Racing the Clock

When I came to Delaware for my internship, I rationalized that it wouldn't be that bad, since I had my knitting. (It looks more geeky when typed than it sounds in my head....). Well, 6 days from now I am OUT OF HERE and, of course, I haven't finished the projects that have been on my WIP list for the longest time. On both the Tilted Duster that I'm making for my sister and the Mrs. Darcy Sweater that I'm making for myself (would you believe this is the first time I've made anything for myself??) I have less than one sleeve to finish. And I HATE sleeves. I am determined to finish both of these sweaters, sewn up and blocked, before I go to bed tonight.

In non-knitting news, I finally finished the Follow-The-Lines baby quilt I've had going for a couple of months. I have to say, I love it and I am very proud of it. While I was here in Delaware, our friends held a baby naming Ceremony for their daughter Dara. I felt bad that I couldn't go, so I thought a handmade gift would be most appropriate. I had a little left over fabric, so I'm whipping up a "peanut" to match. I can't help myself! I love that effing Elephant! I am taking pictures tomorrow of all the things I finish this weekend and will post as soon as possible.

And, my most exciting new? (well, not as exciting as going home for good, but...) I ordered Amy Butler's new book Little Stitches for Little Ones this week - it should be at my office by Tuesday!!! Here are some pictures from her site

I cannot wait to get my hands on the Kimono pattern or the diaper bag... and that monkey clothes hamper? RIDIC. Anyway, sorry for the unfun, pictureless blog post. I'll come back strong on my next post!

Ziggity Zag... part one

Now that my crim pro class is over, I finally have time to work on the zig zag quilt! I have had my fabric for over a month and it has been staring at me, begging for a little attention. I bought my goods at Purl Patchwork (of course!) when Boyfriend and I were in NYC in June. This was my original pallet:

Unfortunately, that turned out to look pretty spastic when I put it all together. I was going for two different color groups - the hot pinks (fabrics 1, 2, and 3 on your left) and the reds/light pinks (fabrics 4, 5, 6, and 7). I fabrics 1 and 2 are Amy Butler and 3 is a part of the Rowan Aviary Collection. I love all three..... and they completely wash out anything in the same color family. So... now I am left with random triangle/squares of the pink and reds. I'll figure something out, I'm sure.

Anyways, I brought most of my fabric home last weekend (I'm moving back one suitcase at a time so the final move in the Mazda isn't so very packed), but I had just enough to give me an idea of what I wanted to do instead of the reds: ORANGE. I'm using Joelle Hoverson's Net of Jewels in Carnelian. It is really beautiful fabric that I bought to make a dress out of... but it's going to a good cause, so I wont morn. I am going to my local quilt store (one of the only good establishments within walking distance) to see if I can find anything worthy to go along with the bedazzling fabric. Cross your fingers.

Okay, so after a night of cutting and pasting, here's what it's starting to look like:

You may have noticed that I didn't zig-zag the white... I am leaving that portion "clean" so I can embroider the baby's name and birthday when she's born. I am hoping to have a bit extra - this is for the aforementioned quasi-niece's baby sister, due to arrive in October - to make a big sister blanket too.

I am really excited to see what kind of personality this blanket takes on. I haven't decided what to do with the binding yet or whether I want to do a border (I have a stock piled of minky with the bumps in white and light pink and you KNOW the babies love it). I was thinking about a border but I'm not so sure... We shall see.

In any case, I'm off to bed. I finally finished a memo today I had been working on for a couple of weeks. Too little case law on the real basis of the inquiry, too much on the underlying substantive contract law. Blegh. My head is swimming due to my late arrival last night and my apparent obsession with torture (as I hit the 5 minute snooze button on two different alarms more than 5 times a piece this am) and the memo. It's better I put down the rotary cutter and back away.

Good night!

I'll be brief.

I spent the weekend in Chicago - it was SO GOOD to be home. Boyfriend dropped me off today at the airport for my light at 8:20 but, in true O'Hare style, my plane was delayed over three hours. Actually, it's Philadalphia's fault. The weather sucked, is what I hear.

Anyway, it's 3am and I just got home. I need to go to bed, but thought I'd post pictures, quickly. In no particular order:

McTagger Tweed.... delish.

My Beaverslide Dry Goods order was waiting for me at my house in Chicago when I arrived on Thursday. I am SO pleased... for two reasons: First, because I have been excited about this since BrooklynTweed featured it, and second because boyfriend actually liked the color! I can't wait to start on his adult tomtem when I get home. (: The fiber is really great - awesome tweedy flex of color and VERY soft. I will add more later... it is 3am, you know.

My quasi-niece/Best girlfriend snuggling with me before bed.

I was home so that boyfriend and I could watch this little nugget while her mommy's sister got married. She is Boyfriend's bestfriend's daughter, which qualifies me as an honorary aunt, you know. So I spent all weekend singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider and running around with her like the wild women we are. (: I had been gone for 2 months, so she took a lot of pleasure in showing me all of her new tricks, like answering the question "what does a turtle say?" WAY TOO CUTE. I also was exposed to the Shushabyes. Scary. Very scary. And now their little songs are haunting me in the silent scene that is Delaware.

Well, off to bed. A quality post is on its way tomorrow.

Cheers.

I usually love sick days....

....but let me tell you how un-fun they are when you don't have a couch, a tv, or any mode of transport other than your sick legs to get to a store for gatorade and crackers. VERY UN-FUN. So, I pacified myself with Law and Order CI (blegh, I hate that one) and this little girl:

I love love LOVE the buttons. A lot. :D

This is the Baby Placket Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts from the people and Purl Soho. I adore this book - I'm making at least 3 ChristmaHanukkah gifts out of it this year. Adorable. An added plus about Purl? THE PEOPLE WORKING THERE. I purchased a skein too few of Koigu for some socks when I was there. I called 5 days later and the woman helping me remembered who I was and exactly what colorway I bought (that's not easy with Koigu!). Anyways, I'm a Purl fan for life, so excuse my pimping them out.

Anyway, I am now down to the last 2.5 weeks of my internship. My goal was (outside of having a great work experience) to get a lot of ChristmaHanukkah knitting finished... I'll give myself a zero F- on that train. Instead I'm making a lot of right now gifts. Socks for boyfriend, baby sweater for my sister (adult size, but as a new mommy gift, you know), birthday scarf for boyfriend's mom, and other things that I just can't seem to wait to betroth! (: Meh. I'll use the C-H gift knitting for when I need a reason to procrastinate during school.

Tonight I am trying my hand at making two aprons and embroidering (is that a word?) them by hand. I am GOING HOME TO CHICAGO TOMORROW!!!!! because a friend's sister is getting married and boyfriend and I are taking care of the friend's baby. So I am making wedding gifts - hand made aprons. Mine will be the weird gift in the middle of all the nice shiny ones... I guess it's good to stand out. Anyways, I've never embroidered anything in my life, so I will chronicle the experience to the fill extent. Blunders and all. We're here to learn, right?

Busy weekend...pff.

Well, I took most of my weekend to do nothing. I thought I deserved it after my 3 day work week. (: I used what was left of my Sirdar Snuggly Bamboo from the Misha Tank and use it to make this little thing:

I put the spool of thread by it to give a little size prospective. It still is ridiculously small. But so is Miss Misha! Tomorrow night I am going to finish my Follow The Lines Baby Quilt from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. It has so many cute projects. I'm obsessed with the Elephant and have already made one for Misha that matches her quilt and I'll make one to match the FTL's quilt, too. Here's a sneak peek at the blankie:

If anyone is wondering (as I was when trying to plan my fabrics) the fabric I used and that Joelle used in the book is an Alexander Henry print called "Ava" from the black and white collection (counterintuitive, no?). Anyways, more tomorrow. Time to get more Criminal Procedure in my head before the final this week!

FULL STEEK AHEAD!

I was in New York a few weeks ago and stopped in to The Point NYC. First of all, they were so sweet. One of the women working there (maybe the only one that day) walked all around the store with me in my hunt for the perfect fiber for my mom's Christmas gift. I finally found the perfect stuff AND the cutest pattern for my then yet-to-be-born niece. A tank top.

I had started and ripped out 4 different projects using Sirdar Snuggly Bamboo bought at Loopy Yarns in the loop. Because it is bamboo it is a "super wash" (meaning you can throw it in the washing machine) and it is super cool and breathable. Perfect for a tank top! So I started the tank and decided to stripe in my three colors - putty, lilac, and rosy. I had never made anything in stripes before so I didn't know about the phenomenon called "jogging." Basically, when you are knitting in the round, the beginning of your stripe is always going to be lower than the end of your stripe. See:



Woof. So, I decided to take a deep breath and try my hand at steeking. Steeking is a method of finishing a piece knit "in the round" by cutting the piece either to insert arm holes, make an opening, or to line up your stripes. I refuse to pretend I would teach this well, so I suggest looking here for a wonderful and thorough explanation. But I will show you my pictures. Here goes...

Because of all of my color changes, my project ended looking like this: All hairy and tangly and gross. Two things needed to happen here. 1) I needed to weave in all of my ends so that it wasn't hairy, 2) I needed to block the piece, meaning steam it with an iron or wet it and roll it in a towel so it would lay flat and look like it didn't just come out of a suitcase that has sat on my floor since returning from Michigan a week ago.... (: I knew that I would be cutting the piece wide open and it would be easier to block then, so here it is with just the ends woven in, no blocking:

Now for the scary part! To prepare the tank top for steeking, I stitched a thread line down the portion I wanted to hide to use as a guide for the sewing machine that was to come later. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of me sewing the tank, and the picture of my thread line was not great, so... STRAIGHT TO THE CUTTING!

I really wasn't too worried about the cutting. I'm not sure why - probably because it was 2am and I knew if I screwed up I could throw out the project and go to bed. (: But it went just fine! As soon as the tank was in one, flat piece, I blocked it:

Much better, no? The little kind of divots you see are where I had to decrease - I should have done it in a middle color row to make it less obvious, but I did it on an edge row and that made it pop out a bit. Live and learn! So now the tank is not curling up or wrinkly. One good thing to remember is that when you steam block something, to make sure the water doesn't stay in the fabric and help it start to curl again, take a pillow and press it to the fabric right after you take the iron off. It'll absorb the steam that wants to stay in your garment.

After that, I did a standard mattress stitch to join the sides ......

and, ta daaaa!!!! Looking MUCH better! My stripes line up a lot more accurately, which was my main goal. I didn't prepare to steek like I should have, so I'm not upset that it doesn't look perfect. Plus, shomehow when I bound off I mis-counted and so the steek isn't exactly in the middle. It bothers me, alot.... but I will send it off to my sister and try not to let my knitting OCD get the best of me. Here it is before I attached buttons:

At this point, I was home free. I just added a couple VERY cute buttons and was finished. (FYI: I added the button holes on the i-cord straps...usually you'd just sew them on, but I thought buttons would be cute and make it easier on my sister getting Misha into her tank top. (: Here are the Final pictures!

DONE AND DONE!

After staying up until 3am finishing the tank top, I slept until 3:30 this afternoon. I still have to run 12 miles (damn you, Chicago Marathon), and study for my criminal procedure final. Yikes. Happy Saturday!

(PS: If you like the tank, the pattern lists the email Info@knitbykiana.com as a contact)

Preoccupation to the max

Okay, okay. Not only am I working a ton this summer, I'm also completely preoccupied by this little thing. My brand-spankin' new niece, Misha Evelyn. I went up to Michigan (over, maybe?) right after my last post to help out my sister and brother-in-law for a week. Really I just sat and looked at Misha for a week while thinking to myself "I should really study/finish that memo/run/etc." But it was a great week.

Now I am back in Delaware with only 20 days left of my internship.... which I don't think I've explained, yet. I am working for the worlds largest clothing company as the legal intern in the trademarks/licensing department. It's a really amazing experience that I really never thought was out there. A little leg work and a lot of uncomfortable emails and phone calls really paid off. While Delaware is by far my least favorite place I've ever lived, I would not trade this experience for anything.

In any case, I need to head off to bed. I've resolved to get some of my summer crafty projects up here soon. Until then!