So I've finally gotten around to taking and then posting some pictures of more of my FOs.

Here's the first pair of mitts I knit:


Here's the baby blanket I knit for a friend before blocking. Again, the pattern is from Stich 'n Bitch. The wool is Ambience. The center was knit holding a strand of yellow together with a strand of blue. I think I like the way that turned out. It was hard to tell as I was knitting the thing. I just get so sick of looking at it that I can't be very objective. But now that it's done, I think I'm happy with it.



During blocking. That was much harder than I thought it would be. Especially since it came out to 31" square and I had no straight edges that long on hand while I was trying to pin it. And I've come to the conclusion that the smell of wet wool is not pleasant.



And here it is after blocking:



I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I made some mistakes while making it, but on the whole, I don't think they really show too much. I like the way it's become much drapier after blocking. Before it was very thick and stiff-ish. But now it seems like a more like a blanket. If that makes any sense. It's not as lumpy and it lies much flatter.

I've given it away already and got quite a few compliments on it. So that made me happy too.

I've already started on my next project. I've cast on for the print o the wave stole as designed by Eunny Jang.


And I've gotta say, I was expecting it to be difficult, but not this difficult. I'm now farther along than I was when I took that picture, I've now got about 2 1/2 repeats, but almost every third or fourth row I come to the end with one less stitch or one more stitch than I should have. And I can't even figure out where I went wrong.

After restarting 6 or 7 times, I figured I'd just keep going and hope that I'd get better at this, but I'm not sure if that's going to work. I don't know how apparent these mistakes will be. Right now I can't notice them, but I'm a little worried that after I block it out the mistakes will be very stretched and very visible. I guess I just have to figure out how badly I want this to be perfect.

Should I attempt to restart one more time?

I do like the colour though. I'm using Merino Oro Filati in turquoise.

Happy International Women's Day

Apparently, not only is this international women's day, but it's a day to blog about feminism. (?) Or something... Anyways, I thought I'd join in.

I heard on the radio this morning that in Guatamala, every day, 2 women are murdered. This has apparently been going on for 8 years. Not only are these women being killed, but no one is investigating their murders.

One of the reasons that so many women are being killed is that during their civil war, apparently women were seen as the enemy because they were the ones who were giving birth to the enemies. Rape and torture of women were used as military strategies. Now that the war is over, these feelings remain and as a result, women aren't seen as valuable enough to devote time and resources to their cases. It's quite appalling and very sad.

For more international feminism news, and more informed writing, check out feministing, a feminist blog.

Well, everyone else has a blog about their knitting, so I decided to join in. I just picked it up again at Christmas to knit something harder than a scarf. I knit a hat for my sister. And then, it just snowballed from there.

There's just something about having a real finished hat and being able to say that I did it that made me want to make more.

So after the hat, I jumped right in and made a pair of knee socks for my sister. They were my first pair of socks and first time working with different colours. It was pretty fun and turned out pretty well. Although the heel is a little messed up.

(Socks: Pattern from Stich 'n Bitch)


Next, was another hat for a friend of mine. I don't remember what this was made out of, but it's so very soft. (Hat pattern from here.)

Next, I saw a pattern for this little cat on one of the many knitting sites I'd started to find out there and decided that I just had to knit it. I used some of the yarn left over from the socks and some that was donated from a friend who I guess decided that knitting was not for her.

I think he turned out so cute. And he's the first thing that I kept instead of giving away as a gift. So I was very happy with him.

I've also finished another knit toy, a domo-kun. It was a pattern of my own making, my first. And it turned out pretty well. Although I guess it's hard to mess up what is essentially a rectangle with arms. Especially when I just modified the arms from the guy above and sewed 6 different shaped rectangles together. But still, I was happy.

I gave the domo-kun away to a slightly demanding ex-boyfriend for Valentine's Day. Demanding only in the sense that he demanded I knit him a domo-kun stuffed toy. But at that point I was having fun with the stuffed knits and knew he would appreciate it, so I complied. He's promised to send a picture of it since i was in such a rush to send it off in time that I forgot to take one myself. So when he does, I'll post it. Maybe I'll post the pattern as well if I ever get around to it.

Right now, I'm in the midst of knitting a cardigan for myself. One and a half sleeves left to go, but somehow I can't find the motivation to finish. I've also been comissioned to knit a baby blanket as a gift for my friend's boyfriend's sister. It's coming along pretty well and I'm almost finished. It's going to be my first project that needs to be blocked and I think I'm irrationally excited about that. I need to go out and buy myself some blocking pins.

Next on the list of things to magically transform from a ball of wool to a finished object. Is Eunny Jang's Print O' the Wave stole. I'm planning on giving it as a wedding shower gift to a friend who's getting married this summer if the merino oro filati yarn I've ordered over the internet ever shows up.

The list of things I want to knit goes on and on. Unfortunately, my hands can only move so fast.