February 7, 2009

  • A little teaser for you!

    A few weeks back I won a contest on Leah's blog, and the prize was a skein of her handspun!

    Leah's Handspun

    Isn't it beautiful? I love the colors, and I've picked out the pattern I'm going to make: the Flame Chevron Scarf. I'm so excited, but I'm trying to wait a little bit because right now I have too many projects on the needles!

    Leah was also a participant (with A and S) in a little knitting photoshoot on the LSU Campus last week. The three of them had FOs that needed pictures for their Ravelry pages, and we all have the same lunch hour free, so we decided to meet in the quad and take pictures. It was so much fun, and some of the pictures turned out really cute. Some of my favorites:

     Leah's Clapotis

    Leah's Clapotis

     A's Beret

    A's Beret

    S's Hat

    And S's Hat/Beret.

    So why did I call this post a teaser? Because I have lots more pictures of their beautiful FOs to share, and I'll be posting them soon on the new location of this blog:

    http://ashpags.blogspot.com

    For various reasons, I'm switching away from Xanga to Blogger, and I hope you'll follow me over there. (The new RSS feed is here if you want to update your aggregator/reader of choice.) I'll still keep this site, of course, and all my entries will remain here, but there are a lot more options at Blogger, especially since Xanga has discontinued support for some Java codes I really like, like Ravelry Progress Bars, which are important so that I have some semblance of accountability for all those WIPs! ;)

    I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend and getting lots of knitting time! =)

January 19, 2009

  • A Really Old FO

    In my last post, I mentioned a plan to put together a 2008 Knitting Year-in-Review type post, and when I started to do that, I realized there was another FO that didn't have any pictures - oops!  I finished my Mmmalabrigo House Mittens back in November, but...wait...as I am composing this, I am realizing that the mittens have been finished since November of 2007 - holy crow!  And they still never got any FO pictures, because mittens are a pain to photograph!  (Does anyone know if there are mitten blockers, like sock blockers?  I've never seen any, but I think they would come in handy.)  But another fun Christmas present I got was a remote for my camera, so instead of fancy mitten pictures, I present pictures of me goofing off wearing the mittens instead!

    Mmmalabrigo House Mittens

    Imagine the scene on my patio: focus camera, go stand in approximately the right spot, click remote, frantically shove remote in pocket and come up with some strange pose, rinse and repeat.  I'm glad there is a fence so that most of my neighbors probably couldn't see me.

    Mmmalabrigo House Mittens

    This is supposed to be something you'd do if it was cold and you were clutching your arms to your chest to keep warm...only, as you can see, I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt.  Now, in all fairness, if I hadn't been protected from the wind and had been out there for more than a few minutes, I would have gotten cold really quickly...but still.  It's supposed to be a bit chillier tomorrow, perfect sweater weather, so that will be lovely.

    And on that note, I'm out!  Much to do to finish preparing for tomorrow.  And I guess one of these days I'll do a 2008 Knits post...hmm...  =)

January 10, 2009

  • I apologize in advance...

    ...because I am about to sound like a huge snob.  Why?  Because I totally cleaned up knitting-wise for Christmas!  Family has learned that buying me yarn is not a great idea because I'm picky, but they feed the knitting addiction in other ways.  Let me demonstrate.

    Shooting Star Sock Blockers!
    The greatest sock blockers ever.  I've been wanting some sock blockers for a long time just 'cause they are nifty, and found these shooting star ones sold by an eBay seller used by a lady I knit with.  Love at first sight!  And what's peeking out from the bottom of the picture?  Oh that's right, I finally have FO pictures of my Pacific Sunrise Socks.  They've been done for weeks (months?) but I never got around to taking pictures.  Now, they are officially photographed!

    Pacific Sunrise Socks

    This is the last FO from 2008 (dude, I swear it was just 2007, and now it's 2009?) and so I'm hoping to do a collage of all my projects from last year.  Thank you Ravelry for making that possible!

    Pacific Sunrise Socks

    I love what the colors of Dez's yarn do, especially on the foot.

    Pacific Sunrise Socks

    What else did I get for Christmas?  Knit Picks Options Needles!!!

    Rosalie Scarf

    I've wanted a set of these for a long time now, and finally asked for (and got!) them - hooray!  Unfortunately, the zipper on the case has already broken, but I'm going to email them tomorrow and see if I can get a replacement - it should last longer than a few weeks!  On those needles is the beginning of a new scarf (swoon...I love scarfs...)

    Rosalie Scarf
    It's a replica of the scarf Rosalie Hale/Cullen wears in the first cafeteria scene of the Twilight movie.  (Ravel it. * See the original.)  The story is set in cold, rainy Forks, WA, so there is knitwear galore in the movie, and some really talented knitters and crocheters have been reverse engineering the knits and sharing their patterns, and for that I'm grateful, because it means I don't have to do it.  (Although, if I can get a good picture of the blue scarf Alice wears in the field trip scene, I'm all over that.  If you've seen one, please let me know!)  I've been wanting a neutral-colored scarf for a while now  ("How long have you been seventeen?" "A while.") and this one came along.  Excellent.  I think I'll be able to get the yarn for Bella's Mittens soon (tomorrow, hopefully!) so I can make those, too.  Double excellent.

    And with that, I think I'm out.  It's bedtime!  I hope you got some wonderful knitting stuff over the holidays as well. =)

    ETA: Bummer!  I finished this after midnight, otherwise it would have been posted on my 5-year Xanga Blogiversary!  Close but no cigar. ;)

    ETA2: After edit #8 (#9?) I think this post is finally good to go.  I should not blog at night.

December 28, 2008

  • Oh Hai!

    So is everyone having a lovely holiday season?  Good!  I am - Santa was generous, I get a few weeks off* to hang with the family, and get some knitting done!  Woo!  I've been better about updating my Rav than my Xanga; in fact, I've been on Ravelry a whole, whole lot lately.  Partly because of the free time, partly because of my latest obsession: the Twilight Saga!  Even though I'm about ten years older than the target audience, I saw the movie on a whim with some friends and was instantly hooked!  I got the books asap and locked myself away to enter the sparkleverse.  If you haven't heard of Twilight, it's basically a series of four books (there may be a fifth someday) about vampires and werewolves and teen angst.  Here's one of my fave descriptions:

    Emo teenage girl moves to new town, meets mysterious boy, realizes he's
    a sparkling vampire; Greatest Love of All Time Omg ensues. In later
    books, a love triangle forms with the addition of a werewolf. Babies
    are of tantamount importance; going to college is not. Some readers
    rank the series up there with Pride and Prejudice and the works of Shakespeare; some readers... beg to differ. Severely.

    Love it.  Neither the books nor the movie are great literature/cinema, but they are fun and engaging, and the books are full of suspense, leading to some seriously late nights of "just one more chapter" until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.  So anyways, point of the story is that there are a lot of great knitted and crocheted pieces in the movie, and as soon as I can get the yarn, I will be making Bella's Mittens (Rav Link) and the Rosalie Hale Scarf (Rav Link).  Yay!

    Some other stuff I've been working on:

    One down, one to go!

    One BBR Sock is done!  Hoping to cast on for the second sock within the next few days...I just need to sit down and do it.

    Oak Ribbed Socks

    The first of the Oak Ribbed Socks is coming along well.  Heel is turned (woo!), working on the gusset decreases.

    Bainbridge Scarf

    I made a Bainbridge Scarf in Mmmmalabrigo Silky Merino for the Boston trip.  It is utterly delightful.  So soft, and my very favorite color!

    Forest Green Ribbed Scarf

    A Sinful Ribbed Scarf in Dez's amazing hand-spun, hand-dyed wool.

    I'm on the home stretch of my Clapotis, and am really hoping to finish it for New Year's Eve.  Since it's purple, I can wear it as I root for my Tigers in the Peach Bowl! =)

    On that note, I'm going to call it a night.  Hope y'all have had a great weekend, and Happy Early New Year! =)

    *And by "off" I mean I still have to work on research and some homework assignments from my advisor, but all of them can be done in my PJs at home, yay!

December 4, 2008

  • Tagged!

    Well, I've been politely requested to come out of hiding, so here I am!  I got tagged for a fun meme by Karen, but I'm going to change it a bit.  You're supposed to find the sixth photo in the sixth picture folder on your computer, but I thought I'd give it a knitting spin!  Here's the sixth photo from the sixth folder in my WIPs picture folder.  Hoo, does that make sense?  My Documents -> My Pictures -> Digital Camera Pics -> WIPs -> Ian's Scarf (the sixth folder in there, alphabetically, natch) -> This picture!

    Ian's Scarf

    It's a WIP shot of a scarf I made for a guy who worked for me a few summers ago.  It's 2x2 rib, Lamb's Pride in black and forest green (not necessarily the actual color names, but I don't have time to go find the ball bands), and it's actually not even a WIP anymore, haha.  It was finished and mailed months ago!  But it's still in that folder because the FO pics need to be uploaded to Rav. =)

    (Also, I think my MacBook, on which I'm writing this post, just died a little inside when I typed that obviously-Windows file path!  The MacBook is for work and, as a brand-new computer, is way faster than my three-year-old Dell, which is where I keep all my personal stuff.  Someday I'd love to do a Windows v. Mac post, but suffice it to say I really like them both.  There are strengths and weaknesses to each OS, and I'm having fun going back and forth.  I'm also thinking of converting an old laptop to Linux, in which case I would be a super-nerd with three computers and three different operating systems!  Woo!)

    And now, back into hiding, for at least another week.  Here's what's on the list:

    Finish up some data analysis (~2 days)
    Write 30ish page paper (~4 days)
    Finish final stat mech homework and stat mech take-home final (~5 days)
    Do two different astro take-home finals (~3 days)

    You'll notice that 2 + 4 + 5 + 3 = 14 > 8, which is the number of days I have to do all this.  Should be interesting! =)

    Oh, and I tag anyone who wants to do this!  It was kind of fun. =)

October 8, 2008

  • Oh dear...

    ...I just found out I'll probably be going back to Boston to wrap up some loose ends from our research trip this summer, and give a talk (eek!) at a small meeting in early November.  November.  In Boston.  Crap, y'all, I've gotta get knitting!  I have an alpaca scarf and hat that are pretty nice, but the hat's a little thin.  I kind of want matching mittens or wrist warmers at least.  And probably a new hat.  A really, really warm one.  And maybe some other cute accessories?  Oh, and warm clothes...about that...except for summers in New Mexico and a semester in Italy, I've always lived on the Gulf Coast where, uh, it doesn't actually get cold.  Average November high in Boston?  52 degrees F, aka 11 degrees C.  I will have to break out my sweaters that normally don't come out of storage until Christmas!  Any warm hat suggestions?

    Some small knitting updates: The skewed socks are coming along.  I'm past the gusset decreases and onto the foot proper.  And more importantly to my morale, past the location of the big rip from a few weeks ago.  I also made a scarf.  Well, it's sort of a neck scarf because it's really short, but it's the length I wanted, and by being short it was always acceptable bus knitting, which is the only way it got finished!  The clapotis is coming along nicely.  I have about a foot or so of straight knitting left, then I'll start the decreases!  Unfortunately, I have no pictures of any of these, because I haven't been around my house much during the day, aka when there is natural light.  These silly things called school and research keep getting in the way.  But someday soon, there will be photos!  Really!  I promise!  Maybe...

    =)

September 27, 2008

  • A Mystery

    Do you remember the BBR Socks that were going terribly wrong?  Well, I ripped them back to the leg and got back to work.  Sometime during the ripping, some clarifications were posted on the Ravelry project page, which were definitely helpful.  I followed them, and got going on the heel.  And here's what I've got:

    Skewed Heel

    A crooked heel.  That's the whole reason I had the wrong heel on the last one!  I had been working the correct one on a train in Europe, noticed that it was crooked, decided I had screwed up, ripped it out, and worked a standard Yarn Harlot "sturdy heel" which got ripped out in the big rip.  This time around, I figured I'd try the proper one again.  And I get the same dumb crookedness!  Argh.  I've counted rows a few times and I get the same number of rows on each side, so somehow my gauge is screwy.  Does anyone have any idea how this can happen?

    The heel is fiddly anyways and it's somehow really hard for me to remember the pattern.  (It's only two rows!  But it's strange!)  I'm trusting that there is a good reason for this particular heel, and leaving it this way.  I figure that once it's on my foot, it'll stretch as needed and the crookedness won't matter.  But if I ever make this pattern again, you can bet that I will be using a different heel!

September 11, 2008

  • Sock Meme!

    From KTtheKCbride:

    When did you learn to knit socks? May of 2006

    What's the first sock you ever knit? A pair of ankle socks, with navy Caron Simply Soft, using the Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe.

    Favorite sock pattern? The Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe from Knitting Rules! It's a great jumping-off point for any yarn or stitch pattern you want to use.

    Favorite sock yarn? Oh man, it's impossible to pick. I loved the Regia I used on my Charade socks, and I love all of Dez's hand-dyed yarns, they are so beautiful.

    Favorite needle method? Double pointed needles is the only one I've ever used, and I like it, but I'm interested in trying others at some point, just for kicks.

    Favorite sock needles? Clover bamboo dpns.

    Who do you knit socks for? Just me so far. Maybe someday I'll knit socks for someone else, but I will have to love them a lot!

    How many pairs have you knitted to date? Four, and I have two pairs currently in progress.

    What's on your sock knitting to-do list? See Ravelry. Probably another simple pattern like Charade will be next. School's in, so nothing too challenging!

    What kind of socks do you like to knit -
    Striped? Yes, I love self-striping yarn! I have some from Germany that will knit up into inch-wide stripes, which will be neat!
    Colorwork? I'm not big on colorwork knitting in general, and really don't see it being fun on socks.
    Plain stockinette? Yes. Love this. No thinking required! And really shows off some yarns.
    Cabled? I haven't done any yet, but I think I would like them!
    Lace? See above.
    Anklets? Yes, because you don't need much yarn. And it's hot here, so they're more practical.
    Knee socks? Doubtful...not very practical down here!
    Solid colors? Yes, it's a great way to highlight stitch patterns.
    Bright & crazy? Yes!
    Faux-Fair Isle? See above colorwork comment.

    Tag a few sock knitters here: Anyone who wants to! =)

August 27, 2008

  • Preparedness.

    Apparently there's a hurricane coming.  (A-nother-one.  I'm sick of these.)  In addition to the standard emergency kit items, I have two crucial items that are not on most lists:

    Emergency Preparedness Kit

    1) Toilet paper.  That one's pretty self-explanatory, but yet not on many lists.
    2) Yarn, needles, patterns.  Duh.  Have you ever been to a Red Cross shelter?  I have.  They're boring.  So are zillion-hour car trips because the traffic is backed up.  So yarn, my friends, is mucho imporante!  I figure three balls of dishcloth cotton, a book of patterns, and dpns should last me awhile.  Plus I can always rip and re-knit. =)

    Luckily, we probably won't have to evacuate from BR.  But, if Gustav stays on course, New Orleans and surrounding areas will evacuate, and a lot of 'em will come here.  Thus the most important preparation is to make sure that you have enough stuff in your house and kitchen that you don't have to leave home for a week and a half.  No driving.  Certainly no shopping.  Staying at home. =)

August 26, 2008

  • Ravelympics Socks

    Charade Socks (22)

    Finished!  Hooray!  They are snug, but they fit, and I love 'em.  All the details are in Ravelry
    Hopefully they'll get a proper FO photoshoot (in the sun!) one of these
    days, but I wanted to take pics before the deadline, and we were in the
    middle of a Tropical Storm.  So they're a little dark, but hey, let's
    call it character. ;)

    Charade Socks

    I love this pattern.  If you're looking for an easy, but still somewhat non-boring sock pattern, I highly recommend Charade.  I might make 'em again with a solid or semi-solid yarn.  It would be a whole different look! =)