Quickie hats

Using the same yarn and the same general specifications as my previous set of cabled hats, I cranked out two more hats this weekend, using up the last of the two colours I bought earlier this year.



I modified the decreases a little, decreasing later and faster. I only photographed one of the hats, the other was given away before it even got to the camera. These go to a preschool where children get needed psychological counseling along with their education.

Finished Gifties--Photos

The Dashing and the Fetching for my parents are finished!



Now to get to the post office...

Conflicted on the Road

As I'm living in the U.S., I get U.S. holidays, which last week meant FIVE DAY WEEKEND. Sweet. As is often the case, Thanksgiving means a trip to the ranching relatives. And you know what a road trip means. Yes! Knitting on the Road.

Since the Knitting on the Road Knitalong's pattern for Nov/Dec is Conwy, and since I totally love my first pair, why not knit another? My first plan was to use my other set of Lorna's Laces. But then, upon browsing the pictures on Ravelry, I decided that the pattern would look even better in a less patterned yarn. That's when I chose my spare Smooshy.



I knit happily along as we drove north, and then more happy knitting as we socialized with the ranchin folks. But then, in a private moment when I was comparing the new socks with the first pair, I noticed--aghast--that the new socks were knitting up to look identical to a previous pair. Not cool! Although the other pair is Wildefoot, it's knit with a yarn-over cable pattern, and the finished product is very similar to the Conwy pattern I was knitting. My family menfolk thought I was absolutely batty to care that the socks would be similar. If I like one, why not two???

I also discovered an ambiguity. This ambiguity plagued me during the last pair I knit, when I was half way through the second sock and discovered the two patterns were different. This time I was very careful to follow the directions, to make sure I got it right. There's a cross-over pattern where you knit through the back loop of the second stitch. Unfortunately, I discovered the hard way that the pattern looks quite different when you knit through the back loop with the needle going in front of the first stitch, and when the needle goes behind the first stitch. I looked very closely at the picture in the book, and her socks have the pattern where the needle goes behind the first stitch. Unfortunately, I knitted with the needle going in front of the first stitch. By the time I discovered it, I was well into the sock, and it didn't really make sense to frog or to switch. But that still annoys me.

I finished right to the top of the heels. Now I'm not on the road anymore, with a bajillion distractions. I'll probably finish up the socks, but I have this gnawing dissatisfaction with the glaring similarities and the pattern error. I'll surely think on it a few more days.

ETA: Here's the pic I took on my phone when I first discovered the Similarities.

Finished Object

I have special knitting plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. However, I won't be able to knit them guilt-free if I'm not finished with--or nearly so--the gifts for my parents. I allocated my Dream in Colour Classy for the gifts, and first knit the fetching. It was finished up yesterday afternoon, ends woven and all. (I don't like this picture, you can't see the lovely colours. If I can get better pictures, I will.)



I weighed the yarn. The fetchings weighed 60 grams, and the yarn left weighed 70 grams. I started on the dashing, and when I was half way through the first dashing, I weighed what yarn was left. I had 50 grams left. As I had half still remaining, my best math was telling me that I didn't have enough yarn to finish a pair of dashings. SIGH.


So today I diverted our afternoon walk to the yarn store that opened up recently. I purchased some emergency Cascade and will start over on the dashing.

More Doll Clothes

This dolly finally has assembled a nice, varied wardrobe. I hope she can leave for her next adventure the week following Thanksgiving.

They call this Startitis

We knitters have a term, startitis. It describes the condition a knitter gets when she or he compulsively starts more and more projects. Interestingly, everything in this photo is something I've knitted before. There are two sets of fetching, another pair of socks from the sKnitches, a couple aliens, and a dolly dress. (The dress is the scrap of yellow. It didn't get far, yet)

This picture was taken a couple days ago, and there's actually some significant progress, and no further new projects started yet. I'll blog a little later if I can actually convert a few of these to Finished Objects.

more underwears!

I've been making good use of the remnants kicking around. This set of underwear used up most of what was left of my Rushing Rivulet Socks. I'm happy to have some underwears for this gal. It makes her that much closer to being ready to go.

a lil pansy sports bra

After Jeanie and the Onion Dome hat, I only had a tiny scrap of pansy yarn left. (That is, of course, not counting the extra skein I bought when I panicked on Jeanie's length.) I used up the last of it today knitting a cute lil sports bra.

Finished Objects Three!

In the aftermath of knitting Jeanie, I have found myself in a frenzy of knitting. I'm back to the point where work feels like a major barrier to my creative needs. The carpool driving means an hour out of my knitting time, though the wait-time is all about knitting.

In this frenzy, I'm actually finishing things, sometimes. First I have the stripey socks to show. These were actually done knitting probably two weeks ago, but it took me a while to weave in the ends. I was too busy knitting!



They fit the grrl and fit her well! The socks have gone to school today. Look how well those stripes line up. Let me remind you, I was knitting from opposite ends of the ball!!!



I also used some Knitpicks Andean Silk that I had on hand to make up some donation hats. The yarn was designated for some Christmas gifts, but I decided it wasn't exactly what I wanted. So the gifts will use a different yarn, and I couldn't let this go to waste! I'm very happy with the yarn. It has a lovely soft hand, knits up quickly on size 9 needles, and makes a lovely product.

A mighty swatch

Okay, remind me not to get creative.

I had these grand visions of a really cool sock. It involved entwining cables, and working them around the increases in a way that I thought would be cool. My first obstacle was charting these entwining cables. But then I saw the Ribbed Lace Pullover in A Gathering of Lace. The perfect entwined cables, all charted out for me!

The next obstacle came when I had to fit my gauge to the pattern. At a gauge of 6.5 spi (stiches per inch), with a pattern repeat of TWENTY-FOUR stitches, I was looking at a sock that was either 48 stitches around, measuring about 7" circumference, or 72 stitches around, measuring 11" circumference. At first this seemed completely undoable, but then I recalled that the recipient has very chunky heels, and socks must be generously stretchy to even pull on. I also recalled that the cables will pull in tightly. And lastly, as it's all knit in 2x2 ribbing, with cables, it would not measure 11" around, but be pulled in quite a bit. So I decided to proceed with 72" stitches around, and see how it fit. I only knit one sock, instead of the customary two, so I could see how it went.



Thus I knit a very large swatch. In trying it on him, I found that around the ankles it was very loose, but if I made the sock tall enough to go up his leg, as was my intention, it fit okay. It wasn't perfect, really, but I proceeded.

Then I noticed how little yarn was remaining in the ball. I got out my handy-dandy scale and measured what remained. 29 grams. Seeing as this is a 50 gram ball (Second ball actually weighs 46 grams), this means I'd used nearly half and hadn't even gotten close to starting the increases. I would probably need 100 grams to finish this sock. Ain't happening.

Ribbit.

Playing with rags

This is my idea of a good time.

We start with a thrift store t-shirt.



And pretty soon we have a fetching skirt.



This one was pretty easy. I sliced up another t-shirt to make the waistband, which isn't visible in these pictures.



And then the real tricky part comes with chopping up the tiny leftovers to make some doll clothes.

Onion dome hat--Finished object

On Thursday, I was looking through my yarns, contemplating my next project(s). It occurred to me that I was two days away from meeting with our knitting group, and didn't have anything to donate. I grabbed a remnant ball of yarn (from my wavy socks) and started knitting, top down.



I probably should have done a few less increases, because I ran out of yarn before the hat looked finished. The first time I looked at my stash, I couldn't find anything that looked harmonious with this yarn. But when my coworker was amazed that this yarn was NOT the yarn I used for Jeanie, I realized I had the perfect complementary yarn.



I knit like mad, but I was still working on it at the knitting circle today. And while I finished it there, it was TIME TO GO and I still had to weave in the ends. So I'll hand it over for donation a little later.

Farewell, Jeanie

Tonight I delivered Jeanie to my liaison. Jeanie will be on auction this weekend at a grand event that benefits the school where my children attend. It's very difficult to send her off like that. I hope that she is well loved, appreciated, and cared for in her new life.

Acquisitions

So there was this incident last week in which I blanked out. This has, I'm afraid, happened before. The trigger was looking at a particular picture on the Sock A Month blog. After that, it's all rather blank. So fast-forward to today when this lovely package arrived:



Inside the package were two juicy skeins of Lovesticks. The colourways are Caramel Apple and Day of the Dead. Yeah, this is a symptom of my serious thing for striped yarns.

A picture says a thousand words

Broadripple Stripeages

It's no secret that I'm awfully fond of striping yarn, and my knitting buddies all know I'm terribly fussy about my multicolour yarns. I love stripes, but totally dislike spotty bits and jacquard, which eliminates a large percentage of the striped yarns commercially available. For example, I wanted to love the Harry Potter yarn, but it just represented everything I dislike in striping yarns.

When I knit with striped yarns, I'm always torn between just doing plain knitting, and enjoying the stripes, or doing a fancy stitch that highlights and harmonizes with the stripes. Sometimes I do chevrons. Sometimes I just let the stripes shine.

I've been wanting to explore my sKnitches Carnival yarn that's been lurking in my stash. And I recently saw a pattern for a broadripple sock that really plays well for stripes. Time to bring the two together!



I started this pair last night. I was immediately concerned that the garter ridge band wouldn't look nice with the changing colours. I pondered my alternatives. I could knit the cuff in a contrasting colour, but this would require more yarn. I couldn't think of any stash sock yarn that would contrast well, and I wasn't thrilled about the idea of buying another ball of yarn, just for contrast. So I knitted on. Then this morning, when I was finishing the cuff, I decided I totally didn't like the way the colour changes looked in garter stitch. I also remembered I had some Knit Picks' essentials in some similar colours. So I ripped out the cuffs and started over.



Broadripple socks, version two, are coming along nicely. They're a handsome pair of socks, I do declare! I even swatched before beginning and got gauge. Unfortunately, the socks are too tight. I've decided to proceed, and make them for my daughter. They fit her just perfectly, and they'll be very cute on her.

Red Fetching, finished

In my previous post about the fetching, Priscilla asked about the bindoff. (and thank you, I adore the colour, too.) This is a very appropriate question, as the original pattern calls for a picot bindoff, but few knitters seem to like that bindoff. In my previous attempt, I used a normal bindoff, and was rather unhappy with the final results.

So I did several modifications to the pattern, many similar to the ones described by Ina on Ravelry. To do the bindoff, I added a cable repeat, like she did, extending the length of the fetching a little. I then did one decrease in the middle of each group of four. You do a k2tog for the glove with the right-leaning cables, and a ssk for the left-leaning cables. Then I did an Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn bindoff. The results are much neater than my previous pair. Unfortunately, the upper edge still curls a little, but not much when you're wearing them.

Pattern: fetching
Yarn: Peruvian yarn, an unspecified blend of wool, alpaca, and cotton
Needle: Size 6
Notes: Let me spell it out for myself...

I cast on, knit 3 rows in 4x1. Pattern says 4, this was a mistake, but I let it rest.

Did four cable repeats

Knit 26 rows of 4x1 rib.

On row 11, 13, 15, an 17, I increased twice in the first column of knit stitches. (Right leaning on right edge, left leaning on left edge.) This made a thumb gusset of 12 stitches.

After 26 rows, I moved the 12 stitches of the thumb gusset onto a separate needle.

Using 2 more size six needles and another ball of yarn, I cast on 4 stitches using a figure 8 cast on. Using the original ball, I knitted across the four stitches and on through the row. Using the new ball, I continued from the 4 stitches and knit around the thumb. I knit around about 5 times and cast off using the EZ cast off.

I knit four more rows, then 2 cable rows. Then I knitted 3 more rows. On the fourth, I decreased once in each group, then did an EZ sewn bindoff

Edging Jeanie

So I'm home from work with a sick little girl again. The silver lining might be time to knit on Jeanie, except I feel wicked saying that, because really, I just would rather her be better. We curled up on the couch together, listening to Bridge Over Troubled Water (She digs Cecilia) and Flyer
(she digs Time of Inconvenience) and knit for a while--she put down her knitting a lot sooner than I did. Knitting's a good distraction, though not a cure, for those maternal worries like "Why is she running a fever again?" and "Should I send her to that mandatory rehearsal?".



I've been edging Jeanie. This involves knitting a cable band parallel to the edge and joining it with the live stitches. I tried to take a photo to illustrate the insanity that is knitting with four different needles--holding needle for resting live stitches, 2 LIME GREEN double points for the active stitches, plus a cable needle for all that mad cabling--but the pictures are far more illegible than the reality.

All that's left now is to graft the final 8 stitches, weave in ends, make sure all the stitches are dropped, and blocking. Unfortunately, grafting didn't look so good with the lower edging, and I'm hesitant to proceed. I'm sure I will, though!

A gift in progress

This is the type of thing that's been seducing me away from Jeanie. Quicker, manageable, attainable projects. I'm trying to have a gift to mail off in the next few days. I have completed one fetching, with a few modifications, including a thumb gusset. It's made of the soft and fuzzy yarn my #1Man brought me back from the market in Lima, Peru.

PS I just put the first fetching on the scale, and it weighed 23 grams. I put the remaining yarn from that ball on the scale, and it weighed 23 grams. I did knit the few rounds of the thumb from another ball, so in theory, I should be able to make it through this without running outta yarn. I hope!

Ballet skirt!

I like to blog my sewing projects, too. My little ballerina needed a full skirt for rehearsals, as she will be wearing the costume of a 19th century german girl. And naturally, they don't rehearse in costume. I admit that while I actually first thought, "I can make that!" I did make a breeze through several kids' stores, and didn't see a single full skirt. Guess it's not the style of the season. So we were searching through the fabrics, and she couldn't decide, and I just said, "Here, let's use of the last of the ballet pink and make you a ballet skirt." She agreed, and the skirt is perfect for her needs. I think next time I'll make the elastic a little tighter, it sags a bit.

 

Acquisitions

Jeanie is all but finished. Only 13 rows of knitting remain, plus the edging, finishing, and blocking. I keep distracting myself with smaller, more attainable projects. More on those, later.

I knew I wanted to have proper blocking wires for Jeanie. There are blocking wires at knitpicks.com, but frankly, I've already spent a lot of money on Jeanie, and spending another $30 for blocking wires (plus shipping, or purchasing more for free shipping) just wasn't sitting right.

I searched ravelry for more information about using welding rods, and found the exact info I needed, so I could walk into a welding supply store and tell them just what I wanted. I was just working up my courage to actually go to the welding store. I was thinking I'd spend about $10.

I saw on ravelry that Joann.com had blocking wires for $17. I went to look, but spending $6.99 made it so that I wasn't saving much money, anyway. I returned to the welding store plan.

A couple hours later, I got an email from Joann.com that offered free shipping on a $25 purchase. Good timing on their part! I searched the site, thinking carefully of what exactly I wanted to buy at JoAnn's anyway. I finally recalled my elastic needs. I tossed some elastic thread and some lingerie elastic into my cart, getting the total to about $25.04, I think, and ordered. My wires and elastic arrived yesterday. So I guess I'd better finish up Jeanie!

 

No longer nekkid!

This poor babe has been waiting an awful long time for clothes. She was crafted back in the days of Graduate School, and has endured that, plus my months of recovery, waiting for a wardrobe of her own. It's a modest start, but at least she has something to call her own! If I could ever stop driving long enough, or stop knitting Jeanie, or stop sneaking in baby socks for babies that are arriving soon, I'd make her a whole buncha stuff!

Good news, bad news

Good news! Two socks, all finished (almost!), all identical (almost!), all matching

Bad news! So, uhm, these socks aren't supposed to be identical. They are supposed to match, but they are supposed to be mirror images.

Good news! Two friends are expecting babies. I'll just make two more mirror image socks to complement these.

Bad news! I'm really bad at making a second pair. Also? I'm supposed to be working on Jeanie. Oh yeah, Jeanie. Off to knit...

Infidelity. I has it.

It started so innocently. Browsing through the pictures on Ravelry of people's versions of Cat Bordhi's baby socks. And then, browsing through New Pathways itself, looking at the baby socks. Then it snowballed to stash diving, seeking out some colourful worsted weight yarn. And then--oh my--then I found the perfect yarn. I was frantically swatching, and my husband was standing in the bedroom door going, "Don't you have to leave NOW?"

When I returned from driving the ballet carpool, I didn't even hang up my keys or my coat before I was knitting. I didn't like how the toe looked in the variegated yarn; the increases made it look sloppy. So I ripped out the toe and redid it in a solid colour. And while the family slowly went to bed, I was still sitting there, knitting on a baby sock. About 11:30 at night I came up for air, because the sock was ready to cast off. Tonight, same yarn, same place?

Jeanie note: Yes, I did stray from Jeanie. But I did manage to do my obligatory 2 repeats on her beforehand. She measures in at 61", 5" shy of finishing. As she gets closer to being done, my roving eye gets oh-so-worse.

Jeanie Report, no pictures

Okay, tonight Jeanie measures 59"! I'm well on track to making it to 66" (or more) by this weekend, and then I can edge her, finish her, and block her. I have managed to adhere to, and sometimes exceed, my knitting goal all week. Except Friday. So on Friday, I was glancing at the books on our delete/discard shelf. I picked up this Jodi Picoult book that I totally didn't want to read. Unimaginable violence in teens tearing apart happy families. Yeah, don't wanna go there. So then of course I started reading it, except that I was at work and I couldn't read it. Instead of knitting, I read all through lunch hour, and then again that evening. I had imagined a cozy evening of reading and knitting, both, but then one thing after the other had me in and out of the car all night, and just a few stolen moments of reading until late evening. Fortunately I finished it, and enjoyed it, even, so I could get back to knitting the rest of the weekend. When Busy Mama had a few moments to herself, anyway.

Jeanie math

• According to last night's measurements, I need to add 17 inches to Jeanie.


• Every six rows, I do a cable row. I consider each cable row the end of a repeat, even though the pattern is really larger than six rows. My recent goal has been to complete two repeats a day. This isn't always possible, but it's helped me to make steady progress.


• I had guessed that one repeat measured approximately one inch. Today I tested that with a ruler. I found that 4 repeats measures 3.5 inches.


• (17 inches)*(4 repeats/3.5 inches)=19.428 repeats


• since I would definitely finish a repeat, I round that up to 20 repeats remaining


• At two repeats per day, I would finish in 10 days, or the 17th of October


• after finishing the repeats, I will need to do the top edging, weave in the ends, and block


• This means that I'm barely on schedule for finishing in time


• So I have to adhere to the 2 repeat/day rule, and preferably make that 3/day.


• One repeat takes about an hour


• So I need to commit 3 hours a day to Jeanie. On top of working extra hours, driving carpools, feeding a family, helping with homework, etc. Oh yeah, and sleeping.


• Oh man...


• (Yes, my brain loves that kind of number fun)