Lillian Tank and wips wips wips

So last night I finally FINALLY decided to finish that Lillian Tank. Woooo.







Don't mind the dirty mirror and needing to shower photos - I was gonna wear it tonight when I was all dressed up but no lol.

Pattern: http://deliciousstitches.blogspot.com/2007/05/lillian-tank-top.html Lillian Tank by Delicious Stitches
Yarn: Three skeins of Lion Brand Cotton Ease - with some leftovers (headband, anyone?) - Cost me about $15 CDN
Needles: 24" US 6 Pony Circulars - The pattern calls for 16" but A) I didn't want to buy new needles and B) I don't think I could have comfortably fit all my stitches on there. lol

The Good:
- easy to follow pattern
- affordable yarn
- great worn on its own or with something underneath
- fast knit

The to-change-for-next-time:
- I think I might make it a tad bit shorter so that I can wear it on my jeans with pockets without having it stretch around it
- Might do the middle ribbing in a slightly smaller needle
- Experiment with other lace patterns - though I do love this one

Interesting notes:
- before I blocked this it had the most interesting ridge pattern. Not something that I'd wear because it looked like I had potatos in my shirt but still really cool look. I didn't even block this properly. Enh
- It's just a teeensy bit too big around the waist area in the back for me. Whatevs!

Favourite knit so far, I think!

P.S. I knit this about a month ago and didn't get the ribbing done in time for my trip to Florida so I put it away for a month cause I lost the motivation to finish it until last night.

And progress on my first pair of socks - photo taken Tuesday.

Lack of updates

I haven't updated here in a good while mainly because I haven't had time to be the craftster that I want to be. lol Seriously.

My Lillian Tank is sitting on my desk, the armholes still awaiting the final ribbing. My mom keeps asking me why I don't finish it already so that I can wear it but I haven't had the urge to finish it just yet. I think I aught to go shower, water the plants and then maybe do that.

The day I left for Florida I also started my first sock in this awesome wool. I luuurve it. I have to admit, turning the heel was not as hard as I thought it was going to be and was quite enjoyable. I'm still on sock #1, though.

I also at some point in time ripped apart my sari silk scarf. Why, you ask? CAUSE I AM RIDICULOUS. Anyhow, what's done is done and I'm currently re-knitting a scarf that I once had. It is slightly different as I'm knitting it on bigger needles in hopes that it will be longer than my last scarf.

I've been itching to make this bolero for quite some time now. I think I want to do one in black, see how it comes out and then try it out in a different colour with a different lace pattern. Someone on Craftster used the same pattern but used a different lace pattern and I love how it came out. I think I want to make one in white or yellow or blue. Yes I did just list lots of colours. And woooo! Lion Brand Cotton Ease will make it an affordable project. I should go pick up some with the coupons I have for Michael's before it expires.

Everytime I use my sewing machine I'm inclined to learn more and do more with it but no time! I started a knitting needle case for all those circular needles Spiderman bought me but I haven't finished it. I'm starting to think I should have used a pattern of sorts cause it's kinda messy but ah, what can you do. I still am going to make another case for my straight needles & double pointed needles with some fabric I bought last month. I think I'm going to use the leftover fabric to make a purse because I seem to have bought a lot of it.

I've spent the last hour gazing at all things Amy Butler. GAH. More things adding onto my to make/do/knit list. Oh yeah, and it doesn't help that every family member seems to want me to knit them something for Christmas/birthdays/just because. Eeeee! I've got to work on this time business. And updating business. I have plenty of photos but I think I'm going to hold off on the Lillian photos till it's absolutely done and I'll post an earlier progress shot of the socks later.

On another note I really want to go to the Stitch n Pitch.

Mistake or a touch of humanity?

So I've been knitting away on the Lillian Tank since late Friday night. Actually, I didn't really work on it much today but anyhow. Today I thought to myself, "Wow, you've made it so far in the Lillian Tank without a single glitch. I mean, sure, at first your stitches were twisted and you had to re-start but that wasn't so bad. Now you're many inches in and it's lookin' good."

But I spoke too soon. No sooner than after I thought this, I realized I made a mistake. Two rounds below where I was I must have made a mistake with my yarn over. As in I never actually made a yarn over. Making one of my lace repeats hole-less. Holiness. Enh.

I showed it to my mom comparing this one tiny bit with the rest of the lace patterns and she assured me that it wasn't noticeable but I didn't continue knitting either.

I've been staring at it since wondering if I should stop being so lazy and go back two rounds (280 stitches my friends! lol) or if I should think to myself, "Ah, it's on my back, no one will notice or care."

I'm starting to think I'll go backwards but maybe tomorrow when I'm hopefully more awake.

Oh and I would post rather amusing photos I took but my laptop is being a pain.

Mmm one too many projects

So after Rogers today I quickly went to Michael's to find yarn for the Lillian Tank that I could afford after my not-so-good trip to Romni Wools last week. They didn't have TLC Cotton Plus but they had the just-as-good Lion Brand Cotton Ease in a few colours. It was also on sale! Eee. So I bought 3 skeins for a total of $15 but I'll only use up 1/2 of the 3rd skein meaning that the top will cost under $15 when done. Which is about how much I pay in store. Reasonable? I think so. I stood for awhile staring at the colours putting it against my skin trying to see which one went best. I didn't want white or black and I didn't want pink. That left me with a lovely buttery yellow, a terracotta that was extremely bold, a soft shade of blue, a bright lime and a really dark purple-y colour. I ended up choosing the "misty water blue".

Now you see, I still have to finish Vanessa's legwarmers. In fact, because I keep getting side-tracked by random things, I'm still on legwarmer #1. How is this possible? lol I'm going to dye and hopefully knit Vidya's camera case today and mail that out to her and then I'm giving myself until... hmm... Saturday to finish Vanessa's legwarmers. Which then gives me three and a half weeks to knit the Lillian Tank. (I want it done in time for Florida.) Hoy. If I manage to knit that quickly then I shall start my sock-ness.

Oh crap, it just occurred to me that I have that magazine article to start that's due Friday. Hum.

It also just occured to me that this Cotton Ease is a worsted weight. And I was looking for white worsted weight cotton to do this shrug in so I can wear all my silly tanks. But all I found was acrylic or wool. Me so silly. Oh well, I suppose if I manage to fly through the Lillian Tank I can get to that...

Baby Appropriate Yarn

So yesterday after walking with Yvonne and Sarah I dyed some yarn for a case for my phone. This time instead of dying the yarn one colour, I tried to get a variegated look. I intended on stronger colours than what I ended up with but I was too lazy to get some more KoolAid from upstairs. I think the yarn looks better knitted up but that may have to do with my sketchy ball-winding skills. Oh and you may be wondering, how knitting this case incorporated a new skill (as my goal is for every thing I knit right now to be a sort of learning process.) Well, I actually knit it with double pointed needles rather than straight needles and sewing up the sides. So no seams! How brilliant. So neat. And yeah, I've done this before but it's fun to be done and not have seams to worry about. And then I grafted the bottom ... yesss for seams that look like stitches. lol I must say that I don't like doing ribbing on double pointed needles for some reason. Enh. Ah well. Pastel-y case for my camera it is.

I didn't have syringes or anything so doing this was mildly amusing. It looked soo messy.

So last night while on MSN I only got the ribbing done. MSN is not conducive for knitting. Anyhow, knit away before I went to Rogers.

Left me with that. It would have looked better with the phone in it but I needed the phone to take the picture. And yeah, this time I dyed more yarn that I needed. Not sure what I will do with it just as yet. Might experiment with felting? Or it might be used in some cheesy heart-like colourwork. (shrugs) I think in person it looks more pinky/purpley.

Scrappity Scrap Scrap

So for some reason after all the cleaning I did today I felt more in a scrapbooking mood than a knitting mood. I quickly did a page for last year's semi formal and the SAC BBQ but they're quite simple. I figured I can always add more embellishments later but for now I'm just wanting to get this thing done/up to speed. I just put a whole bunch of photos (151 to be precise) taken over the past year of friends (and there are still more I need to get off of people) into a folder to be printed to be scrapbooked. Aiyaaaa. And I've still got to finish high school stuff! Eeee... Simple it is!

Add-on: I finished two prom pages after this. Fly fly flyyy.

Fun with Kool-Aid

At the moment I'm dying some yarn with Kool-Aid to knit Rachel's camera case. I don't think I put enough Kool-Aid so it's going to come out a light blue rather than a rich blue. But that's okay... I think? Maybe I'll re-do it when I'm done if the blue isn't satisfactory. I think it's going okay for a first-attempt. Mom doubts that the yarn will take the dye. Hehe can't wait to prove her wrong.

Enough yarn for her camera case and some Kool-Aid. I didn't even use a full pack of a blue and only a pinch of purple was added. Though I realize now that it was useless because I just added more blue when I thought it was too dark.

After soaking in the mixture and some heat and yadayada.

Update: So the yarn is drying in my backyard. I'm hoping it dries soon. I think it will because squeezing out the excess water really worked. It's a bit brighter than a baby-blue and I think I'm going to leave it that way. I wish I knew what size my other cousin's camera was so I could dye an appropriate amount of yarn for her... Ah well. I suppose I'll have to leave that for another day. I had the size written on another piece of paper but I can't find it. Hmph. Oh and I think some of the yarn felted a bit because the water from the tap surprised me with cold water right after and before a hot bath... but I got it out in time and I don't particularly care. :) Oh, and before you think I'm weird, that dark blue yarn is used to make sure the skein doesn't get tangled. I had that happen to me with the sari silk and I don't want a replay.

Drying outside.


Wound into a ball.


My strange, strange seam.

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Done! ... Okay, I have to stitch on the button. Also, it doesn't fit the random camera I stuffed in here for the purpose of this photo. One in Rachel's camera will come... eventually.