Knitters UNITE

2011 in review - a few weeks late

2012-01-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

This is my major project for 2011 - followed by all the projects that came up after I started it - which explain why I just finished it in January - that and the fact that I feared, no expected, that it wasn't quite coming out as well as I hoped, and unfortunately I was right.
Knit of a super fine cashmere70/silk30 (Superior by Filatura de cross) paired with a strand of fine merino, it's called "Sounds of Silence" in a pattern book called Duettes, and it's soft as a cloud. I thought it would be almost a summer sweater because it is so light, but it's very warm.
The problem is the low wide neck, and the shawl collar is too short in the back (knit according to the pattern, which didn't show the back in the picture) so it doesn't lie right. If I'd had more yarn, I would have made the collar longer down the back and I think that would have made the front lie better too.

I was inspired by some beaded wristlets I saw a friend wearing at a meeting last January and decided that would be my Christmas gift project for the year. I started in the summer and made at five pairs - including one I customized for Emily with curly W's for the Washington Nationals - my first venture into charting an original design. I experimented with various sizes and kinds of beads. The only hard part is stringing 1080 beads onto the yarn before starting - the smaller the bead the harder it is, because you have to use a beading needle instead of a fine crochet hook.

I started the year with a blue Malibrigo worsted scarf and hat for myself, after I finished the orange set for Emily's birthday. The pattern was from Interweave - Rivulet, I think, and I found a compatible pattern for a slouch hat on Ravelry. (The new kitten - Nemesis - is a great aid to knitting and photography)

Along the way I began (and after interruptions) finished an Estonian lace shawl, of a nice rose colored silk, merino, and alpaca blend. I was very dubious about how it was turning our until I blocked it - yes really blocked with pins and water etc, for the first time in my life. It was knit from the middle to the end with a provisional cast on and then picked up there for the other half.

Once I discovered beading, I used another color of the same silk/alpaco blend and made a purple scarf. This beading was easier because the beads were put on the yarn over loops with a crochet hook and knit in one at a time as the work progressed, instead of having to be strung first.

My final interruption was to knit up the interesting yarn I found in Portland, Maine, on vacation in August - Berroco's Boboli. I finished that vest ("Dodgson")on Columbus day weekend at the beach when John got sick. It was quick and easy - but a nice weight and texture in a reverse stockinette, with wide ribbing around the collar and front.

And then the scramble to finish the wristlets for Christmas. Maybe next year I'll clean the beads from last summer's road trip out of the car where they still jingle in the passenger side door pocket.

So that's why it took me a year to knit the ruffled and cabled grey cardigan. [I hope the blog fairy can rearrange the pictures to go with the text - I haven't figured it out.] Maybe I'll even round up the lables and patterns and post on Ravelry and figure out how to insert the hyperlinks.

I wish you all a happy New Year, knitting your yarn and futures!

under them skies of blue

2012-01-07T13:40:00.000-08:00

First things first: I arrived at work this morning to see that the fence surrounding my office's parking lot had been yarn bombed! It's hard to see in my photo, but someone has tied scarves to all of the posts of the fence along one city block. Needless to say, I was absolutely delighted. Perhaps it's the work of the knitty gritty committee, or of the person who works in my building and has a license plate cover that says "I'd rather be knitting." Either way, I'm hoping it lasts for a little while because it will make me happy whenever I pull into the parking lot.

Holiday knitting was a dreadful fail this year, even though I wildly scaled back my plans for it. The only thing I finished (sewed in the ends and steam blocked it mere hours before boarding a plane to return from vacation) was this sweater for a little girl who loves "hop hops". I'm hoping her love will continue until she grows into it since it is quite ample now.

Getting a picture of her was very difficult, so most of my pictures look like this.

(Since she is actually quite cute even when she is not in handknits, those of you who know my family may want to check out these pictures of her birthday celebration.) My fair isle still has a ways to go, but at least the bunnies are recognizable as bunnies. Thanks to Wamps for suggesting this pattern!

I used Spud & Chloe sweater, which knit at a much larger gauge than the pattern required. So I knit the stitch counts for the 6 month size, but used the lengths for the 2-to-4 year old size, which worked out well proportionately. I only had time to steam block before gifting, but plan to wet block it when I'm next at home. Since it's unlikely that she'll grow into it before then, I think that it's a safe plan.

Hope you've all had good starts to 2012 and that your holiday knitting was more successful than mine!

you act like you're hip to their tricks

2011-12-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

I actually finished the knitting of this gift in time for the recipient's birthday, but then it languished as I thought that I had messed up the grafting. After deciding that it had to be finished over Thanksgiving, I realized that I had just pulled the grafting too tight, so it was actually fine after being loosened. (Apologies for everything that I said about the Knitty grafting garter stitch tutorial before that realization.)

Two attempts at weaving in the ends and I finally had a finished product that I liked well enough to gift.

It's the Millwater eternity cowl, made out of Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted in Dandy Lion colorway. I love this color and wish that it were one that I could wear. But gifting it is second best. Rav details here.
(wrapped double)

I am actually working on another gift that uses Dandy Lion in Primo fingering so I've had the chance to enjoy this color a little longer.

And now in a color I can wear, the Narragansett sweater in Primo Worsted Narragansett Gray.
I've yet to get a good picture of this one, but it is wonderfully soft to wear, even if it does fall off my shoulders all the time. I loved knitting this pattern, despite its long hiatus due to the summer heat, and expect that I will enjoy wearing it as well. I made the sleeves full length, although I'm not entirely sure that they shouldn't be three-quarters length for proportion's-sake, and I left off the hip detail. Rav details here.

And, finally, because handknits-in-action always make me happy: an action shot of that cardigan where it fits much better and where you get to see MRB's newly-discovered fish face.
Hope you all had lovely Thanksgivings!

Ain't Got No Silver

2011-11-11T14:45:00.000-08:00

What to do when you run out of yarn and aren't sure if more exists in the world?

I started knitting this version of Ysolda's Peaks Island Hoodie at the beginning of October and am about halfway through the hood decreases (meaning, maybe three quarters of the way done), and I am TOTALLY out of yarn.

I used two skeins of Plucky MCN in finger, held double, and got gauge pretty well with size 9 needles, and while I thought that the combination of my generally tight knitting + two skeins of yarn would get me through, but clearly no. Sigh.

So I posted to Ravelry asking for yarn, but I think the best may be to either find a colorway that is pretty close OR a colorway that is totally different. Neither option appeals. I could also rip it out, but there's really nothing I hate more.

'cause in the winter weather, I'll lend you my warmest sweater

2011-10-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

When this is the view from my window (on October 30, no less), is it any wonder that I've made quite a bit of progress on a sweater long abandoned through a sticky-summer-without-air-conditioning? It's been like an extra blanket while I knit it.
Luckily, I have quite a few other things that I should be knitting which should serve the same purpose, once I get this one out of my system.

A little this and that

2011-10-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

First up, some knitting that has been sitting around, waiting for me to mail it to its future owners.

Baby hats!

And the silliest socks ever. (Yoga socks, missing the heal and the toe.) Apologies for the flashy picture.

And finally, a proud moment for me, the quilt top is done! I still need to make a back (I am tempted to just go and buy an appropriately sized single length of fabric. Actually, I may just do that....), and then do the sandwiching and the quilting and the binding, but I feel more confident that this will be done before its intended baby grows up entirely. I am less confident I will start and finish the other quilt I want to make before that baby is born, but we'll see.

the streetlights, not the stars, now

2011-10-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

Let this serve as a warning to any parents planning on "productive quiet time" for their overactive child:

11-year-old girl: The worst part about my week was yesterday when I had to sit in my bed all day and knit! Just knit. Or read. Knit or read. But just sit in my bed and only knit or read!

HEB: Hey, hey, hey: knitting isn't bad. Why would that be the worst part of your week?

11yog: Knitting is torture! When all you can do is knit and the whole house is silent, it's the worst thing in the world!

if you get an invitation

2011-09-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

You'd think that I've now been knitting long enough to learn how to set realistic goals for my knitting. Clearly not.

What unrealistic goals are you all working on? And is my unrealistic goal enough of an excuse to ask to knit during my office's staff meeting? (The last question was rhetorical, but the first one was genuine. I know I pay better attention when I knit, but I don't think others really believe this.)

for now, that's good enough for me

2011-09-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here's the finished version of that sweater from a few weeks ago. I still have a ways to go in making my floats actually float, but I'm enjoying this nonetheless. It's the Paper Dolls pattern, with the yoke pattern borrowed from Spilly Jane's quo vadis mittens.

While I quite love many of Kate Davies' designs (all that beautiful colorwork!) (and lovelies without colorwork!), I hadn't thought much about this particular design until I saw her blog post about all the different custom yokes. (Go read it! But only if you want to find yourself slightly obsessed with the idea of knitting a paper dolls, too.) Two particularly caught my attention: a beautiful adaptation of a mitten pattern to sweater size; and one featuring an animal that has always been dear to my heart. (Respectively, on Ravelry, those are andiknit's Paper Flowers Pullover and jettshin's Paper Dolls-Hedgehog Version.)

I wanted something a little more subdued for my first attempt, so I had my mind set on replicating the Paper Flowers Pullover. However, the Plucky Knitter just kept sending classics that I liked with my background color. And I couldn't quite picture how to adapt that pattern to be multi-colored.
Luckily, knitting the body of the sweater gave me a long time to dither about yoke options. I finally decided to go with the quo vadis pattern as I was packing for a week's vacation and needed to print out *some* pattern to work from. The quo vadis pattern led to some interesting decreases during the yoke, since it does not have large sections of background color to hide the decreases. Nonetheless, I'm quite happy about the end result and think it is very wearable.

All the yarn used is the Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering, in Hoity Toity (main color), Memories (the purple), Backwards and in High Heels (the teal), and Sterling. (All but Sterling were Plucky Classics.) I could have finished this sweater with just two skeins of Hoity Toity, but I wanted to make it longer than the pattern suggested. So, about 3/4 of the way through the body, I purchased an extra skein through an ISO on Ravelry. The new skein was much more rust-colored than the skeins I already had, but I alternated skeins, so I don't think that you can tell the difference.
However, I neglected to do so during the short row shaping at the back neck, so it turned out much more rust-colored than the rest of the sweater, as you can sort-of see in the picture of the back. (To my credit, it's harder to alternate skeins when you're doing short rows because you never get back to your other skein. However, if I had thought it through, I would have used one of the other skeins for the short row section.)

One note about the primo: it's a dream to knit with but blocks out very large! I have found that I need to put this sweater into the dryer to get it back to normal size, but it also fuzzes in the dryer. I've defuzzed most of the sweater, but it is definitely something that I'll plan for in any future primo sweaters.

Given how much I enjoyed knitting this sweater, and how I look forward to wearing it this fall, I expect that there's another one with hedgehogs not too far in my future.

Not pictures of my knitting

2011-09-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

No, instead I want to show you something I _want_ to knit. But I need some help.

This is the Bunny Yoke Pullover by Angela Hahn. I want to make it for EVERYONE. But first: for at least one baby.

Caveats:
1) Rowan Cotton does not excite me as far as yarn goes AND seems expensive. No thanks.
2) Obviously the colors need to change. I'd prefer black bunnies* over white, and the pale pink will have to go.

Questions for YOU include:
1) Fingering held double = DK? I feel like fingering held double feels more like worsted, but with my usually loose gauge, maybe it would work?
2) For those who have used Plucky Yarn....Plucky yarn? I don't have any in black, and don't really feel like I should buy more yarn (though maybe I could find someone on the boards who has a little extra they'd trade or sell.) The other challenge would be finding non-variegated yarns, though most of the Primos have been solid colors recently, so maybe I could do something with that.
3) Other thoughts, opinions?

* For an example of a black bunny rabbit: see below.

watched the mile markers passing

2011-08-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

A week's vacation let me finish the yoke on this sweater. Now if only I could get my act together to graft the underarms, sew in the ends, and block! (I have a few flights later this month and plan on only bringing this along so I can force myself to do so. Someone on this blog suggested that strategy to me once, and it has served me well since. Unfortunately, the timing of these flights may mean that I'm not awake for much of them.) Before blocking, I think it looks way prettier inside out, without all that distracting puckering. Will post details when it's actually wearable!

A host of color

2011-07-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

Decided I would attempt to make a baby quilt for some friends, and after much hemming and hawing, decided to basically make it up as I went along. The colors already in mind for this kid are yellow and grey, so I picked my quilt fabric pieces accordingly.

Pretty!

Yep, had to add a little turquoise in there. I'm actually really really enjoying this color scheme, though it's not one I would have chosen for myself. I managed to get a bit of Kokka (the moons at the bottom) which also made me happy.

The plan is to make 6 12 in squares in different styles and then sash them together with some darker grey fabric (not yet in my possession.) I felt like I made good progress this weekend, not only acquiring the fabric but making up two of the squares this morning!

These are in the log cabin style (you start with a center square and then sew fabric on, one side at a time. A nice easy place to start. This picture isn't great, but you can see there's a thin strip of fabric around the top block? I somehow miscalculated the width of the strips, so I had to add a bit more on the edge. It was kind of a pain, but I like the look!

The other four blocks will be different styles. I've been inspired by the Summer Sampler Series being hosted by three impressive seamstresses (hmm, sewers? crafters?), so I may very likely copy one or two of the blocks they have laid out for the rest of this blanket.

I'm excited so far, but there are still so many unknowns! The actual "quilting part", figuring out the backing (maybe a flannel?), not to mention the binding and the cushy-part that goes between the top and back quilt layers. The fact that I cannot remember the word for that part may be a bad sign!

The Sky Didn't Know What to Do

2011-06-26T16:56:00.000-07:00

So I've recently been obsessed with reading about quilting. Something about the idea of piecing in particular really appeals to me (at least in theory) so this weekend I finally decided to try my hand at a wonky log cabin pillow case.

I had two bright orange fat quarters from when I was browsing in the fabric store in December and my sister gave me a set of darker but pretty fat quarters from Purl Soho. These are the purple shades from that set, and I like how they look together.

Here's the close up shot.

This was a pretty easy project, though I'm not entirely satisfied with how it turned out. I think it's harder to do wonky and make it look purposeful and not accidental that it should be, but for my first real piecing attempt, I thought it was alright. I really should make another pillow case to match this one, as I'm giving it as a gift, but while it wasn't hard, it did take most of my evening yesterday, and I kind of would like to get something else done today. We'll see...

is it always, always raining somewhere?

2011-06-26T14:34:00.001-07:00

I may have mentioned before that I am an exceptionally loose knitter. (Wamps, to her credit, is looser than I, making her incredible.)

For the project swatched above, the pattern called for US 8s with worsted weight yarn. Not wanting to swatch more than necessary, and knowing that I would likely need to size down by at least two sizes, I started knitting a swatch on US 7s. I hadn't made it more than a few rows before I decided that the gauge must be much too large and promptly frogged it to begin the top swatch, knit on US 5s. I loved the fabric made by the 5s, but it was unfortunately smaller than gauge so I tried again with 6s, pictured in the middle. Still smaller. Actually, it was still considerably smaller than gauge, which led me to knit the bottom swatch on 8s.

Which was still smaller than gauge.

I couldn't deal with the thought of sizing-up for gauge, since that would be contrary to my self-proclaimed exceptional nature. So I decided that the rest of my non-knitting life must be taking a toll on my gauge and that it would return to normal as the summer progressed. Keep your fingers crossed for me. (If this theory works out, I may have stumbled on a new use for swatching. Why take your blood pressure? Just see if you're making gauge.)

but I never had to hold you by the edges

2011-05-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

I've been very lucky over the last few months to get to knit for a dear friend who not only appreciates handknits, but is also not attached to traditional color schemes for children. (Indeed, I'm a little worried that the blanket above will have a little bit too much pink for her taste.) Lately, I've been attracted to incredibly simple knitting as a salve for too many things that are too complicated in other areas of my life. So I decided to scrap my usual (honestly, pretty simple) baby blanket recipe because I couldn't bear the thought of doing the math for the seed stitch sections. Completely pathetic, but I thought that it would work out just as well to knit more squares and seam them together. And it would also then be completely mindless. I did not change the yarn that I tend to use, sticking to the old favorite of Blue Skies Dyed Cotton (or Worsted Cotton, or whatever they're calling it this season).

However, the seams did not provide enough structure to avoid some serious curling. And one row of i-cord border (all that's needed on the regular baby blanket recipe) was not sufficient to fight that curling.

Above, you can see the edge with one row of i-cord (along the bottom) which is still entirely wonky. The edge on the left side shows the solution: a double i-cord border. I knit the first row of i-cord in one direction and the second row in another direction, which gave a nice garter stitch in between the two cords. (Since I always have to remind myself how to work attached i-cord, I found this purl bee tutorial very helpful.) It also largely dealt with the curling, although not all of the blanket's general wonkiness. Nonetheless, it will still be a cozy blanket for a little girl and I'm guessing she won't mind too much that not all of the squares are exactly, well, square.

The second project in the non-traditional-color-scheme knitting was a little cardy, attempted to be sized for a 2 year old. After blocking, I'm hoping that this kid is pretty broad shouldered, but hopefully, it will work out.
The yarn is Spud & Chloe Sweater, which may be my new favorite yarn for baby knits. (I don't feel too bad saying that in the same post where I've included Blue Skies Cotton, because they do, after all, have the same parent company.) Like the Blue Skies Cotton, it is incredibly soft and machine washable; unlike the Blue Skies, it is about half wool and half cotton. The wool gives the yarn a nice resiliency that makes wonkiness block out better, clearly something that I currently need.

I knew that I had to knit a stripy cardy, since this is the same friend who won a handknit sweater on another occasion and was then very committed to the idea of a stripy cardy, so it was a lot of fun to pick out colors that were out of the ordinary realm for a little girl. I'm hopeful that this will be one that can be passed down to other babies, regardless of their gender, since I think the color scheme works well for either. And if those babies happen to have linebacker shoulders, all the better.

but now the snow is gone

2011-05-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

If I'd finished this before she started walking, it would have been much easier to get a non-blurry picture. As it was, I had to sneak up on her as she woke from a nap, pull on the cardigan, and hope that she was too drowsy to move too much.
It's an improvised design using Madelinetosh Sock in Rhubarb and Jade. I planned this one to fit her next winter and it looks like it probably will. That also allowed me to use similar sizing for another baby cardigan which should make its appearance on the blog by the end of the month.

How I Miss You

2011-05-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

My mom sent me some pictures of the shawl I knit her for Christmas last year and I thought I'd show off how lovely it looks in action. Thanks Mom!!

Isn't she elegant?

Just right for a Texas lady.

And then here's an "action shot" of my new cowl. Knit with many Plucky fingering weight yarn, it has carried me from February to March with only a light jacket. Snuggly warm cowl, I heart you!

Check out the iconic doubledecker bus in the background! (Oh, and like, Big Bend or something, whatevs.)

This is just a picture of ponies. Semi-wild ponies living along the Welsh coast. When can I go back?

apparently, elves have a lot of knitwear

2011-04-30T09:19:00.001-07:00

HEB: "What do you think, buddy?"
T: "It's my elf sweater!"
[Pauses to put it on.]
T: "When are you going to knit me my elf pants?"

It may have been a complete failure of an idea, but he didn't seem to mind. It's the Child's Placket Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. This is the third Placket Neck Pullover I've made him. Given the fate of #2, I stuck with the old standard of Blue Skies Dyed Cotton for this one, just like #1. As always, it comes through beautifully for kids knits.

I measured my nephew and knit the sweater to his measurements since he is tall and skinny. But I should have made it one size larger since I couldn't manage to finish it promptly. Maybe it will be a cold spring in Wisconsin and he'll be able to wear it a lot before growing out of it...

we'd better stop before this story begins

2011-04-09T06:05:00.001-07:00

Once again, I am neglecting all the knitting I need to do simply because I'm too fascinated by watching this sweater grow. So hold me accountable, blog: I will not knit another row on this sweater until all the finishing is done on the knitting that I'm supposed to gift tomorrow. I will not.

Or, at least, I'll only let myself knit rows as a reward for filing my taxes...

so lost on a trail walked by so many

2011-04-05T18:43:00.001-07:00

I took more pictures of sheep in the last week than I have in the rest of my life combined. (And all of them were basically in one day.) However, since this is a knitting blog, I'll try to limit the pictures to the ones that are slightly less tangential to knitting.
Despite its clear proximity to our hiking trail, Wamps did not pick up any of this fiber to spin at home.

(Apparently, animals are allowed to graze on the National Parks lands during the winter.)

Even almost on-point: That's a cowl that you've seen briefly before, knit out of Plucky Cashmere Fingering Weight in an improvised pattern (colorway: London Calling). (I did sew in the ends just so I could wear it on this trip.) And a Wispy Cardy in Plucky Merino Lace (colorway: Summer at the Shore). Plus the wristwarmers that Wamps made me years ago. (See their first trip to the UK here.) Here's to traveling knitwear!

All These Days

2011-03-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

I've actually finished knitting this baby, but do I have a picture on my computer to show you? No, no I don't don't. "In motion" pics to come.

whatever name it's got, it's got me circling

2011-03-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

note to self: Think through whether color-block raglan sleeves can be knit in the round before you knit the body and sleeves of the sweater in different colors. Although, really, just having that thought process before the join round would be an improvement next time.

Winter Knitting

2011-03-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

My needles have been flying! I finished the Malabrigo Rios sweater (Indiecita) that I fell in love with in an ad in Interweave last fall. (It actually called for Silky Merino but I couldn't find any at the time) One thing I love about this sweater is that it is oversized and stretchy. Really comfy.

I interupted work on that project to knit a hat and scarf for Emily's birthday. She found the pattern from a friend whose hat she admired and we picked out the yarn together online. It turned out oranger than expected but looks good. I designed the scarf from the hat pattern.

Then I finally found a pattern I liked for the Noro Silk Garden yarn I had bought when I was looking for the silky merino and decided not to use for that sweater. I am really pleased with the short sleeved cardigan even though there are only about two days a year that are right to wear it. Today was one. Thanks to a weekend train trip to New York, a flight to Texas, and a two day off-site meeting where I could knit while listening to presentations (honestly - less rude and distracting than checking a Blackberry constantly!), and the fact that it was mostly stockinette stitch, I finished in three weeks.

Mama said there'd be days like this....

2011-02-03T10:52:00.001-08:00

I am having a totally fed up with the world kind of week.

Tuesday a 2 hour bus ride took 6 hours. Yesterday I had a conference call that was uninterupted by Harvard's snow day (a once in a decade occurrence, apparently). Unfortunately, instead of the scheduled 2 hours, we went for 4+ hours. When a meeting will stretch to fill the time it has, and everyone is snowed in... well, you get the idea. Today, more frustration and bad mood. I decided on my work break this afternoon that perhaps posting some knitting pictures would put me in a better mood.

I was going to go through my yarn this weekend and basically thought I should get rid of it all since I haven't knitted in months, and my yarn is just cluttering up the closet. Then I saw my pink scarf. It's the scarf that was my first knitting project. It taught me that knitting a single color scarf is actually a horrible beginner's project, because it takes so long!! I never finished it. I saw it this weekend, and decided to finish it. Voila! (Still need to sew in some ends)

The most amusing thing is that my gauge has clearly changed since I started knitting. Much larger now, and (thankfully) more consistent. I tried to show in picture the line where you can see the gauge change, but not sure it came out.

Next I saw some cotton yarn. A look through Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and I found little kid cotton hats. Perfect! I started this a few days ago, and knitted like crazy as stress relief last night. I'm quite happy with the result, given I thought I had sworn off knitting.

While I'm not really one to distinguish "boy" and "girl" things for kids (we get enough gender indoctrination in life), I am thinking of making one of these for my friend's son who is 12 mos, and I'm not sure how she'd feel about the bow. Any thoughts on making it more baby-masculine?

I also wonder you thoughts on i-cords. This was my first two stitch i-cord, and I didn't like it. I think the 3 stitch i-cord looks much nicer, and I can make it much more consistent. Your thoughts?I definitely have an improved mood from posting this! Yay for happy knitting blogs!

yes, I know it's pretty here

2011-02-02T20:02:00.000-08:00

I know that, this week, many of you had worse weather than I did. But I also know that some of you still view the massive snowfall as wondrous and beautiful. And that was me about 50 inches ago. Maybe I'm more whiny (always a possibility) or maybe I've run by too many post office boxes buried with feet of snow on top of them or maybe I just live in a city that has decided that the best use of its rapidly-dwindling snow-removal budget is ONE "special snow melting truck" rather than actually plowing the streets when it snows. Whatever the cause, I've spent my spare time knitting this to avoid going totally crazy:

So, yes, the point of all that was that I've put aside all the things that I should be knitting to knit something that I don't need to knit but that makes me incredibly happy. And I don't even feel (that) guilty about it. Because, really, what's the point of knitting if you can't use it to stave off a potential nervous breakdown? Particularly when the cause is too much winter precipitation, knitting seems well-suited as a preventative measure. And my father wasn't the only one who wanted a hat like my grandpa's Christmas hat. So that's what I did: another turn-a-square, although absent the stripes, in a size more appropriate for my grandpa than me.
I don't have any modeled shots, but trust me that this hat is huge on me: it covers my forehead and most of my neck. It looks pretty ridiculous. I don't care. I love it and plan to wear it for the remainder of the winter. It's Plucky primo fingering, held doubled, in Nordic. I knit the whole thing on 3s and started with 108 stitches for the rib, increasing to 116 for the body of the hat. It's a very tight knit which means some of the decreases were very difficult to do, but that makes it all the better for facing the rest of the winter. (Rav details here.)

Another thing that has reminded me that we will survive this winter: sewing in the ends on spring break! socks:

Wamps told you about this project: I knit hers and she knit mine. (I asked her to block hers and she "asked" me to sew in the ends on mine.) But she didn't show you the freaky inspiration for the project, which I can do.
(Manicures done before stumbling into the yarn store and finding this yarn. How could we walk away from those skeins?)

Maybe the next time that you hear from me, I'll have some non-selfish knitting to show off. But I've been pretty glad for selfish knitting these last few weeks, just as I've been pretty thankful that my landlord takes care of most of our snow removal and even plows our street as a public service with his plow; that I have a car that might not be able to get over some of the snow but is still pretty likely to start each morning; that I've been able to go cross country skiing multiple times this winter; and that, unlike others in my state, so far, all the roofs that I've been under have held. Here's hoping that you all are staying safe and warm, wherever you are, and doing whatever you need to do to stay sane in this weather!

Rainy Day Posting

2011-01-29T18:01:00.000-08:00

Been feeling contemplative and sleepy today, with the grey sky (there you are Bay Area winter!) and rainy, chilly air. (Nothing like the winters the rest of you are facing, I know.) So I thought I'd share a few things that have been going on with me.

First up: a belated christmas/something present that's almost done. I need to figure out pom poms, and then wrap it up and send it off.

Made with more of the lovely Shelter yarn. I really wish there were a few more colors. I think I've hit pause on my dream of a giant scarf for now--I just can't settle on any of the colors. Maaaybe the red. But no rush.

I know this should go on another blog, but I'm going to wait till I have a prettier picture. This was the first trial of my new baking stone. Way to break it in, right? Since then, I've used tons of cornmeal, and everything has been beautiful, but too beautiful to not eat quickly.

These aren't knitting either, but they do fall under the other craftiness category. Pillows! I think this will be more impressive once I have a bunch more, which hopefully will happen tomorrow. Just need to get some pillows to actually cover first.

And finally, the thing I couldn't stop myself from starting, even though I have other knitting commitments that I should focus on first. I had to do a bunch of trial runs before I could settle down for the real thing, but I think I'm nearly ready to go. So pretty! So exciting!

elf! and baby elf!

2011-01-21T03:33:00.001-08:00

I don't have a better picture of these hats, but it's still fair to say that they were my most successful Christmas knitting, both for the reaction they inspired and because I actually finished them on time. It's the Pointy Elf Hat, from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts, a pattern that I can't recommend enough. I used Blue Sky Cotton held doubled and added the stripe, but otherwise knit as instructed for the toddler and baby sizes. I wish I had film to share with you of my nephew's reaction but it went something like this:

T: "Elf! And baby elf! On parade!" [marching, while urging his sister to crawl along behind him]

He then proceeded to wear the hat for the rest of the evening, despite the fact that he seems to usually be too hot and want to wear less clothing. My niece, who couldn't express herself quite so verbally, seemed equally delighted upon seeing herself in a mirror with a pointy thing on the top of her head and burst into laughter each time she was held up to a mirror. Considering that each hat took me about 2 hours, I thought that the pattern's time-spent-knitting-to-amusement-of-recipient-children ratio was pretty good.

running out of yarn hasn't stopped me yet

2011-01-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

I actually finished some of my Christmas gifts by Epiphany this year, largely because I didn't put as many on my list as last year. (We'll see about some of those last-year-gifts getting done by Valentine's Day, okay? Okay?) But I didn't manage to finish these two in time to gift them in person, which really disappointed me. Luckily, the recipients didn't mind as much.

For my grandma, I was so inspired by this cowl that I forgot that I have a really hard time finishing garter stitch log cabin squares.
Albers Cowl, knit in various colors of Plucky MCN fingering. Ravelry details here. I ran out of several colors of yarn, leading to interesting (and time-consuming) modifications. I am glad that my grandma likes it as much as she does, because that was the only thought that got me through it.

For my grandpa, I knit the popular Turn A Square pattern out of Plucky Cashmere fingering. (Ravelry details here) I had to modify the pattern for the thinner yarn and then had to modify again when it became clear that I was going to run out of Rustica, the brown yarn. But every grandpa loves an ombre, right?
(And thanks to both my parents for modeling these before they were mailed off. After my dad modeled the hat, it was strongly suggested that he probably needed a similar one to line his Christmas hat from last year... I accepted this as the price for asking someone to model cashmere and did knit a liner out of the leftover blue yarn, but got no pictures before sewing it in the old hat and returning it to my dad.)

Hey, Knitting!

2010-12-29T20:54:00.000-08:00

So, I wasn't just neglecting this blog over the past months--I didn't do much knitting at all until around September of this year, and even then it was only a little baby hat for a coworker that I gave away before gathering pictorial evidence.

Finally though, the cool weather set down in the East Bay, and found my knitting mojo again.

First up was a hugely belated mother's day gift that became a Christmas present.

Ishbel for Mom

I forgot to take pictures of the finished product in action, but this little Ishbel in The Plucky Knitter Silk Merino (Nora Charles colorway) made me pretty happy. It blocked BEAUTIFULLY, all pointy-edged, and without blocking wires (as I'd waited till the day before Christmas Eve to finally finish this up.)

Next on the knitting list aren't really a project I can claim for myself, but I do want to show them off. HEB and I bought this yarn at a random store in this fake Scandinavian town in southern CA a couple of years back (it matched our nail polish!) and I finally convinced her to at least send me my pair. She made me promise to block them, which I did, and then proceeded to wear them around. SO CUTE.

Socks from HEB

Also on the list of projects started long ago that I finally finished? These awesome awesome fingerless gloves.

Awesome Transition Gloves

I really love them. I managed to mess up and add too many or too few repeats to one, but I can't even deal with the thought of living without them for long enough to fix it. It only really bothers me when I'm sitting on the train staring at them, and that happens so rarely, it's hardly worth taking them apart.

Quite honestly, I think part of my constant frustration with the lack of cold in the Bay Area this winter is because I want to wear these all of the time, and really, it has to be pretty cold, because these babies are WARM. I have been appreciating the beauty of the quarter length sleeve, as demonstrated above, and how the combination is comfy and chic. (Ha, probably not, but I so don't care! Love!)

There is one more little thing that's helped to bring back the love of knitting most recently.

Pretty SHELTER yarn.

I suppose if any designer was going to create a new yarn, Brooklyn Tweed would be the one to do a wooly, tweedy yarn that makes me want to knit with it all day long. I knit myself a Turn a Square Hat with "Nest" and "Long John" colorways, and then knit my brother a semi-matching one.

Tire swings are never not fun.

This picture shows his off a little better.

Baby the goat in the background.

Instead of alternating 2 rows of the red with 3 rows of the grey, I did 3 rows grey, 2 rows red, 3 rows grey, 4 rows red (I know, WILD). I really really like how his came out, even more than mine. I also steam-blocked for the first time (I was a little worried about the yarn growing too much) and it worked wonders. The wool seriously relaxed in front of my eyes, and became a little softer and far more flexible. And that, in turn, let me wax poetic to my family about the wonders of wool. Aren't they lucky?

But two hats was not enough.

Actually a dark, dark brown (Pumpernickel!). Photographing this may be challenging.

This is the first (and not yet complete) of at least two more hats I'm making with this yarn. More updates as they happen. One of many NYE resolutions is going to be posting to this blog. Maybe one of those posts will include some lingering holiday gifts as well, but no promises.

*wink*

Winter Knitting

2010-11-28T15:12:00.000-08:00

I knit this quicky "gathered pullover" in just about a month, starting on a car ride to Philadelphia on 9/11. The Berocco "Jasper" wool is really soft and warm and the pattern is totally simple stockinette except for a complex cable that brings it in under the bust and gives it a nice fit. I bought the yarn because I fell in love with it, and found the pattern on Ravelry.

About the same time, I also made a scarf of Malabrigo worsted - Emerald Blue. I really like the pattern RIVULET (from Interweave - because it is totally reversable and is an interesting ribbed cable. Very thick and warm. I love Malabrigo yarns. I was looking for another pattern and yarn for a sweater when I found the worsted the the Jasper in my local knitting shop. Later I found the pattern and yarn I really wanted on line and am working on that sweater now.

hello, blackbird

2010-11-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

I somehow managed to not get very good photos of this scarf, despite it being one of the more photogenic things I have knit and having the most photogenic model come visit Hartford to help me out.
Regardless, I'm quite pleased with it (and, more importantly, my mother seems pleased with it as a birthday gift). It's the Dipped Infinity circle scarf, a pattern by CosmicPluto. I now want to knit lots of patterns by CosmicPluto, since this one came along at a time when I was feeling very disengaged from knitting and it was fun and exciting and completely turned me back into a knitter. (Plus, she went to David Berkeley's Boston show the night after my DB house concert. I'm not quite sure why that makes me want to knit her patterns, but it sort-of does.)

The yarn is the Plucky Knitter superwash merino fingering, sold as a kit for the dipped infinity pattern, in Retro Infinity.
I've started putting skeins of sock yarn aside in the hopes of knitting one of these for me someday!

Some quilts and other things

2010-10-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well, for a break today from statistics and all things boring, I'm posting some delayed quilting.

First up, a butterfly quilt for a friend having her first baby girl. Samir and I made this jointly in a crazy sewing session that lasted about four hours, the morning of my friend's baby shower (this is likely why the pictures are not ideal-- I seem to remember being quite late and needing to run to take a shower, and saying "come on! take it! got to go!"). There's nothing like a deadline to get you going! I liked it particularly because it wasn't too "baby". The back is just the butterfly fabric and it comes through nicely in the second picture. I would have like to angle it, but unfortunately this was just some scrap fabric my mom had lying around so I had to make do with less than I would need to do so.

This quilt I probably made two years ago now (yikes!) and although I distinctly recall taking pictures of it myself, I have never been able to find the pictures. So, we'll have to settle with glimpses available in pictures my friends have taken of their kids where the quilt makes an appearance. It's a lovely little ladybug fabric with red, white, and black, originally made for friends' first baby, but happily used extensively for friends' second baby. I loved this quilt because the cottons I used ended up being super soft. It was considerably larger than the quilt above ("toddler bed" or "crib size" in quilting terms), so took awhile. I was sad to part with it because it was my biggest quilt made to date, but my sadness quickly turned to sheer delight when I saw my friends actually used it. (As I'm sure you knitters can share in, the most heartbreaking part of gifting handmade items is if the recipient does not use the gift. Samir also sews quite a lot but refuses to sew any gifts because of this problem.)

In other happy, artsy things, my sister painted this mailbox for my parents. I love it!

Finally, I thought some of you (not HEB) would appreciate this. Awhile ago we foster parented some adorable, adorable kittens that were abandoned by their stray mother after being powerwashed. My mom found them while out canvassing for some election, and we took care of them for a few weeks until they could eat on their own. They were so sweet! (Like I said, sorry, HEB). They generally cozied up to any and all yarn available. Here, two of them decided to snuggle with a baby blanket I was in the middle of knitting. Unfortunately the intended recipient had a bad cat allergy, so I ended up knitting a new gift for that friend and giving this to someone else.

knitting and other happy-making things

2010-10-03T11:05:00.002-07:00

I've sent off a few handknits in the last week or so, so I figured I should also post them to the blog. The first package included this hat: Foliage, in Plucky Knitter cashmere fingering weight in Rustica.
I worked the hat with two strands of the yarn on US 6s. Hat mods here. The matching wristwarmers were knit with one strand on US 4s. (Details here on adapting the hat pattern to wristwarmers.)
As with many lovely yarns, I struggled to capture its color but think that the first shot of the wristwarmers probably gets it the best. As far as cashmere yarns go, I think this one is a great value, since this whole set used less than 1.5 skeins (hat: less than 1 skein; wristwarmers: less than 0.5 skeins).

On EW's orders, I am posting two non-knitting, but happy-making things to the blog. First up: flannel pajama pants that my mom made me. The fabric is Amy Butler flannel from Stitchers Crossing. She was working off a pattern, but, apparently, they were turning out odd so she basically winged it. I am so happy for cool nights when I can wear these. (They have shrunk a little in the wash since this photo, but that's all for the best.)
And my new fall bag, which is what came of having too many lovely birthday gifts.
I hope you all have time for knitting and other happy-making things!

Black and White

2010-09-26T12:19:00.001-07:00

I finished the white linen lace sweater I started in January, just in time for summer. I coudn't work on it during the blizzards. The yarn was totally unforgving - no stretch - and I'm not totally happy with it. The judges at the county fair gave it a second place - calling it equisite but "a shame there are mistakes". There was some short row shaping in the shoulders I'm not sure I got right, but also a few places whre I picked up dropped stiches tha they may have been referring too - with the stiff yarn you couldn't really even out the stitches after picking up stitches up the ladder.

I'm happier with the black short sleeved cardigan, though it's a little too small in the sleeves. I used the 60/40 cashmere/merino yarn I bought the Atlantic Expo I attended in Baltimore two years ago with a vintage pattern from Interweave magazine.

My current project is a wool pullover of Jasper by Berroco - body finished and working on the sleeves. I'm also looking for some Malabrigo yarn and pattern I saw in Interweave. I ordeed the pattern on-line but it was backordered. I bought some Noro silk/wool Garden Party yarn for it, but I don't think it's quite right. I may return it if I can get the Malabrigo on line after the pattern comes.

Ishbel and an Injection of Color

2010-05-31T17:33:00.000-07:00

Ishbel in Plucky SMF, Nora Charles (rav link)

A little neck warmer/shawlette for my Mom's birthday. (Shh, don't tell.)

Also, spy that bit of orange in the upper left? Yep, I sewed myself some new curtains! I remember why I quit sewing back in college (oh my god, the inexplicable behavior of thread! STOP GETTING TANGLED, THANKS.), but I love these curtains so much!! They have brightened up my living room amazingly.

Another Quicky Baby Sweater

2010-05-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

This was for a baby shower for a young colleague. I posted it earlier, but she sent me the picture recently of baby Will wearing the sweater, which should still fit next winter. It was knit with two skeins of knitpick sock yarn. I like the way the zigzags (or lightening bolts) appeared.
My main project now is to finish the white linen summer sweater while it's still summer -I'm on the sleeves and will post soon, I hope.

Stranded knitting, how I love thee

2010-04-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

Progress on my transition gloves! Rav link.

I keep being amazed at how quickly these knit up, but I guess knitting on 3s instead of 1s really does make a difference. (The stranding definitely helps too.) I've loosened my gauge up a bit for this second glove, which is good. They'll both still benefit from a blocking, but the first seemed a little overly stretched in places and I think this one is just more even over all.

I'm a little worried about running out of the brown, since the directions called to finish the hand 1 inch BELOW where your knuckles start. This is clearly crazy, and I knit up several inches past my knuckles. It may just mean I have to do the thumbs in teal, and that might be pretty awesome, so I'm not too worried.

Genmaicha Rav link.

I realized I never showed off these quick mitts. They're one of the very first patterns heb and I got as a companion to our yarn membership, and I've been wanting to make a pair for a couple of years. When heb wanted to get rid of this lovely shade of pink (I know, I'm horrified too you guys), I knew just who would appreciate it. These were fun, a quick waffle rib on the wrist and pretty easy cables along the hands. I had to decrease the total number of stitches to account for my loose knitting, which worked out totally fine. However, I forgot to do the same for the thumb, so they ended up being all huge. I did some k2togs to take them in a bit, but that turned out a little weird as well. They're recipient claims she likes 'em though, so I think it worked out ok.

The Never Ending Knitting

2010-03-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

Honeybee Stole

I thought I'd share the project that's been taking up most of my knitting time these days. Eventually it's going to be a lovely, amazing scarf/stole thing, but in the meantime, it's tons and tons of fiddly lace knitting. Not that I mind, but I'm halfway through the central pattern and then there are two more large pattern pieces for both sides of the shawl that I'll have to do. Hence, the never ending.

Transition Gloves

I did finally come to terms with this and cast on for a pair of fingerless gloves I've been craving for ages. I'm using Plucky "Mallard" and ShibuKnits brown. The Shibu yarn is a bit thinner than the Plucky MCN, but I think it'll be ok. I also decided to actually use the needles suggested, given my discovery that I knit less loosely when doing colorwork than when working with one color alone. It seems to be working (and also seems to be knitting up so quickly!) so I'm feeling good about it at the moment.

I am anticipating a lot of baby knits in the near future, so if anyone has a blanket or other item that's been a particular hit, I'd love to hear about it. (or be reminded, if it's already on the blog.) The umbilical cord hat is definitely on the list, as soon as I can find my SNB.

Best Mittens Ever? Yes.

2010-02-13T16:52:00.000-08:00

I found this pattern more than a year ago and showed them to my sister one day to see if she'd like me to knit her a pair. While I waited until she was back in a climate where she could appreciate them, I did finally manage to knit them up for her for Christmas.

Rav link

I used knit picks glossy fingering, a combination of merino wool and silk, for extra warmth and a little extra shine. The yarn was quite lovely to knit with, and I really like how these turned out.

The big surprise for me was learning that my normally extra-loose gauge totally tightens up when knitting with two colors. It makes sense, given that I am not as adept at holding the yarn in my left hand and everything ends up getting tightened up a bit, but it made me a bit nervous.

My sister has small hands, but I'd already gone down a couple of needle sizes (as I have started to do as a matter of routine, these days) and they ended up a little bit small, especially in how the thumb fit to the rest of the hand.

Thankfully, some post-Christmas blocking seemed to help (so she claims) and now my sister is wearing her new mittens around the house. She has so far avoided wearing them outside because she "loves them too much." Well, I tried to argue that mittens should be used, but really, who I am to say she can't decide these are precious objects.

*This post is brought to you by borrowed internet. Eight percent, whoo!

Blizzard 2010

2010-02-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

I was working on a lightweight white lace linen cardigan for spring when the great Northeast Blizzard of 2010 struck Washington, DC, and somehow in all that white it just didn't feel right.
I had lots of time on my hands but needed to be working on something cozy. So I continued with the hats. I found some leftover yarn from the sweater I happened to be wearing and tried the sideways grande hat again with much better results (I deleted 9 stitches from the cast on strip).

Then I decided I had enough leftover yarn from the first sideways grande attempt to make a tam from the same pattern book.

Finally, I decided to try the two at a time method for knitting socks on two cable needles. So far, so good. If you try this, I recommend finding needles that are a different color. It makes it much easier to keep it straight which row you are on. Mine are green aluminum (from an ancient stache) and bamboo. A trick to remember if you use self striping yarn - not all balls are wound in the same direction. If you want your socks to match, you may need to rewind one skein. I didn't bother so my stripes will be upside down o one sock.

Happy winter. I'm not sure I'll ever want to go back to work after this unexpected knitting break.

I miss blogging, the post

2010-01-30T15:36:00.000-08:00

Hey dudes! I miss blogging. And You! But here's something I knit mostly in September, blocked in late December, and finally sent to its recipient in January. I know.

Happily, the recipient said this was her favorite color "in the world" and that it was the best thing she'd ever received from a student. Success! It was really pretty, and I did have a hard time giving it up at the end. Does someone want to knit me one of these things? They are super easy (just knitting!) but lord, there is a lot of knitting. This one was probably half as wide as heb's, but it still took forever. Seriously, I even have the yarn. Anyone have too much time on their hands???

The blocking shot:

And to conclude this post, here's a little ruffle scarf action. I knit this in November and gave it to CEM for her most important birthday ever.

I have wanted one of these for myself for ever as well, and I actually bought this yarn in Boston but when I started making it, I wasn't as in love, but thought the colors would suit cem, so I gifted it. Of course, by the time it was done, I kind of wanted this one too. But, really, so it goes. I would happily receive one of these as well, though I probably need another skein of this yarn for it to work (malabrigo). Less knitting though!

things that I have actually finished

2010-01-25T19:47:00.000-08:00

There aren't many, that's for sure. But here's one:
I actually finished this one before Christmas, but just realized that I never posted it. (Partially because I never got post-blocking pictures...) It's a baby blanket, made for Miss Margrethe, out of Blue Skies Alpaca Dyed Cotton. I modeled the project after one that I made a few years ago, but left off the patterned squares since I thought they would conflict with a more vibrant color scheme.

The wall of Dyed Cotton at Webs is handy for picking out color combos, and that's where this yarn came from. Dyed Cotton is a pretty darn great yarn for the baby knits, since it's machine washable and in a wide range of bright colors. It's also incredibly soft and knits up quickly.

Now that my Dyed Cotton ad is over, I'll move on to a more (and less) recent project:

This is a cowl/snood made out of leftovers from 4 Plucky MCN Worsted projects. I started it so that I would have something that I could easily knit in movie theaters (stockinette tube knit on #9s) and I stuck very strictly to only knitting it in movies. So I've been working on it since about this time last year and I'm not quite sure what I will do now that it's finished. But I really couldn't keep going. It's actually a little painful to wear as a cowl now because it's so tall and there's not enough drape. (It's okay as long as I'm not wearing a top that has any kind of neck. But a turtleneck plus this cowl? Ouch.) In order, the colors are Hazel Drive, Rock of Ages Fascination Series (#2), Nectar and Montgomery. Maybe I'll try to get a modeled shot.

But, first, I have a few other things to finish...

Still another Hat

2010-01-24T12:38:00.001-08:00

This yarn was from the stash I acquired at Stitches East last year in Baltimore. The night I got home, I sat down and knit this yarn into an original designed-as-I-knit hat - but I was never happy with it. It was too big. So I finally frogged it this fall and dug out the Odessa pattern I had admired on Hannah's postings. Unfortunately I overcompensated a little and this one is a little too snug. I reduced the number of stitches cast on to 80 and I also used smaller needles for the ribbing than the rest of the hat. I enjoyed the yarn, though, and it was a quick project, and I can wear it if I'm willing to suffer the hat hair syndrome. The yarn was called Santa Fe or something southwestern like that and the colors really made me feel warmer on a dreary winter day.

Sideways Grande Hat

2010-01-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

This was a case of yarn looking for a project. I went to the knitting shop to buy some long circular needles - size 4 for my current project, a lightweight white Euroflax linen cardigan with a lace border for spring http://www.ravelry.com/projects/mmchurchman/gardenia
- but I couldn't walk away without two skeins of Manos el Uruquay wool classica in a luscious pinkpurpleo,rangeburgundymoss colorway. I kept thinking the colors were really Abigail's, not mine, but I thought I was knitting a warm hat for myself in the Sideways Grande hat pattern in a book I also bought on that trip to buy one knitting needle. I finished the hat in a week, and Abigail admired it as we were getting ready to leave for the airport this morning for her trip back to Iowa for the rest of the winter. She said it would be warm and she would wear it, so I sent it with her, after snapping a picture. I wasn't totally happy with it. I think it's too deep. The construction was strange (knit sideways in a strip, with 4 progressively smaller sizes of needle, then the crown is picked up on the long edge, the side seam is sewn, and the twisted straps picked up at the bottom and tacked to the top I might try it again in a different color and use a slightly smaller needle for the main part, or cast on fewer stiches for the long ribbed strip that becomes the hat.

Baby Shower

2010-01-01T12:03:00.000-08:00

I knit this quicky baby sweater out of superwash sock yarn for a baby shower I'm attending tomorrow for a young colleague from work. The most interesting part was watching the designs the striped yarn made. The first time mom to be is an engineer, so maybe she'll enjoy it. Instead of knitting the front and back separately I knit in the round up to the armholes, and I knit the sleeves in the round, too, to avoid seams.

build me a sailboat, something made of wood

2009-12-30T23:51:00.000-08:00

It's only a little melodramatic to say that I've been broken by knitting today but I am definitely still too fragile to blog about it. (Here I used to say that it was just yarn...) Instead, I'll give you details on some successful Christmas gifts, many of which have appeared in other forms on the blog. First up: mittens that match those of KZ's niece, the flannel sheet mittens. You've seen these before here and here. For my grandma, these are Grove mittens by Brooklyn Tweed, knit out of Plucky Knitter Cashmere Fingering Weight in Elegant Flannel. I loved knitting this pattern and knitting with this yarn. I'm planning a pair for myself in the new year, although not in the same yarn. The pattern calls for DK weight knit on 6s, but I originally planned to knit these mittens with worsted weight yarn since I had a skein that I thought my grandma would love. However, even on 4s, I couldn't get gauge with worsted yarn and it was incredibly painful to knit worsted on needles so small. Miraculously, I managed to get gauge with 4s and this fingering weight yarn. (EW has already demanded an explanation for how this worked. I don't have one. I'm sorry.)

Second on line: the cleft hat for my grandpa.

Seen here before, I definitely prefer the finished product over the process of knitting this one. But I think that's more a fault of my own impatience with cabling, rather than a fault of the pattern or the yarn. For the record, it's a Brooklyn Tweed koolhaas in Plucky Knitter MCN Fingering in Rock of Ages (Fascination Series #1).

Third up: the bioenergy hat for my father.
It's an improvised pattern in Plucky Knitter MCN Fingering (held doubled) in Moody Broody Blue. I couldn't bring myself to knit another koolhaas so soon, but wanted a similar look for this hat. I used a trellis stitch from a new-to-me stitch dictionary, Super Stitches Knitting and knit for about 7 inches before starting decreases. I think it turned out well, although I would do the decreases more gently if I knit a similar hat again. At the recent Bon House reunion, Daria captured some of my work process on this hat. Since I was holding the yarn doubled, it was getting tangled in my pocket as I pulled it. As she often does with tangled yarn, Meg jumped to the rescue to keep my yarn in line.

Last but not least: the day before the fall hat for the Iowan.
I never got a good picture of this one, despite forcing EW to model it for me. (It's not that she wasn't plenty photogenic, as usual. The lighting was off, though.) However, I pretty much loved it and can't wait to knit one of these for me. It's a Quincy hat from Plucky Knitter MCN Worsted in Rock of Ages (Fascination Series #2). The picture here is probably more true to color.

Here's to only successful knitting in 2010!

My knitting skills have become quite advanced.

2009-12-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, not really. But check out this cool stuff my mom made. (this is my niece, not me... in case you're wondering). I believe both patterns come from Brooklyn Tweed. I also got a pair of the mittens, but they're not quite finished yet, hence no photo.

handknits in action (Christmas day edition)

2009-12-25T19:15:00.000-08:00

Child's Placket Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, in Plucky MCN Fingering, held doubled. Only mods were to add the stripe and to leave off the buttons. Since I wasn't doing the buttons, I sewed about an inch and a half of the placket closed. And, yes, that is the 4-to-6 year-old size on my 3-and-a-half-year-old nephew.
Umbilical Cord hat from S'n'B, in Rowan Cotton Glace. No mods, except that I was working from memory so I ended up making the newborn size a little long.

Group Shot

Happy Christmas!

trying hard to learn

2009-12-20T10:56:00.000-08:00

Just organized my Plucky stash today to figure out if there were any that I was willing to destash. The list is small, but you can see it here if you're interested.

thinking about leaving town

2009-12-15T21:02:00.001-08:00

I had thought that I had packed all the knitting I could possibly need over Thanksgiving, but I found myself longing for something super simple and gratifying. Thank goodness for the lovely Lakeside Fibers and KZ's help picking colors for a quick baby hat.

I sewed in the ends as we drove to the airport for my flight back to the East Coast, so I could leave this cutie there just in case it's needed before I return.

For those of you who are traveling soon, what are your knitting plans?

Knitted Goods, in Use

2009-12-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

I'll get my notes and pictures together for a real knitting post soon, but in the meantime I had to share this picture with you all. Check out the multitude of knit wear in use! (Also in use, though less visible are the mittens KZ made me. It was really cold. I needed two layers.) Yay, warm woolen goodness!

The Day After Thankgiving

2009-11-28T13:28:00.000-08:00

Jellyroll is helping me knit.

An elderly friend asked me to help her with a hat she was knitting (La Parisienne beret) and she had gone so far astray I decided I had to knit the hat first myself to see what the pattern was supposed to be doing. It will serve for my Secret Santa gift to take to my office holiday party.

And here's the beret, after I steam blocked it over a dinner plate.

Good things come to those who wait

2009-11-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

I do actually knit, but certainly not often enough to be any kind of respectable kal friend (sorry, HEB).

As you may recall, I embarked on knitting the Droplet Hat from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature quite some time ago. I finally finished the hat and would prefer to not think about how long it took me to finish. I suppose that finishing it (ever) is what matters most.

This hat is definitely the most difficult project I have tackled to date, which is probably more of a reflection of the relatively basic patterns I've knit previously than a suggestion that this is an inherently difficult pattern. The most obvious benefit of this challenging pattern is the end product: a hat that I absolutely adore! The other great benefit is that it forced me to learn a lot as I took my first crack at many maneuvers like sewing a seam, making bobbles, and all kinds of stitches (K1-f/b, K1-tbl, p2sso, ssk). If there is a downside to all of that learning, it is that all of the mistakes and tearing out that followed definitely slowed me down. Fortunately, I was determined to get past the mistakes and have a droplet hat of my own!

I actually finished knitting the hat about a month ago, but since the hat is knit flat, it was still useless minus the seam (unless, of course, wearing a hat held together by safety pins is your idea of comfort and style). I definitely drug my feet on the seam. I'd never sewn a seam and I feared a novice seam would ruin an otherwise cute hat (that was painful enough to finish knitting in the first place). HEB pointed me in the direction of some great and easy directions on seaming in Stitch 'N Bitch, and she pointed out that a seam would be easy enough to tear out and re-do if I didn't like it. Surely, then, I tackled the seam right away, right? Not quite.

I drug my feet some more. The hat sat flat on my coffee table for a few more weeks, as the weather here was relatively mild and certainly didn't necessitate a hat, but with the words blustery and snow finally creeping into the forecast, I decided I really had to finish the hat. I put the entire seam in tonight. This is the seam in progress. The process was definitely not as bad as I thought it would be, and while I don't think the final seam is perfect, I think it is good enough to call it done. That said, allow me to show off my new favorite winter accessory:

The FINISHED droplet hat!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

used to be much harder

2009-11-15T19:17:00.001-08:00

Recently, the project that has been the most compelling is also the project that has been the most frustrating. I'm designing the pattern and it's still in the swatching stage. Unfortunately, for the life of me, I can't figure out how to translate what's in my mind into yarn. Below, you can see the backside of one of many attempts to do so.
I didn't want to recreate the wheel, so I've trolled Ravelry and scoured pattern books to find a stitch that works, but no luck yet. I took a break from being absurdly frustrated to work on an absurdly simple one.
Suddenly, I have a new most compelling knit.

What have I been doing?

2009-11-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

I have had the sense this fall that I haven't been doing much knitting. But maybe it's because I've been knitting things that were not on my knitting to do lists.

These mitts are a perfect example. When ysolda's pattern came out, I knew I had to make them, and I even knew that I wanted to use my plucky KAL yarn. It turns out this was a decision made in knitting heaven, because this yarn turned out even more marvelously than anticipated. It's hard to capture in photos, but it's totally glowy!

The wrist band is knit straight, and then you pick up stitches along the edge and knit the hand. This design (like so many of Ysolda's, really) has a fantastic combination of simplicity and sweet little details.

I especially loved how the buttons along the wrist section curve a bit, so they aren't in a straight line.

The other little knit that I can share is a iPod cover I improvised for my iPod. I promised that I would make it a new cover if it started working again, and as it did, I kept my word.

The button is a glowy green that matches this super special yarn (what's it called, Old Books or something?) perfectly. Yay super special, happy yarn!

third time's the...

2009-11-07T12:40:00.000-08:00

So far, I've knit three Brooklyn Tweed designs for Christmas gifts. Two of them were delightful, inspiring knits. The kind of knits that you don't want to put down and that you're a little sad to finish. For both of those, I picked out the yarn that I plan to use the second time that I knit the pattern before I finished the first version. (I've even started in on one of those repeaters.)

And then there was this one.I think that the best thing that I can say is that, now that it's done, I no longer hate it. And I think that the recipient will really enjoy it. (Or at least will wear it. The recipient might not be the type to rhapsodize over handknits.) But it felt like punishment to have to knit it. Maybe if I can talk myself into knitting another, I'll take a page from Wamps's book and cut down the repeats. That might help. Or maybe I'll just resign myself to not being a fangirl for this pattern.

For both this post and the prior post, I am pretty darn sure that the recipients do not read the blog. From here on out, I'll need to be more obscure for the remaining gift knitting season.

the problem with not procrastinating

2009-10-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

Is that when you *really* love Christmas gifts that you've already finished, you have trouble not believing that you couldn't keep them for yourself and still have time to make the recipients new gifts.Unfortunately, for me, knitting is one of the few things that takes just as long whether I leave it until the last minute or not. But I think I'm going to hide these, just so I forget how much I like them. Or maybe I will gift them early.

(For the record, this particular gift is only about 90% done. But I feel the same way about another gift that is all ready to go.) (Also for the record, that is Plucky's new 4-ply cashmere in Elegant Flannel. It might be the softest thing in the world.)

change in the seasons

2009-10-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

When this is the view from my window

(bedroom window)

(kitchen window)

is it any wonder that my knitting has also turned to fall colors?

(still on the needles)(off the needles but not gifted yet)(waiting to be wound)(next on the needles)

Happy October!

2009-10-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

Hey crafters! Anyone planning on celebrating Socktoberfest this year?

There's a mystery sock KAL (and how can any of us resist a mystery?!) as well as choose your own sock knitting.

I'm still on the fence a bit, given that I did the gift sock knitting I had planned with my Hello Althea's.

I also have to admit, while my knitting to do list is nowhere near as frightening as heb's, I am making slow progress on the items that are there.

The gifty Melody continues apace, but it grows slowly. I'm hoping this yarn (a single ply merino) will grow quite a bit once soaking and blocking time comes, but the single ply makes me more nervous about breakages as well, so I don't want to plan on pulling it too much.

I have a couple of other projects, half on and half off the needles...

But my sister has made some demands that I very much want to fulfill....

(A note: No one demands knitting from me, except for my demanding sister! I partly blame this on the fact that most of my close family are in places where knitting is really more of a quaint hobby, and less something needed to actually stay warm, but still. I wouldn't mind a couple of demands every now and then.)

And then there are some of my selfish projects that have been languising all summer, including my someday Honeybee Stole and my former Henley Perfected that I've determined should become a Coraline.

Basically, I am full of indecisiveness! It is a happy kind though, I openly admit. What to knit next is a pretty awesome question to ask oneself. (And the answer might be: the iPod cover I promised my iPod if it started working again!)

so much for doing well on deadlines

2009-09-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

As my blog-silence may have suggested, I haven't really had a lot of time to knit this summer. Between the move-that-lasted-forever, the job-that-did-not-slow-down-during-the-summer, and many lovely trips and visitors, I had a hard time fitting knitting in. So when I take stock of my progress on summer knit goals, the picture isn't pretty. In fact, it's downright pathetic. I can't think of a time when I made less progress on a set of self-imposed goals. Here's the (limited) progress that I made:

I'm 11 rows away from finishing my end-of-August goal:I wish I could say that I'm as devoted to this project as Wamps was to her version, which clocked in at 150 rows. But I've decided that mine will be lovely at just around 100.

My save-my-sanity cowl grew, almost without me thinking about it:
It's still a-ways from being finished, but maybe that's for the best.

During the last weekend in August, an unusually long (since moving to the Beat, that is) spell on public transit produced this baby hat:
This wasn't one of my knitting goals, but since it's the closest I came to a FO this summer (only have two ends to sew in!) I'm including it anyway. It's the Umbilical Cord hat in Sheep Feet, Royalty colorway. Having rushed out the door without writing down the pattern, I counted on CH's memory to get me the right number of stitches. Luckily, that was a safe bet. What was not as lucky was how I felt about this yarn once it was knit up. In the skein, I thought it was beautiful, but I think the brown is much too dominant in the final knit. (EW, enter your massive protest here. I don't care. You can't see it in person, so you don't know how overwhelming the brown is.) However, the yarn was the product of my first-ever trip to Webs (which was also EW's first-ever trip to Webs). It is a miraculous place.

Also, I took Labor Day weekend off from everything, and that helped me to jump start some fall knitting.

This lovely is all finished except for the finishing: The yarn knit up just like I imagined, and I learned why so many people love one particular classic knit. You'll have to wait for details until it's gifted, though.

And I'm about halfway through another knit using these colors:This knit reminds me why Blue Sky Dyed Cotton is still high on my list of favorite yarns. All but the green were purchased during my second-ever trip to Webs.

Finally, today was the Coventry Farmer's Market's Fiber Fest. I actually went back to get the most amazing cod in the world, but I couldn't resist a little local yarn:It's the Painted Sheep's Shimmer Yarn in Merlot. It's a superwash merino/tencel blend and I think that I know just the knit for it.

What are you all working on this fall?

Met a Swift, Fell in Love

2009-09-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

I was wandering through an estate sale the other day and had decided I really had no room to store anything, and then I found this:

A swift! For less than $60 (quite a bit less)!! An opportunity not to be missed. I had planned to like, polish it, or something, but then I set it up and used it pretty immediately. I did need to add some ~fishing line, but it works like a beauty. Of course, without a ball winder, it doesn't really make winding yarn any faster, BUT, I can set it down and go off and live my life in between bouts of winding, so there's that.

In other news, working on a little something with my TPK Foliage yarn that I won in my first KAL, way back in January. (Good times!) Sometimes, plucky yarn has this marvelous glowy quality, and this is one of those times. Yay, knitting fun!

A little time to breathe

2009-08-30T17:47:00.000-07:00

Hello my lovely knitting and sewing and crocheting friends! I finally got to give this shawl to it's owner, so I can brag with some photos!

Super simple pattern, called Melody's Shawl, that creates an incredibly diverse set of end products depending on the yarn and needle sized used. This shawl was made with Posh yarn, a lace weight blend of silk and merino wool, which was super fine and super lovely to knit with!

However, the super fine-ness of it did mean I had to knit forever and ever. I can't even remember how much television watching and bus riding accompanied the making of this shawl, but it was not insignificant. Thankfully, the simplicity of the pattern was made for these kinds of activities, and were perfect during a summer in which I dearly needed distractions.

I took this picture at a point when I thought I was nearly done and then realized I had only knit about half of what I had planned!

And this shows my first serious blocking job! I used all of my block mats, and then had to pull them apart to stretch the shawl out to be as wide and long as I wanted. I might have tried to make it a bit larger, actually, but this table was the largest cat and baby-free flat surface that I had available to me, so that was the size I ended up with.

I'm going to try and post a bit more often than I did in the last two months, but how's about an update in crafty news from others? Someone should definitely find a ribbon hanging and refurbish it to hang in glory in their new condo.

Arlington County Fair

2009-08-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

My Metro vest was a Reserve Grand Champion at the fair.

You've seen all these projects before, but here they are with their ribbons from the fair. I haven't knit much at all since I finished the vest with the south side knitters gave me at New Year's, but I gathered up my entries for the fair. I knew the vest would be a contender, but I never expected a grand champion ribbon. It's a first for me. For those not familiar with county fair protocols, Each department (in this case Art Needlework) is divided into Sections (in this case Knitting) and then each Section is divided into Classes (for example, sleeveless sweaters or vests, pullovers, scarves, hats, baby sets, etc) In addition all the participants are divided into Divisions (pre-K, 6-12, teens, adults). For each class there are potentially three ribbons - blue for first, red for second, white for third place. The blue ribbons from all the classes compete for Champion (first place) and Reserve Champion (second place) in the Section. Then all the eChampions compete for Grand Champion (first place) and Reserve Grand Champion (second place) in the Department. So my metro vest beat out not only all but one item in the knitting, but the crocheted items, quilts, sewn dresses, hooked rugs, needlepoint, embroidery, etc. That would be more impressive if there really were multiple entries in all those categories. I can remember when the fair was really competitive, but this year there really weren't all that many exhibitors. The judges always reserve the right not to award all the ribbons, so my sweater ascended up the competition even though it was only the Reserve Champion in knitting (the pink rosette ribbon in the picture) The Grand Champion was a lovely knitted lace shawl. I entered the Jitterbug cabled sleeveless sweater almost as an afterthought and it won a blue ribbon. (I entered it in the pullover category because you can only enter one item per class, and I entered the other vest in the sleeveless sweater category. ) I entered the scarf in the "exhibitor's choice" class, a catch all for items that don't clearly fit in other classes. I entered it together with the hat I designed and a short narrow scarf to show how the hand-dyed yarn produced three entirely different designs with the same stitch in different widths (fractals), and the set won a red ribbon (2nd place). The judge wrote nice comments on the back of the entry tags: "Gorgeous color and design work, beautiful stitching, woven ends need to be clipped" and 'wonderful cable pattern and beautiful use of fine multi-colored yarn. Reminded us of a Monet garden" for the south side vest and "Great stitches and use of multi-color yarn" for the scarf/hat set.

I encourage all you young knitters to seek out your local county fair and enter your knitting and other crafts. It's fun and gratifying, but not nearly as satisfying as when there was real competition. I'm afraid my old competitors have died off or gone blind and too arthritic to enter the fair, and the creative new generation of knitters isn't aware of the fair tradition. (Or maybe with blogs and websites satisfy the need to share and make the fair tradition totally unnecessary. ) Once again, as a bleeding edge boomer, I'm caught between two models, a bridge between generations. My grandfather was a professional fair manager - in the first decade of the 20th century he was manager of the Van Wert (Ohio) County Fair, and later was the full time manager for the North Carolina State Fair and then the Ohio State Fair. So I'm his direct descendent, but I'm also a contributor to this blog and Ravelry. Have you all seen a butter cow?

Last year when my job was less stressful I knit up a storm. Since January I've been sucked back into the mainstream implementing the Recovery Act/Economic Stimulus programs at my agency and I find I have no creative energy at all. I've tried three times to start a new project and keep coming up empty. Hopefully the economy will recover and so will my knitting, soon.

Though warm feet are not appealing at the moment...

2009-07-12T18:06:00.001-07:00

Socks = done!

These were great! I loved knitting with the yarn (plucky merino superwash fingering), and though I didn't work on them consistently, when I did they felt like they knit up fairly quickly. Kirsten Kapur's patterns are great, and this one was nice and clear and had a chart that I only had to use at the beginning and then for the lacey leaves at the top of the sock.

What socks to knit next??

new favorite knit cafe

2009-07-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

So the espresso machine won't be installed until later this afternoon, and the walls still need some decorations, but I've got a new favorite place to knit. Which is good, because the knitting that you see on the chair is about all the progress I've made toward my summer knit list. (Yes, that does mean that I've already blown past one deadline. They were self-imposed, okay?)

I may have claimed this chair, but there's another one waiting whenever any of you want to come visit.(There's more seating across the room, so multiple of you can visit at once!)

A little knitting, and life

2009-06-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

I don't have any new knitting pictures (mostly because the light is on the wrong side of the street by the time I get home these days) but there's nothing much new to share at any rate.

I'm one and a half socks down on this project, and pretty excited about finishing these up and....casting on another pair of socks?! Crazy, but I kinda think so.
I did cast on for the honeybee stole, but I got about 2 repeats in before I got sick, and my arms are still tired at the thought of working on that shawl.
I thought I was nearing the end of another project that I've purposely taken no pictures of yet, but then I did some measuring, and it turns out that I'm maaaaaaybe halfway done. Whoops! Better get to knitting.

The good news is that I have a nice 15 minute bus ride (seriously, shorted commute ever) in which knitting happens.

To make up for the lack of knitting pictures, here are a few from a recent trip I took into King's Canyon with my brother and sister.
John Muir called this meadow the jewel of the Sierra. It was pretty amazing.

As was the brown bear my siblings and I saw on the way TO the meadow. BEAR!!!

But nothing was better than the bear cubs. Wild baby animals that could kill me! YAY!

Under the cut, some random iPod whining:
I updated my iPod with new music last night (Regina Spektor! old/new M. Ward!) and created a few new play lists for work. Very exciting! But then today, while at work, I find that the device won't recognize any of my music. This is pretty disheartening, but after some extended Googling when I got home, I found I could open up some hidden folders and copy the music to my hard drive, and then could do scary "restore" things to the iPod. Rock! But then more confusing technical things happen, and that doesn't work. The files I could once see disappear, or claim to be missing. They're still on the iPod. An iPod music copying software thingy can see it, but the act of copying just doesn't work.

Le sigh.

It's my own fault, I know, for not backing up my music, but oh lord, the thought of digging up my CDs from the basement and then putting them all back on this computer fills me with dread. And I'll still be missing some key emo tunes. Tragedy! Ok, thanks for letting me vent, knitters and crafters. I'm going to go knit out my sorrows now!

Is this lace?

2009-06-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

I've blogged lots of pictures of this project, just because I love it so. But, I finally blocked my Fathoms Below, and have to share the finished product with you all.

Designed by grumperina as the Mother of Pearl scarf, and knit with my birthday Hear Me Now pluckyknitter yarn, I really wanted to keep knitting this scarf forever.

The yarn was so soft, and every stitch brought a new color, and as winter melted into spring and spring into summer, the changing light changed the elements of color in the yarn and seeing them come together in this pattern made me incredibly happy.

Mine isn't as long as grumperina's, but I love it muchly nonetheless. (But, is it lace? I need outside advice!)

Baby's dress

2009-06-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Continuing my sewing, thought I would catch you up on a project I did a few months ago. This was my first little dress I made, for my niece. I forgot to take pictures before I sent it and had these emailed, so they don't have closeups of all the details I would like to show off, unfortunately.

From the front

And the back. One of my proudest things was the zipper down the back that you can hardly see here. I was very happy with how it turned out given it was my first zipper.

I continue to love to sew, but I also plan on doing some more knitting, so perhaps my posts will be more on topic. I'm making a re-make of the baby blanket I posted a few months ago. The sex of the baby is undetermined, and I'm trying to choose colors now. Suggestions? I love most colors, so choosing two is always difficult.

These may look familiar...

2009-06-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

I think one of the reasons that knitting continues to be something that I enjoy and want to continue with is that the craft is a constant source of learning. And it's a learning process that very much has to take place as a learn-as-you-go, which is also very satisfying.

It's not just that you learn new techniques (I <3 Magic Loop!) as you go along, or that you figure out how to correct mistakes (being able to unknit a few stitches still makes me really happy), but the community of knitting, and how we as people function within it is so interesting and (at times) satisfyingly methodical. Maybe this is stuff that other people get more immediately than I, but I still find it rather fascinating.

These mittens are a perfect example of that. Before "publishing" a pattern, one (of course!) must get it test knit by other knitters. It's the editor job of the knitting world, and so so fun!

Not only do you get a first run at a new pattern, but you can to participate in the art of creation. (And sometimes you don't even have to provide the yarn!)

Ms. HEB designed these mittens as a gift for a friend, and after several requests on ravelry, decided to publish an official pattern for them. I was lucky enough to win one of the test knitter positions.

As this picture shows, these mittens are awesome. They're perfect for surprise chilliness in relatively warm weather, and fit perfectly under light sweaters or jackets.*

Furthermore, they use up hardly any yarn. Two whole pairs can be knit up with one skein of plucky fingering, and it goes fast, and can be accomplished while writing a thesis!

So, test knitting. One more box on the "now I get it" knitting check list. If you're still on the cusp of the knitting life, come on in. The weather is perfect for fingerless mittens.

*In fact, I finally sewed the ends in on these when I was house sitting and suddenly there was all-day-long foggy, chilly weather and I had only packed summer clothes. Thank you, HEB mittens, for preventing pneumonia!

gettin' organized

2009-06-06T07:49:00.000-07:00

This morning, I celebrated the almost-end of the HPS school year, with its accompanying light at the end of the tunnel, by taking stock of what I want to knit this summer. Or, more precisely, what I want to finish knitting this summer. Since I always work better on deadlines, here are my self-imposed summer knit goals:

End of June:This knit has lingered for at least a year. But if I don't finish it soon, I will no longer have enough yarn to make it the appropriate size for the recipient. I finished the back last year, and you can see above how much progress I made on the front, so the end of June is a reasonable goal. As long as packing up my apartment doesn't get in the way.

End of July:
This is a design project that I'm working on. There's not much left to go, but it's at a point where it requires brain power to figure out what to do next. I'm hopeful that by the start of July, I'll be de-frazzled enough to do so. Since EW is helping me test knit it, if I can finish the design by the end of July, it will give her time to finish the test knit by the end of the summer.

Mid-August:The droplet hat for my KAL with CH. I think I could actually finish this one sooner, now that I've found my copy of Knitting Nature, but am going with a conservative estimate since I currently can't find my 8s and need them to knit the rest of the hat. They'll turn up in the move, I'm sure. But that means that there's still plenty of time for others to join in the KAL fun. CH, can you post some inspirational progress shots? (Or finished shots?)

End of August:I've picked my theme for Christmas gifts, and even decided what a few of those gifts will be, so it's time to get a head start on them. I'm aiming to knit two this summer, and one of those two will be with the yarn above.

Ongoing:Taking on this project was a perfect example of my knit hubris. (Along the lines of the I-can-knit-a-baby-sweater-in-a-week hubris. Except, oh, 10,000 times worse.) In retrospect, I should have done the math first. But, now I have done the math, and have a plan for finishing it. If I knit 3531 stitches every month for the next 12 months, I will only have the edging left to do. Luckily, I'm at a point in the pattern where that works out to about one row every other day. Which, come on, I can do *that*, right?

And my save-my-sanity cowl will, I'm sure, grow a little bit this summer.

What's going to wait until the fall:
1/ Two baby sweaters for co-workers who just gave birth. Both are sized to wear in the winter, and I already gave them other gifts. I hit a rough patch with one of the sweaters, so I'm just going to let them wait until the fall.
2/ A February Lady Sweater that just needs the sleeves. I pushed through the body of this sweater in early April, but haven't worked on it since. I'll bring it back when it's sweater weather again.
3/ My Lace Shawl KAL with EW. We decided that we'd do a KAL of different patterns after I accidentally peer pressured her into buying yarn that I already had. (Option #1) Sorry, kid. It's not that I don't want to work on our KAL; it's just that I think I can only pull off knitting one thing for myself this summer and my KAL with CH started first.

Alright, since school isn't actually out yet, it's time for me to return to the non-knitting world. What goals do you all have for this summer?

PS: Oh, and check this out. Who's submitting what? I'm thinking Bourbon Slush.

I will knit socks, I will I will I will

2009-05-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

I remain bound and determined to be a sock knitter, despite the difficulties I've had with my attempts thus far. I finally got my hands on some plucky superwash fingering and set out to make ThroughtheLoop's Althea socks.

I wanted to explore textured sock designs, and this pattern seemed like an excellent opportunity. Plus, it had already been tested on plucky yarn! (I'm using the hello lady colorway.)

Despite my whining about small needles, this project is actually speeding along. We'll see how my speed is affected by the heal and the actual leg of the sock, but it's been a satisfying and easy-to-travel-with knit thus far. I'm also taking the opportunity to knit cables without a cable needle. There are many sites with great pictorial instructions out there, and though it sounded a little overwhelming, I do think it's saving time (as well as my sanity. This project is all about the cables.)

And finally, a project that needs a large flat surface and some pins....

My Fathoms Below (mother of pearl in thepluckyknitter Hear Me Now) scarf!

spring planting

2009-05-31T12:40:00.001-07:00

This is really the only knitting that I have to show for the spring. An Elm Row scarf in Plucky Knitter Classics Silk Merino Fingering, Container Garden colorway, for a belated birthday gift for my grandma. I knew as soon as this yarn arrived in my mailbox that it was meant for my grandma, and I'm hopeful that she'll like the scarf enough to make up for its belatedness.

I never managed to memorize the lace repeat, so I had to carry the directions around with me, but each row was relatively logical so I could spot mistakes quickly. The only real problem that I had was that there are two rows (of the ten row repeat) that result in fewer stitches than the rest of the rows. Since I assumed that all rows would maintain the number of stitches that the pattern started with, I frustratedly frogged those rows many, many times before I bothered to do the math and figure out that I was supposed to have fewer stitches. After that, it was smooth sailing.

Not having much time to knit recently (as I have whined about a number of times), I had to be a little creative to squeeze this project in. I wish I had a picture of my knitting while sitting on a cardboard box, saving an empty parking space outside of KZ's old apartment while her father went to get the van before we loaded it up and moved her out. I almost got two repeats in.

Here's a picture of it while blocking:
I knit it on US 6s, and only knit three lace panels instead of four as the pattern was written. No other mods than that. Rav deets here.

an inch here or there

2009-05-30T10:05:00.001-07:00

As you all may have guessed from my relative silence, there hasn't been a whole lot of time for knitting lately in the HartBeat. And, unluckily for me, all the projects I had going were fairly complex. So even when I had some time to knit, I was too exhausted to think about trying to work out what was going on in those patterns. (A few times, I picked them up, only to fall asleep before I'd figured out where I was in the pattern.)

Finally, I forced myself to take the time to wind up some lovely Plucky Knitter cashmere lace and am now using it to knit a cowl of my own design. This turns out to be a pretty good solution because the cowl should be relatively simple to show off the yarn, and if I pick it up and don't know what to do, I can make up a new "design feature." I've got a couple of inches done and am hopeful that it will tide me over until I have the time and energy to return to my more complicated projects. (Here are the Rav deets.)

I do have one other project that's very nearly ready to be blogged: a scarf for my grandma that just needs to be blocked. Hopefully in the next day or two!

Gmail Ads are the Best

2009-05-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

This website made me laugh and laugh.

However, I must admit. I really want to go on a knitting cruise!

"Lists of local yarn stores and other places of interest will be provided whenever possible."

Amazing!

in lieu of actually knitting

2009-05-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

This is awesome.

I really, really, really want a knit cricket pitch.

The Tragedy of the Loose Knitter

2009-05-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

I feel like knitting books are full of the stories of knitters who hold their yarn too tightly, who get cramped fingers and have to go up several needle sizes to "get gauge", who have to use two needles to bind on and just can't get the bind off right.

But what about the loose knitter?

I am a loose knitter, and it means that when I bother to knit a test swatch, I start out with a needle smaller than called for by the pattern. That much is a given.

But today, I finally freed up my 2.5 mm circular needle to cast on for a test swatch for a project calling for a 3.0 mm needle. The result? A swatch that's a good one-two inches larger than it should be. FANTASTIC.*

So, I'll probably cast on with my zeros and knit this pair of socks for the rest of the year. Good news is that I think the pattern will be easy to knit on the go, but geez, ZEROS.

So, what about you guys? Tight knitters? Don't knit patterns where it matters? Are there any magically accurate gauge producers out there? And the million dollar question, does this issue come up in crochet??? (Or the sewing arts?)

*Sarcasm.

this post brought to you by many proxy purchases

2009-04-20T19:14:00.001-07:00

Now that they have all been gifted, I can finally post about a series of wristwarmers that I knit this winter. They were for some dear friends from law school under the theory that fighting the man is easier when your wrists are warm. (We'll ignore the fact that one of those dear friends is, actually, the man, but, you know, less so than under the last administration. And she was finally transferred to the division that she actually agreed to be in, so now she's the man who prosecutes corruption within the man.) Ideally, they would have made it to this group's mid-January reunion, but a few other knits took up the space in my queue during the months prior. But everyone loves getting packages in the mail, right?

First up: for the friend who's fighting teen dating violence despite the best efforts of non-profit bureaucracy, Easy Lace Fingerless Mittens knit in Plucky Knitter Merino Cashmere Nylon (MCN) Worsted in Vito. (Mods here) Next on line: for the friend who's fighting the creation of a 180-page Constitution that actually reduces rights held by the people, a pattern of my own design in Plucky Knitter MCN Fingering in Riverview Drive. (Rav details here)
(Her wristwarmers are fingering weight because she's dividing her time between the States and the much warmer country where they are considering adopting that Constitution.)

For the friend who's fighting snarky questions from Posner on oral argument, Evangeline knit up in PK MCN Worsted in Montgomery. (Rav link here)
And for the friend who's fighting 200-page memos to help inform the decisions of the highest court in her state, the worsted-weight version of my wristwarmer design and a hat designed to match in PK MCN Worsted in Nectar and Well Read, respectively. (Rav links here and here)
(It was also her birthday, so that's why she got a hat, too.) Well Read has to rank high on my list of favorite colors ever, even though it's not in my usual range. It really looked like the leather on an old book and I couldn't get my camera to capture the pure glow of the yarn. Thinking about it right now, I'm still a little amazed that I managed to ship that hat away from me.

I had a lot of fun designing these patterns and am planning to publish them at some point. The fingering weight version is in the process of being test knit right now, thanks to a wonderful Raveler.

I'm incredibly grateful to EW for the proxy purchases responsible for three of the skeins of yarn represented here. Since she knew I was hunting PK MCN Worsted for this series, she kindly purchased Vito, Nectar and Well Read on my behalf at PK updates that I could not make. Thanks, EW! Way to be!

A little bit of gift knitting

2009-04-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

My little sister can be hilariously (and sometimes annoyingly) demanding, but in this case, it worked out for her. I started this cowl without a clear idea of who it would go to, and then happened to be knitting it when visiting my sis in February.

The Plucky Knitter, Merino Seacell in Elegant Elephant
Chickadee Cowl

She went on about how she wanted the cowl and I should make it for her, and then proceeded to knit about 10 stitches herself. Of course, I couldn't convince her to try using the linen stitch the pattern calls for, but since by that time I'd decided she had picked out her birthday present, that was just fine.*

The linen stitch is a new fav of mine, and I highly recommend it. It's super easy, which made this perfect bus and awkward-break-between-classes knitting. Just cast on however many stitches you want, and then
R1: knit 1, slip one with yarn in front (repeat)
R2: slip one with yarn in front, knit one (repeat)

And repeat! Gorgeous and genius.

The little guys nestling into the cowl are Trilobites, and I love them. I should crochet little whiskers to make them more authentic, but...well, I don't have a crochet hook. Whoops!

I also have to preview the other project I've been working on, the Mother of Pearl scarf by Grumperina in my Hear Me Now Plucky Knitter MCN. (You remember.)

I cannot describe how much I love this project. The yarn becomes more gorgeous every time I pick it up (which, seriously, how is that possible?) and I so so love how it works together with the pattern. The way this picture glows (at least in my eyes) really expresses the essence of this scarf. In fact, the only negative that I recently realized is that eventually the yarn will come to an end. I found myself rather distraught and have been creating other knitting distractions in the hopes that I can just knit this forever.

And then, a funny FO picture. Yay!

*May this be a lesson to you all: I am highly suggestible.

Fabric over yarn

2009-04-12T06:45:00.001-07:00

I have discovered that perhaps I am more of a sew-er than a knitter. While knitting projects consistently make me want to pull my hair out, I have made two baby quilts, a lap quilt, and one baby dress in the past few months with more or less only joy.

My mom gave us her old sewing machine. It's the sewing machine she got for her 21st birthday, and it is pretty much a case study in how things used to be built to last, and today things are built to break. It's solid metal, and has yet to be serviced in all its years. It still works like a gem! After we figured out how to thread it (a very complicated process, that I often still need a picture to guide me through), Samir and I tried some simple stuff. Thus our quilting hobby was born. We used to fight over sewing machine time, but the novelty wore off and now we're okay.

I can't find my pictures, so instead I'm posting a picture of one of Samir's quilts. (He is even better at quilting than I). He made this hanging quilt ridicluously quickly, and we're hanging it in our office, which is painted a light green that the striped fabric picks up on very nicely. Samir made up this pattern based on the striped fabric he liked, and I was highly impressed by the finished product.

it all makes sense

2009-04-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

So I'm typing this post from a brand new MacBook. It was time for my old computer to be retired: it served me well, but has earned itself a break. (Sometimes when I'd turn it on, it would only let me type in reverse: "gmail" would show up as "liamg" and the only way to fix it was by cutting and pasting. It also could only get through about 10 minutes of any video before overheating and turning itself off.) But, even though I'd reconciled myself to the necessity a few weeks ago, I was still sad that I'd be saying goodbye to my old one. And I thought that I was being totally irrational, until I noticed a striking similarity between my computer and other things that I like.

My latest swatch for knee socks was my first clue:
Some other examples:

Suddenly, it all made sense. And here I pretend that I don't have a consistent favorite color.

what are the rules about buttons on baby knits?

2009-03-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

Someone reading knows and can enlighten me, right? Because while I think these are darn cute, I'd like to avoid the whole choking-hazard thing. (They'll go on a sweater sized for a 1 year old, although it hasn't been knit yet, so I guess I could make it smaller if necessary.)

ssk vs. k2tog*

2009-03-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

Apologies in advance: this post may bore you all to tears. But I do need your help, so please persevere for my sake!

EW's comment on my last post made me realize that the blog might appreciate an illustration of the differences between k2tog and ssk, so you all don't have to learn the hard way like I did. Until I started working on designing a project that highly featured both, I'd thought that they were perfectly interchangeable. And, being quite honest, I probably prefered the motion of the ssk, even though it had more steps. I'd read the TechKnitter's description of the difference (basically, ssk stretches out the stitches so they are a lot baggier than k2tog) but I'd filed that difference away as something that probably wouldn't affect my knitting much. After all, there are a lot of ways to perfect knitting that I never bother with, so why should I worry if my left-leaning decreases were a little sloppy? But then I started working on desigining a wristwarmer pattern that made the differences between the right-leaning k2tog and the left-leaning ssk all too apparent, so I've now got photographic proof.

The ssk is on the left and the k2tog is on the right. You can see how the k2tog creates relatively straight lines while the ssk meanders in clumsy steps. Now, if the project only included ssks, I'm not sure that it would be as noticeable. But when they are right next to k2togs, I've found the difference to be unfortunate.
I've found a number of suggestions for better left-leaning decreases online, but haven't found one that works particularly well with this pattern. Many of those techniques rely on being able to pick up stitches on the side of the decrease, which isn't possible in this pattern because the decreases are surrounded by yarn overs. I'm still hopeful that TechKnitter's solution will save the day, but I haven't had much success with it so far. (I think I'm messing up the yank somehow....)

In the latest iteration of this pattern, I'm using slip, knit (sk), which I think is better, but still not perfect.

Here the sk is on the left and the k2tog is on the right.

So. I'm opening it up again: any suggestions for a better left-leaning decrease that can be worked between two yarn overs?

* RJ, decoding is available at the end of this post.

Can't knit too many hats on the southside

2009-03-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

I've been away from knitting for a while, but my boss is expecting and a baby hat seemed like a great way to get back into it. I also spent nearly all of February dealing with shingles and knitting seemed like a great sedentary activity. Traditionally, my baby hat of choice has been the umbilical cord hat from Stitch 'n Bitch, but I thought I might try something different this time. I didn't find any particularly inspiring patterns in my other knitting books, but HEB was here with Natural Knits for Babies and Moms in tow, and I found in it a baby hat and blanket set that I liked. Since the gender of the baby is unknown, I had to opt for gender neutral yarn and wound up with one skein of orange and one skein of green.

The pattern calls for size 7 & 8 needles, but since I didn't have any size 8 dpn and opted not to purchase any, I used size 6 & 7 instead. I finished that hat while HEB was still here, and it seemed pretty small. I couldn't tell if it seemed appropriately small because newborn heads are really tiny and that was the pattern's intended result or if it seemed inappropriately small (possibly because of the change in needle size?). When HEB pointed out that the hat would fit well as long as the baby's head was no larger than the remainder of the skein over which it fit quite well, I decided I had to tear it out and start over. I figure it's always better to knit a little too big than too small (unless, of course, I ever make socks for kz in which case I will shoot small).

HEB suggested that I modify the pattern based off of the umbilical cord hat pattern, since we knew that was a reasonably sized baby hat. Instead of a co of 57 stitches advised in the actual pattern, I co 64 and repeated the pattern until the hat measured 5 " from the co row. I knit the crown as advised in the original pattern, with a few modifications to account for the added stitches, and in the end, success! I suppose now I should knit the matching blanket, but...

I have been wanting to knit myself the droplet hat from Knitting Nature for a very long time and I think I shall! I have green yarn (thanks, EW!) that is perfect for it. I actually wanted to start knitting it last summer after I got the yarn for my birthday, but soon realized that my knitting boxes were all in storage and well, I'm not entirely sure that I have a great excuse for why it's now March and I didn't start it between when I got all of my belongings out of storage and now.

I assumed the hat was to be knit in the round (reasonable assumption for a hat, no?), but discovered while HEB is here that is not true. Apparently it is to be knit flat and then stitched up. It will be first adventure on that front. It will also be first adventure with bobbles, although I took advantage of HEB's presence to get a bobble tutorial because they appeared so intimidating. What I learned is that the bobble, like a cable, appears difficult but in fact is not. So here's to the droplet hat and if anybody want to kal, please do! This is all I have so far, but something is better than nothing, right?:

Emily's Mom: Knitting

2009-03-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

I'm glad I created the tag "luxury yarn." It gets good use on this blog. And thanks for introducing me to Ravelry. How did I live without it? I am amazed that people from all over the world have tagged my scarf a favorite, and I'm getting emails from the woman I bought the tank top pattern from, who is watching the WIP (with the yarn you all gave me at New Years). The combination of knitting and social networking is changing my life Emily's Mom: Knitting

way too many wips*

2009-03-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I just can't focus on any one project right now. My most notable wips:

A very generous Raveler came through with replacement golightly yarn, so all is not lost!

Also in bright blue, I'm finally knitting a baby sweater that I've long wanted to try: the Kai Sweater from Natural Knits for Babies and Mom s. I'm only a few rows in, but the stockinette back should be perfect for working on during knitting lessons tomorrow. I'm using some Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton, which is my favorite yarn for baby knits. I had other plans for this yarn when I bought it in the fall at Purl, but am repurposing it for this sweater.I'm working on a hat that caused a man on the 1 train to ask me if I was knitting in leather. No, sir, that's just some Plucky MCN Worsted that EW scored for me:
I'm designing the hat to match some wristwarmers that I designed; two projects that have taught me why ssk is far inferior to k2tog.** (Seriously, does anyone have suggestions for a better left-leaning decrease that can be worked in between two yarn overs?) The set is for an upcoming birthday, and, even though I'm pretty sure the recipient doesn't read this blog, I'll wait to post pics of the wristwarmers until after they're gifted.

And then I've got some swatches for another few projects: a baby sweater in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport that CH helped me pick out at the new Loopy and a secret project:The Lorna's is superwash, so, showing that I can learn from experience, I'm going to toss it in the wash before measuring gauge.

I did manage to finally finish a baby sweater that has been long hanging over my head, and that taught me to never, ever claim that I could knit a baby sweater in a week. The worst part: I think the buttons are the cutest part of the whole thing:They are from Needleworks, Inc. The sweater is the Geordie Stripe Yoke Jacket from Natural Knits for Baby and Mom. (That book is getting a lot of use lately; all three baby sweaters in this post are from it.) I used Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed Cotton, which I loved knitting with. However, it didn't really hold the ends in, so I'm a little concerned about how it will hold up. I changed the stripe pattern to include two contrasting colors and to extend throughout the sweater. Deets here.

*RJ, in case you come across a real spy who knits, "wip" means "work-in-progress."
** "ssk" = "slip, slip, knit"; "k2tog" = "knit 2 together."

Warm Feet!

2009-03-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

That was my basic goal of knitting these three projects.

I knit these Malabrigo Loafers in a class that Julie Weisenberger taught at Article Pract--where the yarn also originates. I remain verrry grateful to our lovely instructor, who (when I had forgotten that I am a loose knitter and found myself with a much-too-large-sole) helped me figure out the pattern in my gauge. I really want to make a pair of these for myself, and while they do knit up fairly quickly, they are not the bus/TV knitting that I need in these graduate school times.

Also designed by Julie, these ballet flats made me immediately think of heb. And, of course, they had to be in silver and blue! A combo of a Rowan blend and Plucky yarn also made perfect sense.

KZ was lucky enough to serve as a my first small needle sock experiment. This design was a great choice. Interesting enough to hold my attention and teach me about sock knitting, but not so complicated that picking them up was a chore. I do think my next pair of socks will be with thicker yarn and on larger needles. 0s produce a lovely sock, but the TIME, my goodness!

Thanks for sending me pictures so I could brag girls!!

If only i knew how to knit

2009-03-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well i told HEB this story and she thought i should contribute it to the blog (since i obviously don't contribute any crocheting anymore).

i recently returned from some training and part of it covered tradecraft. As part of the training we looked at a training scenario of a guy known to be involved in espionage activities. As part of the investigation, we searched the guys trash and found some pieces of "evidence"

included among that evidence was a sheet of paper, i wish i had it still but it had a bunch of numbered rows that looked something like: *P2tog, p2, k1, p1, k2, k2tog, rep from * to end; 64 sts rem

now while this may seem obvious to you all, my group and i were convinced this was some sort of coded message. i fully admit that i spent about 5 minutes staring at it trying to break the code convinced in the end that p1 referred to some sort of cipher like the one above kids use and these were travel directions. i think our team's final recommendation was to send the sheet to the NSA. in my defense, it was an intentional red herring and we were set up by the scenario.

Captain, my Captain!

2009-02-22T12:17:00.000-08:00

HEB did manage to find some yarn to reknit her second glove, so I feel like I can post about mine without being too much of a jerk. (Though, sympathy for the missing glove and having to reknit the thing still remain in my heart!)

Knotty Gloves, in Plucky Merino Cashmere Nylon, colorway Captain Wentworth

Out here in "Drive to Snow" California, there really isn't a need for heavy duty hand gear. However, there are a few times where handwarmers make it clear why they are not called finger-warmers.

Hence, gloves. They make me pretty happy, though there haven't been many times I've really been able to justify wearing them, especially this relatively warm winter. People complained once when it rained for three days straight, and sure it's annoying, but dudes, at least it wasn't below freezing for three weeks straight.

BUT back to knitting!

This picture shows a more real-to-life color of the yarn.

A note on the color: Captain Wentworth is a character from Persuasian, as I'm sure we all realized. So, I took the opportunity to watch the three movie versions of that book that were available on netflix over the course of knitting these gloves. (And I wonder why I'm not farther along on my thesis...) I must say that overall, I think the production from the 90s was the best. I was quite surprised to find that the most recent BBC production totally changed one of the crucial scenes--I'm never quite sure what compells screen writers to do that, but then, it's unclear why we needed a new version at all. The Captain Wentworth in my mind will always be the slightly weather-beaten faced, elegant and reserved man from the 1995 version.

at least we'll always have Chicago

2009-02-18T17:19:00.000-08:00

I had a different title planned for this post. I was going to write about how I took EW's advice and took these gloves along on the plane to finish them (and motivated myself by not bringing any other gloves/mittens along to wear in Chicago). And then I was going to write about how the flight attendant said to me, "Miss, that looks sharp!" while I was sewing in ends, prompting me to fear that he would take my needle away until he clarified that he meant that my glove was good-looking. Which then led to the man sitting next to me telling me that they were very elegant and I could wear them with an evening gown. (He was from Vermont.)

So that was my plan. Plus pictures of the gloves by Lake Michigan, thanks to CH. But I can't pull it off anymore. Because, as I went to put on my gloves leaving the office today, I could only find one in my purse. No big deal, right? The other one must be in my car, left there as I rushed into my 4 pm meeting (only 50 minutes late, after another meeting ran long and my 45 mile drive was slowed by snow). Not being in my car meant that it must be in my office, under some pile of papers that I'd lugged between meetings. Right? Right?

Well, at least I got to wear them for a lovely long weekend in Chicago. I also thought that I had enough extra yarn to make another glove, but it turns out that I'm about 10 grams short. So I'm begging on Ravelry for some of the same color, but don't plan on holding my breath. I guess not having the extra yarn means that I don't have to decide whether I'm too careless to own handknit gloves (losing one within a week of completing them?!?). That was my first inclination, but then I remembered how cute they were with my tretta hat

Here are the deets: improvised glove pattern based on Grumperina's tretta hat, using Plucky Knitter MCN Fingering in Golightly.

I'm trying to remind myself of an earlier inspirational blog story of knitting lost and knitting found, and am trying to remind myself that it's only yarn, but can't lie: I'm discouraged nonetheless.

sending out an SOS

2009-02-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

I really want to be done with these gloves (rav link) so that I can wear them, but am super overwhelmed by the number of ends to weave in.
Any suggestions on how to get my finishing mojo going?

Homework is for people without knitting blogs

2009-02-04T22:32:00.000-08:00

Plucky Merino Cashmere Nylon, colorway: Hear Me Now*

Tonight I wound up my birthday yarn instead of doing reading. (Nostepinne = such fun!) I had some thoughts for what I could do with this beauty. I would love to hear your thoughts or recommendations!

Yarn on the Nostepinne.

The options I was considering tonight include Grumperina's new Mother of Pearl scarf (rav link) and the Point's Claudette Hat (rav link only, sorry!).

The scarf:
Pro: I was checking my google reader just before class today and thus spent the boring part of econ thinking about this pattern. That's got to mean something.
Pro: The colorway totally fits the idea of the pattern! It's not the pinky white kind of mother of pearl, but it's shimmery and ocean-like all the same. While I would normally hear "brown and green" and think forest, this yarn has hints of turquoise and greyish green that really says "ocean forest" to me.
Pro: I was thinking today that I love how scarves drape and flow and get tossed over one's shoulder.
Pro: Grumperina's patterns are always nice, and (so it seems) are good with plucky yarn.
Con: The pattern calls for 600 yards of DK, and I have just less than 400 yards of fingering. I was thinking how I love long scarves!

**
The hat:
Pro: I mean, take a look. Freaking cute!
Con: Do I have enough yarn? Is this fingering the same as what the pattern calls for? (It seems much thicker to me!)
Con (secret pro): This is a pattern I could see myself making with other yarn and being perfectly happy.

Ok, so maybe the hat isn't really a contender. (Except, the yarn would look lovely in that pattern, I'm sure of it!) But despite my list of mostly pros, I'm not totally sold on the scarf for the yarn. What to do?

*Elizabeth's autoresponse: I WILL ALWAYS COME FOR YOU! *swoon*
**Picture totally stolen from ravelry--I'll take it down if anyone wants.

loveliest neckwear models in the world

2009-01-21T18:43:00.000-08:00

(From left to right, ravelry deets: superstar cowl; wink scarf; humperdinck neckwarmer; stormy wisp; latte neckwarmer)

I definitely had a theme for new year's gifts this year and was willing to sacrifice all practicality to that theme. And so even poor Emily, who probably usually has a pretty warm neck, got a neckwarmer out of me. (But even Tanzania has a rainy season, right?)

Let's keep this (relatively) short, shall we? All yarn is from the Plucky Knitter. (Inspiring colors, delightfully soft, what's not to love about the Plucky yarns?)

Two Bainbridge scarves, one with the rem ix mods of FlintKnits:

The pink is Single Ply Merino in True Love; the orange is Merino Seacell in Pumpkin Latte. The pink is knit in a broken rib, which I thought really suited the single ply yarn. It took me much longer to find a stitch pattern that I liked with the merino seacell and I finally ended up using a bramble stitch. In the round, working the back side of the bramble stitch is actually easier than working the front. Here's how it works:
Round 1: knit
Round 2: repeat p3tog, (k1, p1, k1) all into one stitch
Round 3: knit
Round 4: repeat (k1, p1, k1) all into one stitch, p3tog

I fell in love with Through the Loops! mods to the Wisp pattern and was so happy to try them out with Fingering MCN in Storm the CastleAnd then two patterns that I improvised:

A red cowl out of Fingering Merino Superwash in Va Va Voom, featuring a star stitch and a modified version of the cherry blossoms from the hanami shawl. And a purple neckwarmer in Bulky Cashmere in Humperdinck with vintage buttons, loosely inspired by the Fidget pattern.

I'd love if we had occasion to take pictures similar to the top one more often, but I'll take what I can get. Many thanks to the Churchmans for hosting our crowd (and judging our fierce Iron Chef battle)!

Christmas Socks and a new Project

2009-01-14T17:42:00.000-08:00

It was so much fun to meet my fellow knitters over New Years at our house!

Here at last are the four pairs of socks I knit for my family for Christmas. I finished John's second sock last weekend and he is wearing them enthusiastically!

First I knit David's socks from some of the yarn I received for Christmas last year. The narrow self striping yarn did interesting things at the short rows at the heels and toes.

Next I knit Abigail's from handdyed sock yarn I bought in Baltimore when I went to Stitches East. The yarn was called FrogParty.

Next I knit Emily's, also from hand dyed yarn I bought at Stitches East, but a more complicated pattern now that I have the hang of socks.

It turned out not to be very stretchy around the legs, though (actually not stretchy at all) but they fit OK.

And Finally, John's - plain navy blue wool from my stash, with just a little bit of a pattern. He says they are very warm.

So now I've started on the scarf from the luxury skein of merino/alpaca/silk yarn I bought at Stitches East. I've joined Ravelry and posted my project there. (mmchurchman)

I love what the yarn is doing on my second try with a shorter row (pattern from Ravelry!) I've also discovered a community of lunchtime knitters at DOT where I work and I joined them for a while today.

Staying warm on the southside.

2009-01-12T22:46:00.000-08:00

We'll have to have a holiday edition soon, but in the meantime I wanted to share a quick and totally satisfying knit with you lovely people.

I fell totally in love with this pattern, sweetly named "Holding Hands and Feeding Ducks," but I didn't have the bulky yarn that could hold up to it.

And then, when I was in Texas, I spied this pepperminty Manos at my mom's new yarn store and couldn't walk away without it. Post NYE, I found myself in Chicago cozied up in front of a television, and this cowl was born!

I cast on 40 stitches, and ended up with a perfectly fitting cowl for Chicago. With a few strategically placed buttons, this kept my face warm from the biting winds that = winter in that fair land. (Of course, my actual neck was covered by a stormy wisp--but two knitted objects for one neck is acceptable in the windy city, or so I believe.)

If I made this for someone else, I think I would go with bigger buttons and maybe try a button band. These little buttons like to slip out of the not-actually-button-holes.

I hope I will be back there and able to wear this happy cowl again soon!

secret gnomes love cashmere

2008-12-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

In my office's "secret gnome" gift exchange, I pulled a co-worker who I thought would appreciate a little cashmere something. Luckily, I had a great skein of Plucky Knitter Aran Cashmere that was waiting for a project. Unluckily, I only had six (very, very busy) days to crank something out. So I turned to my old favorite, the Odessa pattern by Grumperina. Not to repeat myself yet again, I decided to forgo the hat's decreases and turn it into a little neckwarmer. It's as if I knit something different, right? Right? (Deets on Ravelry if you want them.) Having very little time to finish this project meant that I had no time to get decent pictures, but here's one to show off Connecticut's first snowfall of the season:

As someone who is technically from Wisconsin, I can authoritatively say that people in Connecticut do not know how to drive in the snow.

Posting about this Grumperina pattern reminds me that I never posted about my last Grumperina hat, also knit in Plucky Knitter Aran Cashmere. (Maybe this is what Wamps means when she talks about me overdoing it with the aran cashmere hats...) Anyway, here's my Weather Report hat, the name inspired by the combination of its lovely color (the Golightly colorway) and a pattern that reminds me of precipitation:It's Grumperina's latest hat pattern, Tretta, modified for the bulkier yarn. (Mods here) I probably don't *need* two cashmere hats, but I'm keeping this one for myself because I can't find last year's. (It's in a box, somewhere, I'm sure.) Even once I find that one, I think I can justify keeping both, since that one was a little baggy when I wore my hair down and this one is too short when my hair is in a ponytail. Indeed. What a justification. But the top of this hat also makes me really happy:I've knit quite a bit for holiday presents this year, but the secret gnome gift is the only one that's actually made its way to its recipient. Perhaps I'll post about the others in the new year. While three of the yet-to-be-posted projects are repeats of past projects, only one of them is a repeat of a Grumperina hat....

Baby Cole's sock yarn sweater

2008-12-22T14:21:00.000-08:00

Baby Cole's Thanksgiving Sweater

Cole - age 2 months - is wearing the sweater I knit from a skien of hand died sock yarn I bought at Stiches East, a knitting EXPO in Baltimore. The theme of the EXPO was "Knitting Outside the Sox" - lots of sock yarn and ideas for things to knit with it besides socks. Size 12 months - but it just fits!
(Cole is the child of one one of Emily's grad school friends from Emory. She lives in DC ad we've adopted her and her husband for Thanksgiving.)

Duomo Hat

2008-12-22T08:59:00.000-08:00

I love this hat and this yarn and this pattern!

The yarn is called Florin (yes, the city-state) and is an amazing aran cashmere by the pluckyknitter. The pattern is Brooklyn Tweed's Koolhaas, and together, they produced this warm, soft piece of headwear that reminds me strongly of the red roofs and church dome in Florence.

When I bought the yarn I had in mind a kind of Renaissance decorative stitch pattern, because I'd imagined it would be golden orange, but the actual hat turned out to have shades of brown that I absolutely fell in love with.

I've also been wanting to knit one of Brooklyn Tweed's patterns for a while now (his blog and the photos there are like knitting candy) and given how Miss HEB has been reworking hat patterns for her skeins of plucky aran cashmere, I thought I might try my hand the Koolhaas.

I knit most of this hat over Thanksgiving and during the drive up the coast from balmy southern CA to rainy northern, and then finished it up after my studio presentation. I will admit that, due perhaps to diminishing amounts of sleep, I did manage to forget where I was in the pattern at one point and never completely figured it out until after I'd taken a guess and moved on. Stitch marker for anyone who can identify the "oops" correctly!

This last shot is just to add a little atmosphere. I left my camera in California (also the reason for the dated pictures) and had to retake these hat pics here in Texas. You can see my sister's goats to the right, and beyond that fields and fields of other country happenings. It's been cool and grey here pretty steadily since my plane landed (5 hours late!) in Austin on Friday. I have to admit, even without the big Texas sky, these softly rolling hills and misty grey-purple trees and brush warm my heart just a tad. A cow just mooed very loudly in my direction to remind me to add: yes, there are also cows!

Gracing my neck is a little bit of self-indulgence (I'm giving the hat away! I deserve it!) that I think I'll be ripping out this afternoon. More on that once the yarn and I figure out what it should be.

"realistic just means not very pretty"**

2008-11-28T13:37:00.001-08:00

I'm taking the excuse of being at home to post about my mom's birthday present. You've already seen it in various forms, but here's the finished product.The pattern is the Old Shale Smoke Ring and it's knit in Plucky Knitter Merino-Cashmere-Nylon. The yarn is from the PK yarn club, to which EW and I share a subscription. (This offers us the opportunity to fight over who gets to keep what yarn every month. Really a good idea all around. But it also lets us get beautiful yarn.) This particular yarn is the Colonel Brandon colorway, from the months that the club was featuring Jane Austen colorways. I received this yarn while studying for the bar from home this summer and wasn't in love with it right away, but when I was talking about sending it to EW, my mom said, "Oh, but it's so pretty!" Well, that decided that, and EW got Miss Marianne instead. (Which clearly turned out for the best.) And I grew to love this yarn, with its variation and depth that were not immediately apparent: highly appropriate given its namesake.

I got the idea to add an Elk brooch to the cowl from a Raveler who'd used such a brooch to good effect. Although I thought I'd ordered it in plenty of time, coming from Australia took even longer than I thought so it didn't show up until the day before my mom's birthday and the whole package was delayed getting to her. I could have sent it without, but didn't think the effect was quite as good: ** Declaration by my five-year old cousin. She was coloring turkey shapes with her twin brother and asked whose was better. I said, "Well, they're both good in different ways. Yours is much more of a fantasy and his is much more realistic."

Miss Marianne

2008-11-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

What once was a pile of string.....

...is now a beautiful thing!

Ok, sorry, couldn't resist. I am rather happy with how this lovely cowl turned out.

I really enjoyed knitting with this pattern–it was easy to remember, easy to pick up in the middle of a row or repeat (crucial for transit knitting) and, perhaps most importantly, look how pretty! The color variation in the yarn (Miss Marianne Dashwood, from the Plucky Knitter) really looks lovely in the finished, blocked version. Soon it will be off to its recipient, who will hopefully enjoy a little Marianne in her life.

finished object parade

2008-11-16T12:54:00.001-08:00

Thanks to a long phone conversation with CH on Saturday (and to actually remembering to bring my headset in from the car) I had some time to take care of some long unfinished objects. Like these fingerless mittens:I'd almost finished them about a month ago, but couldn't bring myself to finish one thumb and sew in the ends. Perfect mindless knitting for a phone conversation! These are the Mahayana Flying Gloves, using the Plucky Knitter Worsted Merino. When I first saw the Leyburn sock pattern, I thought that it would make fantastic gloves. Imagine my delight to find that someone had already worked out fingerless mitts using the same stitch pattern! You can find my mods here (rav link; if you're not on ravelry and are curious, let me know and I'll post them, but they are pretty boring...) I'm pretty darn pleased with these, so I hope to knit them again soon, probably with thinner yarn.

And then this hat, which is for my grandma to wear at the North Shore of Lake Superior over Thanksgiving.

All I had left to do was sew in the ends, but I hadn't been able to force myself to do so. However, it's got to get in the mail this week, so I couldn't avoid it any longer. I actually knit this hat twice: the first attempt was using 8s and 9s and casting on 70 stitches. I liked the way it turned out, but decided that my grandma would prefer a little tighter knit. So I frogged and reknit on 6s and 8s, with a cast on of 80 stitches. Now, I think it’s perfect for her.

This is the same pattern that I knit for myself last winter (Odessa, by Grumperina), and I was delighted to get to knit it again. (The pattern is available as a free Ravelry download.) I used a skein of the Plucky Knitter Aran Cashmere and am so happy to get to gift such lovely yarn to my grandma!

I have two more recently finished knits that I need to post about, but they weren't finished during this conversation, so I'll save them for another day.