Hello I feel fine thank you. I am presenting toe-up Jaywalkers, which were fun to knit. I bought one 400-yd skein of yarn which I approximately wound in half and then used one of the balances in my chemistry laboratory to get it exactly 50/50. CHEMISTRY IS COOL.

I have narrow feet so I made the overall sock narrower and wasn't so aggressive with the heel flap. I threw in some calf increases toward the end and used up all the yarn. They're tall. They are very cute even though the yarn is a little bit itchy for my sensitive shins and ankles. I knit these socks mainly during P-Chem lab lecture and History of Performance Art. These are my first toe up socks and my second Jaywalkers, but these are also my first toe-up Jaywalkers and my first Jaywalkers that I didn't totally screw up.

Pattern Toe-Up Jaywalkers, from Natalia Knits.
Yarn Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Bosco (pink, purple, red)
Needles Size 1, Susan Bates

I haven't given up on the Swell hat. My itsy-bitsy roommate looked cute in it so I added 12 more rows of stockinette before the decreases so that it would fit her a little better. After that modification it fits even me now, even though it's a little tight where the stranding is, meaning my floats are too tight. Also, I still look stupid in it. I'm going to knit another one of these hats with modifications for a friend for the holidays.

Check me out! Since I last posted the screen snapped off my laptop and the very next day I got a brand new Macbook Pro (savings are nice!). So now I've got one of them cameras on my display so I can take photos of my face!!

In my sculpture class a boy had one of them hats with earflaps and tassles and I put it on my head and told him I could make one. He didn't care but so I set forth to make Swell from Knitty. Never did I think I would ever make a hat with earflaps and tassles. I guess I forgot that I have a lot of hair because I made the small size and that was a big ole mistake. The thing fits more like a yarmulke than a hat. Right now I am wetblocking it over my head and I smell like a damp sheep-alpaca blend. I'm certain that snipping the floats will loosen the thing up a bit but since I don't wear hats with earflaps and tassles I'm probably going to give this thing to someone with a small head who would. I'm probably going to also add one of those pom poms but not a pom pom attached directly to the hat, but attached to a tail which is attached to the hat.

Pattern Swell, from Knitty
Needles Size 5 circs, Susan Bates
YarnValley Yarns' Berkshire Bulky, pink and gray (love the stitch definition of this yarn...my gauge swatch is the most successful aspect of this project).

This is not the first time I have knit something kind of useless. Honestly, I only like ribbed hats. I keep starting them and quitting because they're so damn boring but I really need one for the winter. Secretly, I was very much hoping that it would reveal itself that I look totally cute in earflap-and-tassle-hats but alas. Before too long I'm about to finish my second of my pair of toe up Jaywalkers and may I say that they are gorgeous.

HI HOW IS EVERYBODY? When this knit blog was on LiveJournal I had eighty people who read it. Now that I host my own blog zero people have read it in the past three days. SAD. AND THEN in the middle of me updating this post, my computer fell and now it's being HELD TOGETHER WITH THE GLUE THAT COMES OUT OF A GLUE GUN. I've been waiting for the new Macbook Pros to come out since the summer and now I need one more than ever.

Anyway my camera is out of batteries so I was unable to take pictures of my latest finished object, a heavily modified version of Jodi Green's Mariah. BUT THERE ARE PICTURES. I made it out of Amherst by Valley Yarns in Charcoal. I wanted a hooded sweatshirt for the fall and that was that. I'm not much into cables so I eliminated those and did it all in stockinette. I also added some garter edging to the wrists of the sleeves and an applied i-cord for the hood in Berkshire by Valley Yarns in a light gray.

I used size 7 needles like Jodi did but when I swatched, my gauge was looser than hers, so I divided the two and multiplied every stitch count in the pattern by that number. I think that's a lot easier than reswatching on different needles...it's more quantitative and I'm into that. I omitted the square neckline and couldn't understand the hood directions so I did my own thing with the hood (grafting the two sides together - unwise!) I ended up with a hood that came to a perfect point and had to sew that down and block it over a bowl to get the hood to look not retarded. I steam blocked the sweater long to cover all of my hips, and also to even out the back, as the decreases before the hood caused these like bulges which is not an isolated problem, according to one knitalong. Zipper installation was easy and it only looks sloppy on the inside but I can cover that if I so want. So far the sweater is extremely warm and it fits flatteringly and I love it. The things I would have done differently are a looser applied i-cord, would have been more precise about the hood, and shorter sleeves by about an inch. I also think maybe the hood is a little short because there isn't much "give" but that's not such a problem. This was my first sweater!

Pattern Mariah, mad modified.
Yarn Amherst by Valley Yarns in Charcoal (main), Berkshire by Valley Yarns (contrast) in "Gray"?
Needles size 7 circs, Susan Bates!!

This is me trying it on before seaming, before I started the hood but after I completed the yoke. I was so excited that it fit that I ran to find my roomate, forgetting there was an entire ball of yarn attached to me. My roommate had me pose with the yarn. Chic!

This is me with Mariana, the head of the Fine Arts Organization on campus. We were at the installation of a sculpture show that I helped organize and am participating in. She knit the hat that she is wearing. I was talkin' sleeves.

TRIANGLE OF YARNSTUFF. To the left is Mariana's boyfrined Nick in a seed-and-stockinette hat (also, note the boa. We were breathing in feathers for hours.) Center: Mariana works on a blanket. Right: Me in my friggin hoodie.

Right now I'm working on toe up Jaywalkers (first toe up socks!) and I'm going to start my holiday knitting relatively shortly.