Shamrock Knits

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. :)

More Fitted Knits

I finished the Bulky Mini Cardigan from Fitted Knits a few weeks ago, but I haven't sewn the buttons on yet. I used Cascade Revolution yarn from the Webs Anniversary sale. I made the body a little longer and the sleeves a little shorter than the pattern called for. I like how it came out. I have it held together by a DPN for the picture. I think the t-shirt and shorts are a nice touch too, don't you think? LOL

I also started the Drop Stitch Tank, using Cascade Pima Tencel. This one has been started three times. The pattern says to make it at least 6 inches smaller than the bust size. I wasn't making it small enough. It's still a little loose, but not too bad. I'm knitting it on circulars. The picture is from the side, so you can see the back on the right and the front on the left.

I decided to knit more rounds of the full drop stitch pattern and move the ribbing up to my waist area. I think this will accommodate my belly and bring it in for a little waist shaping. I guess I'll have to separate for the sleeves and knit flat after that. We'll see how many times it takes me to do that. I really like this yarn though. It's really soft and has a nice sheen to it.

 

Knitting Time-Out and Charity Updates

It seems I can't work on a project unless I've started it three times. I've been trying to work on the Lacy Little Top, but I kept making it too big. I've officially given this project a time-out because I've frogged it now three times. It's got bad mo-jo around it right now. I'm a loose knitter and I've been knitting on size 1 needles because I felt the size 0 looked too tight. Kathy thinks I might knit looser during the project than I do for the gauge swatch. I guess she has done in the past. It's one possibility. Doree said that I seem to think I'm a bigger size than I am. That's a very likely possibility. I think there was discussion about ease with this pattern on Knitting Daily. I'll have to check that out before I start this project - again.

I've finally been catching up on the knitting podcasts that I listen to. Both WEBS and Stash and Burn mentioned donating to The House that Yarn Built. This is a team sponsored house in Brad Pitt's Make It Right organization for rebuilding a section of New Orleans. It takes around $150K to build an eco-friendly home. I've been buying a lot of yarn at the WEBS anniversary sale, that I figured I could at least donate $20 to the cause.

I also received an email from the Books For Soldiers group that I support the troops through. They've had difficulties raising funds this year, so they may have to end the site this year. They were also the target of a major cyber attack. The IT resources used alot of funds defending the website. I usually just send packages and forget to donate for the site maintenance, so I did that as well. It makes me mad though that they were specifically targeted. There's not enough fighting and hatred already?

Finished Socks

I finished my first pair of socks. Thanks to Kathy for giving me a sock tutorial. The yarn is a hand dyed yarn that Selena gave me for Christmas. I'm not thrilled with the color pooling, but the yarn is really nice. It's a little hard to see the cables, but they're all over these puppies. :)

I don't know if I'll make another pair for awhile, but I wanted to try them out. I really liked the toe-up cast on. That was pretty cool. Check another item off my list of what I haven't knit before.

Finished Log Cabin

I finished the log cabin blanket and gave it to my friend. I really liked the textured garter pattern.

I'm definitely cruisin' along on my socks. They're about 4 inches above the heel section. I'm just going to keep knitting until I run out of yarn. I need to finish them soon because I want to swatch with these needles and get on to the next project!

Log Cabin Blanket

I heard about this pattern from the a podcast about a year ago. (It may have been Stash and Burn.) The podcasters were talking about one of the booths they saw at Stitches from Bella Knitting. I fell in love with the non-garter log cabin blankets they had. The blankets use the garter technique, in that every row is knit, however on some of the right side rows there are textured stitches. This blanket uses a slip stitch pattern in three colors for the center square and the textured pattern has a knit into the row below on some of the rows. There is another textured blanket that uses yarn - overs. The finished blankets are gorgeous.

I bought just the patterns because I didn't know how large of a blanket I was going to make (or for who). A coworker at work is having her second baby boy, so I thought I'd make this for her. The blues and offwhite were donated from Doree's stash, and I bought 1 skein of the green to add color. It's not quite the exact shade of green that I wanted, but it's better than the other option of pale mint green.

Here's a close up of the center square.

Here's a close up of the log cabin strips. (The center panel colors are more true to life.)

Here's the progress so far. According to the pattern, there are 4 strips on each side. I'm going to make it a little bigger, but I haven't decided how much yet. This is a really quick knit in the worsted weight yarn.

Non-Prego Vest Done

I finished the BTS Vest from Fitted Knits. I think I'd decrease a little more in the shoulder straps next time. I did a little bit, bit it would be better if the straps were a little narrower. I shortened the armhole trim by 3 rows as well. I like how it came out, though I seriously have some issues with taking pictures. I feel like such a dork standing there posing, that I do end up looking like a dork.

Cheers!

Happy St Patty's everyone!

I've been working on a few different projects over the last couple of weeks. One of them is not the cable socks. Some people have second sock syndrome. I have turning the heel syndrome. I'm doing them both at the same time on one circular needle. I don't know what my hang up is, but I just didn't feel like doing the short rows for awhile. They're in my bag in case I ever get the urge.

A friend at work's been trying to adopt for almost a year now. A couple of weeks ago, she got the word that she'll be adopting a baby boy. I'm so happy for her. We had a shower for her at work last Thursday. I made her a knit hat in a simple 2 by 2 rib. Betty from my knit group made the pom pom for it. She's the best at those.

I also made this blanket. It's machine knit with rows of single crochet trim. I used Red Heart Sport that I had in stash. Gotta love that. This was the blanket that I was going to make my nephew when he was born, but I had issues with row counting and seaming. I think this one looks much better now. It's made on my mid-gauge LK 150 machine. The strips are made separately and seamed as the next strip is knitted.

Here's the progress on my vest. I'm finishing the second front and then have the back to do. We'll see how it turns out. I really like the colors though.

Third time's a charm

I received some answers to my questions at the KAL. I ripped out the second version and did another swatch. I counted 4.9 stitches to the inch instead of the 4.5 in the pattern. I decided to go down 2 sizes and make the 39". I had Friday off, so I did a lot of knitting over the weekend. I've just started the waffle stitch section.

It's just slightly tight, so I'm hoping when it's washed it'll loosen a little bit. I also used my shamrock stitch marker that I made last year. Maybe this one's is my lucky charm.