A.Co Knits

November 23, 2009

Pre-Turkey Knitting!

Filed under: Leyburn, Magic Mirror, Ray of Light, Shawls, Socks — Tags: , , — alcohen @ 7:43 pm

So, here’s a quick update on my pre-Thanksgiving knitting progress (I don’t eat turkey, but that doesn’t stop me from calling it Turkey Day!):
First, the shawl I am making for my friend Leslie. It is coming along, slowly but surely (it’s way bigger than my Ishbel though!) and I’m about to start on the lace edging. I hope to get the pattern up for sale before Christmas!

I’m really hoping to block this while I’m home for Thanksgiving, since Leslie will be able to see if I block it in my room!

Now on to-what else-socks! I’m working steadily on my Magic Mirror socks, seen here lounging on my chair:

I’ve also re-cast on my Leyburn socks in STR Mediumweight. I haven’t done a lot on them (with the other knitting going on) but here they are for posterity:

I’m working on other things too, but I haven’t made enough progress to take pictures of them/the pictures are the same from the last blog post. Anyway, here’s something funny for y’all: I knitted my friend a pair of shorts from crazy thick acrylic yarn. One of my friends knitted one leg, I knitted the other, and then I put them together to create this:

My male friend actually was good enough to wear them while we were playing a game of sardines (sort of the opposite of hide and seek) in the library. Sadly, since I finished them about five minutes before the game began (and I didn’t weave in the ends properly), they started to come apart, and he had to turn the shorts into a vest:

The funny thing is, he didn’t even get strange looks from passersby! I guess Vassar is so weird that people in knitted booty shorts fit in perfectly.

Hopefully I’ll have an FO or two next time I blog!

November 8, 2009

It’s been a long time

Filed under: Fox Faces, Gloves, Hats, Ishbel, Kristin's Mittens, Phoebus Apollo, Ray of Light, Shawls, Socks, Trilobite — Tags: , , , , , , — alcohen @ 1:17 pm

To be honest, I should have blogged earlier, but I’ve been busy. First I went to Spain and Amsterdam (you should see the handcrafting in Amsterdam! I wanted to buy a quilt sooo badly! But instead I bought some yarn) and then I came home for the craziest Halloween ever (I had a party in my dorm, visited my friend at Moravian College in PA, and then ended up at home for a night). And this week has not been calm either. So finally, I am able to sit down and recount all the knitting I have done recently (expect a lot of pictures).

First, before I left for Spain, I finished these socks:

They are the SKA September Mystery Socks (aka Fox Faces) that had to be done in yellow (Pagewood Farms Yukon). They have a Dutch heel, which is interesting but fits my heel pretty well. All in all, I was pleased with them. Raveled here.

Then, I finished my Phoebus Apollo socks in Bugga! from the Loopy Ewe sock club. Needless to say, I love the yarn, though the pattern was not stretchy enough on the leg, so I ended it early and made it shorter (also I knew the recipient would like that better). Raveled here.

Last night I finished my first Christmas/holiday/birthday in December present! It’s for my friend Katie, who is a Geology major.

It’s a trilobite! Here’s a closup:

This hat pattern was quick and not too hard to do (there was cabling and bobbles, but the chart is clear and easy to read). Raveled here.

Now onto my WIPs. First, my plane knitting Ishbel in Malabrigo Lace (this is not the best pic of it, colorwise or otherwise, but it’s the only one I have):

I only really work on it when I need a stockinette project, so not too much progress on that.

Remember the yarn I won? Well it’s becoming a lace shawl of my own design. I’m designing it for a friend as a Christmas/going away/birthday present. Hopefully I get it done in time to block it when I’m home for Thanksgiving!

And lastly, I’m working on some mittens for my friend Kristin, who is super enthusiastic and gets excited every time she thinks about me making her mittens. I love knitting for those who appreciate it! I started the first mitten last night, and you can see the pattern in the background (it’s from KnitPicks).

I promise to try to blog more in the future! Hopefully my schedule will be less hectic in the next few weeks!

April 8, 2009

Socks are a dangerous thing

Filed under: Coriolis, Fern Stitch Socks, Kiri, Knee High Socks, Shawls, Socks, Under the Sea — Tags: , , , , , , — alcohen @ 2:55 pm

Honestly, my addiction to sock knitting is waaaay out of control. But I can’t help myself. At least socks are portable and useful!
I finished my Coriolis socks last week. They are raveled here with all the details!

I’m now working on my Under the Sea socks. I’m past the heel on number one, and I actually like how the short row heel came out. I used Cat Bordhi’s wrap and turn method and it concealed the wraps beautifully!

I’m also making a pair of knee highs in Regia Nation, which stripes wonderfully.

I’ve done a little bit of work on my Fern Stitch socks as well, but not enough to warrant a picture. For my non-sock project, I’m still happily plugging away on Kiri. It’s probably the best beginner shawl because it’s so intuitive. I’m looking forward to pinning it out and seeing the gorgeous lace!

I’ve ordered more laceweight yarn so I can make some more shawls-oh great, another addiction!

March 25, 2009

Knitting Just as Fast as I Can!

Filed under: Blankets, Coriolis, Sock Yarn Blankie, Socks, Under the Sea — Tags: , , — alcohen @ 3:50 pm

So, as the last entry said, I’ve caught the mitered square bug. I can’t stop. Today I had to force myself to work on my Coriolis:

Look, almost done with number one! I’ll finish these tonight and cast on number two. I want them done by next week, but that might not be possible.

And here are my Under the Sea socks, which I can’t work on because the needle is broken (Kollage is sending me a new one and told me how to try to fix this one with superglue. I might try it anyway):

You can’t see the lace well in this, but the color is so pretty that I had to share.

But my heart really belongs to this:

It’s going to go on a different size bed, so that’s why it looks so huge on my tiny dorm bed. But I love it to death, even though it’s difficult to work on since it’s so huge (I’m only doing 31 sts at a time, but the actual blanket makes me hot when I knit on it).

Soon there’s going to be a fun pattern release over here at A.Co Knits. Get excited!!!

March 22, 2009

Miter Love

Filed under: Blankets, Clapotis, Scarves, Sock Yarn Blankie, Socks, Under the Sea — Tags: , , — alcohen @ 7:14 pm

I just got back to Vassar after Spring Break, and the first thing I did was organize/unload some of my yarn. I also almost immediately picked up my Sock Yarn Blankie to do another miter square. Oh, how I love miters! And two weeks without them made me really sad (also because I got one of my swap packages at home, so I had all these lovely scraps but the blankie was at school, so I couldn’t knit them into it). I have at least two more swap packages waiting here for me, and a nice Raveler sent me four little balls of yarn that she didn’t want. So I got those today, which made me happy. There’s something really endearing about little balls of sock yarn, but I can’t quite explain why.

I’m almost done with my first Coriolis sock, but I have no picture to show for it. I was also working diligently on my Under the Sea socks from the Loopy Ewe sock club, but my Kollage square circular needle broke! I’m going to email them to see if I can get a replacement (this is my first time using them, and I’m usually not too hard on my needles-I’ve never broken a circular before).

But never fear, I do have a Finished Object to show you. Here’s my Clapotini, sported my my mom and blocking out on the floor:


Pattern: Clapotis
Cast on: March 3, 2009
Cast off: March 16, 2009
Yarn: TJT Unraveled Yarn in Panera (specially dyed for us!)
Needles: US size 5 straights
Mods: Made it less repeats to make a scarf-sized version.
Raveled

My mom loves her new scarf, although she did forget to wear it to our knitting group-but she’s worn it everywhere else! I liked making it, and would definitely do the pattern again in a little while (but maybe just another scarf version, because the full version is daunting).

March 9, 2009

Knitting right along

Filed under: Clapotis, Coriolis, Entrelac Dream Socks, Scarves, Socks — Tags: , , — alcohen @ 2:17 pm

Being home is very conducive to my knitting. I’ve gotten so much done that the pictures I took yesterday are completely outdated. Here’s my progress:

Clapotis:

I’m about 2 feet into this and I’ve only been knitting it for less than a week. Since scarves should generally be the same length as the owner’s height, and I’m making it for my mom, I’ve only got about 3 feet left to go. This weekend we’re doing a car trip to DC, so it should be done after that!

Coriolis:

I haven’t worked on this in a couple days, but it’s still moving fast. But then again, right now it’s just a stockinette sock. I love the colors (the picture is a bit untrue to the actual colors, so when there’s better light I’ll take a nicer one).

Entrelac Dream Socks:

I’ve already started the heel flap on these. I’m not sure how much yarn I’ll have left for sock number two, and my scale is at school, so I’m being safe and giving them a short leg (about 4 inches). I’m going to feel pretty stupid when I have a lot of yarn left over, but better safe than sorry.

If I finish all of these projects by Spring Break, I’ll be super happy! Also I can get started on my Loopy Ewe sock club sock, which is gorgeous (I can’t stop touching the yarn. Really. It’s getting a bit creepy.), but I’m being good and holding my startitis at bay for now (also I’m dreading winding the yarn without my swift, which is locked in my dorm room).

And tomorrow I might break my yarn diet…but we won’t talk about that for now.

March 5, 2009

Knitting away

Filed under: Clapotis, Coriolis, Entrelac Dream Socks, Scarves, Socks — Tags: , , — alcohen @ 4:20 pm

I don’t have any pictures to show (I’m lazy, and it’s midterms week) but I’ll update you on my progress anyway. I’ve started working on a new pair of socks (Coriolis, raveled here with no pictures yet) and a scarf-sized Clapotis (raveled here, but no pictures yet either) out of the Panera colored yarn from our Staten Island Knitters holiday part grab bag. I’m really liking both projects. I’m also still working on my Entrelove socks, which have been renamed Entrelac Dream Socks, because I’m using the name Entrelove for the crocheted wrap my mom and I designed. And I’ve also been working on my Sock Yarn Blankie as well as some charity projects with leftovers.

Tomorrow I leave Vassar for spring break, and I have a feeling that while I’m at home, I’ll break my yarn diet hardcore. There are some projects I want to buy the yarn for/I’m really needing a yarn fix right about now. Also, my first installment of The Loopy Ewe Sock Club is en route to my house. How exciting! And I’ll be heading down to DC for a weekend, so there will definitely be some LYS perusing during that trip. I just can’t help myself! But I’ve been very good with using up stash, so I feel like I deserve a little reward!

February 28, 2009

Under the Wire

Filed under: Socks, Spring Forward — Tags: , — alcohen @ 10:52 pm

I finished my Spring Forwards at 11:30pm on February 28 in order to meet the Sock Knitters Anonymous deadline (technically I could have gone until 12am PST, but I thought that would be cheating). Here they are:
80s-night-036
80s-night-038
And my camera can do cool things with color, so here’s what I did to them:
80s-night-041
Pattern: Spring Forward
Cast on: January 18, 2009
Cast off: February 28, 2009
Yarn: ShibuiKnits Sock
Needles: US size 2 circular
Mods: None. For reals. But for some reason, this felt like pulling teeth. I love the final socks but I hated knitting them.
Raveled

I’m going back to knitting my mitered squares, which I am obsessed with. I don’t know why, but I missed them terribly this week (even though I secretly knit on them without telling the sock!) and couldn’t wait until I could return to them.

Good news is that this month, between my sock yarn blankies, the socks, the charity projects that I didn’t blog about and my sweater, I burned through around 2000 yards of yarn! Ok, so most of that was knit in previous months from the sweater, but it still feels good to break up the stash!

February 25, 2009

Distractions

Filed under: Blankets, Sock Yarn Blankie, Socks, Spring Forward — Tags: , , — alcohen @ 5:46 pm

So…you know how when you’re supposed to be doing something, and you force yourself to do it, you end up wanting to do anything but that thing. That’s how I feel about finishing up my Spring Forwards.
springforward

Here’s what is distracting me:
002
The swap package I got for my sock yarn blankie

005
The new spring jacket I got from H&M (the lighting is bad on this, it is actually much cuter in person)

008
The star-shaped earrings (and unpictured shirt and bracelet) I bought for 80s night, which I’m not even going to this week.

And the fact that my roommate is dressing up for 80s night, because she’s going. But I have to study for a test. Yuck.

So after I finish studying and working on my socks for a bit, maybe I’ll indulge myself and work on a miter square or two (OMG I LOVE MITER SQUARES! But that is a different post entirely, so maybe I’ll write it tomorrow).

And to distract you, here’s a completely gratuitous picture of me in my new jacket:
006

February 22, 2009

Oscar night knitting

Filed under: Socks, Spring Forward — Tags: — alcohen @ 10:24 pm

I remember last year, during the Oscars, I knit an entire heel flap, which eventually got frogged because it didn’t fit right. Now, I’m watching (thank the lord for TiVo) and knitting my Spring Forward sock, which has to be finished soon so I can start on the second one and finish by the end of February! Here are some progress pics (the color is a bit off, due to the poor lighting in my room):
img_0874
img_0881
I’m so ADD-ish that I can’t force myself to work on these consistently. All I want to do is work on my miter squares. And hopefully my swap packages will come tomorrow so I can do some more squares. But first I have to finish these socks, even if it kills me!

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress