fishie’s aquarium

The first time I came across this I didn’t have enough money to even consider buying one, so I kinda shoved all of it out of my mind. I really like the artist though, so I remembered her name and website.

I found it again tonight though.

And there are too many that I like enough to want to buy.

Kate’s sister is full of babies. Two of them. I hate babies, but I like Kate and her sister and the yarn is soft so what the hell. Plus I saw this pattern posted on Craftster and it looked like a good challenge. I’m going to be good this time and actually take pictures of my progress. So I did.

Yarn of choice. I needed two boy-ish colors. Blue and green seemed to work.
Yes. Twin boys. She’s going to have LOTS of fun with that.

The yarn is actually SOFTER than it looks in that picture. It’s NICE.

Not bad for full price. I’m estimating I’ll need three skeins per blanket (the pattern calls for 14 oz, each skein is 5)

I’ve been working on it for four days.

The pattern is old and weird, but I think I’m figuring it out pretty well.

ONLY 30 INCHES TO GO!

When these kids turn one I’m making them cupcake hats.

Finally found my camera battery charger so I was able to take some pictures of my finished sweater. I finished this a week and a half ago, I think?

The back. You can see the scoopy-hem of the bottom pretty well in this picture.

The sleeve caps are worked in short rows. I’d never really done these before.
The right sleeve was fine. But the left sleeve…

Friends don’t let friends do short rows drunk.

Detail of the diamond-lace pattern

All done!

Item: Sahara Sweater, FIRST SWEATER EVER
Pattern: From Stitch Diva
Needles: Body: 24″ size 6 circs, Sleeves: 16″ size 6 for main sleeve, 16″ size 4 for lace detail. Rest of the lace detail was 24″ size 4s
Yarn: 5 skeins Tahki Cotton Classic in Khaki Green and 1 skein Karabella Glimmer in Green/Gold
Time to Complete: About 2 months, on and off
Unusual Knitting Location(s): Knit almost entirely at work or in the passenger seat of a car. Also in Kate’s hospital room after she got her appendix removed
New Skillz: Short rows, lace knitting, picking up stitches, provisional cast-on, cable cast-on, perfected my M1L and M1R increases (still hate them), mattress stitch, LOOSE bind-off (tee hee), perfected my technique joining two skeins of yarn
Notes: There are definitely some areas where I could have done better, but considering how much I learned while knitting this, I think I did pretty damn good. I would definitely knit this again, and I may have to anyway, with longer sleeves. My one concern is that the yarn in the lace edging will be a little itchy.

Item: Water Bottle Holder (You know, to hold my water bottle?)
Pattern: None really. I used a free pattern from the Fiber Gallery (meant for making this item out of RAFFIA) and pretty much copied the base, but other than that I winged it. I knit it in garter stitch in the round with a seed stitch strap.
Needles: A set of four size 6 dpns
Yarn: Red Heart Acrylic, pink
Time to Complete: About three days
Unusual Knitting Location(s): Cast-on in a gay bar after stripping to put on my newly finished Sahara. Also knitted in class and while stopped at red lights in my car.
New Skillz: Mostly pattern-less. Strap knit by picking up stitches on one side and seaming with mattress stitch on the other.
Notes: My water bottle is now ribbed for my pleasure. Strap was in seed stitch because of its relatively non-stretchiness compared to other stitches. It matches my trademarked pink hoodie.

So I’ve had my eye on this book for a while, and it doesn’t even go on sale until May 1st. I’m an undie fiend so this stuff is heaven, and I really like a good portion of the things Joan McGowan-Michael has designed, like the Zaftig bra on Knitty and these two deals:

Of course I’m going to buy the book. I was going to wait until they started going up used on Amazon, but apparently there’s a special pre-sale deal on the White Lies Designs website that convinced me to buy it NOW. The deal?

The release date is May 1 2007, but order before April 30 and receive an autographed copy of the book, free domestic shipping AND a coupon for 15% off the purchase of any White Lies Designs merchandise.

Since I was planning on buying the book and some of the patterns ANYWAY… why not get the book new, signed, and with a 15% off coupon?

I don’t like buying pattern books without seeing FOs or looking through them first, but the sneak preview on the website looks good enough to convince me.

I’m making one. After dropping my water bottle a million times and getting frustrated with having to cradle it since it won’t fit in my bulging bags, I’m finally making one. I picked up a pattern at the Fiber Gallery a few years ago and never got around to making it, but once I looked at the pattern, I was like, F this, and just started going on my own. I used the pattern to help me with the bottom, but pretty much everything else has been a simple garter stitch in the round.

It’s pink.

I finished the main body in a couple hours, and right now I’m stuck on the seed-stitch strap. I could have finished it tonight if WORK DIDN’T SUCK ASS but it does and I haven’t even been able to touch it.

The only reason I’m posting this at all is this shift has been so bad I NEEDED a break or I was going to just quit. So I’m posting this.

I’ve completely finished the Sahara sweater except for a little blocking I want to do on the sleeves, but I don’t know if I really need to. The blocking is optional in the pattern, and it fits well enough as it is. I’ll get pictures up as soon as I get unpacked enough to know where my camera battery charger is. I’ll do some kind of reviewy thing for it when I get around to it.

That’s it.

More or less finished.

I’ve got some of the trim yarn left, so I’m thinking of finding a way to make a skirt using the leaf pattern from this scarf to go with the sweater.

I’ve still got loose ends to tie up (lolz) but other than that and maybe some sleeve blocking, it’s done.