Itching for patterns...

I am eagerly awaiting the release of an upcoming Teva Durham crochet book. One of her scarves was the first pattern I paid money to get, I just absolutely love her fashion-forward designs. I am just dying to see what wonderful things she creates in this book, and hopefully will be inspired to do some crochet again in the near future.

In the meantime, I bought the Vogue Knitting - Winter 2006/07 Issue, where I hope to someday knit the cover piece, a gorgeous bolero, or as the designer call it, a "capecho". This stunner was created by Norah Gaughan, who also penned the "Knitting Nature" book that I keep hearing about. Now to just buy some appropriate yarn to get started...

Needle hell

I started this about 2 1/2 year ago when I won some sock yarn at a yarn store drawing. I've never knit socks before, and personally, I think it's a waste of time when socks are mere dollars at the store. It just doesn't seem a good investment of my time when you're reaching 10 stitches per inch...

But, I since I won the yarn, I'd figured I'd give it a shot. I had never sewn up multiple pieces together before, so sock pattern that would knit up all in once piece was REALLY appealing to me. I chose the "Generic You're Putting Me On Socks" pattern.

I loved the fact that you just take measurements of your foot, and plug in values to figure out the stitches. All patterns should be like this!!! :)

So I had started a sock, and actually almost finished one about a year ago. (The sock actually fit onto my foot, but once I got past the heel and was time to go up the calf, I got bored and gave up.) So here was this lonely ankle sock... sitting in the closet, until now.

I pulled it out yesterday, hoping to get at least that sock completely finished. Then I had a crazy thought. On Knitty, they had an article about "extreme" knitting... double-knitting both socks at once...

The thought was too tempting...

In desperation to get two absolutely identical socks knit quickly, I completely ripped apart the existing sock. What a disaster!

Perhaps "extreme" knitting is best left to knitting beautiful tubes 4-5" in diameter. But what I discovered quickly is that the "You're Putting Me On" sock pattern starts at the toe with figure eight cast on..., and that doesn't quite work if you're adapting for double-knitting.

Regret came over me quickly as I suddenly missed that cute little anklet that fit perfectly on my foot.

So here I am. Starting over.

I am 3-4 rows in, and despising it already...

Sportin' Calorimetry

Here's some pics of calorimetry on...
I forgot to mention I only cast on 72, rather than the 120. I had a thicker yarn than called for, so had to do some math to adjust... I had to rip this out a few times actually... (sorry James! who so excitedly knit 4 of the stitches as I was teaching him what a 'knit' and a 'purl' was. LOL) I also only did 8 increase/decrease rows (4 on each half) in order to keep it a normal size!

Latest quick knit -- Calorimetry from Knitty

My latest knit is Calorimetry -- kind of a winter headband/headscarf. I love the idea of this when you don't want to squish your hair with a hat.


I knit it with one skein of this yarn I purchased at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn back in June.

Jump Sheep, spun from Cabin John, Maryland (jumpsheep@mac.com)
weight: 2.0 oz
yardage: 84 yards
fiber: wool
color: Guacamole

I was able to knit up two bands with this amount of yarn.

Whenever I next wear it out, I'll take a self portrait...
In the meantime, Coop seems to think it's a new hammock for him -- after all, it matches him perfectly!!!

Finished Crumpets

I started knitting Crumpets November 29th, 2006 after I picked up the yarn at the yearly Smiley's yarn sale in Manhattan. The dress was complete on January 4th, 2007.

The dress is for a friend's daughter, who is turning 1 year old.

I used the following yarn:
Brand: Filatura Lanarota Summer Soft
Color: Turquoise Delight
Fiber: 60% Rayon 40% Acrylic
Weight: Knitting Worsted
Care: Machine Wash
Packing: 50 Grams)
Yardage: 90 yards

Here is a close up of the beading and pattern detail.
I used picot-edging at the top.

All the little pearls were hand-beaded with upholstery thread afterwards since the beads were too small to thread onto the yarn during knitting.

The most difficult time I had was not the complicated pattern at the chest, but rather the never-ending rows of stockinette stitch at the skirt -- doubling from 120 stitches to 240 in a round! Then when all knitting was done, it was the little details that became time consuming. From the hand-threading of each pearl bead in the right place without thread showing, to then weaving in elastic bands at the chest...

All in all, it was a very gratifying project -- I will be thrilled when the dress is finally on and pictures are taken! She will look so sweet!