Tuesday, January 31, 2012

New Monster Book!

Today, I got my new monster pattern book, More KnitWits.  It looks awesome!!  There are 3 patterns I know I want to knit right away:  Brody, Tony, and Pablo.  Brody is a green monster with horns who wanted to be an astronaut, Tony is a Baldwin-like monster who likes to talk, and Pablo is a bull.  My nephew wants me to knit the shark and fish combo, too.  I can't wait to try out these new patterns.  The monsters/critters in this book are knit from the top down it seems like, so that will be a change from Danger patterns.  They also have more felt accents, and are just as totally cute. 

Otherwise knitting, I sent out Giving Tony today.  Better picture here:

I also sent out my swap package, yay!  Can't post that picture, yet, though.  Shhhhhhhhh.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Monster Giving

I just joined the group Random Acts of Monsters on Ravelry, and now I've knitted my first monster to give away.  Meet my Giving Tony:





Not the greatest quality photo, but you get the idea.  Giving Tony is for a young cancer patient.  I hope Giving Tony gives him lots of love and strength.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

New Hiyas!

I just got my new interchangeable needle set in the mail the other day, and I broke them out to knit this morning.  I got the new Hiya Hiya sharps, small size set, 5" stainless steel tips.  Wow.  They are awesome so far!! 
First, they came in a beautiful silk case, unlike the cheap plastic zipper pouch my KP Harmonies came in.  The case has nice design features, like a Velcro flap over the needle holders, so you can open and close it, but the needles are still protect by an extra layer of fabric.  There are 2 zipper compartments; 1 for the needle cords and 1 for the rubber grippies that tighten the screws. 
As far as the needles themselves are concerned, I love how flexible the cords are.  The cords for the interchangeable set are the exact same flexible clear cords that Hiya uses for the fixed circulars.  Since I use the magic loop method a lot, these cords are great!  I also like the nice, sharp points.  I'm knitting a lace sock with the size 2, and the tips are perfect for the yarn.  I think these are going to be great.  I still like my Harmonies, but these Sharps are really nice.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Dizzy Knitting

AKA What I Hate About Picking Up Stitches for the Instep of Socks

So I've made it to the instep part of my second sock in my DDD Life is Sweet Plain Janes.  Plain Janes are what I call socks with ribbing on the top of the foot, 'cause they're not just plain vanilla.  Anyway, now I have to pick up all of those stitches, which I hate.  I can never figure out if I'm doing it the way you're supposed to do it.  I always pick up under both loops and twist the stitches so there aren't huge gaps, but it looks weird.  Well, it looks weird any way you do it.  I also have a cold, and cold/sinus meds do not work well with knitting, it seems. 

Along with my stitch-picking-up, I have had to tink and reknit multiple portions of my mom's seaweed scarf, which she managed to mangle twice in the ruffle so far.  I have no patience for this.  Thank goodness I don't teach knitting.