Bringing Salina Back

Ages ago I started knitting Salina from Vintage Knits but never finished. I’m sure y’all read about my experience with “the grafting method that shall not be named.” The idea of grafting sleeves onto a sweater has always made me immediately write off a pattern. “Forget it, can’t do, not going to try.” So Salina has sat on the back burner just waiting to be frogged, but autumn is right around the corner and I’m feeling “crazy insane” enough to try and tackle a sweater.

It seems like such a shame because I have already finished the back but in order to spare my sanity I’ve decided to knit the main body in the round so I won’t have to seam the front and back together, leaving just the grafting of the sleeves, which I think is more than enough of a challenge right now. I’ll let you know when I get to that part, or maybe you’ll already know because I’m sure I’ll be drunk the entire time to take the edge off and all my posts will look like I let a spider monkey type it.

Beadless Cami

 

 

Beaded(less) Cami

Pattern: Black Dog Designs

Yarn: 3.5 balls Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo, Color -Indigo

Needles: #6 US Knit Pick Circulars

Gauge: 5stitches/per 1″

Pattern Notes: I am so in love with this top! It was only till I got to the top lace did I run into any problems but after reading an article over at knitty, did I finally conquer that grafting method who shall not be named “kitchener stitch,” which isn’t as horrid now that I know how to do it properly! After reading several other blogs and their modifications I chose to cast on for 4 lace repeats around the bottom, and then decreased every 6 rows until I had enough stitches for 3 lace repeats along the top. I also knit in the round, especially with all the stockinette stitching, just seemed like the logical choice.  I omitted the empire waist and am contemplating omitting the straps and beads and adding some elastic along the top to hold it up.  What do you think?

 

Yarn Notes: I don’t normally talk up yarn but I have to because I just adore Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo. First of all the color is amazing and I don’t even like blue, but this is such a beautiful color that I couldn’t resist. In certain light the color looks more purple, and in other light it looks more dark blue. It slips along your needles effortlessly, it’s extremely soft and easy on the hands and the drape is wonderful. It’s a little pricey at $9 a ball but quite honestly, I think it’s totally worth it and am planning on buying more in other colors!

 

 

 

Okay, NOW you’ve pissed me off.

Kitchener stitch is not difficult.  Knit, purl – Purl, knit….  I have done this type of seaming/grafting a million times.  Okay, a million might be a slight exaggeration, regardless, I am not a kitchener stitch virgin. 

Normally I wouldn’t give a crap because most of the time the graft is somewhere not noticeable, but there is no way that I can wear this top and not have people wonder WTF is wrong with it.  Being the knitting genius that I am (Haha) I thought I could fix it, clearly I was wrong and am now contemplating taking the whole thing out to the yard, digging a big hole and burying it, I am that frustrated and insane right now.   Oh and if you’re wondering(which I know you are) this is the fourth time kitchener stitching the top lace to the front.  To think I scoffed at the idea of binding off and sewing the two together because my sewing skills are poor at best, but that this point I’m not ruling anything out short of gorilla glue.

And because I am “crazy insane” I will attempt the kitchener stitch again but I swear, if the fifth time is not the charm….  You may see me on the news as the crazy insane woman from Austin with a “Free Booze If You Can Kitchener Stitch My Beaded Cami For Me” sign on the side of I-35.

Impressed!

I was discussing with a friend just recently about yarn and how I haven’t really been completely bowled over by anything I’ve worked with lately.  Not only that but color selection hasn’t really wowed me either.  Oh sure I’ve found stuff I like and colors that are pretty and interest me and fun to knit with but every once in a while it would be nice to just be completely swept away with a purchase.

Last week I took a day trip up to Austin and decided to pop into one of my favorite yarn shops, Hill Country Weavers.   Normally I need a set plan in order to purchase something.  Ideas for the yarn, weight, color, gauge, fiber, and project, but this time I just went in and roamed around the store and just looked and waited for something to jump out at me.

The color is gorgeous and this coming from someone who is not a big blue fan.  I had to quickly scan the recesses of my brain to think of something I could knit with this because I had to have it.  My original plan was to knit the summertime tunic from interweave knits, but as I thought about it I changed my mind and decided to knit the beaded cami from black dog designs.

I am so in love with this yarn.  In love, impressed, obsessed, can’t put it down….  I think I need to start amassing a yarn stash starting with wool bam boo!

Basic Baby Doll and Panty

 

 

Basic Baby Doll and Panty 

Pattern:  Knitting Lingerie Style  – Joan McGowan-Michael

Yarn:  6.5 skeins of Berroco Bonsai

Needles:  #4, #6, #8 – US Knit Pick Circulars

Gauge:  5 stitches per inch on #4US

Pattern Notes:  I made several modifications.  The most noticeable is of course the deletion of the split front.  Unless you’re Cindy Crawford, the average woman just isn’t too keen on flaunting their stomach, myself included.  I cast on less stitches for the top part and without wanting or trying to, I knit the top on #4 needles which is two sizes smaller than what the pattern calls for.  Somehow it works but was unintentional.   The lace portion is an inch longer and the panties had to be reknit twice due to largeness.  I also added a ribbon instead of elastic for the panties and omitted the elastic all together for the top because it is very snug already due to knitting with the wrong sized needles.  Overall it’s a great little project, it’s fun and quick and cute.  Oh and I won’t ever knit with the berroco bonsai again.  Beautiful yarn, it’s almost all bamboo with a tiny thread of nylon which gives it a wonderful sheen but trying to knit and seam with it is a pain in the butt.  My needles kept getting caught on the little thread of nylon.

 

If you detect a tiny spot of orange on the panties… that would be where I dripped orange juice while fighting a cold earlier this week.   By the time I realized it, it had already dried but I did rinse it, unsuccessfully.

 

 

I’m square!

I recently went back to the gym and thought that I could just use my blackberry pearl mp3 player while working out.  Unfortunately the only headphones that fit the jack is pretty size specific and the headphones provided only accommodate one ear which is just weird.  I made a trip to Best Buy today to find new headphones only to find that they’re $40 so I started looking around at the mp3 players and saw the iPod Shuffle.  How cool is it that it’s so tiny and it just clips right to your clothes, so I asked a sales person for help and she brought out a very pretty purple shuffle and I thought to myself “that’s it!”  And then she turned back to the case and pulled out the new iPod Nano….  Well forget it, she had me at “square.”  I can put videos, photos, podcasts, etc. on it.  How much better is that than the little shuffle!  Now I only need one of those nifty armbands.

I stayed up so late last night, till 2 a.m. just knitting and listening to music.  I was so proud of myself because I finished the front of the basic baby doll and seamed up the sides.  As I was seaming it dawned on me that the two halves were not the same size.  “No problem, I’ll make it work.”   As I was casting on for the lace I switched needles and realized that the needles I had used to knit the front was a size smaller than the needles I used for the back.  DUH!  No wonder it wasn’t the same size.  I suppose it wouldn’t have hurt to keep as was but I decided to take it apart and redo the back using the smaller sized needles.

Free to good home

Oh sure he looks all sweet and innocent but that darn cat has the ability to wreck carnage on the most undeserving of suspects.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Apparently the yarn would not give up its accomplices and therefore drastic measures needed to be taken. Next time sign the confession and Boog won’t have to rough you up.

If you’re wondering what I’m working on: