I sorta know how to spin now. That’s some Louet Blue-Faced Leicester that I dyed with my knitpicks dye. I actually dyed this during the summer, and then divided it lengthwise into 16 parts. I’ve spun 4 of those thus far (but I hadn’t spun that much when I took that picture).

This is what it looked like after I dyed it.

Sometime shortly after my last real post, I found two knitting books that my mom had. One was The Country Diary Book of Knitting and the other was Knitting in the Old Way. It’s funny, because I had considered buying Knitting in the Old Way, and now I don’t have to. I found a pattern in the first book for a toy mouse with trousers and sweater. It was pretty adorable, so I decided to make it for my mentee. Except I hadn’t met her at the time, so I wanted to wait to see how old she was first. After meeting her, I cast on for her mouse and didn’t finish it until practically the last-minute. So I didn’t get many good pictures, but here’s one.

I used a less than a skein of white Caron Simply Soft Eco for the body, some leftover Simply Soft from a sweater vest that I knit on my machine for the pants, and Red Heart for the shirt. I made my mentee a scarf on my machine, and I used what was left of the skein for the shirt. However, I ran out of yarn, so I had to make the top striped. It reminds me of Charlie Brown for some reason.

At the beginning of this month, it frosted over night so I took some pictures. I have none of the frost to show you, because my flikr is getting full, but I did take some pictures of my pea coat and Ripley hat in action.

I do love that hat. It’s my favorite. I won’t need to make another hat ever as long as I have that one. But I probably will since I like making hats. And no, I didn’t brush my hair before I took that. What? I was in a hurry; I had to take pictures of the frost before it disappeared. I didn’t have time to take care of silly things like brushing my hair. Speaking of hair, I got it cut today.

Well, that’s all the pictures that I have for now. Have a very merry Christmas in case I’m not back before then, and be safe and stay warm.

Hi. I’ve been busy during the past almost two months. I went on vacation, my wireless internet broke, I went on the SOC retreat, and I’ve been busy with school and volunteering. I’ve taken a lot of pretty pictures, but since flickr is being slow I haven’t uploaded many of them. I’m almost finished with the Dad’s second sock, but it’s on hold right now until I get my Christmas knitting out of the way. I need to make a pair of mittens for Mom, but first I need to finish my mentee’s present. It’s adorable, but I’m not quite done yet. I’ll take lots of pictures and show it when I’m done. Which needs to be soon since the Christmas party is next Saturday. Well, that’s all for now. I’ll try to have a real post in maybe a week or so, maybe later.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. This is why my blog’s called “Lazy Ka-nitting,” not “Productive Ka-nitting.” Although, my knitting has been kinda productive as of late.

I started a pair of socks towards the beginning of the semester, and I finished them last week. Here are some tiny pictures of them. I didn’t even know I was able to do this until just now. The pattern is LaceAnklets. I only did 15 rows of the cuff, instead of 25, because I only had one skein of this yarn and I didn’t want to run out of yarn.

A little while back, I bought Whimsical Little Knits and cast on for Ripleyshortly thereafter. I used two strands of Patons Wool and size 8 needles. The fabric was kinda stiff and slightly smaller than gauge, but I didn’t really care because I wanted it to be really warm and big for wearing in the cold, cold winter. Thing is, I had slightly less than one skein, and it turns out that that isn’t enough to make the slouchy size hat. In fact, it didn’t seem like enough to even finish the regular size. So I looked for the gauge swatch that I made for these socks and unraveled it. That gave me enough to finish it up slightly modified. I had to knit fewer rows and I changed the decreases a little bit, but it ended up looking okay.

After I finished the aforementioned hat, I started a hat for Mumsie for her birthday. I used the cables form a sweater pattern that she wants me to make for her eventually. It turned out okay, but I had some difficulty decreasing at the top. I’d show you pictures, but since Mom reads this blog, and her birthday isn’t until next week, and she wants it to be a surprise, I’ll wait.

Here’s the scarf that I started knitting a few days before classes started.

I started another scarf last week because I didn’t think that the scarf above would last long enough to knit on the way to Nashville and back. I’ve knit a little less than one skein of Soy Wool Stripes, and I have four skeins, so I’m almost a fourth of the way done.

I’m also making a pair of socks for Dad. The pattern said to use this wierd cast on that I looked confusing, so I used the short row toe from this pattern instead. I’ve knit 21 rows past the toe, and I’m probably going to need to knit around 40 before I start increasing for the gusset.

I bought two skeins of Malabridgo Chunky last week (on sale for half off, I might add). I’m not really sure what I should make with it though. I was thinking of making another Ripley, and I might still do that, but then I’d have one skein left over. I was also thinking of making a pair of Bella’s Mittens, but I’m not sure how the crazy colors (yellow and pink) would look in that pattern. I also bought some Cascade Alpaca Lace that I plan to hold double and use for a pair of Veyla.

Well, I don’t have anything else to say, so enjoy the pictures!

Well, school’s not too bad. Precal’s a little iffy, and Chemistry’s horrible, but overall the semester’s didn’t start out too bad. Except that I got sick last Wednesday and missed two cookouts, church, $3 Thursday, and my Chemistry lab that possibly didn’t meet since it was the first week. I couldn’t really tell if I had a cold or just sinus troubles. I was feeling better by Friday, and I went to my classes, but I kept my kleenexes and hand sanitizer handy so that I wouldn’t make anyone else sick. Chemistry was a foreign language that day, and reading the book now isn’t helping much. I went to the bookstore to buy the solution manuel, but they didn’t have any so I ordered it. The bad thing about that is that I won’t be able to understand anything until the end of the week.

Last weekend was nice. I visited some relatives on Saturday and went to the SOC all-nighter on Sunday. It was fun.

Like:

• Warm socks
• Quick knitting projects
• A four day weekend
• Life, for the most part, in general

Dislike:

• Chemistry
• Being sick
• Dobby dying in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

This is my need-to-post-something-before-classes-start post. I finished knitting my asymmetrical jacket last Saturday, and I sewed on the buttons on Tuesday. The bigger side is longer, probably due to the fact that it is heavier.

 I didn’t have enough yarn to make it nice and long, but that’s okay. Here are some more pictures of it; they’re kinda blurry and off center so I didn’t feel like posting all of them.

I started a scarf the other day. I plan on working on it tomorrow during the down time that I’ll have.

I’m almost finished with my glove. I have less than one finger left, and I plan to finish it today.

I sewed one pocket onto my pea coat, and I’ll sew on the other pocket later on today if I have time.

I cleaned about 1/5 of my room in the past week. I actually have a floor! And it’s very nice being able to walk from my bed to the door without having to step on anything.

I’m going to start something today that I hope to continue on a weekly basis (or maybe postly basis. I like that word. Postly.). I’ll list a certain number of things that I like and then list fewer things that I don’t like. So here goes.

Like:

• Fleetwood Mac
• Postly
• Being able to walk from my bed to my door without having to step on anything.
• ” ‘Master Malfoy moves with a nobility that befits his pure blood’ croaked Kreacher at once. ‘His features recall the fine bones of my mistress and his manners are those of-” *

Dislike

• Having to start classes back up tomorrow.

*Rowling, JK. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, p. 451. (My citation skills are a little rusty).

Well, next time I post I will be back in the swing of fifteen credit hours of classes.

I am, for the most part, finished with my pea coat. I just need to sew on the pockets.

It’s warm, or at least it is when it’s 90 degrees outside. I’d like to hope that it’ll be warm in the winter as well.

The sleeves are too short, but that’s okay; I’ll just not fold them up. I think it turned out rather well for a garment of such magnitude, and I’m not the only one that thinks so.

I entered it in the fair, and it won (drum roll please) 1st place in its category and Best of Show for the knitted and crocheted stuff! Which won me $18. I also entered Dad’s sweater and it won 3rd place for its category, which won me $4. I also entered a hat and scarf that I made for Mom, but they didn’t win.

I had my wisdom teeth removed on Friday. It wasn’t so bad. The nurse gave me the laughing gas, but I didn’t feel any different. Then she put on monitors for blood pressure, pulse, and oxygen levels. I felt the blood pressure machine constrict, then I started counted the beeping noise that I was hearing. Then she put a tourniquet on my arm and then put the IV in, which hurt. After that, I remember the blood pressure machine constricting once more, then the next thing I remember doing was saying that I was cold. So, overall, the surgery wasn’t bat. Recovery is what stinks. My mouth still kinda hurts (it’s going in between discomfort and low pain), and I’m still not able to eat anything harder than macaroni. When I got home on Friday, I asked for the yarn that I had set aside on Thursday for me to use post-op. I cast on 24 stitches and kinda knitted one-handed for a little while; my arm still hurt from the IV, so the only thing I could do with my right hand was hold the needle. I knitted in plain garter stitch when I wasn’t holding ice packs to my face and while watching TV. I continued to knit on Saturday, and by noon(ish) on Sunday, I was finished.

It’s pretty, even though it’s just a tad bit tight. I really like the hodgepodge of buttons.

The yarn is this discontinued stuff called Icelandic Jewels that I got at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents in my sophomore year.

You can’t really tell, but I used sewing thread to sew on the buttons. I think I did a fairly good job matching the color.

I just love this last picture. I makes me look so goofy. It was unintentional, but that’s part of the reason why I like it so much.

I started a jacket. I’m a few inches past where I split for the arms, but this is the most recent picture that I have.

So, when I last posted, I mentioned that I was looking for a pattern for a hat that isn’t stupid looking and that keeps my ears warm. Well…

…I made one. I was watching Twilight last week, and I noticed the hat that she was wearing in the scene where she went to the beach. I knew that it was a crocheted hat, because I had seen a pattern on ravelry that was based on the hat in the movie, and it was crocheted. Well, I don’t know how to crochet, but I liked the hat, and I thought to myself, “that looks kinda like seed stitch. And I could do i-cords to separate the sections…”

So I did a gauge swatch, and I was off. I made it in three days, but the first day I started at night and I only did a few rows, and the third day I only did some finishing, so I probably could have done it in two days, maybe even one, if I did nothing else all day. Anyway, this hat has 6 sections of seed stitch separated by 2 stockinette stitches. I made 4 short rows, I think, over the back 4 sections, to make it longer in the back. To separate the bottom and middle from the top, I purled one row, with the intent of putting an i-cord there later.

I only did the I cord on the purl ridge separating the bottom from the middle, because it was tight and time consuming. I did a crochet chain (I think, I used a crochet hook to do it, whether or not it’s actually a crochet stitch is debatable) around the bottom and to separate the middle section from the top section. The i-cord, although tight, provides a good handle for pulling it down over my ears, which is handy.

I used this really pretty blue-green color of Reynolds Lopi that I only got a few weeks ago (who said that I have yarn sitting stagnant in my room, huh? I can use yarn quickly) and some mystery yarn that I used in conjunction with my first ever mittens (which, incidentally, I used Reynolds Lopi for those too). The mystery yarn is either Kidsilk Haze or Kid Seta. Either way, it’s lace weight, 70% mohair, 30% silk,25 grams, and 229-230 yards. I put that I used Kidsilk Haze on Ravelry, but, after looking at both yarns on Ravelry, I’m starting to think that it’s Kid Seta. Its label looks more familiar. Anyway, As it turns out, there was already a knitted pattern for this hat, but I didn’t use it. I guess that this is one example of great minds thinking alike.

All that I have left to knit on my pea coat is the right front. I’ve knit just past the first buttonhole. Thing is, Quigley just ate some of the yarn to it, because I left her in here unsupervised, for about five minutes (she was asleep when I left, but clearly, she wasn’t when I got back).

Anyway, that doesn’t really matter; I can just reattach the yarn. I’m just a tad worried about Quigley; that can’t be good for her, and I feel guilty when she gets her paws on some yarn. I seamed up the left side after I finished the left front. It looks fairly decent, although, when I was setting in the sleeves, I ran out of sleeve decreases long before I ran out of armhole decreases.

Which really stinks, even thought I kinda fixed it (I just seamed up the remaining armhole decreases with the straight sections of the sleeve) because I knit everything properly. How on earth did that happen? Is it supposed to be like that? The result of this is that I will never knit a pieced garment ever again. Seams are stupid anyway. And raglan sweaters just make more sense.

I finished my first glove the other day. The fingers weren’t really hard, but it was annoying keeping track of new charts and how many stitches I picked up, how many rows, ect. It’s a little bit tight. I hope to have the second glove and my pea coat finished before school starts.

I want to knit this sweater when I get my pea coat finished. I think I’ll try to keep my number of serious projects down to no more than three from now on. I can do one thing in sock yarn, one sweater, and maybe one other thing if I so desire. I’ll be making a pair of socks for dad whenever I finish the second glove.

Not that I’m looking forward to it or anything, but the fall semester starts in 7 weeks. That is officially shorter than all the other summers in my lfietime, except the time in 5th grade when they were building a new school and school didn’t start until September 11th (THE September 11th. Eecellent timing, school board.) But anyway, I decided that I should quit lazing around and start preparing for school. I’m going to make a list of things that I should do, and you, my friends, get to read it. If you want to, that is. You could just skip it and say “Nice list!”

• Clean out my binders from last semester and put the important stuff in folders.
• Clean out my backpack and car, so that I won’t be starting the semester off messily.
• Get my hair cut. This should be done beore my smart card expires. I know that this has nothing to do with school, but I’m putting it on my list anyway.
• Review chapters 1-10 of chemistry, so that I won’t be entirely lost when I start 1120. Which, I’ll just say that I’m scared about that class.
• Attempt to learn a few chapters of the last half of the chemistry book, so that I *might* be able to be even less lost in 1120. Doubtful, but I can dream, can’t I?
• Review what few notes I kept from high school pre-cal, so that I will not be lost in that class either.
• Read alot, so that I will be more used to reading in world lit. Although I’m afraid that this plan will backfire, and reading teen novels will just be another distractor once the semester starts.
• Continue to apply to various jobs in hopes that a job might whip me into shape so that I will be less of a procrastinator.
• Finish my peacoat and gloves, and possibly make another cotton shirt.
• Go swimming some more and figure out how long it would take me to get there, swim, shower, and get to the SOC house, so that I can do that on Thursdays without being late to $3 Thursdays.

I think That this shirt is fairly decent, considering I didn’t use a pattern.

This is before I knit the sleeves. Mom took that picture.

After I knit the sleeves (No! Really?)

A sleeve. And my hair and arm and one of the posts on my porch and some greenery.

So, the shirt really wasn’t that hard to make. I started with a provisional cast on with one of the front straps. I knit for a while, then increased a little.  Then I did the same for the other front strap, only the increasing was opposite. Then I did the same for one of the back straps, only I knit fewer* rows and didn’t increase any. What I did do, after I made both back straps, was knit across one, cast on 28 stitches, then knit across the other. After the back was as longas the front straps, I joined them together, casting on stitches under each arm and in between the front pieces. Then I knit in stockinette stitch in the round until it was long enough. Then I did the lace repeat, which I pulled out of nowhere, until it was longenough. I think I’m getting boring now. I’ll proceed to talk about the sleeves, which are more interesting. And by the way, at the *, you’ll notice I used the word “fewer.” Am I allowed to say that, or should it be “less?” I would like to be grammatically correct, but I’m not enough of a grammar freak to know which word to use in that situation. Anyways, on to the sleeves.

Then I knit the sleeves. I tried 2 different sleeves before I settled for the one that I actually used. I picked up the stitches around the armhole, and knit a few rows. Then I did short rows until there were only about 12 or 13 stitches left. Then I continued to work in the round until I felt that it was long enough. I wasn’t too crazy about the sleeves while actually knitting them, but I like the way they turned out. Well, other than the fact that I wasn’t wrapping my stitches correctly on the first sleeve, which resulted in 3 holes that I had to patch up. If I ever knit something of my own design again, I’ll probably use this same technique for the sleeves.

Saturday, My mom cleaned out her closet, which resulted in me getting to cut the buttons off of everything that she was going to give to Goodwill (we threw them away after I maimed them).

This clothing purge also resulted in me getting some hangers, which I had been in dire need of for a very long time. I also acquired a (drumroll please) 80% SILK jacket and tank top! I don’t have any pictures yet, because the memory stick was full. The jacket fits decently, so I’m not goingto salvage it for lace weight yarn. I’m not sure what I’m goingto do with the tank top. When I tried it on (over a white t-shirt) it looked like one of those jerseys that they sometimes made us wear in P.E. in middle school. Except that it’s not mesh. The thing is, I still haven’t unravelled that 80% alpaca vest that I got back in April. So it wouldn’t really make sense for me to attempt to unravel something else. Especially something that tighly knit. It would probably take a good longwhile, in addition to being very frustrating.

Monday night, I started knitting a pair of Endpaper Mitts

I’m making them gloves instead of fingerless mitts, because I don’t have any hand knit gloves, and because I really don’t need any fingerless mitts. I’ve already done the pinky, and I am currently working on the thumb before I do the other three fingers. The pinky’s just a little bit tight, but I did the best I could, considering that if I had done more stitches for the pinky, I wouldn’t have had enough for the rest of the fingers. I thin they’ll turn out fine. I know they’ll be really warm, because the color changes make it extra thick. And I’m using wool. So this winter, I will not only be warm while tromping around campus, I will not look like an idiot. Well, at least my hands won’t. Not that they did this past winter, really. It was my head that looked like an idiot. I’m still looking for a hat pattern that doesn’t look stupid, but that keeps my entire head warm (that includes ears). And that won’t fall off. And that isn’t a beret, because they don’t look good on me. Any suggestions?

I’m getting close to being finished with the back of my peacoat, but I keep putting it on hiatus to pursue other knitting endeavors. I think I have about 2 rows left before I bind off a bunch of stitches and knit the collar/neck thing.

Well, it’s ten minutes until midnight, so I should probably be getting on to bed. I have to deliver a casserole for Mom tomorrow. Before noon. Ouch. Waking up early, how awful. Just kidding, Mom, if you’re reading this while you’re at work. I don’t mind delivering that for you. As long as I don’t have to tiptoe due to it being overflowing. And as long as it doesn’t spill in my car. By the way, do you want me to make those cookies from scratch someday? I have to ask you now, on the Internet, because otherwise I’ll forget.

Just a few more things, then I’ll be done, I promise. I watched Toy Story today. It’s just as good of a movie when you’re 18 as it is when you’re 5. I’m not entirely sure how old I was when I first watched it, but it was a longtime ago. And watching it today reminds me of the time that we watched it in Spanish in Spanish class in 8thgrade, and someone and I were quoting parts of it because we knew it so well. I thought it was Rachel and I, but I just now remembered that she didn’t take Spanish in 8thgrade. i know it wasn’t Martha, because she said that she had only seen it once before and right as I was typingthis run-on sentence, I remembered everything. We watched it in Spanish class, and I remember the part where Hannah (in the movie, not me)said “Yo no es. YO NO SE.” And then later, we watched it in Mrs. Spurlock’s class (in the English language) one of the two times that the 5K was cancelled, and Rachel and I were quotingit as we were watching it and Martha wasn’t, because she had only seen it twice before, one of those times beingin Spanish class. Ah, those were the days. Well, the happy memories were the days. But my life four years ago probably isn’t, on average, any better than my life right now. So I should be saying “these are the days.” Except that they don’t really feel like it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not unhappy or not content, but I don’t think sitting at home knitting, reading, and attempting to exercise is the stuff of good memories. When I’m old, I’d rather remember the times I watched Toy Story with my friends than the times I spent by myself at home. Although, now that I think about it, being outside in the garden or in full view of a thousand shades of green are fairly decent things to remember. Just not as great as the times that I spent with my friends.

Speaking of many shades of green, I really want to dye some yarn. Possibly with Kool-Aid, because I’m too afraid that I’ll mess up and end up wasting the real dye that I got for my birthday. The thing is, I’m trying to not spend my money and I don’t have any dyeable yarn. I do have some dyeable roving, but I’m don’t want to spin it just yet. It was kinda expensive, and I don’t want it to look like something that Quigleygot a hold of. Maybe I’ll get a job and then I won’t feel so bad about spending money. I applied to Captain D’s and McDonald’s this week. Funny thing, when I was applying to McDonald’s, I saw a picture of some smilyemployee (or a model that was posing as an employee) with a caption that said “My friend’s and I love working at McDonald’s.” Hm. What’s wrong here. I feel kinda bad pointing that out, since my writing isn’t much better, but I come on! A huge company such as that should not be making such obvious mistakes.

Anyway, I’m going to finish typing this incredulously long post. Okay, so most of it was pictures, but still, there is a good chunk of just writing. Ya know what? Maybe I don’t hate writing. Maybe I’m just too self centered and/or apathetic to care about anythingother than my life, and so what I really hate is not writing, but attempting to pretend like I care about something that I don’t care about. That and research. Well, seriously, I’m done now.

Before I talk about the shirt that I started making on Sunday, I’ll talk about some stuff that I’ve finished.

First off, I finished Dad’s sweater. I don’t have a picture of it finished yet, but I do have some pictures of it almost finished.

I also have some more pictures of my mittens.

Here are the sleeves of my pea coat:

Here’s the slipper that I made a long time ago. I finished the sole of the second one, but it’s bigger than the first. Oh well.

And that’s all the pictures that I have right now. I finished knitting my orange and yellow slippers, but they didn’t shrink much when I felted them. I’m going to eventually felt them again, but I think they’ll still be too big. Ah well. I can sew them up like elf shoes if I have to.

Okay, so on to the the reason for the title of this post.  On Sunday, I started making a cotton shirt without a pattern. It’s coming along reasonably well for now, considering I’m not using a pattern. It’s stockinette stitch on the top, and lacy on the bottom. I’m making it so that I can wear it on top of tank  tops without getting too hot.

Well, I should probably go see if it’s dry enough to mow yet.