Fugly

One of the things I hate about "learn to knit" or "learn to crochet" books is that the patterns are often butt-ugly. And while it makes sense that in the beginning, one can only knit or crochet rectangles, I think garments beyond a scarf should be avoided until one has mastered increases and decreases so as to shape a garment. Beginners patterns have gotten better in recent years, but it bewilders me that anyone would put this kind of crap out there as a free pattern to promote their yarns:

What the fuck? Is it a vest? A tunic? And what's with the preschooly color blocks and gigantic pockets? Could this thing be any boxier? She only remotely has a figure because of the way she is thrusting out her hip. Look at the size of those armholes! Either they were expecting a much larger model, or this pattern is just fucked up. I vote for the latter. If she took the stupid vest off, she would probably have a decent outfit.

Shibori Felting gone bad

I finally finished knitting a giant swath of stockinette I planned to shibori felt and then sew into a pillow cover for the living room with a zipper and all. Well, it felted, but the shibori part was a bit of a disaster. Most of the bottlecaps fell off in the wash and the finished product looks like a giant piece of felt with a leprosy problem:


With flash. As if that helps:

Patons Merino Wool
More skiens than I care to count

Certainly not my favorite project. I guess I can still make it into a pillow cover, but I'm not really sure I want to. I mean, it's ugly. It didn't cost much money for the yarn, but I was knitting on that thing forever! This being my first foray into felting (if you don't count accidentally felting sweaters in the wash), I am not exactly smitten with the craft.

At least Ginger knows how to make me feel better. Here she is snoozing on her kitty rag quilt, reminding me that all of my projects are not disasters, they are mostly successes:

I can't get the picture to rotate, but she is cute just the same. :)

Frankenknit

I had my ancient Kenmore sewing machine serviced recently, and have gotten into sewing again (after a many-year hiatus, because the sewing machine needed servicing and I was too cheap to fix it while I was a student). I started with recovering our hideous couch pillows. I kept this felted sweater in my sewing stash for the past few years, and always knew it had aspirations for a second life.
It was a nice sweater, until I washed and dried it at the laundromat. oops. I didn't really know how or why (or that) wool shrunk, when I was in college. I got it at Old Navy years ago, before their clothes started being made with that signature falling apart in the wash.

Here is the butt ugly pillow that needed recovering. What the hell was I thinking when I bought TWO of these in college? Who ever brought back animal prints? Or have they just never gone away?

I cut out the body of the sweater, and seamed it all into a square on the machine, then added the zipper. There really isn't a fancy trick to sewing in zippers - you just turn your pillow inside-out, pin the zipper in, and then sew it on. I didn't really follow any instructions or use a zipper foot (as I had lost mine ages ago and recently just bought one).


Voila! Who's your zipper-sewing daddy?

Here he is next to the other hideous pillow on the couch in the den. The other one will be recovered in a shibori-felted blue to go in the living room. When I get around to it.

I can't get the dang picture to rotate!

We also had two ugly pillows in the living room. They weren't ugly as much as they attracted copius amounts of cat hair, which makes them look gross. So, I wanted to make covers for them that could be removed and washed. Here is the finished result:

The fabric is from Jo-Ann. I was impressed to find something there that isn't country kitsch. I don't like to spend very much on DIY projects, because that defeats the purpose for me, so I am glad to see they are carrying some cuter patterns than they were when I was in college. Or maybe I don't just cruise the clearance table anymore now that I am out of school. Gee, could that be it? The pattern reminded me of India, where I traveled in college, and the fabric is made there. Coincidence? I think not!

Next on the list was wanting to learn to quilt, so I started with a rag quilt tutorial on about.com, and decided to start small and, inspired by Paula's kitty's blanket, I made a blankie to put in the sunny spot Ginger, my assistant, likes to lay in.

Just some standard cotton fleece from Jo-Ann

Chopping it up

Piece it all together, snip all the seams, toss through the washer and dryer, and voila again! Rag quilt!

I haven't gotted a picture of Ginger on it yet, but this guy seems to like it:


I think it's hilarous that the mean cat likes the pink frilly blanket.

In other news, I have been studying for the next ARE. Three down, four to go! After I take the next one in a couple of weeks here, I will have tipped the halfway point. Yay! I didn't study very much while my husband was on winter break (he is a PhD student), as we finally had time to hang out. But now we are both back to studying habits. Sigh. And I have all these sewing projects out of my system so I can concentrate on studying more, but it also makes me think of all sorts of fabulous things to sew!

Dang!

It's been a month since I posted, just about. Jeez! I have some knitting to show for, but still need to photograph it. But I can show this:


This is the ONLY tomato we have gotten out of our garden this year. It's been a shitty tomato year here in NM, apparently, which makes me feel less bad about my gardening skills. I felt bad eating it. But it was soooooooo good!

I finished the vest, and I need to weave in the ends and post it. I am happy with how it came out. I love Stefanie Japel's patterns! I have been busy cramming for my next registration exam, so I missed SnB last week, but I have my exam this coming Tuesday morning, so I should be there this week!

Something I can post!

I finished the Welt Fantastic socks I started a while back and put on hold to knit the summer tank and a present I cannot yet blog about. I am very happy with them! The sock on the left however, I had to finish the toe in another blue sock yarn I had leftover stash of, as the second ball of Knitpicks Felici had significantly less yarn in it than the first ball! Grr!!!! While cheap, they do have some serious quality control issues over there.

Welt Fantastic Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks
Knitpicks Felici, 2 balls (and some yardage of a random yarn!)
Size 0 DPNs. I like my socks knitted tight.

Overall, I am happy with them. I am much more impressed with Felici than I ever was with Essential SUCK yarn, their standard sock yarn. Felici is spun more tightly and isn't all fuzzy and bloomy. Which brings me to a review of Swish Worsted. Kind of sucks. It's super-bloomy, and had I known that, I would not have knit the tank out of it. I was disappointed. It kind of pisses me off, because Knitpicks' motto is to bring us affordable luxury knitting, but I would hardly categorize what they produce as luxury, at least what I have experienced. Grr. It's cheap, and it shows. I have even had problems with my interchangeable needle set - the needles don't screw onto all the cords correctly - my size 7's pop right off of the thread where they are supposed to screw on! I can only use those on the 24" cord so far. I think I will call them about this one, because it is a faulty product, and you don't find out until you use a certain needle size. Seriously. Lacking. Quality. Control.

Ginger approves of them, which is of utmost importance:

Isn't she just so damn cute????


I am now starting the U-neck Vest from Fitted Knits. Ginger checked the pattern for errata, though osmosis:


In other news, Hugo thinks everything is an opportunity to go for a ride:


And I made pesto from our bumper crop of basil! Yum! I also made some creamy pesto sauce by mixing a couple of forkfulls of the pesto into some alfredo sauce, and holy Moses, was it good! We had it with four-cheese ravioli, salad and some delish wine! I admit it - I am a foodie.


El Hubbie mail-ordered 3 bottles of wine from Georgia (the county). It is really good, and was relatively inexpensive. This is just a standard dry white wine. Very tasty.

I don't get political on this blog, but what is happening in Georgia is despicable, and as we don't personally have artillery or tanks to lend them, Hubbie, the economist, believes the second best thing we can do is support them by trading with them. We also learned that Georgia is the oldest wine growing region in the world, going back thousands of years! Neat, huh?


Some precious kitty moments to leave you with, Ginger makes pillows out of just about anything:

Mr. Rogers ruled

And the last reason on this list is, I think, the best.

You must go to this website!

My dear friend Stephen has a small cookie company, Albuqcookie, and his website just went live and is taking orders! The cookies are amazing and worth every cent! They make great gifts; I buy some for my parents every Christmas. I served bags of Albuqcookies at my wedding as the favors! My favorite are the lavender lemon biscotti. You must try some so you can have a favorite of your own!

It's done!

The drop stitch lace tank is finished, and I love it! I wore it to work and received many a compliment, especially since no one knew I made it! I love knitted items that don't look "homemade". Handmade is very different from homemade.

I made it in the smallest size in the book, which was like, a 28" bust (which I am not!), and on needles one size smaller than recommended for the yarn (Knitpicks Swish worsted, I used size 6 needles). This pattern is super-stretchy, so I would recommend making it smaller than you normally would knit anything for your size. And I also modified it by knitting into the back loop of every stitch in front of and after the yarn overs so that the lace keeps it shape better. Otherwise, the lace looked kind of scrappy.




* Update - At her request, I am reminded I should credit my fabulous photographer, Katie, for taking the shots. The way she captures emotion through the lens, her ability to set the flash to "on" or "off" and the fact that when you tell her to zoom in and get some detail and she knows what the hell you are talking about (no offense hubbie) makes working with this Einstien of the photographic world a great joy each and every time.

Knit that Knazi!

Holy crap I HAD to take a break from studying to post this.


Rachel Matthews has created a pattern book so you can knit a doll of your favorite evil dictator! Who hasn't been waiting for this? (sarcastically said).

You can read all about it here.

Although the thighs are a bit femme, that hair and 'stache are pretty right-on, I must say.

Progress!

Without the flash

With the flash. Much more true to the color.

The tank top is almost finished! Just some seaming at the top, a few buttons, and then I will have a summer project done! Yay! Then I can start the next one which has to be done by the fall and of which I cannot speak, lest the recipient be an avid knitting blog reader, which I doubt, but you never know. I don't know who reads this thing except for the people who comment, so I can't take any chances.




The kitties are trying to beat the heat. It has been really toasty lately:



Hugo is so cute sometimes. Sometimes.:


I got up early this morning and jogged in the foothills with my friend Susan. Man! That kicked my ass! I run almost daily, but it's just around my neighborhood, which has some hilliness, but is relatively smooth and even. I can't wait to get back out there and run the foothills again. What a great workout! I am doing another 5K in two weeks, the Chunky Monkey, which is in the valley and totally a flat course, so there's not really much to train for, except being able to run in a straight line for 3.1 miles.

I will probably not be at SnB Tuesday, as Melissa is coming to visit and knit on Wednesday, so I am taking that as a knitting night instead. Hope to see some of you Wednesday, same time and place!

This and That

The drop-stitch lace tank is coming along nicely. I think I will have it done in the next couple of weeks. Just in time for summer wearing! Although it has been summer here for gee, at least 2 months now! I can certainly wear this top clear into October with the weather we have here.


Hugo was so cute when I got home I had to get a picture of him:


The flash makes him look satanic, but he moved his head too much and there isn't enough light coming in the room (we're hoping some rain will come out of all these clouds):


I can't decide which picture he looks more evil in! Well, I'll leave that for you all, and I'm off to eat dinner then price stuff for my garage sale Saturday with Paula. Toodles!

For anyone wondering...

Our SnB meets at 7pm on Tuesday nights at the Flying Star on Rio Grande. There are always peeps there, unless it's Christmas Eve or something.

Drop stitch lace tank

This top is coming out really cute. After a few failed starts, I finally got started on a version I think will work well. I have modified the pattern to knit it in the round, and I am using a smaller needle size than it calls for. Like many who have made this top, I am knitting through the back loops on either side of the YOs. This pattern is really stretchy, so I am making the smallest size in the book on size 6 needles, instead of 7s. The yarn is Knitpicks Shine Worsted.

Ginger likes to help supervise the knitting:



Just more cute kitty photos: