Showing posts with label sweaters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sweaters. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Hood issues, part 2
I finally finished Mr Wonderful's bad-ass cabled hoodie. Only one problem: the hood is large enough for about three heads! I thought it was taking an awfully long time to finish the hood, but the rest of the pattern was so well written that I didn't think much of it. When I finished it and Mr Wonderful tried it on, the error became obvious. I think that instead of three center cable repeats, it should only be two.
*sigh*
I'm going to have to frog it back and re-knit the hood, but I can't face it right now. That sweater has been on my needles for months and I am not ready to pick it up again just yet. So in the meantime, I'm doing something fairly mindless - Rugrat's zip-up skull hoodie. It's mainly stockinette, with a bit of colorwork down at the bottom hem. Once I finish the sweater I'll write up a pattern for it so that others can knit it up if they want to. I'm keeping copious notes on my Rav project page.
*sigh*
I'm going to have to frog it back and re-knit the hood, but I can't face it right now. That sweater has been on my needles for months and I am not ready to pick it up again just yet. So in the meantime, I'm doing something fairly mindless - Rugrat's zip-up skull hoodie. It's mainly stockinette, with a bit of colorwork down at the bottom hem. Once I finish the sweater I'll write up a pattern for it so that others can knit it up if they want to. I'm keeping copious notes on my Rav project page.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Hood issues
I've been knitting Mr Wonderful's "Bad Ass" hoodie sweater since last December (OK, not exclusively - I did work on some other projects as well). Now I'm finally almost finished, and I'm running into problems on the hood. I think I've found an actual error in the pattern.
The written pattern calls for you to have pick up the front, shoulder, and back stitches, with a total of 90 stitches on the needles. (I'm knitting the large size.) But going by the stitch counts in the chart, you actually need 92. That's not a big deal though; the larger issue is with the increases on the hood. We need to increase several times, and the placement of those increases on the chart means that every other row you'd be moving over your basketweave pattern another stitch, so it totally wouldn't line up. I'm about 5 rows into the hood now and it's really starting to look funky, so I'm planning on ripping it back out and starting the hood over again, with 92 stitches and the increases immediately before the center cable, rather than immediately after the smaller side (shoulder) cables. I think this will solve my problems.
The written pattern calls for you to have pick up the front, shoulder, and back stitches, with a total of 90 stitches on the needles. (I'm knitting the large size.) But going by the stitch counts in the chart, you actually need 92. That's not a big deal though; the larger issue is with the increases on the hood. We need to increase several times, and the placement of those increases on the chart means that every other row you'd be moving over your basketweave pattern another stitch, so it totally wouldn't line up. I'm about 5 rows into the hood now and it's really starting to look funky, so I'm planning on ripping it back out and starting the hood over again, with 92 stitches and the increases immediately before the center cable, rather than immediately after the smaller side (shoulder) cables. I think this will solve my problems.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Crazybusy
God, things have been so busy lately, I've barely had time to think. Quick recap here:
Things I still need to get done:
- Attended & helped organize a protest against Prop 8 in WC on the 15th
- Waged war on the pantry moths that had completely infested our dry goods cupboard; I think I've won but it may just be a lull in the battle
- Semi-regular dinner out with supervisor
- Fought off a cold
- Attended big Adobe conference in SF, 17th-19th (which entailed unfortunate late nights coupled with even more unfortunate early mornings in which I had to ride stupid BART into the city. Hello, two-hour commute!)
- Parent-teacher conference
- Thanksgiving dinner planning, including ordering the organic free-range turkey breast (even though it's just the four of us, and possibly Babydaddy, we will still have the requisite big turkey feast)
- Finished two sweaters (Sister's Christmas Present and my big green squishy Mmmmmalabrigo v-neck)
- Started a baby sweater
- Started and FINISHED a super-secret surprise Christmas present for someone (at least those long BART rides were good for something)
- Successfully kept myself from killing the kids so far (they're home a lot this month thanks to Thanksgiving, Veteran's Day, staff in-service days and parent-teacher conferences)
- Finished most of my Christmas shopping
- Crazy busy with work stuff (being gone for three days at a conference does not help)
Things I still need to get done:
- Family picture for Christmas cards
- Order Christmas cards, and when they get here, address & send them out
- Thanksgiving
- Get paver stones to edge the patio (between cement patio & new sod)
- Finish baby sweater
- Sleep for fifteen years
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A summer cold
Last week Mr Wonderful came down with a nasty summer cold. I thought I'd escaped it, but apparently I wasn't so lucky...I started feeling it while I was driving home on Sunday, after dropping Rugrat off at summer camp. I just hope that he doesn't come down with it - what a disappointment it would be (not to mention a waste of money) if he had to come home early from camp!
As much as I hate being sick, at least I'm getting this cold thing out of the way while the kids are both gone (Tomboy's at her mom's this week) and before we head down for our vacation in Palm Springs next week. And I'm feeling much better today; yesterday was miserable but I got 10 hours of sleep the last two nights (thank you, NyQuil!) and have been drinking lots of liquids, so I'm feeling a bit better today. We'll see...it does tend to get worse as the day goes on, so I may be prematurely optimistic here, but I'm not as "out of it" today.
I know I've been lagging on posting here. That happens when I feel like I need to do a recap of something, and then I keep putting it off, and thinking that I can't blog about anything else until that is done. I'm talking about the camping trip we went on at the end of June, of course.
It was really very nice, and would have been ideal if it weren't for the damn mosquitoes. Rugrat got bitten so many times on his face that he looked like a boxer who'd just done ten rounds; his eye was swollen almost shut on the ride home. But other than the bugs, it was great. We spent a lot of time at the river nearby; I'd brought a huge inner tube (meant for pulling along behind a boat, so it was very sturdy) and we spent some lovely hours just floating in the water. Niece, of course, was absolutely ecstatic to be in the water - she's always been drawn to water, and would live her entire life in the water if she could. Mr Wonderful took Rugrat fishing for a little while, and I sat on the beach chatting with Sister and Brother-In-Law, knitting my cushy green v-neck sweater. You may think that wool and knitting needles are not appropriate for the beach, but hey, it's my vacation. I get to relax however I want. :)
And the food was glorious. I'd pre-made some Ribollita and some Mexican Chicken Chili before we left, and we also had hot dogs, eggs and bacon, biscuits, tacos, sandwich fixin's and snacks, plus lots of beer and soft drinks and water. Sister brought deviled eggs...mmmm....and they made us chicken-pineapple kabobs one night that were fantastic! Sister & BIL had gotten a really cool new camp stove; one side is a grill, the other is a regular burner, and it was very handy.
The best of the pictures of the camping trip are up on Flickr, if you're interested.
Oh, and let me leave you with this little snippet of conversation, overheard about 10 minutes after Sister & her family showed up:
Cousin: You suck!
Rugrat: No, you suck!
Cousin: We both suck!
Rugrat: Yeah, we both suck!
As much as I hate being sick, at least I'm getting this cold thing out of the way while the kids are both gone (Tomboy's at her mom's this week) and before we head down for our vacation in Palm Springs next week. And I'm feeling much better today; yesterday was miserable but I got 10 hours of sleep the last two nights (thank you, NyQuil!) and have been drinking lots of liquids, so I'm feeling a bit better today. We'll see...it does tend to get worse as the day goes on, so I may be prematurely optimistic here, but I'm not as "out of it" today.
I know I've been lagging on posting here. That happens when I feel like I need to do a recap of something, and then I keep putting it off, and thinking that I can't blog about anything else until that is done. I'm talking about the camping trip we went on at the end of June, of course.
It was really very nice, and would have been ideal if it weren't for the damn mosquitoes. Rugrat got bitten so many times on his face that he looked like a boxer who'd just done ten rounds; his eye was swollen almost shut on the ride home. But other than the bugs, it was great. We spent a lot of time at the river nearby; I'd brought a huge inner tube (meant for pulling along behind a boat, so it was very sturdy) and we spent some lovely hours just floating in the water. Niece, of course, was absolutely ecstatic to be in the water - she's always been drawn to water, and would live her entire life in the water if she could. Mr Wonderful took Rugrat fishing for a little while, and I sat on the beach chatting with Sister and Brother-In-Law, knitting my cushy green v-neck sweater. You may think that wool and knitting needles are not appropriate for the beach, but hey, it's my vacation. I get to relax however I want. :)
And the food was glorious. I'd pre-made some Ribollita and some Mexican Chicken Chili before we left, and we also had hot dogs, eggs and bacon, biscuits, tacos, sandwich fixin's and snacks, plus lots of beer and soft drinks and water. Sister brought deviled eggs...mmmm....and they made us chicken-pineapple kabobs one night that were fantastic! Sister & BIL had gotten a really cool new camp stove; one side is a grill, the other is a regular burner, and it was very handy.
The best of the pictures of the camping trip are up on Flickr, if you're interested.
Oh, and let me leave you with this little snippet of conversation, overheard about 10 minutes after Sister & her family showed up:
Cousin: You suck!
Rugrat: No, you suck!
Cousin: We both suck!
Rugrat: Yeah, we both suck!
Monday, April 7, 2008
Finito!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
New Project!
I've started on Tomboy's shrug. I bought the yarn for this several months ago, but couldn't bring myself to start the project until I'd finally finished the Spider-Man Sweater. Now that the SMS is off my needles (yay!) I'm able to start some new projects.
I cast on for the Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug (from Fitted Knits) on Monday night, and quickly realized that I'd need to finish off my Dashings (the fingerless gloves) before I could get very far, because I needed my row counter and it was currently in use for the gloves-in-progress. So on Tuesday evening I finished off the Dashings, and last night I worked for a while on the shrug again. I must say, I've made excellent progress. :) I'm really loving the yarn too - it's a solar-dyed fingering weight organic cotton by Ceallach Dyes. I'm knitting with two strands held together to make it a heavier weight & so I can get gauge. This yarn is so soft and yummy - the colors range from bright apple green to a lovely faded denim color, so it's got some visual interest (the ribbing will be all blue; I have a different skein of yarn for that). And it's going to match very well with the track suit I got Tomboy for Christmas. It will be SO cute with the pants & a white t-shirt or tank top underneath, or with jeans. And it'll be a great summer-weight layer, to keep her warm in the evenings when it gets a little chilly.
I cast on for the Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug (from Fitted Knits) on Monday night, and quickly realized that I'd need to finish off my Dashings (the fingerless gloves) before I could get very far, because I needed my row counter and it was currently in use for the gloves-in-progress. So on Tuesday evening I finished off the Dashings, and last night I worked for a while on the shrug again. I must say, I've made excellent progress. :) I'm really loving the yarn too - it's a solar-dyed fingering weight organic cotton by Ceallach Dyes. I'm knitting with two strands held together to make it a heavier weight & so I can get gauge. This yarn is so soft and yummy - the colors range from bright apple green to a lovely faded denim color, so it's got some visual interest (the ribbing will be all blue; I have a different skein of yarn for that). And it's going to match very well with the track suit I got Tomboy for Christmas. It will be SO cute with the pants & a white t-shirt or tank top underneath, or with jeans. And it'll be a great summer-weight layer, to keep her warm in the evenings when it gets a little chilly.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Sweater is DONE!
Saturday I frantically knitted up the ribbing on the neckline, after completely screwing it up Friday night (beer + knitting apparently equals forgetting how to do knit-one-purl-one ribbing. *sigh*). We took the kids to a free church-sponsored Easter event in the next town over, and I have to say, that was the most AMAZING thing I'd ever seen. There were more than 20 bounce houses (I think they must have rented every single one in the area), a laser tag game, a rock climbing wall, easter egg hunt, hotdogs and drinks and people driving around in golf carts throwing out candy...and the whole thing was free. Every single bit of it. They must have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on this shindig. Anyway, while Rugrat was waiting in line for the laser tag, I knitted the neckline. Afterwards, we went to Tomboy's piano recital, where I finished the sweater by weaving in all the ends. And Saturday night I washed and blocked the sweater. Sunday morning it was dry and ready to go, and I achieved my goal (well, my latest goal) of finishing the sweater in time for Easter.
As you can see, the sweater is a *bit* big. The neckline in particular is huge, but the sleeves are also a little too long and the shoulders are definitely too wide. That's OK. Turns out I'm fine with that, because now he'll be able to wear it for a couple of years, probably. And he is incredibly proud and excited - he kept telling everybody we saw that his mom made the sweater just for him, and he's the only person in the world who has a sweater like that. He wore it all day on Easter and put it on over a t-shirt to wear to school today, as well. And you know what? That's just fine with me. :)
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Sweater progress
Whither the Spider-man Sweater, you ask?
Well. After ripping out sleeve #2 about seven times and re-starting over and over and over, I am pleased to tell you that the second sleeve is finally, finally done. In fact I just finished it a few minutes ago (knitting on my very belated lunch break). I have started weaving in the ends, and am about 1/3 through that process. Tonight I plan to pick up & knit the ribbing on the collar, and then once those pesky ends are woven in and I block it, it will be DONE.
Done, I tell you.
So I'm hoping to get Rugrat wearing the sweater for Easter. I'll post pics when it's not only merely done, it's really quite sincerely done.
Well. After ripping out sleeve #2 about seven times and re-starting over and over and over, I am pleased to tell you that the second sleeve is finally, finally done. In fact I just finished it a few minutes ago (knitting on my very belated lunch break). I have started weaving in the ends, and am about 1/3 through that process. Tonight I plan to pick up & knit the ribbing on the collar, and then once those pesky ends are woven in and I block it, it will be DONE.
Done, I tell you.
So I'm hoping to get Rugrat wearing the sweater for Easter. I'll post pics when it's not only merely done, it's really quite sincerely done.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
A sleeve is done!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Advice
Note to self: stop knitting while drinking.
I keep dropping stitches and fucking things up and having to rip back the poor sleeve I finally started on a few days ago. Every time I sit down with a beer and my knitting needles I screw the damn thing up. Like, when I decided to give the sleeve a little shaping, and so I (in my ultimate wisdom) decreased one stitch every other row, but only in one direction. So the sleeve decrease started to spiral.
Ah well, I guess this is just what happens when you knit your first sweater and decide to do modifications to the pattern. Before this, the most difficult thing I'd attempted was a scarf. A really easy garter-stitch scarf. Oh, and I did do that one two-color hat in the EZ book. But this is really my first big project, and quite frankly I'm so frustrated with it right now that I dream about frogging the whole damn thing. Literally. I had a dream I did that. It was kind of liberating but ultimately a depressing dream, so when I woke up I was glad I hadn't done it.
Anyhoo, I am plugging along. I found a local knitting group and finally made it to my first meeting last night. I'm hoping to make it on a regular basis, because I think it will help a lot to have experienced knitters that I can get help from, in person, when I screw up.
I keep dropping stitches and fucking things up and having to rip back the poor sleeve I finally started on a few days ago. Every time I sit down with a beer and my knitting needles I screw the damn thing up. Like, when I decided to give the sleeve a little shaping, and so I (in my ultimate wisdom) decreased one stitch every other row, but only in one direction. So the sleeve decrease started to spiral.
Ah well, I guess this is just what happens when you knit your first sweater and decide to do modifications to the pattern. Before this, the most difficult thing I'd attempted was a scarf. A really easy garter-stitch scarf. Oh, and I did do that one two-color hat in the EZ book. But this is really my first big project, and quite frankly I'm so frustrated with it right now that I dream about frogging the whole damn thing. Literally. I had a dream I did that. It was kind of liberating but ultimately a depressing dream, so when I woke up I was glad I hadn't done it.
Anyhoo, I am plugging along. I found a local knitting group and finally made it to my first meeting last night. I'm hoping to make it on a regular basis, because I think it will help a lot to have experienced knitters that I can get help from, in person, when I screw up.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Spider-Man Logo
The Spider-Man logo I used for Rugrat's "Weasley Sweater" in place of an initial.
Chart (Excel format) can be found here.
Chart (Excel format) can be found here.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Six months
Last night as I was laying in bed, chatting with Mr Wonderful, I realized that it was my six-month anniversary. Yes, it's really and truly been six months since I had a cigarette. I am so proud!
Oh, and I'm knitting a hat, with stranded two-color knitting. I wanted to test the stranded two-color knitting on a small project before I did it on Rugrat's Spider-man sweater, which is coming along so slowly (thanks to size 5 needles and teeny tiny yarn) that by the time I finish it he'll probably be too big to wear it. Heh. The big brown & orange sweater I started last year is still unfinished, because I goofed up one of the shoulders pretty badly and I'm not sure how to fix it. I may just rip it all back anyway, because the yarn is nice but the sweater is pretty much sized for a linebacker, and I could use that yarn for a much nicer project.
The custom furniture project with Babydaddy is coming along, albeit a bit more slowly than I'd hoped. I was sick all weekend, so I didn't get a chance to do any work on it (I have a few of the pieces here now and I need to putty, sand, prime & paint them). And this coming weekend we have the kids, so we're talking about a trip to San Francisco on Saturday, and then on Sunday I've got a book club meeting...although they haven't sent out details on where that's being held so maybe it's not still on. Things are getting even more hectic around here. In fact, I just looked at my calendar, and I think we have stuff going on every single weekend from Halloween to Christmas. Not necessarily meaning that we have events scheduled, but between holidays and vacation and weekends with the kids, the only weekend I've got "off" is Dec 8-9, and I'm hosting a holiday party for the book club on the 9th. So I guess I better get my Christmas shopping done soon, huh?
And one final note: Sars over at Tomato Nation is rocking the house with her Donors Choose Challenge. Over $27,000 raised in less than TWO DAYS. That is unbelievable.
Oh, and I'm knitting a hat, with stranded two-color knitting. I wanted to test the stranded two-color knitting on a small project before I did it on Rugrat's Spider-man sweater, which is coming along so slowly (thanks to size 5 needles and teeny tiny yarn) that by the time I finish it he'll probably be too big to wear it. Heh. The big brown & orange sweater I started last year is still unfinished, because I goofed up one of the shoulders pretty badly and I'm not sure how to fix it. I may just rip it all back anyway, because the yarn is nice but the sweater is pretty much sized for a linebacker, and I could use that yarn for a much nicer project.
The custom furniture project with Babydaddy is coming along, albeit a bit more slowly than I'd hoped. I was sick all weekend, so I didn't get a chance to do any work on it (I have a few of the pieces here now and I need to putty, sand, prime & paint them). And this coming weekend we have the kids, so we're talking about a trip to San Francisco on Saturday, and then on Sunday I've got a book club meeting...although they haven't sent out details on where that's being held so maybe it's not still on. Things are getting even more hectic around here. In fact, I just looked at my calendar, and I think we have stuff going on every single weekend from Halloween to Christmas. Not necessarily meaning that we have events scheduled, but between holidays and vacation and weekends with the kids, the only weekend I've got "off" is Dec 8-9, and I'm hosting a holiday party for the book club on the 9th. So I guess I better get my Christmas shopping done soon, huh?
And one final note: Sars over at Tomato Nation is rocking the house with her Donors Choose Challenge. Over $27,000 raised in less than TWO DAYS. That is unbelievable.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
