Who got me? They did! You know, those doctors I have around here. I won't go into too many details here, but I'll give you some math to ponder. One tooth, two roots, 90 degree angles, four hours.

Let's just say I haven't been feeling well and that's why I haven't been around. If I owe you an email can you remind me? I haven't really left my bed for the last couple of days, which has made my world much, much smaller as you see above. But this isn't a pity party right, let's get on with some knitting.

Pattern: Backyard Leaves from Scarf Style
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran 4 skeins in 502
Needles: 4.5mm (US 7) straights
Date Started: 11.22.05
Date Finished: 12.02.05

I'm not sure what to say about this pattern. I've already mentioned how much I like it, it's fun and interesting and yields a beautiful finished object. Three rare qualities all in one pattern, what more could you ask for? This is probably why it took me a little longer to finish knitting than it really should have, I got greedy having fun with it and didn't want it to stop. If I knit this again I'll probably knit both halves at the same time (isn't that all the rage right now anyway?) just so I can have a scarf faster.

Blocking it made me nervous, I really liked the 3-d quality the scarf had pre-wash. What if the giftee would have liked it better as well? I guess it's easier to wear and tell what it is when it's flatter, but still, it looked so cool before. I left the two halves to soak in the sink in some kokaburra-fied water for maybe ten minutes and then sprawled them out on towels on my kitchen table. I pinned them so that the sides would have slight curves and the flowers would still "pop" after drying. Alright, so blocking it wasn't so bad, but sewing the two pieces together, that's where this pattern gets you. Remember my gripe about why they ask you to practice slipping stitches? umm, do you think they could have skipped that and instead told us how to sew the two pieces together?! Isn't that a little more important? I could stand one less picture of the 'brown-haired' girl if it meant room for this little factoid. oh well. I was going to try an invisible seam, but my plans were killed when I realized that it's not all st st. I couldn't come up with anything better than backstitching, blame the codeine. I hope to steam block the seam sometime this week to see if that helps. If not, then I'll be crawling for help from you guys.

I'm done and right now that alone makes me happy. Though I'll start to worry soon enough about how the giftee will perceive this. Will she like the Uma Thurman of colors that I picked? Will she mind the fuzziness factor of merino? Should I sneak in a sweater shaver with the scarf? We have less than a month till we find out.

Posted by bitter purl at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)

oh no, it's just a hat.

Pattern: Vanilla Bean Hat (ie my own top-down pattern)
Yarn: Cascade 220 in grey and Elann Peruvian Higland Wool in Pumpkin
Needles: US 7 and 8 (4.5 and 5mm) 16" Addi Turbos
Date Started: 11.17.05
Date Finished: 11.24.05

It's finally done! And what happens when it's done? The weather warms up again. But that's ok, this will be worn soon, I'll make sure of that. With all my complaining, this hat really only took a few hours, it's just that I never sat down to focus on it except when watching animes with the boy. I think this was a big mistake because I left myself open (or was I stuck?) to get design ideas.

He's a very specific one, this boy. The original specs were tight, long enough to cover the ears, with a one inch wide orange stripe followed by 3/4" of grey. Mistake number one: I let him tell me when he thought it was wide enough. Boyfriend here doesn't understand the nature of knitted fabric or the concept of stretch; he made me increase a little too much since he thought the hat was small. stupid boy. The hat came out a little wide, not by too much, but this carried over to mistake number two: the hat was really long/low. All I needed to do was cut some eyeholes out and he would be the kid from Fat Albert. This wouldn't be too bad since he planned on rolling it, but it was too wide! I was very thankful for a washing machine. I just threw the hat and some Eucalan in hot water and let the machine do the work. Two cycles later, the hat is the perfect width and length. He can't complain about cold air touching his ears, damn hat is so thick. I did make a teensy third mistake, I knitted up a hem to stop the hat from rolling but in my Turkey and wine stupor forgot to whip stitch it before throwing it in the wash. Oops, he gets an extra orange stripe. The hat would be too short (for his tastes) without it, so really it can't count as a mistake, right?

In other news, I finished the first half of Backyard Leaves over the long weekend. This is one of those projects that you can use to impress everyone with your mad skills, if you are into that sorta thing. Anytime I whipped this out to quickly knit up a repeat I heard gasps and I could definitely sense some jealousy. Maybe not, but you weren't there so you don't know. I'm still in love with the pattern, which is a good thing since now I have to do the whole thing over again.

eta: Carrie and I started a kal for Stef's new pattern for HipKnits. Neither of us has the yarn and probably won't start till after the holidays, so feel free to join us anytime to knit this little beauty. We can figure out yarn subs for the next month at least.

Posted by bitter purl at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

What does a knitter do when sick? Well, I like to complain and get a lot of sympathy from the bf, but I also like to knit a little here and there. This week's project? A lovely scarf for one of my knitting buddies.

Five repeats into Backyard Leaves (from Scarf Style) and I'm loving the pattern. I have it basically memorized, so maybe I'm not sick but rather developing some sort of super-human powers. My powers did fail me at first though when I was reading both the RS and WS rows from right to left. Doh! I was wondering why I didn't see any leaves. Thankfully, I noticed what I was doing after the seventh row, so not much time lost there. To be honest, I thought this pattern would be a little trickier, especially when it comes with the foreboding warning that I should practice the slip-stitch border on a swatch. umm, why? Am I missing something here? I also found it useless to use stitch markers, this isn't the sort of pattern that you have a repeat x number of times in a row.

Knitting for another knitter can be tough though. Every knitter, I think, appreciates something handknit especially for them, so they are going to like it no matter what, right? Ok, maybe not. But the gift should still be something interesting or something they would knit for themselves, if their queue wasn't filled up or if they had the pattern. I'm not saying a pattern needs to be something overly complicated, but when it isn't you need to think about the other factors in the gift. Like I said, this pattern isn't incredibly difficult or customizable (other than length) which really makes my yarn choice the focus (for me!). Of course, I started to freak out, is the color right? Will she hate it? Will she never wear it? Is this her least favorite yarn? I had my heart set on using DB Cashmerino in a nice green, an apple green in fact. This is the closest I found. In the store it had hints of apple, I was told it was apple even, but this is one of those colors that just changes depending on it's mood and the lights it's under. To make matters more confusing let's look at Elizabeth's apple green here and here. Notice that in one it looks like mine and in the other it doesn't. What kind of voodoo did Debbie Bliss conjure up here? Fortunately, the giftee was happy with my choice so onward with the leaves.

eta: I'm making it sound like this pattern is oh so easy and perhaps boring. Far from it! I think the "easy" part comes from the pattern eventually becoming intuitive. Just by looking at the row below you can tell what you currently have to do. The pattern isn't so fussy that you get lost within the row either. Boring? Nope, no monotony setting in here. Each row is different enough to keep your attention, while the length of the repeats makes you feel as if you are constantly doing something new. I just happen to think that yarn and color choices are extremely important, especially when knitting for another knitter. BTW, one skein of DB Cashmerino can get you into the seventh pattern repeat easily.

Posted by bitter purl at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)