Unhealthy Obsession

Evidence of how one college student's obsession with knitting has completely driven her nuts.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Honeymoon

In addition to the Ribbon X-Back KAL, I've joined the Honeymoon Cami KAL. I'm excited since I've had so much trouble with this piece, it seriously has been one of the most frustrating knitted pieces I have ever worked on (which doesn't say much ;)

I'll post pictures and narrative later. I'm about 85% done but honestly, it could be weeks before I am ready to finish this thing what with the messy state it is in now.

Some WIPs: Everyday Cardigans, Bear Hat

I've been working on about five different projects. The two I've been working on most avidly as of late though, have been the Everyday Cardigan from Peace Fleece, and a modified version of the Kittyville Hat from SnB.

I attempted to first knit the cardigan out of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Nymph (a sky blue color), but I quickly grew tired of working with that yarn. It looked nice, but I didn't feel that it was something that I wanted to wear, or that it was particularly suited for that pattern. I got about 10 inches up the back piece:

Blue Cardigan Beginnings

Went to the LYS to order more of the yarn (since I had only one skein when I started), and I ended up scrapping the yarn entirely and picking up a bag's worth of Manos Cotton Stria in 214 (a light variegated pink color). It was a lot more expensive, but I think I will be much happier with the resulting garment.

Manos Cotton Stria

Cotton Stria is incredibly soft and light, and a dream to touch. It is somewhat of a challenge to knit though, because of its unevenness. The recommended gauge is 4.5 sts/in, but I found that to be rather hole-y. I prefer a tighter fabric, which is more difficult to produce with this yarn. As a result, I've had to knit fairly loosely, and have had problems with loops constantly sliding off my needles, not to mention my Denises mysteriously always becoming disconnected.

The fun part about this yarn is that I get to use the ball winder at my LYS, since it comes in hanks ;)

After 5 days of knitting whenever I could, I have completed a little over 10 inches of the back piece, which is a little over half of what I need before this portion is completed. I am hoping I only need to use two hanks for this part.

Pink Cardigan as of today

I have been alternating between two hanks every two rows to ensure a more even coloration, but I am not sure if it is completely necessary. I would rather not take the risk though. It has definitely slowed down my progress though, as the yarn is always getting tangled.

A couple of weeks ago I started knitting up a modified version of the Kittyville/Devil Horn hat in SnB. I used Mission Falls 1824 superwash merino, as suggested, in a medium purple color. My LYS didn't carry Poppy, as I had originally wanted.

The "finished" hat:
Bear Hat w/o Ears

I wanted to make teddy bear ears, but this has proven much more difficult than it seems. I have tried charting it and knitting, just knitting through trial and error, searching for patterns, but none have really yielded the effect that I would like. I will eventually add the ears..

I had to knit this hat twice, since the hat was too tall the first time. I knew this might pose a problem since storebought hats are usually too tall for my liking. My head is not that tall. After the unknitting though, I found that I could knit the entire hat with a single skein :) The earflaps and cords and ears use just a marginal portion of a second skein. This is in contrast to the three skeins recommended by the pattern. Of course, I also shortened the cords to 9 inches from 12.

I am second guessing my alterations though, since the hat doesn't stay on my head as well as I would like, and I am thinking this is due to its shortness. Also, unless I wear it a certain way, it makes me look bald and silly :) It is not a particularly toasty hat, but it is nice to retain a little heat. I love the fabric that this yarn produces.

The hat took me about 2 days to complete initially, but all the alterations ended up spreading out over a period of maybe 3 weeks. This was nonstop knitting for two days.

I wish I had some close ups of the fabrics, but the pictures haven't turned out that well yet ;) More to come later. Hopefully future posts won't be this long ;) Takes a while to write.

Edit: I don't know why the pictures are so fuzzy, I think Blogger resizes them.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Not another blog..

After joining the Ribbon X-Back KAL, I got to thinking how nice it would be to have a blog dedicated to knitting. I've really liked the other knitting blogs I've seen on Blogger - presentation-wise, the format is a lot cleaner and more appealing than LJ.

I will continue to use my LJ to document life's daily trials and tribulations, but will move most of my knitting activity to here. Hope I didn't just make things more complicated for myself ;) Here's to a first post.