yarnaholic
December 04, 2007

Apple java and anthropologie capelet

It's hard for me to update much. My computer time is mostly while Zack is napping - right next to him. And too much typing wakes him up. So I will be brief.

I finished Tim's anniversary present awhile back. It came out okay, but it could be better. I really need to learn how to do colorwork better. I just kind of winged it. It serves it's purpose and he likes it though, and that's what really matters.


Apple Java

I started working on the Anthropologie Capelet in hopes that I would have it finished to wear to Tim's work's holiday party, but that's Thursday and I'm not even half finished. My weekend wasn't really nearly as knitting-productive as I had hoped.

I think I'm going to a knitting night tonight though. If it goes well with Zack, maybe it will become a weekly outing for me. I sure do need one of those.

Posted by alison at 01:20 PM — Comments (2)
November 10, 2007

Ravelry

I haven't updated here in way too long, but as I've recently discovered Ravelry, I thought now was a good time to resuscitate this blog. Unfortunately, I have not done much knitting in the 15+ months that I have been away, but I think I'm ready to change that. Let's hope.

So quick life update (since most of my friends already know this, and my knitting-only readers probably don't care that much): had a baby in October 2006. Didn't do nearly as much baby knitting as I had hoped because, well, having a baby is a lot of work. Now that he is over a year old, I'm finally getting some time to relax and can think about knitting again. My son is the most adorable little guy ever, and he really loves playing with his mommy :)

Anyway, yes, I have discovered Ravelry recently. Wow. As a borderline OCD organizing freak, I am in love. I just signed up a couple days ago, but I already have all my stash and needles and a lot of my past projects entered. And speaking of stash, if Ravelry has taught me anything so far, it's that I have way too much yarn. Holy crap. Remind me not to buy yarn anytime soon.

So I have a couple projects that I was reminded of while entering my info. Orangina, which I still love and hope to pick back up one of these days. Bad Penny which turned into a disaster and will probably be frogged and re-knit as just a plain top-down raglan with some ribbed edging. A boucle pillow that was one of my first knitting ideas and I think will still be a good idea, but I should really frog it too and start over since there are so many mistakes in it. Oh, I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but those are some highlights.

I also have, like I said, way too much yarn. Luckily, most of it was bought with a specific project in mind. So maybe I will actually use up the yarn someday. Or maybe I will decide I no longer like the pattern I had in mind and will need to find some other use for the yarn. But, man, if ever there was a time to do that, after discovering Ravelry would be the time. I love how you can just look at different kinds of yarns and see all the projects people have made with it. And you can see which patterns actually work with that yarn and also which yarns fall short of expectations. I'm really loving this site.

So now we're on to current projects. I'm working on a knit turtle toy for Zack (my son). It's from Knitted Toys by Zoe Mellor. It's a pretty cute pattern, but there are so many sloppy techniques in it. You can tell just by looking at the picture how sloppy it is. So I've tried cleaning it up a bit. It's still in a lot of pieces right now, so it's hard to tell how well that worked, but I think it should turn out better than the book sample. We shall see. I'm going to have enough yarn left over to do a couple other toys from the book too - the dinosaur, a doll, and perhaps some finger puppets. Should be cute!

I also have the My-So-Called Scarf in progress. Still. I really like how it looks, but it's turning out denser than I had hoped. I'll probably finish it and gift it to someone who lives in a colder climate than me. I still really like the pattern, but I'm getting tired of it.

Also are a pair of socks that I started after taking a toe-up sock class at Stitches West in 2006. I really like them still, but I was kind of making up the pattern as I went and I don't think I wrote anything down, so I'm not sure I will remember what I was doing. I might have to just start over :/

Oh, right. And Buster. Well, let's just say that Zack outgrew it before it was even finished. I could never find the right buttons for it and now it is way too small. But it's almost done, at least. Maybe the next baby can wear it. Don't get too excited; that will be a couple years from now.

So speaking of Stitches West a couple paragraphs back, I signed up for a class this coming year. 2007 there was no way I could get away to do that, and in 2006 I had a severe sinus infection plus had just found out I was pregnant (and was dealing with some morning sickness). Hopefully I will get to enjoy it more in 2008 :) I'm taking The Long & Short of Knit Alterations by Margaret Fisher. I think this will come in very handy for me. I know that, even though I made my Hourglass Sweater longer than the pattern suggested, it's still too short on very tall me. So being able to lengthen it easily would be great.

Anyway, that's the very long update from me. Hopefully I will be knitting more and updating more frequently from now on.

Posted by alison at 09:57 PM — Comments (0)
July 17, 2006

back to school drive

For those of you living in the Bay Area, I wanted to point you toward a great way to help out the children in our area. It's similar to the trees you see around xmas time where you can buy a gift for someone, but this is for their education. You can either make a donation or fill a backpack with back-to-school necessities like pencils, markers, books, etc. You can make a monetary donation here or find a host company (so that you can get a card and fill a backpack yourself) here. We got ours from Hobee's, but you can find them at a lot of places.

Posted by alison at 10:54 AM — Comments (0)
June 28, 2006

baby knitting

What's this!? An update!? With actual knitting content!?

Amazing.

Yes, I have started some knitting for the baby. A mixture of feeling better plus not having much to do now that I'm not working plus wanting to do something to get ready for the baby has inspired me.

First off, here's the hat I knit a couple weeks ago. The one I just made up and ended up probably being too big for a newborn, but that the baby will definitely grow into. I just borrowed a baby bootee book from Rachel, so I will make some bootees to go with it soon. I might also make some matching mitts so he doesn't scratch himself, though I don't know how practical those are.

Then I went to the knitting store on Friday for the first time since February (!!!) and bought a couple of books and some yarn. The project I started on today is from Rowan Babies and is called Buster. And the baby in the picture is just too cute.

I'm using Rowan wool cotton for it (as the pattern calls for) but am using sliiiiightly different colors to make it a bit brighter. The yellowish-green will be the main color and the teal will be the stars and the sleeves. I'm hoping this will fit him around xmas time.

I think I'm going to like this knitting baby clothes thing. So much faster to actually complete a project!

Posted by alison at 07:13 PM — Comments (6)
June 06, 2006

last days

Today was our last day with our Tuesday/Thursday preschool group. Tomorrow is our last day with our Monday/Wednesday group. I'm going to miss my little guys and girls. I have such a great group of kids. I'll need to go back to the school in the Fall to visit and make sure all the kids are transitioning to their new classrooms okay. It's so hard to see these kids every couple of days for a year and then never see them again - one of the sad parts of being a teacher, especially one who won't be back at the school next year. Luckily there are so many more benefits, like seeing how much progress the kids have made this year. They've grown up so much.

Posted by alison at 02:28 PM — Comments (0)
June 01, 2006

bedroom closet and other remodeling

So I promised pictures of the closet project we worked on this past weekend. Before I get to those pictures, I wanted to point you towards our house remodel site that has most of the major work we've done to our house.

The most interesting (and largest) project is, of course, the kitchen. We entirely gutted the kitchen. Not even the walls, ceiling, floor, or windows stayed. There are still a few small things that need to be finished up (and one large thing that is still awaiting PG&E - they suck), but it is finished now for the most part. I'm still waiting to take the good "after" pictures until everything is finished though. Then I can have side-by-side pictures that really show off how bad it was then and how wonderful it is now. I love my kitchen. There are two pages for the kitchen - kitchen 1 and kitchen 2.

If you don't want to click to check out the whole project, here's a little preview.

Before:

And After:

Now, on to the closet stuff.

Continue reading "bedroom closet and other remodeling"
Posted by alison at 03:25 PM — Comments (4)
May 30, 2006

wine barrels

While knitting has not been happening around here, a lot of other things have. This weekend we gutted two closets to paint and then assemble new closet organizers in. It was exhausting, but with great results! I'll post pictures of this project soon.

Another project we worked on recently was making a wine barrel into some flower pots. We got the wine barrel from the winery that we are members of - they were giving them away for free to members. I took a lot of pictures of what we did.

Continue reading "wine barrels"
Posted by alison at 05:18 PM — Comments (4)