SomerKnits

I decided, even thought I am still in my year of no deadlines, that I want to do the Ravelympics this year. In contemplating what to do for the competition, one event spoke to me the loudest, the UFO event. I have so many UFO's. I can remind myself of some just by looking at my Ravelry notebook. Others have been around so long Ravelry didn't exist and they don't have pages, they just have spots in the UFO drawer that I can't even get to right now because its blocked in by boxes of books. I don't think I've been able to open that drawer for at least 6 or 9 months. Thats terrible. Maybe its even been longer. Eeek. So my challenge to myself is to dig out some of those UFOs and finish them. Tuck the ends in. Block them. Get them done! Some of the things I want to finish are the more recent UFOs, but I do want to dig into the drawer as well. Now that I have a plan, I should go ahead and pull those projects out, line them up, make sure I still have the p...

It seems like everything I'm actively working on right now is a secret. There's some cool stuff in there, its just that you'll have to wait to find out about it. I am starting my first big project on my new loom. I spent sunday night warping it and part of last night getting it ready to go and tonight I might actually be able to start the weaving part. I guess thats the most frustrating thing about weaving. I mean, sure, it goes faster than knitting once you start the actual weaving part, but the set-up time in waaaaaay longer. With knitting you just pick up yarn, needles, maybe a pattern, cast on and go. But with weaving you have this whole long process called warping AND you have to know how big you want to make something BEFORE you start, otherwise you waste a lot of yarn. And yes, even the thing I am going to be weaving is a secret, so I'll keep a photo log and post them on down the road a bit. In the breaks between secret knitting and secret weaving I hope ...

I have made Calorimetries for other people. The first on for my sister. And one for an exchange. And I tried a cablerimetry for a gift. I kept saying I would make one for myself. Its been so cold here recently, I was finally super-motivated to make one for myself. I've had this beautiful skein of Berrocco Jasper laying around for a couple years. I friend sent it to me in a gift a couple christmases back, along with a pattern book of felted projects. But the Jasper was so very pretty, I just couldn't bring myself to felt it. Its hard to find a project that you can do with just one 98 yard skein, but the Calorimetry turned out to be the perfect choice. It used the skein of yarn almost exactly, close enough to make me just a little nervous towards the end. This will come in handy a lot, I wore it today to keep my ears warm walking to and from the theater. Yesterday, my pretty angora beanie filled in since I hadn't gotten the button sewn on to this yet. Look at how p...

The slouchy hat. I've been putting lots of slouchy hat patterns in my queue, but I just haven't seemed to find the time to get around to any of them, so on the 26th of December I started an after christmas treat for myself. I had some nice chunky wool from and exchange and I thought a quick hat might just be the instant gratification project I needed while I tried to keep warm after all that Christmas snow. The wool was soft and nice to work with, and since its the world's best color it was even better. I started the hat in the evening and finished it the next morning. Pre blocking its slightly cone-head shaped, but after I stretched it around a plate and let it dry, its much slouchier. The cables are nice and squishy and it does keep my head quite warm. I've already warn it out a couple of times and I love it. I'm glad I took the time to make myself a little treat.

a continuation of the previous post... I gave Heather's mom some pretty stitch markers. They look amber but kind of shimmer blueish. My first hannah hat attempt came out too small (above). But the second one came out right. So the first one is going to go to Emerson and the second one was for my sister. I got the same buttons in two different sizes so that there hats really do match. I can't give the little one her hat until I make one for her brother otherwise I would never hear the end of that. But my sister seemed to like hers. And actually I made the cowl first, the hat was an idea after the cowl was done. But I think they make a good little set. Sometimes it confuses me how blogger lines the photos up, but up the brown hat is the hat I made Ben for Christmas. Its a really awesome tweedy but twisted yarn and I loved working with it. Its long enough to cover his ears, even when the brim is turned up. The hat was pretty fun to make, but I barely got it done in ti...

Because of the year of no deadlines, I knit things I felt like knitting for christmas but still had other gifts for people. The knitted stuff was added in, just kind of a bonus. It was mostly quick, instant gratification type projects since I was working along side my Every Way Wrap and Pfiefer Falls Hooded Scarf. So I suppose lets start with the hat and cowl set for my cousin Erin. This used big bulky yarn and its the Marion cowl, which can be found on ravelry, and the airport hat, which can also be found there. Both knit with bod old size 19 needles and both done during a long day of tax continuing ed. :) Nex t up we have the cowl I made for my sister-in-law. Its turquoise, and I don't think the color shows up that well against the red, but its a really nice color. Anyway, its one of those long ones that you loop around as many times as you want. Its stylish at 2 wraps but very warm at 3. It was a nice carry along project for non-thinking knitting and I might make mysel...