A Knitter's Yarn

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:24:46 GMT

Long time no post! I suppose that's the problem with university, no knitting time. I don't think I've picked up the needles for over a month.
I will have to put some of the school work aside soon though. Christmas presents won't knit themselves.

The Classics Society (of which I am a member) is having a Secret Santa this year. I have to find something for a good friend of mine. She was begging me to knit her a "Jayne hat" earlier in the year, so I think I'm obliged to make it for Christmas. This is fine, because it won't take me more than a day to finish, but I really hate the pattern. The hat is supposed to look like one worn by Jayne on the SciFi show Firefly and this hat really looks like it was the character's first project. I keep looking at it and going: "If I knit a seed-stitch border, the edge would lie better." "I could decrease at the top so that it doesn't bulk up like that." "The earflaps would look much nicer if they weren't stst and had a little more shape to them." Unfortunately, if I made all the improvements I want to, it wouldn't be the same hat. It would lose it's character. I guess I should just bite the bullet and knit it like it was meant to be knit.
Does anyone know how to make a gathered top like in this picture? Do I just knit a tube and gather the top? It seems too simple.

I'm also making the Vlad the Impaler hat for my sister for Xmas, assuming I can find the time. I'm more excited about that one. There are some interesting techniques incorporated into the pattern. The I-cord border on the earflaps makes them flip out in points. Cables make the shapes of impaled people around the edge. You can find the pattern here.

As for the tank top I was working on at the end of the summer, I think it has been shelved until the spring. It's been deceptiveley warm for a Canadian November so far, but it is still the time of year to be thinking of hats and mits. Hopefully I will find the time to knit myself a hat or something too. I suppose that's the curse of any knitter though. Everyone is always asking for something, you forget that you can knit for yourself too.

And now back to the studying!

Tank update

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:47:40 GMT

I have about an inch done on my tanktop. It's not much I know, but I'm cutting myself some slack because I'm knitting it on, wait for it... DPNs. Now I'm pretty skinny, but that's still 136 stitches on three DPNs. I'm using little elastic bands on the ends of my needles to keep all those stitches from falling off. This reminds me of the time that I made cabled armwarmers on DPNs with an extra DPN acting as a cable needle. I don't know why I did that, but the results were worth it. Hopefully the same will happen here.
The lace pattern is something I found in Interweave, After-Surf Hoodie or something like that. I'm knitting it with Bernat Satin, which is quite nice for an acrylic yarn. It's sort of a sea-foam green.
I'm making the pattern up as I go along, but I think it's going to to look something like Thira from Knitty. I'm going to change the neckline and do stst for the top section because my lace pattern is somewhat more see-through than the one recommended on knitty.

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:41:27 GMT

Good Morning! or rather afternoon, at this point. Hooray for Saturdays and sleeping in!
I've done very little knitting in the last few weeks, but I am on the verge of starting two new projects. One is a lace tank top, mostly of my own design and the other is a lace scarf. Seeing a theme here? Yes, I can't resist lace. papillon_denuit, is currently working on two garter stitch scarves and I don't know how she does it! I would get so bored.

I meant to start that tank yesterday to coincide with the beginning of the Bejing Olympics, but somehow I didn't get around to it. I'm not sure if anyone is doing it this year, but I participated in the Knitting Olympics during the SaltLake City games a few years ago. That's when I finished my first sweater. I couldn't believe that it only took me the 10 days. I gave it to the_acrobat because it looked awful on me and she seemed to like it. Do you still wear it?

A few weeks ago, we went to the Calgary Stampede. Just our luck, we went on the one day that is poured. Thunder, lightning, hail. They shut down all the rides and everyone crowded inside. For anyone following the news in Alberta, that was the same day that lightning struck a house in Calgary and it burned to the ground. Yes, it was a beautiful day for an outing!
While we were there, we went to see the animals in the barns. There were some adorable lambs, but the highlight was definitely

I'd been meaning to splurge on some Alpaca from my LYS for awhile now. Now I have a beautiful ball of brown, sock weight llama wool! The lady at the booth wasn't a knitter, but she was happy to chat with me about the animals and her desire to take up spinning (and really, who doesn't). So I ended up with this: generously donated by this guy:

I plan to use it for a thin lace scarf, but I haven't decided on the lace pattern yet. I want something along the lines of Branching Out from Knitty.com, but thinner. I've done Branching Out enough times that I could knit it in my sleep. I need something new. Any suggestions?

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:03:47 GMT

As promised I have pictures. This is my new bohemian tank. It took me about three days to knit because it is super bulky.
8mm needles, Bernats Bamboo in pink and Paton's Kroy sock yarn in brown held together. The gauge is about 11sts/15rows to 4inches.
It sags a bit under the arms, but other than that is came out better than I expected. I'm thinking of pinning the straps together in the back, it might fix the sagging.

Bamboo and wool held together drapes beautifully and is very stretchy, but seems to sag like cotton.

Here's me showing off the front And papillon_denuit modeling it for the back

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:20:32 GMT

I've been knitting a lot recently. This is because I knit when I watch TV. I just need something to do with my hands. My friend and I have been working our way through the last few seasons of Stargate this summer so I'm getting about an hour or two of knitting in a day.

So far I've made two cable knit hats on DPNs, a tank top and half a lace scarf.
The hats are based on a pattern from the Make1yarn studio website.
The tank top is the honeymoon cami from knitty.com. I couldn't find the yarn I wanted, so I ended up knitting it with a bulky blend of wool and bamboo. As you would imagine, it doesn't look a thing like the cute white cami in the picture. It looks a little more Bohemian Chic. I also altered the lace pattern at the base. I used this general idea.
The scarf isn't actually my knitting project. I'm teaching papillon_denuit how to knit. Her second project is the Branching Out scarf from knitty. I've put in a lot of work on it to speed up the process, fix mistakes and because... I need something to do with my hands.

There will be pictures forthcoming.