Pictures!!!!

I found my camera link-up cable so this evening I went hog wild on taking pictures and currently uploading all the pictures on to a Flickr acount. Just to reassure folks I am definitely not the best photographer in the world so the pictures are rather basic and my roommate wasn't around so I couldn't bug her to help take pictures with some of the items on. Hopefully by the end of the night once everything has been uploaded (currently around 55%) then I can start to go back to older entries and add in the pictures I couldn't put in when I first entered them in. I can even update my ravelry with pictures too! I'm psyched.

My group of friends started up a tabletop of Solar Exalted so I decided to replace my old Dragonblooded dice bag done in Air Aspected colors to a Solar Night Caste design to sorta celebrate and get me in the mood for the new transition to the new game. I do miss playing the DB game but all things come to an end and now a new beginning. I just need to stitch on the caste mark gold halo on the bag but otherwise it'll look pretty good. I went with a red color since I liked the pretty shade that my leftover stash had in it. Well, that and I realize I don't have any violets or grays if I really wanted to be picky about it. Still, I love the bag.

Socks

I've come to the conclusion that I enjoy knitting socks but purely on an open based relationship that I've managed to keep with most of my knitting that requires to knitting anything in pairs. I say this because I'm a sufferer of SSS, the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome. It affects my mittens and wristwarmers production as well which should explain my eclectic style of hand-warming fashion where one day I may be donning a left hand with a lime green arm warmer with cables and the right with a self-striped reddish-brownish-purplish arm warmer with carefully trailing vines and leaf patterns. The closest I've ever gotten for some degree of consistency was for a good portion of my last winter spent wearing a pair of mittens in the same lime-green Homespun yarn done in the same exact styled pattern and would have been exactly alike in almost every way imaginable except for the fact that one was in an adult woman's size and the other in a much too small child's size. I could have taken the easy way out and explained this as a mistake on reading patterns when making the second but I was honest that I tried to knit a pair for myself and another for my new cousin and figured that if I swapped out into the different size then I'd have given myself a break to continue the other mitten in the other size. It didn't work quite as I had planned and so suffered that winter with one's mitten's ribbing barely covering over my wrist until I decided to knit up a mitten in a gorgeous soy-wool mix with a cute cabled cuff done all in white save for a self-patterned tip in pretty pinks and yellows. Now it just looks like I've bad taste in mittens when I pair up my lime-green Homespun mitten with my Soy Patons mitten.

In all my life I've only managed to finish two complete pairs of socks. One was my first so I had to stick it through. It was this gorgeous ruby-red wool yarn that my Aunt Kathy purchased for me ages ago for Christmas. I finished it up in Florida and was ecstatic to admire my first attempt at turning a heel none the less picking up stitches. The toe part on that sock was a little bit pointy because of how I bound off. My second one I at least hand my aunts there to correct me on how to do a proper kitchener stitch so that sock at least looks better. I still keep these ruby-red socks as my super-special socks just for pampering nights since they feel so decadent. Well, that and I don't want to throw them into the wash without fear of felting them so I only wear them once in a blue moon.

My second pair of finished socks actually was a pair I knitted from some Lion Brand self-patterning yarn. Once I had mastered the kitchener stitch I vowed to make a pair of socks that actually fit right but this one ended up a tad too tight (bah, my adventures with gauge) and not to mention that it's a pretty coarse socks to begin with because of the yarn. Pretty color overall and it's definitely machine-washable given its survived this many washes with little pilling but EGADS does it feel coarse! I alas have two more balls of Lion Brand sock yarn, one in a fugly red/blue/white/etc "Jellybean" pattern that I thought would be whimsical until I knitted it up and realized the patterning was atrocious. The other was a red/black/gray brick pattern that I *thought* would end up fugly but when knit up it actually turns out quite handsome. Goes to show you never to judge a self-patterning sock yarn until it's knit up.

Now currently I've finally decided to bite the bullet and finish the second pair to a sock I've put aside in February. I finished the first one in a week and a half (including time that I frogged and reknitted the thing). It's this knee-high stocking done in Sockotta self-patterning sock yarn. I ended up picking up two balls of the same color scheme because it looked so gorgeous in these earthy blues and greens. I figured that even if I only used one skein to knit a pair of knee highs or even if I dipped into the second skein a little bit then I'd have enough to knit a pair easily in just a normal pair of socks in addition to the lengthier version. In the very least I figured I'd have a pair of ankle socks, eh?

Anyway, I'm nearly finished with the upper calf part of the knee-high before I start working on the decreases. Between this and studying for the Praxis I've got at least something to keep myself preoccupied until then.

Dude, totally finished the Eyelet Cardigan!

I finished the eyelet cardigan I had been working on since May. Essentially it's been adapted to be a touch longer to go down over my hips. I'll have to post up pictures once I've figured out if I'm going to block it or not. I'm sure I'll be able to get a picture or two taken of it at this Sunday's wedding with the intended black and white polka-dot dress that I was going to wear underneath it. Overall this is my first cardigan that I finished that actually fit me with or without blocking! I don't know what to say other then this is so freaking awesome!


I was almost worried that I wasn't going to finish it either before Sunday given the fact that this whole week I hadn't gotten a chance to knit since the drama-llama decided to visit my group of friends and refuse to go away without first defacebooking the whole lot of us then trying to make us all say sorry and whatnot for nothing more than random madness that if I were to go into detail it would take a whole new level of journaling that would detract me from the awesome that is my cardigan. Besides, llamas are generally pretty good creatures. Don't get me wrong, some of the best yarns have a touch of llama! Okay, not any though in my stash at current...I mostly have some wool or wool blended with alpaca. Hell, even an alpaca mixed with silk and one that's merino but not a touch of llama fiber in my stash. Perhaps it's for the best that I stay away from llamas for a bit just until the mental image of the drama-llama finally erases himself from the group's mind. Just the mere mention of the name that belongs to this past week's drama-llama makes the whole lot of us get stomach aches and churns!

I tell ya, the best times for me to knit is when I'm stressed because it fills me with such a large amount of calming bliss but when I'm just too stressed then the sad peeking of my needles out of my bag just makes me sigh and turn my head away to contemplate on other things like how to make the drama-llama go away for good. Blah.

Well, with today being as relaxing as it was drama-free with my friends I was able to finally take out my needles and just tinker away at the cardigan. I managed to finish the final sleeve and I thought to myself that this was easier than I last remembered. Suddenly I had a button band done and soon all the buttons attached. Doing the other button band with the slits took some trying since I had to look through every book and even the pattern to the cardigan itself proved little help. I came to the conclusion though from several authors that doing buttons suck. This was reinforced even by the pattern author who decided to leave the the final notes on how to install the buttons as a complete mystery left to your own imagination! As a beginner to buttons and cardigans this was supposed to be my biggest stressful challenge but given this past week this was a welcome challenge that I tackled and tackled quite well for myself.

It's so soft and cozy. It's a little itchy around the sensitive parts of my arms but I guess that's to expect out of Cascade 220 from what I gathered from other knitters. It's 100% Peruvian Highland Wool in a tweadish green although perhaps a picture would be a better example when I can get my camera things set up. Overall it's definitely a keeper of a cardigan and the buttons look wonderful on it. I'm really just happy with how the yarn took to the pattern's eyelets. It has amazing stitch definition! I love the cardigan so much I'm just all cozy in it right now even though it's in the middle of summer in the house with it on.

I'll admit that there is something magical about wearing a hand-knit item larger than a hat or scarf like this cardigan that honestly fits my body. From past experiences I've had way too many failed attempts at sweaters that it's finally nice to create something that's a winner!

On the Hunt Patter-Wise and the Sweater Curse

I've been on the knitting hunt these days for two future projects I want to tackle after I finish either my cardigan or my Juno Regina stole. I have these four luscious skeins of Nashua Creative Focus Worsted in a pretty shade of blue that I want to knit up for myself but then again I also have been looking off and on for Scott (the super-patient boyfriend). It's so hard to find patterns that look like they'd suit him since he A-only wants black, B-likes simple patterns, and C-like most boyfriends is much bigger than myself which means this project will probably consume a good chunk of my paycheck if I got "the good stuff" to knit up with. So I basically am looking forward to seven shades of monotony except they're all in black and dares to test the cruel mistress that is the sweater curse.

Yeah, I know, there is a sweater curse but he keeps pestering me to knit him a sweater and I keep reiterating the sweater curse to him and why it'd be a bad idea. Partly he doesn't believe in the sweater curse but partly I believe he thinks that there is something forbidden and dangerous about having me knit him a sweater thus testing the wretched sweater curse. Now if I really wanted excitement in my relationship I tend to think maybe a tropical vacation or cross country biking or even roleplaying kinky doctor/nurse in the bedroom but not knitting endless rounds of monotonous stockinette in all black in a men's sized medium-large sweater!

Well, I managed to find two sweater designs that *might* honestly work for him. Here we go. Now all I need is to finish my current cardigan for myself and then think LONG and hard whether or not I want to knit up the boy-toy a sweater of his own. *sighs* He doesn't even wear sweaters and his eyes light up at the mere mention of the vaguest possibility that I would ever be able to knit him a sweater. *longer sigh* I could cheat a little and just use cheap acrylic but something tells me that it won't get him to wear it so I may as well opt for a nice, washable blend that isn't too hard on my pocketbook. T_T






































Left taken from here.

Right taken from here.