Date started: 5.14.05
Date finished: 8.24.05
Pattern: Biased Tank by Teva Durham for knit.1
Yarn: Microspun in Fuschia and Silver Grey
Needles: US 4 Crystal Palace and US 6 Susan Bates

Can you believe that I finished this? Was it a hard knit? Nope. Is it so huge that it takes forever to knit up? Not really. Then why three months on a tank?! Oh please, let me explain already. Though this is quite the easy knit, I still managed to have some trials and tribulations with it. There's the super-splitty yarn, the one side that I had to rip and reknit, the 20 stips that I had to randomly attach, the pattern with no instructions, the agonizing over to sew or not, and my total ADD with this project (really, how many things have I finished since I started this?)

I finally figured out why my gauge was so off that I had to rip, want to know why? Well, Ms. Bates defines a US 6 as 4mm, but the wacky kids over at Clover decided to tack on an extra .25mm to that (they are crazy I tell you). I promise I didn't notice this difference till last week, when I couldn't find the original needles I knitted the front with (they were on the floor, next to my desk the whole time). Can I tell you that I hate the whole US sizes thing, I'm moving to millemeters!

Alright, let's talk about this pattern. There was no real need to mod this other than for sizing, I added a row to each stripe to add an inch to the bust. I used my trusty Singer to sew up the sides and a quick and dirty whip stitch to attach all those straps. Word of warning, don't try this on before you attach all those straps. Or at least don't judge the way it looks, I really thought this was going to be the dowdiest thing on me and that it should have gone the way of a pillow. But as you attach all the straps you gather bits here and there and it finally takes some sort of shape (there's absolutely no shaping in this tank). It is a pretty heavy top when you just pick it up by the straps, but once it's on it's not that bad. I just have to figure out why right strap is a lot floppier than the left. Other than that, I guess it's kinda cute.

Posted by bitter purl at 04:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

After ignoring the biased tank all weekend (I didn't want to deal with it and I was just too sick to even think about it) and being disappointed that the knitting fairies didn't stop by this morning, I finally offered this to the sewing gods. It took all of five minutes to seam both sides (why didn't I just do this last week?). Warning: If you follow the way the pattern is written, then you won't have an opening to fit through! Let me walk you through this...

Here are the two pieces post seaming with the front facing us. Do you like how the stripes are biased and actually match? The corner, that for some reason I cut off, is the lower left (this is important!). First, let me just say that this pattern does not tell you how to finish this top, other than saying to follow the picture to seam it and attach all million pieces to it. Considering that knit.1 is "supposed" to be for beginners, I found this kind of perplexing. Really, no stitch names? Nothing? Alrighty then.

"Using photo as guide, align the front and back pieces along the inc'd edges to form the side seams. Four stripes for each side for the side seams. Sew the side seams." In the picture above, the increased edges are the very bottom and the right side (next to the remote). Now, if you sewed four stripes on the bottom and the right, where would your waist go? You would be essentially closing this off and making a pillow! I did not spend all this time knitting for a pillow. Luckily I had pinned both sides together, which helped me notice this mistake before the needle did any damage. So what are you suppossed to do?

Pin from the lower left corner up four stripes, this will become your left seam. Now, on the other side pin four stripes as well, but on the opposite end. Say what? Yep, use your decreased edge as your seam, but not from the opposite corner. Notice how the top right corner (left in the picture) is flipped down (i.e. not seamed). Disregard those first two stripes, rather start counting your four stripes after those two. You'll be happy you did this, because you'll actually be able to put it on! You may have to sew some more, but since I haven't attached all the strips yet I'm not completely sure about this.

Who would have thought you needed an opening to actually make it a tank top?

Posted by bitter purl at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Being sick makes you do crazy things like, oh I don't know, finish knitting the bias tank. I really had to fight the urge to start something new, this was especially hard when weaving all the yarn ends. Now all that is left to do is attach all hundred pieces together and voila a tank top is born. Easy right?! Well, maybe it's my delirious state, but I can't find the ladder to seam the two sides with a mattress stitch. It's there somewhere, but being that it's the increase side and knit on a bias the freaking thing is hiding. So I'm thinking of just whipping out the old sewing machine and doing the two side seams quickly and painlessly (who am I kidding here?). What's stopping me? The fear that my knitting will break or that the splitty microspun will get stuck in the needle. Are there any objections out there to this insane idea? If anything happens, it will frustrate me more than sadden me.

In other news, I joined the River Stole KAL a couple of days ago after buying Rowan 38 (which I'm really enjoying by the way). Oh, did I forget to mention that I bought two skeins of Kidsilk Haze in Candy Girl? oops! So, um, yeah I'm just here waiting for the yarn. The start date is September first, so I have time to finish this and maybe another project on my list and hell why not start some more. Everyone knows how well I can handle multiple projects at the same time, right? (uncomfortable silence....)

I'm slowly adding stash pics on my stash site (you didn't think that was my whole stash did you?) and I'm noticing there are some things I probably won't be using. I'll post here and on the stash site (how sad is it that my stash has it's own blog?) what needs to go once I decide. Let me know if you are interested in anything through comments or email (same thing really).

That's all that has really been going on here in the last couple of days. Yesterday I was really sick and took a nap at 4 in the afternoon till the boy came home. I got dinner (soup and a grilled cheese sandwhich) out of that. The weird part was that I woke up wanting to knit socks. Now, I've never knit socks and I don't just have dpns laying around here, but I think I have the yarn I want to use (the claudia hanpainted my lovely sp sent me). I'm thinking of knitting up ankle socks but where do I get 2.5mm and 3mm needles? I have two 3.25 circs I could use though that doesnt help. Any ideas here?

Posted by bitter purl at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I'm usually a very quiet person, especially when I don't know many people. As I get to know someone I start talking more and more. In elementary school I was the kid that had their desk moved around the classroom so I would stop talking (this wouldn't start till half-way through the school year). This really wouldn't work though, since we always found a way to talk or eventually I got moved around so much that I ended up where I started from. When I started high school I hardly spoke, I didn't know anyone while everyone else had gone to elementary and middle school together. I spoke so softly that one guy got really annoyed annoyed with me in class while we were working in groups. I, and most people actually, never spoke to him again (trust me, it wasn't a loss). By eleventh grade though our AP Language teacher started calling us "Chatty Cathys", I got so annoyed at this that I went back to not talking. Yeah, that didn't last long. I retreated back in college; I made a friend here and there in classes, but once the semester was over I didn't see them again unless we saw eachother somewhere randomly on campus or we had another class together.

Why am I bringing this up? Ever since college, I didn't understand how you were supposed to make friends. There are work acquaintances, but that can be a little awkward if you ask me. Do you really want to hang out with people you are forced to be with during the day? Sometimes there is the diamond in the rough friend you do find at work, but they are rare to say the least. Somehow I've found myself finding friends online through knitting blogs or at knitting events. I love reading about what you guys have been up to, what you are knitting, and where you have been. I haven't been blogging as much for the last week or so not because I'm retreating, but because sickness plagues la casa de knit fix. Tom fell first with congestion and laryngitis. I was fighting it off until this weekend, when I started to get that scratchy feeling in my throat. Now I had whatever nastiness he has (who gets sick in the summer?!). Times have gotten so desperate that I'm making chicken soup from scratch, from scratch people! And not just regular chicken soup, but Chicken Pho. Even when I'm sick I am a foody at heart. I'll report how it comes out later.


There has been some knitting and some thinking about knitting going on. I'm trying to come up with a pattern for a small jacket/shrug that I saw at a store. I'm sure there's a pattern out there I could find if I searched for it. But I wanted to set a little challenge for myself and actually do it myself. I think I'm going to use some Rowan Ribbon Twist that is currently living as a wrap (it doesn't know yet that it's going to a trip to the pond). I just need to get the right length needles to get this project started. It's going to be nice and quick on 17's (or 19's), but right now I only have a 16" circ, when I think I need at least a 24" or 32". Do I spend the money or do I just squeeze the stitches on the 16"?

Posted by bitter purl at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Oh God, it's that time of the week again where I reveal to the world how deep in this knitting obsession I am. I must admit though, there hasn't been too much knitting going on in casa de Yahaira for the last few days. Frogging angora when you may be allergic to it isn't the brightest idea. I basically passed out for an hour after trying this. Let's say good-bye to the lovely angora, it will soon be on it's way to a new home. You are going to love it Illanna!

Posted by bitter purl at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

"TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

It is impossible to say how first the yarn entered my stash; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Finished object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the patterns."

Ok I'm being overdramatic as usual, but I do hear the tank! It's in the basket and I can hear it calling me, tempting me. I've ignored it since the betrayal (otherwise known as my knitting mistake), not knowing when I will go back. Soon I say, but instead I start new things that will take up my time, otherwise reserved for the tank. I stuffed all the pieces in the bottom of the basket, underneath needles and yarn to muffle the sound. But I know it's there, I'm the only one that hears it's thumping, and I must get back to it.

What have I been doing instead? Oh, dear reader, let me share with you my denial:

Posted by bitter purl at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

That's it! I'm done knitting. Maybe I'll become one of those people that only makes fancy scarves. Why am I being my usual overdramatic self? Here you take a look:

Posted by bitter purl at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I'm knitting the back of the infamous bias tank. I'm almost done with the increasing and then it's smooth sailing through the decreases. How did I finally get some work on it done? Apparently, that Allegra I took takes you to the extreme of non-drowsy. I was congested and wide awake till four in the morning last night. I took that time to finally read the discussion on k1r2 and then do some knitting. I did some more knitting today, in between cleaning and organizing. Hopefully I'll be done with this piece by tomorrow so I can take my time in seaming hell. I'll have to email Teva Durham for help, since the awesome "knitting mag with an attitude" decided to omit how I seam all ten pieces of this biatch together.

I thought I was going to cast on for another project today, but I've noticed that I never let myself. I'm a one project at a time kind of girl, a serial monogamist if you will. Sure, I can flirt and I've been known to have side quickies some of the times. But really, once I start on a project I'm in it for the long haul. I look in wonder when I see the long list of "projects on the needles" from other blogs, sometimes with a bit of jealousy in my eyes. I imagine what fun it must be and what satisfaction one gets from constantly having finished objects. I just can't do it though. All I can do is fantasize about the next one, while working on the current one.

Posted by bitter purl at 08:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

That I finally finished the front. I guess my dreams of finishing this by the weekend and starting orangina are going to be broken. It looks like a big kite right now, so I'm not sure how this is going to go together. Weaving all the ends is going to be soooo fun. (I didn't want to risk cutting the yarn between the stripes cause I don't trust this yarn at all.) Now I found a dropped stitch, can I still fix this or can you only do it when you still have the work on the needles? I'll have to look into my books, but if anyone has any advice let me know please!

Posted by bitter purl at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Posted by bitter purl at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I casted on for the bias top without a care in the world...lalala..until I realized that my needles are too long and the freaking yarn just splits into 5 or more plies.

I'm using Lion Brand microspun, like the pattern suggested, and man does it suck! ok I'm not really being fair here, the yarn was 2.50 a skein at AC Moore for crying out loud and it is pretty soft, and the colors are great, but damn I hate splitty yarn! And what is it with this lion yarn, any kind I get I end up finding a huge knot in it.

Yarn that's tied together in the middle of the skein...now that's quality!

Doesn't it look like underwear?!

Posted by bitter purl at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

After I finally get some handles for the Harry Potter bag (I can't decide between dowels or needles) I think my next project will be a top. Well a top and maybe a small bag. For some reason I just can't start Orangina so I'm gonna go with this one from the Spring/Summer issue of knit.1:

Posted by bitter purl at 06:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)