Ravellenic Games Wrap Up

I didn't challenge myself with a specific technique or a huge project this time, I just completed a large amount of projects in the two weeks, for me at least.  I started and finished 3 projects, also competing in three additional events.  All in all I feel pretty happy with what I was able to accomplish.

The three projects I completed in full were a Tropical Lily top for Lil' Miss, a Milanese Loop cowl for Missus Gordon's Christmas present and a pair of Autumnal Mitts for Chatty-Cathy's Christmas gift.  The Tropical Lily and the cowl I actually worked on while we were on vacation, almost finishing them within the week.  I did learn I can knit in the car on super windy roads as long as I don't look down to much, and wow is the 245 between Woodlake and Badger windy beyond reason!  I cast on the mitts after finishing up the top for Lil' Miss and realizing they would be the perfect way to use up some of the yarn left over after knitting a cowl for a Christmas gift earlier in the year.  They took only 2 days to work start to finish, and I didn't even work them two at a time on one needle!

For the remaining events I competed in the frogging trampoline by ripping out one of my first sweater projects, Scabbard.  It was just too warm and I didn't do well with the alpaca, it made me itch like crazy so the yarn is destined for a cowl neck vest instead.  I also participated in the modular relay by working two additional sections of the Babette blanket that is still in progress for Destructo Boy.  Finally I cast on two projects for the cast on trap shoot, Chrysanthemum Frutescens Socks (that I also got to work as part of the KAL in the Violently Domestic Fans group on Ravelry) and a heavily modified Castle pullover.  I completely changed the neckline to be a scoop shape rather than a boatneck, I am hoping to make the sleeves 3/4 length at least, and I moved the start of the lace to below the bustline.

It was so much fun to have my own goals while I watched the athletes compete, and chatting and seeing what others did on Ravelry added to the excitement.  I am definitely looking forward to Sochi in 2014!

Dolman sleeves are back?!

Apparently they are and I just finished knitting one up to wear this summer.  I didn't set out to make one, in fact the yarn, Comfy fingering by Knit Picks, has been in my stash for over a year now.  Initially it was earmarked to make a Tempest cardigan, but I was really unsure about how the stripes change sizes in odd areas, like towards the bottom of the bust, but not under it like an empire waist.  So I rethought and decided perhaps Paulie would look better, some easy garter stitch at the shoulder and the same size stripe after that for the rest of the sweater.  The yarn however continued to sit as I worked on other projects that excited me far more than this cardigan did.  Until the fateful day while perusing the patterns on Ravelry I discovered the Roxborough Dolman by Courtney Kelley and was smitten, I had to have it.

Okay, the dolman sleeve thing was a bit odd I thought, and I wasn't really sure how the fit of it would work on me with my remaining post baby belly (still working on reducing that sucker down), but when I looked into the sizing I realized it was given in ranges so it would fit me now and if I ever manage to make my goal of losing 10-15 pounds it will still fit, awesomesauce!  Even better, I just happened to have a discount code from Interweave that I was able to use to purchase the digital verision of the magazine.  It was in my hot little hands, er, my laptop and then my ipod within minutes.  I did my gauge swatches that night.

The pattern is simple, just change the color after a set number of rows, and work increases on each side seam after another set number of rows, repeat endlessly.  It made for great tv knitting.  The yarn makes for a really nice light and so soft fabric when knit up, I am in love with it!  Now that it is all done I am hopeful I will be wearing it quite a bit over the summer and am again perusing patterns on Ravelry looking for fingering weight tops, they take awhile to finish but are oh so nice.

Of Failure & Triumph!

I started with trying to make a cardigan out of one of my issues of Verena knitting, #49 Milk.  It did not go well.  In fact it went so badly I never even bothered to take a picture of it before I destroyed it.  Lesson learned here, try to keep to a yarn not only with the same weight but also the same general fiber content, and don't keep trying when the gauge is really off, sometimes even going up a size or 2 won't work.  Of course I didn't figure this one out until after I had the back and one front done with the second front halfway done.  I guess I really liked those cables!

I did learn to re-skein and wash my yarn after frogging because of this debacle though, it really does take the kinks out once it is all dried out again.  I also have gotten really good with my nostepinne after winding it all up into balls for the second time, sigh.  The biggest pain was that the yarn, Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, is rather 'sticky' so it kept grabbing onto itself both while frogging and when I was winding it up after it's bath.

My second attempt at a cardigan with the yarn has gone much better and sadly enough is what my intuition was telling me I should have done in the first place, Snowbird.  It's a great pattern that gives fantastic results.  The start is kind of tricky, but once you get going it is pretty easy to follow.  I did notice that the back of the neckline is too big for me (possibly due to the yarn stretching out some after washing) which I fixed by doing a crab stitch with a crochet hook along the seam to pull it in.  This has helped a little, but it still feels like it might slip off my shoulders at any second.  Next time I'll follow the next size down for the back of the neck instructions.  I say 'next time' because knitting Snowbird has gone so well that I think I'll do it again with the knit side of the stockinette being the right side and using the cable and garter edge I liked so much from Milk for the collar instead of reverse stockinette.  I could of course just use an appropriate yarn for Milk, but I've been burned once and don't want to have it happen again!

It's done, for reals this time!

Yes, I finally finished my Dark & Stormy.  No more ripping stitches out, it is officially done, hooray!  This really is a great pattern and I think I am now hooked on Baby Cocktails designs,  I had already knitted Nantucket Red by her and love it too.  The only thing I found was that to me her designs run a little small, or maybe she likes her sweaters snugger than I do mine.  Hmm, or maybe I am just lying to myself about my true measurements...

To get my Dark & Stormy right I ended up ripping out the collar to the last of the short rows and picking out the bottom hem so I could add on the needed length.  On the bottom I added 12 rows of ribbing (about an inch and a half) before binding it off again.  For the collar I used a separate piece of yarn to do the pick up rows on each side where the hem was longer before spit splicing the yarn back together at the end of the short rows and continuing on with the pattern instructions from that point.  I did need to add a fifth buttonhole, thankfully I was able to find the last button in my sewing basket!

One thing I learned is that although a sewn bind off makes a wonderfully stretchy edge that looks good it is utter misery to pick out!  In spite of the pain this was and the additional week of working on it and nothing else really, it was worth it in the end.  I am now totally happy with the sweater and foresee much wearing of it.  I certainly hope the yarn will hold up, it is so soft I fear it will start pilling if I look at it funny!

Morgan, how I hate thee, let me count the ways!

Which is exactly why I hate this pattern, having to count every stitch on every row.  I do however, love the results.  At the end you have a fantastic driving cap made all in one piece with just a little seaming at the end, ingenious construction truly.  I just wish there wasn't quite so much counting needed for the end result.

Lil' Miss modelling the hat for me, I fear it may be too small for Chef 

I just finished making a second one of these hats for my dear friend The Chef as a Chanukah present.  The one I made last year out of a wool/acrylic blend was so well received I decided to make a second out of a cotton/linen blend for summertime wear for him.  I'm sure he will love this one too and it will undoubtedly look great on him, but, all things considered I think it will be a few years before I even consider making another, I just hate the counting that much.

Then I tried it on and looked in the mirror...dang it looks cute!  I may suck it up and make one for myself since I am sure something in my stash would work.  But all that counting, as cute as it is I'm not sure I am ready to go through that again anytime soon.

Digger is complete!

Sorry for the prolonged silence!  Somehow time just got away with me, I have been knitting but since many of the projects are intended as gifts, well, I just can't discuss them here.  I can tell you all about the latest project for Destructo though, I am quite proud of it.

This jacket took a really long time considering the size but I kept stopping as it made me nervous.  You know how it is, the knitting project is scary so set it aside for awhile as you work on something you have far more confidence in yourself  at making and then get back to it on a particularly good day self-confidence wise (is that even a proper word?).  There were a couple of new techniques in this project for me, of course the intarsia but also sewing in a zipper, yikes!

Destructo-boy seems to love it and I am pretty happy with it myself so it was well worth all the trouble.  For the zipper I first tried to hand sew it in but was not keeping even tension on the knit fabric so it was bunching up kind of funny.  Since I just wasn't happy with that I ripped out the seam and re-pinned the whole zipper so I could make an attempt with my machine.

Ah, the magic of a walking foot!  I went really slowly and carefully as I sewed with the machine and it did a much better job than I did by hand.  All I had to do was whip stitch the floppy edge of the zipper tape down and fold down the upper cut off edged of the zipper tape.  I think it came out beautifully if I do say so myself!  It was just a little strange to sew on a zipper without the zipper foot on the machine.

Another obstacle were all the ends to weave in, even with doing a Russian join at each color change on the striping part of the jacket there were still floppy ends that needed to be woven it.  Well, I suppose I could have just trimmed them but I thought they would look better woven in farther away from the edge of the jacket.

I must say I think it is awesome of the company to provide the pattern at no charge upon request, you don't often find companies willing to do such a thing.

Destructo Boy's new quilt

Yes, already finished!  I know, not much of a shock considering what an easy pattern it was but I am still rather pleased with myself.  I am so glad I got my new walking foot for the sewing machine, it worked amazingly well and this would have been impossible to do without it.  I suspect doing the hand stitching for the binding probably took the most time, my thumb is certainly still sore from it!

In case anyone is wondering, the majority of the cute car patterned fabric was made by Hoffman Fabrics, the blue sashing is a generic quilters cotton I picked up from Joann's and the aloha print fabric on the back of the quilt is by a company that I think is out of Hawaii that my local fabric shop carries, unfortunately the name escapes me right now.  I used some polyester batting from Joann's also since I had already washed the fabric and really didn't feel like washing the batting too.  Next time I'll use cotton batting and just wash it all together to get that nice scrunchy look.

I am actually really excited to keep working on quilts, Lil' Miss has already asked when she is getting one.  She may have awhile to wait as I really need to make one out of Mister Vonkysmeed's concert shirts first and I have been wanting one for my bed for quite awhile now.  Then of course I was inspired by The QuiltMaster to make holiday themed wall hanging quilts too, I already have the perfect spot in mind behind the couch.  Great, just what I needed, another addictive hobby!

I think my needles are smoking

Because this cardigan knit up crazy fast!  It took me 13 days from start to finish to make it, usually it takes me at least a month to make a sweater and far more than that when I make mistakes (like my Nantucket Red that took almost a month and a half).

The pattern is Lilas by Hilary Smith Callis, and is a very easy to follow top down raglan sleeve construction.  It seemed kind of odd at first since you are knitting that huge collar first, but as I went along it made more sense to me.  There is very little shaping to this cardigan as it is meant to be more of a casual summer layering piece.  All of this made it great for tv viewing, I just placed stitich markers between the stockinette body of the sweater and the border stitches so I could happily knit while engrossed in catching up with my DVR (mostly Falling Skies which shows a lot of promise to be a great show, here's hoping they keep making it better).  As for changes, I just made the body of the cardigan about 2.5" longer than indicated, yes the pattern is for a cropped sweater but since I am a bit squashed through the body a longer length looks better on me.  I also briefly contemplated making the sleeves 3/4 length but then realized part of the reason I loved the sweater was the great picture of Hilary wearing it over a long sleeve shirt so I followed the pattern exactly in the end (I need to go shopping for long sleeve tees once the stores get their fall collections in, I could wear all my short sleeve cardis this way!). 

For the yarn I picked out Comfy worsted by Knit Picks in the sea foam colorway that was purchased for me as a birthday gift from Chatty-Cathy and Grumpy.  I lurve this yarn!  It's a blend of cotton with acrylic which gives it a bit of stretchiness making it very easy and comfortable to knit with, unlike most cottons.  One of the reviews of this yarn on Ravelry describes it as feeling like your favorite tee shirt that's been washed a million times into comfy softness and that is exactly how it feels!  I will definitely be using this yarn again.

I am looking forward to wearing this sweater again soon, well at least when it starts to cool down again!  I really like the casual look to the floppy collar when the cardigan is left hanging open and that it can be pulled together for added warmth but still looks great.  Another great addition to my growing collection of hand knit cardigans.

Enchanted Tiki Room socks

My final pair of socks to accomplish my goal of 6pairs of socks knit in 2011!  These were in a KAL for the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry for June, the challenge that month was to knit self striping sock yarn in a pattern that would show off the stripy effect.  For my self striping yarn I chose to use some Felici fingering in the tiki colorway (and I even bought extra to make sure Lil' Miss could have some socks in this great color too), and yes, when I first saw the name I had the theme song to the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland running through my head.  I have already promised myself to get a cool picture of my socks at the attraction at some point soon!

I really wanted to do the Jaywalkers pattern, but the way the chevron pattern is created would be too tight over my high arches based on other knitters comments.  I suppose I could have tried to make them, but then when they didn't fit after all that work and me loving the look of the pattern so much I probably would have cried.  So I kept looking until I found Topographical socks by Katie McEwen which gives the chevron look, but has columns of purl stitches and lacy yarn overs that give the sock a bit more stretch.  That said, they are still rather snug on my feet.  

I didn't really modify the pattern much, I just knit the leg to 3" before starting the heel flap, as that is as much leg as I like, and then for the heel I did a regular heel flap and gusset combo rather than the short row heel in the pattern.  Again, I made this decision to change the heel construction due to the high arches.  For the toe I followed the pattern exactly.  It was a really easy pattern to memorize, the chart only had two rows on it and it was an 8 stitch repeat, so they went really quickly.  

I am happy with the pattern, but not so sure about the colors, they are kind of bright.  I am beginning to realize as much as I love all the crazy colored sock yarns I don't know that I am quite ready to wear them.  And now that my small project bag is empty it's time to fill it up with holiday knitting.  Starting Executive Funk for Chatty-Cathy next, yea, something other than socks for awhile!

Kudzu shawlette

The main reason I decided to even make this shawl (beyond the whole, ooh pretty knee jerk response) was to get my mind back into the lace knitting mindset before I started on a wedding veil for Crafty Auntie.  Kudzu was the KAL for the Beginning Lace Knitters group on Ravelry for June and as soon as I saw it I added it to my favorites thinking I would get to it some day.  Then I realized I was planning on making the veil out of kidsilk haze which I hear is a rather difficult yarn to knit with so thought maybe working on something that gets me back into the place of mind I need to be to work on lace just might be a good idea.  Then of course Knit Picks went and had a summer sale, I was a goner I tell you (yes, I bought much more than just the yarn for this shawl, darn their sales)!

The pattern is really easy to follow and is both written out and charted, I loved how I was able to memorize the short repeats in no time at all, which was nice since the rows were incredibly looong!  There was a time halfway thorough where I though I'd never get done but that feeling went away pretty quickly thankfully.  I think the yarn is a pretty good match to the pattern too, it's KP Comfy sport in the honeydew color, of course it wasn't on sale, but the yellow yarn that was the backup color I ordered was which will end up being a top for Lil' Miss someday.  It is so soft too, definitely feels like your favorite cotton t-shirt as some have commented, I just want to cuddle up with the thing!  The nice cotton/acrylic blend is perfect for wearing here in sunny So Cal on those days or evenings when there is just a hint of coolness in the air.

I have now decided this crescent shape is my favorite for shawls, I have a rectangular shawl that I barely wear and did try on the various triangular ones I made as gifts last Christmas but this shape is definitely best for me.  Since it has a nice curve to it already it tends to stay put much better, which is my main complaint with shawls I hate how they fall off the shoulders, when I put something on I expect it to stay where I put it, I don't want to have to repeatedly mess with my clothes.  Apparently The Momster likes it too, she was seriously coveting this shawl over the weekend at a barbeque we had.  I think I know what her Christmas gift will be, now just to settle on a pattern, maybe Indian Feathers but with heavier yarn...

The Cardigan is out of time out...and finished!

I originally blogged about my frustration with this Nantucket Red sweater a few weeks ago and have now finally finished it, yea!  I went up in needle size to a US 6 and am much happier with the result.  To be honest it totally sucked to have to rip out almost an entire sweaters worth of knitting but the results make the effort worth it.  It went much better the second time around.  The fabric being knit actually has some give to it so I was hoping it would fit, if anything I thought it would probably be a little loose at the end of the day! 

It seemed to be going both slower and faster than the first time around.  Slower because since I had already done it once I was having a hard time working up the excitement to get working on it, faster because I had already done it and knew what I needed to do next.  Another change I made in addition to the needle size was to add in some extra stitches to accommodate my bust when working on the fronts since I am not a huge fan of the pulled tight across the chest look.  That is how the sweater is designed, but looking through the finished projects it looks just as nice not pulled quite so tight.  Although I did this it is still pulled a bit tight across the front but seems to look pretty good anyway.


The collar went much smoother the second time around, I managed to do a better job of picking up the correct amount of stitches this time.  I did make a change here again, I decided I didn't like the short rows on the collar as the pattern calls for, it was looking funny to me so I pulled out the bind off and redid part of the collar for a third time.  The collar looks much better now, I am actually really happy with it.  I was very apprehensive with the sleeves as I was deathly afraid of them being too snug, so I decided to cast on a few extra stitches, 4 to be exact.  The sleeves ended up being very close fitting but not uncomfortably so by adding in the extra stitches, I can't imagine how they would have fit without those extra stitches!

Mostly I am just so happy to be done at this point with a finished cardigan as a whole that fits okay since I did not want to have to knit this thing a third time!  If it still wasn't fitting right I probably would have shoved the whole mess into my yarn stash boxed and worked on something else.  I had started knitting this when Lil' Miss began the spring session of her ballet class and in the modeled pictures I am wearing it at her recital at the end of the class, about 9 weeks total from start to finish.  That is one heck of a long knit for me, I hope my next planned cardigan, Lilas by Hilary Smith Calis, goes much smoother.

Meet Angus the Attic Monster

He is the latest addition to a slowly growing collection of monsters around our house.  He began as a way to utilize some yarn I was gifted that I would quite honestly never wear for socks, the colors are just nothing that appeal to me.  But for a monster, particularly an Attic Monster?  They are perfect!  This little guy was nabbed by Destructo-Boy before the glue even had a chance to set on his mouth.

Another fantastic pattern from Rebecca Danger's Big Book of Knitted Monsters, Angus took only 230 yards of sock yarn that was held doubled on US 4 needles.  It is so neat to be able to substitute just about any yarn for that which is indicated in the pattern, I absolutely adore this book!  The patterns are very well written, some of the clearest instruction I have come across and the monsters themselves are easy to assemble and customize.  I guess I don't need to worry overmuch about what to do with yarn leftover once a project is finished, just make a monster!  I did use the resource suggested for safety eyes, 6060 on Etsy and she was fantastic!  The prices are extremely reasonable, great selection, and the shipping was wicked fast, I had the package in my hands in less than 3 days from across the continental US.

Sheldon & Sheila

the project currently gracing my title

After completing one of my recent projects, the Sourpatch top for Lil' Miss, I realized I had a whole mess of yarn leftover after knitting all those bubble stripes.  After checking the Ravelry database for patterns using the yarn I realized I could make not just one, but two of the Sheldon turtles.  I had been eying this pattern for awhile now so was happy to finally be able to make it.

Sheila smelling the lavender, beware of the bees!

It was a relatively tricky pattern, but I was able to conquer it.  I think the part that was the most difficult was guessing the crochet hook size since it is not indicated in the pattern.  I used a size US D which ended up being too small as the bottom part of the shell opening didn't really stretch very much and made it difficult to get the shell on and off the turtle.  Which isn't such a bad thing, maybe this way the shells won't get misplaced!

Sheldon trying to blend in with the thyme, doing pretty good too.

I knitted these turtles in tandem, knitting the bodies first, than legs for one and then legs for the other, etc. so that they would be done at about the same time.  I knew one child would feel left out if the other already had their turtle and they were still waiting.  I got them done pretty close together, Sheldon was finished about an hour or two before Sheila so both kids ended up pretty happy.  Unfortunately the necks aren't holding up too well to little kid handling.  The pattern does say to stuff them firmly and I did the best I could but it still wasn't enough.  On another project I saw notes about the knitter making an extra leg, stuffing it firmly and putting it into the neck to keep the stuffing there.  In hindsight I wish I had done this too, but at least the kids love their turtles!

those shells sure were tricky!

My first Monster

I have recently begun to knit some fun little creatures in my quest to use up stashed yarn.  I hate having bits of yarn leftover and it seems like making stuffed friends seems like a pretty good use for them.  Happily I recently received The Big Book of Knitted Monsters for my birthday and it sure does enable me to use up stash yarn on some really cute little monsters.

The first monster I decided to knit was picked out by Lil' Miss to be given to her school teacher, Dot the Dress Up Box Monster.  Although we did rename her Cleo the Classroom Monster as she would be living in a Kindergarten classroom.  She ended up being significantly smaller than the pattern as I was running short on red yarn, I just didn't do most of the knit rounds that added length through the body, so she is a tad squished looking.  I even had to find another bit of red yarn from my stash box just to finish up the top of her head!  And the blue arms, well, they should be red according to the pattern but I just didn't have enough yarn so they ended up blue.  The snaggly teeth are because that way simply because I don't cut things out very well so I intentionally made them weird, but Lil' Miss likes them so it's all good.

Happily Cleo was well received by Lil' Misses schoolteacher.  So well received in fact that I often see the monster sitting on her desk out of reach of little hands.  Well, except Lil' Miss, since I made the monster she feels quite comfortable cuddling it as she does her classwork and teacher doesn't seem to mind.  I can also claim responsibility in some way for the sale of another of the Monster books.  Apparently teachers mom knits and always makes and gives scarves at Christmastime.  Teacher shared a pic of the monster on her Facebook page and issues a strongly worded suggestion to her mother that a monster for Christmas would be much better received than another scarf.  I do believe the book was ordered the next day.

I enjoyed knitting this little gal so much I am pretty sure I will ended up making every pattern in this book at least once, and some probably more than that.  So, who else wants a monster for a Christmas present?!

Knitting for Lil' Miss

Jiminy Christmas it's been awhile since I've chatted about knitting! I recently finished up two items for Lil' Miss and I didn't even have a chance to wash them before she snatched them fresh off my needles and put them on.  Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, I mean who complains about someone who is so delighted to wear items knit for them?  There were 2 projects I was working on for her, a pair of rainbow knee high socks I talked about earlier in this post and a summery cotton top, Sourpatch published in Petite Purls last summer.

I had fallen in love with the top as soon as I saw it but didn't get to it until last month.  I seem to have trouble knitting a season ahead, which is probably what I should be doing but I just don't want to deal with wool in summer or little cotton tops in winter.  Anyway, I used Knit Picks shine for this top and the colors and sheen of the yarn are perfect for the design, of course Lil' Miss helped to pick out the colors for the top and had great fun doing so..  In spite of  the original being done in wool I chose cotton as the wool seemed a little counter-intuitive to me, I mean, who wants to wear wool in the summer?    I had a devil of a time getting gauge and now that it's done I think I should have gone down a needle size for the color stripes as I did for the stockinette portion.  The biggest hiccup occurred because I didn't fully read the pattern, for all larger sizes there are more color stripes and I just looked at the picture and bought according to that, oops!  So I got knit up to the last strip with the yarn I had and set it aside while I waited for the final color to arrive.  Once it did the knitting went fairly quickly, if rather repetitive once I hit the stockinette portion, knitting only knit stitches endlessly in a loop can get, well, hellishly boring!  I did enjoy a few movies while doing that part I must say.

After the rough start with her rainbow knee highs they went pretty quickly the final time, taking about 2 weeks to complete from start to finish after the third cast on.  It is so much fun to watch the color changes as you knit, really alleviates some of the boredom with doing endless rows of ribbing.  I'll say it now, her next socks will not be knee highs (I'm thinking of either Hermione socks or Socks for Little Witches out of some felici in tiki I couldn't help but buy) and it will probably be awhile before she gets another pair of knee high socks!

The sourpatch top I knit for her fared better than the socks without being washed before wearing.  The only issue with it is that it turned out a bit on the large side and since I thought a shirt that falls off one or both shoulders probably isn't too appropriate for school I wove a narrow pink ribbon through the top just below the cable cast on to nip it in.  Although not part of the design the little ribbon and bow look totally adorable and make me even happier with my result!  As for the socks, well, I felt kind of bad for her when I picked her up at school the day she wore them for the first time as they were sadly around her ankles.  Hopefully that won't happen again as they have now been properly washed however if it does I think I may need to run some elastic thread around the tops to help keep them in place, at least I will if it bothers her enough!

The Hoodless Hoodie

I just finished up my Austin hoodie by Connie Chang Chinchio and I am so incredibly happy with how it came out.  I still can't quite believe that I managed to make it come out the right size even though I didn't follow the gauge or my size according to the pattern.  All I can say for this one is that the washing and blocking really made it, the fit was totally wonky until after I ran it through the wash and laid it out to dry.  Can I say again just how happy I am with how this cardigan came out?

I did make a few pretty minor modifications to make my Austin.  First off the gauge, I knit mine at 5 stitches per inch rather than the pattern gauge of 6 stitches per inch, just because I liked the look of the fabric better that way.  To make up for knitting at a different gauge I followed the pattern stitch counts for a size larger than what would be my size, but I did follow the length for my size. Along the front I wanted to have buttons in case I needed to close up the cardi, so every 20 rows I did a really simple yarn over buttonhole.  I also knit 10 rows in garter stitch for the hem as I wrote about in a previous blog post, and I did the 10 rows of garter stitch for the sleeve cuffs and for the edge of the collar.  Ah, the collar!  I knit the hood per pattern for 4.25" then did the garter stitch to finish it off.  I didn't want a hood as I felt it would: 1) hide all the work I had done on the upper back of the cardigan, 2) would be a total waste of the yarn, and 3) plus I was afraid I wouldn't have enough yarn as I was making a larger size than intended.

As it turns out not only do I have plenty of yarn, I even have enough left over (about 340 yds) to make myself a nice little pair of socks!  Do you sense a growing obsession there?  I fear I do!  A quick word on the yarn I used, Araucania Itata solid in light lilac (Ravelry link), after washing the yarn has softened up considerably, I am actually surprised how much it improved with washing!  It doesn't have much give while knitting, but it is nothing like knitting with cotton or crappy acrylic (not all acrylic is crappy, just most of it).  It was certainly a learning experience to knit with alternating 2 skeins at once since this is a non-dyelot yarn.  The color of the yarn was worth the effort, but it is not my favorite thing to do!  Maybe it is the fairly loose gauge of this garment that made the change from one yarn to another so obvious, but I will probably need to take a crochet hook to it in an attempt to even out the stitches a bit.

I definitely made my goal on this one though, I wanted to be able to wear it this spring, maybe for Easter and it certainly got done in time for Easter (and it would have been done even if it weren't so late this year!)!  Now to get started on the next stash down before my new Knit Picks order arrives, a short sleeved Sahara knit with Misti Alpaca Pima Cotton & Silk in kiwi (Ravelry link).

New Socks!

I just finished my toe-up socks that I have been knitting along with the Knit Picks Lovers group on Ravelry (blogged about here earlier this month).  I used the Toe-Up Socks With a Difference pattern by Wendy Johnson with the motif from Pillars by Lisa Stichweh, knit with Knit Picks Stroll tonal yarn in Blue Yonder on 2.5mm needles.  They actually turned out quite nicely, I am rather surprised!  I thought I would have a lot more trouble than I did since I have these ridiculously high arches.  As it turned out I just needed to start the gusset increases a little sooner and do a few more rows to make room for those arches (I started 1/2" sooner than indicated in pattern and did 2 additional rows of increases).  That said, I do think I prefer cuff down, it is just that much easier to adapt the pattern for my feet.

The socks do fit comfortably, but as you can see they are pulling across the arch, the heel flap is being pulled in towards the top/toe of my foot to make room for that arch o' mine.  I maybe should have added in 2 additional increase rounds, but I am not ripping anything out now to do so!  I also might have made them a tad longer, but to be honest I was getting kind of sick of knitting them so crapped out and just finished them off, although I do like socks about this height I am finding so we'll just say I did it on purpose!

 As you can see I even got started on a secondary goal for the year, working on Christmas gifts.  I already got this little stocking ornament done and will be making a mitten and mini sweater ornament from my leftovers as well.  They are really cute little things and do help use up those little leftovers, although since I prefer shorter socks my leftovers are a bit more in yardage I believe than others have.  I wonder if I can make Lil' Miss a pair of socks from just under 200 yards of yarn?

Warm hands, finally!

It's amazing how much can change in a year.  I first saw the Chevalier mittens last January and it was love at first sight, however, I was extraordinarily intimidated by them.  All those cables, and something with that small of a diameter, eek!  I really, really wanted them but wasn't sure if I could ever successfully make them.  That said, I did buy yarn to make them the next month which promptly went into my stash boxes and languished there for a year.  After a few very cold mornings last month, I decided I really needed some mittens and it was time to face my fear of the Chevaliers.

It turns out they weren't nearly as difficult as I imagined they would be.  Seems that my skills have developed quite a bit over the past year and they weren't really that hard at all (they were fiddly though with that dang cable needle!).  I guess that I hadn't realized just how much I have learned about knitting and things that once seemed impossible are well within my ability to do.  I even managed to do them using magic loop and both at the same time, go me!

About my only gripe is that I mis-crossed one of the cables and was already so far past it once I realized it that I decided to just leave it rather than try to rip everything out to fix it.  For you see, I had already done it once already and wasn't in the mood to do it again.  Wasn't it the Kelts who would purposefully make a mistake in their lovely illustrated Bibles to honor God as he was the only one capable of perfection?  Or was that a tradition in Islam?  Whichever, I'll just think of my error as an homage to this tradition, plus no one will likely notice it but me! (oh, and of course anyone who reads this here blog will be sure to point it out to me if they see them!)  I may have kind of brought it on myself though as I decided to mirror the mittens and thus changed up the cross for each mitten, teach me to 'improve' a pattern.

Next up for the hands, fingerless mittens for those not quite as cold mornings, but which pattern to make, hmmm?!

Christmas knitting already?!

Yup, it is only 27 days into the new year as of this writing and I have already completed three little Christmas presents.  I found these awesome little patterns for ornaments and I think they are perfect for using up my leftovers from knitting socks.  My plan is to knit up one of each after completing a pair of socks this year, that way I'll keep up with Christmas knitting all year and use up my scraps, happiness all around!

The patterns?  Yes, all three are well written and easy to follow, it will be a pleasure to make them over again multiple times.  On the left is Mini Mitten Ornament by Andrea Kopacek, in the center is Cheers! by Cheryl Niamath, and on the left is Mini Christmas Stocking by Little Cotton Rabbits.  I was able to get all three done over the course of a Saturday in between dealing with kids and getting distracted by my computer from time to time.  I used sock needles sizes US 2 1/2 and US 3, and each ornament used up about 5.5 grams of sport weight yarn.

The stocking ornament is knit flat and even comes with suggestions for different fair isle designs (maybe I can learn on something this small?) which look really fun to try.  Looking at other project pages quite a few people have added initials onto the sweater ornaments a'la Harry Potter, which look really adorable, I think I'll give that a try too!  Hooray for keeping another goal for the year!

First socks of 2011

nobody can dig out the chocolate first with these neapolitans!

Yea!  I am on my way to keeping one of my goals with my first socks of the new year, only 5 more pairs to go.  I used the Carolina pattern by Monkey Toes with KnitPicks Felici yarn in the Neapolitan colorway.  I love them!  Okay, it figures that I make some nice warm squishy socks out of sport weight yarn and we have a taste of summer in the middle of winter (it is currently 76 degrees F in my front hallway, gotta love Southern California!) so of course I can't wear them.

that nifty eye of partridge heel flap, love it

Unfortunately I did get almost done with one sock only to realize my gauge was too tight and they were really hard to get on my foot.  Sigh, so I put in an order for some larger sock needles (can I tell you I was so disappointed with that!) and pulled it all apart to start anew.  Since I has to start over anyway I decided to use my newly learned TAAT technique that I had just started to figure out on the sleeves for Lil' Misses new sweater.  Knitting actually went rather quickly doing this, it only took me a little over a week to get them done.  The only thing I am kind of iffy on is the toe, I do like the eye of partridge pattern I knit but I feel that I should have switched to that earlier even if it meant I just knit a few rounds without decreasing yet.  Maybe it's just me but it looks a bit weird with the sock pattern going onto my toes, my toes are a bit squarish so it doesn't take too much to decrease for me and it just seems a bit sudden to my eye.

zoom, it's a toe!

Next up will be Toe Up Socks With a Difference by Wendy Johnson using the design element from Pillars by Lisa Stichweh with some KnitPicks stroll tonal yarn in the blue yonder colorway.  I plan on starting these next socks along with the Knit Picks Lovers group on ravelry as part of a February KAL.  I am really excited about these socks and am looking forward to learning toe up, here's hoping I can figure it out!