Gretel

Oh Gretel, the perfect first project of the year. I love the texture of this knit - nubbly, bumply, twisty, turny, and all accentuated by the incredible softness of Berrco Ultra Alpaca. I love alpaca. My current back up plan for if this whole being a musician thing falls through is to start an alpaca farm and spin my own fleece.

Gretel by Ysolda

Yarn: 1 and a bit skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca #6277 (I think it's called "moss")

Needles: US7 and US8 16" circulars

Size: Slouchy. Plus I think that my gauge was a bit big. I wasn't completely diligent in checking my gauge because I have gigantic head and generally need to increase the gauge to make a hat that fits my head.

Mods: None

New techniques: Provisional cast on and tubular cast on. I've been afraid of the provisional cast on (which has kept me from a tubular cast on since you need one for the other) but I am currently in love with it and want to do it every chance I get. My crocheted edge even "unzips" the way say it should but I've read never usually happens. Yay provisional cast on!

Speaking of provisional cast on, I just cast on for my first pair of toe-up socks. I needed a bit of a quick knit, and something kind of mindless, but not too mindless, you know. Updates on that as it progresses.

In my queque is a Dollar and a Half cardi for my mom since she loves mine and has been itching to get me to knit something for her. We decided on Cascade 220, but she's still picking the color. I'm a little nervous since this is the first time I've knit a sweater for someone other than myself, and I want it to fit properly. At least I've knit the pattern before, so I know all it's pitfalls and booby traps. It will be bit before I can really start on this one, so I'm strongly considering starting an EZ seamless sweater in a shirt yoke kind of like Jared's Big Blue only not a cardigan (because I'm craving some stockinette in the round). I'm wondering, though, if the shirt yoke is a little too masculine. I flip back and forth on this because I'm envisioning a weekend-y kind of warm and snuggly sweater, not a going-out kind of sweater, and a fair isle yoke will not be terribly flattering on me (not to mention I don't have the colors for a nice one) since I have relatively broad shoulders. Probably I'll just do it. So then I have to pick yarn. I'm thinking seriously about reallocating the light blue Sheperd Colour 4 Me from the Deep V Sweater (which is another option for a warm and snuggly weekend sweater, though not stockinette in the round) but I also just got a rather large shipment from Webs which I sent home because I ordered on Christmas Day and I thought would get there before yesterday. There are some things in there that I'm very interested in looking at in person.... Any thoughts on EZ and sweater design would be MIGHTLY appreciated.
Now, go knit yourself a Gretel!

New

I feel like since midterms I've been running, running, running, just keepin' on keepin' on, ignoring the pain and fatigue, one foot in front of the other that by the time I finally finished the semester and got back from Midwest, my mind knew it was time to stop but my feet just kept on going and I blew right past Christmas and barely acknowledged the new year from sheer fatigue. So it's lucky that today is the Orthodox New Year (and, incidently, the start of a new semester) and being of some significant Eastern European blood, I choose today as my official recogniziance of the New Year.

I resolve to:
- give myself a pedicure once a month. (Um, this could be a bit of a disaster since on my first attempt last night I managed to break a bottle of nail polish and get it all over my other bottles and now the whole aparment smells vaguely like nail polish/nail polish remover and the scented candle I lit to try and get rid of the smell.)
- make my health and fitness non-negotiable. This means it takes precedence over everything but school work, practicing, and jobs (if someone will hire me). To that end:
- watch less TV. There's nothing on anyway, especially with the writers' strike.
- clean out and organize my clothes, keeping only what fits and is flattering and what I will actually wear.
- focus eating vegetables and not on prohibiting sweets.

On the actual New Years Day, I treated myself to casting on for Gretel, which I had seen on Kara and absolutely loved. I finished it on January 4th.

Today being a singularly disgustingly grey day, I was not able to get a respectable shot of the hat, so this will have to do until the sun comes out. The whole day was twilight, only without the pretty colored sky. Like, turn your lights on in the middle of the day kind of dark. Oh, and also 60 degrees. Perfect weather for a woolen hat, wouldn't you say?

Anyway, I've got a new craft to be sharing with you. I'm learning to sew! Here's my first attempt:
It's the "Blooms and Borders" pillow from the Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp. I fell in love with this book during a post-birthday trip to Barnes and Noble, and managed to resist it the first time, but kept thinking about it and came back to get it later. It's a real beginnger's guide (which is what I am), giving instructions on everything from how a sewing machine works to how to sew a straight seam to how to buy a machine, not to mention a bunch of patterns, many of which I'd actually wear.
The one thing I'll say about this pillow (which I love, love, love) is that the seam allowances were not included in the pattern, which you are instructed to cut yourself, so make sure you include them or you end up having to make some creative readjustments to the pattern, which I did. I had to re-cut the back (thank goodness I bought a bit more than the required amount of fabric) and add an extra border of strips to make it fit the 18" pillow.

I've even got a sewing machine! My grandparents live in a retirement community and they have a "treasure chest" which is a bunch of donated items the residents don't want anymore which they sell and donate the money. My mom asked my grandma to keep and eye out for a machine for me and that same week, one showed up. Well, two actually. The one I bought put me out $20. It's a Singer from the 70s, and it even came in a cabinet (which I won't use right now, not enough space, but maybe some day). It's currently in the shop to get a tune-up but hopefully it will be working again soon, and I can start making thing like cute skirts and dresses.

Ooo, one more resolution:

-make one cute, well-fitting sundress with my own hands.

Happy New Year!