Poncho lust

I am totally going crazy with everything I want to knit, objects I want to finish, stuff I want to make as gifts. *sigh*

I want a poncho now. I really do. But I'm scared that I'm gonna knit one and end up not liking it. So I figure that maybe I should not bother and just buy one? But knitting one would be much more fun! :p I think I will. The Poncho-along starts on September first, which is... Wednesday! And I have 2-3 patterns in mind and no yarn. Fun.

Ok I need to prioritize. To-do list:

-Finish sister's slippers by tomorrow
-Finish funky purple racoon scarf by the end of the week
-Finish baby blanket ASAP
-Swatch for DNA scarf by the end of the week
-Start poncho :p

I predict a knitting binge all week long. The only sad thing is that this week is gonna be a crazy one at work and I won't have much free time. Oh well. I'll update with my progress or lack thereof.

(not yet fuzzy) foot!

So I'm supposed to be a slow knitter, yet I managed to knit the first sock for Fuzzy feet in one day. YAY! It is far from being perfect, but I'm happy with it. Hey it's my first sock. It's a big deal! :p Anyways, hopefully the felting will hide the mistakes.



I also realized that I really need some knitting friends. Little conversation on the phone this morning:

Me: I knit a sock yesterday!

Mom: Oh, that's nice.

Nice? It's fantastic!!! *sigh* She just doesn't understand ;)

Projects!

I'm having fun deciding what projects to start next.

My ugly-full-of-mistakes-but-I-want-to-finish-it-anyways baby blanket is almost done. BUT I won't have enough yarn for the moss stitch border. Poo. I'll probably buy another skein and use the leftover to knit a kitty hat for my boss' daughter or something like that. Or maybe I'll start that goddamn throw for my couch. My couch is ugly. It needs a throw. And a blue one would be perfect.

I started the fuzzy feet from Knitty for my sister. They're gonna be pink and, hopefully, pretty. I've never knitted socks and I've never felted anything before. Wooo new experience.

I've swatched for a pair of mittens I want to make with the leftover from my HP scarf. I want to use the mittens pattern from Stitch N' Bitch. But I only have sets of 4 dpns and it calls for 5. So I'll have to buy an extra set.

Also, I'm not gonna participate in the poncho knitalong after all. I found two nice patterns. But I know I won't have time because of my other projects. The patterns I'm considering making in the future:

http://www.salonemakhorinn.com/Patterns/_102/_102.htm(I'd make it a dark gray as MC and red as CC I think)

Blue Moon Poncho

I will, however, participate in the DNA-along. Woo!


It starts in September but I want to start swatching for it. It may become my mom's Christmas gift. If I can knit it quickly, I may make two and have them sent to Germany to my grandmother's sister and her husband. We'll see.

Can I do magic now?

Look! Look!



Wow, don't they have lovely scarves. Wouldn't it be great if I could, say, knit one just like it?



Woohoo! It is so incredibly soft too, I love it!

I am a self-admitted dork but dorks are cool anyways.

~FO~FO~FO~Fo

I finished a project! WOOOOOOHOOOO!

My Harry Potter scarf is now DONE. I just need to block it, which I will do when I get back home tomorrow.

I'm very happy about it and for the first time ever, I'm looking forward to the cold weather just so I can wear it. :p I will post pics in a couple of days.

***

Now. I still have two WIPs, both of which I'm a bit bored with. I'm working on my illusion scarf right now (I have a bit more than a third of it done).

I will receive the Noro Kureyon beauties soon and they will be made into a bag.

But I also have one million projects in mind and I can't decide which one I want to make next. So here's me organizing my thoughts...

I have two knitted presents planned for the holidays.

Mom: I'm hesitating. I can go simple and knit her a scarf. Her coat is white and red. So the colours would have to go with it. I know she LOVES my HP scarf so I may go with a similar style (in the round and all). The other option would be the Chinese charm bag from Stitch N' Bitch. I already have the handles and she loved it when she saw the picture in the book. I just don't know which yarn I'd choose as I don't know where to find Noro Gemstones. If not, I guess I'll choose another brand of variegated yarn. I just need to be very careful with the colours to make sure she will actually use it.

Sister: My first idea was to make her a scarf and if I have time, mittens or a hat to go with it. The problem is that I have no idea what kind of coat she's gonna wear this winter. So I wouldn't know which colour to choose. Hmmm. Option #2 would be felted slippers, like the Fuzzy feet from Knitty. It's marked as a "tangy" pattern though. But it really is just a huge pair of socks and I've been meaning to try socks anyways. So I don't know.

I really need to figure out what I'm gonna make and start soon since I'm such a slow knitter.

Projects for me that I have in mind:

-A poncho AND/OR a shawl AND/OR a blanket. Basically, just something that I can bring at work to wrap myself in when I'm cold and everyone else is hot so I can't turn on the heat. I just need to find the perfect pattern first.

-A sweater. I want to make my first sweater and I want to make it now. :p I'm hesitating between To dye for, from the SNB book or the Surplice Cardigan from the Fall 04 issue of Vogue knitting. It's very pretty and marked as easy so maybe I could manage to make it.

-Socks. I really want to make socks. Any socks.

So many projects, so little time.

***

Thing to add to the "I want it but can't knit it yet" list: Charlotte's Web. I wish.

*yarngasm*

Lookie what I got on Ebay.... Three skeins of this:



This is so gonna be a bag.

Needles!

I just won 26 pairs of knitting needles on Ebay.

*happy dance*

Now I still need a set of Denises. BUT, I'm using those as an incentive to stick to my diet (I'll buy them when I've stuck to my diet for a certain number of days OR when I'm to a certain weight that I'm not disclosing here).

Oh and FYI: I'm hoping for a FO sometime next weekend. Weee! I'm such a slow knitter...

Wool!

I went to my LYS today. Now the place is small. Tiny. But so filled with yarn. I love it. And the place was crowded today (mostly older ladies). I spent so much time there, just looking at all the yarn, touching, trying to decide what to buy. I really just wanted to see if they had more of the yarn I'm using for my HP scarf (they did!).

It was so funny too, there was this lady there who had the most charming accent (she said she's originaly from Egypt but she's been living here for 20+ years). She was talking to this other lady, telling her that she would once again get out of the store with too much yarn and a big dent in her bank account. "There's just so many nice things in here!", she said and then she looked at me and smiled and said "don't you think?". I just smiled and nodded. I looked at her shopping basket: it was FULL! I swear she must have had over 200$ worth of yarn in there (and the yarn is quite cheap there so that's a lot of yarn).

I wish I could have bought as much but my wallet said no. I bought one ball of yellow merino wool and two of the red one (I'm hoping I'll have leftovers to make mittens or something). I also bought some type of novelty yarn (similar to the fun fur thing) in two different shades of purple. There was a scarf made with that yarn in the store that was just too cute.

And now is the time for a little confession. My name is Caroline and I'm a scarf addict. I know I should knit other things (and I will, my next project will be a sweater, I'm pretty sure) but I think I will ALWAYS have a scarf on the needles, whether it's for me or a gift. The thing is, I've loved scarves even before I started knitting. I always buy too many of them in winter. I have three black coats (different styles, same colour) and I like to change the look with a different scarf. What can I say.
So yeah. Scarves. My HP one is looking good even though I still have eight (?? I think) stripes to knit. Wanna see? I know you do!


It's all soft and warm too! Woo!

First, a bit of history...

Once upon a time (i.e. a few years ago), there was this girl -- we'll call her Caroline -- who wanted to learn how to knit. Why? This will remain a mystery, even to her. Caroline's mom knows everything, or so the knitter-to-be thought. "Mama, can you teach me how to knit?", she asked (except what she really said was "Maman, peux-tu m'apprendres à tricoter?"... Yes, Caroline speaks a weird and mysterious language sometimes known as Canadian French).

Much to her surprise, the mother replied that she didn't know how to knit. Crushed, Caroline put away all of her knitting dreams, convinced she would never learn the craft.

Now fast-forward a couple of years. We are now in December 2003. Caroline has a two weeks holiday break from work. Joy! Happiness! Boredom! Inspired, she suddenly decides that she would learn how to knit and that in fact, she would learn how to knit right at this moment. So off to Wallmart she goes. There, she finds a little "I taught myself how to knit" kit (as well as a "I taught myself how to crochet" one that has yet to be used). She also buys some yarn that fitted all the qualities she thought were needed in a yarn (i.e. the colours were pretty). So Caroline gets home, she sits comfortably on the couch, book in hand. She learns how to cast-on and then how to do the knit stitch. "Woohoo! I can knit!", she proudly thought.

Caroline puts the book down and decide to begin the obligatory first scarf project. Unfortunately, things don't go too well and what was supposed to be a long pretty scarf quickly becomes a sort of weirdly shaped piece of fabric. So our hero puts down the needles and doesn't touch them for a couple of months.

Then, in February or so, she picks them back up and start a brand new scarf with brand new yarn. This time, she decides to count the stitches on every row. After what seems like an eternity (it was really three months), she has her first -- still uneven but much better looking -- scarf (see Figure 1).


Figure 1. Caroline's first scarf

What I haven't mentionned yet is that while she was working on that scarf, Caroline had heard of a knitting book called Stitch N' Bitch that seemed to be all the rage. Of course, curiosity got to her and she ended up buying the book. She fell in love with many of the patterns and the love affair still continues today.

But back to the knitting projects. After the scarf, Caroline decides she wants a bag. So why not try one that's in the beloved book? And with that, she starts her second knitting project: Zeeby's bag. It takes a month to finish and ends up not looking exactly like the original, but she likes it nonetheless and still uses it often (see Figure 2 and 3.)


Figure 2. Zeeby is resting on Caroline's lay-z boy.


Figure 3. Caroline is pretending to carry Zeeby for the photographer**.

Since then, Caroline hasn't stopped knitting but for some unknown reason, she can't seem to finish anything. She currently has three projects on the needles (two of them are almost done now) and she can't wait to show them off.

She also has an insanely long list of "To-Knit" items...

**There was no photographer, I made that up.