I'm back!

After going on a bit of a knitting hiatus I have finally started knitting again!

I just finished my entrelac scarf that I started way back in April (maybe March?). It's currently blocking on the floor in my room. I started this after a bad breakup and end of a 3 1/2 year relationship. I restarted it a week ago after a slight heartbreak.
I promised my mom I would knit her a shawl for Mother's Day which didn't exactly happen...The pattern she picked out used Kidsilk Haze which was such a pain to knit with. I was dropping stitches and messing up the pattern all over the place so I just stopped after 2 rows and 2 attempts at restarting. So now I'm going to knit her a smaller Lady Eleanor using the same color Noro I used for my scarf. I'm just waiting for the yarn to come in the mail!

I started another scarf, the Corrugator, using Andean Silk. I modified it to be skinnier and to hopefully be long enough using 2 skeins. It's been a very quick and mindless knit. I just finished 1 skein.
I've decided I'm not going to start any more projects until I finish my scarf, Elisa's Nest Tote, and a few other FOs that I have.....

Apple Entrelac

My Macbook came in the mail on Thursday (yes, yes last week). It's so pretty and sleek!

Unfortunately it doesn't want to connect to the internet at home without being plugged into the line. In other words I have to call Verizon...

I've started another scarf using Noro Kureyon (170) that I bought from Diva Knitting. I highly suggest buying from them shipping is cheap and so is the price of Noro (Kureyon and Silk Garden). I really like the colors. They're so bright, bold, and pretty.

I modified the Entrelac Scarf Pattern from Freckles and Purls to have smaller 6 stitch squares instead of 8 stitches. I love how it's turning out!

I've been lusting over the Drops Jacket especially after seeing flintknits' and theyarniad's on Ravelry. I love the color of flintknits' but Rowanspun Chunky has been discontinued and I can't seem to find it at a relatively cheap price. Webs has Classic Al on sale so I'm thinking of buying it in either black or green...decisions decisions...

Ms. Marigold...failure again

I just finished Ms. Marigold. The neckline is huge. The ribbing is too stretchy and it goes down too far past my chest. Ugh. I think later I might redo the bind off to make it tighter. The pictures make it look so much better then it actually does but don't be fooled it looks awful. I'm so mad and disappointed.

I started a new entrelac scarf using Noro Kureyon. One can never have too many scarves, right?

gold ipod shuffle anyone?

For $10,000 this 18 carat gold ipod shuffle can be yours! Now who wouldn't want that?
Today I ordered my Macbook Pro for college!!! It's a birthday, Christmas, and graduation present for the next 20 years according to my father....I'm so excited! It's supposed to be delivered sometime between April 3 and the 9th. Hopefully, it will be here on the 3rd for my birthday. This of course was an all day process because my dad insisted on reading every single printer review ever put on the internet.

I also completed the armholes for Ms. Marigold. I just have to finish the neckline and then I'm all done!

Ms. Marigold

My first attempt at Ms. Marigold didn't go so well. I think I started it in November or October and never finished it because it came out too big and too short. I didn't get gauge (too tight) so I did some crazy math and decided that I should make a large. It was my first garment so I had no idea that by making a large my armholes would be giant. Ah, it's such a failure. I Here's the old one:

Last weekend I decided to reknit my Ms. Marigold. This time I got better gauge. It's turning out really well. It's not too big or too small and the armholes aren't big enough to fit my hips! I'm almost done, I just have to finish the armholes, knit the ribbing for the neck, and weave in the ends.
Today I received my order from KnitPicks! I had to order new needle tips to knit my mom a shawl and some other things just jumped into my cart... Originally my mom was supposed to knit the shawl for herself. I tried to reteach her to knit last year but never really happened.
I think I'm going to knit another Braided Cable Hat with the Andean Silk.

Polka dots, cables, and a sweater...

I have a problem. I cannot stop casting on for new WIPs when I already have many in progress. I decided that my stash is too big, meaning that instead of buying new yarn I should knit from my stash. As a result I cast on for a neck warmer using Alchemy Sanctuary and a stitch that I found in the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary.

Last weekend, I also started a sweater using the Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan. I'm using Caron Simply Soft from my stash because well...what else am I going to do with 2 skeins of it?
I've made little progress with my polka dotted mittens. I'm still on the first one, but I am almost done. I've been having tension issues with the purple yarn being too tight in the space between each polka dot. Carrying the yarn (I'm not sure if that's the correct term) to the next polka dot was probably not the best idea. Each time I put my had in the mitten in gets caught in between all the carried purple yarn. I really like the colors though!

Cap Karma

Last night I finished my Cap Karma. I casted on 16 less stitches than the pattern specified to take into account the heavier weight yarn that I used, Madil Iceland. I used size 7 needles for the ribbing and size 9 for the rest of the hat. I used Brooklyntweed's modifications for the crown shaping. Unfortunately the hat turned out too long so I'm mailing it to Pat. I'm definitely going to make another one for myself especially since it only took 2 days to knit.

Home from Chicago

Chicago was very cold and windy. It snowed quite frequently...





I got a lot of use out of my Natalya Gloves. They were pretty warm.

Pat and I went to Loopy Yarns which is an awesome store. They have a large selection of all different kinds of yarns. My yarn was nicely rolled up in tissue paper after being purchased. I highly suggest checking them out of you're ever in the area. I ended up buying:I also bought a skein of Iceland in forest green which I'm currently using to make a hat.
Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go to other yarn stores :(

New Yarn, New Mittens

Oh weather, why do you never cease to disappointment me? Sunday it snowed frantically. It looked like a blizzard leading one to believe that this would go on for hours, ultimately resulting in a snow day. It only lasted 5 minutes....


Saturday I went to the yarn store with the intention of buying one skein of Frog Tree Merino Wool but ended up with that plus a skein of Noro Cash Iroha and a skein of Manos Silk Blend.


I finished my Natalya Gloves, but I still have to weave in all of those stupid ends. I had just enough yarn! I'm so glad I didn't have to go buy another skein. I made sure they had extras when I went to the LYS.


I started a new pair of mittens using the Cash Iro and Manos Silk Blend that I bought! The two yarns are really similar in thickness and go nicely together. I couldn't decide on a colorwork pattern so I made two little swatches...


I ultimately decided on the polkadots. Here are my mittens in the process:

I made a stupid mistake on the second row of polkadots. I forgot a row leaving me with a row of deformed polkadots :( I hate frogging so it will remain there forever. I won't be able to finish these until I get back from Chicago and the shore.

Danica and Gloves

My Danica has finished blocking! I used 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden on size 8 needles. I had a bit of the third skein left over. My only complaint is that in the third skein there was some random ugly light pink greyish color that wasn't in the other skeins. I ripped that color out because it looked awful. I'm going to be wearing this when I go to Chicago next Friday!!

The colors in the second photo aren't entirely accurate. It's more purple than blue.

I'm almost done with my Natalya Gloves, just 4 more gingers to go. I modified the pattern to extend the finger section so that they would be gloves instead of fingerless mittens. I made the arm part way to long. I wanted them to be shorter than the ones pictures in the pattern. I meant to make them 3inches instead of 6inches long. I was too lazy to get a ruler so I just knit them until I thought they were 3 inches long which turned out to be 6 inches....bah. Because of the length issue I might not have enough yarn. I have a tiny bit to finish 4 fingers....

I will be really mad if I have to buy another skein to finish these gloves, although Malabrigo is quite yummy I'm not a huge fan of the color I picked. I swear it looked darker and more green/blue than green/white in the store.

I've been really busy due to midterms, which ended this week finally....

I finished my Herringbone Mittens last weekend. The purple bled a little dulling the green yarn a bit. I should have added one more repeat to make them longer. They're still a little short but I still love them!


Pat asked me to make him a dark green hat for Valentine's Day. I used the Basic Cable Hat pattern from Stitch n' Bitch Nation but added extra length to the ribbing. I used Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Cashmere which is a gorgeous yarn. It's very soft and has a nice sheen. The only bad thing is that it comes in teenie tiny 25g skeins. The picture doesn't do the hat or yarn justice. Hopefully this hat will fit and won't be too long.

Herringbone Mittens

I finished one of the Herringbone Mittens. I wish I added one more repeat of the pattern because the mitten is a little short. I blocked it which helped greatly, but I still wish it was just a tad longer. I think I may re-block it when I'm done with the second mitten. The second one is in progress...I'm hoping to finish it by Saturday.
I've been working on Danica. I only have 1/2 a ball of Silk Garden to go! I forgot to take a picture, but it looks lovely.

Mittens

I finished the Manly Mitts 2 days ago. I made a mistake in the color work for the first one but it's not very noticable. There is less puckering in the second mitten. This project was super easy. It was my first time making mittens and using color work. I used Cascade 220 and size 5 needles.
I also gave Pat his hat after redoing the bind off. It fits him!!

Saturday I started another pair of mittens using this pattern. I'm using Cascade 220 in purple and green. I omitted the strip at the bottom of the cuff. I'm very happy with the way they're turning out.

Hat and Manly Mitts

I finished the hat for Pat. I had to rip out where I bound off and redo it because the bind off was way too tight. He couldn't get it onto his head. It fit my head so I guess his head is just monstrous. It's done and hopefully it will fit!

I'm almost done with the manly mitts. I finished the first one before Christmas. I just have to finish the thumb of the second mitten. The first one was a little big on Pat so I made the second one shorter.

Christmas

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas!


I didn't receive any knitting related gifts for Christmas. This could possibly be because I didn't ask for any?However, I bought myself some nice yarn a few days before Christmas in New York City at Purl and School Products. I bought 2 skeins of Karabella's Aurora 8, 2 skeins of Karabella's Iris, 1 skein of Alchemy's Sanctuary, and 1 skein of Rowan's Cashsoft DK.



Currently I'm knitting Danica out of Noro Silk Garden:













A scarf made with Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk:














I have to rip out the bottom of this hat and reknit it looser so it fits on my boyfriend's head














I also have to finish knitting 1 more mitten made from Knitty's Manly Mittens pattern.