Blue Eyed Purls

New Year = more knitting

2009-01-14T15:12:00.005-05:00

Ok so now that I've taken a good year break on blogging I think it's high time I start up again. I've always wanted to maintain a knitting blog, I just never realized that it would be this impossible. So for this years new year resolutions, maintaining my blog will be #1.

My other resolutions are too:
- finish all of my UFO's, and there is a lot of them
- try knitting at least one pair of socks, one piece of lace, and one cardigan
- try spinning some yarn
- got to hot yoga at least twice a week
- get my drivers license.
Lately I've been knitting Lady Eleanor for my mother. I started it half way through December and I finished the knitting last weekend. I'm going to finish with the fringe tonight and then block it. These pictures are from a few weeks ago and they don't exactly show the colours properly.

I've also just started on Heroine a felted jacket. It's my first felting project and I'm a little worried about how it's going to turn out. It's currently hibernating until I finish Lady Eleanor, but hopefully I'll have pictures up in a few weeks.

Lastly, I've signed up for a Vampire knitting swap on Ravelry and I'm excited to see what I'll be getting. I've been doing some research on my swappee and I think I'll be knitting a pair of fingerless mitts for them, sending off some luxury yarn, and possibly sending them the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, which in now on HBO as True Blood.

Cherie Amour and Pomatous Update!!

2007-10-12T08:22:00.000-04:00

I have no time whatsoever to knit with midterms this week, but I have managed to get some pictures together of my knitting progress. Fist up I'm loving my Cherie Amour even though it doesn't look that great on, I'm hoping that it hangs nicely with the shoulders sewn together. I still have to finish the back though, but I can't figure out where in the chart or lace pattern I left off, I've tried a few times, but it keeps messing up half way through the row. I think I must have made a mistake before I started the left front. I'm not really into frogging so I'm just going to start lace pattern #2 again and hope that nobody notices a thing. But on the good side the yarn is a beautiful colour, soft, and warm, so I think I'll love the end result!

Then there is my Pomatous, which slowly but surely should be finished by Christmas. I know that this is a sad progress since I started it in May, but I had no idea, untill about August, how to do short rows. And since I'm knitting about 3 or 4 things and taking courses and attempting to have a social life, these poor socks have been left behind. The one I finished is way to tight, but I figure that first socks can't be perfect.

I'm in WOOT!!

2007-10-10T19:34:00.000-04:00

YAY, I'm in!!!!!!!!! Ravelry sent me my invite today, so I guess the invite process goes pretty fast. Unfortunately I don't have a camera at the moment to document all my stash and get it up on there. On the other hand I don't think it would be wise for me to waste anymore *cough* hours *cough* on Ravelry today. Since I still have to write a few or more essays for next week.
Anyways I just wanted to shout it out to the world how happy I am, and if you haven't been invited yet, I'm sorry for bragging but you should get you're invite soon.

what kind of knitter are you?

2007-10-09T23:46:00.000-04:00

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Adventurer. You are through those knitting growing pains and feeling more adventurous. You can follow a standard pattern if it's not too complicated and know where to go to get help. Maybe you've started to experiment with different fibers and you might be eyeing a book with a cool technique you've never tried. Perhaps you prefer to stick to other people's patterns but you are trying to challenge yourself more. Regardless of your preference, you are continually trying to grow as a knitter, and as well you should since your non-knitting friends are probably dropping some serious hints, these days.http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!

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To knit or to study

2007-10-06T20:44:00.000-04:00

I wish that I had more time to knit and more money to buy yarn with. I started Cherie Amour a couple of weeks ago and it is knitting up pretty quickly, unfortunately I haven't had the time to finish it. Midterms are around the corner and since it's still 25 degrees outside.... that's not fair. Midterms should only be given when it's too cold to go outside and play. So instead of knitting I spend my evenings reading (or staring at) textbooks on philosophy, psychology, Greek culture, and English literature... ok it's not that bad. It's more just the fact that I HAVE to read it. It's not like I'm just this brilliantly cultured girl who spends her evenings indulging in interesting and classical works. It's that I'm this girl who is enslaved by her overbearing workload and has no time to knit... hmph!

Anyways, enough of that rant, in knitting news... besides Cherie Amour coming along I'm also now a member of The Sexy Knitters Club YAY!! I've ordered my yarn for the Zepher girls' Tree Jacket from Knit Picks and will be expecting beautiful cranberry red merino, silk, alpaca any day now. It's the same yarn used in the picture. I couldn't really afford the yarn but my boss was a total *cough cough* to me the other day and I had to cheer myself up somehow.

Also I checked my Ravelry status and I'm not really sure what #25946 on the list means, it seems like there is a lot of people in line ahead of me, so I will continue to wait as patently as I can.

Found you!
You signed up on August 15, 2007
You are #25946 on the list.
1603 people are ahead of you in line.
14307 people are behind you in line.
59% of the list has been invited so far

Anyways, that's all for now. I'll try and borrow my boyfriend's camera and get some progress pics up soon.

Sock, scarves, hats, and sweaters

2007-09-16T23:06:00.001-04:00

I know that I haven't posted anything in a little while but that does not mean that I haven't been knitting. I also know that this will matter more when I actually have readers. On the bright side however, I'm almost finished my fishy socks, as well as my sister's lace scarf. Also I've stared Shedir and it's coming along well despite the numerous modifications I'm making too it, including mystery tweedish green yarn and much smaller needles.

In sweater news, gah to all the sweaters I said that I'm going to knit. Knitty Fall came out and with it Cherie Amour and I automatically when to the yarn distributer and ordered the last 4 balls of Noche Lunar bm, a beautiful grayish, purplish, blueish yarn because although the patterns colours are nice, I want it to look a little more toned down.

School started last week though and I'm already swamped in journal articles, ancient greek texts, philosophical works, and whatever else they can throw at me. I plan to take some of my knitting on the road though, as long as I don't get too many funny looks in class.

Trying to Knit Socks

2007-08-18T13:18:00.000-04:00

I want to knit socks. I love socks! I think that new socks are the greatest more wonderful thing in the world. Sometimes I think about what I would do if I was very rich, maybe travel around the world, give lots of money to charity and buy designer cloths, things like that. But the one sort of little extravagance that I would allow myself would be a new pair of socks every day of the year (except, of course, for the days that I don't wear any socks at all). So know that you understand my sock rant it's a little more clear on why I would, so badly, want to learn how to knit socks. What's better then new socks??? Hand knit new socks of course.
But here we come to my problem, I can't be act like a normal beginner knitter and find a basic, learn-how-to-knit-a-sock-pattern, noooo I have to find the hardest sock pattern I can find, and on top of that I'm going to try and modify it to fit my foot, the product...
Socks that have cut-off-the-circulation-to-my-feet-cuffs and I'm not so sure about the heel flap, it may be giant it may be perfect, I really don't know enough about socks to know. Now for the hard part. Do I frog them completely and start new? (the practical, logical answer) or do I learn how to knit short rows and finish them to admire purely for their first-pair-of-socks-knit- status? I don't know usually anything I have to frog I put in my knitting shoe box (which is really a boot box) and leave it there until the day that I'm no longer lazy and want to reknit them. But this is beautiful Jitter Bug hand dyed yarn and it would be just plain cruel to shoe box it. Ok I will frog it, but just one last look at the pretty Pomatous fishy scales.

I don't know if the picture is clear enough, but it's ok. I feel like I spent ages working on this cuff, or maybe it's just because the last time I worked on it was ages ago.

I need to blog more

2007-08-17T19:12:00.000-04:00

After ages and ages of no blogging and very little knitting I have decided that I must try to blog more. I spent since I spend most of my time on the net reading blogs, the least I can do is contribute back to the blog community for sharing so much with me. Other blogs have taught me how to cable, steek, and numerous other techniques that I can't remember right now.
The only problem now is that I don't have any knitting to show!!! I think having a camera would help. But I do plan to cast on Forecast as soon as I get a job, make some money, and buy the yarn. I'm going to use Cascade 220 in possibly a soft brown or camel colour, so it looks neutral and tweedish. Maybe like this. I don't actually know yet, I'll have to see how I feel when I go to my LYS.

There have been some small projects that I have been working on lately. Starting with my cable scarf knit in beautiful Noro. Unfortunately the cables got all fudged up and I don't yet have the heart to frog it. So as soon as I can find my cable needle I'll get back to it. I don't know why but I can't keep a cable needle for my life. I've gone through about 3 of them so far on this scarf alone. Maybe my cable needles go where socks go. I can see it now cable needles and socks sitting on a beach somewhere laughing and drinking martinis while I did through the couch cushions.

I'm also still knitting my little sisters stocking stuffer from last Christmas, but it's ok she won't mind.... as long as I finish it before she goes back to school. Also my boyfriend won't let me buy any yarn or start any new projects until I finish it (grrrr!!!). So here is it's current state. You can't really tell how long it is from the pick, but you can see where I'm getting the chart from (IK summer '06). It's baby alpaca, so soft, so pretty. I can't wait to finish it, just a few more repeats, then I can buy yarn, yay!!!

There are a bunch of other things that I want to knit before exams this year as well. Including the Blue Skies sweater from IK online free patterns. I don't think that I'm going to use the same chart and I still have to learn how to do short rows, but I would like to knit it. Ok, i think that's enough rambleing for today...

2006-04-25T12:04:00.000-04:00

Since I have been attempting to pass my exams, my knitting has slowed down. To the point where it almost never happens. I have however reached the arm shaping so I'm feeling that I might a have a complete deep V argyle sweater by next Monday. I know that's a long way off, but I'm going I'm going away on Thursday and I'm not coming back until Sunday. I figure with 5 hours of free time (on the train) I can knit like there's no tomorrow. But for now it's back to the books.
For now here's the cutest kitten I've ever seen, it belongs to my sister's house. Not that I'm a cat person. My dog could totally eat that cat, but I don't think that that's a good thing either. Now just to be fair to Jaeger, although he kept me up half the night banging on his door to wake me up to tuck him in. Yes that's right he likes to be tucked in. I tried putting a stop on all this over pampering of the dog. But my mother insists that we continue to treat him like royalty. Ok so that might not be the best picture, but at least you get an idea of his absolute cuteness.

2006-04-23T10:29:00.000-04:00

In all my knitting years, which have not been very many I have never seen anything as wonderful as the knitting blog. And now since I have absolutly no time at all, (because I am smack dot in the middle of my finals) I've decided it's a great time to start my own.
I can now finish my pieces because I'll feel bad, if I don't show any of my readers (if anyone ever decides to read my blog) my FO's. It's also a great time to start a knitting blog because my boyfriend and his digital camera are moving back to TO and I can know take pictures of my knitting as well.
For my first post, I will post all of my unfinished knitting that I hope to one day be completed.
* This beautiful monkey face is part of a napsac from Stich 'n' Bitich, and since I hate sewing things together, I managed to lose the rest of the bag in the past two years that it's been sitting in the knitting-corner of my room.

* Next we have my 'Hurry up Spring' armwarmers, that quickly got ripped up and knit into funky legwarmers. I think they are soon to be ripped up and knit into a funky little felted (oooooooooh I so badly want to try and felt something) purse. Maybe something from stich'n'bitch nation. I love the colours in this yarn it's so pretty. Sorry the pictures didn't turn out so well, I have a lot to learn about lighting.

And lastly for the moment I am currently working on Eunny's Deep V Argyle Vest . I actually knit a swatch before I started it, my very first swatch ever, and my very first steak ever too!!

Isn't it the cutest thing you have ever seen, ok maybe not. I got a little carried away when it didn't unravel. But it didn't unravel!

* Here is my vest, Ok so I am a little further along on Enny's vest. But this is the latest photo I have of it. I got all excited when I reached the bottom of the V, so I decided to switch to dps. Let me ask you this: WHAT was I thining? Not only did I switch to dps, but aluminum ones at that. And my pretty flat rows with no bunching and good tension are gone. It's all fugly now, I only hope that the blocking gods take pitty on me. And if I ever knit it again I will be fully stocked up on bamboo circular needles of every shape and size to keep my knitting pretty and my hands happy.