Miles and miles of Entrelec

Husband and I went to a good friend's wedding in Texas this past weekend, which was a blast - always good to get in a little Grand March, two-stepping, and Cotton-Eyed Joe - SO FUN!

Between the plane rides and a few more rows during the week, I finished the "rainbow" Entrelec scarf! Woo hoo! I really enjoyed this project, especially once I memorized the pattern - its pretty intuitive after a while - and I could pick up the pace on it! I took a break, which is why its taken me several months to complete - no rush with the summer weather!

The fellow knitter, Sandy, that I blatantly copied on this idea has picked up hers again and when we're finished, I'll try to get a picture of the two of us modeling at once - or at least post a picture of hers! I hope this ended up long enough to get Julie's approval (she's always encouraging me to keep truckin' on the scarves when I run out of steam!)

Pattern: Entrelec, 4 reps of 8 stitches
Yarn: Trekking (if anyone is interested, I can post the colorway)
Finished Dimensions: 8"? wide x 72" long ( about 1 foot taller than me!)

For my next challenge, I'll be returning to the Bud project. I'm pretty nervous - there was a lot of pattern manipulation on the sleeve and if I can get a shoulder on the front piece to match up, I'll be in good shape. If not, I will be frogging the first sleeve and rethinking my choice of yarn... Wish me luck!

[Disclaimer: There is a sale at the LYS, so I hope I can stay focused even if I buy some yarn for the dr. bag, etc.] [Which I did since I started this post - the only thing keeping me from CO is that its not wound yet!]

Vices

My knitting vice would have to be......starting projects. (Big surprise, right?) I can hold off on yarn purchases without a specific purpose or snatching up books (although I do have a weakness for magazines, but that's not solely knitting-related). This habit lends itself to "project saturation"....

This week I finished a cabled felted purse for my little niece who's turning the big 3 this fall - I think its just right for holding all of her little "treasures", this pattern is from the S&B daily calendar for 2007.

Actually - while this was cute BEFORE I felted it:

Not so much after....oh well, its always an experiment felting:

This weekend I have been re-committing to finishing up that entrelec scarf I started back about oh 6 months ago or so. I do enjoy knitting entrelec - its so engaging - hope to have this finished by the end of a trip next weekend. (I'm using Treking sock yarn and size 4 dpns ) There is a picture on an older post if you want to check it out.

I think I forgot to post this FO last weekend - not my best work, but they are cute (turned out a little saggy which tends to happen when I work with Koigu)

New project (singular!) on the horizon: Doctor's Bag....this or a cabled afghan from Interweave will be my reward for finishing ALL of my current WIP. I've already picked out this beautiful pink and grey wool at the LYS.....I have to finish some other projects first - I'm trying to convert to a one-project lady... =)

My Kind of Project

Vacation + simple tank pattern = quickly finished project! CO Thursday and finished up this Sunday afternoon - the Honeymoon cami from the http://www.knitty.com/ pattern archives. Cute, simple pattern that was pretty easy - the v-neck/back shaping intimidated me at first, but turned out to be surprisingly simple. The only alteration was skipping the lace in the ribbing - here are the results:

Perfect for summer time lounging!

Happy Independance Day!

I've got a few filler projects going on right now - I CO last weekend for a pair of "plain ole" socks in a beautiful Koigu variegated color ( by the way, "variegated" was on the GRE vocabulary list - I felt so smart already knowing that one! That's proof that knitting makes you smarter)

Looking at the yarn I have an impossible time describing it - my first attempt was cotton candy on acid, but that sounds so unattractive and surprisingly I think its quite lovely after its knitted up, but judge for yourself:

Bonus - this was in my stash from a big sale a month or so ago & there's more sock yarn where that came from!

Second, I am about to CO for a "Honeymoon Tank" from knitty.com in Rowan Calmer (black). Looking forward to this simple tank for a summer wardrobe staple! I'm salvaging the Calmer from a project I frogged a while back. STASH knitting again!

Third, I have digressed on a sewing project - pajama pants! The pattern I bought has some cute tops/dresses I may attempt if all goes well! Check out the results from the teeny tiny sewing machine that I got a few weeks ago - my "starter" model. New hobby/obsession? We'll see...

Free At Last

SO. since Saturday I'm officially "free from responsibilities" (above and beyond bills & oh yeah, that job that pays the bills, etc.) for the next few weeks and I intend to dedicate a significant portion of that time to knitting, sleeping, and watching bad TV. (And redecorating the apartment, And going to the beach, AND going shopping, AND....the list is long & ambitious........)

Proof positive of the knitting part anyways: I finished the stripey blanket AND the first sleeve of "Bud"! I present you with the evidence:

Bud is turning into an interesting project - yesterday I completely re-wrote the sleeve pattern. GASP. I won't believe that this is a success until I see that right front fit with my grossly tweaked sleeve. Even Husband is rooting for success - I think he's coming around to love BUD (it wasn't love at first site). =) Looks cute on my arm though....

My baby blanket is done and just need a gingham border, but I have a solid 5+ months to knock that out - no sweat. Good thing I'm not trying to pawn off a wool blanket to someone in the middle of summer, that would be really well received! =) By the way, I LOVE it in case you didn't gather that already!

More soon!

"Bud"

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since I had posted!

June is heating up (off and on) and I've just got to get to the beach this weekend and wear my blue tunic as a cover-up! I really want to go to Cabo, but I won't hold my breath!

I have kicked off two new projects:

1)* "Bud" from a Rowan mini-book - that my knitting bud Cheryl is also making. Hers is purple and pink and mine is blue and white because I loved the example so much. We also subbed the "Cotton Fleece" yarn for the suggested Rowan Bamboo Soft to make it more wallet friendly, although the bamboo yarn is lovely I was looking for something I wouldn't feel guilty about spending for a whole new project when I have a ton of stash yarn.

Ta Dah!

*Since i posted that comment I've been having some pattern reading+ gauge issues. I like actually knitting the garment, but these technical dificulties have put a kink in things and really slowed me down. LOL, anyone noticing a pattern in my battles with gauge? =) Cheryl also had some size issues and had to rip, so at least I'm not the only onen with these struggles.


2) "Mystery project" which is actually a gift for a friend - I'm officially 2/3 finished with the knitting portion as of Sunday night & hope to finish the rest by this weekend. OK, I'm 99.9999% sure it won't spoil anything for the giftee & I'm not good with waiting to reveal surprises...

I love it and I think its beautiful - its inspired me to make this fantastic blanket with cables from an older Interweave magazine when I'm done with this. Its been in the back of my mind for at least a year now - I'll probably finish it just in time for winter this year!

School's Out for Summer!

Finally, I bring you tunic pictures - it has been finished for about 1-1/2 weeks, but I had to get ribbon for the straps and take a picture of me wearing it when I looked halfway decent, so here it is minus my mid-week post-workout frazzled face =)

Ooh la la - very summery, no?

I liked it and it was an easy knit (except for the swatching), I just hope I will get some use out of it this summer!

I also got a giddy mood-inducing package in the mail yesterday from www.knitpicks.com for my "secret project" - here's a preview of the yarn, but I think it will be more confusing than anything else - see what you think:

Husband and I drove up to San Fransico this past weekend and had a blast shopping, touring, and visiting Alcatraz- one of the cells even had knitting in it! I spaced and didn't take a picture, but they were supposedly using pink yarn which I found hard to believe, but I guess you don't get a whole lot of choices on "The Rock"!

And I thought this was cute - it reminds me of those Yaris commercials, which crack me up:

Other than that I am doing some "spring cleaning" and am planning on frogging quite a few projects that I lost interest in....other than the secret project I will be working on the Honeymoon Cami from www.knitty.com archives and quite a few pairs of socks.