Mikknit

At her request, I’m knitting my sister a scarf with novelty yarn. This is a first for me - I do not do scarves, especially not 7-stitches-on-size-13 scarves that look like shag carpeting.

I found a ball of Patons Pooch (the Teal Leaves colorway). This stuff is a freaking PAIN. IN. THE. BUTT. I don’t know how many times I ripped it out before I got the right number of stitches on the needles, the first three tries resulted in way too many, a few too many, and where did that 7th stitch disappear to?

This yarn would really be happier knit up on something larger than a 13, but I do not own such a needle. I refuse to purchase giant telephone pole knitting needles for one miserable scarf. If this turns out too short, too ugly, too *whatever*, I will thoroughly enjoy burning it.

I’ll be off until after Christmas, so I hope everyone has a lovely holiday and gets in lots of knitting time. I know I’ll be doing my best to progress on several projects, hopefully the others less irritating than this bloody scarf.

*Shudder*

I am incredibly ooked out right now. We’ve had a bit of an issue with wool moths for a bit, but I assumed they were in my loose wool, not the yarn. I was wrong.

*shudder*

I’m knitting along on FIL’s hat, out of the second ball of Cascade Eco wool, which had been stored next to the first ball. Ball #1 knit up just fine, no breaks, no nothing. Ball #2, well… I was knitting along and came up with a broken end, figured it was a flaw in the yarn. Knit a few yards and found another break. Uh oh. Thank goodness for spit splicing, is all I thought. Well, I had another break and pulled the center out of the ball to find the other side of the break. A *shudder* moth larva came out with it and landed on my poor computer. *shudder*

Thank God Chris isn’t nearly as ooked out about this as I am - I made him come and pick it up with a tissue and bring me a glass of wine. Hopefully the wine calms me enough that I can tackle the yarn. I’m almost done with the hat and am contemplating ditching the rest of the yarn (almost a full skeins’ worth, really) and buying a new one for the mittens. Can I bring myself to do it? Can I bring myself to touch the ball of yarn again?

Stay tuned!

*shudder*

But look what I get to knit! Ever since I first saw that sweater, I’ve wanted to knit it. I’m knitting it for my sister, haven’t decided what yarn to use yet though.

I finished MIL’s mittens (out of the same Cascade Eco Wool as the hat) and cast on for FIL’s hat (same yarn again) today. I’ve got the ribbing done on that and am a few rounds into the body of the hat. Maybe I’ll get it done tomorrow, who knows. Then back to the wool fruits and veggies.

The yarn for the Robin Hood Jacket arrived today, finally. I need to figure out what size needles I used for Arlo’s (notes? We don’t need no steeking notes!) and find the needles (I never put things away when I’m done with them), then I can ball up the yarn and take it along on our Christmas traveling. I’ll pack sock yarn too, since I’ll inevitably get tired of paying attention to my knitting and need something mindless.

Oy it’s late. If I want to have any brain to knit tomorrow, I’d best get to bed ASAP.

I see you visiting - please comment and tell me who you are!

I know the banana looks like it has racing stripes, but that’s what the pattern said to do. By the time I thought to question it, I’d already done one line of the embroidery and wasn’t about to undo it. Next time I’ll just duplicate stitch some brown or black spots on it, I suppose. No brown yarn in the house, other than handspun natural brown, and that wouldn’t look right.

Patterns: Banana and eggplant, Celery, market bag. I’m planning to make a few others, a carrot, a tomato, and broccoli, maybe annother bag because it was quick & entertaining.

In other projects, I’ve got most of the cuff of mitten #1 for MIL done. I had to frog it the first time because it was too small, so it’s been slow going this time. I need shorter DPNs, I think.

I’m still waiting on the red Sierra for Grace’s Robin Hood Jacket. Soon, hopefully… I’m ready to do some more cables. My spinning stool arrived yesterday, so at least there’s that. Gotta get on Chris to finish it for me.

Off to try to get the boy down for a nap - he’s majorly fussy.

First, I finished Creeping Vines Sock #2:]

The details: Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra in Plum, size 1 neesles (2 circulars method), with a side of cute baby. Oh, and those are paint splatters on the floor, not dust bunnies. Gotta love the people we bought the house from. *eyeroll*

Then, I finished MIL’s hat:

The details: Cascade Ecological Wool, 84 stitches on a size 8. My own pattern again, but with 6 decreases instead of 7 since apparently math is not my strong suit. I cast on the first of a pair of mittens in the same yarn last night, using size 7 needles for a firmer fabric (I’m a sloppy loose knitter, I admit it). I’m using the mitten pattern from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, which has served me well. A good basic book for a knitter’s bookshelf, in my opinion.

I’m resisting the siren song of sock knitting, for now. We’ll see how long that lasts.

I finished the hat for the future brother-in-law yesterday. After a wash in Eucalan and an additional lanolin treatment, it’s a fair bit softer and less dehydrated-feeling, but still a little scratchy. I’ll get Chris to test it for me tonight and see if it passes the bald-head test.

It’s handspun wool of indeterminate breed, rather unevenly spun (the plied yarn ranges between super-thin and heavy worsted) but it averages out to around 5 stitches/inch and knit up nicely on a size 6 needle. No real pattern, I just guessed at a head measurement and cast on an appropriate number of stitches, did 2×2 rib for a bit, then switched to stockinette. I did a few random decreases in the body of the hat to make it a little snugger, then did 7 decreases every other round down to 28 stitches, then did my decreases every round. That made the crown of the hat nicely rounded, which is good because I have this tendency to make the tops of my hats rather pointed.

I enjoyed working with my handspun and this has enouraged me to break into my stash of handspun wool and whip up some more things. Unfortunately, most of it’s rough enough that it’s going to mostly be suitable for hats and other outerwear. Good thing everyone I knit for has a head!

I’m procrastinating on the wool food (of course) and did some work on Vine Sock #2 last night, about a full repeat of the pattern. I’m not sure if I have 1 or 2 more repeats after this one, but the sock should be done soon enough. Like I need more socks, I know, but I can’t stop knitting them. I think I’ll break into the alleged machine-washable sock yarn next. I think it’s time I took another stab at knitting socks for Chris. I should make him a new hat, too - a couple winters ago, he dropped his hat in the middle of a busy street while on his way to work. He recovered it later, still usable but rather banged up. I started knitting him a new one but stalled when I ran out of yarn. I purchased more but I’ll be damned if I know where the yarn or the hat-in-progress is. It wasn’t in the front closet, which seems to be the UFO repository, and it wasn’t in the myriad of UFO-holding cloth bags that I cleaned off the coatrack, either. I have no clue. I suppose I could just start a new one, but it’d also be nice to know where the hat-in-progress is, since it’s got one of my beloved Addi Turbos in it, probably a size 9. I would like to have my needles all together again one day.

I suppose I should get this crying child dressed and go wipe the other one’s butt. Whoopee.

I got notification from KnitPicks yesterday that the yarn for Grace’s Robin Hood Jacket finally shipped. So in 4-13 days I should be able to get started on that. Finally. I just need to finish the wool food & handspun hat first, since those items are the extent of my holiday gift knitting. I should be able to finish the hat today (started it Tuesday morning) and dive back into the wool food. Whoopee. Hopefully by Monday I’ll be ready to start the sweater.

Aside from the yarn, I’m also waiting for a couple other packages:

* A Country Craftsman spinning stool like the one pictured here. Mine will be unfinished when it arrives and Chris will be applying the finish for me as part of my Christmas gift.

* A secret santa swap gift from someone at Mama Drama. I just sent my swap package out yesterday, a few days late. I hope my swap partner likes it - it was what I had in mind for her even before I knew what colors she liked. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a picture of her wearing it to post here, since I forgot to take a picture before sending it.

I think that’s it for packages, but I can’t be certain. I seem to have shoppers’ amnesia at times, LOL.

My to-do list, more or less in chronological order:

1. Knit and/or crochet wool fruits & veggies + market bag(s) for Grace’s Christmas gift
2. Knit a hat out of handspun wool for future brother-in-law
3. Knit a scarf for Liz out of novelty yarn. Bleh.
4. Finish Creeping Vines socks for me!
5. Knit Robin Hood Jacket for Grace
6. Frog UFO red sweater for me and reknit a v-neck raglan with short-rowed bust
7. Knit a mobius strip scarf out of some of my stashed Cherry Tree Hill Supersock (for me!)
8. Socks for Chris out of alleged “naturally machine washable” yarn (it really isn’t washable, but it makes the best socks!
9. Find my error on the Peace Shawl and fix, then finish the bloody thing.

Longer-term to-dos:

1. Stash reduction, both yarn and fiber. Final goal - ????
2. Design a sweater for myself out of Silky Wool (color #10, I believe)
3. Assign a purpose to the 15 balls (3/color) of hemp/wool blend worsted weight yarn

Now to work on that hat, since I’ve temporarily run out of patience for wool veggies. It’s a little scratchy but I hope that a wash with some heavy-duty conditioner will help. If not, it’ll be a hat for someone who doesn’t shave their head.