Mikknit

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.

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.

Only 3.5 more hours to get your vacation stories in! I will close comments on the contest post either at midnight tonight (if I’m still conscious) or tomorrow morning. Any posts made after midnight CDT will be disqualified.

I’m dealing with some seriously soul-sucking allergies here, so I haven’t gotten any pictures taken. I’m also fighting some bad knitter’s ADD, not helped at all by browsing on Ravelry. I’m knitting on the endless sleeve of this Wonderful Wallaby (only sleeve #1, might I add) and since it’s mindless stockinette my brain is flitting back and forth to all of the things I want to knit NOW!

• The Luna Moth Shawl, for which I have some lovely chocolate brown alpaca.
• The February baby sweater from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac. I have the yarn for this but my copy of the book is MIA.
• I am still coveting the yarn from Beaverslide Dry Goods, but have several sweaters’ worth of yarn to knit first.
• The Peace Fleece sweater is asking to be revived, just as the weather is warming up again.
• The green/yellow yarn from Stonehedge Fiber Mill is screaming at me as well
• My spinning wheel is glaring at me, disgusted with how it’s been neglected

Strangely enough, I am not at all interested in knitting socks right now. My brain has moved on to fall/winter knitting. This will be an issue if we have another month of warm weather, I think, but at least it’s been getting nice and cool at night - then I can wear my nice wool socks to bed

I hope there’s something on tv tonight sufficiently interesting enough to get me through the last couple inches on this sleeve. At that point, I may reward myself by sewing buttons onto the Baby Surprise Jacket and suffering a little bit of babylust.

It’s been lots of fun reading your stories! Lots of “Aww”, lots of “Oh good heavens, I can’t believe that happened!” Remember, you’ve got until midnight CDT Friday to get your stories in!

I’m currently stalled out on both of my sock projects (Baudelaire and some toe-up socks in *my* yarn from Northwoods Dyeworks), I finished knitting the felted pirate hat from Moth Heaven on Monday and have been farting around since then. Finished up the Baby Surprise Jacket during my 5-ish hours hanging out at Borealis yesterday but haven’t gotten the (incredibly, painfully cute!) buttons sewn on yet. Still not wanting to touch either sock. So instead of casting on a new project, what to do?

It’s been cool here lately, so I’m thinking about fall and winter. Oh yes, Grace has outgrown all of her sweaters - she has her papa’s long torso, so while they “technically” still fit, they’re far too short to keep her warm. I dug out the Wonderful Wallaby I’d started for her back in March or April but had put away out of sheer boredom and also because of warm weather. I’ve been cruising along on it, finished the pouch today and have the body up to the armpits if I follow the measurements in the pattern. I’m going to measure her in the morning and will undoubtedly lengthen the torso by an inch or two. For now, I’ve started on the sleeve and I’m being reminded just how noisy metal DPNs are. Oy. One more inch and I can switch over to my nice quite bamboo size 7s.

I’ll do my best to break out the camera tomorrow and get some pictures. I’ve been dragging lately and for some reason it’s just too much work to actually take pictures of stuff and put them onto the computer.

We’re off to the State Fair on Friday - I’m hoping to get into the Creative Activities building this time so I can get a good look at all of the great knitted items entered in the fair. I know *so* many people who entered things in the fair this year! I wish I’d gotten around to it… Next year, I will do it for sure.

I just realized that it had been two weeks since my last post, and close to three since my last knitting-related post. I wish I could blame it on being really busy, but I think it’s just been sheer laziness. Well, I have been emptying the catch-all room (formerly the computer room/office/library) and preparing to paint it and make it into the kids’ room, but that’s been done in spurts and certainly hasn’t been so much work as to make me fall off the face of the earth for so long. We’re painting the room today and hopefully I’ll be able to get the bunkbed brought in and put together tomorrow. I’m still going to have to track down mattresses for it, I’m thinking Ikea might be the easiest. I’m not 100% sure it’ll be the cheapest and/or best option, though… I guess I should make some phone calls in the morning. The plus on the Ikea mattresses is that they come all rolled up, so they’d fit in my minivan. I can’t argue with the convenience of that.

On to the knitting content!

I finished the BFF Socks (the website is still down?!) on Friday or Saturday, I think it was. It was a great pattern to knit - easy enough to not need the pattern but interesting enough to keep me from losing my mind. I know they’ll be well-received!

BFF Socks by Cookie A., knit in Shepherd Sock - Mixed Berries colorway

I’ve also started a Baby Surprise Jacket - my first one. I checked out The Opinionated Knitter from the library and I think it will definitely be going on my wish list - I am enjoying just reading through it. My cousin is having a little girl in December and when I showed her this yarn she made some very positive noises:

Handspun wool, ~600 yards, 8.35 oz (both skeins combined) click for closeup

I finished this yarn ages ago with the plan to make a sweater for Arlo, but I thought it’d be very nice for a baby sweater - I love bright bold colors on babies. I cast on on Sunday, goofed up to the point where I had to completely rip it out, and then started over again. It’s been going strong since then, thankfully!

I’ve just started the increases here (closeup)

I am really enjoying how this yarn is knitting up. At first it wasn’t really pleasing me, as I’d been hoping to see *all* of the colors in the yarn, but that’s just not going to show up in garter stitch. Right now it really reminds me of the recycled sari silk yarn - I think it’s that red that does it for me.

I also have a sock going, surprisingly enough not from Sensational Knitted Socks. However, it is another Cookie A. pattern - this time it’s Baudelaire. I’m really enjoying the pattern, but the yarn leaves a bit to be desired. I’m using Universal Yarns Pace, which is a wool/nylon blend. The yarn seems to be of good quality, but this particular color is scratchier than anything I’ve ever felt. The other colors are nice, it seems, but this one - I love the color, so I’m hoping it softens up considerably with washing. If not, I guess I’ll wear them anyhow. FWIW, Borealis has this stuff on clearance now - they’ve found a solid-colored sock yarn they like better (Opal, I think), so they’re making room.

I’m sorry for the poor quality of the picture, the light this morning left a lot to be desired.

Alright, I think it’s time to go shower and wash the green paint out of my hair. But first, I want to tell you that I got a package in the mail today and (time and small children permitting) I will be posting a contest tomorrow. Holly gave me a great idea for a contest, so I’m really excited to get this started!

I hope all of the MN folks are safe and all of your friends and loved ones are accounted for after the bridge collapse.

And for those who missed the news: 35W bridge over Mississippi River collapses. This is so damned scary.

I either need to start knitting faster, start showing a LOT more in-progress shots with incremental progress, or think of things to talk about other than knitting if I want to blog more than once every 10 days or so.

I finally finished my Twin Rib socks in Trekking XXL color 108. The second sock absolutely dragged on forever. They’ll be great to wear now, though!

And of course I had to cast on for a new pair immediately:

BFF Socks

I’m using some well-aged Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in the Mixed Berries colorway. This is an extremely poor representation of the color, you can see a better representation here. It has been a long time since I worked with this yarn and I’d forgotten how much I enjoy working with it. I’m using KnitPicks 2.25mm needles instead of my usual 2.50mm, which makes the fabric much cushier and should make it last much longer, as well.

I need some suggestions - I have a ton of friends who have either just had babies or are due within the next 8 months (ha!) and I am looking for some new & different patterns for baby gifts. I normally knit soakers, but I knit two in rapid succession over the past couple weeks and I’m burnt out. I’m looking for sweaters, booties, etc. Things that can be knit out of sock yarn are a bonus! Thanks in advance!

And now out into the heat to let the kids play. Whee.

I’m working on getting back into the swing of things after being in lovely Ashland, WI for the last 1.5 weeks. It’s tough - I really miss being there. Funny how I wanted to get the heck out of town when I graduated and now I’d love to move back.

Anyhow, on to the knitting and knitting-related chatter:

The main reason for our vacation was my sister’s wedding on 7/7/07. They got married near this lovely view:

Big Bay State Park on Madeline Island, WI. More pictures here

They picked a gorgeous spot, no doubt about it. A gorgeous day, too. It was hot and humid on the mainland, but on the island it was breezy and cool. Ah, Lake Superior.

Of course I had to take the opportunity to give handknit socks:

Socks for BIL in Fortissima Socka sportweight yarn, lost the ballband so no clue on the colorway

The Green Bay Monkey socks for my sister. As you can see, I neglected to pack the sock blockers. Wish I had…

No word on whether they’ve opened them yet and whether they love them or not. I’m assuming they were/will be well-received, though. Both have appreciated handknit socks in the past.

I also did a little shopping, of course. Ashland is home to Northwoods Dyeworks, which is where we’ve been buying great tie-dyed clothing for the past several years. Now, Libby is dyeing and selling yarn as well. I had to buy some, of course - how could I not? She doesn’t have an online store just yet, but she’d certainly be glad to mail you some yarn! I had to buy this:

100% Merino wool sock yarn in the Gogebic colorway

Yes, I know I don’t like to knit socks with 100% wool, but I figure I could make something else with this stuff if I don’t want to use it for socks. We’ll see. I ordered some other yarn from her too, which may well show up here as a contest prize in a few weeks. We’ll see if I can come up with something creative for a contest.

I also found some yarn from sheep that live on Madeline Island:

Bulky yarn from Fly Away Farm, sadly not online that I can find.

It’s very pretty, though a little rough. I’m sure it’ll make a nice hat and mittens or maybe a scarf for the Red Scarf Project. We’ll see.

I also did a little knitting - had to bring more sock yarn with me because I knew I’d finish the Monkey socks while we were there.

Twin Rib pattern from SKS, Trekkling XXL in color 108 (ball band missing, so I may be wrong)

I just grafted the toe on this this morning and started sock #2 at playgroup. Only got a couple rounds done, though. I’m just not feeling it right now. Maybe after the kids are in bed…

I joined Mystery Stole #3 and I got a little over half of the first chart done on vacation, until I ran out of energy and concentration to work on it. I still haven’t downloaded the second chart, too. I suppose *that* could be my project for after the kids are in bed, but who knows - black yarn, black beads, nighttime knitting… Not such a good combo. We’ll think about that one for a while. The sock will definitely be more conducive to catching up on my huge backlog of knitting blog reading!

Well, since it’s just me and the kids this week (Chris’s work sent him to Montreal right after our vacation, how nice), I get to feed them things for dinner that he won’t eat/doesn’t love. I should go check the pantry and see what sort of non-husband-friendly foods we have, haha.

Have a great week, everyone!