FO: Short n’ Sweet

Voila! Short n’ Sweet at last. In Caron Simply Soft, it’s very comfortable to wear.

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While I Took a Break from My Dissertation….

Nearly done with Short n’ Sweet! Made the armholes larger than the pattern for size M, but put in the same # of sc’s as the foundation for the sleeves. Worked out fine, though there’s a bit of bunching behind the armpit. Alternated hook sizes to keep it fitted. The sleeve looks better this length; [...]

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Swatches from Japanese Crochet Book

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A Hike; Short n’ Sweet; Prezzies!

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks. The highlight was leading my students on another architectural tour. The most eventful part was 10 butt-and-thigh-burning minutes of chugging up the scenic Berkeley hills stairways. Evidently the students at the back nearly mutinied. Geez, you’d think a bunch of college students could tolerate a little exertion. [...]

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Back at the Knitting Lair…

1) Swatched and measured gauge. 2) Washed and blocked the swatch; re-measured gauge. 3) Taking after-wash expansion into account, cast on about 160 stitches on my Knit Picks Options circs for the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Thought, yay, I’m finally making my first sweater! 4) Re-measured after 5 rows. The gauge was [...]

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My Latest Japanese Crochet Book

I picked this up from Kinokuniya in San Francisco J-town last weekend. My sis and I rounded off the trip with sushi-boat sushi (for nostlgic value, if not the best food quality) and a crepe-and-ice-cream cone (yum!). A lot of the patterns are a bit conservative, elegant-dowdy for my taste but others are sumptuous, like [...]

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Mission Aborted

Waaaah. Short n’ Sweet bombed. I’m most of the way down the body now, but it’s just too chunky and unflattering. Could be solved through blocking, but… I’m about to run out of yarn! Meanwhile, the Knit Picks shipment arrived with Options interchangeable circular needles (yay!). Also a ball of Shine worsted.

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Renee Is Spoiling Me :)

So, a couple of weeks ago my Craftster buddy Renee sent me some pretty-as-heck knitting stitch markers she’d made, plus some lace needles as a surprise. She just made crochet stitch markers and let me pick more. And then … she posted this on Craftster, another prezzie for me: A crochet hook keychain. How cool [...]

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First Yarn Dye Job — with Kool-Aid

After reading the long thread on this subject on Craftster, I picked up one of every flavor of the unsweetened KoolAid packets at the neighborhood Safeway and got busy. Click here for the Knitty instructions I used. It was so fun, quick, and easy! And I’m very proud of the results.

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Learning to Knit

Someone asked in a comment, when am I taking up knitting? My goal is to achieve the same proficiency in knitting as I have in crocheting. So now I’m fessing up about my knitting endeavors.

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