the great ratsby

ratsby, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Sometimes, grad school isn't all books and complexity theory... sometimes, you make really great friends, too.

And, since I've been at this whole PhD thing for a while now (five. years.), sometimes those friends have to move on.

So, one of my very good friends here threw a "gatsby" themed party to say good bye. (Only she called it the Ratsby, in honor of the vermin that overpopulate this place.) We all dressed up and I made myself a fascinator. Sadly, we couldn't get very good photos, and I can't show you how very awesome the button is (it has an enamel design of a peacock on it). Here's another poorly lit shot for good measure:



A great time was had by all, and everyone loved my headpiece... although I have to say, these things are kind of delicate. I would have to replace at least one of the peacock feathers should I wish to wear it again.

I was inspired by Notorious, which has been removed. I basically just knit a circle, folded the edges over and hemed it so it wouldn't roll too much and sewed on the decorations.

late, for a very important date

alice's socks, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Ok, these socks weren't for late for anything in particular, they just took an awful long time.I started them Jan 5, according to ravelry, but got side tracked by other projects, writing 2 chapters (just handed in the second yesterday!) and, you know, getting married. So there was stuff. But, finally here they are! This post is also later than expected, as it appears that blogger was having some issues earlier and ate my original post.

In any case, they're done now, I'm not in love with the pooling (which is probably why they were cast aside in favor of other, prettier projects) but I do like the pattern and with the right yarn I think it would be just great.

Stay tuned tomorrow... ok, more likely Sunday, to watch for a little project I'm whipping up for a Gatsby themed party!

may flowers

may flowers, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

So I didn't get anything done for April, although if I had put my mind, and fingers, to it, I definitely could have finished this before May 1st. I cast on about half the stitches on April 28, got distracted and forgot about it for a few days. Once I got working on it, though, it took a matter of hours to complete—OK, so I haven't woven the ends in yet, but just ignore those, please.

Pattern is Reverse Rice Stitch Cowl
Yarn is Mirasol Tupa, less than one skein (in fact, I can tell you that it took exactly .8 of a skein, since I got a fancy new kitchen scale and can do some (read: very little) simple math)
Needles: Size 7 US
Mods: None

April Showers...

So I have nothing to show you for the month of April. Sad, right? I was working on the Accidental Girly Mitts as my Self-Imposed-Accessory-Club entry, but I just wasn't loving them. They were too big, even though I went down 2 needles sizes, and I was going to have to finagle something to make them smaller at the wrist... so I just decided it wasn't worth it. So I frogged, and started casting on with the same yarn to make a Reverse Rice Stitch Cowl but didn't even get the cast-on finished. So.... that's that.

BUT!! It's May 1, which means that the sign ups for the next International Sock Swap are now open! And it's our one year anniversary! It's a great group, and a lot of fun... and low pressure: the packages don't have to be mailed until Aug 31!! You have the month of May to think about it, but if you have wanted to in the past, I would highly recommend it!

while I was away

pretty girly, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Remember when I had no idea how much yarn to pack? Apparently that was a non-issue. I didn't even touch the blanket, although I did finish the socks... and started on the April Self-Imposed-Accessory-Club: the Accidental Girly Mitts.

Oh, and got married:



So, you know, I guess it's understandable that I didn't find much knitting time!

socks: wedding edition

socks: wedding edition, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Just under the wire, but the socks that the boy wants to wear on our big day are done! If you look at the original picture of the first sock you might notice that it doesn't really look quite like either of these final ones. It is the sock on the right in this picture, but I had to cannibalize a bit from the cuff in order to make them the same length.

Originally I had thought that the yarn had the same colour-repeats from both ends of the skein, but it turns out the inside had less green to start with (check out the toes). So in the end I had slightly less yarn than I thought and the repeats don't quite match up. Still, I think they're fun.

Yarn is: Zitron Unisono
Needles: US 2 stainless steel hiya hiya dpns which I'm now madly in love with (having always been a bamboo needle kind of gal, this is a big admission)
Pattern: toe-up heel gusset from in my head.

I think panicking and packing are similarly spelled for a reason

packing, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

So I'm heading home to Canada for 10 days... no particular reason ;) and I'm trying to figure out what to pack... I have all my clothes packed, of course, but I'm wavering on how much knitting I need to take. On the one hand, I'll be busy as all get-out, but on the other... well... you never know, right?! I'm taking the second sock of these: for the plane but is that going to be enough? I'm already increasing for the heel gussets.... it's not a super long flight or anything, but still, there could be delays and whatnot.

As for the downtime at home type knitting, I'm taking the blanket (as pictured) and April's self-imposed accessory club pick: the yarn (the pink in the corner of the above picture) is the Mirasol Tupa and it has been slotted to become some Accidental Girly Mitts. Now I just need to remember to pack the appropriate needles....

march revisited

march blocked, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Finishing foils me again! I finished knitting this on March 13 and finally got around to blocking it yesterday. Why is this so hard for me to do? Well, ok, space, for one thing. The only decent space for me to block anything is on the murphy bed in the spare room, except that when the bed is pulled down there is pretty much zero room for anything else back there. So everything we store back there has to be pulled out and the fact that the boy uses it as office space is pretty much lost.

But hey, now it's done, and with 2 weeks to spare! It looks so much better blocked, too (as is so often the case...).

Pattern is the Emily Capelet from Ysolda's Whimsical Little Knits 2.
Yarn is Araucania Ranco Solid, about 3/4 of a skein.
Needles were US 7/4.5mm.
Mods were none that I can think of... 14 repeats total.

What to do....

wullenstudio pink cadillac , originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

A friend picked up this great pack of sock yarns that gradiate from a light pink to a deep fuchsia. I'm thinking some kind of shawl that will really show off the slow change of colour.

Beware the blob!

happily ever after, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Actually, it's a wedding blanket...

It doesn't look like much of anything, maybe an oversized tam, but eventually it will be an adult sized undercover, for some friends who got married in January. It's a bit late, but it's been a hectic few months... who knew wedding planning + dissertation writing would be so complex!?

a sock and a stretchy bind-off

, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Tah-daaaah! A sock! Ignore the long stretch of time since my last post...

I'm actually "home" visiting in Canada, to put the final touches on the wedding preparations. Fortunately we're not too fussy about things being just so, so everything is working out wonderfully.

This morning I finished up the first of a pair of very rainbow-ish socks for the boy who thinks grey is a colour... so hopefully he'll like them.

I didn't have a tapestry needle handy but really wanted to use EZ's stretchy bind-off (a good demo of which can be found towards the bottom of this page), so I just used what I had on-hand... my knitting needles.

If you aren't familiar with EZ's version, you might want to take a look first... or not, maybe it would get confusing?

Anywho, here it is:

First of all, cut your yarn, leaving a decent length (enough to work all stitches twice... I find if I wrap it around my hand about 4 times, I have plenty left over).



Insert your needle into the first two stitches, as if to knit them together. Wrap the yarn around the needle and pull the needle back out (just like a knit stitch)... but instead of slipping them off the left-hand needle, just keep pulling your right hand needle until the yarn comes all the way through.



Now go back to the first stitch and insert your needle as if to purl. Wrap your yarn around and pull it out the back, all the way, just as for the first step. Slip this first stitch off the needle.

Repeat both steps until one stitch remains. Work it as a knit stitch and then (if you do have a tapestry needle or crochet hook lying around) weave in your ends. Or be lazy like me and just start the next sock, leaving your ends loose! (Ok, eventually I will weave them in... just not today.)

P.S. The blanket keeping me warm in the demo shots is a never-before-photographed knit of mine from... maybe 2002? Before I really got back into knitting, but needed something to keep me busy over a Christmas break, I made that blanket, a feather and fan pattern in Lion's Brand HomeSpun.

P.P.S. In case anyone was wonder, the yarn for the socks is much more exciting... it's Zitron Unisono, which I also used for a shawl for my mom last year. It's lovely, soft stuff, with aloe vera and jojoba mixed in. Needles are US 2s and pattern is just cast-on, increase, heel, cuff from my head.

an inheritance, of sorts

inheritance #1, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

For the most part, I didn't knit these socks.

Or these ones, for that matter:



But now they're mine, I guess. I won't go into too many details about how they came into my possession, out of respect for the people involved, but these belonged to a knitter I never knew... although I wish I could have. This knitter that I would never know was very special to someone who is very special to me. Her other unfinished projects have since been finished and given to family members who would treasure them and keep them as memories. No one, however, knew how to finish socks. So these socks have sat, for a few years, only to finally find their way into my hands, and, perhaps, eventually onto my feet.

We knit a little differently, this knitter and I... you might be able to tell, if you look closely on the first picture, that the sock that is almost done and the sock that is still in progress are resting on different needles. She used a size 3... to mimic her stitches I had to go down a size. (I tried to finish them using her needles... but the difference was too stark.)

The visible differences, however, stop there. The colours (green and purple on the first and that teal in the second) are exactly what I would have chosen, given the chance.

But this... this was perhaps the most shocking discovery to me:



They're a perfect fit.

caving to convention

alice socks #2, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

It's Wednesday, right? Let there be wips!

So I almost never do a wips update, and probably even less so on a Wednesday... but hey, stranger things, right?

Above is the 2nd sock in my down the rabbit hole set. After the first one these got cast aside for a while for other, more pressing things (read: chapter 1 of my thesis got handed in, didn't it?) and then forgotten about (feb SIAC had to get done too).

I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled with the pooling on the first sock (raveled here), and clearly the second will be no different. But I've come to terms with it. It's a sock after all, and hardly anyone will actually see it.

But this... this is a much more important WIP:



It is my March entry in the Self Imposed Accessory Club, but more importantly, it is the shawl/shawlette/capelette/whatever you want to call it, that I will be wearing on my wedding day.

The pattern is Emily by Ysolda Teague, and I love, love love it. I love most of her stuff, and I'm slowly realizing that it is her incorporation of garter stitch into most everything that I really can't resist. The yarn is the Araucania Ranco Solid that I received in a swap package last fall. As soon as I saw the yarn I knew I wanted to make myself a shawl for the wedding out of it. I just hope I have enough!

under the wire

feb siac, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

With 7 mins to spare, here is the february SIAC entry. Simple toe-up, heel-flap socks with a picot hem.

Maybe more about them later... now it's time to collapse.

wedding gloves, groom edition

wedding gloves for a groom, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

excuse the picture, I had to hand them off immediately and I was in the library with only my camera phone on hand... aka the grad student excuse.

Finally finished up the gloves for my friend's husband. She's off to visit him tomorrow (another perk of the grad student life: potentially living apart while your partner works in one place and you are making the mad dash to finish your dissertation...), so I wanted to give them to her before she left.

Pattern is: Dancing at Lughnasa (rav link).
Yarn is: Cascade Heritage Solid
Needles: US 1 & 2 DPNs
Mods: None, actually.

My original rav post here.

Happy Valentines' Day

A hat, for my Valentine. He's already caught glimpses of it, on flickr or ravelry and said "hey, what's that?" to which I quickly and smartly (ha!) reply "NOTHING!" in a really squeaky voice, so I'm sure he hasn't caught on at all. In any case, I'm time-stamping this to post later, so that it might not ruin the surprise, if there is one left.

Also, I'm not that ubber-skinny, I swear. But apparently a big bulky hat can make you look half your size in no time! It's going to be the latest dieting trend, for sure.

UFO-busting

leg warmers, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

pattern: yoga socks/leg warmers (leg warmer version, obv) by Drops Studio. yarn: starry by dream in color.

These have been long-languishing in the UFO pile (started July 9, while still in Spain, these were finished up on a plane this past Friday, with the ends woven in and photographed this morning), and now they're finally done! As part of the stash-bust, I'm including the need-to-finish-UFO-bust.

My UFO pile isn't that big... but my need-to-knit pile is starting to be... next up on the need-to-do list is to finish up the wedding-gloves: groom edition, and then start on the blanket for another wedding present-owed. (yes, that means the wedding has come and gone... whoops.) Also: wedding sweater: my groom's edition and the shawlette that I plan on wearing myself on the special day.

Oh, and that pesky dissertation... I handed in my first chapter a little over a week ago though, so that's good, right?!

after!

after, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I finally got around to felting the slippers for my partner's birthday yesterday. He loves them and says they are keeping his feet very warm. In fact, I had to rip them off his feet to get a decent photo:



But I'm glad he's enjoying them!

Pattern is Felted Slippers from Midnattsol (rav link ).
Yarn is bits and pieces of left over malabrigo... first my own and then some sent to me from a fellow raveler after an impassioned plea... which is why they don't exactly match... but I kind of think that makes them all the more charming.

I highly recommend this as a first felting project (it was mine!). It's such a simple design (remember the mishappen scarf), so it takes very little time to knit up and it doesn't seem like it would be such a horrible disaster if it didn't work out. In fact, at one point I was convinced I had let them stay in the washing machine too long, and that they were too small, but they worked out perfectly!



Original ravelry post.

February SIAC

cascade heritage redux, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

For the February Self-Imposed-Accessory-Club I will be making some toe-up socks (possibly in my Socks for a Winter's Night pattern or possibly plain) as a class example, in some cascade heritage that was almost a different pair of socks... but then wasn't. It has been around, in one form or another for well over a year now, so it's high-time it got used! Only problem: class doesn't start until Feb 12... which will just impose my no-yarn-before-SIAC-is-complete yarn diet for most of the month of February. Which will be hard, but probably not such a bad thing.

The 3rd International Sock Swap is underway, this time I am not participating (I just have TOO MUCH other stuff on my plate right now), but I am still moderating. I hope all the swappers have a great time!

before...

before, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

stay tuned for "after"...