Confessions of a Knit Picks Addict

I love knit picks.  I’m not even sure why i love them so much, but i still find myself downloading podcasts, watching kelley’s sock class on youtube, and ordering yarn. So much yarn, it’s actually quite sad.  I”m currently knitting two pairs of mitts for David, of out of palette and one out of lovely deep orange Gloss fingering.  I have tone of WOTA in my stash, too.  And i just ordered four skeins of sock yarn! i love the colorways that they have, but sometimes i’m sad that they don’t quite have the yellows and greens that i love.  Their orange slice of the color wheel is quite full though, which is fantastic.  I wish they had more kooky colors though, the handpaints they have don’t quite have the zazziness that i desire in my socks.  Have i mentioned that i’m in a crazy sock/mitt mood?

I’m just preparing myself for summer! sock yarn isn’t stash, is it? of course not.

I ordered two skeins of Moonlit Felici fingering:

and two skeins of Stroll Tonal, one in Springtime and one in Deep Waters:

Knit Picks has also come out with a pretty recent yarn line called Chroma, which is much like Noro in color, but is as soft as a baby’s skin.  IT felts a little, i made my brother a hat out of Mesa, this beautiful lipstick orange and electric blue colorway that has me begging my ebay listings to SELL already, and it was awesome but did felt a tiny bit on the inside of the hat.  Hey, at least my gifts are well-worn!

Not in a very knitterly mood…

not for big gift sweaters, anyway.  Int he past week i’ve cast on for no less than three new projects and ordered four skeins of sock yarn.  I can sense my addiction to sock knitting coming back to haunt me….

 

Currently i’m working on some Go Dutch! mitts for my partner David.  the tension is a tad off but i’m excited to get these done and block them!

This is also my first time working with the magic loop method.  It’s working great so far but i still like DPNs better.

 

Is anyone else in a sock sort of mood?

2011 Philadelphia Flower Show

knitting update:

Instead of doing four big sweaters i’ve decided to dedicate that one to April and instead putting my sweaters in reserve for awhile.  I’m still going to work on the Leisl for me and a cotton tee for my mom, but i think some smaller projects are really going to help me out during this stressful time of the year.  Spring is really big for me- starting up my knitting classes again, doing all the spring charity events like Relay for Life, and attempting to find a summer job.  I even have a pattern coming out soon- keep an eye out.

This weekend i spent a good amount of time with my grandparents, and we had the opportunity to visit the Flower show.  it was beautiful- and i got no knitting done!!

 

the theme was “spring in Paris”.  They had huge displays shaped into butterflies made of flowers

they had the Phantom of the Opera

tulips everywhere (my favourite flower!)

artists doing oil paintings (and selling them on the spot!)

and sculptural gargoyles

even the Thinker made out of a bush!

 

 

i had a truly lovely time.  Much thanks to my Oma and Popop.

 

i just wish i had brought my knitting!

The Month of Four Sweaters (and some camera tragedy)

Hello! Welcome to March, my fellow bloggists.  I have some sad news to report, but it isn’t all bad.  The bad news: My beautiful baby boy, my Olympus 10 mpx camera, fell on his little lens and now is refusing function.  I guess he;s mad at me for putting him down on an unstable surface, but he’s going to need some serious surgery for me to fix, possibly even a new lens.  Hopefully i can just get a lens realignment or even do it myself, maybe sand down the plastic that’s blocking the zoom feature, but unfortunately i don’t feel comfortable really doing such intensive work myself with the chance of damaging my baby.  So it’s going to take a little while for him to get all healed and better.

 

The good news is that i have decided to make March “Yellow Cake Sweater Month”.   I will be finishing four sweaters, three Ysolda designs and one Connie Chang Chinchio design from Brave New Knits (review later).

The first sweater: Leisl

please excuse the crappy pose of this one

I already made this one out of some lovely Knit Picks Shine worsted, and i’m going to stashbust a little bit with this new one and make it out of some Knit Picks WOTA in Tidepool, a fitting color i think.

gratuitous myspace pose of the day:

ew why did i take this picture?!

I just really love the simplicity of this sweater and the softness of this fabric.  the first time i wore it i got weird red fuzzies all over everything i wore and everywhere i sat, but that has long since abided after a little washing and some more wear.  I used three skeins of the knit picks yarn, and got a cap sleeved cropped version out of it, much like the red one featured in the pattern.  Can’t wait to knit this one again!

 

The second sweater: Little Birds

This was a pattern featured in Twist Collective, but the second i saw it i knew that i had to have it 100% .

little birdies

I’m knitting it out of some really soft Knit Picks Palette, another slightly stashbusting project.  The vine motif is going to be a lovely deep yellow called tumeric and the birds will be a similarly toned purple on a base of dark ash gray.  I even have some buttons left over from my failed Tempest sweater! they are just the right size and will be perfect.

 

The next two sweaters are Coraline and The CCC sweater, The Tulip Peasant Blouse, whose yarn will arrive in the mail shortly. They will be reviewed in a post soon.

This was just a quick update- look forward to part two!

 

Love,

Sam

Albers Inspiration (and a return from the hospital)

An Albers-style design of my own, done in Adobe Illustrator.

 

I was really inspired by Ann Weaver of Weaverknits‘ work with Josef Albers’s “protrait of a square”, which yielded the stunning and colorful Albers Cowl and Albers Shawl patterns.  Recently i was stalking reading her blog and came upon another Albers-inspired knitted piece, this time off of his grayscale work.  I’m a complete and total art junkie and just really loved the way that Ann combines color theory and interesting knitting, which creates a visually captivating piece and an awesome amount yof kudos from me.  It’s not often you get a good solid understanding of an artist’s work through another artist, but i dip my feathered top hat to Ann and her blog.  (I’m kindof obsessed with her hair… it’s so goddamn cute!)I’m planning to take on the Cowl with the design from above in mind, and i’m really excited to start.  Ann’s book, Craft Work Knit, is super awesome and i want to buy it immediately, but i have to keep my budget low because i’ve been buying patterns like crazy (more about that later).  But if you have the time:

 

Please, Check her out.

The Gears Keep Turning…

And my knitting is churning onnnnnnnnn…..

There’s nothing much to report on here other than my progress on the Cedar Leaf Shawlette that shall be featured in another post:

shitty image, i know

And i am trucking on with my design work (all gamer-related) and i have a few big crazytown posts in progress.

Keep a lookout for:

• My huge crush on Ysolda Teague
• Knit Picks
• The Dead Sweater (a resurrection)

 

that is all!

I gave in…..

and i bought it.

Even though it was inspired by the archenemy of the Potter-loving world, i gave in, and i bought it.

I had been eyeing this book for some time, occasionally with loathing, occasionally with some sick sort of admiration for someone with balls or head enough to actually write and publish a knitting book inspired by Twilight.  Now, let’s get this straight.  I have read the entire twilight series.  At first, when i was thirteen, i thought that it was a great book, and as the series unfolded before me, i still read on with the fervor that Harry Potter had instilled within me.  However, looking back, the Twilight series was neither horrible nor fantastic.  The plot is okay, i believe that Stephenie Meyer is afraid of killing her characters, vampires do NOT shine like diamonds in the sunlight, and Romeo and Juliet is not quite the story that you want a four-book saga to be based upon, especially when “love conquers all” is going to be a prevalent theme.

This pattern book is split into chapters by theme, including “Protect me!!”, “Just Bitten”, and “Bloody Accents”.  The patterns themselves have matchingly and fittingly corny titles, and some of the patterns (like fishnet gauntlets and blood-type bottle cozies) scream “I’M THIRTEEN AND I WILL FIND MY EDWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

But. But. But. This book is chock full of  fun knitting patterns, that, despite their obviously Twilight-generated titles, do have some good knitting power.

For example, the Lore hoodie, which is the pattern featured on the cover.

the Lore hoodie

This hoodie is knitted up in bulky/super bulky weight yarn and has clear instructions regarding skill level, pretty decent and easily modified sizing, and walks the knitter through the pattern in parts, calling for the person to first CO for the sleeves, then the skirt, then continue in stockinette with shaping for the bust, pick up stitches for the hood, sew the hood down (where?) and then knit and sew the “front band”.  (The pattern probably makes more sense while it’s being knit. I’m not great with reading patterns without some yarn in my hands, lol.)

This hoodie is beautiful and has garnered some great results on Ravelry, knit in a variety of weights and brands of yarn.  This hoodie can easily be modified to fit a person, the yarn that they’re using, or the season.  The lace pattern is even easy to modify, and is given to the reader in both written instructions and a chart, which is fracking awesome.

While i was initially turned off by the book’s Twilight affiliation, after a peek inside the book (and a few hours of drooling over patterns on Ravelry) i decided i just had to have it.  Some of the patterns are really a turn-off, like the “Rampage Fishnet Gloves” and the “Got Blood? pillow” (amongst many other pillows, ugh knitted square pillows are the death of me), but most of the patterns are really pretty and i’m glad to have them in my possession.  This book has scarves, stockings, and even a knitted CORSET that are really beautiful and i can see myself knitting them in the future.

the Prim Reaper's corset

If you would like to check out this book, it’s available for stalking on Ravelry, and i do recommend checking out some of the patterns.

Enjoy!

~Sam