fishie’s aquarium

I know, I finished the second one on SUNDAY, but give me a break, Sunday is my Monday and my computer’s broken. I really miss having my own computer. Uploading pictures just became infinitely more difficult, and now I don’t even have my own place to store them. I’m only going on about this stuff because I don’t like the way the posts look when the pictures are next to my icon. Screws up the formatting, ya know.

Item: Matching baby blankets for Kate’s sister who is full of babies.
Pattern: Diamond and Smocked Cover posted on Craftster
Needles: Size 6 24″ circ Addi Turbo
Yarn: Bernat Softee Baby, two skeins each of mint and pale blue
Time to Complete: 3.5 weeks for the mint one, 12 DAYS for the blue one.
Unusual Knitting Location(s): The Spot, through the movies Next and Pirates 3 in the theater, in chem class/lab, and a bunch more weird places that I’m sure I forgot about.
New Skillz: Smocked rows, interpreting weird old vintage abbreviations (this pattern has you do wrn’s and won’s–both just fancy ways to say a yo), FINALLY finding a good way to hold my yarn
Notes: I discovered while doing the miles and miles and miles of seed stitch that it goes much faster if you bring the yarn to the side you want next BEFORE you actually do the previous stitch, if that makes any sense. At one point, I was going so fast I had to stop to think about what I was doing. Also, part of the reason I finished the second one so fast was I was sick of this pattern, which is essentially 2×2 ribbing and seed stitch with the occasional yarn over and a bit of smocking.

No picture yet, but imagine:

Today marks Week 2 of the second blanket, but I FINISHED IT TWO DAYS AGO. I knit an entire baby blanket in 12 days.

I SAID this one should go a lot faster. The first one, 3.5 weeks. Second one, 12 days. HA! I’m kinda working on swatching for the socks I’m making Chris, but I haven’t really started on a new project. A little frustrating for me since I’ve been working on something for most of the year. I think I might dabble a little in project polyamory though. I’ve been promising Chris socks for a while, but I’ve got an aweome idea for the first major project I’ll design on my own for the new knitting project challenge at Craftster, and it’s something I’d want to make anyway.

My computer died so it might be a little bit before I get the pictures up, but imagine this: I cast on the second blanket a week ago, and I’m officially halfway done. I knew I’d zoom through it once I had the pattern memorized. It did help that we went to see the new Pirates movie, and I knit through the whole thing. That’s three hours right there.

UPDATE! PICTURES YAY!!!

I’m antsy to get this thing done for reasons unrelated to the expecting mother having premature contractions. I’ve been really REALLY really wanting to do my first cabling project so I can try out this no-cable-needle cable knitting method I’ve seen around teh intarwebs. I’ve been attracted to a lot of lace projects as of late as well, and then there’s that pair of boring plain white socks I’ve been promising Chris. I’m going to use a test pattern for those, but I might end up trying out the knitting two socks at once thing for that. Might be a little hard since I’ve never doubleknit before, but I’m sure I can do it without too much difficulty.

I’ve been really antsy to do some sweater recycling as well. My contract at work is up soon and I want to pay off my credit card debt before I’m unemployed, so I need to cut back on any spending that’s not completely necessary. And hey, second hand sweaters = cheap wool = dying and felting. Mmmmmmm. That sounds good to me. Once I get that started, I can create horrendously gross and obnoxious colorways nobody else has enough balls to do themselves. Of course this possibility makes me wanting a sweet niddy noddy, and this coincides wonderfully with Chris’ plans to start up a drum making business after his contract ends a week after mine. He’s been checking out some sweet wood, and some of it is PINK. Yes I want pink wood.

I’m binding off the first of the baby blankets AS WE SPEAK. It took just a little more than 3.5 weeks to do it. The second one should be MUCH faster, as I have the pattern memorized now. Once I’m done with these things I can stop doing this darn pattern that is more or less a glorified 2×2 rib + seed stitch combo and do something more interesting. The smocked rows are fun and all, but DAMN if they don’t happen often enough to keep me entertained with the pattern

I just finished with the first skein, and it looks like I’ll only need two. I’m slightly more than halfway done as it is. Now I’ll have two new skeins of soft, soft yarn for my stash. *evil laugh*

18.5 inches in two weeks, and I have the pattern completely memorized by now. It will be done in NO time.

Not bad if you ask me.

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.