Eek! Almost Christmas!!

I was just re-reading my last post...I had almost forgotten about the snow!  This weekend it has been 70 degrees, because, you know, Christmas.  It's been a little peculiar to say the least (plus very difficult trying to get dressed. T-shirt? Jacket? Shorts? WHAT DO I DOOOOO? Haha.)

In knitting news, I had a whole post written out last week in my notebook, talking about my progress on the fingerless mitts,

Took me 8 hours to get this far, while watching Good Eats, Carl Sagan's Cosmos (which I can no longer find), and Doctor Who's Spearhead from Space.  Imagine what would happen if I just worked without distraction???

The gifts I needed to finish,

Bike Helmet Ear Warmers for the BF

Christmas tree pin for a friend

And some other random things, but look!  They're all done now (and I totally forgot to post it. whomp whomp)!  The bike helmet ear warmers were very well received, but we discussed adding a button to each to actually keep them in the correct location.  They're a little dorky, but no dorkier than wearing a hat underneath your helmet (and way more comfy!).  The Christmas tree pin will be given tomorrow, I think she'll totally dig it, but I'll let you know how it goes!  I also made some cute tags/business cards for each gift, using the sheep photo from Iceland.  It needs a little work, but a good start!  I can't wait to make more!  :-) 

The fingerless mitts are still just "mitt", and remember that Simplicity Cowl?  Yea, still haven't seamed that up.  At least I wove in the ends where I broke the yarn and had to do some joining.  But not yet seamed.  I didn't know about the provisional cast-on when I started, so that cowl will definitely not be as cool as it should be.  Almost totally awesome, but not quite.

Alright, 2 more nights til I fly home, need to make my fingers fly through the yarn!  Happy knitting!  Have a great Christmas!

PS - haha, I was reading my posts from the beginning.  I made absolutely NOTHING on my original Christmas gift list!  They say if you post your goals, or at least announce them to others, you're more likely to stick to them.... bwahahahahaha.  Not true.  All lies.  Hahaha.  But everyone gets something anyway.  Except for my mom.  She gets a ball of yarn and a pattern.  The she can tell me, "no, I don't like that, make me this instead".  I feel that's a much more appropriate use of my knitting time (plus it's been very difficult thinking of something she'd really like.)  Ok, off i go!

Update!

Hey hey!

Looks my schedule is more like two weeks per post, but at least I'm still on it!  AND - I have quite a few updates!  YAY, go me!

First - it's quite the winter wonderland outside.  Check out the view from my window:

Not quite Snowmaggedon, but it's pretty!

I don't think we've had real snow in a few years, so it's pretty nice.  Although, I'm so wary about Metro that I'm not going climbing today, since they might shut down for no reason!  Oh well.  It's nice and warm in my apartment, so I'm cozy enough to do this:

Boneyard Shawl in KnitPicks Imagination Loch Ness

Look at the pretty colors!

I didn't think I'd be making a Boneyard Shawl with this yarn, but I wanted something relatively easy to work on, plus it's cold in my office so I need something to warm me up!  It's knitting up pretty fast which is nice, and it's mindless knitting so I've been watching some random TV and documentaries as I knit.

I also started on this bib for my bf's niece.  I started it in the car on the way to Thanksgiving, and realized I had cast on WAY too many stitches.  It's big enough to be a bib for me!  It's a picot cast-on with a traveling stitch made with a left twist.

It's sort of on hold right now, as I try to finish this before Christmas:

As you can see, I am oh-so-far on the Mitt Envy fingerless gloves I've started.  I hoping they don't take toooo long, or at least I can get one done before Christmas.  If not, hey, I'll have a pair of fingerless gloves...in July.  haha.  This is yarn from Catskill Merino Sheep Farms.  I went to New York for Thanksgiving and stopped in their tent at Union Square and couldn't resist!  It's variegated black/grey, but still so beautiful.  And super soft!!  

I'm really bad at getting the right color in photos

Look at the pretty!!!!

That's all I've got for today.  Happy Knitting!

J

My, it has been a while

Sorry for the long span between posts, been a little busy with job things, then there was some camping,

The right honorable Earl Harold Higgenbottom the Tenth, Esquire.
Tuckahoe, MD

and then general laziness/ i'm going to play on the internet instead of write in a blog.  Whoops.

Also, seeing as how I haven't done much knitting, it's a little silly to post in a knitting blog.  I did make one thing, the "Mile-a-Minute" scarf, turned it into a cowl, and it took very little time.  Now that it's super freezing outside, I might use it (although it's pretty open, so may only be helpful a few minutes at a time).

Other than that, I've been a little lazy with the knitting, altho I have tons of ideas in my head and want to make ALL THE THINGS!!!  the problem is starting on anything.  oof.

Alright, this is a pretty sad update, but it's all I have for now.  I'll try to finish something over thanksgiving....

Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah....

Batman!

:)

That's all I have this week, no knitting updates, too many awesome Halloween adventures! 

-J

Ah, sorry sorry!

Hey! Look, two weeks passed just like that...whooops.....alright, here's the quick download (of everything I've thought the past two weeks apparently)
1) Simplicity Cowl almost complete!  Length is finished and blocked, now I need to seam it together!  FINALLY.

It's pinned where the seam would be.

2) Here's my new yarn from KnitPicks in all its yummy glory!

Dishie Multi in Wave - I've already made a few coasters for the bf's apartment.  Also so I wouldn't have to watch Event Horizon with no distractions.  I need distractions during scary movies.  Good, but confusing.  It's on Netflix.  

Imagination sock yarn, Enchanted Lake.  I thought it would be a little more graceful, but it feels more childish than I care for.  It's in my "will trade or sell" pile on Ravelry, unless I find something to use it for.

Imagination sock yarn, Loch Ness.  I like these colors, mostly because I love the woods and the water.   Not nearly as saturated as I thought it would be though.  Quite lovely, might make a simple shawl from it.

Full Circle Wool, colors Latte and Mocha.  I'll probably make a scarf with these.  Also, not as saturated as I anticipated.  We'll see how they swatch up.  

3) I've been flipping though Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns.  And by "flipping through, " I mean looking at every pattern and putting a sticky note next to it so that I can use it somewhere.  hah.  It's an amazing book, apparently there are three of them??
4) I'm in cast-on purgatory.  I have Christmas presents to make, but I can't figure out which pattern I want, or which yarn to use, or even what kind of item I want to make (is it a cowl, a hat, an owl mug cozy?).  I really want to do something fast, but my indecision is telling me that is a lie.  Is this what they call "start-itis"?
5) My birthday's coming up, yay!  I'll be 30.  With no idea what I want to do with my life.  It's awesome.  In a really not awesome sort of way. boo.
6) Climbing buddy and I bouldered a V2 without completely tiring ourselves out, woo!  Only took maybe 4-6 tries, I can't really remember.  Who'd a'thunk it?  We're getting better!
7) Hallowe'en is this week!  I'm gonna be Batman!  And I'm climbing!  My harness will be my bat utility belt.  It'll be amazing, woo woo!
8) Christmas show at the USBG is coming up!  OMG.  It's already almost Christmas?!?!?!!
9) I watched a movie with Leslie Nielsen that wasn't a comedy.  I give you, Forbidden Planet.  Pay no attention the cover, it has characters from the movie, but no actual scene like that occurs.  I'm not sure if I would recommend this movie other than it's from the 50s and it's got some cute antiquated gender roles and thoughts on the future.  Also, we have a lot of catching up to do in our colonization of the rest of the solar system.  We're supposed have completely colonized the moon by 2015, if I remember correctly.

::takes a deep breath::

Alright, I've gotten some of the thoughts out of my head.

Have a good nite and great week!

A slow week

This week was pretty slow with the knitting, but I did three fun things:
1) Undid the bind-off on the Simplicity Cowl.  It was actually easy.  I used this tutorial .  She made it really easy to understand, and even though I had a 'suspended' bind off, I still managed to understand I only interacted with the same stitches she was.  I was very proud of myself, but no pictures, sorry.  Maybe I'll do a tutorial just for that, but how do I get the camera to only look at my hands?  Do I need a tripod?
2) I bought new yarn.  And LOTS of it!  Lots for me, at least!  I knew I was getting ready to cast-on for another project, so I went to my LYS, Looped Yarn Works, and pet every yarn in sight!  Haha.  I forget how expensive yarn can be, and my naturally frugal (miserly? nah, I don't think I'm that bad, I have some shiny things) nature won over, so I bought Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in the Cobalt Mix colorway.  Still not the cheapest, but isn't it so pretty?

And then, on Friday, this popped up on my Facebook:

haha!  Frugality FTW!

ooooo, KnitPicks clearance??  I must investigate!  And investigate I did.  I ended up with several skeins of their Imagination hand-painted (socks for me and mom), two skeins of wool of the andes for the bf's scarf, and a couple of Bare skeins to try out some food color/kool-aid dyeing!  I'm so excited to get them!  I'll post more about them with photos when I receive!

I have never bought so much yarn, and it cost so little with the Knit Picks sale!  I'm really excited to try new patterns and techniques, plus using new yarns and needles (I still haven't used my circulars)!  Yay!

3) I was out in Pittsburgh this weekend for my bf's friend's wedding.  It was so much fun, and the food was super delicious - the bride's dad is a chef!  Omnomnomnom.  Not to mention, site-seeing in Pittsburgh involves seeing this:

It looks like Mr Rodgers trolley!

and this:

   

 

Rubber duckie, you're the one...

...plotting to take over the world! Muahahahaha! ::ahem:: 'scuse me.

All-in-all, a super fantastic weekend!  Unfortunately, it left very little time for knitting, and my cowl is still not finished.  Time to get cracking, have a great week!

I thought I was done!!

Hey folks!  Look, a pretty blocking photo:

Look at that tape job to make right angles!  Fantastic!

And now a cool blocking photo:

The Star Wars theme should be in your head right now

Alas, too bad it wasn't to be.  I blocked the Simplicity cowl, then realized it was WAAAYYYY too short.  WAY.  Couldn't even make it around my head twice.  Granted, I do have a big head, but still, it was ridiculous.  So now I have to learn how to un-bind a suspended bind-off and splice some yarn to make the cowl longer.  I somehow never learned that adage "measure twice, cut once" even going through architecture school and building tiny models.  Nope, too impatient.  sigh.  oh well.  Another learning experience I suppose.  I'll try and post some photos of my un-binding effort, if I don't get super frustrated.

In other projects....well, I don't have any.  I really need to start another one, I was actually getting pretty antsy this weekend with nothing on the needles.  I know I have three projects coming up: a winter headband for the boyfriend (really need that since hopefully the weather will cool down soon), socks for mom, and cowl for other sister.  I actually have yarn for two of the three, but not the correct needles.  and I haven't even really found a pattern for any of them.  The headband may just be a ribbing, maybe cabling.  We'll see.

Speaking of the weather...it was almost 90 degrees today.  it's October.  In DC.  It's a little hot for this time of year.  Now, I wouldn't really mind, but we went apple- and veggie-picking today, and it was just waaaay too hot to be picking fruits and veggies!  I mean, they're delicious (like woah) and all, but I have a sun headache now!  terrible.  Hopefully the weather calms down and starts behaving like fall, because I am just really confused all the time now.  I can't tell what day or month it is anymore!  

Here's a llama for your viewing pleasure.  He was at the farm today.

I was a little wary.  He had been sitting down until I got there.  I thought he'd spit on me.

Have a great week!

Oop, you're on fire!

Hey all -

Sorry for the late post, we went camping this weekend, and I needed to decompress before I did anything!  This weekend was super duper fun, with lots of food, smores, improvised tools and just good times with good people.  We headed out the Cedarville State Forest, which is only an hour drive or so out of DC, and then spent the weekend enjoying some beautiful weather!  We went on a hike that was maybe 6 or 7 miles and saw some gorgeous scenery and plantlife!  I also got some work done on my Simplicity Cowl and I am only one large repeat away from done!

Working on Simplicity by the glow of the Honorable Eustace Fairbanks Bojangles, the 3rd (Ireland) & 4th (Wales), Esq., Marquis de la Cedarville.  Yes, we named our campfire.  He was a good campfire.  :)

I was hoping to be done by tomorrow, but that's definitely not going to happen.  After I finish, I need to figure out the best bind off for sewing the two edges together, and then I have to block and sew.  Hopefully I will be done soon, because I may join the Deep Sea Wanderer KAL with bear-ears den on Ravelry.  If you notice, this is a pattern from Lit Knits by Audry Niklin, which I referenced in an earlier post.  I ended up buying it, because I really want to do these patterns:

Avonlea

Motoring Madness from Frog and Toad

Down the Rabbit Hole

Deep Sea Wanderer (of course)

My first knitting book purchase ever!  wooo!  The only other knitting book I have is Vogue Knitting, which I received as a gift from my good friend in Calgary.  It's a great reference book for sure, but not a cool fun pattern book.  Although, I think Lit Knits is waaaay above my skill level.  But everything looked so pretty and clever, and it combined books and knitting, my old favorite hobby and my new.  I had to get it!  Let's see how long it takes me to make something instead of just looking at the amazing photos (oh yeah, another reason I bought the book: the photos are GORGEOUS).

I was thinking of maybe going to the Fall Fiber Festival and Sheep Dog Trials next Saturday, but I may not be able to.  It's about 2 hours away, and I don't own a car, so we have to zipcar, and the costs can just add up.  Plus the time it takes...we'll see.  We're also going to a farm on Sunday with some friends, so I should probably do something at home this weekend, right?  Sigh.  I know, I lead SUCH a difficult life.  "Do I have fun here, or here?  So many hard problems to solve! Woe is me." :)  haha.  And at work, I'm only in the office two days, on site the other three.  Those will probably feel like fun too!

Well, back to LotR with actors commentary as I finish knitting this cowl.  I've been hankering for the movies for the past couple weeks, decided to make it so.  Have a great week everyone!

J

Halfway done!

I'm working on the Simplicity Cowl at a steady clip (at least for me), and I am halfway done!  The scarf can wrap around my neck once as is, with no stretching/blocking, plus, when I actually weighed the yarn, I have used 50g, with 60g remaining.  I am good to go, wooo!  Sorry for the "It's 11pm-and-all-I-have-is-this-incandescent-lamp" photo, but see below for progress.

Doesn't this look like raw ground turkey?  Ahh, incandescent light with pinkish yarn.  Tasty.

I'm pretty thrilled about it, and pretty proud of myself.  I actually worked on it a bit at work one day, since I had to work late waiting for the engineers to send us something.  It was a little surreal.  My friend did comment on my knitting style - I think it's English.  I wrap the working yarn on my right hand and completely remove my right hand from the needle to work the stitch.  It doesn't seem very efficient, but it works for me.

In other news, bf and I did some shopping.  He was successful and looks very dapper now, with super professional shoes and bag.  I was not so successful, but I did get some amazing turquoise Cole Haan flat shoes for $30!  woo hoo!  This weekend also included an always-fun festival at the Botanic Garden (the Junior Botanist Festival), where I saw some ferns that gave me some pattern ideas with their sporangea; and weiner dog races.  And what could be cuter than weiner dog races?  A weiner dog race where one of the contestants is wearing a lobster costume!  ("of course," you say.  "That was exactly what I was expecting.")

The lobster dog also did a little dancing trick during the trick competition.

Okie dokie, short post today.  See you all next week!  I may try and post again during the week, but we'll see how work and other adventures play out.  Bye!

They're done! They're done!

The socks are done!!! WHEEEEEEE!  I'm so excited, it's a little ridiculous.  But they're so soft and squooshy, I love them.  :)

As you can see, they don't match patterns, and one is bigger than the other.  Actually, one fits in the foot, while the other one fits on the ankle.  It's pretty funny, but they are oh so comfy and I'm very happy!  They are on Ravelry here.  Now onto the next pair!  My mom requested a pair while I was still working on them (but in a very sideways, "look, these ones fit me just right" sort of asking, lol).  So I'm checking some patterns on Ravelry to see what to make.  I think she'll get something somewhat lacy, in a solid color, with a higher cuff, maybe a couple of inches.  I only hope I can keep them from laddering so much!  That was my main problem, with both of the socks - I couldn't keep my stitches tight enough.  How do you handle that?  Any suggestions? 

I've also added to the Simplicity Cowl, but not enough for a photo.  I'm hoping I can finish it by end of the month.  It depends how distracted I get by everything else!

In other knitting notes, I had to work late one day, but I wasn't really doing any work, so I was looking at tips on dyeing yarn, and this koolaid thing looks pretty fun and easy, so I think I might be trying that soon.  I already have some ideas of some small projects, but one thing I really want to make is a shawl that has the colors of a Bermudan beach.  I went there this past summer and it was gorgeous!  See below:

See? Gorgeous!

I was thinking it would be a super lightweight airy shawl, but I have to build up some courage to do that.  It's very different from everything else I've done (which isn't much, granted).  I could probably find yarn in those colors and make an "ombre" shawl, but it would be pretty cool to dye the colors myself!

I also attempt to grow plants.  I'm not that great at it, but everything's alive, plus check out the color fade on this basil!  Now I want to make or find something that looks like that!  Inspiration is everywhere!

I'm keeping it to knitting this week (I have a cold today-boooo), so thanks for reading, I'll see you next week!

Dang - a second week?

Woo hoo!  Look at me, two weeks in a row!  That's 2x better than my last blog!  :)  I was actually super excited to write a new post - just to share everything new!

*Knitting Projects*
Never-ending Socks - I actually worked on my sock this week!  See?

New stitches have been added - 10 repeats of the Bamboo Weave stitch (*/yo, k2, pass yo over the 2 knit stitches/*, even rows are all knit).  I realize now I didn't post a photo of the sock last week, so here it is - see that tiny grouping stitches on the right?

yea, that was my sock last week.  But it looks much better now! yay!  I didn't reduce the number of stitches while I did the pattern, so unfortunately, this sock is probably another wide slipper sock just to wear around my apartment in the winter.  Oh well, I call them my practice socks.  Next time, I should probably do a gauge swatch before I pick a pattern.  I really want to do lace socks, I have a really weird fascination with lace.
Simplicity Cowl- I haven't worked on the cowl at all.  I have some tinking to do, and I've been at work late, so I don't want to do anything that requires brain power.

iPod Case - Here's a project I completed for a Christmas gift last year, but have never taken a photo of.  It's an iPod case with a Lopapeyesa (Icelandic) pattern.  It was a memento to my boyfriend for our amazing trip to Iceland.  He loves it and uses it all the time.  It's a little fuzzy tho, but that's what happens with Icelandic wool I suppose.  I also never blocked it. Do you think that would have helped?

*In my ears*
I've been listening to the Knitting Pipeline with Paula, and I love it!  I actually joined the group on Ravelry and introduced myself, and she is so nice, she responds to everyone's messages, AND mentions you on the podcast!  She called me "J-Yo-Pat-Knots".  I should probably have put a pronunciation guide to my name (It's Jo-Pat-Knots).  My name has a silent "y" in English.  Oh well, I still felt special!  yayyyy!  I've also checked out a ton of other blogs, and one of them mentioned this awesome book of patterns that I think is super creative: Lit Knits.  All of the patterns are inspired by literary characters! super cool!
I've also been listening to The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King, also read by him.  It's considered book 4.5 of the Dark Tower series.  I absolutely *love* the Dark Tower series, so I was excited this book was on CD at the MLK library!  I'm not a huge fan of Sai King's voice, but it has grown on me as I've been listening.  I think I just start hearing the characters in my head as I want them to sound.  Roland's voice gets deeper, and Susannah's gets sassier.  It was pretty funny to hear some Detta Walker curses out loud.  Those are ridiculous!!

*Other life*
Did some climbing today, 6 climbs, but I bailed close to the top of the last one - my arms were DONE for the day.  So they weren't terribly hard climbs, but there was more than the usual quantity.  PLUS - it was prefaced with some delicious Vietnamese food at Pho Nom Nom!!  yum!

Finally - I give you a photo shot by the bf.  It makes me chuckle.

Alright everybody, thanks for reading, see you next week!

Introduction & Current Projects

Hi all!

I'm trying this "blogging" thing again.  But making it simple - trying to keep it short and sweet, and post photos periodically.  Nothing as intense as all of my previous blog attempts.  As NerdFitness taught me:  Simplify. Analyze. Modify. Dominate. Today is a general introduction plus first post.  I'll try to post once a week, mostly to keep up with my current project status.  That's right - this is a knitting project blog, with everything else thrown in.  I'm trying to get better with knitting - knitting more frequently, and keeping track of my progress, just so I can feel accomplished.

*Intro*
This blog is called knots, not just because that's the simple description of knitting, but because that's how my brain usually feels - tangled up in knots!  I get distracted easily, switch subjects constantly, and then find myself flabbergasted at what has just happened!  :)  Hopefully this blog will help sort things out.

*Knitting*
My ravelry profile is jyopatknots.  Please look me up!  There's not much on there just yet, a)because I haven't done that much; b) I forget to take photos of stuff I have done.  I've been knitting about 2 years, mostly off, sometimes on.  I initially started because some friends from the Botanic Garden were getting together to knit, and I decided to join them....even though I had never touched needles before!  We still hang out, however, we only had one knitting session, lol!

*Projects*
I'm currently working on the Simplicity Cowl by Cedar Walters, in the Azalea colorway of Wandering Wool's Saranac fingering for my sister.  She asked for a cowl, and it was incredibly hard to find one I thought she would like, plus one that wouldn't be too repetitive!  She gave me a couple options, but as she's moving to Houston, I didn't want to give her a big fluffy one either!  It's going pretty well, but I am having stitch count issues.  I tend to knit late at nite, and I'll start getting sleepy....and I'll forget a move, oops!  But it's going well, and I am making some modifications, mostly in just how much I repeat the pattern.  We'll see how it turns out!




I'm also working on some never-ending socks that I started ages ago!  It's just simple socks, and I added some stitches that I wanted to try to them.  They don't match.  It's taking forever, because I'm getting bored, but I know I'll love them when they're done!   They're so soft and squishy! Hopefully next week I'll have an update.  They are knit in KnitPicks Stroll, Duchess Heather.

In the queue is another cowl for the other sister.  To be knit with Verdant Gryphon's Eidos in The Dragon King's Daughter colorway.  Haven't decided on a pattern yet.  Was going to do Irish Mesh Cowl, but I don't have the right length of circular needles, so I may try something else instead of spending more money on something I don't know if I will like.  We'll see.

*Other Life*
Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.  :)

Alright, I think this is good for a first blog post (so much for short and sweet!)  See you next week!  Happy Labor Day, enjoy the day off if you have it!  :)