knitting school dropout

i'm dying to get working on a new sweater, but i'm feeling indecisive.
in the meantime, i've finished another one of these noro scarves. this time with silk garden. i used 1 ball of color 34 and one of 208. bring on the cold winds!

i also had the chance to finally finish the belated lace scarf (pattern in pdf format here) for my friend:

unfortunately, i neglected to take a full length photo of it before i handed it off to her this morning, but here's a close up of the lace while it was blocking:

(edited to add: i saw it in her office today at work and snagged a pic)

i knit this as a short scarf, meant to be tied at the side of the neck. i used about half of one ball of kidsilk haze and size 8 bamboo needles. the needles were way too blunt and this slowed me down a bit, especially with the p2togtbl. that is not the reason why this gift was 6 months late though. i love this stitch pattern, and tonight i'm going to knit a few repeats of it in some merino laceweight from my stash and decide if that's what i'll make the next one with. i'm determined to get a head start on the holiday gifts this year. i'd better go do that now.

Posted by melissa at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

busy. busy.
yesterday i had to make a quick trip to the berkshires to wish my stepmom a happy birthday and see my sister who was visiting from philly. fun, but too short.

today, i am here.

my brother and i took a little trip to visit our mother in rhode island. it was a gorgeous day.

i am all about the portable, instant gratification projects this weekend.
i finished this noro scarf:

i used exactly 2 balls of noro kureyon, one each of 2 different colorways, alternating between the 2 skeins in a 1x1 rib. for this one i cast on 30 stitches and used us9 needles.
this one has already been gifted, but i've started another, this time using silk garden in 2 different colors. this time for me.
i've been playing with my blog template, trying to see if the comment function is fixed or not. it works for me, but i've only tried using IE and Firefox.

Posted by melissa at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

i made the mistake of going to work for the last 4 days, despite having a fever, and now i think i'm going to pay for it. it's just a stupid cold, but as my 82 yr-old aunt would say "i should have sat on my ass, instead of running around". so i'm staying home and sitting on my ass and blogging about a whole lot of nothing.
here's my latest project. a long overdue gift for my lovely friend andi:

it doesn't look like much more than some crumpled kidsilk haze, but i swear it's going to be pretty when it's finished and blocked. it's a ribbon lace pattern, and i love it, but it's not a great project when you're sick because it requires my full attention.
i was thinking about making some of these scarves, with all those random balls of noro i have around the house. i think they'd be cute gifts,but also easy to knit whilst laid out on the couch.
a few weeks ago, in preparation for our art/craft studio, i started making storage containers for all my craft supplies. i used a bunch of old kitchen canisters, found at yard sales.
they looked like this:

and now look like this:

i used a white enamel spray paint and did 2 coats, inside and out. i then glued an example of the container's future contents over the area that used to say "flour" or whatevs. i've done 6 or so, so far.

and i know it's been ages since i posted anything yard sale related, but i have had a few finds lately.
this however, is my absolute favorite. i've been wishing for this exact linen to someday find it's way to me, and that day has finally come:

this is a vintage startex towel (but as big as a card table), with dancing pots and pans. the caption reads " if you keep this jumbo towel handy your pots and pans will shine just dandy". isn't it cute. that was the best 50 cents i've spent in years.

i will be writing up a little detail on how the button opening is added to the raglan seam on the noro sweater, for those who have asked. it'll be soon, i promise.

Posted by melissa at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

i'm sick, so i'll keep it short. i'm done!


top down raglan with 7 button closure on one raglan seam.
started: 8/25/06
finished: 9/06/06
yarn: 4.5 balls of noro silk garden lite, color 2023
needles: size 5 + 6 circulars
i like !
maybe i'll get a daylight picture tomorrow.

Posted by melissa at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

but i'm pretty sure i'm going to pass out any minute. the last few weeks have been so busy. even though i've done so much, there's a lot more that remains left to do.
i have been knitting a little bit. i haven't made any progress on anything i've mentioned in the past, in fact i've started something new.
here's a little teaser:

it's little sweater for me with buttons down one of the raglan seams. i'm making it with noro silk garden lite. it's so close to being done that i thought i'd save the full-on shots for when i'm wearing it.
if you want a update with absolutely no knitting content, and lots of pictures of dirty walls, you can continue reading by clicking the link below.

a few weeks ago, the girlfriend and i learned that this little 2 room apartment in our building was going to be opening up. we had been throwing around the idea of getting an art studio for awhile, she's a painter (oils specifically) and i'm into pretty much everything besides painting, and our apartment often looks like a craft bomb went off in it. the 2 room apartment was super cheap and we really couldn't resist the idea of a space totally separate from our living area and cats, but so close that we could go there any time we wanted.
we called the landlord and we got it, without even looking at it. i had been in it 2 years ago when a friend lived there and it was clean and bright with new carpets, so i figured it would still look pretty nice.
nope.
from what i've gathered, the previous occupants enjoyed spilling things on the carpet and burning candles on the windowsill and letting it run down the wall until in pooled in the carpet and hardened there. they also enjoyed breaking mirrors, stiicking long pieces of packing tape on the walls and then pulling it off and getting everything as dirty as possible and never cleaning it.
you can see the amount of dirt on the was pretty clearly in each picture. what you can't see is how bad the windows were. each one took almost an hour to clean. i'm pretty sure i never want to clean one again.
here are some before pictures:
this is the room that will be mine. notice the lovely tape marks and dirty walls.

here's the other side of my space. because it's a 2 room apartment, the tiny stove and fride are on one wall of this, the bigger room.

this room will be the girlfriend's painting studio. it was in the worst condition, but maybe that's obvious.

these pictures were all taken before we actually started killing ourselves painting, cleaning the carpets and bleaching the hell out of everything. after spending the last few days working really hard on it, it's starting to look really nice. we've painted 75% of the walls and trim, and after we finish, it's on to the ceilings.
i'll post progress pics later this week!

Posted by melissa at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)