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.

ARGH!!!

I know why the heels on my Paris Rain pedicure socks are baggy and ugly.

The reason is I AM A COMPLETE FREAKING MORON WHO CANNOT FOLLOW SIMPLE FRICKIN' DIRECTIONS AAAUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! ::sob::

The directions say to do this:

Row 1 [WS]: Sl1, p to end.
Row 2 [RS]: [Sl1, k1] to end.

This means:

Row 1: Slip one stitch, and purl the rest of the stitches
Row 2: Slip one stitch, knit one stitch, slip one stitch, knit one stitch, etc. till the end of the row

What I actually did:
Row 1 [WS]: Sl1, p to end.
Row 2 [RS]: Sl1, k to end.

This means:

Row 1: Slip one stitch, and purl the rest of the stitches
Row 2: Slip one stitch, and knit the rest of the stitches

AUGH. AUGH AUGH AUGH.

The slipped stitches cause the fabric to pull in tighter so that your heels are not BAGGY AND UGLY AUGH!!

I was so mad that I seriously considered throwing the completed socks away and buying 2 new skeins of yarn so that I could do them over and GET IT RIGHT OMG. I'm still considering it. :oP

In theory, I might be able to unravel the socks and fix them, but they have already been washed and I'm afraid I would run out of yarn before the end. I could knit them a little shorter I guess. I don't know. Just--AUGH. ::headdesk::

You know what really astounds me? I did the same thing on both socks. Which means I read the directions wrong not once, but twice.

I am shamed.

I discovered this last night as I worked on another pair of pedicure socks for a friend. I was knitting while doing some computer maintenance. I got through the whole leg of the sock and started a couple of rows on the heel turn, and that was when I noticed that things were different than on the sock I had worked on before.

It was some small consolation that I got through that section of sock so quickly, though, and it is a huge relief that I am not risking a gift to my friend of baggy socks. I'm so relieved and I take back anything mean I said or thought about that pattern!

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.

Foiled

I have been looking hard at Eris. I have not had much of an urge to make sweaters up until now but I really like that one. I was thinking of knitting it in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, so I ordered a couple of skeins in Lake Ice Heather, thinking I would use it to knit Shedir and that would give me a good idea of whether I liked it or not..

When it arrived and I picked it up I knew I would not be using it. Perhaps I am just spoiled with all of the super-soft fibers I have been knitting with lately. At any rate, the yarn definitely had a rough feel to it that I did not like...so no Wool of the Andes for me.

Ravelry to the rescue - I went and looked at the people who have knit Eris to see what yarns they were using. A lot of people were using Elann Peruvian Wool but I am worried about that having the same problem of Wool of the Andes since it is the same type of wool. One person was using Knit Picks Merino Style, which is listed on their website as a DK weight yarn (Eris recommends worsted or aran). However, the listed gauge matches the gauge required for Eris. I have ordered a couple skeins to try it out. We will see if I like this one better. I ordered Storm and Dusk. I am leaning towards Storm, but we will see how it looks in person. I am a little concerned because I have seen some reviews that it pills badly, but I will wait and see for myself. I did consider using Swish Superwash, which I have been using for other projects and like very much for softness, but it doesn't generally look all that crisp knitted up, especially once it has been washed. I really plan to take my time on this project and think it through before I start, because I know I would be so disappointed if it didn't work out.

Anticipation goeth before a misstitch

I really thought I had a chance at finishing my cape this weekend. I finally remembered that I had tucked it in its ziplock under the bed, thinking that I would stick in-progress projects under there because I have too many in progress now to fit them all in my knitting bag. Then I promptly forgot.

Anyway, on Friday I was kind of in a hurry so I shoved my Starry Night Socks and the cape in my knitting bag. I would have worked on the socks all evening but it turns out I had left my pattern (I decided to use the elongated corded rib from SKS) in the car, which would have been a rather chilly walk around the block from my friend's house. Therefore, I worked on the cape instead. I made pretty darn good progress on it.

Saturday morning I had to get my oil changed, so I knitted on the cape for about an hour while I waited for the car to be ready. Then I went home and knit some more. I made huge progress and I began to think I might be able to finish it, if not that evening, then surely on Sunday.

Alas, it was not to be. No sooner had this gleeful hope entered my head than I discovered mistakes, and had to drop stitches and do the ladder dance to fix them. I am not very good at the ladder dance so this took way longer than it should have, and I ended up having to do it two or three times before the stitches were finally, finally right (stupid stitches). This trend continued on to Sunday. I'm sure I could have finished the darn think if I had been making forward progress the whole time (a common cry in the knitting world, I know). But, I am still nearly done. If I don't have any more issues I might be able to finish it tonight, depending on what time I get home and how long it takes me to make dinner. Also, I don't really feel very well at all today, so there is no guarantee I will feel well enough to knit.

In any case, I am looking forward to having this done. However, I am a little perplexed about what to do with it once I am finished. This yarn sheds HORRIBLY and I will never be able to wear the cape at this rate. I hope that washing it a couple of times will fix this, but I don't know. Also, it clearly needs to be blocked, and I am a total blocking novice. What to do, what to do!

I am anxious to get this one done and off my needles. I am combating a fierce case of startitis, but I am determined to cross off all the requests I have before I start the things I really want to work on. They should all be fairly quick knits (famous last words, right?) so I am hoping that if I can just motor through them, I will be able to knit for myself guilt-free. No more requests for me - I will offer to teach people to knit but I am so not putting myself in this position again!!