men's socks are ridiculous

I feel like I am making the most ridiculous pair of socks ever. This is mostly because they are for dear Kyleman, and he has very large feet. And thus, I feel like they are going on FOREVER.

And now that Christmas has passed, I've acquired a few balls of yarn that are also calling to be socks. If I give in, I will have four sets of socks going on at once. It is ridiculous and  yet I am seriously contemplating it [especially since Kyle's socks are surprise ones and so if they take foreeeeever, he'll never be disappointed by a promised due date on them. Voila.]

Anyways, my mother bought me to die for sock yarn for Christmas: Mini Mochi Purple Dawn which is so darn gorgeous and soft that all day I've been wanting to rub it against my face.

Sad, but true.

sock fever

As Christmas is coming closer, I've finally getting pretty close to completing everybody's gifts. And as that end comes nearer, I start thinking about all the new things I want to make. Like socks. Since last night I've cast on two pairs of socks - one for me, one for the boyfriend - and am contemplating casting on a third pair. Which I know is somewhat ridiculous, but really, yellow yarn is calling to me.

For a while now I've wanted to knit things for my boyfriend. So far I've only been able to knock out a hat, scarf and 2 gigantic mittens [oh, the days before I checked gauge]. But I've been dying to make him something bigger than winter accessories; I want to test out the Boyfriend Sweater Myth....but I'm thinking I'm going to start with a vest [my boyfriend is a very vesty-type person]. The only problem with him is he likes darker colours, which normally isn't a problem - I'm also a big fan of them - but they are kinda boring and difficult to work with when you don't have the proper lighting.

But I love him and thus I have started surprise navy socks for him. I am determined though, to use a dark medium blue for the vest...hopefully with a bit of manly shine to it.

I've decided to attempt designing my own special Kyle Vest for him, based on a vest I saw in The West Side Story yesterday. I took a bunch of measurements from a sweater I've been holding hostage from him for a while and aside from a couple differences I'll be able to figure out the rest relatively easily. The only thing I'm worried about is the buttonholes. Buttonholes and I don't get along that well.

19 inches and a headband

I do this a lot. I get forgetful, or very boring and I don't update my blog. My bad. Although according to Blogger stats, I have only had 21 page-views so I only feel slightly regretful.

In other news, I've started and almost completed the sleeve portion of Knitty's "Tubey" pattern, which I've made a couple modifications to. I also finished a slightly lame [probably only because I designed it myself] but ridiculously easy crochet headband today and am determined to find a lovely flower pattern to attach onto one side in hopes of increasing it's bohemian charm.

I have also determined to create another knitted boob for my friend, who was the unfortunate victim of a spaz-out of mine over the weekend. A while ago I had made one for my boyfriend, who loved it [but then again what male doesn't love a knitted boob?] and so, hopefully this will make everything peachy keen and show my deepest apologies...with tassels.

3 Hour Sweater Challenge

Needless to say, contrary to this entry's title I did not finish a sweater in 3 hours. I DID, however, finish the back piece relatively quickly. Which is pretty amazing and wonderful since I'm pretty sure I have slight A.D.D. when it comes to knitting large projects. AKA that lovely pink sweater I blogged about a little while ago......

Which I am now debating on frogging and using the yarn for other projects; AKA another 3 hour sweater for my sister for Christmas and some baby things for multiple baby girls that will be coming into my life in February.

Also I've discovered that my work, Value Village [or Savers in America] is a WONDERFUL place for collecting beautiful yarn. Such as -

this lovely, lovely lavender lace weight that is going to last me for AGES. It called to me in the store but has since just been chilling out on my side table waiting for the perfect project to come along. I keep thinking SHAWL but then along come WINTER and I move on to my warmer projects. 

This lovely mohair concoction [I'm sorry, this yarn and the last one didn't come with any labels aside from a little sticker with a number inside lavender's spindle; so i can only guess at who and what they truly are {I am also too lazy to be hardcore about it and perform tests to see what they are at that}] which is being transformed into a baggy bolero from Pickles. I am tres excited even if it seems to be taking forever [see? There's that A.D.D. again!] but luckily I have....

this beauty to keep me occupied when the mohair is getting me down [mohair doesn't really get me down, I love it to bits even when, after hours of knitting, it makes the tip of my finger feel really weird and waterlogged]. This Cloudspun is what I'm making my Three Hour Sweater out of and I am definately in love. I was lucky enough to buy two big bags of it with at least 7 50g skeins in each. And the way the sweater is shaping up, I will still have one bag left to make some lovely hats and whatnots out of! 

Not to mention the other fabulous finds - including some 100% pinky wool from a foreign land - all for under $20 CDN. Oh yes, who's jealous? 

For the love of scarves.

When I first started knitting, my gram bought be enough Patons tweed yarn to make two scarves with. Being the ambitious beginner I was, I pounded out one garter scarf with a few mistake purl rows thrown in and pushed it on my supportive boyfriend. After that I craved more complicated things and more yarn.

Thus I forgot about most of the tweed yarn until I made a sad, little headband...and then forgot about the rest again. Since then I've attempted at least 3 different scarves with the remaining yarn [I honestly love this yarn and am determined it should be used as it was meant to be] but get bored and restless and....blah about each one. Scarves and I don't really seem to match.

Finally in desperation I decided to try my hand at a cowl scarf for this yarn. So I looked up a basic cowl pattern on ravelry, cast on the recommended stitches, and went my own way from there. Surprisingly it's holding my attention and is now almost done. Finally a compatible love for my yarn and style that has made me vow to never [ok, maybe not never] knit a long-ass scarf again; it will all be cowl scarves or cute, short scarves that look like a mix between ascots and bow ties [oh, left-over alpaca yarn, do I have a plan for YOU!].

the end.

The second

So now after relatively successfully completing my first sock - I don't think it would stand up to the scrutiny of any seasoned knitter, but at least to my non-knitter family and boyfriend it was perfect - and a tenuous beginning [I still haven't become pro at joining in the round on the first try yet] I am just past the ribbing cuff on my second sock, and my hope is I will be able to turn this heel much better than the first. 

Truly, the only problem worse than trying to turn a heel is once people realize you can make socks, they all want some. Or a sweater. There are some very big grabbers out there.

sock virgin

On a very stressful Sunday, after getting sent home from work, I went and bought some yarn, Patons Classic Wool [which I love, love, love by the way!] and some 3.5mm dpns and started my first pair of socks. The Weekend Socks from Canadian Living to be specific.

After finally getting my stitches situated on my dpns, I began loving the dpns and the yarn and my emerging tube; I even didn't mind working short rows...until I had to start turning my heel. All the horror stories are true - maybe not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I could totally see how far they could go.

Picking up stitches seem to be my biggest problem. I've had to find ulterior places to pick up stitches. Can you pick up one stitch in the front bar, then one in the back? Do you have to use one or the other or both at the same time [the route I went]?

Oy. Anyways, as bad as this might turn out [I'm one of those practice makes perfect people] I've got enough stitches on one needle for the small size, and enough on the other two for the medium size and hoping this'll turn out because I have size 6 1/2 size feet anyways, perfectly in between the sizes in the pattern.

callus

Over the last little while I've been developing a callus on my index finger from all the needle pushing I've been doing. The 3.5 mm needles I've been using for a very slow going sweater project have been helping it along greatly. Especially after I rediscovered the project tucked away under my sewing table where I had placed it the last time I worked on it for too long and my fingers couldn't handle the needles anymore. I swear, my fingers aren't big fans of small needles - but then again, is there any hands that are?

Anyways, this sweater is my next big project to focus on when hats and scarves get me down. After reading multiple knitting writers who claim that the difficult-looking, -reading, -etc. patterns are only difficult as a whole and can be broken down into easy rows, I've decided to definitely keep going with this and challenge myself with this four out of four bar difficulty leveled pattern, so declares Vogue knitting. Bring it on, baby; I'mma get some rubber thimbles for you.

This is the only picture I could find on google of the back of the sweater [apparently no one else loves this sweater like I do]

The only thing I worry about a wee bit is that I'm using acrylic yarn again [Phentex Worsted to be exact] and so I'm hoping the lace work comes out ok and it doesn't end up too short like my parachute top [although I'm thinking the pattern for that one was accounting for mad loosage after blocking, whereas this one seems to give more "realistic" lengths for fitting even if you don't block].

I guess we shall see!

dear acrylic yarn,

I accept you for who you are and appreciate you can be tossed in the wash, even if some types of you will fuzz more easily than others. I just wish you`d give a little more and not snap back into place so easily. I don`t care about stretch marks or if you become a bit larger, I just want you and me to work.

love,

Victoria

sick days

I've been at home sick for the last...ooh...36 hours ish and what I have been missing out on minimum wage payage, I have at least been able to drink tea all day, cozy up with blankets and my dog, and work on some of my projects.

After machine drying my parachute top yesterday I discovered that mostly acrylic yarn does not grow at all after being semi-blocked. Which was very sad for me since I changed the yarn recommended in the pattern and thus ended up with a parachute top at least 5 inches shorter than the one the model wore. Whether this is because of the yarn I chose or because I am a bigger bosom'd girl than most models, I am in debate about - but I am mostly blaming the yarn. So I went with the desperate measures my slightly fevered mind told me to do: I re-wet it, squeezed all the water out then hung it to dry on a hanger in the shower.....which actually has seemed to give me some more of the length I wanted without destroying any of the lace work or...I was going to say shaping but then I realized that there really is no shape in it other than a square.

So la de da to me.

I also finally put a completed alteration to a sweater I promised my mum. It's this white boxy sweater, a pattern given to me for easiness by my gram, and worked unrelentingly on until I had the front, back and one sleeve done, had sewn together the body and realized it looked horrible on me. My mum, swooping down on me in my grief, asked to try it on and lo and behold, it fit her much, much better [but what do you expect? My mother is the type of person who pulls off all the clothing that I would love to wear but can't without looking 7 months pregnant in]. So I promised it to her once it was done. Unfortunately since then I haven't been able to bring myself to even cast on the second sleeve for it and instead finally decided that my mother would enjoy much better a shorter sleeved sweater than a long sleeved one and would just do a single crocheted edge along the arm holes; which actually did end up suiting my mother just peachy keen. And so that was my second big accomplishment of my sick day, finishing up the crocheted arm holes and just have to try to block it now [after introducing my mother to blocking, she demanded I block it for her instead of the sew and wear approach I was hoping she'd accept].

That will be my mission come Friday, since I am now significantly better, if only in the nose and fever department, and slightly bullfrog in the throat and thus return to work tomorrow. Oy!

machine washable and dryable

Somehow yesterday turned out to be a very productive day. Distractionitis was severely beaten by the completion of said winter capelet which was also my first attempt at blocking something. And a highly successful attempt at that.

Now I am just waiting for my parachute top to dry, or at least for the load in the dryer to dry so I can toss this in. Thank gosh for machine washable and dryable yarn; although we'll see if I feel the same way after I actually machine dry it.

Distractionitis

I suffer from a terrible thing called Distractionitis. This terrible disease usually prevents me from finishing one set item without starting at least one new one before it's completion [whether I complete the new one or not is also up for debate]. This has sadly been happening to my lovely, sultana raisin coloured [oooher!] parachute top. Slowly I trudge along, perhaps have to restart a piece, trudge along some more then BOOM! I find something like a reversible winter capelet that captures my eye and promises to be finished quickly with good stamina [something I, apparently, do not have exactly], and gives me a reason to buy that gorgeous Alpaca blend yarn I've been eying.

I truly blame the Distractionitis on the 3 3/4mm needles I'm using. There is something [and everything] about tiny needles that make the work seem to go incredibly slowly. Luckily for me I'm about an inch and a half away from the neckline on the last piece [hallelujah!] and then only have a couple inches to go for shoulders, seaming and a crochet border!

Unluckily for me, my lovely boyfriend Kyle suggested we go to IKEA [Ikea? I feel like IKEA deserves all caps. Whether this is legit. or not I have no idea] today before he heads to a family dinner and I trundle off to a late night staff meeting, so that I can finally get the dresser I've been aching over [and been given early birthday money for] for what seems like centuries [but has truly only been probably about 6 months].

In the meantime I continue to trudge on through 3 3/4mm horrors and sultana loveliness with a very loud purring cat who keeps trying to eat the end of my needle. Oh you.

Friday Mission

Assuming I don't get called into work tonight, I have a humongous amount of hours today in which to try to finish my lace parachute top [I know the name 'parachute top' doesn't sound that appealing but hey, it looked good in Vogue Knitting] that I have been working on and getting distracted from for most of the summer.

Fortunately for me, I assumed that I wouldn't get this thing done until the fall anyways and the lovely sultana raisin coloured yarn I'm using is very fall/wintery and the whole thing in general will [hopefully] look lovely layered with long sleeved shirts.

Also last night I completed my first knitted hat. I've crocheted a hat before, but never knitted one so this was very pleasant. That seed stitch I was talking about in my last post? It looks very lovely in yellow and white on a slouchy beret.

An entry quicker than stitches on 12mm.

I think I seed stitched when I should have moss stitched. Well, I know I seed stitched instead of moss stitched. But I blame my (not so) handy dandy Complete Guide to Needlework book which only featured a moss rib stitch, something I am very familiar with on one of my many projects I'm working on - however take out the rib and I am le stuck.

And so I seed stitched. Which is ok anyways because I am quite fond of seed stitch in general.

Introduction

I am Victoria, an early 20-something year old who has an obsession (I use the word obsession in a good way, having a B.A. in art, you become accustom to acquiring obsessions) with your hobbies. Specifically knitting and crochet. I seem to be one of the few (correct me if I'm wrong) out there who can and will do both on a regular basis. I am a double-agent, a "critter" if you will - I've spent a lot of time trying to come up with a great term for a combined knitter and crocheter and critter seems to work best.

I feel like I'm an odd version of the yarn artist type. I am not the perfectionist knitter as Adrienne Martini describes in her book Sweater Quest; and although I yearn and fall hopelessly in love with Merino, hand-dyed, silk and mohair (especially mohairs, you tricky devil you) yarns - my most current love being a blue twilight Liberty Wool, I'm still in that starving student stage where I must content myself with acrylic blends from Zellars and one sweet, beginner's purchase of Alpaca from a sweet, little shop in my University town, because I am too cheap and (probably) not worthy enough yet to purchase higher.

Believe me when I say though, this does not stop me from having an incredible stash (partial courtesy of my own grandmother and my boyfriend's grandma trying to clean up their own stashes by unloading it on me. I do not complain. God bless grandmothers.

But I digress.

I write this for all my fellow knitters, crocheters and critters out there, because a critter can never have enough support (and, hopefully, humourous support too) out there that doesn't call her a grandma while asking for a handknit for Christmas all at the same time.