Toast & Herbs

When I went to the LYS yesterday I had a mission. To find another skein of the Sausalito yarn. I scanned the ball band to find the color, 8118. After having a mountain of yarn attack me ( not entirely unpleasant I must say ;)) and digging though a basket I realized I couldn’t find any. The wonderful owner wasn’t deterred and decided to scan the label and double-check.

Turns out the yarn I wanted did indeed have a name. It is Toast. Unfortunately there wasn’t any more. I ended up buying a skein of the colorway ‘Herb’ to finish my two palm rows and nine thumb rows. The fact that I had so little left to do bugs me more than the fact that I had to substitute in a similar colorway. I would have bought more at the time if I had know what it was going to be.

It’ll look nice as a part of the Blanket though.

After I cast off the Libra II I blocked it.

They really needed it.

Much better. They’re not nearly this pink in reality. My camera  is acting wonky all of a sudden.

On Friday I finally had success! I managed to get one (and only one) good picture of E-String. One was enough though. E-String is now available!

I also started a Ravelry Group! Come on over and say hi. Also, I’ll be looking for testers for Libra II soon so if you’re interested pm me.

Action!

There certainly seems to be a lot going on lately.

What with casting on for a new scarf.

I’m planning to knit seven one-inch sections a day and make it four feet long minus an inch. That’s 48 inches minus 1, so 47 sections total. If I knit 7 per day (like I plan to) I should be able to finish this part in a week (from yesterday). Isn’t that great? Now let’s see if I can actually do that.

 

Filming for the tutorials

How-to for the Lazy Daisy stitch

Dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid how-to

T-Sharn how-to (two methods!)

Once I get up the skeining and Kool-Aid how-tos I can publish Kumpel (Finally!). I’ve been trying to get pictures of E-String in the wild for almost a month now but it just keeps falling through. Taylor and I are having another go this Friday. Wish us luck. I’m also planning, this weekend, to sneak over to the LYS and get the skein of Sausalito I need to finish Libra II (I didn’t quite make it).

 

I’ve Gone Viral

Well hello again! I think I might actually be getting back into this blogging thing. (haha, I could never stay away!) I promised you guys some social networking news so here it is! (Drumroll please!) I have started a YouTube channel! Now, I’m not sure how all this is going to work or how far it’s going to go, but, I’m planning to have instructional videos to go along with my patterns. For instance, I want to post a tutorial on how to dye yarn with Kool Aid so if anyone who wants to make Kumpel (fingers crossed) and wants to dye their yarn the same way I did they’ll have a convenient, reliable link to that instruction right either in the pattern itself or below the  pattern on my Patterns page or in the pattern notes on Ravelry.

Also, I was wondering, what do you think about me starting a group on Ravelry? I probably would use it just to coordinate tests, launch  patterns and answer any questions. I know I only have a few patterns published but I have E-String, Kumpel and Libra II (formerly known as ssp) waiting in the wings.

This is going to be close. I’ve only got this little bit to finish Libra II with. I might actually make it but right now it’s too close to tell.

After some intense, well not intense but prolonged, internal debate I decided to self-publish Libra II. Here’s a peek into what I’ve been hiding. I promise I won’t hold out so much ever again guys. Libra II is a pair of fingerless gloves knit flat the buttoned up the sides. I decided on knitting them flat because I really hate swatching in the round. The thumb will be sewn together at the end. I used the Sausolito yarn I bought a while ago. I Was really hoping I could one pair out of one skein.

I picked Libra because the lace pattern I was using was supposed to look like scales (But I don’t think it does at all.) and Libra is the scales. It is also my astrological sign. I had planned to finish them by my birthday but that didn’t work out at all. The II… I have no idea where that came from. Just ‘Libra’ didn’t sound right and for some reason. I’m not even sure how I got the idea to add two to the end but it just sounds right.

Here’s the first one. Pre-blocking, oy.

Some stitch definition…

See? So close.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Busy Work

Hello everyone! I’m back, finally. Wow, where did the weeks go? I have just been so busy. The Super Snuggly Sweater has grown a tiny bit.

Obviously as a sweater consisting of mainly stockinette stitch it isn’t going to be that interesting to blog about but I shall try to keep you informed.

I’ve been so busy I haven’t had any time for knitting really. I’m determined to finish my SSP today and the Kumpel pattern. I need to do some swatching believe it or not.

The yarn is the Lamb’s Pride Worsted I dyed last spring. The colorway was see-saw.

I also wove in the ends of the Podster 2.0s today, now that it’s getting cold enough to use them.

I’m not a brig fan of the finishing steps. Sewing pieces together is worse but weaving in your ends is a close second. It, for me, alternates from cathartic and wanting to snap my darning needle in half. I’m one of those knitters that won’t fix a mistake unless it’s really obvious or compromises the integrity of the FO. As I was weaving in ends I noticed a few mistakes on the inside.

It looks like I dropped stitches and then, when I picked them up, I didn’t re-knit them back up. That is something I would normally fix. I found a couple more spots where I did the same thing. Between  that and an end that was only about a half-inch long it makes me wonder what the heck I was doing.

I promise the next post will be longer and I will have at least one pattern published and some new social networking news.