I'm such a delinquent...

...delinquent blogger, that is... I'm so sorry I've been bad about posting and commenting; the bf was working out of town, and coupling that with my own crazy workload had me taking much longer at getting things done around here (I had come the realization that my coffee does not, in actuallity, "magically appear" before me every morning. There is no such thing as the Coffee Genie. Repeat to self.)

So, I finished the baby blanket I was working on. I had originally planned for 12 squares excerpted from Barbara Walker's Learn-to-Knit Afghan Book, but had to settle for 9, because the blanket would've been huge.
Yarn used: Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton (no dyes, bleaches, etc.) in colors Sand (5 skeins MC), Bone (2 skeins CC1) and Nut (1 skein CC2).
Needles: size #9 & Crochet Hook: size "J"

I went with this yarn because it's eco-friendly and also because my expectant friend wanted something gender neutral (and, she's from California, so the organic yarn thing was too cool to pass up). In the book, it calls for crochetting 20 sts per side of each square, but I increased it to 26; however, it still looks a bit "pinched" in places. I'm hoping washing and blocking will fix that.

With the leftover yarn, I made the Baby Bolero from One Skein, which happens to call for one skein of this yarn. HOWEVER, it took me a little more than one skein to make this sweater. Also, there are errata in the pattern.
Here is the back view with the optional eyelet pattern. The way it's written is not symmetrical; I had to change the second set of K2togs in to SSKs in each line of the pattern. Finally, because I must have OCD or something, I refused to do the K3tog at the top, and opted for: slip 2sts at once, knit 1, pass the 2 slipped sts over the knit st. This way, the center of those 3 sts is in the middle. (Oh, and I increased a stitch in the ribbing up top so it would be symmetrical over the center of the eyelet motif. I need help. Seriously. But in my defense, you who have this book, go look at the pictures and you'll see how un-centered it'll look if you don't fix it.)

This is my new Golding Spindle. I love it, love it, love it! I haven't been tempted to buy any more spindles because I like this one far more than anything I've ever seen.

I finally got around to plying that Spunky corriedale wool I was spinning. It's only 77 yds because I threw away some earlier botched attempts. I spun with the Spindlewood (left) and the Bosworth (right), and plied with my huge Cascabeles (center).

Ren tagged me for a meme, so I hope I'll be able to get to that soon.

knitting book sale at knitpicks!

Quick heads up-- Knitpicks is having a 40% off sale on all their books. It's cheaper than Amazon now. I just stocked up on some things I've been coveting like this and this and this!

...When it's time to dump a pattern...

...but first,

I just found out that Hakucho has nominated me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger! I'm so excited and honored! Thank you, Hakucho!!!

Hakucho has a really fun and informative blog; she always comes up with the most ingenious and creative ways to improve patterns - sometimes even taking them to another level and using the stitch pattern to create a whole new knitted object (you should see what she's done with the famous "Ballband Dishcloth"!) Anyway, she's currently working on a fantastic piece-by-piece fish afghan - please go take a look!

Well apparently, it's now my job to nominate another 5 Rockin' Girl Bloggers:

Monika, at Smokin' Hot Needles- This girl is a Rockin' master knitter. Period. And she knits super-fast! She's got a great flair for design and colors, and her projects and her own patterns always inspire me to challenge myself. She also shares the antics of her two gorgeous white german shepherds: Sam and Biko.

Dipsy, at Dipsy Doodle- Blogging all the way from Austria, Dipsy gives me a glimpse into her picturesque home town of Innsbruck while churning out beautiful sock patterns and other wildly beautiful knits. I especially love seeing her knit from patterns that aren't available here in the U.S.; I appreciate being able to see the different knits out there!

Kate, at Miss Ewe Knits- A fellow violinist, Kate always shares hilarious knit-related pictures on her blog (running sheep with stuffed sheep animals tied on their backs being the most recent pic). She's always in the know about the great new yarns out there, and I like hearing her reviews and seeing her gorgeous knits!

Courtney, at Yarn Tootin'- Another fellow musician (violist) who's up on the best sock yarns available; especially indie! The only blogger I've ever met in real life (went to school together, played quartets with, and went to Tanglewood with), I never knew she was into knitting until I happened upon her blog one day. She always knows what the hot projects are, and knits them up beautifully; she's a real inspiration!

Ren, at Ren Knits- A grad student (accounting major!), Ren somehow manages to find the time to knit really cute socks, house projects, and she SEWS! Makes her own needle cases and everything!

Okay, on to the griping....
I present to you this innocent looking, cute, clearly easy and fast knit (size 11's)

I knit and frogged a good chunk of this blanket 3 times because I couldn't figure out why it looked so weird. The blanket has two rows of staggered eyelets separated by some stockinette rows. I really wanted to believe in this pattern, you know...I mean, it looked so professionally printed, and I paid money for it and everything...

Here is my low-tech charting of the pattern. See the problems?
Not only are the eyelets totally not centered on the blanket body, but they don't even line up symmetrically when staggered!!! WTF??? Oh, and there was an errata page on Blue Sky Alpaca's website. However, it only mentions some major boo-boos about the ruffle (which I hadn't even got to), and nothing about the messed up asymmetrical body. Oh yeah, by the way, the errata page did mention it takes 7 skeins of yarn, not 6. Nothing major, right? (grits teeth).
Anyone doing this pattern out there - unless you're willing to rewrite the main pattern and deal with the errata and lacking skein of yarn - I highly suggest you dump it. It is soooooo not worth the trouble!!! Shame on you, Blue Sky Alpaca! I will always love your yarn, but I'll never buy one of your patterns again!

Anyhoo, Barbara Walker to the rescue:
This is a great book! I've learned to do some things I never knew how to do like LT, RT and purling through the back loop. I'm planning on knitting 12 squares from the book to make a baby-sized afghan.

Squares #7: Garter and Rib Pattern and #25: Wave

Squares #3: Basketweave and #48: Vine Leaf Panel (my fave)
Finally, I leave you with the debut haul of my market bag. Eat your greens!

A Little Bit of Everything

Not giving up on the spinning yet! Even with my really amateurish lumpy-yarn producing skills, I can see/feel the difference between the spindles.


Clockwise from the left, my heavy-duty Cascabeles had me spinning a really chunky yarn which I crochetted into a baby hat. The Forrester, a little lighter, got me producing something more worsted. The tulipwood Bosworth Midi, the latest addition to my spindle collection, is my favorite so far. I can spin thinner and more even yarn. Sheila Bosworth test-spun the spindle before sending it to me, and when it arrived, I dissected and studied the small sample of fiber and spun yarn she left on it. (Hey, I'm desperate; there are no spinning classes around here!)

...and if I'm spinning, I will eventually need to use this Niddy-Noddy. (As if I need more things to collect...)

I'm knitting too; an organic cotton baby blanket (pic soon), and a thin scarf made by alternating every couple rows between some Koigu and STR.

Here is a close-up of the 2-Colour Star Stitch Pattern found in Harmony Guide's "44o More Knitting Stitches". Using 2 contrasting solids would make the "stars" pop out more, but I'm liking this Impressionistic look.

Continuing with the stash-busting, I used the leftovers from the Flore hat combined with some Reynolds Saucy Sport to crochet a market bag. I'll take it for a test run soon.

D'OH!!!

There are reasons why one should never, ever, attempt to do fancy stuff with one's Blogger template late at night after drinks. I erased all my stuff. I'm sooooo stupid! It will take me a while to get all my links back up... At least my posts survived! ARGH!!! Anyway, it's a good excuse to try out a new look, I figure. I'm going to go kick myself some more now.


Several Hours (and many cups of coffee) Later: Okay, most of my links are back, and I'm still having fun tweaking the look. Thanks to blogger-saavy Rachel - when I followed your instructions, my links did reappear! I erased too much to get back all the little buttons, etc., but I'm still quite happy! Thanks again!

Trying it again...

WARNING: Lots of Fiber Tool Pr0n...

Getting inspired by Monika, I figured I should give spinning another try. I think last time, I got very impatient with the whole inch-worm/park-and-draft stuff, and sort of...well...gave up.
I de-stashed (and then bought more) Spunky Eclectic fibers (pictured is Corriedale), and got a good spinning book.
And then...I caved and bought this Cascabeles Spindle to add to my Forrester and to the small No-Name spindle (waaay to light for me, whatever it is).
They fit really well in this crochet hook holder I made for myself a while back. I think it would be good to use for knitting needles too, if it were taller.

Closeup of my crochet collection: a few are Brittany Walnut, but the others are Graydog Woodenware which I painstakingly collected over several years. Their stuff is really gorgeous, but the bidding wars can get fierce. (As with all auctions, you have to practice self-control and know when to walk away. Which will happen a lot...)

...and finally...
I need some help! I don't know what to make with this! I got two grab bags at a really steep discount, thinking there would be lots of colors that wouldn't go with each other. Then these showed up and the colors match really well! It's machine wash, so I was thinking baby stuff (I need to get crankin' for 2 summer babies). However, that would leave a lot leftover. There are 1,520 yds all together. Any ideas? I've considered a blanket or a sweater, but otherwise, I'm totally stumped!

Finished Flore Hat!

Woohoo! Finally finished the Flore hat from Knitwhits! This also marks the first time I've used my new camera; it has 10 megapixels (my old one was 4), so I'm curious to see what the differences are...

shown in the "Red Pepper" colorway
blocking=stuffed with plastic bags and unceremoniously crammed on top of tupperware

This pattern was pretty fun for me; it's worked in a series of layers. It calls for 2 sets of size 5 16", but I only have one set, so I just used a size 4 as a large stitch holder while I worked on the next layer. I misread the pattern, and did twisted M1's (I know, just making it harder for myself...D'oh!...) Next time, I think I'll try casting on in purl to match the purled third round of every layer (a little OCD, perhaps). Truth be told, there were lots of ends to weave in, and you have to tack down the points of the petals (good Zen exercise), but I didn't mind because the hat is so cute!

The Winners Are...

Okay, first of all, sorry for the delay-! My camera is almost dead, and I haven't figured out how to use my new one...

A huge thank you to everyone for helping me celebrate my blogiversary and for leaving such fun answers for what they'd like to have in the middle of a ball of yarn!!! It seems "chocolate" was the most popular answer; I guess there are a lot of chocoholic knitters out there!

Without further adieu, here is my lovely assistant again, who is wearing some Fixation "practice gloves".
...and the 5 winners are:


1. Courtney, (Claudia's HP)



2. Rachel, (Opal Parrot)



3. Ren, (keychain)



4. Jeannette, (keychain)



5. Adrienne, (keychain)




Congrats to the 5 winners!!! Please email me your snail mail address to:
violiknit@yahoo.com

Thanks for playing, everyone!!!

First Blogiversary!

Yeay! I made it to my first Blogiversary!!! (To be fair, it was yesterday, but after 8 hours in the recording studio, I had no energy to blog. Incidentally, this marks the first time I've ever used my Adobe Photoshop for anything other than cropping and red-eye reduction...wow, I'm lazy.)

Okay, the fun part! BLOGIVERSARY CONTEST!

Leave me a comment answering this question that my bf came up with:

If every ball of yarn came with a prize in the middle, what would you want that prize to be?

Prize #1: 2 skeins of Claudia's Handpainted in "Pink Posey"

Prize#2: Opal Rainforest in "Parrot"

Prize #3, #4 and #5: Sockblocker keychain with mini sock pattern

Good Luck!

Some Tour Pics

Warning: no knitting content :)
Here are some pictures from the Korea Tour I went on:

The food was good (and very spicy!), but the translations were sometimes weird..."Fork Velly" (Pork Belly) gave us all a giggle:

The streets were lined with food cart after food cart - occasionally seperated by a stand selling sunglasses and hair bling.

One of my favorite meals: huge dumplings submerged in a spicy simmering casserole of mushrooms, beef and greens.

Again, bling seemed quite popular over there, as you can see from these gowns (there was a whole block of shops with glittery dresses like these).

I'm glad I got to go out a little, but this was a working tour, after all. One of our rehearsals with violin soloist Sarah Chang was filmed by a Korean TV crew. She's playing Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", which we are recording with her this week.

A little heads up: I nearly forgot, but my Blogiversary is on Thursday! I will definitely be having a contest then! Stay tuned...

I'm Baaaaaack!

Wow! Crazy fun trip to Korea, but it was lots of work too (actually, it's not over yet; we're doing a recording starting tomorrow)! Since I can't stuff all my pics on one post, I'll do the knitty things on this post, and the non-knitty pics on the next one.

The flight to Korea is 14 hours one way. (talk about a sore bottom!) When I wasn't sleeping, I was working on this Knitwhits Flore Hat Kit. It's a layered flower petal design in cotton yarn, sized for an infant.
I dragged this hat with me on all our bus trips to the various concert halls (Traffic in Korea is a major pain. It would take our bus a good half hour to go around the block. Being able to knit kept me sane.)

On one of the bus trips, I showed my little hat-in-progress to the woman pictured on the left. As it turns out, she is none other than the famous knitwear designer Melissa Leapman!!! She was at our concerts! Melissa mentioned she knew the designer of the Flore Hat, Tina Whitmore, and said she'd tell her I was knitting her hat. I was totally blubbering and rather embarrassed that all I had to show a famous designer was a couple rows of knitting... I was even too shy to fully blurt out the name of my blog.

My friend brought her baby Ayano on this tour. She's wearing the booties I knit for her!
And yes, the Flore Hat is for her too!

I didn't see too much yarn-related stuff in Korea, but I did buy this ultra-cool metallic crochetted bag from a vendor in Insadong. Turns out he went to the Parson's School of Design here in NYC, and currently teaches crochet in Korea. This was the only non-reproduction souvenir I found in Korea.

Packing, last minute knitting, etc.

I'm off to Korea tomorrow, so my life has been rather dedicated to lots of rehearsals and concerts lately...I've hardly had time to pack, knit, or decide what knitting to try and take on the plane (so far I'm planning on a baby hat and a pair of socks on bamboo needles, with metal back-up needles in the checked luggage)

Anyhow, just to show that I'm still working on those Lozenge socks during rehearsal breaks:
Here they are lounging on a first row seat of A Very Famous Hall here in NYC. (I think I'm not supposed to take pics here, so I'm playing it safe. Used my crappy cell phone camera.)

I also made a reversible name bib. The general bib pattern is in this book, but all garter stitch was boring, so I knit the baby's name into it. I didn't like how the "wrong side" looked, so I picked up stitches along the bottom of the name panel on the back, knit another name in contrast color (next time will try different language), grafted it to the top of the panel, and seamed the side bits. Added buttons to match the name colors, crochetted an edge, and voila!

Dishcloth Diversions

First of all, many apologies for being so invisible lately; I'm going to Korea on a tour next week with an orchestra, and the rehearsals are keeping me waaaaay busy.

Meanwhile, you can see my current obsession piled atop the Lozenge Socks pattern. (I'm not UFO-ing those socks, but I needed to knit something fast on bigger needles. Mental thing.)


A friend of mine collects all things Squirrel. The famous Ballband (middle one) is from this book, but I added extra sts on the sides and did a couple rounds of crochet on the edge.

My friend's baby has started eating solid food, and my poor friend shows up to work with splotches of stuff on her shirts. I'm hoping these bibs will help, but I may have to make a burp cloth as well.

A pair of really orange dishcloths. I saw the music notes one on Hakucho's blog, and had to have one too!

Eye Candy Friday (belated)

Squeaky Clean after Bath

I hate all things size Zero...!

Pathetic progress report on the Lozenge socks here...turned the heel and went a teeny bit further...

I am totally never going to knit anything on size 0's again! I would much rather do some algebra and move it up to tolerable size 1's or ideal size 2's or even ultimate fantasy size 3's. I'm having the worst time keeping my tension even with these size 0's - a problem I've never had before. Also, my hand totally cramps up with minimal knitting, so progress is incredible slow. Argh! Is there anything I can do to make this last stretch of sock go faster? Any advice from you wonderful sock knitters out there?

...and the winner is...

First of all, thank you everyone for your wonderful vacation suggestions (and links!) My bf and I really appreciate the ideas you gave us; there are enough potential vacations in there for several years!

I also had a great time visiting all your blogs; some new ones there that I'm happy to know about! I've been swamped with work this week, but I promise to visit and comment on your blogs soon!

Here is the hat with the names on the papers...

To make it as fair as possible, I enlisted the help of my lovely assistant...

...and the name he pulled out...

Dipsy, of Dipsy Doodle!

Congratulations!!!!! Please send me your name and snail mail address so I can send you your prize!!! (my email is violiknit@yahoo.com)


(p.s. to answer "Ladybird" about what's in the Matzia: it's 2 sheets of matzah cracked into bits, you add some water, and when when the matzah bits are soft, squeeze out the water. Add 2 eggs, a pinch of salt, and mix. Add oil to a pan and spread mix into the pan like you would an omelette. I'm told it's traditionally served with apple sauce, and is also called matza brai.)

Thank you all for playing!!! I have a blogiversary in a couple of months, and will be giving away some prizes for that as well.