Endings and Beginnings

All of a sudden it seems I have completed a lot of projects, and when I say a lot of projects, what I really mean is that I completed one project of long standing, a simple project with four items and a fiddly project with multiple fiddly bits.

The project of long standing was a pair of socks for my father-in-law. I'm not sure why they took me so long - according to my Ravelry page, I started them four months ago! The pattern did require fairly close attention, as it was just knits and purls and I never seemed to be able to memorize it. I also used size 0 needles, which aren't really that much smaller than size 1, but it sure felt like it some days. Anyway, they're finished and I can't wait to give them him when I see him in a couple weeks.

The simple four-item project was another Fair Isle hat & legwarmers with matching mittens. This time I used University of Louisville colors (or pick your school with red, white & black) in Cascade 220 Superwash. The knitting went very quickly as it was worsted-weight and I'd already made this set at least twice. I think the hat took two hours at most, the legwarmers about 90 minutes each, and the mittens maybe 3 hours, just because the i-cord was a little tedious. I still haven't decided whether I'm going to add a pompon to it - I think I'll make one up and see how it looks.

The last project, the fiddly one, was a black-faced sheep and his shirt, kilt, and sporran. Last post, I wrote about how I ran out of yarn for both the shirt and the kilt. Since then, new yarn arrived and I was able to complete those bits. Once those were done, I started thinking about how I was going to make the sporran. The pattern called for knitting up a blank, felting it by hand in really hot water, and then cutting out the pieces. As I'm not a big fan of hand felting, I bought some crafting felt, cut out the pieces, and glued them together with my glue gun. (I was pretty excited about this, as I haven't had an opportunity to use it in a long time!) Once I'd assembled the sporran, I found some perl cotton and crocheted a little chain to tie it around the sheep's waist. I've decided (with the help of some friends) that his name is Angus Shepherdsbain. We suspect that he'd be a pretty charming guy (you can see for yourself how handsome he is), frequently escaping through the fence to meet up with the lassies at the next farm, and forcing the shepherd to go looking for him well after his suppertime. He's clearly a mischief maker.

As for beginnings, I've started thinking about Kentucky State Fair stuff. For this year's Fair, I'll be entering my lopi sweater, the UofL hat set, and our loveable scamp, Angus. Next year's Fair is a completely different story. I'll be eligible for the sweepstakes points prize next year, so I'm hoping to submit an item in each category and see how many points I can rack up. There are 16 categories (4 of them for adult sweaters), so I have a lot of work to do in the next year.

In that vein, I've cast on for next year's first project, a baby sweater. It's the Archie vest from Kristen Rengren's Vintage Baby Knits book. I've had my eye on this pattern for a long while, and now that I have plenty of superwash sock yarn, I can make it without purchasing any. I've just gotten the bottom band to the right length, so I'll post update in future posts. I expect that the colorwork will go pretty smoothly - I just have to check my math and make sure the pattern is centered and pretty.

Well, that's almost all I've got for tonight. Until next time, Friends.

It's a vicious cycle, using up leftovers.

So last post I showed you the cute baby blankie I made for my new nephew (who is now a couple weeks old and as cute as can be!). Once I finished the blanket, there was plenty of yarn left over, so I thought I'd try using it up.

The first project was a wee sheep hat for a charity's silent auction - our group had a cute little baby fingerprint kit thing, but we needed to beef up the basket, so I made the hat. I only needed to purchase one skein of green yarn, no biggie. Once I finished the hat I thought it would be nice to make some wee mittens to match it, so I cast right on. Sadly, I ran out of the cream colored yarn after the first mitten, so I had to go right back to the shop for some more. And, just my luck, they didn't have any. Nor did the other two shops in town, so I ordered it online and hoped it would arrive in time for me to complete the mittens in time for the auction. It didn't.

While I was waiting for the new yarn to arrive, I thought I'd try out another pattern from the book with the sheep hat. The Fair Isle hat and leg warmers pattern looked like a good one to help me use up some of the yarn I had, so I cast on and mere hours later, I'd finished a cute little hat. The leg warmers went pretty quickly too. I had enough of the green, brown and tan yarn left to make some mittens to match the others, so I did those too, which worked out just right. I've since sent the set out to my new nephew.

I thought I give the same set another try, with the orange, black, and white yarn leftover from the blankie. I was able to finish the hat and mittens according to the pattern, but I ran out of orange before I could finish the legwarmers, so the last bit of cuff was finished with a bit of white. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this  set. I may decide to enter the hat and mittens in the State Fair this summer, depending on whether or not anyone I know turns up pregnant between now and then. On my Ravelry project page, I named them after Finding Nemo, because they're the same colors as a clown fish, and I imagined that if Nemo & Dory had made their way to the North Sea, they'd be wearing Fair Isle sweaters. Or at least Dory would, but I didn't have yarn in her colors.

So that's all I have for now, Friends. I've been knitting all kinds of things lately, but I haven't been especially meticulous about photographing them. As I catch up on the pics, I'll write up the projects. Until next time then.

Stranded!

I seem to be knitting a lot of stranded things lately. Mostly, I think it's because the yarn in my stash lends itself to the technique: I have a couple different yarns in more than one color, but not enough of each color to make a whole project.

Having finished my husband's sweater recently, I've been trying to find an appropriate project to use up all the yarn I have left, something like 3 skeins of the brown and 2 skeins of the cream, in addition to the 1 skein I have of another cream colorway. After searching Ravelry for bulky-yarn patterns, I eventually came upon the Northern Lights Icelandic Poncho by Vedis Jonsdottir, who is actually from Iceland. The pattern called for a lopi yarn, but since I'm trying to use up the rest of my Eco Wool, the yoke design is knitting up with more distinct stitch definition and less fuzziness than I would expect to get from lopi. The knitting has gone quickly, especially with size 10 needles! I only cast on Thursday night and I've gotten through the yoke already. All that's left is the mile or so of stockinette and the seed stitch hem. I'm pretty sure I'll have enough yarn left at the end of this project to make another, probably with the colors reversed. I just really want to use up the rest of this yarn.

The other yarn in my stash that I've been trying to knit up is the Littledove Farm Shetland wool blend that I won at the State Fair a couple years ago. Last February, I'd knit up a hat with one of my friend's kids in mind, but it turned out that the kid wanted different colors, and his parents preferred it to be machine washable, so I've held onto the hat, trying to decide if I want to wear it myself this winter, or maybe give it away as part of a set. As this is a sport-weight yarn, I did another Ravelry search, this time for stranded mittens. The winner turned out to be a pattern I already had in my queue, the Squirrel & Oak mittens by Adrian Bizilia. For whatever reason, I was able to knit the pair of mittens over the course of a weekend. One of my coworkers expressed a liking for them, so I'm going to give them to her, and since I'm giving those away, I immediately cast on for a new pair, this one using a chart inspired by the wallpaper from Sherlock. I haven't decided yet whether I'll make the smiley face, but I figure that if I have some yellow yarn lying around, I'll go ahead and do it. Sadly, one hat and two pairs of mittens isn't going to use up my whole stash of it, so I'll likely be knitting a few more stranded things before it's gone.

Well, that's all I've got for tonight, Friends. Until next time.

Finally. The effing mittens are done!

At long, freaking last, I've finished the Chawton Mittens. What's kind of sad is that each thumb only took an hour or so to knit. I don't know why I was dreading them. That seems to happen to me a lot. Anyway, the thumbs are done, I've washed and blocked the mittens. Too bad they're a little on the long side and my floats are a little short. On the plus side though, they did soften up beautifully after washing. And they don't look too bad from a distance.

I also added a little something to the Big Cuddly Bunny: a pompom tail! I had yarn left over and knew I probably wouldn't use it for anything else, so I whipped it up and stuck it on the back. I'm nearly breathless from the squee on this.

And as promised last time, I had myself photographed in the Raindance Sweater, and I have to admit that I'm very pleased at how it turned out. I've finally knit myself a sweater that fits correctly, and, even better, it's not the biggest size listed on the pattern. It's two sizes smaller than the biggest size. This working out thing (and watching what I eat) is pretty cool.

Now that I've gotten three projects finished, I felt like it was safe to start another, so I cast on for the Jasper Diamond Hoodie, by Kristen Rengren. I had enough yarn leftover from Raindance to make the smallest size, and one of my friends had just finished one (it's so cute!), so I thought this would be a quick, fun project. Of course, almost immediately after I cast on, I found another pattern I just have to knit, so I'm trying to get this done as quickly as possible. Since I cast on Thursday night, I've managed to complete the body of the sweater and start the sleeves. It helped that I had an hour to kill this morning while I waited for my husband to come jump start my car, then another hour while I waited at the car battery place while they installed a new one for me. The diamond pattern is easy to memorize, so it's almost like it's flying off my needles.

Well, I think that's all I've got for this time. Maybe I'll have Jasper done by the next time I post. Until next time, Friends.

I'm having a little trouble finishing things.

On Saturday I got the mittens mostly finished - all I have left to do is the thumbs. (There's no photo, because I didn't think of it until it was dark. Next time. I promise.) It really isn't that much to do, but I'm not really feeling it just now. I'm hoping I'll feel like it this weekend - I have a day off because there are a few horse races coming up. One of them is described as "the most exciting two minutes in sports." Anyway, there will be plenty of leisure drinking time, so I'll definitely be getting some knitting in. But it might have to be something mindless, with endless stockinette.

Thank goodness I cast on for Raindance yesterday. My husband and I had to go to Indianapolis, so I had a good 90 minutes of knitting time each way. This sweater is short sleeved, with really interesting construction. I'm knitting it with the SMC Select that I picked up while I was there for my triathlon two weeks ago. What I'm most excited about, though, is that I'm making a size large for myself, rather than the XXL that my last two sweaters have been! I've already knit my way through a ball and a half of yarn, so it's moving right along.

The other thing I'm having trouble finishing is the giant stuffed bunny I started on a whim on Saturday after I got off work. I put in one movie, then another, and the next thing I knew, I'd knit up all of it except for the second ear. The next morning, I started the second ear, got halfway through and ran out of yarn. Luckily, a friend has some of the yarn, so I'll be purchasing half a ball from her. I did manage to get the pink bits duplicate stitched onto the first ear, which looks pretty good, so as soon as I have more yarn we'll be able to call this bunny finished. It'll probably only be a total of 7 hours of actual knitting on this project. Quick and easy with big yarn and big needles!

Well, that's about all I've got for tonight. Until next time, y'all.

Inertia

It seems like the longer I'm gone from the blog, the harder it is to get back to it. Over the last few weeks I haven't been knitting all that much because I was training for my first triathlon in five years. The race was on April 15, and I put in a pretty respectable performance: I placed 7th out of 15 participants in my group. I would have like to have placed a little higher, but in the end I'm just happy I wasn't last. One thing I liked about this race was that it was a Personal Record for me at more than 8 minutes faster than I completed it last time. But the best thing was the nametag my 8 year-old niece made for me. It was all her own idea - she wanted to make sure the race people knew who I was.

In knitting news, I've been making slow, but sure, progress on the Cameo Mittens. This is my first real attempt at Fair Isle knitting and I think it's coming out alright. They don't look great right now, but I think they'll improve after they're washed and blocked. It's looking like a few of my floats are a little short, but I hope a good, long soak will improve them some. I only have a few more rounds to go before I start the decreases which will close them up. After that, I can do the thumbs and call them done. Even though I haven't been writing, I have taken a few photos, so I hope you'll enjoy them. Until next time, Friends.

Seeing the bigger picture

Sometimes it takes seeing a photograph of my knitting to realize that I haven't noticed something. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe it's getting the project into a frame that makes me notice something new. Or maybe it's that I've held the camera farther away from the project than I hold it as I'm knitting it. But anyway, today, after I photographed the Prana socks, I noticed that the colors were variegating differently one from the other. One sock has a wider spiral of bright color while the other seems to be much darker with a narrow spiral of bright. I haven't noticed this as I've been knitting them, probably because I've been paying more attention to the stitch pattern than the color.

I don't think the intended recipient of these socks will mind - I mean, if it was up to her, both socks would have the wide bright stripe, but I'm sure she'll like them anyway. The variegation adds to the uniqueness of the socks, and she's a pretty unique girl herself.

The socks are knitting up quickly. I've already completed the feet, and since there are no heels to turn, I'm ready to get going on the legs. I'm pretty sure they'll go quickly too.

I've also made some progress on the Chawton Mittens. I've gotten through 15 rounds of the chart and have found that the stranded knitting isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. It is a little tedious, but nothing I can't get through. The yarn I'm using is producing very distinct stitches that I'm not sure I like. I think I might have preferred a fuzzier yarn, but maybe they fill out a little once they've been washed. I do like that the yarn is superwash, which is a plus for mittens. We'll see how they go.

That's all I have for now. Until next time, Friends.

So much sock yarn

It could be said that I have a lot of sock yarn. I don't have as much as a lot of people, but I have enough to keep me knitting socks for the rest of the year before I had to buy more. But sometimes I want to knit something other than socks, so it was nice to stumble upon the pattern for Chawton Mittens. This pattern was published in Interweave Knits' Jane Austen Knits special issue magazine that came out last fall. I'm not sure why the mittens didn't really catch my eye the first time I saw them, but when the photo turned up in my email last week, I decided that I'd like to knit them.

As it turns out, I happened to have some yarn in my stash that would be appropriate for these mittens: it was the right weight, the right yardage and the right colors. I even had the right size needles! Well, duh, I have three of the right size needles, five if you include double points. Anyway, this seemed like a no-brainer. I already had the pattern, I had the yarn and I had the needles. But of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I decided that I had to knit these mittens two-at-a-time. This is stranded knitting we're talking about here. I haven't really done that much stranded knitting (one pair of socks, I think), so this will definitely be a challenge. I've managed to complete three color work rounds so far. It's been a bit slower than I usually work, but I think it will be fine. Since this project will require a measure of focus, I'll keep it at home. It's definitely not for social knitting situations.

For knitting with friends, I have another project, the Prana socks by Cirilia Rose in Clara Parkes' Knitters Book of Socks. These are yoga socks I'm knitting for one of AmeriCorps volunteers. She's just started doing yoga and found that she really likes it. I'm knitting them from some Claudia Hand Painted that I bought early last summer when I was visiting my hometown. The colorway is called Zebra, but I have no earthly idea why. The colors are cobalt blue, electric green and some purple with some browns and greys and are pooling in a really interesting way. I have modified this pattern as well: I'm knitting them from the foot up, as the two skeins of Claudia are only 350 yards and the pattern calls for 420 yards or so. I'll just knit as far as I can on the legs before I run out of yarn. This pattern is proving to be easy to memorize, so they're perfect for knitting in public.

Well, that's it for tonight, y'all. Until next time!

I finished those socks

On Friday, I finished the Hummingbird socks, on Saturday I got the ends woven in and on Sunday I got them washed. Yesterday I took pictures, so now I can give them away. These socks were a very quick knit - I'm not sure that I've done any other socks in just 10 days. Blocking definitely helped the pattern assert itself, but I think if I do this pattern again, I might use a yarn with shorter lengths of color for a more mottled look rather than the stripes & flecks I got with this yarn.

Since I finished the socks, I started on the Chawton Mittens from the Jane Austen Knits magazine. I was thinking that I needed a challenge, so the color work in these mittens should do the trick. I've also upped the challenge quotient by starting these two-at-a-time. I've only done one round so far, so I'm not sure how this will work out for the whole project. One thing I've done that I think will help is that I put the yarn for each mitten in a separate bag to make it easier to keep the yarn from tangling too much. I don't expect this project will travel much, so I'll have to find a project that will. It'll probably be socks, as usual.

Well, that's it for now, Friends. Until next time.