Dove Knits

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Out of town

Ok, everyone, I'm going out of town for a few weeks, so I won't be reading posts or posting very much, if at all.

Have a wonderful time here!

Sunday, July 16, 2006

I know, I say this every time...

...but these are my favorite socks so far.



I decided to hold off on finishing the circle cardi until I order more yarn, so I started a sock!



It's in Knitpicks Sock Garden, Daffodil, following a pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. I think the stitch pattern is called Chevron, and it has a forethought heel and regular toe, and I used size 1 needles.

I cast on a second sock, but not its mate -- rather, I now have a Hedera on the needles, because darn it, I CAN.

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Thursday, July 13, 2006

CRAP.

I have run out of yarn for the Garnstudio circle cardigan. I have about...8 more rows to go on the edges, and about 3 inches to go on the sleeves. I have enough yarn for maybe 2 more rows of the edging, plus cast-off, and maybe half an inch on the sleeves.

I think I'm going to bind off the edging as it is and use whatever yarn I get out of that to lengthen the sleeves. Then I get to hope that blocking will add an inch or so more to it! It's lace in merino wool, so I'm sure I can stretch it a bit. The body was wide enough to close around me about 10 rows ago, when I put it on spare yarn to try it on, so it should definitely be wide enough, just maybe not as wide as I'd like. The sleeves are really my biggest concern.

Other options include:

1. Trying to get same dyelot from Knitpicks, or checking around online knitting boards to see if anyone has some they want to sell me.
2. Using a different color to edge the sleeves and body. This has the potential of looking really neat or really obviously ragtag.
3. Ordering more Merino Style in Frost from KP and hoping the dyelot isn't too radically different.
4. Frogging the whole thing, ordering more yarn for the cardigan, and using the Frost for something else altogether.
5. Taking out the sleeves and knitting the body wider, then sewing up the armholes, to make a baby blanket.

Since I am pretty psyched about this cardigan and have already spent so much time on it, I really don't want to do 4 or 5. So I think I'll stick with my original plan, and resort to 1 or 3 if blocking doesn't do the trick.

Wish me luck.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Planning, because I don't have time to knit

Major Work-Related Thing #1 is done and sent off. Hooray! Now for Major Work-Related Thing #2, which won't take nearly as much time, energy, or nerves (she says that now).

Because of Major Work-Related Things, I have had very little time to knit. So the World Cup project is nowhere near done. Well, I guess it's NEAR done. I have about 10 rows of the body, and then the sleeves. I started one sleeve, just to make sure I have enough yarn.

Anyway.

Your little Dove is planning some self-designed items! Yes, folks, she is spreading her little yarny wings. Aren't you proud?

"What's in the works?", you may ask. Well, my mom found out about the DNA scarf. Since both she and my dad are microbiologists, she thought it was a great idea, and would I make one for my dad for Christmas? Well, I would, but he never wears scarves. So my mom decides that it would look great as a center cable on a vest! Which he wears all the time. So now I get to design a very simple sweater vest with the DNA helix down the front. I can't decide if I want the rest plain stockinette, or seed stitch, or run small cables, or what. I think I may use some sort of wandering cable to make just a simple zigzag -- to represent beta sheets or carbon single bonds. I'm thinking of using Wool of the Andes in Charcoal, or maybe some sort of gray, or navy, or some boring color like that. If anyone wants to recommend affordable wool yarn, lemme know.

Secondly, my husband wants a sweater. Or, more to the point, I want to make him a sweater. He wants a cardigan. Cardigan! What self-respecting 26-year-old wears cardigans??? And not cycling-style, either, with the high fold-over collar and zipper, but really, a Mr. Rogers-type cardigan. Whatever, though, it's his sweater and should be what HE wants. So I'm doing a simple cardigan with some basic cabling down the front and sleeves. Something like this, but without the tall collar, and a bit more loosely fitted. And maybe with buttons instead of a zipper, because I am scared of putting in zippers. In electric blue!Which basically means I'll take the basic measurements of a sweater like that, do my gauge, and plan the cables. And go! How hard can it be? I love my husband; he adoooooores bright colors, so he's fun to knit for. Plus, he actually appreciates everything I knit.

Thirdly, I came across a Picovoli-style T-shirt with a lace panel down the front. It looked so nice! It didn't have a pattern, though, but how hard could it be? Take a Picovoli, put a lace panel down the center front. Maybe I'll get REALLY adventurous, and put smaller panels down the sides. Racy!

So, ok, none of these are really DESIGNING as much as taking existing things and slapping my own cables and/or lace on them.

Fourthly, I have vague plans for a baby sweater and a couple of toys, but I'd be totally designing on the fly here, so I won't mention what they are yet.

It's a good thing my birthday is coming up and I can justify a huge yarn splurge!

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Saturday, July 08, 2006

Happy anniversary

A year ago tomorrow, I married my bestest best friend and sweetest man to ever walk the face of the earth.

We met the first month of my first year of college. One night we were both just randomly hanging out in a random other person's room with a bunch of random other people. He happened to be sitting next to me, and we struck up a conversation about kids. I babysat alot, and he worked daycare, and we've both always enjoyed the company of children. We really didn't think much of each other at the time, since we both had crushes on other people!

A few months later, our college was having its winter formal. Having had a terrible prom, and thinking that wearing a slinky dress in February was pretty stupid, I decided that I would only go if I could find a guy who'd be willing to 1) be my date, 2) lend me his suit, and 3) wear my dress. Having gone through all of my guy friends, who just thought I was totally batty, I finally asked The (future) Husband, who happily agreed.



At the dance, I promptly ditched him to hang out with another guy (!), who looked eerily like me at the time.

Over that summer, we started keeping in touch. We'd write daily emails and weekly letters. He started each letter with "Beautiful Tanya," and signed each one with, "I love you." I still have them all in a big box.

Sometime over that summer, he became my best and closest friend.

We spent the entire fall of next year making people think we were dating, while we both steadfastly refused to acknowledge that. We'd meet each morning for breakfast, and he would walk me to class. We'd meet again for lunch and dinner, and spent alot of time talking, hanging out...cuddling...but STILL NOT DATING, DAMMIT.

Sometimes around Christmas, it finally dawned on us to give this dating thing a shot:



Shock of all shocks, I know.

About three years later, we went on a nice romantic picnic in Lincoln Park. He brought a whole watermelon and a large knife. He claims the knife was for the watermelon, but I really think he wanted some insurance ;) After we ate, we ambled around the zoo until we stopped at the penguin enclosure. I have a thing for penguins. I think they're the greatest. So he asked me if I wanted one. Of course, I said yes. He then handed me a stuffed beanie baby penguin holding a folded-up sign and a ring pinned to its wing. While I was trying to look at the ring (which was one of those cheapo clay things you get at Walgreens), I accidentally unfolded the sign, which read, "Marry me?"

I looked down at him, kneeling, with a beautiful diamond ring in his hand. He said, "Tanya, will you marry me?" And of course, I said yes, although I'm still not sure if I said yes to him or the penguin ;)

And so a year ago tomorrow, we were married:



Penguins were present:



Happy anniversary to the love of my life. I love you.

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Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Pizza J. Cutter

My husband started a blog.

It has absolutely nothing to do with knitting, but it's damn funny. He posts weird news, stupid criminal stories, etc. Y'all should check it out!

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Monday, July 03, 2006

Daring-do

When I was first learning how to knit (well, ok, when I was first RE-learning how to knit, at about 19), I couldn't stand patterns. They were just kind of suggestions that I felt free to ignore. I had a tiny little Russian learn-to-knit book, which taught be combination knitting, and how to make mittens and socks. Of course, the book never mentioned that stitches will twist if you make mittens and socks this way, but whatever.

So I made mittens and socks. I made myself a scarf. Of course, through all this, I had complete disregard for gauge and used US4 needles for everything. Go me! I figured our Fair Isle by looking at store-bought knit items and replicating it in a sock. I figured out increasing and decreasing, and the easy things like striping, and knitting in the round never fazed me.

I was also unafraid to make things up. My brother asked for a pair of gloves, so I followed the basic mitten pattern and split the top for the fingers. It worked.

My parents came back from a trip to Greece with a bunch of lovely merino wool (and a bunch of other yarns, too!). So I decide I'll make a sweater for my brother. Bravely I cast on with my US4 needles and Aran weight wool. Bravely I ran out of yarn. I also made the sweater striped, and bravely cut the yarn at each colorchange, thereby effectively ruining my entire yarn supply!

My mom finally clued me in to the whole needles come in different sizes thing, and I frogged the parts of the sweater I had done and decided to remake it as a vest.

The thing is, I could've done it, too. I decreased for the armholes and the neck by following shaping on a store-bought sweater, and it would've been decent, except I ran out of yarn and couldn't find a reasonable substitute. So the vest never actually got finished, but it could have almost worked. With mistakes, of course, but not terrible.

I dropped knitting in favor of beading for a few years, and when I came back to it, before I discovered all the wonderful patterns out there, I continued to make things up.

And then I discovered patterns. And then I became afraid to change the patterns. It's not that I doubt myself so much as the fact that someone else is telling me what to do is sacred. Like, I ought to do it THEIR way, out of respect. Which is a bit silly, because patterns are meant to be altered.

Anyway, now I am over-reliant on patterns. Part of it is there are so many awesome ones out there that I rarely feel the need to make my own. But some day, I'd like to. For now I'm enjoying the process of just knitting whenever, however, and whatever I feel like, and learning whatever I can. It's just funny that I was better about making things up when I wasn't as good at knitting! Don't get me wrong, I'm still adventurous -- difficulty ratings on patterns mean absolutely nothing to me, because if it's written out, I can follow it, and if it isn't, I'll make it up -- but it's different.