Shamrock Knits

Camp Projects

One of the things I learned at Knitting Camp was fair isle and steeking. I knit a fair isle circular swatch using Magic Loop. For the most part, it wasn't too tight. There were several rounds towards the end that I pulled the floats too tight and the swatch puckered. Here's the finished swatch before the scary part.

 

This is an "X and O" pattern. The vertical rows is where the steek is done. I learned a crochet steek. I should have chained a few before crocheting back down the other side, but it was fine for practice. Here's the crochet stich in before the "c" word.

 

Now the scary part - cutting. AAAHHH!!! This part was scary even on a swatch. It turned out really well, but I'm still not brave enough to try it on a garment that would take a lot of time and effort to knit.

Workin' on it

I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted. I have been working on some of my resolutions. I knit 2 machine knit squares for a wedding afghan. I've started throwing out old bills from my office and bedroom. I'm not done with that though.

I have been doing some knitting. I started the Adult Surprise Jacket. Of course, I had some gauge issues and had to rip out and start over. Now, I'm about half way done. I'm using Silk Garden. Overall, I like it. What I don't like about it is coming across pieces of twig while I'm knitting. The colors are beautiful though and the picture doesn't do it justice. Some of the lighter colors are rows of green.

Catchin' Up

I've got alot of catching up to do. First off - fun stuff. I received another Secret Pal gift.

Inside the purple gift box were the knitting tools. I seem to misplace those all the time, so it's always great to get more.  My secret pal, Jo, made a pair of hand knit socks and put the foot lotion inside. At the back right is a package of beach themed beads. Thanks alot Jo! Of course, I'm not organized, so I'll put the link to her blog next time.

I also finished another log cabin blanket. I love this pattern. It has texture, yet it's not all garter stitch. The yarn is acrylic for durability (and for the non-knitters). The colors are a more muted than in the picure. I had the vivid color setting on my camera. That feature appears to be working just fine!

I went on a trip to Cancun through work. It was mainly for sales winners, but a few support people got to go as well. I'm one of those lucky ones. We stayed at a resort that had dolphins. We passed by them back and forth from our rooms. Here's a picture of one of the dolphins that kept hopping out of the water. It was like he wanted to scratch his back.

This picture is at the Mayan ruins in Tulum. The corner of this building is the face of a man. It's a profile shot if you look from each of the sides. If you look right at the corner, you see the whole face. See it?

 

To Give and To Receive

I finished my second Special Olympic Scarf. I think I'll try to make it reversible the next time I try this pattern. We'll see how it looks at the color change section.

I also received some yarn goodness in the mail from my Secret Pal. Three skeins of yummy Noro Silk Garden. Thanks Jo!

No Medal, but Cash!

Well, I didn't get Tomato done in time to win a medal. This is where I'm at now.

It's all wrinkled from being shoved in my knitting bag. I'm almost done with the body. Then, I just need to do the neckband and the short sleeves. I'm pretty happy with my progress. I haven't had to rip out and restart, so that's a huge improvement for me.

As far as cash goes, I won one of the door prizes at Stitches! I've never won anything like that before. I won $400, which really helps with the hotel and purchases. Woo hoo!!!!!!!! Here's what I bought:

The first picture are a gansey pattern, drop stitch cable pullover, and multiple ornament patterns. The second picture are my glorious yarn and pin purchases. I bought 2 shawl pins, which are both in the tan alpaca yarn on the left. I bought 4 skeins of the alpaca, 4 skeins green Riata, 1 cone Merlot Coltrain lace, 1 skein variegated green/yellow Graceful Lace, 2 bags blue Araucania, 3 skeins grey Super Sock & Baby, and 2 skeins Shepherd Sock.

The Lorna's Laces sock yarn is for my secret pal. I need to wash the scarf I made for her and get the final package together. I haven't received anything from my secret pal yet, but we been in contact. I'm anxiously waiting my goodies. I haven't said patiently waiting, because who would believe that? :)

Still Competing

I'm still trying to compete. I'm almost finished with the waist shaping. I have about a couple more rows to go before I start increasing for the hips. I don't know if I'll finish in time though. I'm attending morning classes at Stitches every day. I still have homework swatches to do for Saturday and Sunday classes. There's a Ravelry meetup on Thursday night and a KIB Saturday night.

It's scary to say this, but so far, I've only had to rip back a few rows a couple of times on this project. This is a vast improvement over restarting several times. Even if I don't finish in time for the closing ceremony (which is during my Sunday Stitches class), I'm happy with the effort. Any time I can complete a project thr first time around is medal-worthy in my book. Here's the latest photo. I won't be able to post anything until Sunday night because I won't have an internet connection.

For those attending Stitches, I'll try to save some yarn for you. :)

The race has begun

I have started my blue Tomato. I swatched twice and decided to knit on size 5 needles. I would normally knit the 40", but I hear it runs big and to go down a size, so I'm doing the 35.5". I knit 2 rows after joining and tried it on. Sorry for the bad bathroom lighting picture

The additional stitches cast on in the front seem fine when flat, but when I tried it on, they were really loose and saggy. I've ripped back the 2 rows to that point. I'm going to cast on again, but with a tighter cast on. The first cast on was the backward loop ,since the pattern said to do this for the additional underarm stitches. It didn't mention anything for the front, so I did the same thing.

All in all, this is a pretty good start for me. It didn't seem too big, so I'm going to continue on. I didn't get a chance to knit much last weekend, so hopefully I can catch up.

Ravelympics

As if I don't have enough going on, I decided to compete in the Ravelympics. This is the summer version of the Knitting Olmpics. I was originally going to do Something Red by Wendy Bernard's Knit and Tonic, but I don't have enough yarn. I'm going to do her Tomato pattern instead. I know this is a quick knit for many, but I am the guage and pattern reading challenged, remember? I haven't decided yet, whether I'll be doing the fair isle pattern or not. If I do, I'll need to get yarn for that.

I have swatched with a size 7, but my gauge was a little too loose. The pattern calls for 18 stitches to 4 inches and I'm getting 16 stitches. I've heard that I should do a size smaller due to negative ease. I'm going to try swatching again with a size 6 needle and then decide from there. See, this may be more difficult than it seems. :)

Drop Stitch Tank Progess

I'm almost done on the Drop Stitch Tank from Fitted Knits. It started over several times on this one, mainly because of the drop stitch rib is soooo stretchy. The pattern says to go down at least 6 inches from your normal bust size. I didn't go down enough the first time. I think I knit looser in my project than in my gauge again, so I went down even further.

This is knit in the round, up to the sleeve separation, using the second bust size. I moved the ribbing up a little and could have moved it up even further. I still have to knit the neck trim and I'm deciding whether to knit sleeves or not. I don't usually wear sleeveless tops, due to the flabby arms. I'm still debating about whether I'm going to knit ribbed sleeve caps or not. I'd be the only on Ravelry to do that. I've seen people wear a shirt underneath with sleeves, so I may see if I like that first.

I'll definitely not wear a belt underneath this top. You can see the buckle sticking out from the front view. You should see how bad that looks from the side! :) I do have a seamless belt. I'll have to see how that looks.

Knitting Retreat 2008

Last weekend, I went to the Iwannaknit Knitting Retreat in Indiana, hosted by Knitting Today. It was the 10th anniversary of the retreat and this is my 5th year attending. I had a great time as usual. We had attendees again from both coasts, midwest, and the south. Some carpool and some fly (even with their machines). It's amazing what the internet can do to bring knitters together. Of course, I didn't take many pictures. Too much having fun. Exhausting though. Why you ask? Because we knitters hang out to about 1-2am socializing, knitting, etc and get up at 7am for breakfast and classes.

I only have a couple of pictures. This is Lee-Ann, the owner of Knitting Today, opening a gift for her 10th year retreat. She's part of Ft Wayne knitting group, and they gave her a lamb with the shop name embroidered on it.

The retreat started out for machine knitters only, but the last three years, there have been classes for hand knitters as well. This year's main hand knitting teacher was Lorna Miser (founder of Lorna's Laces). I didn't take any of her classes, but I heard they were fun. She's a blast to hang out with. BIG fan of the color purple. She was very outgoing and funny.

My last picture is from one of my machine knitting classes. It was a class about converting hand knitting lace to machine knitting. I've been wanting to make a table runner with shamrocks along the border. I found a hand knitting shawl pattern with shamrocks (clovers) on them, and converted it to machine knitting. This has the proper direction of the stitches for the yarn overs and corresponding decreases. I was using almost a worsted weight yarn so I could see what I was doing. I'll probably use a smaller weight for the actual project.

All in all, a good time was had by all. Of course it took me a couple of days to catch up on my sleep. :)