Thank you all!
Rather than submitting individual thank-you's to all the lovely gals at the Lucky KAL and a few other knitters that I stalk continually, I'd just like to say thank you thank you thank you to all the lovely comments that I have received on my Lucky sweater. Can't wait for more finished Lucky's :DSo now that that project has been completed, it seems that a great weight has been lifted. Now I have the green-light to venture to scope out other big projects. Next up:- Bucket Hat in Henry's Attic Inca Cotton (sage) for BF (poor guy, I promised to knit him a hat for Valentine's.. what month is it now?) - Raw chicken viking hat -- brown and cream acrylic.. have to use up that acrylic stash
- 3 more flower basket shawls (unless I stumble upon another lace shawl that tickles me fancy)- Finish up Hush-Hush (yea.. that minty green thingie... I am going to design a cap-sleeve for it. Trust me, my bra isn't the sexiest thing in the world.. it's not meant to be seen in public. And all sexy bras either don't do crap for nipply conditions or they have phone-book-thick padding that makes mine look like I had them artificially enhanced. This will be my opportunity to do short-row shaping on the sleeves) - CO for Bella Paquita by Marnie (6 skeins of plum Baruffa Maratona.. hopefully I have enough)- Yea.. um.. that alpaca.. no ideas yet. Strongly leaning towards the Ruffles scarf in Scarf style for lack of better ideas
Creamy Hot Lava
Pattern: Hot Lava (size Small) by Jenifer PaulouskyMaterials: SWA Laine Chunky yarn (less than 600 yds), US 10.5 circular needlesTechniques: Magic loop all the way babyNotes: Yarn started thinning at the last stage, so collar region appears more transparent than the rest. Oh well. Made my sleeves 1" longer since I have long-ass arms. Since the last ball of yarn was thinner, made 10 rows for collar instead of the 6 called for in pattern.
V is for V-necks, and Victory for me.
Pattern: Lucky Clover Lace Wrap (size Small)from SNB Nation
Duration: March 1 2005 to April 24 2005 (off and on)
Materials: Brown Sheep Cotton Fine in Victorian Pink
Notes: For those of you who are going to seam this little sucker, seam the shoulders, sleeves and sides (I also seamed the waist band to the sides together in one go) first. Make the neck band, then sew it to about 2" away from the part where you connected the front and sleeve, then mattress stitch 2-3 sts from the front pieces to 1 st from the neck band. This allows the neck band to gather to a V-neck. **What I did was I wore the wrap, then threw the band over my shoulders and safety-pinned 3-4" sections (band to sweater) depending on how I want the v-neck to look. Then I stitched it accordingly.** Continue this stitch method until you arrive to the other front piece, then mattress stitch every 1 st from the body piece to 1 st of the neck band. Trust me, I learned it the HARD way... unless you wanted a boatneck wrap sweater.. What I would have done different if I knew then what I know now: Make sleeves and body pieces longer. Cuz that's how I like it. But this is fine too, and NO, I am not making another one.
After thought: Granted this is not the best seaming the modern civiliazation has seen, but it's my first sweater, and it's 1000% me. Yes, 1000%.
** - Editted content
Yum... raw chicken
So I finished the Hot Lava cardigan (sans approriate button.. I am thinking of making a frog closure with i-cords, or just be plain lazy and stick a brooch in it and call it done), and ~ I am feeling *hot hot hot* (for those of you who don't know what the hell that was, it was some cheesy song in the 90s). I will post pictures this weekend when I have access to the digital camera... so if you are interested, do check me out later.
Sticking to my new resolution of knitting accessories until I fall head over heels over the next sweater, I have discovered the raw chicken viking hat designed by Sarah Mundy. Yes, my fellow readers, you are looking at a new chicken KAL-er. 
I envision this chicken to be roasted *with* tan-lines... inspired by the above image at craftster. Come one, you know you want to make one too. Do not resist the chicken! So off to the LYS I go...
Sheer stupidity
This saturday I made my BF search frantically with me for cream colored yarn to finish off the Hot Lava cardigan. Lo and behold, the Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in Ecru (color code 122) was an EXACT match -- gauge and color. I was ecstatic and forked over $10 for a skein of yarn (needless to say, my heart still bled. $10 for ONE SKEIN of wool ?!?). Went home, plugged away, even bound off my stitches and discovered.... I read the instructions wrong. All the time I was knitting, I thought to myself :"Hm...the designer used less than 4 skeins of Manos.. why do I need so much yarn? Must be a pattern flaw.. Must inform Joy of this error"..... egad! The body part was TOO. DAMN. LONG. and so DAMNED. WRONG. I ripped out about 20 inches and had to redo the whole thing. That was 10 bucks down the drain. What can I say? I'm a dumb ass. So I tried to comfort myself by saying that 10 bucks for a lesson learned in knitting ain't so bad, right? *nod nod nod*So Lucky and I had a major fall-out. I spent the entire weekend seaming her, and kept knitting the neck band as I seamed. 62.5" of the band was too short, so I just kept knitting and seaming. I ended up almost doing 80" of the band. At the moment of truth, I put her on and guess what? The neck was too wide!! Now it looks like that ballet wrap cardigan from Rebecca. Instead of a v-neck, I ended up with a boatneck off-shoulder cardigan. Why? Why? Why........... To spite me even further, the length and fit of the sleeves and body was purrfect... all but that damned neck shaping. Was I not supposed to knit 1 stitch from the front and back pieces to 1 row on the band? I need to figure out how to pull in the neck with the band. Disgusted and disconcerted, I threw Lucky in a corner and sulked. She and I will not be re-acquainted anytime soon. Just thinking about ripping the band and re-sewing makes my skin crawl and stomach churn. I have decided not to make anymore sweaters in the near future. The above 2 failures have left me dejected. Will stick to accessories from now on....who am I kidding? I've only been knitting for less than 4 months. Must not be so ambitious. *deflates like a leaky balloon*...
Damn it to hell
*expletives in post. avert your virgin eyes if you can't take the heat*
OMG.... I cannot believe I ran out of yarn only 26 rows away from finishing my Hot Lava. FUCK.......! And to make matters worse, it's some vintage yarn I got off ebay and there's no friggin' way I am able to get more of the same. Serves me right for being cheap. It's the SWA Laine yarn in cream off-whitish color. Damn it, I was so close, yet so far away. I guess I can haul my ass down to my LYS to find a close-match for the last bit of the collar shaping... still.
Okay, so I tried different things with my chunky alpaca. I double-stranded with another worsted weight yarn just to see if I can get the gauge for Cathode, and whaddaya know? No such luck. The required gauge was 8 sts to 4 inches... Stephanie's gotta be using some super duper bulky yarn. Then I tripled the strand, and whaddaya know? Still no luck. I am so obessessd with Cathode now because (a). Just because I can't get it to work my way makes me all the more obsessive-compulsive with it; (b). Staring at a design too long hypnotized me that I HAVE to make it; and (c). My fucking lab experiments aren't bending to my will so I am channeling my frustrations onto knitting and torturing myself. Now I am left with 2 options: (a) Combine the alpaca yarn with a bulky yarn (I've been looking at KnitPicks yarn cuz they're cheap) and try again; (b) Give it up and make the Wavy Scarf on Knitty or just a Neck Cowl and call it a day.
If there is a supreme power overlooking us, I must be right under the armpits cuz no one is throwing me a friggin bone here.
Oh..what to do what to do
Remember my current obsession with alpaca? Well a nice lady on ebay was selling her stash and I bought all 4 hanks for $20 total. Not a bad purchase, considering these babies go for $12/hank. Now I have 440 yds of bulky alpaca (in orange/peach... I might add), I don't know what to do with them. I've posted inquiries in craftster, but no one seems to have a good idea what to do with them also. I don't want a bulky scarf, and I want to use them all up, so armwarmers are out of the question. Speaking of arm warmers, I have decided that Hug from Magknits and I are not meant to be. I knit up another one, this one in slightly thinner yarn, and still have gorilla arms. Rip rip rip. Damn, at least I learned how to do the mattress stitch. So now that yarn is in the process of tranforming into the Hot Lava cardigan. We shall see.
Back to the bulky alpaca. Hm, should I make the Cathode sweater? The yarn appears to have the same chunkiness as the one specified in the pattern, but I am afraid that sweater will look too cropped on me. And I don't like showing my blubber. Or maybe I should just extend the ribbing. Oh gentle reader(s), if you know what to do with 400 yds of divine bulky alpaca, throw in some suggestions my way.Edit- I just checked gauge for the cathode. My yarn knits up much much smaller than the gauge. I think it's actually fluffy, but knits up like an aran weight yarn. crap. Now I am totally lost.
Don't mind me, I'm just showing off
Flower Basket #1 Debut
I finished the misti alpaca flower basket shawl last night. This was a labor of love in the beginning... but towards the 4th or 5th repeats (after ripping out entire rows for the umpteenth time.. boy this alpaca can take it) it was a breeze. I worked on this shawl off and on for about 4 days.. so imagine how much faster this baby would have been completed without the frogging? I included 8 repeats of the chart, since there was still a lot of yarn left. When I completed it and looked at the left-overs, I could see myself extending the pattern repeats to 10 instead of the original 7 called for in the pattern. This picture might seem a little blurry, but that's because I don't have access to BF's digital camera right now so the cell phone's low res pics should do. Alrighty, gotta start working on FBS#2 now. Hee hee.P.S. Did anyone notice? It's on the blocking board... that means I gotta start blocking the Lucky pieces now.. which means I have no excuse to put off the seaming. *faint*
A flower basket in the making
so i searched high and low, and my LYS has one.. yes.... one last copy of Interweave Knits Fall 2004. You know what this means.. flower basket shawl. I know I have the angora yarn... but my hands were instant glued to the misti alpaca the moment they touched the yarn. you can't blame me.. it feels like butta! oh lordy. being on the underpaid overworked grad student budget, i only forked over enough money to make 2 shawls. i am loving the pattern so far. it really keeps me on my toes. gonna make one for me, and one for my dear mom. although wool itches me, i'd tell those hives to take a hike and bathe in alpaca yarn if i could. THAT is how much i love this yarn. i promised someone i'd make her something (well she knew i picked up knitting in Jan 2005 and wants me to make her something... so i feel kinda committed).... if i get around to it i might make her this shawl using the angora yarn. Hm.. i wonder how this pattern will knit up using Brown Sheep's Cotton Fine.. my friend loves this pattern but tells me that even the alpaca feels a little scratchy around her neck. If anyone has ever knit this up in cotton yarn, please let me know how that worked out (like I get alot of visitors on this blog...). Oh god. that's like.. 4 shawls in the making. maybe i should be a little less boring by making other lace patterned shawls. any good suggestions?
