AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

is it finished if it isn't on the blog

Life has just been crazy busy at work and in the knitting trenches. 

A little recap:  Last week (it feels like forever since I posted even though it was only a couple of days) I sent in an order for the yarn I needed for Vestish.  Apparently it is not going to be 100% from the stash after all.  The yarn arrived last night, so I can get back to work on that momentarily.  My stashalong goals were to only buy yarn when I finished two projects or to finish a project on the needles.  I guess the yarn for Vestish falls under category B.

Of course, I had to order yarn for this week (it's part of finishing 2 things after all!), so I have yarn on order for the Butterscotch Cardigan and to try the Frog Camisole with a different yarn.  The Vintage Cotton is just very hard on my hands.

While I was waiting for yarn to come in, I kind of went crazy starting things.  I am about halfway through the yoke increases for Abotanicity and am nearly done the first sleeve in my GoLion version of the One Skein Wonder.  No pictures of those, but there are pictures because I finally gave my latest socks their blocking bath and dried them (I was going to show them on the sock blockers that I finally succumbed to, but they are acryllic and don't do so well with the flash photography). 

So, finally finished:

Pattern: Monkey socks (again)

Yarn: Umm, I believe this was some handpainted Opal yarn I bought in mumble-mumble from Woolcott before I had ever made a pair of socks.  I believe that I bought the yarn in 2004 (it was definitely before I got married)...

I love the yarn.  It is bright enough to feel extra special in my grey and black corporate uniform, but not so bright that I feel like my feet have taken center stage.  This picture doesn't do justice to either the yarn or the pattern. 

I didn't do any modifications on the pattern.  Probably because I enjoy doing the twisted rib, which is one of the reasons I loved making the Ripple and Weave socks last year.  I really need to make Potamus at some point, because it has all of the design elements I seem to gravitate towards in my fancier socks.

So, I do have another finished object to show off, but I haven't managed to take any pictures yet.  It's been done for at least two weeks (including blocking), but it is hard to find the time to take a nice proper picture.

Swiffer?

I was inspired by Gleek's swiffer cover (Ravelry link) from yesterday (at least that's when I read it).  I had a partial ball of Sugar and Cream back from a washcloth I made ages ago, and figured I'd use it up.  I had to find my second ball of yarn, because I didn't have quite enough to make the cover.

Because I'm too lazy to download the pattern, I cast on 40 stitches and knit the first and last 5 in stockinette, using seed stitch in the middle.  When I had enough knit to cover the paddle front, I bound off.  I then picked up 40 stitches from each side and knit 8 rows.  I bordered the entire thing with single crochet.

If (though probably when as I have about 3/4th of a skein left) I make another one, I will eliminate the side border (I had meant to knit the cover from left to right, but realized that my stitch count meant I had the width of the paddle covered).

This was a reasonably quick knit.  I started it during the day, but did the bulk of the knitting during the Red Wings-Penguins game (it was sad!).

I think I'll be starting Vestish (Ravelry link) today.  I pulled out the yarn this morning that I want to use.  Another project all from the stash!  Vivat!

Number 2 (sort of?)

The Baby Viking Hat (from Bella Knitting) was a quick, fun knit.  Instead of using the Aurora 8 it called for, this one is knit in Tahki Cotton Classic.  I have a fair amount of each skein left (especially the ecru color). 

This knit didn't receive the benefit of blocking, but for the photos has been stuffed with plastic bags to fill out the shape.

When I gave it to the happy family yesterday, they wanted the pattern (which I told them how to get.  I love my copyright law).  It is definitely easier to make the bobbles with a wool yarn.  There is just so little elasticity in cotton!

I made the baby size, so there would be some time for growing into it.  Baby hats feel so small!

c'est fini!

Last week was a pretty productive knitting week for me.  I finished (including those pesky ends to weave in and blocking).

The first thing I finished was Convertible. 

Convertible was a pretty easy knit, not really worth the piquant rating.  Every wrong side row is purled, so it is pretty easy to keep track of the patterned rows.  I didn't make any modifications other than yarn.  The yarn I used (Unger Angelspun) is a mohair blend. 

More specifics?

Skeins needed: Just under 3

Time to knit: Just under a month (April 28-May 22).  It was taking me about two hours a repeat (from buttonhole to buttonhole).  Each repeat felt like it was taking forever after the novelty of the lace pattern wore off, so I'm glad it is done. I'm pretty sure I'll make another one at some point, though I want to make it in the bamboo yarn it called for.  I haven't seen it on the Blue Moon site though.  Did they stop making it (the pattern is about two years old)?

Oh, and completely needed to take a picture of this in my gym clothes.  I promise that they're clean!

For amanda j: button picture?

Vintage mother of pearl buttons.  They really play well off of the colors in the yarn, which was what I was looking for.  Something timeless.

There were other buttons I could have used, but they were hugely oblong bulky shank buttons.  Fine for another project, but not for lace.

Dancing along

in FO land!

Convertible is blocking (hallelujah!).  I got through the last of the knitting during lunch yesterday, so I wove in the ends this morning and gave it a light washing.  Of course, blocking always makes Saru-chan (the kitty) mad.  She likes having full reign, but isn't terribly careful or nice to hand knits.  This means that the door is firmly closed.  But at least I have blocked it during the day this time.  Normally I block at night, so we are woken up by plaintive meows.

I spent a bit of time rethinking my current rotation.  When I was doing a lot of cross-stitch, I used this document religiously.  It helped me finish projects in time for the major holidays (mostly because I never did a project that was less than 30 hours of work), and allowed me to alternate the simpler projects with something a little more robust.  Of course, the document really isn't the same for knitting.  It just feels easier to start dozens of projects, so mostly the rotation is there to help me remember what projects I'm working on and if they are stupid close¹ to completion.

I figured that when I printed out my current rotation that I was going to fill the next five spots with the next projects I wanted to work on.  Simple.  One project finished, one project (of similar size ideally - we'll see how long this lasts) to start.  Of course, if I am smarter I will try and finish two projects for each one I start, because I have 13 11 projects on this list (7 5 of which are close to completion).  I'm never sure if organization like this will actually last, but I figure I need to at least give it a try.

I finished this and a secret project this morning, so I pulled out one of my stupid close projects and hope to have it done this weekend!  I mean, I am 3 repeats and a toe away from a pair of Monkey socks so there are no excuses!

¹Stupid Close isn't really a technical term, but I use it for all of those projects that only had a few inches of work or just the blocking/weaving in of ends/seaming to do that just aren't done.  It's like I did 90% of the work and I'm being super lazy and not finishing the rest of it.  Really, really dumb!

knitting muppets

I apologize for the picture.  Our camera is over at a friend's house, so I had to resort to the camera phone.  While it is normally better than this, the room doesn't have the best lighting for this kind of thing. 

This is the Elegant (or was it Evening) shrug that I knit up for one of the lovely ladies at the chocolate shop.  I am going to bring it by tomorrow, and she'll be able to give it as a gift this weekend.  I cut it very close to the line on this one, because the short rows (combined with picking up stitches in a hard to see knit) was giving me the heebie jeebies. 

This shrug feels a little oversized.  I made the medium, but if I were making this for myself I would probably make the small.  I will probably make this for myself someday soon.  I have about half a monster skein of Oak Grove yarn left from the Ruffled Capelet I made a couple of years ago.  I think this would look pretty snazzy in a nice simple dark yarn (probably a rich brown) with the collar being a showpiece of yarn and color. 

I hope that she likes this (and that the recipient likes it when she gets it).  I've already started Convertible, and am just through the first lace pattern repeat (only 33 more lace repeats to go!).

A year of socks

I decided sometime at the end of last year that I liked hand knitted socks and that three pairs were not enough.  I wanted more socks and I wanted to knit them.  A pair each month.  Of course, I didn't knit a pair in January and while I have two separate pairs started in February, it wasn't looking terribly likely that I'd get those done either. 

So, I cheated.

I had a single ball of Silky Wool left after knitting the Tangled Yoke.  Saturday night (I think), I cast on for the Cabled Anklets in One Skein by Leigh Radford.  I knit on them while my hubby was watching BU defeat Maine a second night in a row in overtime, and I continued knitting on them most of the weekend.  I knit on them on Monday morning when Saru-chan continued to voice objections over the use of the bedroom as a blocking area, and then I finished them.

The size 3 needles and my small-ish feet were a good combo for these socks, so they were quick.  I could have made them a little taller, and I haven't blocked them.  They are socks for around the house, and their bright red color is just what I'll need when I reach for them on a snowy day.

So, I have finished my first pair of socks for the year and I have another pair on the needles (somewhere in the foot - if I get a move on I'll be able to finish the first sock sometime this week).

Yesterday I started the Tree Bark sweater from Loop-D-Loop. I just needed something at a bigger gauge than socks (size 1), the Frog Camisole (size 2 or 0, I'd have to double check), the Swiss Cheese Scarf (size 3) or abotanicity (something small).  So, I did the most cursory gauge swatch I could, then *cough* ignored it and decided to make the medium anyway.  My gauge is about 28 stitches for 4 inches unstretched (instead of 24), but the entire top is ribbed and is meant to stretch over the curves.  I think it will still work, because the unstretched measurement is within a few inches of my waist measurement and my bust measurement is somewhere within the ballpark of the stretched to highly stretched measurement. 

But mostly this was because I wanted to use the size 6 needles.  Because after size 3 and 2 they are huge!

I'm an adult knitter now!

My very first cardigan with button bands and sewn on buttons and adult sizing!

I finished the Tangled Yoke on Saturday, February 16, about 1.5 months after restarting it.  I went with the 34" bust for a little bit of negative sizing, which makes it less of a layering piece.  I am completely thrilled.  It took me a few tries to pick up the proper number of stitches for the button bands and my button placement was 100% perfect, but for a first adult sweater this is still pretty sweet!

Project Specs:
Pattern: Tangled Yoke by Eunny Jang (Interweave Knits)
Yarn: Silky Wool, 6 skeins
Size: 34"
Button detail

I didn't really change anything about this.  To get row gauge, my perrenial downfall, I knit this with both US 3 and 4 needles.  The cabled band wasn't hard, though I definitely made my fair share of mistakes with it.  This would have been a good spot to add a stitch marker for the initial 4 stitches that are always worked plain.  Part of me feels like the button bands were the hardest thing I've ever done, though I've done intarsia so that's not really true.  Finishing an adult size, non-sock garment though is a great feeling.  I have plenty of smaller projects that I've gotten done, so I know I can do a range of things now and not just need to concentrate on the little stuff.

Of course, about two days after I finished this sweater I finally took that size 4 needle and started the lacy dress (no pictures of that because 2 rows of lace looks like nothing but fuzz).

It was an amazingly productive weekend.  Tons of knitting done, some reading, and some video games for a great change from the crazy week in Valentine's retail.

A knitterly weekend

This weekend was a lovely expanse of knitting (I didn't stay inside all weekend and knit, but I made such great progress that it felt like I stayed in all weekend to knit).

I finished my Koolhaas.  I used a partial skein of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, pulling apart a swatch to finish the last 4 or so rounds at the top.  The Lamb's Pride is a little bit hairy (and itchy, but it is a hat and warm is more important), so the stitches don't show up quite as well.  I just needed to finish something this weekend, so I was happy to make it a hat in time for some more snow (I was out in the snow for a little more than an hour walking all over Somerville and Medford).

I even made more progress on the Tangled Yoke.  I attached the sleeves, which was a bit fiddly.  I've assured myself that the sleeves are on the right way and have about 2 more inches of straight knitting before I get to the cables.  I'm am so excited to get to that part of the sweater, because it's the part I've been waiting for this entire time.  If things go as planned this weekend (more knitting and figure skating Saturday evening and lots of Super Bowl knitting on Sunday) then I might get past the cables and into the real home stretch. 

Unfortunately, Tangled Yoke is a little too big to cart around on the T, so I started something new.  I decided that the 4 balls of Vintage Cotton in my stash would make a great Frog Camisole.  Of course, that means I blithely cast on 348 stitches on the train and started knitting.  I mean, what idiot would cast on that many stitches without making at least a rudimentary swatch.  Oh, right.  Me.  So, I ripped it all out last night and am doing a swatch.  I can't start the lacy dress until I finish the Tangled Yoke (I need those 4s for the lacy portion at the bottom), so I have told myself that it is OK to start something new instead of finishing something that has been languishing.  That probably makes me an idiot too, but it makes me a happy idiot.