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Well, first there was this hat:
It's an OK hat, and about right, but a little too tall, and the k3tog decreases were UGH-ly. So, I knit this hat:
The decreases (all p3tog) work much better, but the shape is wrong, wrong, wrong. So, I unraveled it, and knit this hat:
Lovely! It worked! Yay, hat! My mother, however, decided it was hers. I told her it wasn't, and unraveled the first hat, and knit this hat instead.
She decided she liked it better, so the brown hat (#3) is mine, and the grey hat (#4) is Mom's. Or the brown hat is Mom's, and the gray one is my husband's.
Now I need a hat. If you need a hat, too, I've put up the pattern HERE. Eventually, I'll figure out how to get a *.pdf file uploaded to Ravelry, and it will be there, too, but for now, the print-the-*png file method will have to do.
Happy knitting!
The project: Knitting all the stitches in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory.
The yarn: Anything you want. I'm using a Phentex "Monster Ball of Yarn" (32 oz. 100% acrylic), which won't block, but will give good stitch definition.
The needles: Again, whatever you want that goes with your yarn. I'm using my beloved Lantern Moon size 7s, because they're pretty.
Why this is happening: Because lots of people want to learn new stitches this year!
This week's stitches: Mistake Rib (#23), Mock Cable (#24), Moss Diamonds (#25), Moss Panels (#26) and Moss Stitch (#27).
Mistake Rib "(multiple of 4) +3" 19 pattern stitches with 5 seed stitches to border in front, six at the back.
Things I noticed about this pattern: Completely reversible, but kinda ugly and boring. Just did twelve rows, and kept forgetting to get a picture. First stitch I actually haven't liked.
Mock Cable. Multiple of 10 stitches - 20 pattern stitches, with five border stitches before and after. Three repeats was enough to see this pattern, so I knitted 18 rows of it.
Things I noticed about this pattern: No need to twist stitches - but I'm sorry, it doesn't look like a cable to me. On the other hand, if you wanted something to look like Celtic knotwork, the techniques used here could help a lot.
Moss Diamonds "(multiple of 10) +7" - 17 pattern stitches, with 6 border stitches in front and 7 after. Twelve pattern rows, done twice, gives me 24 rows.
Things I noticed about this pattern: Because of the strong purl lines on the RS, this would actually work well for fancy ribbing or a fitted-snug garment. I could see making a version of Tempting II out of this stitch!
Moss Panels. (Multiple of 8) +7. No way around this one; it'll have to be wide. 23 pattern stitches with four in front and three after. (This is actually a set up for the first stitch for next week, as you'll see.) Ten row pattern, so I knit two repeats, for 20 rows total.
Things I noticed about this pattern: Again, strong verticals (see the WS photo, below) would work for a fitted garment, or nicely as trim.
Moss Stitch (Seed Stitch) - we've been doing this one all along on the borders, so you don't really need a refresher! A note on the whole project: Since there are 139 stitch patterns (some are listed under multiple headings), plus 7 different edgings in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory, I'll be trying to do two to three stitches a week, minimum. This should get everyone a goodly number of new stitches by the end of the year, and hopefully get me a blanket. No worries if you "fall behind" or "start late" - this is for fun & education, there isn't *really* a time limit of any sort on it. If you're just discovering this project, this link will take you to the beginning, and this link will pull up all the related entries. Just knit on, and have fun!
A snapshot of my life, via a snapshot of my table, or "Why I Haven't Turned In My Hand Knitting Masters Level I Yet":
I certainly had time (with all the snow) to be working on my Masters - and I do have something to report, but later.
Avatar Soundtrack. You either love James Horner & his music, or you hate him. I'm firmly in the "love" camp. I could've done without the Leona Lewis song, but there's a rule that every soundtrack must have a song that Just Doesn't Go. An example: the Iron Man soundtrack has "Iron Man (2008 Version)", the second track. It's really, really jarring compared to the rest of the soundtrack. Like Lewis's song on Avatar, it's a nice piece of music, but it Just Doesn't Go.
Cross-stitch kit. This is The Stitcher's 12 Days of Christmas, and when I saw it, I knew I was going to get it. The box arrived just after the storm of December, 2009, and the kit is just waiting for me to finish 100 other things before I get to it. The words, if you're interested, are: "On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Twelve pairs of Ginghers, Eleven golden needles, Ten cuts of linen, Nine bags of buttons, Eight silver thimbles, Seven fine new patters, Six Chatelaines, Five Skeins of Silk; Four hours free to stitch, Three stitching Frames, Two sewing birds, and a hatbox full of overdyed threads."
Perforated Paper kit. In the same box as the cross-stitch kit, I got the lovely Spirit of Christmas - Snow Angel kit. I have the Angel of Knitting, Angel of Cross Stitch, Angel of Quilting and Angel of Crochet, plus the Angel of Liberty that was in an issue of a magazine (carefully tucked in with my other chartpacks). These kits contain the chart, the perforated paper (including the metallic paper for the wings!), beads, and needles - I just have to add the floss.
Knitting Pattern. Well, that's the Happy Star I designed for my Hello Kitty Scarf, which, at present, is fully 50% completed. If I just wanted a one-sided scarf, I could call it done, but I want two sides.
Christmas Cards. Because, in theory, I'm eventually going to record the addresses of folks we forgot to send cards to (luckily, we only missed two). The idea was going to be to send a Groundhog Day card, but that didn't happen. (Did design it, though, over on the Writing Blog. I really should've put it on the Art Blog, now that I think about it, but more people will see it on the Writing Blog. Or here, thus the link, even if it's weeks past Groundhog Day now. Does that mean there's only three or four weeks of winter left now? )
Giant Ball of Yarn. You saw parts of that for five weeks earlier this year; don't worry, it'll return once I finish YoT:SE - Stripe Two, which should be shortly. But it's one big, giant ball of yarn!
Regency Romance. I can't even tell you which one, because in between my "Things I Read Last Week", there's usually at least one Regency Romance. I have a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf full of them; my mother's entire upstairs hall is full of bookshelves full of Regencies. Requirements of the genre are a setting during (or slightly before) the Regency of HRH the Prince of Wales during the reign of his father, His Majesty George the Third, and a happy ending. Happy Brain Candy.
New Cookbook. I can't even see the cookbook in this picture. I'm pretty sure, however, that it was "fast & healthy" oriented. I also found a copy of "Cooking for One" at my favorite used bookstore, Hole in the Wall in Falls Church. (It's easy to double recipes; it's not so much fun to cut them by quarters - or worse, sixths.) For a bit there, we were cooking healthy meals nightly, and both feeling better. We've moved back to more processed home meals (at least it's not fast food?), so need to start cooking again. Which means I need to have another "THIS is what I mean by 'clean kitchen' " talk with my husband; things that don't bother him drive me nuts, and vice versa.
But that's my excuse for not working on my Masters the last month or so. Because, you know, I was so busy when I was trapped in my house for ten days with nothing to do.
And, just because, here's a shot of a very, very young Ronald Regan with Bette Davis in "Dark Victory":
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What I read last week: Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson
Okay, this one was fun. (Well, as much fun as anything chronicling the days of the Ripper killings can be. It's not a story for the squeamish, certainly.) More important - it has the enthusiastic support of the Conan Doyle Estate! Caleb Carr, author of The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness (both of which I also thoroughly enjoyed & recommend), sums it up best: "At long last, an author of rare talent combines a thorough, enthusiastic knowledge of the Sherlock Holmes canon with truly rigorous research into, and respect for, what remains one of the greatest and most horrifying unsolved murder cases in modern history: the Jack the Ripper killings. Where others have failed, Lyndsay Faye's extremely impressive debut novel succeeds, on every level, providing thrilling entertainment without blatant exploitation. It will instantly take a place of distinction among the best attempts of contemporary authors to continue the work of Arthur Conan Doyle, and is, quite simply, a must for Holmes fans and Ripperologists alike."The Back of the Jacket: "As England's greatest specialist in criminal detection, Sherlock Holmes is unwavering in his quest to capture the killer responsible for terrifying London's East End. He hires an "unfortunate" known as Mary Ann Monk, the friend of a fellow street-walker who was one of the Ripper's earliest victims; and he relies heavily on the steadfast and devoted Dr. John H. Watson. When Holmes himself is wounded in Whitechapel during an attempt to catch the savage monster, the popular press launches an investigation of its own, questioning the great detective's role in the very crimes he is so fervently struggling to prevent. Stripped of his credibility, Holmes is left with no choice but to break every rule in his desperate race to find the madman known as "the Knife" - before it is too late."
Genre(s): Mystery
Audience: Adult
Online Extras: LyndsayFaye.com; Amazon.com lets you read the first few pages
Reading Time: 2 days
Recommend: I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, and Ms. Faye really caught the voice of Sir Arthur. While I can't picture Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock (it's always Jeremy Brett in my mind), Jude Law will forever be Dr. Watson.) Anyway, I really enjoyed it, and I'm a Holmes nitpicker. I read a lot. Given how much I knit, I really shouldn't have time for eating - but I tend to eat at least two meals a day at work (by myself), and I don't want food on my knitting, so - I read. I'm not reading as much as I usually do, since the Monster Yarn Pattern Project thing is taking over chunks of my evenings (it's going to be a while before there's little enough yarn left for it to be a "portable project"), so I'll share what I've been reading. It's pretty eclectic, and I'm not a critic. Pretty much anything I pick up, I read; I don't tend to pick up things I don't think I'll finish. Don't expect anything in-depth, but you may find something you hadn't heard of that you might want to track down to read yourself.
Okay, so, I promised you photos of a finish. Waaaaaaaay back in 1998, my BFF got hitched, and I started a sampler for her. I JUST FINISHED IT. Now there's a rule that you have a year after the wedding to get a gift to the couple in question - I missed by, oh, 11.5 years. I know this. However, it's finished (and now I can work on finishing the next one). At this point, I have to do samplers for: (1) my BFF (again); (2) my Steampunk Goddess friend M; (3) my boss; (4) my kid sister. They are, at this point, six, four, three and three years late - and of them all, only (1) is actually started (but I have the supplies for all of them). Except for (1), they're all original designs, too, which doesn't help... but that's not important right now.
What's important is that it's finished!!
This is supposed to be a pink-roses pattern. I've stitched it before for my college roommate; that one I actually finished and framed the night before the wedding (and they're still married. Of the dozen or so samplers I've done, about half still belong to married couples, which is keeping with the national average). So, for this one, I had to change the colors (Bright Primary Colors!), and I stitched it on smaller-count fabric (18ct v. 14ct), not that it made it go any faster (CLEARLY). Made up the lettering as I went (most of which is obscured, but you can see bits of "September).
The back is just red velvet ("Place fabric facing; stitch around design, leaving small hole to invert; invert, stuff, seal the hole") and some DMC #796 cord made from one skein of #3 Perle Cotton.
Used the leftover velvet on the Scots Santa, and made some quick cord from the leftover dark green silk from the tartan.
Now I have two things I can hand off the next time I see the ladies to whom they go!
By Wednesday night (about the time they finally showed Shaun White's 2nd run), I finished the left front of the Argyle Hearts Sweater, and got the right front cast on.
Basically, to have a prayer of finishing this sweater in time to get a medal, I need to have the left front done tonight, and the back done by the end of Sunday. As we all know, sleeves take much longer than they should, and then there's the button band and the collar. And the finishing. AIIIIGH!
Anyway, there's a chance I might do it, but it's going to kill my WIP Dancing entry. Sweater OR Blanket; not both. (I'm really grumbling a lot, just so you know, that the snow week was LAST week, not THIS week, when I really need the time for my knitting.)
Anyway, did get another spectacular finish this week, a wedding sampler (that's going to be a wedding pillow) that's 12 years and another marriage overdue, but by gosh, she wanted it finished, and it FINALLY is. Will be finding time (??) to actually create the pillow-ness of it over the weekend, and will use the extra velvet (if any there be) to do up JJ's Scots Santa ornament. But that's going to need a day all to itself, since it turned out lovely. (Portions of the sampler will be redacted to protect the innocent, of course.)
I leave you, then, with an introduction to this year's Winter Olympic Mascots:
The project: Knitting all the stitches in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory.
The yarn: Anything you want. I'm using a Phentex "Monster Ball of Yarn" (32 oz. 100% acrylic), which won't block, but will give good stitch definition.
The needles: Again, whatever you want that goes with your yarn. I'm using my beloved Lantern Moon size 7s, because they're pretty.
Why this is happening: Because lots of people want to learn new stitches this year!
This week's stitches: King Charles Brocade (#20), Large Diamonds (#21) and Little Pyramids (#22)
First, here's King Charles Brocade. This is a tricky one; the pattern is a (multiple of 12) +1. Thirteen stitches is a bit too thin for a pattern stitch area, compared to the rest of the blanket (I'm trying to keep "over sixteen"). The alternative is to figure out how it will go over an area of 20 stitches - and let's remember how well that didn't work for the Embossed Diamonds! I'm going to try it anyway.
So, given five stitches' worth of seed stitch before and after 20 stitches of pattern stitch, this is what I knit. I decided to put it in a grid, to make it easier on myself! Wrong-side rows are in italics. Read all rows from left to right. The double-line after the 13th stitch indicates where the pattern repeat begins - and ends.
Well, that looks pretty complicated. Here it is, written normally, to go over 20 stitches: Row 1: k1, p1, k9, p1, k2, p1, k4
Row 2: p4, k1, p1, k2, p1, k1, p7, k1, p1, k1
Row 3: (k1, p1) twice, k5, (p1, k1) twice, (k1, p1) twice, k2
Row 4: p2, (k1, p1) twice, p3, (k1, p1) twice, p2, (k1, p1) twice, p1
Row 5: k3, (p1, k1) four times, k5, (p1, k1) twice
Row 6: k1, p1, k1, p8, (k1, p1) three times, p4
Row 7: k5, (p1, k1) twice, k9, p1, k1
Row 8: k1, p1, k1, p8, (k1, p1) three times, p4 (or, repeat row 6)
Row 9: k3, (p1, k1) four times, k5, (p1, k1) twice (or, repeat row 5)
Row 10: p2, (k1, p1) twice, p3, (k1, p1) twice, p2, (k1, p1) twice, p1 (or, repeat row 4)
Row 11: (k1, p1) twice, k5, (p1, k1) twice, (k1, p1) twice, k2 (or, repeat row 3)
Row 12: p4, k1, p1, k2, p1, k1, p7, k1, p1, k1 (or, repeat row 2)
If you absolutely, positively have to figure out a pattern over a weird number of stitches, writing the pattern out, stitch by stitch, in a grid, really helps.
Things I noticed about this pattern: If you're going to do less than a full horizontal pattern repeat, stitch markers are key. The double line in the chart above is where the dark red paperclip is - that way, I know I'm starting the repeated stitches. (I read them left to right, for RS and WS - which, I know, is weird, but it works for me. As long as you can read whichever chart you come up with, you're fine.) And here's the finished item, 20 pattern stitches over 24 rows:
With Large Diamonds, I'll be doing the same sort of thing - repeating some of the stitches so I'll have 20 pattern stitches. This time, so it looks vertically balanced, I'll be doing 22 rows - repeating rows 1-8, instead of all 14 pattern rows. Unlike the King Charles Brocade above, this pattern was easy enough to repeat the first five stitches without needing to draft out a big chart. Here is the stitch marker setup:
Things I noticed about this pattern: It is reversible, but the two sides are quite different. I think I actually like the wrong side better than the right side. It was also easy (possibly just compared to the King Charles Brocade), and once I had the hang of what was happening, I didn't actually look at the written pattern.
Right Side/Front
Wrongs Side/Back
On to Little Pyramids. Since this stitch is a "(multiple of 6) + 5), I decided to do it over seventeen stitches, with 6 border seed stitches before and 7 after the pattern stitches. Since it's a 6-row pattern, I did 4 repeats, for a total of 24 rows.
Things I noticed about this pattern: If you hold it at an angle, it looks like dragon scales.
A note on the whole project: Since there are 139 stitch patterns (some are listed under multiple headings), plus 7 different edgings in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory, I'll be trying to do two to three stitches a week, minimum. This should get everyone a goodly number of new stitches by the end of the year, and hopefully get me a blanket. No worries if you "fall behind" or "start late" - this is for fun & education, there isn't *really* a time limit of any sort on it. If you're just discovering this project, this link will take you to the beginning, and this link will pull up all the related entries. Just knit on, and have fun!
Well, I'm doing Ravelympics - I'm a co-captain of TeamResolutions2010. I wish I'd realized there was going to be an "unraveling" event, because I totally would've waited to unravel my sweater until then! What sweater, you ask? Well, long, long ago, my cousin wore a sweater-vest with a cute little "Argyle hearts" motif:
So, I started one. (See this entry from November, 2008.)
But I wasn't really happy with it, so, in January this year, I unraveled it:
Then turned it into nice, happy little balls of yarn:
Once the torch was lit (I counted the first flame going up as "start"), I cast on the front right panel, and I've gotten pretty far. I also made some changes. First, the tiny heart in the diamond over the big heart on the bottom row of Argyle-type stuff is centered. You can see in the old one that it wasn't, and it looks better centered.
New
Old
I'm just shy of the first armhole decreases now, and the left front should go MUCH more quickly, since I won't be trying to figure out the pattern as I go.
Don't know if I'll finish, now that I have to be back at work all day, but I'm going to have fun trying!
What I read last week:
The Back of the Jacket:
I have sworn upon the River Styx that the events in this book are purely fictional.
There is no such twelve-year-old boy as Perseus "Percy" Jackson. The Greek gos are nothing more than old myths. They certainly never have children with mortals in the twenty-first century, nor is there any such place as Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods on eastern Long Island where I train young heroes to survive against their monstrous enemies. Percy never met a satyr or a daughter of Athena. They most emphatically did not embark upon a quest together across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.
Having said this, I must warn you to think carefully before starting this book. If you feel anything stirring within you as you read - if you being to suspect that this story may be describing something about your own life - STOP READING IMMEDIATELY. I cannot be held responsible for the consequences.
May the gos of Olympus (who of curse do not exist) watch over you.
Yours sincerely, CHIRON KENTAVROS
Immortal Trainer of Heroes
Activities Director, Camp Half-Blood
Bearer of Laurels, Olympian Council.
Okay, I was a Latin jock (specifically, Mythology Expert) in High School. These books are a blast and - might I add - about ten times more fun than the movie. (Which wasn't a bad little popcorn flick, I caught it yesterday. The books are much, much better, with all the backstory, and the plot actually makes sense. Also: the movie is actually aimed at an older audience than the books; there's a lot of innuendo & such that just isn't in the original.) And read the books first, if you can; the movie gives stuff away that's more fun to be surprised by (if you didn't see it coming). I was able to finish a book a day, easily, and will probably be picking up the other three over the weekend. (Not tough, since I own them all - I had a pretty good idea I was going to like them!)
Genre(s): Fantasy
Audience: Kids, allegedly, but anyone with a sense of adventure, really
Online Extras: www.rickriordan.com, and, well, there's a movie....
Reading Time: 4h apiece
Recommend: Yep! And I'll slap folks who say "It's just like Harry Potter" or "It's just like Lord of the Rings" or even "It's just like Star Wars!" They're all mythic cycles; there's a formula for those, and they follow it. Deal.
I read a lot. Given how much I knit, I really shouldn't have time for eating - but I tend to eat at least two meals a day at work (by myself), and I don't want food on my knitting, so - I read. I'm not reading as much as I usually do, since the Monster Yarn Pattern Project thing is taking over chunks of my evenings (it's going to be a while before there's little enough yarn left for it to be a "portable project"), so I'll share what I've been reading. It's pretty eclectic, and I'm not a critic. Pretty much anything I pick up, I read; I don't tend to pick up things I don't think I'll finish. Don't expect anything in-depth, but you may find something you hadn't heard of that you might want to track down to read yourself.
A little late (okay, twelve hours late) today, due to actually getting ten days worth of errands and things done all in one day, today. Exhibit A:
That's my street. This is the best it's been for the past ten days. Note there isn't PAVEMENT or anything, just that nice sheet of ice. The "secondary roads" around here are fine (we finally left the house today, as you can tell from the photo), but our little 'burb? NOT.
Getting to work tomorrow isn't going to be fun - but we're REALLY not looking forward to the drive home. It took my husband (and several others from the neighborhood) 6h to get home - because the bus driver forgot to tell them he wasn't ACTUALLY going to drive the bus route - that someone else drove just fine that morning.
Srsly, glad the snow is stopped!
