Nerd Wars

 It should be Geek Wars, but what can I do - I signed up anyways. :)

 What is Nerd Wars? It's a 3 month long crafting tournament, in knitting, crocheting, weaving and spinning on Ravelry. You sign up for a team (Team Rangers here! - from Babylon 5) and each team earns points by making something that will answer to one of 6 monthly challenges.You don't have to do all 6, or any, it's for fun and enjoyment. If you can tie your project with your team, you get extra points.
 On top of that, you can opt to do dissertation - 3 month long project that will bring lots of points if finished, and even half finished half the points...
  Here's the list of categories:
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Category Descriptions
The samples listed below with each of the categories are for demonstrative purposes only, to give a general idea of the type of challenges that may be issued. Actual challenges will be more detailed.
Giving Geeks
This category focuses on challenges that benefit charities, community-building, and other local outreach. This is the only challenge category that will not necessarily require a crafting project.
Past Challenges:

• Donate mittens to a mitten tree, donation center, or charity
• Finish a WIP for someone who no longer can, through age, injury, etc.
• Help the victims of the Japanese earthquake and Pacific tsunami through donation of money, FOs, or other means
• Donate a new baby item to a local organization that distributes such items to families
• Do something for an animal to make that animal’s life better
• Donate something that will bring a bit of comfort (and hopefully joy) to an older person or to a nursing home, assisted living home, similar facility or an organization local to you that accepts and distributes such items to the residents of such facilities

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Scientific
This category focuses on challenges of scientific knowledge.
Past Challenges:

• Craft something inspired by or resembling a nebula
• Craft something inspired by capillary action
• Craft something inspired by the environment and creatures of the deep sea
• Craft something inspired by lightening or electricity
• Utilize the Scientific Method to explore your craft
• Create something that incorporates waves as a mathematical model or a natural phenomenon

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Nerd Culture
This category focuses on challenges of demonstration of the culture of geekiness - what it is to be a nerd, and the shared experiences of those who consider themselves dorks.
Past Challenges:

• Craft something that would be appropriate for a convention
• Let your nerd flag fly proudly by crafting in public or yarnbombing a public place
• Craft something related to books, the calling card of the nerd.
• Craft something inspired by your favorite YouTube video.
• Craft something representing a Nerd Wars team other than your own.
• Craft something reminiscent of “the good old days” of your fandom.

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Intellectual
This category focuses on challenges of demonstration of intellectual abilities. This is where cleverness shines.
Past Challenges:

• Complete a project utilizing prime numbers
• Inspired by an Anglo-Saxon riddle, craft a literal or metaphoric shield
• Craft something inspired by or utilizing pi
• Craft something which illustrates or is inspired by a proverb or adage
• Craft something which illustrates or is inspired by a myth
• Finish your WIPs

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Technical
This category focuses on challenges of technical ability. Show off your mad skillz.
Past Challenges:

• Inspired by ionic bonding, craft something using two different fibers
• Complete a project that uses more than one craft
• Using the same pattern, create something at two different scales of size
• Craft a three dimensional item
• Seek out and find new materials to use as yarn
• Craft a project which exhibits a technique you feel is your guilty pleasure

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Team Spirit
This category focuses on challenges of showing one’s devotion to their team’s geekiness.
Past Challenges:

• Craft a valentine for a character in your nerddom
• Craft a creature from your nerddom
• Inspired by fools and tricksters in your nerddom, finish your WIPs
• Demonstrate what you love about your geekery
• Craft an item for or inspired by a villain
• Craft an item inspired by a tool or invention

Sewn Bind Off

 Good video tutorial for sewn bind off - you get stretchy bind off for socks, and it's really easy! I am starting to understand why people like Elizabeth Zimmerman so much.

Sewn Bind Off by Knitpurlhunter

First Cowl

 This project was a balm to the wounds after those 4 frogs - it was fast, easy and looks awesome. I think I need one for me now :) It's done in Malabrigo Chunky that's not as soft as worsted but still very very soft and smooth. It doesn't bother my sensitive skin on the neck at all.

Foggy froggy days

  UGH!
  It's been a rough couple of weeks :( On the top of everything it's cold and foggy most of the time, in the best of San Francisco cold summer tradition and I had to frog 4 projects!
  First one is my attempt to make Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) hat for uncle. He is huge fan of that iconic Belgrade soccer club and I wanted to make vertical red and white stripes hat for him (star is too much for my abilities right now anyways). So I used Boy Hat pattern and did 4 knit in red, 4 purls in white.
  Well... first of all, it turned out too small, despite my best efforts to do do fair isle very loosely. It fits me but not uncle for sure :( And second, white stripes (purled) looks thinner and stand out (nature of the beast for colorwork as I've learned). And last, it's so hard to unravel this hat, I did such a good job of weaving ends that I am still struggling with it! Plus, I've just learned that to unravel the hat, you have to start from the top, if you knit from bottom up, you can't frog it from the bottom!!! Ask me how I know :(

   Then, I started with longies for DS and was 3/4 done when I checked for the size and realized that I've forgot to change needle size from 5 to 7 so longies are too narrow! I had to go all the way to the waistband :(

Then I was trying to understand how to do short rows heel on socks without making holes and turned out that my socks are way way too loose knitted and will be uncomfortable to wear, so I had to frog them too... I used  needles size 1 (2.5mm) and yarn is very light fingering, so I am planning to do them again with size 0.

 And the last one was the least painful , just 6 rows of ribbing. I am trying to do Pembroke Vest and pattern is not in the round, so I am still on the beginning, trying to figure out how to convert flat pattern to the one in the round...

 

Trio of hats

 3 hats in 3 weeks! Not bad for somebody who is not really a hat person. Yes, all knitted up in bulky yarn, but still - I never even wore a hat before I started to knit :) They are not for me - for my DH's uncle, aunt and their daughter who just weathered cold Belgrade winter. I hope that will help with next one.

 Lovely yarn, lovely patterns, I hope they will like them. I had fun making them that's for sure.

Top one is Snappy hat in Ember colorway Louisa Harding Rosetti yarn - merino/silk blend, very soft. I was afraid it will be too soft and not grip the head properly but that's not the case. Cables stand our nicely too.

 I've used about 1.5 skeins - yarn remainds me of Kyoto from Artfibers - also silk and merino and similar in softness, but it doesn't contain mohair like Kyoto, which is why I like it better. Mohair makes my nose itch for some reason, same as angora.

 Left one is The boy hat in Tree Irish Girls Lindon Merino - nice stretchy beanie for DH uncle - he liked the colors when he saw latest longies that I was making for DS. Of course, of all the wool he picked up something I wasn't sure I will have enough! I did - I've made longies and had enough for a hat with couple of decreases skipped but with a foldover brim. When laid flat like in the photo, it looks so skinny - DH tried it on and it stretches very nicely.

 Right one is for his aunt -she wanted brown hat, and well, I just had to add some cables, because that brown is very deep brown and I wanted something to make it nicer. Yarn is Valley Yarn Northampton Bulky, very nice springy yarn, excellent for cables. Pattern is Unoriginal hat form Stepahie McPhee, I think it's very original :) Maybe I need one for me :)

So many FOs!!!

 FO - finished object!
 UFO - unfinished object!

If you ever hear knitters talking about UFOs, believe me they are not talking about flying saucers :) They are usually gripping about how many unfinished objects they have on the needles :)

 Sometimes it's really just about needles - if you have scarf on size 9 needles, and you need those needles for a let's say a hat, well, either you buy new pair of needles or you finish your scarf :) Some people are more prone to "unfinishitis" then others also :)

 I discovered that my treshold for unfinished objects are 5 - if I have more than 3 I get antsy; if I have 5 I feel compeled to finish at least one or I can't work on the new project regardless what it is. That's why I am not too much into sweaters I think - they take long time to finish, even with bulky wool, so they take too much of my UFO list.

 So, I did finish bunch of projects lately, because I wanted to shrink my list of UFO to manageable size - I am back to 4 :) - 2 active ones and 2 that are waiting for me to figure out certain things.
  Here they are:

1) Butterfly hats - I've made 3 of them, 2 as presents and one for me! I really like that pattern - it's actually very easy once you figure it out, and looks very nice and gives a hat unique look. Plus, it looks good with variegated yarn, what is not usually the case with hat patterns.
  Here they are:

 First one and third one are done with Purewool colorway Cactus - alas, that colorway is discontinued, so I had to scramble to finish second hat. I knew I will run out of wool so I mixed it with brown cascade to make transition easier, so top of the third hat is mostly brown, but with cactus woven through. End result is very nice, I am even impressed how seamless that transition is.

Second hat was done in Ming, from Artfibers - absolutely gorgeous yarn, 50% merino wool, 50% silk, thinner than Purewool, but so soft! That one will be a present for a cousin :)

Oh and I've finally finished hat for Ivan - he doesn't like hats, but in December, when we had that cold spell, he actually mentioned that it's cold enough for a hat, so I've jumped in and started a hat for him. Unfortunately, I've run out of yarn, so project languished until I've got a skein from a friend since that colorway is also discontinued (Smoke):

2) Then, I've made 2 pair of socks - I've decided to learn how to make socks and I made one pair for me, one for Ivan and they are both awesome :) I've made them in thicker yarn (DK) with big needles so I could see better what I am doing, and that was the right decision I've made - I would never manage this on regular sock yarn with tiny needles. So now I am making third pair on fingering weight yarn and yes, it goes very slowly, but now that I know what I am doing, it's a matter of patience now, not so much issue of new skills.

Mine:

Ivan's dreamsocks:

3) Scarfs - I've finished 3 scarfs :) I could never understood why people think that scarfs are good beginners projects. They are not! They take ages to be finished and beginners do not have that kind of patience. My first project when I learned how to knit was not a scarf, it was a felted bag, and I am still grateful for that! Felting a knitted object erases all mistakes that you make as a beginner, and bag in relatively small project, and something that you can use immediately.

  Here they are:

ZigZag scarf:

 Ripple stitch scarf - in Kyoto, another awesome Artfibers yarn, present for my friend:

 Drop stitch scarf: