cute, tiny IGK

IGK: instant gratification knitting

i needed it badly.

the gifted purple sweater was made just in time for my cousin Lucy's 1st birthday. She looks smashing in purple.



This short sleeved wrap sweater has a fun picot edge around the neck that i just adore. it ties around the back too. Lulu is a fabulous model on her toy car.



just plain CUTE (the sweater's not bad either)



specs:
Pattern: Polly by Martin Storey (RYC book)
Yarn: RYC cashsoft DK
Needles: US 3,6
mods: none
verdict: loves it

I also made a quick clutch for my friend Coco (she's trading with me, i send her knitting, she sends me homemade jam)



i freaking love buttons




and a magnetic snap closure (pretty sweet invention, i do declare)



Specs:
pattern: my own (its a rectangle with a hem.)
yarn: mission cotton 1824 in rust
needles: US 6
verdict: loves it

IGK was completely necessary for me. I have some long term projects that have had to wait on the back burner because of my busy schedule. Getting a teaching credential is the most ridiculous process. with all the work i'm made to do (with out pay) and classes i have to take you'd think that teachers make a million dollars a year or something. Don't get me wrong, i love it so much. it's rewarding and fun, but it's also very hard and draining. finding time to knit can be a challenge. i'll definitely have to minimize my christmas knitting this year (or just make really tiny projects)

these two projects turned out great, and i'm very pleased with them! :)

give it a spin

so i've been knitting sweaters lately (both in purple). one is for me and one is going to be a gift. I'm knitting "flo" by kim hargreaves and i love it!


the knitting is really very boring. the fun bit happens at the end when i'll add mohair ruffles to the front of the cardigan.

the gift sweater is coming along nicely. more on that later, but here's a peek.



my brother recently came back from a long europe trip, and while he was in denmark he picked out some yarn for me. he surfed knitting blogs to find a yarn shop and did and EXCELLENT job picking out the yarn


it's 70% angora, 10% wool and 20% polymide. this stuff is SOFT and the color is gorgeous (green is my favorite. good job little brother!)

i also decided that i needed to give spinning a try (not that i need another reason to increase my yarn stash). inspired by my little bit of yarn spinning in nazareth, i bought some wool fiber (louet) and got a new drop spindle and went to town.


i'm actually not sure what i'm supposed to do once i have too much on the spindle. how do i make room for more? i have a book on this, but i'm too lazy to find the book. i think the yarn looks pretty :) ooooohhhh colors.....

do you ever get hung up on a certain color? i really like purple right now. i'm not sure how long this will last. maybe just one more sweater....

across the pond (part 2) ISRAEL

i can still hardly believe i was in the holy land. there was SO much to see and we saw it all (sorta) here is just a taste...

King Herod's swimming pool at Ceasarea

Har Megiddo aka Armageddon

A nap on the Sea of Galilee (i can see why jesus took a nap here too)

a piece of the synagogue built by the Roman centurion (Luke 7:1-10)

Spinning yarn in Nazareth

Dome of the Rock, Mount Moriah

2000+ year old olive tree in Gethsemane

knitting in the car after a spa day in the Dead Sea. (two floats and a body mud mask!)

The western wall

entrance to the garden tomb (possible 3 day tomb of jesus)

husband and wife in front of the church of the nativity, Bethlehem

There are many more places that we saw and a lot more photos you can see here
The trip was incredible. i will never forget it!

across the pond (part 1)

For half of June and part of July the hubby and i were across the pond in London and also in Israel. wow, what a trip. here are some highlights of London:

The Orangery, Kensington Gardens (the hubby thinks those are kumquats but i'm convinced they just bonsai-ed some orange trees)


Picadilly Circus (Times Square may have come second, but it pwns picadilly)


Big Ben. A Big Bus tour guide said that Ben is short for Benjamin (naturally) and that we're lucky he wasn't named Big Richard. guffaw.


The London Eye. So much cooler than it seems. it seats 25 people per pod and goes twice the speed of a clock minute hand (ie it takes 30 minutes to go round)


This sign was posted in so many places and yet, i still have no idea what it's trying to say. even the Top Gear guys have made fun of this sign. good ole British bureaucracy for you.

London was loads of fun. we went to two museums and had a pint or two at a pub (or two). i want to go to England again, but this time to see the famous countryside.

next time on blogland: Israel!

butterfly beret (i'm alive)

sorry for the long absence (especially for you, Grandma) but things have been so hectic lately. college is out for summer and this is the last week of school at the high school. i will finally have time to knit!

during the last tedious weeks of college classes i made this little green beret. I haven't had time to photograph it until today!


I'm calling it the butterfly beret because i used the butterfly stitch (which i greatly enjoyed knitting).

(also, i got a new hair cut)

i added this little nub to the end of the beret. it is excessively diverting. berets with nubs are my new favorite thing.

Specs:
Yarn: rowan felted tweed
needles: US 4 and 5 circs, US 5 dpns
pattern: butterfly beret (my own)

if there's any interest for a pattern, let me know. i'll have to knit up another one to recall the decreases and whatnot, but i may be able to do it.

slow going

i haven't posted in a while but i haven't done much knitting either. student-teaching has usurped the majority of my time. knitting has sadly fallen to the wayside. i did manage to squeeze these little fetching mitts out during some spare time.



of course these were finished just in time for a heat wave. figures.

i did manage to get crafty with some epoxy, beads and wire and made a necklace!



this one is for my friend who loves giraffes (quite possibly a compensation for her short stature). I'll be mailing it to her soon.

gathered pullover debut

It's finished!

doesn't this look like a casual senior portrait pose?

extra fabric in the back

why so serious? i think the sun was in my eyes.

Project specs:
pattern: gathered pullover by hana jason interweave knits winter 2007
yarn: brown sheep top of the lamb sport in "appletree" 7 skeins
needles: US 7
size: 36.5
mods: short row shaping and three needle bind off at the shoulders. omitted the increases and decreases over the bust near the cabled section.

verdict: meh. it's ok.

i was really disappointed with how this sweater came out at first. There was way more ease in the garment than i had originally planned for. the shoulders like to fall down into some sort of flashdance-esque bra display that i'm not into. in the photo i have the sweater safety pinned to the gray undershirt in four places around the shoulder and it's still slouchy. i got a few complements from some people in my college classes which made me realize that it's not a bad sweater, it's just not what i was originally going for.

did you notice the weird color faded stripe in the middle? i didn't notice it until the sweater was nearly done. some kind of freak yarn dyeing fluke. it's not in a terrible spot, but it annoys me a little bit.

all in all it was a quick, enjoyable knit with sizing errors on my part. i still love the color of the yarn. yum yum.