My UFO

This is my unfinished object. Although there are other things I am working on this is THE unfinished object since I can't even remember how long I have been working on this sweater. About 5 years I guess. As you can see I only have to finish the sleeves so I am just going to force myself to do it. I actually went out and bought myself another set of size 8 needles because these have been in use for so long.

This sweater uses Paton's Classic Wool Merino Blend. It is from the book Paton's Outdoor Aran's, pattern # 5 "Family Sweater."

Chutes and Ladders Socks Finished!

I finished my Chutes and Ladders socks for the six-sock knitalong with three days to spare. I joined the group a month late so that is my excuse for almost missing the deadline. If members post their completed pictures by the end of the month they are entered into a drawing to receive, yes, more sock yarn. What could be better!

I really enjoyed this pattern. I used Sock It To Me! Esprit yarn from Elann. It is a cotton and elastic yarn which is alittle tricky to work with because it stretches quite a bit while your working with it. For those people familiar with the pattern, I used size 2 double pointed needles and cast on 60 stitches.

The hint for the next pattern is that it would look best in a solid color. I am trying to decide between using more Sock It To Me! Esprit yarn or KnitPicks Essential yarn that I have ordered. It is a new solid sock yarn from Knitpicks.

Completed Harry Potter Bookscarf

I completed my Gryffindor Bookscarf just in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I think it cam out pretty well and I'm enjoying it a lot. The only problem is that my 3 year old daughter also likes it so I may be loosing my place in the book to her curiousity.

Harry Potter Bookscarf

I'm waiting for the new Harry Potter book to be released on Saturday. While I'm waiting I'm busy knitting a Gryffindor bookscarf that was posted on the net. I've used thick maroon and gold stripes though which I thought more closely resembled the scarves in the movie.

Check out the pattern and knit a bookscarf of your own:

http://knittingwithlaura.blog-city.com/harry_potter_bookscarf_pattern.htm

Chutes and Ladders Problem

I have been working on my Chutes and Ladders socks for the six sock knitalong. I noticed that in carrying the pattern down the instep that that pattern was not centered correctly. If you notice the "chute" is immediately next to a knit row causing the cable to be kind of blurry. What I should have done is frog the sock back to the heel but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead I dropped the knit row, took out my crochet hook, and worked that row back up as a purl row. I think that it came out okay although the pattern is off by a row. I'll just say that I'm letting go of my perfectionism and let this sock be living memorial of that.

As for the gloves, I have finished the first one. I am now procrastinating on weaving in the ends, writing out the pattern, and finishing the second glove. That's a lot of work to do.

On the Needles

I'm currently working on two projects. The first is a glove pattern that I am designing with cables up each finger. It has gone fairly smooth so far. I am using baby alpaca / merino yarn that I found on Elann.com for the design. The yarn feels so luxurious I never want to knit with anything else again. I am trying to write up the pattern as I go along to post on the web. It seems as if a lot of knitting design is just a matter of math. I always excelled at math in high school. My parents didn't think that I was using it now (lol).

The second project that I have been working on is a sock for the six sock knitalong that I just joined. The pattern is called Chutes and Ladders. I have been perusing pictures of socks that people have completed for the knitalong. I think that I prefer the look of continuing the pattern through the foot instead of stopping the pattern at the ankle so I may alter the pattern in that way. I am using Sock It to Me! Esprit, again from Elann.com. This yarn is cotton with a little elastic which I am finding challenging to work with. It has been hard getting a consistent tension since the yarn stretches so much but I think I have gotten the hang of it. I also used the Norwegian cast-on for the first time. I think I should practice it on wool yarn sometime because it was very difficult to do with the elastic in the yarn.

Self-Striping Gloves Completed

My recent love has been sock knitting. Until last year's issue of Knit It! I never even thought about making socks but after I made my first pair I was hooked. I have made a number of socks out of Magic Stripes yarn. The wool, however, itches my feet so I have recently purchased some Sock It to Me! Esprit yarn off the Elann.com website. This is a combination of cotton and elastic. I plan to use this knit a couple pairs of socks on sock knitalongs that I have discovered on yahoo groups.

Because of my recent obsession with sock knitting I have been looking for other ways to use sock yarn. I have discovered the book The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns which lets you make about anything using any yarn. Last night I finished gloves using the glove pattern in the book with Magic Stripes yarn. I ended up frogging one finger of the glove to try to get the stripes of the gloves to match up but otherwise it was fairly smooth sailing. I used size 2 double pointed needles which enabled me to knit at 7 stitches per inch. The other thing that I learned during this process was to pick up a couple extra stitches at the base of each finger and to immediately decrease these stitches in the next row. That process eliminated any holes that previously sprung up between my glove fingers.

On a less glorious note, I had to frog almost an entire sock last night after I realized it was not going to fit over my heel. This was painful as the sock had a complicated cable pattern and was knit at a painstaking gauge of 9 1/2 stitches per inch. The gauge, of course, was the problem because I was aiming for 8 1/2 stitches per inch. (Sigh . . .) Apparently a gauge swatch worked in stockinette stitch does differ from a gauge swatch worked in the round. I had been warned. . .

Introduction

Hello everyone! I have been knitting for 24 years ever since I was 9 years old. (I'm sure you can do the math and figure out how old I am.) Twenty-four years seems like such a long time to do anything. My mother initially taught me how to knit although I can't say that I've seen her knit anything. Any more complicated things that I have learned, I've learned from books.

In spite of my love of and long history of knitting, I can't say that I really know anyone who knits. I have been lucky enough to run across the book Stitch 'n Bitch which introduced me to both the KnitList and the concept of knitting blogs. I am so excited to have a place to share my knitting now since my husband is tired of hearing about it.

Currently my biggest barriers to knitting are my three year old daughter and my 4 month old son. They are also great subjects to knit for being that they are small and I can knit things for them relatively quickly. As a result I forgive them for being a barrier to my knitting.

I look forward to sharing my projects with you!