and I thought I was slacking last post...

Soo... it's been months since I last posted. I could claim that the delay is because of school, or because I am apparently incapable of having my camera and it's charger in the same city, but in reality, it's because I'm just a major slacker.

Since my camera is upstairs, I'll have to edit this post later to add in photos, but I'm going to write this post anyways...

1) I'm almost done the lace scarf. I realize that I've had the time to finish it many times over, but I screwed three repeats really early in the pattern, and didn't want to rip it all out to start over... so I didn't and it's been bothering me ever since then, I also realized about 3/4 of the way through that I am never going to wear the scarf, because I like scarves that are thinner than the scarf was turning out to be. I just kept knitting, because I didn't want to rip out the hours of work and figuring out the pattern than went into the scarf. Now I'm almost done, and left with a couple options. I can choose to rip it all out, or I can choose to cast it off and rip it all apart at a later date if I still really hate it, or I can give it away to someone who will love it just the way it is. I'm not sure who I would give it too, and part of me is far too selfish to give away such a soft pretty project, but that's likely the course of action I am going to take.

2) The sweater! I finished it. I wasn't able to fit the wool into my bag when I was leaving town for Christmas break, so I didn't actually get to cast on the project until most of the way through February. As soon as it was cast on, I was hooked. It was such a fast knit pattern in bulky yarn, and was mostly straight knitting so I didn't have to pay a lot of attention to the finer details of what I was working on. I knit the front and the back of the sweater before the start of the Brier (the major men's curling bonspiel, which this year was really close to my school so I got to go!) and was able to knit part of the first sleeve while watching the curling. All in all, I had the sweater done by mid-March, with much less swearing and crying than I was expecting. I love the sweater, and I wear it a lot. The only slight problem I have is that it's big on me, which makes me want to see what a more tailored sweater would look like on me. Next time I guess.

3) Sock! I've really been disappointed with the number of socks I've not finished over the past few months. I made a pair for my roommate, and the pair for my grandfather than I got the yarn for over winter break, but in reality both of those were knit over the course of one month. Clearly I've been slacking on knitting. I have been working recently on my first pair of colour work socks, which are also my first bit of colour work ever. I'm not sure how they are going to turn out. The first attempt ended up having the yarn pulled far too tightly in the back, so I couldn't fit my foot into them. I cast the attempt off rather than rip it all out, and was pleased to discover that it fits perfectly around a beer bottle. I now have a very stylish beer cozy, and a bunch of orders from people to make them a custom beer cozy, which is exciting. I will keep working on the socks though. really, I promise.

4) I've actually gotten quite a bit of spinning done since I got home for the summer a month ago. One of my goals is to finish spinning all the fiber I have currently stashed so that I have a valid reason to need to get more. Unfortunately, I'm broke and don't have a job, so it could take longer to replace the depleted stash than I was hoping, but at least I get to feel productive.

5) I LEARNED TO CROCHET. I'd been meaning to learn for years, I just never got a chance to sit down with my grandmother so that I could learn. During exam week, I decided that I may as well just try to learn on my own, and then if I needed help I could ask her this summer. It turns out that it was so much easier than I'd built it up to be in my head. I've really only made granny squares, but knowing how simple it is, I'm sure I'll be spending more time with it this summer.

I'm sure there are a million more things that I've worked on and then ripped out, or completely forgotten about, so I'm sure I'll write another post like this one soon.

More to come...

One project down

I am trying to be better about this blogging thing. I've actually though about posting everyday, but every time I sit down to write about things I'm knitting, I realize that I don't have a camera with me in order to take photos of things I've knitted. So I decide that I might as well wait until I have photos. And then I don't post for days.

I finished the Boy Hat. I really like this pattern. It's really stretchy and happy, and I like the way the ribs come together at the top. If I had photos it would be easier to explain, but it's a really hat pattern, and fun to wear. I give it thumbs up. So far, I've only been done this one for an hour but my dad has stolen it and my mother wants one too, so it looks like I'll be making two more at some point. Probably after the socks, but I don't have the needles I need for the socks here so they may be delayed for a little while.

I'm still working on the lace scarf. Just after my last post, I messed up the pattern and clearly either added or lost a row of the pattern somewhere, so the knits and purls got flipped. I didn't notice that it had happened until 3 repeats later (this is what I get for knitting at 4 am). I had to debate if I wanted to rip it all back, and try to pick up all the stitches again but risk having to start over, or try and ignore it. I almost decided I was going to rip it back, but I'm not confident enough in the lace pattern that I would be able to pick up all the stitches again. I really didn't want to have to start over again, especially since I had to restart so many times. I decided to suck it up, skip a row of knitting (so that the purls were on the right side again) and continue on. So far, no one I've showed it too sees the mistake, but because I was the one that made it, it glares at me every time I look at the scarf. It's rather frustrating...

As my mother points out; if it's the worst screw-up I make while working on my first lace project, I should be happy. We'll see.

And now it's time for an attic yarn raid!

The Lace Scarf

Rather than start off my to-do list with an easy project like socks, or a straight forward one like the sweater, OR the one I'm already half done like the hat, I decided to try and tackle the lace scarf.

I knew that this scarf was going to cause problems, because I'm not always the best at counting patterns and paying attention all the time. I did not expect, however, to be on attempt #7.

Attempt #1 was just bad. Rather than try to work out the pattern first, I just jumped in head first and just knit. Then I got to the one row that has pattern, and it was a total disaster. I ended up losing stitches, and the pattern, and then had to frog it all completely.

Attempt #2 went the exact same way.

Between attempt #2 and #3, I realized that I should just sit down and knit one repeat of the pattern over and over, so that I wasn't wasting my time setting up and having to rip out a scarf-wide section. So with less than half the stitches, I spent hours just trying to get my brain to remember the pattern. Finall, I got it to work out.

I'm not going to detail attempts 3 to 6, other than to say that the pattern could have been written in a much easier way that would have saved my brain so much effort, and my hands so much re-knitting.

Here is the pattern I'm working from, in case anyone is interested or wants to try and guess where I screwed up repeatedly. (If it seems totally obvious, I blame the head injuries)

Things are going much better now though, I shall post pictures tomorrow-ish.

Sorry I'm a slacker, not that anyone actually reads this

Really, I swear I did mean to keep up with this blog. Just after I first posted I got H1N1, and then in short succession my residence building had a fire, I went on a semi-cross country adventure, and then I got a concussion. Then I got into exams and didn't really do much of anything, so I probably could have posted then.

Alas, I am a slacker.

Now I'm into a post-Christmas crafting blitz. I went boxing sale shopping at Romni, and got the hand carders that I wanted as well as some wool to try them out with. (Some sock yarn for a pair of socks for my Grandpa may have jumped into my basket too)

Then today my Aunt and cousins and I went yarn shopping too. We were going to go check out the Purple Purl, but they are closed until the New Year, so we continued going east on Queen, and headed out to the Naked Sheep. It was an awesome day. When picking out yarn there, I decided to challange myself and start new and scary projects.


Firstly, I got enough yarn and a pattern to make a sweater. Sweaters scare me because I have next to no attention span, so I'm not sure I'm ever going to actually finish the sweater. Plus: I'm kind-of afraid that it's going to suck, and since I'm making it for myself, it will always be sitting in my closet taunting me with my failure.




Secondly, I decided to try making a lace scarf. I am not always great at following patterns, so it's going to be interesting. I've spent most of this afternoon with the yarn and needles, trying to work out the pattern in a way that makes sense in my brain. I'm sure it will all work out. Really.

Current Projects
- Feather and Fan Lace Scarf
-"pear tree emu" Sweater
- Socks for Grandpa
- Socks for Dee and Erika
- Boy hat

I think that's it right now, which is awesome.