Adriana's Thread

New Year, New Blog

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 02:46:11 GMT

Some of you may have noticed the lack of posting here at Adriana's Thread. Believe me, that was not due to lack of knitting activity. A little while ago socksforphlox and I decided we wanted to make a joint blog. It took a little while to get our act together during which time I felt uninspired to blog. But this evening we created the inaugural post to our new blog! (hopefully between the two of us we'll manage to keep this baby updated on a regular basis)

So, without further ado, come one and all to: Friends Knit Together

FOs!

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 22:21:12 GMT

I've been feeling blue (and green!) lately :)

I'm delighted to be back in Ontario but it is definitely colder here than in BC so I decided that a pair of Fuzzy Feet were in order. (I was also inspired by socksforphlox's pair). I used Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool in teal with some blue Cascade 220 thrown in for good measure.

Here they are before felting posed with my Koigu Dragon sock for scale.

After felting they are nice and comfy. These bad boys took two trips through the washer on hot plus a visit to the dryer.

I love them so much I wear them all the time when I'm at home. Here we are enjoying The Simpsons together.

In September I saw this sweaterr on Dogs Steal Yarn and I was smitten. The pattern was no longer available but Heather convinced me that I could figure it out for myself. The yarn, Knitpicks' Wool of the Andes Bulky in Emerald and Sierra in Tide, took a while to arrive and then I was distracted with other projects. When I finally put my attention on the sweater it took me 8 days. And that included working 40 hours. I basically made it up as I went along. It's not completely finished since I still need to find and attach a zipper before I can wear it, but Heather's been after me to show it off so I thought I should oblige :)
(Sorry for the bad colours, it's been raining all day and it was starting to get dark by the time I took the picture.)

Front

Back
I am so in love with the shawl collar. It is definitely my favourite part. I promise better pictures once the zipper is installed and I can actually show it off.
FYI - WotA bulky is surprisingly soft. I would wear it against my bare skin and that's a high compliment from me (ok maybe not my neck and back but my arms at least)

The End :)

Christmas thoughts

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:15:21 GMT

Christmas presents with my family have been getting increasingly practical. Every year my mom screams “I don’t want any more STUFF!” I always endeavor to give useful gifts to my family, and with knitting that has become easier.

Things get harder with my presents. I just want knitting related things, and my family is happy to encourage my addiction. However I like to be surprised so the best way to do that is to make up a long list of things I’d like and let my parents pick from it. I’m having trouble with the list this year. I’ve got some books on an Amazon wish list but I’d like to make a yarn wish list. This is what I’ve come up with so far: 1 ball of Rowan Cashsoft DK to make Odessa., KP KIP bag (medium), STR.

I clearly need more if I’m going to stand a chance of being surprised, plus these are all things I might get for myself. I’d like to put things on my list that I wouldn’t get for myself but I’m drawing a blank.

What would you get if you didn’t need to worry about money?

Yay!

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:05:33 GMT

I just gave my pregnant co-worker booties that I made for her. She was so happy! I'm on such a high right now. I LOVE knitting for people who appreciate it :D

Projects on my mind

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:04:59 GMT

Now that my Christmas knitting is done (please don't hurt me! Remember that I started in July!) my mind if full of ideas. I want to write them down to keep track.

~~Fuzzy Feet~~

Austermann Step footsies (started)

~~2^nd Baby Cable Baby Bootie~~

Koigu hat/glove set

~~Falling Water scarf~~

My FA hat

Mom’s mittens (FA mohair and Cascade)

Bulky Cardi (started)

Winter IK

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:22:58 GMT

The new Interweave Knits preview is up here. What do we think? Nothing really thrills me. I think that if I did not have a subscription I probably wouldn't get this issue. In fact, Heather, if I still am not in love with any of the patterns when it comes then you can take it off my hands.

Knitpicks order

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 01:27:20 GMT

Here are some pictures from the recent Knitpicks order:

Here are the needles ordered by Jane and Sam, posed nicely on Sam's shawl.

This yarn is destined to be a bulky cardi for me as soon as I reduce the projects queue

And here my yarn is featured with a lovely furry model

Finally here is Heather's yarn, also featuring Cleo.

The end

Musing

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 03:03:45 GMT

You know you have a lot of yarn when.....

You find a ball next to your bed and you have no idea how it got there.

Finally!

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:53:08 GMT

The knitpicks order has shipped!! *does a happy dance*

In other news, check out the cuteness!

Specs:
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby, leftovers from socks for me.
Needles: 3.25mm
Pattern: my own. Cast on 28 stitches, 2x2 ribbing for 2 inches, 5 rows of stockinette, 14 row heel flap, turn heel, pick up gusset and decrease down to original number of stitches, knit 7 rows, decrease for toe down to 6 stitches on top and bottom, finish toe.
Time: 2 hours per bootie

I made these for my co-worker who is expecting. She was really touched and kept thanking me :)

Edit: the mom-to-be gave me a really nice thank-you card today. It made me feel so good :D

Exciting News!

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 14:01:34 GMT

So this weekend I went to visit Heather and Jonathan who were just in town for a couple of days and staying with Jonathan’s family. I guess they had told his mom that I was a knitter because when I arrived she handed me a shawl and told me that it was knit by Stephanie Purl-McPhee. I was confused; I assumed she meant it was from a pattern by the Yarn Harlot. But when I asked, Nancy (Jonathan’s mom) said no, it was actually knit by her. Yes, that is right. My friend’s mom is friends with the YARN HARLOT!!! Apparently they both lived in Brampton at the same time and were leaders in La Leche. Nancy went on to say that Stephanie and her daughters had surprised her for her 50s birthday recently. I got to sit in the same chair as the Yarn Harlot had and fondle the shawl made by her. So very very cool! I was giddy for the rest of the day :)

Change of Plans

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:00:38 GMT

I’ve been plugging away on my Swallowtail Shawl for the past month or so. I had to take a break for a few weeks when my arms started hurting due to the huge amount of typing I do at work. Luckily lace knitting hurt less than regular knitting so I was able to get back to my shawl sooner. I decided to make it bigger by knitting 19 instead of 14 repeats. Two days ago I finished the main body and excitedly started the Lily of the Valley border chart. Unfortunately I kept getting the wrong number of stitches! I tried to persevere, telling myself that I must have tossed in extra YO’s somewhere (which should have been a tip-off because I’d been correct in my stitch count up to that point). Finally I just got too frustrated to continue. I’d been obsessing over this shawl and I really wanted to finish it so I could move onto smaller projects (Christmas presents mostly) and be able to direct my attention to other things going on in my life. As I always do in situations like this, I called Heather for advice. We figured out what I’d been doing wrong. I had misread one of the instructions, missing a few little words which make a big difference: do blah blah “into the same stitch”!! That would explain it. So luckily I’ve got my lifeline so I don’t need to frog or anything. But I’ll have to come back to this sometime in the future. I just can’t spare the time for it right now.

But I’d been so excited to be so close to finishing a project and I really needed that high. I decided to pull out my oldest WIP: Branching Out. The yarn was bought almost a year and a half ago and I think I probably cast-on about a year ago. I was halfway through when I got tired of it. Luckily now I’m a lace expert (well… sometimes) so the pattern is really mindless. I powered through 3 reps last night while watching one episode of CSI. I hope to finish it tonight so I can wear it on Saturday.

Sorry for the long post. I’m not good at summarizing my experiences, plus I like being dramatic :P

I hope everyone else’s knitting is going better than mine.

UFO to FO Challenge

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:12:13 GMT

I just realized that I have 4 UFOs on the go. I don't like that. I prefer to have some sort of control over myself but I just suddenly started all these projects.
So I am making a pact with myself (feel free to join me), that I will finish one project before I start another.

On the go:

Lace Spencer (lost interst when I started the shawl)

Swallowtail Shawl (on the 11th repeat!)

Spiral Rib sock (with hand-dyed yarn)

Christmas Present for Pete's mom (Work knitting)

I will keep you posted as to my progress.

Last night

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:56:38 GMT

I had a headache yesterday so I decided to skip the gym (I'm going tonight instead) and not do any work. Instead I cast on for the Swallowtail Shawl with my new Misti Alpaca lace weight. I'm using 3.25mm needles and was worried about the very thin yarn. The crochet cast-on was kind of a pain (I have no idea if I even picked up the stitches right). I only did 10 rows because then Pete wanted to watch a movie (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street!!) and I wanted to actually see it and not just the chart in my lap. BUT I am please to report that knitting with lace weight isn't nearly as scary as it seems. You just go ahead and do it like it was regular yarn :)
I'm looking forward to putting in more time on it tonight!

(I'm going now to join the KAL!!)

Lace thoughts

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:53:32 GMT

As a result of the past few weeks I have some Misti Alpaca and Kid Silk Haze coming my way. I decided to make the Swallowtail shawl from the new IK with the Misti Alpaca and River with KSH. Yesterday I got the needles and pattern for River (thanks socksforphlox!) but I still don't have the yarn. When I checked the mail my Misti Alpaca arrived but I can't start on it yet because the needles are tied up in my granny's socks!! I will now start frantically kniting the socks in the hopes that I can start lacing it up soon :)

Multi-tasking

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:02:29 GMT

In an effort to increase my knitting productivity, I have taken to bringing my projects to work with me. There is a big problem though, I can’t say “just one more row” and keep knitting! I actually have to put it down and get back to work. It sucks but it is nice to be able to put in some more time on my Christmas presents. I have been very productive recently, finishing off mom’s present last week and Calli’s last night. Now I’m working on Granny’s socks. Left to start is Neil’s hat and numerous Fetchings. Please don’t hate me for having this much done :P

Help

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 11:59:28 GMT

So this weekend I fell in love with the idea of doing IK's Silken Spencer out of stash yarn. I have 400m of red merino, light worsted, which I have been dying to use up. I was going to use some random stash yarn as the accent. Unfortunately this sweater seems to take a lot of yarn. For the smallest size (since I've got a thicker yarn I'm going to do the smallest size) it takes 600m main colour and 400m contrast colour. Looking at the top these numbers just don't make sense. I think you end up folding over the hems of the CC which is why it takes more. I think the MC must be knit at a tight gauge which would explain the extreme yardage. So now I'm thinking of buying some yarn to use as the MC and using mine as the CC. Except that I really wanted to use stash yarn. All the other largish quantities of yarn are earmarked for sweaters in the future. I checked out Elann but I didn't see anything that jumped out at me. socksforphlox, do you have anything in your stash which might suit this project that you can spare? Or do you have any suggestions for me?
Maybe I'll just have to give up on this project. I did really like the idea of having a mini-sweater and of doing a project from the new IK.

(Forgive me if this post doesn't make much sense. It's early and I'm sleepy)

IK

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 14:34:19 GMT

Yesterday Pete was late coming home from work (he was seeing 2 Fringe shows). I was lonely and a little stressed but all was forgiven when he returned home bearing the new Interweave Knits! I immediately dropped my wet laundry to flip through it. (Link to the preview)

I really like Kate Gilbert's Silken Spencer. It it an old fashioned style which really appeals to me. I also really like the Equinox Yoke Pullover, the one on the cover, although I think I would do it without the Fair Isle on the sleeves. I knew I liked these patterns from the online preview. What I wasn't prepared for was the larger picture of Jodi Green's Gatsby Girl Pullover (click here). I love it! I actually squealed with delight when I saw it! I have to make this top. I don't want to use the recommended yarn, Rowan Cashsoft DK, since it would cost a fortune. Any suggestions for cheaper alternatives?
The problem with falling in love with sweater patterns is that I can't actually knit them for a while. For those you who don't know, I am on a mission to lose the weight I gained during 6 years of university. I've lost almost 15 pounds so far, so I'm about halfway there. I know that socksforphlox will tell me to go ahead and make it in my goal weight but I'm just not comfortable doing that. I guess this should give me the incentive to keep working out and to stay on my diet. Speaking of, I've gotta run to the gym now!

Musings from work

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:11:59 GMT

I just input a record of employment for someone who used to work at Lewis Craft. It's the closest I've come to records from yarn stores :)
Has anyone seen pictures from the new Rowan, I think it's number 40? I just saw a few and it was enough to make me want the magazine. I will have to make a pillgrimage to N&P to take a look.
Knitting sleeves is like some sort of special hell. You just keep going and going and you make no progress. And who had the bright idea to make arms longer than the body?!?!

Seattle Dragon Socks!

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 21:46:27 GMT

Pattern: The Keyboard Biologist Knits' Here There Be Dragon Socks (Upscale version)
Yarn: Koigu purchased during my visit to Seattle in May. This was my first time knitting with Koigu and it was such a great experience that I went out and bought some more :)
Needles: 2.75mm dpns. I preferred the upscaled version of the pattern but was worried that it would be too small so I went up a needle size.
Pattern thoughts: This was a really well-written pattern. I don't usually pay for patterns but this one was totally worth it. Theresa did a great job mapping everything out, with detailed instructions and multiple charts. It was a really enjoyable knit. I especially liked the way the pattern was carried into the heel and toe. It was a very special touch.
Modifications: The twisted German cast-on overwhelmed me so I opted for a longtail cast-on. It does roll at the top which Theresa says it will not do with cotton yarns but I don't care.

Heel detail

P.S. This is formal because I posted it on knitting but I thought I should share the Dragony love :)

Shawl urge

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 00:43:58 GMT

This evening I was suddenly struck by an intense urge to knit the Flower Basket Shawl. I don't have time to do it now. I've already got three socks on the go as well as my mom's Christmas present. Plus I'll be working soon so who knows how much knitting time I will have. That being said, if I were to make the shawl, I'd love to use up some of my stash. I will now pause to check out my lace yarn bag.....

Ok, I found in my lace yarn bag 400m of Knitpicks Merino Shadow in Sunset (I will be getting another once socksforphlox puts in our order), 575m of Zephyr wool/silk in Aegean, 1200m Rowanspun 4ply in Midnight, and 800m of Knitpicks dye your own. If I'm going to all the trouble of knitting a shawl I want to make it big enough but I'd rather not have to buy more yarn. I guess that leaves me with the dye your own and Merino Shadow. Maybe I should wait until I actually have time to make this to worry about the yarn.

New Knitpicks yarns!

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 23:55:44 GMT

Just when I didn't need any more temptation, Knitpicks came out with 4 new yarns. You can read about it here: http://community.livejournal.com/knitting/7287103.html

I am especially excited about the superwash wool and the merino/silk sock yarn. I hope they bring in more colours soon.

Slump

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 02:47:34 GMT

I think I'm in a slump. My mom has come to visit so I have to stop working on her present for the next week and thus I am lacking a nice mindless knitting project. All my other projects are lace and have charts. I need something mindless to knit while at the beach tomorrow. Any suggestions?

Summer Knitty

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 20:09:45 GMT

The new Knitty is up! It's the extremities issue so there are lots and lots of sock patterns!

Here are my favourites:
Fetching: is very nice. My mom requested fingerless gloves recently and I think these would be perfect. I'd love to make a pair for myself too.
Perdita: is Agnes Nitt's pseudonym! I'm not so big on knitted cuffs but these are really pretty.
Muff: I've always wanted a muff but I don't know how much use I would actually get out of it.
Knucks: does anyone else want to pronounce this like "Canucks"? I like the finger-down construction which I might incorporate into a project I am making for someone who shall not be named ;)
Reptilian Lace: I love love LOVE this!! I think it could be perfect for my new Koigu. I have not yet mastered beads so I'll probably leave them off and I might take the motif across the top of the foot too. Also, call me crazy but I'd do them toe-up.
RPM: I really like this one too. I've got some of my Dee-gu which might look good in this pattern. I look forward to trying it out :)
Baudelaire: This one is beautiful. Cookie A really does great work (she also brought us Pomatomus and Hedera). I'd love to try this in DB Baby Cashmerino.
Tulip Toes: so CUTE! I need a baby to knit for (not my own, thank you very much).
Allete: I'm not quite sure how I feel about these wings. I might try fiddling with them around Halloween.
Lilies: is pretty. I don't know if I would make them but they are nice.

And that's my rundown on the latest Knitty. What do YOU like? (You will notice that I avoided saying anything bad about the patterns because I would hate for a designer to stumble across this entry and be hurt by it.)

Update

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:47:35 GMT

I may not have been blogging lately but I have definitely been knitting. As I am currently unemployed I have been filling my waking hours with lots and lots of knitting. It's so nice after the stresses of school just to be able to veg in front of the tv and knit. I have a whole bunch of projects on the needles right now: Christmas socks for my granny, dragon socks for me, my mom's Christmas present, Convertible for the Amazing Lace KAL, and I just cast on for another surprise project.
So far no pictures but I will post some once my projects have gotten further along. With so many things on the go it's hard to focus on any one project for very long. At least I have some deadlines to keep me focused.

So.... what are YOU working on?

Arg

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 02:33:02 GMT

So my Cool Hemp Ponchette is finally done. It was a fun knit but it was time consuming. It was my first time working with Debbie Bliss Cathay (cotton/silk/microfiber) which is an absolute delight. I successfully grafted the ends together in a way which looks stunning. There is just one problem. The first time I switched balls I stupidly did it mid-row, thinking that I could just hide the ends on the wrong side. Unfortunately I guess I pulled things too tightly because two rows have gotten squished together! I have tried to fix it by loosening the stitches but I just can't make it look good. Luckily it is in the back and will usually be hidden by my hair but it does stand out among the otherwise neat rows of garter stitch and it makes me sad and angry. I hope that socksforphlox will be able to help me when I see her this weekend.