So I got through my big Icaru snag and am chugging along contentedly. I JUST finished my fifth pattern repeat (which should be the last one) with an ENTIRE ball of yarn left over. That doesn't seem right. So I'm going to do a couple of extra repeats until it looks big enough. At least I know I have enough to do the actual feather pattern!

Christmas Knitting (for my own reference) :
- Mom : another shawl? Maybe Hanami? I don't know D:
- Grandma : Print 'O The Wave and maybe socks.
- Merridi : Smoke Ring or This or This (both as a scarf)
- Jan : Unbiased
- Nana : Malabrigo Scarf and Knucks

Knitting Back

I hit my first real snag on Icaru today. It's actually kind of a tragedy, since I was just starting to get back into the swing of it. I was nearing the end of the fourth pattern repeat and the end of first chart purgatory was in sight. I could almost touch it.

Then, in a moment of haste (Dani called to say "Come heal Mechanar!" and I said "Boy howdy I will!") I threw my knitting down and WoWed for the rest of the night. The next day, I hastily shoved my knitting in my bag and ran out the door. And therein lies my greatest mistake - haste. I didn't check to make sure that the knitting was secure, that the stitches weren't perched precariously on the edge of the needle with only hope keeping them from falling.

And fall they did.

I hauled out my knitting the other day and realized with great anger that I had effectively dropped a number of stitches, including but not limited to at least 2 yarnovers and what appears to be a series of k2togs. I honestly don't know what exactly got dropped, but all I know is that one small corner of my knitting is seriously effed up. I've knit back a good three or four rows now and it looks like in two more I'll be able to get back to the point where I can fix it. Maybe.

I still haven't decided what to do about the extra yarn I mentioned in my last post. I'm leaning towards extra repeats, but I'm still unsure. I guess it all depends on how big she turns out to be when the last repeat is finished.

I am Uninteresting

So really nothing interesting has happened in the world of knitting since my last post.

Well, nothing interesting has happened in the world in general. Except the World of Warcraft. I'm on my way to becoming King of Healers in WoW, it's very exciting.

Icarus is plodding along. For the first two repeats she flew, FLEW along, growing exponentially. Now I dread her growth. Every row I think "Oh god, it's just getting bigger". This is both good and bad.

Good, because I know the larger she gets the closer I am to being finished. Bad, because I know the more she grows the slower my progression will be. It's kind of a love/hate relationship.

The yarn is behaving beautifully, as expected, and looks fantastic, but I worry about it felting in my hands while I knit. I tend to get sweaty palms (yuck) and sometimes I fear that the lovely Malabrigo halo will turn into a felted monstrosity.

I'm in the middle of the fourth repeat now and my first ball only now seems to be getting smaller. It's beginning to seem like I might have a lot of yarn left over, and I'm wondering whether I should do more repeats or hope for enough leftovers for a smoke ring. I'll probably go with more repeats, because I want this to be huuuge :D

giganto update

I was a very terrible person this weekend and spent WAY TOO MUCH on yarn. But I think I'm definitely set with things to knit for some time, especially because I'll be knitting two shawls and some socks.

My mom took me to Bonnie's in Carefree this weekend and it was a great little store! It had TONS of yarn, including the almost unreal Malabrigo Lace. I was looking through a few back issues of Interweave Knits and my mom happened to see the Icarus shawl.

"Oh my god!" She said. "Can you make that for me?"

I considered for a moment, but decided 'heck, why not, it'll be a challenge!'. This was the perfect excuse to pick up some of that aforementioned Malabrigo Lace in the Velvet Grapes colorway :

At dinner that night my mom mentioned a few times that I was knitting her a beautiful shawl for her birthday. Her birthday in two months. I had to stop her several times and say "Mom, wait, no... this MIGHT be done by Christmas. Maybe. But definitely not by your birthday."

Maybe by her birthday next year, but I think the only things that would cause the shawl to be knitted that quickly are me quitting my job and dropping out of school. And quitting WoW.

So after that slightly expensive little outing, I came home and realized that I absolutely had to have the yarn for Jeanie RIGHT NOW or I would die. So I went to Kiwi Knitting instead of studying and picked up a few more skeins of Araucania Ranco Multi :

It's almost enough to make one weep. But I promise that this time I did not lick the yarn.

In addition to all of this new loveliness, I finally got around to taking some pictures of my most recent FOs. They're up on Ravelry as well.

Pattern : Ballet School Dropout by Inspire Knits

Yarn : Knitpicks Gloss in Burgundy

Needles : Knitpicks Harmony DPNs, size 2

These were so quick to knit and I wear them ALL THE TIME. I liked the construction, it was unlike regular socks. I just wish I could make them a little lower.. I guess I'll have to play around with modification. They stick out of my ballet flats a little, which isn't a big deal, but I think it would be nicer to have socks that didn't. I also added some elastic around the garter edging, and I think it's helping them to stay on a little more.

---

Pattern : Monkey by Cookie A

Yarn : Araucania Ranco Multi

Needles : metal dpns, size 1 (unsure of the brand)

These were another really great knit, but unfortunately I've been unable to find shoes that show them off sufficiently. The colors are gorgeous, and once the soles felted a bit they became MUCH more comfortable. Unfortunately I'm paranoid about the cuffs of socks not being loose enough so I made these ones REALLY loose, and thus they wouldn't stay up. But this problem was easily rectified by adding a little bit of elastic.


And, to close, here are some pictures of dogs :


The Chim can be creepy sometimes.



And Sora hates to be worn as a scarf (but I think she secretly loves it).

My Knitpicks order finally came!!!

I will neither confirm nor deny that I sang a little song and chanted happily about yarn when I got home.

SOCKS again

So I've been agonizing over which socks to knit with my aforementioned Knitpicks Gloss burgundy yarn. I was so entranced by the Twisted Flower socks that I cast on for them today. I also bought some delicious Ranco Multi to knit Titania's Revenge (the ravelry pictures are much nicer). I just can't wait for my knitpicks order to arrive so I can start knitting even more socks!! I think I'm seriously addicted.

In FO news, I finally finished both pairs of Fetchings (one for me, one for my grandma). Now all they need is thin elastic at the tops and bottoms to keep from curling (and pictures), and they will be ready to wear. I feel productive. I won't even mention that I have a perfectly good almost-finished Unbiased sitting around waiting to be lined and seamed. The day I finish that will be a most productive day indeed.

oh no!!

PANIC!!!

Ravelry has been down for five seconds, whatever will I do???

Oh wait, I'm supposed to be doing my homework.

I guess I could do that........ but it's not looking at pretty sock patterns D:

Ravelry Addiction

So I'm really addicted to Ravelry (just like everyone else in the knitting world). Any time I know I have nothing to do at work or I want to kill time quickly, I just look for stuff on Ravelry that I want to knit. As a result of this, I have 106 items in my queue. This is rather unrealistic.

Lately I've been wondering what to do with my 4 skeins of Knitpicks Gloss in Burgundy, leftover from when I wanted to knit Clessidra but realized that the cable pattern was NOT what I thought it was. This is another benefit of Ravelry - there are many pictures of finished items knitted with different yarns taken in different lighting. I realized that the cable was not as intricate as I'd thought it was, and it sort of made the pattern loose its appeal.

Soo.. I've been looking for new socks to knit.

Of course, I'm really psyched to knit a bunch of Ballet School Dropouts (I am addicted to Ballet Flats but my feet/shoes often smell TERRIBLE after a day's wear) when my knitpicks order arrives (still obsessively anxiously awaiting..), but I want something complicated and gorgeous. My one true love?

Scherherazade's Slippers:

(Picture by Miriknits on Flickr)

Tell me these are not the most gorgeous socks you've ever seen! They're amazing, and I am filled with an unhealthy lust for them. They're probably WAAAYY outside of my sock skill range (one gifted Hedera, one ill-fitting Monkey), but they're fantastic and gorgeous and I WANT THEM TO BE MINE @_@

Unfortunately, I think I need more socks under my belt (and ones that actually fit) before I run off and try something complicated. When I make the Slippers, I want them to be PERFECTION.

In the meantime, with my stashed yarn, I'm thinking about knitting either Titania's Revenge, the Twisted Flower, or the German Stocking, all by Cookie A. (because she's a genius). I think it's going to be Titania's Revenge, but who knows.

Also, I've been trying to get a head start on Christmas knitting, which I ALWAYS flake out on and have to pull out of my ass at the last moment. Last year, everyone got Quant. My mom got a pair of Fetchings, and my Grandma got the Hederas that I'd been putting off finishing (I didn't like the pattern/colorway about halfway through the second sock). This year... I want to show off.

Specifically, I want to knit my mom and Grandma something amazing. I've narrowed it down to four designs - Juno Regia, Print 'o the Wave, Ene's Scarf and Jeanie - but I'm not sure who would like what more (I hac gud werds lol).

Juno Regia for Mom and Print 'o the Wave for Grandma is the winning combination. They would probably both be knit in something from Knitpicks (because I am ohsovery thrifty and because they make great yarn). My only problem with knitting my mom and grandma something complicated and fantastic is that a) they will probably take forever and b) I have a feeling that my Aunts will be very, very jealous. Maybe I will knit them both some classy gloves and a lacy cowl...

I always get overambitious about Christmas knitting, especially because I usually (at least for the past two years) have stopped knitting in the summer. Something about instant gratification, I guess. Maybe knitting stoles for people other than me will cause me to think more and discipline me a bit. I have a very good feeling that I'm going to be knitting myself the Hanami Stole at some point in the future, but I think I'm going to want to knit something wonderful for my Mom and Grandma before I knit something wonderful for myself.

In other news...

Today was an ARF adoption day! Two dogs were adopted (one a long-term foster, one sweet returned puppy), two volunteers were recruited, and a new foster mom was found. Unfortunately, we've had a lot of dogs returned lately - people don't want puppies after they grow up - which is preventing us from pulling new dogs from PAC (Pima Animal Care). Hopefully we can find both foster and permanent homes for everyone fairly soon.

The Chim was a long-term foster (with terrible Valley Fever) who turned into My Dog Forever (because he's the best ever? yeah, I know). His titer count (an indicator of how bad his Valley Fever is) has been going down ever since he's been with Josh and I. When we first got him, his bones were SO brittle and he had lesions on his joints and his titer count was something like 300. He's been doing great since then - medication for the Fever and for the lesions, and last we checked it was down to around 30. He went to the vet yesterday to get his count checked again, and we're hoping that it will be down below 4 so that he can get his rabies shot (he was too sick to get it when we first got him) and then we can officially adopt him and take him to the dog park!

from livejournal

(so this is a post I originally made to livejournal yesterday. I'm recycling because it talks about knitting)

So I ordered some stuff from Knitpicks the other day :

Two Knitpicks Harmony Circular Needles :


One set of Knitpicks Harmony DPNs :


and three hanks of Knitpicks Palette :

Tidepool Heather:


Iris Heather :


and plain ol' Black :



And I found out that my order shipped today. The shipping time is something like 5-14 business days, but HOLY GOD I want it now.

Basically every day (even before I knew that it'd shipped)I come home and think "WHAT IF BY SOME MIRACLE IT'S HERE???????????" and then I look all around on the porch and stuff because "WHAT IF THE POSTMAN LEFT IT UNDER OR BEHIND SOMETHING???". I've ordered from Knitpicks before and their shipping was REALLY fast. I ordered it like a week or two before I left for Italy and they got it to me RIGHT away.

but yeah anyway the excitement is KILLING ME with joy.

In other mail news, I got some arts in the mail from Savannah yesterday and I pretty much flipped out. It was the commission that I bought a while back and an adorable little coyote charm that was part of our craft trade (I still have to send out my half because I'm a terrible person, haha). So the mail has been really good lately.

Also dogs! There are two foster dogs living with us right now, Andrea (a pitt mix) and Sora (a coyote/husky mix)


Sora looks a little bit evil sometimes, especially when there's some intense camera redeye


But she's really just very tiny and sweet


She's been with our rescue group for a couple of months now, which is REALLY surprising considering how sweet and beautiful she is. Sometimes she can be a bit of a terror, but she's certainly not a bad dog.

We also have Andrea back.


She was adopted by a really nice girl about a week ago and everyone at ARF was SO happy because Andrea's been with our group for almost a year now. She's really timid and shy and she just doesn't really adjust to people very well (as Becky learned). I think the same thing happened with the girl that adopted her - Andrea had a really hard time adjusting and did NOT like the girl's roommate and it was really just a bad situation for the girl to be in, because she loved Andrea so much and was willing to work with her and everything, but the roommate just wasn't having it.

This is why I love that my boyfriend is my roommate, because not only does he like dogs, I can bully him into getting more and more dogs :DD Our limit used to be one but then we pushed it to two and now there's three and there's been some talk of four, muahahahaa.

Anyway....

Also Chimmy says hi :






YAY PICTURE HEAVY POST! Just for good measure, here's one more :

initium

So like everyone else in the entire world I decided to make a blog dedicated to knitting.

I talk a lot about knitting on my livejournal, but I wanted a place where I could talk about just knitting all the time.

Well...

not all the time. There might be some intruding dogs. I'm a foster parent with the Animal Rescue Foundation of Tucson so I usually have between 1-2 foster dogs living with me (in addition to my own dog, The Chim). I really like to talk about my dogs (almost as much as knitting!), and especially to take pictures of them.

So here's some intro stuff.

This is Me :


This is my weirdo boyfriend, Josh :


We both like dogs :


This is our bestest friend, Chimmy (aka The Chim, Chimchimmy, Chimmy Chimmy Pumpkin Head, Fatty Fat Fatdog, etc...)


he's kind of a weirdo :


Soooo... yeah.