March Roundup

This will be short and sweet, since not much was done. Okay, lots of knitting, just not a lot of finished items.

One balaclava,
one red and black striped sweater,
one pair of grey socks,

which are all bound for Kazakhstan.

The sun has finally come out this week, so here are some pictures of the striped hoodie, or as I like to call it, "what to do while at soccer practice".

Socks are done!

Believe it or not, it is actually less than 24 hours since I last posted. More than that, the socks are done. I guess I wanted to get done, and therefore that's all I worked on. (Don't look at my dishes or the state of my house.)(Okay, it looks like it usually does. Whatever. I still did a whole lot of knitting.)

Proceed with caution: I just updated the post editor--had totally lost the paragraph breaks and had to browse around the blogger forum to see what to do. Hopefully this won't be a problem...


Also, I have lasagna in the oven, but as I took off the foil I ripped off the top layer which was then dangling down onto the oven rack and burning. So if you smell something burnt...


And, if that's not enough mult-tasking, I have a chair upturned in the dining room, where I need to sit in 19 minutes to eat the lasagna, where I'm winding some yarn that I'm going to reuse from a sweater that had a couple of moth holes... But first I have to finish this post.

But back to the subject. What was the subject?

Oh, yeah, the socks are done.

Ta-da!



Hug Me Sock pattern by Terry Liann Morris for Six_Sox_Knitalong. 72 sts in Trekking Sport in a pretty grey. These fit me, but will be heading to Kaz to warm another grad's feet.

The astute among you will notice that I've gotten new sock blockers. Not that I'm actually going to block my socks on a regular basis, but they hold the socks nicely for a picture, don't they? They're from Knitpicks, and since I was ordering my cotton yarn anyway....and needed to reach the $50 free shipping....you know how it goes.

Nice easy pattern, easy to memorize, and soft and cushy.

Full speed ahead

Once every 2 months the 6SoxKAL group releases a new pattern. We then have 2 months before the next pattern. That seems like a long time to complete the pattern, doesn't it?

Well, it is. IF YOU DON'T DAWDLE AROUND FOR THE FIRST MONTH AND A HALF!

Not that I'm really dawdling, I am knitting. Now and then I even knit on the pattern, which for these 2 months is the Hug ME socks. However, it dawned on me about 3 days ago that if I wanted to finish up these socks by the end of the month I'd better get cracking!

This is what I have left to go:



One foot and one toe. If I do half a foot today and half a foot tomorrow, I can finish the toe on Thursday and be done in time.

I have time, I have time. Full speed ahead!

Details, details...

There are a lot of details to finishing a sweater. The hoodie didn't required any sewing of seams, but it did require all of the hiding of the ends.

It took 3 sessions of an hour or more to hid them all. Here's my pile to prove that I did it:




Then I sewed the hood casing around the knitted i-cord. It's my best new idea yet--to knit the i-cord and then sew the casing around it--no threading the cord when I'm done. And, I didn't finish off the end of the i-cord just in case I needed to make it longer or shorter. I even took the time to sew white thread in a basting stitch 6 sts in so I would sew the casing evenly. That is SO worth the extra time. It comes out easily when done and no more guessing whether I was going up or down a stitch and making the casing all wonky.



All that was left was a button...



..and then blocking, which is also done. I'm hoping for some outside pictures later so I can show you it's actually red and not fushia like these pictures suggest.

I think I'll keep him.

It's been 27 years since DH and I got married, and I'd have to say he knows me pretty well. Look what he got me for our anniversary:



That's right, it's a knitting book--the exact one that I've been wanting for weeks now. It's Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan. I had gotten the same book out of the library and determined to make a sweater.

Guess what came in the mail today:



That's right--yarn to make the sweater that's in the book. This is the sweater called "Swirled Pentagons".



I'm going to make a summer version using Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted in Wave Heather. I'm going to leave out the turtleneck and the sleeves (at least most of them). I can't wait to get started.

And my DH? I think I'll keep him.

After the sleeves came the hood...

That's right, the hood! The stripes ended up evenly, as I did the last stripe of only 4 rows (versus 8) and then did a 3 needle bind off. (Take my word for it, I know it's in the sun.)



There's an i-cord to knit. But after that, comes this dreaded task:



Eight rows of each stripe was just too long to carry the yarns. I plan on hiding the ends (etc. ad nauseum) tonight. If I keep it going tonight then I won't have to do it tomorrow.

Sigh. I'm going to need some chocolate.

Happy St. Patrick's Day...

... and check out my new haircut!

...and then there were sleeves

Two of them. Sleeves, that is.



With the combination of stripes and decreases, they moved along pretty quickly. And I didn't have to do any ripping out either, which I would've if I had lost count. Which I didn't. Phew.

The hood is left. Yay!

Then.

Hiding the ends.

Sigh.

Maybe I'll knit some socks instead.

M4A knitting

All my knitting lately has been for M4A.

One of the orphanages in Kaz has a hockey team and they requested warm hats for the team. The group picked out a pattern and a member donated the yarn and several of us made the hats, or rather, the balaclavas.

Here's DS#2 modelling my finished one:



Navy Blue Bernat yarn that seems very warm--just the thing for playing hockey.

This is sweater version #2 for Tanya (the first being too small and was changed over to Olga).



Red and black stripes, 8 rows each. It's almost to the hem part (I'm just deciding if it's really long enough this time).

And, a pair of socks (or rather, this is the first of a pair). This is the "Hug Me" pattern from SixSoxKAL.



The heel has slowed me down, but as soon as I get past the gusset it will go faster. Thse are for Tagir that has a 10" foot that will be easy to get the right size--that's the size I make for me.

He's 14!

What to do when your son has soccer practice on his birthday?

Embarrass him, of course.

Unfortunately, soccer practice was canceled due to massive rain the day before.

Well, there's always next week.