Cables

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written here. I got very caught up in a cyberpunk novel and it took up all my spare time for a few weeks. Not that I’m complaining – I’m a bookworm who loves her books!

I did end up getting some work in on the belt for the iPod Cozy. Essentially, I adapted a standard cable pattern and am knitting a flat strip which is the width of the belt. It’s great practice, since I’ve never knit cables before.

Cables aren’t really that daunting, but they are fickle. Perhaps I’m knitting too tight, but I’m having a bit of a struggle knitting the stitches once they get cabled and put back on the appropriate needle. I’m not sure how to remedy this, but I’m getting better as I get further in the work. I’ve finished a few pattern repeats already, so it’s just a matter of finding the spare time to get some knitting done.

I’m really hoping to have this done soon so that I can move on to my next project!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The iPod gets a wardrobe update

The iPod Cozy is finished. Well, the shell is, anyway. I still have to make the belt and additional strap for it, which will probably happen in the next few days.

It was actually a little more work to finish it than to knit it. The D-rings had to be sewn on, as well as the velcro for the flap. I’m actually embarrassed at my lack of true sewing skills. I can sew buttons on pants and shirts, I can make little pouches by hand, but I lack in the ability to sew on a machine, or to sew anything more complicated by hand. This is particularly embarrassing since my grandmother is a retired seamstress who can make…anything. My mom once made me a clown costume for Halloween from scratch. Apparently, the gene did NOT get passed down to me.

Anyway, back to the iPod Cozy. The belt needs to be made, and I’m keen on the idea of using this as an opportunity to learn how to knit cables. They are apparently easy, once you get the hang of them. We’ll see how it goes.

If I get the chance to knit this project again, I probably will. Though I’m generally happy with it, the bind off at the end was too tight (meaning that the flap isn’t stretched enough), and tight knitting is something I have to work on. I generally knit things tightly, and that gets me into a little bit of trouble sometimes.

Below are the photos:

The sock relief project

Gentle reader, you can clearly see that my update this week was delayed. I express my humblest apologies for being scatterbrained!

Last week I decided to put down the sock project for a little while and to try something with instant gratification. I’ve been down to the gym in our building almost daily, working out to the sounds of my wonderful friend, the iPod.

Although the elliptical machines have little holders for things like water bottles and iPods, the treadmill does not. While running, I generally hold my iPod in my hand. This is not convenient at ALL. I could just go to the Mac store and buy one of those sport covers for the iPod, but they’re not cheap and they’re not what I want. I had some left over yarn in my bin, so I decided to attempt Jesca Sander’s “Cricket’s Technicolor Techno-Cozy”, altered for the iPod. This pattern can be found in Debbie Stoller’s wonderful book Stitch ‘n Bitch.

I’ve altered the pattern a fair bit. Where it calls for 3 different colours of yarn, I’ve made it just plain black. I’ve also altered the math a bit, as the yarn I was using was a slightly different texture and weight than the one she suggested.

The result is that the iPod cozy is finished, it just needs a piece of velcro for the flap. However, there’s more to it than just the cover for the iPod. I wanted to make a pouch that could have a belt-like strap to put around my waist, to keep the iPod in place. I also wanted to make sure I could put in a different strap, if I so desired. As well, I wanted to be able to switch the strap so that I could put it across my chest and carry the pouch like a purse.

The result is (going to be) an iPod cozy with two D-rings along each side and two D-rings at the top. The straps will have clips so that they can easily clip to the pouch.

I have the D-rings and clips, so the pouch and it’s first knit strap (the gym-belt) should be done by the end of the week.

How’s THAT for instant, useful, gratification!

I’ll post some photos when this is done.

Have a great week, everyone!

The sock saga continues…

Not much to report this week. The sock is a slow-going process. I’m knitting with double-pointed metal needles, which is part of the problem. Although metal needles won’t snag the yarn like wooden needles do, a good quality set of bamboo needles offers less of a slippery surface. I haven’t even gotten past the first part because the yarn keeps slipping off the needles.

Essentially, when I have some extra money, I’m going to pick up an inexpensive set of bamboo double-pointed needles. I’ll likely wait until the first sock is done before I do that though.

A newbie knitter is always learning new things about their likes and dislikes, preferences, and must-haves. I have learned that I do not like novelty yarn (frilly yarn which is so hard to knit with), and I have also learned that I do not like non-bamboo needles. I have learned that I love Knit Picks interchangeable circular needles, and I also love and can’t live without my hanging row-counter.

Slowly, we learn these things. I’m glad I’m learning them within a budget!

The little sock that could

It has been quite the busy week. Spring has finally sprung in Toronto, so your humble narrator has been putting her knitting needles down and taking some long walks. Fear not, for there is a pair of socks in my future!

Though the wristwarmers from last week didn’t quite work out, I am not discouraged. I will try them again with a different yarn at some point soon. Right now, I’m focusing on socks.

The practice sock from last weekend was completed this week, and I made another practice sock to make sure I had the techniques under control. It seems I did.

This weekend’s class at the Purl saw us all talking about the challenges with making socks, and some of the errors that we made. Then came the fun part: Knitter’s Math!

Kate showed us how to calculate how many stitches and rows were needed so that a sock could perfectly fit our feet. It’s amazing how much math is really involved in knitting. Kate has a wealth of knowledge about all the the intricate calculations needed to produce a truly fitted piece (as opposed to an off-the-rack piece of clothing) and I think it makes so much more sense now. Please go visit her blog, she has a lot of good information there.

We all walked away from the class with a ball of Tofutsies sock yarn, and our own sock pattern sculpted to fit our feet with great precision. It was a great experience and I can’t rave enough about The Purple Purl and their fantastic classes.

Before I run away to work on my socks, I do have something important to say. I’m doing the MS Supercities Walk here in Toronto on April 13th. It’s a cause which is important to me, and I ask if anyone with the capacity and desire to do so could pledge me for this walk. Every dollar helps towards finding a cure, and helps those suffering to get access to valuable programs, counseling, and medications. You can pledge me at the MS Society website.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

No Wristwarmer For You!

Despite my promises yesterday, there will be no photos today. I finished up the first wristwarmer instead of finishing the practice sock. Although it looks nice, the wristwarmer is too big for my freakishly tiny wrists and small hands. Despite altering the pattern significantly, it seems I’m going to have to rethink this before I try again.

Lesson learned? Yes. In my mind, making the ribbing around the wrists for size “Children’s small” was going to be enough. Such is not the case. If I use this yarn again, I need to use smaller needles and subtract about 6 stitches from the cast on.

I WILL try again. However, I am first going to finish the practice sock.

A little sock goes a long way

This week I worked on those wrist warmers I was talking about. The yarn I’m using (also mentioned in my last entry) is nice once you get used to it. I’m almost done the first one!

I took the sock knitting class at The Purple Purl today. It is the first of two classes, next Saturday is Part 2. It was taught by Kate Atherley, whose blog I have been following recently. She was wonderfully animated and quirky, exactly what I like in a teacher. Sock knitting seems like such a huge undertaking until you’ve done it the first time. She gave us instructions for a practice sock today, and we managed to get as far as turning the heel. I intend to finish the practice sock tonight, and practice the techniques. It’s rather complicated and math-heavy, so I will need to keep looking at the pattern. That being said, I love knitting which is math-heavy, and that’s why I am really enjoying this sock.

In roughly half an hour, Toronto celebrates Earth Hour. Lights and electronics are going off in our condo, and I’m going to knit by candlelight after I’m done taking photos of this event from our balcony. Unfortunately, the roof-top patio in our condo building is not yet open after the winter, but I’m certain I’ll still be able to get some lovely photos. With a lot of the lights in the city being turned off, I hope to be able to see some stars!

Since I haven’t had a chance to photograph the work-in-progress on the wrist warmers and the practice sock, I will be making another post tomorrow, hopefully by mid-afternoon.

Enjoy the beautiful weather, everyone!

Knit the Mitt Fantastic

This week was a very busy week. I found that knitting with a group of people could be rather enjoyable.

Before we go any further with my adventures with group knitting, I would like to proudly say that Mr. BF’s hat is finally done! Spring has not yet sprung in lovely Toronto, so he might still get to wear it for a while.

I’m quite pleased with the result. Though it took me multiple attempts to get it right, I learned a lot about fixing mistakes.

Tuesday evening I went over to the The Purple Purl and learned to make mittens! Though I think I’m quite confident with reading patterns, the actual techniques still often elude me. I learned two new ways of increasing and two new ways of decreasing. I also learned the 3-needle bind-off, and most importantly, how to make a thumb gusset (the part of the mitten where your thumb goes is knit after the rest of the mitt is done). I am quite happy about learning these new techniques! I feel that it adds more flexibility to what I can knit. I made a very (very) small sample mitten (will not even fit a newborn, methinks) using all the techniques. It’s rather crude, but with practice, it will come together, I am sure!

Sample mitten:

Thursday saw me attending Knitty’s Yarn Tasting at The Purple Purl. It was a lot of fun. The idea is that Knitty wants to test out new yarns on people who will actually knit with them. If a yarn isn’t a hit with the knitters, it doesn’t go into Knitty. It’s a great way to test out new yarns and work with something you wouldn’t normally try. At the end of the night, there was a draw for prizes, and I won a ball of Sonora yarn. I’ve never worked with a linen yarn, so this is a little treat for me. I’ve already decided I’m making a pair of springtime wristwarmers (fingerless gloves) with this new yarn. Now that I know how to make those thumb gussets, a simple pattern should be less daunting to tackle.

I hope to have at least one wristwarmer knit up by next week!

Frogging, Part Two

It seems that the hat is cursed. By cursed, I mean that I had to Frog back a few rows again. I had gotten to the point where I was decreasing at the crown. It seemed all was well and I switched the stitches to 4 double-pointed needles when it got tight. Unfortunately, when you’re working with bulky-weight yarn, the yarn takes up more space than normal yarn.

Two stitches fell off one of the needles. This should be easy enough to fix, except that it wasn’t. So I grudgingly took the knitting off the needles and started to Frog back a few rows. I then attempted to put it back on the needles, but it doesn’t look quite right. I’ll take another look at the problem when my head is feeling clear. Winter is almost over, and Mr. BF doesn’t have his hat yet. This is depressing, so I went over to the Purple Purl and signed up for a sock knitting class. It starts in about 2 weeks, so that will give me some summer projects to work on.

In better news, my mom received her scarf on Sunday, and she loved it. Photo below.

The sound a frog makes

In my last entry, I wrote about the hat which was made too small. I started a new hat for the boyfriend, since the original hat was supposed to be for him. This time, instead of a roll-brim (which happens if you use stockinette stitch from start to finish), I decided to do a nice rib at the bottom for about two inches, then switch to stockinette to give a smooth top. This would make a snug fit around the ears, or so I had hoped

I dropped a stitch. This is when the stitch slips off your needle before you work it. Often us newbies don’t notice this until a row or two later. This would be fine, normally. All you have to do is take a look at the tutorials online to see that picking up a dropped stitch is not such a daunting task once you calm down and realize you can fix it. The problem is that I was doing a simple rib pattern. Knit two, Purl two. So when I dropped the stitch, it threw off the count. The lovely rib pattern was now no more.

As such, I decided to FROG back to the mistake. What is Frogging, you ask? What is this weird terminology that those crazy knitters use? Well, newbies need to know this: The sound a frog makes is “Ribbit, ribbit”. That sounds very similar to “rip it, rip it”. So when you take your knitting off the needles and have to rip out a bunch of stitches/rows (effectively, “ripping it”), knitters call this Frogging. I have no idea who came up with this term, but perhaps one day I’ll find out.

Unfortunately, there is a fine art in Frogging. You have to know what you’re doing. Though I had a vague idea of what I was doing, it did not save me from having to unravel the whole 1.5 inches I’d already knit. Sadly, the hat will have to be cast on again. Sadly, there are no photos of this catastrophe. It all happened too fast.

Another lesson learned.

Tomorrow my mom gets her birthday scarf, the previously mentioned Coffee Scarf. Hopefully she’ll like it. I’ll post a photo of her wearing it if I can.

Cheers everyone, happy blizzard day!