Finished All ... except... 6.26.11

Well, it only took losing 3 kids  (3/8) to finish the knitting part of my summer shawlette. My 3 wonderful God Children have gone home to live with their father.  You saw photos of Holly in the volleyball pics in an earlier post.  I am sure you will be seeing photos of all of them if you continue to read this fabulous blog (all 0 of you who are following it), as I intend to knit their Christmas gifts...

So here is a photo of the finished ... except shawlette:

So what is the except?  Weaving in the yarn from when I had to add another ball, and then blocking it.  Here is a close-up of the pattern:

The color is gorgeous.  The feel is fabulous (silk and bamboo).  The shawlette is indeed a shawlette meaning TINY.  Perhaps I should have really looked at the finished dimensions before I decided not to expand it...  But it is very very pretty and did I forget to mention FINISHED?  except... Well I shall weave in ends today, and I have to buy the special soap for soaking then blocking, but, it should be completely finished by tonight.  As it is so tiny, I am thinking of giving it to my niece who is 5.

Next exciting news is that I have now crocheted my first Rose and 2 rose leaves using the Irish Lace book.

I am noticing that all of my photos are blurry.  This is disconcerting since my idiot-proof camera is supposed to auto-focus.  Since I have an astigmatism, and rarely wear glasses for it, I can't always tell if something is blurred or if it is just my eyes...  Hmmm.  I am going to post this anyway, then try to take some better photos for the next post.  Perhaps if I held the camera a bit more steady?

Anyway, I really want to make this "opera bag" from the Irish Lace book.  As far as I can tell, it is just a collection of motifs:  flowers, spirals, stars, leaves, etc., laced together with a cool lace border and then a rope strap.  I plan to make the various designs in the book and when I have enough for 2 sides of a bag, lace them together.  By "lace them together" I mean, use the lace crochet techniques in the book for connecting motifs.  This will be certainly long-term, but each piece will be short.  My favorite kind of project since it will seem that I am continually finishing stuff!  I am reading the directions for the Wild Rose.  The first line says something like "make a small loop of pl."  the PL means Picot loops, ok, that is easy, but what is a small loop?  how small?  One of the interesting things about Irish Lace patterns is that they aren't exactly patterns, since as the author says, every lace maker uses different tension, different size stitches, etc, so they can only suggest the number of stitches certain things will use.  I of course, in new things, like EXACT PATTERNS with EXACT NUMBERS.  But I will try hard not to freak out and just be creative and trust my own judgment. After all, if it is too big, I can just rip it out.

O!  I also found a new blog that I am following on my kindle.  It is    Knitqwik by Marla Theodoro.  So far it is a new pattern with every post.  That is about it.  Not a lot of chat, just a complete "free" pattern.  But since I pay $.99/month, that is a lot of free patterns every month.  Also it has the market bag pattern I saw mentioned in another blog I read (forget which one), and really want to make.  If that bag isn't too hard/long, I might make some for my sisters for Christmas gifts.  How Green of me.

I wanted to say also, that not only did I lose my 3 God Children  (they left Friday morning), but also my youngest son who left last night for 5 weeks in Pittsburgh to dance/study ballet with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School.  I am down to half my kids.  Will I get a lot of knitting/crocheting done?  or will I just mope around missing the kids?

C. A. Losi

Finished with Part 3 6.23.11

My summer mystery shawlette (from WendyKnits) is almost done.  I am so excited to actually finish a project. Of course I haven't actually finished it yet.  But I have finished part 3.  You can see my purse in the bottom left corner, and my shoe in the bottom right corner of this fabulous photo.  I took it with my crappy phone at the dentist's office where I finished this section.  I have already printed out the last section, Part 4, and am ready to go.  As this shawlette started on the bottom with a giant cast on row, and is getting smaller by 4 stitches every other row, it is now knitting up VERY quickly.  However.  I kind of wish I had paid more attention to the finished specs.  It is indeed a "shawlette" and seems to be a bit small.  I was thinking of giving it to my mom at some future date, but I am not sure it is big enough.   I might give it to one of my little nieces as a dress up piece.  I shall have to see the finished piece to decide.

Anyway, I am excited to have finished another section.  Tonight I am volunteering at the swim meet so I will be totally busy.  But tomorrow I take my god kids to the airport, there is opportunity for knitting while I wait for their plane to take off....

C. A. Losi

Summer Mystery Shawlette Part 3 6.20.11

I had to drive kids to the dentist today, so I made really good progress on the shawlette!  I am on the third iteration of part 3.  I now have only 1 repeat of the 12 stitch repeatable section in the center.  It is almost done.  The only problem is that my kindle is no longer downloading that blog.  So I am going to have to go online and check the blog and print out the instructions beyond part 3.  I hate that.  I really love reading these knitting blogs on my kindle.  I have no reason why they suddenly stop downloading.

I have made another "rose petal" in Irish lace crochet.  I am now working on a rose.  I will post some photos soon.

Trying to knit more each day.  I didn't walk today though =(  BAD GIRL.

C. A. Losi

Hello?

June 16, 2011

I am still SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLY working on 3 projects.  I have not picked up the square from James's afghan in a week.  I am afraid I will not remember how to follow that pattern =(.

I have not picked up the puppets in even longer.  I have actually moved them to my office.  Out of sight, out of mind.

I am still knitting on the shawlette.  I keep separating the directions from the bag with the project which makes it hard to work on it in the car.  Today, Luke has a massage.  That means about 1 hour of straight knitting. I should make some progress.  The shawl begins at the bottom and gets smaller and smaller with each row.  It is actually knitting fairly quickly now.

I am still fooling around with the Irish lace book.  There is an "opera bag" project in it that is fabulous.  When I finish up the shawlette, I will start on that.  I will make a ton of small flowers and leaves, then basically connect them together with chains.  I will try to scan the photo in the book somehow and post it.  It is not so much a "pattern" as an idea.  You could make what ever flowers, motifs you want, then just connect them together, and put in a silk or some other fabric liner.

My god children (who we have been fostering this year) are going home in 1 week.  Also, my youngest son is leaving the next day to dance in Pittsburgh for 5 weeks.  Then one week later, number 4 child (also a son) is leaving for 3 weeks in France. The house will be quite empty.  I hope to get into a really nice knitting, writing, walking, Aion schedule =)  Maybe I will finish up all my projects and get to start some socks!

I'm excited.

C. A. Losi

mea culpa 6.10.11

1. I got my daughter's copy of the new Interweave Crochet magazine this week.  I have dropped EVERYTHING and started trying to crochet Irish lace.  Not kidding.  Totally obsessed with it.  So far I have successfully crocheted a triangle and 2 rose leaves.  I downloaded this book for about $3 on my kindle (Kindle, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers) and have been playing with the motifs.  Totally cool.

2. I keep thinking I will finish my puppets, but have been playing way too much Aion Aion: Assault on Balaurea.  I really need to get a schedule set where I dedicate at least 1 hour in the morning to knitting/crocheting, and another in the evening.  I am determined to finish these.

3. I haven't made much progress on the latest square of James's afghan either!  I am at the last weird place in the center square, and need to be able to just sit for about 30 min. with no interruptions to do that row.  Then I will start on the mitered outer section.


4. I have made some progress on the Summer Mystery Shawlette that I am knitting as part of the KAL (knit a long) with the WendyKnits blog.  I was so proud last post because I was sure that I had discovered a flaw in the pattern.  I went back and actually READ THE DIRECTIONS, not just the chart, and noticed that where I thought she was 1 stitch short, she had directed that the section marker be slipped off, and 1 stitched stolen from the next section...   Wow, I feel foolish.  I am still proud that I can read charts.  Perhaps someday I will be proud of my ability to read directions.


5. There is a giant pile of laundry waiting to be folded.


Both my cats are sleeping upstairs.


Got to love cats.


C. A. Losi

Summer Mystery Shawlette - Part 2 5.31.11

It is the Tuesday after Memorial Day.  The weekend was full of knitting, laundry, and Aion.  Ok, 2 out of 3 were fun.

I cranked like crazy on my Knit a long Summer Mystery Shawlette Part 2 from WendyKnits and caught up!  Maybe I'm not such a slow knitter after all...

This is completed Part 1:

And here completed through Part 2:

Here is a close up of the pattern so far:

I'm not sure how much of it you can see.  But I felt it was worth a try.

What have I learned so far:
This lace pattern is really easy. It involves

YO (yarn overs) an increase that leaves a hole
K2Tog (knit 2 together) which is a right leaning decrease
SSK (slip as to knit 2 times, pass back to the left needle, then insert the right needle into the back and knit)  A left leaning decrease
Sl1, K2tog, PSSO (Slip one as to purl, knit 2 tog, pass the slipped stitch over the knit2tog )  this is a way to knit 3 stitches together having no "leaning, " but a centered stitch.

These are all easy stitches, yet I am able to forget which one I'm doing and do the wrong one (with the leaning stitches), YO the wrong way!  or completely forget to YO, or even forget to Pass over the slipped stitch.

I hope to never look too closely at the part 1 of this shawlette.  I did better at part 2.  I am getting better at fixing my mistakes, though.  My most common problem is forgetting to YO or YO the wrong direction.  If I forgot, I just pick up the yard from below and put it on the needle as I'm purling back (all the even rows are purled). 

I have found what I'm sure is an error in the pattern for Part 2.  I checked on Wendy's group for this shawl on Ravelry, but didn't see anyone else commenting on it.  In Row 1, the first section is the decrease section.  It ends with 10 stitches on the needle.  This section is repeated after the middle stitch of the shawl.  But, Row 2 needs 11 stitches for the first decrease section.  I wasn't sure what to do.  The problem is that the last "stitch" in the section is a Sl1,K2tog,Psso which needs 3 stitches, but there were only 2 stitches left in that section.  This is also the last "stitch" in the 12 stitch repeating part of the pattern, so I figured that I needed somehow to do this, and not just a K2Tog, which is possible with 2 stitches. 

Is this making sense?  I wish I had some way to show the knitting symbols, as I think it would make more sense.

Anyway, I decided to just pick up a stitch and muscle on.  I am really proud of my self that I found the error.  I would be a bit more secure if Wendy would comment on the error in her blog, validating my find.  She should be posting the next part of the shawlette soon, if not today.  I generally read the blog on my Kindle.  And, I have noticed that the blog shows up on the website earlier than on the Kindle.  So I shall check her website blog, and report back.



I worked only a tiny bit on James's afghan, and not at all on my puppets, as I wanted to catch up on the shawlette.  Also, as I wrote earlier, I played tons of Aion, and did tons of laundry (no photos or links for that, just lots of clean clothes at our house.)

C. A. Losi

Progress 5.25.11

Although I don't have a new photo to post, I am almost (about 5 rows to go) finished with the center section of the latest square for James's afghan .  I think (knock on wood) that this is my very first error free square.  It is by far the hardest I have attempted.  For me, knitting is like math.  I can only learn by doing.  Often, as I'm reading directions, I am totally confused.  But as I follow them, step by step, stitch by stitch, they become clearer.

I did follow my "schedule"  for the last 2 days.  I am trying to knit each morning for 1 episode of  Buffy. 











I worked on my puppets

I took the 3 finished main bodies.  Stuffed the heads:

then cinched in the necks, and wove in all the threads. :

Wow, that took the whole episode.  Yesterday, I worked on the first arm.  I haven't crocheted in a while, and I kept losing a stitch as I spiraled around.  Also, my yarn is a bit larger than the recommended yarn, so I think the arm is just too big.  The end part seems really big.

It is supposed to look a bit like a hand, and for my puppet, the hand is as big as the arm!  I think I am going to take the hand part out, and alter the pattern a bit to make it smaller.That took a whole episode.  At this rate, I will finish Buffy before I finish these puppets.

Just to make my finishing each project even slower, I have started a 3rd project.  I am totally enjoying reading various knitting blogs.  On Wendy Knits, Wendy has started a "mystery shawl."  I don't really wear shawls.  I am more the jeans and t-shirts, sweatshirts, sweater, type.  But, it looked like fun.  So, I have decided to knit a long. She is releasing the pattern bit by bit. 

We are supposed to use sock yarn and, of course, I couldn't find sock yarn in a color I liked at my local Jo Ann's.  I don't have a close LYS (Local Yarn Shop). So I chose some yarn that is almost sock yarn. I'm using Patons Silk Bamboo in Orchid.  Wow, it is soft and lovely to the touch.  I have finished the set up (casting on 241 stitches, and knitting 2 rows), and 1 row of the pattern. 

I will have to knit like crazy to catch up because I started a week late.  I will try to not be worried about that, though.  There is also a group for this shawl on Ravelry.com Ravelry:Forums.

Enough said.  Back to Buffy, and row 2.

C. A. Losi