Little Wit Knits - Unplugged » WIP

Cozy evening in

LittleWit — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:47:56 +0000

Tonight the boy ran off to watch our Bobcats play for the MAC championship. Alas, we are not champions this year. I took the opportunity to spend the evening in with my lovely Bearfoot mittens. Of which, I am now around the point of dividing for the thumb and hand. How did I get so much knitting done you ask? I certainly wasn’t assisted by that whole bit where I didn’t read the pattern clearly and increased at double the rate from the thumb gusset causing me to have to rip out round about 8 rows. No, it was the wonder of Netflix and their Instant queue. I may have spent the evening with The Princess Diaries and Bridget Jones’ Diary. ~As an aside, did you know that Moaning Myrtle is one of Bridget’s single friends? I think I shall always recognize that voice instantly. Too ironic that she was crying in the ladies bathroom.~ There was a third movie that I had started to watch tonight but round about 1 min 30 sec into the movie I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to make it. Just wasn’t my style. Now I am off to split the thumb from the hand before I go to sleep. Finishing Party tom’w!

Checklist progress

LittleWit — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:32:33 +0000

I swatched and cast on for the Bearfoot mitts tonight. One cuff down. The rest to go. I watched “How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer” while working on the cuff. The movie surprised me with some of its subject matter but I really liked it because of it. It’s on the long side and moves a bit slow, especially since the first 5 min or so is all subtitled, which is not helpful when you are trying to cast on and count stitches. In the end though I rather liked the story.

In other news, (I say that a lot don’t I?) I felt really productive at work today. I was able to, for the first time in ages, actually get something accomplished in less time than I estimated. It appears I may have finally gotten better at estimating my time. The boy and I spent some time this evening straightening up for our guests on Saturday as well as decorating the tree upstairs. I can’t wait for the weekend!

December Checklist

LittleWit — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:08:12 +0000

Checklists are very helpful to me this time of year. They help me to keep track of where I am going and what still needs to be done. So here’s my current checklist of knits and their approximate due dates.

Cashmere Mitts – Dec 15th
Bearfoot Mitts – Dec 20th
Grumpasaurus – Dec 25th
Ninjas – Dec 25th
Elijah – Dec 25th
Cable Twist Socks – Dec 27th

That list actually looks moderately do-able. There are a few other items that I would love to get finished by the New Year so that I won’t have any WIPs to carry into the New Year.

These items I am a little less confident in my ability to finish on time. Although, I plan to block the current pieces of the vest this weekend so that I can seam it and get the blasted sleeves knit. It’s the blanket that has been languishing and the second sock that I can’t seem to even get on the needles that concern me.

Bind Off Help

LittleWit — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:41:35 +0000

I have knit to the end of the yarn for my Red Scarf Project scarf. (Hmm I need a more original name…) At any rate I now have umm not enough yarn or just barely enough yarn for a purl bind off. Any ideas out there for bind offs that take little to no yarn? If I start at the end of my row where there is no working yarn and just loop the stitches over one another (kind of like a slipped crochet stitch) until I get to the end with the yarn and then just pull the working yarn through the last loop will that work?

In other news – it’s December! I am now about to embark upon a crazy knitting frenzy (and some secret crochet)~! There’s test knitting, 2 ninjas, a pair of socks and a Grumpasaurus that all need to be completed by Christmas. Not to forget my cozy cashmere hand warmers. I want those ready for Christmas eve mass!

Jet travel

LittleWit — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:20:50 +0000

I woke up at oh-dark-hundred this morning and managed to roll myself into the boy’s truck. From there he drove me to the airport where I had the pleasure of being randomly frisked. Good morning, you’re half awake, let me pat you down. I was in a foul mood for the next 15 min or so until I got over myself. I did however have the pleasure of a direct flight that lasted somewhere around 2.5 hrs. Which meant I also had the pleasure of an in flight movie. Today’s movie was Julie + Julia. I rather liked it and can I say that I love Meryl Streep? She does an excellent interpretation of Julia Child. I have also seen her exhibit at the Smithsonian, it’s very cool. If you have the chance, get over there and check it out. Watching the movie really makes me want to get into the kitchen and cook up something fun. The boy and I will have to discuss this in more depth once I return home.

The jet travel also lent some great knitting time. I am on row 6 of Chart D of my Ishbel shawl. 3 more rows and then the bind off. Maybe if I got off this silly computer I could get it finished during this trip. Once I landed in Denver I hung out for a bit waiting on my colleagues to arrive then we were off to work. I am looking forward to working on this project again and it’s always nice to get out of the house periodically and see my colleagues in person. Alright off to work on Ishbel a bit before I fall asleep. G’night.

Ishbel Update

LittleWit — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:20:17 +0000

So I took a picture of my Ishbel shawl the other evening to get an idea of the progress. When I was looking at the pictures I took on the computer afterward I suddenly realized why everyone says that lace progress shots just look like big blobs. Apparently I had never made any lace large enough to be scrunched up on the needle. Witness:

Ishbel by Ysolda Teague

At this point you can’t even see the lace I have completed. I have done ABABA next up is CDE. I promise no more photos until it looks like something.

Cleaning house

LittleWit — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:51:15 +0000

Today was a rather productive day. I managed to tackle some of the filing that’s been hanging around my office for awhile. Funny how those papers never seem to file themselves, no matter how much I wish they would. It felt good to clear up a bit of the floor though. I am bit by bit working on my latest goal – A place for everything and everything in it’s place. It would be wondermous if I could accomplish this by the holidays! I also spent some time today booking myself for some upcoming work travel. Arlington, Texas here I come!

After work we headed over to my BFF’s apartment. She recently took a spill off a four wheeler while on vacation and landed herself in the hospital for almost a week. She finally made it back home and we were able to go visit her. Basically we sat around talking, ate dinner and then sat around talking some more. It was quite the good evening. I managed to knock back a couple of rows on my latest WIP. I am working on the Eyelet Vest from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2008 in my new Yarn Love yarn. Pictures to come once I am not falling asleep as I type. Plus I need more battery power to mess with pictures. Off to bed I go!

ABB

LittleWit — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:43:53 +0000

So I looked at my cowl on Wednesday and we decided three more repeats would make it plenty long. I started working on those repeats and then decided after 2 to try it on tonight. It’s amazing how a project goes from seemingly never ending to suddenly the perfect length and almost done! I am being a stinker and staying up tonight until I get it BO. one more row then the BO. I will have something very pretty and knitterly to show off at Wool Gathering tomorrow. Oddly enough I doubt it will be anywhere near cool enough to wear it! Cashmere is uber warm even with lots of holes in it!

Flared Lace Smoke Ring Cowl

Denial

LittleWit — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:16:03 +0000

Denial. It’s not just a river anymore. So I spent my early morning hours cleaning up all the patterns scattered about my office. I got them all neatly put into my three ring binder each pattern in it’s own little sleeve. Unless it was only printed on one side, then some of those patterns shared a sleeve. I then wound yarn for my next couple of knitting projects and located all needed reference materials. I also made half of a decision regarding the Belgian socks. I fear they are too wide to fit the desired recipient’s foot and I can’t be too enamored with the pattern as it has languished for a good six months. Granted part of the reason for languishing was because I had made it through half of one foot when it was brought to my attention that they may not fit and I couldn’t come up with a good method for doing a sneaky fitting test. So I ripped out the shorter of the two socks and am going to try the yarn in a different pattern and then pick which I like better. Hooray!

In other denial news, I cast on for another pair of Cable Twist socks today. I love these socks because they fly off my needles. Although some day I swear I will knit them with enough yarn. I knit the first repeat and weighed the yarn – 5 grams. I have a 99 gram skein of yarn and two socks so that’s 49.5 grams a piece. Which in theory would tell me that I can have 9 repeats. The only problem being that I just don’t like the cuff with only 3 repeats so I am trying to squeeze in four as though the foot portion will magically shrink. Sigh. Typing this is making me realize I am really truly going to have to rip back. And to think I turned the heel tonight! Unless of course, I knit the toe in a contrasting yarn. What’s a gal to do? I peered in my stash and none of my blues are remotely close. I do have some grey yarn that I am not hating. I just don’t want the socks to look half-assed. They’re a gift for a very lovely person. Oh and they have to be knit by Sunday night.

Other mitigating factors: I have knit this pattern 3 other times. Twice in worsted using 211.2 yds and 215.6 yds and once in DK using 158 yds. I just feel like with this being on worsted again I should have enough yarn. Especially since I had enough yarn leftover in the DK to do another repeat. This pattern also has a lot of give in it. The cabling adds a lot of stretch.

Oh! I just remembered the foot won’t use as much yarn cause the bottom is in stockinette and has no cabling. Is that enough to save me?

Tank Success!

LittleWit — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:13:34 +0000

I finished knitting and seaming the Fern Tank tonight. Hooray! I will be washing and blocking it tomorrow. I should probably wash and block Vivian at the same time. We watched Arsenic and Old Lace tonight as well as the Virgin Suicides. Arsenic and Old Lace was much more entertaining and comical than I thought it would be. The Virgin Suicides, well that was intense to say the least. Not much else to report on the home front. Have a g’night everyone!