The Needles Have Been Busy

My knitting needles have been busy...and so I have I.    The Christmas deadline is looming and things are going well...despite an arithmetic error that forced me to rip out half a sock.   Count twice, knit once.

As things were looking good, I have thrown three more hats into the mix.   If things go well, they will be knit and mailed by next Monday.

A Beret for My Friend Sigrid

Some gifts are already knit and gone.   Each year I knit a lot of socks.    This year I have also been on a hat kick.   My friend Barb got a hat to match the mittens she needed.   Sigrid needed a beret.   The pattern that I found was fun to do....quick...and will look lovely on her.

Each year, I knit something for my friend, Al.  This year I wanted to do another hat.   There are so many good choices for patterns.  It took a bit to figure out what I really wanted to do.   Then, bravely, I journeyed into the stash to find the yarn.   Yes, I am spoiled with the choices in my personal yarn store.   I found some Lion Brand Alpaka that had aged to perfection.    The choices were off white and black.    The black would make a glamorous watch cap but I wanted something a little more fun for me to knit.   I found the Between Two Lungs pattern and knew that was the one.

One of my thrills in knitting is finding hat patterns with clever decreases that elegantly support the design of the hat.   The Man Hat, which I have knit several times, is an excellent example of this.   Between Two Lungs is another.  The patterning was a lot of fun to do.   There was enough interest to force me to pay attention, but not so much challenge that I would curse...much.

Between Two Lungs

Al received the hat last weekend.   It looks great on him and I hope he will wear it all winter.

Jan Thompson and I went up to All About Yarn in Coon Rapids to take a Two Color Brioche class from Diane Augustin.    The class was interesting...well paced...and a great way to learn this technique.   My yarn was too fine...should have brought something a little bulkier....so I don't have anything to show yet.  I will do the cowl pattern when I have some "knitting for me" time.   With luck, I will have that before I forget how to do it.

Mindful Knitting.....

One of my current projects is the Fairbanks Cowl from Interweave Knits 2014 Gift Issue.  The pattern is lovely and is perfect for someone I know.  One of the Willow yarns, Blossom, was perfect for the pattern.   As I had wanted to try the yarn, I was ready to go.

Mindfulness...being present in the moment no matter what one is doing....is something I have been thinking about and working on being better at.   This project has been a powerful lesson in mindful knitting.  This project has also truly increased my skills in frogging (rip it, rip it) cabled projects.  

The cabled patterns in this project are truly lovely.   Unfortunately, the patterns are also truly easy to screw up.   I am enjoying the process despite the backward progress being much faster than the forwards progress.   It is shocking to me how much my mind wanders when I am doing this...and how hard it is to rope it back to what my fingers are doing.  This will be lovely when it is done....and well worth the effort.

Sam in his Heart Skull Hat

The Heart Skull hat landed in Lebanon.    Sam likes it a lot....says it fits well.   Siouxsie writes a fabulous pattern and I will use it as a base for more.    Sam, I think you will agree, really rocks the look.

Nearly Forgot!

Check out Craftsy for this free pattern....easy and so very cute.    This is the Punkin Head hat.   This is done in Plymouth Encore in 0-3 month size.   The pattern is written for a wide ranges of sizes.   The leaf is from a free Ravelry pattern referenced in the hat pattern.  It is an interesting pattern....and fun to do.

This is a great gift and a quick one to do.   I had a lot of fun with this.

Sam's New Hat

I like to knit for my brother-in-law, Sam.   He is a good receiver.  He wears what I make him.  He will wear stuff that is a little crazy.   When I saw the Siouxsie Stitch's Heart Skull Hat on Ravelry, I knew I had to make it for him.   It left in the mail on Wednedsday.  It should, I hope, arrive today.

The Heart Skull Hat in Berroco Comfort

The yarn is Berroco Comfort.  The colors are deep and rich.  The yarn itself is a nylon/acrylic mix.  It is soft and stretchy.  For people who do not tolerate wool and do not live in a particularly cold climate it is a good choice.  As it is a bit splitty, a bit of care must be taken to avoid mishaps, but it is a pretty good yarn to knit up.  Due to sales and random good luck, I have a big bag of hat exclusively for use of Sam hat production.

This was a really fun project and knit up quickly.   I may do a set for a cousin, his two year old son, and the new baby expected in April.   They would get a kick out of it....as would the grandma.  I might even do one for the mom, if I thought she would wear it.  What better way to express family love than matching skull hats?

My Socks are Wearing Out!

Many of my nice, handknit socks are choosing to die now.   As I really need to be in the mode of

Austerman Step Eye Candy

knitting for others, this is not good.   My Austermann step score from Elann came and I started on the Eye Candy colorway.    There was also a skein of Online yarn that keep surfacing in the baskets.   Now I have two pairs of socks active on the needles for me.   These I can pick up and put down as time is available....but I will have them done sooner than later and will be able to send the socks that can no longer be darned off the to the great sock drawer in the sky.

Row Gauge.....Often Forgotten......But OH....How It Can Bite You

The past month has been really busy.   While I have been knitting, I have not been taking pictures.   Work gets in the way of my knitting life.

My friend, Rob, cannot wear any wool.  He loves knitted things though so I work hard to find nice acrylic yarn to make him things.   He needed, I decided, mukluks.   Mary Maxim to the rescue! 

I bought Titan...a nice bulky with NO wool.  I knit the mukluks.  Did not pay attention to the row gauge.  OH NO.  OH NO. OH NO.  There were fewer rows per inch than Lamb's Pride Bulky thus looonger feet.  SWEAR WORDS.

When I told Rob the sad story and how I would make him something else, he replied....LONGER FEET ARE GREAT!  I can wear more pairs of socks in the slippers.  Problem solved.  This time.

On the needles now...several pairs of socks, one pair of mittens.  In the planning stages...the dreaded Packer baby sweater.

The Elly Sweater by Rowan

The Elly Sweater

I was taken by the Elly sweater.  It looked so sweet I had to do it.

The first error was using a cheap yarn.....not that inexpensive yarn is always bad but this was a bad choice.    Blocking did not help the curling of the edge pieces.  The crocheted border did.

The crocheted border.....oh......that crocheted border....I did the first two rounds of it twice before it hit me that I should be using British terms instead of American terms.   That bugaboo surmounted, I did the first two rounds two more times before I was satisfied.   I played with the last two rounds of the border a bit before I was happy with the look of the piece.

Because I could, I knit the flower accent before I did the border because I could.   When it came time to put the flower on, I could not find it.   Not in the knitting bag, not with the project pieces, not on the table where I had been putting odds and ends.   It came to me that I had thrown it away.   I knit it again.

The lesson learned here?   Don't use yarn that doesn't have good "spring" for sweaters.  I did not like the experience with this sweater any better than I liked previous adventures of this sort.   Most of all, I learned to MAKE SURE I am not tossing out something I need.

Here is a close up of the flower accent:
  

Would I knit this pattern again?   Maybe....with a different yarn.....and not very soon.

Will I use Bernat Baby Softee again?   Not likely.   The yarn did not have any "spring" to it and it was splitty.    The pink color is soft and pretty...the pictures don't do it justice.   I learned a lot while I did this....and won't forget those lessons soon.

The Wedding Present is Finished!

Last week, I finished the wedding gift for my nephew, Eddie.

Wool Leaves done in Willow Bulky

It laundered beautifully and feels lovely and soft.

As I had a bit of a freak out about the yarn, I have enough left for a second afghan of some kind.   It will be a bit before I use it.   It may end up being for me.

The off white afghan I have was knit while I was in chemo.   I am enough away from that (five years) that I don't really like looking at the afghan any more.   It might go to a new home.   I could make myself a different one in a pattern that I would like better.  Not this pattern though...after the baby blanket and the big blanket, I don't need to see it again for quite awhile.

Burrow Bulky is a really nice yarn.  It washes very well and feels good.   Good thing I like it...I have enough for blankets in off-white, bright pink, brown, and green.   Need to get knitting.

The Pocket Bunny

The wedding afghan is coming along.   The Wool Leaves pattern is so nice, that I am not yet tired of doing it.  Sometimes though, I just need a small and fun project.

The Pocket Bunny pattern is very, very cute.   The pattern has the bonus of being well written.    JoAnn's had a sale on Bernat's Pipsqueak.   The bunny was meant to be.

 This was great conference knitting.   Ana Rose (with her mother) stopped by.  Her small hands latched on to the skein of yarn I held out.   Her fingers rubbed the yarn and she looked happy.   Naturally, the bunny goes to her.   I have enough yearn for a second bunny for a family baby that is coming in the next few months.

Pipsqueak is NOT the most fun yarn in the world to knit with.   The yarn does not have a lot of give.   That can be a problem during long stretches of knitting.   The fabric this yarn produces is absolutely wonderful for stuffed animals.   I have used it before.  When I saw the Pocket Bunny pattern, I knew exactly which yarn I wanted to use.

The knitting and assembly took only three days.   This is a good, quick project if you need one.   I loved the finished product.

I do wish that I had some slightly larger safety eyes, but the ones I had were fine.  After I assembled the bunny, I tugged on the limbs to make sure little fingers could not pull them off and ran my fingers along the seams to test for any problems.

Now, I want to make the other one before the yarn gets sucked into the depths of the stash.   I do have to put in more time on the wedding afghan before I have this project as a reward.

Wool Leaves as a Wedding Present

Jared Flood's Wool Leaves pattern is a lovely, lovely pattern.   My first go at it was for Lucia

Rocksusto's blanket.   That was an audition for the pattern for my nephew Eddie and his fiancee Megan's wedding present.   The wedding present had to be sized up.    My first try was going along nicely.  I stopped to take a picture.   The blanket looked a bit narrow.  It was.   It was fourteen inches narrower than I wanted it to be.    Oh well!   Now I am back on track and using my time off to make some good progress.   Dolly liked checking the blanket out but feels that the knitting of the blanket rudely interferes with the time she should be being held.

Over the next few days, I hope to make quite a bit of progress.   The pattern looks complicated, but really isn't.    It moves along quickly and I have hopes of finishing the project before I get sick of doing it.

Burrow Bulky is becoming one of my favorite yarn for blankets.   The yarn washes up beautifully and can go into the dryer.  The price point is attractive and the colors are glorious.    I have a secret stash of it already.

IT WAS A RAT

A Rat on a Mouse

Things ran a little behind for me, but I finished up the knit a long this morning.    At the end of the second clue....the end of the tail...it was pretty clear that it was a rodent.    I pressed on as I knew who the rodent would be good for...for an excellent use.

This morning, with the help of my faithful companion Dolly, I finished up by sewing on the legs.   Was this fun?  Yes.   Would I have done this if I had known it was a rat?  UMMMMMMM.  No.

The pattern was well written and showed me a few places in which I need to really up my skills.

Next adventure?   The wedding afghan...rip out...refigure...and madly knit to the finish.

My First Mystery Knit A Long!

Rabbit Hole Knits designs really, really cute knitting patterns for huggable animals.   She put a Mystery Knit A Long up on Ravelry.    Despite feeling a little overwhelmed these days, I was intrigued.   I have looked at other MKL's, was tempted, but drifted off.   This time, I signed on up and have knit the first clue.

Whatever can I be???????

My cell phone did not take the greatest picture this morning, but the day one clue is there and visible.  There are so many things this could be.   Three more clues ....... three more days ..... excitement builds.

A few years ago I went on an animal knitting binge.  The critters all went to happy homes.   As I have odds and ends that would be happier in little hats or little animals, it might be time again.

Shall I admit that I still have my faithful stuffed companion?  While she rests in a drawer, she is still present.

Animals can be comforting to those who receive them and for me, were oddly comforting to make.

Every once in awhile there will be a pattern that SHOULD be easy but ends up giving me fits.  Most of the time, I soldier through it and banish it to the trash.   This time, I am close to throwing the project....just throwing it.    This is a pattern (I won't reveal which one...just say that it is slippers) that I now dislike so much that I will finish it and give the end product to Savers.  I am choosing another for the gift I am giving.

There are other patterns that I like so much that I will do a second time.  On of these is the Family Affair throw from one of the Yarn Girls books.   The Yarn Girls write good patterns.  They are not overly "fixity" and will not be terribly dated.

The first time that I knit this, I did it in two strands...one a really pretty mohair and the other a very nice wool.  That was for me, I I know I will launder it as it needs to be laundered.    Willow Yarns has arrived on the scene.  Their Burrow Bulky is a great, and easily laundered, yarn for doing throws.  This blue was perfect for the recipient.....and I liked doing it through the entire project...even a second time.    That is good.

Family Affair Throw done in Willow Burrow Bulky

Knitting Groups are a Great Place

I belong to two "formal" knitting groups. 

One of the knitting groups, Ample Knitters, came together off a listserv.   That group meets once a month and people come and go.  Everyone there is interesting and the conversation is always lively.

Economics Department Knitters has been going on since 1997 or so.  The members shift a bit.   The conversation is always good.   We come together once a week to work on our projects, share what we know, look at magazines, patterns, feel good yarn..and laugh.

The Honey Wine Beanie Has Been Blocked

The Honey Wine Beanie After Blocking

After this was blocked, the cables looked so much better.   DUH.   This was a challenging and fun project.    I used a knit-on cast on to control the amount of yarn left as a tail.   I added the four extra rows for a little extra length as suggested.   As I was finishing the knitting, it was one of those knit a row and check the remaining yarn thrillers...much more scary than a horror story.   The end was happy though as I had a foot and a half left as I secured the stitches remaining after shaping.

The designer of this hat is one of those shaping geniuses.   The Man Hat is another of my favorites for the same reason.   The decreases the form the crown are cleverly worked into the pattern so that they are disguised among the cables.  I really, really like that.   The minds that come up with the neat ways to shape hats that are elegant, simple, and enhance the pattern are truly clever ones and I bow to them.

Tiny Sock

Yesterday, Ana Rose was at work.   She is growing but still very small.   I had the urge to measure her

Ana Rose's Sock with a cell phone for size comparison.

feet and see what I could come up with for a sock as KatieRose has mentioned she could use more booties.    I have a little yarn....and wanted to see how an Ana Rose-sized sock would turn out.

Willow Yarn's Gosling is a merino, bamboo, and nylon blend.  The fingering weight does not come in a wide range of colors, but the colors available are all good choices.  There is a lovely free bootie pattern that I had this yarn on had to make.   The ball has good yardage so I will have plenty for that project also.

Ana Rose was very mellow about having her feet measured.   I did my swatch during Tuesday knitting and it was off to the races.   Before we left for the evening, I had the first sock done.   I am going to try to do the second at lunch today.    Jan put the cellphone the picture so that the scale of the sock would be easy to see.  I don't think second sock syndrome will be a problem.

I may write up the pattern so that I don't forget what I did.  If I do, I will post it here.

Wool Leaves, Version 1, Finished!

Wool Leaves (Jared Flood) knit for New Baby Rahman

Saturday, at my monthly Ample Knitter's group, I finished the blanket.   Much to my surprise, I did use only three skeins with just a bit left over.   Just as I should have.....didn't need the additional yarn.   Having the additional yarn made me calmer about finishing the blanket as I did not have a nail biting...will I or won't run out knit to the finish.  The excellent company got me to the end...and now the blanket is laundered and ready to pass off to the recipient.

After the knitting group, several of us went over to Linden Hills Yarn's new location.    Having not been to the old location, I do not have a basis for comparison.  I quite enjoyed this visit.   Too much.  Yarn followed me home.    It is a very nice place to see and has some lovely, lovely things.  Don't cross the threshold if you are feeling weak.

Yesterday, I hunted for a bit to find yarn and a pattern for a hat I want to make for a birthday gift for a friend.   I had gotten the two skeins of Gloss DK in Fedora from Knitpicks last winter, with a pattern I wanted to try, and put it away.    It only took a half an hour to find it...and I found other things I was looking for on the way.   I felt productive.   

I swatched.   The pattern is a complicated cable pattern.    We were watching American Horror Story:  Asylum.  That was perhaps not my best plan.   Tracking the cables and the carnage at the same time was a bit of a challenge.    The swatch was done.   I am taking it down two needle sized and casting on as this needs to be given away in a couple of weeks.   Pictures will follow as the hat grows on the needle.

Wool Leaves in Sweet Pea, Burrow Bulky

The baby blanket is coming along nicely.    This pattern is really very simple....once a few repeats are done.   It is challenging enough to be interesting but simple enough to do while watching television.

The yarn is Willow Yarn's Burrow Bulky.    The color arrived far more "peachy" than I wanted.   It is, however, cheerful and bright and good for a little girl.

I am hoping that with washing the blanket flattens out.  I may wash it in Soak in my wool washing tub and let it dry flat instead of running it through the washer.   That worked well for the little roses cardigan.    The reverse side of this is reall bumpy.

I really like the stitch detail.  Once this washes up and I like

Close up of the stitch detail.

the result, I am likely to use the same pattern, the same yarn in a "natural" color, to make a wedding present for my middle nephew.
I will size it up and make it, of course much longer.

Excellent Customer Service Experience!

The project I am currently working on at home is a version of Jared Flood's Wool Leaves blanket.   As I don't want the blanket to accidentally become a trivet, I am using Willow Burrow Bulky instead of Cascade Eco Wool.  The swatch was done....the yardage calculated....and I thought I would need three skeins.   As I am trying to curb my tendency to overbuy for projects, I bought only three.   

The pattern is a lot of fun to do.   As the first skein was finishing, I looked at the length.   Out came the measure tape.    The work was prodded, pushed, and pulled.  HMPH!    Off went the e-mail to Willow's customer service folks....with a plea for two more skeins of the color and dyelot.   (I really only NEED one....I think...but I really hate to run out.)    Working with the customer service people at Willow was pleasant and easy.  Yesterday two more skeins arrived.   

The new skeins are tucked in with the project and I am on a roll.    Keeping up with the hand/arm therapy exercises allows me to knit on this project and I am making progress in both areas.   Picture soon to come!

Brooklyn Tweed has a new look book out

Brooklyn Tweed has a new look book out.   This is always a happy day for me.  

Looking at one of these is like going on a small vacation.   The photography and styling of the knitwear take the viewer away from the small frustrations of daily life to a magical land of beautiful scenery existing only to frame even more beautiful and WEARABLE knitwear. 

Lately, I have been knitting accessories for myself as I want to be smaller before I do a sweater.  There was a shawl...and a cowl that drew me...but there was also at least one sweater that I really thought about for me.  

Do yourself a favor.  Take some time.   Take a look at the new book....and heck..some of the older ones.   Your psyche will thank you.

The Hand Clinic is Working Magic

The hand clinic is working magic.  I am doing a little knitting and not hurting.   I will have pictures of a new project as soon as I have something to I want to show.  I am working on the audition baby blanket a bit.

Phil's slippers are coming along nicely.....

The Rosebud Sweater is Finished

The little rosebud sweater is finished.    This was an example of blocking making the sweater much better.    It was also my first use of my dedicated knit washing tub that I had picked up on Craftsy.  These buttons make me smile.   I had used them on a sweater for my niece Mal a while ago.   They were the perfect choice here too!

Beautiful New Sock Yarn!

Knitpicks has a new and really lovely sock yarn.    I had said NO MORE but then, then I saw

this.....    The Ladd's Addition colorway really grabbed me.  That is the skein with the flash of orange...and the ball that is wound.  I bought another color to see what the blues and greens were like.  Today, while waiting for an appointment, I will swatch for a sock.

These colors glowed in the catalog and did not disappoint in person.    I am waiting to see what the fabric knits like.

Got to Love Self-Patterning Yarn!

Ana Rose Pasek arrived six weeks early...and she is tiny.   She is a beauty.    Languishing in the stash, 

I had a couple of skeins of Bernat Baby Floral Jacquard.   The right project had not come along for me to test drive this yarn.  Now it has.

This year turned up in catalogs four or five years ago.  I was intrigued.   Self patterning yarns are one of those magic gauge crucial things.   If the gauge matches the math behind the dying of the yarn....exciting things happen.

This is the project I am diligently doing my PT so that I can work on.   Watching the bands of flowers grow out of the knitting does not cease to thrill me.     I have not been able to knit a lot, but have been enjoying every moment of this project.   My next challenge on it is to figure out where to pick up the color run to make the sleeves look like I want the sleeves to look.

The buttons will be a lovely green...hope to have this to the baby soon.



   

Blocking.....best information I have read about for quite awhile

Sadly, my knitting is largely languishing as I deal with an "arm issue," I am reading a lot and trying to learn more. 

The Yarn Harlot's March 27 post on blocking was excellent....and a good read if you are even tempted to skip the step.

Her photos are a wonderful illustration of how blocking transforms a project from slightly tatty to truly lovely.    

It is a good remember to do things...the right way!

OH NO! A KNITTING INJURY

Don't know how I did it, but I popped something in my right yarn.  It interferes with my knitting...and I am letting it heal.   I know when it happened...I just don't know why.   I miss knitting marathons.

My father used to be a big one for reminding me, "This too, will pass."   I hope it passes sooner than later as I have been growing the stash and need to start knitting it down.   When the yarn closet becomes hard to close...it is time to do more knitting.

Here is a shocking confession.  I skipped a gauge swatch on a pair of green slippers.  I ASSUMED the right needle was in the bag with the yarn.    When I did not have enough yarn for the first slipper...not by much but enough...I scratched my head.  This was very odd.   I continued.   I really looked at the finished slipper.  It will be too large for its intended foot.    Fortunately, there is a larger foot available.....I can can get more yarn.    Next time.....check the needle size and for the love of all that is yarny...do a swatch!

Projects .......

There are projects that I see that I HAVE to do.....    There will be something about the picture that captures me.   Then I must find yarn, grab needles, swatch and go.    The Burly Spun Grey Owl Cowl was one of these.    Saw it, had had had to do it.      Of course in the many boxes of yarn I have I did not have have anything suitable.   OH DARN!   Had to go to Depth of Field to see what was there for me.   I don't always use the yarn the pattern calls for...this time I did.   I loved the browny-black color....and decided that was it.

Burly Spun Grey Owl Cowl

This was a really fun project to do...and I am
happy with the way that it turned out.

The buttons would have been nicer if I had been able to scare up three more antler tip buttons, but the wooden ones that I found work really well and are not unpleasant when the cowl is worn.   I know this because I test drove the cowl this morning.

Do you ever get sick of a project before it is done?   So sick of it that you don't want to see it again?  I often do and tend not to like a project for a bit once it is finished.  Somehow, the finished project doesn't fill the expectation that I had of it when I was doing the knitting...or I grow to dislike the color....or something happens while I am doing it that makes me unhappy and I associate that with the project.   This did not happen with the cowl....and it did not happen with the Basketweave Baby Blanket for Baby Pasek. 

Willow Yarns makes a yarn called Burrow in a couple of weights.   The colors are really lovely.   The yellow used for this blanket was very cheerful and, even better, I did not want to poke my eyes out whenever I saw the color towards the project's completion.

Baby Pasek's Basketweave Baby Blanket

Burrow is a lot like Plymouth Encore.   It launders really nicely and has a very good hand.   The price is really, really nice too.   This is a good go-to yarn for any project that needs to go through the washer and the dryer.    It does have some wool content so I can't use it for the people in my family or friends for whom wool is kryptonite.

The pattern, also from the fine folks at Willow, was complicated enough to be interesting, yet simple enough to work on while talking with my knitting buddies.    Eventually, I will do it again.

Socks, basic socks, are my no-think projects.  Sometimes, I just need to knit out thoughts I am having.....and I don't want to have to pay any attention to the knitting.    Socks are perfect for that because there are great stretches of simple ribbing or straight knitting.   No fuss, but busy hands helping me work through whatever has me peeved.

While garter stitch scarves also do this......I don't really want to do those as much as I do socks.   Socks are great gifts...people are much more excited by getting a pair of socks than a ......garter stitch ...scarf.  

Projects have different purposes for me.   Some are gifts...some are selfish knitting for me....some I do just because I can.

Giving Away Knitting

Much of what I knit is knit for someone else.  While I knit, I think about many things including the person who will receive what I am making.  As the stitches roll off my fingers, I try to work good thoughts into whatever I am making.

This morning, I gave my bus buddy, Tom, a scarf that I had made for him.  He was surprised and tickled....having mentioned months ago he need one.  He put it on right away.  

We are still in the middle of a wicked cold winter.   It was good to put warmth into someone else's day.

My favorite scarf pattern.......

My favorite scarf pattern has to be the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf.    Why?   Because I can use it with anything....it is easy to remember....and it looks different enough with different yarns that it is still exciting no matter how many times I make it.

This version was made for a friend of mine.  She wore it a lot.  Right now I am making one out of Brown Sheep bulky.  I was going to give it way....really.....I was.   The scarf is too wide for the intended recipient.   I am too far along to go back.   So sad.  I will keep it.

The version of the scarf I am now working on has kept me company in doctors' offices as I wait.   When I have a project like this one, I really don't care how late the doctor arrives.  Yesterday, my oncologist was kind enough to wait while I very quickly finished my row.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Planning....I love the planning

Right now I am working, actively, on one throw, a baby blanket, and a scarf.   Let's just not talk about the projects that are....resting.   The baby blanket and the scarf will not take long to finish.   What next?

There are multiple things in the pipeline.....a wedding afghan.......baby sweaters.....an intarsia baby blanket....two more pairs of mukluks....another Minnesota hat...another hat for someone who needs a warm head.....and a sweater for my lovely, lovely sister-in-law.   What to choose?   Sometimes I like to do a few quick things so that I feel as though I am making a lot of progress.   Sometimes a project grabs my interest and I want to do it now.   These days I jump on those projects while I feel the fire.  I used to wait until things with a closer deadline were finished.   Now, I remind myself that this is supposed to be fun.  I pick at least one thing just because I think it will be fun.

The hat for Aila was one of the fun projects.  I had the pattern...had the yarn...and finally had a victim for it.    I took a day on a weekend and knit the hat up.   The recipient loved it...and wears it.  I think it is really cute and would make it again.

Part of the fun of all of this for me is the planning.....I even like the swatching.   It is when I have so much planned that the knitting seems like work that I wonder why I do that.   My goal this year is to knit more fun things....and keep up with the things that "must" be done.

Away with January!

I am not sad to see January go...not one bit.     Even though the sub-zero and the snow have been excellent knitting weather, it has been just a bit too much.

The mukluks turned out really well and I will make two more pairs as gifts fairly quickly.   One pair will come from stash yarn.....not too deep in the stash...and another pair from new yarn purchased so that the recipient had some choice about the color.

This was a nice, quick project and was still fun by the time I finished the second one.   I have a couple of other projects to work on before I do the next pairs....so I am hoping that the fun factor holds.    The little ones in Wisconsin will likely get these too.

The project that I am most in love with at the moment is a Family Affair throw from one of the Yarn Girls books.   This is one of those projects....love the yarn......love the needles...love the stitch markers....love the knitting bag........      This project is also a gift for someone.    The yarn is Burrow Bulky in Ultramarine...a beautiful bright blue.    I am using interchangeable Karbonz.....great tips and smooth action.   The stitch markers are from my collection....and frankly are markers that I had forgotten I had.    The bag is a relatively new one from tanneicasey that I bought on Etsy.

Dolly, my feline overload, was helping me knit the night before last.   She poked her head in the knitting bag.   The rest of her soon followed.   After turning around a few times she settled in for a bit.   All I could see was a little reflected light from her eyes.  I pet her a little and continued to knit.   I can assure you that this knitting bag holds three skeins of yarn, a twelve pound cat, and then some.

Now it is time to set my knitting goals for February.   I don't think the goals will be too lofty as I feel like being a slacker a bit.  I do want to assess stash and see what can come out and be made up.

Yarn Snobbery

I will admit that I like to knit with nice yarn.   There is no point in knitting with yarn that will create a rag no matter how skilled (or not) the work the knitter puts out.   Does that have to be expensive yarn?  Not really.

Willow Yarns  and Knitpicks are great examples of inexpensive yarns that knit up beautifully.    Right now I am knitting a throw out of Willow's Burrow Bulky.    Burrow has the same put up as Plymouth Encore, has truly lovely colors, and a really nice hand.    I have a small stockpile of this yarn for projects that are in queue.   I have completed a couple of projects in Willow Daily.   Both of these are sweaters for little girls.

I was very happy with the way that these sweaters turned out.   The receivers loved them as well.   The green sweater would have looked much nicer if I had machine washed it and dried it.  It really needed to be handled that way.  I learned my lesson so the brightly colored one didn't have that wrinkled look.

One of the reasons I like to knit with the less expensive yarn is that I feel more able to take risks.   I can experiment with ideas, rip out what I don't like, re-knit, and rip until I have things right without worrying about what I am doing to very expensive yarn.  With this freedom, I learn a lot.

Another reason is that the less expensive yarn lines tend to have more "wash and wear" yarns.    When I am knitting for children with two working parents, I try not to send garments that have to be coddled for fear those garments will become garments that will not be worn.   If I send something that does not get used, I don't send anything else to that household.   I want the sweaters, hats, socks or whatever worn until they are worn out.   That is what those things are for.

When I can, I do like to knit with high end yarns.   Just like I don't eat Godiva every time I eat chocolate, I don't need to use Jade Sapphire every time I knit.

Thoughts about warmth and design

This morning, early, I was headed to the bus.  I was wearing hand knit wool socks, wool mittens, a wool hat, and a large wool cowl...with a down coat.    I was warm.   I did not mind the subzero temps as much as I thought I would.    Fortunately, I have reached the age and temperament at which I care less about glamor and do not mind looking like a yeti in the morning.

Right now I am working on a Diane Soucy pattern -- Adult Mukluk Slippers -- using an nice Brown Sheep bulky in black with a silver sheen.    Last night, as I watched a foot shape emerge from the short rows dictated in the pattern, I was struck by the genius some knitters have for structure.   When I began the slipper, I could not conceive how this was going to work.   Having faith in Diane Soucy, I have blindly followed instructions and am delighted at what is happening.   I will put up a picture of the results when the slippers are done.

Another example of simple, elegant, and brilliant design are the decreases in the Man Hat.  I like this hat so much that I have made it twice.    I will admit the first time I made the hat, I had to do the decreases at least twice....the second time was smart enough to put in markers.   The way that the ribbing works in the decreases never ceases to please me....and I know that I could not have worked that out.

These people inspire me and give me a goal...I would like to know what they know....and understand how they see knitting.

The mukluk slipper yarn came out of the stash.....that is all to the good.

Thoughts on the Stash and Mental Knitting

This morning, as I was sitting on the bus bench and enjoying the weather, I was thinking about my stash.   Like many knitters, I have a lot of yarn.   Please, please don't make me define 'a lot.'  It is better for everyone if that is amorphous.   Suffice that it hovers at the tipping point of joy into burden.

Yes, I admit it is often easier to buy something for a project than to look for something in the inventory I stock in my own store.  It certainly can be easier than figuring out which of the locations the exact yarn I vaguely remember having is tucked...if I haven't given that yarn away to someone who needed it right away and could not get to a real yarn store.   That is why I now want to make it a project to get the stash down to a more manageable level.   Don't expect me to define that either.

This is also a year when I want to learn new things, stretch my knitting, and have more fun with it.

One of my knitting friends, Mary, does a lot of what she calls theoretical knitting.....she thinks about knitting a lot.   When the theoretical projects appear on her needles, the projects are fun and interesting.   At Tuesday knitting this week, she was wearing a heavily cabled Jared Flood designed hat knit up in a lovely hot pink Malabrigo.  Her work is beautifully executed and it looked wonderful on her.  She was kind enough to let us all fondle the hat...squeezing the yarn and testing the softness...instead of just lusting after it from a safe distance.

Mary's virtual knitting skills are like a virus...I do that now too.   That is how some of my challenges are coming about.   I am noodling on a few ideas while I work through my looooooong list of projects using my pattern stash.  

Now that the hat is behind me, I am moving along.   There is another intarsia challenge in the pipeline that I for which I am mentally gearing up.   Inspired by Mary, I am going to do a heavily cabled hat for another friend.    I am even going to go into the boxes...the many boxes...to pull out yarn for a pair of slippers I want to make.    Watch this site for pictures and progress!

It All Started With A Random Thought

I had decided that it was time to push myself a bit and work my way up to an intarsia project that I am planning on doing in a bit.

The thought of a hat with our departmental symbol came into my head.  Part of it could be done in intarsia..part in colorwork.  I like colorwork.....and need to work on my intarsia skills.

Using multiple tools, I figured out the graph for the symbol.  I realized that I was going to have to use fingering weight yarn and 0's for the hat to make the hat look close to what I had in my mind.   That meant......oh dear....00's for the facing.   After using a ruse to get the measurements of the intended victim's head, I did the math to figure out what I wanted to do.

I did not, in my giant stash, have the right yarn.   I ended up going out on-line and finding some Cascade Fingering weight to get the right weight and the right color.   While I waited for the yarn to come, I watched Lucy Neatby's Intarsia video to get ready.

Lucy Neatby is a knitting genius.   Watching what she does in her videos is like watching someone do magic.   When she shows how to do intarsia, a happy knitter is imbued with the glorious feeling that anything that can be dreamed is possible.   If only this lasted through that knitter's actual project.

I will say, that other than the ritual cursing of the collapsing, breeding, and tangling yarn butterflies, this one was fun.    I learned a lot...and I am happy with the project.

One day in the late and lamented yarn temple Borealis, I overheard Lucy Neatby teaching a class.  She told the knitters that the inside of their knitting should be as tidy as the outside of of their knitting.   Mrs. Gasper, my 4-H sewing leader, taught us that about the garments we made under her direction.  She also was an excellent teacher.  I had not thought of her for a long time before those words brought her to mind.  Now every time I hear Lucy Neatby, I also fondly remember Mrs. Gasper.   Here, for both of you, is the inside of the hat.

I did not make a pattern for this, but did the entire thing with back of the envelope calculations.  I DID THE MATH.   I will admit that I set up calculations in Excel to make sure that I got the decreases exactly right.

The recipient was allowed to model and see it today before my knit group sees it.  He likes it and says it fits like a glove.

While, yes, I would have loved to decrease the mighty stash, I feel the trade off of the increase in knowledge was a good one!

The Stash Has Taken Over and I am Crawling Out

I have been ignoring the growth of the stash again, and now have decided it is time to really get at it.

It is also time to push myself a bit and learn new things.