Mikknit

So The Yarn Harlot will be in town here next Thursday, April 10. A bunch of knitters are getting together beforehand for dinner, and we’ve been talking about it over on Ravelry. If you haven’t found that thread or aren’t on Ravelry, let me know and I’ll get you the details. I’d like to have a headcount beforehand so we can let them know how many people to expect.

Knitting content to come…

Yes, I’ve actually knit something with my handspun yarn! Don’t all fall over from the shock, okay? I had this skein of sparkly red yarn sitting in the closet for about a year, and due to the motivation provided by a knitting stash game (we get points for the amount of yarn knit up over the course of the game, and there are prizes!) I pulled it out and knit it up. Plus there’s the whole Minnesota winter thing - I really did need a scarf.

I thought Argosy would be a neat pattern to try out, and it was - very fun. I knit the scarf up over the course of 2 days or so, so it was a great quick knit. I think I might’ve liked the scarf wider than it turned out, but since I wasn’t sure exactly how much yarn I had I just knit the pattern as written. I ended up running out of yarn about 3 rows from the end, so that last little square is a little less than square, but hey - I used up the entire skein and didn’t even have to trim the ends after they were woven in! Now *that* is efficiency.

Wool, mohair, and sparkly stuff, knit up on a US 5 needle

The picture that convinced me of the immediate need for a haircut - it’s much better now!

Thanks to the lovely (ha!) weather we’re having, I’ve gotten lots of use out of the scarf. It is nice and warm, certainly, but the mohair is scratchier than I’d prefer. I did put some conditioner in the rinse water when I washed it, but that didn’t completely take care of it. Any suggestions?

Oh, and only 5 more edging repeats on the blanket! I hope to have an FO report tomorrow, but of course the kids’ behavior will determine whether I get it done today.

You know it’s bad when I’m plotting all the projects I could do to avoid working on my current project. All the other non-knitting projects, that is.

The current WIP? A gigantic baby blanket* - the Pinwheel Baby Blanket, with the heart lace edging from the second Barbara Walker treasury. Sure, doesn’t seem *that* bad, but I knit the blanket to a circumference of 600 stitches, approximately 120″, then picked a lace edging that only eats up 8 edge stitches per repeat. So that’s 75 repeats of a 16-row pattern. Yeah, I must be nuts. Or else not clearly thinking out the progression of events…

I just finished repeat #50 out of 75, so I could have it done in a few more days at this rate. But what I’m thinking about it going upstairs and moving yarn into the empty dresser in my sewing room and doing tons of laundry. Because, after all, that will somehow get this blanket done and out of my hair more quickly. Right?

So I am going to reward myself with cleaning up upstairs once I finish this. I’m sure a non-knitting is reading this and thinking “Man, that chick’s priorities are messed up!” And they more certainly are, how else did my house get into such a state? Besides from the kids, that is.

*No, not for me.

Well, that resolution to post more often was swiftly broken. Blame it on the chicken pox, cold weather, and crazy kids. Might as well, right?

I could blame it on this, but it’d be unfair as she’s only been here a few days and is currently keeping my lap nice and warm:

Ruby

The sweetly snoozing ball of fluff pictured here in no way resembles the kitten who zooms around the house with her tail held high, all puffed out, terrorizing the big kitties. They’re starting to warm up to her, and I think in a few days she’ll have made friends with Elvis and Kissa, at least. Max and Mimi will take longer.

On to the knitting.

I took a break from the sock frenzy to knit a soaker for a baby I’m quite excited about.

LTK Picky Pants!

This is yarn I spun from some of Scout’s roving in the Socktoberfest colorway. It’s merino, I didn’t love spinning it (in no way a commentary on Scout’s products - I just don’t like spinning merino, it turns out). The yarn is pretty inconsistent, but it knit up nicely. It’s Navajo plied, nice and sproingy, which made it very nice to knit with. And the way it striped on the legs? Totally made squee out loud. These pants made me want a baby for about 30 seconds, then I came to my senses and remembered that I can barely handle the kids I already have. Ah well.

There’s more, but the hour is late and tomorrow will be busy. Hopefully with lots of time for knitting and spinning, we’ll see.

It is finished and I am in love. I had doubts about the cream yarn right up until I bound off the last stitch, but I am so happy with it!

The cats like it too. I wish I’d been able to get a non-blurry picture of Mimi (the white cat) playing with the shawl, it was darned cute.

Blocking. Not a perfect job, but good enough for right now.

Details:
Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark for Fiber Trends. Started October 2007, finished January 2008. Alpaca sportweight yarn from Blue Mountain Alpacas (sadly, I am unable to find them on the internet anymore) in Espresso and Cream. US 8 / 5.0mm KnitPicks Options metal needles. (I love Ravelry for helping me track these details!)

I hope tomorrow’s a nice bright day so we can get some pictures of this! I also hope it dries fast so I can put it on - it’s darned cold out.

Welcome to 2008, eh? I figured I’d poke my head back in here and shock the heck out of a few people.

I’ve been knitting, but the kids haven’t been allowing me much time to blog. Also, the natural light is severely lacking right now and I’ve not gotten a lot of good pictures. There are a few, though.

Christmas knitting:

I knit some socks for Chris, which he loves. Online Supersocke 6-ply, which I got from my Knitters Coffee Swap 2 partner. Nice to knit, but a touch splitty. Feels great all knit up, though!

Some mittens for my sister, from the Selbustrikk book. She loves these, apparently they’re just the perfect size for her hands. I was worried about that, since they were snug on everyone I had try them.

Back of the hand

Palms. Ah, snow - nature’s light box.

A hat for my brother-in-law, who has been asking for a hat for a couple years now. I knit him one from my handspun, but it was misplaced/lost when they moved into their house. This time, he got commercial yarn - Lamb’s Pride. The pattern is the Marsan Watchcap, I added a few stitches to it since the larger size was snug on me, and my head is smaller than BIL’s.

A little pointy, but it fits well regardless.

I’m knitting the edging on my Leaf Lace Shawl right now, hopefully for good. I’ve run out of the natural brown alpaca and I can’t get more - the farm doesn’t seem to be around anymore, sadly. But I’ve got a skein of yarn from the same place in natural cream, and I’m giving it a go. We’ll see, but if it looks like refried ass then I’ll rip out the last pattern repeat and that’ll give me enough of the brown for the edging.

I’ll hopefully have some knitting time tomorrow and the rest of the week, since the kids have chicken pox and we aren’t going anywhere. I’ve got friends coming over tomorrow, one of them may be able to give me an unbiased opinion on this. Chris is sort of “eh” on it, as am I, but I like it more as I get more of the edging on.

Resolutions

Since everyone else is doing it, I’ll post some resolutions too. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions for my life in general, as I try to make improvements as needed rather than saving them up to start all on one day. But since I’m coming back in here after a long hiatus, I might as well throw a few in here that relate to knitting and blogging, right?

1. More blogging. I’d like to shoot for a couple times a week, hopefully that’ll be doable.

2. Knit from stash. I am in no danger of running out of projects - there are a few sweaters’ worth of yarn here, lots of sock yarn, lots of laceweight yarn. I’ve got lots of options. I’m interested in seeing how far I can take this, and how well I can restrain myself, given the yarn shop less than two blocks from my house.

3. Spin more. That wool isn’t turning itself into yarn, and that spinning wheel is crying out for attention.

4. Buy more locally-produced yarns and wool, if buying anything. Aside from the obvious environmental and economic benefits of this, I find I really appreciate the yarns I’ve used from small operations. I will be buying something from far away, some Beaverslide yarn, but that’s been in the works for ages. Otherwise, I’m trying to keep it close to home.

5. More adventurousness. I knit those stranded mittens and loved it, though it’d have been more fun on larger needles (they were knit on 2.0mm needles). I’ve got a stranded hat for my mom on the queue, and there’ll be more lace once I finish this shawl. I think I’ve got a gansey on the list for Chris, too. New things are good.

I think that’ll do it, don’t you? See you in a few days, hopefully with a finished shawl to share.

Happy New Year!

I’ve finally got my Coffee Swap partner, so I can get on with it!

1. Whole bean or ground? whole bean
2. Fully-loaded or decaf? Caffeinated, definitely!
3. Regular or flavored? Regular
4. How do you drink your coffee? Strong, with a bit of sugar and half & half
5. Favorite coffee ever? Dark roast Costa Rica
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? Oh boy, am I fussy! I only like Central and South American coffees, dark roasted.
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Pastries, chocolate
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? I love to buy my coffee from small, local roasters. Aside from supporting a local business, the coffee is nice and fresh and delicious
9. Yarn/fiber you love? Natural fibers! I love animal fibers, but plant fibers are great too. I just have more use for wool than cotton here in MN.
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? I don’t care for man-made fibers, though a percentage of them added for strength (like nylon in sock yarn) is certainly fine.
11. What’s on your needles? A shawl, a baby sweater, socks.
12. Favorite colors? Greens, reds, oranges, browns, black. I’m an “Autumn”, what can I say?
13. Allergies? Not an allergy, per se, but I can’t tolerate artificial scents or flavors. They give me nasty headaches, so I try to stay away from them.
14. Anything you really love, really don’t like, or just need to get off your chest? I am in love with lace knitting lately, though it takes way more concentration than I have available much of the time.

Sorry for the drop off the face of the earth there - somehow things just kinda went “plooey” around here. I’ve been knitting and actually finishing a bunch of stuff, but the gray skies are thwarting my plans to photograph stuff. I really need to build or buy a light box, I think.

I did get some pictures of things before the sun disappeared, I’ve actually been sitting on them for a few weeks (bad blogger). Might as well share them, since they’re pretty:

Preemie/Newborn Picky Pants in Malabrigo, Apricot colorway

I got two skeins of this stuff in a swap last spring and put it in the stash not knowing what to do with it. Well, my aunt suggested I knit up a soaker for my cousin’s baby (who is doing pretty well, she’s gained over 1# now!). It’ll be a long time before she’s big enough to wear these, but they’re so soft and cute I think they’ll be used, even if they don’t use cloth diapers.

I also have been doing some spinning:

Lantern Festival roving from Hello Yarn fiber club

This is lovely corriedale wool (I think) and the colors of the roving were so bright and beautiful that I spun up the whole batch over the space of a few nights - somewhat unusual for me. The plying took a bit longer, since that’s not really my favorite part of spinning. I tried a 2-ply at first, but I just didn’t care for this with that barber-pole look. The bigger skein is Navajo-plied, and while there is some color blending/barber-poling, the colors are a lot more separate this way. I haven’t knit it up yet, I’m not sure if I’m going to keep this or make it a gift, but I like to take it out and pet it from time to time. I love it muchly.

And now we move into photos from after the sun went into hiding:

Handspun mitteny goodness! Pattern is from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns

I bought this wool at the 2006 Yarnover and spun it up pretty soon afterwards. These mittens were cast on and the first one mostly completed on our drive out to Nebraska in July 2006. The first mitten languished with a partial thumb for well over a year, until sometime last week when I realized that mittens were in short supply here and would be needed sooner rather than later. I pulled back the top of the first one and made it a touch longer, then finished it off and cast on the second mitten. I think that one only took 2-3 days! I’m thinking I may go back and shorten the thumbs a touch, but they’re perfectly good right now.

And then I cast on more mittens:

Cascade 220 left over from this hat, pattern from Knitter’s Handy Book

I made an i-cord string to connect them since a 2.5 year old boy can’t really be trusted to keep track of both mittens. Heck, a 30 year old woman can’t be trusted to keep track of both mittens, I’m afraid! Arlo’s excited about the mittens and I’m sure will be happy to put them on when it’s cold enough for them. Now I’ve got to knit some for Grace so she doesn’t feel left out, though she’s got some very nice fleece mittens from Land’s End that she loves. And she’s been the recipient of more sweaters this year, so maybe it’s even. I don’t know.

I’ve also been working on the Leaf Lace Shawl from Fiber Trends and the February Baby Sweater from Knitting Almanac. I don’t have good serviceable pictures of either right now, but they’re both lovely. I’m knitting the sleeves in the round on the baby sweater, which I think will work out well - I don’t like seaming all that much, and the idea of seaming a lace pattern just doesn’t seem right. It’s working out well so far, though the first few rows were a bit awkward. I’m just going to have to figure out who this sweater is for - I know several pregnant women right now and I’m getting girl vibes from all of them! I suppose I could knit more, but I think this may be a one-time thing - as much as I love thin yarn on tiny needles, this isn’t doing it for me. We’ll see, though. It *is* awfully cute.

I’ll try not to be such a stranger in the future, hopefully the sun comes back out and this funk clears away.

Last month, as many of you already know, southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin were hit by devastating floods. In addition to the general loss of life and property, many farms were hit quite badly, losing crops, equipment, and livestock.

The Sow the Seeds Fund is working in conjunction with co-ops, farmers markets, local food retailers, restaurants, and individuals to raise money for flood relief. You can make your donations at a number of food co-ops in Minnesota and Wisconsin, plus co-ops in Michigan, Iowa, and Texas, and also at Whole Foods stores in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska. You can also donate online or by mail - the information to do that is available on the Sow the Seeds page linked above.

My good friend Knittymama is running a contest to help raise money for this effort. You go and make your donation before September 29 and then let her know about it (her email is posted on the contest page), make a link on your blog back to her contest page (provided you have a blog), and you’ll have your name entered in the drawing for some great yarn! She’s got some Fleece Artist and Spunky Eclectic sock yarns, as well as some prizes for non-knitters who enter the contest. I’m throwing in some stuff to pad the prize pool as well:

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Dusk

And…

Isn’t it pretty? What? You’d like a closeup? Sure thing…

Nice and sparkly, isn’t it?

The handspun is from a Crazy Diamond batt I got from PippiKneeSocks - it’s wool, nylon “tinkle” (the sparkly stuff), and recycled sari silk. The skein weighs 3oz and is approximately 180 yards. It’s very soft and I’m having a hard time giving it up, but it’s for a good cause.

So go and donate generously, then go let Knittymama know that you did so. If you want to tell her how much you gave, she’s keeping track of the donations a la Knitters Without Borders. She’s hoping for $500, let’s blow past that and surprise her!

My cousin gave birth to a little girl on Thursday, about 3 months early. Thankfully, both mother and baby are doing well and baby’s prognosis seems good. My cousin developed preeclampsia and they did a c-section, thankfully now her blood pressure has come down and she was scheduled to be discharged from the hospital today. Baby weighed 1lb 11oz and was 13″ long at birth and she will be in the NICU for quite a while, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she was staying there until her due date. I am very pleased to hear that the hospital has a milk bank, so the baby has been getting donor milk while my cousin is waiting for the milk fairy to arrive.

In an effort to feel like I’m doing something, I knit up some teeny tiny preemie hats.

So incredibly tiny…

I used Cotton Ease in the Lime color, on size 7 DPNs. Pattern here. The front two are the size she says will fit a 2# baby, the back one is the size that should fit a 3-4# baby. I can’t fathom how tiny a baby’s head must be to fit these hats.

I don’t know if there’s a need for these hats at the hospital where the baby is, I haven’t had a chance to call and talk to the NICU nurses yet. If they don’t need them, I know there are several other programs that are collecting them.

There’s more stuff too, but I thought this needed its own post.