Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Tiger Pants, finished

Go Team TARDIS!
Tiger Pants
Pattern: Itchy Fingers Longies
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted
Needles: Addi Turbos, size 7 and 5, plus size 7 dpns
Finished: August 24th, 2008 at 10:53 AM CST

My hands ache, but the Ravelympics are now officially over. I do plan to finish my one remaining project, pair two, this weekend. However, I am excited to return to my WIPs as well as start a few new things. But first, I must give my hands a rest... DH, will you massage my hands, please???

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Entering the home stretch - another project done!

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Pattern: Cherie Amour, modified to become a skirt
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky
Needles: Size 13, 9, 8 Boyle Circs
Started: August 8th, 2008
Finished: August 23th, 2008
I just finished weaving in ends on my Hiipie Tunic Turned Skirt - and folks, it is fantastic! I love how soft it is, and it holds it's shape well dispite being a little heavy. The lace at the bottom keeps it from being too warm. Also, the hint of purple in the color will go nicely with the plums and grapes I've seen for fall. I can't wait to buy a new top to go with it!
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I had to bind off SUPER loose to allow it to stretch as much as the fibbing does.
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Here you can kind of see the yoke "pannel." Next time, I think I'll start those decreases sooner and make the yoke a little deeper.
Ta Da!

Friday, August 22, 2008

1st Gold Medal Finisher!

Alright! I finished my Toddler socks, which turned out to be more premie than toddler. Here is Zeke modeling them for me:
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And here they are in all their glory. I thought the stripes matched fairly well. However, I do believe one is a row shorter than the other one. It's barely noticeable, but it kind of bothers me.
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Pattern: Stephanie's Fixation Baby Socks
Yarn: Cascade Fixation
Needles: Size 3 Susan Bates
Started: August 8th, 2008
Finished: August 20th, 2008

I still have 38g of this yarn left. One could easily make 3 or 4 pairs from a single ball. Enough for me for now though - I have to finish my other projects!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Tunic becomes a Skirt

I got past to the ribbing and realized my guage was way off row-wise, so I tried just working fewer rounds. That doesn’t help with the neckline decrease though.

Anyway, I tried it on the other day. It’s knit in a bulky yarn, and something Lori said struck me - I’m not overly large, but a bulky yarn sweater, esp. a fitted one, makes me look HUGE. DH saw me trying it on, and when he couldn’t refrain from laughing I knew the gig was up.

So here I was, trying to wrestle my way back out of it, and ended up taking it down instead of up to take it off. Pause, glance in mirror… It looked really cute, as a skirt. Plus, at this guage and in this yarn, it's certainly firm enough to be a skirt.

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I let it rest for a day or so while I pondered the idea, and I decided to go for it. The hard part right now is I want to do a few decreases above the hip before the waist, and I’m trying to figure out how to do that and maintain the ribbing as well as possible.

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I want them to fall here on the backside, and I'd like to maintain the ribbing as much as possible. I need to decrease about 8 stitches overall, two per dart. I want to keep the vertical lines from the outside ribbing and bring them in - first across a purl rib, then across a knit rib. I have about 16 rounds to work them in. I don't want it to be too abrupt, but I don't want to drag them out forever, either.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Nightmares!

Argh! My Tunic is giving me nightmares. The gauge is right for the stitches, but off for the rows - by a LOT. I cut short 4 rows on the ribbing, and it's still 1.5 inches too long. At one point I thought I'd just continue as is and knit it for my dear sis, but now I'm starting to think of modifying the pattern significantly -as in, turn it into a skirt. I know, you all think I'm crazy. I think I better put it aside for a day and get a little perspective - I'll think on it again tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Must... Knit...

I'm going through withdrawls. I haven't knit at all today. You'll see I've done a lot of other work, changing my site over. Look it over, check it out, play with it a little. Let me know what you like, and what you don't. It's a work in progress.

I'm going to get off the computer (as soon as I finish the 500 other things I have to do) so I can sit and KNIT tonight. I still have to frog on that Tunic...

In the beginning...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genisis 1:1)

"All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." (John 1:3)

And so begins my new adventure. I plan to migrate all my knitting content to this blog, while maintaining The Ruby Life for family stuff. I hope this will clear up some of the confusion and allow for better access to what you, dear reader, are interested in. I may cross reference from time to time, but I will try to keep the posts targeted to the stated topic.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Steady as she goes

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Neil took this picture of me this afternoon. Apparently, I knit in my sleep now.

I'm up to the gusset stitches on my Tiger Pants. I'll finish that and graft tomorrow, and then start on the legs.

For only 5 days into the knitting olympics, I think I'm doing quite well. My biggest obstacle will be if I don't pace myself on the longies and the socks. I know I can get those done lickity split, but if I do I will have only the tunic to finish out the competition. I prefer to have more variety in my knitting day to ward off boredom and sore hands.

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I'm crusing right along on the Hippie Tunic - I'm now up to the ribbed waistband. Two days of 2x2 should cheer me up to go back to the lace pattern....
...Oh, great. Just realized I forgot to change needle sizes three rows ago when I switched into the ribbing... Argh! I'm going to have to rip that back and switch needles. :( At least it's only 3 rows.

Great Expectations

With all this knitting olympic fever in the house, I decided it was time for some ground rules. Specifically, ground rules related to the other people in my house, in support of my knitting. I found a great list of Support Team Roles and Responsibilities, published by Megknitficent. It clearly outlines what I expect of DH and the kids during this period of extreme knitting.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

What event is this?

I had to break out my calculator today. Apparently my math is rustier than I thought, because I had figured out the short rows for my Tiger pants and the repeats for my Hippie Tunic all wrong. Apparently I was planning on knitting dresses for Zeke and I, instead of pants and a tunic. I had 78 rounds for Zekes pants instead of 35 (forgot to divide in half for front and back and allow for short rows in back), and I had 31 repeats of the lace pattern instead of 31 rounds in the lace pattern for the Hippie Tunic.

I discovered all this when figuring out how much knitting I need to do each day to finish on time. With my incorrect numbers, the task seemed very daunting. Now that I have everything worked out right (hopefully), it seems much more manageable.

I'm nearly finished with my first pair of baby socks!
Baby Socks
I think the next pair I'll knit a little bigger, as these are a little short for my big footed baby. Have I mentioned before their shoe sizes? At 37 months, Jackson wears a toddler 10. At 19 months, Nicholas wears a toddler 6 (he has very thick ankles). I have no idea what size Zeke is, but I figure he's on par, since his feet are quite long. These socks will work for him for a little while, but not too long.

Malabrigo Tiger Pants
I had to rip back a few rows on these to reposition the short rows. Can you see how beautiful the Malabrigo stitches are? They're so uniform and smooth... I love it.

I'm about 10% done with the Hippie Tunic. I need to knit aproximately 15 rounds a day to finish before the Olympics are over. So far, I'm on track.
Hippie Tunic
I love the pattern. It reminds me of a crochet afgan my mother once made. I think that's how I associate it so well with "hippie." I do keep thinking I should have knit it in hemp...

Keep watching, I hope to have my first FO tomorrow!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

A little shopping, a little sightseeing

I've been working on my Ravelympics projects. Today I added some rows to the Hippie Tunic and Tiger pants.
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The Hippie Tunic has a great lace effect for a chunky yarn. I love how it looks like a net, and how it builds concentric V's around a tulip shape. You can't see it too well in the picture, but maybe once I get a few more rounds on it will be clearer.
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My Tiger Pants are coming along nicely. I love how drapy the Malabrigo is - it just flows. If I set it down it pools almost like water. I can tell they are going to be super comfy for baby Zeke. Plus it's so soft, I could just sit and knit with it for HOURS.
I went out in search of needles for my baby socks. I thought I'd try Magic Loop, but I couldn't find 32" or longer US 3s, so I went with DPNs. And I went with cheep DPNs, so I could get this:
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Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino in Fern Mix. I'm hoping to do the long sleeves from One Skein. I think the mohair haze will tone down the varigation enough to make it look super fine.
Oh yes, the baby socks.
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These little cuties knit up super fast. I could do a sock a day. It took a little bit to get used to the stretchy yarn and the way the pattern marks rounds and the heel section. The pattern says to work on two circular needles, but I don't have two circs so I got DPNs. Instead of using stitch markers, it calls for keeping all the heel stitches on one needle and all the top stitches on the second needle. I ended up using one DPN for the top stitches and two needles for the heel and gusset stitches. I then used a stitch marker to mark the start of round for the gussets.

Opening Ceremonies

I watched the beginning and ending of Opening Ceremonies last night. It was spectacular! I saw the 2008 drummers (that's two-thousand eight musicians/artists) with the syncronized drumming. I loved the colors - the gold and red together. I may have to look for some yarns in a similar colorway. Anyway they were all together, perfectly syncronized. Their drumsticks and drums lit up as well. It was REALLY cool.
I cast on for Tiger Pants and for Hippie Tunic. Pictures are forthcoming - a friend borrowed my camera for a wedding. Anyway, casting on for Tiger Pants was hell - my figures were off. The directions say you need an even number of stitches, but I found I needed stitches divisible by 4 for the 2x2 ribbing. I ripped it out 3 times before i finally got it right. I'm now past the ribbing and the first set of short rows, and it's looking good! I have no doubt that it will be finished in time.
The Hippie Tunic didn't give me quite as much trouble, except that I cast on a little tight and the first row is a lace pattern row. I had a hard time with the ssks and k2togs. That I also had to rip back about 70 stitches on. I believe that when you first start a project, it is important to start it right to build a good foundation for what is to come. I insist on fixing small problems that I would probably let slide later in my knitting.
I'm going shopping later for needles for the baby socks. I have to decide if I want to Magic Loop them or use DPNs for size 3s. Any preferences? Maybe bamboo?
Oh yes. I went to AuneGirl's for the Opening Ceremony for the knitting olympics. It was a great party! HiLite had some music selected, and she and AuneGirl had a torch ceremony all planned out. I made some Sweet Taffy Apple Tartlets for everyone.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Gearing up for the games

I swatched for my This Tiger Pants, using the Itchy Fingers pattern in Malabrigo.
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My guage on 7s is 4 stiches and 5 rows per inch, so about on target for worsted weight. I love how the colors pool - we'll see how that plays out in the actual pants, or if it does end up looking more "stripey" as I predict.

I did try a run of "knitting backwards," and I'm so glad I don't have a project that will require that for this Ravelympics. It was doable, but very slow.

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Why, yes, this IS a hand-wound, center pull ball. I know, my mother taught me well. :D

I still need to learn Magic Loop, but I figure those baby socks won't take long anyway, so I'll either learn tomorrow night at the Cast On party or Saturday at Barnes and Noble.

Hmm.. I still need to track down the needles I need for my Hippie Tunic.

Alright, I'm all geared up to cast on... Tomrrow at 7am CST - or, perhaps I'll wait until after coffee....

Monday, August 4, 2008

Training and qualifiers

The knitting olymics are fast approaching, set to coincide with the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Cast on is at 7:00 am CST on Friday, August 8th, same time as opening ceremonies.
I will be competing at the Ravelympics on Ravelry.com with Team Tardis (is my Doctor Who fanatacism showing?).
My events include: Sock Put, Sweater Sprint, and Baby Dressage.I plan to knit four projects in ten days. The "This Tiger Pants" for baby Zeke, two pairs of baby socks in red/orange and green, and a tunic style sweater for me.
So far, I have wound my Malabrigo for This into a ball. I still have to swatch for This and for my tunic, and learn magic loop for the socks.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

You guessed it!

It's Malabrigo merino worsted in the Roanoke Gold colorway. I think it looks tigerish, and will make adorable longies for baby Zeke. :) I'm saving them for the Ravelympics. Go Team Tardis!