Larger than Life beg..

Larger than Life Bag:

Side 1

Side 2

I need to buy some bright fabric to line the bag and am still contemplating on how I will work the handles. I took this picture at night in my house with the flash, so the colors aren’t exact, they are the old cotton-ease colors.

I crocheted the squares using dc, in red. For me, it was easier than sewing them together.

Sidewinders: (I was intrigued by this pattern by other knit bloggers and had to try it. I am going to try again, real soon…really, really soon.)
I worked the gauge swatch and was excited I got gauge. I cast-on on Friday and was addicted to this pattern. I had half of the sock done Saturday and decided to measure gauge, on a whim and wasn’t getting gauge, which is suppose to be 30st/4 inch and I was getting 26st/4 inch. Since I was knitting these for my sock-A partner, I decided I am going to frog this and look for another pattern. (I will post the pics, just so you can see how odd and cool the socks were looking before I realized I had to frog them.)

I want to use this yarn as my sock partner has purple shoes and green shoes. However, this yarn is so busy, it is hard to find a pattern that will work. I tried RPM, but they were coming out too large, too. Though I can easily change it. I might just cast on less stitches on the RPM and start over, I don’t know. I am so indecisive on this and the clock is ticking.

Askew:

I casted on, and worked up a few inches and wasn’t getting gauge. The cast-on stitches are small, so I figured it wasn’t worth making a gauge swatch. I am this way. I think I need to work with size 9 needles, instead of 7

Askew

I casted on Askew tonight…

I think it is going to be a fast knit. You know how I like lots of WIP’s!

ps…Lyndy, you should know I like asymmetrical.  Since the yarn is self-striping, I don’t know how easy/hard it will be to line up the stripes.

Great Weekend!

I had a great weekend! I got to see some friends, my cousin’s new baby, and got a lot of sun. It is amazing how the sun on your skin makes you feel (even if it isn’t good for you.) I also got a new pair of shoes. I wanted them in the light brown, but they didn’t have my size. I bought the black. Ignore the price…I pay a lot of money for shoes that help my back. I think they are worth it.

Crochet:

Because I feel I can never have too many projects. I started another one:

Knitting:

RPM socks for my sockapalooza swap partner. I knitting with size 2 needles. I love the pattern. I wish my needle didn’t have a splinter in the middle of it where the Brittney name is stamped. I am constantly wondering if these are going to be too big…

Boobalicious front

(black is hard to photograph)

Here is the front. I almost have the right “sleeve” done.

Here is the “Shocker.” I will finish the front with using only 4 1/2 balls of yarn. The pattern calls for 13 balls of yarn. My front is right on gauge and is measuring what it is suppose to measure.

How in the world will I use all 13 balls of yarn? Please don’t tell me the back will use 8 1/2 balls of yarn.

So, I tried to google and flickr and all other methods of researching who has made this to and have really come out blank. (Hello…I need ravelry!) I am trying to be so patient about waiting for the invite, but am feeling very low on the totem pole of knit blog popularity.

I am even on the Big Girls Knits List and can’t find a finished top. I did finally find one person who knit it, and it was the wrong size. So she frogged it and knit it again and then it fit wrong and so she felted hers into a purse. Hopefully that won’t happen to me (especially since Cathay will not felt.)

How is it this book has been out for over a year and no one has made this top? Lots of people want to make it. Lots of people have casted on this top.

Granny SWS

First, I need to say…I love Patons SWS!  I just love it!  I love the stripes, I love how soft it is!  It is a happy yarn.

This Sunday I attempted to organize a knitting/crochet group for this area.  I advertised at Knitter’sReview, Knittyboard.com, Crochetville, I left my email/blog address at meetup.com and then on several of the Yahoo lists I am on.  I also did a google search for knit blogs in my area and spammed a few people.  After my efforts, I was able to meetup with one person, Annie Elf.  She is a new crocheter.

I had a fun time with her.  She is doing some really nice granny squares.  I think the yarn she was using was Lang Mille Colori.  The yarn is gorgeous and I love how the grannies were looking.  I mentioned to her the yarn looked similar to Patons SWS.

Tonight, I remembered I had some small leftover balls of the SWS in various colors.

So, here are a few grannies in the Natural Pink colorway.

These Grannies were fun!

This weekend, I finally finished one sock.  I quickly casted on the second sock.  It is my way of making sure a mate gets made.

On Friday I had to do a class demo.  I worked on an Entrelac scarf in Patons SWS Natural Earth.

People were interested in learning this technique, so I am going to add that to my class schedule for this summer.   Every time I knit or crochet or display something in Patons SWS it draws attention.  Did I mention I loved Patons SWS?

Straps

I am still working on Prosperous Plum, and am up to the straps. The pattern calls for you to measure to get the right strap size. Since I am not knitting this to my size, I don’t have anyone to measure. Any suggestions? I guess I could call around to some size small friends tomorrow…

I am happy with this progress. I have no doubts I will have this finished by Friday.

ETA:  I did a bit of reading and it seems that standard size “small” armhole length is 7.5 to 8 inches, so that is what I am going to do.

Prosperous Plum…and…pics…

First, I am madly knitting the Prosperous Plum tank.  It is knitted in cotton-ease in violet.  I am knitting a small as it will be the sample that I will be teaching in my classes.  It has a provisional cast on, picot hem, lace and cable knitting, shaping…basically lots of things I can teach on.  I rarely actually get to teach the projects that I plan out, so hopefully this will be one of those times as this is really one of the funnest projects I have done in a long, long time.

Seriously, the chart is really interesting.  It is easy to remember and is really working up fast.  Of course, I am knitting the small (rarely get to do that) but it is still a fun knit.

I casted on for this on Saturday.  As of tonight, this is where I am at.

Front:

Back:

There is this cool asymmetrical-ness, yet oddly symmetrical that this top has.

I need to be finished with it before Saturday and at my current pace I think that is possible.

I started out using size 5 needles for the picot hem, then switched to size 7.  However, as I got a few inches up, I realized my gauge was off and so I dropped down to a size 6 and am getting the 19 st/4 inch gauge.  It actually worked out good doing it this way since the hip part is a little bit wider than when it decreases into the waist, so the change in gauge isn’t noticeable in a bad way.

Once I get my class knitting out of the way, I hopefully will have more knit/crochet time for myself again for the next few months.  I love my classes, but the prep for them is very time consuming.

I did do a little bit more knitting on my sock (not shown.)  I am almost at the toe decreases.

Here is a picture of my dad’s sweater:

Sorry dad…it is hard to wear this way, I know.  I don’t have the back to block this as I would have to pin it to my floor.  I am sort of waiting for Tony to help me.  I swear I will finish this soon…luckily it is still cold and rainy where you live even in the summer.

Speaking of rain.  This was Saturday:

And lastly, as if there are not enough pictures on this post, a picture Sierra drew.  Her teacher suggested in a report card that Sierra needed to color better within the lines.  Seriously…something is wrong with her teacher.  Isn’t coloring outside of the lines better?

She has Tony’s artistic ability.  I NEVER colored like this in kindergarten.

Passing time…

Sock…Baby Cable Rib…in Lorna’s Laces…

You can’t really see the stitch definition real well, but I am liking it.

Crocheted baby blanket for my cousin’s baby:

It is made with 2 different colors of homespun and then two strands of Caron Simply soft. It is kind of thick, so I am hoping it is used more as a floor blanket. I ran out of the darker homespun, so I am probably going to start going around the blanket in the dark blue SS and the light blue homespun.

I did some more spinning. This has silk in it. I am looking into getting involved with the local spinning guild. It isn’t very close to me though. Their last meeting on Sunday was an hour away. I hope that I can get together with them periodically. I really want to be able to learn to spin sock yarn.

I know I have some old projects I need to pickup and finish. One of those is my dad’s sweater. I need to get the sleeves knitted up.

The job search is going okay. I have been thinking about the job I interviewed for and I am not sure if it will be a good fit. Honestly, besides the commute, their hours are not set. So it could be possibly that I would have to work the late shift and get off at 7:30pm. I wouldn’t get home until 8:30pm and that isn’t acceptable to me. I want to find something closer and where I got off work around the time Sierra got out of school.

I received an email on another application that was an auto-email. They told me I didn’t meet the minimum criteria. So, I sent their hr an email explaining why I thought I did with my resume. We will see what happens.

It is crazy that I am looking for a job and then today I didn’t leave the house because my kidney stone was killing me. Apparently I am a factory for those. Don’t ask questions here as I have no answers. The doctor told me I had no stones in my left kidney and that is where it hurts. That is where the last stone came from, too.

eta:  this morning I had blood in my urine again, so maybe this is a sign that I am closer to passing the stone.

Spinning, Sock, and Sweater Progress

First, I did some spinning. I spun 4 ozs of Corriedale in Brick. It is some roving that I got free with my spinning wheel last year. Sadly, it has taken me a year to spin it. I finally figured out the problem or maybe I should rephrase it as I finally figured out a new “trick” to spinning.

Last year, when I was starting to spin, I was taking chunks of roving and then trying to spin it down into yarn. I would get a lot of thick and thin and over-spun areas and it was a lot of work and frustration. This time, I decided to split the roving lengthwise several times so I was only spinning a thin long length of roving (not small chunks.) This made my spinning turn out much smoother. I had a lot less over-spun sections and overall I was much happier.

I went ahead and plied it, so it is two ply. After I put it into a hank, I was surprised the yarn didn’t try to kink up on itself, so I think that it is more balanced than anything I have tried to spin thus far.

I am not a pro. I am not even experienced at spinning. However, I am finally feeling happier about it. I really think it took putting it away in the closet for awhile for me to get a renewed spirit about it. I am like that. I did hurt my shoulder a bit spinning…I know, that is sad. I will have to give spinning a break for a few days.

Here is the sock I am working on. Since I was sick most the night last night I was able to work on it in bed on and off and made it past the heel. Nothing fancy…It is super-wash so when my mom washes the socks they won’t felt (like the other pair I made her…even though I told her to hand wash…she doesn’t listen.)

Here is the front of my dad’s sweater I am knitting him. I didn’t understand the bind off, so I don’t think I did it right. Why would they say, bind off eleven and then bind off ten. If you are working two balls (two sides of the neck) at the same time, Do you do them opposite?

***Edited to add…the directions doesn’t say to do it opposite and only gives the bind off for one side, which is a total of 21 stitches.  It says to bind off 11 stitches at one time and then bind off 10.  Bron told me I would bind off 11 knit to the end, knit back and then bind off the 10.  I can see how that would give me a bit of a slope.  So do I do the opposite for the other side?  Sometimes my brain confuses me…

I know it is hard to see. I could have adjusted the color…but I am lazy. It doesn’t matter, the sweater is sort of curled up on itself on the sides.

Mini Update

I am up to the neck of the front of my dad’s sweater.  His birthday is on Friday, I doubt I will get it finished by then.  I won’t be seeing him this weekend and while I could mail it, I would rather hand deliver it, wouldn’t want it to get lost in the mail.  I finished the back a few weeks ago.  So I have to do the sleeves and then seam it all together.

I started another sock, it is almost to the heel.  I will take a picture soon.

I haven’t made progress on my sweater, it is on hold until after I get some other projects out of the way.

I have some design projects in progress and one that has a deadline in the next few weeks.

I also am continually trying to stay prepared for my knitting/crochet classes every Saturday.  This weekend will be class demo in front of the store, so no crochet class.

However, I am planning on teaching a knitting class.  It is so hard to stay prepared for the classes.  I either have to come up with my own patterns or ask permission to use patterns, which sometimes I am told NO and then I have to knit or crochet up the item we are making.  Then, on top of that sometimes the class is cancelled because no one shows up or the class is all beginners and I cancel the project and teach basic knit or basic crochet.   In some ways it would be so much easier if the store had a set program for their knitting/crochet classes with pre-decided projects.  While it might be boring for me or I might not have as much creative control over the class there would be an easiness and not as stressful to have pre-determined projects.

On top of everything I have a bad stomach bug and I am really crabby.