A stitch in time...something something...

It seems that Ruth, one of the SnB group, hates seaming almost as much as I do. I don't feel so bad that it has taken about 10 times the number of hours spent knitting to seam up the baby shrug. In fairness, most of those were spent procrastinating.



It is rather cute though. Especially when I get it ready for posting with the hat and booties.



Well I'm rather chuffed anyway. It's the first lot of baby clothes I've ever knitted. Darling mother keeps making comments about it being "good practice" for the future.




So as a reward to myself for getting the seaming well under way, I allowed myself to cast on a Calorimetry. I finished seaming yesterday, and sewed the button on to the calori. I think it balances out. I think future projects involving seaming should be partnered with some form of instant gratification project. Or another calori.




I spotted the button in my fab LYS before I cast off. It's made from coconut shell, and it rocks my socks. I love ivy and vines. My advise to anyone who hasn't started a calori yet and is thinking of it - don't buy your buttons til you've cast off. You don't make any buttonholes in the calori, as the holes from turning the short rows suffices. This is quite a large button and I really thought that it wasn't going to work in the end.

Plus, it's an excuse to go to your LYS with an FO, and pick up something shiny for your next project while you're there!

My "bad day swap" package is in the post. Yay.
Postage really is mentally expensive. Still, it's worth it, and I hope my swap partner likes the goodies that eventually wing her way.

Other news today, it being one of those days...the wedding is being postponed til the Spring. We thought that we'd get away with it being this year, but I'd rather have my dad be less rushed and better able for it. I'd have liked December, but it would put too much pressure on people both in terms of time and finance. We have lots of friends who are still studying, and it's exam time for them.

This makes me feel much better about having frogged incarnation 3 of the wedding wraps.

Yes, I am a bad, bad person.

I just fricking hate this yarn. It feels nice, but is a nightmare to knit with. I was almost tempted to substitute the lurid pink baby acrylic, but thought that might be noticed. Also, 10mm needles? Rather heavy when you've been knitting with them a while. They do double as nunchucks though, which is handy when you're wip'ing on the bus in a bad neighbourhood.

OH is downstairs hoovering and sorting laundry. Bless.
He is still sans emploi, as they say. The case of the butthead boss is getting more interesting by the day. Can't say much, just in case, but we are looking forward to his next letter to see how many times he contradicts his previous letters in it.
At least he knows where the washing machine is, and no longer whinges when I tell him that he has to clean up if I cook and work all day.

It's amazing how fast he can run through a whole list of chores when he knows a trip to see Transformers is on the cards this evening!

Light fingers make the most noise

Last week, the fabulous Fairytale Frog donated two balls of Freedom Spirit yarn from her stash to my cause, and now I have enough yarn to finish the moss stitch cardigan of dooooooooom!

Due to large amounts of rain, I've been unable to move in my house for the last fortnight, as there are wet things hanging to dry everywhere there is hanging space available. Last night, I was able to give her a return prezzie. Some of my very own handpainted yarn. Thankfully I had my camera with me, as a picture is worth a thousand words. Or giggles, as the case may be.





Mmmmmmyarn.








Is my yarn. Not your yarn. My yarn.








I can has yarn?








.......

Baby shrug, interrupted.

First up, a quick hello to everyone, and thanks for the comments of encouragement. I've finished seaming side one of the shrug, and am down as far as the armpit of side two. I still have all my hair and fingernails (bar that one I broke last week) so it's going well.

I also finished the bootees of gorgeousness.


I had a request from the lovely Denise for a bit of a talk through the baby shrug. It's from the Debbie Bliss book Simply Baby, which I adore.
I have deleted my work in progress photos from the previous cthulhu-baby incarnation, so I'll just use this one.

(If you right click and hit open in new window, it'll make life easier!)

This is a bottom up shrug, knitted in one piece. The cast on edge is at the bottom left of the photo, and is basically the start of a t-shaped section for the back and arms. The next section is slightly more involved. On my first attempt, I got a little...how do you say....over-confident, and in the process of being queen of the universe I left out a line of pattern, which resulted in the previously mentioned cthulhu-baby option.

Divide for fronts
As you're on a circ needle for this, it makes things a zillion times easier.
Knit across the required number of stitches, do the casting off in the middle, and knit across the remaining stitches. This is much easier than having to move them before casting off the middle stitches

Congratulations, you now have what looks like one side of a giant buttonhole!

At this point, take your trusty stitch holder, and put all the stitches from the end of the line - the side that's all cut off by its lonesome - on to it. Then ignore them completely.

The next pattern section is worked on the remaining live stitches that you have on your needles. Work the required number of straight rows, then start on your increases. Do not do what I did, and ignore that end of line that says "and the inc row once more". This leads to much frogging and swearing later, as things end up backwards.

Continue down through the sleeve shaping lines, and then you're home free for the shape front section. These are the small sail-shaped bits right up at the top.
Do not let your brain tell you that the right side is anything other than the nice side with the little v's on it. That way lies madness. And cthulhu-baby arms, and no fronts.

Once you get done with that,and have your stitches moved to a holder, it's time to work on the right front. Again, ignore the stitch holder entirely. Join the yarn to the live stitches as you would if you were changing to a new ball, or changing colours, and off you go.

When she says sleeve edge, she means where the cuff will be, and the side edge is the bit at the U-shaped piece in the middle that you're creating. You'll see these on the photo pretty easily.
On this section, you're basically doing exactly the same as on the other side, just in reverse, so instead of casting off at the start of a row, you'll be doing it at the end.
Work down through the shape front section, and you should end up with a mirror image of the other side, and very few stitches left on your needle.

Here's where I cheated though. Instead of going from there, I moved the live stitches straight to a 4.5mm circ, K1 and then picked up stitches the whole way around. That's the stage the photo is at, and why one of my fronts looks deformed. I didn't, however, use her number of pickups, as it wasn't working for me when I tried. I just picked up every stitch. Yup, all of em. Then worked 5 lines of 2x2 rib, and cast off.

Bottom edge, where the original cast on was, and with the cuffs, I did the same thing.

When that's all done, flip it in half with the wrong side out, and line up the edges.
You'll end up with something that looks like this

You then have the joyous task of seaming. On the plus side, the book gives great info on that.

I hope that helps!
If anything is unclear, or you have any questions, feel free to holler. I like feeling useful :)

I must not knit while sleepy

This really should be my mantra at this stage. Too, too often I continue knitting when I really should be getting sleep or doing something that doesn't involve moving, thinking or counting.

This little bundle of cuteness is the first of a pair of booties that I cast on last week. It's a simple, fast knit, and I love it.



I thought I'd be clever and get the second one done on the train to Cork. That was my first mistake. Sure, I have a pair of cute bootees now, but one is newborn-sized, and the other is baby-sized. Once more teh blonde strikes. At the moment, I'm ignoring my inbox and knitting up bootee number 3. After that, I'll have to do bootie number 4. No idea who I will give the second pair to, but I guess they'll always come in handy, what with everyone in the world having babies and all.

It was my mothers birthday on Friday, so present was bought on behalf of myself and dad, and cake was baked on Thursday night. She cried. Bless her cotton socks.
(Note to self: get off the pot and cast on her socks!)

I finished the ribbing on the shrug, and have it all pinned together, and have started the seaming. I fricking hate seaming.



It will probably take me the rest of the week to get it done, as I can only sit still to do a few inches at a time. Anything more, and I start getting that strange restless sensation in my legs that normally only comes after 3 hours in a train with my legs jammed up against someones suitcase.

Tonight, though, will be bootie city.
Hrm...that sounded less sordid in my head....

I want to cast on a Calorimetry tomorrow night, and get it finished on Wednesday. I even have a button for it, and it's going to be made from my nice Purple Iris yarn that just arrived.

Ain't I a good little stashbuster?

Faster kittycat, kill kill!

Stitch and Bitch today, and not a teal sock in sight.

No, I haven't actually managed to fix the thing. The thought of frogging it makes me want to cry or throw up or both. I was not built for picking up close on a hundred 2mm stitches in dark yarn. Not without lots of chocolate.

Work on the baby outfit has progressed well since last post. Hat is done, and shrug is going to be done tonight, I hope.



I've picked up the stitches for the ribbing, and it's going well so far. Will be bringing it with me to Starbucks, where I hope to get the ribbing finished, and the stitching started. Optimistic, aren't I?

Some yarn may or may not have arrived in the post today.....




On that note, I'm gonna go and grab some food, as I have yet to eat today, and somehow I don't think that 15 caramel machiatos and 4 slices of lemon cake counts as a balanced diet.

Busy, busy bees.

Another weekend flies by.
I always loved that Douglas Adams quote about liking deadlines and the whooshing sound they make as they go by. Kind of like my weekends.

Still, it was a busy one, and I have photos to prove it!

I got a little shopping done this weekend. Am now the proud owner of a black and jade silk top by Ghost. It was on sale, and had 75% off, and I am weak like a little girl.
While walking through Dunnes, I spotted these beauties

They're bamboo trainer liners. I know that the sock versions of these have been blogged previously, but these are in black, and I'm mostly a black sock girl. The socks are 72% bamboo, and I got this pack for 5 euro...or about 8 dollars. They're so soft and squishy and wonderful.

Hat number 2 has been cast off and (and!!!) finished since my last update, and I have photographic evidence to prove it.

Yay! 2 down!

Ravelry is doing my WIPs the world of good. Nothing like needing to show photographic evidence to get a knitter motivated!

Which brings me to what I'm up to this morning. Working. Yup, working hard.
Here you can see my laptop:







Yup......working hard......

Raindrops keep falling on my head...and everywhere else

Another weekend rolls in, and it rains.

There's a saying in Dublin - if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.

Yesterday rained on and off, but the afternoon was warm and sunny, and I nearly passed out on the bus it was so hot and uncomfortable.

Today, it's mostly raining. I suspect that my jeans will dry out in just enough time for me to walk to the train.

So, what have I been up to this week?
I was measured for my wedding dress on Tuesday, which involved several large chai lattes, a warm goats cheese salad and some berry crumble. Cos, ya know, having that much stuff in my stomach was going to help when it came to calculating those inches.

My dress is being made by my friend Debbie. Debbie works a normal job during the day, and is the most amazing corsetiere ever in her spare time. She's hoping that her obsession with costume and corsets will allow her to turn her sideline business into a full time affair. I really hope this happens for her, and that's not entirely because I've negotiated a deal where if I get to go to the Oscars someday, I'll wear one of her creations.

The knitting has suffered slightly this week, due in no small part to my general feeling of dispondancy. The heel of sock 2 must be ripped again, as having gotten over the first frogging experience, I completed the heel to discover that it in no way, shape or form matched the other sock. My first sock mojo was pretty amazing. I seem to have lost it down behind the sofa or something though.

I'll get baby hat 2 finished on the train this weekend, and hat 1 sewn up on Sunday night, now that I've been reunited with my little tin o' bits. I really missed that tin. So much so that I may reward it by taking up decoupage again.


On Monday I'll get another chunk of the baby shrug done. This time reading the pattern the right way around, and not making mutant arms for some Cthulhu-baby like last time. I want to be able to bring something other than a teal sock to stitch and bitch as well. I fear boring people.

By the end of the week, then, I should have quite a few things done, which means that I can move on and start another project. I have an ever-expanding queue on Ravelry. Being able to search patterns by yarn weight is fan-fecking-tastic, as I can find patterns that use some of those too good to resist eBay bargains that have no purpose other than looking pretty right now.

Not that looking pretty isn't a perfectly valid reason for owning yarn/lifestyle choice.