Tag Archive for ‘gifts’ at adam knits!

Tag Archive for 'gifts'

Tiny Stripes = Cute 04 Apr 08

ETA (4/5): I upgraded my blog software and comments quit working! Oops! They’re all fixed now :)

I know some of you might still be waiting with baited breath, and yes, I did receive my mitten kit. It. is. glorious.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to cast on yet. In fact, I haven’t been able to knit very much these past 2 weeks at all. I’ve been a bit busy getting 100+ skeins of yarn dyed up for The Loopy Ewe.

So if you want to get your hands on some 900 MHz Merino, be sure to keep an eye on The Loopy Ewe, for one of Sheri’s infamous sneak ups. I’m also working on a shop update for the Yarn Nerd store, featuring my 3 new base yarns: 1200 MHz Merino (Sport), 1700 MHz Merino (Superwash DK) and 2400 MHz Merino (Worsted). That should be ready within a week or two, and I must warn you, these new bases are heavenly. The 1700 MHz Merino is especially squishy, and is the perfect weight for about any project.

Despite my inability to knit more than 5 rounds on my overdue Project Spectrum Fire socks these past few weeks, I do have a finished object to show off. One that I’m quite proud of.

Isn’t it adorable? I knit it as a gift for Georgia’s brand new addition, sweet little H. I actually bought the yarn when I was in Seattle over the summer, in a yarn shop that Georgia took me to. She didn’t know if it was a boy or girl at that point, so I picked some colors and crossed my fingers. Thankfully, I got lucky!

pattern: wonderful wallaby, by cottage creations
yarn: blue sky alpacas dyed cotton: azul light blue (1 skein) / caribbean (1 skein) / pickle (1 skein)
needles/gauge: US #8 / 4.5 stitches per inch
size: 2 Years
mods: I striped two of the colors (pickle & caribbean), and then used the remaining one for the yoke and hood. I also worked seed stitch for the cuffs, and did a stockinette hood with a garter stitch border.

I really loved the Wallaby pattern, it was so easy to knit, and there’s endless room for customization. Plus, being a small size, it actually knit up in just a few weeks! And at the rate H is growing, he’ll be ready to wear it around in no time, right Georgia? ;)

After all that instant knitting gratification, I feel like tackling some more baby knits. Are there anymore expecting Moms out there? ;)

Published

Adam

in baby, dyeing, finished objects, gifts, knitting, shop, sweaters and yarn nerd

Gimping It In Style 16 Mar 08

12 Comments

Thanks for all the well wishes about my knee everyone! Unfortunately, I’m not quite back on the wagon yet. I was starting to do better after a week of resting, so I decided to ride my trusty geared steed to work this past Monday. That turned out to be not such a great idea. Gentle spinning isn’t bad, but any extra effort required (i.e. speeding up to change lanes, etc.) caused a little wincing.

So a doctor’s visit and another week of rest later, and it looks like I might be off the bike for possibly 2-3 weeks. The diagnosis was not a pulled ligament, but a bad pull or slight tear in my hamstring where it connects to bone below the knee. So here’s hoping for a quickish recovery, because the weather is quite lovely outside, and I’d love to be riding my bike!

On the bright side, I have been taking the bus to work and school rather than riding, so I’ve gotten in some good knitting time. See, I finished some socks!

Alright, well maybe not socks plural, but it’s a start. This is actually the mate to a single sock that the talented Megan knit for me back in aught seven. I finally got around to finishing the pair, and it was quite worth the effort. The pattern initially had hearts instead of diamonds, but Megan was wise enough to know that I might not be head over heels for the hearts. But I’ve definitely got a twinkle in my eye for those diamonds. (Alright, I’ll stop torturing you now.)

pattern: I ~~Love~~ Diamond Gansey Socks
yarn: Rowan 4 Ply Soft in Espresso → 1 ball per sock
needles/gauge: US #1 (2.25mm) / 8 spi
mods: Save the diamonds, the only other modification was that I changed the standard toe on Megan’s sock to a round toe, and duplicated that on my sock. My toes end quite abruptly, and the round toe seems to accommodate my hobbit toes best.

At least if I have to hobble around, I can do it in style eh?

I have another sock on the needles (almost completed actually), in a nice brick red/orange, in honor of Project Spectrum. I’m also looking forward to April and May, as I have a surplus of brown and green yarn, and plenty of project ideas. Cause you know, it’s important to have plenty of wooly hats, mittens and socks in April and May in the New Mexico desert. ;)

Finally, the mystery knit is all wrapped up and on its way. I think it’s gonna be a hit, and I can’t wait to see it modeled by the tiny little recipient! Tune in next time for the full reveal. :)

Published

Adam

in biking, finished objects, friends, knitting and socks

A 500 lb Gorilla 12 Jan 08

17 Comments

As usual, the winter break is quickly slipping away, with only one week left before the return of school. It should be a good semester though, as I only have one class to take to fulfill my coursework requirement for my MSEE. It’s also more of a practical course (Advanced FGPA Programming for the curious), so I’m hoping that translates into more lab based hands-on work, rather than theoretical math homework.

One thing’s for sure, I am sure enjoying this one class per semester gig. I only had one class last semester, and it was pretty light on homework, so it made for lots of knitting and dyeing time. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to keep up with all the Loopy Ewe orders last year, since I was taking 3 classes per semester. So it’s nice to be able to slow down and ease into more practical work, and less busy coursework. And hopefully, before I know it, I’ll be done and will have all my evenings free to play with my sticks and string. (Do note that I am closing my eyes and pretending that the 5000 lb thesis gorilla sitting next to me is really a 5 lb poodle…)

I’ve made significant progress on feeding my stranded mitten hunger, with this beauty, which has been completed in the time between the picture and this post.

I’m using my own hand-dyed 1200 MHz BFL, in colors I dyed up for a soap swap with Megan. I had a feeling the colors Megan picked would be dynamite, so I tossed some yarn into the dye pots for myself. And I’m quite happy I did. Even though two color knitting is involved, mittens knit up fast! I knit the first mitten in under 6 hours for sure. I’m hoping to have a complete pair to wear out and about next week. :)

Speaking of quick knits, I have a few completed hats that I haven’t shown off yet. First up is a Shedir knit for my roommate’s birthday gift, back in early December. I used the suggested yarn, Rowan Calmer, which was a bit of a love/hate relationship for me. I love how it looks with the cables, and that it’s easy care (it’s a cotton/acrylic blend), but it was a bit of a pain to knit. It’s super stretchy, and is a bit hard to tension properly when throwing, because it just pulls out like a slinky. I really love the finished product, and so does Tony, but I’m not sure it’ll be a standard yarn in my repertoire.

The hat is also a bit of a send off gift, as Tony is moving out next week. He and I have been roommates and friends for 6 years, since being randomly assigned together in the dorms during our Freshman year of college. We didn’t get along too well that first year, in fact, we might have had our share of major annoyances with each other. But over time, we learned to get along, and now we’re really good friends. He’s been in Albuquerque taking a break for the last year or so, and last Fall he decided to go back and finish his degree in Socorro.

After trying a semester of daily commuting (it’s about 75-90 minutes), he’s decided to move back down until he finishes. I’m sad that he’s moving out, but I know he’ll be around to visit, especially since I’m letting him keep his old fix up car in the garage to work on during weekends. I know that 6 years ago I would have never predicted becoming such fast friends with a complete stranger, but looking back, that year in the dorms was one of the biggest growth periods in my life, and I’m glad I decided to get a random roomie.

The other hats I haven’t shown are the pair of matching Koolhass Hats (Koolhasses? Koolhi? Bueller, anyone?) that I knitted for my brother and his wife. I loved this pattern, and would highly recommend it to anyone. We all know that Jared is a talented designer, and this hat is no exception. It’s great looking, easy to knit and very versatile.

I knit the hats out of Malabrigo (the orange version), and Manos Wool/Silk (the pewter version), and loved both. It was my first time knitting with both yarns, and I think I might just be a Malabrigo addict now. The colors are so rich and the yarn so soft, you can’t help but fall in love with every stitch.

Finally, there’s a Yarn Nerd shop update online, with a nice stash of 1700 MHz BFL and 1500 MHz Merino. The BFL is in some overdyed colors which came out really nice. Go pick some up, because I’m dangerously close to keeping it all for myself, and the last thing I need is more yarn! ;)

Have a great weekend everyone, I’m off to knit another mitten!

Published

Adam

in a nerd's life, colorwork, finished objects, hats, knitting, patterns, school, techniques, unm and yarn nerd

Another One Is Over? 05 Jan 08

25 Comments

Jeez, is 2007 over already? I was just getting used to writing ‘07 on the checks, now I have to switch? It’s very easy to get stuck in the mundane while(1) loop of life, circling around and around, performing the same tasks for every daily iteration. That’s why I appreciate the yearly reminder to hit “Break” in the debugger, and back out a little bit, to make sure that the loop is moving somewhere, instead of just incrementing variables idly.

Oh sorry, I seem to have slipped into code speak for a moment there, I’ll try to switch back to English…

What I was trying to say was that it’s nice to take the opportunity to reflect on 2007, and look forward to what’s coming up in 2008. There are many things that happened in my life in 2007 that were noteworthy, especially in the world of knitting.

Last February, I took my side hobby of dyeing yarn and turned it into Yarn Nerd, which has been more successful than I would have ever imagined! Thanks so much to everyone who has bought my yarn and encouraged me along the way, it’s been a blast. Going from dyeing a few skeins a month to dyeing 150+ has been an adventure, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I have a lot planned for 2008 as well, including new base yarns and colors, so it should be another great year for yarn nerds everywhere.

As far as knitting goes, I had a very good year, with a respectable amount of finished projects that I’m very proud of. The final total was 6.5 pairs of socks, 11 hats, 1 sweater, 1 shawl (not THE shawl, but a smaller one), and a kitschy Christmas tree. Not a massive amount of things, but I also dyed a lot of yarn, worked close to full time and took 2 full semesters, so I’m proud of my little knitting pile.

For 2008 I have some ostentatious plans, and a new obsession with stranded mittens. I haven’t knit any mittens to date, but for some reason, there’s about 5-6 mitten designs that I want to knit these days. I made a little montage of some planned 2008 knits, and went, “oh my, there’s so many mittens!”, and I’m quite alright with that :)

I also got some great books from my brother for Christmas, and they’ve provided me a lot of inspiration for some planned sweaters. He got me both The Knitting (Man)ual and Knitting for Him, which I would highly recommend to anyone looking for classic men’s patterns. These two are on the top of my sweater list:

As far as projects that followed me into 2008, there’s only one, which I have affectionately termed as The Death Star. That’s right, the Garden Shawl is still uncompleted. My Mom was gracious enough to let me off the hook for trying to finish it by Christmas, but I’ll be darned if I let another year go by without finishing this baby. I’m determined to finish it at some point, and I’m really close to finishing the body, but the edging is supposed to be quite the beast. I’ve toyed with doing a simpler border, but I think at this point, I’ve put so much time and effort into the shawl, that it deserves the full edging, no matter how hairy.

The one other significant happening in 2007 was my transformation into a crazy biking nut. You might remember the running pledge at the beginning of 2007, where I pledged to run 100 miles by April 1. That didn’t quite happen, but I did manage to muster up the courage to start riding my bike to work over the summer. I really had no idea I would finally discover a form of exercise I could get behind, that would also allow me to save money and the environment. 6 months later and I’m still loving it…enough to ride to work when it’s below 30 outside! (Which is actually a lot of fun in my opinion, especially if it’s raining a bit. I never said I was normal.)

So that’s my 2007 recap. I think 2008 will be a great year, especially since I’m anticipating completion of my Masters. I just have to get cracking on this darn thesis. Maybe my huge knitting list will be motivation, since I’ll have loads of knitting time once I no longer have to write crazy simulations and study for tests.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go turn these lovelies into some mittens. Happy New Year!

Published

Adam

in a nerd's life, history, knitting, nerdy, school and yarn nerd

How The Grinch 24 Dec 07

25 Comments

Learned to enjoy Christmas…

Merry Christmas everyone! I’m in quite a festive mood this year, which is a definite departure, as I’m usually a bit of a Grinch this time of year. Don’t get me wrong, I love hanging out with family and exchanging gifts, but the craziness of it all gets to me at times. This year however, I armed myself with the one two punch combo of hand knitting gifts and online shopping, so my retail excursions were minimal.

I did lose a bit of Christmas spirit today when I went into a certain big box craft store to find that the Christmas section was being torn down and replaced with Valentine’s Day. I was a bit infuriated, but any thoughts of tree burning were quickly squelched when I finished this little beauty.

how the grinch learned to love Christmas

It’s a Grinch Green Christmas Tree (pattern at Monster Yarn), and I love it ever so much. It was a gift for my extended family’s gift exchange on Christmas Eve, and it was well received, along with many requests for duplicates :) Nothing like a fun fur tree to make that Christmas spirit soar again.

Have a good one everyone! I hope your Christmas day is filled with food, fun and maybe even a bit of knitting. I finished all but one of my gift hats, and I don’t think the final recipient will mind too much if I gift his hat towards the end of the day.