Knitting from a chart tutorial

I just wrote a quick tutorial on how to read a knitting chart. Soon to be followed by how to KNIT from a knitting chart!

Castonitis

I have a serious case of “cast-on-itis”. I ferret out all these cool little projects that I simply must cast on right this very second or I will die, my heart pounds, my fingers tremble, I swoon. Then I take a few breaths, chant and the terror passes. Let me explain what I have going on (“no there is too much, let me sum up” bonus points if you, Dear Reader, can NameThatQuote!)

OTN (On the Needles)

The Punk Shrug: Status – Hibernating.
This was started for baby sister and is on hold until I find her measurements so I can see if it will actually fit. I’m hovering in this looooong section of stockentte and well frankly it gets a tad boring after awhile.

Jawbreaker Cardigan: Status – Unknown.
I am filled with deep dark premonitions that this project will soon find its way to the Frog Pond. I adore the pattern. I adore the yarn I bought for it… however…. After skimming “More Big Girl Knits” in the bookstore a while back – I am coming to the conclusion that Chunky Knits + Chunky Girl = Not So Good. I absolutely refeuse to knit a garment saying to myself “well, I’ll lost 40lbs and look perfect in it!”. I’m going to hold off on final judgment after serious conversation with the Mamajama… and after buying and devouring “More Big Girl Knits”.

Midnight Surf Scarf: Status – WOW.
I can’t stop knitting on this. It is so very awesome. The pattern is sooo much fun to work with and of course I love my Inferno Monster Yarn. I actually have to start holding back and savoring the experience!

Recent FO (Finished Objects)

Branching Out AKA Spring Mix Leaves Scarf
I’ve actually made some great progress in the finishing category, because you see, it is finished completely. AND I BLOCKED IT! Yes, I actually blocked it. That is a big deal to me. Usually I burn out of big projects by the time it comes to the finishing details like sewing on buttons (see “I’m a little teapot Cosy”) and sewing in ends. I have a horrible terrible confession to make. I don’t sew in the ending yarn in the toes of my socks. I know. I’m a terrible knitter. I should shun myself from knitting society and live a solitary life of penance…. But I digress… So this is why I’m so proud of the Branching out scarf… I SPUN it from roving. I PLIED the singles into a 3-ply yarn. I KNIT it into a lovely LACE pattern. And I sewed all the ends in AND BLOCKED it. Proud. Proud indeed.

Stretchy Sport Socks
I am not a fan of these socks…. Fade to black with telltale flashback music. The Mamajama and I were on a yarn-crawl thru the smaller yarn shops of The Isle of Long. There are times, I have to admit, that I get this pang of guilt in my gut when I just browse in smaller local shops. I know very well how hard it is for LYS to stay afloat so when I pop in, I feel obligated to buy something… so anyway… in this LYS the were some balls of this candy colored cotton stuff with elastic. And the shop gal assured me you could get two socks out of the tiny ball. I think it was under $10 so I could satisfy my guilt and have a pair of socks to boot! I figured the color would grow on me. Well, I might have been a touch “glass-half-full” on this one as the color didn’t grow, actually it kind of shrank and shrivled… now add that to some serious pattern frustration, makes for not a happy project experience. I did manage to finish them up during WWKIP Day. So they are done. Done! They will probably never see the light of day, but they are done.

What I WANT on the needles

Oh, I’m in such dilemmas. The Mamajama has roped me into not one, but two, count ‘em TWO sock knitting KALs – The Sock Knitter’s Pentathlon and The Pair-a-Month Challenge. SKP2008 I’ve talked about before (to sum up- a speed knitting challenge of 5 socks over the course of the year, quickest overall knitter wins). A sock is released every two months. The Pair-a-Month challenge is well, pretty self explanatory and if you need me to explain, let’s talk. Now, the Mamajama and I have agreed that we can double count the SKP socks for the Challenge. Now here’s my dilemmas… THERE ARE TOO MANY COOL SOCKS TO CAST ON! The Summer Knitty just came out and the nanosecond I saw Ziggy, I was balling up my skein of Noro. I cast on and knit a good portion of the annterloc sock in the Brooklyn Handspun Sprinz but HATE how it’s coming out. It’s far far too poofy (Yes, that is a technical term). So, to the frog pond it went and I found the Rainy Day Pattern to cast on that should match up nice with the yarn weight. Picot edge, people! It has a Picot edge!!! And then there is the Bellatrix sock. MUST MAKE HARRY POTTER SOCKS! And I LOVED the, but I just have to find a suitable yarn. But I know myself, if I cast on all these projects right now, I will run out of steam before the pair a month challenge is up. And there is NO way I’m losing to the Mamajama. Not happening. Nope. Never! So I’m booked up on socks for-like-EVA. July will be the SKP Sock3. August will be Ziggy. September will be SKP Sock4. October could be The Romantic Lace. November is SKP Sock5. And December is Belletrix. January is Anntreloc????? How crazy is that?

Must Have progress

I noticed something weird in the Irish Moss pattern as I was knitting the fronts. Checked each row and found a booboo. Lukily I only had to frog that section and it knitted back easily.

My needles have been chugging away. It's going easily as I finally learned how the various patterns flow. I finished the fronts late Friday - only 8 days since I started.

I'm still thinking about how the cables look at the front edges. I'm going to reserve judgement until the buttuon band is picked up.
I asked for suggestions on how to handle mirroring the cables on the sleeves on Ravelry, but no one responded yet. I'm trying not to get distracted so cast on the sleeves and started knitting. I did flipped Pattern B, but I'm not sure it's necessary.

Sock Knitters Pentathlon

The Sock Knitters Pentathlon starts tonight. What is the Sock Knitters Pentathlon you might ask?

This is group will test your sock knitting skills. During the course of the year, competitors will knit 5 pairs of socks in 5 different styles.

Yes, it is a sock knitting competition.

Knitters will be placed by how quickly they finish the assigned patterns. First to finish is 1, second is 2 etc. Lowest score for the 5 patterns wins.

And there are prizes, oh yes, prizes.

At the end of the the Pentathlon prizes will be awarded to the knitters who place first (gold), second (silver), and third (bronze).

Now, I have a terrible and faulty reputuation for being rather competitive *shifty eyes*. This is totally false. Do not believe anything you might hear to the contrary.

The faux competition is part of the fun! *shifty eyes*

Quality Tools

leeluu's needles
Originally uploaded by amynowacoski

Looking over this photo of LeeLuu snacking on a pair of circular needles reminded me of a topic I wanted to write about - You should always buy quality tools.

In general, I do prefer to work with bamboo needles. They are a bit pricer than your standard craft store buys but they are lighter and "stickier" than metal needles. By "stickier" I mean that they don't slide out of your work as easy.

Another problem I've been having recently is the unbendyness of inexpensive circular needles. I have discovered the Magic Loop Technique. With this technique you can do a way with double pointed needles (dpns) when working in the round. Basically, you pull part of the bendy connector through half the work and well, its complicated to explain. Just watch the video ok? The key to making this work is using a longer than usual circular needle AND the connecting bendy bit needs to be VERY bendy. I've found that the needles I've bought on the cheap did not do a good job. The bendy bit is just not bendy enough.

At Purl Soho, I got a pair of Skacel Addi Turbo Circular Needles. They are a dream to work with. They are nickel plated I think. The metal glides through your yarn AND they don't have that slight grinding feel that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up at time. The only problem is the cost, I think they were over $12. Ouch.

But all this has taught me a powerful lesson - buy quality tools.

I'm saving up to reward myself with a set of interchangeable needles. Such a brilliant idea! you get a circular needle cable that has screw on the end that you can change the size of the needles. Very Neat. Knit Picks has them in both metal and multicolored wood. The wood are SUPER pretty but as knitting needles seem to be a tasty treat for some pampered pooch who shall remain nameless, I think I'll go for the metal.

My So Called Scarf

My So Called Scarf
Originally uploaded by amynowacoski

I bought three BEAUTIFUL skeins of Manos del Uruguay yarn at Purl Soho and I've just been stumped on what to make with it. I just couldn't find a pattern I liked enough. I really wanted to do mittens. All the patterns I found were just off in some way, either too long and skinny looking or too poofy or too pain. I wanted something magical.

I had seen the "My So Called Scarf" all over Ravelry. I wasn't really impressed with it. But I was just itching to knit something with my pretty yarn. Everyone who has Manos stashed seemed to be making either ugly hats, or the My So Called Scarf. I was bored, with nothing on the needles so I decided to give it a whirl. And wooooweeee, am I glad I did!

The pattern was MADE for this yarn! It sets off the color variations and just makes it sparkle! AND the pattern is super fun to knit. Oh and if you're finding the pattern a little confusing, go to YouTube, there's a tutorial on how to do it. I love this stick! I think I might be using it more often!!!

Now my only problem is... I just want to sit and knit this pretty thing for HOURS... but I must resist, I must savor!

Feets Warmers

May I present the Feets Warmers!

This was a very fun project. Essentially you make HUGE socks, then you felt them!

I put them thru one hot cycle with a big towel and pulled them out. I was almost crushed. There was no way theses suckers were going to fit on my feets! They were TINY like feets warmers for bound feet!. So I sat by the fire and delicately pulled them on my feets. They stretched very well! I propped my feets in front of the fire for a few minutes and they conformed PERFECTLY! I'm so happy with them and they were a snap to make! I feel more feets warmers in my future.

Question: What would happen if I doubled the strand? I want to make them extra thick. I wonder if this will effect the felting. Hmmmm might just have to try. They only took one ball of yarn. If it wasn't snowing and sleeting, I'd be off to the craft store!

and speaking of frogging...

This sort of ties back to my “Lazy Perfectionist” post… well not really…

See, I started this Head Band Thingie I found on Ravelry. I’m not a hat person, my hair is too big for hats (not 80’s big but not conducive to proper hat coverage) and since I live in the Great White North, having something on your head is important, lest your ears freeze off! Enter the Head Band Thingie. It’s a fairly simple pattern… a rib pattern where the rib increases from a k2/p2 rib to a k2/p5 and back down again.

Simple right?

Well right off the bat I started having issues. You are supposed to slip the first stitch on each row to create a stockinet edge. Well, I must be twisting it or something because I’m getting this intermittent bumpy edge.

Second, I forgot to count rows which means, I’m going to have to count it all up somehow on the decreases, not a bad problem just a pain.

Third, the pattern said to make all the increases on the right side rows. Well, I didn’t read that part and did it on the wrong side, then corrected it and did the next row of increases correctly BUT I like it better with the increases on the wrong side. So when I went to do one of the rounds of increases, I was having such a hard time increasing, purling into the front and back of one stick, that I decided to just pick up a stitch and just purl it... which resulted in a series of big holes in the fabric… AND I didn’t really love the yarn I was using anyway…

so 1/3 of the way into this little project, I ripped it all out. I’ll probably start it again. I’m not sure.

Sharp Socks?

So I got the first footie bootie from "One Skein" done and boy are the toes pointed! you could like do neurosurgery with them! Seriously, you could poke your eye out with them. Sis can tell you I have issues with pointy things on the feets. And the cuff is a bit looser than I'd like. They do look ok on the feets tho, so i'm not totally discouraged, I am however happy I did not make them out of my pretty yarn.

that itchy feeling

I had now sooner put the new socks on my feets when I got that itchy i-must-knit-something feeling. I have 3 skeins of this beautiful silk/wool blend that I got at PurlSoho and I've been dying to knit it up. I can't find a pattern I like tho. I thought it was worsted weight and was going to make booties from OneSkein, but its DK weight and i'm not sure I can do the math to make them work. I had some craftstore cheapie red yarn left over from another project so I casted on the booties. I'm not sure how they'll turn out, they may be a bit too big in the cuff. Cables tend to expand, but we'll see how it goes. Anything to get the itch outta the fingers!!!

The Lazy Perfectionist

Yes, I am a lazy perfectionist. Here's what I mean...

I'm knitting a sock out of the Jitterbug yarn using the pattern that came with the skein (written on the tag that identifies the color and stuff. I only recently discovered this was called a "Ballband", go figure since its not a ball, stay on track Amy!)

So I knitted the first sock with really no problem. The Mamajama and I disagreed on the meaning of one set of instructions but Ravelry came to the rescue (more on Ravelry later). Anywho, I knitting up the second sock and I notice a mistake on the instep part.

For you non-knitters, and brief introduction to sock knitting. Now to make a sock all you really need to do is knit a tube, and sew it up at the end and voila! You have a tube sock! That is not really the preferred method. A tub sock will get bunchy on the top of your foot and stretched thin on your heel. Most sock patters have you knit a tube in the round (either on several needles or with the new spiffy Magic Loop technique, more on that later too!). The you usually divide the stitches in half and knit half for a few inches to make a flap, conveniently called "The Heel Flap". Then you pick up some extra stitches along the edges of the flap you just made and go back to knitting in the round. What you've done is add extra fabric to accommodate the heel, and widened the sock so that it will fit the wide part of your foot across the instep. After you pick up these stitches and start knitting, you decrease by knitting together (k2tog or ssk) so that you have a smaller tube on the ball of your foot. Then you decrease for the toe. That's the basics really.

So to decrease for the instep you usually decrease one stitch on each side of the foot one round, and then you knit plain (with no decreases) on the next round. I missed a decrease round on one side of the sock. So I'll have two plain knitted rounds and two decreased rounds in a row. This kills me because it is not perfect. But I was too lazy to go back and unkint it and knit it again. Every time I wear the sock, I'll know its not perfect. Will anyone else ever notice? Nope. But I'll know. Oh yes, I'll know.

Amy