Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Lots going on!

Wow, Mom, you did have a lot to tell! I also have lots so I thought I'd post answers/responses to your post and then add my own thoughts.


So, to start from the top:

Washcloths: I, too, made a trip to JoAnn's and came away with some washcloth cotton and have knit up two. They're very fun and easy and I like using a washcloth every day that I made myself. I like the idea of knits for the home, it feels so wholesome. I hope you can get Dad interested, I think knitting has the potential to be relaxing for him too. Good luck! You should tell Laura we'll tolerate her genre jumping (crochet indeed...) if she'll take pictures and post on the blog!



Baby Surprise Jacket: Mine is in its second incarnation (the first incarnation having been ripped due to excessive thickness) however it shall need to be ripped and reincarnated once more -- I've had a rather serious misalignment of decreases which I blame on late night knitting and poor bedside lighting. See?
I would be glad of suggestions as to how to keep that line straight, the knit wiki doesn't seem to address that. I'd love to have a copy of the Opinionated Knitter, I ordered myself a Knitter's Almanac from Amazon because it was very cheap and helped me to qualify for free shipping on my pre-ordered copy of Harry Potter. :-D Oh, and in my defense, those increases at the sleeves weren't make one increases, they were yarn overs, don't know why I tried that, maybe because that fabric was so thick I wanted to add some eyelets. The make one increases on v.2 look much nicer. I'm liking the Baby Ull on a size 5 addi, the fabric is nice and drapey.


Photo: Cool! Knitters in the news! Specifically, WE knitters in the news! Cool!

And now on to new stuff.

Finished Monkeys: Cute socks, nice cushy fabric that will probably need to wait for fall to get much use. (Weather today in Bloomington: 86 with 66% humidity...)

New Socks: Gentleman Socks, pattern by Designedly Kristi. Knit in Trekking XXL, Color 102. Very nice so far. See the close up? I'm very entertained by the stitch pattern, and I think it looks great in this yarn. This is actually what I was knitting in the picture of us from the newspaper but it's so teeny in the picture you can't tell, I had just cast on half an hour before the picture was taken.


Gloves: Pattern from Not Just More Socks, yarn is Koigu Merino, from Fine Points. It has you start with the cuff, add button bands, overlap them and join in the round to knit the hand. fingers are added one at a time starting at the pinky.

One finger,

Two fingers,

Three fingers,

Um...five fingers...forgot to take a four fingers picture :) the second pic shows the palm side.

So, that's what I've been up to the past couple weeks, and I agree with you Mom, I should also do this more often so it won't be such an ordeal!



4 comments:

Judi P said...

You DO have lots going on! Here's an answer to your question about aligning the decreases (this is a direct quote from Meg Swanson in The Opinionated Knitter -- she says this in reference to the adult version -- equally applicable to the BSJ):

"Over the years, the greatest difficulty knitters seem to have is keeping the double INCrease and double DECrease diagonals straight and true; it is easy to veer out of line. Think of the dbl-dec as turning

Judi P said...

Oh, geeze - no way to delete that aborted comment, so I'll just have to pick up where I left off:

"... Think of the dbl-dec as turning three stitches into one. As soon as you complete your very first dbl-dec, put a coil-less safety pin into the resulting stitch itself (as opposed to a ring marker over the needle). That marked stitch is then the middle of the next group of three which will turn into one.

"The dbl inc will be easy to see after a few ridges ... [I think the dec is easier to see myself] again put a coil-less pin into the Important Center Stitch and work a M(ake)1 on either side of the marked stitch. That marked stitch never varies. "

From your picture, it looked like you were already doing this. All I can add is to do it religiously. I even changed the pin on the plain rows, just so it would be totally unambiguous when it came time to do those decreases/increases.

HOpe this helps! You shoulda ordered the Opinionated Knitter at the same time!

Judi P said...

This is ridiculous. Just realized I failed to mention that the glove looks great. So do the socks (love the Monkeys and the Gentleman socks too - they couldn't be more different)! As far as your BSJ in progress, I honestly couldn't tell from the photos that your decreases were out of alignment. Are you SURE?

I also like that you're making your bed before taking pictures these days! They look super on your quilt.

Love,

Mom

Judi P said...

Ok, last one. I neglected to admire the wash cloths. They're great!

Now put your knitting down for a couple of hours and get to work on that paper!