Just For Fun

I saw this meme over at tentenknits blog and gave it a whirl. What fun! Flickr has some amazing people contributing amazing photos.


Here are the directions!
- Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
- Using only the first page, pick an image.
- Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Kendyl
2. What is your favorite food? dim sum
3. What high school did you go to? Marshall High, LA
4. What is your favorite color? green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Will Smith
6. Favorite drink? Scotch
7. Dream vacation? Tuscany
8. Favorite dessert? Apple Pie a La Mode
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Old
10. What do you love most in life? Life Itself!
11. One Word to describe you? Joyful
12. Your flickr name? happy2knit or kendylyoung

Credits:
1. Lincoln Continental III, 2. siu mai spoon, 3. hello ol' friend, 4. :P, 5. willsmith, 6. Scotch on the Rocks, 7. Tuscany Afternoon, Florence, 8. Please Pass The Pie, 9. an old lady with an umbrella in Ravangla market!, 10. I Love New York, 11. IMG_8118, 12. DSC_0106

Works in Progress

We are just about caught up here, at Chez Kendyl. After several really big projects my head is a little fried. I'm going after a few little lovelies that are easy to tote, easy to knit and have actual, tested PATTERNS that I know I will only have to knit once.

First up is the Lombard Street Socks from the now defunct Magknits. The pattern is now available here. This is my second pair of socks and, while I remain skeptical of the usefulness of hand knit wool socks in So Cal, there is a certain charm to the rhythm and ease of transport that a knit sock project brings. I was gifted 2 delicious skeins of Shibu Knits sock yarn and it was time to knit it up. Lovely, isn't it? The actual color is deeper and richer in person, but the stitch definition really popped with the flash.

The second is technically finished, but I'm working on a set of these. The Diagonal Ripple Dishcloth caught my eye on a friend's queue on Ravelry, but the kicker was a conversation with a" domestic diva" friend of mine. She swears that her hand crochet cloths are the very best at washing dishes and pans. Eh, I'll take that one on faith, but what the heck? Each one of these babys only takes 3-4 hours. I think I'll make a set of 2, but now I've queued up 10 more dishcloth patterns. This might turn into a horrible trend... I might have to use one these things!

Ocean Waves Tank

We are getting better at this whole design thing! This my second from my head and the first with nothing to base it upon.

Pattern - My own
Yarn - Karabella Mako Cotton Yarn
Needles - US 10.5 and US 11 Knit Picks Harmony

The Inspiration.
I knew this yarn was destined to be a tank and envisioned a lacy light stitch to offset the bulky nature of the yarn. The water inspired colors reminded me of waves of water lapping at my feet... well, you can see where the rest of this is going, can't you? Construction of the top is pretty simple, knit a skirt with feather and fan, then a stockinette bodice. Easy Squeezy! Yeah, not so much.

The Journey
For the life of me I could not figure out how to decrease feather and fan in the round. it should be simple - make sure the subtracted stitch has a matching subtraction in the YO's - but it wouldn't work. Graphs, tick marks, test swatches, online searches, pleading with the gals in SnB to help me figure it out. Nada. Finally, Donna (a knitter of decades long experience) says, why don't you go down a needle size? That's it? It's that simple? Seriously?! GAH!!!!

Next was the math. Always, the math. Trust me when I say that knitting math is no brain surgery. Subtract. Divide. Count the stitches. This is what I got.

The top is at least 4 inches too big! Instead of being a cute flirty top it was a big fugly tent. Not good. Not good at all. See - even without pulling the fabric out you can see how it bunches up under the arms and is just unattractive. I reknit the bodice 3 seperate times. Not portions of the bodice - the whole shooting match. Yikes! But I got it right in the end and, as a committed process knitter, that's the whole point (without being stupid. c'mon - I want to wear it at some point!)

Side by side comparison!

This is my first written pattern, so take that under advisement if you want to knit it yourself! Enjoy!

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Much knitting, very little time to blog about it! I have been consumed with a new internet project, a micro social network www.kendylsopenhouse.ning.com. This is a site that tries to tie all the disparate parts of my life together for the common good. Click on in and take a look around!

On to the knitting. On my last post, about a million and a half years ago I mentioned that I was going after one of my "fearless knitting" projects, the Fialti Summertime. The knitting went really fast - it was fun and not hard at all. I reveal... My Best Sweater to Date.

Pattern - Filati Summertime, from Lana Grossa
Yarn - SWTC Bamboo Yarn, color Sahara
Needles - US #7, Knitpicks Harmony (LOVE these needles)
Time to knit - about a month

This is very PERFECT summer sweater. The neutral color goes with everything and this sweater actually fits. Actually. Fits. Don't that just beat all? I must have spent one entire week making people look at my sleeves and how they are the appropriate length. Freakin' miracle that is!! It is the right weight and style for everything from a dressy summer party in the evening to a business outfit (or what passes as business outfit for me. I hate suits. Hate. Suits.) to a cute top over jeans. Perfect.

No real mods to speak of. All measurements on the schematic were in metric, so I had some fun puzzling over that one. I know. There's metric on the back of the measuring tape. It just didn't help my confusion. I'm slow that way. (if you are laughing right now, Shirley, I'm coming over there to mess you up)

I'm so happy I'm doing the happy swirly dance. Yipee!