Trish Knits.com

Category: Project Progress

Off the Needles!

Finally I have some progress to report on my daughter’s school spirit hat:

hat off the needles

I managed to bind it off today! Tomorrow morning, before work, I will attempt to create the words, “Lady Hawks” in duplicate stitch. I’ll be using an alphabet chart from Sarah Bradberry’s site. I’ll follow the tutorial on the Purl Bee site, which seems amazingly clear and makes it look easy enough. Still, I am a bit nervous. I’ve never done duplicate stitch before, so wish me luck.

Tegan is fairly indifferent to my knitting apprehension:

Tabby with eyes shut

But hopefully all will be well and there will be an FO report soon.

I’ve been having trouble focusing on blogging this week and I do apologize for that. But you see, I have a problem. It’s American Idol season, and for some reason I can’t turn my eyes from the sight of a train wreck. American Idol season usually means lots of knitting for me, though, so I’m going to have to squeeze the blogging in there somewhere!

And, so, wish me luck on the hat. We’re expecting a cold snap just in time for the Inauguration festivities, as per usual, and my daughter cold use a bit of warm woolly love on her noggin.

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January 14, 2009
Aunt Honey’s Old Reliable

Morning came too early today.

Not even the sound blocking earbuds that cost me a hundred dollars could save me from the snore monster today. At 7:19 when I emerged to the kitchen to find something to occupy myself in a sleeping house, the sky was still nearly pitch black. Oh joy. Another cloudy day.

So it’s been a couple of days since I’ve made time for the knitting. I decided now would be as good a time as any to get it out, what with no extraneous interruptions. That’s a rare thing around here.

I’ve been working on a hat for my daughter for what seems like forever. A couple of weeks ago, I dropped some stitches in the ribbing and did a fairly lousy job of picking them back up. And it’s been bugging me. So I used my quiet time this morning to ladder the ribbing back down and fix it:

closeup of crochet hook on hat ribbing

So I pulled out Aunt Honey’s red steel crochet hook and threw confidence to the wind and laddered down. Aunt Honey was my husband’s great aunt, and she was quite the crocheter in her day. When my inlaws were going through her belongings years ago, they brought me all of her crafting supplies, figuring I’d know what to do with them best. There were all manner of dime store variety crochet hooks in just about every color and size, and some sewing needles and embroidery needles, and a bunch of teeny tiny steel crochet hooks for lace. But I keep going back to the red one. It’s my favorite size for fixing mistakes in my knitting, and I am rarely without it. As you can see, it did a fairly good job of re-knitting my columns of ribbing. Even I can almost not tell where the mistake was before.

I used to crochet, but can’t anymore because it hurts my hands. But, I hold on to this collection of hooks for sentiment’s sake, hoping against hope that maybe someday I can once again pick up the hook without pain. I miss making all kinds of shell stitches. Knitted feather and fan doesn’t quite cut it and I can’t quite make it give me the same satisfaction.

Ah well, the house is no longer quiet and I guess I’d best be going if I’m ever going to get anything done today. Off to the showers, and then maybe Starbucks.

What’s this?

sun peeking through the clouds

A hint of sun! Maybe there’s hope for this day yet.

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December 28, 2008
Knitting the Ribbing!

The Hat Ribbing in Progress

Were it not for a slight accident this morning with the needle slipping out of the stitches and quite a few more than I would have wanted being dropped, I might be writing the Finished Object Report instead of just a run of the mill progress report. But, such is life when we’re knitting, eh? I’m not sure if I’ve ever knit a project that didn’t have at least some major mishap involved.

When I originally envisioned this hat I thought it might make a nice Christmas present for my daughter. Then I started it so early that I thought she’d get to wear it some this fall. And now? Well it looks like it’s regained it’s Christmas present status again. Oh well, at least I feel like I’m on track for something now!

Last night, we went around the kitchen table and each of us said what we liked best about the holidays. I asked the kids to ignore the obvious (presents!) and to pick their other favorite thing. Here’s what everybody said:

Diana: The Food
Steven: Making Christmas Cookies
John: Looking at All the Lights
Trish: Christmas Music

WordPress Upgrade And Other Site Stuff

Yesterday I upgraded this site to WordPress 2.7. So far, I love it! If you’re thinking of upgrading, there are a couple of things to consider. At least there are a couple of basics that I did that helped make things go smoothly. First, I made sure that the theme I’m using is 2.7-compatible (it is). I grabbed the latest version of my theme, installed the upgrade, then disabled all my plugins, and let my hosting company do the automatic upgrade. Then I went in and reactivated my plugins. That’s all there was to it!

I’m finding that it’s hard to maintain three separate blogs, so I’m going to do some more general type blogging here from time to time. I’ll still keep my family blog, but even that needs a serious update. But I’m going to add a page for my writings and stuff that I had intended to develop at my long-neglected personal blog.

This blog will still be a knitting blog, but you might notice a couple of other sections in the menu over time. I’m just finding it harder and harder to even think about keeping up with three blogs. Let me know if you have any feedback on this issue! For now, I’ve uploaded an article I wrote for my college newspaper, more than 20 years ago. Even though my life is in a completely different place now, this article captures how I’m feeling right now:

Doing Yesterday’s Work Tomorrow

Enjoy!

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December 12, 2008
Why I’m Not Into Holiday Knitting

school spirit hat in progress

Here’s the proof. This is why I don’t do holiday knitting, or occasion knitting in general. It’s been a month and a half since I started this hat, and I’m still working on it. Yes, this has been my main project in most of this time. I’ve done a stitch here and there on a couple of things, but nothing else to write home about. If Christmas depended on my knitting? Christmas would just never come.

But hey! I made a milestone on the hat today. I am on the ribbing! I asked my daughter to try it on and it is just about the perfect size. I am not going to do a very deep rib, because it doesn’t need one. Then the last thing will be to add the words, “Lady Hawks” to the white band in duplicate stitch.

I started feeling stressed about all there is to do over the next several weeks, and I made myself stop and knit for a bit instead. It helped. Now, if only I could teach my DH to knit… We’re seriously behind. No decorations are up and ready. The shopping’s about done, which I guess is a good thing! But I think it remains to be seen whether we will have outdoor lights or Christmas cards mailed before Inauguration Day. And you know what? I’m going to do my best not to care.

I’m getting the feeling it’s going to be a long, cold winter here. It is unseasonably winter-like for this early in December and we even had some snow yesterday. The wind has been cold and biting. Perhaps I should start a countdown calendar for Spring. I’m so ready already!

Hopefully I’ll write again soon. If not, you’ll probably find me buried under a pile of unopened ornaments somewhere.

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December 7, 2008
Lady Hawk Knitting

lady hawk hat progressing

See? I promised a photo of the hat today. At least it looks like a hat by now! I’m hoping to have it done by the end of this weekend, because other projects await! I love a simple hat. I have yarn to make at least one other hat and maybe a scarf too. We’ll see. Hopefully Diana will be wearing this by Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, what’s on your list? For me, it’s a Jordana Paige Rio bag in eggplant. I saw it at Stitches East this year in person and I would have bought it on the spot, but the booth was closed that day. But, the color is YUM. My most favorite shade of purple. And I got to hold and see the bag up close, to see how it’s organized and how big it is, and how it closes. Oh my, I am going to love this bag.

I’d also like to make another version of this hat. It’s a discontinued pattern from Knit Picks, but it turned out to be one of my favorites. The original one that I made is just a hair too big and the weight of the long cap causes it to slide off my head. So I’d like to make another, this time with smaller needles and green and red stripes.

Winter is here! It’s come really cold and pretty early for us this year. I’m not too sad, though, because it just means more knitting! I’ve found that I feel better when I’ve knit even just a few stitches each day, so I’m really trying to do that. Knitting is comfort food for the dark days of winter.

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November 24, 2008
Book Review: Quick Knits, Cool Projects

I was recently gifted with the book, Quick Knits: Cool Projects, by Jeanne Stauffer. On the surface, this would seem like a basic knitting book, with tons of boring projects, sort of ho-hum. But, let me tell you, I was very impressed, and I like this book a lot! You can find just about everything in here. There are plenty of hats and scarves to choose from, bags, wraps, baby things, sweaters and other clothing, and afghans. The projects are many and varied, with a nice sampling of skills introduced and skill levels needed. While I can tell on first view that it would appear that the sweater patterns are not terribly intricate, there are enough different styles that there would be something to appeal to just about anyone.

I especially love that many of the sweater patterns are written with fuller figures in mind. I am eyeing the cabled hoodie pattern and may try to do this one. The pattern calls for Lion Brand Wool-Ease, but I may try Cascade 220 Superwash, or, better yet, dive into my generous stash of Wool of the Andes yarn. We’ll see.

In other knitting news, I am making good progress on my daughter’s hat. Hopefully I’ll have photos and a detailed update tomorrow. Also I have received the Winter 2008 issue of Interweave Knits. I’ve heard some people say that they are not inspired by the projects in this issue. I am having the opposite reaction. Usually the magazine is full of sweaters, with a few other things mixed in. This time, it’s full of accessory problems, with a few sweaters. Just my cup of tea! I am especially in love with the mitten and hat patterns inside, but my favorite thing, I think, is the Pfeiffer Falls Hooded Scarf, which I think will be in my queue of to-do’s as soon as I am done with this blog post. I’m betting without looking that it’s already a popular design on Ravelry. I guess I’ll go see if I’m right!

Ok, it’s getting late and I guess I’d better head off to bed. The alarm goes off bloody early around here. See ya!

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November 23, 2008