Waiting...

Ugh, I just want to knit. I finished my sweater a few days ago, and even got to wear it yesterday, but have yet to take pictures. This weekend I will probably get around to taking some. I'm between projects right now, and am waiting for a bunch of yarn that I ordered to arrive. The last hour I've been lazing around on ravelry, queuing up projects that I will never have time to make. Instead, I get to study for my chem midterm...

FO: Monkey Socks

Finally! Here are the finished Monkey socks!

Monkey Socks

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. Knitty Link

Yarn: Knit Picks Essential Sock Yarn in Lantana

Needles: US 1 1/2 (2.25 mm)

Time: about 2 weeks (though it could have been less)

Notes: I love these socks. They are super comfy, and the pattern looks complex without actually being difficult to make. If I make them again I will try to make them a bit more snug, they are bigger than I expected. Overall, I'm a happy camper, and I now understand why everyone loves making these socks so much.

Ravelry Link

Cookie Monster

The monkey socks have been done for days now, and are finished blocking. I haven't had a free moment to really properly try them on or take a picture, but that should happen tomorrow. I'll talk more about them in the morning.

Now that my socks are done, I'm having sock longing. I really liked knitting them. They were a fast knit, and the pattern was interesting, totally unlike my sweater. I fear that I chose a sweater pattern that was too easy and boring, and now it's just difficult to finish. I keep telling myself that I need to work on it, and not to buy anymore yarn before it's finished, but new patterns I want to try are piling up. This weekend hopefully I'll finished the sweater, so I can move on to something with a bit more flavor.

In other news, today at work we held our 2nd annual cookie contest. Despite the fact I had a midterm today, and should probably have been studying, I decided to make some of my favorite andes mints cookies. AND I WON! Awesome. I don't think that I've ever won anything before, so it was extra thrilling. Out of 30+ cookies, mine were the best! Sweet. All of them got eaten up, and even beat the fancy smancy ice cream sandwich cookies. I won 37 dollars (random, I know), some cookie cutters, and a couple coupons from my bosses to get out of assignments I don't like at work or steal an extra desk hour for myself. Proof of win:


Who knew I could be competitive? Here is the recipe just in case you want to make some delicious cookies. I pretty much think that andes mints are delicious in anything though, so just replacing chocolate chips with chilled, chopped up andes mints in cookies is also awesome. The version I made for the contest though is chocolate. Anyway...


Ingredients

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 bag (12oz) chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate, but semi-sweet might be better)
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
36 chocolate mint wafer candies (ANDESSSS)


Instructions
1. In a large pan over low heat, cook butter, sugar and water until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Don't burn it! Pour into a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes to cool off slightly.



2. Sift dry ingredients together. Add eggs to chocolate mixture until fully mixed. Then add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture. Be careful not to over mix, dough will be thick. I mix by hand. Chill dough at least 1 hour.



3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).



4. Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-9 minutes. While cookies are baking unwrap mints and divide each in half. When cookies are brought out of the oven, put 1/2 mint on top of each cookie. Let the mint sit until melted, then spread the mint on top of the cookie.


Yum!

(Picture from the web (http://allrecipes.com/Cook/Photo.aspx?photoID=28075) ...but mine pretty much looked the same)

One down...

Finished one of my monkey socks last weekend, and hope to have the other done soon. It would be great if I could take my knitting with me on the plane this weekend, but I'm a little scared that they may think my needles are too sharp and weapon-like at security. Yes, it sounds silly, but the needles I'm using are very small and aluminum and sort of sharp. Though they are probably no more dangerous than a pen, I guess they could be thought of as a potential plane hijacking device. I would hate to lose my yarn, needles, etc, so I probably won't risk it. The socks might just have to wait.

One note about the first finished sock...It is great! I'm surprised how good it looked, actually. The pattern is really pretty, and the color looks wonderful too. Plus, I used the kitchener (sp??) stitch to graft the toe closed, and now I understand why this stitch is so amazing. The finishing looks really professional, and hardly looks stitched closed. It looks like the toe seam just kissed itself closed. Right now, the socks is a little lumpy and needs to blocked before I will let anyone see it. Once both are complete and ready for wear, I'll post some pictures.

Monkey On My Back

For the last few days I've been trying to figure out this really popular sock pattern (Monkey Socks) that everyone on Ravelry seems to love. TONS of people have made these socks, and the general consensus is that this pattern is fun, easy, and generally lovely. So, of course, my thoughts were that these were perfect socks for me to start with. I started the pattern a few days ago, no problem. Once I got past the first inch or so of ribbing at the top I had a problem. The pattern didn't seem to work over the 16 stitches that is called for, and so the whole thing just seemed totally off. The pattern didn't line up, and ended up just UGLY. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, and after looking at a bunch of blogs about these monkeys, I still don't know what is wrong. However...I finally found a way! After working the pattern a few times on bigger needles with some old crappy yarn, I found that I can work it easily over 18 stitches instead of 16. Still don't know why things were wrong to begin with, but I'm excited to get back to work on my socks. Finally!

And yes, I am aware that changing the number of stitches will likely mess up the rest of the pattern, but that is something I will deal with when the time comes. On to my monkeys...

Finally some time!

Finally I have some time to update! The last week I got some work done on my sweater, but not much between my tests and homework. The body of the sweater is complete almost. The sleeves still need to be done, along with the ribbing along the neckline.




Here is the sweater on my duct tape dress form. The book (Custom Knits) had instructions to make the form out of duct tape and fiber fill. It's super helpful for the most part, but I got a little too lazy when making it, and the measurements are off. The waist is totally wrong (way too big!). However, the bust is pretty much correct, which is the measurement that most concerns me. Most often when I try on a sweater, tee shirt, anything, the bust is always too tight. So, to get the bust to fit, I usually have to go up a size or two, which makes the waist and length all wrong. It's really frustrating when I shop, and I was hoping that by knitting my own garment I could get around the whole thing.

I made some modifications to the pattern to make it fit better. I made the shoulders and bust with a large, and then increased the number of decreasing rounds as I worked my way down the body. In theory (and considering that I've never done this before, that's all it is) the waist will be somewhere between a medium and a small. All that is left is too add sleeves and do the finishing stuff.



My sock yarn also came this weekend, along with my new needles. I have my pattern picked out, and am planning to start right after I'm done here. It's all a little daunting, wish me luck!