memorial day = socks

We all know that RPM has jumped into the pond, and after the dissapointment I needed a quick fix. I had tried Knit. 1's Spa Socks once before, and gave up out of sheer boredom. This time I swear I'm going to follow through. The original pattern is sorta classy, made out of Blue Sky Alpaca and a fancy wooden button. If you're a regular reader of this blog you know that "classy" just won't do. I want it loud and tacky! I'd like to thank Plymouth for making this ridiculous yarn called "jelli Beenz" (see? even the name is tacky) in crazy colorways. It screamed to me from across the evil LYS, while looking at some very posh Filatura de Crosa. It only cost about one third of what I was looking at and it was a terrible acrylic blend, but for some reason I really NEEDED it.

I started the second sock tonight, and I forgot the the buttonhole would be on the opposite side for the left sock (OoopS!). Since I'm such a genius I decided that I could knit the sock inside out. BAD PLAN!!!! All I did was make a big knotty mess. When I'm done this post, I'll give it another shot.

OH YEAH!!!!!!!! My new favorite knittA in the whole wide world, gave me an invite to Ravelry (if you have an account, ADD ME!). I'm in love. It's sooooo awesome to be able to easily check out yarns and patterns before you knit them. I know I'm going to get a lot of crap for this, but I didn't think Elizabeth Zimmerman was as big a deal as people thought she was. Thanks to Ravelry, I have decided that I am in fact, a giant @$$. I want every book she has written and now understand that EZ is actually a knitting goddess and I'm pretty much a lame wannabe. Things like the Ganomy hat and the Seamless Hybrid have made me lose sleep. I can't wait to see what else I've been missing out on!

Totally gross side note: It's about nine million degrees in my house. Every Memorial Day, the AC breaks. You'd think I'd be accepting of it by now (we've lived here a couple of years). But even as I type this I just can't stop thinking about the gross sweat dripping down my back. I have off tomarrow. I think I'm taking my knitting to the bookstore to steal the free climate controled loveliness.

<3
knitxcore.

WIP Wednesday.

I know I've talked a lot about my Moderne Log Cabin Blanket, but I haven't actually shown the people out there in BloGlAND my progress. It's already huge! I've used about 10 balls of Elann.com's Sonata and I have 10 more waiting in a bag. Unfortunately, that's not even enough. I'm terrible at math, it was one of my first big projects and I thought that 50 grams of yarn was the same yardage no matter what I used. I was wrong.

It's been a pretty relaxing knit, tho. Row after row of garter stitch on size 6 needles really does keep you from punching everyone you know in the face and locking yourself in your bedroom. It's also convenient when watching movies with subtitles, as you don't have to pay much attention to what you're doing.

Look what the KokkA fabric turned into!!!! yeah, it's a doorstop. I'm still in shock that I actually made this. Of course, it's from my new favorite book ever, Simple Sewing. The book is set up into different levels, this project being a level 3. I approached it kind of nervously, since I haven't sewn in quite awhile. I didn't want to make any mistakes because, I'd only bought enough fabric to make it once with no room to mess anything up. So, I was pretty excited that it came out so nicely. If any of you are planning on doing this one yourself, Lotta Jansdotter buys extremely large magic beans from the extremely large magic bean store and 5 lbs. wasn't nearly enough. I opted to stuff the top with fiberfill, thanks to some good advice from The Absent Knitter's Journal.

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knitxcore.

I blame Reese Witherspoon.

If she wasn't such a covincing idiot, I never would have ruined my beautiful RPM sock. I was just knitting along and minding my own business when she destroyed what I had worked so hard to create. Somehow, during the first 20 minutes of Legally Blonde I had moved the stitch pattern over 4 or 5 stitches. OH yeah! Did I mention I was on the last pattern repeat before the heel flap? Yeah, it sux. If it had been on bigger needles, I could have just pulled back the 9 rows i messed up. Unfortunately, I don't have the patience to pick up 80ish stitches on size 1 needles. I frogged the whole damn thing! His remains lie here:





Even Dave was asking why I frogged the entire sock. It's a small price to pay for my sanity.

*WARNING* DO NOT WATCH THE FOLLOWING CLIP WHILE KNITTING!!!!

I didn't want to torture you all with real clips from the movie. Can you believe it's a goddamn musical? HAHAHA.



<3

knitxcore.

My DNA.

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Cafe Apron

I finally got around to putting the pocket on my mum's Cafe Apron. You can still see through it a lil' but it was Mother's Day and I didn't have time or fabric to do it a third time. Mum loved it, anyway. I can't go on enough about how much I love this book! I started the doorstop, I'm about halfway through it. I was soooo careful when cutting that $15 a yard fabric. I lined everything up so I wouldn't waste any of it.
I found another AWESOME fabric/notions/yarn site called SupErBuZZy, it has the coolest fabrics and some Japanese yarn called MakeMake. I can't wait to order some stuff!

I think I told you all about the super cool hibiscus tree I picked up last week. Well, a couple blooms popped open and they are beautiful. The rest of my container/deck garden is doing well. The bulbs I planted are staring to push through, and the parsley is starting to get bushy. My sage hasn't shot up yet, it's been almost two weeks. Hopefully, we'll see something soon.

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knitxcore.

How does your garden grow?

My fabric from PurlSoho came in!!!! I've already pre-washed it and I'm ready to start chopping it up. I never realized the importance of pre-washing until I read Simple Sewing and found out how much it could mess up an FO if you skip it.

I actually finished another sewing project and dyed some yarn, but you'll have to visit my Flickr page to see them. They're both for a swap that I'm not ready to send out yet.

The fabric all the way to the right is the Kokka print that I was drooling over last week. The other two are for something in my kitchen, but I'm not sure what :-)

Mr. Stripey is getting bigger. I should start measuring him, eh? Everything else is taking it's time growing. I planted a bunch of bulbs and some basil this week and I bought a hibiscus tree at Loew's. It has a bunch of buds so I'll get a good pic when it blooms.

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knitxcore.

Ocean Breathes Salty.

My "Ocean Breathes Salty" socks are finished!!!!! It seems like it took forever. I'm pretty excited about these lil' guys because I not only dyed the yarn, I actually wrote the pattern. I based it on some ankle socks Dave already had, so I knew that they would fit well. They original yarn was from Stickchicks Etsy shop. I ended up using less than 270 yds. I know I usually do a pattern particulars for FO's but, they aren't any for this project since I just sort of winged it. If enough of you guys are intrested, I'll try to write an official PDF pattern, so let me know what you think!!!!!

It's funny how they blend into the grass :-) I was going to start some Jaywalkers tonight but, it seems I don't have enough yarn. I'm going to give Knitty's RPM a spin.

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knitxcore.

We're throwin' down our push brooms, we're hangin' up our apron ties.

I'm probably the last person in blogland to catch this "sewing bug", but I finally ordered Lotta Jansdotter's "Simple Sewing". The patterns in it are soooo modern and cool! I was amazed by the doorstop I saw on someone else's blog and that's what initially sold me. But upon further inspection, I pretty much love everything. Aprons and potholders, bags galore, and even some cool organizational things fill the pages of this awesome new book. I'm in love!

I have already finished the apron part of my first project, I still need to make the pocket. I was going to use the yellow fabric from the picture at the top but, it's just a little too thin and I'm afraid it may rip off. Other than my fabric choice for the pocket, I'm pretty excited. The instructions are so clear, they made me feel like a rockstar while cutting and sewing in my craft room. I picked up that cute-sy fruit print at JoAnn's, believe it or not. I know it's the place that cool goes to die, but I wanted to jump in and start as soon as the book came. I have, however, ordered some AMAZING fabric at Purlsoho to start on another apron and a doorstop that I'm giving as a housewarming gift. KoKKa fabric is pretty much the cutest line I have ever seen, even though it can be a bit price-y I think it's worth for the unique, brightly colored prints.

Why Macy*s rocks...

Macy*s rock because, sometimes they have things that you want for 1/2 price. You may recognize Kiwi from my sidebar, he's was on my WisT for quite awhile. Usually, I would just buy the cheapest tea kettle I could find at Target. But, I was waiting for Dave to come pick me up after work and the lime green teapot was screaming, "BUY ME!!!!". It didn't help that I got my tax return this week. Don't you love how you feel rich for a few days? I'm pretty much in love with my new lime green kitchen accesory.

I decided to make a tiny felt cat from the new issue of Craft:. The pattern and idea are from Aranzi Aronzo's "Cute Book", which was just translated to english. They make a bunch of really cute lil' felt animals. I guess I don't. It's my fault, really. I didn't trace the pieces (or cut them well). I changed the eyes, too. I didn't have any white felt and I was just killing time, anyway. I know it's ugly, but sort of in a cute way? maybe?

<3

knitxcore.