Knit Diary

I am Bode Miller (kind of the anti-I am Tiger Woods?)
Button courtesy of Rose-Kim Knits.

Posted by Sandy at 01:16 PM | Permalink

Just some thoughts on the Olympics:

1. 2006 Winter Olympics, cool --- NBC's USA-centered, choppy, late night fare, not cool
2. Shani Davis, the first African American individual winter Olympic gold medalist, cool --- public fued with team mate, Chad Hedrick, not cool
3. Shaun "Flying Tomato" White, cool --- Bode "no show" Miller, not cool
4. Joey Cheek, cool -- Harvard Office of Admissions, not cool
5. Arakawa, the first Japanase woman to win figure skating gold, cool --- Michelle Kwan missing from the Olympics, not cool
6. Knitting Olympics, cool --- Running out of yarn with 7 rows to go, not cool

Ok, that is all I can think of for now...

I ordered another skein of the blackberry ridge yarn to finish Ene. When I knew I was running out of yarn, I thought maybe I could spit splice all the little bits left over, but that would not have worked. It's so frustrating because I need less than a yard of this yarn to finish.

I also joined a knitalong:

I plan on using Jo Sharp's Silkroad Aran Tweed in Jewel. But the thing is I already had 5 balls of this yarn in my stash; I ordered another 6 balls. I'm hoping the dyelots aren't too different. Am I just making trouble for myself?

Posted by Sandy at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night, I was well on my way to finishing Ene, then this:

ACK! I ran out of yarn with only 6 more rows of the chart to finish!

I guess I get a DNF next to my name. I hope everyone else fared better.

Posted by Sandy at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm progressing on my Ene, but I feel like I'm running down the Poltergeist hallway that keeps extending and extending. This is a picture of the first two charts and all of one repeat of Chart 3.

I'm taking advantage of President's day holiday and re-runs of Project Runway and I'm hopefully going to get a bit more of Ene done.

Posted by Sandy at 03:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

When I got home from the soul suck that is work, this was waiting for me in the mail yesterday:

and look what came all the way from Vancouver, Canada:

Aahhh...Diamond Fantasy....

Ene is progressing: I got through all of Chart 1. Chart 2 is mostly garter stitch with a row of yarn over eyelets. Looked easy going in, but of course I made a mistake and had to tink back 300 or so stitches. Even with all the hardship, I'm liking Ene. As a break from the lace, I'm continuing to work on the Debbie Bliss Bolero jacket.

Posted by Sandy at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's progress on my Ene.

I wanted to get through all 22 rows of chart one by the end of this weekend, but only completed up to row 16. You can start to see the diamond pattern emerge. This is the fun part of knitting lace -- to see the pattern start to form on your fabric. Casting on was a bear, but I'm planning on smooth sailing from now on. (Crossed fingers and toes.)

Sadly, some of our Ene team has been Kwan'd (a la Michelle Kwan). I found out there are more Ene knitters: check them out on Mandella's sidebar.

Posted by Sandy at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I waited to cast on for Ene until 8pm, the start of NBC's broadcast of the opening ceremonies. (The opening ceremonies actually started an hour later after after all of NBC's mumbo jumbo.)

Neurotically counting stitches as I went, I finished casting on at 9:20pm. During the humanimation ski man.

I rewarded myself:

Two and a half hours later, this:

According to pattern, you cast on double stranded and drop one strand of yarn as you begin the body of the scarf. I had some problems with the double stranding and also I cast on too tight and the stitches were not moving along the needle smoothly. Argh!

I didn't want to go to bed without at least casting on for my project, so:

Needless to say, I'm kind of tired.

Posted by Sandy at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In preparation for the Olympics, I used the copier at work to blow up the charts.
Also, here's the first button I've ever made.

Ene Olympians are:
Leah
Mandella
Dyann
and me.

Because I'm a geek, I charted out the stitch count for the pattern. I also like to tick off the rows as I work.
Please feel free to use the chart and button. (Also note that you actually end up with 17 stitches at the last row of chart 4, not 19 as it says in the notes on page 31.)

For other resources, there's an Ene Ensemble and Scarf Style KAL. Lot's of good pictures of different Enes.

I hope everyone's still excited about the event!

Posted by Sandy at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've just added the Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert to my Want-To-Knit list.

It's an Interweave Knits free web pattern.

Posted by Sandy at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mini-Cavern sweater is done:

Pattern: originally from Glampyre and modified as Cavern by Cosmicpluto
Yarn: 10 balls of Elann Alpaca in Mushroom heather
Needles: addi turbo 4mm
Modifications: I added buttons, waist shaping, and a seed stitch belt, instead of ties.

Here's a picture of it on. Sorry for the lousy picture.

I also cast on for Bolero Jacket by Debbie Bliss in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky in Garnet. I'm hoping to finish by Thursday before the start of the Olympics.

Posted by Sandy at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm a Rowan International Subscriber, so I will not receive my copy of Rowan 39 until three years after everyone else has it...but I've seen the online previews. Some of it's not very pretty folks:

(psst: the pattern is for the armband)

However, some of it's very pretty:

Victoria (my favorite)

Carolina

Glad

ok, it's a shawl with sleeves, but I think this is wearable...

Need...more...kid...silk...haze...

Posted by Sandy at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)