Ouch

I just finished the dish shift from hell...two and a half hours of scrubbing dishes and wiping counters and tabletops and I missed lunch and I'm exhausted. Gonna try a different shift next time. Let's hope cooking goes better than that just did!

Life in Berkeley

I moved back up here Thursday/Saturday (left to help move Logan into his dorm) and now am adjusting to life in the co-ops. So far things are going okay but I'm actually looking forward to school starting and having some structure to my days. Plus I'm excited about classes : ) Social psychology, personality psychology, sociology of the family and an education class - should be fun.

Today was the first really enjoyable day I've had here so far, I went to Starbucks and got a vanilla latte and pumpkin bread (so very good) and finished Knitting Lessons by Lela Nargi, then wandered around Half Price Books for a bit, bought Knitting for Good by Betsy Greer, met a friend at the movies and saw The Time Traveler's Wife, went to the speed-dating/roommate finding thing put on by the house and met more of the girls living here, went to the kitchen orientation (I am so unprepared to cook dinner for all 50 or so people on Wednesday...crap) and now I've spent wayyy too much time adding pictures of all the projects I've finished so far. It was a good day : )

Dad's koala

Koala 2, originally uploaded by limelady722.

This is the last thing I've finished so far, a toy for Dad.

This is an enlarged version of a pattern I found at http://knittedtoybox.blogspot.com/. I followed the pattern but used a much thicker yarn than suggested and size 8 needles. It looks very, very weird from the back (must learn how to seriously finish something like this, can't sew up things for the life of me) and is another odd, hopefully sort of charming toy to keep the penguin company.

Oh and the face! Haha I had to finish it in time for Dad's birthday so instead of sewing on eyes and a nose in black thread I just colored some fabric I had lying around with a Sharpie (I know, I'm sad) and then sewed that onto the head. Yeah...

Koala!

Koala 1, originally uploaded by limelady722.

It looks pretty pudgy here, but you can see it a bit more clearly.

Mom's scarf

Mom Scarf 3, originally uploaded by limelady722.

After I finished the toys for Tom I had nothing to knit. So I used the green yarn Mom had picked out when I tried to teach her to knit (she didn't really enjoy it) and started practicing stockinette stitch while I worked on a scarf for her.

Once I learned how to purl, it felt like the entire world of knitting just opened up. Essentially everything (it seems) is made up of just knit and purl stitches, so I was finally free to try out patterns and make more interesting things. This was my first experience adding in a second color (even if I only did it once) and I loved how it looked. It was so gratifying to see the neat V's connect in a line, the green divided from the cream.

The one thing I wish I'd known when I made this was how badly stockinette can curl in on itself without a different stitch on the edges to hold it in place. I tried blocking it (another first) to keep it flatter and it sort of helped, but not completely. Oh well! I'll know next time.

Scarf numero dos, from the back

Mom Scarf 4, originally uploaded by limelady722.

Scarf numero dos, all laid out

Mom Scarf 5, originally uploaded by limelady722.

I took this picture standing on a chair off to the right of it, so the perspective's a little weird. The green side is not longer than the cream, actually it's a bit shorter, and the scarf is pretty long.

Tiny bear for Tom

Tom's Bear 2, originally uploaded by limelady722.

I'm actually a little proud of this, I think it turned out pretty well.

As I was working on the penguin and noticing how odd-looking it was turning out, I wanted to make something else to give to Tom. I found the pattern for this at http://littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk/free_knitting_patterns/ and thought he'd like it.

I had to get size one needles and double pointed needles for this, it was the first time I'd worked with anything smaller than size 8. The pattern was fairly simple to follow and the only difficulty was working with the very thin yarn on the ridiculously thin needles. Also had to learn how to make i-cord with the dpns, which turned out to be pretty easy after I got the hang of it.

I added the scarf partly because of Tom and partly to cover up the awkward way I joined the head to the body haha, I just twisted together some gray yarn I had and knotted the ends to keep it together. I sewed on the eyes and nose with black embroidery thread (or muddled through it anyway) and then joined all the pieces together.

Getting ready to wrap it up

Tom's Bear 1, originally uploaded by limelady722.

It's a bit bigger here, but not much...

From the side

Penguin 1, originally uploaded by limelady722.

This was my first experience working from a pattern, I'd found a book about how to knit toys from the library and was really excited to try them out. The penguin looked easy to make and I wanted to do something for Tom's birthday, so I did. Sort of.

I learned how to increase and decrease the way the pattern specified and tried sewing pieces together for the first time. It's pretty lumpy, rather awkwardly shaped, but charming? Right? You can definitely tell it's homemade...

...and the other side

Penguin 4, originally uploaded by limelady722.

Dignified, no?

Penguin 3, originally uploaded by limelady722.

A sort of almost close-up on the face...kinda?

Penguin 2, originally uploaded by limelady722.

From the back!

Penguin 5, originally uploaded by limelady722.

Ahh she's adorable!

Hat 3, originally uploaded by limelady722.

I completely love Mom's expression here : )

Hoyt Hat

Hat 1, originally uploaded by limelady722.

I wanted to make this to wear around the co-op but I didn't make it quite big enough, it doesn't fit my head. I can get it on but it looks a little small. I think we'll send it out to North Dakota for one of the cousins.

Hat on Mom, part two

Hat 5, originally uploaded by limelady722.

I love these pictures so very very much.

Hat on knee (I know, creative)

Hat 2, originally uploaded by limelady722.

I don't know why I thought the knee would be a good place to show off the hat, it looks tiny here. I tried putting it on Riley to give a better feel for its actual size but I don't think that worked too well either....it does fit a human head! I swear! See how nice it fits Mom?

Pup in hat, part one

Hat 6, originally uploaded by limelady722.

Pup in hat, part two

Hat 7, originally uploaded by limelady722.

Last picture of the scarf

Rust Scarf 3
Originally uploaded by limelady722

I really loved the yarn I used for this, it was one of Lion Brand's Thick and Chunky yarns made from wool and acrylic. It was nice to handle and knit up really quickly, even though it took months to finish...I'm looking forward to wearing it this winter!

The scarf all laid out

Rust Scarf 7
Originally uploaded by limelady722

It looks much shorter here than it actually is, when I wear it I fold it in half and wrap it once around. Betcha just had to know that, yeah?

Another picture

Rust Scarf 2
Originally uploaded by limelady722

And again, the scarf : )

Rust Scarf, again

Rust Scarf 1
Originally uploaded by limelady722

The rest of the photos for the scarf will follow in the rest of these posts (which I guess will be seen in the opposite order I add them, but oh well). Then onto the rest of the projects!

My first project! Hooray!

Rust Scarf 6, originally uploaded by limelady722.

The first project I started was a scarf in a simple garter stitch. Dana, Rosie, Tom and I decided Dana would teach us all to knit over winter break last year, so we went to Michael's and picked out yarn and needles. I found this rust-colored thick yarn that looked like an easy one to start with, so I taught myself how to do a long-tail cast-on from knittinghelp.com and Dana taught us how to knit.

I didn't finish the scarf until the start of summer, I'd put it away and hardly worked on it all through spring since the yarn was so hot to work with. I finished it finally after school ended and was pretty happy with the way it turned out : )

FOs!

So! Time to start adding some FOs!

I'm going to just use flickr to add most of the photos, so we'll have to see how this all works out. Right now I think I'll just do separate posts for each picture for the sake of ease, so bear with me. Hopefully I'll figure out how to add multiple pictures to each post pretty soon...I'm just not clever enough yet.

The Knitting Begins

I learned to knit about eight months ago and just recently became obsessed. So now I'm adding my voice to the incredible online community of knitters I have started to discover. Hello : )

I want direction for this journey, so I plan to knit my way through a few of the main techniques I want to try. I have ordered several knitting books online and plan to make what I can use and appreciate and give to family and friends. The books are on their way here from across the country, purchased from eBay and amazon.com and local used bookstores. The trek will start when they arrive.

All laid out, so far I have 1) cables, 2) color 1 (intarsia/fair isle), 3) color 2 (intarsia/fair isle), 4) lace, and 5) entrelac. I will try to use these in projects to come every month, starting with a cabled afghan for my grandfather.