the lonely square

i was excited that the week was finally over and i had some time to spend working on the quilt i started over a week ago. ok, so i admit, i am a poor planner. it's my first quilt and i got wrapped up in gathering my supplies, ordering fabric and cutting them up into appropriate sizes.

i spent the afternoon laying them out trying to achieve an eye pleasing layout.


now that i look at it again, there are a few things that i would have adjusted. so i started sewing the strips together, careful to line up the flannel backing fabric to the front fabric.


i get close to done with the strips and come to realize that i am ONE SQUARE SHORT of being able to finish the last strip.


so now i am at a stand still, with yet another UFO, since i can't finish piecing the thing together since i have no more of the backing fabric.

perhaps i should learn to count first.

new project

a while ago, my mother gave me a sewing machine. this is the third sewing machine in my possession - all of which i've had for years - and now i have finally decided to sew something. actually i intended to sew since we got back from europe in may, being that i brought back meters of a couple of fabrics from france for various projects around the house.

but i digress...



last week i picked up some great michael miller fabrics from his funky christmas line.



so far i've washed and pressed my fabric, cut into the appropriate size, and am now ready to start the quilting process. it's going to be a christmas themed (in case you haven't already guessed) lap quilt. i figure it's easier to start small before i delve into the bed-sized project for my first attempt (and with plenty of time before the holiday season starts).

after the gauge

so there is knitting still go on around these parts. nothing too exciting though, i finished the center panel of bathmat x2 - #2:


...a couple more rows of the stashbuster throw:


...i have managed to finish the back panel of the urban aran cardigan:


...and all in typical knitter's a.d.d. style, started some new fingerless gloves:

gauge is key

inspired by my move from one part of the office to another, i have started on a project that i have had in the queue for quite some time. you see, i am moving from a quite comfortable (in temperature) part of the office - where i had complete control of the thermostat, to side of the office where the servers are based. which means it needs to be COLD. and it doesn't help that the a/c vent is right above my new spot.



yet another project inspired by jared, the urban aran cardigan, i am having a bit of challenge on this one. based on the dimensions on the pattern and recommended needle size of my yarn, i foolishly started this one without doing a swatch. i know, what do i always tell roy? gauge is key when knitting something ESPECIALLY if you are not using the same exact yarn that the pattern calls for. so for now, the two front panels are coming out WAY too small to fit me.

the good news? let this serve as my gauge swatch.

since starting this post, i have started on the back panel of the sweater, i switched up a half needle size from a US 10 to US 10.5, and also went from knitting up the medium size to the large.



much. better.

the gauge is still not what the pattern calls for, but it's coming out to the dimensions that i want it to be, so now i am a happy boy.

and 30 days later...

bath mat x2 - #2



i've started the second of the bath mats, but i've fallen and can't get up. true to authentic knitter's a.d.d., i haven't touched this project since i started on the hats bound for minnesota.

something went wrong

terribly, terribly wrong.



josh's hat, aka littlelf's hat. (see previous post for accurate color)

project particulars
pattern: spiral hat from the opinionated knitter by elizabeth zimmerman, also known as conch, snail, or Dairy Queen hat.
needles: clover bamboo size US 10.5 dpns
yarn: elann peruvian highland worsted; #726-mid indigo heather and tosca by lang yarns in colorway 8474

the hat's done, but looks nothing like i had expected it to based on the photo in The Opinionated Knitter by elizabeth zimmerman. here's a sample of what it should look like from I Knit: Zimmermad. i chose this hat for it's elfen like quality, but in the end it looks nothing like what it should. i am contemplating doing it over again, but in the end probably won't.

winter prep

WHAT?

it's only september.

yeah, i know but i can already sense the temperature drop in the evening - it's going to be here sooner than we think. i've started a couple of projects to send to my pals who will be stuck with a horrid winter (compared to the lovely mild southern california winters which regardless, i STILL complain about how cold it gets) in minneapolis.

first off is bret's hat.



project particulars
pattern: Swirl Hat by S.M. Kahn (for the life of me i cannot find the link to this pattern) with a modification to the crown shaping, taken from brooklyntweed's Cap Karma crown shaping mods.
needles: clover bamboo size US 6 24" circulars
yarn: elann peruvian highland worsted; about 1.25 skeins of #616-redwood

this was a quick knit, done in just a couple of nights. why did i change the crown shaping? don't ask me, i am too embarrassed to say. in actuality, i THOUGHT i was making cap karma, until i went and looked at photos on ravelry and found that it wasn't at all like what other's had knit. i remembered jared made the mods to his cap karma crown shaping, which i took notes of. so when i started knitting based on the pattern that had written down and started in on the crown shaping, i thought something seemed kind of odd. so then i decided to go look at his blog and compare his photos to my piece. uhm...it was nothing similar. so i thought to check my notes more closely, and what did i write? right at the top in all caps: "SWIRL HAT designed by S.M. Kahn". uh...how did i miss that?!?

second is littlelf's hat.



well, it's really josh's hat, but we call him little elf. i won't go into why right here, but i've started it and should be done soon.