3rd Quarter 2009 Nominations have begun on Ravelry!

Hello Sexy Knitters!

Just a little announcement here for those of you who have not made the move over to The Official Sexy Knitter's Club on Ravelry yet, and those of you checking us out for perhaps the first time. Nominations are officially open but will be closing shortly (June 13, 2009 - June 26, 2009) to decide on projects for our third KAL this year. This quarter's theme is "Designers" and is our second time choosing a designer as our KAL theme. Get your nominations in quick - voting starts June 28th & lasts until June 30th, 2009.

We'll continue to use this blog for announcements, but will no longer be posting here. Come join us on Ravelry if you haven't already and put in your nomination for the next KAL. Look forward to meeting you there!

2nd Quarter KAL 2009 - Karma Tank/Karma Skirt, Spring Vines & Juno Regina Stole

Our second KAL of 2009 has begun! Your votes are in and this time we will be running a more "traditional" KAL in which a specific pattern has been chosen for the whole group to knit. As an added twist, we have also given you the choice of knitting either a small project or a larger project. Or both if you're that speedy! In the small project category, our winner and choice for the second quarter KAL is Juno Regina - a lace stole/scarf from Knitty, Fall 2007 (on Ravelry here). In the large project category, your choice was a tie between the Karma Tank/Karma Skirt by Wendy Bernard featured in Custom Knits, or Spring Vines by Dao Nguyen.

A few guidelines:

• Official KAL dates: April 4, 2009 - June 30, 2009.
• To participate, you may knit any of the agreed upon patterns in either the large or small categories, or both.
  
• Don't forget to tag your knits in Ravelry with SKC2009Q2 so people can easily find your related projects.
• Nominations for the third quarter KAL will begin June 15th.
  

We look forward to all of your lovely knits over at the Ravelry Group! Come join us! If you have any questions, you may contact either rchrispy or our new group moderator RobinM.

Happy Knitting!

2009 1st Quarter KAL Voting Has Begun!

The voting has begun for our first KAL of 2009! For the 2009 1st Quarter KAL, we will be running a technique based KAL. You will vote on which technique you are most interested in, out of the following categories:

• Garter Stitch
• Stockinette or Reverse Stockinette Stitches
• Textured Knit & Purl Combos e.g., Seed Stitch, Ribbing, Textured Rib
• Cables & Twisted Stitches i.e., any stitch sequence where stitches change position while they are being knit
• Lace i.e., decrease and open increase combos
• Colorwork (2 or more colors, fair isle, stranded, intarsia, mosaic or slip stitch color work; stripes do not count) e.g., Fair-Isle, Mosaic, or Slip Stitch patterns
• Traveling (decrease and increase stitch combos)
• Unusual (Bobbles & Leaves & Entrelac - 3-D shapes on a knitted surface & anything else that doesn’t fit traditional categories)
• Beaded (any item that is attached to the surface)

For more examples of the stitches mentioned above, as well as accompanying images, please visit the Walker Treasury Project.

A few guidelines:

• Voting will run from December 27, 2008 - December 31, 2008
  
• Official KAL dates: January 1, 2009 - February 28, 2009
  
• A qualifying pattern will include at least 25% of the type of stitch pattern chosen by the group during the voting period.
  

We look forward to all of your lovely knits over at the Ravelry Group! Come join us! If you have any questions, you may contact either rchrispy or myself (knittymuggins).

Happy Knitting!

2008 4th Quarter KAL - Category: Patterns

The votes are in and we have a three way tie for our 2008 4th Quarter KAL! The patterns chosen by you for the current KAL are:

• Silken Scabbard by StitchDiva (also on Ravelry here)
• Snow White by Ysolda Teague (Raveled here)
• Baby Cables and Big Ones Too (Raveled here) by Suvi S.

A few guidelines:

• Official KAL dates: October 20 - December 17, 2008
• You may knit any or all of the 3 patterns chosen

We look forward to all of your lovely knits over at the Ravelry Group! Come join us! If you have any questions, you may contact either rchrispy or myself (knittymuggins).

Happy Knitting!

2008 3rd Quarter KAL Winner - Designer Theme

The votes are in and we have a winner! The designer chosen by you for the 2008 3rd quarter SKC KAL is Joan McGowan-Michael. If you need another look at some of her designs, you can check out the cool mosaic rchrispy put together over on the final voting thread at the Ravelry Group. This will be our very first designer themed KAL so there are a few new things to note this time around:

• Official KAL dates: August 1 - September 30
• You may knit any pattern by this designer that you like, whether it’s from her book Knitting Lingerie Style, from a magazine or similar publication, or even a pattern purchased from her website White Lies Designs.

We look forward to all of your lovely knits over at the Ravelry Group! Come join us! If you have any questions, you may contact either rchrispy or myself (knittymuggins). Happy Knitting!

3rd Quarter Final Voting

A late announcement:

Voting has been taking place over on Ravelry on our group board between Kat Coyle, Joan McGowan-Michael, Stefanie Jafel, Wendy Bernard, and Connie Chang Chinchio. The Voting thread will be active till the morning of July 31st. No votes will count after it becomes archived.

One of the mods will announce the winner sometime during the 31st. The new KAL will run August 1st through September 30th.

Please direct all questions to Rchrispy or Knittymuggins

Nominations are open for the 2008 3rd Quarter KAL over on the Ravelry Group

Hello Sexy Knitters!

Just a little announcement here for those of you who have not made the move over to The Official Sexy Knitter's Club on Ravelry yet. Nominations are officially open for the next 2 weeks (July 11, 2008 - July 25, 2008) to decide on projects for our next KAL. This quarter's theme is "Designers" and will be the first SKC KAL held entirely over at Ravelry. We'll continue to use this blog for announcements, but will no longer be posting here. Come join us on Ravelry if you haven't already and put in your nomination for the next KAL. Look forward to meeting you there!

I'm so excited to take part in my first SKC KAL!!!

Hi Everyone!

I'm playing a bit of catch up as a new member of the SKC. I started Rusted Root this week and hope to finish it next week. The great sweaters that you guys have knitted and your beautiful FOs are definitely inspiring.

I am going to do Fifi first. I splurged on Calmer (on sale at Richesseonline - Thanks for the tip Robin!) I am currently on a green sweater kick and am making a Kiwi Fifi. I've never knit with Calmer and am really excited to try it.

Yarn Stuff
For those of you considering the Kiwi color - it does not show up well online. I am very happy with the medium chartreusy/limey shade that it is but it looks nothing like any of the versions of it I saw online. On the Richesseonline site, it looks extremely bright - almost neon. If I had only seen it on that site, I probably wouldn't have ordered it. On the other sites that I checked, including Webs, it looks paler than it actually is. I decided to take a chance that it would be somewhere in the middle and was pleased to find out that it was.

Potential Yarn Substitution
When I was debating whether or not to splurge on Calmer, I looked at this yarn that is much less expensive and may work as a subsitution.
Classic Elite Star - It is 99% cotton and 1% lycra. The construction looks very stretchy although it looks more nubby than Calmer. It's on sale at Webs for $3.29/skein.

Short Row Shaping
I'm going to attempt short row shaping for the bust. Is anyone else trying this for the first time with Fifi?

Happy Wednesday!
Jennifer

The Beginning of Sahara Short Sleeves

This is the beginning of the first of two Sahara sweaters that I plan to make. This one is the short sleeve version in Rowan’s All Season Cotton in the color Misty. I am using size US 8 and 6 needles instead of the recommended US 6 and 4.

I have to admit that I did have some problems at first with the provisional cast on, but I think I did ok. I decided to omit some of the decreases at the waist in the pattern to obtain a better fit for me. So far, so good! My goal is to hopefully finish this sweater before my birthday in May. At the rate I’m going, I think that is a realistic goal.

Started Sahara

My yarn and new Options needles arrived the other day. I was so excited to open that package!! I can't imagine how I got along without these needles.

I have now started Sahara. Following the link that someone else posted here, I used the provisional cast-on from Knit and Tonic. What a dream! Not much progress so far because I'm still finishing the Simple Knitted Bodice that I started as a filler project after the Wicked KAL. I'm using Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Crocus. It feels incredibly soft and here is what I have so far:

I posted brag pics of my new needles and of my SKB progress on my blog:

Diary of a Mad Crafter

Blogged with Flock

intro...

Hello! This is the first KAL I've did with all y'all Sexy Knitters, and Sahara looks gorgeous. I've got a year-and-a-half year old son, so I'll be doing it without the beads (would that be a co-ed naked knitting T-shirt? Knitters do it with pointy objects?) I didn't get knitting done this weekend, so I'll be swatching up my yarn tomorrow. I'll be using Carron SimplySoft in a lovely burnt red for my Sahara. It's acrylic, but I really like the way it feels. Anyway, can't wait to see everyone's gorgeous sweaters!

I'll be doing Sahara

I just finished Eiffel, and ordered the pattern and some yarn samples to figure out what color I want to make it in. so I should be starting it within the week.

Nomination

I haven't even cast on my Wicked yet...where does the time go?
But I still have a nomination from the new Knitty!Isabella. It has a good range in sizes and is perfect for the warmer weather coming up.

Lorelei Nomination

I would like to nominate Lorelei for our next knit along. I think the pattern is sexy and springy and allows to get creative a bit with the design and yarn choice. The vertical eyelet rows are random and up to the knitter. The author also encourages you to experiment with different yarns. The pattern is from Yarn Play by Lisa Shobhana Mason. Really fun book. Cute, eh?

Also, Vogue Knitting finally has their spring preview up!

nomination

i nominate "ruffled top" from knit.1, the "love issue" (december).
it's body hugging, the neck is interesting, short sleeves, easy to find yarn...
what do you say?

Trying again...

This is the 5th time I've tried to post it.....so I appologize if it shows up more than once. If it does, I promise to come back and delete the extras (I'm sorry!)

I just found this awesome sweater called the "Deep V Argyle Vest" from See Eunny Knit! The pattern can be downloaded here that I'd like to nominate for the next KAL.


I think it looks great, is sexy and has kind of a punk edge to it. I also think we could use a wide variety of easy-to-find yarn for it so it may not be too expensive (a BIG plus for me). And this the the best part... "All the information needed to make this a successful first colorwork and/or steeking project is included here in exhaustive detail." Hooray for beginner instructions!

What do you guys think??

eiffel

well I just ordered my yarn for Eiffel. has anyone else used knitpicks merino style? I just hope it works out.

Eiffel Complete!

Here it be: my completed Eiffel. I love this pattern! Despite the couple of mistakes I made in its construction, I'm entirely satisfied with it. Here's a close-up of the lovely neckline, that I didn't even realize would be lacy! (I really should read ahead in patterns.)

Specs:
exactly 4 skeins of Alchemy "Silk Purse" yarn, colour 93a - Ruby
pattern: Eiffel
ribbon: plain ol' black ribbon from Michael's
Things I'd change: I was far too lazy to rip this one out when I should have, about 1.5 inches in, when I realized the size Small I was making was going to be far too big, and xs was the way to go.
Also, I should have made the body part about 2 inches longer. I tried to lightly block it out, and it didn't make too much of a difference. I can live with it, though.
New skills: Knit with 100% silk yarn. Very beautiful finish, nice and soft and smooth. One thing to keep in mind - it's very stretchy. Also, frogging and reusing isn't the best, as it gets a bit fuzzy and unhappy.


I apologize for the fuzzy pic. It's the best I could do on my own!

Eiffel Going Sloooow

Hello all!

My Eiffel is growing verrrry slowly.

Its not for lack of love for the yarn - it's amazing! I just seem to have something eating away at my knitting time!
I do have a couple questions:
This is a %100 silk yarn, and I understand that it has zero memory. Can I block it out a bit bigger, and then perhaps save it from expanding further?
Also, should I spray-block it? I've never spray-blocked before, but I hear it dries much faster. I have a feeling this yarn would be a bit fragile when wet, as well.

And note: proof of my knitting laziness. At the bottom right corner of the Eiffel you'll see an unattractive "jutting out" piece. This is due to my "I'll just have to live with it" mistake of casting on for a size small, and then upon completing about 1.5 inches discovering that it was a wee bit too large. I perhaps would have been tempted to frog, if not for the fact that it took me three frustrating attempts to cast on (because for some reason I temporarily forgot how to join in the round without twisting the stitches).

Thanks all!

Hooray for New Blogger!

Hooray for New Blogger finally letting me post!

Progress on my Wicked Sweater as of the 23rd:

JANUARY 14, 2007

JANUARY 23, 2007

The color is more true in the first picture (hubby forgot the flash on the 2nd one). But the sleeves are off and now I'm working on the main body. I'm doing it in Patons classic merino in "denim" (which seems to be a rather popular color/yarn choice for this sweater).