Newman Knits

Christmas Knitting Part 1

2008-12-12T14:13:00.006-05:00

Well, now I am unemployed. So you would think I would be knitting LOTS, right? Not really. You feel guilty knitting while unemployed. You just keep thinking "hmmm, I should be applying for a job right now..."

Despite that guilt, I have been knitting.

Behold!

A Christmas present finished before Christmas Eve! (Gasp!) I give you a Lace Ribbon Scarf in Bristol Yarn Gallery Buckingham color 1042 (love this yarn)

I got a wider stitch on one side of the repeat by using a wide stitch marker (hair-ties). I like the effect -- it's more open and a little bit funky.

It has been wrapped up and shipped off to be opened by its new owner. I always feel a little sad sending off my lace projects. Not as much with other projects, but lace somehow has that effect on me.

The only other Christmas knitting this year is to be a hat. It's just a simple Norwegian Star hat in Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

I plan on duplicate stitching blue onto the four little white bits in the center of each star. I might also add a fleece lining. We'll see how motivated I am.

And that, my friends, is all. I'll post pictures of the recipients modeling the projects when I get them.

Where has the Newman gone?

2008-09-24T20:29:00.004-05:00

Let's see...since the last time I actually remembered to update this thing....

I got a new computer. (A wonderful MacBook :) )

I graduated from Cornell.

I moved to the Adirondacks where I have a job as an interpretive naturalist at a museum.

And I knit hardly anything worth mention. But I'll mention some anyway.

Here is a Katamari:

It's from the video game Katamari Damacy. Really awesome game, incredibly addictive, and you'd probably think it's weird.

I knit a purse, which is not yet finished. I had intended to finish it for graduation. Yeah...that worked well.

I started my Christmas knitting early. Super early. May early. I had good intentions to get my Christmas knitting done for Christmas. But my knitting has fallen short. And so my Christmas knitting only looks like this now:

And I knit and Obama hat. :) The "O" is duplicate stitched. I still need to add another row of four blue at the top and add a crocheted edging. But it's close.

Now I'm making a promise to myself that I won't let my knitting blog go so long without being updated. This also means that I am making a promise to myself to knit more...and knit things worth blogging about. We'll see how that works out. You guys should help by yelling at me if I start to suck at keeping my promise. :p

I think the hardest thing about living in the Adirondacks is the lack of a good knitting store close by.

Christmas '07

2008-01-01T20:35:00.000-05:00

Christmas has come and gone. Oh hey look! It's 2008 already! Yeah, probably time to post a Christmas knitting update, eh?

Firstly, remember that big green thing? Yeah, no way that was happening. So I focused myself on two pairs of socks. That's all. I know, I know, kind of a lame year for Christmas knitting. Deal with it. The socks were both made from Knitpicks Bare, Kool-Aid dyed. The first you saw in the previous post. The second was dyed with lots of grape and berry blue. The pink ones went to sister Jill, and the blue/purple to sister Lori. Both were knit using Knitty's universal toe-up formula. They were my first toe-up socks. And let me tell you, I'm in love with toe-up now.

Interestingly, I'd spent weeks hemming and hawing over trying to find a suitable non-wool sock yarn for Lori who is allergic to wool. I even knit a whole sock in Cascade fixation effect (which I do not recommend) and ended up frustrated with the finished product. When Lori got here, I shoved some Knitpicks Bare in her face and said "does it bother you?" Aaaand...it didn't. I could have been knitting her socks with that the whole time. hrmph.

Anyway... They came out great, even though Lori only had a sock and a half on Christmas morning.

In other news. I finally have pictures of my mom with Bristow on! It looks aweosme, long sleeves and all. Mom switched the buttons to some bigger buttons which stay better, and they look really good.

And prehaps most excitingly I'm on Ravelry now!! Yay! The waiting time nearly killed me I was so excited to get on it. I can't stop just playing with things. It's so awesome. :)

I can't figure out how to get the button in my sidebar though. *idiot*

I meant to do that.

2007-12-03T01:07:00.000-05:00

I decided tonight to dye some of my Knitpicks Bare from my stash for some more Christmas knitting. I've used Kool-Aid to dye roving before, but I haven't dyed yarn. So I thought I knew what I was doing.

But apparently I should have put more water in the Kool-Aid solution before plopping my (prepped) yarn in and adding the necessary amount of water to cover it. Instead of a solid-colored batch of yarn, I ended up with an interesting variegated pattern. I was nervous at first. But...I think I like it.

So I'm just going to say "I meant to do that!"

And now for some things I meant to post a few weeks ago...

A few weeks back was my Grandmother's funeral. I realized on Wednesday that my cousin would be coming up with her new baby (the service was on Saturday). So I decided to knit the baby a hat.

Knitty's Flower Power. Seen here with mother Lisa. Couldn't get a good picture of Elle (the baby) with the hat on.

I also decided I would need a scarf to wear to the service, since it would be cold. So I whipped up this:

Self-designed pattern. It's a semi-reversible cabled scarf. I may post the pattern if I get around to typing it up. It's Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande color 3317, which is really a much nicer blue than it looks here.... And it needs to be blocked still.

That picture shows it a bit better.

That's it for now. I'll try to post more in the coming weeks, now that classes are over :) I just have two finals, a paper, and the GREs between me and winter break.

Let the Christmas knitting begin!

2007-11-06T23:09:00.000-05:00

And now comes the time of year when I can't really talk about anything I'm knitting....because it could be for you ;)

But now that Solar Decathlon is over and done with, I can start to get back on track with my knitting. After this past weekend's hockey games (we won both...by a lot) in which I earned my battle scars including this:

and possibly a minor concussion (too stubborn to go to the doctor), I've got my Christmas knitting underway! I've started on it a little (a lot) later than I would have liked, but at least it got started at all.

I have just a tiny bit of this:

With a whole lot more where that came from:

And I'm eying these babies from my stash as some possible candidates for some smaller presents.

This is entirely overambitious and I would probably never be able to finish these projects by Christmas if I had the power to bend time. However, I am pressing on. This could get messy.

Another knitting lull

2007-10-15T21:12:00.000-05:00

Why haven't I been knitting?

This is why:

The Solar Decathlon. Solar powered houses designed and built by university students. It doesn't get much cooler. I'm on the communication subteam for the Cornell team.

http://cusd.cornell.edu

and

http://solardecathlon.org

The house is up and running on the Mall in D.C. We've been running tours since Friday morning. I lead tours through our (awesome) house. I was there all this past weekend. I've come back to Ithaca for a short stint, but I'm heading back down to D.C. to give more tours and help see us through the end of the competition on Wednesday.

I led over 100 tours this past weekend. I'm amazed I still have a voice. I'm psyched to go back down for more. :)

In terms of knitting:

The teaser picture at the end of my last entry? That was the sleeves of Bristow. I finished them, blocked them and sewed them together and onto the body of the sweater just in time to frantically put the sweater in a gift bag to give to my mom for her birthday. This means that I don't have a picture of the finished Bristow :( I'll try to get my mom to model it for me the next time I see her.

H'okay so...

2007-09-27T02:18:00.000-05:00

I promised you pictures of Hedera sunbathing in Hawai'i.

So here they are!

Tanning on the black sand beach.

Looking for sea turtles.

Oh and my beautiful family :)

Aaaaand I probably, no...definitely, should have Hedera finished by now, but I've been dedicating what little free time I have to a different project.

Recognize it? Any guesses? Any scolding me for taking this long to get back to it?

More on that later. For now I must sleep so I don't go completely insane O_o

I'm not dead! Really!

2007-09-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

No I didn't die. I just had a crazy summer. :)

First was the family vacation to Hawaii. This vacation saw much sunshine, snorkeling, beaches, volcanoes, i'iwis, and the birth of Hedera, with Knitpicks Gloss woodland sage(loooove this yarn).

Hedera enjoyed some beach time (here on a black sand beach) (OK, so....image coming soon, cause I forgot the cord to connect to my external hard drive. D'oh), with the family. And some funny looks from other beach visitors who thought it was quite odd to be taking pictures of yarn on a beach in Hawaii. Silly tourists. What do they know. The hawksbill sea turtles didn't care much.

After the Hawaii vacation I took a job with the Student Conservation Association at Mount Rainier National Park. I was the public information intern for the Mount Rainier Recovery Corps. Translation: I took lots of pictures of people working, did some work myself, and wrote about it for the public, donors, and grants.

Hedera and Icarus traveled with me to Rainier and lived under my cot in my tent for the summer. But they didn't get much time out unfortunately. I think I took Hedera out once.

Needless to say, I didn't get much knitting done this summer. Such a polar opposite from last summer where I was cooped up with my foot up for weeks and knitting was pretty much the only thing I did.

Also notable (very notable): My chinchillas had their very first kit in mid August. He's a healthy little bundle. We call him Ace.

I picked Hedera up again this afternoon after class. (Oh yeah..I'm a senior! Crazy!) I've just started on the heal flap. Pictures to come later.

Sharing the love

2007-05-08T18:39:00.000-05:00

It's study week! So I've actually gotten to a point where I have time to knit! I haven't done anything picture-worthy though. Mostly I've just been working on the sleeve of Mom's Christmas Bristow.

However....

For those of you who wish to see my speech on the yarn addiction rehabilitation center, I have added a widget for you on the left. It's a box.net filesharing widget. I've put in there both the Powerpoint presentation and the speech outline. Some things changed from the outline to when I actually did the speech, but you can get the basic drift from that.

Go ahead and download it and enjoy it. But please, don't use any of it without giving me some credit :)

Also, I assure you it was funnier when I actually presented it. Just imagine someone speaking very very seriously about yarn addiction as if it were akin to alcohol and drug addiction.

Random yarn-related things

2007-04-15T17:08:00.000-05:00

Not much on the knitting front. Just picked up the sleeve of Mom's Christmas sweater again. I swear that thing's never going to be finished.

However, I found this on someone else's knitting blog and felt like posting mine here. So here it is:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

The only reason my vice is hitting the snooze button is because yarn wasn't a choice. :p

Oh! For my business and professional speaking class this past week I gave an "After Dinner speech" (funny) about the "Shetland Rehabilitation Center." What? You don't know what that is? Haha. My speech was on "yarn addiction" and trying to sell the Shetland Rehab. Center (totally made up) to friends and family of yarn addicts.

I was worried people wouldn't find it amusing. But it turns out that yarn addiction is a funny topic. I had everyone laughing. :)

Maybe I'll post the speech here later.

Green Fiber Mill

2007-03-26T21:11:00.000-05:00

Another awesome discovery today in the world of knitting/fiber and my ecological tendencies.

I clicked on a link from the Yarn Harlot's post today and lo and behold! I found happy :)

Buckwheat Bridge Angoras
It's a solar powered fiber mill in the Hudson Valley.

Does life get any better than that?

Oh! The first post is up on Ithaquest. Head on over for a look.

Finished (Fudged) Fetching

2007-03-20T01:06:00.000-05:00

After working and reworking things several times I have myself a tweaked version of Fetching.

First I wasn't sure I was happy with the way the yarn looked in cables, but I kept going just to see if I liked it in the end. I did. So, I finished one glove, then decided to cast on the second with fewer stitches because the first one seemed big. I liked the smaller version better so I undid the big one and redid it like the second. Good thing they knit up in just a few hours :)

Here's the result:

That's my (huge) kitty, Ezra. He's a sweetie.

Fetching?

2007-03-14T23:29:00.000-05:00

Remember that Eden yarn from the last post? Remember how I said maybe the hat would get me back on track?

That's what I did when I got back from class this afternoon. Guess I'm getting back on track, eh?

I'm trying to figure out if it's going to work. It's a bit of an adaptation of Fetching. The yarn is a bulky yarn, and the pattern calls for Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. Not to mention the different stetch of this yarn as compared to the Debbie Bliss yarn, which I've used before. Playing with gauge is a dangerous thing, but I think it might work. We'll see. I'm also not sure if I quite like the way the cables look with this yarn. I could end up frogging it all tomorrow.

I think I'll sleep on it.

Hat!

2007-03-13T21:48:00.000-05:00

So my LYS had a sale on EVERYTHING! this past weekend so I couldn't resist. I went with my mother and probably bored her to death while I spent quite a long time hemming and hawing over which yarns I should get and how much I could afford. I ended up spending my gift certificate my aunt had gotten me for $21.21 for my 21st birthday...pluuuus just a bit (bit may not be the correct word here) more.

I only got

2 hanks of this absolutely luscious yarn: Eden from The Fibre Company.

And

Two balls of Plymouth's Suri Merino with which to make

Center Square!

I said I would make it. I said I'd do it before the cold disappeared, but the cold seems to have disappeared :( Not to worry! This being Central New York I'm sure it'll be snowing in a week :)

Anyhow, it was a quick and easy knit and I like how it turned out! It is a bit big on me, though. But I'll deal.

The end note to this is that hopefully this will get me back into the swing of things with my knitting. Especially with spring break coming up next week my knitting future looks bright.

Knitblog neglect

2007-02-21T10:14:00.000-05:00

Yeah...soooo...I've been neglecting my knitblogging and my knitting as well :(

It's a very sad thing in the life of a knitter when your classes get in the way of your knitting. In all seriousness I have only had enough time so far this semester to knit a few rows on a sock.

"That's not possible," I hear you say, "there is always time for knitting!" I would tend to agree. However, this semester is turning out to be fairly writing-intensive - and along with chinchillas, a boyfriend, and eating enough food and sleeping enough to stay alive -I'm finding my hands tied up for almost all of my time.

So the Newman Knits sadly will probably remain slow for the rest of the semester. I will try to write in it whenever I can.

I do have a couple things to share, though!

First of all I couldn't help but post this post from treehugger.com (a really awesome eco-blog) about green fabrics, including some yarns. Here.

Secondly, I now have a second little blog I'm nurturing along. It is a class project, but I hope for it to become much more than just a class project. I see a lot of potential in this new blog of mine. It is meant to be a place where Cornell (and Ithaca College) students can find things to do in Ithaca that involve going out into nature. I'm hoping it will also be used by area schoolkids and Ithacans. Each post will have a cool place, species, ecological event, etc. how to get there, how to find it, what to do, and the science behind it. There is not much there yet (really...pretty much nothing) but you canh op over and take a look. And hopefully you'll come back later when I start with the juicy stuff. Anyway...that would be.... here.

Enjoy :) And maybe I'll get some knitting done soon :p (I am hoping to make a center square before the cold disappears.)

Christmas, Bahamas, the good life

2007-01-01T20:37:00.000-05:00

Sorry to drop of the face of the Earth like that. I left for the Bahamas the morning after Christmas, so I didn't have time to catalogue Christmas or anything.

I ended up wrapping up Bristow sleeveless for my mom. I stayed up really late sewing together the pieces I had - I got two hours of sleep...uggh. She liked it anyway, and now I can work on the sleeves in front of her, and not just late at night.

I didn't get one single knitting related gift from my family for Christmas. Oh well. I got some late presents from Scott and his family when we got back from the Bahamas though! Scott gave me the Harlot's Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much. And his parents gave me a huuuge bag o' yarn which included some Schaefer yarn, Noro, Blue Sky, and I can't remember what else. I had to leave most of it in New Jersey so that I could fly back to Syracuse without checking anything (and thus avoiding huge lines). I'll have it all soon enough, they're going to send it up to me :)

Now: Bahamas! It was a nice trip. Very warm :) This was my first time seeing blue tropical waters. SOOOO nice! The water was really warm. It was nice to be able to relax someplace nice and warm with Scott and his family. I started Icarus on the plane down. Got a modest amount done on the plane rides and while sunning by the pool.

Since I got back this afternoon I've finished the scarf for Scott's dad. Seen here with everyone's favorite angrycat! This is Zingo. He has 25 toes and a temper worse than my own (and that's saying something). He was in a particularly good mood, and thus let me put the scarf right on him. Hehe :)

branching out = done

2006-12-23T03:37:00.000-05:00

Here's Branching out blocked out:

Here's it in the box!

Yaay! I got something else done! On time even! It blocked really well :) This was my first chance to use my new blocking wires, and I love them.

Now if I can just get Bristow done. I blocked the back and front pieces tonight, but have yet to make the sleeves. So at least I can sew those bits together. Mom could end up unwrapping a sleeveless sweater on Christmas.

And finally: Go chek out today's Google logo! There are two kangaroos knitting! I have no idea why this is the logo, but it makes me very happy!

Progress

2006-12-21T03:31:00.000-05:00

I finished Jill's Branching Out tonight. Yay! It's such a fast and easy lace pattern, good for a present. Hope she likes it! I'm going to block it out when I get up tomorrow.

Also, satchel is all done. (Here with Pippin, the family corgi)

But I think I'm giving up on MancalaMia...I'll finish it after Christmas for Lori's birthday in January. It's just too much, I need time to work on Mom's sweater. But now I have to think of something else to get for her....

Also today, Mom and I made pugoch! The BEST cookies to ever exist...eveeer. They're a Christmas tradition in the Newman household :) Pastry cookies with jelly in the center, soooooo delicious and buttery.

Looking past Christmas knitting, I mentioned earlier that I was hoping to start a shawl on my trip to the Bahamas after Christmas...well I got the yarn today! I was very excited, I ordered the yarn (The Alpaca Yarn Company's Suri Elegance) on Friday night and I wasn't sure it would get here before I leave on the 26th, but it did! :) I'm going to be making the Icarus shawl from this past summer's Interweave Knits. I've been eying the pattern since it came out. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm very much looking forward to doing another large(ish) lace project, and one that I don't have to rush on. I can just take my time and enjoy the process. It will be wonderful.

To add to that, I bought my very first pair of Addi Turbos specifically for the project, I can't wait to use them. I took them out after I bought them and..well..they're wonderful..and I didn't even knit anything with them yet! This could be bad, I'm probably going to want Addis in every size now. I can't afford that as a poor college student :/

Now to get some sleep so I can knit more tomorrow! Time is running out.

Christmas crunch pain

2006-12-19T02:12:00.000-05:00

I've been pretty much knitting constantly since I got home on Saturday. My hands are killing me. My thumb was actually bleeding when i stopped knitting tonight. Guess I didn't have as good a callus built up as I thought I had.

The biggest show for all the knitting I've been doing is Brian's satchel. It's been felted, has dried for over a day, and is ready to assemble now.

Pre-felting:

post-felting, ready to dry:

This was my first time felting...and it was really cool! I'll be assembling that in the morning.

I have two thirds of the base for MancalaMia done plus six of the 14 cups knitted. I should have taken pictures of them...but I was tired of looking at them.... Hopefully I can get other six small cups, two big cups, and the rest of the base knitted and felted tomorrow, plus dried and assembled in time to ship them (plus satchel) out on Thursday. I just might go crazy.

After that I have to finish Jill's Branching Out and Mom's Bristow.

I'm starting to think this isn't going to happen. Especially if the joints in my hands don't start feeling better. My thumb I can put a band aid on, but there's not much I can do about the joints :(

Let's hope things start looking up with my Christmas knitting....

Movin' Out.... big honkin' post.

2006-12-15T18:53:00.000-05:00

Time to pack things up to head back home to Auburn tomorrow. I'm really not looking forward to sorting through all the crap that's piled up on my floor and shoving things into bags and boxes, which will then be stuffed into my soccer mom van.

Packing might not be so bad if I didn't have to pack for both the cold winter of Central New York and the heat of the Bahamas (vacationing there with Scott's family after Christmas). Oh....and if I didn't have to stuff my two chinchillas and one snake plus their cages into the car...with the addition of a friend's snake I'm sitting. Oh and I need to decide what I want to knit over break. I.e. what to take from my stash, what WIPs to take, etc. This could get interesting.....

/whining...maybe.....who am I kidding? I never stop whining.

Anyway...on the knitting front. I've picked up a few more projects as Christmas gifts.

Here we have some Cascade 220 with which to make MancalaMia for my lovely sister Lori:

And here is a half finished (small) satchel (Cascade 220 as well) for Lori's husband Brian:

I may buy more yarn to make a second satchel and give one to Brian, and one to my other sister Jill's husband, Tim. Following? Yeah, I thought not.

Anyway, I finally finished the left front of Bristow. You can see the mistake I made on the first cable a lot more clearly in this picture. And I finally got a shot that does justice to the color! Wooo! Still trying to decide what to do with the first two cables on the other side before I cast that side on.

Oh and I re-started the scarf for Scott's father in Plymouth's Baby Alpaca Grande (I convinced Scott). Not very far on that though....

Think I can finish all that before Christmas?
It'll take a miracle.

P.s. Sorry for the weird picture-ness....blogger is being cranky :/

Back from oblivion

2006-12-08T22:23:00.000-05:00

Wow! Busy week.
I only have one major paper and one final left now. Then I'm free to knit! I've managed to get a little of the front of Bristow done amongst the stress...that's what breaks are for!

So here's the progress on that:

Believe it or not this is my first time doing cables. Surprisingly easy, they are.

If you look closely you can see how I messed up the first cable...ooops!! I'm thinking about repeating the mistake on the other side? suggestions? Should I just do the other side normal and hope no one notices? I'm not frogging back to there.....

OHHHH!!!!! I almost died of excitement when I saw the new Knitty today!!!!!!!!

AAHHH!!! I want to make this and this and thisss and....well you get the point. Emily and I had a little screeming session in the service center looking at the new patterns. We were very excited.

I think Sheldon will be my first project from the new issue. So cute!

Tonight Scott, Omar and I went to "Skate with the Big Red"
Fun stuff :)

Me and Topher Scott :)
No...I'm not tall....he's just that short...

The week from hell: Monday

2006-12-04T22:27:00.000-05:00

I had two things due today, and managed to get them both in. Hooray!

Normally I would feel very releived after turning in two assignments. However, I still have 4 papers and one exams yet this week plus one exam next week.

UHGGGG.

I finished the back of Bristow on Saturday night after the Union game (Cornell won 6-0, good game). Oh...and we (women's club hockey) lost on Sunday to the Syracuse Warriors. But they were a reaaally good team, and we put up a good fight.

Sooooo...... here it is!

Very exciting. And that is actually very close to the real color this time!
Now if only I had time to work on the rest of it :(

Hockey hockey hockey

2006-12-02T17:56:00.000-05:00

Had a chance to relax last night after the last day of classes! Wooo!
Men's Varsity tied RPI 3-3, but it was an awesome comeback and an intense game.
Got some good knitting time after the game while Scott and I watched Miracle. I'm very, very close to being done with the back of Bristow now.

Today: Women's Club played the Wheatfield blades. We won 7-5 (?). Very fun game.

That's me (in white with the puck) :)

And now for Men's Varsity versus Union.

Let's Go Red!

Bristow day 2

2006-11-29T20:15:00.000-05:00

I've been working on Bristow today instead of doing homework, studying for my two exams, or writing any of the five papers I have due next week.

This is not good.

The progress today. Peanut, my female chinchilla, is checking it out. She's your eye candy for this post :)

The yarn is not that red. My room is dark, so I guess the flash washes it out. The yarn is really much more maroon. Closer to what it looks like in the first picture of the last post.

Yay!

2006-11-29T00:40:00.000-05:00

My Knitpicks order arrived today!

16 balls of Andean Silk with which to make Bristow!

I had to start in immediately. I was very excited.

I love this yarn. I'd forgotten how much I love it.

Humble beginnings:

Looks like everything else will be on the back burner for a while...

Rant: Cotton -or- "Who doesn't love alpaca?"

2006-11-27T20:42:00.000-05:00

What are the warmest fibers?
Animal fibers.

What have I just started knitting a scarf out of?
Cotton.

Why am I doing this?
Because I'm a weakling, perhaps?

I'm knitting a scarf for Scott's Dad for Hanukkah. So I had Scott pick out the yarn. That's all fine. But Scott for God-knows-why somehow has it in his head that every type of animal fiber is itchy. (Not true, Scott! NOT TRUE!) So he picked out Blue Sky Alpaca's Cotton. It's a nice yarn, I love Blue Sky yarns. But...why cotton...for a winter scarf???!

I mean...come on... Who doesn't love alpaca!?

Besides...there's just something about cotton yarn that just feels yucky to me. Not what I want running through my fingers somehow.

*sigh*
Well...here's the scarf so far anyway....

I think I'll go shove my head in a pile of alpaca yarn now....

hides

2006-11-22T00:05:00.000-05:00

I just bought yarn. I'm supposed to be on a yarn diet....but I had to. It's going to be for a gift....

16 balls of Knitpicks andean silk in hollyberry. For Bristow.

It's going to be a Christmas gift.

If it gets here in time, and I can knit fast enough......

I want it to get here now!!!

Past projects #4: the shawl

2006-11-21T21:52:00.000-05:00

I think it's time to chronicle the project that ate all my knitting time and memory all last spring ans summer: the shawl.

Sometime spring semester I decided that I should make a lace shawl for my sister, who was married in August. (Hey...I'm ambitious!)

I scoured the internet and knitting books for a pattern I liked. I finally landed the Spanish Peacock shawl from the gallery of Meg Swansen's A Gathering of Lace. Then I had to find a white lace yarn I could use. Lori (sister) is allergic to wool, so that narrows things quite a bit. I eventually chose Misti Alpaca Lace. I started in with a lot of apprehension, but I gained more confidence stitch by stitch.

I think I cast on in the beginning of May. Around and around I went. It was practically the only thing I worked on for months. I had my set backs of course - like the hole I made near the beginning that I was absolutely freaking out about, but turned out to not show up one bit in the finished product. The hardest part for me may have been trying to figure out how to do the edging, which was from Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace. I had a lot of time to work on it in July, after I had surgery on my foot.

I finally finished the first or second week in August. I was ecstatic. I'd actually finished before the wedding! I couldn't wait to block it out.

The blocking process took me about six hours. (Keep in mind this was my first time block anything, let alone a huge lace shawl.)

There was one mistake I made that was very evident. Instead of a sl2tog-k1-p2sso throughout the pattern, I had been doing a sl1-k2tog-psso the whoooole time. This resulted in an open line between pattern repeats instead of a nice tight line, and also made the pattern go in a pinwheely shape instead of like spokes. This made me really really upset. But I got over it. I told myself it was still beautiful, and anyone who didn't know the pattern wouldn't know the difference.

I felt so empty without that shawl to work on. "This must be what post-partem depression feels like" was my thought.

It was an amazing experience...and I can't wait to start another one.....when classes are out....

Lori loved it. She cried.
:)

Back in Ithaca

2006-11-21T00:33:00.000-05:00

Back from the weekend hockey trip. We lost to URI and the Panthers, but we beat Hahvahd (YESSS!!!) and MIT. Was overall a very fun weekend, but left me exhausted. Which partially explains why i didn't knit as much on the ride home as I should have. The other part of why I didn't get as much knitting done as I meant to is that we were watching season 2 of LOST on the bus. Granted I've seen all the episodes multiple times...but I just can't turn down LOST.

Anyhoo...I'm mostly recovered now. A good night's rest tonight should take care of it. My leg muscles are crazy right now. No hurt fingers either!

The progress:

The coming weekend

2006-11-17T15:04:00.000-05:00

I'm about to head over to Lynah Rink to get on a bus to head up to Rhode Island and Boston for an intense weekend of hockey with the Cornell Women's Club Team. We're playing four games this weekend (Rhode Island Panthers, U of Rhode Island, Harvard, and MIT). Hopefully I won't die.

But the good news about the trip knit-wise is six hours each way of free time on the bus...for knitting! Granted, I've promised myself I'd also do some homework and nap during this time as well, but I'm actually going to have time where I won't feel guilty for just sitting around knitting!

I've packed the branching out I just started in Rowan kidsilk night in pink. (No, I don't like pink...it's going to be a gift.) And I packed the second sock in the pair that I promised my mother. The first sock was finished this summer, and this poor sock has been sitting around with a measly three rows of a cuff for..well..months.... Damned Second Sock Syndrome. At least it got cast on at all.

Hopefully I won't break any fingers this weekend...I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't at least knit ^_^

Past projects #3-who knows

2006-11-16T01:28:00.000-05:00

After this things get a little fuzzy. I can't remember what I knit when and I can't remember everything I knit.

I know I did Bubby and I did Pasha. There were some hats in there for Scott. I did some fingerless gloves for my brother-in law. I started some armwarmers that ar burried and neglected in my stash somewhere.

I started my first lace project during this time. It's a scarf that still has yet to be finished. I'll get around to it some day, right?

I know I did more things, but it's hard to remember until what I did this past summer. Soooo, we'll just mumble this all up as what-the-heck-happened-spring-semester 06? and I'll move to what happend this past summer in the next few posts.

Past projects #2: Jayne Cobb hat

2006-11-16T01:03:00.000-05:00

Not long after learning to knit, I fell in love with Firefly, and hence I just had to make a Jayne hat.

And so it was that a Jayne hat was my second project. I jumped from garter stitch (only knowing how to do the knit stitch) to knitting in the round with ribbing (had to learn how to purl) decreasing, picking up stitches, and even making a pom pom.

This is one of my proudest projects to date. Whenever I wear my Jayne hat I feel happy ^_^

"A man walks down the street in that hat, you know he's not afraid of anything"

Edit: Oh dear! I forgot the specs! Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky. Pattern can be found here

Past projects #1: Gryffindor Scarf

2006-11-16T00:20:00.000-05:00

This was my first ever knitted project (about one year ago). I was pushed over the line from crocheting to knitting by the prospect of the Gryffindor scarf. I decided I liked the look and feel of knitted fabric better, so I learned to knit. Bronwyn helped me along.

The pattern I just made up on my own.
It's worked in garter stitch.

Yarn:
Knitpicks Andean Silk
cranberry and mustard

I was so proud of myself when I finished!!

It's not a very flattering picture of me, but that's ok. It was taken right after I finished.

And so it begins

2006-11-15T22:31:00.000-05:00

So after a year of knitting I figured it's about time I start my very own knit blog. I read enough other peoples' knitting blogs and I'm sure my boyfriend is tired of me complaining about my knitting woes. He doesn't quite understand the joys either. (Sorry Scott, but you just don't get as excited about a beautiful alpaca yarn as I do.)

So here it is! The start of "Newman Knits"

I guess I'll start off with going through projects I've done in the last year in the next few posts. Then I'll move on to works in progress.

Oh, a little knitting history is in order I suppose. My lovely sister got me into the fiber arts initially by teaching me crochet. I soon took to knitting as taught by the absolutely marvelous Bronnie. :) And the rest is history. My knitting talent grew quickly, if I do say so myself, and I've already knitted a full lace shawl (more on that later).

That's all for now :)