FO! [that's Finished Object]

Here is my sweet Chalupa, she's 2yrs old, teeny tiny, and very relaxed [in this picture]. Her interests include yarn, catnip, decimating small critters, sleeping, and wool especially Noro and Fleece Artist. She breaks yarn with her teeth at inopportune moments.

Lotorp is done! This is the awesomest and fastest-ever bag pattern from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Noro Revisited Book [#3]. Looks like a cat bed in this photo. I loved knitting this bag, it was all knit stitch on 6mm/ 10US, very comfortable and easy.

This is what I started with, 3 skeins Noro Iro #19. [Yardage: 132, Fiber Content: 75% Wool, 25% Silk, Stitches: 3, Needle Size: 11, Weight: 100g.] This is an older colorway I won on ebay, all this for under $40 total, shipping included. Thanks Sookie in NY!

The pattern is well written, there were no problems from start to finish. I did tinker and tweak a few minor details, CTH writes sparse instructions open to interpretation, and I imagine she wants each knitter to use personal discretion. I added 2 more rows to the widest part of each diamond, 6 rows added overall, resulting in a 4 stitch increase in width. Also I chose the M1 increase, twisting the bar between stitches, and I changed the decrease to Sl1 Pwise, K, psso, much easier with bulky yarn.

I wanted the illusion of seamlessness, so I did a couple things to ensure it. The ends of the skeins were matched for smooth blending, no color breaks, and used a provisional crochet cast on, creating live stitches for Kitchener stitch. This photo shows the contrast yarn woven through prior to finishing with Iro, a great trick which saves the "good" yarn from wear and tear while making and fixing mistakes. There were only 12 inches of Iro remaining after weaving the strap, so the rest of the bag was seamed in a different dark wool. It is so nice to use all of the yarn, I am a saver of little bits of yarn and have a significant amount of leftover yarn waiting for Godot.

My suggestions for weaving stitches.

1. Search for the best possible pictures because for me the visuals are SO IMPORTANT. I like to see a variety of sources just in case I am missing something or the pictures are better in another book. Readers Digest Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley has really good visuals, I use it often. I cross check Elizabeth Zimmermann's books, Mary Thomas' Knitting Book and Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top for verification.
2. Use a slippery contrasting yarn to weave the initial stitches. This way the stitches are visible and fixing mistakes is easy. Follow with the real yarn when all is well, and tada: both eyesight and sanity are preserved.

Crikey

I am in knitting purgatory lately. Truly I am starting to wonder about how so many projects go haywire, and I never seem to notice until the second sleeve, weird.

I started another Fleece Artist pattern. This one's called Jane Origami Sweater or Jane Crossover Sweater. This is knit sideways, which really shows gauge problems. In fact I am having a gauge problem which is how I know this about sideways knitting. The cast on edge is about 1" wider than the other side, and I am really torn about whether to rip the entire thing out or not. Now would be a good time to kill it since I merely knit one sleeve, not both. My husband thinks this should be a good lesson in something like torture, I admit to not listening, did he mean plug through to the bitter end? Sounds like an invitation to tears and disaster, ew.

PS I did rip everything, there were a couple mistakes I must fix, a missing stitch, varying gauge, and knitting the sleeves in the round instead of flat with seams. Here we go again.

and I finished Liz's baby shower gift, the pinkish melonish multidirectional blanket. It came out to 31" square, with a little yarn leftover, which was possibly for a crochet border, or a picked up garter border. This is knit with one long strand of yarn, from a giant 840g skein, and there was absolutely no seaming, sewing or extra finishing whatsoever :)

disclaimer: the color is way off, this is not accurate color representation.

Whyfor do I not blog?

I should blog. But I don't. Why?

I now have batteries for the dang camera. I could take pictures. But of WHAT?!! Firstly, I grossly do not enjoy taking pictures, secondly, there's nothing worth photographing, I have been sucking lately.

The ripping of FO's and partial work is unprecedented here. I have nothing to say for myself, nothing at all to justify my crappy work and ripping to make it all go away.

But perhaps I'll finish something soon and get out of my funk. That's a hint. Tonight probably, I will finish a Multidirectional Baby Blanket by Iris Schreier, in a thick/ thin, hand painted cotton yarn with a shiny binder by Wool in the Woods. The neat thing about this yarn is it's one continuous 850 g strand of yarn, no breaks in the whole enormous skein!! Yeah that's my kind of yarn, I avoid sewing in ends! The Blanket is a gift for Liz at work, who is having her second baby [a girl] in January or February.