Central Park Hoodie

I’m completely in love – I CO for the Central Park Hoodie this Saturday and had a finished back piece by Sunday evening. I am using Cascade 220 in a beautiful spring green color that looks great with jeans – most likely what I will be wearing it with most days. Here’s a sneak peek:


I hope to have this knocked out by mid-April for a trip to Washington D.C. with Husband. I’m sure it will still be on the chilly side most days and a 100% wool green hoodie will be just the thing.

FO

Yahoo - I finished my "Monkey" socks! See....

And this is how much yarn I had left over - see why I was sweating it?

Then I promptly CO for the entrelec scarf on US 4 straights - I love it, but its going to take me an enternity to finish and I'm afraid I don't have the time. I do already know what I want to wear it with though =). I need to start another garment, my garment-confidence is rising and I am getting antsy. Soon soon.

Here's the wee beginnings of the scarf:

Ok - i am off to clean and study - and NOT knit = (

Countdown to Weekend

After the KTOG last night, I am verrry close to having finished the Monkey socks and (knock on wood) it appears I will barely have enough of the Lorna's Lace yarn to finish my project. This is 2 pairs from 2 skeins, so I was cutting it close. I always feel ripped off when I need more than a single skein for a pair of socks, but that's just a personal pet peeve. I will finish the toes tonight & post pictures of them this weekend. This is the first decent pair I will have to be mine all mine!

I also got Husband's cardigan zipper in the mail, I ordered 2 since it was hard to get the true color and alas one of them matches. He'll be so happy to have a nice heavy sweater for that nasty April weather in SoCal. =) I'm going to try my hand at installing it and it that doesn't work, I got information for a seamstress from one of the KTOG ladies.

I'm starting to think of a few new projects to CO for in the next few weeks. I really need to wrap up the "Orangina" pattern (Black Rowan Calmer lace tank) when I feel like tackling the weird gauge problem I'm having, its so hard for me to wrap my head around gauge for ribbing - any tip?

Also, my mother has requested a pair of socks - sounds like a good Mother's day gift to me! Last but not least there is a shrug and the Central Park Hoodie that I'd like to make for myself once I wrap up some smaller projects.

On the afghan front, I have finished 3 out of the 30 planned squares AND made a plan for the pattern layout of the entire project. I think its going to be so pretty and I will probably finish just in time for next fall/winter if I keep up at this rate.

So - pictures of the Monkey socks soon and with some luck and determination a finished Husband cardigan and Orangina! Then, its on to many more planned projects.

Weekend Progress Report

This weekend was busy, but I got a lot of knitting done. However, this was accomplished mostly on Sunday, when I should have been studying instead!
Oh well, no class one evening so I will have the chance to make up for that lack of diligence. So – what exactly did I do? Well, I’ll show you….

Sunday I went to a class at Anacapa for the Entrelec method. I really liked the handout and the knitting backwards technique that the instructor showed us – she is very well versed in the method and did a good job teaching the class. Everyone was supposed to be working on the beginning of a scarf, but mine will be another afghan square (made from Noro, the same color that I finished for square #1 that was garter stitch) , after I block it a little bit.

Entrelec is slightly addicting to tell you the truth, as well as very absorbing work. So now, I have 3 out of a projected 30 squares completed! (That’s 10% - woo hoo!) Take your pic - flash or no flash, neither color representation is quite right....

I also got two skeins of sock yarn to do an Entrelec scarf (soooo copying someone else at the Knitting group, but it was such a beautiful project!), now I need to email her for a few questions…like needle size – she’s GOT to be using US 0’s and that’s teeny. Hmm….

Secondly, I finished the baby sweater except for the sleeves. When I make this pattern again, I will:

A) be making the 6 month old size,
B) follow the pattern and do the selvedge stitches, and
C) have someone in mind to gift it to.

Lastly, I got quite a bit done on the 2nd “Monkey” sock and am starting to sweat a little bit that I may run out of yarn. I also made a mistake on the cuff and will have 1 stochinette rolled cuff and one twisted rib cuff. Since these are for me and primarily for putting around the house, I didn’t rip them out – they are now truly unique! =) I finished turning the heel last night and the first couple rounds of the gusset decreases.

Now, please just let the yarn last until I bind off. Next time, I will do a toe up sock!

That’s all for now – hopefully more progress through the week and I will shoot to have the socks completed by next Sunday evening!

Knitting Frenzy

This Saturday, Heather (link) hosted a yarn swap at her place and it was a lot of fun! I got way more yarn than I came with (especially when its good stuff) and a bunch of ideas, and encouragement to finish that cardigan for Husband. See my yarn stash grow: (picture of yarn from party). One direct new project is a baby "wrap" sweater from some yarn I bought from Beatrize . That woman has an impressive stash if the yarn she brought on Saturday is an indication! I think she hooked me up with enough of it for at least 2 baby sweaters - woo hoo! I actually know 4 pregnant ladies right now, so I better get those needles flying!

That was the only major event of the weekend, but it seemed to fly by! I had a lot of studying, shopping & knitting to do though - apparently those activities are pretty time consuming!

Ok - lots to accomplish today - back to the grind!

Slow Progress

Last Thursday night @ the KTOG I only got about a ½” inch done on my second Monkey sock. The first one is finished – looks great/feels great, but again the details are lost in the translation. I'll hold off on the pictures until they are both done..

I did get some affirmation from the ladies, but I have to say I think its biased. I got so little progress made because there was waayyy too much going on and too much eating to be done to knit. It was a fun evening & celebration! I did feel the need to start an afghan last night and picked up three skeins to get started – one Noro (beautiful colors!) wool, and two Lamb’s Pride worsted weights. Pictures to come later...

After making the long trek home, there was mindless garter stitching to enjoy during (another!) rerun of Gray’s Anatomy last night and finished about ½ of a 12” x 12” square

Now, how big should I make this darned thing?

Looooong weekend

This weekend I definitely experienced the phenomenon of time only flying when you are having fun! I had essentailly unlimited free time this weekend and got a TON of knitting done on the bright side!

First, the deadline kntting - a square for a wedding aghan (Mission Falls 1824 wool and basketweave stitch on US 7 straight needles):

My digital camera is not that great at taking pictures of knitting, so most of the color and pattern details are lost. I need to work on that and get a fancy new one just for knitting photos! =)

Also started on some socks called Monkey from the latest knitty issue....Ok, I tried changing the settings and the "food" setting interestingly enough seems to capture texture better. Who would want to take pictures of their food.....guess I don't have much room to talk!

The pattern calls for 6 repeats of the lace on the ankle before starting the heel flap, but I am concerned about the amount of yarn I have so I cut that back to 3 repeats. These are left over from a pair of socks I made for my friend Tania. After she raved about them (yeah!) I decided I needed a new pair now that I have gotten in some practice and can make a halfway decent pair of socks now!

I am still working on a black lace top from Glampyre.com but am having some trouble with the gauge for the waist ribbing. I put that aside until knitting night at Anacapa on Thursday. Maybe I can get some help from all of the experts!

That's about all for now. Check in later this week for progress on the Monkey socks!