fishie’s aquarium

I haven’t posted in a month, but I have a good excuse: I feel guilty making posts with no pictures, and the computer with my uploading software is in a room filled with asthma attacks. I’ve invested in some handy dust masks from my local hardware store, and so now I have no more excuses.

I’ve been buying lots of yarn and knitting a lot. Despite me trying to use up my increasingly large stash, I received a giant package of yarn in the mail yesterday. This is what happens when I find out that an online yarn retailer sells “mystery bags” of leftover dye-lots and extra skeins and sells them at a huge discount, with the catch being you don’t know what you’re getting:

That’s a lot of yarn. The full list of my plunders:

(1) Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted
(2) Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk !!!
(2) Hill Country Yarns Sweet Feet (two different colors, one skein makes a pair of socks)
(2) Lily ‘n Cream Solid, one dark purple, one light purple
(2) Lion Brand Jiffy, one black one red
(1) Lion Brand Wool ease
(1) Noro Silk Garden !!!
(1) Patons Classic Wool Merino
(2) Patons Shetland Chunky
(2) Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran
(2) Southwest Trading Company Karaoke !!!

There were some things that I could have gotten from Joann’s, but some things that I couldn’t have, and since I bought two bags I got doubles on a lot of things (and they’re the same dyelots!). They say each bag has $50 worth of yarn, and I really feel like I got my money’s worth, especially since I’ve been pining over Karaoke for a while and got TWO in a GREAT colorway (it’s purple/blue).

Anyway, I’ve been doing more than just buying yarn, I’ve been knitting too. Remember the Cable Down Raglan I knit for NaKniSweMo? I finally got around to blocking it this week. I had run out of yarn so I had to do half length sleeves, which I hate, and when I tried it on… guess what: It’s too big. Gaaahhhh!

I was gifted some yarn over the holidays, and decided to use the Tahki Taos from Kate for the Cropped Cardigan in Fitted Knits. I had just enough yarn to make it, so I started knitting. Then I kept knitting… and kept knitting… and ended up with a very not cropped sweater coat. Even with some major modifications, it still doesn’t work with the boobs. Ah well. I can always wear it open.

My most recent finished object is my Intolerable Cruelty. I cast on for it on the Yarn Train to Portland (really, I swear I’ll make a post about it!), and I finished it just over a month later. It was stalled in the middle while I was swatching feverously for the dress that was going to be in the sequel to Sensual Knits, but it looks like that book has been moved to the “maybe not” status and so I’m not facing a deadline anymore. So I went ahead and finished the skirt.

I used the recommended yarn (SWTC Bamboo) and only used barely over 3 skeins. The skirt isn’t as form fitting as I was hoping (I have the hip measurements for the small, but apparently my thighs are XSmall), but the drape is amazing. I could flounce around in this all day.

So what am I working on now? This damn scarf:

It’s Liesel, and I love the results, but the process is monotonous but not easily memorizeable. This was going to be my winter scarf, but I think I’ll end up hanging myself with it if I finish it before spring. Last night was the first time I’d touched it in almost two months. I think I’ll cast on for Odessa soon. I’m probably going to try it with the beads, which requires obtaining them. Hmmmm…

A design idea I submitted for the sequel to Sensual Knits got selected. It was something that I completely made up on the spot at work and submitted pictures of my sketches that I took with my phone and emailed myself. It got picked! One of my knitting designs is going to be published. *flaps hands*

Problem is, I think I might have designed something a little… advanced for me. Not advanced for me to knit if it was from a pattern, but to design myself, whoo boy. At least I have until March to come up with the pattern and finish knitting it. I’m sure I’m supposed to keep it under cover until the book is announced/published or whatever, so I’m not going to say anymore about it than I think I’m getting paid a pretty penny for it considering it’s my first published design. And it’s 10 million hotdogs awesome.

Building up to the omg jump up and down excitement of this whole “I’m going to be in a book!” deal, I got some yarn from Kate for Fishmas this year. Kate has a tendency to buy me yarn that is much longer than it should be. It’s like her yards are as long as Chris’ minutes. Previously, she bought me three skeins of yarn that was 200 yards a skein, and I used it to make her a total yarn eater project (the Manitou Passage Scarf). Not only did I only use two of them to make the scarf 6 feet, but I also made her a matching hat and I STILL have some left over.

The yarn she got me this year was 6 skeins of super-bulky Tahki Taos, 60 yards a ball, in Jungle. 360 yards of yarn. I looked through Ravelry and the books I owned, and figured that the Carrie Cropped Cardigan from Fitted Knits would use about the amount of yarn I had. I’m not normally a fan of cropped stuff, but I have a couple tank tops that would go with the colors and I figured it’s just a shrug that buttons in the front.

I swatched on Saturday, but I couldn’t get gauge with the right needle. I moved up to a 17, but got the same gauge as with a 15. I decided to just knit a size bigger than I needed and everything would work okay in the end. It did. Not only did it work okay, but Sunday evening, right before midnight, I cast off a full length sweater jacket, going past my bum. I’d added more increases to the front to encompass my bosom, and decided to make it a little longer anyway. I was expecting it to come right above my navel, which would show off the lacy bottoms of my tanks nicely, but no. I’d used two balls on the body, one each on the sleeves, and still had two left when it came to lengthening the bottom. I added some lacy eyelet-vents in the lower back to add shaping and match the eyelets in the bell sleeves.

The finished product is wonderful. I’m going to buy a couple buttons after work and do the finishing touches, and then I’ll add pictures.

And I think I’ll make Kate buy me yarn when we go on the Yarn Train to PDX.

I’ve been busy, but not busy sewing this time. Since the last time I’ve posted, I had a job interview, a job offer, and a first week of work. I also started my NaKniSweMo project, and I’m almost done with the body. As I said, I’ve been busy, so this this is the only picture I have of it:

It’s the Cable-Down Raglan from Interweave Knits, Spring 2007. The yarn is worsted weight, 80% Alpaca/20% Nylon, recycled from some sweater from a thrift store. I had a few issues with determining how much I had, even after I bought a kitchen scale to weigh my yarn. I’ve figured I have about 860 yards, which should be enough to lengthen the sleeves to wrist-length. Being almost done with the body, and having used maybe about half of my yarn, I’m not too worried.

With the new job, I’m not sure when I’ll find time to knit, at least not until I’m trained and actually working. As it is now, I’m trying to make a good first impression, and with my boss being out of town and nobody training me… it’s a little frustrating spending 8 hours a day at a computer not really doing anything but still looking productive.

I finished Cherie Amour

And I started Kate’s Scarf

Pattern

Blue.

I’m officially broke after spending several hundred dollars on vet bills, so my future knittings are limited to yarns I already have. I’ve got a few sweaters I need to do before winter’s over, and buying yarn for sweaters can add up. So I improvised:

In other news, HURRY UP AND DRY ALREADY!

Chris was at his parents’ house from Monday until last night, and I spent the entire time he was gone working on Cherie Amour. I just finished the main body. Have I mentioned this thing is FAST? Anybody who’s doing Cherie Amour for NaKniSweMo is a dirty cheater. I could make five of these in a month.

I cast on yesterday on my way to Endfest, spent time between sets knitting, knit a little at an after party at Doc Maynard’s, then went home and fell into a 14-hour coma-like sleep.

I pick it up today, and after getting through half of the bottom lace… Realized that I’d twisted it. Note to self: when Chris ASKS if you’ve twisted stuff in the round, CHECK before saying no.

I had to undo everything, and I cast on in the X-small since the small was looking especially huge. I want it to fit me tight-ish. X-small seems like the way to go.

I really really really really really want to knit Cherie Amour in the new issue of Knitty. SO bad, that I’ve already bought yarn and swatched. The only thing keeping me from taking this pattern by the throat is the watermelon top. I WILL NOT START a sweater before I finish the one I’m working on. Ground rules. Technically I’m not supposed to have more than one WIP in the first place, but I get impatient.

I want to be working on Cherie Amour by the weekend, and since Kate wants me to make her a skirt she can wear to Endfest on Saturday (dammit why did I agree to this before I realized how late in the week it was already?) I need to be knitting my ass off. So I stayed up until 3:30am working on it. Progress: the front is done, minus the finishing touches. All I have left is the back and the finishing.

Can I do it? We’ll see.

No pictures for you though.

I’m bad, bad, bad, I know. I haven’t updated in a while and I’ve been knitting a lot. I finished the TTV (but I don’t have FO pictures; hey, I said I was bad):

It ended up being a little bit longer than in that picture. I tried it on when I was halfway through the bottom ribbing, and with all my alterations it FITS PERFECTLY.

Item: Third Fourth time’s the Charm
Pattern: Turtleneck Tube Vest, Fitted Knits
Needles: 6 and 4, 24″ circs
Yarn: KnitPicks Shine Worsted, Ebony
Time to Complete: About two weeks?
Unusual Knitting Location(s): Cast on at a camp ground by Crater Lake
New Skillz: farking RLI’s *spits* Also, first time I added this many modifications
Notes:

Alterations I made:
• After the increase rows were finished, I worked 4 more rows (2 RS and 2 WS) with no increases before casting on the stitches for armholes. I did this to avoid the bottoms of the armholes digging into my armpits and it worked PERFECTLY.
• When the stockinette on the front proceeded past the fullest part of my bust, I worked decreases on either side every other round until I reached 39 stitches on the front. I’m busty with a tiny waist, and without doing this I would have looked pregnant.
• I didn’t start knitting the bottom ribbing until the stockinette had reached a satisfactory distance from my bosoms, and I did ribbing until my last skein ran out.

I made quite a bit of progress on the Hot Pink Coat from Hell in the few days I was working on it (No pictures yet, I said I was bad). I’m completely dreading picking up stitches to do the lace panel on the outside (I CAN’T SEE THE STITCHES WITH THIS YARN!!!) and it’s not a very portable project being a giant cone. So when we went to Kate’s family’s cabin last weekend, I brought my watermelon yarn and cast on the Drop Stitch Lace tank:

I’m working it in the round as opposed to two pieces and then seaming. I like the circle :3 And it goes fast. Wheeeeee! One problem with the bottom-up construction is I’m paranoid I’m going to run out of yarn, but I’m sure I’d be able to get more without too much of a problem.

I’ve been in love with the Turtleneck Tube Vest ever since I bought Fitted Knits, especially since it seems like it would be instant gratification.

This thing has been giving me nothing but trouble. It starts out with my visual thinking having problems understanding the instructions for LLI and RLI (lifted increases). I need pictures for most new stitches like this, otherwise I don’t really understand how to do them. It also doesn’t help that there seems to be a typo with the LLI instructions (you should be knitting into the stitch TWO rows below, right? Right???) Anyway, started this at Crater lake last weekend, so I had no access to internet things to help me out. I ended up ripping out all my progress when I realized I’d been doing the LLI’s wrong. Then I ripped out a second time when I realized I’d done the RLI’s wrong. Turns out I wasn’t doing the RLI’s wrong at all, they just knit a little looser thatn LLI’s and look fine when you’re wearing the garment. I didn’t know this yet, since the stitches look fine the first couple rows before they loosen up. But I’d ripped out and restarted only to have NO difference whatsoever.

Observe:

LLI vs RLI

I reknit this bit THREE TIMES

I worked on washcloths out of shrug yarn leftovers until I ran out, and spent the rest of the drive home eating. Mmmmm food.

When I got home, I looked for visuals on how to do the RLI correctly, and found…. nothing. Maybe knittinghelp.com calls it something else, but I didn’t find it on there. I decided to just accept it the way it was and hope that the stitches look fine after blocked and while being worn.

I was beginning to get worried that the garment wouldn’t accommodate my ample bosoms, so I did the increases for the medium size, then worked a few non-increase rows so the armhole doesn’t dig into my armpit (I HATE that!). Then I did the 18 cast-on stitches, and spent all yesterday on the body. After I’d gone through an entire skein, I tried it on. And it was way too big.

wtf.

I was a dork, and forgot that those 18 cast-on stitches WOULD be the accommodation for my ample bosoms.

For posterity’s sake, this is how far I got before I ripped out to restart for the FOURTH time:

I love the yarn, I love the pattern, but I’m am NOT enjoying this cursed top.

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.

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.