skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Once again it's been a while since my last update. Working full time really takes up a lot of my hours. I have a few purple-ish things to share:
A few weeks back I shared the story of my sad sock knitting experiences. I made a plea to fellow knitters for a pair of socks in exchange for a scarf. Two awesome bloggers came to the rescue: Eikon and Charles.
Eikon and I exchanged our knitted items the week before Christmas. I knit him a Shifting Sands scarf in Malabrigo (sorry, no picture!) and he knit me a pair of purple socks in Araucania's sock yarn.
They're awesome! ... and, miracle of miracles (to me at least), they're the same size! They also fit me perfectly and are quite warm, so, now I have a great pair of socks to keep my feet comfortable this winter. Having this pair has actually inspired me to attempt socks once again, but, we'll see.
Charles and I will be exchanging knit-goods soon! =)
I had a bit of a purple... problem this Christmas. My cousins and I do a grab bag for Christmas now and since I only have one cousin to purchase/make gifts for I'm more than willing to knit something up.
I originally planned to knit a scarf. Because I think scarves are such a useful and basic accessory. Well, I got my job and my knitting time was severely decreased and as Christmas came closer I realized that I would only have enough time for a hat.
I had been eyeing this cool hat in a men's issue of Knit.1. It had ribs going in different ways and a brim. Tehcnically, for a guy, but, I thought it would be great on a girl too.
I ended up using some of that Vanna White yarn because I wanted something washable, thick, relatively soft, and durable. Knitting it up moved a bit slow, but, I was at a good pace.
So, I finally knit up all the pieces and began the seaming process... I got the edges done and I tried the hat on and it was HUGE. Now, I have a big head... when a hat says "one size fits all" it means it won't fit me. But, this hat... it was large. I thought maybe I could take in the seams a bit more so I pulled in a good half an inch on both sides and it was STILL too big.
It looks cool in this picture, but, in reality it's horrible.
I decided it was time to go to plan B... I actually didn't have a plan B so in a fit of terror I searched the internet for a quick hat and decided I would just do a simple hat in the round. A good 4 inches of ribbing on the bottom and stockinette all the way up through the decreases.
I ended up loosely following Crazy Aunt Purl's Brangelina Hat.
The hat was finished in time, unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to take a picture before it was gifted. I actually double stranded Vanna's yarn to get a nice, chunky gauge. For added... 'fun' I added other shades of purple into the mix... so, one strand of the original purple and the second strand was a different shade. It turned out pretty cool looking and it ended up fitting her.
I also started on the Half-Pipe hat from Son of a Stitch and Bitch:
I actually finished it, but, I'll provide you with more details on that next time because this is the Purple post... and that lovely grey, camel yarn hat is not purple. ^_^
I don't own too many knitting books. And, surprisingly, most of my books are the non-pattern type books. I guess I really enjoy the knitting stories. One of my more recent purchases was the Rowan Knitting for Him book. I was just browsing Barnes & Noble the other day and saw the book, realized I had never seen it before, so, I went all impulsive and bought it.
So many beautiful sweater and cardigan patterns. There are at least 3 I'd like to attempt... except... they're all made with Cashsoft and other relatively expensive DK weight yarn. Anyone know of a good workhorse-ish substitute? I'm thinking a DK Malabrigo or Cascade 220. Something of decent quality with good yardage per dollar.
I suppose I could attempt the sweaters with Malabrigo and smaller needles, but, I don't want the fabric to be too dense. Maybe I'll swatch it up.
Stopped by Joann's with Danielle and Kevin the other week. I ran into some of Vanna's yarn. The colors just called out to me, and the yarn was surprisingly soft, so I bought a few skeins. I have no idea what I'll be doing with them... but, the colors go well together and they were on sale.
Another yarn I purchased recently is the Dream in Color yarn. I had been hearing a lot about it and it's totally distributed from here in Illinois, so, I figured I'd try it. I ended up getting 2 hanks, one for me in the Strange Harvest colorway and one for my swap partner Suzie in a green colorway.
It's REALLY soft. I'm excited to try it out, but, have to find a good pattern first.
I'm coming VERY close to finishing my Coach knock-off scarf. Danielle and Kevin came to "Jilberr" on Thursday and I spent some time weaving in ends. It was tiring and tedious, but not as tiring and tedious as I imagined it would be. I'm glad it's over though. I plan to do one more block of each color before I finish. There's still a good amount of yarn left over so I was considering making the scarf longer, but, it's tortured me enough. ^_^
People have been leaving me some great comments. A big thank you for those! Some people have been asking questions about projects and such... I don't actually have the skills needed to reply to these questions. There are a lot of blogs that I comment on and receive a response through e-mail. I don't really know how to go about doing that, so, from this post on, I'll be answering questions from the previous post in the new post. I feel bad for leaving people hanging. =)
Knit hard!
