1.05.2009
Moved!
I got myself my own domain (the domain + hosting was $22 for two years [total, not per month]), and I couldn't resist! I can now be found at http://aimlessknitter.com. Drop by!
12.04.2008
Finished!
I was going to make a pair of monkeys for myself, but then I saw another pair of socks by Cookie A, Hedera, and I knew I had to make those! She's such an amazing designer. I have this lovely sea green yarn by Brooklyn Handspun, and I think it's perfect for this project. I opened my Magic Loop book and tried it out, and I really get this method! I'm sure, though, that I'll find a way to eff up these socks using this method. To make things really interesting, I'm going to try them toe up.
11.28.2008
Easy peasy!
I'm really concerned about how little trouble I am having with my revamped Monkey socks. I had started them in September, done a lot in a little time, and then got bored with all of the purling and stopped. Good thing.
It turned out that I had been knitting them backwards; I'd pushed the right side into my the space between my DPNs, and therefore was knitting the whole thing in reverse. Stupid, but it was still okay, at least until I went and did the heel inside out, too. Then I was all messed up. I frogged the whole thing, and started over again this Tuesday. Right now, I'm about to start decreasing, and I feel so much better about my skills as a knitter, and my ability to read and understand a pattern. Also, I got to practice my short row heels again and am really getting the hang of it now, which is awesome.
I can see why people keep making these socks again and again (the other day I met a woman who has made 5 pairs of Monkeys in a very short time). They're cute, fun, and really easy, and I think I will make myself a pair soon, after I get through all of the obligatory knitting that I need to finish up.
It turned out that I had been knitting them backwards; I'd pushed the right side into my the space between my DPNs, and therefore was knitting the whole thing in reverse. Stupid, but it was still okay, at least until I went and did the heel inside out, too. Then I was all messed up. I frogged the whole thing, and started over again this Tuesday. Right now, I'm about to start decreasing, and I feel so much better about my skills as a knitter, and my ability to read and understand a pattern. Also, I got to practice my short row heels again and am really getting the hang of it now, which is awesome.
I can see why people keep making these socks again and again (the other day I met a woman who has made 5 pairs of Monkeys in a very short time). They're cute, fun, and really easy, and I think I will make myself a pair soon, after I get through all of the obligatory knitting that I need to finish up.
Labels:
Frogging,
mistakes,
monkey socks,
short row heel,
socks,
ufos
11.22.2008
Success
I finished Satanski's mittens, and am really pleased with how they came out. Mittens are great! Here's the final product:

And here are the mittens with the scarf that I made.

I've enjoyed this yarn so much (and I still have so much left) that I'm going to make Satanski a hat, too.
And here are the mittens with the scarf that I made.
I've enjoyed this yarn so much (and I still have so much left) that I'm going to make Satanski a hat, too.
11.18.2008
Halfway home
I feel like I understand mittens now, and am looking forward to starting the other hand tomorrow. Because a lot of patterns say that kid mittens can be interchangeable, I will make the next one as identical as I can to the one I finish today (might be a little better looking, now that I know what I'm doing), but the next set of mittens I do will differentiate between left and right.
11.16.2008
Odds and Ends
11.11.2008
All finished!
Sorry, I'm groaning over here, too.

This is what the OpArt blanket is looking like these days. That kid is due nigh on two months from now and I still don't know when we'll be having his dad's baby shower at work, so I should definitely get the lead out and start doing a lot of work on this again. Even after I'm done knitting, I'm going to be weaving in ends forever, so I should just do it already.
11.07.2008
Hopes, dashed
I had high hopes for the scarf that I was going to make Satanski. I sat down, thought of a pattern, and charted it. All was well, until I realized that my chart was not taking into account the two decreases I need to work on each row to even out the two yarn overs I was including. I think I tried to get too fancy, too fast, and the whole thing just annoyed me. So I decided to modify a baby blanket pattern from Debbie Stoller's Stitch and Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook and make it into a scarf instead. I've made the Big, Bad Baby Blanket a couple of times already (and I'm pretty sure I have a third one somewhere on a set of circulars), so by now the pattern is pretty much dead easy for me. I'm hoping that I will have enough yarn left over afterward to make the kid a pair of mittens, or even a hat. I can't remember what the name of the yarn is, because I bought and had it wound in Vermont, and cannot find the label at all. I just started it yesterday, but it's kid-sized and knitting up quickly, so I will upload photos once I get home from work.
My OpArt is coming along well. I'm up to 132 stitches in each section. I need to pay more attention though, because a couple of rounds ago I dropped a stitch about six rows down, and that was super annoying to fix in pattern.
My OpArt is coming along well. I'm up to 132 stitches in each section. I need to pay more attention though, because a couple of rounds ago I dropped a stitch about six rows down, and that was super annoying to fix in pattern.
10.26.2008
Satanski's scarf
I worked out my pattern in Google's spreadsheet program, using letter abbreviations. Then I looked online for a pattern generator and found a good one, but it didn't have all the symbols that I wanted. So I made and downloaded a printable chart from here, and entered my symbols myself. I'm pretty tired and I figure that there's no point in starting this so late and doing a bad job, so I'll get cracking on this tomorrow.
Labels:
Continental knitting,
ideas,
knitting ennui,
OpArt blanket,
procrastination,
Satanski,
scarves,
small
10.14.2008
Inattention
I somehow acquired a large hole in my knitting, but one that I can fix when I'm cleaning up and weaving in ends. I also somehow only had 88 stitches in one section when I should have had 90. I fixed it using an invisible increase I learned of on knittinghelp.com, but it should not have been necessary. I'm trying to decide whether I want to start using safety pins to mark 20s of stitches, so I have a better idea of how many stitches are in each section. I think I may. I'm up to 94 stitches now, and it's such slow going. I'm motivated, though, because I can now see the blanket's square shape in a way that I couldn't before.
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