Woes of a Spoiled Knitter

I've been feeling a little bit burnt out on knitting.
I was knitting constantly for a while to avoid doing my homework, but now I'd much rather cuddle on the couch or read a book, and have barely touched my project.

It probably doesn't help that my current project is a red hart coffee cozy, and I'm ONLY using the icky yarn because I feel guilty about being such a snob. I want it gone so desperately, but can't throw it out, so all I can do is knit with it and then fling the finished projects far from my sight- but I don't wanna, so there it sits.

I KNOW that using a tough machine washable fiber is a much better fit for this project than something I enjoy looking at and touching. And seriously, there are worse yarns than this. There were centuries where the only thing available was scratchy steel-like wool, and then the few decades of dull harvest gold plastic - this is NOT that kind of bad.

But even though I feel like a spoiled brat, I can't argue against the fact that knitting feels like a chore right now.

Finished the Jayne Hat!

After making two perfectly nice pompoms I finally got one scraggly enough to use. The boy seems to like it.

Failed Pompom

I put a lot of work into making this, my first pompom, only to watch it quickly consume the hat with its gargantuan size. Plus, I was told that it wasn't 'scraggly' enough for a genuine Jayne hat. Le sigh.



At least the hat in general is turning out alright.

Finished 'Vog On's! Started Jayne Cobb Hat!

Here are my finished socks! I love them, but I think from now on I'm going to go down a needle size for whatever is listed in the pattern - I think I'm a fairly loose knitter.


I've also nearly finished the Jayne Cobb hat for my boyfriend, but found that following the directions led me far astray - so I'm going to finish up the earflaps (I've only got one left) and then attempt a surgical procedure at the color change. I'm thinking of picking apart the hat, putting the top on needles, ripping out a few inches of the orange, knitting half an inch of yellow, and then use kitchener's stitch to graft them together. Yeeeeaaaah.... maybe just ripping half of it apart WOULD be less work... ugh.

Acryl-yuck

Because of my boyfriend's desire that I knit him this,

the Jayne Cobb hat, from firefly - he's gone out and gotten me some cheap yarn to make him a hat with. And I've grown into such a yarn snob that I'm ashamed to put it in the stash bag and embarrassed to add it to my digital stash on ravelry.
Whatever. Snobbery is stupid.
Ugh.

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Destashing

I spent... ::drum roll:: 108 dollars. Non knitters would think that's outrageous, knitters on the other hand, would recognize a modicum of self restraint in a room full of marked down mill ends. I got:







Isn't it EXCITING! My stash is now crawling out of the 'humiliation' category! I now have more knittable yarn than red hart and eyelash crap! Yay!

Someone hearted my bag! I told my boyfriend that I felt close to tears, and then he called me a massive nerd. Butthead. :>P

I still think it's the most amazing think ever that a fellow knitter would like something I'VE made. I feel grateful.

11th Hour WIP

My knitpicks order arrived today with my needle set! So I can finally start working on the sock yarn I've amassed. I'm got enough to make four pairs - I think I'm going to do the Spiral Boot Sock from Interweave Knits Summer 2007 first using the glossy burgundy yarn - that's the one I'm the most excited about. But doing a cute black ankle sock would probably be the wisest one to get finished - I'm looking at the Vog On pattern from knitty for that one. The other two socks I was thinking were Monkey (knitty) and Jaywalker (magknits) mostly because of their popularity and to see what all the hype was about. I am pretty into the jaywalker pattern, but most of what I like are the chevron stripes with contrasting yarn, and while it SAYS it's good with varigated yarn I'm not 100% sure I agree.

I need to get started on those handmade socks because my new shoes are a half size too large (actually in a perfect world they'd only be a quarter size too big, but whatev..) Thin socks won't cut it with these smoking new shoes, only artistic chunky handknit socks will do.


I'm nearly finished with my very own newsboy cap, but I ran out of yarn right near the end! Arg!!


I've also decided that I'm sick of laming my flickr account with photos of wips and yarn photos. I'm going to make a new ravelry flickr account.

Newsboy Duo

I am currently working on Headline News from Stitch n' Bitch Nation. Actually, there's a small but fairly uninteresting story behind this. See - I've made this hat before, read the pattern wrong, and ended up making a really cute version of this hat - sized to fit a midget. Fortunately, I know a child who seemed keen on adding to her ever expanding wardrobe, and she was the recipient of my first ever Newsboy cap.



But what about MEEEEEE!!?
So I cast on again, but decided due to the last attempt that I would add another cable to the pattern. This took a few tries, but I ended up finishing the main body of the hat over the weekend. I knew it had been a little big, but I wasn't sure if it was a matter of concern until I wore the hat for a while. About 30 minutes. But then it was settled, I had to frog.

So I've started it again. It's going well, but I am getting so SICK of this pattern by now.

Sloth and Lust

Yeah, yeah... so I haven't been updating this. Thing is, I just wanted this blogger blog so I could link to ravelry and the whole world wouldn't read all my personal crap. But life is 95% personal topics, and I have a hard time doubling up on my entries in two separate blogs.

Besides -- my knitting life has definitely taken a back seat to school and work at the moment. I started knitting another newsboy cap for myself, and tried to use up some of my stash of Red Hart casual cot'n. But I just couldn't do it! The hat sits there half finished and I hate the look of the yarn and don't want to touch it. I think I'm going to frog it this weekend. I have no idea what I'm going to be doing with all that gross yarn in my stash. I was thinking of making a load of mug cozies for friends this christmas. Even if they were prone to noticing fiber content, nobody is going to be insulted over a mug cozy. Scientific impossibility.

The plastic bag bag sits unfinished. Once the weather turned murky I felt compelled to spend my time handling much cozier materials.

I ordered a whole bunch of stuff from knitpicks, completely ignoring my yarn abstinence pledge. (they always SAY abstinence doesn't work!) I received knitpick essential sockyarn in black and meadow, only to realize that I don't have DPNs small enough to work with them! I decided on getting a set, of course, to maximize efficiency and cost (etc) and THEN decided to get a few more skeins for the free shipping. And THEN I decided that since I had chosen aluminum (I'd probably break such tiny needles, were they wood), I should probably get a WIP holder since I didn't want my projects sliding off the needles in my bag.

I'm feeling guilty but excited.

Finished Unbiased!

My bag liner sat around the house for a week, while I barely looked at it. Unlike knitting, sewing isn't something you can do on the bus, or doing class. But finally the weekend came and I found myself with free time. The straps had taken hours to sew in, but the rest of the liner, only about an hour. It was done in a jiffy, and now I have a gorgeous new accessory to wear out on the town tomorrow.

Unbiased Liner!

Over the course of a weekend my boyfriend's mom and I finished the liner for my new bag. It's absolutely amazing, though I feel some chagrin over it being way more difficult than I had imagined - thus putting a lot more stress on my boyfriend's mom. We had to hurry a bit, and she accidentally put the zipper on upside down. She then had to rip it out and sew it back in the harder way, and the bright purple zipper is not more obvious than before too. It's alright though, it's a rainbow bag after all.

All there is left to do is sew the completed liner in by hand. So it will probably be a few more days until it's finished.

Time Suck

I just spent several hours cataloging my stash, my projects, and my needles on ravelry. Given the state of things it was something that needed to be done, but being on the computer all day ALWAYS feels like a waste of time.

I suppose that means I should go knit something, then! :>)

PS- I went to the fabric store and bought a liner fabric for Unbiased. It's a silkey, rainbow, Asiany thing, and I'm excited about how it's going to turn out.

I just got my ravelry invite! Yaaaaay!

So now I need a blog to go with it.

Currently I am working on:

Unbiased

I washed it and then mended the holes. ::sigh:: Thankfully the fabric hides this dramatic saga and I think everything will turn out fine. But it frays too easily, so I need to sew a liner into it to make it a little more sturdy.

Plastic Bag Bag

My plans so far are to finish this garter stitch square to make a base, and then pick up the edges and knit stockinette in the round. I'm considering whether to attempt some intarsia on the front. I think the three arrow triangle would be really cute and appropriate for this project.