So awesome

Remember this?



Now it looks like this:









Knitting is the coolest thing ever. This is my first completed shawl, the Bigfoot Shawl from wrapped in comfort. I finished it just in time to give it to the recipient on Easter, even though her mission trip was long over. I'm glad I did it anyway.

Now I have started on the Organic Baby Wrapper and Hat set. I actually have finished the hat except for the crochet border (I didn't have the right size hook). I am 4 repeats into the blanket. I added another repeat on the width and I plan to add a couple to the length as well, because my swatch shrank in both directions when washed and dried. I don't want to put a blanket in the wash and then pull out a washcloth!! I am a little concerned about the hat - I compensated for the shrinkage in length but I didn't change the width, so...we'll see how it comes out. I'm a little nervous on that one. I am trying to tell myself that it won't shrink as much in the width because the pattern stitch will not act the way stockinnette did. I feel kind of stupid for not knitting any pattern repeats into my swatch, but the guage is given in stockinnette, so that's what I did! I am still new at this. Next time I will be somewhat less impatient, and I will knit two swatches. But, honestly, it's a baby hat. It's not much bigger than a generous swatch anyway. I have decided not to worry about it. It took me two evenings to do - I can always have a do-over. Although, I probably should weigh it and see how much yarn it took before I do that. I do still have to do the contrasting stripes in the wrapper.

Anyway. I'm still at 4 total active projects, now, with the two pairs of socks, the laceweight shawl I haven't touched since I broke my needle, and the baby wrapper.

Plus, you know, the hibernating stuff - the witterings hat and the waffle scarf and the garter stitch shawl of just-kill-me-now. Although, honestly, I have probably imporved at knitting enough since I started knit that shawl that I might could motor through the rest of it if I just put my mind to it. I am certainly educated enough now to say that I should have used much larger needles. Le sigh...

I suppose I could always felt the thing into a placemat or something. Mwa ha.

Finishings

I managed to get 2 things off my progress in process list this weekend:

1) Shedir


Look very pretty...but it is very big. The brim comes down over my eyes. I'm not sure what I am going to do with it yet.

2) Snug Harbor



It has become Lulu's bed when she sleeps on the bed. She also slept in it on the floor for a little while on Saturday, but there are many cushier beds around the house. I had planned to knit the bottom with both colors held double, but I miscalculated (rather spectacularly) where the bottom actually started so...yeah.

But they're done! This means I have 4 active WIPs (and two hibernating ones, but we will not discuss this). One is the beginner's triangle, one is the Bigfoot Shawl, one is the starry night socks, and the last is the BBS.

Yesterday I worked on the shawl some, even though I really should have finished the toes on the first BBS so that I could get started on the second. The pups and I are house-and-dog-sitting for a friend this week so there will be lots of knitting time (I hope).

I also selected, ordered, and received this in the past week:



Elann.com Pakucho Organic Cotton in Natural and I think Cafe (I can't remember off the top of my head). This is for an Organic Baby Wrapper for a friend who is having a baby in August. We don't know the sex of the baby yet and I didn't want to wait, so I just went with neutrals. The dark will be the main color and the light will make the contrast and, hopefully, the hat.

Successes & Setbacks

Look how cute it turned out with all the finishing touches!!



I'm very pleased. The recipient liked it very much.

Here is the hat that went with the gloves I posted previously, finally photographed:



The imperial armwarmers are finished and gifted. That means I am done with all the things I promised to do for other people! I feel very relieved - I will be careful not to promise so much in the future. I will still give stuff away regularly and make notes of things people say they would like to have, but I won't tell them until it's done.

I am currently working on the Beginner's Triangle from a Gathering of Lace, but I don't have a picture of it yet. It's working well, but I discovered after several pattern repeats that I have been doing yarnovers wrong this whole time. Once I started doing them right my lace looked much more open, and I had a much easier time overall. The way I was doing them before caused the yarnovers to be backwards, and made the next row a real pain to knit because of the way they pulled the stitches. I had to start over twice after one or two pattern repeats because I just kept getting confused and losing count and a million other things. Now that I am doing yarnovers correctly and using stitch counters and a lifeline, things are going much more smoothly. The yarn is Fleece Artist Suri Blue, and it is very sticky, so unknitting can be a bit of a challenge - and I am doing a lot of unknitting. It seems like I can't make it more than a row or two without getting messed up and having to back up and redo it. The thing would be twice as large if I did not keep having to stop and backup. But, this is part of the process of learning, and I am trying to take it in good humor. At least now I am able to recognize mistakes sooner and figure out what I probably did, and back up and fix it, rather than just wailing and weeping and ripping. I think I will improve with practice, and I am still really enjoying the piece despite the frustrations. However, last night when I crawled onto the bed I landed my knee right on my Knit Picks Harmony needle and snapped it in two. I've ordered a replacement pair, but work is stalled until it comes.

I had a mishap with the second skein of Starry Night yarn for my socks. I did something really stupid and ended up with a horrible tangled mess that took me a couple of hours to fix. I did eventually fix it, and rewound the skein, but the yarn is looking a little worse for wear.

This weekend I knitted a pair of wristwarmers which are intended for hospital patients that one of my church friends serves. That was a quick, easy project from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, and it only took one skein of KnitPicks Swish Superwash.

I have also joined Socks for Soldiers, and my sock kit came in the mail this week, so starting those Big Black Socks is on my radar.

I can't decide what else to start on - the lace is great for a big complicated project, the socks (both black and otherwise) are great portable knitting, but I need a project sort of in between those levels of difficulty. Time to browse my ravelry queue!

Naughty Knit-blogger

I confess...I have not been keeping up my knitting blog.

So what have I been up to? Christmas knitting! Which is to say, this:



And this:



And these:



Not too shabby, right? The top is the Knit Picks Dimple Shale Scarf in Knit Picks Ambrosia, Horizon Colorway. The middle is a pair of Urban Necessity gloves, size XL, knitted without the mitten cap, that will go to my boyfriend's bro for Christmas. On the bottom, a pair of Knitty pedicure socks that I gave my church choir director in Artyarns Supermerino (I forget the colorway - that is what they get for using numbers instead of names).

But wait, there is one more item!



One completed Imperial Armwarmer - covered in pug hair because I knitted it while dogsitting. I still need to do the other one, but it got put on hold while the Christmas knitting was going on.

I also actually got another pair of Urban Necessity gloves done (without the mitten cap again) for a friend that wanted a pair. They look just like the pair above, only all black and slightly smaller.

One final project which I have finished and photographed but dare not post just yet because the recipient is on flickr and might notice it - a panda hat for my boyfriend's mom, who is a zoo volunteer. I used a Lion Brand free pattern for a bear baby hat, but I knitted an adult-sized roll-brim hat for the base. I used Karabella Aurora for that one, I think, in black and white (obviously). I still need to sew some buttons on the eyes, and embroider a mouth, but it is really darn cute. I will post it after the holidays.

My poor starry night socks have languished...



But now that the Christmas knitting is finished, I can go back to them. I did have a little trouble figuring out where I left off last night, but I was able to work it out and managed to get a fair amount done on the gusset decreases. It feels good to get that one going again.

I just ordered a skein of Hand Maiden Casbah sock yarn as a little Christmas present to myself (to be paid for with the money my grandma sent me). Excited about that. I like the Lorna's Laces colorways but the yarn just doesn't seem that soft to me. So, we'll see how the fancy stuff looks.

Next up on the needles is the Beginner's Triangle from A Gathering of Lace. I plan to work on this on the plane to Texas to visit my family for the holidays. It will be done in Fleece Artist Suri Blue in the 'Stone' colorway. I wound the skein last night and the ball looks so pretty! I'm excited.

Finishings

I finished the garter rib socks, and I finished the main part of the first Urban Necessity glove! I still have to knit the mitten cap, but I am just pleased to have the hand part completed at this point.

It is not perfect. There were some pretty decent-sized gaps between the fingers despite my best efforts. I used the ends to try to sew them closed and weave through any areas that might have holes. I'm not sure how well it worked. Also, I think if I were making them for me I would leave off the increases just before the fingers. it makes the fabric too wide for my hands and it bunches a bit. I am hoping it will be okay on my friend. Her hands are a little bit larger than mine, though not much. I hope I made the thumb long enough, and that the finger gussets are not too long. They are a little bit longer than I personally would like them. I would do them a bit shorter if it was for me but again, her hands are a little bigger. I am tempted to send this glove to her once the mitten cap is knitted so that I can make sure it is going to fit at least reasonably well before I make her the other one. However, that presents its own problems...if it doesn't fit then I have to knit it over, and if it does fit then how do I knit the second one to match without having the first one for reference? So I think I will just struggle on and hope. If they don't fit, then it was just a learning experience. They do feel really nice on the hands, though, the Swish Superwash is really soft and has a nice luster.

Almost immediately after I finished the garter rib socks I cast on another pair of socks with the Starry Night yarn I posted before. I just can't wait to see how it turns out. I've only knitted about a quarter inch of rib but I'm loving it so far. I plan to use the Elongated Corded Rib pattern. I saw some pictures of it in ravelry and I think the eyelets will appropriately compliment the Starry Night theme.

I did go ahead and buy More Sensational Knitted Socks. I am weak.

Focus on the positive

Ta da! Finally, pictures of my lovely FOs. First: Paris Rain Pedicure Socks (pattern from Knitty, yarn is Artyarns Paris Rain from Yarn Market. As you can clearly see, I did not purchase the two skeins at the same time, so the colors are quite different. I am trying not to care, but I do have to say that sock number 2, the one where the stripes are closer together, is by far my favorite. Very pretty.

Unfortunately the heels are very saggy and it's driving me crazy. I guess it doesn't matter given where I will be wearing these, but I am still kind of depressed. Also, I am concerned about making these for my mom. Her feet are even smaller than mine so if the heels are too big on me they will also be too big on her. :oP

But, even so....they are very pretty.



Next up, the completed Urban Necessity Tam.



Next time hopefully there will be pictures of my sock in progress and the beginnings of an Urban Necessity glove-mitten-thingy.

P.S. The yarn for the tam is KnitPicks Swish Superwash DK in Wisteria.

Woohoo!

It is with immense glee that I move the columns scarf from the "On the Needles" list to the "Completed Projects" list. It's done!!

It is actually a few inches short of my goal of 5 feet...but I ran out of yarn. Not the nutmeg, which is what I thought would happen, but the moss!! The pattern requirements said I would need 2 balls of each to make a 72" scarf. LIES. It took 3 balls of the moss (main color) and 2 of the nutmeg, and even with the third ball, again, I only made it to about 57 inches or so. I didn't really measure once I ran out of yarn.

Anyway, it is finished and put away for the opportune moment. I didn't bother to take a picture since it pretty much looks just like the picture I posted earlier, only longer.

Once I finished it I worked on my cape. I immediately discovered that I had misread the directions, and ended up having to rip back twenty rows or so. I continued to have problems with it throughout the evening, almost entirely due to my inability to count. I'm a little concerned now that the finished border section will look wierd, because my increases are not all in the right place, but...I'm not going back and doing it again, so I'll live with it. :oP It's really frustrating to have nobody to blame but myself. Lessons I have learned during this time:

--I am too stupid to follow directions that say 'do this 9 more times' without assistance. From now on, I will acknowledge my stupidity immediately and write out next to each line of instructions the row numbers on which I am supposed to follow that particular instruction. I do think it is especially mean of the pattern designers to nest these things by saying things like 'row 5-6 repeat rows 3-4' and then 'repeat 1-6 nine more times.'
--I don't work well with the rowcounters that you have to turn to increase. I am better off with the ones you hit on the top that make a fun clicky noise.
--I need to take better notes when walking away from a project for a while.
--Alpaca sheds like a mofo.

The last is kind of disappointing...wearing my fetching cape will be a lot less fun if I have to have a lint roller in my pocket to use every time I take it off. I am trying not to think about this for now.

I'm waiting on some measurements for my friend for her Urban Necessity set and then I will get started on that. I was seriously tempted to start the Dimple Shale scarf because that yarn is so luscious, but I am afraid of another bout of scarf boredom. I hope it wouldn't be as big of an issue since this will be lace which should be more interesting...but I fear that it will still be a problem. :oP Maybe I will just make it a short little thing that she can tuck in her jacket. We'll see.

Ta da!

I finished my hat!

I think I will keep it. It is good enough to wear, but not good enough to give away. Still, my first hat! I will totally wear it if I go to the fair this weekend.

ChicKnits bucket hat in Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria Finished 6/05/07

It is finished!

I finished the scarf for Sbodd last night! Gaze in wonder!



And here is the original scarf I knitted, which...actually looks a lot less impressive next to Sbodd's, but it's still pretty!




Eee hee!!!

It's a little obvious on both scarfs which end I started from and which end I ended at - the start end is in both cases messier and wider than the finish end. But that's okay! I will get better!

I started casting on for the matching hat to Sbodd's scarf, so that is the next project. I still have my shawl on the needles as well. I should have thought to photograph that while I had the camera out because it is priiiiitty, but I didn't. Ah well!

Update: Please ignore my messy house in the background. You know I am proud of these things if I am posting these pictures with all that crap in them. :oP