WIPS

Giant Pink Knee High Socks

Last year at Rhinebeck, I bought two skeins of Socks that Rock Lightweight by Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Psycho Barbie, with the intention of knitting a pair of knee high socks.

I wanted to use my standard sock pattern, which is a top down, and I don’t like knitting socks from the toe up. I had a great idea in the shower when I was in Rhinebeck on how I could execute the socks in a way that would make me happy.

It’s probably overly complicated, but so far, I’m pretty happy with how they are coming out.

I cast on 64 stitches using a crochet provisional cast on. I knit an 8 inch cuff, a 32 row heel flap, turned the heel, decreased back down to 64 stitches, ran down the foot, and decreased and kitchenered the toe.

I picked up all of the stitches on both socks, and am using a long needle to magic loop both socks at the same time, and am doing lifted increases at the back of the leg with a 2 stitch distance between them. Every inch or so I’m trying them on and increasing as needed. (I’m being smart and doing it at the same time so that they match. I don’t want to rip out.) I’m hoping to have these finished soon.

Sheepy Baby Blanket

My cousin A’s son was due at the end of May, so I had picked out a pattern my friend M uses all the time for baby blankets in March, thinking I had plenty of time to knit the blanket. Then Little L came about 10 weeks early.

I’ve cast on and am about 3/5 of the way done with the blanket. I love the fabric and the 3-D sheep with the little ears for baby fingers to fondle.

I got the yarn at 30% off at Old Town Needleworks in Manassas, and I think I’m going to end up using all 10 skeins. I can only knit a little bit of this at a time, because the cotton hurts my hands. I need to get working on this, since Little L should be out of the hospital soon and home, and I want him to have something lovely and snuggly to have when he gets there.

Dad’s Sweater

Dad’s sweater is back in the rotation. I took it down about a month ago to make sure it fit (AND IT DID. PRAISE THE YARN GODDESS. HAIL FITTING SWEATER!), and have put it back on the needles with a new cord (the last one broke). I’ve looked at it a lot, and need to put it into rotation. I want to get this done this year.

Spinning!

I’m working on the fibre that I got in Colorado the second to last time that I went to visit my grandmother before she passed. I’ve been thinking about her a lot, so when I finished the mohair/silk blend that I was spinning, I put this on the wheel. I wanted something with color!

I’m fractal spinning it, and am working on the long repeat part now. I’ve spun about 5.5 ounces so far, mostly while watching Castle with my husband on Monday nights. The last night that I was working on it, the flyer on my Ashford Traveller split the rest of the way, so I need to glue it back together before I can keep working on this particular piece. After I’m done with this, I’m going to go back to the 100% mohair I have from Giant Cricket Farms so that it can be done and I can start a vest for Matt.

Upcoming Things

I’m planning on casting on Lyttleton and BMC by Kate Davies after I finish one more project, probably the socks. I’m going to do some secret knitting for a family member, and then work on some secret knitting for a friend. Then, THEN, I will knit more for me. I want to cast on a big shawl, probably the [peacock something] in Wollmeise. Yes, my pretty, Wollmeise.

surprise

I’ve been physically tired by the time evening rolls around, and my brain power isn’t much higher either.

This sweater, which I’ve knit before, is my evening knitting. I have much Love for Elizabeth Zimmerman.

I’m knitting the amoeba-like manta ray sweater thingity [aka BSJ]. My cousin is expecting at the end of December, and I wanted to knit something for her little one. There is enough stitch counting to keep me awake, but it’s all garter, so no thought involved there. I’m so glad I have this as my moving knitting.

Dad’s Sweater Update

There has NaKniSweMo action in my house. It’s slow, and I know I’m not going to finish anything this month, but NaKniSweMo has been the motivator I’ve needed to get cracking.

I have actually been knitting on my dad’s sweater. There’s proof! I’ve knit about 1 1/2 inches of the pattern part, and I’m pleased with how it’s turning out. Each row takes about 10- 15 minutes to knit, so I’ve been saving it for knit night when I have a block of knitting time. I plan on taking this with me when I go down to see my parents for Thanksgiving; hopefully I’ll have more done so Dad can get more of an idea of how it’s going to look. I’m tempted to start the sleeves, but I want to see how far I can get in the patterned part with one ball, just for kicks.

Look! Ribbing!

Look, Dad! Ribbing! It’s started!

On a random note, did you know sweater is typed with only the left hand?

sometimes, all you get is a hint

Edited to Add: No, I’m not expecting. It’s a sweater ornament I sent to my dad as his hint for his birthday, as his sweater is no where near completed. Sorry for any wrong ideas sent out!

Whoooooosh

This is the last picture I could get before the light went bad yesterday:

All the knitting is actually done for my CPH, and it was washed and blocked last night. All I really need for it now is the 2-way zipper, the backing ribbon, and the patience to sew in the zipper by hand. The button band had over 300 stitches in it; it took me most of yesterday to knit it. I’m really, really pleased with this sweater, and am looking forward to finishing it and having a post detailing all my mods.

Speaking of mods, the mod on the Gentleman’s Fancy Sock into the Gentleman’s Fancy Tabi Sock Part 1 was successful.

I used the shaping from the Sake Socks, and am very very pleased. I’m definitely going to make a pair of ankle socks in this exact pattern for me. I think I need to re-work the part that has all the little toes, but I’ll futz with it on my socks; I’m not reknitting these.

A spring cardi- or, what happened to spring?

We did manage to have a couple of those spring-like days.  For about three weeks, just outside of DC had weather in the 40s and 50s.  Now, it’s hitting almost 90 every day. Hi, Mother Nature, what happened to spring? You know, it comes in between the bitter dampness of winter and the pudding heat of summer? I’d like it back.

In the idea of spring, I started the Central Park Hoodie, in O Wool Balance. It’s a 50/50 organic wool/cotton blend. Ideal for spring in that it’s not as heavy as a worsted weight 100% wool sweater would be, but still warm for those chilly nights and when the wind blows.

Thus far, I have the sleeves, and am about 1/2 an inch from the arm hole shaping on the back. The measurements seem a bit short to me. I’ve knit the back to 20 inches before the arm hole, and the arms to 23 inches before the sleeve cap shaping.  It seems my Amazon is showing.

I’d been going strong for a while, but the heat that’s set in has pretty much rendered this garment useless until Fall. I’m perfectly fine with that, however, as it means I’ll have a sweater ready for when fall does come around. The purpose of knitting the CPH is to replace my ratty University sweater. [The cuff elastic is falling out, it’s shrunk a bit and doesn’t stay around my hips, etc]. This will be a little less casual, but will still work. I’m planning on a zipper for this, a la Kathy/ Grumperina.

I really, really like the color. Matt picked it out for me, said that he liked it on me, and that the name of Amethyst was appropriate. The tweedy is appealing, and the blend isn’t as hard on my hands as a full cotton yarn would be.

What are you knitting for spring?

mooo- Baby Surprise Jacket

I finally, finally, have knitted the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. Stash busted, too. I have maybe five yards left over. SWEET.

I actually ran out of yarn two rows before I was done with the knitting, but it worked in my favor. The BSJ would have looked jaundiced if it was monochrome. Matt offered up some leftovers from his sock stash*. The orange? Perfect. I was able to knit the last two rows and bind off. Then, taking a note from Stephanie”s BSJ, I crocheted in the orange around the neckline and the sleeves. SO CUTE.

It’s also HUGE. That’s my iron for scale. I wasn’t knitting this with a recipient in mind, just to use up the stash and to finally knit it. It’s large enough for a toddler, me thinks, and in a nice, gender neutral shade. I may just keep it for myself for if and when I have kidlets. Or-  I may give it away. We’ll see.

A note about the yarn: spliiiiiittttty. It’s a discontinued Berrocco? I think? I lost the ball bands? There are little bits of yarn that I didn’t catch and when I went back to pick them up? STILL POUFFY. Also, since it’s mercerized, I cannot weave ends in. So there are little knots. I will NEVER use this yarn again. It was a gift from a friend, she wasn’t going to use it because she hated how it knitted up, and would I be able to find a use for it? Yes, yes indeed.

*I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but Matt has his own stash of yarn. He doesn’t knit, or anything of that fibery manner, but it’s the stuff for the socks I knit for him, and is in his own stash since it comes out of his stash budget and is stored separately from mine.

Baaaaa

For NaKniSweMo, I joined the 2700 something other knitters in knitting the February Lady Sweater.

It’s a quick knit, taking me about two weeks on and off to finish it. I was torn between a double zipper and toggles. I was told by my fashion expert that toggles, wooden, are the way to go.

I plan on trekking to G Street today to get three wooden toggles, a how to, and beads.

The beads are for a Christmas gift, as the Christmas knitting I refused to do this year has expanded from socks for Matt to a shawl for my dad’s partner, and some super sekret knitting I can’t write about here because she reads the blog. [Yes, Elle, I mean you. 😛 ]

To hold you over, here are some work in progress shots I took last week of my FLS.

Sleeves!

Yoke!

Thundering [and Hailing] Thursday

I did finally manage to get some photos of The Sweater.

I wasn’t planning on knitting a sweater. I had a shawl and socks on the needles, which was more than enough for me. I don’t really care to have more than three things going at once otherwise it feels like too much pressure to get stuff done. But I was wandering about the blogs I normally read and Aija from sockpr0n offered up a sweater’s worth of wool for shipping, saying she was never going to knit that sweater.

I pounced, sending an e-mail and leaving a comment. By the end of the week, 14 balls of Knit Picks Sierra in cranberry were winging their way to me. I was ecstatic. But wait- did I have a pattern I could knit?

Ravelry saved the day. I love their feature where you can search by yarn weight. Pam Allen’s Tailored Scallops popped up, and I just happened to have borrowed the book from the library. Kismet.

I had classes, so I said I would just swatch. Didn’t get gauge with the called for needles, so I went down a size. I got gauge. That never happens. Ok, well maybe I’ll just cast on for the back, and knit a repeat. Maybe another repeat. When I finally put the sweater down that night I was at the arm hole shaping for the back. I considered what work I really had to do that week and decided that only after I had done my reading could I knit on My First Sweater.

I knit the two fronts next, attached the shoulders, basted the sides together with some slippery cotton and tried it on. The arm holes were huge! The pattern stretched out A LOT when gravity was actually pulling on it. I wanted a 7 1/2 inch arm hole for a closer fitting sweater. I had something around 11 inches. I put the sweater aside until the next morning where I ripped back and retried. One repeat too many. Finally got it to where I wanted it, and blocked.

I knit the sleeves at the same time so that they would be done. That worked until I got to the shaping for the shoulders, then I knit them separately because I just couldn’t take it anymore. I left out the last decrease for the shaping.

I put everything together, knit the collar, and then realized that the collar was supposed to be GARTER STITCH, not follow the pattern. I looked at it and decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle to fix it. I’m still happy with it.

The only thing that I would have done differently was decrease more for the arm shaping so that the shoulder seam actually hits my shoulder and not just below. I can go back and fix it, but I really don’t want to do that.

I love my sweater. Sierra is 70/30 wool/alpaca, and is so warm. I’ve been wearing that and a windbreaker for the past few weeks and have been quite toasty. The colour is nice, and I know I’m going to get a lot of use out of it. I’m already looking to knit more sweaters, now that I’ve completed one and know they are not That Scary.

Specs:

Pattern: Tailored Scallops by Pam Allen, found in Lace Style by Interweave Press.

Yarn: 9 balls of Knit Picks Sierra, in cranberry

Needles: US 8 / 5.0 mm; US 9 / 5.5 mm

Size: 39″ chest, 20″ sleeves, 7 1/2″ arm holes.

Lest ye think I’m a super fast knitter- I’m not. I plod along at my decent pace, but I have large chunks of time where I can just sit and knit/read/do homework, etc. I try to schedule my day so that I get all the things I have to get done FIRST, so that I can sit and knit until I’m done for the day. It’s working out well so far.

I am so happy with this sweater.