Another round of hats

Getting back to that backlog of Christmas presents, I made two more hats for the boys in my family, both of which were much appreciated:

Habitat

Pattern: Habitat by Jared Flood (ravelry)

Yarn: Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed in color 136 (1.5 skeins)

Needles: US7 and US8 dpns

For: Dave

Mods: None. Made the large size. Also, while my stockinette gauge matched that required by the pattern, the finished hat is gigantic. This is good, because Dave has a similarly gigantic head, but if I were to make one for myself I’d go down a needle size or two. See?

Results: Beautiful. Dave is my cousin, the one with whom I am closest. He moved back to Lansing from Boston this year, and the family is so much closer because of it. He’s been dating my best friend Libby (recipient of the bear hat, among many other things) for quite a while now, and they moved in together just 3 blocks away from us this fall. It is so wonderful to have two of my favorite people so close by. Almost every weekend they host a giant breakfast party for friends and family, because they’re just that cool. I feel pretty pleased with myself for having introduced them to each other. Anyway, even though cousins don’t exchange gifts in my family, as a rule, I decided to make Dave a little something. I heard a rumor he was in need of a warm winter hat, and I also overheard him saying he wanted to buy a fisherman’s sweater. I decided to find a compromise, and made this hat, which is covered in Aran cables. It did the trick: it’s huge enough for his head, and he loves it. When we all went up to my parents’ cabin in Grayling, he wore it nonstop. Success!

Macho, man

Pattern: Turn a Square by Jared Flood (ravelry)

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool in Midnight Blue and Pearl Gray, less than one skein each

Needles: US6 and US7 dpns

For: Jeff again

Mods: None at all

Results: It’s perfect. It’s so boring and simple it couldn’t possibly be any less girly. Jeff likes blue, and the hat fits him nicely. I also used the jogless striping technique for the first time on this little project. It’s not quite as jog-free a I would have hoped, but it’s certainly better than nothing. All in all, another success. Thanks, Jared, for making my Christmas knitting easy and enjoyable.

A veritable Flood of Christmas hats

…by which I mean, I have a crush on brooklyntweed and decided to have an all-Jared-Flood-all-the-time Christmas. I already posted about the Hemlock Ring, which my mom loved, and is now sitting on the back of a loveseat in a beautiful cabin in Grayling, already making itself useful. But I haven’t written up the hats yet, so here we go.

Bear Hug Hat

Pattern: Turn a Square by Jared Flood (ravelry) … sort of

Yarn: Nashua Creative Focus Worsted in Espresso

Needles: US6 andUS7 dpns, and US3 circular for magic looping the ears

For: Libby!

Mods: It’s all a mod. In fact, the only part of the pattern that resembles this hat is the decreases. I used all one color in a super fuzzy yarn, and added ears, which I made up as I went.

Results: She loves it! Libby is a huge (really really huge) fan of bears. She asked me to make her a bear hat a while ago, and when she opened this at christmas there was honest-to-god screaming. It’s big on me, which means it fits over her enormous hair. One of the best-received presents I’ve made.

Next!

Koolhaas

Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood (ravelry)

Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Aran in Marine

Needles: US6 and US8 dpns

For: It’s complicated

Mods: None. The pattern is well written, and the yarn I used was great. It picked up the necessary stitch definition beautifully. I made the men’s size, as this was originally for my sister’s boyfriend Jeff.

Results: I love the hat. But. Here is an approximated transcript of every single conversation I had with anyone I know about it:

Me: Do you like this hat I just finished?

Everyone: Wait, isn’t that supposed to be for Jeff?

Me: Yeah, why?

Everyone: Um.

Me: No, tell me what’s wrong with it

Evreyone: That’s a pretty girly hat.

This is the guy who commissioned me to make him a pair of Endpaper Mitts. For real. Anyway, I decided half a dozen family members (including my sister herself) can’t be wrong. I originally wanted to rip out the last chart repeat and keep the hat for myself (it’s way too tall for my head). But by chance, our friend Rachel came to visit from New Jersey before Christmas, and she mentioned that a) she needs a new warm winter hat, and b) she has a gigantic head. A re-gift was born and everyone was happy

Coming soon: a manlier hat for Jeff, and another hat for the biggest head in my family (spoiler alert: it fits!)

in which Sara D is apologetic and resolves to catch up on her blogging

I’ve been bad, kids. I graduated, finally. And then I was applying for jobs (none of which I was offered, but it still took up a lot of time: filling out applications, cleaning up my resume, prepping for interviews, driving to interviews, etc). And I was really cramming in the Christmas knitting the whole time, right down to the wire. And then I went on vacation (!!). And I completely forgot that I have a blog. My resolution for the week (I can’t handle year-long resolutions, but I think a week should be manageable) is to catch up on blogging about all the goodies I’ve made for people this past month. Now that I’ve resolved to do that, I’m going to not talk about things I’ve finished for a moment, because I’m so excited about my current project:

I’ve started working on a sweater I’ve already named Willa, after my dear Ms. Cather. I think she would also appreciate wearing a sweater that looks like a squishy lump of oatmeal. The project has two inspirations, the most obvious being the Garter Yoke Cardigan by Melissa of Knitting School Dropout. I loved her sweater at first sight, before the pattern was published, and I immediately decided I needed one for myself. I finally took a look at the pattern in knit.1, and decided that I was going to go it alone: there were too many things I wanted to make my own in this project. I’m planning on using the Zimmermann percentage system, as usual, so it will be knitted from the bottom up. Because I’m lazy and I don’t want to purl, I’ll be using my first steek on the stockinette stitch portion. The sleeves will be full-length, and will include shaping (the sleeves on the inspiration sweater are very cute, but I’m looking for something warmer, with a more classic shape). The biggest difference will be in the dimensions of the cardigan. I’ve decided to finally tackle my biggest clothing dilemma (one of the reasons I started knitting in the first place, actually): nothing fits me. Ever. I like my figure quite a lot, really, but my body type went out of style half a century ago, and I have yet to find an article of clothing that doesn’t try to pair my large chest and large hips with a large waistline. So I’ve played around with the numbers and I think I can actually make a sweater that fits. It won’t gap between the buttons on my chest, and it won’t sag around the middle, making me look 5 months pregnant. That’s the plan, anyway.

The other inspiration for the sweater is the yarn I’m using, which is absolutely amazingly wonderful. It’s the sport weight mule-spun yarn from Marr Haven Farms in Allegan, MI. That’s really close to where I live, btw. I ordered it online, but I could have taken a pretty easy little road trip to visit the sheep myself. It’s a merino-rambouillet blend (I’m not sure if it is the yarn or the sheep that are blended, honestly), and it keeps getting better and better. I was skeptical at first: there’s a fair amount of vegetable matter that I’ve been picking out as I knit, and I was pretty convinced that the ginormous cone of yarn I bought (cheap!) had been improperly categorized as sport weight – it looked like fingering weight on the cone. But after I washed my swatch, the yarn bloomed like crazy – it turned soft and lofty and buttery, and I’m in love with it. I keep coming back to the swatch as I’m working on the body of the sweater to remind myself that the whole thing will feel like this oncce I’m done. Deceptive stuff, and I’m crazy for it. The color really is a bit misleading though – I ordered the light grey color, and it ican more accurately be described as oatmeal. Fortunately the yarn was shipped with color samples of all the other colorways. As it turns out, the “light grey” is a blend of 90% natural (cream colored) and 10% naturally dark (dark brown to black) fiber. I’m not disappointed – the color is unexpected, but very pretty. I’m actually liking this yarn (and its price tag) so much that I think I’ll buy a couple more cones of it once I have money, whenever that happens. I have a couple other sweater projects in mind, and if the Willa sweater turns out as wonderful as I’m hoping it will, I would love to have a collection of plain, practical, warm and cozy sweaters out of the same fiber (this is Michigan, after all, and I’m pretty boring when it comes to clothing).

Other projects in the planning stages:

• Demi in Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool (which seems like a steal, but is honestly not much cheaper than the Marr Haven)
• More socks to keep my feet warm (making sure that my superwash yarn is really superwashable this time)
• A pair of convertible fingerless mitts based on this:

Sort of, anyway. I blatantly stole this picture from Flickr (bad librarian) because I can’t find the digital copies of my own trip to Uttaranchal, India. I was working with an NGO there several years ago, focusing on indigenous agricultural practices in the region. I stayed with a couple of families in really remote villages in the Kumaon foothills (of the Western Himalaya). The region is so hilly that terraces must be used to make the land farmable. I was staying in a village near Almora (sort of), and the home I was staying in was halfway down a valley – standing on the front porch, you could see terraces like these in all directions, with a spring at the bottom of the valley, and the road at the top of the hills (it made for quite a hike to catch the bus or get water for a bath!). It was hands down the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. In the spring, when I was there, and crops were beginning to sprout from the terraces (mostly wheat and indigenous rices where I was staying, as they did little commercial farming), the hills were striped brilliant green and brown. And when the weather was good, you could see enormous mountains hovering over the hills. I decided when I was there that at some point I’d have to incorporate that image into my knitting – green and brown stripes,under blue sky and white mountains. That was almost 4 years ago, and I still haven’t found an appropriate way of integrating that idea into a project. I’m not typically big on using lots of crazy colors, but I think gloves would be a great way to start playing around with the concept. I’ve been sketching for it, and I think I’ve got a pattern ready – all I need is yarn and time.

Anyway, that’s what I’m up to now: next up is what I’ve finished, with more pretty pictures and less nostalgic rambling.

Sprinting to Xmas

I’ve been moving right along since I finished Kim’s lace. I decided to tackle the Hemlock Ring blanket next, and it was an excellent decision. It’s lace, but easyeasy lace that doesn’t require much thought. And way cheap too. It’s for my parents for Christmas, and I think it will be perfect for their new cabin: warm, cozy, pretty, but still a little bit rustic. And you know how I love me some rustic.

FO: Hemlock Ring Blanket

Stats:

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket (ravelry), popularized and modified by Jared Flood, but really by someone or other at the Canadian Spool Cotton Company

Size: ~52″ in diameter

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Mink Heather – 8 balls

Needles: US10.5 bamboo dpns and circs

Time Knitting: October 29-November 10. This includes about 3 days of waiting to buy circular needles once I ran out of room on the DPNs

For: Mom & Dad

Mods: None. The pattern itself is a mod.

Notes: Way easy – I’ve decided I like feather and fan a lot, especially when it’s worked in the round like this. Zooms off the needles, literally. I do not like the bind off very much. For some reason, mine looks kind of wonky, and it took effing forever. Also, before blocking this looks roughly like a hairball X100. I was going to take a picture to demonstrate, but it was too gross for me to even bother. It’s amazing, the magic hot water and pins can do.

Pretty/Tough

As I mentioned in my catch-up post, I finished the Faux Russian Stole for my mother in law, Kim. She’s a sweet woman who has done everything she can to make me feel welcome in her family, and I wanted to show my appreciation to her (in some way other than having a half dozen babies asap). I don’t know how often this will be worn, but she likes pretty things, and I think it will be appreciated for that reason alone. I managed to get some action shots in: they’re not as nice as I’d have liked, partly because the good ones mysteriously disappeared from my camera, and partly because I have no business wearing shawls. They’re so pretty and…lacy. If I can’t wear it like a giant scarf, I’m afraid I’m at a loss. Kim is about 500x more delicate than I am, so I don’t think it will be a problem for her.

So here, look, I’m awkward:

I wish I could have taken a picture that explains how long this thing is. Kim (who can’t possibly be bigger than 5′ tall, and tinier than almost any adult I’ve ever met) will be able to wrap herself in this a good 3 times over. I for one think that’s a good thing.

Anyway,

FO: Faux Russian Stole

Stats:

Pattern: Faux Russian Stole by Katie Nagorney and Ann Swanson, from A Gathering of Lace

Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow in Jewels Heather, 2.2 hanks (bought from someone on Ravelry for a whopping $8, if I remember right)

Needles: US6 bamboo circs

Time knitting: March 15-October 28. However, this spent at least 3 (probably 4) months in a drawer while I was working on less soul-sucking projects

Mods: None, unless you count “mods” like fucking up the pattern in a few places.

Comments/Verdict: This is the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever made. I’m thrilled. And I don’t know that I’ll ever try something like this again. It was truly a miserable experience. My biggest problem with the pattern (which, by the way, was perfectly written and charted) was the loooooooooong repeats. There are only five vertical repeats in the whole thing, and no horizontal repeats. It goes on forever and ever and ever. Maybe someone else could memorize it, but that was certainly beyond me. As a result, I couldn’t really do this while doing anything else, and that made this no fun for me. Knitting is my multitasking activity. I’m never just knitting: I have to be watching a movie, reading, talking, listening to the radio…anything but just knitting. I get super bored and give up after 10 minutes. Which is my own problem, and not any problem with the pattern, but it means I’m sticking to shorter repeats of more intuitive charts from now on. On the upside, I discovered that if you scribble over each line of the pattern as you complete it, it makes it a million times easier to know where you’re supposed to be

Proof of the craziness:

Gah

Presents are in order

I’ve been pretty terrible about writing: it’s been a busy semester. But I think that when a blog turns into a monthly apology for not writing, it’s bad news, so I’ll let that stand on its own and not make any more excuses. As a way of making it up, I have some presents…not for readers, but presents nevertheless.

Since my mom’s Wool Peddler Shawl I’ve finished a gigantic sweater, an adorable hat, two pairs of socks (neither of which fits), and as of yesterday, a lace stole, the prettiest and most difficult thing ever to come off of my needles. It’s officially present-knitting season, and I’m loving it. My favorite part about being a compulsive knitter is that it makes Christmas so much easier. Yes, I work my ass off for months on end, but financially, it’s worth it. I’ve already bought almost all of the yarn for my Christmas projects, spread out over the summer and early fall as I planned my gift-attack. I’ll be buying the last of it this afternoon (just got a little check in the mail from Wayne State, and I’m itching to spend the free money), and it’s not even November yet. So, take a deep breath: this will be a long post.

FO: Four Years Late (Seamless Hybrid Pullover)

Specs

• Pattern/Recipe: Seamless Hybrid Pullover (Ravelry) by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitting Without Tears
• Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK in lemongrass heather (14 balls) and nutmeg (1 ball)
• Needles: US5 circs and dpns
• For: Dad’s 54th birthday
• Time knitting: September 10-October 5
• Mods: This isn’t really a pattern, so it was one giant modification, really. If you’ve never read an EZ pattern, go pick up one of her books. They’re delightful, and so open to interpretation that you could really do anything with them. In fact, they’re so vague that they really demand reinterpretation. I like this: it’s how I learned to knit, really. I figured out how to knit and purl and didn’t look at a pattern for about 3 years. I also didn’t make anything particularly wearable, but that’s because I didn’t have EZ to help me along.
• Results: I’m sad to say that I’m kind of meh about this. I wanted to love it like crazy. I love lots of the examples on Ravelry like crazy. Part of the problem was the yarn: It had to be superwash for my dad, and while this is amazingly soft and pretty, it’s hard to get excited about. It hardly even feels like wool, and while that’s good for a picky guy like my dad, it’s not so fun to knit with. Also, the size. My dad should probably wear a 44″ sweater. He likes his clothing enormous, though, so I made it 48″ around. That’s crazy big; by the time I was done I was nearly cross-eyed. Finally, the recipe didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. I did the full saddle yoke across the back, which I love the look of. But my row gauge must have been out of proportion with my stitch gauge: the yoke, which is knit horizontally across the back, bunches a bit. This was nearly fixed with a trip through the washer and dryer, but it’s still a bit rumply, as you can see:

• Verdict: I don’t think it’s a bad sweater. If it fit me, I’d wear it. Dad seemed pretty blown away by it. Too blown away, in fact: he’s been afraid to try it on. He took it up north to the cabin they’re building, and said he’d keep it up there, and I’m afraid it’s because he doesn’t want me to know he’ll never wear it. He confessed he’s a little bit afraid of ruining it if he puts it on. I’ve tried to convince him that I’d rather he wear holes in it than keep it locked up in a closet all the time. We’ll see. The upshot is that there are no modeled pictures yet. I’ll be going up north over the holidays, and I’ll try to get him into it and in front of a camera. sigh.

On to the next one!

FO: We Call them Pirates!

Specs

• Pattern: We Call them Pirates (Ravelry) by Adrian Bizilla
• Yarn: Knit Picks Telemark in black and white, 1 skein of each, plus a little extra white for the liner band.
• Needles: US3 and US1 circs
• For: My sister Kate, who I think still shops at Hot Topic even though she’s 20.
• Time Knitting: October 6-October 10
• Mods: No provisional cast on; I just picked up the stitches from the band to make the liner.
• New tricks: Magic loop! finally! And it’s so easy! BTW, the Knit Picks harmony wood circs are great for this: I used the extra long ones I’d bought for the Henry scarf of death, and they worked beautifully.
• Verdict: I love it. I initially thought it was a pretty corny pattern (which is why it’s for my sister and not me), but it’s so cute and fast and well written, it’s really grown on me. I think she’ll be thrilled.
• Side note: know how I can tell its been forever since I’ve posted? I just posted a picture of myself, not dead or frozen, in a tank top. I’m so jealous of me three weeks ago…

FOs: Two pairs of ill-fitting socks

These aren’t really worth a writeup. I know they look like they fit, but they both shrank in the wash. WTF sock yarn? I though superwash meant it wouldn’t do that? For the record, the pink yarn was something I traded my coworker Chelsea for my extra Regia (she got it off eBay, and didn’t know what it was: apparently not superwash). The green stuff is the new Knit Picks Imagination handpainted alpaca. OMG fuzzy. Oh well, it was good practice, and an excuse to show the world my furry legs and glorious birthmark yet again. On the other hand, the pattern I used with the Imagination yarn (Charade) is lovely, and I’d like to do it again with yarn that isn’t going to cover me in fuzzies and then shrink.

I finished the Faux Russian Stole for John’s mom last night, and blocked it this morning. I won’t do a full writeup until I can get some action shots with it, but here’s a sneak peek of it blocking:

This is so exciting I can hardly stand it.

Ravelympics Update: we have an FO!

This is a few days late, but I didn’t have time until this morning for a one-woman photo-shoot. That should be another olympic event. I cast on for my event at 8:00 a.m. on 8/8/08 (the time of the opening ceremonies). I finished binding off around 11:00 p.m. on 8/14/08, and I finished blocking the thing at 9:30 a.m. on 8/15/08. That’s much, much faster than I anticipated completing this project, and I’m thrilled with the results. I can’t wait to give it to my mom for her birthday next month. So, here it is:

FO: Extra-Rustic Wool Peddler Shawl

Pattern: Wool Peddler’s Shawl (ravelry link) by Cheryl Oberle from Folk Shawls

Yarn: Peace Fleece DK Sport in Olive Roots – just shy of 2 skeins

Needles: US7 bamboo circs

Made for: Mom’s 49th birthday

New Tricks: I used a new, looser bind-off, which was actually faster than my standard bind off. It’s the decrease bind off I found in Knitty. I like it a lot.

Mods: None, really. I followed the pattern to the letter. I’d been hoping to squeeze in a couple of chart repeats for the lace part, but I just didn’t have enough yarn. The yarn choice, however, is almost a mod in and of itself. My mom, like me, is not a particularly lace-y person. We’re both too practical for much of anything delicate. She and my dad are in the process of building a cabin on some property they have on the AuSable river, and I wanted to make her something super rustic that she could wear up there on chilly mornings before the wood stove heats up. I chose the pattern because, for one, I really wanted to do something from Folk Shawls. It’s a great book, and I love almost all of the patterns in it. Many of them have that simple, rustic quality I love, particularly this one with all the garter stitch in it. I wasn’t 100% sure this was the right yarn for the job: was it too chunky? too tweedy? Now that it’s been blocked into submission, I think I made the right choice. It has a nice drape, and is extra cozy and nubbly (though it didn’t soften up as much as I’d hoped). I think she’ll love it, and better yet, I think she’ll actually wear it.

It was a really enjoyable project. I did almost half of it while we were on our anniversary weekend. We went up to Pentwater and stayed at a really nice bed and breakfast. It was a little bit chilly for the beach, so we spent the whole weekend wandering around town and lounging (knitting) on the B&B’s wrap-around deck. I won’t lie: the garter stitch got pretty old about 3/4 of the way in. But the lace was a welcome escape from that monotony, while still being easy enough to work on while watching hours and hours of Battlestar Galactica. Yes, I was competing on Team BSG, it’s true. I am not ashamed.

Now I need to find a shawl pin to go with it: as you can tell from the above photo, it doesn’t exactly hold itself up, and it’s too chunky to be wrapped around your shoulders more than once without suffocating. I’ve found a few I like, but they’re super pricey, and none are exactly the right color. At least I have time to hunt for one.

I only signed up for one Ravelympics event, but since I have so much time left, I’m pretending I’m also competing in the WIP Wrestling. I’m almost done with my second sock, and I’m hoping to get most of the Muir shawl done as well. Updates are coming!

FO: Glory Glory Man United Scarf

It’s been a long time since I’ve last posted anything. I’d like to say that’s because I’ve been so busy knitting, but this is actually my first FO since the socks I blogged 6 weeks ago. Oops. In the meantime, I have been busy, just not with fiber-related pursuits. I finished a long and difficult penultimate semester, ran my first 5K race (without dying), enrolled in a kettlebell class (currently kicking my ass and giving me muscles), actually finished reading a novel (not for class, the first time this has happened all year), and I’ve continued working and having something that vaguely resembles a social life. I’m impressed. Just not with my knitting.

I finally have a finished object though, and it was on a deadline. Just in time for the start of the 2008-2009 season of the English Premier League, I present to you:

Glory Glory Man United (the scarf)

Pattern: None. Just a 1X1 rib with stripes based on a machine-knit scarf John likes (but doesn’t want to wear around in the winter)

Yarn: Knit Picks Telemark in Poppy (4 skeins), Drift (1.25 skeins) and Coal (.5 skeins)

Needles: US5 circulars

For: John, of course.

Notes: This was a very simple knit. John doesn’t really ask for knitted gifts, though, so when he asked me to make this for him, I was very excited. He likes it, and will be wearing it around all winter, and to the bar when he goes to watch matches. It’s a challenge to make things for people who don’t typically wear knitted goods, so this makes me happy. And he was excited to pose with it in the basement, surrounded by a small fraction of his Manchester United paraphernalia:

Now that this is out of the way, I only have three WIPs on the needles:

1. Faux Russian Stole: Mother’s Day is long gone, of course, so John’s mom won’t be getting this until Christmas or her birthday (shortly thereafter), which frees me up to work on:
2. Muir Stole: This is for me, so it’s not a huge priority (especially in this heat), but since I finished the scarf I’ve been plugging away at it. I haven’t checked, but I think I’m more than halfway through with it. I still really enjoy the pattern, and it’s beautiful so far, so I’d really like to have it ready for fall
3. Jelly Belly Socks: No real pattern on these – just Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s basic top-down recipe. But the yarn was free and pretty (the colorway reminds me of the tutti-frutti Jelly Belly jelly beans I loved as a kid, hence the name), so I’m enjoying them. I completed the first, and have since stalled out on them. I haven’t worn socks in at least a month, save for while running. This could explain what I’d otherwise attribute to second-sock-syndrome

However (and this is a big however), I’ll be participating in the first annual Ravelympics starting Friday the 8th. My challenge is to start and complete my mom’s Wool Peddler shawl over the course of the Olympic games, which will be tough, but not too tough (half of the thing is garter stitch, and classes are out, so I have nothing better to do). I’m a member of Team Battlestar Galactica. This is ridiculous, I know, but I’ve finally given in to my geek nature, and I’ll be re-watching the series over the course of the competition to keep my eyes busy, so why not? Since I have so much more free time until September, I’ll make an effort to make regular blog updates from here on out.

One last peek at a happy red devil:

FO: First Socks!

I’m not the cleaner in the family. Generally, I do all of the cooking (because I’m pretty good at it, and I like it), and John does the cleaning (because dirty floors make him squirm, and I’m comfortable living in squalor). Today, however, I was moved to dust mop the entire house, so that I could slide around the floors in these:

Meet my first socks, and my gigantic birthmark. The socks aren’t perfect; I’ll modify the “recipe” when I make another pair. My feet are a little bit wide, and more than a little bit square – the short rows at the toe are way too pointy, and bunch up a little bit on me. I also think I’ll cast on fewer stitches: they’re a little loose, even after washing

I also need to find a stretchier bind-off. I used a k1p1 bind-off, the one in the Vogue knitting bible, which is usually stretchy enough, but this time it lacks the give I’m looking for. Regardless of these problems, I like them, and I liked knitting them – it’s a good mindless project for riding the bus into work. I have most of a skein left, and I offered it up to my coworker, who likes the colorway. In return I’m getting some delicious-looking orangey-red sock yarn she has lying around in her stash – I’ll post a picture once I get it. So, for the record, here are the stats;

Project Specs:

Pattern: Universal Toe-up Sock Formula by Amy Swenson (Knitty)

Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Color 4-ply, colorway 4741

Needles: US0 bamboo DPNs

Sts: 68

Mods: none, really. It’s a pretty basic pattern. One last look!

As for the Muir stole, it definitely didn’t get finished by the 1st. And as soon as I realized that wasn’t going to happen, I slowed waaaay down. So now I’m about halfway through, and now that I have the updated, typo-free chart, it’s going very smoothly.

Now that I’m done with the socks, I can move on to something else. Next in line is John’s Man U scarf, but I need to find needles for that one – I want to make it on 5s or 6s, but my 6s are in use, and apparently I have no 5s except for DPNs. I’m also reluctant to start, because I have another project int he wings that I’m super excited about: the Wool Peddler’s Shawl from Folk Shawls, for my mom’s birthday, in this:

It looks delicious. It took all my willpower not to eat it while winding the first ball. It’s Peace Fleece DK in Olive Roots, and it’s so rough and nubbly and rustic and colorful I can hardly stand it. It’s begging for garter stitch, isn’t it? I think I’ll be in love with this project, as soon as I finish something else off and get  a chance to start it. Bah.

FO: Scarf of Death

I finally (finally!) finished the Danica scarf I’d been chipping away at for the past two months. Here:

I think the reason I hated this so much near the end was that I really didn’t have any control over the project. The patron who commissioned this bought the yarn himself, and while the colors are all right, and the yarns were all good quality, I never would have paired them together, as they all knit up at very different gauges. Also, weaving in ends is a pain in the ass, and this had many, many ends. If I do another entrelac project it will be with self-striping yarn. At least this one earned me some yarn money; maybe I’ll buy yarn for my first pair of socks! Anyway, here are the specs:

Danica

Pattern: Danica by Jesse Loesberg (on Ravelry here)

Yarns: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky in color 17011 (2 skeins); Patons Classic Wool Merino in Rich Red Tweed (less than 1/2 a skein); Rowan Pure Wool DK in color 034 (1 skein); Rowan Pure Wool DK in color 031 (1 skein). Yeah, chunky and DK. No good.

Needles: US7 hardwood straights, then bamboo DPNs when one of my straights broke

Knitted for: A patron on commission

Time to complete: Almost 2 months exactly

Mods: None beyond the color scheme. I tried to use a slip-stitch edge on the squares in the first few repeats, only to find that this created a weirdly visible join with the previous squares. Added fringe (also not something I’m fond of doing).

New skills learned: Entrelac! This was actually kind of fun, despite my weird project control issues. I might make an entrelac lap blanket for my parents for Christmas, this time in Noro or SWS or something else that has stripes.

 

I’m switching back to project-monogamy for a few weeks now. My cousin (of the handfasting cloth) is getting married on June 1, and I want to finish the Muir stole I just started by then so I can show off to all my estranged relatives. Or something. A progress shot of the first repeat:

Crazy lace!

Also, not related to knitting, but I bought a cat basket last week. It was vacant for a few nights, but now it has a regular visitor: