Stuff on my needles

Wool peddlers shawl, with left over sweater yarn, a baby boobie hat - the first of two, the Chanukkah menorah - from a few days ago, the red kai mei - it's only the first sock but I know I can hustle and get them done by the 13th of january (I want to use the needles for the mystery sock project), purple sock project it's a gainsey project but it doesn't show up in the picture. And finally, my Chrismakkah present from Sabine hand dyed (by her) rainbow sock yarn, it's been moved up the queue to right after mystery sock.

Happy holidays.

Random photo

Finishing

So, I finished my green sweater, I need to block it then it will get a little photo shoot, and I finished my dads Christmas socks. I tried to not start anything in the hopes I would be so bored I would clean my apartment but, that didn't quite work out, so I have started my winter ensemble of purple and red accessories, first up is the hat.
I love this yarn, so buy it if you can, it's pricy if you don't think about it. It's cascade Epiphany, which is 60% Alpaca, 20% cashmere, and 20% silk, so it's super soft, with a nice sheen, plus it will be very warm and lightweight. The ball band says it costs $29.99 a skein, so, if I were to make a sweater it would cost over $200, so, I'll keep my eye out for sales. Even just a scarf, hat, gloves combo I am planning, will be a bit pricey. But filled with awesome. The picture is the start of my hat.

Yarn based randomness

So I was on Craigslist looking for work, as I like to do when procrastinating. Then I go to the For Sale section and check for yarn, because I like to do that. I have told myself many times that I will not buy any and that tempting myself is simply a test of character and most of the stuff is ugly, old, or overpriced. But then I see a listing for $5 Lorna's Laces sock yarn in downtown Seattle. I mean really, what am I supposed to do, resist that? Telling myself that of course I will give the yarn as a gift and not horde it to myself in my dresser of yarn, I e-mail the poster. I get a call less than a minute later saying "Hi, it's Kia." In my head I'm all what the crap, that's weird, the only Kia I knew was in high school and I haven't spoken to her in ten years. But yes, it's the same Kia and she is selling yarn on Craigslist and I am going up to meet her tomorrow. This all just goes to show that willpower is overrated and yarn brings people together. Seriously, yarn is cooler than Facebook.
In non-serendipity news, spinning is stupid. Writing papers is stupid. Sewing costumes is stupid. I'm going to focus on the yarn.

What is on my needles day after Wednesday

I meant to do this yesterday,

But I didn't, whoops.

The week has been a little busy, the 5th ave, and opera last week, the improv at Intiman, followed by two days at an auto show, then this cirque du soleil Michael Jackson show, and then more improv, only one day was an eight hour day, so, not exhausting or anything, it's just cut into the knitting time.

Late next week I will also have my copy of Skyrim, so, I better finish my sweater, and my dads socks, before the video game shows up at my house I'm a little excited about it... But anyway, I'm working on the toe decreases of my dads second sock, and I have started the second sleeve of my sweater. Hope is in sight, so, I will have both done by next week, and we can have more interesting topics.

Like what two classes I plan to take at Madrona Fiber Retreat.

I can't post pictures at the moment, I'm updating this from the Internet and not the app. Type to you soon.

This posting was delayed by lack of wifi.

Introduction

Well, I just jumped right in with that last post and I didn't even introduce myself. I am Christina, and Bunny has invited me to join her blog because as she mentioned below, we think we're hilarious and should tell the world how awesome we are in blog form. But two craft blogs is a little much, so I have joined hers. I sew poorly but from 40 feet away who cares. I also knit, better than I sew and have something of a yarn problem. I have 40 sweaters worth of yarn. If I don't turn my sock yarn into sweaters, I have more like 30 sweaters worth of yarn but that's still a lot, so Bunny has decided that we're yarn dieting. Well we decided together but really, she's the strong one, so I will be using her for stick-to-it-iveness. Unfortunately, when I can't remember a word, I tend to make up something random. I am the Shakespeare of blogging! You know, if Shakespeare was a knitter. Which maybe he was. I'll get right on the playwrighting just as soon as soon as I finagle my way out of all my other obligations. And with that, I must go. I have to toss this sparkly ball for my cat before he exacts revenge on my sweater. Ta!

Sewing

My sweater is blocking! Soon I will wear it and it will be fabulous. In the meantime, I am sewing costumes for the student directed one acts that open in a week. You wanna see some gaudy princess gear? Of course you do.

I will be trimming out this tasteful costume some gold tinsel which I was going to show you a picture of. Sadly, I haven't figured this blog thing out yet and can only upload one picture per page. Isn't that peachy. So I'm gonna go make another obnoxious princess dress and do some hemming and if I finish then I'm gonna do some schoolwork. But if I finish all that, I get to knit. I am so close to finishing those orange socks. Though I could always finish those on the bus tomorrow. Maybe I will sew my sleeves on, though that means I cannot have any beer. Hmmmmm.....

Avoidance

I really should be cleaning my apartment, but....

I have started the sleeves for my green sweater, and I learned something interesting... I am using one size bigger needles than are called for in the pattern, I started this sweater, oh... over a year ago, and typically I am a tight knitter, I can't remember if I did a gauge swatch, I don't dislike the fabric I am getting, it's a little bit drapier than I think the designer intended, but I think it will fit okay, with more ease we shall see I guess. It wasn't until I started the sleeves. in the correct needles did I notice, this was after I started the sleeves with the called for cast on amount, knit that for a while, decided I want the sleeves to start a little bit smaller, ripped it out, cast on a again, with less, and plans to increase slowly, noticed the gauge was smaller then the body of the sweater, ripped it out... but don't they say the third time is the charm?

I wild love to just work on the sleeve today, but the apartment has sort of reached critical mass, so, something must be done.

So a tiny side note, I am writing this in my iPad, but just through safari, and for some reason I can select a word and change it.... so, the sentence above has a typo... obviously an auto correct which changed whatever I typed thinking it was "would" into "wild". I have the blogger app, but it wont let me type in landscape mode... But it made me wonder, can I learn to make the perfect app?But it makes me wonder, am I creative because I want things the way I want them, or do I want things the way I want things because I am creative?

What's on my needles Wednesday

So, I'm still alternating between the blue socks- almost done there.
Red socks - almost done with first sock.
The Green sweater- I'm finishing the back, so, two sleeves and finishing away from having a sweater. It's the gathered pullover from Interweave a few years ago.
The Clapotis looks the same so no photo.
So, the word diet in your tags and slim fast looks you up, your
curious tidbit of the day.

New Purpose

So, My friend Christina and I have been talking about some sort of social media outlet for all of our crazy craftiness.


We toyed with a podcast, but there are a lot of hurdles in the way of that, like, we don't have any equipment, or really the slightest clue how to make a podcast, although, there are books, and we are both smart enough to figure it out, if we tried and all.

But, then we thought, we could do a blog, together, and we were thinking about names, I liked 40 Sweaters, because, well.... I think Christina should explain. But then I was musing that if we had a blog, then I should get rid of this one, because, seriously, two craft blogs....? In the end, we decided to both use this blog.

I'm not sure if anyone will find this too exciting, its going to be a bit of a mish-mash, mostly knitting, but I am also into raw food, and cooking, sewing, general new century hippiness, with a dash of green living, and well.... Cats. I also want to learn to both weld and throw some pottery, for shits and giggles. I am trying to lose weight, and get in shape and not be a lazy person, this is a giant struggle for me, so, there might be a bit of that in this blog too. One other thing, 2012, is the year of the yarn diet.

Hopefully some folks might find this entertaining, maybe our humor will shine through, I hope....


Did I mention that I am going to take classes to be a master knitter, yeah, its true.... I am crazy.

Photos from my phone

Let's see, jaywalkers, Alice and the futon cover, my mittens finished, and two photos of Erika's first sock.

What is on my needles

So, it's been a while, I had a photo posting trauma, which has possibly been worked around.
I am using an app to post this to try it out so I can't caption each photo. I'm not even sure what order these will come out.
Let's see, there are my mawata mittens, made with silk mawata. I love them, so lightweight super warm. (I have actually finished these) The blue and grey sock is a Christmas present (in Rowan Felted Tweed), and so are the finished multi-color socks ( in socks that rock heavyweight, melted crayon Colorway).
The odd mittens are a charity project for an injured friend, her right hand has a splint which makes it impossible to put in a pocket for warmth, and it's starting to get cold out here. The green bit of knitting will be a Clapotis, shown in one of the pictures, it's a clever dropped stitch shawl, I have made one before, but it has gone missing.
The red sock is Kai-Mei from Cookie A's book Sock Innovation, the bit of red lace will be a wrap around sweater, the green chunk of knitting will be a pullover, and the purple and green is part of a fancy baby sweater.

I am trying to rotate between the red sock, blue sock, Clapotis and the green sweater. Will post pictures as things progress.

new goodnight moon blanket!

me and my friend Lisa

me and my friend Christina at Stitch and Pitch

those socks finished

Ian asleep on the GNM Blanket, apparently he needs to see all the pictures.

I think these are the "Fetching" fingerless mitts

quick patch pocket

here is the colorway for the jaywalker socks knit a long I am doing in August, you can sort of see the many different oranges. I think the zigzags of the pattern will make the yellow pop.

who made these shorts with out a pocket for my iPod?

this was a quick fix, I want to make cool pockets for all my pants that don't have one, a grievous oversight

this is my friend Madigan in the sweater I made her. She is 6 weeks old.

iPad Cover

So, this is the first post of what I hope will be a blog where I post projects I have created, hopefully some of these will be interesting to people.

Last night, I got a wild hair up my... iPad... and I decided ti make a cover for my new iPad... so using only materials I have squirreled away, I made this in about an hour.

I failed to actually measure, so I had to resew the seams smaller twice.

I hope to make another cover by needle felting or soap felting.