FO: A Dishcloth!

It's my very first dishcloth, knit for the Dishrag Tag! I completed it in less than 24 hours (I'm not sure how much actual time was spent knitting, but I started at 7pm on Friday, and finished at 7am on Saturday.)

The dishrag tag was fun, and even though I knew our team didn't stand a chance against much speedier knitting teams, I still wanted to be fast. It was a fun dishcloth to knit (I don't know how to link to the pattern, but it's on the Dishcloth Boutique in the sidebar), and I really liked how the yarn made pretty stripes, which were much richer than they appear in the photos. I was almost sad to send it off, it was so nice, but luckily I didn't spend enough time with it to get too attached. :)

I see why knitters like dishcloths--(almost) instant gratification, and you get to knit up nifty looking things! I think I'll try my hand at a few more in the future. Plus, they make nice gifts.

I'm now gearing up for ISE5...and so is Secret Knitter. Better sign up quick if you want to get in on the action!

Happy Birthday to the Triplets!

My friends have triplets that will be turning 5 on Monday. In celebration of their birth and my new knitting skillz I made them birthday gifts. (Ok, so maybe I'm not good enough to merit the z yet, but I'm trying.) All three of these patterns came from New Knits on the Block, and all three of them were pretty easy.

Sorry about the blurry picture, trust me it looks pretty much the same when it is not blurry.

The fireman's hat didn't felt quite right so it kinda has a animated Dr. Seuss shape, but if the Cat in the Hat wanted to fight fire, this is what he'd be wearing.

This one was the hardest. Not because it was really hard , but because the pattern in the book was wrong. I didn't have any trouble finding the corrections, but I did have to frog from about the shoulders back to the beginning.

Ravelry, here I come!

Found you!

• You signed up on June 8, 2007
• You are #7748 on the list.
• 300 people are ahead of you in line.
• 14196 people are behind you in line.
• 33% of the list has been invited so far

If you've put your name in the hopper for an invite to Ravelry, the stash-, project-, and knit-crochet-life-organizing website that all the knitters are raving about, check out the new little widget they have put up to show you where you are in line.

Lookee me! I'll be in there before you know it. There are 14,000 people behind me. Just what I need right before the semester starts -- a new website to fuss over. Since fussing over cool new free web applications is What I Like Best, I cannot wait. But my classes may suffer. Do you think a Ravelry disclaimer on my syllabi is in order?

Kniterati--Going Virtual

The upcoming semester promises to keep me extremely busy. I have class on the night that we will ordinarily meet, and it appears that other nights are busy as well (I have class two nights a week, and other members have things on other nights that keep them busy).

So, Kniterati will be meeting virtually until the dust settles from the Fall. Please post! And recruit more friends to the knitting cause. I promise to finally finish that top that I've been working on--it's so close right now.

Happy Knitting!

Catching Up

First: The Hat With a Story

In a far away city not so long a go, a young woman was inspired by the culture. So inspired that she designed a scarf. She shared her scarf with the world and it in turn inspired many. Soon her scarf was being made in all sorts of sizes and colors. Then, it inspired another knitter to design a hat. That hat inspired me to knit for my yarn swap pal. It was difficult at first, I knit and knit and knit, and I just couldn't see how it was going to work my hat looked flat and not like what I was trying to make. I told myself it was time to just trust the pattern, and pushed on. Eventually, it all made sense and what I was looking for started to appear. By the time I bound off the side piece, I had made exactly what I was looking for. I finished my very first hat, and it almost kind of matched the scarf I bought her in Paris.

I also think I understand why people love making this scarf so much. Quite simply, it is because you get to drop stitches on purpose. It was truly empowering to have one of my most dreaded mistakes become a design element.


Next: A Little Something For Me

The person in my yarn swap that is sending packages to me, made my vow to use my yarn on something for myself. So I started right away on a Sophie using my beautiful Wool of the Andes. No matter how much I photograph this wool, the picture never turns how how I see it. I think it is purple, the pictures always look really blue. Here is the best picture I could get of the color. Sophie was a fun quick knit and my first time to felt. I actually think I felted it a bit too much. My purse doesn't hold quite all of the things that I think I would want it to, but being so little made it absolutely adorable. It still holds all of the things that I would like it to; keys, wallet, phone, comb, chap stick. I just normally like my purse to be big enough for a paperback and that certainly won't fit in there.

Finally: The Huggable Hedgehog

A friend of mine is pregnant, and I'm making her a baby blanket. It has been tons of fun, she helped me pick out the pattern and the yarn. I decided that I wanted to make something else for her that was a surprise. Something that she isn't expecting and wouldn't know exactly what it is going to look like before I give it to her. So, don't ruin the surprise! (Donna, I'm talking to you :P) I've made one Huggable Hedgehog, and since she is having twins another is on the way. This is the first pattern I've paid for but it was too cute to resist.

These:became this:
which I felted into this:

Holy moly

Those of you who aren't comic-strips-about-old-people obsessives like myself probably missed Pickles' week of knitting-related strips recently. Here's my favorite:



I have never knitted a mitten, let alone this fast. Now that I know how to do heels and short rows, I like to think I could do a thumb gusset. And my kids could totally use mittens. What about you -- what's your experience with mitten knitting? What's the best way to learn?

Knitting--en espanol

Some of you know that I speak Spanish. Well, I was delighted to run across this website, the first of it's kind, that's a free pattern site (like Knitty). If you don't speak Spanish, you'd still like the pretty patterns that they put up (click on patrones to see the patterns).

For me, it might be a way to brush up on some Spanish (and learn some Spanish knitting terms) so that I can talk about knitting when I go to Spain this winter. Anyway, I thought it was neat, and that you all would enjoy it.