November 30, 2004

Good things come in threes

There are three brown striped, roll-brim hats with pompoms on top sitting on my table, and one completed brown striped 1x1 ribbed scarf. I'm about one third of the way through the second scarf and it looks like I'll have plenty of yarn to finish this one and complete the third.

My mom and my older sister helped me make the first pom pom because I had no clue how to do it. It's so easy I felt a little silly once they showed me how, but no one ever accuses me of being crafty and gets away with it, so this sort of thing has never been intuitive for me. Heh.

Oh, and remember my lovely purple Sonnet? Friday night I stayed up late to finish the second sleeve. Saturday morning I seamed all the pieces together. Saturday afternoon I ripped back both side panels (requiring some judicious cutting and grafting of the first side), and Saturday night I stitched on some lovely purple buttons in the car on the way to my older sister's house. As an aside, I do not recommend sitting in the backseat sewing buttons onto a sweater in very dim light in post-Thanksgiving stop-and-go traffic. Ugh. Carsickness is not my friend.

The sweater fits my little sister perfectly (which is good because it's her Christmas present), and she loved it. The only problem is that the neckline is far too wide. So I"ve got a little over a week to figure out a way to do some emergency alterations before I send it up to her. At that point I'll take and post pictures. Neckline aside, it turned out gorgeous and I'm actually pretty pleased with it. Pictures will come later, once it's complete.

Posted by Jenipurr at 09:50 AM

November 26, 2004

Post-feast

Oof. I ate far too much food yesterday (but I'm sure I'm not the only one!). Today my mom and sisters and I are off to a formal tea for a girls-only outing, and I'm bringing along the brown striped scarf, to see if I can get that finally finished at some point today.

I gave the blue and white scarf to my little sister and she loved it! I tried the swirly brown hat on the oldest nephew and the niece and not only did it fit them pretty well, but they both thought it was cool (although I think the addition of a pompom on top helped their enthusiasm a bit). So I guess I'd better get cracking on making two more hats so there's enough for everyone when Christmas rolls around.

My sister also brought me some gorgeous wool blend yarn in a heathered maroon. I have an afghan pattern I am eying, and this would be perfect for it. So once Sonnet and Seabreeze are finished, and once I've got the hats done for the kids, and once I've managed to make some good headway into Blaze, maybe I'll get that started. With all those projects I'm thinking that may not be until January, and at that point I really ought to start on the baby blankets for the friends who are due in April....oh, if only there was more time in the day to knit!

Posted by Jenipurr at 08:14 AM

November 25, 2004

Happy Thanksgiving

In a little while we will head over to my parents' house to start the day with the traditional homemade cinnamon rolls (which my mom assures me are rising on the oven even as I type this). My little sister and her husband and the world's cutest niece flew in last night, and my older sister, her husband, and the world's cutest nephews will drive down from Napa this morning. There will be a lot of noice and chatter and laughing and catching up over the next four days and I'm looking forward to it.

I have filled my knitting bag with projects to work on, since I am sure I will have lots of time to knit over the next few days. A bag of lovely soft pink is going to become the start of Blaze (assuming I can avoid knitting another mobius strip this time - sigh). The chocolate swirled hat and chocolate striped scarf are coming as well because I am determined to finish them. The hat definitely needs a pompom, and the scarf is likely to take at least one more skein, but so far they look quite delicious.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it!

Posted by Jenipurr at 08:22 AM | Comments (1)

November 23, 2004

Cocoa for the head

Knitting up that scarf put me in the mood for wintery things. So I dug out some brown stripey sock yarn from my stash and have been working on a roll brim hat. If I work this right I can get three made in time for Christmas, and with last year's green ornament hats, I can start a tradition of Aunt Jennifer giving all the niece/nephews hats for Christmas (along with far better presents because little kids really don't think hats are nearly as exciting as toys).

My wool from Elann arrived yesterday and I had to open it immediately, just to touch it. Oh, so soft, and the color is going to be just perfect for what I'm planning. Now that it's here it's hard to convince myself to leave it in its box until after all the other projects are finished (like those two unfinished sweaters). As much as I wanted to immediately drop everything and cast on with that luscious wool, I need to at least cast on for Blaze, since I signed up for the knit-along and everything.

Actually, I did cast on for Blaze this weekend, and had almost finished the first 8 rows of ribbing when I realized that I was knitting a lovely mobius strip. Sigh. So rrrrrrrrripppp it all went and the chocolately stripped roll brim hat has been my distraction from trying again.

Posted by Jenipurr at 07:43 AM

November 20, 2004

How very wintery

I know that as a fairly new knitter I should have done oodles of scarves by now, but this is actually only my third scarf ever (I sort of skipped the whole scarf phase and jumped directly into sweaters) - and it's also my very first time working with more than one color (other than stripes) because I tend to lean more towards aran than fair isle.

But anyway. Ta da! It's very wintery.

It curls on the edges and I'm hoping that will soften up once I toss it in the washer, and by the way, I do not recommend ironing acrylic yarn (in an attempt to uncurl the sides) on anything but very low heat because one end is now slightly more crunchy than it probably should be.

I have no idea what the heck I"m going to do with it, since the Sacramento area is not exactly known for its scarf-requiring weather. Hmm. My little sister and her family live in Seattle. Maybe they'll get a pretty, new (ever so slightly crunchy) scarf tucked into their luggage when they come down for Thanksgiving...

Posted by Jenipurr at 01:23 PM

November 15, 2004

Side to side cardigan

The side-to-side cardigan, done in Omaghi Filati Wonderful (colorway Pumpkin) is done. Well, done except for the buttons, of course (buttons which I still have yet to purchase).

I probably could have chosen a better color shirt for underneath, but it's what I was wearing at the time. Plus it's obvious I need to do a little more pressing for shape, although I think once the buttons are on, it will help define the shape a bit more (for the button band and buttonhole band). But over all, I'm pretty happy with it. By the way, those glowing eyes are courtesy of Azzie, my feline shadow (he follows me *everywhere*!).

All these other knitting journals have been talking about that beautiful wool for sale on Elann.com. I thought I could be strong, but then I came up with the perfect project for that wool and I caved in and placed my order this afternoon. 15 skeins of the Mocha Heather are winging their way to me, hopefully in time for me to knit them into a lovely birthday present for someone.

Posted by Jenipurr at 09:23 PM | Comments (1)

November 09, 2004

Knitting in circles

I zipped merrily along on the first sleeve for my side-to-side cardigan, but it turned out far too loose. So I frogged it back to about two rows beyond where I'd picked up the stitches and am doing it over. Luckily it's just straight stockinette stitch in a circle, so it's going pretty quickly.

I took it to the knitting circle tonight at the library in Vacaville. It's so much fun to sit there with everyone else, chatting and knitting, and better yet, getting to see what everyone else is working on (and getting inspired for even more things to do!). There is talk of getting people to bring in their finished projects so we can take pictures and post them somewhere, but that all still needs to be hashed out (mainly the 'somewhere' to post them). I, at least, have a digital camera we can use to take the pictures but then it's just a matter of either printing them out or finding a common web space.

Speaking of getting inspired, on Sunday my friend showed me a book she just picked up - Last Minute Gifts. I was immediately charmed by the adorable drawstring bag on the front so have borrowed the pattern from her. Of course this means I may have to go yarn shopping for some soft and silky alpaca blends, but Christmas is coming and I know a few people who would adore getting their presents wrapped in something so pretty and useful.

Posted by Jenipurr at 06:16 AM | Comments (1)

November 07, 2004

Pumpkining along

The body is finally done, including the buttonhole band. This whole thing has been so very easy to sew, and perhaps my favorite part is that the only seams in the whole thing are on the shoulders. We've already determined (from the two other sweaters that just need finishing) that seaming is not my favorite part of the experience.

I'd include a picture but it came out like big colorful blob, so it wasn't really worth it. Now to pick up stitches and toss on the sleeves.

Posted by Jenipurr at 05:43 AM