That's a Wrap!

Four hours left of 2010 on the East Coast!  I just returned home after visiting Marmie and then a couple of days with JJ.  It was a knitting bonanza!  I needed some easy projects to whip up after that darn fox so I searched through patterns on Ravelry.com for anything requiring the use of chunky yarn, big needles, and basic techniques. 

My first day of vacation I knit a brown cowl, based on a Lion Brand yarn pattern and then I tried something only slightly more challenging and knit JJ a pair of fingerless mitts.  JJ knit beside me and turned out this cute beehive hat.  Here is a picture of JJ and I in all of our winter creations.  I am wearing a cable knit hat JJ made a few weeks ago, as well as my brown cowl.  JJ is wearing her beehive hat and the new mitts.

 

This year I am grateful for family, for knitting, and for lots of red wine! I can't wait to start cooking.   Happy New Year!  Cheers!

The New Resolution - HOWE Girls Cook!

In 2010, we Howe women took on a New Year's Resolution to knit, knit, knit. The goal was simple- to summon delightful creations from our fingers and to encourage, drag, and pull each other to new levels! Now, as 2011 approaches we are proud to say we have reached our goal! Alas, the Howe women never rest. Encouraged by our success we have decided to learn a new talent. This year we will take on the task of cooking. Don't worry, the knitting will continue as we learn HOWE to do new stuff!

The Plan
Our goal is to expand and challenge our cooking repertoire.  Each month we will focus on various cuisines - check out the calendar to the right!  With freedom to create any type of dish within each cuisine, the only rule is to create something never attempted.  Our posts will contain pictures of our culinary creations, as well as the recipes and lessons learned. We will slice and dice our way to 2012!

Bon appetite! 

You Know You are a Cute Little Heartbreaker

 I delivered the good news to my nephew today... Mr. Fox is done!  This project has been my longest so far, a whopping 4 months!  I learned many new techniques for the little guy, including how to knit those darn fingers and toes.  Anyway, I am going to just show the fruits of my labor instead of blabbering on about the knitting process.  Introducing, the fantastic Farmer Fox!

A "tail" of two cities...started in LA,
finished in Boston.

Gone to pieces...

Caught in a bad romance...

It'll cost ya an arm and a leg...

Stay tuned!  I am ___ (this) close to finishing Mr. Fox.  Woooo hooo!  One more little leg to go!

its about time!

so ive recently been spending a ton of time on ravelry looking for a new pattern because...wait for it... i finished my beach bag!! and its about gd time. ill be honest. the bag was really not that hard to make. but those silly straps took me forever and just annoyed me to no end! but its done, and im super excited!! so here it is!

this is my bag after i laid it out to block it!! didnt have anything to hold down the sides to stop them from rolling besides nail polish- which was not very good!

and there it is! i absolutely love it! not sure what im going to do with it yet. debating lining it with some bright-ish fabric or i just might use it to get produce at the grocery store. its all still up in the air- luckily i have a while before its beach season so i dont have to decide yet!!

now i just need to find Twinkles Town and Country Knits and i can start teaching myself how to cable knit!

Fox Gloves

Ok all you wonderfully talented knitters out there.  My fox has a body, tail, and half a head.  I am approaching the dreaded little fingers again.  Does anybody understand how to knit fingers/hands and then attach them to the arm???  Helpful links to videos or simple directions would be lovely.  If not, I will be giving this fox the finger for real, and it won't be attached to his body, it will be attached to mine!

(directions as written from designer Jennie Eveleigh Lamond...

CO3 sts using black.  Place one st on each dpn and join into round.
Row 1: kfb in each stitch [6 sts]
Row 2: k
Row 3: [k1, kfb] 3 times [9 sts]
Rows 4 and 5: k


break off yarn and place first 4 sts on one holder and last 5 sts on a second holder (safety pin works great).  This is one finger.  Repeat finger twice more - you will have 3 fingers.

For last finger, do not break yarn and do not place stitches on holder. 

now here is the tricky part...
Palm Row 1: K first 4 sts off of the finger still on the needles (finger #1), and slip the last 5 onto one dpn to knit at the end of the row.  Then k first 4 sts off of finger #2, and first 4 sts of finger #3.  Using a new dpn, K last 5 sts off of finger #3 and last 5 sts off of finger #2.  Using the third dpn, K last 5 sts off of finger #1.




So, yeah...good luck with that!

Hold up, wait a minute, put a little sister love in it!!

meg came to town this weekend and we had a sista love in. well, kind of.

mom sent a strongly worded email before i was even alive saturday morning, telling me that i needed to send her a pic of the beautiful scarf she made me for christmas last year. my first attempt w my blackberry was wobbly, but this pic turned out great!! megs all smiley and sparkly and moms scarf is amazing. win!

heres meg and i, knitting on the couch, watching a woody allen movie. just like a normal sunday night!

and heres meg and i really knitting, wo the posed pic. thats just how we look.

howe girls knit!!!

Fox this!

Ugh. I know. It has been over a month since I posted and it was seriously my turn. The excuses would fill two pages so I will spare you the pity party. Let's move on to my current project, Mr. Fox. This adorable little toy was supposed to be completed for my nephew's birthday, on August 3rd. Now it is almost October and what have I got to show myself? Even less than I had a month ago! I was nearly finished with the tail when I noticed that somehow I switched from knitting to purling. Usually this would be no big deal but I have been knitting on dpns so I wasn't sure if I was up for taking out the 5 rows of purl to try again. I got myself a glass of wine and felt a little confident so I took those bad boys out. I started knitting again and WTFox! I was "knitting" but my stitches were coming out as purls. So I said "Fox this!" and just cut it off right then and there.

The last few days I have tried to work up some energy to start this project again. I know when I call Nephew Josh tomorrow he will tell me once more that I have had long enough to get this done. Oy.

There is some good news in my knitting world. I have set up a knitting room in my new apartment. I am waiting to find the perfect comfy chair on craigslist to complete the room but in the meantime I have my baskets, some of my favorite Marmie projects as inspiration, and a cozy spot.

A friend recently sent me some llama yarn from Argentina so as soon as I finish my fox I am going to make my first knitting room project something amazing. :-)


I hope all you knitters are celebrating more success than I am. Hopefully I will post a complete toy within the next two weeks.

and shes baaaaaaaack.......

so i FINALLY got a computer!!! so i bring you the bottom of my bag (taken, of course, on the camera on my computer).....

well thats it for now. im still knitting. and i now have to be up super early. so this whole knitting thing is kinda getting in the way of getting to work on time!!! ahh!!!

Indoctrination Success!

With JJ's permission, I am posting the email I received from her last evening...

"...I just wanted to tell you how much I'm LOVING knitting!! I finished the bottom of my bag and got to the pick up and knit part and almost stopped. But instead I googled how to do it. And now that I think I know what I'm doing- I don't want to put it down!! Its like reading a good book! Except I have to be up at 6. So I have to!

That is all. Wish I was there!!


My work as a knitting mentor may be done!

By the way, the wonderfully addicting bag mentioned is the Medano Beach Bag by Heidi Kirrmaier.

It does look like a great bag, JJ! Post a pic of the finished product when you complete it...tonight??

love, marmie

Remnants and Future Projects

All I really want to do right now is bust out my new size 2.5 dpn and start knitting Nephew Josh's birthday present. However, I am still packing for my cross country trip. I am moving back to the East Coast after a whirlwind year in LA. I am unsure of my future there but I am, for the first time in awhile, looking forward to the unknown. If knitting has taught me anything about life it is that you might have a plan and a pattern to follow but the end product can still turn out different than you expected. (P.S. Thanks to Marmie and JJ for showing just how true this is!)

A few weeks ago JJ flew out to visit me and left me with a few knitting remnants. She brought me her adorable pink octopus, which has been my moving mascot. She also spent some time knitting while I was at work and I came home to her own knit eyeball. I guess the eyeball fad has stuck! I love that because of this project, we three women are leaving knitting remnants of ourselves wherever we go. :-)

So while I pack and tape and label boxes I keep eying the bag of orange, black, and white yarn that will soon be a cute little fox. I decided to listen to Stereomood.com, a music website JJ got me into recently. As I was browsing the possible "moods" of music to listen to I discovered there is one called "Let's Knit!" The knitting gods are on my side. I may not be putting together my latest project, but I am in the knitting zone, stitching together my west coast life which will soon turn into an east coast life.

Cheers, fellow Howe women, to our future as knitters, to our east coast stitch n' bitch dates, and to the hobby that has guided us through an amazing 7 months so far!

sometimes you knit...

Sometimes you knit out of obligation...


Sometimes you knit to learn something...

And sometimes you knit out of pure love...

In every stitch, little Alice!

love,

grand-marmie

The "G" Word

This is a big apology to my fellow Howe girl knitters! When we started on this knitting venture, I failed to teach you a very important lesson - always check your gauge!

Having said that, I admit that I used to be quite neglectful in this area. I always assumed that if I had the needles and yarn indicated in the pattern, that all would come out right. A collection of misfit outfits taught me different.

Unfortunately, I failed to stress this need enough to miss maggie and jj. For our toymaker, maggie, it hasn't really been an issue. Poor jj came face to face with it with our latest project - the Ballet Tee by Teva Durham.

http://http//www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ballet-t-shirt

I thought that I would knit this little tee the same time as jj - that way, if she had any questions I would be ready to jump in and offer assistance. I knit up my gauge sample and jumped into the project. It's a fun little tee to wear over a cami and is cool and comfy. Here is the final project:

Cute, right? I did add a couple of inches to the bottom to accomodate my middle-age midrif, but otherwise it went just as written. I actually love this pattern and will be making a couple more to have on hand. (note - I will not be wearing it over a black sports bra as miss jj is modeling here)

JJ, meanwhile, knit away on her piece. As mentioned previously, there was no gauge check - just a lot of fun knitting. Same size needles, same yarn...different result. Take a look:

Still absolutely adorable on jj, but definitely a different look! What you can't see in the photo is how she stretched this little tee over her teeny body!

Just to make the point more clearly:

Gauge - it's a pain in the ass, but it has it's purpose!

Two fabulous tops, one interesting lesson on gauge.

love, marmie

failing seems to be in the water....

so before i start my own tale of fail, i would like to comment on megs last post. as i was sitting enjoying a good ole 'merican beer on the fourth o july, i got the notification that meg had posted. being a good sister and faithful blog follower, i read it right away. and i loved the chick! and i thought was a better way than to prove that it was indeed a chick then to ask everyone i was with what they thought! so without telling them what it was supposed to be, i passed around my phone. everyone was on the chick bandwagon until my dear sweet bf. and ill admit, i was shocked at his response. "its a monkey." wtf. for real? but then he explained it. and i got it. maybe it was the overabundance of 'merican beer, but this is what he, and now i, see.....

(smile added by moi)

get it?

anyways, moving on to my own fail. so for my birthday my mom got a goody bag from The Embraceable Ewe Yarn Shop. Inside was the perfect knitting gift: 3 skeins of light blue yarn, a set of bamboo circular needles and Teva Durham's Ballet T-Shirt pattern. i was very excited and set about winding the yarn- which is a fail i have already blogged about- i think - if not imagine someone w too much yarn and not enough wine. anyways. mom finally wound it up for me at home and i was sent back to dc to knit. however, the first time i read the pattern i decided i had no idea what they were talking about and set it out of my mind. but after finishing that lil pink octo, i decided i could take anything on and decided that the long weekend would be a great time to start!

so i set off on my sweater. and just like mom said, it wasnt that hard. and i was feeling pretty stoked.
see, i figured out that when it says pm i dont have to run out to the store to get markers, i can just make em out of my extra yarn!


and when it says to count rows, there's really no need for a row counter. its totally easier to just write all over your pattern! (i know what youre thinking, what do you do it you want to knit this pattern again?? havent figured that part out yet.)

my biggest problem was knitting the sleeve. i figured out the whole casting on extra stitches on a row, but my arm hole was a little effed up, which hopefully is easily fixable. but here was the problem. it was about this point, 3 nights worth of knitting i believe, that i realized my sweater was the wrong size. i was knitting a cute cap sleeve ballet t for a 5 year old. thank god steve-o just had a baby girl! well that was a sad realization, but instead of tearing the shirt apart, i decided it would be worth it to just finish it up and make sure that next time i wont have as many mistakes....

that line going vertically is supposed to be in the center of the shirt. however, i didnt read the directions completely before starting and missed the whole bit about placing markers in the middle of the front and back on your very first row. oops.

the underneath of this sleeve wasnt that bad. however the increases are supposed to line up differently.

and this ones just a fail all the way around.

so im excited that i finally made something wearable, but it kinda sucks that its only for a small child. but i guess we're all here to learn, right? and the upside is that marm bought enough yarn that i can make another one. although im afraid that my mistake was not being able to knit to the correct gauge. which means everything piece of clothing i make will be child sized. haha. so stay tuned for my howekidsknit etsy shop!

Knitting Fail!

My confidence in knitting, and in life as well, has seemed to risen steadily in the last month. I have learned new techniques, such as knitting in the round, a few new ways to increase and decrease, and how to incorporate crochet into my projects.

However, the world will never let you gain too much confidence before it reminds you that, in fact, you aren't all that.

The last week of school was a strange week in my life, to be sure. I found myself trying to get paperwork done, trying to finish report cards, trying to secure a job back on the East Coast, and trying to knit eyeballs. It was a very good thing that I rallied Marmie in to help me knit those suckers because even with my "report card, eyeball, report card, eyeball" rotation, I found myself knitting those suckers at a pace that was not quite fast enough.

I pulled my first all-nighter since college and finished knitting the last eyeball at 6 am, the morning of the last day of school. I finished filling them during recess and then at the end of the day, surprised the kids with a truly unique end of the year gift! We had a tearful goodbye but it was comforted with 22 happy kids with 22 amazing eyeballs! Just see for yourself!After completing a project like that, successfully pulling an all-nighter, and getting a great job back in Boston, how could I not be a little excessive on the hubris? I could conquer the world! So this week I sat down to "just knit something." This whole project started when I had requested that my mom knit a little chick as a gift for me and she commented that she was not teaching me to fish. So I thought what better project to rock right now then my own little chick! This would show that I could in fact knit whatever I wanted and it would turn out pretty damn awesome.

Ha. Enter hubris' good friend humility. I was feeling confident as I knit in the round because it was so much easier. However, this little guy, whose pattern I found on Ravelry.com, needed a little more skill than I was able to render.

Example 1: The tail. Not sure what is going on there but it looks more like I fastened a knitted rudder to his behind, even attaching it a little off-center. My chick will now swim in circles.

Example 2: The head. What do you mean 1/3 of the way down the body to make the head?? If that is the case then the beak will be ginormous! Which brings me to...

Example 3: The beak. I don't know how the suggested pattern for the beak was ever expected to work but when I tried to attach it, my chick ended up looking more like Steve Martin in the movie Roxanne. So I attempted to make a smaller one, reducing the stitches. Fail. Tried using a different size needle. Fail. Thought about just attaching a construction paper beak but couldn't bring myself to do it.

What I have is a reminder from life. No, I cannot do everything perfectly. My chick looks weird. In fact, when I had company over recently I hid him away in a basket instead of proudly displaying him on the side table where all my clever creatures have resided before being sent off to their owners. Yes life, I remember. I'm still learning.

anything you can do i can do better...havent we already heard this song?

so i love my big sister to bits and pieces. but we've always been a bit competitive, and by we, i mean me. as the little sister i always tried to do everything that my big sis did, however, usually not with my desired outcome. so when lil milla made an octopus for my soon-to-be-named-cutest-baby-in-the-world, i got a bit jealous. my pink tutu was just not enough. i needed to do something. so i decided to completely copy what she made - except in pink! win! (this was my glorious vision....)


so i started knitting up my little pink octo. i think i may have gone 3 stitches before i got completely confused and had to call big sis to ask some questions. in the short time since mom had taught us how to knit in the round, i had completely forgotten. so this was the shiznit that i ended up w...
its all twisted about, nothing making any sense, and the more i tried to get this to work, the more frustrated i got. so i called big sis AGAIN. poor girl really needs to get verizon. after about an hour, a glass of wine, and having to rewind bridehead revisted about 15 times, i finally figured out how to get this started...
after getting more wine, i was excited that i figured out how to knit in the round. the only problem now- going on hour 2 - was that i cant read directions. i was increasing after every single stitch, every single row, instead of changing when i increase on each row. so im not sure what i ended up with after 2 hours, but it was nothing close to what it was supposed to look like, so i had to start over AGAIN. woo hoo. but this time i was much more successful, subjectively. ha. i could see the shape starting, as shown in the pics below, but the further i got along in the process, the more i realized i was making a balloon. thats right. instead of an octo head, i made a child's party balloon. win again.



after successfully making a balloon, i decided to call it a night. octo legs could wait till another night.

the next night to be exact! now i need to preface this with some admitting that i do have some faults- few, but some. and one of those is that i forgot how to crochet when i was 12 years old. as most tweens, i exhausted myself with this skill after making 10 million friendship bracelets. meg told me it was easy and to just google it. my other fault? not owning a computer- that works. so i googled on my super brilliant blackberry. win. i was able to get the gist of the curly cue, the stupid curly cue that looked like nothing (dont worry, pic to follow). so again, meg bailed me out and i was able to perfect 8 little legs.

what is that? really?

so anyways, my journey with my little pink octo was almost complete. just needed to stuff the little guy, attach the legs, and go on my merry way. so now, i would like to introduce you to my brand new little pink octo......

and here she is with my soon-to-be-named-cutest-baby-in-the-world's homemade tutu

so in the end i think i will admit defeat to my big sis. her lil green octo def beats my lil pink octo. but, i learned a lot and now need to get a cat to give my octo to.

next up? learning to knit with circular needles. here's a hint: i already hate it!

How to Get That Mojo Back

After two major knitting failures (gaiter and itty-bitty grand-daughter sweater), I thought I might take a break from knitting and focus on spinning or gardening or reading quietly in the corner.





That's when I was called in for a knitting emergency! Maggie had decided to make each of her 4th grade students a little something to remember her by. In this case, a knitted eyeball. Specifically, Deborah Boyd's Juggling Eyeballs. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/juggling-eyeballs





She needed 22 made and found herself in a bit of a pickle to finish them all before the last day of school. A quick call home and I completed this:



Ten eyeballs, stuffed with lentils, and ready to be overnighted to Los Angeles.

The task of knitting the same pattern over and over was strangely comforting and I found myself thinking about what else I should start knitting next as each little eyeball was completed.

I wouldn't call it mindless knitting, as I did have to keep checking the pattern for increases and decreases. But it was comfortable knitting. No challenge, no thinking, just having fun making something completely funny.

Thanks, Maggie, for pulling me into this. Now I'm on to my next project. I"ve just downloaded the Traveling Woman Shawl pattern.

love,
marmie

for your viewing pleasure...

pics from knitting in the round lesson w marm!

sorry meg, no pic of your circle. (note: i was incorrect! the first little ring is in fact lil maggacitas)

three little rings just thrown together.

and we found a use for my pink one!!

so long colden...poppa is driving us home!