FOs – Page 3 – Rush Hour Knitting

Wednesday, 30 December, 2009Wednesday, 30 December, 2009

Christmas Wrap-Up

There are still some cookies left, and the tree is still gamely shedding needles, but Christmas is winding down. My gifts have been distributed and I can now share them with you all, in lovely photo mosaic format:

In order:
1. Mom’s socks, knit in basic stockinette on US1s out of Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock in Black Watch. The moment I saw the colorway I knew I would use it for her Christmas present. She put them on immediately, which was very pleasing.
2. E’s Cross-Country Chullo, done in Knitpicks Palette in Golden Heather and Clematis Heather. E is my Vermont sister and needs warm things to cover her ears when she walks her dog. She also put it on immediately, so quickly that our other sister had to point the skiiers out to her.
3. Last-minute Cowls, because I always get distracted working on my immediate family. These are the Simple Fitted Cowl done in Malabrigo left over from my Holly & Ivy wrap; one for my cousin and one for my grandfather’s aide – she put it on right away and left it on for the rest of the night even though she was sitting next to a roaring fire. That is appreciation, and I appreciate her appreciation.
4. Brother Socks – Thuja pattern done in Knitpicks new sport-weight Stroll in Cobblestone Heather. The yarn was a bit splitty but I’m very happy with how it worked up. These were not tried on, because my brother shows appreciation by nodding. He nodded quite a bit, so I’m happy.
5. Blink! – My sister B presented me with Knitpick’s ornament kit for my birthday this summer, and then requested the String of Lights pattern. I was very happy to oblige. Now I have to make one for myself!
6. Coffee Cozies knit from the Quick and Easy Coffee Cozy pattern in some leftover Wool of the Andes out of the stash. These went to my sister’s boyfriends, one of whom drinks coffee and one of whom drinks…cocoa. When he’s not drinking beer. Which could also fit in a cozy.
7. Dad’s Selbuhat. I took the main motif from the Selbuvotter #10 (which I knit this spring for Dad) to make him a matching hat. It hasn’t been blocked yet, since I had to wait for him to try it on to make sure it fit. It does – picture me doing a massive sigh of relief!
8. Grandfather Socks – these are for my grandfather, whose feet get cold at night. They’ve become a tradition. Paton’s Classic in Jade, held doubled. Amazing how much faster socks go when you use fat yarn!

Then there was a wedding this past Sunday, which called for more gifts. Since I do this for every wedding I wasn’t about to change course now:

These are the Oven Mitt and Trivet patterns from Bev Galaskas’s book Felted Knits, done in Wool of the Andes held double and helped by my sister’s dog, who kept stealing the WIP out of my suitcase when I was visiting earlier this month. I have learned that Eeyore the Dog is not to be trusted with yarn. (At one point he stole it right out of my lap.)

And then I actually finished something for me, too.

My own Christmas socks! Another iteration of the Thuja pattern, this time in Socks that Rock in the Hollydays colorway, although it wasn’t labeled as such, being a mill end that I picked up at Rhinebeck. I am very pleased at the subtleness of the colorway, and also that it is warm and cozy. They were finished about an hour before we left for church on Christmas Eve, which is cutting it it a little close, I admit. But I got to wear them Christmas Day and let my toes join in the festivities. Bailey’s for me, socks for my feet — everyone’s happy.

Now I am off to spend New Year’s with friends, and consider my knitting resolutions for 2010. They involve socks. This will shock nobody, I’m sure. Enjoy your last days of 2010!

Tuesday, 1 December, 2009Tuesday, 1 December, 2009

Socks Socks Socks

MAPLE SOCKS

Pattern: Jaywalkers, by Grumperina
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock in Maple Grove
Needles: US1/2.25mm
Notes: This yarn was a souvenir from my trip to Chicago this summer. I spent a very long time in Loopy pouring over their large collection of Lorna’s Laces and picking out one pair (which has since turned into a Christmas present…you’ll read about those soon enough) and these beautiful autumn-themed socks. I cast them on for Rhinebeck, and finished the first one in short order.

And then… I started a new design, and then I realized Christmas was coming and I better get started and then… I realized that November was almost over and I hadn’t finished a pair of socks for the month yet. (Well. To quibble: I’ve actually knit other pairs of socks this month, but since I can’t talk about them yet, they don’t count.) So I spent most of the Thanksgiving holiday working on these, and I finished them with hours to spare.

But finish them I did! I really love how Lorna’s knits up in the Jaywalker pattern. I think I’ve mentioned here how I got the idea from Glenna, who has knit lots of Lorna’s Jaywalkers, and it’s thanks to her that yarn and pattern are pretty much irrevocably linked in my head.

I have successfully knit myself at least a pair of socks a month now, with just December left to go, and a pair of Christmasey Socks that Rock marinating from Rhinebeck just waiting to be cast on. I think next year I might formalize this sock-a-month business into an actual thing. Anyone with me?

Wednesday, 25 November, 2009Thursday, 26 November, 2009

Of all the trees that are in the wood…

So I haven’t been talking very much about what’s been on my needles lately, and there’s two reasons for that. The first is that my family is tech-savvy enough to surf here and therefore I can’t discuss what they are getting for Christmas. (Well, of course they can reasonably assume they’re getting a knitted gift: this is me we’re talking about.) But the second is this:

HOLLY & IVY SHAWL & WRAP

This is my newest pattern, and I’ve been working on for weeks. It started out as a wisp of an idea for a stole when I learned I had a wedding to attend right after Christmas, and I swatched and poked and flipped through my stitch dictionaries and said, “Hmmmm,” an awful lot. And then I found the perfect colorway of Malabrigo (Verdes, 203) and I looked at it and it looked at me and said, “the Holly and the Ivy. Duh.” So back to the dictionaries and the swatching, and this is what I ended up with:

It’s very cushy and soft and — well, it’s Malabrigo, you can just imagine what a delight it is to wrap up in. I know exactly what I’m going to wear it with to this wedding, and I will be very warm and cozy and perfectly seasonally-attired.

But I just wasn’t ready to be done yet, so I went and reworked all the numbers so the pattern would work as a scarf too:

This one I knit in some Sock Flock from Holiday Yarns, a beautiful Evergreen color that I picked up at Rhinebeck with just this scarf in mind. This is going to be the one item I wear everywhere all season — it’s festive, with the little holly berries, but it’s not obnoxious or gaudy (I try to avoid those things). It’s just a simple little carol in a nice crisp lace, and I love it.

Incidentally, my good friend Melissa kindly did photography for me again, and I cannot tell you how much I love that scarf picture. She got it just right, didn’t she? (She blogs at Sheetar.com, and you can see lots of her photography there if you’d like.) She and my friend Margarita also get my thanks for test-knitting. And then, for the first time ever, I had a tech editor, the excellent Sandi Wiseheart, who I met happily at Rhinebeck. I learned a great deal working with her, and my pattern is infinitely better for it.

Have I enticed you yet? There’s all sorts of things you could do with this — longer or shorter, or get creative with the holly berries — maybe beads instead of the French knots I used, or perhaps you’ll surprise me. Sandi even suggested a winter white version and I do believe I’m going to cast that on as soon as I finish the rest of this Christmas knitting.

You can find the pattern for the Holly & Ivy Scarf & Wrap on Ravelry, where it’s available for $5.00. Gift one, keep one for yourself…I won’t tell!

Friday, 23 October, 2009

Local color

So I knit these great socks, and I was all set for Rhinebeck. Mitts, scarf, hat, socks, everything involves some nice flaming orange, all nice and matchy-match. Then the temperatures dropped, a lot, and I ended up wearing my nice thick Socks that Rock all weekend since they were warmer than my nice orange socks, even if I have yet to knit socks from STR with any orange in them. (Tan, yes, but that isn’t quite the same.)

AUTUMN SOCKS

Pattern: Plain stockinette sock, 62 stitches
Yarn: Done Roving 1-Ply Sock Yarn in Cherry Pitts.
Needles: US1/2.25 mm
Notes: Oh. This color. You can see why I just did stockinette here, right? Anything else would have taken away from this spectacular dyeing job. I am in love with this colorway. Look at it:

Glorious. It jumped off the rack a year ago at Rhinebeck and refused to let me put it back, and every time I looked at the skein and now the socks I grin, because it just evokes the smell and sound and crunch of a pile of leaves for me. These socks make me very happy.

I looked for Done Roving at Rhinebeck, because when I put these babies on they were nice and cushy and wonderful to wear, and I am always on the lookout for cushy socks. But I didn’t see them anywhere, and so there’s no new Done Roving in the stash this year. I still have a pretty decent chunk of yarn left from this skein, though… perhaps a cowl, to round out my obsession with autumnal oranges and browns…

Mmm. Perfect.

Tuesday, 29 September, 2009Monday, 5 October, 2009

Glass

All right. My mitt pattern has been going like gangbusters which makes me very happy. My Rhinebeck budget thanks you all sincerely, and would you all please put pictures up in Ravelry already so I can see what everyone’s come up with? Thank you.

In the meantime, I have finished a pair of socks that owe their existence to the crazy Battlestar Galactica Viper Pilot socks of doom. Viper Pilots were a crash course on twisted stitches and complicated cables, and I learned from them that I enjoy gnarly charts and watching the cables grow off the needles. So I printed out the pattern and dove in.

JADE SLIPPERS SOCKS

Pattern: Glass Slippers, by Caitlin Meyer, available in the Fall 2009 issue of Knotions
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Good Luck Jade
Needles: US1/2.25mm
Notes: Oh boy. Let me state this first: This is an amazingly beautiful pattern. The concept is clever and the finished socks are a delight to wear. I enjoyed the vast majority of the knitting of these socks. And these socks got to do quite a bit of traveling. In addition to attending the Steuben Parade, they met Paula Deen:

(She’s in the front, under the Book Revue sign, in lavender. Yes, it was very crowded. Yes, I took advantage of the fierce-looking DPNS to get myself some breathing space. Knitting ninja, that’s me.) Anyway! I have some pretty cultured footwear.

But. Somewhere along the line something happened to this patten and got things twisted around, and when you’re dealing with this many cables, extra twists are really not good news.

The biggest problem I encountered was the mislabeling of Charts A and B, which left me utterly bewildered for quite some time while knitting the first sock. It’s a pretty predictable cable, so once I figured out that I hadn’t done anything wrong, I just went on ahead and did what the cables told me they wanted to do, and they led me right into the foot chart like they were supposed to. The second time I kept an eye on the charts and if you use B where it said A and A where it said B it worked out just right. The foot chart, happily was just fine.

I also found the given instructions for the heel chart to be curiously short — so I just went ahead and did my usual heel flap of 36 rows, instead of the 20 called for. And on a more personal-quirk level, I found the charts in general difficult to read on my hard copy. Personally, I find it a lot easier on the eyes if things like cables and decreases that stretch over more then one cell don’t have the cell border dividing them in half; sadly, these charts didn’t do that, and I had a really difficult time getting comfortable with them.

The toes on these socks were specifically written to not need grafting, but I went ahead and grafted them anyway. I enjoy a good grafted toe, and I am that odd duck knitter who actually enjoys the act of grafting.

I’m not sure if the issues I had with this pattern are things that tech editing would have helped with, or things got turned around in preparing it for the web, or what the story is. I do know Knotions had already corrected a few errors before I printed out the pattern, but never marked them as errata. (I was a little surprised by that, to be honest.) But the personal lesson I’m taking away from these socks, aside from extra practice in some hard-core cabling, is that I need to give patterns a much closer-read over before I start. Encountering things like this in mid-cable is really not the best time.

And one more personal quirk, if I might? I really wish Knotions would combine everything for printing, instead of making the directions and charts two separate documents, especially when the header information prints out on each one.

So, having gotten all that out of the way, I think these socks are worth a knit if you’re into cables, because they look just spectacular, don’t they? You should just be prepared to double-check that you are working off the right chart, and read carefully, so you don’t end up like me, sitting on a friend’s couch at two in the morning, drinking wine like a fish in the hopes that maybe it will make you understand where you screwed up, while your friend laughs at you, and her dogs try to shed on your yarn. (It’s how dogs help.) Trust me, it’s not a pretty picture. I go through these things so you don’t have to.

Thursday, 17 September, 2009Wednesday, 25 November, 2009

Autumnal

Autumnâ€™s my favorite time of year, and as the summer ends my anticipation grows, breaking out my orange and maroon clothes to get into the mood and checking the sugar maple trees by my house multiple times a day to catch the first leaves turning.

So none of you will be surprised to learn that autumnâ€™s started to infect my knitting. I am very pleased to present my first design, the October Leaves Fingerless Mitts.

Pattern: October Leaves Fingerless Mitts, available for sale on Ravelry
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Fingeringweight in Pumpkin (which color they are naturally discontinuing), approx. 200 yards (1 skein)
Needles: US1/2.25mm

I love projects with leaf motifs, and over the summer the idea of a leafy thumb gusset leapt into my head and would not go away. I tried to ignore it, I tried to knit lace and socks instead, but in the end I had to sit down and start drawing charts. It took some trial and error (as well as some excellent advice on cable placement from my sister) before I replicated what Iâ€™d initially envisioned, but by George I think Iâ€™ve got it!

Huge thank-yous to Melissa and Kel for test-knitting, and Glenna for looking everything over. Iâ€™m still new to this designing game so I want to make sure I get it right. Melissa also let me take advantage of her spectacular photography skills (all the pictures in this entry are hers), which Iâ€™m very excited about â€” itâ€™s hard to take pictures of your own hands. Try it sometime. Thanks to her I have shots far more spectacular than anything I could get on my own. (She had me model her finished socks in return. Itâ€™s surprisingly tricky to stand that still!)

You can find the pattern for the October Leaves Mitts for sale on Ravelry, where I will also eagerly be checking to see who else knits it and what yarns they pick. And if youâ€™d like to see my Mitts in person, find me at Rhinebeck, where I will most certainly have them on in honor of the season!

Tuesday, 25 August, 2009

Flower Power

So it turns out I’ve done a pair of socks a month so far this year. You could use me as a calendar.

Pattern: Thuja socks by Bobby Ziegler
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Flower Power, a destash from a friend
Needles: US1/2.25mm
Notes: So these socks go back over a year when one of the ladies from my Knit Night came in and sat down and started handing out yarn she was destashing. One of them was this skein of Socks that Rock in a Rockin’ Sock Club colorway. I was still fairly new to STR and jumped at the chance to try the yarn, and I didn’t stop to think that the colors didn’t appeal very much to me. And so the yarn sat in my stash for a year, and I would look at it every so often and put it back. I finally wound it last month and suddenly the colors looked entirely different — where they had been in color blocks in the skein, and didn’t appear to flow, now the interplay of purple and blue and the highlighting tans came out.

Lesson learned. Always wind the skein — or at least re-skein it — before you write off the colorway.

Thuja and STR go really well together. It makes a nice thick warm sock — and while thick warm socks aren’t much use in August, they’re very useful in January, and when I wear these I can think of summer and how I’m eagerly awaiting colder temperatures and laugh because by January I’m usually over the cold already.

I had to show off my lovely Kitchnering job there. I used to cheat and turn my socks inside out and finish them with a three-needle bind-off. But Sandi Wiseheart posted this terrific tutorial on grafting on the needles a few years back and I have been using this trick ever since. It’s a lot easier than having to drag out a tapestry needle and it’s definitely a lot easier than turning the sock inside out to bind off. I keep encountering people who haven’t heard of this technique so I thought I would give it a little shout-out. If regular kitchnering isn’t your speed, give this a try.

My thoughts are turning to Rhinebeck. Who’s going, and what are you knitting for it? The High Holiday of Knitting is nearly upon us! I can’t wait.

Saturday, 8 August, 2009

Swallowtail

Right now, all the way across the country in Portland, there are countless sock knitters breaking world knitting records and taking classes with Very Famous Knitters and attacking the vendor floor, including my own dear buddies Glenna and Rebecca. (They are blogging their way through it, if you’d like to live vicariously like me.)

Anyway. I’m not there, clearly, since they are all the way across the country from me. But in true Aesopian fashion, I’m fine with that and those grapes were probably sour anyway. And to prove it, I am having nothing to do with socks. I went and knit a shawl instead.

SWALLOWTAIL SHAWL

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Pagoda, 1 skein
Needles: US4/3.5 mm
Notes: I am in absolute love with this shawl. This has been on my Must Knit list since I first saw the pattern in Interweave three years ago.

However. There are a few things any prospective Swallowtail-knitter should know. Firstly, the chart repeats do not match up, so if you want to make a bigger Swallowtail, which I did, you have to use math. Horrible, I know. This is why Clark suggests just using bigger yarn and needles. That was not in the cards here, because I had this skein of Malabrigo Lace just begging to be used. Secondly, Mintyfresh went ahead and did the math for you here. That post is full of spectacular information and you should read all of it, but what it boils down to is this: If you want to have a larger shawl, you should knit 19 repeats of the Budding Lace instead of 14. This will set you up just right for the Lily of the Valley charts, and a few increases will set you up for the last chart. I followed Minty’s advice and knit the 19 repeats, and sailed right into the Lily of the Valley charts, nupp nupp. This is the first time I have nupped, and it’s strangely addicting. I know they’re supposed to be treacherous, but I had no issues with them. I’ve always liked purling, which I’m sure helps.

Of course, something has to go wrong, and I somehow got all befuddled in the last chart and ended up ripping back three times. (Lifelines are a very good idea. I am very relieved I used them.) My yarn was looking considerably worse for the wear by that point so I just gave up, dove in, and somehow beat everything into shape.

It worked, and I bound off with a slightly larger needle so everything would have room to block, soaked, tried out my blocking wires for the first time (do not ask for how long I have had them) and the final results utterly take my breath away. It’s feather-light and drapey and beautiful, and I will take any excuse to wear it. Can you blame me?

Who needs socks when you can have lace like that?

Wednesday, 22 July, 2009Wednesday, 22 July, 2009

Seeing the Sights

I spent a week in Chicago, partly to attend the American Library Association’s Annual Conference and partly to play tourist. So, I decided, what could be more appropriate than knitting up my treasured Franklin’s Panopticon sock yarn, part of the Lorna’s Laces Color Commentary series. Franklin is one of my favorite knitbloggers (If you haven’t read about the time he was asked if he’d learned to knit in prison…well, what are you waiting for?) and I’d been waiting for just the right time to cast on with this sock yarn, a birthday present from Alysania last year.

Well. Franklin’s from Chicago. So is Lorna’s Laces. And I was on my way there. Clearly the mysterious perfect time to knit had arrived. So I knit one sock in Chicago and finished it on the way home, promptly cast on the second one, and finished the pair in between unpacking and laundry and those tasks that pile up when you’ve been away for a week.

PANOPTICON JAYWALKERS

Pattern: Jaywalkers by Grumperina
Yarn: Abovementioned Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock in Franklin’s Panopticon
Needles: US1/2.25 mm
Notes: Sizing seems to be my one nemesis with these socks. The pattern is easy and not really that complicated, but the biasing screws with the ease which screws with everything else. The first time I knit them I went with the 9″ circumference, because I have a rather wide instep. They fit great on the foot, a bit wide on the leg but not so much that they were sagging. So I went ahead and did the 9″ again — and it works fine for the leg but this time the foot was a little too big! I think I will give it a third try and do the 8″ circumference this time, for kicks and giggles. Heaven knows I have plenty of Lorna’s in the stash, especially after that little trip to Loopy while I was in Chicago…

Since I had socks, and I was traveling, you get traveling sock pictures!

My first day in town I went for a walk on Michigan Avenue and found this. I don’t know why it’s there or anything about it, but it made me laugh an awful lot. The sock liked it too, but was more interested in the M&M people giving away free ice cream sandwiches. Yum.

The Navy Pier is a big pier reaching out into Lake Michigan with a huge Ferris wheel and restaurants and amazing views. The sock and my friend J. and I enjoyed watching the sun set behind the skyline and eating mac and cheese outside and seeing night fall over Chicago. It was pretty magical.

This is the Bean. It has a real name but I don’t think anybody uses it. I also think it’s my favorite piece of public art, anywhere. You can duck under it and see the crowd reflected and distorted and appearing six times at once; you can stand back and watch the skyline and the clouds take different shapes. I even saw a bride and groom, in their finery, having a wedding portrait taken. The sock wanted to move right in to Millennium Park and stay there forever, but there was too much else to see to do that.

It was a great trip, and I fell a little bit in love with Chicago. I can’t wait to go back and take another pair of socks for a spin. In the meantime, you can see the full set of my pictures from the trip right here.

Wednesday, 1 July, 2009Wednesday, 1 July, 2009

Lace

DENIM SILK LUTEA

Pattern: Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell, by Angela Hahn, from Interweave Knits Summer ’07
Yarn: Berocco Denim Silk, acquired from an estate sale last summer, just under 800 yards
Needle: US8/5.0mm
Notes: Fast fast knit! From cast-on to weaving in ends, this took me exactly a week. It was also easy and fun, and I think it would be a good pattern for someone looking to get started on making larger garments (as opposed to scarves or socks).
That being said, I’m not sure I’d recommend the Denim Silk for this. (Although seeing how the yarn is discontinued…) I wore this Sunday evening to a barbeque in honor of my grandfather’s birthday, and then Monday evening to my Knit Nite to show it off. By the end of the night it had grown a good twoish inches. It’s in the wash pile now, and once it’s been washed and dried we’ll see where we stand. I’m fully expecting to have to make a drastic intervention so I don’t have a tank that’s down by my knees.
Poor yarn choice aside, this pattern is terrific; simple and summery and fun. I will absolutely make it again.

The flowers behind me in this picture, by the way? Are the roses my one grandfather grew from a clipping from my other grandfather. They are one of my favorite things ever.

I have socks and a scarf and a hat all on the needles, all inching towards completion, and I’m itching to cast on some lace, since Glenna declared this to be a summer of lace shawls. I have a skein of a nice red Malabrigo Lace that wants to become something pretty. It doesn’t want to be too complicated, since it’s going to be taken on some travels. Any ideas for my yarn?