knittingbloggyblog

And then it was done...

2012-01-14T20:06:00.003-05:00

There's a finished object hanging around our house, done for about 3 hours or so, which was presented to DD#2 with a "Ta-da! look what I finally made for you!", which she didn't remember requesting at all, which made me think I didn't really have to make it but whatever....it's done, and which freed up my size 4 needles to knit the second coffee bean sock.

Then I asked DD#2 to take a picture of two since I was busy working on supper which meant washing the pots before using them and you don't want to do that instead, now do you? Which she wisely opted to take some pics, which turned into the koala bear going on an adventure.

First, the koala went to look at the sunset...

Then he hung out with his penguin friends for awhile...

He climbed through a jungle of flowers...

Which made him very hungry, so he stopped for a snack... (but he knew enough to avoid the garlic.)

And a drink...

Then he found his fellow knitted friends and told them about his adventures.

All in all, it was an eventful day.

The End

There might be another one...

2012-01-13T19:43:00.000-05:00

Remember my last post? The one with the plethora of started projects? Well, it turns out that I had nothing to take to a basketball game.

What to do....

What to do....

I know... how about starting a new one?

Yep, that's it. I'll start a new project.

And I did.

A plain vanilla sock. For me. In pretty purple, turquoise, and green. It's turning out some swirly stripes that I'm lovin'.

Not to fear, though, I'm gonna have a finished object or two any day now.

An active case of startitis

2012-01-12T19:46:00.000-05:00

Since the New Year's, all I seem to be doing is starting new projects. Not finishing them, mind you, just starting them.

I've been working on a couple of patterns for M4A. For the first pattern, I've knitted one sock. Not two, just one. It's in my favorite coffee bean pattern (thanks to Valeria!)

Then, I've also been working on a baby afghan pattern. Here is the first sample. It's a tad small, so the B/O needs to be ripped out and a few rows need to be added. (And, yes, Captain Obvious, the ends need to be woven in.)

Here is sample #2, that I started before finishing sample #1. This is also close to completion but I need more blue yarn.

Then, this is an infinity scarf. (That's not the pattern name, it's just like that in the fact that there's no beginning or end, just a really long tube.) It's the closest to being done, but it needs to be washed.

And, because that's not enough on my needles, how about a pair of slippers. They look like slippers, riiiiiight?

Oh, and there are some knitted animal parts lying somewhere around here, too. I forgot about them already, and it's only the middle of the month.

Considering that there's at least 2 weeks to go before the end of January, I should be able to get at least some of these UFOs done. Or maybe even all!

Darn

2012-01-03T18:34:00.002-05:00

A couple of years ago I put a hole in a sock. This is the first time I'd done that with a sock knitted with sock yarn. (I think I have a couple of ww socks with holes. Hmmm....I'll have to see if I can find them....) Anyway, once I found the hole, I put it on my bedside table. And there it sat for 2 years, doing nothing but collecting dust.

Finally, I decided to try my hand at darning. What harm could it do? and I might learn something new.

First, I found a ball (no darning eggs here) and some yarn (that, of course, doesn't match).

This hole looks bigger from this point of view.

Then (following directions found on the 'net), I sewed around the hole with a running stitch. Next I sewed vertical long sts to cover the hole.

Finally, I wove the yarn vertically through the long sts and ta-da! One sock, ready to wear again!

2011 roundup

2011-12-31T16:19:00.003-05:00

Just for grins, I collected the ball bands off of all the yarn that I used this year.

If it was earlier in the day, or if I'd had a nap, I might be tempted to add up the number of yards that I'd used. However, since I'm not that crazy, let's just say... a lot.

This year I again majored in socks, mostly plain ones. Here's a list of everything that I made.

For charity, I knit the following things for Mittens For Akkol:
11 pairs of adult socks
6 pairs of toddler socks
3 adult sweaters
2 balaclava hats
1 baby pullover
2 pairs of baby tights
3 pairs of longies
6 baby blankets

For gifts:
4 pairs of adult socks
1 cobblestone sweater
1 bellyphant cardigan and slippers

For me:
1 pair of socks
1 pentagon sweater
1 pair of long-awaited gloves
1 test pair of baby tights
2 swiffer covers
and I wrote a pattern for Baby Tights.

My knitting slowed down a bit this year, although I still carry it with me to all sporting events and believe me, there were A LOT of them.

My blogging slowed down also. We'll blame that on a combination of things.
1. Lack of interesting knitting
2. Joining facebook and falling down that rabbit hole
3. Switching to a new version of blogger that I don't like and don't care to use.

Looking forward to the new year, I'd like to finish up one last major UFO that I've had lying around--a fairisle vest. For the first time, I'm going to knit all the items for an M4A grad. The sweater is done, and most of the yarn for the other items is ready and waiting. I need a new pair of socks, so that will be coming soon also. (Need, as in "want to try out a new pattern", not need as in "my feet will go cold otherwise".) And write a new pattern. Or two.

I'd better watch it, this is getting dangerously close to writing some New Year's Resolutions, which I don't do. Let's just call them "ideas" and move on. And I will.

Happy New Years! I'm off to knit (and maybe take a nap).

Sept.-Dec. roundup

2011-12-31T15:25:00.001-05:00

To the best of my faulty memory, here's what I knitted between Sept. and Dec.

8 pairs of socks, 5 of which were for M4A sock challenge and 3 were Christmas gifts. (Hmm...I need to make a pair for me!)
A Cobblestone pullover in dark green for my brother
A pompom scarf for my bannister to wear
A Bellyplant Cardigan and booties for my new nephew
A scrappy pullover using sock yarn for an M4A baby
3 pair of longies
And a pair of red and black gloves for me that was a two-year-long project.

Dear Family....

2011-12-31T15:02:00.001-05:00

Dear Family,

If, while I am downstairs on the computer trying to catch up blogging from months of nothing-ness, you decide to take a nap, please LET ME KNOW! You know I love naps, they're one of my most favorite things in the whole wide world. It was eirie, going upstairs to get a cup of coffee, just to find that I was the only one awake at 2:30 in the afternoon.

Love,
Mom (who is now a bit more tired than you. And is not sure that she spelled eirie right.)

Catching up...family news

2011-12-31T14:28:00.001-05:00

Here are some family news items that happened recently. The younger two kids each played on a high school sports team this fall.DD#2 is a junior and played her second year on varsity field hockey.

DS#2 is a freshman and played on JV soccer.

He got pulled up to varsity for the playoffs, and for the first time ever they won the regional championship! Here he is in their first playoff match wearing the hat I made for him. (The observant among you will notice a couple of differences between this and the previous photo. New number =new varsity uniform. New cleats=replacement of ones that completely came apart in a previous game. Oh the expenses, er, joys, of parenthood.)

I had several opportunities to wear the gloves I'd made, because the several games got really, really cold! I also had on a wool sweater, wool socks, wool hat, and a blanket (not handknit, but still really necessary.)(My ring finger on my left hand is a bit short. Still wondering whether I should redo it.)

DD#2 is 16 yrs. old, but looks about 25 in her homecoming dress. (Notice the bruises on her knees from a game the day before. A field hockey ball is NOT soft, by any means.)

DD#1 and I drove through 5 hours of snow to visit my dad in PA over Halloween weekend. The roads stayed wet and not icy, so there was no driving problem. We did a problem with the windows fogging, though, which can be attributed to the amount of hot air inside the car. :)

There was some time between seasons, so DD#2 played powder puff football.

Fall sports season is over, and winter season has begun. DD#2 has made the varsity basketball team and has gotten in several games so far. The bulk of the season will begin in January. DS#2 is on the freshman team, and since he hasn't played since 4th grade, he has some catching up to do. Being 6'1" is a big help, though.

DS#2 got an early Christmas present--braces.

My dad and brother came down for Christmas, and we all got together for pictures.

Merry Christmas regular style...

...and Merry Christmas Ninja style!

Catching up...Christmas knitting

2011-12-31T13:37:00.000-05:00

Once the socks were done for the M4A challenge, I concentrated on Christmas knitting. My plan was to make 3 pairs of socks and 1 sweater by Christmas, and I succeeded! The last sock was finished on Christmas day, but since the recipient wasn't there yet, I won! Unfortunately, In the flurry of activities, I forgot to take any pictures.

It figures.

The socks were plainly knit with nice yarn and the sweater was the Cobblestone Pullover by Jared Flood. I was working on the pullover and the last pair of socks at the same time, and both were made out of nearly identical shades of dark green.

Not my most brilliant plan as it almost bored me to tears.Now that they're done, though, I've been using some orange and yellow yarn to make a striped baby blanket. That's about as far away from dark green as I can get.

In the midst of all the Christmas knitting, I took the time to make a pompom scarf. I couldn't resist the yarn, and two skeins made a really nice, big, fluffy scarf. So far I haven't worn it, but it makes a nice bannister decoration.

Catching up... Bellyphant cardigan

2011-12-31T13:22:00.001-05:00

In late September my SIL had a little baby boy and I decided to knit him a sweater. In late December, I finally mailed off the sweater. (In my defense, one attempt was made to hand deliver it, but no connections were made. For another excuse, I used worsted weight yarn in a pattern that calls for DK weight, so I figured it would be big enough for awhile...) This is the Bellyphant Baby Cardigan as found here on Ravelry.

Since the elephants were far apart and I didn't want long floats, I decided to do them as intarsia, using little balls of yarn for each elephant. However, I didn't do that with the gray yarn, so there were still long floats but just of one color. Next time I think I'll do the whole thing as fair isle and just make sure the floats are long enough.

The yarn is Berroco Vintage in gray and light blue. 2 skeins of gray and 1 of blue, I think? (the downside of blogging about something months later...faulty memory. Hey, I can barely remember what I did the next day, let alone once this much time has passed.)

I bought the slipper soles and knit the cuffs to match the sweater. The cuff is knitted separately and then sewn to the soles.

Here we have it: One elephant set that has finally been delivered and still fits!

Catching up....M4A boxes

2011-12-31T12:57:00.002-05:00

Let me fill you in on some knitterly things that have been happening around here. In early November I mailed out 3 boxes to Mittens_4_Akkol for their annual sock drive. We got over 400 pairs of socks done for Nanci to take over --she's there right now, in fact. We also knitted items for their baby house. This is a collection of what I sent:

14 pairs of socks,
5 baby blankets
4 baby leggings,
1 scrappy baby pullover,
and 1 balaclava hat!

Score!

2011-12-09T15:14:00.001-05:00

Working at a retail craft store during the month of December has it's definite disadvantages. I'm tired, hot, and covered in glitter for the whole month. Plus....no days off around the holiday. And I have no more answers to any questions for the rest of the day. All the answers have been used up. All.

I don't know what's the best paint to use on dough ornaments. Read the label or, better yet, buy some and try it out. That's what I do. No, we don't sell decorative clothes pins. Here's an idea...decorate your own! We're a craft store, after all. And if I have one more person ask me where the bathroom is...

Sorry, rant over... (if you can't tell, I just came home from work.)

However, there are some advantages to working there, not the least being that I can keep good track of the sales.The store has been clearing out the fall seasonal colors of Patons Classic Wool, and a couple of weeks ago I bought the blue and pink colors for $1.49 each. I've been watching the yellow and orange since then, hoping that it would go lower without getting sold out. Today they went on sale for 59 cents each!

I bought all that was left, so now I have:
3 sk. petal pink
4 sk. aquarium
7 sk. yellow
8 sk. pumpkin

SCORE!!!

So, if you're around a big box craft store that starts with an "M" in the next couple of days, see if there's any of this yarn left. But, don't ask where the bathroom is!

WHW Plain Wrap in Spanish!

2011-12-06T20:38:00.001-05:00

My WHW Plain Wrap is now in Spanish!

I was contacted by okerilla in October who wanted to write a Spanish translation for my pattern. How nice is that? She did it very quickly, but I took forever in posting it. You can go to her blog, juntitos for a link, or you can go to my Ravelry pattern and download the pdf file from there.

And look at her pretty picture!

Boring Post #76

2011-10-23T19:57:00.001-04:00

Two more pairs of socks are done. They are both 10.5" long.I call these the girl tiger pair, but they are really Lang Jawoll Color Aktion. This seems like a nice sturdy yarn that will hold up with lots of wear. It came with a separate little skein of yarn to knit in on the heels and toes. I'm not sure I liked knitting with it, though, as it made it almost too thick to knit. 68 sts, size 1 dpns.

This pair is made from Patons Kroy socks in the cascade colorway. I think I'm working through all the colors of Kroy one by one. They are 60 sts on size 2 dpns.

A day in the life of a sock

2011-10-18T21:08:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago DS#2 had a soccer game about 1.5 hours away from us. The game itself take only about 1.5 hours, but the process usually takes up the entire day. I gave a good attempt on taking pictures of my sock progress throughout the day.

I cast on at home and knit a couple of rows.Then, I did some knitting in the car:

At beginning of the game it looked like this:

The team mom brings lollipops for the parents to keep us busy and shut us up so we don't start yelling at the refs or players. I don't really have that problem, but I usually take a pop anyway. This one is caramel apple and it distracted me from knitting:

By halftime, my sock looked like this:

Then, on the way home I knitted a couple more rows:

The game ended in a tie, but there was really nice weather and no rain, no lost knitting needle, and good knitting progress.A successful day!

Same old, same old

2011-10-05T20:26:00.000-04:00

Same old, same old around here. Been going to lots of games (both field hockey and soccer) and have been knitting more socks.These socks measure at 29cm which is about 10.5". However, my son with the 12" feet can fit into them comfortably. I don't know what's up with that. Maybe they have a lot of stretch in them.

Patons Kroy denim stripes on size 2 dpns, 64 sts. There's actually still some yarn left over, so I might make a pair of baby socks...

...and that's what I did with this leftover Filatura Lanarota Fashion Toes yarn. They're pretty little, but I'm sure some baby will fit into them just right.

Filatura Lanarota Fashion Toes yarn, size 2 dpns, 36 sts.

Here's the next pair on the needles. These are Lang Jawoll in a pattern that looks like girl tiger stripes.

These are all for the M4A sock challenge that are due in November.

I need to get moving on other items on my to-do list. Christmas presents are being planned, a hat has been requested, and a zebra putter golf club cover has been mentioned. (That'll take some thinking....)

Done!

2011-09-24T13:38:00.001-04:00

I finally found time to turn the heel, and now the Indulgence socks are done.

68 sts, size 1 square needles, Indulgence yarn. They are 10.5"-- and are surprisingly enough the size I was shooting for. They'll be going to the children of Kaz for their annual sock challenge this November.

Indulgence

2011-09-22T13:34:00.000-04:00

I"ve been working on a pair of Indulgence socks. They're not really indulgent, since they're just plain vanilla socks knit with 68 sts on size 1 square needles. However, Indulgence is the name of the yarn and it is super super sooooft. It's made up of 75% extrafine merino wool and 25% nylon which explains both the softness, and the fact that it should be durable considering the nylon.

With all the sporting events that I've been to, I'm finding that I need to have 2 socks on the needles at all times. I didn't have time to finish the heel before the next game so I had to start a new one.

It works pretty well since the other pair is using Patons Kroy on size 2s and I won't have to swap out needles. I might try to keep this up during the fall season, although I feel the sweater urge coming on...

Screaming UFOs

2011-09-16T16:41:00.000-04:00

I tend to not have a lot of UFOs for this simple reason:

I can't stand them screaming at me.

They sit in their basket, or their bag, or in their corner on the coffee table and scream at me, "Hey, remember me? How about working on me today? Or, better yet, how about FINISHING me sometime, ok?"

The last time, to my recollection, that I worked on these gloves was Oct. 2009. At that time they were looking like gloves could fit the Jolly Green Giant. Two years (and much screaming) later, and they are done.

They.

Are.

Done.

Done.

DONE!

I used a different pattern and smaller needles and completely reknit them.

Now they don't fit a Jolly Green Giant, they fit me!

The variegated yarn was specially dyed by Ray from Knitivity. The pattern is Knotty, but I didn't do any of the cabling since I figured they wouldn't show up anyway.

Check out the weird white pooling, and the stripes on the fingers.

I still have leftovers, enough to do another pair of socks, if I wished. Also, all the old i-cord fingers are casualities. I might be able to use them in something (and you know how I hate to waste yarn.)

One less UFO to scream at me, and one old UFO to go.

P.S. Is the scrolling down (or up) of this blog particularly slow to you? Or is it just me?

Arrrgh

2011-09-10T23:34:00.000-04:00

Blogger updated their program and I decided to do it too.

Let's just say that the older I get, the less I like change...

Longies

2011-09-10T18:18:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy time since I last blogged...There are now 2 of our kids in high school, and both made their sports teams. DS#2 is on JV soccer and DD#2 is on V Field Hockey. There have been many, many practices already, plus the start of school with all their new assignments.

Plus, our weather has been rather unstable at best. We've have an earthquake, a tornado or two, a HURRICANE, several thunderstorms, and a torrential downpour. We were without power for 90 hours with the hurricane and lost a couple of trees, but no other damage. Today is sunny, and hopefully tomorrow will be also.

With all that, I haven't been knitting as much as you'd think, but I have been knitting.Awhile ago I decided to try dyeing yarn using Wilton's Icing Colors in black. It was supposed to fracture and create a multi-colored yarn as the colors struck at different heating points. And it did.Here it is in the beginning. I hung the yarn out the side so that it would dye just part of the yarn first. The problem?

The yarn was wet when it went in the crockpot and then leaked all over the floor. Lesson learned.

I stuffed the rest of the yarn in the crockpot and let it simmer for an hour or two and here's the result:

Definitely no black, although plenty of other colors.

I made two skeins of the "black" yarn and used them to make a pair of longies. Even though I dyed the yarn in the same dyebath, one skein definitely turned out darker as you can see below by comparing the two legs. Next time maybe I need to stir more.

The longies knitted up quickly on my knitting machine, so I decided to make 2 more pair. Actually, the easy knitting worked up quickly, and all the finishing work was still done by hand.

All three pairs are a size 3T which is still needed in the baby house in Kaz. The middle pair is using Patons Classic wool in Cognac heather, and the right pair is using green Patons Classic and brown Fisherman's wool.

August roundup

2011-08-31T18:20:00.000-04:00

A pentagon sweater, a garterlac blanket, and a pair of stretchy socks. That's what August was all about.

What I'm working on

2011-08-20T16:19:00.001-04:00

I've been continuing on my quest to reduce my stash. At least a little. I've switched over to sock yarns and have started the Scrappy Socky Stripey Cardi but in pullover form.

So far it's been going well (although a sweater using sock yarn does not get knitted quickly.) I think I'm going to run out of purple before the sleeves get finished (or started), so I'll have to figure out what to do.

Then, I've purchased 2 skeins of Berroco Vintage to make DD#2 a shrug to go with a shirt that she wants to wear to school that starts next week (Arrgh!). It's way more of a teal green, rather than blue, than the picture shows. It's this pattern called Ribbed Lace Bolero.

I figure it's maybe halfway done unless it's too big or too small and I have to rip it out and try again. I told DD that I wanted to get it done quickly so if I did have to rip it out that I would do that before I lost my momentum and didn't want to knit it anymore. I'm almost to that point, so I'll have to hurry up.

Garterlac

2011-08-19T15:55:00.002-04:00

About a week ago I finished baby blanket #5 for the baby house in Kaz.

I used the garterlac dishcloth pattern using 2 strands ww wool, size 10.5 needles (I think), and 56 sts. Once blocked, it measures 23x35" which is a bit too large, but I think it'll be close enough. I don't know what happened to the rectangles that now look like odd shaped 4-sided figures, but hopefully they'll stretch back into a rectangle-looking figure once it's used.

In other news, I had all 4 kids in the same place at the same time, all crowded into DS#2's room to play video games. Here's the proof:

Summer projects finished before the summer ended

2011-08-14T14:09:00.000-04:00

Did some finishing around here this week.

First was the pair of purple stretch socks for me. I have made 2 other pairs almost exactly the same, and they have each taken a bit of a second skein. For some reason, this pair took less than a full skein of yarn. I don't think I knit any tighter and they aren't any shorter, so maybe the skein just had a bit more yarn. I don't know, but it was nice to have them turn out that way.

Plain vanilla sock pattern, using 64 sts, 4 rows of 1x1 ribbing, 6 rows of st st before starting the heel, size 2 dpns and 1 skein of Paton Stretch Sock yarn that was 49 cents!

Then, I have finally finished the swirled pentagon sweater. It was actually finished last weekend, but then I washed it and it took DAYS AND DAYS to dry. My plan is to never spill anything on it (or sweat in it) to minimize the numbers of washings it has to go through.

I've been working on it (when it wasn't in timeout) for so long that I'm not even sure I like it anymore. It's definitely better than when it started out and seems to fit okay. Hopefully once I wear it a time or two I'll feel better about it.

Swirled Pentagon Pullover by Norah Gaughan

5 skeins Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted in Wave Heather. (I thought I was cutting it close, but ended up having a whole skein left over!)
Size 8 needles for the body.

Changes and notes: Made short sleeves and left off the turtleneck.
Made a size smaller than what I thought would be right and did the body in the round rather than seaming the front and back together. (Turns out that I knit tighter than I purl and it shows on the finished product. The things one learns after knitting for upteen years!) Used size 6 needles for the pentagons rather than 9s. Left off the last pent. decrease to get rid of the pentagon "point" that was sticking out. The bodice was knit onto the body rather than sewn on when completed. The sleeves were made last and sewn on at the end. I almost made it sleeveless but then it had a triangle shape, and that's bad for me. :)

So, there they are. Two finished projects that can still be worn during the same summer that I orginally intended them to be worn! (If only I could say that about my other UFOs!)

What I'm working on...

2011-08-04T16:50:00.000-04:00

Some summertime socks for me. It's still summer, so I'm still on time. I only have 1 skein of purple, so the toes will need to be a different color. That's why I'm knitting both at the same time.

Another baby blanket, because there can never be enough. I was almost challenged to see who can make the most (not really), but it almost sounded like that, and since I'm not over the blanket kick yet it didn't take much until I had this one cast on and ready to go.

I'm making it like the garterlac dishcloth by Criminy Jickets. I cast on 56 sts and it's seeming to be the right width.

Finally, my pentagon sweater. Since you've last seen this sweater it has been completely reknitted. I had finished it enough to be able to try it on, and it was too big all over. So, there was no need to just re-do the pentagons when I needed to do the whole thing.

This time I used a smaller size needles on the pentagon--6s, maybe? And they turned out much better. One sleeve is sewn on and the other is ready for the seaming. Not much left on this one and then it should be done.

June and July roundup

2011-07-31T18:38:00.000-04:00

June and July just mashed together in my head. (Where has the summer gone?)(Have I even had a summer?)(Isn't going to the pool only one time so far rather pathetic?)(Fall sports season starts when?) The months have mashed together and so have my projects. Here's my FO list:

For the kids in Kazakhstan:

-A hoodie for a long-armed kid that won't be needed until next May, which means I'm knitting something ahead of time!

-Four baby blankets, using up stash in lots of browns and lots of scraps. (The fish blanket used up most of my worsted scraps. I'll just have to create some more.)

-Two pair toddlers socks
-One pair adult socks
-One balaclava

-Two swiffer covers for me, in an attempt to get my house cleaner.
-A pair of newborn baby tights in sweet, soft blue stripes.

My theme? Using up stash and leftovers.

The result? Success!

Projects I might not have mentioned....

2011-07-31T18:27:00.000-04:00

First of all, and I know I've mentioned it a lot, the fish blanket is done!

Ta-da!

The fish blocked out nice and flat with no puckering seams using my usual blocking method: Wash, roll up in a towel to get out the excess water, lay flat on a towel and pat into shape. No pins were involved.

I used the tesselated fish pattern, size 8 needles (2 pairs) and worsted weight yarn scraps. It was worked on for a week or two in '09, and then again now for about a week and a half. A large part of Saturday was taken up with the sewing together (Chinese food was eaten rather than a pile of meat, and no-bake cookies were made instead of brownies to conserve eggs. Neither was quite what I wanted, but I had a huge hamburger today, and as soon as I buy some eggs I'm going to make brownies.)

Another balaclava was made. I had leftover yarn of 2 balaclavas, plus was mailed another partial skein. I made this one and then sent the leftovers on to the next. This really does fit a normal sized head, but my usual hat model is hiding from me, so you'll have to trust me.

These are an adult sized pair of "Hug me" socks with a 9" (23 cm) foot length, size 2 needles, and Filatura Lanarota sock yarn. Soft and cushy, like always.

Back when I was writing my baby tights pattern, I made a pair of tights to test some pattern changes.

They're newborn size, too small for the baby orphanage, so I might just sell them. They're using Patons Classic wool in worn denim and Chaco yarn in white.

I've also made 2 pair of toddlers socks using leftover sock yarn. Each pair was made using 3 sock yarns, knitting a partial row with each color so that the color spirals down looking like stripes. The blue pair is 13 cm and the burgandy pair is 11 cm.

Here's the yarns that I used for the burgandy pair.

I think that now I'm caught up with all the finished projects-- just in time to start a new month.

Guess what I did today?

2011-07-30T18:18:00.000-04:00

Guess what I did today?

That's right. The fish afghan is sewn together and it's washed and drying as we speak.

I also vacuumed, did some laundry, colored my hair, watched "Secretariat" and loads of shows on the food network, especially "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives".

Now I need some meat to eat.

And some chocolate. Preferrably brownies.

2011-07-29T19:41:00.001-04:00

Well, it's Friday and the fish are done. (I just told that to my DH, and he said, "what fish?" You know, the things I've been working on all week?)

Along the way, I've had a casualty. My 16" sz8 circ has bit the dust. The fish were too much for it.

Most of the time the fish have been piled up in a basket.

But occasionally I would get them out and make piles by color. That's harder than it looks, as all the long tails get tangled with each other.

Finally it was time to lay them out like an afghan. I know if I squint at the picture, then I can see the color combinations better and the problem areas will stand out.

I might just leave them like they are, though. (Or maybe that row with 8 instead of 7 should be fixed. Geesh!)

I'm hoping that when I get them sewed together that nothing will shrink in length or width, or otherwise it might be too small. I have 2 fish left over and a bit more yarn, but I'm hoping that the size will be right without having to make any more.

In the meantime, think of me as I'm sewing the afghan all together. (Who's idea was this, anyway?)

Fish

2011-07-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

Back in Jan '09, I started knitting some fish from leftover yarn. (Pattern is here.) I hadn't done much since, but decided to drag them out this week, finish knitting the fish, and put them together for another baby blanket.

In 2009, I had knitted 12 fish.

The pile, when not looking like this (as usual),

has been steadily growing. I have now knitted 13 more. They knit up quickly, but I can only handle about 2 at a time before boredom sets in.

I figure I need 35 fish to make a 20x30" afghan, so that means I need to do 10 more. If I do 2 per day, then I should be able to get the fish done by Friday. Then, all that's left is to sew them together, and that should be ~~mind numbingly crazy, who thought of this idea~~ easy, right?

New yarn

2011-07-22T19:14:00.000-04:00

Since MDSW, I've been very good. I haven't bought any new yarn. That is, until last week.

I actually bought yarn 3 times last week, but, in my defense, they were all really good deals.

First, I bought some yarn from work. This Patons Classic Wool (cognac heather) has been on clearance for $2.99 for several months now. Finally, on Monday it was 49 cents! I bought all that was left, which was 7 skeins. Not enough for an adult sweater, but definitely enough for something smaller (like a baby blanket :)

At the same time, I scooped up the remaining 2 skeins of Patons Stretch Socks, one in Sugar and one in Plum, again for 49 cents. I have a pink pair of socks already, but I might need a purple pair to add to my rotation.

Then, in a good internet deal, I got these 3 skeins of sock yarn for $4 each. They each have 310 yards, so they should make a large adult pair, plus a couple of little pairs. I got them from the dyepot in case you want to check them out.

Again from work, I bought 2 skeins of Sugar 'N Cream for 59 cents each.

I've already put them to good use and made 2 swiffer covers. This is the smaller one, so it took less than a ball of yarn (the above pic shows the leftovers).

The second swiffer is bigger, and the first cover I made for it was too small, so this one is gi-normous. It used up a whole ball, plus leftovers from 2 other balls.

This way, even it shrinks, there will still be plenty of room.

So there we have it, my yarn purchases for the last 70 days. Not too bad!

2011-07-21T20:11:00.003-04:00

Three baby blankets are done, washed, and dried!

They're all going to a baby house in Kazakhstan, so they need to be wooly and warm. It's been a good way to use up some of my browns, since the babies aren't requesting any colors.

This is another of Evelyn's no-sew blankie. The whole point of the blanket is that you can knit the whole thing without breaking the yarn except for the border. That of course, changed, when I decided to do blocks of color. There were definitely ends to sewn in, but I like the way it turned out.

Lion Brand Fisherman's wool in oat tweed and brown. Knitpicks green. Brown garter stitch borders were added before the green border to make it the goal size of 20x30".

Then, I did two blankets using Ten Stitch Blanket by Frankie Brown.

I love them so much! I stopped at two, but I might still make another one. They're very addictive and they're a good way to use up oddballs of yarn.

I made some changes to the pattern. I used 2 strands of WW held together on size 11 needles. This made it lots thicker and cushier. Also, to make it a rectangle, aiming again for that 20x30" size, I knitted 14 ridges before the first open double corner. That makes the middle square now a rectangle and in turn makes the whole thing into a rectangle. Then, you just go round and round until it's the right size.

The first one I made was with different skeins of Fisherman Wool, using natural, oak tweed, and brown. I started with 2 strands of natural, changed one to oak tweed, changed the other to oak tweed, changed one to brown, changed the other to brown. This one is my favorite. I love all the natural colors and the way the color changes. I made the changes in the middle of a row rather than the corners, like the next one.

The next one I made with some other oddballs. The tan is Patons Classic Wool in Sesame that I got on such a clearance deal a year ago. The green is repurposed from a sweater that was given to me half done. And the brown is more Fisherman's wool. I changed colors at the corners this time, but I think I like it in the middle better.

I feel like I could do the color changes better, and might have to make another one just for that reason! (hahaha)

Washing Day

2011-07-19T14:56:00.002-04:00

Today was washing day. All these woolies got thrown into the washer to soak in Eucalan and to spin dry.

(Yes, I have been knitting, and yes, I might even talk about it in the future!)

2012 Grad sweater

2011-07-18T14:38:00.000-04:00

"Hey, son, what are you doing right now?"

"Oh, no," he says, seeing what's in my hand. "I've fallen and can't get up."

"Ok,", I said, "I'll just take the picture like this."

"Okay, how about a better picture?" I say.

"Do I have to put it on?" he says.

"Yes, it would make a better picture."

Grumble, grumble.

"If it wasn't so itchy, I'd like this myself," he admits.

SCORE!!!

It won't be itchy for a Kaz kid, since he will have something more than a sleeveless shirt on underneath.

So this sweater has been done for awhile. It's been washed, the button has been sewn on, and it's ready for one of next year's grads. I decided to make it over the summer while I had some extra time.

The biggest worry? Where will there be a kid with arms that long? My DS is 14 and is 6' (and 1/2 inch, thankyouverymuch) and his arms swim in it. I suppose the arms could be shortened if necessary, but they might also be just right.

Specifics:
Neck Down Hooded Tunic by Knitting Pure and Simple. Did size small on 10.5 needles with 2 strands held together.
black: 12 skeins (50 gr. ea) Filatura Lanarota Rich Wool.
blue: 9.5 skeins (50 gr ea) Happy Trails by Wooly West dk wt in Big Sky.
knit body for 23.5", then slit and ribbing.
sleeves: dec every 6th rnd. Make super extra long and then quit. Make shorter later if necessary.

Fur. Lots and lots of fur.

2011-07-12T14:41:00.000-04:00

Some people have a summer home. We have a summer dog. Just when we get sick and tired of rolling tumbleweeds of dog fur, she goes back to her mom and we are fur-free for several months.

And there is a LOT of fur.

In an effort to keep it under control, Lucy got groomed recently.

Before: the stuffed animal look

After: the "hey, did her head shrink?" look

She still has her skirt, like any proper cocker spaniel, but at least her head and back are under control.

Works In Progress

2011-06-09T14:38:00.000-04:00

Welcome, long-neglected blog readers. Thanks for hanging in there even when I'm not blogging. And I'm not blogging for all of the usual reasons:

1. Too busy
2. Computer issues
3. Too hot to knit
4. Too tired to blog
5. Kid on the computer when I want to blog
6. Yadayadayada

And, with all that, I don't seem to be finishing anything.

Starting? I still got that under control.

In an effort to get moving, already, I decided to list my WIPs. Here they are:

This is the biggest project, a hoodie for M4A. I only have left 1 sleeve and the hood, but it's getting so heavy and hot that I rarely want it in my lap.

These are a pair of toddler socks, also for M4A. They're being knit with 3 strands of yarn, going around 1/3 of the way with each color. They're all done except for Kitchnering one toe and hiding the ends. (In fairness, I got the toe done last night, so they haven't been sitting around for days and days.)

In my living room, I set up my spinning wheel and have been spinning this roving from Pucker Brush farm that I got from MDSW. I've worked on it this week also, so it's a current project.

My pentagon sweater is still in timeout, not touched since the last time we talked about it. I'd better get moving, though, as summer is now fully here.

This scarf has also not been touched since last time. It will take quite a lot of knitting, so it's at the bottom of my to-do list.

These socks are another current project. (That must be why I can get anything finished, I have too many current projects going on.)

This pair of baby tights only needs the elastic sewn in.

This is my goal: To finish some WIPs before starting anything new. (Notice I said "some" not "all". I know better than that!)

May roundup

2011-05-31T19:16:00.001-04:00

1 pair of baby tights and a new pattern!

2 pairs of adult socks for the M4A sock challenge.

Evelyn's no-sew baby blankie--just because!

Sweater start

2011-05-22T21:02:00.000-04:00

I've started a hoodie for one of next year's grads. The yarn just stared at me and stared and me until I gave in. I took it to today's soccer game, but it was too hot to knit.

It's one strand black and one strand blue knitted together using my standard Knitting Pure and Simple hoodie pattern. I had to up in needle sizes 2 times to a size 10.5 to find something that didn't hurt my hands.

This should be a nice, warm sweater.

Blankie

2011-05-21T20:57:00.000-04:00

For the past week, I've been obsessed with making Evelyn's no-sew blankie from the summer Knitty. I started it last Friday evening and worked on it at every possible moment.

It's knitted section by section, each one reminding me of a washcloth pattern.

This corner section was fun, it did a 2 stitch decrease in the middle, and joined to the rest at one edge, all at the same time.

The sections are worked around in a rectangle, with the middle to do last. That's the only part that required dpns, the rest worked fine on circs.

The yarn was never cut until the middle was done. I used 5 skeins of Filatura Lanarota Fashion Tweed that I had gotten at Smileys. I used size 9 needles like it called for, which makes a nice, soft blankie.

This picture shows the most accurate color:

It called for a i-cord edge, but since it was a bit small, I decided to make a garter st border, knitting until I used up exactly 1/2 the yarn. Can you tell that I'm planning on making another one?

I finished this on Weds. evening, so that means it took 6 days--not too bad.

There's no plan for this blankie yet, but it's nice to have something in reserve--you never know when a new one will pop up!

2 more pairs

2011-05-13T18:32:00.000-04:00

The Spring Socks are finished!

2 skeins of Filatura Lanarota Fashion Toes which is 90% Superwash Merino and 10% Nylon. Size 1 dpns, 60 sts. Pattern as written.

I really enjoyed this pattern. There are 37 rows for the chart and the rest is plain knitting. The toe is a bit different, too. It makes a more rounded top that I think I'll have to try again.

In between doing the Spring socks, I also finished a pair of plain socks!

These are also Filatura Lanarota Fashion Toes from Smileys, 60 sts, size 2 dpns. The yarn is a bit thicker sock yarn and worked up well on size 2 needles.

Believe it or not, I now don't have any socks on the needles. I'm going to have to cast on a pair soon--there's a lot of sporting events this week!

Spring Sock

2011-05-12T18:10:00.000-04:00

During the times that I'm not buying yarn, I've been knitting. These are the current bi-monthly selection from 6SoxKAL called Spring Socks.

They're my type of socks--detail on the top, plain st st on the bottom. I'm using the sock yarn from Smileys, so at least I'm putting it to good use.

In other news, we have our summer visitor at our house. DD#1 is starting her crazy work schedule in Ocean City so her dog Lucy came to visit. (That's DD#2 with Lucy.) Lucy is a very sweet dog and is a lot of fun to have around. (Now if only she could be trained to pick up after herself. Those rolling tumbleweeds of dog fur are just everywhere.)

The problem with the pentagons

2011-05-10T19:12:00.000-04:00

The last time you saw my pentagon pullover, it was April 11th and I had just perfectly cast on 100 stitches.

Since then, a back and a front were knitted.

I discovered that my knit and my purl gauges were different. I've heard that other people have that problem, but this is the first time I've seen evidence of it for myself. I'm going to ignore that issue, though, and hope that it will look more even after a good blocking.

The pattern, Swirled Pentagon Pullover by Norah Gaughan, gave two options for the bodice. The pentagon yoke could be knit separately and sewed on, or it could be knitted on as you go. I picked the later.

Once I finished the first one, I started the second.

I don't know why. Obviously that point on the first one had to go, and since it's cotton, I figured that blocking wouldn't do the job.

At this point I put in in timeout as I pondered what to do.

I checked out Ravelry for awhile and looked at other pentagon sweaters. Finally I found one that gave good advice. She pointed back to Grumperina who had made the same sweater and had the same problem. It turns out that there are measurements in the pattern for the size of the pentagons and mine are way too big!

I thought it was odd that the body was knitted on 8s, while the pentagons are on 9s, but I just forged ahead, thinking the pattern knew what it was talking about. It must be wrong, at least it's wrong for me. My pentagons are almost an inch bigger than they should be.

Before I redo the yoke, I think I'm going to sew the back and front together to make sure it fits before I proceed.

Until then, it remains in timeout.

MDSW 2011

2011-05-07T18:27:00.001-04:00

Today marked the sixth year that I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. For five of those years, DD#2 has accompanied me. This year we almost didn't go. I didn't need any yarn. But DD#2 put on a pouty face when told that I'd like to stay home this year. "But it's so much fun to look at the pretty things and to pick out something for you!"

So we went.

And had a lot of fun.

We took just a few pictures, and nothing seems to show yarn. We'll have to work on that for next year.

We took our yearly picture of the alpacas (and a misc. guy in the background):

This is what the parking looked like, going up over the hill:

This is where we parked, looking down onto the festival grounds:

Not too bad! (I know, I got 2 pictures of the parking lot and none of the many, many stalls of yarn and roving and.. and...)

The crowds were as bad as always, but we tried to avoid them the best we could.

This is a sheep that was taking part in a sheep shearing demonstration. Apparently this sheep didn't like to walk, so it left the barn early so it would get there on time. It would walk about 5 steps and then stop. About 5 minutes later it would go another 5 steps. We never saw the demonstration--this must've been a reeeeeally slow sheep.

We also bought stuff! Even though I didn't need any more yarn, I couldn't resist.

This is Socks that Rock, sold in The Fold booth. In the afternoon the crowds had actually thinned out enough that I could get in and out of the booth fairly easily. The colorway is "Deck the Halls" and was one of my goals of the day, to find a pink skein of sock yarn.

Miss Babs was another crowded booth of the day. I didn't fight my way in, but I did find these skeins of worsted yarn out in front. They are unbelievably soft.

My ball winder was broken (due to a fall, not overuse), so I bought a new one, plus some grapefruit scented Eucalan at Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm. The first year I went I got a skein of purple yarn from Ellen and have tried to buy something from her booth every year since.

As I was checking out, I found this needle gauge pendant! Exactly what I've been wanting!

Here's some Roving from Pucker Brush Farm. I'm trying out some more since I liked last year's roving so much.

And finally, some sock yarn from Persimmon Tree Farm that is already being knit into a scarf! It's called Piggle Toes SW. I'm not sure if that's the colorway or the brand, but either way it's pretty!

We also got a spoon handle ring for DD#2, some vases as a gift, and a funnel cake! All in all, a good day, and we got home in time for a nap.

Um....I might have bought some yarn...

2011-05-06T17:17:00.002-04:00

I've been on a yarn buying frenzy lately. I'm pretty good about avoiding pricey yarn (except MDSW, and then it all goes out the window.) Sales are my downfall. Although, is it really a downfall when I'm buying a finite amount of yarn, most to be used for charity knitting, and I'm getting a good deal for it? I think not.

Whenever I get the itch to buy a skein or two, I like to check out eBay for some deals. I pick a yarn that's listed cheaply, make a bid that's not very high, and then don't re-bid in hopes that no one bids against me. Every now and then something slips by unnoticed by others and I get a good deal.

Like this sock yarn:

Two separate wins provided me with yarn for less than $6 per pair (including shipping. That's my limit. Hard to find, but exciting when I find it.) Four skeins of Patons Kroy sock yarn are on the left in varying colors of blue and green. Perfect for subtle striping. On the right are two skeins of Lang Jawoll Color, each enough for a pair.

Next, there was this incredible Elann sale on Naturally Alpine. Check it out, there's still some left! Each skein of worsted weight yarn is 364 yards and $4.79. I got enough for four sweaters in charcoal(or black? I can't remember), navy, loden, and red. (at least, I hope I got enough. I have this nagging feeling that I should have bought 1 more skein of each color, but isn't that always the case?)

Then, we made a trip to New York. At this point I didn't need any more yarn. And I told my husband so. But then, as we were driving around, he asked me, "Are you sure you don't want to go to Smiley's? It's just around the corner." I ask you, what would you do?

So I caved, jumped out of the car, and I shopped.

This is Filatura Lanarota Fashion Tweed, enough for a baby afghan. Not that I know anyone pregnant, I just want to make an afghan.

This is 6 skeins of Filatura Lanarota Fashion Toes, enough for 3 pairs of socks.

And that's it. No more yarn buying for awhile. (Okay, let's make that no more yarn buying after MDSW, since I already know what happened there.)

M4A box

2011-05-05T07:23:00.001-04:00

I'm mailing my latest box for Mittens for Akkol. You've seen all of these before, but here they are altogether.

For the grads, there are 5 pairs of adult socks:

Two adult sweaters (in the never ending red and black and black and red):

Two balaclavas, one made by me, and one finished by me but started by another. (She took on an extra sweater, so I perfectly fine with finishing a hat. It was past the opening and everything.) Interesting how our gauges differ, isn't it?

Also, I have a small set of items for the baby house: one pair of baby tights and 3 pairs of socks.

The biggest chore? Squeezing them all into one box.

Baby Tights pattern

2011-05-04T17:05:00.001-04:00

Time has passed, slowly but surely, and I have finally finished the baby tights pattern. And I have called it....

Wait for it....

Baby Tights.

Because that's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?

I had some testers knitting it and testing it on their babies. Then the tweeking began. Other than a lot of typos, there was a left-handed/right-handed error. Also, I moved the sizes around so the hips and the legs would fit the same-sized baby. This actually added another size, so the pattern ranges from NB to XXL.

There are 3 waistband options in case you don't like the elastic one that's pictured. The feet have garter stitch heels and toes, which are easy to do without having to "pick up the wrap" on the short row heel.

It's listed on Ravelry at this link in case you're interested in taking a closer look.

I wrote this pattern to be able to make tights out of worsted weight yarn and send them to Kazakhstan to the baby house. This pair will be on its way soon, and hopefully they will request more!

April Roundup

2011-04-30T13:18:00.000-04:00

Some things never change... I'm writing my April roundup on May 12th.... So, anything new with you? I'm a creature of habit. And tradition. Even if it's writing an April post in mid May...

I guess I got 2 pairs of M4A socks done. I must've started or worked on a couple of other items, but the socks are the only things I have to show for it. Yep, that's it. Socks. That's my go-to knitting.

DONE!!!

2011-04-20T16:32:00.000-04:00

Finally, the socks are done.

done.

Done.

DONE!

DONE!!!!!

72 sts around, 11 inches long, size 1 dpns. Used up almost the whole 420 meter skein of Austermann Step yarn. only a small ball is left, and I was 2 sts away from having black show up on the toe.

Phew! I'm glad they're done.

In other news, our lilac bush is blooming. DD#2 is in NYC for the week, so you'll have to put up with a picture from me. Not as good, but I did manage to capture a butterfly.

I'll skip the picture of a heavy coat of pollen on everything, and give you another lilac picture.

After all, once you've seen one green coated car, you've seen them all.

Showing off a little

2011-04-11T19:55:00.000-04:00

This is the back of my Swirled Pentagons sweater. (Or the front, they are the same.) Anyway, this is the second side of my sweater and I just wanted to show off a little.

See this? This is my cast on. I had to cast on 100 sts. I CO for awhile...and then checked.

100 sts!

That's right, I casted on exactly right the very first time, without checking or counting or anything! I love it when things work out that way!

Here's the next grad socks I'm working on. These are 72 sts and will have an 11" foot. Not as small as the last pair, but they should still be fine to make.

The stripes are about 1" each, so they're much wider than I'm used to, but they're still looking pretty good.

Socks. again.

2011-04-08T15:24:00.000-04:00

The latest pair of socks, bound for a Kaz grad:

Check out the patterning on the leg of the bottom sock. I must've been holding the yarn tighter during that section as I created blocks of color rather than random variation. Huh.

Patons Kroy Socks in Candy Kiss.
Sz 2 dpns
60 sts
9" foot length.

Knot so nice

2011-04-08T15:16:00.000-04:00

I've been working on ripping out a sweater. It was given to me by the grandchildren of a lady who had made this a while before she passed away.

I first decided to finish it up, and knit the collar as the first step.

Then, I saw the moth holes that were smack in the middle of the front. Two of them, at least, several rows apart. Not that easy to repair, at least for me. Sigh. A year and a half later and I decided to rip it out and reuse the yarn.

It was quite a project.

At least 2 of my family members asked me, in all seriousness, if I was glueing the chair legs back together (which also needs to be done). Nope, but that'll be a good mult-tasking idea for later--winding yarn and glueing chair legs at the same time.

I made nice little curly skeins, tied together several times each, ready for the washing.

Afterwards, they looked like this:

Not so nice-and-tidy. More like a jumble of knots. (Note to self: work on those skeining skills.)

It took me at least 4 sessions of more than an hour each to ball up the yarn. But finally, it was done.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but it'll be ready when I need it.

Sixteen

2011-04-06T20:45:00.002-04:00

What does a sixteen year old look like, you might ask.

It's not this:

Or this:

This is getting closer, but it's also not this:

It's this! This is what a sixteen year old looks like!

Here's a close up of her cake. Since she's always the one that decorates the cakes around here, we thought we'd make a better effort for her cake. This represents all of her school sports and little mini pics of her playing them. If you can't tell, they are track, basketball, and field hockey.

Sixteen years, where did the time go?

March Roundup

2011-03-31T10:06:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-03-30T18:01:00.000-04:00

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

2011-03-29T21:14:00.003-04:00

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...

2011-03-26T08:52:00.003-04:00

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.

2011-03-24T22:36:00.003-04:00

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...

2011-03-20T16:48:00.002-04:00

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...

2011-03-17T23:05:00.001-04:00

... and check out my new haircut!

...and then there were sleeves

2011-03-16T18:12:00.002-04:00

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

2011-03-12T09:00:00.002-05:00

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!

2011-03-11T16:54:00.000-05:00

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.

February roundup

2011-02-28T15:35:00.005-05:00

It seems like I just wrote January's roundup and it's already time for February's. Crazy.

Here's February at a glance:

DD#2 got her learner's permit (she actually got it mid-Jan., but since I didn't mention it then, I will now.) Things are going well. All the cars (and my sanity) are still in one piece. She's driven at nighttime, in the rain, in the fog, in the wind, but so far not in the snow. (And don't send any our way--I'm not interested. There's always next year.)

Basketball season (DD#2)is done except for varsity playoffs, so not much more knitting time there. But never fear, outdoor soccer practices (DS#2)have begun. And track season (DD#2) starts tomorrow. Phew. I'm glad I'm only doing the running around. There's still lots of knitting time in my future.

I finally finished the hoodie! I've switched the person it's going to, and I think it's going to fit the new grad much better. Blocking helped stretch out the fair isle and get everything into shape. (Thanks, Captain Obvious!)(My asst. manager said that to me last week and it's going to be my new favorite phrase!)

I made the i-cord tie during the last playoff game, and sewed it in over the weekend. I felt very smart doing that way. Usually I sew it up first and then thread the i-cord through the casing. It's sooooo much easier this way. Plus, I took regular thread and basted around as a guideline where to sew, and just pulled it out afterwards. Wow--who knew that basting actually SAVES time!

There are two more pairs of toddler socks done. The pink are 48 sts and the blue are 44 sts.

Another adult pair of socks:

Patons Kroy orange/grey/black stripe. 64 sts on 2s, knit until yarn is used up and add a black toe.

Another pair of toddler socks:

44sts on 1s. Leftovers from a pair that I made for me.

Finally, I've been working on a pattern. One of the items that the M4A group will be sending to Kazakhstan is baby tights, so I've been writing a pattern. And knitting it. Since I'm a "trial and error" kind of gal, I have to knit each piece to see how it looks. But wow, it's been taking up all my brainpower. And, apparently, my blogging time.

Here's my first version (made from Fisherman's wool):

I sent it out to a mama to test drive it on her baby. Even though there was lots of ribbing, it still tended to slide down so I made an elastic waistband option.

There are garter st heels and toes -- my new favorite. Easy to make, nice to look at.

I have a bunch of test knitters trying out my pattern, so hopefully it will be ready to use soon.

And that's February.

January roundup

2011-01-31T15:30:00.000-05:00

What? January? Is it already over?

This is what I finished in January:

- a striped scarf out of Noro Chirimen for no purpose other than I wanted to.

- a pair of plain vanilla socks in Kroy Socks FX, clover colors

Guess that it!

Just plain vanilla

2011-01-22T10:52:00.004-05:00

I'm not talking about this:

Or this:

(although I might need to make some chocolate sauce to go with this).

Rather, I'm talking about this:

A bunch of plain vanilla socks. That's what I've been working on this week. They are in all stages of completion. As I finish one I start another.

This is an adult pair of socks that are finished:

Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks FX in clover colors, 2 skeins
Size 1 dpns (a bit tight to knit, would be better on 2s. After looking at the ballband, the recommendation is 3s, which might be too loose. Something to keep in mind for the future, though, the whole looking at the ballband thing.)
64 sts, 7" leg, 10.25" foot. Used up all the yarn, plus some black for the toes.

Next up was another adult sized pair using more Patons Kroy. This time I learned my lesson and cast on using 2s. Much better.

Do you see the crochet hook? That dropped stitch is a result of knitting at a basketball game and forgetting to bring my reading glasses. Turns out they're an important item to have even when I'm not really looking at my knitting.

Because there were 3 Bball games this week, I got lots of knitting done. It keeps me busy at home, too, as I try to do the ribbing, heels, and toes at home (and picking up any dropped stitches).

Last night I worked on this sock during the JV game,

and switched over to this one for the Varsity game.

Keeps me from getting bored and keeps me knitting. (and look, no dropped stitches!).

These are pink toddler socks, 48 sts, sz 1 dpns. Great for using up leftovers.

More plain vanillla socks will be worked on this weekend, too, as I see a couple of soccer games in the future.

Just keep knitting

2011-01-15T19:04:00.003-05:00

I've never been one to go on a yarn diet. I figure as long as my yarn fits into the allotted space, then I'm good to go. I've also never really counted the number of skeins that I have, but this year I'm giving a half-hearted attempt to count the sock yarn.

Not all the yarn, mind you, just the sock yarn.

These are my full skeins:

32 of them. Most are 100gr but a few are 50 gr. One pair of socks are on the needles, so if you count them (and I'm going to, since they were started after the new year), then I have 34 skeins.

Plus these are my partials:

That's all the counting I'm going to do with that. This is about 2 gal. bags full. I hope to use up some of these bits and pieces.

My goal? I suppose to go down in the amount of yarn that I own. It'll be nice to see how it looks by the end of the year. It might go up, though, if I find a good sale. And that's okay, too, as long as I keep knitting.

2011-01-11T17:35:00.002-05:00

Check out our snow that the schools closed 2 hours early for:

We're supposed to get 2-5 inches, but nothing had come by 4:45 when this picture was taken. (Although DS looks good in his hat.) I've actually gotten to prefer it this way than waiting too long and trying to get the kids in a snowy blizzard.

In knitting news, I've still been working on several projects.

The scarf is done:

It's made with 4 skeins of Noro Chirimen which is 60% cotton, 24% silk, and 16% wool. It's soft and pretty and will go in my "save it for when I need it" bin.

I finally sewed the pillow covers from fabric that I got at Spoonflower.

They match my afghan (finally! something that matches in my living room!)

I bought some yarn on clearance (because what's a week without buying yarn, anyway?)

There's been more basketball games to attend, so the hoodie is speeding right along:

It's several inches past the armpits, time to measure it and see when to add the red circle details.

And, of course, I've been knitting on the socks. I've used up all the yarn for the first one and have started the second one.

I think I'm going to make black toes to make them long enough. (And next time, I won't make the leg as long so I have yarn for the toes.) Plain vanilla, 64 sts, sz 1 dpns.

Time to go make dinner (but not clean the house!)

Blogversary!

2011-01-07T16:53:00.001-05:00

I totally missed my blogversary, so I'll just publish this and change the day like I remembered... Why should today be any different?

My first post was Jan. 5, 2005, so I've been blogging for 6 years! I didn't have much to say then (Hey! That's just like today!), but who knew I could keep blathering on for 6 years. Some of you have read this from the first day, and some have joined along the way, but to all of you I say a big

"Thank you!"

I appreciate the comments, and the suggestions, and the occasional pattern, (although I'm not sure what I would do with a hat with a beard!)(Wait, DS#2 might want that as he waits for his own to grow in.)(I know, TMI, don't tell him I wrote that, okay?)

The first picture was this poncho for my daughter:

Now she no longer plays with dolls. Sniff, sniff. I no longer knit and sell soakers (although my pattern is still for sale--see sidebar for Rav link), the dog is no longer around, and I rarely paint my nails. Or have nails.

Some things haven't changed, though. I'm still making socks and hats and oven mitts. I still wear my felted clogs, but not my shawl (very much). I still do a lot of knitting for me, but also do some knitting for charity. I haven't made any of these vests

for a long time, and CIC is not doing much collecting anymore, but I'm doing plenty of knitting for M4A.

I still burn dinner while writing these posts, and use them to avoid cleaning the house.

I've stopped changing the colors of the background, but still occasionally change the sidebar. (Have you checked out the Human Calendar? If you click on the daily picture, it takes you to the whole month calendar.)

I still cut and paste code and don't understand it at all, but haven't managed to ruin it beyond repair. (I also changed the month archive to list in backwards order. Don't ask me how... cut and paste, cut and paste.)

Thanks for being around and listening to my blather. (Hey, is that my dinner burning?)

What have I been working on?

2011-01-06T17:36:00.005-05:00

Well, let me just show you...

I've been working on 4 different projects. Most days I've been knitting on at least 2 or 3.

I cast on for a new pair of socks. The middle part was done during yesterday's basketball game.

The scarf is about 3/4 done. It went to the basketball game yesterday also, so after I got ready for the heel on the sock, I switched over to the scarf.

The Mirepoix vest is one of my two last big UFOs. Here's what it looked like last February, the last time I worked on it:

Here's what it looks like today:

Enough time went by that I had a really hard time trying to remember what I was doing. Fortunately, I made a note on what sized needles to use.

And finally, here is a new hoodie that I started, appropriately enough, on New Year's Day.

It's a hoodie that will have some red detailing around the waist. The yarn is a normal black, not a shiny black like the picture suggests. It's my first Akkol grad knitting for the year.

2010 Roundup

2010-12-31T17:29:00.002-05:00

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

2010-12-31T17:23:00.002-05:00

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!)

2010-12-31T16:49:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-30T17:46:00.003-05:00

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!!!

2010-12-29T15:55:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-27T19:43:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-26T08:17:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-18T10:33:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-14T20:27:00.005-05:00

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

2010-12-12T21:12:00.000-05:00

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

2010-12-04T13:40:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-30T21:28:00.000-05:00

(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

2010-11-28T18:37:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-24T09:43:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-21T18:52:00.002-05:00

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!

Socks and Awards

2010-11-19T16:14:00.003-05:00

My summer socks are done! The second sock seemed much easier than the first (even the beading part).

Since they're too late for this summer (even too late for Indian Summer), they can just hang around and anxiously await next summer.

Pattern: Faggotting Ribs Sox from 6SoxKAL
Size: smaller, for my rather large feet. They were done with 60 sts on size 1 dpns and seem to fit just right. The lace makes it looser and I wouldn't want the larger size on the cuff or it would just flop around. (I'm going to have to hid that bunny ear on the toe, though.)

Earlier this week, I attended DD#2's annual fall sports "banquet" (where there's no food.) We were there for 3 hours, 2 and 1/2 of which was just for the field hockey awards. A first-year mom was commenting that she'd like to be home in time for Survivor. Not a chance, I replied. And I was right.

It was a special night, though, remembering a former player on the 25 year anniversary of her untimely death. There was a scholarship set up in her name, one to be given each year since and many of the recipients were there. It was very touching. And the 3 hours didn't seem quite as long as last year. (Maybe I'm getting resigned to the fact that it will last that long whether I want it to or not.)

As always, I came prepared. With a sock.

I did the ribbing at home, but did the rest at the "banquet". In-between pausing to clap or to stretch my hands.

Stripey, stripey. This will a Christmas present. And it's the second sock. And it's still November. Maybe I should get an award?

Socks?

2010-11-15T16:15:00.003-05:00

I made another seamless kimono sweater.

--insert photo here--

Oh, that's right, I forgot to take a photo.

Well then, let me describe it (because that's as interesting as a picture). I used the same green and pink Berocco Vintage yarns, this time with a green bodice and a pink and green striped bottom. The sleeves were half green and then pink with 4 green flowers on each sleeve. It worked out well (see the above pic)(nevermind, just take my word for it) and almost completely used up the yarn.

The good news is the sweater reached its baby girl less than 1 month after she was born. Good chance of fitting into it!

In my on-going effort to catch on my UFOs, I've been working on my Faggoting Ribs Sox. You know, the socks that were to be my summer socks that I could wear during the summer. Yes, the summer that is completely over and done.

The socks, while not done, have been making progress.

One is complete, and one is done with the hard part (beading--my first try).

The second sock has really gone much faster. The ribbing is easy to memorize and the beading portion was done within 24 hours.

Yarn: Online supersocke cotton (and that's all I can read--the rest is in a different language. It could be color Sortierung 95. Or color # 1037)
Size 1 dpns
pattern: smaller size (I think I did that by accident since I circled the bigger numbers but then found myself on the smaller size halfway through the first sock. I guess my brain rebelled at casting on 180 sts for the cuff and chose 150 as the easy way out.)

M4A socks mailed!

2010-11-13T11:08:00.003-05:00

The deadline for mailing the Mittens-4-Akkol socks for the sock challenge was yesterday. And I got them in the mail yesterday. Phew!

I had full intentions of mailing them at the beginning of the week, but it didn't happen. (Possible food poisoning, no box the right size, oops--holiday.)

Also, I saved the note writing until the very end. There were 22 of them and they needed to be simple for the Kaz kids to read (or have someone translate), but different since they might compare notes.

I enlisted my family to give suggestions. The person with the "Go Redskins" suggestion had to think until he came up with a better one. We tried Bible verses, but since this is not a religious group we gave that up. In the end they were all a variation on the theme "I hope you enjoy wearing them as much as I enjoyed making them".

Would writing them as I was knitting them work out better? I don't know, but I'll keep it in mind for next year.

October Roundup

2010-10-31T07:07:00.000-04:00

While not officially participating in Socktoberfest, I still managed to concentrate on socks. Eight pairs as a matter of fact. Most were small socks using 32 sts and bulky yarn, but one was a thin pair with 60 sts.

Also finished was the Curve of Pursuit afghan that started on 10/9/09 and finished on 10/24/10. Phew! Glad that's done!

A sweater and baby set was also finished up and mailed. (Hopefully it will still fit.)

It was a good, knitting month!

Recent finishings

2010-10-30T18:36:00.004-04:00

For a cousin that was born in June, I finally finished her baby set and mailed it out. (Mailing it was the hard part. Getting the yarn and knitting it was the easy part. Sewing the buttons on was hard in a I-don't-want-to-do-it way, but really it was the mailing it that delayed me so badly. I figured I had until fall, anyway, since it was not a summer outfit, but just keep procrastinating and procrastinating. Hopefully it'll still fit. I think it will, but I'm not holding my breath....)

Pattern: The Seamless Kimono Sweater
Yarn: Berocco Vintage 50% acrylic, 40%wool, 10% nylon. Supersoft wt wt and washable.
Needles: sz. 7 (that's what I wrote on the pattern, anyway. I went up a size to hopefully make a 6-9 mo. size.)

It's a really easy pattern that does a K1,yo at each neck edge that makes a finished, nice looking edge. Hmmm, maybe I should make one for me....

And these are actually the first pair of Saartjes booties that I've ever made. Aren't they cute?

Also, as the M4A sock challenge is nearing the end, I managed to knit 4 more pairs. The three tweedy pairs are all on 32 sts and the maroon pair is 36 sts, basketweave pattern. All are on sz. 5 dpns. All were sped along by the massive soccer and field hockey practices and games in the last 2 weeks (the price one pays for the previous rainouts.)

With only four (4!) major UFOs left, I'm starting to feel caught up. (Crazy, I know.) But, nothing can be knitted in the dark at soccer practice. So maybe I should cast on for something new?

The Curve has been Pursued

2010-10-24T19:22:00.005-04:00

DD#2 asked me the other day if I ever blogged anymore.

Yes, I said. Well, kinda.

I haven't blogged lately because I've been trying to finish up my Curve of Pursuit afghan. I'm on the last set of brown triangles and I'm determined to finish before the end of October (which is coming up lickity-split).

But one brown triangle looks sorta like the other one.

A lot like it, actually.

And each triangle takes more than a skein of yarn. And bunches up on the needles so it doesn't look like much.

So they take awhile to do, and it's not very interesting blog fodder.

But finally I finished the triangles.

And was ready for the border. I decided to knit in the round in garter stitch, so it took a lot of holding on to the needles and trying not to lose the stitches.

After awhile I got the hang of it (after losing four purple end protectors.)

I did 5 green garter rows and one brown garter row, plus the bind off.

Each border round was 1064 sts (plus the increases at the corner). That makes more than 13,832 sts on the border alone. Phew! Glad to be done with that!

Actually, I'm glad to be done with it all.

At the moment I'm rather tired of looking at it. This afghan took me more than a year to make. (On Ravelry there's some over-achievers who have finished this in 6 weeks. Crazy.)

When I recover from the knitting of it, I'm going to be really glad of the addition to my living room, even though it will look like this most of the time.

Specs: Loops and Threads Impeccable yarn in chocolate, fern, and off white (all the while wishing it was Cascade 220 but not wanting to spend $$$ on a blanket that I would then have to handwash.) Four size 8 circs, one for each side. Eight stitch protectors, bought specifically for this projects, 4 of which were lost, but then refound.)

I'm still glad that I did it and I think I'm going to love it. But never again.

Although, looking at the Ravelry projects, there's some interesting color combinations. Wouldn't it be pretty as a baby blanket? With pinks and greens... or purples and blues... or...

A lovely weekend (and 2 more pairs of socks)

2010-10-11T20:17:00.003-04:00

This weekend we went on a quick trip to Florida for DH's nephew's wedding.

Let me just say that "a quarter to 4" is actually 3:45 and not 4:45. 4:45 is not a good time to wake up when it's 15 minutes after our target departure time! (I still can't believe I did that.)

"Wake up, everyone! We need to leave 15 minutes ago!"

In our mad rush, we left one of DD#1's shoes behind. The one that she drove an extra 1.5 hours the day before to retrieve from a friend's house before driving the 3 hours to our house after going to her night school class. Which meant we had to go shoe shopping as soon as we got down there. Which she normally would've enjoyed, but was still too mad about already having the perfect pair of shoes but not being able to wear them. So she bought an almost identical pair.

We made it to the airport okay, but not without some anxiety. The rest of the weekend, though, was much better.

It was a lovely wedding with some great food (I don't think I'm going to cook for the rest of the week. Just saying... we could all go on a diet for a week.) The weekend was full of hanging out with family. Our immediate family of 6 were together for four days, which hardly ever happens anymore. The entire group of cousins (one of which was the groom) were all present, which hasn't happened in years and years (which would mean that it's never happened since a couple of them aren't that old.)

In between all the events, there was some down time, which meant that I had plenty of time to knit. (Yep, I even knitted at the pool.)

I finished a pair of thin socks (the ones that went to the DC United game).

60 sts, sz. 1 dpns, 79 rows foot, 9.25" long. I made them non-matching and like them that way.

The second pair was started down there and finished today (since who wants to do laundry, anyway? Hey, I've doing pretty well. Since getting home today I've been to a field hockey game.)

Patons Classic Wool in Rosewood. Size 5 dpns, 36 sts, 40 rows for the foot. 7.25" length.

The M4A group is getting close to their goal (somewhere over 500 pairs). So, I could probably stop knitting socks at any time.

The question is...will I be able to stop?

It's doubtful.

Two more pairs

2010-10-07T19:48:00.003-04:00

Two more pairs of socks are done, and here's a quick picture. (Quick, meaning: trying to do this whole post while supper is warming up in the oven. No time to redo the photo, so just ignore the strand of hair that's coming off one of the socks.)

I'm still using up the DK weight tan yarn, this time pairing it with a sock weight green yarn. The right pair is green and yellow/brown sock yarns knitted together. Both are 32 sts on sz 5 dpns.

Not only are we reaching our goal for M4A, but I'm reaching my saturation point on knitting socks. (However, I have 2 more pairs on the needles, so hopefully I can at least finish those.)

Hand of Help

2010-10-04T13:51:00.002-04:00

Ya'll have seen these woolies before, but here they are all collected and ready to mail. They're going to Hand of Help that is sending a container over to their orphanage in Russia in October.

5 hat and mitten sets:

6 hats:

They were mailed today, Oct. 4th. Yeah--more warm kids this winter!

Sept. roundup

2010-09-30T22:06:00.000-04:00

September, or, as I like to call it, the month of socks, is now completely over. Completing little items has made it look like I've done more knitting this month.

I've made 6 pairs of socks and 1 hat.

Okay, it looked like more until I wrote it down in black and white. Maybe it's not more than usual, maybe it's just the same amount.

I've also done 4 triangles on the Curve of Pursuit afghan. While it's not a finished item, the end is in sight. Look for the CoP to be on October's list of finished items (Even if I have to lug it around everywhere in order to accomplish that).

More socks!

2010-09-28T20:27:00.004-04:00

It's all socks, all the time.

At least it's felt like that for the past week. So much so that I've managed to make 4 more pairs!

Here's the thin socks, plain vanilla on size 1s (and the stripes match!):

Once I finished those, I combined the sock yarn with a vintage Red Heart Worsted Wool yarn in a bright blue for this pair. (28 sts on sz 5s)

Then, I found 4 skeins of Uruguak DK yarn that was leftover from a sweater. It's a blend of merino, alpaka, and silk and super squishy.

I combined it with a brow/black twist sock yarn for the first pair.

32 sts, sz 5 dpns, 34 rows foot length.

And then, these yarns were combined for the second pair.

32 sts, sz 5 dpns, 36 rows foot length.

There is enough DK yarn to make another pair (maybe a smaller pair), but my UFOs are calling me...

(Although, I must admit that I'm pretty good about ignoring them...)

A Hat is done

2010-09-27T17:57:00.004-04:00

I told my son that I would make him a hat (because I'm pretty sure that I've made a hat or two by now that have turned out well.) It's to go with his soccer uniform on cold days while warming up. (I'm pretty sure there are cold days in the future, although the past ones have either been in the 90s or raining.)

So, I looked for a lettering chart. And got stuck. I printed out 3 charts to try one or the other. He saw what I was doing, and we decided that he would graph the letters himself. And he did.

I told him that the lettering looks just like his writing (Which is rather un-readable so he took this as an insult.) I just meant that it was uniquely his (and it didn't follow the standard sizing that I was used to.)

Anyway, he graphed 2 versions, a big and a little and I knit a swatch of both. He chose the big.

This is the pattern that I worked from. (It's a wonder I could remember what to do where, with the letters 2 spaces closer and the checkerboard all different. But, being too lazy to rewrite it, I used this and once I established the first row it was easy to follow.)

(DD thought I did too much math for a hat, but I assured her that every step was necessary.)

Here's the hat (and the son):

"Hey, do you want your number on there too?"

"Sure!"

Now we're just waiting around for the cold weather...

United

2010-09-26T20:16:00.003-04:00

Last night we went to a DC United game, the professional soccer team that plays out of Washington DC at RFK Stadium. DS#2 had the opportunity to play on the field in a short scrimmage with his team.

Here he is playing, the tall one in the middle (right to the right of the lady scratching her head):

It was only for about 10 minutes, but it was a great experience just to be able to kick the ball on a professional soccer field. (I'm sure it was just a way to get fans out to the game, and it worked. Four of us came from our household. There were four games going on at a time, which makes 8 teams, and they did at least 2 sets, which was 16 teams, plus lots of parents and family.) Then, we stayed and watched the game.

This is my knitting project at the start of the evening. (One of my kids actually asked me, "Did you really bring knitting to a soccer game?" What's wrong with him, doesn't he know me by now, anyway? When do I go to a sporting event and NOT take my knitting?)

(Sorry, if I had taken the time to put my reading glasses on and look at the picture I would've noticed how blurry it was. Well, hopefully I would notice, anyway.)

We sat right behind the players bench.

The stadium filled up more by game time, and across the field was a drum corp that played the drums the whole entire time. It was fun to hear them in the background (but we were happy we weren't sitting on that side.) There were also giant flags that people waved every time there was a good play.

At the end of the evening, the United lost 3-1, and I had a longer sock (with an equally blurry picture.)

Can this lady finish ANYTHING besides socks?

2010-09-15T13:15:00.002-04:00

No, apparently not.

I've knitted a couple of rows on a couple of UFOs this past week, but they're nowhere near done. (The afghan? With the ever-growing triangles? It's getting to be a real pain. The triangles just don't want to get done. And I only have 3 and a bit to go. Plus, a big border, but I don't want to think about that right now...)

All I've been finishing is socks. (We've started the fall sports season and really, an afghan isn't very portable, is it?)

Here's the first pair made from Red Heart Heart and Sole in the Rustica colorway.

60 sts, sz 1 dpns, yoyo heel, 9.5" long. These seem to be boy colors; that is, except for the stripe of fushia. It's not a big stripe, but it still seems a bit out of place.

Then, I took the leftover sock yarn and combined it with a sport wt. rust color and got these:

32 sts, sz. 5 dpns, 7.5" long. I ran out of Heart and sole for the feet, so had to substitute a leftover Trekking sock yarn. (No, I didn't yet break into my new stuff.)

It's pretty cool the way they match each other, isn't it?

In 3 days time I attended a field hockey game and 2 soccer games, so here's my next pair:

Did the cuff at home, leg at 1st soccer game, heel that night, foot the next morning at the other game, and toe at night. (It rained the whole way through the game, but with a waterproof knitting bag and with DD#2 holding the umbrella, I was still able to knit.)

Another field hockey game today, another sock to knit. They go together well.

I might've bought some yarn...

2010-09-13T19:28:00.003-04:00

In August I ordered yarn.

(This is like last week when I told my DH, "I bought a skein of yarn today."

He says, "Yeah? So what's new?")

As I was saying, I ordered yarn from two different far away places and they both came on the same day.

First, I bought this yarn from eBay. This is one of the listings that starts at 99 cents with free shipping from China. I didn't get it for 99 cents, but at $2.25, it still seemed like a deal.

It's very pretty and I might try bidding on some more in the future.

Next, I put in a big order from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions that's located in the Netherlands. When it's coming from that far away, I figure I need to make a big order to make it worthwhile. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

First, I got a selection of Trekking XXL sock yarn. (Apparently I was in a grey mood.)

Plus, here's some Charisa sock yarn.

Then, I was running low on roving so I got several braids.

And then, I thought I'd try out these batts to see how they spin.

So far, I've managed to not cast on for anything new...well, from these yarns, anyway.