knitting by eye

knitting again

2008-07-06T21:00:00.006-04:00

The purple thing... I knit it, then ripped it, and knit it again. I would post a picture but it looks exactly the same as before.

In the meantime, here's my niece, the baby pumpkin...

her parents have started a blog to share their experiences in dealing with her illness and to raise awareness about infantile spasms. If you get chance take a look, her bunny is going on journey to share her story.

Happy Knitting!
Thanks for dropping by,
eyeleen

something purple

2008-05-22T19:46:00.003-04:00

I decided to try knitting again.

something purple.

Mandy says hello.

all it took was an earthquake...

2008-05-08T00:24:00.002-04:00

for me to post a blog update. I didn't realize such things happened in Virginia, so the rumblings I thought were construction work on the floor above me, turned out to be a rumbling of the earth 6 km below me. Very strange indeed.

I've been away for quite a while, mainly because I really haven't knit anything since Christmas. In fact I have partially knitted Christmas "gifts" still lying around. There are even some mostly completed knitted items that just need a bit work (weaving in the ends, blocking, etc.) I seem to have lost my knitting mojo. In fact I have large gift certificate (a christmas present from the family) to a wonderful yarn store sitting on my desk, and I haven't a clue or inclination to buy anything. My yarn stash taunts me from my shelves and my knitting needles take up space on my desk. I still buy knitting magazines, yet while I find the patterns intriguing, I still knit nothing.

Life's been a bit crazy these past few months. At first I think I was stressed out from starting a new job and the holiday crush. That and I tend to spend my free time fawning over my niece, the pumpkin. She's a gorgeous baby with a beautiful smile but she's had a pretty difficult few months. She's been diagnosed with infantile spasms, which is a rare type of seizure disorder. Her seizures last 1-3 seconds long but they occur in clusters that last for several minutes. It can be very scary sometimes.

Anyway, if and when I knit something, I will post. Otherwise stay tuned for photos of the baby, the dog, the garden. Right now, photography is easier than knitting and I'm quite obsessed with bokeh.

Thanks for stopping by.
eyeleen

Season's Greetings

2007-12-24T07:35:00.000-05:00

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas
and a Wonderful New Year!

I'm trying

2007-12-11T22:11:00.000-05:00

to knit (stealthily while at work)to dye (with my favorite dyers-in-training Ele & Isa)

to bake (mini marbley cupcakes)

and to blog (please forgive my pathetic attempt at a blog post, I'll be back soon...)

the pumpkin

2007-11-09T07:25:00.000-05:00

For the past few months I've been knitting with one person in mind. She arrived yesterday.

The word for niece in Filipino is pahmankin, but with my odd americanized pronunciation it always sounds like pumpkin.

Here she is

still here...

2007-11-07T07:54:00.000-05:00

and knitting...I just haven't had a chance to take any pictures of my projects. here's Mandy in her Halloween furmiliation...

a literal weight off my shoulders

2007-10-09T21:42:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the blog silence but I've been busy planning (a baby shower) and knitting (baby items). The thing is... my sister found my blog and she thought the last post with the baby booties were for her. They weren't. Those were for Baby Raquel Sofia, who finally made an appearance on October 2nd. I hope you like the booties.

As for my sister, I was able to finish these things just in time for her shower...Pattern: Baby Shrug from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby

Needles: US8
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease - Pink

Pattern: Trellis from Knitty Spring 2005
Needles: US8
Yarn: Gedifra Korfu - Red
Buttons from G-Street

More baby booties from Simply Knitting, the UK knitting magazine
Needles: US5
Yarn: Patons Grace in Rose & Tangelo

Now that the shower is over, I have a chance to relax and knit without a deadline. I've got a half finished Anouk on the needles and I just started another baby sweater. I think I like baby knitting. Small, sweet and for some reason the FO's make me giggle.

My head feels a lot lighter, the stress of party planning is gone. Just the thought of 60+ guests squeezed into the house in unseasonably warm October weather made my stress levels rise uncontrollably. I also got my hair cut this past weekend...
TWELVE inches to Locks of Love...it's going to take a while getting used to this short hair. Although it's not as bad as my last donation, that was seventeen inches...

bunch of booties

2007-09-09T21:05:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've blogged, but I have been knitting...
I love the simplicity of baby booties, small, quick, and adorably cute, and I'm filling my house with them. Here are a few...

The red booties were inspired by these. Utterly adorable!

Pattern: Simple Shoes from Uniform Studio
Needles: US 10.5
Yarn: Patons SWS

Ballet Baby Booties
Pattern: from Simply Knitting
Needles: US 5
Yarn: Patons Grace

unseasonably cool

2007-08-20T19:50:00.000-04:00

It's August and I'm cold. It's kinda nice. I'm ready for September and some big wooly knitting.
But it the meantime, there's this...

wooly hibiscusa kind of smoky pink yarn from the hibiscus dye bath

Saturday morning I went grocery shopping at the Latino/Asian mart, an oddly ironic store because peanut butter and cheerios can be found in the international aisle...but they have dyestuffs in the spice aisle.

A bastard saffron, that I'm treating like safflower. The real stuff is $90 an ounce. I got this for $1.49 an ounce. Hence safflower. I'm hoping to extract a hot pink dye from it. I've also got chamomile, great for tea, butI had no idea it could be used for dyeing. And annatto seeds, which give that odd orange color commonly seen in Filipino and Latino foods, hopefully it'll do the same for yarn.
So far I like the ease of solar dyeing, stick it in a jar, put it in the sun, then forgetaboutit. It just takes a while to get results. So I built a solar oven (I applied aluminum foil to the inside of a cardboard box), that got rained on while I was at work today. Oh, well, I tried.

when its too hot to knit...

2007-08-14T23:52:00.000-04:00

the sun does have it's uses...

Dried Hibiscus Flowers

Hibiscus Flower Sun Tea

Wool in Hibiscus Flower Tea/Dye bath

Wool is just too hot in my hands for knitting in this heat, so I used cotton for this...
Trellis (with my wonky cables) is just waiting for buttons.

occupied with everything but knitting...

2007-07-30T22:26:00.000-04:00

There's something about July, I don't know if its the heat and humidity, the holiday and vacations, but I can't seem to knit anything...

I do admit to a problem though...I am a Harry Potter Fan. I didn't wear a costume or wave a wand at midnight on July 21, but I held my knitting and a Coke, while dressed in the comfiest of yoga wear. (I held my knitting, but I really didn't knit). And freakish fan that I am...I woke up and stood in this line for a hour at 9 am on Friday.

these are the people in front of me...

these are the people behind me...I got number 53 and this is my happy crew, who accompanied me at midnight so that we could have Book 7 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 53 isn't so bad, when we left at midnight the line was around the building and they were on 1013. (Yes, we could've gone on the 21st at 9 am, but it's hard to break a tradition...)

Mini flashback....my freaks in 2005 while waiting for Book 6

we started this in 2003 when we wanted Book 5... I finished reading it the next day. It made me cry. A lot.

Now if I could motivate myself to do something more and hold the knitting, I could have actual knitting content for this blog. (I received my Ravelry invite a couple of weeks ago, I haven't had much time for it, but If you see me there, I'm eyeleen)

a little bit of red

2007-06-18T23:34:00.000-04:00

Red is color that is bold and sexy and a sign of good luck. Occasionally, I wear red to try to liven up my mostly black wardrobe. Last week, I found this in a basket of UFO's. It was started it a while back when I wanted to knit something out of Scarf Style. Then I realized, that even though I like red, and it goes well with black, I'll probably never wear a ruffled scarf. It's just, well, I'm not a very ruffly kind of person. But I know someone/something that is...

Pattern: Ruffles fron Scarf Style
Yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style in Holly Berry - 1 skein
Needles: US 7
Pattern Notes: After knitting 1 skein of yarn in the pattern, I realized it would be something I would never wear. Ends are sewn together to make a lovely ruffly dog collar.

And as we're still in the midst of a Project Spectrum, here's some more red...

Trellis

Geranium

and even though this isn't red, it's fruit will be...
Tomato

rainy roses

2007-06-06T23:23:00.000-04:00

It rained this past weekend, and I'm not sure why, but I ventured out in the rain with plastic bag over my camera and took some pictures in the rose garden. I have some of my knitting to show you, but my model, Mandy, is being a bit uncooperative. Apparently I have thing for basset hounds with bad knees/patellas. Mandy has been diagnosed with a luxating patella, it pops in and out, repeatedly and quite easily. She's a trooper though, she still wants to play and run around. We have an appointment with the ortho/surgeon vet next week. All this and she's not even two.

in the pink...

2007-06-01T08:15:00.000-04:00

In keeping with Project Spectrum, I've got more pink knittting. A pink sweater, for me. Luckily for me, I had this yarn in the stash. I had plans to finish it over the long weekend, but all that free time and beautiful, warm, sunny days kept me away from my needles and a bit distracted.

Mandy's adjusting to life with out Em-Em and has even assumed the role of modeling the knitting...she doesn't seem to mind, much. Afterall she loves pink...

a time for flying...

2007-05-17T21:48:00.000-04:00

Thank you all so much for your kind words about Em-Em. It's really meant a lot to me.

By the way, I started knitting again...a hat for Dulaan. I hope I can finish 7 more before June.

Awhile back I made my way over to the library's annual book sale, I always go the first night to find the beautifully obscure knitting books. And for only $2.00 I got this...
a book of 800 stitch patterns and some baby patterns. The best part of the book sale was at the end, the ladies who tallied up my purchases were also knitters and complimented me on my choice of books. One lady even remarked,

"I have these same books at home, I even made something for my son out of this baby book. And guess what?? He'll be 55 next month!"

Very sweet ladies. And while the Baby book is not for me, I'm knitting for someone else, sometime in November you all can call me Auntie eyeleen! I'm so excited, baby clothes are small, I can knit those.

Meanwhile, Mandy loves all the extra attention she's been getting...

she even thinks she can fly!!

good bye, baby monster

2007-04-30T22:00:00.000-04:00

good bye EmEm, everything thing I've ever knit, has a piece of you woven into it. I'll miss you.

an entrelac spring

2007-04-25T20:57:00.000-04:00

Pattern: my own, similar to this one

Needles: US 9 bamboo
Yarn: Patons SWS, Soy Wool Stripes, (the yarn was a present from the family secret santa)
Notions: Bamboo Circular handles from G-Street
Notes: The colors on these photos are pretty accurate. I followed the pattern out of an old knitting guide, but there's a great Entrelac tutorial in the spring Interweave Knits written by Eunny Jang

the other side!I started this bag, the day that EmEm was diagnosed with cancer. It'll be 5 weeks tomorrow.

entrelac for spring

2007-04-04T23:52:00.000-04:00

The weather this past week has been quite wonderful. I've spent a bit of time sitting out on the front lawn with EmEm, she can't walk far but she loves the sunshine. So when she's tired I spread out a blanket and we sit, and sometimes I knitI'm making a springy version of this bag that I made a couple of years ago.

EmEm suffers the indignity of having to wear the knitting, and it's not even clothes...

a anniversary of sorts

2007-03-25T14:55:00.000-04:00

Exactly ten years ago, an eight pound bundle of energy came into my life, through the form of a basset hound that we call Em-Em. (MM) short for some horrific AKC name that I can't even remember.

She's an older dog and has always had problems with her knees, but latest set of x-rays show that she has an osteosarcoma on her left hind leg. Because of her body type (low with short legs) and her bad knees, the vet oncologist advised that she would be a boderline case for improvement with amputation of her leg. So all I want to do is make her as comfortable as she can in the time that she has left. Even though she's in a lot of pain she's still good about posing with my knitting.

emem, the pain patch, and a hat

So here's #2 of 10 for the Dulaan Project

Pattern: My own, I'll post the pattern when I find all the post it notes...
Yarn: Lion's Brand Fisherman Wool hand dyed with Kool-Aid (Grape, Strawberry & Black Cherry)
Needles: US 8

gifting

2007-03-11T19:40:00.000-04:00

Gifts to give...

1 of 10 for the Dulaan Project

Pattern: still my own, but I'm wrote it down this time!
Needles: US8
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted in a neutral tone

and Gifts from my sister,

aren't they lovely? Her bead stash far exceeds my yarn stash!
Background: a soon to be felted laptop bag

march hat

2007-03-06T21:41:00.000-05:00

Well now that spring is approaching and it'll be snowing tomorrow, I have a hat.
Pattern: my own!
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted in some sort of red
Needles: US8

the herringbone rib scarf

2007-02-25T18:18:00.000-05:00

Pattern: Herringbone Rib Scarf, by Li at Life's a Stitch
Yarn: Axelle's Lisa (100% merino) in Highland Heather
Needles: I can't remember, this has been off my needles since last year, I just blocked it this weekend.
Pattern Modifications: I increased the number of ribs by two.

close up of the herringbone rib

Baby Bootees!

2007-02-20T22:08:00.000-05:00

Welcome baby Anaya Noor!!
These are just for you...

2006-07-27T21:53:00.000-04:00

Hello there! I've taken over the blog, so that I could give you a little insight into my human's busy schedule and hence her absence from blogging.

Let me introduce myself... My name is Mandy. I'm a Basset Hound and I just celebrated my first birthday, in human years that it is. I've got a good nose, and I like to eat things, all kinds of things.
See, my human, eyeleen, had to replace some sort of burner thingy on the BBQ, you know the thing that makes fire and smoke, and really good smells, and yummy yummy human food. Well after they finished fixing it, there was this little crunchy bit left on the ground. It was small, it smelled good, and was kind of pointy. So I ate it. Later that afternoon, there was this fuzzy thing on the refrigerator. Well it kept looking at me, so I killed it. There was fuzz and fluff and apparently there was also a magnet. I ate that too.

Well to make a long story short, I had to have surgery. You see, that crunchy bit was a screw, and I guess it met up with the magnet in my large intestine. Since they were right next to each other in different loops, they didn't move through me.

Anyway, I'm all better now, I've stopped trying to eat my sutures, and my belly is all healed. My human is a bit disgruntled, she says I've dipped into her yarn fund. I'm not sure what that means, but yarn sounds yummy. I could eat that.

Goodnight y'all. Happy eating!