Long time no see

So...um...hi! ::waves::

It's been quite a while, I know. Largely I haven't been updating since I haven't been crafting, but that's not completely true. Since my last post, I finished my monkey socks and my fire fetchings, and I started sewing an apron. Oh, and I finished the first heart on my Be Mine socks. Partly I've been going slowly because I've never really gotten momentum on my Be Mines, but since they were my project spectrum feb/march socks, I didn't feel comfortable starting a new project until they were done. Now, though, now it's april. This means "earth" is officially in swing, and I can start my next pair of socks, which I've admitedly been getting more and more excited about. Even better, I can sew the project bag whose fabric has been sitting stacked next to my computer!

For my earth one-person-KAL with already purchased yarn, I'm going to be knitting the Embossed Leaves socks from the Interweave Favorite Socks book, in Knit Picks Risata in Grass. I think the 'leaves' aspect of Embossed Leaves makes this a good thematic choice, as well as the fact I think I'm just in love with the pattern. I can usually recognize it right away if done in most solid colored yarns, but there are some times when I'll see a pair on flickr or something and think "wow, those socks look awesome! I want to knit those!" Another thing I'm liking about this pattern is that it's all friendly stitches: mostly knits with a few purls, k2togs, ssks and yos thrown in there. As much as I think the Be Mines are maybe the cutest socks in the world, their pattern is too thought intensive for me. These should, hopefully, be a little easier.

If I end up finishing these, or if I end up devoting a lot more time to knitting these months than I previously have, I might work on finishing up my Branching Out, in it's beautiful and thematically appropriate yarn choice. The trouble with the Branching Out is that I don't like the needles it's currently on. It's on some of my grandmother's old aluminum straight needles. They're too long, overly heavy, and they make a sound when knitting that reminds me of nails on a chalkboard. After the major crush I've developed on the Knit Picks long circular sock needles I bought, I've been heavily debating getting a set of their Options, once I've saved up the money. I know there have been some complaints about the cables breaking or the needles coming undone from the cables, but I think I'm willing to risk it. For things like the branching out that I'm currently doing on old-but-annoying straights, I suspect options would be prefereable. As it is, I think I prefer circular to straight simply for the portability factor, and the nice smooth cables of the Options add to that.

As far as my sewing goes, I've been working on a skirt from Sew What Skirts, but it's been frustrating me. I'm looking forward to a nice break with my pattern bag. Though I have a decent amount of fat quarters to choose from (I stocked up when JoAnn's was having a 1 for $1 sale) I ended up chosing two that aren't my favorite pattern or color, but which go very well together. Both are from a fat quarter package I purchased at PurlSoho back in NYC. The outside is an asian inspired brown fabric with orange, pink, yellow, and green flowers and leaves. The lining will be a lime green that matches the green on the outside pretty well. Unfortunately, the only zipper I have that'd work size wise for the project is dark green, and I'm not much in the mood to go out and buy a new one. I'm trying to convince myself it'll look kicky, not tacky.

Oh well, off to work! I'll try and post more pictures once I've started knitting/sewing.

New Year, New Hat!

All right, so it's been a little longer than I anticipated...the good news is, I have even more to share with you! I'll start with my first FO of the year.

New Year's Urchin[R]:

Pattern: Urchin[R] by Cheryl Niamath
Materials: Del Sur by Aslan Trends [R]; 80m/100g; 100% Merino wool; color: 2979 (Scarlet) dyelot: 1200
Purchased at: Natural Stitches in Pittsburgh, PA
Amount: a little over 1 skein
Needles: 7mm (NOT US 7s, this is not a US needle size) Addi Turbos
Gauge: what's that? (aka, never checked)
Size: L
Cost: $16.80 but I still have a bunch leftover

Started: 1.02.08
Finished: 1.03.08
Total time: 1 day!

I wanted to knit this hat in the first place because Anna J's mother knit her an Urchin and I fell in love with it and ended up wearing it all New Year's Eve. I know trying to recreate someone else's finished product is a bad idea, but I loved the hat so much that as I was leaving Pittsburgh, I picked up some yarn to make myself a hat. I got the Del Sur after much deliberation. Anna J's hat was (I found out later) knit in Lamb's Pride bulky with size 11 needles. (Yeah, I got her to check with her mom.) AnnaJ is also a fellow knitter, and we both thought the hat might look nice in a thick/thin yarn, which is what led me to chose the Del Sur.

A few notes on the hat: I was a little disappointed in how small my final hat was. AnnaJ's hat was nice and floppy, a proper beret. My hat ended up much more tightly knit, and while it fits on my head, it's a pretty tight fit. I've been debating taking out the seam and adding another wedge (which makes sense if you've done the pattern) but the yarn would not be easy to undo, and I'm not eager to go back to working on this hat.

I've worn my hat quite regularly and it is warm, and it's received complements, but I'm still not thrilled. Hopefully one of these days I can bring myself to go back (I still haven't woven in the ends) and add another wedge or half wedge.

A few notes on the pattern: Before knitting, I checked Ravelry (of course) and saw most people considered this an easy fun knit. My first attempt at a wedge left me utterly perplexed. This is partly because, instead of knitting in relation to the last wrapped stitch, I attempted to do the math to count how many stitches I should leave. This did not work. I asked for help on the Rav boards, and people pointed out the directions were in relation to the last wrapped stitch. On my second attempt, I places a stitch marker every time I wrapped a stitch (yeah, you end up with TONS of them; I used the removable markers so I could reuse them) and just worked in relation to the marker. This made the knitting much more pleasant and much easier. Though it took me longer than few hours, it was still a quick knit.







And, here's a picture of the yarn, all wound up.



I do have more knits-in-progress, more sewing projects, and a 101 in 1001 post I owe you, so keep reading. =]