Am I fickle?

Perhaps.  In some things, definitely.  For example, with blogging I may be slightly fickle.  In my last post I mentioned that just because I’m not posting doesn’t mean that I’m not knitting.  I just really want a pretty knitting blog akin to all the ones I read in which people display their beautiful knitted items.  I still haven’t purchased a camera, but recently I acquired an iPhone (for school purposes, of course).  Thus, I’m able to take some rudimentary photographs of my knitted endeavours.

I’m proud to say that I’ve finished quite a few items since my last post and I’ve tackled a lot of new techniques.  It’s easy to be exposed to new things when you’re a relatively new knitter, because every pattern you pick up has something in the instructions that you haven’t come across before.

I’ll be sure to post some of the items that I’m working on, and others that I have finished recently and not too recently.

I recently finished the Chicknits Mondo Cable Cardi in Cascade Yarns colour 2611.  I love this sweater!  It knit up really fast, especially with the help of the Knitmore Girls Mondo Cable KAL on Ravelry.  The only modifications I made to this wonderful pattern is picking up an extra 2 stitches on the armhole, because otherwise I was afraid there would be a bit of a hole on either side under the arm.  I don’t know what it is about the way that I knit, but every time a pattern calls for picking up stitches I always need to pick up more than the pattern suggests.

Anyway, here is a couple of pictures of my finished cardi.

Hopefully I will have more pictures of my other newly, and not-so-newly, finished products to share soon.

I need a camera

The reason I haven’t posted in months isn’t because I haven’t been knitting.  It’s because I think the key to a great blog is great pictures.  I don’t have a camera and taking photos of my knitting with my computer’s camera just doesn’t work that well.  I’ve been updating my Ravelry page, but that’s also completely devoid of images.

Since I finished the Striped Scarf from the 2002 men’s issue of Vogue Knitting I have also finished the Bulky Coat from Vogue Knitting winter 2008/2009.  I used Twinkle by Classic Elite Soft Chunky in the Midnight colourway, which is the recommended yarn for the pattern.  The pattern gauge is 11 stitches over 7 inches.  Notice that the gauge is over 7 inches, not the usual 4 inches.  Over 4 inches the gauge is about 6.3 stitches.  This calls for some seriously bulky yarn.  I don’t know how many of you have looked for yarn this bulky, but it is scarce to say the least.  Any yarn that I did find that was thick enough felt like burlap and/or it was extremely dense.  I think the perfect bulky coat requires fluffy yarn so that the FO doesn’t feel heavy.  I don’t want a coat that feels or looks like a blanket, so I decided to go with the Soft Chunky even though it was more expensive than I had hoped.  Luckily I signed up for the Purple Purl e-newsletter and heard about their sale on Soft Chunky yarn.  Anyway, I have finished the coat and I think it turned out great, especially considering it is my first sweater.  I’ve worn it twice and I definitely don’t regret my yarn choice because this is the softest wool I have ever felt.  I still need to get buttons for it, though.  Ever time I’m in a yarn shop I look at their button selection, but I haven’t found any that I like and are big enough.  I need 6 buttons that are 1.25 inches in diameter, so I will probably need to go to Fabricland or some other sewing supply store to find them.  I’ve never attached buttons to something that I have knit before.  I wonder if it is the same as it is with sewing.  If anyone has any recommendations about how to attach buttons to a bulky yarn garment please let me know.

Since completing the coat I have knit 3 pairs of socks and I’m working on 2 more pairs.  The first pair I knit was the pattern, Thuja in Fibranatura Yummy superwash wool in colourway 41351, which is an orange-purple mix.  I love this colourway.  It makes me want to knit and knit and knit.  This was my first pair of socks and I actually found them surprisingly easy to knit.  These are knit from the top-down, which even though I have since done patterns from the toe-up I still think top-down is easier.  I understand the benefits of knitting toe-up, especially when you are knitting a sock with an intricate pattern, but I just find the starting a lot more difficult, although the rest is about the same level of difficulty.  These socks turned out alright, not amazing.  I thought that pattern would look a lot better with thicker yarn, so the next pair of socks that I made were with the same pattern, but with Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Design Line by Kaffe Fassett in the Landscape Colour, Twilight.  This worked out much better and I will be sure to post a picture of both socks once I get a camera.

After I finished this pair of socks I kept looking for a pattern to make another pair of socks with this yarn.  I finally landed on a pattern called Fruit Loop.  It’s a great pattern, but I think my favourite aspect of it is it’s name.  If you know me, you know that I have a weakness for all things sugary, so it just seemed fitting that I should knit these socks with a colourway I also have a weakness for.  The only problem is that I ran out of yarn after the first sock and I have yet to find more of this yarn in this colourway.  It might seem strange that I ran out after only one sock, but I knit the first sock with leftovers from the Thuja socks.  I was able to knit 2 mens socks and one ladies sock with one skein of this yarn.  I must say I was quite impressed, but that doesn’t help the situation I  am in now with only one ladies sock.  If I can’t find more of this colourway I may resort to buying it on-line or knitting the second sock in a different colourway.

I think I’ve talked enough for one post.  Next time I will go on and on about how much I love this bamboo yarn I have recently found.

Timelines

As if I don’t have enough of them imposed on me, I have to impose them on myself.  I’m trying to finish this scarf by Saturday March 28 for a friend’s birthday.  I just recently learned how to knit (as is evident from my pieces), but I’m already addicted!  I never feel as calm and collected in any other aspect of my life as I do when I’m knitting.  Even when I have a target completion date.

I’m knitting, but not because I’ve taken a vow of celibacy.

“I’m knitting a sweater”, is actually a quote from Grey’s Anatomy season 2 episode 22, which was made by Dr. Lizzie Stevens. She’s explaining that she is knitting pieces to a sweater to replace the pieces that Meredith is knitting. Meredith has taken a vow of celibacy and has taken up knitting to occupy herself. Lizzy claims that Meredith can’t knit, but she needs to think that she is knitting in order to stick to her vow.
I thought that this would be a funny quote to name my blog after, but the real reason I picked it was because “I may be knitting a ranch house” was already taken. That quote is from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is quite possibly my favourite movie. Audrey Hepburn’s character, Holly Golightly, takes up knitting, but she’s scared about how her sweater is going to turn out because she thinks her knitting instructions were mixed up with her gentleman caller’s architecture plans for the new ranch house he’s building. Just a sampling of the mixed up wonder that is Breakfast at Tiffany’s.