Knitting a Multicolored Vest2

I worked on my knitted vest last night. I'm finally on the first shoulder strap. I can't wait to get enough along to try it on. I sure hope I made it big enough. If not, I'll sell it, but I'd rather wear it.

Knitting a Multicolored Vest

I've been busy knitting away on a heavy duty vest in many colors. It's so fun to knit in a riot of colors on big needles.  Truly loving it. I'm about to the point where I can add the arm holes. The back and sides are knit all as one unit.

And I already bought some white and off white yarn to make another one.  But I'm going to cut back to 3 yarns held together instead of 4, because I don't need 2 heavy vests.

Fan and Feather Socks

What's up with me and wanting to knit socks? I just got another book of sock patterns.  I'm making feather and fan socks. I'm about on row 8 of the first sock.  Once I get something worth looking at I'll add photos.

How to Increase on a Purl Row

I need this for the hat I'm designing. http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-increase-on-a-purl-row  It's a cable hat and the only way I can think of to add increases without messing up the cable structure is to increase in the purl sections of the hat.

Not Knitting

I was hoping to meet my friend Carol at a knitting meeting last night, but then the day dragged on, rain was forecast, and my mood went south for the winter. So I missed it. I hope she had fun. I think they only meet once a month so I may have to wait a long while to go back.

Switching Yarn and Needles

I've been thinking I should just go get the right size circular needles for the tammy and start over because it's too much work to make a hat just for practice. That, and one of the cables on the cheapo needles I had broke yesterday. I just hope Joann's has the right size today. I may switch the yarn as well. I don't like how the Caron yarn keeps coming un-plied. I think I will switch to Woolease instead and it's on sale today 2 for $5.00 and I already have 4 skeins of it. This hat takes 8 colors, and I only have 3, so I'll need to pick 5 more colors.  There goes the ole budget. Yarn is never wasted though.

More Fair Isle Knitting

Every knitter wants to be a better knitter.  I'm no exception so I just bought a book on Fair Isle Knitting. To get my feet wet I'm making the smallest item in it, which is a tam. So I cast on 140 stitches, and did the first row and a half, then realized I'd done it wrong, and ripped the whole thing out. I'd never heard of corrugated ribbing before, so I found it in the index, and realized I'd done it wrong and started over. And thought I bought 5 colors, I see now I didn't buy enough. So I'll go as far as I can with the colors I have, and pick up a few more colors next time my craft budget allows. I probably have 2 more rows of ribbing to go before I can start on the main hat section..

Voyager's Cap

I need to knit a voyager's cap. Also known as a liberty cap. There is a certain someone who wants one and his birthday is coming up in January so shhhhhh.

The Mitered Blanket & My Knitted Scarf Tutorial

This project intriques me: http://www.shellykang.com/all-about-the-blankie. I might have to give it a try and use up some of this yarn before it strangles me in my sleep. I'm not sure I have all that much sock weight yarn sitting around though, and if I did, wouldn't I be knitting socks out of it?

And speaking of socks, I just bought a booklet called Patons Stretch Socks Sweet to Your Feet, but the yarn is so expensive I haven't bought it yet. I don't really need a $16 pair of socks, that I have to make myself. But if I am judicious with my 40% off coupons from Joann's I might get some of the yarn called for in the book by Patons.

I finished my scarf tutorial today but didn't get it sent to the editor in time. The three hour time difference is killing me. About the time I get in full stride they are closing and going home for the night. Still, I hung in there and got the file sent to them. They'll just have to deal with it on Monday morning. At least it's off my plate for now.

Another FIrst

Yay! AllFreeKnitting  is up and running and the editor said I'm the first tutorial on their channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/AllFreeKnitting So drop by and watch my 'How to Purl" video. I'm sure they'll have more tutorials up soon. I'm sending them another one today for a holiday scarf.

All Free Knitting Dot Com

The people at AllFreeKnitting.com have offered to sponsor my knitting videos, so now I hope to be making two videos a week. I'm so excited. They've already approved my list of projects. They want a few technique tutorials first though. So if you are just learning how to knit I hope you'll follow my blog because I'll be embedding those tutorials here too for my readers.

It's a win win situation. I drive traffic to their site and they drive traffic to mine. They pay me a small bit to do that, so it helps me to keep going as an artist. Youtube is wonderful in that way. And because someone is actually expecting me to make tutorials, I'm much more motivated to make them and design new projects.  And then I have to finish more projects too, because what good is a tutorial if they don't teach you how to finish the project?

They are also interested in knitting loom tutorials, and I've had a lot of requests for those in the last three years. So if that's your interest, please find my loom knitting blog and follow that one as well. There are only so many hours in the day, so I don't have time to embed every tutorial everywhere, but I'll give you all a heads up as time allows.

Hat and Photo Props

I'm making a bunch of hats and baby cocoons and other photo props for my daughter's new photo studio. It's right in downtown San Luis Obispo, CA. We are all so excited for her! And she is also expecting, so she'll get to try out all the props on her son.

I'm making a striped long tailed pirate hat for babies right now in black and white. I've always loved black and white together. I don't know why I don't do more things in black and white. I used to be a mime...you'd think I'd have tons of black and white items.

Vampire Mitts

I'm working on a pair of blood red, almost brown vampire mitts (fingerless gloves).
I started off with casting on 48 and then doing 2x2 ribbing for 15 rows. Then I switched to stockinette stitch. The needles are size 7. If the pattern comes out I'll list it for sale in my Etsy shop.

Muliticolor Wrap

I just started knitting a multicolor wrap in the Kaffee style. There are 9 colors in the first row alone! I'm good for about 3 rows and then I need to uncross my fingers and my eyes. I need to rummage through my stash and find 3 or 4 more colors. I'd love to add a turquoise and an olive or light green.

Right now is the cool time of day in my backyard, so I'm going to take my knitting out there.

Comments and Spammers

Because of one very relentless comment spammer, I've now turned off comments. If you want to contact me you can email me at pigglewiggins at gmail dot com or look for me on Ravelry under the knitabitofmagic name. Someday that spammer will get a clue and go away, and then I can put my blog back to comment mode.

Catnap

Gee I wonder why my yarn bag is on the floor. Gee I wonder where my cat is.

Cat v Wool

Since I'm on this new year long project to only wear things I've made, embellished or repurposed, I need to knit myself some socks. Though I have knitted socks in the past I think I gave all those away or wore them out. So today I got some sock yarn.

I also got some wool for felting. When we got home from the store I left the bag on the couch, and went out to the garage to put in some laundry. So that took ten minutes tops. I came in to find my cat had pulled the only ball of wool yarn out of the bag. He had already gotten the band off of it. And he was now proceeding to put himself into the middle of the ball of yarn one loop at a time. So after my boyfriend unwrapped the cat, I put the yarn up on a high shelf.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get started on those socks.

Yellow Confetti Sweater

Since I'm on a quest to finish lost projects, I thought it was high time I finished my yellow confetti sweater. So I got it out of the bucket and it's sitting here as I stitch it up. I've done the shoulder seams so far. I still have to set in the sleeves, sew the side seams and weave in all the ends. I'm trying to figure out if I have anything else I can wear with it. I want to put together an outfit for the Fatshionista Flickr pool I'm in. That site has put the fun back into planning my wardrobe.

Update: I'm all done and it fits me. If I make another one I'll add even more length to the sleeves and make it a little less snug. But considering I started it in Dec. of 2008, and I've gained some weight, I'm lucky it fits at all. Which is another reason to finish projects in a timely manner, so you don't outgrow them before they are done.

Skinny Black Knitted Fashion Scarf

I love knitting long skinny scarves. I found this one I'd already finished so I listed it on Etsy. I have some big bags of projects I just dragged out to the patio to sort. In one there are 2 tychus hats that need to be finished, and a pumpkin hat and a gob of other things. So I better get back out there and make some progress before it gets dark.

Ponchini or Capelet in Covered Bridge Red

Yesterday I started making a ponchini/capelet thing out of Homespun yarn that I got off the free table at the All Things String knitting event at El Dorado Park. I knitted like a mad woman until 2 AM and finally had to call it a night. I think I can finish it in two more rows, only now I'm thinking a black border would look nice and I don't know where any black yarn is off the top of my head. So do I finish it right away, thus assuring it gets done and doesn't fall into the project black hole, or do I shelve it until I can find some black yarn in this mess I call home?