I miss blogging, the post

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.