What A Week!

(excuse my awful cell phone picture. haha)

Hey!

I've been pretty sick since last Thursday, hence no posts. I actually ended up in the hospital on Monday, where I found out that was having a minor "gastrointestinal" event. However, everything is okay now and I have a handful of different pills and elixirs to take for the next 8 days.

While I was laying around, I suffered from another (more fun) ailment; start-itis! Instead of working on my sweater or the hand towels for my bathroom, I became enchanted by Miss Stephanie Dosen's Beekeeper quilt. I got everything ready and realized that I didn't have the right needles, so I started my second Jaywalker sock(ravelry link). Last night, Dave drove me to A.C. Moore and I picked up needles for the quilt. I made my first little hexi-puff in about a half an hour!

384 more to go!

<3

Robbie.

Coming Up...

-The Never-Ending Braided Rug Maybe a Failure.

-A Work in Progress: The Bathroom.

-The First Roll of Film From My Diana Mini

-Acrylic Stash-busting + Vintage Craft: God's Eye

...and much more

patience is a virtue.

i started these charade socks (ravelry link) in march.

i just finished them this morning. lol.

i tossed them in a basket and forgot about them for a few months.

yesterday, i picked them up and just plowed through the second sock.

tofutsies it the splitt-iest(?) yarn i have ever used.

the sad part is the finished socks are so comfortable, that the splitting isn't even a deal breaker.

i *might* use it again. one day.

i picked the worst colorway webs had on purpose, but it really grew on me.

after a few sizing issues, i ended up casting on 72 stitches and then just followed the pattern 'as is'.

i'm so happy to have an FO to share!!!!

what are you working on???

_________________________________

the wannadies - you and me song

<3

robbie.

Friday Faves!

I love that blog, howispentmystimulus.com, and since I haven't blogged in a while I'll show you where my extra cash went:


Screen Printed Wool Log Pillow @ myimaginaryboyfriend

Simple Oilcloth Lunchbag in Faux Bois @ RickRackQueen

Acorn Pillow @ littleredfox

I frogged the jaywalker again and a charade (sorry sandra!). I think my feet must be getting fat or something??? I dunno? I really need to make a new pair a socks or at least get to darning the old ones.

I've been really busy lately, hanging on Flylady's every word. It's pretty much an orgnizational/housecleaning program through e-mail. It tells you what to clean, when to clean it and why. The best part is, NOTHING TAKES MORE THAN 15 MINUTES!!!!! I know it sounds sort of crazy, but it works! We run a small e-bay business(thriftyfashion.com) from our spare room and everything just started to become sort of overwhelming until I found this. I feel so calm knowing a clean house is only 15 minutes away.

I've started a few new projects here and there, went to a few shows and bummed around for a little, but I'm alive. I swear.

---Let'sRideBikeS---

Bat For Lashes - Whats a Girl To Do



<3
knitxcore.

Hey LooK!

I knitted a sock...



and then frogged it...



Lessons Learned:

1. ALWAYS do a gauge swatch.
2. Just because you're really thin, doesn't mean you should just go for the smaller size.
3. Everyone in BloGLanD is telling the truth, Jaywalkers are really that tight.

I've been sort of busy, and it seems like not as many folks are reading my blog. Maybe if I write really trashy stuff about celebrities, or post pictures of political figures in scandalous positions more people will stop by??? Suggestions? anyone?

---IloveDuX---

City and Color - The Girl



<3
knitxcore.

H is for Hole

Believe it or not, this is first time this has happened to me!

I really didn't expect it from a pricey sock yarn. Maybe I wore them too much?

Either way, the situation gave a chance to learn how to darn. I found a video on YouTube of an old lady doing it, and that it looked simple enough. While I didn't move as quickly as her, or do as perfect a job, the hole has been patched up and the socks will live to see another day. (I, honestly was almost in tears, over a hole in a sock.)

You can darn socks to:



or just listen to good music, if darning isn't you bag:

Tegan and Sara - Speak Slow




<3
knitxcore.

F is for FO

I just finished a pair of socks I started in January, the sad part is that there just plain ol' stockinette socks. No cables, or fancy ribbing just generic toe-up socks. I\
]=mmediately upon finishing them I decided I wanted to take the FO pic outside, outside where it rained last night. I was pretty much standing in mud. Oh! The things I'll do for a good photo.

Pattern Particulars

Pattern Source: Wendy's Fingering Weight Toe-Up socks with Gusset Heel
Needles: 32" US Size 1 Addi Turbos
Materials: Hobbledehoy Merino Sock Yarn in Pop Quiz
Time: Longer than it should have ever taken. I started these in January.
loved: Not picking up any stitches for the heel!!!!!!
hated: I casted off sort of tightly, and I'm not going back to fix it.
Notes: I followed the pattern for the Large size, and did a 3X2 rib before casting off in pattern.




I need to make something new for my mom for her birthday. I started an apron and realized I cut the pieces out wrong, so that's not going to work. I know that Branching Out pattern is supposed to be pretty simple for beginner lace, and I have some raw silk hanging around it may look nice in.

---FeedtheTrEE---

Belly - Feed the tree



<3
knitxcore.

E is for Etsy!

Everyone loves Etsy.com.

I've been sort of obsessed recently.



These lil' birdies came in saturday-ish? I put them up immediately. I'v been looking for alternatives to paint (we rent) to make it a lil' more exciting. These wall decals from VinylWallArt hit the spot. Check out the Quail, I love it :-)



Adrienne is quite the scratcher! She destroyed her old reflective collar. I had this lil' polka dot guy from theModernPet in my faves forever! I'm so glad no one else bought it before me. The collar is actually pretty well made, and most importantly has that safety clip that pops the it off if it were to get caught on something. (I know the picture is blurry but, it tooks few treats to get her to sit that still.)



Last, but certainly not least, we have BrainScan coffee. I bought a half pound to try it out first. I can be really picky about coffee, I know what I like. It seems Starbucks leaves a strange ashy aftertaste anymore, so I figured it was time to move on. Alex hand roasts organic fair trade beans for the tastiest brew on the block. I'm sort of addicted to her Small World blend (1/2 Sumatra, 1/2 Costa Rican). It's delicious and there is no coffee belly ache if I skip breakfast.

in other news:

-I'm just about finished a pair of socks! They should be done in a few days.

-I've planted some Basil and Parsley, and had an issue with some Tom Thumb pea seeds (cutest thing ever!). Luckily, I found some more and they should be here soon.

-I've been working on a reversible apron for quite a while, and just realized I cut a few pieces on the wrong side!!!!!! I don't have anymore of the fabric and neither does the place I bought it. I may just keep going and assemble a panel or two backwards.



---Miranda July Makes Buttons---

So, that's how buttons are made?
I had no clue until now! I'm not sure if I'd have the patience for that "ferberization" step.



<3
knitxcore.

RPMs: An FO

I finally finished these lil' buggers. Remember when I first blogged about them in MAY????? After a ton of frogging, and trying to figure out why anyone would do a short-row heel, they're ready to hit the streets.

I made the largest size with a short-row heel and complete spiral pattern, finishing with the pointed toe.

Pattern Particulars

Pattern Source: RPM Socks by Aija Goto via Knitty.com

Needles: Addi Turbo US size 1 32" circular (Magic Looped)

Materials: 1 Skein STR lightweight in Lemongrass.

Time: alot, i started them the first time in May and frogged a lot of times.

Loved: the pattern!!!!! mindless repeats=watching subtitles.

Hated: the short row heel, i don't ever want to do one again.

cuterelevantvideo:

Cornershop - Brimful of Asha

If I can stop fondling this ball of Misti Alpaca Chunky, I may do another installment of Yarn Crawl: A mini-series for tomarrow.

<3

knitxcore.

WIP Tuesday

1. Another Ganomy Hat (for a personal swap)




2. A secret project, that I'm having yarn issues with.




3. The second RPM sock (from which I'm suffering a giant cast of the SSS)

Plus: the hibernators; Mr. Besotted Scarf, Miss Branching Out, and The Moderne Log Cabin Blanket of Doom.

So, as you can see I really should be knitting. While I do that, you all can watch a video:

Tilly and the Wall - The Freest Man

halfapair=onesock

The first RPM sock is complete! I'm kinda proud of this lil' guy, he's my first sock where an actual stitch pattern was involved. I also got to try a short-row heel (and then sew up the disgusting row of holes) and a fancy-dancy pointed toe.

I started a pretty awesome hat this week, but i had a nasty migraine all day so I didn't take any WIP pictures. You'll see it soon enough. Hopefully it will be the first item in the long awaited Knitxcore's etsy shop. maybe.

I feel like a post isn't complete without a cute video, and it keeps you all coming back. So today you get this:

Tender Forever - Magic of Crashing Stars



<3
knitxcore.

You Spin Me Right Round...

I'm halfway through my first RPM sock and just about to start the short-row heel flap. It's also my first time doing the magic loop method, which I love! I got kind of nervous and cast on for the baby surprise jacket instead of finishing the sock. It's not that I can't do it, but I've already frogged the thing once and that's not common around casa de knitXcore. I think I'll finish the jacket and revisit the sock when I'm done. I really love the Socks that Rock colorway (thanx MP!), and the pattern is actually a fun knit but i refuse to screw it up again.

If anyone has done the short row heel or has any pointers, shoot me an e-mail?

Without further adieu, I leave you with this post's namesake as interpreted by KIDS Incorporated.

I really miss the eighties.


<3

knitxcore.

Where did this week go?

I hadn't realized that a whole week had went by without making a blog post. I guess I'm just a jerk. Sometimes, time really escapes me. I mean, I like to sleep a lot, but there are full days that just go right out the window. Ravelry isn't helping with this complete loss of time, either. It's funny how you don't realize you been looking at knitting patterns for hours on end. Luckily, I do have a few things to show for this whirlwind of a week.

It was raining outside, these pics were my plan B.

Pattern Particulars

Needles: Clover Takumi DPNs sz. 8, Clover Takumi Straight needles sz. 8
Materials: Plymouth Jelli Beenz Yarn , some red buttons from my awesome button stash.

Time: about 3 hours.
Loved: The yarn, the ease of the pattern, the buttons!!!
Hated: trying to figure why the second flap didn't work out right (it was my fault).

Knit.1's Spa Socks are finished! When I started them, I wasn't that excited about them but I did want a worsted weight pair of socks that were kinda slipper-ish. After finishing them up I've decided that they're kinda fun and the buttons are really cool. I'm really into the yarn, too! I'm using what I had left to make the Umbilical Cord hat From Stitch n' Bitch. Someone on Ravelry had made it out this exact yarn, and it was so cute that I sort of did a lil' dance when I realized that I had enough left.

A while ago, one of the cool girls at our lil' (sorta defunct) stitch n' bitch, had an awesome book by Lucinda Guy (And so to bed...). Midnight Purls and I immediately fell in love with Otto the Owl, among other things. All of the patterns were really cute and the sizes went up to 5 years old, so I'll have plenty of time to make everything in the book. The only "issue" (it's not even that extreme) is that every pattern calls for Rowan Cashsoft DK or Baby DK and while I love the yarn, a ton of colors have been discontinued. I used YarnDex and checked to see what other things I could use and decided on KnitPick's Merino Style. They had a billion colors and it was too cheap to pass up. It came the other day and while its pretty soft and the colors are great there is one discrepency... What color (exactly) is cornflower? I've used crayons and seen Fight Club, so I was very confident when choosing this color for my owl's blue eyes. According to KnitPicks cornflower is in fact, the lightest purple I've ever seen. I'm not ordering 1 ball of yarn and I'm almost positive there's no blue in my stash. It looks like Otto will have light purple eyes.

I bought some more flowers for the "deck jungle", as we're now calling it. The crazy flower is Fuschia (I think), it didn't have one of those stakes in it. The other is a Dahlia of some sort. The bulbs I planted we're just taking too long and I really wanted some color out there. We picked up some Petunias also, but they wouldn't photograph well for some reason.

<3
knitxcore.

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.

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.

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.

<3

knitxcore.

KetcHuP! A week in Photos...

Last Sunday, Midnight Purls and I went to Fiber Arts Studio in Nortfield. We stayed and knit for awhile, we both worked on our current socks. It was alot of fun KIP-ing our WIP's. Of course, we both felt obligated to buy things after staying about an hour. I picked up two skeins of Plymouth Jelli Beanz is a sorta lime green color and Plymouth Handpainted in the same neon inspired color scheme. We also did a sort of *not* online mug exchange. You can't really see the mug, but it says "Eat, Sleep, Knit" ( i believe it's from CafePress.com) and she also got me a skein of SOCKS THAT ROCK! in Lemongrass. I'm so excited to use this yarn!

As we all know, Wednesday was Valentines Day. Dave and I agreed not to buy each other gifts (we were going to go out and eat, but it snowed like crazy!) but I wasn't angry when I came home to flowers, choclate, and a bunch of Burt's Bees stuff on Tuesday night. I cheated too, I had embroidered him some unmentionables and I got him Astronaut Ice Cream from FredFlare. On Wednesday, I made Chicken and Dumplings and we had a cozy night in.

I've been knitting like crazy, I swear! This is all I have to show for it right now. It's the Baby Kimono from MDK. I have, since last night, added a eyelet ruffle and pulled a cute ribbon in and out of the eyelets. When it's all sewn up and cute I'll let you all see the FO. I've been steadily moving along on Dave's sock (Now, re-named as the Ocean Breathes Salty Sock, after a Modest Mouse song that kept playing over in my head while looking at the yarn.). I'm also knitting a piece for a friend's show that's coming up, it's about the art of the protest sign. I've had some troubles with it, so I don't want to jinx it by talking it about too much.

Today, Midnight Purls and I went to the LYS again, and stayed a little bit longer this time. There were a few more people and a lot of fun stuff going on and we got really wrapped up in the excitement of the sale. In fact, so wrapped up that I left my phone there. We chatted about knitting, museums, yarn and what ever other crazy things flew out of my mouth. All wool was 30% off and you got additional discounts on top of that! SO, now my mom is getting the cutest Noni Bag for her B-day! I'm using Cascade Sierra and hoping it gives some depth to my color choices. MP and I were also the proud winners of some sweet door prizes! Such a RAWR-some day! YaY US!