It's been a while (again)

I have so many blog posts in my head but I haven't blogged in so long! January was crazy - I had four Australian friends staying with me at different times (sometimes overlapping), and I finished 8 out of 9 law school applications. I also spent two days in DC to see Sam's dad receive the French Legion of Honor.

I've been knitting like crazy. Once I finished Sam's scarf (yes, I can finally announce that it's a scarf), I went on to finish my dad's scarf that had been in the works, like, forever. I finally knit myself a hat, and I'm a little over halfway done with my first cardigan. Unfortunately, I put my camera somewhere and am unable to locate it. Luckily, facebook exists. Here is a picture my friend Dave took of me knitting my lovely Thorpe hat (pattern downloaded from Ravelry).

Notice it was knit from the top down. Something about that was incredibly exciting and fun.

This next picture was taken at a bar in Park Slope (Brooklyn) after a hard day of football. It normally sits a little lower on my head, but it was kind of pulled up.

I've kind of been neglecting my beading, and I've felt bad about that, but I'm slowly getting back into promoting my Etsy store and supporting my Street Team. I've still been receiving hearts, and that's very encouraging.

I also have another little project up my sleeve that I hope comes into fruition. Here's a hint: what's exactly eleven days from now?

<3

I love making things. It's like my comfort food. My chocolate cake. (OK, well maybe that's taking it a little too far, but you get my point.)

And that is why I spent my Friday night making myself a necklace. It's the same one that I made for Angela and Hilary, but in olive green. Back in the day when I used to sell jewelry, I always made quite a few pieces for myself. So while I have some new ideas up my sleeve, the first few things will probably be for yours truly. Besides, I use them as measuring devices. (Who needs rulers anyway?) It's just the same as using an old sweater to take measurements for a new one when knitting.

I used Japanese Delica beads that I got with my mom at an expo in Australia a few years ago. As a rule, Japanese seed beads are more uniform than Czech seed beads, and that is why I mostly bead with them these days. But these Delica beads, though freakin' expensive, are the most near-perfectly uniform beads I have ever used. I love love love them!

Olive green has always been a comforting color for me. I know that that is really silly, but it's true! When I was a little kid (like, three years old) my mom put me in a pottery class. The teacher's only complaint about me was that I refused to paint anything any color other than olive green. I can only imagine how strange it would have been to see me come home with a clay sculpture of a bowl of Cheerios, painted olive green. That I, at three, had chosen that color, is pretty bizarre.
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten my UFOs. I've been working on Sam's mystery item, but I think I don't have enough yarn, so I went back to the place where I got it last weekend to see if they could get that dye lot in, and I still haven't heard back from them. (So I should probably follow up on that.) If they can't get it in, I will probably have to incorporate stripes of some sort.

I swear, this is totally not cheating, but I am counting long overdue gifts that I haven't exactly started yet as UFOs. Hence my dad's fiftieth birthday sweater come-post-fiftieth birthday scarf. I am using Misti Alpaca, which is amazingly soft. I looooooooooove it. I using the pattern I mentioned before. It looks pretty cool and it's not as tedious as seed stitch. My only minor annoyance is that it isn't quite symmetrical. On both sides, it starts with garter then knit, and ends with purl then garter. Even though I am a very messy, cluttered person who loves olive green, asymmetry to this magnitude annoys me. But I'm not starting over. And I still love the scarf so far. I just hope my dad isn't allergic to alpaca!

Dear Knitting Blog,

Yesterday, my work friend and I went to the craft fair at Bryant Park during our lunch break. There are so many awesome things there for sale. Not only did it challenge my ability to resist the temptation to buy things, it made me itch to make things and it also made me itch to design things to sell. Many of the artists had used very bulky yarns, which would make knitting hats more cost effective (as far as production time). This would be especially for me, because I am a pretty slow knitter.

Last night, I finally gave Sam the hat I knit him for Hanukka. The thing took me forever, because I redid it when I was almost half way through, and then when I got to the top, I feared that it was too short. I kept trying it on myself, dpns sticking out of the top, over and over, until I finally decided to rip it out to where I started my decreases. The result was a hat that is a teeny tiny bit too wide and a teeny tiny bit too long, but that still works. In both cases, I really should have left what I had (for once!) But the hat works. It has ribbing, and I designed it myself. I made it out of alpaca, which I bought after Sam told me that he loved the alpaca that I bought for my dad's scarf. Overall, he's happy with it and so am I. I promise I will post a picture of Sam in his new hat, but he's not here for me to take a picture now, and I don't have the pictures that his parents took (of us on Hanukka) yet.

Speaking of my dad's scarf, the 12th as a finish date is looking bleak, considering the fact that I have yet to start the thing. But at least I thought of a pattern. It's actually the pattern from one of his cotton sweaters, and will use that. (My dad's wool allergy gives him such an interesting winter wardrobe!) It's a really easy pattern that actually works out in a really cool way! It's simply:

k(kkpkkkpk), repeating the bracketed section until desired width.

The pattern is the same for rs and ws. It's not ribbing or seed stitch, but sort of a hybrid of both. If all goes according to plan, this will turn out to look like stripes of knit, purl, and garter stitches.

Love,
Adina

the knitting season

This month, I have assigned myself the following task:

Make your @!^%#** holiday presents.

Surprise, surprise, I don't think these will be done in time.

After realizing that the incredibly expensive non-returnable all cotton yarn I bought for my dad's sweater is the wrong weight, I've decided that the sweater will have to wait. Instead, I some alpaca wool to knit him a scarf for his fiftieth birthday. I am amazed to have learned that alpaca is not a kind of sheep (hence, hopefully, no allergy). Somewhere along the way, I missed that.

I've been promising to knit my aunt a scarf ever since I started knitting, so I bought some Be Sweet Magic Ball. It's made of wool, mohair, ribbon, and silver foil stuff. Although it is not purple, it is soooo my aunt in every other way. It's supposed to be able to knit up a whole scarf in one ball, but we'll see about that. It's made through a job creation program in South Africa, which in itself is awesome.

I'm going to buy presents for my parents and sister this year, and everyone else who I'm making things for reads this blog. So you'll just have to wait and see what I come up with. :)

More on My Manhattan Frivotities

This handbag is turning out to be quite the project. I finally finished the knitting part, but now I have to do all that sewing I've been whining about. Oh yeah, and I have to figure out what I'm going to do about straps. I'm going to need something extremely strong. Something about Manhattan causes women (e.g. me) to carry obnoxiously large handbags everywhere, and to keep them full. In college, I rarely carried a purse anywhere, even on my occasional nights out on the town. I had my phone in one pocket, and my keys, school ID, and wallet, in another. Now, I am no Carrie Bradshaw, but after just over a year, I have morphed into this crazy and slightly ridiculous being.

Amazingly, my bags are usually much smaller than girls I am friends with and girls I work with. For example, although I keep a giant wallet with a year's worth of receipts and change, a pencil case full of makeup I don't wear, and painkillers for any kind of spontaneous injury, I do not usually carry an extra pair of shoes, and I only carry a novel on occasion. Nevertheless, what by rights should have a simple project to keep my occupied over a knitting night or two has lasted me about a month. At last, I have giant pieces that need to be sewn together. I need to figure out how to sew in a zipper and, um, to make a strong lining. As far as straps, I'm thinking I might just use whatever fabric I use for the lining - maybe I'll get some metal rings to ensure that the straps don't misshape the knit fabric or tear it. Or maybe I'll knit some out of the same fabric I used to make to bottom. So here it is. The source of the past month's rants. I'm actually pretty proud of it. When I took the picture, the bottom part curled under, but I think that's just because I knit that part pretty tight. I think that when I sew it together, it will come uncurled.

And now I can move onto other things! (while I figure out this sewing machine thing). I do have the UFO project, but I think my most immediate thing will be my first pair of socks. As usual, though, I have I second project in ming. Once again, I am inspired by my high school friend, Anna. Her blog got me really excited about the Irish Hiking Scarf. It's a cable scarf knitalong. I've wanted to make a cable scarf for a while now, and I've never done a knitalong. As much as I love mindless knitting, I think it will be a while before I can make anything in plain stockinette stitch, garter stitch, or ribbed. I owe my Aunt Carol a scarf and plan to make one for Sam too, so this pattern will work for either of them.

more central park knitting (and adina gets philosophical)

My great-aunt Dora loved to crochet. Every member of my family has some item crocheted specially by Aunt Dora. Doll clothes, countless afghans, pillow, the list goes on. I have some pillows she crocheted specially for me decorating my room at my parents' house. I keep two warm afghans in my tiny apartment - two of the few items I took home with me after my grandparents died. My grandmother, her kid sister, was never really into needle crafts. I don't think she learned to knit or crochet when she was growing up in the 1930s and '40s. But when she was much older, and in the hospital, someone there taught her to crochet. She crocheted a large blanket, using mostly single crochet, with stripes and texture. It sat on my grandmother's couch for years, the oranges and yellows blending in with the 1970's decor that to this day still furnishes the house, warming anyone who sat on the couch or cozy armchairs or slept in the living room when all the bedrooms were full. My grandmother promptly forgot how to crochet, but she was always humbly proud of that blanket that she made when she was so sick.

Needle crafts really are comforting and healing, which is why I've been doing so much of it lately. I know that almost everyone gets their wisdom teeth out and that people deal with it, but mine were pretty badly impacted and are still very painful. I would love to one day teach crafts to hospital patients (unfortunately, my current work hours keep me from doing that right now). Knitting has been calming me, keeping me occupied and happy. When yesterday afternoon I finally got out to soak up some sun, I went to a knitting store that I went to with my mom when I first moved here. I had been looking for it for months but I finally found it on the internet. (The problem had been that I had no idea what it was called and couldn't quite remember where it was either.) When I got there, it was closed for Labor Day (who closes for Labor Day on Tuesday???) so I went back to The Yarn Co., which has a nice selection but is kind of small (so nothing really out of the ordinary) and doesn't stock Lamb's Pride. (Still I buy a lot of stuff there and what they do have is really nice.) I got some black Torino bulky for the bottom of my purse (if I use the silk I've been using for the rest of it, it will probably tear after a day or two) and some in black so that I can finally make a hat for Sam that isn't huge. Later, Amna came over and we got soup from a place on my block and went to Central Park for a picnic soup dinner and to knit. (Her scarf is getting so long - it looks awesome!) This cheered me up immensely, it even helped take away the pain (as the frozen yogurt we had afterwards!) I hadn't brought my camera - but Amna had hers! Unfortunately, I still have my chipmunk cheeks from getting my wisdom teeth out. (So I'm vain enough to disclose that but not enough to not put a picture of myself looking not-my-best up)

My new love

Cascade Pima Tencel. I've finally succumbed to the amazingness of the tactile nature of fiber. I found the pattern for this headband in the summer volume of Interweave. It's my second lace pattern ever. I tried to make it out of the same cotton as my scarf but it was too fine. I found this at Sophie's.

I'm also kind of in love with the pattern. My first I-cord. It kind of reminds me of a kind of friendship bracelet that I used to make in the fifth grade. I had to start over a few times but it was well worth it. Then I had to figure out the lace pattern. It uses p2sso and the instructions really confused me. I had to figure it out on my own and that, too, required a lot of unknitting. Then I somehow skipped a yarn over and I had to start over yet again. I've been knitting for two years but, really, I'm still a beginner. I'm still learning so much. It's kind of frustrating because I want to know everything now. It would also be nice to sell my stuff or write my own patterns. Some day...I can dream.

As for my other projects, I seem to be knitting (and crocheting) up a storm. I finally finished my cotton lace scarf. When I wear it in my hair, you can't really see the lace pattern. I should have made it a lot thinner. Oh well. I can still pull it off when I wear hoop earrings.

I seem to be a knitter of all trades. Living alone kind of does that to you. I do the knitting, the blogging, the modelling, and the photographing. Some day, maybe I will even flip the pictures around. For now, they will have to deal with being sideways.

And then there's Lu Mei's hat. For once, I've crocheted something to the pattern. I made very few mistakes. All I have left to do is weave in all the ends. There's just one problem: it's circumference is much bigger than it's supposed to be. It's too big on me -- and I have a big head (literally, not metaphorically). I don't want to start over so I'm thinking about felting it a little. At least the colors will be the same -- and the shells will be there too. I'm just afraid of shrinking it too much. If anyone ever read this blog, I'm sure I'd get some tips. Oh well, I guess I'll post something on a livejournal group.

On the Needles...I'm starting to get some use out of this new digital camera. Excuse my floor as the background, I'll have to find something classier.

This is my first lace project. It's a scarf, but the idea was to wear it in my hair. I'm making it out of cotton instead of laceweight wool. I'm almost done, but it's taking me forever to finish. At first it was captivating but now I'm getting really bored with it.

And I just finished this. I crocheted it for my sister's birthday (Sept. 5th). I crocheted it, based on the Anarchy Irony Hat from "Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: the Happy Hooker." I used the same yarn as I did for a scarf that I made for her a year ago, so now they match. I was going to have just the last row in blue, but I ran out of purple. The great thing about crocheting is that it's really hard to see mistakes and easy to make changes. I'm modelling the hat because my sister doesn't yet have it to take a pictue.