A Peek at My Ravelry Queue

I love browsing Ravelry for cute patterns and ideas, and I always end up adding something to my queue.  I seriously need to find a teaching job so I can buy more yarn and get started!  Enjoy:

Firefly bag.  The name caught my eye (I love Nathan Fillion and his tv shows), and then the pretty lace pattern pushed this guy to number one in my queue.

Abigail Cardi.  Knit in one piece (I despise sewing seams!), it looks light and cute.

Still Light Tunic.  I adore pockets.  Enough said.

Fiona, all grown up.  Yes, this is on tiny needles and would take forever to create.  But it's soooooooo cute.  And I have recently discovered that I actually like using tiny needles.  It's the perfect summertime top/project.

Looking Glass Socks.  I'm in the middle of my first pair of socks, and I love them! So fast and easy to knit up.  I have a feeling I'll be making a lot more in the future.

Quadrat.  Sideways cables!  This is such a cute look, I wonder if I can pull it off?

Snapdragon Flip-Top Mittens.  My first real knitting project was a pair of gloves (I'm a firm believer of learning while I go?), and these mittens would be a great addition to my collection.

Aubergine.  I'm very much in love with this yarn and how it knit up!

Finally, there are two knitted pairs of slippers that I can't make up my mind about!  What do you think?

French Press Felted Slippers.  The buttons are adorable!

Knotted Slipper.  The knot just looks so fun to do!

Believe it or not, this is only about half my queue!  I want to try so many different things, as well as continue making things I enjoy, like small projects and socks.  I introduced my sister to Ravelry last night, and she spent hours trying to find the perfect sweater pattern.  She did!

My first pair of socks!

A few weeks ago, I won a sock pattern from a fabulous blog I read, We Do Not  Have A Knitting Problem.  The blogger not only knits a ton of socks, but designs them as well.  I have never attempted socks, but with this Sweet Home pattern I knew the time had come.

I picked out a beautiful yarn yesterday, and was excited to get started!  I've been trying to avoid started new projects since I want to spend time on weaving.  Unfortunately the custom pieces I ordered for my loom were not quite right, and I'll have to send them back to be remade.  While I'm waiting, the socks should keep me busy.

Beautiful Madeline Tosh yarn.

I love these colors.

The yarn is hand-dyed Tosh Sock merino wool.  So soft!

The other exciting thing about this project is that I got to use my new swift and ball winder for the first time!  I got them for my birthday, and have been very happy that I'll never have to wind balls of yarn by hand again.

Lookin' good.

I may have gotten a little artsy with the camera.  Action shots!

I also may have made my sister sit on the floor to shoot this...

Close up of the final product.

Hooray!  A great ball ready to be turned into socks.

 I suppose the dark colors will make it a little more difficult to see the pattern, but once this yarn caught my eye I couldn't put it down.  Why did I agree to go tubing with my friends this afternoon when I could be home knitting!?

Projects for Tiny Needles

I finished my Mary Ella cuff this week!  Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon.  I still have some of my thread left, so I hopped on Ravelry to see what other tiny knitting projects are out there.  Here's what I found:

There was a ton of jewelry!  I love the idea of making tiny, detailed, hand-knit jewelry to wear.  I tend to have a few favorite pieces that I wear all the time, so expanding my collection would be great.

These earrings are beautiful

A simple necklace.

A crocheted cuff.  I need to get back into hooking!

A beaded necklace.

How cute would it be to make your own garter for your wedding? (And it's a heck of a lot classier than the girl I saw the other day with a garter tattooed on her thigh.  Gross.)

There's a ton out there.  I'm not into using bookmarks (I just grab whatever small piece of paper I have nearby.  I love using old metro cards as bookmarks), but there are dozens on Ravelry.  I was delighted to find a mini Companion from the game Portal for your inner nerd:

The cake is a lie.

There's also great decorative things, like these rock covers:

The pattern is called "Little Urchin Crochet Covered Sea Stones." How cute!

In other news, I finally got the reeds for my loom!  Unfortunately, they are warped.  The corners aren't square, so the reed tilts sideways.  The tilt makes it too big to fit in my loom.  I think I can fix them if I sand them down, but I'm really disappointed.  I got them custom made from a company, and I was expecting a much better product for the price!

MaryElla Cuff Update

I've been a little absent from blogging recently, and I apologize.  This summer will be the longest I'll be in my parents' house since 2008, and I realized that I spent all of college using my room for storage.  It is in desperate need of cleaning!  I've been slowly working on that, along with a job, and lots of visits with the boyfriend (a 2 hour commute >> an 8 hour commute!  For you non-math people, >> means "much much greater").  During all of this, I attended my first knitting class.  I mentioned it in my last post about picking.

I wasn't really sure what to expect in the class.  I could do the cuff pattern on my own if I wanted, and I'm not a huge fan of people analyzing my knitting.  However, I'm really glad I signed up.  They money really goes to utilizing the expertise of the teacher.  She told me about picking, she had suggestions to improve the pattern, and even some suggestions for weaving support when I get my loom reeds.  There are only two other people in the class, so there's a lot of time for off-topic questions.

I had practiced with my tiny needles, and was pretty comfortable using them in class.  I made some good progress while there, and really enjoy working with beads.  In elementary school, I was really into using my bead loom, and making bracelets, animals and all kinds of things with tiny seed beads.  Apparently I still enjoy it!  Here are some pictures:

I added pencil erasers to the end of the needles to avoid blisters on my palms.

Detail on the beginning of the bracelet.  I'll weave ribbon through the eyelets when I'm finished.

What I have so far!

Preview of what it will look like on my wrist.

Detail of the back of the bracelet.  It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the beads are a deep amethyst.

Our teacher had the clever idea to use embroidery floss holders to keep our beads from tangling.

Technique: Picking/Throwing

I've always felt that I was a somewhat strange knitter.  I am left-handed, and use the continental technique to knit.  I also only learned how to incorporate tension about two years ago (don't ask).  This week, I went to my first knitting class!  I'll blog about it when I have a chance to take some pictures.  The instructor saw my technique and said, "Interesting... You still wrap your yarn."   She then proceeded to show me a technique called Picking, a faster and more efficient way to do continental knitting.  I'm excited to try it!  Basically instead of doing the wrapping motion, you use your right needle to catch and pull the yarn through your stitches.  I'm having a little difficulty finding videos that show the process, but here is one:

In other news, I ordered two reeds for my loom last week!  Hopefully they will come in soon so I can start playing with weaving.  Additionally, I am working on the MaryElla cuff (which I will post pictures of a little later).  Happy knitting!