Spinning & Fair Isle

As I posted in an earlier blog, I have tried to do some spinning with a spindle. Another knitter in my knitting group and I decided that it may be helpful to take a class. She took a class at Stitches West, and I wanted to try a class. Even though another knitter in our group taught us how to spin, there is something to be said for paying for a class and knowing that you are going to devote that said amount of time to the new activity.

The class was good because it was just the two of us and we were able to ask lots of questions. I don't feel like a pro and I constantly had to remind myself not to get too discouraged. It's not like my first knitting project was a cabled sweater or anything. It was more like lots and lots of stockinette scarves and some dishcloths. I have to keep that in mind when I feel that I should have evenly utn fiber that looks like store bought yarn. Anyway, after the spinning class I was able to walk away with my first (mini) skein of two-ply yarn.



By no means perfect, but it actually looks more like yarn than anything I spun before. Now I just have to practice...

Another thing I have been inspired to do from knitters in the knitting group is to join a KAL on Ravelry. There are several of us in the group who joined the Fair Isle Tote KAL. I have done fair isle once before, but I have yet to teach myself how to continental knit so that I can knit with two strands of color with one in each hand. This is how far I've gotten on the tote so far:

the bottom:


the side:


and the dreaded ends I will have to weave in:


A couple of knitters were working ahead of the KAL schedule, so I decided to do the same. I forgot how much fair isle knitting is "potato chip" knitting. You can't stop after one.

Since I am well ahead of schedule, I am going to try to force myself to learn how to continental knit (which I know will slow me down, and therefore has put me off to doing it). As another knitter reminded me, the point of this project is to learn something new. Since I have done felting and fair isle before (although not together), I should really take this opportunity to learn the new skill of continental knitting. Wish me luck (and patience)!

The Thirteen Dollar Sweater

I finished the Garter Yoke Cardi in a day over a month. Although that month was February, so technically I finished in 29 days which is less than a month for every month except February. Point is, this was by far the fastest knit for a sweater.

It was also the cheapest! I used Lion Brand's Fishermen's Wool. It wouldn't be considered a high end yarn, but it's warm and I have read that it tends to soften up with several washings. The best part is that it was $6.40 a skein with a coupon and I only needed 2 skeins. Can't beat that! I did spend an extra $5 for the buttons (with a coupon of course!), but I had store credit, so I don't really count that as part of the cost.

The sweater is a perfect fit, which is one of the benefits of making your own clothes. My one minor criticism is that it ripples a little where the buttons are, but I was assured that it doesn't stand out too much because of the color of the yarn. I can deal with a little rippling on the button band (although I would like to learn how to avoid this) if it means the sweater isn't baggy.

It has been really rainy and cold here, so it is the perfect weather for a nice cozy sweater.

Quick Knit

As I try to finish up my cardigan, I felt that I needed a quick knit. I also have a baby shower to attend next month. I made a baby blanket already, but figured I might add some other knitted things to the gift. I finished this bib:



The pattern is Quacking Up and I was able to use some cotton yarn from my stash. There are several other bib patterns on the Down Cloverlaine blog and I would definitely like to make some more. So cute, quick, and easy.

In non-knitting news, my job has been going well. Part of my job entails meeting with families and collecting some sample work. I usually meet families where there is free wifi so that I can work in between appointments. I won't say where I was, but I bought this sandwich for over $8 (no drink) and was super disappointed:



Seriously!?! And the bag of chips...are you kidding me. You may not get the full effect of how few chips there are so I dumped them out and took a picture before eating a single chip.



I don't even like potato chips that much and I was sad about this. Maybe this is my American portion size crazy talk, but I know I could get more sandwich for less money elsewhere. Oh well. Live and learn. The next time I had a meeting there during lunch I got a clam chowder bread bowl. It was much more filling and less expensive, so I guess that's the way to go.

One last picture that I must include. DH and I sometimes have what we call "date night," which some times means going out and other times means watching a movie at home and laying on the couch. Apparently the cats felt that they were in need of a date night as well.



It actually cracked me up because they don't lay like this often, if ever.

Baking and Recreating

I woke up this morning and felt like making something different for breakfast. On the weekends, DH and I usually make a hot breakfast as opposed to our usual cereal that we eat during the week. This morning I woke up early while he was still sleeping I baked scones.



They turned out pretty good and it's kind of fun to rediscover what you can create with some simple ingredients most of us already have on hand.

As for the recreating...I started the September Sweater in January and I finished one sleeve (I decided to make it long sleeved):



That's as far as I got. I love the way this sweater looks and I really wanted to own it. After getting this far, I decided that it had become a "dreaded knit." I love the way cables look and I can handle knitting them, but I think this sweater had too many cables throughout the whole thing and I just decided I didn't want to make myself finish it. Also, I felt like the cables got lost in the yarn that I chose for this project. I should have used a solid color yarn. I really wanted to complete another sweater for myself and this wasn't the way to do it. It just took far too much concentration.

So I started something EXTREMELY simple. This was better for me because I could mindlessly work on it while watching TV or while talking at knit night. I wasn't quite ready to frog the sleeve I had finished on the September Sweater, so I used the rest of the ball of yarn to start the Garter Yoke Cardi. Finally I came to the point where I needed to use the yarn from the first sweater so I am knitting straight off of that.



This way it feels less like frogging and more like recreating.

Stitches West 2011

So much has been going on. It's like I went from sitting around knitting and catching up on TV series on Netflix to working full time and not finding enough time in the day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but the house is a little messier and it's more challenging to get in my goal of a blog post a week. I'm going to do my best though!

For those of you who don't know, Stitches West is this huge knitting convention that happens once a year in Santa Clara, CA. This is conveniently a 15 minute drive from where I live. People come from all over and make a weekend out of it. One of these years I'd like to treat it that way or go to a convention like this that is further away. To me, Stitches almost feels like going to the world's biggest yarn shop since it is so close. Here is what it looks like:





And Lily Chin was there:



Might I say, that since I went alone and was taking these random pictures of nobody and everybody, I kind of felt like a creeper. Ha ha! Oh well, wanted people to get the idea that it's no small thing.

Anyway, I only ended up attending one day and I took two Market Session classes. The first one was "Knitting in Both Directions." Basically you knit right to left like normal, and then instead of turning you work over and knitting that direction again, you keep the right side facing you and knit from left to right. I definitely need more practice before I try doing this on an actual project because I'm pretty sure my gauge would vary dramatically throughout the project.

The next Market Session that I took was "A Taste of Bead Knitting." I haven't really attempted knitting with beads, but I've seen some awesome projects that I might want to try. Most likely, I would want to do a shawl with a few beads here and there to add a little something. Since the Market Sessions are only an hour, we knit beaded bracelets (which hey, a finished project in one hour...not too shabby!). Here is the kit they gave us (very organized!):



And the finished product:



During Stitches, your spending can easily get out of hand. People even discuss strategies for staying on a budget, like bringing an allotted amount of cash and then once it's gone that's it! I forgot to bring my cash, but I did fairly well in the beginning. This is what I bought before my last class:





I must admit, if I'm sitting in the car and I get stopped at a red light and there is some knitting next to me, I'm tempted. I felt that I may need this reminder:



And by far my favorite. If only it were true:



I bought this kit:



Every year that I go to Stitches I am tempted to buy these sock blockers and this year I decided it was going to be my "splurge":



So that was everything I bought before my last class. Notice I didn't really buy any yarn, aside from what came in the kit. My husband reminded me before I left that I have plenty of sock yarn in my stash...he doesn't understand!

As I was leaving the convention, I did one more walk around (just in case I missed something). That's when I discovered Sunshine Yarns. Her color variety and combinations were amazing! That is what initially drew me into her booth. Then I started reading the names of the colors. Many were Harry Potter and Twilight themed. Since I love both series, it was over right then and there. I had to have some. My only regret is that I couldn't get more!

The yarn on top is called "Esme" (Twilight) and the darker one on the bottom is called "Department of Mysteries" (Harry Potter):




I have so much more catching up to do (blogwise) so I'll try to post again soon. By the way, I love comments, so if you got this far please leave one :)

View From Behind the Needles

This might be a reoccurring themed post on the blog so I can stick with posting at least once a week. You will see the view from behind my knitting needles :)

This is what I saw last night as I was knitting and watching TV.



Still trying to finish my "congrats on your new job socks.". I might finish my first week of work before I finish these socks!

Celebration Yarn

As I have mentioned before, I have been on somewhat of a yarn diet. When I get the itch to start a new project, I go to the stash first and try to find some treasures there instead of buying more yarn. We've been trying to stick to a budget and yarn purchases weren't really a part of that budget.

Then there comes a time when you need to celebrate (like when you get a new job after eight months of unemployment). So after I enthusiastically accepted a new job yesterday, I went and bought some yarn to celebrate.



The colorway of this yarn is just a number, so I call it "Congrats On Your New Job." Something bright and happy. And out of this yarn I have started my "Congrats On Your New Job" socks.



The actual pattern is Monkey by Cookie A. This is my first time knitting two socks at the same time on circular needles. So far it is going well, but I think the real reward will be at the end when I don't have to cast on a second sock because it will already be done.

On an off topic note, I wanted to share what I made for our Super Bowl party. I will not take credit for the idea (I found it somewhere online).



Deviled eggs as footballs with chives as the laces. They were too cute not to share!