sophy's knits, notes, etc.

hurrah it's a new year! today i shall be my most boring and spend the day reading, knitting, and hrm... writing this post!

no resolutions here; no discussions of goals and plans. nope. instead, i am posting some corrections and changes to patterns:

herringbone tweed hat

those of you who have seen the ravelry pattern page should already know that i updated the notes to include the following:

Chart A and B crown shaping charts are wrong; they have 2 more stitches than they should. The correction: for each row, the two edge stitches ( left and right) should not be there; and the decreases should be done on the next stitch in.

I will update the PDF file asap.

friendship fingerless mitts

this is not so much a correction... since there's nothing wrong with the pattern. after knitting 2.5 pairs of these, i think this change will just look nicer. so when picking up stitches for the thumb, instead of picking up the first stitch from the bottom of the purl seam, pick up the first stitch next to the purl seam; you should end with two stitches picked up purlwise:

thumb, option 2
divide the sts on waste yarn among 3 dpns. attach yarn.

rnd 1: from between the purl seam and the first dpn, pick up 1 st kwise, k5 (6, 7), p1, k5 (6, 7), pick up 1 st kwise, pick up 2 sts pwise (these 2 sts are picked from the loops under the caston st that became the purl seam). 15(17,19) sts total.

rnd 2: pm for beginning of rnd, k6 (7, 8), p1, k6 (7, 8), p2tog.

rnd 3-6: k6 (7, 8), p1, k6 (7, 8) p1.

rnd 7: BO all sts.

I bound off k sts kwise and p sts pwise.

now, i'm off to finish the last 0.5 pair!

it wasn't that long ago when i wrote about my first 100 blog entries. yet, i've been at a loss these last few days to think of something interesting to write about my last 100 posts.

i guess some stats are always nice? so let's see, in the past 8 months, i've:

• joined ravelry and twitter.
• finished 17 projects, 5 of which were cat sweaters.
• finished my husband's sweater vest (at last).
• posted 6 original knitting patterns written in my own LaTeX template.
• changed my blog layout no less than twice.
• attended my first Stitches West with Hilary and Erica.

not too bad, right?

of course, one of the biggest milestones for me, other than finishing Adam's vest, was that i knitted my first pair of socks, although they were simple and somewhat chunky. now, i'm knitting many pairs on size 0 (2 mm) needles:

is it cheating when they're baby socks?

i dare you to resist the cuteness.

to begin my next hundred posts, i'll share with you these mini projects. and, hopefully, soon after, i'll have finished cardigans and sweaters to write about (namely, the tangled yoke cardigan and flicca coat). i've overcome the aversions to knitting for husband and knitting socks, now i must work on the knitting long sleeves...

I'm gonna do it. I am. I mean it. (This is where Adam chimes in, "What is she talking about now?!")

Clockwise from left: Silky wool yarn, lace-leaf pullover sleeve,
dragon scale cat sweater, Adam's silky wool sweater vest.

While I sat at my desk in my craft room (Ahem, second bedroom), I noticed this: old and current projects strewn across our futon. And, really, I just thought, "Yikes. I need to finish these." Really, my craft room is littered with unfinished projects... Not cute.

So, I will finish them. Before I begin new projects (well, with one exception), I will clear out all the projects that are currently on the needles and take old projects off the shelf and finish them (or frog them and be done with it).

Oh and the one exception? Well, it's really more like 3-4... more cat sweaters. While I was in Boston, MA, my friend bought some super luxurious yarns for her kitty's sweaters:

From left: Angora by Prism Yarn (2), Louisa Harding's Kashmir Aran (2)
and Kimono Angora (3), and Misti Alpaca Worsted 4ply (2).

Before anything else, I want to get these sweaters done. And afterwards... I don't think I'll knit another kitty sweater again. Ever. haha.

I really think 2008 will be a great year--many changes in store. I have a few goals, too--and not all knitting related. But, I'll save that for another post.

Happy New Year!

When I started this blog in November 2006, I had no idea I would actually have so much to write and especially on the topic of my knitting. In fact, I named this blog "knits, notes, etc." to cover the likelihood that I wouldn't have much in the way of Knitting Narratives to relate to my readers. I didn't want visitors to feel cheated if they stopped by and found posts about every other topic under the sun.

"It's not just about knits, see! There're also notes and et ceteras, too!"

Now, even the notes have been overtaken by the knits! I've recently added subcategories: Design Notes, Pattern Notes, and Projects Notes for posts about design ideas, instructions for original patterns, and my thoughts on finished projects. In fact, I've made many modifications in the last few months. I've become quite obsessed with getting this blog to look just the way I want it—A far cry from the many months in the beginning when I didn't touch the layout and left it with the default settings.

Along the course of these 100 posts, I have completed:

• 16 knitting projects
• 1 crocheted project
• 2 original instructions

For the next 100, perhaps you'll see more of the same. I do have quite a queue to get through!

Thanks for reading. ^_^