Christmas recap

I hope one and all had a good Christmas this year.  I sure did, got together with the whole family for lots of good food and company.  Got some Christmas knitting done, the rest was postponed by choice, no hard feelings there.  Finished the socks for Peter.  Also made a headband / ear warmer for mom, which she had requested.  And several more ornaments. 

Beads turned out to be quite a challenge, not the least of which was finding suitable beads to begin with!  Most of what I already had, had holes too small for yarn.  But I've been playing with them anyway, here are a couple I made with what I had.  I have also bought some craft beads with larger holes.

The one on the left has some crystals at the tips of the snowflakes, I'm not sure you can see it, but it sure catches the light.  I'm not sure about the "hula skirt" of pearls on the right.  It seemed like a good idea in my mind.

Not wanting to get slowed down too much by the bead dilemmas, I proceeded to knit these as well, from patterns in Arne and Carlos's book.  The one on top is a "Christmas pig".  It's a German thing, what can I say.  It was in the book.

And working from a pattern I purchased thanks to a link from Blonde Knitter, I came up with these.  We all love the mousie (left), but the bird (right) is not so convincing.  In the yarn I used, we all think it looks more like a lamb. 

My sister-in-law gave me another ornament pattern book for Christmas.  She just went on a trip to Germany, so it's in German, but if you click on the row of pictures on this web page you'll get the idea. They're very different, less about color work and more about stitch patterns.  Because many of them are lacy, they're worked over unbreakable metallic ornaments, not just stuffed.  More ideas to explore.  By next Christmas you may have to shovel your way around the house through the ornaments!

I'm off of work now until Jan. 2.  Time to knit!

Thanksgiving ornaments

More ornaments! Will it never end? Maybe not, I'm still having fun! This time five big ones. Three from the book, and in honor of the Thanksgiving day dog show, two dog themed ornaments using fair isle patterns from the little Vogue book of Knits for Pets.

Next: Beads! Stay tuned!

It's magical!

The knitted ornament frenzy continues.  Here's the latest crop:

Experimenting with different colors, yarns, etc.  I scaled the basic pattern down to make a medium size and a small size as well, and boy are those little guys cute!  And fun to make; they work up in just about an hour vs. about three for the standard (largest) size.

The Houdini socks have progressed, got the feet done.  I now have two closed tubes, each with a toe at each end.  Sorry, it just feels silly.

Tomorrow at knitting group I guess we'll steek the ankle openings and start up the legs.  I can't wait to see how they fit, especially in the heel.

Getting my holidays in the wrong order

Well, an interesting weekend it has been.  East Coast ravaged by Frankenstorm, Casa Bell/Lynn survives intact.  It rained, it blew, yes it was pretty amazingly stormy, but the old domicile proved its mettle once again.  Power stayed on, basement stayed dry.  No major tree loss.  Hurray!

College was closed for two days.  Boss called us in anyway to batten down the computer room.  Seems the roof has leaked before.  They say they've fixed it, but a bit of plastic over the top of the computer racks did seem like a wise precaution.  Today the weather was actually not bad, but a lot of things were closed to give people time to clean up roads etc.  Boss once again felt we should be making use of time.  With offices closed, I elected to spend some time catching up on "read this interesting thing" emails from boss and others and doing research on current projects.  You know, all those things you never quite get to at work because of all the other crises-of-the-day and impromptu strategy meetings that come up.  Ah, the bliss of working without interruptions.

Of course, a weekend full of clouds and rain also afforded some time for knitting.  I am having a ton of fun with these Christmas balls.  Here's the latest:

Hearts, probably the prettiest patterns in Arne and Carlos's book.

Trees, in timeout until I get some gold yarn to make the little stars at the tops.

I'm calling them scales.  I was intrigued by the idea of combining a regular yarn with the glitter eyelash I bought during the NSKO3.  Not a lot of contrast, but I think it will be lovely when it's done.

Also started my socks for the Houdini Sock knit-along.  The sock looks pretty normal, but the construction is odd.  You start at the toes, knit the foot, then knit the toe again backwards for the heel.  At that point you have a closed tube.  Then you basically steek it and knit the tube for the leg.  So far I have the toe and a bit of the foot.  Pictures will be posted as it develops.  Steeking is scary!

Summer Socks

NSKO3 is approaching, which has put me in mind of what great friends I have.  Great partly because they are still my friends, even though I neglect my blog which I started so they can keep up with what I'm doing.  So thank you, friends, and here at long last is an update!

I've done a lot of sock knitting this summer.  I realized that I have finished 3 soon to be 4 pairs of socks.  Imagine, 4 pairs of socks which I have never worn languishing in my sock drawer.  It's enough to make me look forward to cooler weather.

Without further ado, here they are:

The pink ones were different for me.  I had to knit them top down.  My usual m.o. is to take whatever I find interesting about a pattern and adapt it to my favorite toe-up sock method, but these have a band of cabling that travels diagonally across the top of the foot, and I thought that was cool.  I pondered how to reverse it so I could knit it toe-up, and I decided it would require making some guesses about lengths and such which I wouldn't want to bet the farm on.  I decided my best bet was to actually follow the original pattern.  Here's a close-up.  All the cabling at the top cinched them up more than I expected, I hope they don't shrink too much!

The pair next to the pink ones are based on the Turkish Socks pattern in the Vogue Knitting on the Go Socks book.  These I adapted to my normal method, so they're much less folky than the originals.  I wanted to use up some of those odds and ends you have left over after finishing a pair of socks, and this was great for it.  They didn't actually use up all of anything I had, but they were so fun to knit that I can see just keeping a big basket with all the odds and ends and knitting up a pair like them any time I find some good colorwork patterns to use.  I like to do something different every time, so I wouldn't use exactly the same patterns again.  Here they are close up.  Don't you love the colors??

The blue pair are also based on a pair of Turkish socks, this time from Ethnic Socks & Stockings by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts.  I love this book, it has so many cool socks I want to make.  The blue ones have a pretty stitch pattern made with traveling stitches (kind of like cables).  That was some slow knitting, let me tell you, but it was worth it.  The effect is more subtle in person than in the photo below, and everyone I have shown them to seems to find them very attractive.

 The last pair is just a plain foot and ribbed leg made of some of the Cherry Tree Hill self-striping type yarn I got at the Sheep and Wool festival this year.  They were my traveling project for a trip to California with my mom last week.  We went to a family reunion.  The colorway is called Birches, and I do like the colors.  They're just a few inches from being done.  I hope to have them off the needles in time to start a new pair of traveling socks for the trip to NSKO3.  

Finally there's this little darlin':

My friend Mardi was asked by another friend to knit a "pumpkin hat" for her baby.  Mardi is an advanced beginner knitter, would be intermediate if she had a little more confidence.  She found a pattern but was a bit afraid, so we did a knit-along.  It is just so cute!  I love that you can make babies wear anything.

That's it for now!  See you soon!

Blacksmith Days

So here's what I did last weekend.  Peter and I went to Blacksmith Days down at the Farm Museum.  My fiber group does a weaving demo there every year.  This year the lady who normally leads the group could not be there, so I volunteered to head up the weaving demo, having done a little weaving myself.  The spinners prepared the yarn from the Jacob fleece Ralene gave us last summer, and I chose a pattern and planned the piece.  A couple of other weavers in the group helped warp the loom.  Over the weekend, I was the only weaver who actually made it to the event, so I sat in the log schoolhouse and wove the 6' long shawl.  Here it is:

(It got a little wrinkled in the car coming home.)  It was a LOT of weaving for one weekend, and I still have to finish off the ends (a medium length fringe, I think), but I'm quite proud of it!  It feels like a real accomplishment to have done it.

Spoils of War

Successfully navigated Sheep and Wool again this year.  Saturday I spent three hours volunteering in the T shirt sale booth, which was fun and netted me a T shirt of my own with the word "volunteer" printed jauntily across the back.  Bragging rights!  Then looked around a bit, but when even Tess's rummage sale (a rare event) could not tempt me, I knew it was time to go home and come again another day.  Sunday was much better for shopping, netting me the spoils shown here:

Three skeins of sock yarn.  The two on the bottom are from Cherry Tree Hill, always a nice place to shop.  It's hard to see the colors in the one on the left, but it's called Birches, and it has a warm white variegated with greys, greens, and golden browns that do remind me of birch trees.  It's subtle and quite lovely.

And the big purchase, from Tess's rummage sale (yes, I went back, how could I not?):

Hand-dyed (as all of Tess's yarns are) angora and merino blend, sort of a light worsted, about 1300 yards, which should be enough to make myself a sweater.  The colors are so me, and the yarn is so soft.  I love it.  Now to find a pattern.

Peter made sure I ate my full quota of lamb sausages, and mom purchased this gem:

So fun was had by all.

The project now on the needles is a pair of socks, grey self-striping cotton/elastic blend with some decorative stitching I'm copying out of Ethnic Socks and Stockings by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts.  Still trying to knit socks that I can wear in the summer.  Sigh.  Here they are:

  Only one active project right now, my garden has been taking up the rest of my time.  Pix of that next time!

April madness

The shawl project has blossomed in a gratifying way.  I started the shawl, then took it to work and showed it to a couple other knitters who know the intended recipient and who are in on what's happening.  They were both very keen on the project.  They also knew of a couple more people to ask, and they joined in, too.  Then I even asked one more person who is a crotcheter.  I think he's going to try a crotchet edging for us.  He's never done anything like that, he said, but he would like to participate.  So we're off and running!  About a week to go, and with this group, I don't think we'll have any trouble having it done in time.  I'm so happy about it!

As the shawl makes its rounds, I am working on the ladder yarn scarf for mom.  It's coming along.  I have knitted 6 of the 10 balls she bought.  I'm sure one more will do it.  So, what to do with the extra 3 balls?  Any ideas?

NSKO East and more

The NSKO East concluded with much knitting accomplished, much enjoyment of each other's company, and me (at least) already looking forward to the next knitting vacation.  Here's the wrap-up:

Gloves, gloves, gloves.  K1Frog2 showed me how to knit them, and I made 4 gloves in 4 days.  To be honest, I was a bit tired of gloves when it was done, but I feel I have burned them into my brain to where I could sit down and do one any time I wanted (like my favorite sock pattern), and I love that.  It was well worth it.  And here they are:

The pair on the left are made from Sirdar Snuggly, a synthetic yarn with a nice, soft feel.  The pair on the right are Debbie Bliss cashmerino dk.  I really liked working with that yarn.  If the washability is as good as the label indicates, I may have found a new favorite all-around yarn.

After the first pair (Sirdar), we had to go to a yarn shop to get the yarn for the second pair (oh, the horror), and of course we found some unlooked-for bargains to round out the shopping trip.  After I got tired of gloves, I spent the last day of the NSKO swatching my finds.  First the Noro (I am a closet Noro addict, though sadly too poor to indulge my cravings):

 I seem to have thrown away the band by mistake, so I can't tell you exactly which Noro this is, but it's a variegated wool base yarn with shiny synthetic wrapped around it.  It sort of sparkles with the colors.  The photo above is before washing, the photo below after.  I have come to believe in washing all experimental swatches, even if the band says it's not washable, just to find out what it actually does when washed.  Most of the swatches I then wash again and throw in the dryer, just to see what that does.  The photo below shows the swatch after washing.  The base yarn felts ever so slightly, which I actually liked, but it does dim the color sparkles a bit.  There's a real trade-off there.  All in all, I think I prefer it unwashed.

The final yarn was not really mine, my mom bought it, but I have sort of appropriated the working of it.  She fell in love with a sample shawl in the shop made with a ladder yarn, then she fell in love with the ladder yarn when she saw some in her colors (a variegated sky blue / golden brown with silver sparkles).  The shawl turned out to be machine knit, so unfortunately I will never be able to duplicate it by hand.  But when she bought an entire bag of the ladder yarn it turned out to be half price, so we are forging ahead.  After looking at some patterns for ideas, we decided to make a scarf.  In this yarn, it will be very drapey, and she can wear it draped around her neck almost like a piece of jewelry.  When I first started knitting it, I was disappointed that it didn't look like the fantastic shawl in the shop, but as the scarf has started taking shape, I have become quite enamored of it.  It has a certain something in its own right.  Here's a photo, although I think you have to see it in person to really appreciate it:

The yarn is Skacel Tropicana.

That's the NSKO report.  This week I did start one new project, though.  After I returned to work I found out that one of my co-workers, an incredibly kind and sweet person, is undergoing tests to see whether she has ovarian cancer.  It shouldn't happen to someone so nice.  I have decided to knit her a prayer shawl.  I went upstairs to browse the stash for ideas on what sort of yarn to get for it, and in the first bin I pulled out there it was: a big bag of Lion Brand bulky weight organic cotton in a pretty light blue (she's blond and fair complected).  I took it as a sign.  I have started the shawl (sorry that it wants to load upside down):

It's the classic prayer shawl pattern, bulky yarn done up in seed stitch.  I hope to have it done before she goes in for surgery in about 3 weeks.  Lots of knitting ahead.  I think there's one person who follows this blog who also knows who I'm talking about, and if you would like to help me knit this, I think it would be great to do it as a shared project.  I'm not sure who else at work knows what's going on, but if you know of any other knitters who know or who you think it's okay to tell, my dream is that a bunch of us knit on this and give it to her to show that we are all rooting for her.  Let me know what you think.

NSKO East

The theme of this year's NSKO East is...gloves! My first pair ever!  Thanks, Kate!

Christmas Knitting

Well, it's Valentine's Day, about time I posted my Christmas pictures.  So here they are!

Sweater vest for Peter: basic, classic, just the way he wanted it.  Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool.  Used a pattern to help with the neck and armhole shaping (although I had to knit the neck 3 times), but mostly just knitted it to match a sweater vest he already has and likes.  It was simple enough.

And the piece de resistance, Aran sweater for mom:

She picked the pattern at last year's Sheep and Wool, and I knitted it from Ralene's Jacob sport weight.  Once I washed it, it fluffed amazingly and looked more like a worsted, and the texture softened up delightfully.  The fluff effect really covered any unevenness in the stitches.  I'm very pleased with it.  And it knitted up surprisingly quickly!

Current projects: 2 baby blankets.  A cousin of Peter's and a friend from Chicago both having babies this spring.  The cousin's blanket is Loops & Threads Country Loom, acrylic and amazingly soft, knitted in the classic washcloth pattern (corner to corner diagonal, garter stitch with a narrow border).  The friend's blanket is Caron Simply Soft in a basketweave pattern made with knit and purl stitches (not Entrelac). 

I took the second blanket to work on at my fiber group meeting this week.  It didn't occur to me until I got there that taking acrylic to the fiber group might get me some funny looks.  But they were very nice.  Honestly, it's just hard to find a natural fiber yarn with the washability of synthetics.  And for babies, it's got to be washable!