Vlog 4 from Andi Satterlund on Vimeo.
Some of you seemed curious about how I was going to style my shawl when first posted about it. I made this little video talking about how I like to wear it.
Lacey Vest
I was digging through my clothing to pack for an upcoming trip and I found this lacey vest. I made it in the spring of 2009 and I’m pretty sure it’s the first garment I ever made without a pattern.
I don’t wear it much anymore because it’s not really my style, but I like running across it in my drawers. It was a huge stretch of my skills when I made it and it represents the turning point of my knitting to me. I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease and 10.5 mm needles if I remember correctly.
Channel Island Cast On Method
I didn’t love this cast on method, but there weren’t any major problems with it. The biggest issue is that you’ll have to guesstimate a length for the tails like with the Long Tail Cast On, but you use double the tail so it’s even more of a waste if you guess wrong. That’s not a horribly big deal, but something about this CO just left me feeling a little “Meh” about it.
I don’t quite like the way the Channel Island Cast On looks. It seems a bit lumpy and bumpy to me. It is a good cast on method when you need something to stretch, though. The cast on edge went from 2 inches to 4.5 when stretched and it snapped back with no problems.
I’m not sure I’d use this one. My problems with it are merely aesthetic and it does work well as a CO method, but I have other options to try.
It’s VERY pink.
After I finished my own editing on the Agatha pattern and sent it off to the tech editor, I was sort of at a loss as to what to do. I thought about starting a new pattern, but then I noticed that bag of yarn I bought in Scotland lurking next to my desk. I flipped through A Stitch In Time, picked out Such Flattering Puff Sleeves and cast on.
I was half way through my second row when I thought to myself, “I’ve made a huge mistake.” The sweater body is basically a giant tube (I converted it to in the round) of 2×2 ribbing. There’s no shaping in the body so it’s a whole lot of the same. I pressed on anyways and I’m glad I did. I just needed to get past the very slow first rows where it looked like I wasn’t making progress. After I had about an inch, I realized that this is a great project for me right now. It doesn’t require oodles of attention, but it’s not completely mindless like stockinette. It will be a great travel project and I just happen to be going on a trip a few days. I’m glad I gave the sweater a chance.
Remember how I said that I love movies?
I didn’t mean to start this collection. I’d go to the movies and I’d stuff my ticket stub into a credit card slot in my wallet. When the slot became too full I’d pull out all the stubs and leave them in a pile on my desk. The pile got bigger and bigger, but I never threw it away.
One day when I was cleaning my desk I realized that I had a nice little collection of stubs. I decided that it needed a proper home and my mom gave me this pretty box to keep my collection in. The box has been around our house forever. I think my mom has had it since she was my age.
I have 106 ticket stubs. 91 of them are from movies. The oldest stub with a complete date on it is from January of 2002. Most of the stubs only have the month and day on them. That makes it sound like I average 10 movies a year, but the truth is that my collection is obviously incomplete. For example, I only have stubs for the 3rd, 4th, and 8th Harry Potter movies, but I know I’ve seen them all in theaters.
It’s fun to go through my stubs and see obvious trends. I love me some super hero movies. I noticed that I’m missing some stubs here because I went to the first Iron Man in theaters as well as all of the X-Men and Spiderman movies. I also couldn’t find any Hellboy stubs.
And I was surprised to find out that all of my Lord of the Rings stubs just say Lord of the Rings. Except for the small green stub that’s from when I saw Return of the King a few weeks ago, I have no idea which movies these go to.
While it’s frustrating that almost none of the tickets have the year on them, I can usually look up the release date if I’m really curious. This stub is driving me crazy, though. It was in my wallet way too long and now I can’t read the movie title. Any guesses as to what it was?
ETA: Britta figured it out. It’s from Sweeney Todd.
You can see other people’s collections here if you’re curious. Do you collect anything?
Miette Plus a Year
Okay, technically my sweater is more than a year old because the pattern is a year old as of yesterday, but I have no idea when I finished my sweater so this is close enough for me!
Vlog 3 from Andi Satterlund on Vimeo.
Yarn Over or Provisional Tubular Cast On Method
I picked this cast on method to try next because the directions looked weird to me and I like weird things. The finished cast on edge isn’t dramatically different from the regular tubular cast on, but the process is quite different.
The Yarn Over Tubular Cast On requires a few extra steps because it starts with a provisional cast on that has to be removed later. I think this is why the tubular knitting lays slightly flatter than with the regular Tubular Cast On, but the stitches are a bit loose.
This guy has all the problems I ran into with the regular Tubular Cast On. It doesn’t fold up all the way with the ribbing. This was 3.25 inches wide when it was relaxed and it should have been 2 inches. That’s even worse than my regular Tubular Cast On. The Yarn Over Tubular Cast On stretched up to 6.5 inches making it the stretchiest CO method I tried, but I had to tug it to get it back into shape which is not okay with me.
I can’t imagine ever using this cast on method. It is incredibly similar to the regular Tubular Cast On, but it has more issues. Not a fan.
5 Tips on Knitting and Reading at the Same Time
Sometimes I get questions about reading and knitting at the same time. Here are a few tips on how to make that a little easier.
1. Pick the right knitting project. I typically only knit simple parts of projects when I’m reading because that’s all I can manage without having to check my knitting frequently. I mostly stick to unshaped stockinette or garter stitch, but working shaping is possible if you use markers. I haven’t figured out how to crochet without looking at my work a lot yet.
2. Look for large books to read. Text book sized books are the best because they lay flat and open without a lot of effort. If you’re not reading a comic book, large books also have the bonus of containing more text per page so you don’t have to pause to turn the page as often.
3. Use a weight if your book won’t stay open on your own. You can buy things to help hold your book open, but I find that a simple metal ruler does the trick. Plus, it makes it easy to check my gauge if I’m reading while I’m swatching!
4. Accept that you might do some damage to your book. You might break the spine trying to get your book to lay flat. That really bothers me, but it happens and it doesn’t make the book any less readable.
5. Read things digitally and don’t worry about the pages. You can set your computer to scroll gradually by clicking with the scroll button on your mouse. The scroll-y symbol will appear on your screen where you clicked and you can offset your mouse to control how fast or how slow your computer will scroll.
Reading materials in order of appearance: Hellboy, Definitely Dead, Sabriel, The Makers Project.
Womp.
Ladies and Gents, I’m throwing in the towel. Things are not going well for me in the crafty department. I couldn’t get the lining to work for my granny square bag so I’m giving up on that idea.
I had originally been debating between making this bag or using the squares to make a pillow. I’ve started to rip apart the seams and I’m going to run with the pillow thing. Luckily I crocheted the seams so they’re quick to rip!
What’s on my desk?
- I’m editing a pattern and I found a huge mistake so I have notes laying around everywhere from trying to find where the mistake originated
- Actual knitting! This is a WIP of another elastic belt. I work a row or two when the editing makes me crazy.
- This is the actual pattern I’m editing. There’s a post it note covering it up, but it’s not a secret.
- My printer finally has ink again which is awesome because I like writing my notes and corrections on the pattern before I fix them on the digital copy.
- Coke Zero. I drink that in mass quantities when I work on pattern stuff. I don’t know why I always turn to that, but I do.
- I have my fan on my desk, but I haven’t needed it yet. It’s been weirdly cool this summer.
- I’m watching season 2 of the X-Files while I work.
- There’s my friends activity on Ravelry for when I need pretty things to look at.
- At the bottom is the basic .txt version of the pattern. I keep it in this simple form as well as the pretty one because this opens a lot faster.
- This is my planner where I plot out a months worth of blog posts at a time and then I promptly ignore what I had planned.
- A giant stack of DVDs! On top are seasons one and two of the X-Files. My friend lent them to me and she only has those seasons. Below that are a bunch of old games that won’t run on my operating system (I was hopeful). Under that are season 2 of Angel, season one of the OC, and season three of Battlestar Galactica.
- I have elastic and scissors standing by for whenever I finish my belt.
What’s on your desk?