What have I been doing?

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...

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

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

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!

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

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

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!