This is my second plied yarn! I used a BFL (er, I think) batt from Miss Babs (http://www.missbabs.com).



I haven't the faintest idea about yardage, which doesn't matter as I'm perfectly happy just snuggling it for now.

I wanted a no-think project -- you know, actually get gauge, no modifications. So I chose Meg Swansen's arch-shaped stockings from Vogue Knitting Fall '06.

Ha. Ha ha ha. Ha. I got gauge, but the stockings aren't so much made for curvy-calved folks (like me!) and the pattern itself... wasn't as detailed as I would've liked (they don't explain how the heel should look AND there are no pictures of it), but I slogged through and finally did it! Turns out it's less of a "pattern" and more of a "guideline."

What I didn't get I just made up. Here they are!

More on my blog.

Hey y'all:

What's your favorite way to join new yarns, either on the side or in the middle of a row? I've tried a few kinds, but I haven't found any that I really like. The last one I tried was a spit splice, but it doesn't quite do it for me.

What about you?

I can paint, but the complex may have me paint it back when I leave, and I'm kind of, you know, lazy. But my apartment is oh-so-white (my cream colored couch didn't help).

So! I saw some kicky red stripey wrapping paper at Tarjet and taped it up. Classy? You betcha!

I didn't realize is that it'd make my apartment darker (the white paint used to reflect the light), but maybe it'll finally make me motivated to hang up some more lights.

I don't have a before picture, but just imagine the same thing without the red stripey bit.

Time was people were having some issues with this pattern: http://www.rebecca-online.de/cont_en/anleitungen/heft_12_anl_17.pdf. Of course I can't find the original thread about it, but I was bored at work the other day and looked at it again and wrote it out to make it clearer.

It's all here on my blog: http://fibremonkey.blogspot.com/2006/09/back-in-days-when-i-first-started.html

(I originally had the decreases as SSK -- they're K2togs. I put that into the pattern).

UPDATE: How to do Fisherman's Rib!

I have a tutorial on my blog: http://fibremonkey.blogspot.com/2006/09/because-i-am-all-love-and-giving-in.html

But here's a taste (knitting into stitch underneath):

Hiya,
I'm working on a sweater where I changed the gauge -- patt calls for 2.5 s/in, I have 3.5. I get all the multiplying of the stitch numbers and all, but here's where I'm puzzled:

I'm working on armhole increases. Do I multiply the number of increases?

If, for sake of ease, I was multiplying all the stitches by 2, would, say, K1, inc1, K30, inc1, K1 become K2, inc2, K60, inc2, k2?

OR are the extra increases taken care of with the change in row gauge? Because the thought of frogging all those stitches is not entirely pleasing.

Thanks!

[left twist and right twist]

(photo ganked from interweaveknits.com)

I wrote down the pattern for traveling purposes and then lost the original and now I'm not sure about some of the stitches!

Does someone have the pattern that they can tell me what the left twist and right twist are? Because I looked it up and the description in Vogue Knitting seems different from the one in the book (left twist in Vogue Knitting: "With RH needle behind LH needle, skip the first st and k 2nd st tbl, insert RH needle into backs of both sts, k2tog tbl" -- but I thought in the pattern you DON'T ktog?).

I'm extra-super excited about this pattern and the yarn (Classic elite princess -- way yummier than expected) and it's driving me mildly crazy that I have to stop until I get this right!

Thanks for your help, y'all!

I was getting tired of looking at the ugly, ugly pot that holds my highly delightful Japanese maple, and nice ceramic pots are all expensive. And so, with some lion brand wool ease, sha zam!

I made Knitty's Daisy for a friend of mine who's known me since I was, oh, still in my mother's belly (this would be a solid 23 years ago). It's her first baby, so I wanted to do something Good. I didn't know the gender -- turns out it's going to be a girl -- so I made it as gender-neutral as I could.

It's made with Rowan soft baby. Lovely yarn; SUCH a bad idea for a baby garment. First off, who thought white was a good idea for babies? Clearly someone who doesn't have children. Also, it's not machine washable. I was about halfway through the body before I realized that. Oops.

Speaking of oops, when I increased for the hood it left a bunch of eyelets (why, why do my m1s always leave eyelets?) so I threw a ribbon in and sewed it down on either side.

I added the booties because I had a bunch of yarn left, and used the same ribbon (this one had intentional eyelets). I got the pattern here: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/beths-booties.html

The baby shower resulted in a mountain of presents. We gathered with them all outside -- about thirty women and a dash of men -- to open them up. When she (finally) got to mine everyone ooh'd and aah'd. A murmur when around about "Did she make it?" I said yes, yes I did, and about twenty pairs of eyes shot to me and there was an uproar -- you made that? Oh my goodness, that's so amazing! Etc!

Her mother -- who was as close to a grandmother without actually being related as you can get -- immediately demanded that I come over and look at her stash of yarn and knitting -- she'd just started knitting too!

It was my first sweater involving seaming (which is simultaneously a pain in the rear and really gratifying).

I hear a lot of stories about people who don't appreciate hand-made garments. This definitely wasn't one of them. There was squealing. It was great.

I'm working on [a href="http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer03/PATTdaisy.html"]Knitty's Daisy[/a], which is my very first raglan sleeve action, and I'm doing the middle size. Okay.

For the neckband/hood it says: With RS facing, pick up and k 12[13, 14] sts evenly along the right front neck edge. Pick up 1 st from the top point of the raglan and k tog with the 1st st of sleeve.

This is all well and good except that on my neck edge there are more than 13 stitches available to pick up -- there are about 19. Do I just not pick them all up? But if so, where would I start? If I start where the seed stitching is then I'm about an inch away from attaching the top of the raglan to the sleeve.

Help!!
Thanks!
Emily