Saturday, July 24, 2010

Yarn Barf

I don't know what has come over me, I just felt this overwhelming urge to post on this blog that has been neglected for so long. Here is the beauty of me: I am always changing my mind. I started this blog, half-heartedly posted to it for a minute, and then flitted off to Ravelry, which is a fantastic resource and social network. But here is the thing: I am a non-conformist. Therefore, I don't feel compelled to put every project I knit on Ravelry, frankly I think it's a pain in the ass. Even though really it's not, it's fairly easy, I just find the whole process overwhelming. What size needles did I use, I don't freakin' know! BUT, I still feel like throwing up a pic or two of my knitting, and also tell the story of what went into it, like a lot of whining, or bragging or whatever. And I also want to say that everyone besides me should keep putting their stuff up on Ravelry because I steal your ideas regularly.

So... I have been knitting almost daily for almost 4 years. This has resulted in a bit of stuff. I will start with the stuff I took pictures of when I finished it, and I have on my hard drive, that way I don't have to get up off my ass and actually photograph something. Let's see...



This is one of a pair of socks I did last year I think. I got the ruffle pattern out of a book called 101 Designer One Skein Wonders, the yarn is Socks That Rock in the colorway called Peek a Boo Peony. I happen to think these are the cutest socks ever. The ruffle looks super cute peeking out of the leg of my jeans. End of story.



Oh, I made this shawl last year too. It is my first shawl, my first project in which I tackled the dreaded yarn over. Now, yarn overs are easy but when you drop a stitch and there is a yarn over involved it results in swearing and having to unknit for a week trying to get back to where you screwed it up. Because it has to be perfect because it has been entered into the fair. Which it won a blue ribbon at. If there had been a blue ribbon for swearing I would have won that too.



These are 2 different socks. The one on the right is in Mountain Colors I think the colorway is Portland something. The one on the left still needs its mate to be knit. I knit it as a test to see if I could do a more complicated pattern because I had signed up for Sock Wars and needed to know how to knit something more that stockinette. One of these days I will make the other one. I fact, now that I think about it, I may whip up the other one and enter them into the fair!


These are just plain socks but the yarn has a story behind it. Last spring over at Gonzaga there was a weaving thing going on. There was a small marketplace there and I fell in love with this yarn from Newton's Yarn Country. It was a big skein, I made socks and the shawl above from it. It was $52.00! So I was hugging the yarn and telling it that I was sorry but I could not take it home with me because it cost too much. Then one of my friends pointed out a sign that said 50% off. Sold! We all called it the baby yarn because I was hugging it like it was a baby. The label said it was superwash but the socks still got really pill-y and I think there is a hole in the toe, so they have been well worn and well loved.



Oh and then I made these mittens out of Plymouth Encore I think. Here is where I learned how to do a Make 1 increase. It wasn't very hard but that didn't stop me from whining about it.

So there you go. I posted. Hopefully it won't be another year before I post again. As soon as I take some more pictures we can talk about the baby knitting I have been doing, and also the great fingerless glove debacle. See ya.