Progress...

How's your week going? Mine's been good - splitting time between the bakery and the office, doing a little crafting and reading, and hanging out with D. No updates on Pistachia Vera, but I'm pretty content. The owner of the bakery returned from his trip this week and was very appreciative of my extra helping-out during his absence, and has promised to make it up to me by getting me involved with the cakes. Yea!

The back of Cherry is about two thirds complete - a pretty fast knit so far. I had to take a night off from knitting though, because I was having severe neck and shoulder cramps. Does this happen to anyone else? Knitting is supposed to be this relaxing, meditative hobby and instead I give myself neck strain. Anyhow, I modified the decreasing and increase a little to make it a more petite fit - in other words, a shorter upper body. Instead of decreasing every 7 and 8 rows, I did every 6. Same with the increases. Overall, it is an inch shorter in length than the pattern specifies.


Remember when I was swatching for the charcoal vest? Unfortunately I'm learning that I'm a seasonal knitter, and with the warm weather and all, it has been temporarily abandoned. if there's a cold spell, I may pick this one up and knit a few rows...

I have some movies to catch up on tonight - Hairspray and Becoming Jane - girly movies that I rented while D was away but never got around to watching. I'm sure he'll be thrilled.

Super Striped Vest!

What do you do with all those leftover yarn bits from other finished projects? Like most knitters, I hang onto them, hoping to put them to some good use so I can call myself an environmentally friendly, conscientious crafter. However, the pile does get out of hand, and every now and then I feel the need to conquer my mess. Alot of leftovers projects just aren't all that appealing, though. There are plenty of suggestions for using up your leftovers, but they leave something to be desired. Things such as wrist bands, head bands, cell phone cozies, tiny ornamental Christmas sweaters, washcloths, and the like...they're just not very useful things to me.

I saved up all my bits of leftover Lamb's Pride worsted weight wool and ended up making this striped vest, which is very loosely based on this Leftovers Vest pattern from Knitty. I knit this on US8 circulars and did a quick gauge calculation to determine the number of stitches to cast on (I must have measured another sweater for circumference) and worked a 2x2 ribbing until I basically got bored of doing that. With this being my first striped project, I was having a hard time choosing my striping pattern so I borrowed the stripes chart from the Peppermint Twist sweater in Stitch n Bitch: Knitter's Handbook. And, I used these instructions for doing jogless stripes:

I'm not sure if I did it right, but it looks fine to me - not very joggy at all. I made some guesses on where to start dividing for the collar and armholes, then seamed it up at the shoulders. Stitches were picked up at the collar and armholes (which turned out a little tight, but not tight enough that I was willin to rip back and start over).


This is my winter super-vest. D and I walked around the North Market today to take these photos, and I even with my jacket wide open I was still getting hot. Next time, I'd knit Lamb's Pride worsted on slightly bigger needles for a slightly cooler-wearing project. Overall I quite like this yarn, it's got a great colour selection (have I said this already?) and the mohair gives it a nice, soft fuzziness too. This is probably the the most colourful winter thing I wear.

So, what are you going to do with your leftovers?

Tweeds and Heathers

Today I am home with a headache, so I am sitting around trying to find something to do that won't give me a headache, which means I have to write this post pretty fast. I don't have any really thrilling news to share, other than the fact that I applied for four jobs, knitted some more of Ene, watched the Buckeyes lose their big final game, watched some of the New Hampshire stuff, and scoped out a karaoke bar. This afternoon I will be visiting Ms. Zarafa, who is kindly sharing her the use of her amazing ball winding machine! Yippee! (You have to be a pretty major knitting nerd to appreciate the wonders this little thing can do). After this post, I'm going to dig up some projects that need frogging.

I've also been thinking about what I'd like to make next, and vests have really caught my interest - a nice tweedy wooly vest to wear over a button down shirt or long-sleeved tee would be good for this really unpredictable weather we're having.

Yesterday, I accidentally acquired some new yarn. There was a 25% off sale at Heavenly Creations Yarn Shop so I dropped by 'for a quick peek' and ended up with yarn for two new projects. Here is some Plymouth Galway Highland Heather in a rusty coral colour:

I was thinking of a cabled vest like this (Pattern is Paton's, but this one is by Celtic Cast On):

But I also wanted something more simple and wearable, and this Plymouth Tweed caught my eye:

I really like this vest, made by sky blue cardigan:

This is probably the pattern I'll follow (which H gave me last year, and I still haven't used):

Time to go nurse my headache now.