while I haven't had that much time to knit for myself in the last few months, I did manage to get a few things done during any down time. my goal was to get everything out of my knitting basket by either finally finishing it or frogging it. thankfully, my basket wasn't too full.

the first to go was my lone jaywalker. for some reason I never bothered to knit the second sock, making the first one kinda of pointless. I knew I still wanted something more than just plain stockinette for the yarntini, so I repurposed the yarn into a zig zag scarf from scarf style. now I get to enjoy that merino goodness around my neck. I love the end result, but while knitting I remembered how much I hate knitting scarves!!! (how much? about three exclamations worth)

finally!

ah, that poor puffy sleeve blouse from fitted knits. I started it a year ago (I had to search the blog to figure that one out), ran out of yarn, then out of steam, and then I take a craptastic picture of it to commemorate its 'doneness'. sorry stef! I used a lambswool/cashmere/angora blend that I bought from a mill and I've seen some dyers start selling it now. it isn't that impressive in the skein, but once washed the fabric is soft with a slight halo from the angora and cashmere. the only mods I made, that I remember, were getting rid of the lace peplum and just increasing at the same rate as the pattern and lengthening the cardi at the peplum. does needing more yarn than the pattern state count as a mod?!

once I had cleared most of my basket, jess sent me the most wonderful gift! how could one resist some gorgeous hand-dyed pink! and grey silk/cashmere yarn? I debated between a sweater or a scarf/shawl. I knew I wanted something cozy, so the scarf won.

clapotis pour moi

I knew going into it that this was going to get monotonous, but I had a few things on my side. the yarn is in the aran to chunky range, so I knit using 6mm needles and increased till there were about 70 stitches, I knit mindlessly while watching tv, and did I mention how gorgeous this yarn is?! it's unbelievably soft and has a gorgeous sheen, I wear it around the house just to feel the fabric. this is definitely a decadent knit. I finished it before the wedding, hoping to wear it that day but unfortunately it wasn't cool enough that weekend (in october. in the fall.) at least it's finally gotten cold the last couple of weeks so I can wear it all the time and not have people comment (why do people feel they can question my level of coldness at the supermarket? why yes, I am cold!)

Posted by bitter purl at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

going down to the shore when it's chilly and grey is quite conducive to knitting. between hanging out, eating some great food, and walking the boards I finished the two socks I started. a mis-matched pair, but it's still a pair! both socks fit great, so much so that I'm still wearing them right now.

the jays were knit toe-up on 2mm needles with a turkish cast on and a short row heel. I'll admit that I wish I had knit the heel flap from the pattern, I remember how comfortable it was, but this way did the trick and it was pretty speedy. with the madder ribbed sock, I went with 2.25 mm needles and shorted the toes in the pattern by started it later and removing a lot of the knit-even rows. I like how they are a lot less pointy than in the pattern. I would say that now I'll start the second socks, but I know I'd just be lying, especially when I got this in the mail today:

some sock candy in kiwi. I had a mini swap with renata, who had read me wondering of this yarn's existence. apparently her lys carries it and she was cool enough to pick up two skeins for me (along with some str heavyweight) so I can finally try it out. unfortch, the good people of blue moon fail to tell me what the gauge is. fun times swatching are up ahead for me. I'll try to give some first impressions tomorrow, so far...it's squishy.

monday give--away in the extended entry.

Continue reading "new socks....give-away" »

Posted by bitter purl at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)

I had a lot of knitting time on monday (unfortunately) and I had these cheery colors to keep my spirits up. blood tests, ct scans, waiting rooms? sure! take your time, I have a heel to turn! this yarn, with grumperina's pattern, was the perfect antidote (get it?! that's me being witty right there) to some stress*. the colors perk me right up and I couldn't be happier with the striping, 1-2-1-3 rather than 1-2-3. genius.

check out that side foot

2mm needles seem to be perfect for this yarn. the fabric is nice and dense while still being super soft. I didn't originally plan to knit these toe up, but I wasn't sure about sizing so good old turkish cast on to the rescue. I got gauge and a perfect fit, go figure. I then decided to follow this jaywalker mod, but I just didn't have it in me to figure out where to start the gusset increases. short row heel it is, and a cute one at that! I'm sure I dropped some wraps (or a stitch, ooops) but my usual picky self doesn't mind right now. the yarn must have mysterious powers. so does anyone have better ways to hide the wraps in the heel? I ktbl and ptbl, but something is amiss me thinks, since one side sometimes looks a little wonky compared to the other, not to mention how annoying it is to purl three stitches through the back. I'm thinking it has something to do with how I pick up the wraps. any tips?

anyone care to wager on if the second sock will match?

*thanks for the well wishes!

Posted by bitter purl at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (30)

why didn't anyone tell me I woulnd't get a chance to knit this weekend? I obviously had no idea that someone else's wedding could take so much of my time. I worked on the sunrise circle jacket a bit on the drive up and down, but it pretty much looks the same...not new picture worthy I'm afraid. I did get to work on my pink cashmere sock on the train from long island to manhattan*, but again....not new picture worthy. so let's move on to a random post:

I can tell you that the whole weekend was filled with me wishing I had knitted a shawl, a blanket, something. on the drive up the weather was around 80 degrees, but once we got out of the car the sun was fading and eventually the temps dropped to about 45 degrees with rain the whole weekend. no one had packed for this. all I had was my wimpy river stole, who's sole purpose was to shed all over my black dress and to start looking like a drowned rat in the rain. can someone remind me to knit a few wraps this summer, that aren't gifts?!

*have you ever walked the streets of harlem, at night, in the cold rain, wearing a dress, with jeans, with flip-flops, and a wet mohair stole along with a guy in a suit and a guy in khakis and a shirt? twice? I have. not fun. eventually you stop worrying about how ridiculous you must look and start focusing on trying to miss every puddle between 141st and 135th street and wondering how quickly frost bite starts to take effect. ahh, the things you will do for your boyfriend and his friends.

I'm pretty behind* on this month's project spectrum, yellow and orange are pretty hard to find in this house. I think twice in my life I have bought something in either color, though I'm not sure what that says about me. no worries though, my mind is already on next month's color: green. it's hard not to be when you get a fat hank of yarn like this:

430 yds of stripey goodness. I'm pretty excited about trying this yarn out for the store and making some jaywalkers for myself...finally. I do have another project idea for green, but Jared is egging me on to knit an awesome cardigan like his. I'm weak, so we'll see which project wins out. I have four days to decide, plenty!

till then, I have yet another yarn I get to play with:

notice it's not yellow, orange, or green. it's an alpaca/wool blend and it's unbelievably soft. it knits at an aran gauge and I have about 100yds to try out, any pattern suggestions?

*'pretty behind, as in I haven't done jack for it.

Posted by bitter purl at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)

What do you get when you have a guest blog photographer with a ton of jet lag and a knitter who gets paid to photograph? Pure chaos. I didn't realize how picky I was on how things are photographed and I really don't understand how one takes blurry pics while the auto-focus is on. But look, I have pictures again!!

Atomic River Socks
Pattern: My own
Yarn: SWTC Optimum DK
Needles: Addi turbos US 3 24"
Date Started: September?
Date Finished: 10.23.05

I kept getting sidetracked from these, but thanks to Socktoberfest I got into gear and finally started and finished the second sock. I knit them toe up magic loop style with lace that I borrowed from the River Stole. The yarn was dyed for me by my buddy Illanna and I love everything about it, the colors are fun and crazy, the yarn is extremely soft, and it was a breeze to knit with. I would recommend this yarn to you, but hurry since, apparently, it is being discontinued. These socks took somewhere between two and three skeins if you want to try it.

These are only my second pair of socks ever and were created as a practice run for Anna's socks. These were an exercise in sock math, casting on figure 8 style, and working with the magic loop. The only problem I encountered was with the heel, I couldn't seem to make a nice join once I started working with the instep stiches again. I also kept forgeting to pick up both wraps when I was reactivating the heel stitches, I constantly had to go back and unknit and pick the leftover wrap along with it's mate. I hate unknitting short rows, but I got through it. Does anyone have any suggestions for neater heels when knitting toe up? All in all these were a fun knit and I ended up with some original, funky socks. Want to see another crazy sock?

Life Saver socks
Pattern:Jaywalker
Yarn: Vesper Sock Yarn in Aqua Melon
Needles: Addi Turbos 2.5mm 40"
Date Started: 10.25.05
Date Finished:10.28.05

You may think I'm crazy, a fool, or trying to cheat you here by calling this a FO, but trust me it is. I'm in a sock swap where you only have to knit one sock so no one gets the old second sock syndrome. I was lucky enough to have a partner that has the same foot size as yours trully, I was able to try them on and feel how nice and snug they are.

Don't these look psychedelic? I wasn't sure what yarn or pattern to use, but when I finally decided on the Vesper this pattern begged to be knit. For some reason, anytime I look at these, they scream "1970's!" to me. I'm also reminded of Tom Wolfe's Kool-Aid Acid Test and of the lifesavers wrapper. I hope my partner likes it and doesn't think me an idiot for mailing this to her.

The pattern is easy enough to memorize, but interesting enough to make you knit it. The only changes I made were using Magic Loop instead of DPN's, using 2.5's because I don't own 2.25's, and I picked up the heel flap stitches Grumperina style. I found it to be slightly quicker and the tension was more even.

edit: I added two pics that the bf took.

Posted by bitter purl at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)