Star Trek continued

So with my newfound free time, I’ve been a busy little trekkie.

My first order of operation, because I needed a break from the color chart, was to make the hat that Scotty wore in the movie. Original hat seen here.

Now I can’t take credit for the pattern. I was going to come up with my own, but Nicole Lorenz beat me to it, and she did a fabulous job. The pattern looked good, was easy, and was exceedingly well-written. It was awesome. So here’s my result:

I think it looks pretty kick ass. And pretty close to the original. It’s just a fun hat.

Today, since I had the sniffles too badly to leave the house (The allergy season is particularly lengthy and bad this year) I decided that I should finish that Kirk chart, since it’s been sitting on my dining room table for about a week now. I sat down with in in the living room, struggling to see the picture after I’d laid the knitter’s graph paper on top of it, because I don’t have a lightbox.. I got frustrated and looked out the window….and then it dawned on me.

TAPE THE THING TO THE GLASS DOOR! Let the sunlight do the work for me! After I did that, it was a piece of cake! I’m glad I figured this out now, that way I can use that technique from the beginning, and save a ton of time whenever I get to Spock.

At this point, the Kirk chart is 100% ready to go. The whole project will probably take me a while to complete, as following a Fair Isle chart like this is a fairly tedious task for me, so I’ll probably work on it intermittently only. I’m still excited about the project though and I really hope that it turns out well.

My mission begins…

I have decided to go with a double sided bag, because I couldn’t choose between Kirk and Spock. I obtained yarn in the proper colors, and am preparing to go.

I’m really excited about this project. Not just because of the cool Star Trek aspect of it, but I really enjoyed working on my Archie bag, and I’m excited to be doing a similar project.

I played around on photoshop and created charts for both Kirk and Spock. Several issues:

1. I’m not sure if my ink cartridge will live through printing the Spock one. Though I must say that there has been something wrong with my printer cartridges from the start. The color one never worked right, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that my B&W is dying after not printing all that much prior to this chart.
2. Main issue: I have no idea what I was thinking when I set the sizes of the images. The original instructions that I used when I created my Archie chart said to make the image 11 inches wide. I wanted this one to be slightly larger than my Archie bag, so I made it 12 inches wide. This completely disregards the fact that I felted my Archie bag because the proportions were messed up, thus making it much smaller than 11 inches wide. (In fact, it’s more like 9). I also didn’t think of the dimensions of the Star Trek images, so now the chart as printed out is 12 inches wide by 15 inches tall. (My Archie bag is more like a foot tall.) At first, it might not sound like that large of a bag…but when it’s just someone’s face, then it’s ginormous. There’s a huge pixellated image of Chris Pine’s head on my endtable…and it’s freaking me out a bit. And Spock’s head is even bigger than Kirk’s on his poster, so I’ll just be carrying around an image of ZQ’s big old melon.

I’m torn as to whether I should just redo it, and risk overworking my printer, or just have an extra large chart, but actually knit it smaller. The only thing I’m worried about there is screwing up the proportions like they were screwed up on my first bag. I’m not sure that my gauge proportions will remain the same. I’d rather do more work upfront rather than do all this shit and have the bag not come out right in the end. I guess I’m up for some heavy gauge swatching. *sigh*

Rest assured, I’ll figure something out. And it’ll be fun, right?

Right. Chris is excited. Alright.

Good news is that I’ve knit over a mile this month! So at least I made some progress on that front. June will probably be a bit slower because of all the work I’ll have to put into this project before I cast on.

Ambitions

This may not appear craft-related at first, but I assure you, it is.

I absolutely loved the new Star Trek movie. So much so that I actually saw it twice, including once in IMAX. I was really looking forward to seeing Zachary Quinto as Spock and wasn’t disappointed, but the entire cast was great. And though I’ve been a fan of Shatner for his non-acting work I really had no expectations about Kirk, but I thought Chris Pine was great in the role, especially the second time I saw it. (Not that his performance changed obviously, I just noticed it more the second time.)

Which leads me to the crafty part of this. A long time ago, I knitted this bag of Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin from the Nero Wolfe series. (That’s quite a mouthful.) Though I don’t carry it that often, I’ve gotten lots of compliments on it both in person and on Ravelry, where it’s been viewed upwards of 500 times and 45 people have it listed as a favorite. (Disclaimer: I can’t take all of the credit for the design, as it’s technically the “Poster Boy” pattern from Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation. I just didn’t use the provided chart but instead used the provided instructions for using your own image.

Anyway, after seeing the movie the first time, I thought it would be awesome to use this promotional poster of Quinto as Spock to make a bag out of it in the same way (and even probably in the same color as the other bag, since Spock wears blue). And rather than put Spock on both sides, I could put the Star Fleet logo on one side. But now I think it would be cool to do Kirk as well. So now I’m torn, and I have several options.

1. Do 2 bags. A blue Spock one and a yellow Kirk one.
2. Choose a neutral color, and do one on each side.
3. Rather than knit in the round like you’re supposed to, do it flat. Make a yellow Kirk, a blue Spock, and sew the two sides together.
4. Only make one.
5. Get a job. (Oh wait, tried that! No one will hire me)
6. Work on my damn thesis already.

I’m leaning towards option 1, because that way I could get both bags to look the way I want, even though that’s the most work. I’m not sure if option 3 would look funny or not. It could look cool, or it could look like a crayon box exploded. I mean, I guess the backgrounds are black for both since the pictures are so dark, so it probably wouldn’t scream color quite like my Archie bag does.

Really I just want to play with colorwork, so I’m not opposed to doing more work. I just want it to look cool.

Anyway, I’m in need of some advice. Anyone have any thoughts?

Stashbusting 2009

Since I neglected this blog for so long, I never updated on my stashbusting goals for this year.

For me, stashbusting ’08 was largely a failure. I blame it on Ravelry, and my introduction to new and wonderful patterns and yarns. But this year, I’m making a fresh commitment. With the help of the economic downturn and the very real risk of losing what little money I have, I’ve been pretty good at not buying anything this year. I’m also happy with how much I’ve been able to use up. The knitmeter on my sidebar has been great for keeping track of it all.

I’m still in Ravelry’s Stashbusting group, which is pretty helpful. And there this year, they have a whole bunch of personal challenges. Mostly “Knit one {insert item of choice here] a month” clubs. I miss the monthly challenges we used to have, but now there’s a million of these clubs. I decided to join the sock one though, because I do have many sock yarns, and have for the most part been pretty slow at actually making socks. So in addition to the goals of simply using up as much yarn as I can, I’ve decided to do one pair of socks a month as well.

So here are my accomplishments so far:
January

• Katlyn Cardigan: 592 yds
• Llama duck (llama yarn that is) crocheted sweater: 1080 yds
• Crocheted squares for blanket: ~140 yds
• Noro Socks: 362 yds

January Total: 2174 yds (1.24 miles)

February

• Blanket as a Valentine’s Day present for Scott: 1265 yds
• Green bulky hat: 60 yds
• Purple Purse: 414 yds
• Jaywalker Socks: 347 yds
• Gave away: 480 yds

February Total: 2566 yds (1.46 miles)

March

• Orange cardigan that isn’t quite finished yet: 869yds
• Bellatrix Socks: 390 yds

March Total: 1199 yds (.59 miles)

So my total so far this year is: 6038 yds (3.43 miles)

Not bad! Averaging over a mile a month. I’m not sure how much I’ll get done this month since the end of the month coincides with the end of the semester and there is much to be done before then. But at least I know I had a good start. And as far as I can tell, I’ll be unemployed over the summer. The upside of that is more yarn time!

Flash Your Stash 2009

It’s the annual “Flash Your Stash” that I always seem to miss, but this time I got it right. (And now I’ll remember that it’s on April Fools Day!) Usually, I’m quite embarrassed to admit how much yarn I have, but today is all about showing it off. (Plus I’ve seen way bigger stashes on Ravelry today to be ashamed :-P) So now, I take you through my stash:

What at first appears to be nothing but a sad excuse for a coffee table…

…is later shown to contain massive amounts of stash! The majority of my stash is organized pretty well, but this is basically “everything else.” I started filling it with anything that I had several balls of, that wasn’t going to be used anytime soon, so there was little point in having out where it was readily accessible. It grew from there to “stuff I can’t fit anywhere else.”

This is the corner of my bedroom. Yarn and art supplies on the bottom. The top few shelves are knitting books/magazines….which will grow out of that space by the end of the year. Good thing I’m moving to a house.

And here’s a closeup. You might have some idea at this point what my favorite color is. The bottom right is most of my sock yarn. The one above it is cheap Red Heart acrylic for toys. The stuff in the drawer is largely acrylic blend leftovers and the bigger one on the left is mostly cotton blends with a few novelty yarns thrown in.

And here’s the last of it! The one on the right is all 100% wool. The one on the left is sort of a random assortment of stuff. It started as full skeins of stuff, to keep it away from the leftovers, but I haven’t gone in there in a while, so I’m not sure there’s any organization at all at this point.

So that’s my stash! At the beginning of January it came in at somewhere around 25 miles! I’ve bought a little since then, but I’ve used up most of it. I’ve used/given away over 3 miles according to my knitmeter on the sidebar. And hopefully the size will shrink even more in the days to come. At least once the semester’s over.

The lovely people of Ravelry

I was recently a part of 2 group/swaps on Ravelry, and I thought I’d share my goodies.

The first one is much belated, but I received my package during an extremely busy week and then immediately got sick and too lazy to upload pics, so I humbly apologize for taking so long to get out a proper thank you! Firstly it was a Psych (AKA best show on TV) themed swap. It was a magic ball of yarn, where one item must be pineapple related. Here’s the before pic, some in-progress pics of when I encountered my (many!) pineapple items, and then an after shot of the whole haul.

The pina colada keychain was definitely my favorite. I do love pina coladas 🙂

The other swap that I was a part of was Traveling Scarves, one of the crochet only groups. Each person crochets a square and then mails it to the next person, who attaches another square and so on and so forth until you have a whole scarf being mailed back to you. Here’s mine, and it’s fabulous.

I’m having a little bit of a hard time telling whose square is whose since the one I made is somewhere in the middle (which is totally cool) but I really love it. It’s so cool to see the interesting colors and patterns that other people enjoy. Thanks again to all the lovely ladies in TSG who helped put this together 🙂

Long Awaited Update

A bunch of you have (rightly) chided me for not updating this in a while.  What can I say?  Grad school makes me busy.  However, my crafting side has managed to be decently productive otherwise.  So here’s a whole bunch of projects that I’ve done over the past few months:

Project One: Summer Cami

(Sorry for the boob closeup, but it shows the cami in more detail)

I talked about this cami once before in here and my problems with it. I did end up picking up the bottom stitches and added another repeat of the border. It’s still a little short, but I like the look of it with the other tank top underneath.  I also did a crochet border around the neck/backband and the armholes because it was curling a lot.  Way too cold to wear it now, but I’m still happy with it.  1.5 skeins of Cotton-Ease in Lime.

Project Two: Llama-Duck Sweater

It’s actually Llama/Silk yarn.  But I was so amused by the Llama that I got that llama song stuck in my head and so this was dubbed the llama duck sweater.  Firstly, this yarn was gorgeous (Thanks, Scott!). It was soft, it was great to work with, and I have a few skeins left.  I highly recommend it for anything that needs to be warm.  This is the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan from Interweave Knits Spring 2008.  It’s a little small in the waist, but it’s still really nice 🙂

Project Three: Red Vest

This is quite possibly my favorite thing that I’ve ever knitted. There was no seaming, I finished it in a week, it was easy, and it looks great!  I don’t know what else to say other than I love it.

Project Four: More socks!

I love these socks as well. I’m wearing them right now.  The pattern is called Charade, and it’s Free. I made them on a size 2 needle instead of the recommended size 1 because my feet are a bit larger than average and I’ve heard that the pattern doesn’t stretch.  They fit well, but sometimes the leg sags a little bit.  But not too badly.  They’re still comfy.

That’s it for now! Hopefully more timely updates to come.

Second Sock Syndrome = Overcome!

Despite my lack of updating, I’ve actually been quite productive knitting wise.  Just not so productive picture-taking wise.  More excitement to come, but today I do have one project to share:

These are my Broadripple socks from Knitty.  I actually knit one back in April and then the other in July.  They’re on size 3’s, which for me are insanely tiny needles.  And I was having a hard time with the pattern. It’s not difficult, but I kept messing it up.  I’m pleased with the overall outcome though.  And here’s better proof that I actually knit 2:

Speaking of Knitty projects, the new Knitty is out today!  My thoughts:

• AHHH!! This baby is being attacked by a horrible scarf monster! *
• The perception geek in me is absolutely in love with this optical illusion blanket.
• The last thing I need is another bag, so I wouldn’t knit it, but it’s cute.
• As usual, too many damn socks.
• I really like the name Mangyle for a pattern.
• Totally sweet hat

(*I actually think it’s funny in a good way. That photo is just hilarious. And Scott points out that it would be awesome to do it in funfur and have it be a muppet hug)

Anyway, more of my stuff to come. I have 3 completed (or mostly completed) projects that I haven’t taken pics of yet, but it’s on the to-do list for this week. (Yes, there is an actual li

Finally a real update

I’m having so many problems writing this entry right now…Seriously, WordPress = usability fail.

Alright! This is not everything that I’ve been working on, but it’s some of it…my excuse this time is that I just moved, and I didn’t do a lot of the packing.  As a result, it wasn’t until last night that I was able to locate the cord for my digital camera.  But the following projects had their pictures taken by the gift recipients, so they were e-mailed to me.  So, without further adeiu, I present to you two crochet gift projects.

“Imaginary Tiger Friend”

This is Imaginary Tiger Friend by Craft Kitten. I saw this patten way back before I even learned to crochet.  I queued it immediately on Ravelry, because I knew that my boyfriend loved Calvin & Hobbes, and that I had to make it for him. After a while, a kind soul on the RAK group on Ravelry gifted me the pattern, and I began working.  It was an epic struggle of “Why aren’t my stripes lining up?” (answer still unknown) and the disappearing crochet hook (my parents found it 2 months later, exactly where I’d looked for it) but I think it came out alright…if huge. I really had no idea how big it would be…so if I were to do it again, it would be a bit smaller, but Scott liked it anyway. 🙂 It made for a great anniversary present.  It took a really long time…I’d say I started work on it in May and didn’t finish it until July.  Admittedly, I did let it sit for a while, and coudn’t work on it on weekends (since that’s when Scott’s around), but it still kept a while just because it was so big.  Oh, and the whole thing is done in Red Heart Sport Solid.  And I somehow have way more leftover than I though.

(^ Check out Scott’s toes!)

And the other gift I made was for my best friend‘s birthday present.  She’s moving and starting law school this month, so I wanted to give her something she could use.  I figured a reusably grocery bag would be great, so I got myself the Eco Warrior Bag pattern by Knitomatic.  I’m not exactly an “Eco Warrior” but I try not to be unnecessarily wasteful either.

It’s supposed to be done in ribbon yarn, but I had some doubts as to a) how that would look, and b) how strong it would be.  And I’ve been having a love affair with CottonEase lately, and it’s definitely durable, so it was my #1 choice.

I went down a hook size (or 2, I don’t remember) and increased the amount of…increases, ha.  And I absolutely love the way it came out. I’m considering making myself one out of the leftovers.  It only took about a ball and a half, and it was super easy.  Great TV crocheting.  If anyone wants a shopping bag, I’d totally recommend this pattern

Coming up soon

• Another CottonEase project!
• Marie gets over Second Sock syndrome
• Llama duck!

Still going!

I’ve been so busy lately, which is why I haven’t written in a while. But I haven’t forgotten about this blog, and I have plenty of new projects to post once I get a chance.  Four, in fact.  Maybe this weekend I’ll have a chance but between my parents visiting, packing, and moving, I’ve had no time.  So I’ll just take this opportunity to share two very exciting pieces of knitting news (for me anyway).

I moved into my new apartment last weekend, where I expected to find washer and dryer hookups in the room off the kitchen.  I started to explore after I got the keys and found an actual washer and dryer.  And the washer is a top loader!  This is exciting because a) I can now do laundry whenever I want without excuses such as “it’s dark” or “it’s raining” getting in my way, and b) I can felt things now! Very exciting.

Even more exciting news, I got a set of Denise’s used on Ravelry from the ISO and Destashing group. The girl selling it also sold me an extra cord along with the extra 17’s and 19’s.  Hooray!  I have a whole new world of knitting possibilities now, because I don’t have to worry about what size circulars I have. I can just do it.  I just got them in the mail this morning and started using them for my Flutter Sleeve Cardigan, because the size 6s I have are just a tad too short for the back.

So that’s pretty much what I’m working on now.  I didn’t do totals for last month and goals for this one, because I was just far too busy last month to get much done…and school starts soon, so who knows what that will do to my free time?

Anyway, pics of new projects coming. I promise!

PS – Comments totally welcome. I’ve been told that people enjoy reading it, but comments help me believe you 😛