yes, I know it's pretty here

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!