Boat knitting.

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We got back from our ten days on the lake late Satuday. One consequence of being on a boat for so long is that when you get back on dry land, everything still moves as if you were still on the water. Particularly if the ride was bumpy and/or wavy, which our trip was. I think I spent most of the sailing portions of our trip feeling nausous. Not fun.

I did get some knitting in on the trip over. I finished the presents for Miss G. for her birthday/boat trip including this little shawl (man, what a pain it was to finally get that done. I tried knitting it in another yarn using a different pattern and couldn't get it right. Improvised, and it looks adorable).

I learned from this shawlet that bulky yarns can be very fun and fast to knit up, that I am a combined knitter at heart.

My first piece of real clothing...

I finished the knitting portion of this baby kimono a while ago, but I wasn't quite sure how to finish the ties off.

I'm very pleased though, and hopefully it will fit the new baby it was knitted for...

Market bag...

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Originally uploaded by estraub

I tried ever so vigilently to save paper or plastic bags for re-use the next time I went to the grocery store, but I would always forget to bring them. I tried to leave them in my car, but again, would forget to take them inside. Not anymore. Not with this baby.

Here is my first cotton market bag. I love, love, love it. I love whipping it out. It stretches in ways I could not comprehend.

I put 15 pounds of cabbage in it. Along with cucumbers, and it didn't even groan. And it popped back to the original shape. (this picture was taken post-cabbage).

Love it. Making more as soon as I can.

Little bag

I'm so proud of my little bag, so I have to share. It was my first felting project, and I even managed to sew the beads on. It's just so darn cute.

It seemed terribly environmentally irresponsible to try to felt it in my front loading washing machine given it's small size, so I hand felted it using a bamboo sushi mat and some hot water. It took about 10 minutes. I don't remember what web site gave me that tip, but it worked beautifully.

It took me only a couple days to knit up and felt (I'm not that fast of a knitter yet). Given as a gift to my new dear friend from the neighborhood...

I think I'm in love with coffee cozies...

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I do have several larger knitting projects going on. A wrap for myself on chilly nights on the lake. A scarf as a promised gift for a friend. A blanket for Miss Thing.

And yet I can't drag myself away from coffee cozies. I love having them. I hate using the paper wrappers on coffee shop paper cups - it's such a waste. I love knitting them too. They are a quick knit, and I can practice doing new techniques (like this more complex cable design). Plus, unlike some of the other stuff I am working on, I can see the progress of my work, and complete something.

I'm probably going to have to change to beer cozies with the summer months coming soon.
Special Instructions: C7B - Cable 7 Back. Slip next 4 sts onto cable needle and hold at back of work, knit next 3 sts on left-hand needle, slip from cable needle onto left-hand needle and purl it, then k3 from cable needle.

1 row (RS) K6 [p1, k3] 5 times, K3
2 row (and all even rows): K3, P3 [K1, p3] 5 times, K3
(Rows 3-6: Repeat rows 1 & 2)
7 row: K3, [k3, p1] twice, C7B, [p1, k3] twice, K3
9th row: (row 1)
11th row: K6, p1, [C7F, p1] twice, K6
13th row: (row 1)
15th row: K3, ([C7B, p1] twice, C7B, K3
17th row: (row 1)
19th row: as 11th row
21st row: (row 1)
23rd row: 7th row
25th - 28th row: Repeat rows 1 & 2

Mattress stitch the two sides together.

The Dissertation Scarf

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The present for my dear advisor was completed. On time. Even in time to block it. Amazingly enough.

This scarf is officially known as the dissertation scarf because of all the similarities between this scarf and my dissertation. First, there are many flaws, but I pray that no one looks close enough to find them. Secondly, there are sections of it that I had to redo an ungodly number of times (I think that 11th repeat I knitted, ripped out, and knitted again 6, count it, S-I-X times). Thirdly, I put a lot of myself into it, and I'm darn proud of it. Fourth, they were both, at times, pushed to completion because of the hovering spector of my advisor.

Fortunately, I think she loved it. It's the perfect color her. It was a little longer than I had thought it was going to be, but all in all a beautiful piece of work. I found some beautiful engraved shell buttons to sew on the end.

Things I learned from this scarf:

1. How to use lifelines (thank you Emily)
2. How to troubleshoot mistakes. I learned how to fix dropped yarnovers and all sorts of errors.

Lessons from a Man-Scarf

I finished Mr. H's scarf the other day. It has been blocked, and he has even worn it (once).

Things I have learned from this scarf...

• How to knit. At least, how to knit into the right hole (boy, that sounds perverted)
• How to cable. Much, much easier than I thought.
• How to weave in ends. There are a lot of stripes in the scarf, and I learned a lot of different techniques (aka - I messed around a lot) to weave in ends.
• Some of the differences between good yarns and not so good yarns. This particular yarn was an alpaca blend and left fuzz everywhere. In addition, when wet, it actually smells like an alpaca.

A successful experience. I learned a lot. Mr. H is happy. I'm happy it's done. On the to next learning experience.

Teeny Runway...

Make it work.

I am huge fan of Project Runway, the reality show where designers are given fashion challenges and a limited time frame and budget to complete them. I've been watching since the first season. Down in C-bus town, there would generally be a small pool and much weekly discussion about whose outfit was best, who brought the best drama to the episode, etc. etc.

(I even got a chance to meet Kara Janx from season 2 at a charity fashion show a couple years ago with some of the other grad students. The picture is bad, but Kara is the one in the middle.)

In honor of Project Runway, Mason-Dixon Knitting is holding a Teeny Runway contest in which enterprising knitters must create a fashionable outfit for a non-bear object (you can read the whole story and the rules ) which wil then be voted on by the general blog-reading public.

I haven't gotten through the pictures yet today, but since we now have a snow day, and even my Master Gardener classes were canceled, I may try and peruse a bit.

Love is a warm coffee.

I don't do Valentine's day. This is a well known fact in my house. However, a little girl's love will change things a bit. She thought it was cool that she and I went out to dinner since Mr. H has been on the road again.

Mr. H called to let me know that he had bought me a little thing while at his conference. I briefly panicked - he knows how I feel about Valentines day, but I hate not reciprocating.

So quickly, I made him this...

Based off a pattern that I found on Raverly. I did make one change to it.

On the back, I sewed in a pocket. To hold sugar, or maybe a full card worth a free cup of cappucinno that I had been saving for a special occasion from the local coffee shop. Love is coffee. (One note - the pocket is not really crooked - the pocket is a little small for that card, and it pulled the pocket wonky).

And for me? Well, Mr. H knows I have a weakness for geekwear.

I heart it so much. Most of my "geek" shirts are men's which makes me look not only like a geek, but also a poor dresser. This has a girl fit and its a cute color.

I feel like a knitting idiot.

I have been working on the same "simple" pattern for three days now. It's a simple lace scarf. It should be simple. Everyone else says it's simple. I understand the stitches.

And yet I can't get the freaking thing to work correctly. Somehow everytime the stitches end up screwed up. Sometimes I have too many. Sometimes too few. And based off my understanding of math (given, I only really understand calculus, comprehension of arithmatic still eludes me) these things should not be happening. I have plotted the stitches out. I have drawn pictures. I think i know how this thing should work, but apparently I don't, because it never looks like the picture.

I have knitted and unknitted this project 4 times in fluffy MOHAIR. If you are familiar with this, you know its a bitch to do. I then decided to practice on my wool yarn - and I have knitted and frogged that piece 3 times.

I'd like to get this piece done by March. It shouldn't take that long. I may have to have someone else look at it and tell me if I'm either doing it wrong or doing it right and think I'm doing it wrong.

Update: Indeed, I am an idiot. It took me a long time to figure out what I was doing wrong. A ball of yarn may have been thrown across the room. But I figured it out. It was my bad. I was yarn-overing wrong. For every yarn-over, I was yarn-overing AND knitting the stitch which always brought my stitches out wrong.

A small step closer to complete self-sustainability (aka my first hat)

After watching too many Armegeddon and "How the World Will End" shows on the Discovery Network and such, some people might consider how they would sustain themselves if something catestrophic would happen. Don't mock me. Have you thought about it?

This may sound a little out there, but that was in part how this whole thing started. Now, realistically, this is a lot more about relying less on supermarkets and such, and supporting local farmers, watching the chemicals I put into my body, etc than preparing for doomsday, but one too many late-night Nostradamous shows got me thinking about how little I know about supporting my own daily needs.

So I learned more about gardening. It then turned into canning. I haven't learned plumbing yet, but I did teach myself to knit.

And now, I have created a hat. I have made my own clothing.

It is my first "beyond scarf" project. And no, it's not knit correctly (this was before I learned that I was knitting into the back rather than knitting into the front, so it's all knitted into the back). And no, it doesn't really look good on me. But the Marvelous Miss Thing likes it, so I made a big white rose to stick on it, and she now has been wearing it nonstop.

And I can now make my own clothing. Ok, so it's a hat, and a sweater is pretty intimidating because I'm not really good at following detailed directions (see my recipes), but I have created Fuzzy Things to Keep Me Warm.

I just realized that I have been knitting wrong

Bugger. It's not a huge deal, but I have to re-teach myself the physical motions. From what I can tell, my knit stitch is actually a knit into the back loop or I was using the combined knitting technique (but not on the purl stitch).

I looked at the scarf that I have been working on for Mr. H. It's not really noticable, unless you know what you are looking for...

Update: I can now totally notice, but since I was half-way through the scarf before I realized it, Mr. h is just going to have to suck it up.

I also have been looking at Debbie New's book Unexpected Knitting. I am totally in love with what she has done. Once I know how to knit. properly. I am going to start playing around with some of free-style stuff. I think it will suit me better. While the idea of knitting a sweater is intriguing, I don't think I'm disciplined enough...

do not knit while hungover.

When one has spent the previous evening pretending that one is half of one's age, singing karaoke, and making your next 60 best friends, put the needles down. Step away. Especially if one isn't a very experienced knitter in the first place.

Had I known where my camera was, I would have taken a picture of it. The nap blanket I had begun for the Marvelous Miss Thing was, at one end, about 4 inches long. At the other, 6 inches. I'm not quite sure how I got the 2 inch discrepency, but it was clearly there.

Mr. H and I giggled about it. I decided that it was pointless to just rip out the stitches because I'm not even sure where the problem began. I unraveled the whole thing and will start over fresh, and sober.