Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

Big Ass Knits are unstoppable. But the models seem to be getting tired and tipsy.


"Whoa, a little top heavy!"


"Ay, too bottom heavy!"


"Maybe if I sing 'I'm a Little Teapot' people will think it's intentional."


"Ah, once you thin it around the middle you can balance."

It Could Be Worse

Pre-Felting


After felting and blocking

It definitely shrank and lost some stitch definition but it could have been much worse. I don't know if I'll be able to smooth out the ripples now. I tugged as hard as I could (breaking two blocking pins in the process). It's pretty smooth now but I have a feeling it will snap back a lot when I unpin it.

And I still feel like I'm going to throw up.

That Sound You Hear...

Is me pounding my head against the floor.

I accidentally felted my Hemlock Ring blanket. The worst part is that it's not my yarn. I've been knitting this for the shop.

I've put the shawl in a pot with water and a ton of vinegar and am gently heating. Joyce Williams swears this will un-felt an accidentally felted item.

Keep your fingers crossed. I think I'm going to be sick.

When Does Summer Begin?

My Knitting Bag Runneth Over

After the thrill of finishing the back of my Auburn Camp Shirt I quickly started the first front.



The teeny needles were starting to wear on me--both literally and figuratively--so I decided to swatch for the Ravelympics. Kim, my friend from camp, is organizing Team Knitting Camp. I had to join. I've decided to knit the cardigan Seamless Hybrid in the shirt yoke variation. I'm working in good old Cascade 220.



I've got my (alleged) gauge and am ready to start.

I have Meg Swansen's DVD for the Baby Surprise Jacket. I've knit a few already but Meg always has useful tips and tricks. Plus I think I was feeling lonesome for camp. I have a bag of mill ends of Mountain Colors Bearfoot that I've been wanting to turn into a BSJ for a few years. Last night I cast on.



I'm just going to knit through them all and hope that it melds.

I've also got the contest prizes to mail out tomorrow.



That's two tool cases from Schoolhouse Press and several skeins of yarn from Berocco I won as a door prize. I know regifting is a little tacky but why not share the wealth, right?

Gutentaaaaaag!

Wes has got to stop showing me awesome videos.

The Muppets Have Taken Over YouTube and I Like It

Winners

And the winners are Pam, Pat, Temperance, Sharon and Jeanne B. I've emailed you to get your addresses. Thanks for playing everyone. Better luck next time.

No, No, No, No

A Rocky Horror remake! No!

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

There are so many things that cheese me off about this sweater.



1. Bad planning. Look at those horrible curling edges. What's happening at the neckline? All that bulk under the sleeves!

2. Not attractive. This is just icky looking.

3. Reminds me of the commercial for Master of Disguise and I've tried really hard to forget it.

IK Preview

Is up. I love hearing your comments.

Knitting Camp: The Food

Each year I suffer a bit of culture shock when I get to camp. Northern Wisconsin is a far cry from Seattle.



I was looking forward to the fried pickles which sound disgusting but taste so fantastic. I got to try Culver's for the first time. Their sign reads "Frozen Custard ButterBurgers" Once you realize they mean frozen custard and ButterBurgers it sounds a bit better. But what the heck is a butterburger? A burger brushed with butter of course! And the frozen custard. Mmmm. Dense, creamy and delicious. My friend Pam was smart. She skipped lunch entirely and went straight to the custard.



The cup reads, "People who have never eaten at Culver's don't know what they're missing. But I do and that makes me sad for them."

There was the Teppanyaki dinner which featured about a pound of butter. Not how they do it Japan I suspect.



One of our dinnermates--I won't name names so as not to embarrass her--nearly jumped under the table the first time our chef created a huge fireball. And then we started talking politics and things got a little more heated. Later Kim and I did a reenactment that you can see on her blog.

Major Milestone

I finished the back of the Auburn Camp Shirt. Now I have to knit the other 70% of it. Sigh...

Last Call for Contest

I got a few extra items at camp I'd like to share so I thought I'd put a last call out to enter to win. You can leave a comment on this post or last Thursday. I'll use a random number generator to pick 5-6 winners on Friday.

Camp: The Knitting

I cast on for my Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan just before I left for camp. I continued on the colorwork once I got there. Then I got that sinking feeling that only comes from twisting the cast on of a sweater with 306 stitches and 6 rounds of painstaking colorwork.



No choice here. It's cutting time.



Cast on a new steek and keep knitting.



I took lots of photos this time around of the original GLMC for guidance and inspiration.

I am also this close to finishing the back of the Auburn Camp shirt.

Still Giggling

I have not laughed so much in a weekend in I don't know how long. Camp this summer was a really relaxed event. Despite my 10-hour delay (yes, I sat at Seatac for 11.5 hours before boarding a plane that actually left the ground) I had a wonderful time. This year's group of campers was very low-key--except for me and a group of friends who ate and laughed and pounded on the table all weekend.




Kim, me, Meg and Denise


Amy Detjen and me

I don't want to go to work. I want to go back to camp.

Camp Afterglow

I just walked in the door. I loved camp. I am dirty and tired. More later.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

I'm heading to camp very early tomorrow morning so I thought I'd provide the photo and let you all provide the commentary. It will be a contest like last year. I couldn't let you have all the fun so I've got the first one.

From Givenchy's Spring 2009 men's collection.



Did someone alert Mary Stuart Masterson that someone has stolen her costume from Some Kind of Wonderful?



This one is for you.



What the hell is this?

Doubleknit Podcast #5

It's up. Have a listen.

Because I Love All Things Muppet

Feist will be on the season premiere of Sesame Street.



Via Jezebel

Seen on the Ballard Bridge

A Morning Off

I'm not starting work until late today. I had the morning to myself with many things planned. Instead I started the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan. I even swatched for it.

Shut up!

I know!



I swatched on 2s and it looked like crap. I realized that I was holding my yarns in the wrong hands. I knit more loosely with my left hand so the background yarn needs to be in my right. Otherwise the tight pattern stitches get swallowed up by the loose, bloated background. So I tried the 2 again and it still looked pretty crappy and I was not getting gauge. So I tried it on a 3 and it looked much better and it was the correct gauge.

So I've cast on and started knitting. I am still unclear how often to purl the Purl When You Can border. Doing all the background stitches seems too much.

So here it is nearly 1 o'clock and I haven't eaten or gotten anything else done this morning. A morning well spent, I think.

Dinner and a Movie

When SIFF announced it's Dinner and a Movie series last year Wes and I were really excited. We love Volterra. We love movies. It's an awfully pricey event so we just picked one to attend, Goodfellas, one of my favorite movies. We went last night and I am very sorry to say we were both under-whelmed. The food was good but not great and not anything I would normally choose to eat. The service was also not stellar. They only offered wine or prosecco to drink. I don't drink so I asked for iced tea. They told me I could have wine or water and that's it. This still seems so ridiculous to me. I can drink all the wine I want but they won't give me a soda? How does that make sense? Wes finally went over to the bar and wheedled a diet coke out of them. The movie projection was the most problematic. They screened the film off a DVD. The aspect ratio was off so the everyone looked short and wide and the room wasn't dark enough so it was difficult to see. All in all a disappointing, expensive night out. Next time we'll just go to a movie and go to dinner.

Oh, and a realized that I had misplaced some hexagons so I ripped out a few, sewed a few seams last night and reknit.

Noro, Noro, Noro

So the Ziggy socks. Yeah, they're not working out. When we last saw them they would not fit over my heel. I ripped out the short row heel, added a few more rounds, knit a flap heel with gusset. They fit over my heel at that point but I knew I was just getting to the tricky spot. I switched needle sizes up to a 3 at this point. I've knit several rounds and it just barely fits over my heel if I struggle with it but it's too long in the foot now. I can rip back and knit the heel again (on small needles--you can practically read through this heel) but really the whole socks is just a little too snug. I should probably rip out the entire thing and reknit it on 3s until the heel then switch to 4s for the leg (and them possibly switch to 5s as I work up the leg). Frustrating.

So instead I've been knitting my easy, peasy Kureyon bliss project. Hexagons. I love those things. It reminds me of knitting the squares for my psychedelic squares but with no seams to sew up later. I am deeply in love with this project at the moment.




I'm in denial about how soon I leave for camp (Thursday!). I don't know what I'm bringing with me yet.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

I had a post all set to go tonight but then I saw these detergent ad photos on the Craft blog. They are just too bizarre and creepy not to share.





They are unintentionally very reminiscent of these suits but most of all they remind me of this.

This Is My Chance to be Kicked to Death in a Movie

Tina Fey and Martin Scorsese do an Amex ad.

Totoro

Pattern: Blue Totoro
Yarn: Kim by Needful, 3 skeins blue, 1 skein white
Hook: Clover E
Notes: No changes to the pattern. This sucker is BIG.

Listen Up

There's a new Doubleknit podcast.

Totoro Approaches

Tonight at Purlygirls I finished the last piece to the Totoro doll. I'm so sick of single crochet...Now for all the sewing up which I abhor.

Change of Course

After looking at my sock and thinking about it for a while I decided to knit a flap heel. I'll increase the gussets until it fits my ankle properly (I hope). But I was getting tired and frustrated last night and my hands were sore so I started a new project instead.

All the stranded knitting had been making me think of the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan I never started after camp last year. I started to think it would be a good project to bring to camp with me. Camp starts in just a few weeks! But after finding the pattern I just couldn't bring myself to start another project on small needles. My hands need a break. Everything I'm knitting is on a 1 or a 2. After falling down some Ravelry rabbit hole I realized that I have 14 skeins of Kureyon just waiting to be turned into a blanket. I cast on for Bobby's Garden.



I intended to cast on 96 stitches for the hexagons. My first cast on I didn't start with a long enough tail and ended up with only 60 stitches. I decided to knit it anyway to see what the finished size would be. Too small. The top two are the original plan, 96 stitches.

Halp!

I finished the heel on Ziggy last night and tried it on. It fit perfectly. Now that I'm continuing up the leg I can't get it over my heel. I'm not very experienced with toe-up or stranded knit socks. Anyone have any advice here?

Happy 4th of July

Two Timing

Wednesday night I was knitting away on my Ziggy socks when I thought I'd try them on to see how much further I had to go before the heel. They were looking really good.



But they did not fit. At all. Like couldn't get them over my toes.

So last night I ran to the shop just before closing and got a new US2 Addi Lace needle. I ripped out my Ziggy back to the end of the toe increases and started anew.



Like night and day, right? Okay, I'm kidding. They may look the same but the new sock fits--and believe me I'm trying it on every 30 minutes or so to make sure it continues to fit.

In other repeat news, Wes and I took the kids to see Wall-E on Saturday. I love this movie. It's complex yet simple, elegant, beautiful, silly, sweet, sentimental in the best possible sense. Love, love, love it. So when Wes got the day off yesterday I decided to take the day off too. We went downtown and had dim sum, visited the new Wing Luke Asian Museum, visited the downtown library, went to the Seattle Art Museum for the Inspiring Impressionism exhibit and got lunch at Serious Pie with dessert at the Dahlia Bakery. And we went to see Wall-E again by ourselves. I think I love it even more now. I want to see it again.

I've also been working on and off on a Totoro doll. When I first saw the pattern I only read the first bit and thought it made a little amigurumi doll. If I had delved further I would have seen that it makes a GIGANTIC doll. So it's taking a lot longer than I expected.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

We've all heard that old saw about real estate. Location, location, location. It applies to knits as well.

This circular motif placed at the end of a scarf is a pretty and interesting accent.



Placed squarely over the model's crotch. Not as attractive.

Ravelry Rave

Have you seen the new Friend's Activity setup on Ravelry? Too much fun. Goodbye, free time!

Confusing Headlines

In the past few days I've seen some headlines that have really confused me. I think headline writers value brevity and snappiness far above comprehensibility.