January Roundup

It's that time of month again. You know, a couple of days into the new month when I realize that I never did the previous month's roundup. So, here it is.

I finished:

--A camera bag for DD#2 who can already take better pictures than me (not that that's hard to achieve.)

--Three thorpe hats--2 are plain and 1 is fairisle. These are for charity and were mostly knit on "Knit for Others" Sundays.

Four more toddler charity hats as I couldn't get too much of the hats and kept using up the stash. (Can I see a dent in what's left? Not really. The space was taken up by several eBay purchases.)

I was on a fairisle kick as I finished a hat for DS#1, just in time for his snowboarding trip. (Literally. I put the pompom on about 2 hours before he left. Good thing I could still attach the pompom or I might not have made it.)

Pieces worked on this month include a couple of squares, several fish, and a piece of my first handspun sweater.

And one more hat was done, using the yarn I just spun.




Happy Birthday Janice! Hopefully it looks better as your hat than as my dreadlocks.

Snow day

We've finally had our first snow of the year. Yesterday we got a couple of inches--the worst being right when I was driving to work. I saw 5 accidents on a 20 minute drive. The schools were closed early and the drive was much better on the way home. (Plus, it was a nice, quiet day at work--always a bonus.)

Today, I was scheduled to go on a field trip with DS#2. I got up on time, obsessively checked the news and the internet for our school's closing, but there was none. Sigh, jumped into the shower and got completely soaked just in time to learn that the schools were closed. Went back to bed, and got up with a real doozy of a bedhead.

For the rest of the day I basically did some knitting and some watching of TV (We have a DVD of the Gilmore Girls that we've been going through--good knitting TV).

What I've been knitting is a hat. (And I won't even ask if you're surprised.)

This time it's different, though, it's a ski hat for DS#1. He's picked out the pattern and the yarn, preferring wool over acrylic (ah....brainwashing is beginning to work.)

I had him search through Ravelry to find a pattern available on the net, and he found this one. It's knit from the bottom up, but since I didn't know if I have enough green, I've been knitting from the top down. I've been knitting it like this, inside out, to give more stretch to the floats.



Here's what the right side looks like:



The only problem ( and I say that like it's not a big problem), is that it's too small. He thinks it might work, but I think I need to go up a needle size (for the second time, I started with 7s, ripped out and did this with 8s. Now I'll try again with 9s.) I'm pretty sure I'll have enough green yarn, so I think I'll do this version from the bottom up.

Third time's a charm?

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I've bought more yarn on eBay. This is Laines du Nord Maxi washable wool in a lovely bubblegum pink.



I bought it at the time with no plan for it. Just a couple of days after it arrived, I knew what it was for.



A couple of squares to be part of an afghan being put together by Elizabeth for Alison, who's really sick. We're hoping that this blanket will "Wrap her up in comfort" and let know how special she is.

Sending some "hugs and kisses" and lots of "love"!

Some fish

I've been in the yarn buying mood lately without wanting to spend much money. My solution? Buy on eBay. I've been only bidding on items that have a low list price and I haven't gotten into a bidding war (at least, yet). And I don't bid against other bidders. Since I'm not needing that specific yarn per se, I try to get it as cheaply as I can.

This is one of those purchases--5 skeins of Encore Colorspun. It's just like the yarn I used previously for a baby blanket, but it's worsted weight rather than DK. The colorway is just the same, though, so I see another baby blanket in the future.



I've also been knitting fish. I bookmarked this pattern for the tesselating fish afghan a couple of years ago, but have just started to make them. Here's a post of what a completed blanket should look like. They're rather addicting, take only about 20 yards per fish, and make up extremely quickly.



I'm not sure I'll do an afghan, but a tesselating fish scarf would be pretty cool.

What do you think?

In the last couple of days I've been spinning some yarn out of the roving that I got from MDSW '08. Remember this?



It has now become this.



It's very bumpy and I'm not sure how it will knit up. Spinning is not just like riding a bicycle, but rather has a bit of a learning curve every time. Hopefully it will knit up fine in all it's handspun unique-ness.

DS#1 seems to think that it would make good dredlocks.



What do you think?

Blogversary

I totally missed my blogversary which was (wait while I do the math. 366 because it was leap year - 353 = 13)

13 days ago.

I've been writing a blog for four years and this was my first knitted item to make the blog.



Thanks for hanging in with me!

Sunday's Knit for Others

Oh, look, it's a hat!




How unusual.

There's is, however, something usual about this picture. Any guesses?

Again with the hats

I decided to spend my Knitting for Others time this week on a hat. Surprised?

It's a good way to use up oddballs of yarn, and that was my goal for the day. However, it seems like a little toddler hat shouldn't have so many ends.



Then, I didn't stop until today, when I realized that I had made three.



The oddball stash has been depleted and the hat stash has grown.

Forcing myself to move on.....

I finally started the Cobblestone pullover that I've been planning. I started spinning the yarn a year ago and finally got up enough courage to start the knitting. I quickly found out that the yarn is a bulky weight and not a worsted, which is what I hoped for.

I've started the pattern over twice now, each time going up a needle size and going down on the number of stitches. I started out using a smaller amount of stitches than the smallest size and then went down some more.

The result is still quite a lot bigger than a form fitting sweater,



But just a bit smaller than my heavy, use-as-a-coat, hoodie.



Since it's still hurting my hands, I'll size down the stitches and size up the needles once again. Maybe this time will be a keeper.

Hats

Finally, I have finished a couple, or three, projects that have been laying around. (Or have they been "lying" around? I'm gonna go with the laying. Anyway, they're not sleeping but just taking up space.)

These two hats were knitted on the Miami trip, in the airplane and at the hotel. However, I had that pesky finishing to do so there they sat.



Then, DS watched U of Miami play in a bowl game so I kept him company and knit an orange and green hat for old times sake. (He claims we were watching the Emerald Nuts Bowl, while I think it was the Frost Bowl. He claims there wasn't such a thing. Who to believe? Someone who was actually watching the game and routing for his alma mater? Or someone just sitting in the room but knitting with the team colors? You be the judge.)



Anyway, this attempt at fair isle turned out pretty well, for me. The same pattern was followed for all three hats. I used size 9 needles and Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride yarn. I tried to hold a color in each hand while fair isle-ing, but when my hands cramped up I switched back to both yarn in the left. I think the best hint I followed was to knit the hat inside out so as to have not-as-tight floats. It seems to have worked well and is a nice warm hat. (They all go into my charity stash and I did the finishing on last Sunday so I covered the "Knit for Others" for the week.) (... I just shouted, "I'm not done!" as I walked away from the computer to find my pattern... These pesky kids.....)
Pattern is Thorpe which lists both the plain and fairisle versions.

And here's a quick look at my new shoes. They're Sketchers (I had to specifically ask DD#1 if they were okay for me--I don't want to look like a teenage-wannabe. She approved them.).



Their main purpose? To show off my socks.

(Okay! Your turn for the computer!)

First FO of 2009

Here's my first FO of 2009. It's a camera bag for DD#2's new camera that, if you can see around the blinding reflection, is blue.



So, she chose a blue themed sock yarn to make a matching camera bag. (For me to make, not for her to make. I'll talk her into sock yarn one of these days, but so far she's avoided it.)

The yarn is Trekking XXL, leftover from a pair of socks using size 1 needles and knitted on 44 sts (20 down each side and 4 on each end. Wait. That's 48 sts. Okay, I can't count. Moving on.)



That's it for now. (I have a couple of finishings to do and then it will look like more. They were mostly done in 2008 but if they're finished in 2009 then they count for 2009.)(Because I said so.)(Which somehow reminded me that school starts back tomorrow and we all get back into a normal routine. Which is good. Except for waking up crazy early. Which is bad.)

Calendars

Out with the old. (But not totally out. I'll be saving this and doing more patterns as time goes by.)



In with the new. (But not before today. The shrink wrap actually came off today. When I was allowed.)



Happy New Year!