Cattywampus

Gloves hurt

Last week DH & I were walking around Philly and it was chilly, or at least chillier than we are used to in NC.  (it's 60 today)  I had my lovely little Endpaper Mitts keeping my hands warm (fingers aside) and after a viewing of 'A Christmas Carol' with Patrick Stewart, DH requested a pair of half fingered gloves like Bob Crachett (sp?) wore.

So.  We went to a yarn store in Princeton where he picked out Berroco Peruvia (I think that's what it's called, I've thrown away the ball bands already, it's peruvian wool at any rate) in grey & blue. 

Using a stranded pattern I found in Folk Mittens - a Norwegian star pattern that was actually a cuff at a much smaller gauge - I designed him some Hobo Mitts.

I've never done gloves before, but I didn't think much about all the finger nonsense until I got to that part - ACK!  I used Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns to figure out the fingers, TG for reference books!

I did the first one in about 24 hours and my hands ache from working at such a tight gauge & in such small circumfrences.  So I'm going to take a break from them and work on something at a much larger gauge before I start the second one.

 

Pixie is so helpful.

I sort of fudged the thumb patterning b/c I was making it up as I went...it's not exactly perfect and it doesn't blend so much, but I think it's acceptable.  On another pair I would do a few more plain rows before starting the pattern so it could be completely centered, but I do think for 'winging it' that these came out quite well...lol - I say 'these' - THIS.  Tomorrow I will start the other one & hopefully he'll have a whole pair before long.

I do have the whole thing all written down so I can duplicate it, so with the exception of the star pattern which I took from the book (copyright & all that) I could write it up easily if anybody is interested - leave me a comment if you'd like the basic pattern without the colorwork and I'll write it up and post it.

Comfy Weekend Sweater - FO

Well, here it is!  My new comfy weekend sweater, knit based on the measurements of my current favorite comfy weekend sweater - that theory really works, not that I thought it wouldn't, but really, it's just cool to see it work out so well! 

Fleece Artist BFL aran I picked up at SAFF, I used about 4.5 skeins, or about 700-750 yards, I think.  Knit at 4 st/in it drapes nicely & makes a nice fabric.  Each skein was slightly different, so the color patterning changes in different parts of the sweater, I really like the variation...just enough to keep it interesting.  I did use half of the same skein on the tops of each sleeve & then half of another skein on the bottom of each sleeve so they would be the same, otherwise one sleeve would have been mostly blue & the other would have been mostly purple, but that's the only thing I did.

The yarn is super soft & silky feeling, I hope it will hold up fairly well b/c it's BFL.  So far, I've worn this out to lunch & the grocery store & it's fitting the bill for my comfy weekend sweater.  Not too hot, not too tight, not too loose, not too short, sleeves I can pull down around the base of my thumbs - don't ask me why, I just like to do that...

And on this dreary, dreary day, the kind of day where you have to have all the lights in the house on all day, it is so bright and cheery that it just makes me happy, and it's super comfy(did I mention that?) that makes me happy too.

I know with knitting there will always be those 'oh goodness what WAS I thinking' moments and those knits that didn't turn out quite right b/c of this or that, but it really is a good feeling to think that over the last year a MUCH greater percentage of my FOs are turning out to be wearable, and actually get worn instead of being photographed & stuck in the back of my closet. 

oooh, almost forgot the best picture!!

This is what happens when you neglect to count the decreases and make ASSUMPTIONS about how many you did.  First you get to the ribbing and think - uh0h, this sleeve has two less stitches than the other one, huh - and fudge it & go on thinking it can be smoothed over in the blocking.  Then you do the 3" of ribbing, bind off and try it on only to be in for a great shock when one sleeve is 2" longer than the other.  OOPS.  I did an extra decrease round - 10 extra rows before I started the ribbing.  You'd think...you really would...that after so many of these little happenings I would double check these things instead of just knitting on blindly and thinking it would all work out.  So at 10:30 last night I was ripping out 4" of the sleeve & redoing the ribbing.

 

In the long run, I'm glad to know that I really didn't screw up and make the sleeve 2 stitches smaller than the other, but still...I should have double checked the number of decrease rounds when I ran into that problem.  *smacks hand on forehead*

The Quilt Store

When I was up in NJ my stepmother showed me this one block wonder quilt she was teaching a class for, it's sooooo cool, so I requested a trip to the quilt store so she could help me pick out fabric for the same quilt. 

How this works is you get 6 repeats of a very large print, layer the repeats on top of one another & cut them into strips first & then triangles to sew into hexagons, so you are making one block out of 6 pieces that are exactly the same (b/c you cut through 6 repeats of the fabric to get each block).  This makes these really fascinating hexagons, they look like the imagines you can see through a kaleidescope.  In the picture below you can see two fabrics & the blocks they have created.  There are a few examples of quilts here.

Here is the fabric I got to do this with, it should make this really, really funky mixture of blues, browns, gold and a bit of white.  There was a Laurel Burch fabric that would have been amazing, but it really wouldn't have matched ANYTHING and I'm trying to avoid those.  I think this one will look lovely with our living room furniture.

I also picked up a premade kit with dick & jane fabric, I saw this in a magazine recently and I wanted to get something, but often the minimum ordering requirements end up causing you to have to order much more than you would really need, so a precut store kit is perfect for things like this.  This kit will make a crib size quilt.

Travel Knitting Update

So yeah, I don't know what I was thinking, but I quickly ran out of yarn for this sweater, too bad really, I could have been done already!  But it's all good, I moved on & worked on something else.

My vneck sweater based on my current favorite comfy weekend sweater is just lacking sleeves.  And in fact, I was halfway done with one sleeve last night and decided I should have used the other ball, that one had more blue and less purple in it.

I don't know how clearly you can see the color variations in the picture, but the skein I used for the top had some light green spots in it, the skein I used on the middle of the body had a lot of blue in it and the skein for the bottom half of the body had lots of purple and very little blue.  I think it's possible that I should be concerned about this, I know this bothers some people, but I just don't care.  I am making a comfy weekend sweater in a color that makes me happy and will make dreary, rainy days brighter - color conformity is not a necessity!

    

The other project that got a lot of time was the Stonington Shawl, I am FINALLY on the decrease half of the square.  I ended up doing more repeats than stated - about 4, I think - b/c even though I couldn't figure out exactly how large the center should be and accounting for the blocking & so on, 18" just didn't seem big enough, so I got it to 23" and it looks much more like the center of a shawl and less like a hand towel.  It will require a little fiddling with the math when I move on to the next section, but not too much, I think. 

I really love this color, I still think it's perfect.  It will be interesting to see how it looks when the stripes change direction, but hopefully the overall look will still be pleasing to the eye.

The report back

So, in addition to the wonderful time spent with family and friends, I came home with some wonderful goodies!

From DH, a 7 1/4 quart Le Creuset pot to make double batches of pasta sauce & soups so I can freeze some.  YAY!  He also got me Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, I am excited to read this as he is the man who was hired to write the final book in the Wheel of Time series. 

From my mother, Blue Moon Laci in Valkyrie!  SO PRETTY!!!  I really wanted this to make a Pi Shawl.

I also got two dvds - Knitting Around & Cardigan details, I'm so excited!  I can't wait to watch them!  Knitting Around is the companion to the same titled book & Cardigan Details I wanted b/c it's the one where Meg covers steeking, I definitely want to watch that before I try to do it myself!  Not that I have anything in the works at the moment that needs to be steeked, but eventually...

 

From my friend Heather, these two gorgeous lace books and this INSANELY thin cobweb weight yarn, isn't it lovely?  There are supposed to be 3000 yards here!  I've never worked with anything this thin before!

 

From my dad and stepmother, this quilter's calculator - what fun!  Now maybe I'll stop buying the wrong amount of sashing & border fabric!!  We also went to a quilt shop & I got some things, but I'll put that in another post.  This thing is really cool, there's a demo here.

 

I got an assortment of books (non knitting) too, and actual practical things, but I won't bore you with those, and more delicious chocolates and homemade cookies than I know what to do with!

I got Knitting Classic Style by Veronik Avery and one book I really did want but didn't get was Folk Mittens - I'm kind of still on that mitten kick, so I ordered it for myself.  (shhhh, don't tell, I think that's against the rules somehow)  I'll talk about those in a future post as well.

Oh & good for a giggle, this is how the Pixie rides in the car. 

Christmas Day

So far this has been an amazing Christmas season for me.  I got to see both of my grandmothers, who, while aging and not as sharp as I remember, are still a joy to spend time with.  My dad's mother gave me a sweater she knitted long ago to fix, the yarn broke on the bind off at the neckline and the sleeves have come unraveled.  I am thrilled to be able to fix this and get it back to her to enjoy.  What a wonderful sense of sharing this amazing craft with her. 

Pictures & more to come on that when I get home & work on it.

We spent an afternoon with DH's Godmother, reminisced about days past and shared happy thoughts of his parents, that was really nice.  We had dinner with my mother & her mother in her assisted living facility, that was great too.  Today we had a formal dinner with my dad & step mom and my dad's mother, along with a nice couple who joined us...after that we stopped by my aunt and uncle's (mother's side) and chatted for a bit, saw how big all the kids have gotten (my cousins once removed?) and had even more cookies.  It's been a good visit of reconnecting.

Tomorrow (wednesday) we are planning on going into Philly for the day, eating lunch in Chinatown & walking down Walnut street - the main shopping drag - ending up in Rittenhouse Park, which is just around the block from where I lived & where I spent hours with the pups.

As for the pups, they were thrilled to find that at the end of our 8 hour car trip they were somewhere familiar and jumped and leaped and frolicked and whatnot at finding my dad & stepmom here too.  Traveling can be traumatic for dogs sometimes, but they are so content to be here, even if they are a bit frantic about us leaving the house.

For Christmas gifties, I got lots of amazing things, which I will discuss in due time, probably after we get back this coming weekend.  I feel surrounded by love and family and friends this Christmas and gifts don't seem appropriate to talk about at this point.

The one holiday reveal

For my mother, in Just Our Yarn cashmere, which turned out to be cobweb weight - it's 60wpi!!

Scarf with striped border from Victorian Lace Today.  This entire thing, 56x7.5, used only 14 grams of yarn.  Absolutely insanity.

It's barely there, look - you can hardly see it on the blocking towel.  Completely nuts.  I didn't know it was cobweb weight when I bought it & I don't think I'll probably ever buy cobweb weight intentionally, it was like knitting with thread!  But this is rather pretty, I think, and I hope she likes it!!

And now we return to our regular programing

with the subtitle:  all is quiet in blogland, I'll be glad when people are done with frantic holiday-ness!

I am DONE.  Presents are wrapped.  What needs to be knitted is knitted.  The snacks are in the car.  The picnic lunch will be made before bed tonight.  The laundry is almost done.  And most importantly, my knitting bag is ready to travel!

Now don't get to thinking that I"m ahead of schedule and managed to finish everything 3 days early...we are leaving bright and early tomorrow for the land of traffic, shopping, and of course, relatives - ie the tri state area of NJ, PA, & DE.  We haven't been in 18 months, so I haven't seen either of my grandmothers in 18 months and I am SO glad to be going to visit them & some other relatives we haven't seen in a while - and of course, to eat at some of our favorite places (VIETNAM!!!) and visit some of our old haunts.  Stroll around & shop in Center City (philly), wander around the cuteness that is Princeton, sit in traffic to do our holiday visiting - y'know, all the good stuff. 

I was hoping to take some lovely daylight pictures of my new projects I have cast on for the trip, but alas, alack, poor yorick, it is horribly cloudy & dark and I think at 10:00 a.m. the sun might already be setting.  So - here goes, pictures with flash, once again.

Here is the vneck I have cast on, my own pattern, a version of an EPS, though not exactly.  I took the measurements of my favorite comfy weekend sweater & am making it to match that.  This is the Fleece Artist aran weight - which, btw, it says is 18st/4in & they are seriously insane with that b/c I'm getting 14st/4in & am quite happy with the fabric.

I'm not so sure about the way the colors are patterning, I actually like the inside quite a bit, so I may or may not decide to turn it inside out & use that side.  If I'm figuring correctly I can do that b/c on a seamless sweater nothing is set in stone until you weave in the ends & pick up the stitches for the collar on, right?  I can get all the way done, flip the purl side out & put the collar on that side & VOILA!

Also on the needles, though not for the car trip, is a scarf version of Twinings in a silk merino blend from Yarnchef.  You can't see much of it here, and the color didnt' come out very well in the picture, and the lace doesn't show at all...so I guess you'll have to take my word for it...it's quite pretty.

And I cast on for the Aquaphobia socks, I really think these are just too much fun and I must make them.  I have nothing to show for it yet, I'm only 4 rows in, I'm just trying to get through the toe increases (b/c I am doing them toe up instead) before we leave in the morning to make them better for car knitting.  I am doing them in STR Firebird.

I will most likely be MIA until next weekend, but I might pop in for an update here & there, it depends on internet access.  I wish you all good luck in your last minute preparations, Happy Holidays for whatever you celebrate, and safe journeys wherever you go.

This little piggy

Here they are:

And since I don't have the intended recipient to model them...

Pixie didn't have any problem staying like this, Duke seemed to think that  wearing a little piggy mitten on his head was an affront to his dignity.  Go figure.

These were ridiculously quick to knit & I didn't have any problems until I tried to do the eyes, me & french knots have never really gotten along.  I finally ended up just doing small, little X stitches instead.

Progress

I'm not feeling particularly chatty this morning, so forgive me the lack of verbosity.  (heehee - I do love making up words.)

I have a lot of things in process right now, including some knitting project bags, these are almost done, they just need to be topstitched & have the cord run through.

My bff's socks, as requested, in worsted weight yarn - swish superwash.

Piggy mittens in progress for the Goddaughter, all that stray yarn next to the mittens is the ears & tails.

Gorgeous Fleece Artist BFL aran in a false start top down vneck for myself - the traveling project chosen for next week.  I did one of the calculations wrong & had to frog back from this point...glad I realized here & not further on though.

Malabrigo Loafers, I made these in october & loved them, but they got uber baggy on my feet after I wore them, I tried felting them by hand a bit & that helped but didn't do the trick, so yesterday they went into the washer & the fit is perfect now, yay!

I am still frantically trying to finish quite a few things before we leave on Saturday, luckily I only have to work through Thursday this week so I have Friday to finish up loose ends - both figuratively and literally.