Category Archives: knitting

Stitches

May 24, 2011 Peneloping

This weekend was highly productive in the realm of learning new stitches.

For example I learned how to make bobbles:

And nupps:

And the Kitchener stitch.

Seriously, it’s like magic. Where did the seam go? Oh, yeah, it’s INVISIBLE.

I also finally figured out Row 31 (it gave me headaches for a week so it gets capitalized) of Damask, worked up to row 36, realized I’d made a mistake several rows back, ripped out to row 29, and then powered through to row 74. Have I mentioned how much I love this pattern?? She gives you directions in written and charted form, lots of lovely pictures from different angles, and three different shawl sizes. Plus the shawl itself is gorgeous. I still have about 50 rows to go, but considering it’s a bottom-up pattern, I should be done with it by tomorrow or the next day.

Yee!

I also got a library card (can I stop being an old person?) and checked out Twinkle’s Big City Knits by Wenlan Chia. The review online were terrible, but the patterns were so cute and so quick to knit up that I couldn’t resist trying one out. I finished about 80% of the Best Friend Sweater in about five hours. It’s super cute but I can’t decide if I like how huge the bobbles/cables are. I used the biggest yarn they had at Joanns but I might go back and pick up some Lion Brand Thick & Quick because it’s slightly lighter weight.

Sidenote: “Thick & Quick” = terrible nickname.

Temptation

May 11, 2011 peneloping

Guess what is sitting in my backpack next to me, 99% finished save for stitching completely finished sleeves onto the body and smirking at me because I have 3 more hours until I can go home from work? Yup, that would be Aidez.

I felt like such an idiot on the subway this morning. Usually when I work on projects I’m spread out over at least 5 square yards of space and it looks like a tornado hit. This morning as I sat on the subway, I was attempting to slip stitch my finished knitting pieces together (do I mean slip stitch or am I having a brain fart?) while keeping all three pieces on my lap and not poking the people squashed up against me on either side as I pulled the plastic needle straight upwards repeatedly through the seams.

Good thing I was too tired to care, and the nice gentlemen on either side of me were passed out and didn’t notice when I accidentally flicked loose yarn bits at them.

Tonight I’m finishing this sweater*, and tomorrow I’m going to San Diego!

Hopefully somewhere in between there I’ll be able to squeeze in some photos.

*Perfect timing too, since the new yarn I ordered from Knitpicks gets here on Saturday and I’ll be officially “allowed” to start a new project!

But more on that later.

More squishy.

May 8, 2011 peneloping

Guess what I’ve been doing all weekend? If you guessed “Sneezing into a mountain of tissues”, “lying pitifully and feverishly in bed”, or “coughing up a lung”, you were right!

Fortunately this gave me an excuse to knit like a fiend.

I love love love this yarn. It’s so squishy. And soft. And this pattern is gorgeous! And surprisingly quick. I’m already on row 23. (We’re going to ignore the part where I had to rip out 15 rows because I messed up the decreases.)

Ok, that’s all I have. Back to lying down now.

-sniffle-

3 Comments knitting damask - knitting - malabrigo - ochre - shawl scarf

Squishy

May 4, 2011 Peneloping

Today I came home to a lovely surprise waiting for me by my door.

Needless to say, I was full of squee’s.

This one’s going to be Damask, which I’m pretending doesn’t scare me.

It’s SO squish. I can’t stop petting it. And I didn’t expect it to get here so soon! I was expecting it to get here early next week, by which point I would have finished Peak’s Island and therefore be allowed to start a new project.