TopacioKnits

10 February, 2011 02:45

Topacio — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:45:36 +0000

9 February, 2011 23:43

Topacio — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:43:50 +0000

My mission for the next few days is to add atleast a foot to the gray cabled scarf I’m making. I also need to start working on some cabled caps in pink and black.

New Year, New Me!

Topacio — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 05:28:16 +0000

I haven’t posted in over a year! Wow, where do I begin? I have made a lot of my own patterns, and Christmas was a lot of fun and work. I managed to knit one gift a day, which means everyday I made a scarf, hat, or set of fingerless gloves. This year I also added a lot of crocheted squares to Anthony’s blanket. It is pretty big now, and I think it is officially finished.

Last year was pretty exciting since I decided I wanted to get in shape. Weight loss isn’t really a goal. I just really want to feel healthy. I noticed that I was getting out of breath a lot, and I wasn’t een doing that much work to get that way. I started by super gluing a pedometer to my waist. Well, not really, but I did make it a habit to wear it everyday, and to check it every few hours to make sure I was moving. I also started to do some Taebo and Turbo Jam videos, but I didn’t really get into those til a few months ago. I prefer Turbo Jam to Taebo.

This year I invested in a Wii and Wii Fit Plus. It’s only been a few days so there’s no noticeable improvements yet, but I do hope to report changes in a month or so. I have decided to not turn on the Wii until I have finished a Turbo Jam video. I know that Turbo Jam is super fun and totally worth it, but I think if I do the Wii, I will tire myself out with the Just Dance 2 game and I won’t have the energy to do Turbo Jam. Also, I know my son will rather play on the Wii than watch me kick invisible Turbo Jam butt.

Finally, this year I am going to challenge my self in my knitting. I am starting by doing a reversible cabled scarf in gray. It’s not a hard pattern, but I haven’t made a scarf with cables before since it seemed a bit time-consuming. When I finish the cabled scarf I am going to knit the Uncle Argyle Scarf from Son of a Stitch and Bitch. I already bought my yarn, pink and brown, and I have made a back up copy of the pattern just in case I can’t find the book at the library when I need it.

I will post pictures of the things I remembered to photograph soon.

Quick Update

Topacio — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:12:01 +0000

This last month has been very busy for me, so I have not gotten a chance to knit much. I have been working on some new Marlene socks and a new lacy chevron scarf for myself. I am using Jitterbug in Parrot Blue for the Marlene socks, which was supposed to be for some Monkey socks, but that didn’t work out too well. After about 4 inches of knitting the Monkey socks I realized that I hated the way the colors were pooling. I figured that my first Marlene socks came out so great, that I would love another pair. I will try to post pics of my two projects soon.

Cabled Socks and Baby Mittens

Topacio — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:37:00 +0000

Finally have Internet connection again. I have been knitting my brother’s blanket so much lately that I decided to take a break and return to some old projects that I had on hold. I finished my Cable Socks from Sarah Dallas Knitting on August 4th. Each sock only takes about four days to complete, but I put them on hold for about a month to get other knitting done. The socks have cables all over, and the purl stitches between the cables make the socks very stretchy.

At the end of July I finally learned the steps to two socks on two circular needles. I didn’t really have plans to knit socks at the time, so instead I knit some baby mittens for my newest nephew. I don’t plan on giving them to my sister-in-law, because she seemed very unappreciative when I sent her a picture of them. I am going to keep them until I find someone to give them to.

Other than the socks and mittens, I have not finished any new projects. I started two scarves this month, but I have not taken any pictures of them yet. I will post about them as soon as I finish the first of the two scarves.

Half a blanket?

Topacio — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:33:40 +0000

I decided to lay out all the Tramsformers squares I have made, and I think I have half a blanket right now. It may be a third of a blanket, depending on how big my brother wanted me to make it. I was very frustrarted when I took the pictures of it this afternoon. I had laid them out, opened the windows for good lighting, cleared my bed, and then my husband decided that they wanted to “hang out” with me in the room. In a matter of seconds my nice setup was ruined by my son. I have to admit that I got a bit snippy at my husband after that. Especially when he started trying to calculate how many squares I will be able to make with the yarn I have on hand, after I told him that I can only make 30 squares. After they left the room I quickly threw the squares back down and took very quick pictures of what it looks like now. Out of 10 pictures, only two were clear. All other pictures were blurry.

So here are pics of the squares from this afternoon. Since then, I have managed to complete 2 more squares, and I have about 5 rows left on a third square. I was very satisfied with the progress I made today.

Knitting Transformer Squares like a Crazy Person

Topacio — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:18:48 +0000

I have not worked on anything else but my brother’s Transformers blanket. So far, I have managed to finish 3 of ten balls of yarn. Two balls are still brand new, and the rest have been used for one square each. I can get three squares from each ball, so by the time I finish the ten balls of yarn I should have 30 squares.

I will try to get a picture of what all the squares look like together, but I have to wait til the sun comes out to take the pictures. I have also started knitting my garter stitch cardigan, but it isn’t much to photograph seeing that I have only completed the first four rows.

I am considering unraveling my Relm hat, since it was very big, and I don’t see myself really wearing it. I plan on knitting up a small beanie and using the rest of the yarn I have to make a scarf. I haven’t decided on a pattern for the scarf. It will either be a ribbed scarf, or a lacy scarf. I won’t be starting anything new until I finish my brother’s blanket.

Relm and one cabled sock

Topacio — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:42:23 +0000

I had a strong urge to knit a hat this weekend, so I made Relm from the Knit.1 Fall/Winter 2008 magazine. It was fun to learn cables without the cable needle, but the hat is very big. I don’t think I will go back and make it smaller, since I don’t want to deal with the cables. The hat is made from Angora Soft from Knit One Crochet Too. It is very soft and very warm. I almost broke a sweat from the few minutes of picture taking, of course its about 100 degrees outside. I am wishing for a cold winter so that I can wear all the wonderful knits I’ve made this year.

I finally got a decent picture of my Cable Socks from my Sarah Dallas Knitting book. I made the first sock in three days, but then I just didn’t get the urge to knit the second sock. I think it is the lack of difficulty in the pattern. It is a simple 6 row repeat that got very boring very fast. I also don’t like how stretchy the pattern is. It is so stretchy that the socks are almost slouchy, and I don’t really like socks that slouch.

I started making my first pair of toe-up socks last night. So far I have only made the toe, but it looks good. The pattern I am using is Red Brick Road from the same magazine as the Relm hat. The sock is mostly stockinette and two mock cables up the sides. I plan on putting all knitting projects aside and finish my mom’s sleeveless tank today. I already washed clothes this morning, and I don’t really have any plans for the rest of the day. Hopefully I can get it finished by the end of this week.

Showing the little guys love

Topacio — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:17:34 +0000

So I am really showing the little men in my life some love right now. I finished my new nephew’s blanket a few days ago. He isn’t due til the end of July, so technically I will be giving the blanket to my SIL. I used a basic granny square pattern and changed the colors every once in a while. I wanted to use Red Heart Soft Yarn, since I already had a ball of it in Avocado. Since it was a pretty unique color I had, I wanted the other colors to be unique, too, so I got teal and grape. I think of it as a modern baby blanket, since it isn’t made with lighter colors, like baby blue and mint green. I had a hard time taking a good pic, since the yarn tends to shine when I use the flash on the camera. I hope the pics are decent.

This is the yarn I had left over from the three original balls. I am going to use them in a fair isle hat I plan to make for myself. I am not going to make it until I finish my garter yoke cardigan. I want to use the leftover yarn from that project as a base color for the fair isle hat.

My mom gave me two balls of Scarlet Red Caron Natura Yarn, and I had no idea what to do with it. It is a little bright for a scarf and hat set, atleast for my skin tone. I imagine that it will make my skin look orange.

So I decided to crochet a toy for Peanut, a big red ball. He loved it, expecially since he didn’t see me make it. My husband has requested that I make a bunch of these balls in different colors. He has also asked that I make a soccer ball. I have a lot of black and white yarn, but I don’t think I have a lot of patience to make the kind of soccer ball he wants.

I have also started making some cable socks from my Sarah Dallas Knitting book, but I have not taken any pics of them yet. Today is laundry day, so I probably won’t be able to work on them today. I might get some pictures up by the end of the week.

Nothing new, sorry

Topacio — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:04:46 +0000

I have been racking my brain all day trying to decide what to knit. I am crocheting my SIL’s baby blanket. but that isn’t too exciting. It is also getting very close to being finished. I know that I should start the back of my mom’s sleeveless shell, and I should also make more Transformers squares for the afghan, but I don’t really want to. The Transformers squares are interesting, but not tempting. The sleeveless shell is all stockinette, which is so boring. I really want to start a new pair of socks, but I am resisting the temptation. I am also resisting any temptation to start new projects. Hmm.. I hate being indecisive. I’ll post later about what I decide to do.