2010 Roundup

Sick of statistics yet? Well, here's a few more (you can skip this if you want, if you've been following along you know all about them).

In 2010, these are the items that I finished:

6 pairs of adult socks, 5 for me and 1 for my MIL.
1 sweater, again for me
1 afghan. Phew! glad to have that done.
2 baby sweaters
1 pair of booties
12 hats
1 scarf

and under the misc. category:
1 Grover golf club cover
2 bunny nuggets
3 swiffer covers
1 pattern written for Diana socks.


For charity, I also made:
2 adult sweaters
24 pairs socks, all sizes
8 pairs of mittens
8 hats

Ah, it was a good knitting year!

December Roundup

Rounding up the projects for December, I count:

1 Brambles hat
1 Zportz hat

4 hats and 1 scarf, all for the charity of poor college students (aka DD#1 and friends)

1 Grover golf club cover

1 Cobblestone sweater that was fixed
1 teal sweater that is going away (sleeves went to the trashcan, sweater, er, now vest, is going to the thrift store.)

Finishing up with
1 pair of socks for me!

Happy New Year! (and socks, of course!)

There's no way that I can finish the scarf by 11:59pm, so I'll just show you the pics of my completed socks and plan on a finished item shortly into the New Year.

I made a plain vanilla pairs of socks for me, the first of this winter season.




They're using Wisdom Yarns Marathon Socks Boston, color 215, size 1 dpns, 64 sts.

The heel is different, though. Awhile back, someone on KnitTalk described the method that she uses on her Dirgis socks, and hence the Dirgis heel.

Basically, you:
-do 1/3 of the rows for a regular heel flap (in my case I did 12),
-do a complete short row heel (in my case I used the yo-yo heel),
-pick up the stitches down the mini heel flap +1 (in my case I picked up 7),
-decrease every second row on the mini gusset until back to the orginal number of sts (in my case they were 16,32,16).

And, Voila!


There are slight(!) holes to be seen, but they won't bother me, and may go away with the wearing.

Proof that there are two of them:



This is my last knitting project of 2010, taken in the waning light of day.



Wishing you all a Happy and Safe New Year!

Basketball knitting

As you know, I do a lot of knitting at sporting events. This week there was a basketball tournament, so two days in a row I got a lot of knitting done.


On Tuesday, I got this much done (from marker to needles):

This was for a game and a half. Really a quarter of a game, a 20 min. warmup of the next two teams, a game, a 20 min. warmup, and a quarter, which adds up to way more than a game and a half.

It's following Jared Flood's striped scarf recipe. These are the second two skeins, so I'm more than halfway done.

Then on Wednesday, I got this much done:



Just a warmup and a game (and we won!). Plain vanilla socks for me--this is the second one.

Both are nearing the ends, I'm thinking if I knit really hard I might be able to finish both of them before the New Year's.

But there's no more BB games, so I'm on my own.

A BIG BOX OF YARN!!!

TODAY I GOT A BOX OF YARN IN THE MAIL!!!! (As the all caps indicate, I AM SHOUTING 'cause I'm so excited!!! 'Cause it was a really big box with a whole lot of yarn in it!!!!)



I ordered yarn from Smileys--they had a really good sale on wool yarn. Mittens_4_Akkol is gearing up to knit for the grads again this year and I signed up for a grad sweater. I was hoping to find a grad whose favorite color was beige, but there wasn't one. (Maybe not too surprising, but it's just that I have a sweater's worth of beige yarn just begging to be made into a sweater.) The grads were asked to list their favorite 3 colors in order of preference, and about half of them listed black or navy blue first. I decided to bite the bullet and knit a black hoodie, and hence, that's why I needed some new yarn!

20 skeins of Filatura Lanarota Rich Wool in black (at $1.50 per 50 gram skein, who can beat that?). This have enough leftover to stripe another sweater. Or something. It's always nice to have extra black yarn hanging around.




4 skeins of red to make a red stripe, and 16 skeins of FL Wool Sprinkles in blue (for extra.)(Or maybe for me.)



2 skeins of FL Fashion toes for socks. Of course.



The black hoodie will be my first new item to cast on, but maybe I'll need to finish an item or two first.

Or not.

A couple more presents

In case you think I haven't made enough hats lately, I have another one to show you. This one was for DS#2 and is called Zportz. The idea is that you can make it in your team colors. DS didn't want team colors, though, he just wanted something bright.

And it is.

I dyed the green as neon as I could get, using some leaf green and some yellow Wilton icing colors. The grey is Patons Classic Wool in Mercury. I added an extra 10 st repeat and it makes the perfect size for DS.





DS#1 didn't need a hat, so he got something different.





It's a Grover golf club cover!

I used this Grover Puppet Pattern, using Patons Classic Wool in Royal Blue and Fun Fur in bright blue.

I used needles a size or two larger, but otherwise basically followed the pattern.

When done, I felted it to get Grover the right size.



DS didn't want a golf cover unless I made him a cool one, and I think I did!

Some hats and a scarf

For Christmas, I made 4 hats and a scarf for the charity of poor college students (aka DD#1 and her friends.) They were done several days ago, in time, certainly, to take a good picture or two. Alas, as DD was packing up to leave, I was flinging the hats under the tree, or on top of DD#2's head to take a fast photo.

So, I present to you some really mediocre photos. Per usual.

First done was C's scarf. It's Lion Brand Homespun with K2xp2 ribbing.




Next was A's hat--with a request to make it big enough to tuck up all her hair. I think I succeeded.



it's JC slouchy hat. I knitted for a couple of more inches before starting the repeat to make it extra big. Yarn: Plymouth Outback.

K's hat was basically made up. 6 sts cables were surrounded by 2 st faux cables.



It's also nice and slouchy. Patons Classic wool in eggplant.



DD#1 wanted another beanie, so she got Odessa without the beads, knitted with Cascade 220 in red with 3 knitted loops on top.



C got another made-up hat, using a Fibonacci sequence in stripes of Patons Classic wool in grey and black.



I liked the crown decreases enough that I though about writing up this pattern, but I don't remember what I did. I might try to replicate it... If I do it soon I might remember what I did. Or not. And this picture doesn't show it.



That was a fun project to do, trying out new patterns and seeing who will like what. Plus, it's snowing--the perfect time for a new hat! (or scarf!)

Fix-it Day

I decided to take a break from Christmas presents (because with only 7 days left until Christmas, why not waste a whole day by NOT knitting Christmas presents?), so I declared yesterday as Fix-it Day.

And I did. Fix-it, that is. Sort of.
(Ah, what's a blog post from me without some really bad sentences all strung in a row?)

First up was my Cobblestone pullover. Remember it from here?

The neck was too tight, so I decided it was time for a re-do.



I ripped out all of the red/purple mix on the top, skipped the several rows of garter stitch and went straight to the stockinette rolled edge and bind off.



It's no longer choke-y around my neck, so I declare it a success.



(Chopped off my head 'cause I'm looking as bad as I feel--bad head cold and swollen eyelids feeling. Plus Sat. morning blech.)


Next up was my teal cardigan, first finished in Jan. 2008.

Here's what it looked like:



Too big, sleeves too long, too awkward. The yarn was White Buffalo unspun, which made it impossible to rip out and reuse.

So, about a year ago I decided to shrink it to see if it would help. It then looked like this:



It shrunk in length, but not much in width. Still awful.

And it sat on my sweater shelf for another year...

Finally, I decided to rip off the sleeves to see if it could look good as a vest.



Hey, in theory it was a good idea.

In actuality, it wasn't. 'Cause now it looks like this:





(Ignore my face. And my hair. See above explanation.)


And the previous shrinking episode seems to have shunk one side more than the other. It would be unfortunate if I planned on wearing it, but as it is, it doesn't matter.

The question becomes: What should I do with it now? I no longer want to wear it. Also, donating it to the thrift shop won't work, since I can't imagine this looking good on anyone. I thought about felting it and making potholders, but I'm not sure if I will even want to use them as it will remind me of my failed sweater.

Any suggestions other than just throwing it away? ('cause that's what I'm leaning towards.)

So, I've had one success and one failure, and now...back to Christmas presents...

I'm fine, thanks

I'm fine, thanks.

That's how I mostly respond to the question, "How are you?"

When really, I could more honestly answer:
-Slightly tired, in the I-never-go-to-bed-early-enough kind of way,
-Slightly frazzled as I'm starting to realize that even though I work in a store that's had Christmas stuff for sale since July, that doesn't really count for decorating my house and that I should do something about it.
-Slightly behind on Christmas gifts as I'm realizing that the gifts won't just buy themselves.
-Slightly crazy, as I'm realizing that adding on the knitting of 5 extra gifts at the last minute may not have been a good idea.
-Very tired of science projects, as a kid just kicked me off the computer to do some last minute typing. (It's due tomorrow, and then DONE for another year.)

But, I just say, "I'm fine" and leave it like that.


I've been moving along on the knitting.

Here's my stack of completed projects:



(Better pics coming later...)

And here's the stack left to do:



Yep, that is just green yarn. No needles are involved yet.

Ball of yarn

Check out my birthday cake:




It's a ball of yarn, made by DD#2. See the needles?

It's just too funny--I laughed and laughed. The outside is in my favorite color, and the inside is my favorite flavor (devil's food). Yum!

And if you count the candles, then I must be 12 years old.


(12 times 4, that is.)

Finished items

As promised, here are my finished items (that really were finished in November).

Denim toddler socks:



36 sts, sz 5 dpns, Patons Classic wool in denim, 5x1 ribbing throughout the sock (not as so's you could tell.)


Brambles Beret:



Brambles Beret is from Knitty, deep Fall 20010 and seems to be the "in" thing to knit right now, at least according to Ravelry. DD#2 chose the pattern and the yarn, which is Wool-ease grey. Size 6 dpns, med. size band and long length. Looked like it would be too small but turned out okay. (She says it slides off her head, but I say just wait a bit, it'll stretch out.



I followed the directions, and blocked it over a dinner plate with a strand on yarn strung right about the ribbing to keep it from stretching out. Most of the time, the dinner plate was resting on top of a heater vent. It looked rather strange (and I had to remind myself not to step on it), but it worked well.



It has some really nice decreasing at the top that maintains the details of the cables and such until the end. Lovely pattern!

November Roundup

(Running a bit behind on the blogging, I'm going to pretend that it's still Nov. 30th...)

In November, I mailed out 22 pairs of socks for Mittens for Akkol which are going to Kazakhstan for their New Year's party. (Nanci, the coordinator and organizer extraordinaire is over there right now with all the socks, collecting the other supplies for the party.)

A baby seamless kimono sweater, sadly pictureless.

Faggotting Ribs Sox for me. For summer. For next summer, and not the previous one. I'm sure that was my plan, after all.

Myrtille sweater for me. (Hmm, do I have a theme going on? memememe)

Brambles Beret for DD#2 (Will show pics tomorrow, but trust me, I really did finish this in November.)

Denim Toddler socks (again with the reassurance that it was completed at least a couple of hours before December.)

That's it. Now it's time to really start working on the Christmas projects (and to stop adding things to the list.)

The state of my coffee table

Most knitters have a favorite spot where they like to knit. For me, it's on the couch downstairs. The coffee table in front is the collection/storage place for all my knitting projects, WIPS or otherwise.

It currently looks like this:



The projects change from week to week, but the mess tends to stay at the same level. If I straighten it up and can actually see a piece of the table, I feel like it's very clean. Until the next day, when it gets back to the usual state.

Working from left to right, let me describe what's on my table...

1. Today I've been working on the Brambles beret for DD#2. Not sure if it's a Christmas project yet; if we get snow she might request it sooner (assuming that it's done, that is.) I'm using Wool-ease since she doesn't like wool at all, but the downside is that there not much stitch definition.




2. I started another hat. This one is the Snowboarder Hat that Rocks. The purpose? I liked the pattern. The problem? I'm running out of yarn. It's Plymouth Outback bulky yarn that I'm using double-stranded. I'll have to rip it out, and then use one Outback strand and one regular brown strand.



That'll have to wait, though, as my Christmas knitting list keeps growing. DD#1 came home the other day and made a couple of requests. Her friends really liked the hats I made last year, and one requested another hat and one said to tell me that she also really likes scarves. And, DD wouldn't mind getting another hat, too.

Since you do a lot of charity knitting anyway, she explained, just consider this a charity of knitting for poor college students.

Okay, they got added to my list.

3. If you look very closely, my coffee table also contains a pair of toddler charity socks. The materials were bought when I needed something for sitting in a doctor's office and I wasn't going home first. The metal dpns are really quite pointy and I don't have a blue set yet, so that was a worthwhile purchase.



They've been abandoned, though, since there's no time constraint and there's Christmas knitting pressing.

4. Here are the completed, soon-to-be-ripped-out gift socks. I haven't gotten up the nerve to frog them yet, so they're still in timeout.



5. I bought a beading storage case that I'm using for all my little gadgets and tools. It's really coming in useful and I'm using my stitch markers now rather than whatever bit of a circle I can find in my sight.




6. These are the socks for me that I started when the gift socks went into timeout. I had made it down to the heel on the first sock when I noticed a dropped stitch way back at the ribbing. I hardly ever drop stitches (especially without knowing about them), so it's just a little disturbing to do it twice within the same week. These ones were ripped back and reknit.



7. And finally, here is some neon green yarn, dyed and getting ready to be a hat for DS#2.



This is a Christmas present, even though he knows about it.

And that's it.

What does your knitting corner look like?

Socks not done

Moving quickly from one sport to the next, in the past week we (meaning DD#2) have covered a field hockey "banquet", basketball tryouts, three practices, and a scrimmage. That all means lots of knitting time, which means I finished a pair of socks, or so I thought.

They're just plain vanilla, 64 sts on 1s, so...just a pair of ordinary socks. However, the first time done I made them 11 inches long (for a recipient who wears size 8.5 shoes--what was I thinking?). The next time I made the toe too pointy. The last time I made the it just right.

Except for this:



That's right, that's a dropped stitch.

In my defense, I noticed that I was missing a stitch, looked around a bit, and then decided I just decreased one too many during the gusset and moved on.



And it occurs before the heel, which means I have half a sock to reknit.

Will I then run out of yarn since I had already hidden the end? Most likely, unless I either
a) knit tighter or
b) make it one row shorter.
I think I'll choose b.

Even though I'm knitting socks all the time, I just couldn't redo this right away. It needs time to sit and think about what happened, and promise to be good from here on out.

In the meantime?

I cast on for a new sock.

Sweater is done

And finally... some pictures of another UFO. (That's right, I did just start the whole blog post with the word "And". It's my post, and I can be grammatically incorrect if I want to. And I do.)





I started this sweater in March, so from start to finish it only took me 8 months.

The last time I worked on it, though, was May 29th.

So really, I only worked on it for 4 months.

It was in timeout because of the armholes. There's extra bulk in the armhole area and I didn't know what I wanted to do about it. When I picked it back up, I decided that it was okay and I just left it alone, sewed in the other sleeve, and called it a day.

Was that the right decision?

I'm not so sure.

But considering that it's not so noticiable in pictures, anyway, unless I do poses like this:



I will most likely leave it alone.


I like the waistline detail alot. So much so that I did an extra repeat of the Bellflower Rib (getting carried away....) and then just left it in (laziness). But I like it that way anyway.




The buttons were found at Joann's, and don't show up very much when buttoned, but I like them anyway. (The pics colors are un-retouched, so the difference in color is just standing in the light or in the shadow. The actual color is somewhere in-between.)



Patons Classic wool 6.5 skeins of worn denim, size 4 and 6 needles, 5 buttons rather than 3, 1 extra repeat of Bellflower ribbing, Ladies size Large.

And ta-da! A new sweater to add to my collection!