Phew. I’ve knit a few sweaters with hoods now, and yet somehow I’m always surprised when knitting the hood takes forever. My love of hooded sweaters seems to make me forget that a hood is roughly the equivalent of knitting another back to a sweater, at least from the hem to the armholes.
I cast of the hood on Wednesday, and in trying the sweater on, thought it was too long, so I undid the 3 needle bind off, ripped out all the short rows, and an inch or so of knitting, and then reknit the short rows, and bound off. Again.

I’m now almost through the hood trim, and hopefully I’ll have a sleeve cast on before I go knitting tonight. *Cross my fingers!*

I’ve been a Knitter with a capitol K too long to let myself get away with knitting something not quite right, something that will constantly nag me about the FO. It’s been an uphill battle, admitting that one! So worth it though.

* In shop news, I updated stock on Wednesday, and on Sunday, I’ll have a special shop announcement! Something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and finally decided to jump on the bandwagon, and give it a go. Stay tuned.

Filed by Julia at 9:32 am under Aprés Surf Hoodie,Knitting
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That didn’t take long at all! Actually, as far as ripping goes, that was a very, very, easy one. I ripped on Thursday morning, and as of Thursday night, I was almost done with the back, and yesterday, I seamed the shoulders, and started the hood, which is now half done. This is a good color representation too, this color is a very limey green.
I love this knit! I’m hoping to be done in the next two weeks, if not sooner, I want to wear this thing!

Filed by Julia at 6:17 pm under Aprés Surf Hoodie,Knitting
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Well, damn. Damn damn damn. Do you see it? I missed a row in the lace pattern. I know it’s not glaringly obvious, but it’s driving me nuts.

Sadly, it is below where I divided for front and back, and ten rows down from there. Gah. I was knitting away last night, and about the time I was feeling too sleepy to knit without screwing up, I laid out my work, and petted and admired it, and there it was. It bothered me until I went to bed, and bothered me when I got up, so there was only one thing to do. Now I’m almost back on track, and still loving knitting it.

Filed by Julia at 9:39 pm under Aprés Surf Hoodie,Knitting
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I don’t know when I caught project monogamy, but for months now, when I get into a project, I knit on it until it’s done. I kind of like it, but at some point in the knitting, my brain starts swimming with what’s next. Fortunately for this hoodie, I’ve finished the body to the armholes, and have just divided to start working on the top half of the back.
I knit until just shorter than the pattern length of 15.5 inches. I know this mostly cotton yarn will drape a bit, and grow in length, so I stopped at about 14.5 -15 inches. If it is to short I can always knit from the bottom down, thanks to the provisional cast on.

This Friday will mark 3 weeks on this sweater, I guess even fast knitters are little match for US3 needles and 26 St/Inch!!

PS- I updated the shop today, lots of Wee Kits, Vesper Stripe Sock Yarn, and a new crop of Superwash Merino Roving!

Filed by Julia at 6:51 pm under Aprés Surf Hoodie,Get Your Yarn!!,Knitting
4 Comments

It would seem I have lost the Knitting Mehs. I can not put this thing down. A few more inches, and I’ll be at the at the armhole split. I definitely have to say it was brilliant to modify this to be knit in the round, the lace is working up so fast this way! I’m even looking forward to knitting the sleeves. Both of them. Imagine that.

Filed by Julia at 10:17 pm under General
2 Comments

Kyoot. We haz it.

Oh boy, look what the Brandt dragged in! Kittehs! The 2 back yards that run perpendicular to mine are totally overgrown messes, and there is a shed that serves as breeding ground for alley cats. We noticed the Kittehs a couple of days ago, and since yesterday afternoon, Brandt has made it his life’s mission to get them. This morning, under pretense of ” bringing in the trash can” he did get them, I turned around from yarning, and there he was with a big box of kitteh goodness. They are now temporarily living in my big bathroom. My own kittehs would be pissed, not to mention what these babies might have that I don’t want my cats catching.
They are cuter than buttons, and very healthy looking, probably well under 2 months old, and all are good weights. I tell ya, if I didn’t already have 4 cats, I would have 4 cats now! It’s also a good thing I iz immune to their kyoot. Srsly.

Stunned by his own cute. U iz now hypnotized.

Soft focus, but still cute! This is Brandt’s fav, and she is shy!!

So, if you live in the Pittsburgh area, and would like a kitteh, keeping in mind they need a full medical workup, you can have one. We will have them until tomorrow, around 11, when I’ll be taking them to the animal shelter, Pittsburgh’s Animal Rescue League. I might keep them a little longer, but we’re off to Michigan for Mother’s day.

*anybody else finding lolcat speak in their everyday vocab? it’s addicting.

Filed by Julia at 2:39 pm under General,Meow Mixers
22 Comments

I still knit, I steal a few minutes with my morning coffee, and a few at the end of my day. This is the start of the Aprés Surf Hoodie from the current Interweave Knits, Summer 2008. I love love love it. Bonus, I had most of the yarn in my stash, Rowan’s Cashcotton 4ply. I’m using color 91o. I love it also. I started it last Friday, and now I’m about 4 or so inches in, I also modified it to be knit in the round. Srsly, I’d rather knit across 234 st a round, than have to purl back across 117! On US3 needles! Eek.

PS- The shop is updated! This is a short week for me, going to visit the Moms for Mother’s day. I tried, but the Wee Kits update will have to wait for next week, but for now there’s a ton of variegated, and some striping too!

Filed by Julia at 9:55 pm under Aprés Surf Hoodie,Get Your Yarn!!,Knitting,New Project
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Wee Skein Sock Kits are up!! I had a lot of fun putting these color combos together, and I hope you’ll all love playing with them too. Here’s the run down on how they work.

There are two varieties of Wee Kits. A 2 colorway kit, and a 4 colorway kit. Each kit contains a total of 100g. In the 2 colorway kit, each skein is 50g, and in the 4, each skein is 25g. In the 2 colorway kit, each skein has 16 repeats of the stripe pattern, and in the 4, each skein has 8 repeats.

These colorways can be combined when knit into any striping pattern you can think of. Alternate one stripe repeat, or two or three! Knit one sock of each color! They can be identical, or fraternal, depending on your inner control freak!

Each kit includes an idea card, I recommend picking your favorite basic sock pattern, and going for it. When I knit my socks, I cut and pasted, and used a lot of Wee scraps. I also recommend toe up knitting, to use every last bit of yarn, and to avoid running short!

Every week I’ll have more kits available, color combos will depend on which colorways I dyed up during the week, and of course I’ll repeat popular combos too. This could get interesting!

Filed by Julia at 11:48 am under Get Your Yarn!!,Wee Skeins
8 Comments