Comic Con was totally overwhelming. I’m really glad we met the BSG cast members at the beginning, before our brains/retinas/feet had burned out completely. We saw a bunch of steampunk kids, lots of superhero costumes, some artists we really liked, and spent altogether too much money. I was initially most excited to meet Aaron Douglas (who plays Galen “Chief” Tyrol on the show…actually if you don’t watch the show, you might just want to skip ahead to the socks), because he played on of my favorite characters. He seemed either hung over or jet-lagged, and not too enthused to be there. Regardless, I still think he bears a striking resemblance to my cousin Dave, who came with us (not as much as when they were both bearded, but still). See? They even pose at the same angle:

Michael Hogan (who plays Col. Saul Tigh, a raging alcoholic among other things), on the other hand, was a totally unexpected pleasure to meet. He’s much smaller in person than he looks on TV, and seems laid back, humble, and in posession of a great sense of humor. I got the feeling that he really enjoys meeting fans, and we certainly enjoyed meeting him. When I came up to his table, I told him his character had made BSG the best drinking game ever. He seemed to like that. When he signed my picture, he wrote “Frake ‘em all!” and then yelled it really loudly in classic Tigh fashion, in case we didn’t get it. He signed “XO” under his name, which he explained to me was “my rank, or a hug and a kiss.” I saw other photos of him from that day playing wth babies in strollers and being a geniunely entertaining guy. It was the highlight of the day (week) for me. Also, he was enthusiastic with the hugs:

So that was Comic Con.

On to the socks:

FO: Blackbird Socks

Pattern: Viper Pilots by Glenna C. from Knitting to Stay Sane

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Shadow, 1 skein (barely squeezed 2 socks out of this)

Needles: US1

Mods: because of my row gauge/foot size, I had to shrink the heel and toe considerably. The modification was made easy by the very well-written pattern.

End results: Loooooove these. I actually ordered lightweight yarn from someone’s stash on Ravelry, but was sent mediumweight. As a result, the socks are made of a very dense fabric – they fit well, a tiny bit on the loose side, but between the density of the fabric and the cabled pattern, they won’t be doing much slouching. I considered sending the yarn back, but I kind of like the results from this substitution. These are some seriously tough socks – the kind you put on when you can’t find your slipper,s ot you need to wear them under heavy boots. It’s coming up on summer, I know, but I have a pretty cold house, so they’ll see a lot of use well before fall.

The pattern itself is beautiful. It’s very well written, and I would totally make these again (in a lighter-weight yarn). The modifications I had to make were really no trouble at all, and the charts and instructions are very easy to read. The cable patterns are just difficult enough to stay interesting, without being mind-blowingly hard. A gold star for you, Glenna C.

In other news, I’ve cast on for the Featherweight Shawl (which I’m taking the librty of renaming my lettuce wrap, because it makes me chuckle a little):

You can’t tell from the picture, but the Malabrigo is so soft and fluffy I keep wanting to eat it or something.

I have a mini FO to post – a hat to accompany the Terrace Mitts. It’s not really worth a write-up, as it has all the same specs as the mitts – same yarn, same colorwork, just a plain old hat, just in time for spring. So you all can just get a picture:

So here’s the story. This past fall, we had three giant Ash trees cut down in our backyard. They were all infected with the Emerald Ash Borer, and so they had to come down immediately.  A few days before Halloween, about a week after the trees had come down, I was in the yard moving logs and raking, and I noticed that when one of the big limbs had fallen, it had knocked the cap off of an ancient septic tank that apparently used to service our house. There was a hole about 3′  in diameter and 10′ deep in the middle of our yard, and I was pretty frustrated with the whole mess. We were having a Halloween party that same week, and as I didn’t have time to get the tank filled in, I flipped over the picnic table in the yard and moved it over the hole, just to ensure that none of our guests would fall into it in the dark.  You’ll never guess where this story is headed…

At the party, a while after I’d crashed and burned, one of John’s coworkers Kristen (whom I like quite a lot) was involved in some minor argument with another guest. She decided to go to the back yard to cool off for a minute, and saw the picnic table. While we do have a back deck, there were no chairs on it (it was cold, and no one was hanging out outside), so she decided she’d flip the table over to sit on it. As soon as she got one end off the ground, she slipped into the hole and the table fell back over the opening, trapping her in there. After 10 minutes or so, John noticed she was still missing from the party, and heard her yelling – a group of people had to haul her out and drive her to the emergency room, as she’d injured her shoulder in the fall. In the end, it wasn’t broken, but she did have a chipped bone and had to have her arm in a sling for weeks. I didn’t find out about all of this until the morning, but I felt (and still feel) terrible. I don’t see her very often, and while I got a chance to apologize, I really didn’t feel that it was sufficient, given the trouble this incident caused her.

So, the guilt scarf. I was feeling sheepish about giving someone a scarf in April, but as luck would have it, we got about 3 inches of snow last night: winter’s parting blow, and the perfect occasion for a pretty scarf. I like it a lot, and I hope she does too (I’ll find out once John gets home from work, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic).

Guilt Scarf

Pattern: Plaited Cable Scarf by JKA (ravelry)

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted; 5 skeins in Fired Brick

Needles: US8 straights

Mods: I really only used the pattern as a guide on this project. I kept the cables intact, but separated them with columns of twisted stitches instead of reverse stockinette, and used seed stitch instead of garter stitch. I love me some garter stitch, but this yarn lacks the texture that really makes garter special, and I wanted another non-rolling option.

Results: It’s looong. Really, really long. It was already long when I bound off, but washing it brought out Swish’s amazing expanding properties, and now it’s crazy crazy long. If I wear it without wrappnig it around my neck enough times, I end up tripping on it. That was the plan, though, as Kristen is very very tall. The color will look great on her too, and I think overall it will be a good fit. I always forget how tedious scarves can be, but this one didn’t ever feel tiresome, so I have no complaints.

Last night I was able to cast on for my Demi sweater, which is very exciting. And my birthday is next week, so if I get the Knitpicks Options set I’ve been dreaming of, I’ll have another reason to celebrate! Here’s a boring first peek at my progress on Demi:

and with the flaps up:

Specs:

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Edamame, Bark, Sky and Mist

Needles: US1 DPNs

Pattern: my own, with help on the stranded portion from the Vogue Stitchionary 3

They don’t get a full writeup, but they’re all made in small amounts of Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice (hey, it’s cheap, tough, washable, soft, and comes in a gazillion colors – I can’t afford to be a snob these days) on size 6 needles – links to the patterns and ravelry pages are included.

Spring (ravelink)

Summer (ravelink)

Fall (ravelink)

Winter (ravelink)

Since then I’ve started in on my cabled scarf for Kirsch, which is lovely and soft and a super easy pattern to memorize, as well as my terrace mitts. I’m loving them, but my camera battery has died, so you can’t see my progress on them until it has recharged. The scarf, however, is not so shy:

The color in this shot is 100% wrong, but you get the idea. I can’t wait to finish it so I can start on another sweater!

Ravelink

Yarn: Marr Haven Farms Mule Spun Sport: less than one cone in light gray. It’s heavenly, especially after a good washing.

Needles: US3 circular (magic looped the sleeves)

Pattern: My own, sort of. I started with pictures of Melissa LaBarre’s Garter Yoke Cardigan, but I wanted this to be bottom up, rather than top down. I also didn’t want to have to purl every other row, because I’m lazy. I knit the stockinette portion in the round instead, then steeked it and added a garter rib button band. I kindasorta used Elizabeth Zimmermann’s percentage system to do the math, but diverged significantly, especially when I got to the yoke: I made raglan decreases every other (not every third) round until 1/3 of my stitches had been decreased, and only then did I begin the garter yoke shaping. In the end I used 3 more decrease rounds, rather than the standard 2, because I wanted a nice high neckline. I also did some huge waist shaping; I wanted about an inch of ease around my bust, but beacuse of my rather unusual measurements, that would have made for a good 10″ of ease in the waist, which is a little bit over the top. As I can see now, I should have done some shaping above the bust, because there’s a bit too much fabric at the lower portion of the yoke. I the future I will try using this amazing tutorial on how to use horizontal and vertical bust darts in knitting – it looks incredibly detailed, and like it would actually work. Nevertheless, this sweater makes me 10 kinds of happy.

The plan, post-Willa, was to finish my hedgerow socks before casting on for anything else. This has not happened. I’m more than halfway done with sock number two, but last night I got pretty stir-crazy and decided to cast on for my guilt-scarf (I swear, I will eventually get around to telling the story behind this one). I’m modifying the pattern for the Plaited Cable Scarf, and using some knitpicks Swish. It’s pretty, and soft, and I really do love cables.I think my socks are starting to get jealous.

John had a friend over last week, and we had a few drinks, at which point I decided I should buy the yarn for the scarf I was planning to make. And then I decided that instead of just buying scarf  yarn, I should try to get $50 worth of merchandise to qualify for free shipping. I’d never go into a brick and mortar store while drunk, but online, who’s to judge? So here are the spoils, which just arrived today:

Swish Worsted

KnitPicks Swish Worsted in Fired Brick for Kirsch’s guilt-scarf. I think I’ll be basing it on the Plaited Cable Scarf , with some modifications to the edge stitches. The only thing in my shopping cart pre-drinks.

Essential Kettle Dyed

KnitPicks Essential Kettle Dyed in Auburn and Wine (the pictures both look a bit more orange on my monitor than in real life). I’m not sure what I’m doing with these, but they will be some kind of socks, if I ever manage to finish the neverending Hedgerows. These were a totally unnecessary splurge and I blame it all on the bourbon.

Oscar trying to look cuter than the new yarn

KnitPicks Palette in edamame, mist, sky and bark (if I remember the names right…and I may not). These, along with the US1 dpns I bought, will eventually be the Terrace Mitts I’m designing. The colors are everything I’d hoped they’d be, so I don’t regret this purchase so much (though it could have waited until I have more money)

Finally,

DPN Holders

Not the sock; the tube. It’s one of two DPN WIP holders I got for cheap to push me over the free-shipping limit. This is one part of the purchase I really don’t regret. I carry these socks in my bag, which means I’m constantly losing rows when a needle slips free, either that or needles are puncturing my bag and stabbing me. No more.

The next day, forgetting what a bad idea all this spending was, I noticed someone on Ravelry was selling 8 skeins of KnitPicks Gloss in a pretty color for $25 (including shipping!). This is the yarn I was planning on making into my Matilda cardigan, once I manage to design it. So I bought that too. It’s in the mail. I’m awful.

Because of these unfortunate events, my resolution is to not buy any yarn at all until my birthday in April. I have more than enough projects and supplies for said projects to keep me bust until then. But yeah, a lesson to you all: bourbon and credit cards do not mix well.

FO: Zippered Raglan Pullover

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Seamless Raglan Pullover from Knitting Without Tears

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK in Moss (12 skeins)

Needles: US4

Size: 40″

For: John

Mods: This pattern is all mod, so to explain, I cast on for a 40″ tube, knitted it  in stockinette as long as John wanted it, knitted two sleeves according to EZ’s proportions, then joined them all (minus armpit stitches) on one long needle, working raglan decreases every other row until I’d worked about 2″. I then split the sweater up the front, working back and forth, continuing with the raglan decreases. Once I had a narrow enough neck, I stopped decreasing and worked a 2″ collar, purled one row to create a fold line, then worked another 2″ straight. For the hems, I picked up 9 stitches for every 10 in a contrasting color, worked about 1.5″ and sewed the live stitches to the inside of the garment. I grafted the armpit stitches and sewed in a zipper (with my mom’s help). Easy as that.

Results: Now that this is done, I’ve learned a few things:

• John likes to wear looser clothing than he claims
• John likes his shirts longer than he claims
• John likes green less than he claims (though he does like it well enough)
• Raglan decreases really need to be done every 3rd round, in the round (the yoke is a bit too shallow, making the sweater tight around the armpits and shoulders)
• To do the above, it would be best to use a steek for the front so that it can be worked in the round. Superwash would still work, as the zipper has to be sewn in anyway
• Swish grows like crazy when it is handwashed – particularly in length. This is good thing, as the sweater ended up a couple inches shorter than John wanted (it grew four inches when blocked).

In spite of all these things, John likes it, and it looks good on him. He wore it to work the other day, voluntarily. When I told him “you don’t have to wear it out if you’d rather not – I won’t be offended”  he said that he really likes wearing it and showing off. I’m thrilled. In fact, when one of his co-workers said she liked it, he told her I made it, and she asked if I would make her a scarf. It just so happens that I owe her a favor. Or two. Or maybe more like my firstborn (more on the circumstances behind this later). So I’m making a scarf next: yarn is on the way.

I’m most of the way done with the body on Willa. Because the cone of yarn I’m working off is so huge, it’s a strictly at-home project. Fortunately I’m home all the time now that school’s done. I’m getting cabin fever like crazy though, so I think I’m going to start volunteering at the neighborhood center down the street so I don’t go completely insane.  But for now, I have a wild amound of knitting time on my hands, so I think things should be moving along quickly.

FO: Swallowtail Shawl

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark

Yarn: Ornaghi Filati Merino Oro in color 956 (pale lilac)

Needles: US4 circular

For: Grandma

Mods: I increased the shawl body by working 19 repeats of the bud lace chart instead of 14. I saw that other people had done this on Ravelry, but didn’t realize that this would result in my stitch count being off by a few stitches once I reached the peaked edging. I fudged it away, but had I known I would have just knitted the shawl as written.

Results: This ended up being very rewarding: I completed it in little more than a week, it cost me about $7 (a full skein costs $15, and I didn’t even use half of it), and it’s really really pretty. If I hadn’t been in such a rush, it would look even nicer: there are two spots where stitches were dropped and I had to spend the better part of an hour fixing things, and they look less than perfect. But it’s a handknit shawl, and as expected, Grandma’s response was not “Sara, the error in row 9 of the first lily of the valley chart is simply unacceptable,” it was more like “what a beautiful shawl! thank you so much!” So I’m okay with it.

I wasn’t actually there to give it to her. My grandma lives in North Carolina, and we rarely talk or see each other. My mom hasn’t ever gone to visit her there (she moved a few years back, but is originally from MI), but for Grandma’s 70th birthday, she and my uncle paid her a surprise visit. Two weeks before she went, in the middle of Christmas knitting, Mom asked if I’d make a shawl for Grandma, and I was happy to squeeze it in. I asked her to get pictures of the shawl in action, but of course that never happened, so the blocking shots are all I have for now. Anyway, while my mom was down in NC, grandma gave her some of my great great grandma Matilda’s (that’s my mom’s mom’s mom’s mom) knitting that she’s had stored away for ages. There’s a great red and orange garter stitch scarf that I would take for myself if it wasn’t an heirloom. There’s a pair of plain green mittens knitted on the tiniest needles ever. And there’s this:

They’re the tiniest little child’s gloves ever – the fingers are barely 2″ long. They’re beautiful. I love the cable and lace stitch pattern on the back of them, and as soon as I saw them I decided I had to replicate that pattern in a sweater. I already have it halfway planned out in my head, and as soon as I have a little money (or maybe before I have a little money) I’m going to buy yarn to make it. So now I want to learn more about Matilda. I know she came to northern Michigan from Finland as a girl (teenager?), that she had hair almost down to her feet which she never ever cut, and that she lived to be 104 years old (I think that’s right anyway – I’m almost certain she was a centenarian). If she is the relative I’m thinking of, she was profiled in some UP publication in an article entitled “Iron Women of the North.” I’m going to write my grandma today to find out more, both about the gloves and their maker.

I’ll be finishing Willa, Demi and my Almora gloves before I move on to this Matilda sweater, at least that’s the plan, but I’m so excited I can hardly stand it. I think this means it’s time for me to find full time employment, and fast.