Joining in with Entrelac

I've seen a lot of mentions of entrelac lately, so I thought I would try it. It does look harder than it is. The hardest part was in the initial picking up of stitches on the purl side of one of the squares. I realized I had been picking up stitches in a certain way, so that it always seemed to show up as purl stitches on the right side of the fabric. I had to play around with it a little, but once I got that, it worked out. The other thing was finding the right yarn. I tried Rowan Tapestry, but it didn't stripe as much as I wanted, and looked too much like just brown. It looks good on the ball, but then the color hardly changes. It is really soft, being part soy and part wool, so I'll have do something else with it. I ended up using Noro Silk Garden lite, which is a lot better. It's soft and the color changes are noticeable, but still a little subtle. I don't want to look like a clown. Now, the only thing is getting more of it, since it's fairly expensive.

Gigantic Sock

I got a bunch of Mission Falls cotton on ebay for a really cheap price, so I started Mesilla. The start is different than I thought it would be, since it doesn't start in the round, even though it is top down. It's kind of hard to picture how it's going to come together, but I think once I start working in the round, it'll be more clear. I'm using the sea color, and I got enough so that I might also make a shrug from Interweave, which used this yarn.
I also finished the heel for the Baudelaire socks, and it's too big. It was fitting okay, if slightly loose, until the heel was done and now it's an inch or more too long. I think I might have to start over and redo it in a smaller size. I don't want to, but I kind of figured this might happen. I never can just do a technique or pattern I've never done before, and have it turn out perfectly. Maybe now it will be easier, since I know what's coming, when I make the second one.

Writing Progress

I started doing the Nanowrimo again this year, and again I'm far behind this time. I wanted to be ahead, so I didn't have to keep writing ten pages in one day, but that didn't happen. I have an outline of my story, but it's hard to turn that into actual events or dialogue. I tend to just follow my character around, like now she's walking out the door, now she's walking down the street, and now she enters the store, and so on. It's boring to write, but it's hard to know how to move the events along so it makes sense. It makes you see fiction in a different way, instead of as a reader, just following everything along. I've read a lot of books, so it seems as if it would be easy, but writing makes you think of the construction of the story differently. I hope I can finish it, because it is good when the plot kind of takes over, and I see relationships between the characters that weren't there before.
On the knitting front, I'm to the point where the heel shaping starts on the Baudelaire socks. I guess the whole heel shaping part is the difficult part of socks, so I'll see how that goes. I'm still working on everything else, and it seems like it's taking forever. I have about three or fours projects going that are on size 3 needles, so it seems like I keep knitting and never make much progress. Once these are all done, I think it might start a project with thicker yarns.

Fall Star Quilt

I recently finished my second quilt. The star squares were originally supposed to go on the outside of a center area, but it didn't look right. I had the black leaf fabric and realized that the squares would look a lot better against that instead. One thing I didn't do right was on the back fabric. I cut it too small, so I thought I would put in a binding and cover up all the extra space. I had left about four inches between the front and the back all around. I had already started quilting and had to rip out all those seams along the edge, and attach extra fabric to the back in strips. The whole thing was tedious, but it doesn't seem to show. So next time I know not to do that. Other than that, I like how this turned out. The fabric was a lot smoother and didn't bunch up during the quilting process, unlike my first quilt. I still want to quilt around some of the stars in the center, because it seems to make the quilt lay more flat. The whole thing seemed to go a lot more smoothly, compared to my first quilt. I have some Halloween themed fabric, so I was thinking about using that for my next quilt.

Socks and Boxes

I've been knitting more lately, but I realized that I haven't really finished any major projects in a months. I think the reason why is because all my projects are on # 3 or #5 needles and are more complicated than anything I've done before. I started the Baudelaire socks, and am using the Filatura di Crosa Zarina yarn. The color is actually more deep red. This is the first sock I've done, but I have done fingerless gloves before, so that's similar. I've also been making progress on the Lotus Blossom tank. I have one more repeat of the lace, then stockinette, which will go faster. It'll be done in time for the middle of winter. I am using Bamboo yarn, which I really like. It's silky and I like the texture. The lace is also complicated enough so it doesn't get boring. I really hope this pattern fits. Here is also a picture of my cat. He likes to get inside boxes and bite them. There are bite marks all around the edges of any box he can get a hold of. I've never had a cat who liked to bite so much, and at least he isn't biting me.

Booga Bag Done

Here is my finished Booga Bag. I used Noro Kureyon and Patons merino wool, which felt differently. The Patons was done the first time I took the bag out of the washing machine, but after two times, the Kureyon still has stitch definition. I like how it turned out, except I would have made it a little bigger and the handles longer. I don't know what the ratio of how much it shrinks is, and I didn't want to make it enormous if i wouldn't shrink much. Other than that, I like how it turned out. I wanted to have a sort of stained glass effect, and it seems like it worked.

The Most Challenging Sweater

I started Demi from the book, Vintage Knits by Rowan. It is easily the most complicated project I've done so far. But I'm having more problems with Shedir and the Bonita shirt from Interweave. The only problem so far with Demi, is that some of the purls are in the wrong places, but the fabric is dark and I didn't want to start over. For some reason, it always seems to take me a few rows to get the hang of the pattern. One problem was that I wasn't using some way to mark the rows or what I just did. Then I remembered highlighters. It seems dumb that I forgot about using them.
So far, with the Demi pattern I can see what the difference between the knit stitch and knit in the back loop stitch. It really stands out more when you knit through the back loop. I'm using Rowan Yorkshire Tweed and it's fairly dark, so the pattern would be really hard to see, but the pattern really pops it out. The only thing is that every single stitch for the entire sweater is part of a chart, so it will take a long time. Shedir is going okay and I decided to knit through the back loop on that also, for the same reason.

Felting is Hard

I've been felting lately. I finished and felted Booga Bag, but I'm not sure how much I like it. I'm going to post pictures of that later, maybe after I've lined it. This is Patons SWS felted twice, which still has a lot of stitch defintion, but feels felted. I was going to put a zipper in it, but I think it's too thick. That's what happened to me before, where once the stitch definition of the fabric disappeared, the bag was ridiculously thick. It was literally and inch thick. I don't think I like felting that much, because it never works out how I want it to. I've been wanting to make Nicky Epstein's Floral Felted bag for a while now, but I don't want to put all the work into the intarsia, just to have it ruined during felting. Maybe using thinner yarn works out better, though.

Bags and Stuff

I found this bag from Berroco, and I'm thinking about trying it out, because of the fair isle. I want to get better at fair isle, so this seems like a better beginner project, instead of a whole sweater. I'll probably get a cheaper yarn though. It calls for 10 balls of Ultra Alpaca, which would be about $100. The designers must have access to lots of yarn, so they don't think about the cost.
I made this small pouch out Noro Kureyon. It is the end part of a ball which has mostly blues and greens. It doesn't seem like the colors work together, like the colors on this bag should have been it's own colorway, and the blues and greens should be separate. I felted it, but it doesn't look like it. I think Kureyon is harder to felt. But I really like it, since it reminds me of fall and barns.
I've also been working on Shedir, which isn't going well. I've had to rip out and reknit the same 3 rows over and over. They are not even the hardest part of the pattern. I think I had one stitch in the wrong place and it threw all the others off, so half of it looks wrong. Part of it is that I'm using a tweed yarn, so it's harder to see the stitches, and there are so many of them, that's it's hard to remember what I just did. Hopefully it's right now, and it will get easier.

Granny Afghan

I finished this granny square afghan after months of not working on it. I used Bernat Chunky acrylic yarn, which is really cheap. I used one ball of all these colors and still have a lot left over. The blue is actually purple, though. I still am going to put some kind of edging on it, maybe just shells or something simple. When I started, I planned on doing a bunch of different types of granny squares, but I ended up doing the most basic one. I did this project as my easy one, where you barely have to pay attention to it. I like having a simple one, if I'm also working on something more complex.

Wall Hanging

This is my second quilt, which is going to be a wall hanging. I need to find a fabric that will work in the edges. The one I picked out already seems like it would be too busy. I got most of the fabric from those Joann's quilt block kits, which made it cheap. The central part was patterned by me, based on the dimensions of the other squares. It is a traditional square, but I couldn't find the exact dimensions that I wanted, so I came up with it. These squares are about 12". I still have problems with the seams not being exact, and the squares turning out to be different sizes. I guess I just need more practice to be exact. I want to try more elaborate quilting designs on this one, maybe with metallic thread.
Another thing I'm going to try is making a Booga Bag. I have some Noro Kureyon that I was making a scarf out of, but it would have been way too scratchy. I am afraid of ruining the yarn by felting, though. I felted a bag made from Brown Sheep bulky pride, and it turned out to be and inch and a half thick and completely ugly. It's way too dense and is basically ruined. I don't want that to happen to the kureyon. I think I'll try felting with some cheaper stuff first, since I must have done something wrong with that other bag. But I really like the Kureyon colorway that I've got, so the Booga Bag seems like a good thing to make with it.

Blossoming Trees

These are two squares from a small quilt I started working on. I found some of those Joann's quilt squares kits on sale, so I used some of the fabric from that came with them. Those kits are good, but then you know exactly how it'll look when it's done. I realized with the last quilt I made, that the colors were too similar, and I didn't leave enough unknown parts of the quilt at the end. I think the whole process is more interesting if there are things that you have to figure out all along. If everything is completely figured out for you, there doesn't seem much point in making it. I guess knitting is kind of like that if you're using a pattern. But some of the time, I just want that particular sweater, so it doesn't seem like an artistic process. I haven't been knitting much lately. I started on a sweater, but it was way too tight, so I had to rip it back. That gets really frustrating. I would like to start a project and have it work and fit with no problems, for once, without having to resort to making only scarves.