Knitting Goddess #9

I know, I haven't posted in a while.

I've moved. I've been working. My subway yarn still hasn't arrived. Some progress made on Molly's thing, but not a whole lot. Sorry y'all.

posted by Christina @ 6:48 PM |

I really needed a laugh.

This worked just fine.

posted by Christina @ 5:40 PM |

To Have a Knitting Blog, You Must Have a Pet

Here's Fred, my aunt Nina's dog. Since I'm living with Nina for 10 months, he is vicariously my dog for 10 months.

I PROMISE I will not spin his hair into yarn and then knit him sweaters out of it. That would be so very very wrong.

posted by Christina @ 11:45 AM |

Ode to Ickiness

Has anyone else noticed that everything is made out of acrylic? Yarn, fake nails, fake teeth, clothes… it must truly be a wonder substance at taking something that feels good and doing a half ass impression of it! Thank you, acrylic. You are the dyslexic overlooked child in the back row. Your mediocrity is comforting to us, and yet, unnoticed.

posted by Christina @ 11:44 AM |

And somewhere in the night, Christina cries...

There are NO yarn stores in DC. Not one. Not a Michaels, Not a Joann's, not a cute little LYS run by a wise old lady.

None. Nada. Nary a one.

HOW CAN THIS BE?

Luckily, there are three that are metro accessible

posted by Christina @ 3:59 PM |

I'm taking a break from stuffing envelopes at work, cuz welll.. it's boring. But I've being reading knitting blogs while I do it. And I have the following things to say:

I really really really REALLY want a knitting machine. Because I like a lot of plain, simple stockinette shirts & sweaters. Which is REALLY frickin' boring. And I like to use thin, delicate yarn. So, I want a knitting machine. Even though I previously thought it was a sell out. The downside? You can only find them on ebay and they're in the $100 range.

I also really really really REALLY want my yarn to show up. It won't until after I move over the weekend and then be a week or three, but still... I want subway knitting projects. I want to participate in the Mouse a thon. I wanna I wanna I wanna.

Also, I miss my 6 hours of knitting time daily I had in Cali. I got things done a lot more quickly then. I was bored stiff, but Molly's thing was done in no time!

Now, I resume stuffing.

posted by Christina @ 2:50 PM |

What a Knitting Geek...

Today, I pulled out my altoid tin, and saw that it weighed 50 grams.

"Wow!" I thought, "My curiously strong mints weigh the same as a skein of DK weight yarn!"

posted by Christina @ 11:08 AM |

OK, I think this is really pretty.

I have a feeling that my knitting in DC will be different than my knitting in California or Ohio. California had a relaxed, but constant knitting. I was always at the TV at home, watching something and knitting. In Ohio, my frantic self turned to the needles for relief and I was always at the computer, reading bad Buffy fan fiction and making hats for friends, sweaters for my mother...

In DC, I'm still watching TV, but I still feel like a houseguest at Nina's house. I'll probably knit on the subway and the bus, frantically trying to finish a row before my stop in two minutes, or while watching a movie, but still...

Maybe it's because I unraveled Molly's thing on Tuesday, and at this point I've only managed to get to the seed stitch border and to one increase. At home, that would have been done in a day and I'd have moved on to the zig zags at this point. We'll see how this year turns out. I might postpone the resized Cherry Twist to create the Seaweed Sweater for myself. And now I have Vogue Knitting, so hopefully I can get the sleeve caps right.

posted by Christina @ 1:08 PM |

Uh...

So perhaps you've noticed that I haven't written anything in a few days.

I've moved cross country! Give me time to settle in!

I've worked on Molly's Thing, redone a bit of the stitch count and reworked the sizes. Maybe I'll add a 36" to it to. But do those stupid thin fuckers really deserve their own size?

No, I thought not.

posted by Christina @ 5:42 PM |

Knitting On Planes

They wouldn't let me take my needles on planes! That's, like, so annoying!

Just kidding.

Actually, I got on the plane, started the first movie and pulled out my knitting. The blond 20something woman next to me laughs and pulls out a skein of Lionbrand Homespun that's she's going to make into a scarf.

And then the (male) flight attendant wanted to know if the sweater was for him.

And no one said a word about my knitting or the Denise Kit.

Across the country. Can't wait for the yarn to come. I had to call Mom yesterday and ask her to send other stuff too.

posted by Christina @ 5:58 PM |

3rd Post in a Row...

1000+ hits! w00t!

Oh how I love my webrings.

posted by Christina @ 7:52 PM |

Moving Woes...

Is it bad that I can fill an entire box with yarn to send cross country, even though it would technically be cheaper to go out and buy more there?

Is it worse that the yarn will probably only last me a couple of months?

posted by Christina @ 7:51 PM |

The Dark Side of Knitting...

So Molly (who has yet to make a blog for herself... the bitch) has been spending some time making catnip cat toys. Not for the Mouse a Thon, like I'll be doing later for quick, subway sized projects, but for her FIVE BILLION CATS (ok, technically 8, but still, that's a lot!). To show me, she tossed a couple of them out for the cats.

It was a frightening experience. Kitty crack. Crack I say!

posted by Christina @ 7:50 PM |

I hate it when I'm right...

Molly's thing.

2" too long and 2" too wide.

Damn.

posted by Christina @ 4:43 AM |

Note how gosh darned cute the comment fields are right now.

Perhaps this will urge you to comment.

In other news, Vogue Knitting is SPIFFY!

posted by Christina @ 9:53 PM |

Why didn't I listen to the good people of the lj knitting community?

In the next two days, I need to get to the store and exchange The Big Book of Knitting for Vogue Knitting. I just need to bite the bullet and pay the extra $20.

This will be interesting to work out with the exchange & employee discount as I no longer work there, but that's what big brothers are for.

posted by Christina @ 3:11 AM |

I could spend all my money at White Lies -so- easily. So very very easily.

Shoe shopping today, with a quick stop at Dress Barn. I can't believe I used to let my mom dress me from there. Why?! But I have dressy shoes and a found a stylish purse to boot! (pun not intended, I swear)

Of course, then I found the prettiest top on clearance a size too small for me. ACK!

In other news, I had this Ocean Vines (maybe that'll become Seaweed or something) sweater all planned, until I pulled out the yarn I wanted to use. Now the green is two shades too bright and the blue is two shades too dull. OK, switch! Damn. Why aren't they switching?!

Hopefully, I can get icylove finished for good tonight. It looks a little weird because I switched from Susan Bates 6s to Denise 6s, but I think with a wash, that'll fade. Also, one set of increases and decreases on the side sculpting were off center, so I don't know how good that is going to look. Ah well.

Maybe my stomach will stop doing the strange things it's been doing all week soon.

posted by Christina @ 8:59 PM |

I continue flipping off the world...

I am so damn tired with the world.

In knitting news, I'm pretty sure that Molly's thing, while finished is both too wide and too long. Did I mention I've sewn on the buttons and done the yoke and everything? Grr... I'm also not sure if the buttons match anymore.

Also, icylove is giving me all kinds of trouble. I ripped out to below the underarms, redid the decreases, finished the neckline and redid the back. Still a little too high, though I should be able just to put 1/2" onto the back (luckily I haven't done the yoke yet). Sleeves are stilll ridiculously huge.

I hate this moment. I should be really proud of these two things, but I'm pretty sure they're both shot to hell and I'm going to have to completely restart Molly's thing and cut out about 10 stitches.

posted by Christina @ 3:17 AM |

I'm Going to Make the Entire Damn World My Bitch.

My wireless card is being the biggest pain. It's lost two entries I've tried to type in.

Icylove issues. Must unsew, rip out entire front and back, redo the underarm bind offs 1/2" lower, and then reknit. Bugger.

Mom's forsythis shirt pattern is stupid. Small is 41" finished. Supposed to be for bust measurements 32"-34". What the hell are you people on? Luckily, Mom is 38", so I don't have to rework. I'm tired of knitting making me think.

Grr grr grr.

posted by Christina @ 9:04 PM |

Slutcom!

Slutcom is finished except for the yoke. Oh for a skein of Mission Falls cotton yarn.

I'm really amused and I want to see how this fits Molly. Why? Compare pictures.
This is how it's supposed to look on me... This is how it ACTUALLY looks.



Well, Molly is taller and bustier, so hopefully this will work.

posted by Christina @ 8:21 PM |

I didn't get much knitting done yesterday.

Why? I was hemming pants!

See, I'm short. And I've been fancy pants shopping. So I've had to hem them all by about 4 inches. Cuz size 16-18 short are not easy to find. So, I've been hemming.

Molly's thing is almost done (I'm close to finished with the back), but I'll probably need another skein or two of yarn before it can be finished. At least, for the yoke.

And it looks like I may inherit Dad's camera. Excellent...

posted by Christina @ 3:33 PM |

Catnip Mice & a Sweater Raffle!

Check out the Mouse-a-thon!

Oh, if I only owned catnip.

Cat ladies? Want to share with me?

posted by Christina @ 3:23 PM |

I think I' the weirdest person ever in terms of knitting projects.

When I follow a pattern, I follow directions exactly (except for the whole reading carefully and measuring as you go along). This usually means I knit the back (of, say, a shirt) first.

When I make up a pattern, I knit the front up first and then the back. I sort of follow the directions I set for myself, but I'm trying to keep the vision of whatever my design idea is instead of what I've mathmatically worked out.

Also, I cannot technically call myself an advance knitter. I can design things and knit lots of sweaters, but I can't do entrelac, I don't know how to make sweaters with zippers, I can't do shaker knitting, and I have never read Lily Chin (nor do I intend to). It took me four years to buy stitch dictionaries. One of two knitting books I own was a gift. The other I bought after people told me not to. I subscribe to no knititng magazines. I can never accurately gauge how much yarn I need for a project.

I guess I have to call myself intermediate? Poop.

posted by Christina @ 3:43 AM |

w00t. Yards more progress in Molly's thing, and Renn Faire tomorrow.

And apparently, you need to find Jesus while knitting as well.

I swear, these guys just gravitate to me.

(No offense to any Christians in the crowd. I just grumpy to the weird Fundie types)

Edit: Yes, that last sentence makes no sense. Oops, late night blues. How about "The weird Fundie types tend to gravitate towards me. That makes me grumpy."

posted by Christina @ 3:46 AM |

Updates from the field

After trying Molly's thing on Molly, I have found it is not too large. If anything, it'll be too small.

But, the arm holes are about an inch too high. Molly and I have the armpits at the same place, but she's got about 2" or 3" more shouder than mine. Time to rip out and go again!

posted by Christina @ 11:22 PM |

Oh crap...

I think Molly's thing is all in the wrong.

I have this horrible, nagging feeling that it's going to be 41.5" wide instead of 40". This is a fairly large deal.
And I never washed the swatch, so I don't know if it'll shrink or expand when washed.

First, I should measure it on Molly. Then I'll probably have to rip the whole thing out and reknit it with 10 less stitches.

Edit: Well, it measures 40". I wonder if this means my gauge is smaller than I think. Hrm. Now I'm doubting if the armholes are at the right height. Must my knitting always be plagued with doubts? (yes)

posted by Christina @ 4:35 PM |

I have another commission job! Another (!!) cat hat for Kati's mom!

Plus, Tipper has a blog! Check out Daily Fiber Therapy!

And how on earth does one make an image? I want to make the chart for Molly's thing, but I really have no idea. Which reminds me, I need to update it.

Edit: Molly's thing is updated. W00t.

posted by Christina @ 12:26 AM |