Quick knitting and improvisation

Hooray - I finished the knitting on my Bluebell Boatneck sweater. Now I just need to settle myself down and sew the stupid seams.

I needed a small, quick, "satisfying" project before I jumped into my next sweater or pair of socks. I decided to whip up a couple of Calorimetrys for my Mom and I with the yarn purchased at Loopy Yarn about a month ago.





These are fun and easy to knit. I grabbed a ball of yarn and needles to start the second one during my lunchbreak on Thursday, but neglected to take the stitch markers that make the short rows much more brainless. After some quick thinking on settled on this:





That is a square of paper towel folded into quarters and pierced with the needle. It worked amazingly well, and need need replacing from wear like I thought it might. So there is an idea for you - when stuck without a stitch marker, try a small square of paper!

Finished: Trekking waffle socks

I don't think you have seen these yet; they were my car socks. (As in, kept in the... for lunchtime and other time-killing knitting.)



Trekking XXL color number 802; purchased around 2003


These were actually started way back in April, when I picked the yarn out of my stash because it made me think of Easter. You can tell I don't get much lunchtime knitting in!

I made the cuffs short for springtime wear, and carried the waffle pattern down the heel flap.





Now to choose yarn for the next pair of car socks!

Still Sleeves

The Bluebell Boatneck pattern calls for the sleeves to be knit flat and then seamed, even though the body of the sweater is knit in the round from the top down. I was thisclose to working the sleeves in the round as well, since I am a hasty seam-sewer at best, but decided that she must have had a good reason to design them flat.



I wish I would have worked them in the round. Now that it is nearing completion, I’d be much happier if I could just cast off, weave in the ends and be done.

Oh well. Live and learn.

Bluebell sleeve

I finally fixed my camera card. Actually, fixed is probably a stretch since it worked the first time I plugged it in today. But whatever - it works!

I am about 2/3 of the way through the first sleeve on my Bluebell Boatneck pullover.





My progress has really slowed down over the last few weeks. I think it's mostly due to the entire sweater sitting on my lap as I knit the sleeve. It's not cold enough for a wool blanket yet!

I haven't made much knitting progress on anything lately, to tell the truth. I have plenty of ideas and things I want to start, but need to finish something I am working on first or else nothing will ever get done!

Ravelry

I have a photo of the Bluebell Boatneck sleeve I have been working on, but my camera and computer are not communicating at the moment. I can view the photos just fine in the camera, but when I put the memory card into my computer I get a message saying it needs to be formatted.

Until I can fix it, I thought I’d say a few things about Ravelry. I know many, many people are still waiting for their invitation. I must have actually been somewhat ahead of the curve on this one since I received mine a few weeks ago. I almost didn’t sign up at all since it didn’t sound like something I’d be interested in. It was sort of billed as the “My Space” of the knitting world and I am so totally not into those types of sites. Oh how wrong I was. Being able to see dozens (or hundreds) of knitters’ versions of different patterns, or what people are using a particular yarn for all in one place is very convenient – not to mention fun!

So if you have not added your name to the invite list go do it now; they are going live at some point but it couldn’t hurt to have your name in for the beta anyway. If you are already in Ravelry, come be my friend! My user name there is sknits.

I still need to add a bunch of older completed projects, but need to fire up my old computer and load the photos into flickr first. Hopefully I will have time to do that this week(end)!

Stash Enhancement

Last week, my hubby and I spent the day in downtown Chicago playing tourist. Besides eating at one of my favorite breakfast restaurants, Yolk, and spending too much money at Lush in Watertower Place, we also went to Loopy Yarns for the first time.

Loopy is located in the south loop on State Street. It's a cute little shop stuffed full with all the yarn you can imagine. Honestly, I now it's worth the hour train ride downtown just to eat at Yolk and then go around the corner to this shop!

I totally splurged on yarn - there was so much to choose from!





Clockwise from the top I've got some yummy mmmMalabrigo for a scarf, Tofutsies for socks, and yarn for two Calorimetrys. As a side note, I wouldn't have purchased this much except that my husband encourages my yarn habit. He is very cute in yarn stores, touching everything and asking questions about what it can be used for, what it is made of, and how much do you need for project X? He apparently tries hard to remember all of the knitting things I ramble on about, and surprised me last night when I was musing out loud about the sleeves of my Bluebell Boatneck sweater being knit back and forth while the body is done in the round. His response? "Maybe you need the seams to help stabilize them or so the whole sweater doesn't have to twist in your lap as you knit around". Awwwww... can you believe it?

I had a few gift certificates about to expire at Amazon (one from pre-ordering HP7 and one from my electric company for taking a survey - random, I know) so I picked out a couple new knitting books.





I have been looking forward to owning more knitting books that are more "instructiony" and less "patterny".

All of this (plus Stitches Midwest a few weeks ago) has caused my "to do" list to grow exponentially. I really need to get cracking on my projects in progress to keep things under control!