UFO Friday - it's a finish, just not mine.

Um... I've been working on my swatches like a good bunny. I have NOT started the Knotty or Knice socks published in Interweave Knits. My mom, however, worked up a Warm Fuzzy Wrist Warmer in about an hour while watching the NASCAR race with me last weekend. Here is me modeling it:


Hey, somebody finished something. That counts!!

Yarn on Thursday - T-Shirt Goodness!

My favorite Knitting T-Shirts (with links so you can get them, too)!

This classic quote from Karate Kid may not actually be about knitting - but c'mon. There are some knitting classes that FEEL like a full-steam-ahead-take-no-prisoners workout, right?


I've got a "cross stitch" version of this that I actually cross-stitched on a sweatshirt about a decade back. I entered it in a wee-small local show, and I think it actually got a prize. I'll try and track down a photo later; until then, consider this knitting version of If I Knit Fast Enough...:


Sarah Utter - she gets it. Go look at all her stuff (I'm seriously considering a "No Tatoos... Yet" shirt just to freak out my mother.)


Alice Thelma has some *wonderful* tees available. Here are two of my favorites, but seriously - go look. They're all great! (And I see myself getting one of each in totebag form. Hey, you knew I had a totebag problem...!)




Craftster has tees, too, thankfully. (I mean, really, they should, right?)


May have to give serious thought to this one. If you squint just a little, the owl kinda looks like a gryphon... so, Knitting Owl!!


Chrissy H Studioshas the Peace-Love-Knit shirts that I've been seeing here and there:


Red Paper Knittingon Etsy has this cool knitting "argyle" tee available from time to time:




More from Zazzle - I Knit in Bars


I knit because I'm smarter than you seems harsh, but I'm not so sure. I'm frequently surrounded by people on public transportation who look amazingly stressed, and ask "how I can find time to do that"... when I'm doing it on said public transport next to them. If they knit, they'd be less stressed. Yep, I've discovered the Secret of Actual Success.


Finally, two I actually own, from Modern Yarn. I'm pretty sure I got them at Stitches East one year, along with a third one I can't (a) find on-line or (b) remember exactly what it said, other than it was a dark olive green tee with knit-witty black writing and some sort of picture. I wonder where that got to?

iKnit


If you've got a witty knitting shirt, let me know where you got it (and if it comes in "totebag")!!

Room with a VIEW.

I visited my husband at work yesterday morning. The company he works for is so large it has its own cafeteria in a really tall building (for DC) - and a there's a View out of that cafeteria.


What you're seeing:
A. Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
B. Virginia (the Commonwealth of)
C. Washington Monument
D. Old Greyhound Bus Building (see below)
E. Washington Kastles Court
F. New Bolt Bus/Megabus Bus Stop
G. Trapeze School (!)
H. The Old Post Office Pavillion

This is the building where I worked when we met - he ended up working across the street at a different firm in a completely different building. It's a lovely Art Deco building, and housed the Greyhound Bus Terminal long ago.

"This building, a blend of vintage and new, is the successful outcome of a lengthy battle waged by the Art Deco Society of Washington and others to save an historic Art Deco design that had been hidden away and forgotten. The original bus terminal epitomized the era's streamlined Moderne style, evoking the efficiency and adventure of travel. It was "modernized" in 1976 by being encased in a cheap covering of indifferent design and then closed in 1987. Preservationists first had to pioneer the concept of landmarking a structure that could not actually be seen and then insist on new construction that would adapt its distinctive features to a new commercial use.

The first 42 feet of the former Greyhound Terminal remain meticulously restored and serve the "1100 New York Avenue" office building as lobby and storefronts. Inside is an information desk adapted from the ticket booth and an explanatory display open on weekdays. "Deco Reborn" by Richard Striner shows the restored Greyhound terminal in front of the new, attached office tower. ADSW offers a poster of the painting."

I really loved working in this building - my favorite art and artists tend to be from the Deco era. I may have to get a copy of that poster!

Does shopping count as a "craft"?

I know today is supposed to be "other crafts" day, but I haven't done any other crafts this week, so you'll just have to deal with More Knitting Content. Or count "shopping" as a "craft", whichever. Anyway, Sunday, whilst picking up bamboo DPNs and more stainless steel blocking pins (and two size 13-14 Susan Bates steelite steel crochet hooks, just because if I see those, I buy them!) at AC Moore, my husband (who will actually enter the store with me!) commented that this looked like a nice sweater:


I agreed, and found the pamphlet with said sweater in it Bernat's Fall Line Up Pattern Book:


Here's a quick view of what else is in the booklet.


I have to say, I'd actually make most of these!!

Masters Monday, Week 5: 20 of 16 swatches to show you, and I still need 6 more

The knitter, swatched nearly to death
Masters Monday - Week Five: Okay, after the not-knitting of last week, I was due for some SERIOUS swatching. And man, oh man, I really don't think I can do better on most of these. (The ones that I can? MOAR RE-NITZ!!) The changes from knit to purl are all even. The selvedge edges are all the same, and match. The decreases are tiny and almost unnoticeable; ditto the increases. The stitches to the left of my cables match the stitches to the right of my cables. My lace is lovely. (I'm much better at lace than most stuff, I've realized. I place all the blame squarely on Deborah and her lovely Secret of the Stole series.) Even the color change thingy? Not so bad, thanks to the Techknitter article, and my newfound ability to figure out how to manipulate stitches around what I'm doing so The Thing I'm Doing looks better.

In the process of putting this week's knitting together, I have two resources for you: (1) the TKGA Basics, Basics, Basics reference materials, shiny-brand-new 2009 updated version. Just re-reading this helped a LOT. (2) So You Want To Be A Master Knitter is super-helpful (and calming) as to what the reviewers expect. It's all common sense, really, and explained in the Level 1 materials - but it's helpful to my brain to see things worded differently, or highlighted/stressed in a new way, and it might be to yours, too. Check it out.

Here's what I've got that was reviewed (by me) for acceptability to be in my submission:


#1 - I have a new-found love of garter stitch selvedge edges. I can make them look very pretty now. Also: bar increases play well with ribbing! The bottom swatch WOULD be acceptable, except I ran out of yarn near the top - and I don't want to try hiding that many weave-ins in this swatch. On the other hand, the top swatch, when I went to unravel it, I'd done such a good job hiding the tails that I COULD NOT FIND THEM. Re-knitting anyway.

#2 - Stockinette. No gutters. I'm really hoping I got the edges right - because I'm still not happy, it's getting re-knit anyway. Also, note the lovely knitted-for-the-fourth-time (on the left) nearly invisible bar increases in the ribbing. Or don't - they're nearly invisible!! Woo-hoo!

#3 - Seed Stitch - from two weeks ago. Still my best swatch.

#4 - Bumpy little Bar Increases. So cute! The one on the right was deemend "acceptable".

#5 - M1 increases. Used the yarnover-below method to keep them even. This time, the one on the left is the one that will be turned in.

#6 - Lifted increases. This took some SERIOUS re-kintting (and re-knitting), but they're nigh-invisible, dagnabit. I know I can do invisible, so it's getting re-done.

#7 - I think - Mirrored decreases, part 1. By twisting what will be the ssk stitches in the previous WS row as I go, they're much smaller when I actually get to them. Yes, I realize I took the photo upside-down. And since I only *think* this is the SSK/K2tog, I'm re-knitting.

#8 - I think - Mirrored decreases, part 2. Can't really tell the difference, which I think is the whole point, but means I need to re-knit this one, as well. Dagnabit. This, kids, is why you label the danged things as you go.
(Um, see the upper right swatch in the #6 photo. Looks like this swatch snuck in up there.)
#9 - Full-fashioned decreases. I'd actually use these for a neckline, they're pretty. Used the same previous-row setup for the ssk. And, since I'm not 100% certain that the misplaced swatch in the photo is, in fact, this swatch, it's getting re-knit. Did I mention that you should label these things as you go?

#10, #11 and #12 - Yarnovers, Simple Eyelet #1 and Simple Eyelet #2. The first two are fine; I had to re-knit the bottom one, since I didn't read the directions accurately, and didn't make the not-K2tog decreases SKP. *Sigh*. But at least it's re-knit now. Is it bad that I enjoy the lace patterns the most?

#13, #14 and #15 - Single Cross Cable, Horseshoe Cable, with a shout-out to Winnie Rose for posting her photo first (so I'd have some clue!), and two possibles for the My Choice cable. Not the mated cables, as I'd planed. Too similar to Single Cross. So, instead, I shamelessly followed Wovenflame into the Walker Treasuries, and tried a Windblown Cable - but reversed it, to see if I could. It didn't look nearly as pretty as hers, so I made something up (lower left) that I liked, but two repeats came in over 4.5 inches; so I did the one on the lower right, which I like a lot. Now, to see if I can re-knit it next week from what I wrote up, and have the two look The Same. PS, if you're thinking of doing this, CHECK OUT WOVENFLAME'S BLOG (Pssst, Alex, she weaves, too!).

#16 - The Colorwork Swatch - a Dreaded Hat Preview
Well, if the final swatch is a preview, then... there must be a DREADED HAT. I have gone over and over the hat pattern. I have swatched flat. I have swatched circular. I have gone up a needle size, then down three. I have almost put my eye out with a DPN (thank the PTBs that I wear glasses!). I have, in short, turned myself into a little ball of panic over this dratted hat, which, as I suspected, will be the Thing That Takes Forever And Holds Up My First Submission. On the other hand, I make a really pretty pom-pom, so there's hope it'll look decent someday.

This week, I do the re-knits for any swatches in which I found Un-Forgivable Errors (the main "error" seems to be forgetting to label the danged things so I can tell what they are later). So, swatches #1, #2, #6, #8, #9 and #15 need re-doing. (6,8, and 9 shouldn't have to!! Dangit!!) I need to work on the hat some more - hey, at least I cast it on! - and get my questions in final form, since at this point, I've got a couple of sources for each thing, and found half a dozen sources for the report. Also, first full draft of the report. (And for those of you wondering how I'm getting "all this done so quickly"... I don't have pets or children, and my husband has learned, in the ten years we've been married, that I get obsessions from time to time, and this is one of them.)

See you next week!