Fair Isle Yoke sweater

Currently knitting the Fair Isle Yoke sweater from EZ. The main body and sleeves are in Knit Picks Swish DK Bare, and the Yoke will be in various colors of purple and pink. I got four colors for the yoke, and another color for a separate baby sweater but now I'm thinking I might substitute the baby sweater color for one of the colors designated for my sweater. I'm on the body right now, and I'm doing about three inches per day. I'm at 10.5 inches right now out of 15 inches. Hopefully I will get to 12 inches today and be able to do the last three inches tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. The Hedera socks distracted me for a day or two but I'm back on track with the sweater now.

My Hedera socks

Knitting Hedera socks for a friend. Using Jojoland Melody in y04. The heel is too deep, leaving extra fabric around my foot. I'll make the second sock the same way, the result is not too drastic, but next time I will make the heel flap shorter and pick up fewer gusset stitches to compensate. I love the gradual color changes in the yarn, although I think the plying makes for some kind of yucky spots. In pictures the colors are seamless so maybe from a distance they will be fine.
Fun things about this pair: I knit the first sock in about 15 hours, started in the morning and finished before I went to bed that night. I learned how to graft a toe with the first sock. After I successfully grafted it I went back and ripped out the attempt I had made to graft another sock and fixed it. The lace pattern is simple and allows the socks to push forward quickly. I'll probably use the extra yarn to make some lacy baby socks.

Up to my ears in WIPs

Wow, even longer since I posted here. I have a lot of projects on my plate right now. My cat toy project has stalled, which is sadly not surprising for me. I've been on a slightly manic yarn buying/project starting binge for a while now, and I decided to take a look through my WIPs the other day. I counted 17, took pictures of all of them, and as I figure out how to work the camera I will start posting them here with some sort of explanation about why I stopped working on them.
In addition to all the knitting, fall college classes just started up again. It is seriously cutting into my knitting time so I've started digging through WIPs to find ones that are simple enough to work on during lectures.
I also just joined the Lace Style KAL so I can share my progress on one of my current favorite projects, the Katharine Hepburn Cardigan in Knitpicks Shine Sport, color Violet. It is on a slight timeout right now because I realized the other day that I am making a size too small for myself. I really don't want to rip it out so if it turns out not to block enough I will gift it to someone else. I do like the pattern and I am considering doing another one in wool in a bigger size for myself, as a cold weather sweater. There I go planning another project again!

Well it's been a while since I posted here. I've been really busy with school and have hardly had time to knit. I've slowly been adding to the stash of cat toys, up to 45 now. I'm also knitting a couple of sweaters (ok, make that five) off and on, and a big comfy blanket/shawl. Today I'm ordering a bunch of patterns from http://www.buggsbooks.com/index.html to give me even more projects to handle.

Count

Up to 13 whales, 2 bunnies, and 1 mouse. There's also 1 semi-ball, which I am still messing with to make sure it's round.

Cotton vs. Acrylic

I'm up to ten toys now. The original ones I made in wool that I had laying around. Today I decided to experiment with some cotton and some acrylic that I have. The acrylic worked out really well, but the cotton came out too loose. It was hard for me to knit it tightly enough that it won't have holes in it, and after just one cotton one my hands hurt so I think I'll stick to the acrylic or wool.
I really like how these things show off the colors in the yarn, the rows are short enough that the color changes really come through.

Counter

I have to figure out how to make a counter for the toys, but currently I have six. More to come today.

Cat toys

So my new project is making cat toys. I found this really cute pattern for a knit whale last knit and I have found them addictive to knit. I'm making a few for my own cats (more about them later) and then I will make them for charity. There is a very nice person who came up with the pattern, and she has been using them to raise money for her local animal shelter. I thought it was a really nice idea, but since I am well too lazy to run around coordinating with my own local animal shelter and vet offices, I thought I would just send some to her and let her do the legwork :)

Hello!

I haven't really blogged before, but I just started doing something that I want other people to be able to keep track of. I can't find the digital camera, so there won't be any pictures until I do. Let's see if this works!