mini-madness

Still working on the mini-sweater.. I'm finding that cotton makes this a fairly heavy sweater for it's size, since I had to triple-strand it to get the right guage. I should have said "fuck the gauge"and done it all by measurements, but it being my first sweater I wasn't really comfortable with freehanding all the increases and such. Also in a smaller guage it would have knit up as a finer, but stiffer fabric, and I like how soft it is, even if it is heavy.
I had to frog back a bunch of rows because I increased too much for the sleeves (tried it on with a larger shirt underneath, bad idea).
I've gotten so that I don't drop stitches when I frog anymore, but it's still a royal pain in the ass getting the stitches back on the needles :(
I should have this thing finished by the end of the week though, yay! AND I should have enough of the green stuff left over to make a light summery scarf :) I saw one at a department store the other day that was crocheted in lovers-knot with sequins that was really gorgeous, and would be fairly easy, so I may try that.

First sweater in the making!

So I took the plunge and started the Glampyre Boobholder-minisweater! It took me a while to figure out how to gauge this thing, since I'm being difficult and using the teeny-tiny yarn. So I tried it with casting on the 50sts, holding three strands together and using size 10 (us)6.0mm needles, but the gauge was off, it was still too small, so I kept the needles and cast on 70 sts, and now it seems to be working. I'm about 17 rows into it, added an extra increase row before starting to increase for the sleeves, so hopefully this will work and I won't have to frog the whole damn thing. I do like how it's coming out though, it's all shiny and kinda lacy because of the larger needles, it will be the perfect spring/summer accessory :) Yay for first sweaters!

Holy Crap!

Whoo hoo! Amanda from frenchtoastcake and Craftster fame has just informed me that she got me a copy of the summer 05 Interweave Knits magazine! Wow I love the internet.. just hope no one else already got me one...
It will probably be a while until I get it, but I was at a loss for summer knitting projects so this is perfect! (especially if I manage to botch up my modified boobholder enough that I have to use my lime yarn for something else :P *fingers crossed that it works*). Sandra over at I May be Knitting a Ranch House Is just finishing the Fiery Bolero that I had my eye on from the IWK. I can't wait to see what it looks like done :)
I need to get all you funky netknitter people on AIM, TALK TO MEEE!! I'm redqueen715

ARGH! I want to start this damn minisweater but I need to buy new needles and have no money to spare till the middle of next week! Eeek! guess i'll just have to do all the math in the meantime. ..uh oh i need a tape measure.

Today this blog has been active for just over a month! (I think). Today I will submit it to knitblog rings and hopefully get more readers! yay!

ribbit ribbit

So I finished my craftster-inspired strawberry bag yesterday, and promptly frogged the whole thing :P I'd done intarsia leaves for the top of the strawberry, and that combined with doing more stitches cuz I wanted it bigger made it bunch kinda weird at the top, then because it was too big the bottom part was a bit too floppy and wasnt shaping right. I'm doing it in RedHeart, so I can't block in when it's done so I didn't like how my decreases made it all bumpy either. I think I'm going to make the next one closer to the guide posted in craftster, but add leaves later. Oh well, it's all just practice I suppose.

Also, I've decided I like the Glampyre Boobholder enough to use that basic pattern to make the minisweater I've been wanting to make with my lime green korean yarn. (it's not actually korean, I think it's Russian or Slavic..some E. European country, I just bought it in Korea..). The only problem if the Korea yarn is really fine gauge, so I'll have to double it, and even so it's still finer than worsted so the pattern will be way off and I'll have to do lots of math and pay close attention. This is kinda scary because I've never actually made a garment before.. only accessories! It said in the forum that this might not be the best first-garment-attempt sweater, especially since I'm changing the yarn, but it's almost summer and I don't want to A) work with heavier yarn right now, or B) knit a fall/winter sweater. SO, whatever happens it will be a learning experience! It's also an excuse to buy more needles!
I love the Japanese needles, they're wonderful bamboo, but the sizes are wonky.. they're one size higher than the American. So when I knit on size 4 Japanese needles, it's actually about a size 3 American, (3.3mm). I just need to pay attention to mm for everything here... They don't have letters on crochet hooks either.

re-felted

I made this about a month ago but wasnt really happy with it, I could still see through it in some places and it was kindof floppy. So (since my washer doesn't do hot water) I popped it back in the bathtub and rubbed and rubbed it until it shrank up a lot more and now I love it! Actually I just sent it off to a friend who loves it even more though :)

After 1st felting (drying)


After 2nd felting (about 2/3 the size!)

Stash Enhancement!

I just got back from Korea, which was quite the adventure.. (detailed in my Livejournal, linked in my profile).

While I was there I "accidentally"stumbled into a tiny yarn store where there was about 6 women packed, knitting away furiously. One of them spoke some english and I ended up walking out with 8 balls of this yummy cotton/rayon in spring green that I want to make into a bolero/shrug thing.
I like the ones in the summer 2005 Interweave knits, but I can't get that magazine here :( I'd have to order it online or something, or find someone here who got it...




the pictures do it no justice, it's really really bright!

pictures of the mystery yarn, and linen

Fiber Crimes! (and Noro mystery yarn)

So there's a sale going on at my LSY and I found some really interesting stuff for super cheap so I thought I'd give it a try. I found some 100% Linen ...braid..I guess you'd call it (it's like a hollow tube-rope, worsted weight), for about $2/ball (82 meters).
I also found some very different Noro yarn that I had never seen before, cannot find ANYWHERE on the internet, and it's only labeled in Japanese (i'm in Japan) so I can only read that it is 60% rayon, and 40% of something else that appears to be PAPER! I have heard of and see 100% washi (japanese handmade paper) yarn here before, but this is a bit more interesting because it has the shiny stripe of rayon in it and is in gorgeous Noro colors. It was marked down to about $10/hank (that's 50% off or more), fingering weight (?). I ALSO found 3 small balls of hot pink EYELASH YARN for about $1 each.
Now, I plan to use the Noro yarn and one ball of the linen to make a purse, but I want to use the other two balls of linen AND the eyelash yarn to make a skinny spring scarf. It feels like a SIN to mix something as high-class as 100% Linen with something as low as Eyelash Yarn!!

Also, i've never knit with linen before, and I did a test swatch, and WOW is this stuff DIFFICULT! Someone on the board here compared it to knitting with cardboard, and they were on to something. It's especially frustrating because i'm trying to knit with it on large needles in double-sided stockinette, which is a chore in itself.

cherry blossoms?

I came up with these little posies tonight...
They do look like simplified cherry blossoms, without the litttle points on the petals, but I think I want something a bit more lacey. we'll see what else I can figure out I guess, don't know how I would attach them either...
Here's one with the yellow/green center, and one without. The first pic is the most accurate color:



I think I want something more open though, still fussing with it. don't know how to join them together either...

Also tonight I just started a variation on the Strawberry knit purse from craftster :)

Crochet!

So I have this weird "100% wood pulp lenpur" yarn that I got onsale the other day, and I've decided I want to make a Sakura spring scarf out of it.

Bt I want the scarf to be made of flowers, which means I need to learn to crochet. I used to know how, but I hadnt done it in ages. It took me about a week and a half to re-learn because all the crappy diagrams I was trying to use were messing me up, and the hook and yarn I was using werent helping (red heart yarn and a big plastic hook). I eventually was directed to the Martha Stewart webpage, and tried again on my silky wood-lenpur yarn with a smaller alluminum hook and BINGO! Easy crochet :)
Here's my first swatch:

Now all I have to do is figure out a cherry blossom crochet pattern...

In the meantime though I bought a bunch of cheapo red heart yarn on base and am going to try making fruit and vegetable shaped purses, similar to the strawberry purse I saw on craftster.