Happy New Year!

Is anyone else having trouble with Ravelry?  I notice that there are some new features, but things such as searches, adding favorites, project progress, adding needles/store info to a project, organizing sets/tags, and my inbox are not working properly.  It's a little frustrating.  I have come to rely on Ravelry a great deal.
 ETA: It seems that i needed to clear my cache.  That is what their help/faq advised and it worked.

I didn't knit as much in 2011 as the two previous years.  I tried knitting my last semester in college for stress relief but it didn't work out past the first couple of weeks of classes.  There were many projects that i was dreaming of but didn't have the money to buy the yarn for.  Now those dreams have changed a little.

What has been an improvement of sorts is that i am now teaching knitting.  The first semester was craziness with the younger kids (who were mostly too young, so i am going to teach an Intro to Needlearts class now with more crafty objectives) and all of my classes shrank before the end of the semester.  I have high hopes for the semester starting in a couple of weeks however!

State of Knitting 2011
new projects
Sky Slippers (still incomplete)
Cloudy Giselle (for my sister using Giselle pattern again...about halfway finished)
Autumn Leaves (frogged)
Star-Crossed Slouchy Beret (frogged)
Braidy (probably soon to be frogged)

older UFOs (that i hope to return to soon)
Starfish Snood
Funky Grunge Cap
Slip-Stitch Baby Cardigan
Mom's Sampler Afghan
and the Liberty Cap

Oh, btw, i do still intend to write an update about my hammock.  I lost my camera's battery and only recently found it again (which was such a relief, let me tell you!).  I also have plans to blog more often this year.  My goal is to finish old projects and learn how to spin this year.  Here's hoping...

the newest development on Dashing Evi

i’m tired of trying to improvise a perfect pattern. i’m going to make a go of following the pattern for Dashing as closely as possible, while using the Evangeline chart only for the back of the hand. i don’t know how many times i’ve cast on for this project, but i really don’t want to do it anymore.

The knitillating history of Fetching/Dashing Evi of Broadstreet

1/27 ~ So i actually knitted a swatch for this (twice), and it turned out that for the pattern's gauge i will probably need to use needles in size 1 1/2... but i'm using size 2 and will have 24 sts per 4" instead of 20. i decided to have the cuff come to mid-forearm, where my arm measures 10" in circumference. As it turns out, since i have big bones and am overweight, i can't cast on 40 like the pattern calls for. i figured out that according to gauge i need to cast on 64 sts and will gradually decrease to 44 at my wrist. So i'm still using 16 sts of pattern, but have 48 sts divided evenly on my other two needles (24 sts on each). i also plan to create a gusset and add some interest inspired by Fetching. To cast on i also used the long tail method for the first time, which as it turns out is super easy, but when my Grandma tried to explain it to me some 15-17 years ago made absolutely no sense. Now i think i'll use it every time.

1/28 ~ i guess i'll go with the convertible mittens that i've been meaning to do for forever: i'll use Broad Street Mittens as a guide. So far, i am ready for round 10 and to start the cable pattern. In round five i did a cable round like in the Fetching pattern once (instead of repeating it 3 times on the wrist, i just did it once, and because i don't have a knit 4, p1, repeat going on i slip 2 k sts, hold to front, p2, k2 off cable needle). And because i'm backwards and contrary i'm knitting the right mitten first, which is mostly because i plan to reverse the Evangeline cable pattern on the left mitten so that the cables cross the same way i do up my sneakers (outside laces on top). Yes, i know i'm anal.

1/30 ~ After a false start with runaway cables on the inner wrist, i have cast back on and knitted to the wrist. i dropped a purl st once and had to undo 3 rows worth of cable pattern to fix my mistake. ): Luckily i saw a video on YouTube the other night that showed me an easy way to quickly un-knit. As it turns out, i accidentally repeated row 5 on my second repeat, but i liked the way it looked so i did it for my fourth repeat as well. i've been decreasing 3 sts every 5 rows and now have 46 sts on the needles: i plan to dec 2 more sts at the inner wrist and start the thumb gusset next.

2/4 ~ The thumb on my first mitten is complete and i am getting ready to knit the pinky next, but i have to do a couple more rows of pattern first. After the pinky, of course, comes the ring, middle, and index fingers, then the convertible part. The crazy thing is that the palm is baggy but i cannot extract my hand from the current slot. i do not think that i'll have enough yard to actually knit the fingers up properly, but i'm not sure. i plan to rotate the thumb decreases 90 degrees. i feel a bit embarrassed when i hit walls like this in my knitting. So far i'm not entirely impressed with this yarn, the gauge seems just a little loose, but i'm hoping that it will work well on the slopes once i complete the project.

2/19 ~ i have been really unhappy with this project for over a week now. The cables look awesome, but the thumb gusset it in the wrong place, and i don't like the way the ribs look on the wrist. As much as i hate to do it, i think that i'm going to be taking out the right mitten and start over on it, but probably not before knitting up the left mitten so i can use it for a guide to see where my improvisations went wrong.

10/12 ~ Cast on again (frogged this long ago), this time 40 sts and not intending the wrist / forearm section to be as long, and basing the design on Dashing so far.

10/13 ~ Round 12: Dec 2 sts, once on each side of wrist (opposite each other), by turning 4th k st in rib pat, then placing it back on left needle. Knit k and p st tog tbl.
Round 16: Cable over same place as decreases (4 over 4, LT for right hand).
Round 20: Cable over inner wrist (first quarter), increase 5 sts on back of hand to beg Evi cable pattern, put incs back in between k4 ribs, and inc 1 more st to begin thumb. Cont. working cable section and inc 1 st for thumb each row.

hitting a wall with Evi ):

i have been really unhappy with this project for over a week now. The cables look awesome, but the thumb gusset it in the wrong place, and i don't like the way the ribs look on the wrist. As much as i hate to do it, i think that i'm going to be taking out the right mitten and start over on it, but probably not before knitting up the left mitten so i can use it for a guide to see where my improvisations went wrong. The crazy thing is that the palm is baggy but i cannot extract my hand from the current slot. i do not think that i'll have enough yard to actually knit the fingers up properly, but i'm not sure. i plan to rotate the thumb decreases 90 degrees. i feel a bit embarrassed when i hit walls like this in my knitting. So far i'm not entirely impressed with this yarn, the gauge seems just a little loose, but i'm hoping that it will work well on the slopes once i complete the project.

progressing on Evi

After a false start with runaway cables on the inner wrist, i have cast back on and knitted to the wrist. i dropped a purl st once and had to undo 3 rows worth of cable pattern to fix my mistake. ): Luckily i saw a video on YouTube the other night that showed me an easy way to quickly un-knit my mistake. As it turns out, i accidentally repeated row 5 on my second repeat, but i liked the way it looked so i did it for my fourth repeat as well. i've been decreasing 3 sts every 5 rows and now have 46 sts on the needles: i plan to dec 2 more sts at the inner wrist and start the thumb gusset next. i wish i had the energy to do so now, but i'm really tired and need to get some sleep cuz i have class in the morning.

Evi update

i guess i'll go with the convertible mittens that i've been meaning to do for forever: i'll use Broad Street Mittens as a guide. So far, i am ready for round 11 and to start the cable pattern. In round five i did a cable round like in the Fetching pattern once (instead of repeating it 3 times on the wrist, i just did it once, and because i don't have a knit 4, p1, repeat going on i slip 2 k sts, hold to front, p2, k2 off cable needle). And because i'm backwards and contrary i'm knitting the right mitten first, which is mostly because i plan to reverse the Evangeline cable pattern on the left mitten so that the cables cross the same way i do up my sneakers (outside laces on top). Yes, i know i'm anal.

Casting on Evangeline!

So i actually knitted a swatch for this (twice), and it turned out that for the pattern's gauge i probably need to use needles in size 1 1/2... but i’m using size 2 and will have 24 sts per 4” instead of 20. i decided to have the cuff come to mid-forearm, where my arm measures 10” in circumference. As it turns out, since i have big bones and am overweight, i can’t cast on 40 like the pattern calls for. i figured out that according to gauge i need to cast on 64 sts and will gradually decrease to 44 at my wrist. So i’m still using 16 sts of pattern, but have 48 sts divided evenly on my other two needles (24 sts on each). i also plan to create a gusset and add some interest inspired by Fetching. To cast on i also used the long tail method for the first time, which as it turns out is super easy, but when my Grandma tried to explain it to me some 15-17 years ago made absolutely no sense. Now i think i’ll use it every time.

brinna's beanie bupdate

ha ha ha, i'm so witty that i amaze myself d:

I'm doing this cable pattern for Brinna's hat using size 10 1/2 needles. It's a rectangle that will wrap around, i'll add the cap and brim afterwards with size 10 circular or dpn. So far i've done the chart twice; i'll have to do it twice more to reach around her head. Hopefully i'll have some pics soon.

Btw, i love this hoodie and may have to buy the pattern. I'm planning to knit my hat with size 8 circulars which will be a much tighter stitch.

beanie visor

The newest knitting project i'm going to take on is some beanie visors. I can't find patterns for them anywhere on the internet so i'm going to have to modify beanie patterns and add the visor. I'm going to knit one for Megan with celtic cables and i think mine is going to be double knit with a wing pattern. We're using craft foam for the visor that's probably about four millimeters thick. Both of these hats are meant to match our new snowboards and will be quick to knit up because we've purchased Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Claret for her and Sky Blue and Charcoal for me. I'm sure we'll have plenty left over for mittens or scarves, etc.

I plan to make more than one beanie visor this winter. My inspiration was a Fox beanie visor at PacSun but the whole collection is lovely but expensive. Our projects are quite a bit cheaper.