Happy Christmas to all

Things have calmed down around here (yesterday was, well, what do you think Christmas in a family of 7 kids is like?!)

I finished the first of my Slippery Socks yesterday and promptly cast on for the second in the grand tradition of avoiding second sock syndrome, because it is worth xp on knit wars, and because I need more knitted socks now! I really like the pattern and it worked up nicely. I was worried about whether the darkness of the yarn would be a problem but it turned out lovely. There was some pooling of the darkest colour on the leg, and it striped vertically on the leg and horizontally after the heel - I think I like the horizontal better. The slipped st heel looks really neat with this colourway. And I did it with a heel flap, which I normally avoid, but I rather like the way this one turned out.

My Hand-dyed yarn swap package arrived from Australia - yeah my sock yarn! and fun stuff.

I got two knitting books for Christmas:

*Stunning Shawls and Wraps by Scarlett Taylor - all shawls with beads, there are a couple that I really like, and a few other that I'd like to modify into sweaters/tops. Several different techniques for adding beads are included and patterns range from simple garter sts triangular shall to shrugs and caplets, colour work, and cables.

This is one of my favourites, and as my mother rather likes it... (I think I'll have to tell dad that she wants it for her birthday... - what is it they say, find a pattern you love and get someone else to pay for it...)

I liked the creative use of self-striping yarn in this one.

And these two I'd like to take and turn into tops.

This one would make a nice pull over.

And this one I'd like to turn into a sleeveless top, but adding arm holes (between the collar and the body) and extending the body.

*At Knit's End by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee - always hilarious, my family has been enjoying it (though they haven't exactally gotten the mohair jokes...)

My Grandmother gave me the sock needle set of Harmony dpns. And two antique metal circs - they belonged to my great-great grandmother Annie (Grandma's father's mother). They are pretty heavy duty - as in if I ever needed to garotte someone... I'll be interested to see how they work.

My Christmas knitting was distributed, and much enjoyed. Mom is now wearing both the socks and the shawl and L. carried around the Dr. Who scarf all day yesterday, while T. wore his hat -inside- all day.

A couple more for the pile

So in addition to the two things from last post (socks and hat), I've finished another hat (for me) and a scarf and hat (for my uncle as requested by my aunt).

I used SWS Natural Garden for my hat, and the modified tea cozy pattern.

The scarf is A Scarf Askew from Magknits, in Patons Classic Wool in Dark Grey Mix, using about 1.25-1.5 skeins.

The hat is SWS Natural Coal, same pattern.

V is for Victory

I have officially completed not only my list but bouns items.

Dad's socks - the end of the list

Nick's hat - the first 'list is finished' bonus (it was a hat based on Em's Tea Cozy pattern).

I've already started another hat like the one for Nick, this one for me. I've also realized, I would have failed all my students on the last two assignments if I didn't have my knitting (WTF! Why can't they analize the text I gave them instead of importing all sorts of irrelevant shit!? And where the frak did he get the idea that Antony was one of the conspirators and that he was arguing to justify Caesar's death?! - grrr- *breathes deeply and pets yarn*)

[Blogger is being stupid and won't let me add pictures...]

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Christmas knitting victory is in sight. I'm not sure why I keep hearing about the stressy-ness of Christmas knitting (despite last year), but I've loved it this year, and actually it has been less stressy because I haven't been running all over hell's half acre looking for things.

I ended up with:

*finishing the purple diamond shawl for my mom

*three shawls for my girlfriends

*hedera for mom

*3 pairs of mittens

* 4 Koolhaas hats

*a tea cozy

*a teddy bear

* Dr. Who scarf

* multiple face-cloths

*a pair of fetching

I have yet to finish-

*dad's Phineas socks - I'm now doing the ribbing on each, having knit both to 4.5 diamonds and not having enough yarn for ribbing so I frogged back the .5 and cut the yarn in half, balled it back up and am now going to rib each little ball for each sock.

I'm also giving knitting gifts

* two hand-dyed skeins

* two kits (needles, yarn, pattern)

It is a very knitterly Christmas! Once everythings is done, I have a couple of lacey things for myself that I'm working on and a half dozen pairs of socks I want to make (as well as a Koolhaas for myself - I LOVE THAT PATTERN!)

For next year there are two things I really want to knit that I don't have the yarn for: one will probably involve needing to buy 2 full bags of the bare Wool of the Andes worsted and the other is the Ivy League vest (which my plan is to knit in pallett).

I have the yarn for and will knit before ordering more yarn:

*the Cochella

*the Red Carpet Convertible top (not the dress)

*a shawl - either the Spanish Christening one or the Feather and Fan one

*I also have all but one or two balls of the calmer for a Nothin' but a t-shirt (I need another one or two of gold as an accent colour)

Final cool thing:

I have a friend who just came back from a trip to Australia and New Zealand and she brought me back four worsted weight skeins of Merino/Possum(!) blend.

Ouch - my hands

Soooo - only part of a pair of socks, one pair of mittens, and part of a hat to go...

I finished 3 Koolhaas hats - in Red, Blue, and Teal-ish... to be variously distributed and am working on a 4th. At some point in the new year, I'm going to have to knit myself one - I really like them.

I finished Bertie's mitts, but the last pair of mittens has yet to be cast on, I'm thinking of just doing the same as the other two but on much larger needles, esp. since the cart itself is actually written for adult size... we'll see, I could just use the chart from the other pattern, but knit the same mitten pattern as I'm now very familiar with...

I also cast on a scarf/shawl for me, since I found a pattern that calls for about the yardage of my Mini-maiden. (Though my shrug hasn't seen any action since I started it... oops.)

My hands are a bit sore, I've been pushing it a bit - and I did a power point presentation for a talk at school last week and my laptop mouse is really hard on my hands. So I'll take it easy for a bit... (well, at least until tomorrow night...)

Socks, fingerless gloves, and shopping

Today I (finally) finished mom's Hedera socks and also finished a pair of Fetching for my cousin. The Hedera are in Louet Gems Sage, they are sized for ladies 9 narrow and they should fit her fine. I could have made them longer and between the left over of the two skeins I used and the extra one I bought I should be able to make another complete pair of socks. I did a short row heel, because I like them better.

For the Fetching I used SWS in Natural Violet. I love the way the pinks work in it but I'm not sure about the greenish sections. They are much bigger than the other pairs I've made, which makes me think I'd used smaller needles for the others and that the yarn is definately smaller guage. But I like the extra length and will be making myself a pair, probably in Natural Garden. It is a bit scratchy so I'm thinking maybe I should wash them...

When I picked up the SWS (in Violet, Garden, Plum, and Navy) I also picked up a skein of Mini-Maiden in a beautiful green-brown colourway, I will be making something shawl-scarf-ish out of it eventually. I also got the new IK, and will be doing the Ivy League Vest as soon as my Christmas knitting is out of the way (and KP gets more of the Tidepool Heather...). I ordered a Cro-hook too, which I hope to get in the next week or so. I heard about it on David Reidy's Podcast Sticks & String, it is a circular needle where one of the points is a crochet hook, great for picking up stitches along arm-holes and neck edges. I like toys, this is an exciting one.

Just keep knitting...

Question:

Do I want Emerald, Plum, or Ruby zephyr or similar colours of the Elann peruvian baby lace merino for knitting the Mediterannean Shawl? (Now if I can manage to get some Wollmeise lace weight all bets are off... and if it rains blue cheese ...)

I've finished another dish cloth (of which I will spare you yet another picture), and the Baby Bobbi Bear and I've nearly finished one Phineas sock - I'm keeping it on the needles until I knit the other one (the first one is to the ribbing) so that I make sure I have enough yarn for both of them.

The bear will be a Christmas present and was knit with about 4 skeins of fingering weight Katia alpaca (double stranded) on 5.5mm. It is super soft. The pattern was fairly easy to follow though the head does end up a little oddly shaped, mostly in the back -my mom suggested it needed a hat...

In other news, the Crazy Knitting Lady brought me a present from Rhinebeck - the most beautiful lilac bamboo roving!! I am soo excited. Spinning has always fascinated me, but since I've really started to look at it, it has been the thought of spinning bamboo, silk, and flax that have excited me most. Ergo, much squee! I am saving it for the moment until I get a bit better, and trying to decide whether I might not try spinning it with some silk...

Also, I have my new swap partner for the next round of the Hand-dyed yarn swap. This time all the way from Australia - which is very exciting to me. I think given the icky wet cool weather we've started to have, I'll have to do the dying this week to give it time to dry properly, now I just have to figure out what my dad did with all my dying stuff when he cleaned the garage...

Done!!

The shawl - the purple monster- is done, blocked, and nicely wrapped in tissue paper and stored away for Christmas wrapping. I finished knitting it on Thursday and blocked it Thursday night (I left it soaking while I chatted on the phone... there was no water left in the sink when I got back!! NTS- wool is absorbant, if you don't want to be wringing water out of lace for hours don't abandon it in the sink....). I had to fold it in half to block it and then it only just fit on the towel/foam mats combo that I wanted to use.

Yesterday I started on my mitten blitz. I'm doing three pairs for my sibs - not really that big of a deal. But naturally I decided to try stranded colour work (which I rarely do and never do well) and that I wanted to do Norwegian style stars on them. Unfortunately the only patterns I have are for adults (one pair is for a 7 year old girl and one for a 3 year old boy - adult sizes not so much). So generic mitten pattern to the rescue... sort of... I used the template to create a scaled down template in excel and then did the design on that. Then I tried knitting it, first version too small... even for Bertie, so I frogged back to the ribbing and knit again using larger needles, which seems to have worked.

Last night, for some variety, I cast on the tea-cozy. The pattern was great, very easy, and I finished it last night before I went to bed. I really liked the picot hem, I've never done a hem before but this was easy and very smart looking. I think I may modify the pattern in future to make a toque.

Today, more mittens, and maybe working on the socks. Phineas is going slow, the needles are tiny!! So I've been leaving it to the side in favour of projects with greater instant gratification potential. I'm thinking maybe I'll cast on the Hedera for mom....

In my last KP order (which I was waiting for for my mitten yarn and sock needles) I also got the set of metal options. I have loved them, I actually knit the tea cozy on two cables and one set of 5mm tips (I had to switch tips at the end of each half row, but it worked really well anyway). I'm going to have to get more tips (and some doubles I think) and more storage and cables.... (obsessive compulsive much ....) I also got the Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning book. I really like it, though to my mind there is too much attention devoted to spinning novelty yarn. I'd have liked more space given to non-wool fibers (like bamboo), though I did like the sections on flax and silk, and to the properties of different fibers in general. The result has been, the plying of two spindles of singles that I had and pricing spinning wheels. Oh, how I want a Kromski Symphony...

*pout* My connection is being stupid so I can't upload pictures right now...

Spinning and Dr. Who

My most recent trip to yarn store also included a side trip to the bead store. Among the various things I picked up were some beads intended for use as spindle whorls. Last night I went to the dollar store in search of cheap wooden handled paintbrushes.

This is what I came home with (the paint brushes and eye hooks, everything else I already had).

And this is what I made. It spins pretty nicely, with only a bit of wobble at the end of a spin, the only real problem with it is that the handle is too short to hold what I was trying to use it for last night. I'm going to need to hit Curry's downtown to find something with a longer handle (and a wider circumference as the hole in the flat beads was too big). But over all I am pleased.

I spun all of the purple/brown/pink fiber yesterday, trying to do so according to the article on fractal self striping yarns in one of the Spin-Offs from earlier this year. This is what I ended up with.

Now I just have to figure out how to ply these singles...(and also to figure out if I spun one of them the wrong way... should I have done one S and one Z or do I do both the same and then ply them the other way... guess I should have checked that first huh...). I did spin some of the one with my DIY spindle, but ended up transfering the singles to the ashford and finishing it with that. It is uneven and wretched, but an improvement over the last time, so I count that as a small victory.

This week, knitting wise, I've been focusing on the Dr. Who scarf I'm knitting for my sister for Christmas. It is now significantly taller than I am... and I'm only about half way through. She is coming home this weekend so I won't be able to work on it then, but I should be able to finish it up next week. By which time the needles and yarn I need to move on to the next batch of Christmas things will have arrived. (If only my school work were this productive and well organized....)

Still here

Christmas Knitting up-date:

* Christmas shawl 1 is done

* Christmas shawl 2 is done

* Christmas shawl 3 is paused for now, since I screwed something up and need to pick back a couple of rows

* I've been working mostly on my lace shawl (for Mom), I'm on repeat #14 (of 11... *sigh*) I'm going to do at least 15, then check how long it is then.

I've started working on the Marvin I want to knit for my sister for her birthday in early October. I knit it in the round instead of flat, and now I need to stuff it before I can do the arms.

The yarn arrived today (my first order from the Loopy Ewe) for my Dad's socks - I'm thinking I'm going to do the Phineas socks. I'm now trying to decide whether to do them in Cherry Tree Hill (navy) or the Fleece Artist (midnight).

I really like the Loopy Ewe, and want to keep ordering from her, but I have a slightly problem - customs. The duty I had to pay was actually more than the shipping, which is a pain. I order lots of things from all over, and a fair amount of stuff from the states. I've never had to pay duty on yarn before, I'm trying to figure out what the difference is that makes this package require it vs. others. Ideas anyone?

To block or not to block

that is the question! The one I usually try to pretend doesn't exist, I mean, I think I've blocked a grand total of one sweater, I never block socks and my first real lace project is still on the needles.

But I just finished my first Christmas present, and it is a shawl. A lace pattern (basically like the lower edge lace of the After Dark Nightie). It was knit in a fingering weight superwash - so do I have to block it? Will it really look better if I wet it and pin it out?

(I can't find the camera cable or I'd add pictures at this point). Whether I have to block it or not, I'm very excited to have it done. I'm started already on the second one (which is going to be a slightly narrower chevron lace shawl). I've also planned out the third which I really don't know what to expect from, but it should be interesting at any rate.

Forget Jan, the new year is just around the corner

September is the real new year, summer ends, the weather changes, and school and work pick up again. It is the time of year when I make my resolutions and refocus on what needs to be accomplished. (Which is consequently, why I am in pain right now - stupid new exercise programme). It is also the point by which I absolutely have to have begun my Christmas knitting, or things like last years - finished two hours after Amy left- senario.

I am doing much better this year. I have projects planned (for 3 friends - who never read my knitting blog so I can post all I want) and my sister (who is in the army and has better things to do than scope out Christmas and birthday present spoilers on a knitting blog she doesn't know exists).

Plans are as follows:

*3 shawls for the girls in Sea of No Cares, California Dreaming, and something I haven't dyed yet, because Boston and St. John's didn't work out. Sea of No Cares Shawl is cast on and 1/4 finished - if only I could keep up this pace, I'd be done no sweat.

*I'll be knitting a Marvin doll (from Hitchhikers Guide - see here - amazing what you can find on Ravelry!) for Leah's birthday

*She'll be getting a Dr. Who scarf for Christmas, and possibly I'll use the Boston and St. John's to knit her something, socks maybe or even a stuffed animal of some description).

I also have to finish my Socks for Solider's socks (the legs of both socks are done, and I'm through the heel and gusset on one, hopefully it'll be done in the next week or so) - NTS: these socks are huge!! (oh, and the socks for Nonna...)

I've also bought yarn to make my Coachella, which I have been resisting casting on, though as it will be quick I'm sorely tempted. I may even be able to do a smallish size, given that the comments seem to be that it runs big.