after all that trouble with the toes, i began knitting onto more of the foot. and guess what? the socks are too big. i'm certainly glad that i knit these toe up. what a disaster it would be to finish the whole sock and realize it's too big.
so what will i be doing during the championship game? frogging the socks. it was a valiant effort, but not to be for march madness. i'm a bit sad.
i'll be rooting for butler, the underdogs, the alma mater of my inlaws. enjoy the game!
i did frog the toe on the march ravelry madness socks. i reknit it and now it's perfect. i have done a few rounds, but they don't look much different from the last picture.
last month i participated in the knitting olympics and ravelympics. i did the same project for both. i used the pattern snapdragon tam by ysolda teague. i bought this pattern because half of the proceeds went to help for haiti, and i'm glad i did. these were the best directions i have ever found.
it all started out with malabrigo carrot and bonker's fibers cotton and merino.
i was worried the whole time that i was going to run out of the bonker's, and look how much i had left:
here is the tam before blocking.
and another view before blocking.
after blocking you can see the cables much more clearly.
however, there was still a lot of the band to deal with after the blocking. i think i measured my head wrong, because the tam was way too big.
so i felted it. i was a little worried that the bonker's would shrink too, but it wasn't noticeable if it did.
much better after felting.
and i finished (except for the felting) before the closing ceremonies. podium finish!
so far this is all the progress i've made on my march ravelry madness socks. i don't know why, but i had quite a bit of trouble with the provisional cast on. too many stitches, too little stitches, stitches falling off the needles, the crochet knot in the wrong place. i finally got that right. and i knit up one toe perfectly.
on the other toe i somehow dropped a stitch. due to the short rows, i couldn't quite figure out where to pick it up. so i frogged and started again. the second time i somehow picked up a stitch and left a little hole in the fabric.
so what to do now? should i frog it again, or darn it later? i think it took me about two hours per toe. but i'll be wearing these for a much longer time than that. i'm just worried i won't finish by the championship game, which is april 5. and i'm really anxious to start working on the foot. what would you do?
i have been trying to post since sunday, but our internet is all wonky. i created a group on ravelry for fans and widows of the ncaa men's tournament. i think i'll be watching quite a bit of basketball, and what better time to knit? the games started today. the idea is one project, to be completed by the end of the championship game. i was going to cast on when the brackets were announced, but i got a bit sidetracked. so today is the day. i'm creating dead simple lace socks from "socks from the toe up." i'm using knitpicks handpainted yarn in the colorway of wicked witch. i think these are going to look great! although i do have some doubts about being able to finish them by april 5. i'm going to try my best though.
here's the yarn:
i'll keep you updated as i move along. if you want to join, and you're on ravelry, click here. and if you're a knitter and you're not on ravelry, why not?
for my friend, francine, i knit a cute pug. the pattern is wasabi, the gregarious pug by dangercrafts. here is the ravelry link
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i like his curly tail.
for her husband, ed, i made a pair of fingerless gloves. it looks like they changed the pattern a bit since i used it.
i knit these two at a time on two circular needles. i like to do that for a couple of reasons. first, when you're done, you're done. no need to make another. and second, if you add a row here or there, you do it symmetrically. there are a lot of beautiful fingerless glove patterns on ravelry. i'll definitely be making more.
and if you're not familiar with ravelry, it's a knitting community. if you're a knitter, you should definitely join. it has patterns, designers, forums. you can keep track of your projects, stash, needles and books. i love it.
finally, now that folks have opened their gifts, i can show you what i've been working on.
i knit a crow for my friend debb. i got the pattern from natty knits. here's her ravelry link. i think it came out really cute.
for her husband, greg, i painted a small canvas using gear masks. he likes gears.
i'm not sure why i took this picture sideways. the clock goes on the right, not the bottom. i was kind of rushing around making sure i had everything wrapped.
i painted the canvas with black gesso, placed the masks/stencils, went over it with white gesso and then painted with quinacridone magenta and deep purple. i can't wait until it's warm again and i can use my spray paints.
happy boxing day!
the nanojoumo journal prompt for november 3 was inspire. i thought of a lot of different people, and different artists, but settled on buddha. the way he lived his enlightened life is an inspiration to me. i have to continually remind myself to be more compassionate, kind, centered .... to just be in the moment.
i'm sad it's not showing up, but the rectangular strip above the dalai lama's image was from a parking receipt. it included the date and time. poo. you'll have to use your imagination.
i wanted to share some other work besides the nanojoumo pages. this is a seed stitch clutch (rav link) that i made for my friend's birthday...which was in april! i think i did the knitting in march. plenty of time, right? but then came the parts i didn't know how to do: crochet, line the bag and add a zipper. the pattern pictures included a lined bag, so i was disappointed when the pattern merely said something like "so you can line it and add a zipper if you want." the whole process intimidated me. i set it aside for a long while.
my friend was planning on moving away from chicago. i was determined that the bag should go with her. so one day i just finally decided to get serious. i looked at a lot of websites, read the happy hooker, looked at more websites and just got to work. i made a lot of mistakes, and i would probably do it differently were i to do it again. but i accomplished it! i was able to give her the bag at her going away party. only 6 months late (i've never been that late before).
here we are together for the last time. francine and gerri.
this is what i woke up to this morning.
someone is in trouble.
