sock i'll use an "afterthought" type heel, which is worked from pulling out scrap yarn and making a heel-shaped thing. if i do that then i'll only have to transition from thinner to thicker and i won't have holes and chunky spots from my shorts rows (which i need to learn how to do better at some point).

here's a closeup of the toe:

i'm also making process on the mohair shawl, but it's difficult to see anything until it's finished...

its been awhile...

2006-01-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

ok, i just gave on on putting the pictures in the order that i want. how am i supposed to move stuff around when the pictures are as big as the window???

here is a WIP made from pink yarn i found at a thrift shop and dyed and some leftover lambs pride. the heel and toe will be worsted weight while the rest is sock weight - the idea is the my toes will stay warm and the heel will wear well - its an experiment. i'm not crazy about this short-row heel in worsted weight. i might try a different kind in the other sock.

my finished embossed leaves socks. the yarn is knitpicks which i dyed. i like them a lot, but next time i would make the cuff much shorter and perhaps a bit tighter.

this is a shawl i'm making from the mohair chloe gave me from paris. i dyed it in the ball because i thought skeining and dying might make it stick together too much and/or be really really annoying to ball afterwards. the third ball is somewhere at the bottom of my sack of yarn.ps: that's the view from my dorm window. the snow is gross and wet and melty

2006-01-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

first, chloe and karen modeling the scarves i gave them:
right now i'm in florida, but before i left i dyed the lovely mohair yarn chloe gave me. its purple and blue and the three skeins don't match exactly because i dyed it by putting a skein halfway in a cup of dye and putting it in the microwave. i started to make a lace shawl out of it but i was only increasing 2 sts every other row so it was making a weird diamond shape and the pattern was too complicated for the colors. so i ripped it out and i'm going to make one like chloe's blue and white alpaca cloud shawl.
i also finished one embossed leaves sock but i left my camera cord at school so i have to wait until i get back to bklyn to upload using more clever/annoying methods. chloe i promise i'm not trying to copy all your projects, you just have such great knitting.

gifts (mostly)

2005-12-29T11:29:00.000-08:00

1. mittens for a friend who likes silly purple things:

2. headband for me:

3. hat for mom (same braided cable as my headband):

the theme is green and stripey

2005-12-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly, the fish isn't one of the green and stripey things.

A sock and a fishtale:I learned how to do a jogless join between stripes!

mitten!

2005-11-26T22:09:00.000-08:00

gosh its been awhile...here's what i was doing while laughing at the silly old men in my family on thanksgiving. a mitten i made from knitpicks yarn (dark green) and some kool-aid dyed wool in pretty kool-aid colors. check out the self-diagonal-striping effect on the cuff :)i promise after this i'll stop showing pictures of this spinning uptil i finish whatever i'm making with it, but...

purple spinning

2005-11-06T21:52:00.000-08:00

So, I'm sitting in the library not working on my lab report and I thought it would be a good time for a post. I finished my red sweater, but I don't have a picture yet. It fits really well and turned out pretty much how I wanted. The sleeves are longer than they need to be, but they keep my hands warm.
I've also been spinning this gorgeous merino/silk blend. There's 8 oz of fiber total, and so far I've spun about 80 yds laceweight and 117 yds heavy worsted. I couldn't decide how heavy I wanted to spin it, and I might want to ply the two together for an interesting texture. Here are some closeups of the heavier one:

blue, red, green and purple

2005-10-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

ok, i've got a bunch of stuff (and pictures!) since i haven't posted in awhile...i guess i'll go in chronological order.
1. i made these gloves last may because a woman at the brooklyn children's museum development office (where i was interning) doesn't like alpaca and doesn't like bubblegum pink. so, she gave me her two skeins of knitpicks baby alpaca which i dyed cobolt blue with bits of pale purple peeking out (the yarn was heathered to start with, which helped, but i also let the dye absorb quickly, so that's why it's uneven). i was actually intending to dye it purple (since i have too many blue clothes already), but i like the effect i ended up with. anyway, i'm happy it's cold enough for me to wear them now! the pattern is based on http://www.wiseneedle.com/patternpage.asp?pattern=knitpatlily
2. i'm almost done with my red sweater! it my first sweater (though i made a tank top over the summer). i just have to finish the second sleeve and make the yoke.

3. if you hadn't noticed from my first posts, i love entrelac. i'm going to made some green entrelac socks. the little skein is some yarn that i wanted to use, but is way too thick to use with sz 0 needles. i dyed it to be brighter and it's sitting on a sock which is it's original color.

4. here is some merino/silk fiber i ordered on ebay. its soo soft and shiny and easy to spin (and less white than the picture shows).

ps: click on the pictures to see a bigger version

friday dyeing

2005-10-11T23:27:00.000-07:00

I think dyeing has become my regular friday afternoon activity. its really perfect...at 4 on a friday i really don't want to do any work, or go to the gym, or clean my room, or do anything that involves thinking...but i don't want to just go to sleep, so it's really just what i need. this is some bulky knitpicks wool ("sierra") that was light blue and now is variegated blue and green. it's a little more green than i expected, but that's ok.

done!

2005-10-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

yay! i'm done and i'm quite happy with it! it's about 5 1/2 ft long

scarf progress

2005-10-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

my entrelac scarf is almost done! right now it's about 4 1/4 ft and should stretch a bit with blocking. i only have four more rows of squares left!

2005-09-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

more pretty colors...

2005-09-20T23:41:00.000-07:00

i started my entrelac scarf! i also got my knitpicks order today so i can make a dark red sweater, some blue and purple mittens and a hat (http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/
PATThallowig.html) in brown for jane in australia (jungledread.com). in exchange she's making me a felted ipod cover.

2005-09-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

welcome to my knitting blog! i'll be posting pictures of my projects and anything else i feel like (dyeing, spinning, whatever...)

2005-09-19T16:47:00.000-07:00

I dyed some of knitpicks dye-your-own lace weight merino last night. There are little skeins of a bunch of different colors to make a obnoxious candy colored entrelac scarf (for an explanation of entrelac go to http://www.io.com/~cjwyche/
Entrelac/Entrelac.html )
the colors are brighter than they appear here!