Author: Laura

  • um,

    Okay.
    I really, really, REALLY want to make this sweater:

    It’s “Syncopated Ribs” by Norah Gaughan, from the fall issue of Interweave Knits. side note: I just seem to love these pieces that are done in one honkin’ big piece, thereby making it very difficult to just take to knit in the subway. I think I ought to start making socks or hats or mittens or something (although according to my sources, “mittens are sooo last night”!).

    Anyway. I want to make it in this:


    Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Blueberry. Now for the problem. The 42″ size calls for 1300 yds of the yarn (Berroco Pleasure, 130 yd/50g), which is 6.2 skeins of Cotton-Ease (207 yd/100g). The 38″ size calls for 5.6 skeins of Cotton-Ease.

    Problem: I only have 5 skeins.
    Possible solutions: a) Make the 38″ size (my bust about 37″, by the way). Omit the turtleneck (which I’d probably do anyway), and shorten the sleeves to 3/4 length (the sleeves are written quite long, 22″).
    b) Somehow incorporate a different colour – I also have two skeins of “candy blue”.
    c) Make it white (but I really want to use the white for a cardi).
    d) Don’t make it at all (at least for a few months), because I’ve got a whole bunch of other projects waiting patiently for my time.

    What makes this pattern so cool (quoted from Interweave): “Garment is worked in one piece beginning at the lower front edge, up and over the shoulders (casting on stitches for the sleeves), then down to the lower back edge”.

    I also really want to make the “Monk’s Travel Satchel” from Folk Bags, which is free from the Interweave site – and yes I know Joyce, the endless seed stitch rectangle. I don’t mind that (at least it’d be a subway/lecture project!), but I can’t afford to buy the yarn right now. So it’s in the queue, but possibly for quite awhile. EDIT: actually, I should have enough Naturelle to do the bag with…and if I go down a couple needle sizes in an attempt to get gauge (not really all that important, I like a nice big bag) it’ll be nice and sturdy. hm.

    Sweaters (and bags) keep me up at night.

  • supposed autumn

    Today was very warm. A little too warm for my taste, actually. I want to be able to wear some type of non-tank top comfortably, and not be sticky and yucky. I can’t wait for some cooler (but not cold cold) weather.

    Anyway, last night I finished my third ball of yarn on the zigzag bag, but I was three rows short of the repeat. So, I just joined a new ball and finished off that repeat as well as cast off for the straps this morning. I worked on the strap between tutorial and class this evening as well as at SnB…

    I fiddled with the colour saturation a bit on this pic because it was really washed out – the colours are fairly bright in real life, although the black stripes bring down the tone a little bit. This bag is such a nice quick knit – a welcome change from the neverending Bella! Which, I might mention, hasn’t received any attention since I finished the seaming. Maybe this weekend.

    ttfn!

  • is it monday?

    Sure feels like Monday to me, since it was my first day of classes for the week and I had 5 hours straight from 12-5 today. I’m tired. Tomorrow I have my first quiz of the year, in syntax.

    I’m too tired to take pictures, import them, resize and make thumbnails, upload, and write the code, so…there aren’t any. Not that there’s much going on. At any rate, I’m up to about 13″ on the zigzag bag (aiming for 15 inches from three balls of yarn – I think I’m going to make it). For some reason, I think the colours in the first ball are lighter/more muted than those of the second and third balls. I didn’t check, but maybe *gasp* they were different dyelots! I want to get up to the strap split tonight, so I can work on the strap tomorrow night at SnB. I won’t get there until about 9:10 or so, but there will still be people there, right?

    I’ve taken my scrappy armwarmers off my WIPs list on the left – that’s what I was working on in the photo. I took my second armwarmer to work on that day since I knew I’d need something mindless to work on, and hey, dpn’s look impressive! Anyway, I finished the second armwarm, compared it to the first…and realized that I had knit a tube in 2×2 rib whereas the first one was 2×1 rib! Argh! I will be making some more armwarmers soon, but not those particular ones…I can’t decide whether I want to make a hat or armwarmers out of this one skein of black Cotton-Ease that I have. I’d wear armwarmers more probably, but I like the idea of a nice ribbed hat. Oh well, we shall see.

    I need to knit myself a few little cases – an iPod case and a little case for my pens. Hooray for scraps!

    Last night I realized that I didn’t have something small to toss into my bag for the school day, so I started to knit a scarf out of this “Cashmere Luxury Chunky” that I bought from AC Moore on my trip. I started this scarf from Chicknits, but I didn’t like the way it was turning out so I frogged. I looked through a few books and I still can’t decide whether I want to do a lacy scarf – something like an allover faggot lace pattern – or a little stockinette keyhole scarf. I’ve only got 210 yards – what do y’all think?