Don't say the Zed-word

After hearing about attacks on other continents, the undead started showing up here. Good thing they're slow, so you can run around them. I had to work at the department store today and witnessed the aftermath of an attack in the men's section. All that was left was a shirt and pants strewned across the messy table. It took me a while to clean up the mess. When I got back to the retail store, the supervisor was looking a little pale. I saw the movie, but I'm not staying at the mall. As I was waiting for the bus, this guy snatched a girl's wallet. Too bad for him, she and her friends were zombies too. About five or six of them went after him. He got so scared, he dropped her wallet and his own bag. Now I'm holed up at home with plenty of canned goods and water.
Report in if you see any zed-word activity! Check here for more info.

Best Friend Cardigan

First, thank you so much K, for the soysilk yarn!
On the needles....the Best Friend Cardigan from Twinkle Big City Knits! Since I still haven't bought the book yet I got the pattern here. I started off last week with a super soft Bay Alpaca Grande from Plymouth Yarn in a dark grey but the it wasn't bulky enough and it shed fibers everywhere. Also the dark grey was depressing me. So I went back to Isle Knits for something more cheerful and ended up with another Plymouth yarn.....trusty Encore in a lemon sorbet yellow! I'm knitting it with three strands held together to get the gauge. So far so good. I had a couple of false starts because the pattern isn't very clear. The main thing was that the buttonholes are made on the same row as the bobbles. Also, I didn't like how the yarn over buttonholes looked so I made cast-off decreases instead. I finished shaping the armholes and will be working on the collar at tonight's meeting. Oh yeah, photo!

Pretty pretty!

Here are photos of finished garments from Wenlan Chia's Twinkle: Big City Knits. Patterns added to ever growing list:
Groovy Sweater Dress
Karate Sweater
Twinkle Hoodie
Shopping Tunic

I'm also thinking of knitting an art piece for a scholarship competition coming up. It will probably involve shibori and cables.

Wassup B!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday! Gee, you think with school over, I would have time to post. Unfortunately, there is this thing called extended holiday hours. My only bright spot each day is my hour break when I could knit. What am I knitting anyway? My first sweater! It is the Lace Leaf Pullover by Teva Durham. I started in November and kept having to frog the lace leaf parts (there's three of them). Though pretty, lace is EVIL. I am almost finished with the last sleeve while I'm blogging and watching Goldfinger. (Can I multi-task or what!) It's knitted with Plymouth Encore doubled in a bright green than can only be described as looking like a certain japanese condiment. Just a couple more rows until I start decreasing for the shoulder, then I can start sewing it together.
For a first sweater, the pattern worked out well. I learned to do ssk decrease, knit f&b increase, and the kitchener stitch when I put it together. There is a break of stockinette after each lace panel which I really needed but it's not boring because of the shoulder shaping. My only complaints about the pattern is that it is written in paragraph form, making it hard to keep my place. I prefer patterns that are written row by row.
While on the topic of sweaters, here are my choices for my next sweater (all movie inspired):

The Prizoner of Azkaban





Love Actually





Bulletproof Monk

New Knitpicks yarn

Knitpicks came out with some new yarn! I've been waiting for them to come out with a superwash yarn for a while. I have to try out the Swish Superwash. I see a lot of dark navy yarn in the near future.
I've knitted and frogged the hat three times now. The first one was too small and when I showed it to k at the meeting, I found out it's supposed to be knitted in one piece. Ooops. I really should have read the original pattern all the way through before starting. The second time, it was too big after switching to larger neadles and the third time the skull chart was too stretched out horizontally. Now I'm just freehanding the design, using the chart just for reference. I'm halfway through the skull, then its a whole lot of stockinette.

Pretty mutant sweater

I'm currently working on the Lost in Translation scarf which, since it's lace, is driving me insane. I seem to have to rip it once or twice in every repeat. I've been working on it for three weeks and decided to take a break this week to rest my nerves. Sadly, I still have no photos. I can't wait until school starts next month so I have access to the digital cameras at school. There probably won't be many photos of my work until then.
At tonight's meeting I started on another hat. I showed a girl at work MK Carroll's version of the Birkin's Hat and after the requisite awww's and "it's soooo cuuuute!", it was decided that I should make a teenager sized one for her. Since she's a bit of a punk rocker, the hat will be black with a pink skull, inspired by the Kuromi character from Sanrio. I ended up doubling some worsted weight acrylic from my pathetic stash. I worked on the back during the meeting by winging it and just finished creating the chart for the skull using Illustrator and knitPro. The teenage punk rocker is having all four of her wisdom teeth removed over the weekend so hopefully this will cheer her up.
A member from the knitting group reminded me that a few meetings back, someone had mentioned that one of the characters from X-Men: The Last Stand was wearing a pretty sweater. Oddly , when I saw the movie a couple weeks back I didn't noticed the potential Movie-Must-Knit. So after the meeting, I spent the night trowling the internet until I found some good reference pics of the elusive sweater. As promised, I'm posting the them here. I love the cables but quake in fear of the lace. It would be totally at home in an issue of Interweave Knits.



Here's one with a good view of the lace down the sleeves:

Nooooo......!

I took photos at the local Knit In Public event hoping to develop them over the weekend. One knitter brought her incredibly adorable and animated kids to the meeting and I managed to take half a roll of film of them. That weekend, after struggling to get the film onto the reel and into the developing tank, I accidentally opened the wrong part of the tank and exposed the undeveloped film to light. *sign*
So, many apologies to Mom and the kids. Hopefully I'll see you again when you move back here and I'll take new portraits for you at the next KIPP.

(edited for mistaking Acornbud for someone else.)

I Covet Twinkle

Just got back from this week's SnB meeting. Nearly done with the main branch of the scarf, it's only six stitches wide now. I stopped by Borders before heading home and picked up the recent issue of Interweave Knits. There's an article in it on my favorite knitwear designer, Wenlan Chia. Her line, Twinkle, consists of whimsical chunky knits that fit really well. She's coming out with a book called twinkle's Big City Knits early next year that's calling my name!
I also picked up some cd's, best of bowie and Michael Buble. One of the workers at Job One is convinced Buble boosts sales. I'm just a sucker for singers with interesting voices.

Summer Plans

School's finally out for the summer so I can get back to my knitting. Yep, I have my priorities down.
My Summer Plans:
I really want to take a photography class over the summer but I need to figure out how to get there. It is at another college rather far away by bus but it would enable me to print photos during the summer. I also plan to try out my dad's medium format camera. It takes square photos so the composition would be different from what I've been doing.
I've also started work on designing a website for one of my jobs. I've finished the site and page maps and the design itself would be fun but the tech guy left the company so now they expect me to code it, too. Ummm, I haven't learned that yet. There is a non-credit CSS coding class that I'm supposed to take over the summer but it wouldn't be for a while. In the meantime, I'll go through the tutorials at w3schools.
Oh, and of course, knitting! First is finishing a certain scarf, especially since I saw this. Another cherry blossom scarf! Eeeep!
I also just got an Ipod recently. I spent a couple of hours last night figuring out how to load some of my favorite knitting patterns on it. No more unlabeled scraps of paper with cryptic patterns on them! Woohoo!

Cue Peanuts Theme

Yay! I got accepted! What a relief.
I just registered for the Fall semester and was able to get into the Intermediate Photography class. I have to remember to bring Dad's medium format camera to class so that the instructor can show me how to use it. I plan on trying it out during the summer. I still have a scholarship portfolio to finish and do some more sketches to show some school reps that are visiting. Hope it goes well, there are some really good schools coming.
Here's one yarn related update: I got some Cashmerino to knit the Bro a marsan watchcap once school lets out. He was asking for one ever since I learned to knit. It was also the reason I agreed to teach him, I figure he would make his own. He hasn't yet so this is a belated birthday suprise so, shhhhh!

Keep your fingers crossed

Hope everyone had a happy new year, Valentines day, Mardi Gras, etc. I'm feverishly getting my portfolio ready for applying to the design program at my school. One more month! All I have left to do is a flash animation and develop some prints from my photography class so, of course, the monitor on my laptop had to die on me. *grumble* Now I have to figure out when I can be in the computer lab at school when I'm not working. Well, back to work! See you all in a couple of weeks.

Marooned?

No, no, I'm not stuck on a deserted island with no computer access. Well, I sorta am but only that they film a certain show here. Just really busy with the two jobs. They hired more people at one of them so I have *gasp* Sunday off. Yay! So now, I won't be working seven days a week. I've also been volunteering at the gallery at school one day a week so I'm looking forward to some time off to catch up on my projects for school. I did do some non-knitting crafts in the meantime so I'll try to post photos of my Halloween fo's in a couple of days, but no promises.

Hey, what happened to October?

Ooooh....Shiny!

For all you Firefly fans out there: Shiny Shirts. Now go watch Serenity cuz "Joss is Boss."

Rosemary's Baby Brother

Ever since school started, I haven't found time to knit (gasp! horror!). Luckily, I have the night off tomorrow so I can actually make some progress on my projects. To get into the crafty mood again, I'm going to be watching Todd Oldam's Handmade Modern in a couple of minutes. Joan Jett is one of the guests today. The black vinyl ottoman she helps with looks like fun! The directions are for a corduroy ottoman. I'm a little annoyed that I missed the first two episodes due to work and Rosemary's Baby Brother (a.k.a. the Bro) messing with the VCR. Hopefully they will be rerunning the series.

Sgt. Pepper Scares Me

I used to have a History teacher who was a huge Beatles fan. She had put up a couple of posters of them around the room so I ended up looking at Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for a whole school year. Maybe it was from bad memories of the Yellow Submarine movie (gave me nightmares) but the poster gave me the wiggins. So then why does this appeal to me?

Sooo tired.....

I started my Intro to Design class this week so I get to wake up bright and early every morning. Yay. After class its off to work for the rest of the day. Double Yay. At least I get to listen to the French version of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking" while I'm working. (Eileen's "Ces Bottes sont Faites pour Marcher" for you francophiles)
Amazingly, I completed the back of the bolero, despite the mind numbing twenty-six rows of stockinette. Now I have to figure out how to knit the front. I'm using the armhole decreases from the knit.1 tank in the first issue of that magazine. But first, I have to finish my project for class...meticulously cutting out shapes and organizing them into a pattern. Of course, I had to design one with a bajillion little pieces.

Knitting for Dudes

The man issue of Knitty is up! Have to show the bro. The cloud intarsia for Kumo is adorable.
I've finished the armhole decreases for the back of the bolero. Now is the boring part, twenty-six rows of stockinette. Zzzzzzzzzz......

Busy busy

With nothing to show for it. Been working a lot the past two weeks because of a sale.
The yarn for the fiery bolero came in! It's 24 Karat by Plymouth Yarn. I'll try to get pics as soon as there's time and the light's good. I had a false start at the last Snb meeting I went to. I was so excited to finally work on it and the yarn had came on the same day that I ended up misreading the increases so I had to go kermit on it. I'm now up to the part where you're suppose to start the increases for the sleeves. Since I'm going to do cap sleeves instead, I started reading up on set in sleeves. Knitty has a nice article here.

Ziggy Scarf

Well, the purple scarf is done! Only took about six hours. I followed the pattern for the Dropped-Stitch scarf from Teen Knitting Club. Aside from it being geared for teens, the book is one of the best beginner's book that I've read. It's also spiral bound so it lays flat. I wish more knitting books are made this way. I've bought and returned it previously because my other books already covered the same material but it turned out to be pretty useful. The library is our friend. The pics and the project I made really inspired me to try more novelty yarns.

The scarf was knitted on size 15 needles and I held together Plymouth Encore in purple and Sax in gold. The result looked like I accidentally smudged it with gold paint. A little glam, a little rock & roll, it would make Ziggy Stardust proud! Now to brainstorm how to gift wrap it.
Here's how far along the blossom scarf is.
I'm about half-way through and it will be a tad wider after it's blocked.
I've also picked up Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop today. It's great how she writes about what inspired her for each project. The photos are gorgeous! I loved her pattern for the Lace Leaf Pullover that was also featured in the Summer 2005 issue of Interweave Knits so I find myself looking at a lot of green yarn lately. Guess the pullover is the next project after the bolero.

How fast can I knit?

Well, I'll find out this weekend! I have some friends that are moving and we're having a going away dinner this weekend. I want to make one of them a scarf but I only have a couple of days. Time to break out the size 13's. I'm thinking something purple and glittery.
The blossom scarf is going well but slowly. I'm about half-way through. For something so simple, it sure is taking a long time. Maybe that's the problem, it's not complicated enough. Why did I decide to knit it in two pieces? I could have been done by now.
The yarn for the fiery bolero had to be ordered so its probably another week or so before I can start. Oh well, gives me time to finish both scarves, right?
I'm finishing up another womb knitted with some horrible cotton, Fantasy Naturale by Plymouth Yarn in fushia. Fantasy my arse, more like nightmare. When I was winding it up, I found three knots. Grrrr Arrrgh! I am having fun knitting the womb though. I couldn't put it down until I got the main body done. I still need to work on the fallopian tubes and I have an idea for an embellishment.
How about some good news! Eartha Kitt will be judging Craft Corner Deathmatch again. Hey, its craft related. So there.