Mikknit

Chris blew out several pairs of socks at the end of this winter, and since darning socks is extremely low on my list of priorities I knit a new pair for him. I’m hoping to make him a few more pairs before wool sock season rolls around again, we’ll see how well I do with that.

Big brown socks!

I talked him into a patterned pair this time instead of the plain ribbing or stockinette that we’ve usually gone with. Cables always seem to make a project go faster for me! I landed on Filey (Ravelry link) by Ingleside Belle. It’s a nicely-written pattern, as far as I noticed, but I mostly just used the pattern charts and knit the heels and toes in my usual manner. Here’s my project link – it goes to Ravelry but it should be publicly viewable!

I used KnitPicks Essential Sock Yarn (now called Stroll) in Auburn. I like the yarn well enough – it’s certainly well worth the price I paid for it! The colors are lovely and I love the slight variegation from the kettle dyeing.

I’ve got another pair of socks on the needles now – one of the ones from Sensational Knitted Socks that’s intended for self-striping yarns. I’ve also got to start on another baby hat – my friends keep getting pregnant and I can’t not knit for a new baby! This mama requested the Sweet Baby Cap that I knit for another friend, so I get to knit another one – I’m so excited to knit it again! It’s a fun, easy pattern and so, so adorable. I’ve got to toss through my stash for the perfect sock yarn for it, though. There’s got to be something appropriate in there.

I enjoyed participating in the 2010 Knitting Olympics but didn’t manage to finish my project in time to get a gold medal. I had some good reasons for not finishing – Chris, Grace, and I took a trip to San Francisco, my friend had her baby (I was her doula), and I went to a couple great concerts. I finished up on Monday, so I really wasn’t *that* far behind. I probably would have finished it on time if I hadn’t needed to rip back a lot of work twice. Ah well. The challenge was fun and I’d definitely do it again!

Slinky Ribs from Custom Knits, knit in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, color 52 (Ravelry link)

Overall, the pattern was great and I only needed to make a couple modifications. #1: I raised the neckline a couple inches – that below-the-boobs thing only looks good on certain people and I’m not one of them! #2: Added short row bust shaping. The front of the sweater was going to be significantly shorter than the back without short rows, which is not at all the look I was going for! I followed the directions in Big Girl Knits and am really happy with how well they worked out! It takes some thinking to make sense of the directions and it definitely pays to check your math (twice, if you’re like me), but it’s well worth the time and effort.

Also, I love Silky Wool! It was great to work with, even with the occasional piece of vegetation in the yarn, and it feels great on! It’s really nice for next-to-the-skin wear and it feels like I should be able to wear this well into warmer weather. Probably not in the height of a MN summer, but definitely through spring and early summer. I’ve got 10 skeins of another color in my stash and I’m looking for the perfect pattern for it – any suggestions?

On the needles now: Baby Chalice Blanket in Plymouth Encore color 7129. It’s zipping along – I started it a week ago and I’m already about halfway done. The pattern’s not hard to follow but it’s not so mindless I lose interest. A good combination, generally. And the size 8 needles I’m using seem huge compared to the tiny needles I usually use, so progress is fast.

I designed a pair of mittens AND finished them. Despite having to rip and reknit the first mitten several times. Despite not having the recipient’s hands um… handy to try them on when I ran into a questionable spot. I’m pretty damn happy with how they turned out, hopefully they’ll be well-received.

Bike Mittens!

Stripey palms!

Details:
Plymouth Galway in colors 738 (blue-green) and 1 (cream), less than 1 skein of each
Needle: US 2
Started: January 28, 2010
Finished: February 3, 2010
Ravelry project page

I am planning to write the pattern up and make it available at some point, but I want to try it in a thinner yarn and see if I can make it work for smaller hands too – these are a men’s large.

Next up: Squirrel Sampler Mittens from Hello Yarn. I’ve got an oatmeal-y color for the background, moss green for the contrast, and chocolate brown alpaca for the lining. These are going to be LOVELY to wear with that alpaca.

It wasn’t all that bad. I crocheted the steeks and ended up dropping my steek stitch down, then cutting the ladders – somehow that was less scary than cutting the intact stitches. Don’t ask me why, it just was. Sewing the sleeves into the armholes was pretty simple. Who knows if I did it “right”, but it looks good and is secure so in the end I did it right enough.

He loves it. He’s worn it every day since I finished it – if he wears it today that’ll be six days in a row. This from a guy who insisted he wouldn’t wear a sweater for years. I have no idea what finally convinced him, but I’m glad he changed his mind!

Not a fake smile!

We’re talking about his next sweater now. Cobblestone is a front-runner. We’re talking about Beaverslide Dry Goods yarn for it, but the price is giving me a little pause. It’s so lovely, though! We’ll have to see.

While that’s under consideration, I’m working on a couple other things. First of all, a sock (naturally). The pattern is Sunday Swing from the Summer ’09 Knitty. Yarn is some Berroco Sox Metallic that my aunt brought me. The yarn feels a bit scratchy due to the metallic thread, but it feels just fine on my feet. The pattern’s easy enough but I have to pay attention to it (just a bit, though) so it’s not so boring I want to cry. Good thing, too – boring never gets finished.

Still life with sock and chart

What’s that in the picture, you ask? A bike chart, of course. I’m working out a mitten pattern with that bike on it. The chart knits up just fine – I had to make a couple modifications to the chart as I test-knit it, but I’m pretty sure that happens just about every time you convert something from a drawing into knitting. Here’s how it knit up:

Not bad for the first shot, right?

I already know I need to use a bigger needle – this doesn’t stretch nearly enough for my liking. I need to revisit the handlebars a bit, too. There’s a white stitch in there that just isn’t showing up as much as I’d like it to, and there are a couple spots that need fiddling with, but ultimately it’s pretty good! I’m planning to make the pattern (or just the chart) available once it’s finished, so watch this space.

I’m off to work on my sock and stalk the First Avenue site for Spoon tickets.

So it’s been just over a year since I last posted. There’s been a lot going on around here, between my shoulder getting screwed up and making it painful to knit for much of 2009, the depression that was exacerbated by the removal of my favorite creative activity, and life in general. The depression lifted in November and life is beautiful again – I’m so thankful for everything in my life. It really feels like I got a new chance at everything and it’s amazing.

But enough about my crap, I know you come here (or at least you used to) for the knitting content. My Ravelry page is mostly up-to-date with project information, if not pictures of all the projects, so you can look there if you’re curious what I made last year. This year I’m hoping to share my projects with you here as well as on Ravelry, starting with this one:

Berlin Muster socks (Ravelry link)

I loved knitting this pattern! It wasn’t a chart I could memorize or just work out from reading my work, but that wasn’t too much of a hardship. The pattern is only 60 stitches around, which would normally be far too small for my wide feet. I took the designer’s suggestion and added a couple stitches to each purl panel and knit all the way down past the heel before trying it on – the sock could have fit my foot and my hand! The lace pattern is extremely stretchy, so most people should have absolutely no problem with it as written. My only modifications were to cast on 68 stitches and to knit the ribbing a bit longer than the pattern specified. I then decreased the extra 8 stitches on the first row after the ribbing and continued as written. It’s great, although they were a tad snug in the instep when I put them on this morning. They’ve stretched a bit so it’s all good now!

The title of this post is not only in reference to the resurrection of the blog but also to the resurrection of a project. I’m going back to the project that screwed up my shoulder in the first place, but this time around I’m going to be more careful with it. It’s the Aran Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac (Ravelry link). I knit the entire body of the sweater in the month of January and the twisted stitch pattern caused some pretty nasty tendinitis in my right shoulder. It’s been in time-out for nearly a year and I’m finally feeling up to working on it again. The sleeves aren’t nearly as cable- and twisted stitch-heavy as the body, so I’m pretty confident I can knit them without destroying my shoulder again.

Did I mention that my husband’s a tall beast? Wow, what a project.

Here’s a close-up of the pattern.

I’m knitting pretty much according to the pattern, but I had to add a number of purl stitches to each panel. I have no idea how many, now, but it was a few inches’ worth. I’m so excited to finish this but the steeking is intimidating – I’ve only done that once and it was a Lopi sweater, which is a much different creature in my mind. I’ll probably take EZ’s suggestion and have a nice glass of wine before I cut, just to steady my nerves. Hopefully I’ll get to that this month!

I’ll make no promises, but I do plan to blog more frequently this year. Not that I can really beat last year’s inactivity…

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.

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!

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.