Friday, December 29, 2006

New knits, new rules...



New knitting rules that is... this coming year I will try new things knit-wise. I will learn fair isle knitting and I will knit something gorgeous and complicated. I will knit more and I will improve my knitting skills. I will fatten up my stash and get more accesories and maybe even a bigger place to store it all! New books and more lace knitting. More charity work and items for my kids and maybe... just maybe, an afghan. I know I'll be knitting a baby blanket for some friends who are freshly pregnant so that's on my list to do. Ah, the fun and joy and great expectations of knitting!

Here's what I'm working on now. The Laura Tee from the book Big Girl Knits. It looks complicated and that's precisely why I'm doing it. It's cute too and I am surprised that I haven't seen more people knit it... maybe it's because of its strange constuction. Either way, I am knitting the large size as I'll be back in the gym come January 3rd and it makes no sense knitting for me at this size when I plan to lose the weight. It prolly doesn't make sense to knit the large either but my goal isn't to be skinny, but rather to be healthy and to be able to fit into clothes that would flatter me not make me look larger than I already look. I'm knitting this blouse with allhemp for knitting in the colour dusty rose, and it is very rough on the hands. Others say that it softens up especially after it is washed. I certainly hope so. The one the model is wearing looks very soft and drapey. I hope mine won't disappoint...

Next is the toe up sock in Regia Crazy colour. This is the first time I'm trying a toe up sock and the first time doing the magic loop pattern! So many new things I'm learning! I am part of a swap on the knittinghelp.com forum and these socks are for practice. I'll make them to the ankles for myself and wear them to the gym. They are coming out a bit big and I'm glad I'm finding this out now as I think my swap pal has the same size foot as I do, so if it's too big for me, when I knit hers it will be too big for her.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Blocked pics of Mountain Peaks Shawl



Finally, I have blocked pics to share. Here they are:

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Mountain Peaks Shawl - done!


My Mountain Peaks Shawl is done! Thanks to Miriam Felton for all the wonderful help that she gave me! What a patient person she is! I have sent her countless emails which she all answered with patience and kindness. Without her help I would not have been able to finish this shawl. I have made a few mistakes along the way... the last one being when I was binding off I was one stitch short but I did a little tinkering and got it all sorted.

Stats:

Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr in Curry
Quantity: Just over 630 yards
Needle size: 5
Time to knit: Roughly a month... started around November 15 and ended today.

This pic is of the shawl unblocked. I am very happy with it... I just hope I get the blocking done sucessfully.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

TGIF

What a week! I've been under the weather the entire week - started on Sunday and has lasted till now. I was off work on Wednesday and wondered why I bothered to come in on Thursday and then again today. The a/c does not help so I'm happy it's Friday.

On the knitting front, I've been soldering on bravely on the MLS. It's such that I look forward to knitting this shawl on a daily basis and am trying not to lose interest in the Sonata Crest of the Wave Tank. As you can see on my side bar (I learned to edit my blog template today and did some fun stuff with it... I'll get better and better as I get more ideas from other blogs I visit - shameless I know! LOL!) the wave tank is about 50% done. It's repetitive now and I hope to finish soon. It's almost like I am knitting this tank forever and it's just eating yarn and not getting any longer! I have pics to post of that... I really have to figure out the right settings for the camera. I want a new camera with a new printer etc but dh is not so keen on the new camera thing. We'll see how it goes.

Tomorrow is a busy day. Dh has to work and I have classes (cake icing and line dancing) and I really wanted to do the gym, and I have to buy some sweet potatoes to make sweet potato pie and some other ingredients for cakes and such... and a tin of pineapple for the sweet potato pie. I know there are some other things I need to get done but I can't think of them now... one of them is probally cleaning the apartment. Ugh. Oh yes, we have a meeting tomorrow with someone who might be doing some work for us. Before I know it the weekend will be done and I'll be tired again and looking forward to the next weekend and my vacation I want to take in January. I just don't want to be too tired to knit like I am tonight. I did a few rows of the MLS but since I'm getting further and further in (half way through repeat three of chart one) the amount of stitches are increasing rapidly (or so it seems anyways). I also did a few rows of the SCOTWT but I'm not sure if I'll finish it for the Lacevember KAL. That saddens me a bit even though I don't have a hope of winning anyways.

Sahara still hasn't been released by stitchdiva as yet and I'm getting impatient! I sent an email asking the amount of yarn I may need (since I have 4 skeins of Tilli Tomas and can't really afford more just yet - exchange rate is 2 bds to 1 usd so it makes it expensive for me especially at usd$28 a skein) but they haven't replied! Boo.

Anyways... I'm off until I have a knitting story/ progress report/ new yarn or something to show. Besides, I'm sleepy!

Ta for now.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Mountain Lace Progress


Here's a progress report on the Mountain Lace Shawl. It was some tough going there for a bit... got some help from Miriam herself... so it helped a bit. This picture shows I'm halfway through the second repeat of Chart one.


I'm chugging along and trying to finish it for my MIL before Christmas.

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Sahara from stitchdiva.com - I think I want to knit it with the Tilli Tomas that I have... but I am trying to lose weight... does it make sense tho? Either way I'm getting the pattern when its finally released! YAY!

Anyways, its off to bed for me... its 1:06 a.m. here and I really should be asleep all now or I'll be too tired for work tomorrow!

Thanks for looking!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Yarn, yarn and more yarn...




well that title makes it sound like a ton of yarn that I have to show... rather its three different yarns that I absolutely love!

The pink one is allhemp3 in dusty rose and I hope to make the Laura Tee from Big Girl Knits with it. The brownish one (actually called curry) is Jaggerspun Zephyr with which I am making the Mountain Lace Shawl by Miriam Felton. The last set is the much talked about Tilli Tomas... this colour is called Limeade and its absolutely divine! I want to make the not yet released tank top (the sleeveless version) of Sahara by Stitchdiva.com. I hope I have enough of the Tilli Tomas (I have 4 skeins) and would like to know if I should get more now at the wonderful price I got it at ($18.50 US) or if that's enough. I emailed stitchdiva asking them the requirements for the 3x size... that was a few days ago and to date, no response. I'll try one more time.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Mountain Lace progress




So here it is ... I'm on chart 1 about to start row 9. I never imagined knitting lace would be like this! I don't even remember what my expectations were. However, it is going ok... slowly but ok. I hope to be done before Christmas.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Third Lacevember contest

Ideal lace knitting conditions:

Hmmm... I guess this answer would be the same for all my knitting projects. The ideal conditions would include me sitting on my sofa with a footrest nearby. The kids (4 and 2 years old respectively) would be in bed as they love to come "help" me knit. I can't let them "help" especially with this fine JaggerSpun (I let them "knit" when I'm doing stockinette using different yarn). The television remotes and the phone will be nearby as well just in case I decide to use either of them. I would be in a very comfortable position and the apartment would be nice and quiet with hubby on his computer working away. My hand lotion and a cool drink would also within reach and of course I would have had a nice relaxing shower before settling down. All in all, everything I need will be within reach and I would be totally relaxed in my cozy chair.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Contest Fun!

Here are my answers:

How long have you been knitting? Many years off and on
How did you learn to knit? I think it was my mother who taught me how
Favorite thing about knitting? Ah, the sheer joy of creating!
How long have you been knitting lace? Not very long... this would be my 2nd project
Favorite thing about knitting lace. The intricate steps needed to complete the project

Favorite lace yarn? Not sure - just ordered some JaggerSpun Zephyr so we'll see!
variegated or solids for shawls? Haven't decided yet
Favorite lace color? Haven't decided yet

Circs or straights? Oh, circs for sure!
Favorite lace knitting trick? Trick? um NOT dropping the stitches? LOL
Lifelines? I'm thinking of using them for this coming project
If so with what? Maybe a cable from my needle?
Fancy blocking wires, or just sewing pins stuck in your carpet? Used to be sewing pins now I have fancy blocking pins! :p

shawls or lacey items? Shawls I think
triangle, rectangle, or circular shawls? Triangle
Charts or printed instructions? Printed for sure!
Favorite lace you've knit? None yet!
Favorite lace you want to knit? Mountain Peaks from Miramknits

Favorite jelly belly flavor? None... we don't get them here!
Tell me everything you know about Eric the Red..... Um... he's a guy and um, he's red... oh! and his name is Eric...
Coke, classic or with lime? Water
Holiday carols, sing along, or wish they would be banned from all public airwaves? BANNED!!!
What is the definition of irony? When you jump over a crack in the sidewalk because it's bad luck to step on one and fall in the open manhole next to it.
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop? Zero - they are yucky!
Why is my cat always puking in front of my son's bedroom door? Maybe he's marking his territory!
What is your superhero power? It used to be that I could produce milk with my own body but now it's that when I speak I speak in threes. Example... Dylan, come here! Come here! I said to come here!!!!!! It's amazing!
If the laundry is 9 foot by 11 foot (just dreaming, that's a big laundry room), and the walls are 8 feet tall, and you are going to tile the entire room in tiles that are 3 inches by 5 inches, what color should those tiles be? Any colour that would encourage me to do the laundry...
What's for dinner tonight? Good ol' Bajan soup my MIL is making us. YUM!
What is clogging my children's bathtub drain? Not a thing. Clogged drains are gross!

Fun!

Friday, November 03, 2006

Knitting with a passion : )

love knitting. I used to knit as a kid without patterns and not really knowing what I was doing. I taught myself to bind off just by experimenting one day and it worked - but I still didn't have patterns. As I got older the passion dwindled and faded with a few attempts here and there to get back into it. One of the main problems is the fact that I live in the tropics and the yarn and patterns that are sold are only fit for cold blistering winters. It makes no sense to me.Then one night, I really had the urge to start creating something again and my thoughts went back to knitting. This time, I thought, I'm going to find out what I need to knit and do it succesfully here in the tropics. I got on the internet and did my research. Man, my eyes were really opened up to the large variety of yarns out there! There was even yarn that would make garments suitable for warm weather! It was like stumbling across a solution to a long unresolved problem. It felt wonderful! So, I started slowly... ordering what I needed off the web... finding out what other people preferred in yarns and why, looking for patterns and so on. It is exhilarating! My only problem is waiting for my yarn to arrive! I am so impatient! To get around that problem, I have come up with a strategy that so far is working for me. What I do is look around for patterns and get the yarn requirements (I have most of the needles I'll ever need thanks to the Denise Interchangable set) and I set it up in a spreadsheet. I note the project I'm interested in, the colour I like, the needle requirement, the cost of the yarn and shipping and where I would like to buy the materials and patterns from. I then note where I got the pattern from. And when this is all done, I make a mass order. I don't wait till I've done one project to start another one... and this strategy ensures that I always have projects waiting in the wings. My only problem now is getting storage for them! Another note about the shipping... it is very expensive to ship directly to Barbados. Sometimes I am charged between USD$12.75 (that may take 4-7 days to get here) and USD$44.00! I've even spent USD$52.00 at amazon (or was it USD$82.00?) to get THREE knitting books sent here to me and I should be getting them late November/ early December! So I have to figure out a way to get cheap shipping for my things. I once used the option of sending to my family and getting them send it on here - cost was USD$59.00 but I got it the next day. Not to mention, there is a skybox service that you can send your parcels to and they pass them on to you when they reach here. Problem is TAXES. Yep, we're taxed very heavily here in Barbados. If you use this service you can be charged USD$9.00 per pound and USD$1.00 per pound afterwards. Then there's environmental tax, and SES charges. By the time it comes through that route, a USD$20 yarn purchase can cost me and additional USD$30!!So, on to some of my projects. I am currently knitting the Sonata Crest of the Wave tank found on elann dot com. It is easy once you get past the shoulders and the joining of the shoulders! I tell you, I've frogged the right shoulder about 5 times! No kidding. The pattern needs to be a bit clearer. I think it assumes you should be able to work out things for yourself. Anyways, I'm getting there with it. I started on November 1 and I've completed the upper front and will start on the back upper front and then move on to the body. I can do this so quickly because I am home on sick leave, so I have some time to knit before I have to go back out.

Here is a progress pic:

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Wednesday, October 04, 2006

My first knitting blog!

My aim is to post pics of my WIPS and FO's and just to have fun along the way. It would be wonderful to meet other island knitters too!

I will be back with pics of my T-Twist Tee and my Gail cardigan by Berroco. Also, I just might share the Lotus Blossom Tank that is currently on the needles.

See you then!