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.

Onward and upward

I finally finished the Urban Necessity gloves, shipped them off to RG, and she loves the set and says it fits. I am extremely pleased. I have plenty of leftover yarn, so I am thinking of making her a scarf for her birthday or Christmas. Later. I love purple but I am tired of looking on it.

In the meantime I have started the Imperial Armwarmers. There is something funky with the black yarn. It is stiff and rough-feeling. I don't know if the issue is in the dye or what, but I'm glad I had knit with another color first. The yarn is Swish Superwash and it was great with UN, wonderfully soft and cozy, but this skein just isn't working for me. Even the grey I am using for the two-color work has a distinct difference in feel.

The two-color work is kind of killing me. I am worried that the floats are keeping the yarn from stretching as much as it will need to to go around the recipient's upper arms. I had her try them on when I saw her this past Friday and she said it was fine, but I still worry. I am knitting as loosely as I can, but for me...that is not terribly loose.

I hope the yarn will use some of its wierd feel when it is washed. I have almost three weeks before I see this person again, so I hope the armwarmers will be finished and washed by then. If possible I'd even like to finish the gloves for the other friend I will see at the same time. We will see how this plan goes. After this I am totally off gloves for a while. I will stick with mittens and wristwarmers like sane knitters.

My chocolate waffle scarf is going slowly since it is kind of a last-resort project. I knit it when I need something utterly mindless. I am anxious to get all my gifts knitted off so I can relax and knit something really fun for me, all for me!

Make it stop!!!

I really thought I was going to finish the Urban Necessity gloves this weekend...but I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I finished the second glove and started the mitten cap...and then restarted...and then started the decreases and realized it was too short, pulled that chunk out, knitted it again, discovered it was still too short and reknitted it AGAIN, and the whole time I was trying to make sense of the directions for the decreases and failing (I am reasonably sure that I am just stupid and it is not the fault of the pattern. Finally I just followed the first set of decrease instructions until the decreases had nearly met at the top, and then I knit two together around, and then I grafted the top as if it were the toe of a sock. It looks okay I think. I hope.

Having made every mistake I could possibly make on the first one, the second one is going much faster, so I hope that, God willing, I will finish the things tonight, photograph them, and then pack them off in a box to the recipient and never have to look at them again.

The good news is that the second glove went really, really quickly, which means that the pair of fingerless gloves that I promised to make for a friend at my D&D group should go very quickly as well. This is good, since I would really, really like to work on some stuff for me. I'm dying to start a Wrapped in Comfort shawl (I keep changing my mind on which one) and the Merino Style I ordered to swatch for Eris showed up, so I'd like to get my fingers in that, and a million other things that I would like to do. But I am determined to get all the stuff I promised other people out of the way first because I feel guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty.

So! Order of operations:

1) fingerless gloves
2) Imperial Armwarmers
3) Dimple Shale Scarf
4) Pedicure socks

My life is complicated somewhat because I have one friend who asks for everything she sees me make and has actually offered my knitting to others.

Friend 1: "I like that sock."
Friend 2: "You want a sock like that? She'll make you a sock like that!"
Me: "Umm..."

I have now learned the lesson that I think all knitters learn eventually...from now on my answer will be "No, but I will teach you how to do it yourself."

Said Friend 2 actually does know how to knit garter stitch and just needs some direction, I think. I bought her copies of Stitch n' Bitch and Knitting Rules and am just waiting for the opportunity to deliver them.

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.

UnRavelled

I spent Saturday obsessively checking my e-mail for a Ravelry invite (while knitting on my sock, of course). It finally showed up at around 2 and now I am ON as Craftninja!

First, knitting progress:

--I had a fight with the urban necessity glove, pulled back some stuff, and generally got frustrated. I have not touched it in several days, which I feel very guilty about since one concentrated session could probably finish it. Well, maybe two. :oP
--I have turned the heel and completed the gusset increase on my second garter rib sock. I feel accomplished, even though the foot stretches before me. Fortunately, my feet are small.
--I can't figure out what I did with the cape I was knitting. It is not in my project bag and I could not find it in the stash. I am a little puzzled. Needless to say, I have not worked on it.
--No progress on the Patons Shawl or the Witterings Hat. I have listed these in ravelry as "hibernating."
--Chocolate Waffle Scarf is cruising along. This has become my designated 'around town' project that I can knit when my eyes and mind must be busy with something else. It's about a foot long at this point - not lightening progress, but not bad.

I feel pressured to get some of these things off the needles because there are so many other things I want to work on. Being on Ravelry is definately inspiring - I wouldn't have given this
a second look if I had not seen pictures of it on Ravelry (actualy, I saw pictures for the Rogue design, but this seems like something I am much more likely to actually wear and it has the pretty cables that I loved so much on Rogue). I'm thinking about doing it in KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Lake Ice Heather. I can see from the Ravelry pictures that the cables show up much better in lighter colors. I would like to look at and feel the yarn first, though, so I may order a ball and see if I like it. The only thing I worry a little bit about is what pants I could wear with that color; I'm sure it would look fine with jeans, and I guess that would be okay as it would likely be too warm to wear in the office.

I ordered a bunch of single balls of Swish Superwash a while back thinking I would use them for charity projects. I don't know what I was thinking as one ball is not really enough to make much of anything! However, I did find a pattern on Ravelry (is there nothing this site can not do?) that I think will work swimmingly - the Hand/Wrist Warmers from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. And I already have that book! On the page for a particular yarn you can click to see what people are knitting with that yarn, and I clicked through pages and pages of projects for ideas. I think these will be great for hospital patients. It is always freezing in hospitals. One of the ladies in my church is a nurse (well, many of the ladies in my church are nurses) and she provides items to patients in the cancer wards, so I think this would be really great. I will also make some hats for variety.

I was also able to see finished versions of the patterns in Sensational Knitted Socks, which is really great because everything looks different on a foot than it does in a little square picture in a book. I have favorited a number of patterns that I tripped over while browsing. I am favoriting anything I like enough to think I will want to knit it at some time, but only adding things to my queue that I have definate plans for. I'm having so much fun.

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.

Done, done, donnidy done done

The Urban Necessity tam is finished! But due to the late hour at which I finished it I do not have a picture yet. I will post one because when I was considering the pattern I really wanted to see what it looked like and I had trouble finding it.

I made a mistake in one panel in the cable pattern so there's one single line that's kind of broken, but I decided not to go back and fix it since I was several rounds past it when I found it, and very close to being done. I am vexed, but...too bad. It won't be noticeable when worn and you'd really have to look for it to see it anyway. So I keep telling myself, anyhow.

Next up are the gloves, which I am unreasonably afraid of. I don't know what it is that makes me so nervous - fear that they won't fit? I really have no idea. My friend's hands appear to be about the same size as mine based on the trace she sent me. Her fingers are longer, but in width and palm length we are basically the same, so I think if I aim to make it fit me, it should be okay for her. I'll just make the gussets a teeny bit longer than they would be for me.

This weekend I took a break from the hat knitting and cast on a sock from Sensational Knitted socks. This will be my first real sock-sock (as opposed to a worsted weight pedicure sock). I chose the garter rib 4-stitch pattern since I wanted to keep it simple for my first sock. The sock itself went well right up until the gusset decreases, where I screwed up something rather badly and ended up tinking back round after round trying to figure out why I had more stitches on one needle than the other (I work on 2 circs). In the end I decided in frustration that I must not have picked up enough stitches on one side, which explained both why I had a gap on one side at the top of the gusset and not on the other, and why my stitch count was wrong. I grabbed the stitch and laddered it up, and continued on my merry way. I got through the gusset decreases and now I'm on the foot.

I hate the yarn. Not the yarn itself (Lornas Laces Shepherd Sock), but the colorway, the Yarn Market exclusive colorway "Irises" from their impressionist collection. It looked so pretty in the skein, but knit up in this pattern it looks like something your kid would throw up the day after a trip to the circus. :oP

I don't really care. I liked this skein the least of all the ones I purchased, which is why I chose to use it for my first sock. I figured it would bother me less if I messed up.

The plain stockinette section looks better than the garter rib section, but the colors are still too riotous for me. It is just a personal taste thing I think - someone else might love this yarn.

I am really looking forward to knitting the Starry Night pair; I think that color will be very pretty.

I got a shipment from KnitPicks yesterday that included Wrapped in Comfort. I looked through it and I love it. I love the way the shawls are displayed - each one is shown on a person and spread out, so that you can see both the drape and the lace pattern. There is a story for each pattern, some touching and some humorous. I'm excited and looking forward to working something out of that book.

Only you, baby

I have worked all week on the Urban Necessity Tam and nothing but the Urban Necessity tam. It is a fun little project and it flies along until you get to the chart. I'm six rows into the chart now, and it is actually starting to look like a hat. When I try it on it isn't quite as snug as I wish it was, but the fit isn't bad. I guess maybe I overachieved a little on keeping my cast-on loose!

I had a few false starts when I got to the chart - things that didn't quite make sense, etc. I think I have it figured out now. The speed on this isn't nearly what it was when I was cruising along on the stockinette, but I might POSSIBLY be able to get it done by the end of the weekend.

Then I'll start on the gloves, which are really scaring me. I have fear issues with gloves. One of the first projects I loved was the cigar gloves from knitty, which I thought would be great for photography trips in cold weather. There've been others, too, but somehow I am just horribly intimidated by gloves. And now my first pair won't even be for me, so the fit is going to be a bit of a guess. I have her hand traced on paper. I haven't put mine up against it yet but I will be very surprised if we are the same size since she is a head taller than me and then some.

Even as I knit like the wind I cannot keep from thinking about what I want to do next. I do want to finish my cape, but - it does kind of feel like the passion is falling out. I'm just not sure I'm satisfied with the way it is knitting up. I'm thinking maybe I should have gone with another bulky yarn, but I was determined to knit something in 100% alpaca so there you go. Maybe I should have tried Cadena in Mohogany? I don't know. Anyway, I'm still determined to finish that before the cool weather becomes permanent.

I would also like to get a couple of requests done - the Imperial Armwarmers and the fingerless gloves (damn, another pair of gloves - they are stalking me). The armwarmers should be a fairly quick knit, I think (famous last words).

Plenty to do - but first, back to the hat!

Facing the music

I have avoided blogging because I have not bothered to upload any of the pictures that I took, and I am ashamed. I know that text-only blogging is really boring for craft blogs. I guess I am just lazy, and I need to buckle down and put down the knitting long enough to get the pictures uploaded.

BUT for today, we will just have to muddle through.

This weekend was extremely productive. I finished the Paris Rain pedicure socks, and sock #2 went very quickly with no problems at all. Sock #1 still looks droopy and pathetic...I am hoping that it is just stretched out from all the reknitting and that if I wash it it will pull itself together. The two socks look pretty different in color too since the skeins were from different dye lots. The color itself is not that different, although the dark colors are a little deeper and more jewel-like on Sock #2. The real difference is in the width of the stripes. Sock #2 is much more heavily striped that Sock #1. I actually like Sock #2 much better than Sock #1, but don't tell #1 that. It might sulk even more and then I will never get it back into shape.

I also worked on the charity scarf that I have begun calling my chocolate waffle scarf. I cast on kind of an arbitrary number of stitches and have been working it in seed stitch, alternating short stripes of Nutmeg with wider stripes of Truffle, and it really looks like those ego waffles that are half chocolate. Working on it makes me hungry. Anyway, some friends and I went to Starbucks to hang out and chat and I worked on it the whole time we were there, so that was pretty good.

Lastly, Sunday night I cast on for the Urban Necessity tam...but about half an inch into it, I wasn't satisfied with my stitches. Ladders everywhere! Finally it hit me - I had picked up my KnitPicks Option needle without even thinking about it...and the shortest "Option" is 24"! I grabbed the pattern and sure enough...I was supposed to be working on a 16"!

I hemmed and hawed and tried to decide whether the problem was due to my very large cast-on (rather than get a size larger needle, I just held my two needles together and cast on over both, because I really wanted a loose cast-on...and I was too lazy to find the size 8). I really didn't know what to do. I tried to tell myself it would be fine and to keep working...but it wasn't fine and I didn't like it. Last night I got out my 20" Addi Turbo (the pattern calls for a 16" but I am knitting one of the larger sizes so I decided on the 20" instead) and cast on (again, over 2 needles, being too lazy to find the size 8) from a second skein of yarn, knit for a while and compared the two. The one on the 20" does look much better, except at the bottom, where the wide cast-on DOES stretch the stitches. I have decided I can live with this, since my cast-ons are often much too tight. I'd rather have it loose so it does not impede actual wearing of the hat.

One thing I didn't work on is the cape for me. It doesn't require a whole lot of concentration, but it does require some, and the weather is cooling significantly. I'd really like to get this one done.

I added a few projects to my 'future' queue...at my tabletop gaming group on Friday, a couple of the younger players requested knit items, and I happily agreed. This was probably not wise, but then, if I were wise, I would not have failed to check the needle length I needed for the tam. :oP

So many projects I want to do, and so little time. I am now dying to knit the Moonlight Sonata Shawl - I'm thinking in Kidsilk Haze in Nightly. I just think the halo would add a nice touch of romance to an already romantic shawl. At least, I think it is romantic. I am easily sucked in by pretty names.

Low-yield Weekend

This weekend was so busy that I had hardly any time to knit. I put a little over a round on the Witterings Hat on Friday, and then didn't pick up the needles until Sunday, when I worked on my cape. I got about two inches done on it, which was nice. However, I think the fact that I have ripped out the heel on my pedicure sock for the third...no, I think it's actually the fourth time. Last time was the third, wasn't it? I don't remember anymore. Anyway, I ripped it out again. It was too long, it didn't fall in the right spot on my heel - I just wasn't happy with it. I haven't been able to touch the thing since.

Instead, I knit a swatch from KnitPicks Essential in Riverbed Multi. I was unreasonably pleased that my guage came out to exactly 8 sts to the inch on #2 needles. I like exactitude. Of course, we'll see how exact it is after it's been washed.

I got my friend's measurements for the Urban Necessity pattern, so I am pleased that I can start that soon too. I do think I will swatch this one as well, too. I hate taking the time to swatch because I would rather just get on with the project, but...better safe than sorry in this case, I think, since she is not here to try it on in progress.

I wound a ball of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock that I also plan to swatch and wash. I have enough for a pair of socks each in the YarnMarket exclusive colorways Irises, Snowscapes, and Starry Nights. I actually gasped when I saw the Starry Night yarn. I am not really a fan of Van Goph in general or that painting specifically, but the yarn is so beautiful!

Yummy colors

The Paris Rain socks are so pretty...right now they are half grey-brown and half green-blue. I've made it through the inch of ribbing and started on the stockinette last night. Ah, the beauty and quickness of those simple round and rounds! I can't wait to see what they will look like.

I have read about things like flashing and pooling and puddling, and have made up my mind not to care if that happens on this pair. I do worry about running out of yarn before the pair is complete, but I am hoping that is just paranoia.

Paranoia caused by the number of times recently I have run out of yarn!!

Well. We'll see. I have decided not to bother casting on both socks at once (which may be a mistake given the afforementioned worry about running out of yarn) because I am lazy and I was having too much fun with the first one.

Scarf is at 42 inches. I am literally inching along on this thing. I may have to wash it before I give it to BG. My aunt is visiting; she is a smoker carries this smell around with her and leaves it on everything she touches. As BG is not a smoker I don't think he will appreciate having his scarf tainted with eau de nicotine.

Also, I want to make totally sure of how the thing behaves in the wash before I give it to him.

Yarn for Urban Necessity is on the way...and I am kind of kicking myself for not ordering enough to make a scarf as well. I have a thing about complete sets. I'm already contemplating how I could make this darn scarf pattern into a matching hat. Because after just over 3 feet I am not sick enough of this stitch pattern yet. I'm telling you, it's a curse. If you get a hat from me, you know your next two gift giving holidays will consist of a pair of gloves and a scarf. I am obsessed with like sets.

After this relative visit is over, I hope to get my craft room set up, including my camera and tripod so that I can start adding pictures to this blog. It feels all naked without any.

A decision

My friend has settled on Urban Necessity in Swish Superwash Wisteria. I'm pretty excited, I think it's an adorable pattern that will serve her needs.