Will Knit For Stuff (part 1)

Oooooh la la! I recently completed a trade where I sent handwarmers in exchange for an intricate lovely piece of embroidery. Check out what arrived in the mail!

Such incredible little details! Here's how the whole piece looks:

She has much nicer pictures of it here.

In exchange, I sent her 2 sets of hand warmers, to keep her toasty while stitching and in other occupations on that gloomy west coast.

The first are made of Bugga! in Horseshoe Crab.

And then, because one can never have enough hand warmers, a pair of Dashing made from Malabrigo Rios in Pearl Ten.

I think we are both pleased with the outcome of this exchange.  I've been admiring her extremely detailed intricate work for a while now, and was so very pleased for a chance to have one of my own.

Sparkly completed objects spring forth fully formed from my needles

I have 2 finished objects. They're delightful things, and I'm very happy to have completed them. Looking back, I see that I never blogged any progress, and there's not even progress photos, save one. Looking back further, I see that I didn't even blog the arrival of this lovely stripey yarn.

The yarn is Night, a gilded Gothsocks by Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs. I was so impressed with how perfectly it pairs with  Eurota Purplewing, a Skinny Bugga! yarn, that I had to knit them together. Twice.

It started with some socks, of course. Sparkly socks with no fancy pattern, just a toe-up sock with a ribbed leg. The heels were knit double-stranded for extra strength.

Moments after completing those, I cast on for a pair of gloves. Thus we get the only in-progress photo, and ill-staged shot of the cuffs that start out a pair of top-down gloves.

I wove in the ends to these last night, and would be wearing them now if it weren't so dang hot!

 Here's me, headless but happy with my new sparkly knitwear!

Finished Fingerless

Finished on Friday evening! He's been wearing them ever since. I'd like to get some pictures of these in natural light, but I just wanted to show they were done. Hooray!

After the sock debacle

Well. After my olympic disaster, I did several things. None of them was to rip out the offending sock.

I did start casting on with wild abandon. I cast on the previously mentioned Noro mitten, but I determined I needed a size 1 needle for the cuff, and I was liking the 9" circular needle so much, I wanted to go buy a 9" size 1 needle just to continue.

I also cast on a pair of fingerless gloves for the teen in my life. He's been politely inquiring about their progress, so I thought I'd reward that interest. I'm using the same pattern as the ruby gloves I made earlier this month. The yarn is the ever-delicious Dream in Color Smooshy, in the colourway Black Parade. Maybe I'll finish tonight!

I also balled up some yarn to cast on a new Skew sock. My intention was to try Skew on a 9" circular needle, and for that, I made the journey to the far-away yarn store that sells them. Sadly, they were mostly sold out, and all I got was a bamboo size 2 in the 9" needle. The yarn I balled up required a size 1, so there are two projects that are waiting on a size 1.

By a stunning coincidence, there was a Harbor Freight in the same strip mall as the yarn store I drove 30 minutes to get to. I had never heard of that store until I was reading about calipers on Ravelry, and a knitter recommended one of theirs.

The calipers were on sale, and the moment I got to my car, I pulled them out and measured my 2 size 1 needles. It turns out that one of the needles was 2.25mm and the other was 2.5mm. This explains why my 2 socks were different sizes! When I put the socks back on the needles, I thought I was putting them on a size 1 needle, but I actually put them on a slightly larger 1.5 needle.

My KnitChek never distinguished between size 2.5 and 3 needles, and now I discover it never allowed me to realise that what I thought was 2 size 1 needles was actually a size 1 and a 1.5.  Now I have calipers and I will never use a KnitChek again! Information is power! Rar!

New toy!

A couple weeks ago, I drove a half an hour to a yarn store I'd never before visited. It was very luscious! Lots of familiar names in yummy yarns. But my real reason for the visit there was to acquire for myself one of the famous Hiya Hiya 9" circular needles. I've read about them a lot on Ravelry, and some people hate them, and some love them. I suspected I would be in the hate-them camp, seeing as 40" circular magic loop works so well for me. But tonight I cast on a mitten with my new 9" circular, and discovered that I love it. It really does work well, you just knit round and round and round.

Sadly, I really need a size 1; this cuff is too loose. Time for another trip to the yarn store!

twined mittens--the finished object

Today I finished the twined mittens. This makes me very happy! They've been on the needles since December. They needed to be finished now, because the Afghans for Afghans deadline is March 1st. These will leave in the mail Monday. Thanks again to Priscilla for the yarn, and because she's such a dedicated charity knitter, it seemed right to send off into the world to keep some one warm.

Ruby Gifts

I didn't intend it that way, but both projects from the Ruby Red Smooshy are gifts.

These gloves are from my own design, and intended for the friend who organises and hosts our Zen Knitting Circle. She coordinates handmade gifts to needy children and hospice patients, and inspires us all to use our knitting as a tool to bring more good things into the world.

Originally, the palm was going to be in stockinette, but ribbing turned out to be right for this pattern. I do love the different dye lots.

Fingerless gloves in progress

Wow. The first glove took me all week. I cast on for the second last night at a high school basketball game, and I'm already half-way through. I knitted for victory just as hard as I could knit, but it wasn't enough. These are made from the leftovers from the Ruby Clapotis, and as you can see, the dye lots vary significantly, which is why I knitted the clap with alternating strands. I like the colour differences, and I hope the gift recipient is cool with it too.

One finished mitten!

I have completed one twined mitten and cast on a second. Don't worry, Priscilla, I'm loving the yarn. The little fussy hitches with knitting it aren't a deterrent at all.

Fun with unspun

Knitting with the Silk Garden and the Malabrigo thick-n-thin picqued my interest in underspun yarn. Naturally I dug out the lovely skein of Icelandic Unspun from Priscilla. I wasn't sure what to do with it. I've been wanting more scarves, since I sit at work and freeze day in and day out. But I tried two different patterns, and the yarn told me quite firmly that it was not going to be a scarf. I had often pondered pairing this yarn with my black and grey Araucania, so I swatched with that. I've been looking at twined mittens, so I started plotting a pair of twined mittens with these two yarns, but then I noticed that the Icelandic is Z-spun and the Araucania is S-spun. That's when I decided that this would be the perfect yarn for exploring twined mittens, using both ends of the ball.

 

Turns out it's maybe not the best yarn for twined mittens. Being 'unspun', it's so underspun that the twining process unspins it too much. Every four rows or so, the yarn has lost so much twist that it breaks. Then I straighten out the yarns, give it a little more twist, and spit-splice the strand back together. It's a slow process, but the mittens are turning out very lovely.

 

Monochrome Uno, rambling with pictures

Long long ago, when I first became a dedicated knitter, I knit some mittens without a pattern. They were top-down, and very cute.

First mittens, 2004

Second mittens, 2004*

More recently, with many pairs of mittens under my belt, I have attempted to do a top-down mitten, and have been unhappy with the results. This hasn't stopped me from perservering. This monochromatic pair I started last winter/spring was definitely going to be top-down. And to prepare, I started out by knitting the various parts that needed to be added--the thumb and the insert--before knitting the main mitten, so they could all be assembled as I knit along.

Then I had troubles getting the exact mitten I was happy with. I only pulled it back out last week, and finally got a pattern that worked for me. But it turns out that the mitten that worked not only had the wrong number of stitches to match up to the insert, but with its 2-colour work, the mitten was way smaller than the insert. This troubled me dearly.

The solution was suggested when my knitting coworker offered the idea of knitting the insert on a smaller needle. That's when I realised I didn't even need to use the exact yarn. And based on my own previous post, I realised I had the perfect yarn. So I pulled out the monochrome sock yarn and knit a new insert. I'm sure the relative sizes don't show well in the following picture, but the lower insert, made from the same yarn, is way too big, and the upper insert is perfect.

Then, since I had changed my pattern, the thumb I had knit wasn't right. So I used the old thumb as my ball of yarn to knit a new thumb.


Last night I finished the ribbings, and today I wove in the last of the ends. One monochrome mitten, complete! (the following picture is three shots of the same mitten, all shtuck together)

*Little story about these rainbow mittens. I was knitting them five years ago at a school event. A little girl in kindergarten came to see what I was doing. She was very enchanted with the rainbow mittens unfolding on my needles, and went to ask her mom to make her some. When her mom said no, she couldn't make rainbow mittens, the little girl sobbed like her heart was broken. That little girl is now ten, studying ballet with my daughter, and would be mortified if I told that story to her.

Monochromatic works in progress

I have finished one St. Peter Port Stripe sock, though I made the toe rounder than the instructions recommended. The fit is a little awkward. Yet I knit on. Well, I did. But last night I decided I had to progress on a pair of mittens I started months ago--I have no clue when. I ripped them out yet again and finally got a pattern I liked. Just today I probably ripped them out 6 times, although not every time was all the way back to the beginning. Hopefully my notes will be sufficient for mitten #2.


These projects are so lacking in colour! The balls of yarn amuse me, such a monochromatic heap.


While I knit in shades of grey, my Dream in Colour is calling my name. (Mom? Dad? If you've infiltrated this blog, stop reading now. okay?) Amy asked what I'm knitting with it. I have two balls of Smooshy earmarked for parental Christmas socks, pattern as yet undetermined. Then there are 2 balls of Classy, a worsted weight, because I love having Classy sitting around to play with. I'm thinking mittens. Or a hat. Or baby socks, mittens, and hat. Or.....

One Skein of Smooshy, All Gone

Last fall, while working on Jeanie, I had a moment of panic. I thought I might run out of yarn. I immediately ordered a spare skein of Smooshy. I knew that it might not match the ones I already had, but I figured it was a win-win-situation. If it matched, yay! it matched. If it didn't match, yay! I had a new skein of Smooshy for another project. It didn't match.



Last November, I grabbed that skein for a pair of Conwy socks from Knitting on the Road. I worked on it diligently while on the road, and then when I got home, I had them in my "on the go" knitting bag, and worked on them when I had time. I just finished them last weekend. Yay, another pair of Conwy!



The socks each weighed 41 grams. The remaining ball weighed 38 grams. I decided to make some fingerless gloves. Despite my previous troubles with a top-down mitten, these just had to be top-down, because I had no clue how long to make them with just this amount of yarn. I planned carefully, and for once my forethought paid off, and my ideas actually translated well into a finished project.



I knitted the thumbs singularly first, and then the bodies 2 at a time. I added the thumbs to the body, knitting them together, and then decreased down, making a "sore-thumb" style thumb. On Saturday I had to work, which really interfered with my knitting time, but today I spent lots of time working on it, very curious to see just how much I'd get out of this ball of yarn. The finished project isn't as long as I'd hoped, but adequate. And other than length, I love these gloves. But then, I love Smooshy. Have I mentioned it's my favourite yarn?

Finished Object: Coastal Chill Mittens

I have been dreaming these mittens since early December. The dreams started when I was knitting the grey and black socks for my son. I found that once I started knitting up the yarn, I had a very emotional reaction to the colours together, and I realised it was reminding me of the gorgeous sweaters that are knit by the coastal artisans in BC. I read up about Cowichan sweaters and looked at patterns. It was about then that I decided I wanted to make some mittens inspired by the patterns.

When I stumbled upon the New Year's 20% off yarn sale, I decided to pick out yarn for these mittens I wanted to make. I was looking at a traditional black and grey combination, but then I found this blue yarn where I had one light skein, one dark skein, and one that was a combination of the two. While blue isn't traditional at all, I'm not making traditional mittens. I'm making mittens to suit my fancy, and I went for the blue combination. The yarn sat by my computer for a few weeks, egging me on. I just needed to finish a few projects on the needles before I could cast on.

Then on Friday night, I had a sleepless migraine kinda night. There were lots of knitting images going on my head during some of the sleepless hours, and as I was working on these mittens-to-be, I decided I should return to my mitten-knitting roots and knit them top down. I did that for the first several pairs I made, and quite enjoyed it. Saturday I was tired and rather trashed, and didn't do much but knit. I cast on and knit three different options, each of which had an unsatisfactory top. After frogging my third mitten, I decided to return to the bottom-up structure, where I could use decreases to ensure the shaping I desired.

Take home lesson: Don't try to follow up on plans made while in the middle of a migraine. Maybe think it through a little better when things are better?



Had I not had three false starts on Saturday, I might have finished the pair all in one weekend. As it was, I had the first one finished by Sunday night. It's taken me all week to work through mitten two, which was finished last night, and I wove in the ends this morning at coffee.

When I had one mitten finished, I weighed the remaining ball of the 2-colour yarn. The 50 gram ball was down to 25 grams. I knit fearlessly forward, only to run out of yarn on the thumb. I could have striped the thumb, and maybe I should have striped the thumb, but honestly? I'm perfectly happy with the way it is.

Strawberry Kiwi mittens, complete

These mittens have been going to school for a whole week now. As you can see, they match my grrl's outwear perfectly.



They are made from the Striped Mittens pattern in Favorite Mittens. The pattern is brilliant. I love the clean lines of the thumb gusset and the mitten closure. The closure is designed so well that either mitten can be worn on either hand. This final picture attempts to show how they can work for either hand.

One mitten

Picture now, details later.

On and off the needles today

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a sock? No, It's a frogged mitten.

Great Moments In Knitting

Last night was my kind of Knitting Awesome. It started at dinner. We were enjoying a strawberry-kiwi smoothie. My daughter happened to be wearing a colourful tiered skirt in many shades of pink and green, and I joked that it was a strawberry-kiwi skirt. During dinner, perhaps inspired by the colour of the smoothie, I started thinking about my baby pink baby alpaca. I bought it for mittens, but it didn't pair as well with the other colour as I had envisioned. Suddenly I realised: "I have green yarn and pink yarn and I could make strawberry kiwi mittens!" My daughter cheered, "For me!"

After dinner, I pulled out the yarn I had in mind. I noticed I had other shades of green and pink, too. She picked out shades I would have never, ever paired together. But that's okay. The yarn had no intended projects at all. I got knitting immediately. The mittens burn my retinas, but they are proceeding well.

One-hour mittens

Last night, in the Sewing Room of Doom, I created mittens! This is the view of them on my work desk. They were made from the sleeves of a felted Banana Republic sweater, and required some creativity for inserting thumbs.

THIS is mitten #2

My previous blog posts--the titles I mean--were my own personal kick in the rear to get going. This afternoon/evening I've knit for 5 CDs worth, and I'm about 75% done, I think.



PS It's HARD to take a picture of my right hand!