Category Archive for ‘knitting’ at adam knits!

Archive for the 'knitting' Category

What’s Up Kemo Sabe? 12 Oct 08

Hi-yo Silver! It’s just me the Lone Ranger, riding in from a long month of rounding up equations and graphs out here in the wild west. It’s tiresome work to corral all this math, but someone has to do it!

Unfortunately, when my head is buried in the books, I don’t have much blogging time. I’m working to remedy that, starting with a fresh new theme. My rationale is that I may be more inclined to post with a fresh new theme, but we’ll see how that goes. Not to mention the old theme was looking a bit like a red light district if you ask me ;)

It seems that while I was busy studying, Fall managed to sneak up behind me. Not to worry though, I simply called in some wooly reinforcements. Nothing like a clean batch of wooly socks and a sweater to make you long for changing leaves and chilly mornings.

Another sure sign of Fall here in Albuquerque is the arrival of the Balloon Fiesta (not to mention the slow driving tourists!). There’s really nothing like a balloon glow at night, especially when there’s an awesome sunset in the background.

It also seems that I’ve picked up a new yarn related habit, which is about the last thing I need these days! For some reason, I got a very strong urge to learn crochet so I could make a retro table runner for my coffee table. The biggest shock, and don’t faint on this one, is that I’m using acrylic…gasp! You all know that I’m a bit wool addiction, but I just couldn’t resist the petroleum based yarn for a retro 50’s knit. Or maybe I’m just an 80 year old grandma on the inside ;)

It did take quite a few tries to figure out the ripple stitch pattern, but I think I have the hang of the basics now. It also may be that for the first 5 tries, I was completely ignoring the directions. Once past my basic inability to read English, I was sailing along. I will admit, there’s something satisfying about a crochet hook that I really like. I’m already planning a gigantic retro blanket to go with my runner.

Maybe I should just give up sleep altogether?

Anyway, it’s back to the books for me, so forgive me if it ends up being another month until the next post. I will be defending my thesis in November though, so it won’t be too much longer before I can banish the books to the shelves permanently. I can’t wait.

Published

Adam

in albuquerque, crocheting, ee, school, socks, sweaters and works in progress

Making a List 01 Sep 08

26 Comments

Anyone still out there? I sure hope so! If I keep going at this rate, I’ll be slipping to monthly updates before long. Sigh. Thanks for sticking in there, hopefully I’ll be more talkative soon!

I do have a few finished objects to share, both knitting related, and otherwise. First up are some single socks, knit up in some of my hand-dyed yarn. Whenever I offer a new base yarn, I always save a skein for myself to use for swatching and test knitting. I swatched both of these yarns ages ago, but am finally getting around to actually knitting them.

This sock is knit with a merino/bamboo/nylon base yarn, which is pretty awesome in my opinion. I just love how soft it is! The pattern is the Gentleman’s Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern, from Vintage Knitted Socks (the official compendium of man approved socks), which really shows off the colorway well.

The next lonely sock is knit in my sport weight merino base, and is just a simple Waffle Stitch pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks.

Both socks are knit toe-up, with short row heels and cuff ribbing until I could no longer stand it. The original plan was to exhaust each 1/2 skein, but for both socks I got a bit tired of the ribbing after a while. Now I just have to get around to knitting their mates ;)

As summer wanes, I’ve also turned my attention to winter knitting projects. I have 2 cones of Valley Yarns English Tweed (bought in a WEBS closeout) which have been calling to me lately. So I skeined them up and gave them a good warm soapy bath to clean out the spinning oil.

I’ve finished swatching and am thinking that the light color will look quite nice as a Cobblestone. I may be the last person on earth to knit one, but I’m ok with being late to the party.

The other finished object is a house project, and I’m quite proud of this one. I’ve been wanting a chalkboard for the kitchen, but decent ones are quite pricey, so I figured I could come up with a DIY solution. So after a bit of Google searching, and a trip to Lowe’s and Hobby Lobby, I came up with this.

Pretty sweet huh? Want to know the best part? It’s magnetic!

I simply painted a piece of sheet metal with chalkboard paint (best. invention. ever.) and had it mounted in a cheap-o premade frame. The chalkboard paint is very cool, and it works way better than I expected. The board just requires a wipe down with a damp paper towel, and it’s ready to go. I had thought about using magnetic primer, but read that it was a bit hard to work with. Then I realized, that a piece of sheet metal would be just the trick.

All in all, the project cost me about $60, compared with about $150 - 200 for a decent board in a similar size from most places I looked. It’s the perfect project for my compulsive side, since now I can make meal plans with my weekly produce share and cross off my veggies as I use them up. It’s also a handy place to write down daily chores.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go cross “Write a Blog Post” off the chores list. ;)

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Adam

in finished objects, home improvement 101, knitting, single socks, socks and sweaters

The Ambitions of Youth 23 Jul 08

16 Comments

Monsoon season is in full swing here in New Mexico, and there’s nothing like street watching on a rainy afternoon.

Dallas loves to look outside while it’s raining, except when there’s lightning. It just takes one flash for him to be on my bed, quivering behind some pillows. My new bed isn’t tall enough for him to hide under, although it took him a few head bonks to figure that out. Emma prefers a more subtle method of avoiding lightning strikes. Her philosophy is, “if I can’t see it, then it doesn’t exist”. She simply curls up in her bean bag with her back to the window and gives Dallas strange looks when he runs out the room.

Who needs TV when you have afternoon dog antics to watch?

In the free time arena, it seems that home projects are the new knitting. I have a few new projects to show off, and many more in the works. One I’m especially proud of is my new pot rack.

I’m now convinced that the pot rack is one of the best inventions in recent history (you know, assuming they weren’t invented in medieval times or anything). Not only does it look slick, it’s also extremely functional. My kitchen isn’t gargantuan, so I’ll take all the cabinet space I can get.

And a special thanks goes out to my Dad, who really did all the work to hang the rack. It turned out to be a bit more work than planned, as ceiling is actually mounted on 12″ spaced furring strips, unbeknownst to us. A number of drill holes later, we were finally able to locate the furring strips. Thank goodness for spackle and paint ;)

Another one of my recent decorating endeavors involved setting up a shrine to the dogs in the hallway. Because nothing impresses the ladies more than a guy who has pictures of his dogs everywhere. Right? (I really hope so, otherwise I might be on the road to becoming the male equivalent of a crazy cat lady.)

In addition to a multi-paned frame with lots of dog pictures, I also hung up one of my oldest knitting projects. I bet most of you have never seen this, since it was completed early on in my knitting career. In fact, it was my 3rd knitting project ever.

I was quite ambitious when I began knitting, and I came across a fun pattern book in a craft store, featuring this kitschy blanket with intarsia dog motifs. I thought it would be quite fun to make (little did I know how tedious intarsia can be at times), so I broke the bank for a bunch of Mission Falls 1824 Wool and cast on.

It took me a bit of time, especially to figure out how to do the colorwork, but I soldiered on and completed the blanket. I even lined the back with fleece to give it that extra special touch. Being that it was a small blanket, I knew it would probably end up as wall art, and it has finally lived up to that destiny. I do think it looks pretty handsome hanging up in the hallway, and it’s a great step in my quest to have wool everywhere possible in my house.

because everyone needs a hand-knit intarsia wall hanging

Another way I’m working towards domesticity through sheep is by knitting a runner for my new dresser. It’s deliciously textured, especially since I’m using hand-dyed and hand-spun yarn. There’s really no better knitting experience than using yarn that you dyed and spun yourself. Especially when the result is this lovely.

Plus, the good news is that since it’s 249 stitches wide, I have a little longer to spend with this nubbly beauty. In fact, I think I might go knit a row now.

Published

Adam

in dallas, emma, garter stitch, hand spun, home improvement 101, home ownership, knitting and schnauzers

Robotron 9000 09 Jul 08

12 Comments

These past few weeks have been all about finding a rhythm at the new house. I am a very habitual person, and that means getting settled into the new place also includes getting things running on a schedule. There’s a new trash day, a new watering schedule and a new cleaning system to get familiar with. It’s all the mundane things like washing sheets, vacuuming floors and scrubbing dishes that make me really feel at home. Hopefully that means I’m just an obsessive engineer and not a robotic android. Just wait until I get my meal schedule in order ;)

Other than turning into a household robot, I haven’t been up to a whole lot lately. I did finish the Fiddlehead Mittens, but they deserve a spectacular photo shoot, and let’s face it, who wants to model wool/mohair mittens when it’s 98 degrees out?

I do have a few small projects in my knitting basket, but not really much to show for them. There’s a washrag I’m making with some green hemp, to go in the bathroom with my collection of handmade soaps. It’s a slowly progressing washrag, because I can only stand to knit with the hemp for about 10 rows, and then my fingers need a break. I have another one in pewter already finished, and to the yarn’s credit, it does soften up beautifully after a wash.

I also have the beginnings of a knitted runner, which I’m making out of some of my own hand-spun. I have a lot of little skeins here and there, which should each be enough to get me a few long rows in, before switching to a new color and texture. It’ll be mostly blue and white, and knit in garter and seed stitch. I think there’s nothing better than texture to warm up a room, and this should be just the trick. This project also gives me an excuse to wind a bunch of small balls of hand-spun yarn, since it seems a shame to run such lovely yarn through the mechanical winder.

In my culinary exploits this past weekend, I thought it’d be fun to make some cherry ice cream to celebrate the 4th of July. I got some delicious cherries, and went to work pitting and halving them. It’s quite a messy job, but thanks to a tip from good old Martha, I used a piping tip from a pastry bag to poke out the pits. Definitely a time saver, and much cheaper than a $10 cherry pitter that really has no other use.

After getting all the cherries prepared, I made up the ice cream and got ready to head to my family gathering, where I planned to pop it into the ice cream maker and freeze it. Sadly, the bowl of the ice cream maker didn’t get cold enough in my freezer, so the dessert was doomed from the start. It wouldn’t set, and despite many attempts to get the bowl cold enough to set the mixture, it was a wash. I was a bit bummed, since after all that work, I ended up with a bowl of frozen cherries in crystallized milk. Ces’t la vie, right?

Thankfully, the cherries weren’t lost in the pit of despair forever, since a few astute Flickr people suggested that I make some tasty milkshakes. And let me tell you, milkshakes with home-made cherry ice cream are quite delicious. Yes, indeed.

It’s getting late, so it’s time for me to wrap this sham of a post up. Hopefully next time I’ll be a bit more enthused, and/or have some actual knitting or household projects to show off. Or maybe I’ll tell you how owning my own house has turned me into a crazy granola hippie. ;)

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Adam

in a nerd's life, cooking, holidays, home ownership, knitting, why me? and works in progress

Drill Happy 22 Jun 08

36 Comments

It’s been 2 weeks, and the honeymoon period is definitely not over yet. I never knew you could have so much fun with a cordless drill! Just take a look at my latest project. It’s like I have my own little yarn store, right in my office!

Pretty sweet eh? It turns out that the yarn hutch I bought a few months ago was way too big for the new house, so I came up with this alternate yarn storage system. Oh the things you can accomplish with graph paper, a tape measure and some screws.

I also got all the Yarn Nerd boxes unpacked into the Shedquarters, and am almost ready to get the dye pots going. I’m so psyched to have a separate dyeing workspace, especially such a snazzy one. I have lots of work surfaces, plenty of storage, and lights and electricity. There’s no water, but I think a big plastic utility sink and a big drain bucket should suffice. There’s a hose right outside the shed that I can hook up to the sink faucet, and I’ll be in business. Although, first I might inform my neighbors that I’m not running a meth lab, since they might wonder what I’m doing in the shed with gloves and a dust mask. ;)

Now that Yarn Nerd HQ is unpacked, it means that there is only one stronghold of boxes left, in the garage. It may stay that way for a bit though, since I don’t have a pressing need to park inside, especially since I’m riding my bike to work lots. Did I mention that the new house is only 3 miles from work? It takes no time at all to get to the office (about 18 minutes on the bike, versus about 15 to drive and walk in from the parking lot), which I’m really loving. There’s even a small detour through one of the local golf courses. Nothing like the possibility of getting clunked in the head with a line drive to speed up the commute.

Knitting has been a bit slow with all the house chores, but I do have a bit of something to tease you with. I just have to finish the lining thumb on my second mitten, and the Fiddleheads will be complete. These are about the most perfect mittens ever, and I get so many compliments everytime I work on them in public. Adrian really hit it out of the park with this kit, between the amazing pattern and the heavenly yarn.

I’m reluctant to finish the thumb, because then that means I’ll be done, and I’m not sure I want the experience to end just yet. Not to mention that I won’t be able to wear them for many months. Unless I want to be sent to a white padded room for wearing lined mittens in 98 degree heat.

Also, thanks to everyone on your comments about the house tour, I really appreciated all of them! Not to mention all the good paint suggestions (I think I’m going to go with the sage green if you’re curious, but it may be a bit before I actually get around to it).

That’s about all I have, but check back soon to find out what I’ve drilled a hole into next. It’s such an exciting life I lead. ;)

Published

Adam

in a nerd's life, biking, colorwork, dyeing, home ownership, knitting, mittens, stranded, works in progress and yarn nerd