bullseye!

at long last i have another knitting post! i have been remiss for ages, i know. there were finals and life was busy. but believe you me gentle readers, nary a day went by where i didn't pick up the old needles. the problem is i was working on two ginormous projects simultaneously. my supersecret project that i cannot post here, and this one:



i loves her so! i took the pattern for a round baby blanket and modified it slightly. that is, where it says to YO, i knit into the front and back of the stitch. this kept the overall form of the blanket exactly the same, but didn't make those decorative pinwheelie holes. the total size is about 4 or 5 feet in diameter. an odd size, but a nice lap blanket. i still need to work in the ends, but i thought you kids deserved a new post.



and now, the skinny. i found some voodoo yarn at a dollar store, so i picked up a ton and decided to make a fuzzy blanket. this is that blanket. i started out knitting on double points size 10 1/2, and moved to size 11 circs when i ran out of space. this project is a perfect excuse to pick up that interchangeable needle set that you've been dying to get. the yarn calls for size 13 needles, but i wanted a tighter knit. in retrospect i should've used 13s, but the blanket is still pretty awesome.

the stripes are done using numbers of skeins as a guideline instead of numbers of rows. with 60yd skeins, this is way easier than dealing with millions of ends. the pattern is:
10 rows red, 10 rows white
1 skein red, 1 skein white (+ remainder of first)
2 skeins red, 1 skein white
3 skeins red, 1 skein white
4 skeins red, 1 skein white
5 skeins red (last 10 rows are in garter stitch to prevent curling)




if you are going to make this, it's way fun. the one thing to keep in mind is that when knitting out from the center of a circle, it takes way longer with each row. by the time i reached the end an entire skein went around the diameter only one and a half times.

DIFFICULTY:
AWESOMENESS:

sock (no, not socks)

i finished my stripey sock.



i was so excited to bind off. i used the same pattern that i'd used on my other socks. basically a 52st circumference, 52 stitches between toe and heel decreases, then the same up the leg. on size 3s. i even went up to 56 for the foot. unfortunately, this yarn is apparently a lot smaller than the others. these socks are tiny. not good for my size 12 tootsies at all. more like a size 8. ah well. i've only made the one, and the twin may be made if i think of someone who they'd fit.

the self-striping yarn is pretty awesome though, eh?



on another note...binding off on toe up socks. very hard. i used size 10 1/2 needles (up from 3s) and that seemed to work. i did it with 7s and they were crazy tight. any other thoughts?

DIFFICULTY:
AWESOMENESS:	-

subway knitten

today i was knitting on the subway on my way down to work, as is my wont. the woman sitting next to me asked what i was doing. she was very excited about the whole thing. i was working on my square blanket (not the bullseye, which has become of mythical proportions as i continue to not work on it. but she should be done this weekend.) we proceeded to have a bit of a chat about the merits of continental knitting, and i had to admit i was not yet comfortable enough with the process. she looked at my cables and such and said, "oh, you wouldn't want to do that on that blanket anyway. it's way too complicated." she was impressed. and apparently used to design sweaters. so that was a compliment that i was very happy to receive.

is that aran knitting?

knitting my square blanket on the crosstown bus. i was running late for work, so i didn't have my coffee yet. if you've ever met the ninja, he's a mite cranky when undercaffeinated. especially before noon.
this pleasant looking and rather zoftig woman was talking at me. i sighed, hopefully not audibly, and removed the earphone from my ear. "is that aran knitting you're doing there?" this, in and of itself, is nothing to put one in a particularly good mood. however, the thick irish brogue that she used was fantastic. i suddenly knew that for the next ten minutes that our paths of transit crossed we would be the best of friends. she liked my pattern and asked about the yarn, and was quite surprised it was cotton. she told me tails of when she used to knit and how she and her friends would make socks and the like. it was great to see her so excited.
she then asked me where she could pick up yarn and seemed very motivated to start knitting again. i love it when that happens.