Trish Knits.com

Month: July 2008

  • Happy Knit-Day to ME!

    At least it feels that way to me. It’s my birthday! But it has been a really nice day filled with good friends and lots of knitting goodness. And I thought I was just going to have another boring Monday at work. Ha! The day started with me being able to make what I felt was good progress on this:

    Sweater in progress

    Ok, it might not seem like a lot, but this teeny little baby sweater has 183 stitches in a row, which is about as many as my brown ripple afghan! You can see the cable pattern just getting started on what will be the two fronts for the sweater. I am really crossing my fingers on this one, because it seems like I’m totally winging it! But, it seems like so far, so good. I’ll update from time to time.

    A good friend from work then took me to Clyde’s for lunch, where I wouldn’t be overstating it if I said I had the best crab cakes I ever ate! It was a wonderful break from the office to go out for such a nice lunch.

    Then after work I got home and my Mom and Tony were over, and the inlaws, Bill and Linda, arrived soon after. We had Tony’s homemade pasta sauce and meatballs, and Linda brought the salad, bread, and cake. It was all so YUMMY!

    Then it was time for presents. My DH gave me these:

    Lucy Neatby Sock Videos

    The Lucy Neatby sock videos! I figure I’m going to learn just about everything I ever wanted to know about sock knitting watching these. I can’t wait!

    My in-laws gave me a check, but as it turns out, yesterday, I bought this:

    mini video camera on tripod

    It’s an Aiptek video camera on a flexible tripod. Our primary video camera is too heavy for me to hold, plus I wanted something small that I could keep in my purse. But the main reason I got this camera? I’ve been wanting to add some video demos to my knitting site. It’s going to take me a while to learn how to use the camera well enough to film my knitting, but I’m looking forward to it.

    Then, when I got home tonight, this was waiting for me in the mail:

    tulip baby sweater kit, jewel colorway

    It’s the Tulip Baby Sweater kit in the “Jewel” colorway. I got enough yarn that I could probably make a couple of teeny sweaters or one in size 4. I’m thinking I have a niece who is just the right size. I’m actually so in love with the yarn for this project that maybe I will make it and put it up as art! Haha!

    The last yarny thing for today was that my friend Carrie gave me a gift certificate to YarnMarket. That store has so many things I want that it will be hard to decide what to get right away. I might sit on this gift… but probably only a day or two! Thanks, Carrie!

    Wishing everyone would get to have a fun day like I had today. I’m crashing. Night-night!

  • The Silliness of It All…

    The Little Knit Kit Found this yesterday at the checkout line at the bookstore. Well, my ever-observant daughter did. It sounded interesting. I was already buying three knitting mags. What’s one more little, kitschy, knitting thing?

    The kit makes it sound like everything you need is in this little box and you can be a knitter. Five patterns included! Knitting instructions. Needle tip protectors. A stitch gauge. A row counter. Yessir, everything you need for knitting! Except the needles. And the yarn.

    Now, before anyone gets upset with me about how could I be expecting needles and yarn in this little box, I wasn’t. Not really. So my question is, why market a knit kit in a box that small in the checkout line at the bookstore, if you can’t REALLY knit with it?

    Of course. I know the answer. It’s so saps like me who don’t think one more cute, kitschy knit thing would be that big of a deal.

    They’ve got me all figured out.

    (Happy Birthday, Mom!)

  • A Last Look Before Frogging…

    sock toe in progress with one pattern repeat

    I came to a sad realization last night. My lowly little sock, at even only 56 stitches around, is still too loose for my foot. I think the fabric needs to be firmer, too. So I’m going to frog and try again, this time with the dreaded size 0 needles that I had been oh so desperately hoping to avoid.

    Am I just too loose a knitter to make socks? The prospect of size 0 needles is daunting. I think I might lose my mind…

  • Knitting Roulette

    baby sweater in progress

    Today I had an unexpected day off, caring for a sick, toothless 6-year-old, who, it turns out, has the strep buggers. So we had a Spongebob marathon, and watched Cars, I got some progress done on my purple sock. Not enough to show you though, so I thought I would talk tonight about my baby sweater. Again.

    I played around with a couple of stitch patterns for the front panels, and I think I’m going with a simple plaited cable with vertical eyelets on either side. The entire rest of the sweater will be done in stockinete stitch, but I haven’t yet decided whether to do a garter stitch border at the bottom and cuffs, or some sort of ribbing. I’ll decide when I get there. I also have inserted one eyelet button hole, but it is so tiny you can’t even really see it in the photo. So I need to decide quick how to do the buttons. Maybe I’ll skip the whole thing and just do an i-cord tie. We’ll see.

    I also decided to put the sleeve stitches on holders when I get to them and do them in the round at the end. That is what makes the most sense to me at the moment. I’m already wondering if this sweater is ever going to get done. The stitches are so tiny! Next time I use this yarn for such things I think I am going to double it.

    Note to self: I stopped on the sock tonight ready to do round 5 of the second pattern repeat. But before I do any more work on it I want to put it on my foot again and make sure I wasn’t kidding myself about the size. It’s small. But I have a teeny foot (size 5, narrow). I often get away with wearing 6’s but I never wear open toe-d shoes so I forget how ridiculously big they really are.

    All for now…

  • Sock Toe Progress

    beanie baby bear wearing sock toe in progress as a hat

    Just a quick post so I can make notes on my sock in progress, so I can replicate it for the second one. (No, I’m not into two at once. Most knitting gets done in the car, where it’s too hard to wrangle two balls of yarn in my purse.)

    I increased from 8 stitches on each needle to 28 stitches on each needle. I am doing the Toe Up Monkey Sock pattern, and to do two full repeats on the top of the foot I would need at least 32 stitches on each needle. since my foot is so small I’m going to try one repeat up the center of the foot and see how that works, and then increase at the ankle to compensate (my ankles are fatter anyway so my theory is that this should work).

    Anyway it is very late here so I had to stop after round 3 of the pattern and will pick up with round 4 tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will look cute when it starts to come together! Wish me luck…

  • Sock Toe Update (for a good laugh!)

    Sock Toe in progress

    Yes it’s true; I’m a slow knitter. I managed a few more rounds on my sock toe at yesterday’s knitting group, but that’s about it. I could have done more today, but I do have this brown ripple afghan I’m working on. So I did a little on that, too. And I do mean a little. I don’t know what it is with me lately; I have all of these grand intentions of knitting for long stints and then I get distracted. Usually by the computer, of course, which, coincidentally, is where I am now… could blogging be eating into my knitting time? I’m sure there are thousands of knitters out there now who are with me on this conundrum.

    Yesterday at knitting group, Shelley gifted me with this:

    socks that rock mystic kelp

    It’s Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Mystic Kelp colorway. Yum! It’s all purple-y and, and, and… I love it! Thanks, Shelley!

    While at the bookstore yesterday I picked up one of these:

    moleskine sketchbook

    It’s a Moleskine Small Sketch Book, and I got it for keeping in my knitting bag, so I can make notes and quick little sketches of my knitting projects along the way. I heard Kelley Petkun talk about these little books once on her podcast, and I didn’t really think I’d need one until the other day, when I found myself needing to do some math related to the baby sweater I’m working on. The sweater is constructed using percentages, and since my gauge and stitch count are different than the original pattern, I wanted to make notes about my own numbers. I didn’t have any paper in my knitting bag (bad me!) and wound up writing in the actual book that the pattern was in. So when I saw this little thing in the store yesterday, I snapped it up. My percentage calculations will be the first thing in the book.

    I’m feeling bummed tonight. I’m coming down off of a week off from work and now I have to go back tomorrow. I feel the stress creeping up on me. Ack! Make it stop!

    More next time…