M5466 and other pics

So I finally wore my McCall 5466 dress to our companies annual holiday party which was held at Cipriani's. I received a lot of compliments for it at work and few people were suprised to hear that I made it myself. The dress felt good and I can personally say that I thought I looked good in it.

I've gotten pretty far with Wicked. It's a pretty quick knit and that's a lot coming from me since I think I am like the slowest knitter of life. lol

I'm currently on vacation and with all my holiday responsiblities blogging will be really sporadic if at all, but I will tell you some of the projects I will be working during my looong vacation, since I won't be back to work until after the New Year.

1. My first wool jacket using M5190




2. Wicked by Zephyrstyle




3. Koolhaas from Interweave Holiday 2007




4. My first knit top using V8451




5. Some baking, I love making fresh bread




6. A lot of time surfing Ravelry




7. RESTING, lol

I'm going to leave you with a gratutious kitty pic. Here is my 10 year old cat, Kitty, laying on my first ever sewing project after years away from the sewing machine, a futon cover, doing what she does best, sleeping. lol

If I don't blog before the New Year have a Happy Holiday and I will see you in the New Year!

I love the internet

So Fitted Knits shorts sleeved cardigan is not going to work out either.

I found out that the yarn I planned on using will not give me the gauge I need to in order to make the cardigan and I already used my new ball winder to make it into a pretty center pull yarn cake. lol So I looked through my binder of knitting patterns I found on the net to see if I could find a sweater to knit up using this beautiful peacock blue Lion Brand Wool Ease that I purchased and lo and behold I found Wicked and guess what? My yarn knitted up to the exact gauge I needed to make the sweater. After a few false start , dang cables, everything was going smoothly until I hit K1f&b.

Now I've done this before with Rusted Root but I totally forgot how I did it and I didn't have one of my trusty reference books handy since I'm at work. So Google, which has now been added to Webster's dictionary as a verb, comes to the rescue. I googled K1f&b and found a great video tutorial on Youtube. In fact I found a lot of great tutorial on there given by a woman named theknitwitch. She shows everything from cast-on to the kitchner stitch to some crochet techniques. So if you need a video tutorial and can't find a tutorial on one of your trusty video website check out Youtube for the answer. it's a great resource.

No Rusted Root for me

So after a month of working on this dang sweater I have to say there will be no Rusted Root in my immediate future.

Why, you ask?

Well.... after putting it on waste yarn and trying it on I found it to be too SMALL! That's right I typed that in bold red because that is how I feel (can't you see the steam coming from my ears) and I have no one to blame but myself.

You want to know why it is too small?

It is too small because I did not do a gauge before I started.

When do I finally do a gauge?

When the sweater is half done and I see that I have 6 stitches per inch on a size 6 needle instead of the five it is suppose to be. So instead of being 40 inches around it is 33 inches. So I will be using my new ball winder to take her apart and putting her away for a later date.

But is that going to stop me from knitting?

No siree Bob. lol

Next up will be the Short Sleeve Cardigan from Fitted Knits and this time I WILL DO A GAUGE (I need to post this as a sign on my corkboard) before I start knitting it since I found that I'm a tight knitter. Right now I am working on my coat which I hope to have done and posted some time next week.

Have a happy weekend

Finals

I haven't done much creating this past week due to finals and presentations, but I have been doing a lot of craft related reading and I'm still trying to finish Rusted Root.

I'm like totally addicted to Ravelry and I noticed that everyone has been working on this sweater.

The Central Park hoodie from the fall 2006 Knitscene, so of course when I go on their site that issue is totally sold out. So I searched the web and found it at Webs. I purchased their last copy.

I picked up the lastest issue of Sew Stylish which had a real nice article on embellishing with stones and jewels to bedazzle your garments.

And last but not least I picked up the December 2007 issue of Burda. Everytime I look at that magazine it takes my breath away. It is not just a pattern magazine but it is right up there with the fashion magazines the plus being that you can make the garments too. I already saw a few things I want to make.

I just picked up my coating from the cleaners so hopefully I can get started on working on my jacket and finishing up my sweater. I think after this I am going to try to do a quick knit like the Koolhaas hat from Interweave Holiday 2007.

I've found that doing cables are easy and this looks like a fun knit. I don't usually wear hats but I would definitely wear this. If I like doing it enough I think I am going to make them for my sister and her family.

Also I finally purchased a printer that works. I bought this one:

The HP C6280. It actually works!!!!! lololol I have been a printing fool. Now all I have to do is use the copy and scanning feature. I like to make copies of the projects I am going to do from my knitting books and magazines because I've learned from working on Rusted Root that in order to remember where I left I have to mark the paper up and I do not believe in writing in books or magazines. But honestly, I have to slow my roll because ink ain't cheap and this takes six cartridges. lol

Hope to have stuff to show you later.

Happy crafting!

No Sewing

I didn't do any sewing or knitting this weekend. I was taken over by electronics. I think someone put electronic voodoo on me because it seems like nothing I buy works. Saturday I bought an Epson all-in-one photo printer from Circuit City. I dragged it all the way from Manhattan to the Bronx on the Express Bus. Yesterday I finally had a moment to put it together and I kept getting an error message "Can not read black cartridge". Can I tell you how fed up I was. Now I have to drag it back downtown because I am going to return and get my money back. Maybe it was a good thing because while at the Staples in my neighborhood I saw an HP all-in-one that I like better, so that is what I am going to buy instead.

On a good note, yesterday I purchased something I've been wanting for a long time.

This:

Tassimo Beverage System

I set it up last night and it works!!! It works beautifully. I'm not a big coffee drinker, but I do like a good coffee concoction. I always buy the White Mocha Decaf from Starbucks. But now that I know you can buy the syrups from them I am going to create my own Starbucks at home and this is the foundation to that. The pods I bought were the decaf cappuccino, the latte, regular decaf dark roast, and the hot chocolate. I am not a big fan of the hot chocolate, but the cappuccino is delicous. It even comes with a foaming creamer pod, that actually foams. It was $169.99, but with a $30 mail in rebate and a 20% off coupon it cost me $109.99.

I'm seeing the finish line on Rusted Root. Hopefully it will be done by the middle of next week. Which I can't wait because I want to knit something from Fitted Knits. Rusted Root has given me the confidence to tackle other knitted garments.

Until later.