Category: FOs

So. Christmas is over. My thesis has been handed in, my presents were (in the nick of time) completed and wrapped (rather at the last minute) and everyone seems pleased with everything! In addition to some hats and scarves, I had some fun with Christmas this year, making everyone in my immediate family some stockings:

In order, we have:
– Donna Kay’s Victorian Christmas Stocking, from IK 2002 (and Interweave’s handy online pattern shop), knit in Knitpicks Palatte Garnet Heather and Sunlight, given to my Mom
-Nancy Bush’s Village of Kirbla Estonian Stocking, from IK’s Christmas Stockings book, knit in Knitpicks Telemark in Bayberry, Cream, Rosemary, and Northern Green, and given to my Dad
-Nancy Bush’s Village of Tallinn Stocking, from her Knitting on the Road book, again in Telemark in Garnet Heather and Cream, with the leftover Rosemary for the cuff; presented to my sister R
-Lisa Carnahan’s Snowy Night Gansey Stocking, again from IK’s Christmas Stocking book, done in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Iron Ore, given to my brother
-Kate Gilbert’s Fireside Stocking, from IK’s Holiday ’07 issue, knit in Telemark Cream, Brass Heather, Persimmion Heather, Flame Heather, and Garnet Heather, and given to my sister E.

I tried to match patterns and colors to personalities, and I think it all worked out rather well. Every one of these stockings, to me at least, very clearly announces who it belongs to. I’m really happy with the finished objects, and very gratified that my father immediately announced we’d be using them next year. (Which means I should get cracking on my own!)

I also knit a quick Clementine Shawlette for my great-Aunt, and previously-discussed bed socks for my grandfather, and a hat for my young cousin, who was happy with it for a moment, concluded it was too big, and put on the engineer’s hat I had also gotten him instead. Then he gave me a huge hug. Twice. I am not complaining.

But now…now I can knit for myself again! I have an almost completed shawl that’s made very beautiful use of my Koigu mill ends, and yarn all picked out for a hat, and so many socks to do — my new skein of Silk Garden Sock, which was waiting for me under the tree, wants to be turned into something pretty…

This month is disappearing out from beneath me. Perhaps that draft of my master’s thesis that I handed in this week has something to do with it… perhaps, perhaps. That would also explain the INSANE STARTITIS I am battling. I have piles of projects around, and yet I want to cast on a million more things.

The other cause of all this startitis are the impending holidays. Even Rockerfeller Center is starting to get ready:

so I am working like mad on Christmas knitting:

I can post these because they are the Grandfather Socks (hopefully they will help combat the chilly toes from poor circulation). Poppop’s level of technological use is the TV remote, so I have no fear he might somehow accidentally surf here and spoil the surprise. The rest of the family, however, are much more technologically literate, so those projects will all have to wait.

I can share this one, though, which I did tonight over three hours of procrastination brainstorming:

These are for my old boss from my college tutoring job. His folks live in the Midwest, and they lost their home in the flooding last spring. Their home…including all the Christmas ornaments. Harry wrote a note about it on Facebook, and talked about how his mom would retell the story of each ornament as she put it up every year, and I teared up right away, because my mom does the same thing. There’s lots of history tied up in those decorations and ornaments, and the idea of losing ours made my heart seize up for a minute. Harry asked if we could help him create a new collection for his Mom, new ornaments and new stories. So I found some appropriately-colored yarn scraps and made a little pair of stockings for Harry’s Mom’s tree, and I will write a little note to go with them, to tell her about how I used to knit in the Writing Center in between sessions. I hope it’s a new story.

I also think I’m knitting more of these little socks, because they’re adorable and fast. I used the Bitty Hat and Sock Ornament (socks only, obviously) from Interweave’s holiday pattern freebie, available from Knitting Daily, and just finished the socks off instead of doing the little toothpick-needle finish. It’s adorable, but it probably wouldn’t ship as well, and I have no Elmer’s around to make little yarn balls, and I really kind of like just a finished mini stocking. I think everyone’s getting one of these this year!

The arrival of the holiday season has all sorts of harbingers: digging out the holiday music (check), the Hershey’s Kiss bell commercial (omgcheckyay!), the arrival in stores of Stella D’Oro Pfeffernuesse (where is it already?) and me, starting to obsessively bake. Check, check, CHECK:

They were really good. What thesis?

I had a bit of frustration earlier today trying to prep for a midterm when I discovered my college’s Blackboard site had a broken database: instead of seeing lecture powerpoints I was getting strings of code and pages that would not load.

I decided that torturing myself was useless, so instead I went and stuck pins in things. It was very theraputic:

Both the sticking pins in things and knowing I’m finally going to be wearing these three projects. In order:
–My So-Called Scarf, knit in Manos Silk Blend in Violets, an impulse buy from Purl Soho.
–Anemoi Mitts, knit in Koigu PPPM (green) and Knitpicks Palette (white).
–Branching Out, knit in , an amazing gift from Rebecca and Melanie from their SF trip earlier this year.

I also debuted my Harvest Shawl this past weekend:

Pattern: Clementine Shawl, from Interweave Knits Spring 2007 (also available for purchase on Knitting Daily)
Yarn: http://www.dyeversion.com/Dye-Version Bamboo Sport, Harvest Colorway, purchased as a birthday present for myself from The Purple Purl in Toronto.
Needles: Size 5 (I used my Harmony interchangable set).

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This pattern was an easy and enjoyable knit. While I did have to glance at the chart every so often, I wasn’t tied to it, and it moved along very quickly. I added one extra repeat for width, as I saw several people suggest on Ravelry, and it was perfect. However, it gained just enough length in blocking, so that the ties fall in a rather awkward spot now, but if worn straight, it looks marvelous. It also works as a scarf, so this is a multi-tasking FO.
The yarn was a new one for me, and I love love love it. Dye-Version is a local Ontario dyer, and I hope she starts selling online sooner or later, because her stuff is amazing. I manhandled most of the available skeins at the Purl when I visited it in August, but I kept coming back to the Harvest colorway, in the Bamboo — the colors were far more vibrant in the Bamboo than any of the other available yarns (even if the scent of the milk fiber was absolutely fascinating) and it has a wonderful silky feel and scent. I don’t know if it’s the bamboo or the dyes or what, but there’s a delicious scent to this yarn, not quite silk, but close, that I have grown rather fond of. There will be more Dye-Version in my future!

I wore this, as I intended when I picked the pattern, to a dinner celebrating my uncle’s wedding last weekend. The ceremony was in Dallas so my family wasn’t able to be there but we had a lovely dinner on Halloween night. Turns out, the shorter “shawlette” length is perfect for dining — no long awkward ends to get caught on chairs or trail in one’s plate. I’m extremely happy with this FO, and I’ll be repeating both the project and the yarn.

(PS — see those little ghosties in the window? Bernat Glow-in-the-dark yarn! It’s a trip. Excellent for all your Halloween crafting needs.)

Er. Hi there. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Life seems to have gotten the better of my knitblogging for, oh, many moons. Clearly, this updating thing needs a little work.

But it’s not like I wasn’t knitting during all that! Oh, no, lots of knitting going on. I’ve gotten a good chunk of my Christmas knitting done, a bunch of socks, and two beautiful baby sets for old co-workers of mine who are both expecting new arrivals this autumn. And there was some stash acquisition over the summer in DC, Philly, and Toronto — but now stashing is mostly on hold, because Rhinebeck is just around the corner! (Franklin, or the Harlot…I’m torn!)

But this past week, I knit a very simple project: a pair of Fetching:

My mom asked me, about a week and a half ago, if I could make her some sort of fingerless mitten-ey thing (her words) for her to wear in the mornings when she takes her walks. It was too cold first thing, she said, to go un-mittened, but not so cold as to need her fingers covered, and she wanted to be able to get to her keys easily. But — when you have time, she adds. (There is that small matter of a master’s thesis at the moment, you see.)

And I nodded, and mentally went through my stash, and said sure. I had some Knitpicks Wool of the Andes floating around, but she said no rush, so I pushed it to the back of my mind.

But we had a very bad day, last week, when a close relative was admitted to the hospital, and passed the following morning. It was a peaceful passing with family present, following a long and full life, but the next few days of wakes and funerals were difficult all the same, for my mom especially. And the brutal truth is that there’s really only so much you can do; each person has to work through their grief in their own way, and my mom did so by throwing herself into preparations and cleaning. I? I needed to keep my hands busy. So that day I cast on for some Fetching, with her request in mind.

In between running around, the visitations, seeing other relatives, I cabled and knit. I have a sock on the needles, but I’d been knitting it while visiting the hospital and it seemed too raw to work on that. The Fetching were safe and easy and didn’t require any thought. Monday we buried my relative, and my family gathered together for a few hours to share a meal and comfort one another before everyone scattered back to their lives. With nothing else to do and fingers itching to be busy, I picked up the second Fetching and finished it, and wove in my ends. And the next day, I gave them to Mom to try on, and they fit perfectly.

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Pattern: Fetching
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Gold Kettle-dyed
Needles: US5 DPNs

Notes: I’ve heard varying reports about the new KP kettle-dyes, but the gold WotA I was very pleased with. It’s a subtle effect, and worked to highlight the cables instead of swallow them. I made a few modifications to this, based on prior iterations of this pattern. I cast on 50 stitches instead of 45 and worked one extra cable. I added a cable on both the top and bottom, making four cables beneath and two above. I also threw in a couple of extra rows before the thumb. I skipped the picot bindoff (I’ve found it curls and makes an unintentionally raggedy effect) and used the k2tog bindoff instead. The end result was much cleaner. There’s still a bit of curl happening, mostly on the first mitt I finished, but it won’t hurt anyone, and will be helped with a bit of a block. I’m really happy with how these came out.

I finally got around to weaving in the ends on my beautiful Nantucket Clapotis, modeled here by Skippy. I wore it this morning, and almost didn’t take it off when I got to the office, it’s so soft. And seeing as how March hasn’t reached lamb stage yet (ahem, five days left, March, let’s get moving) it seems I’ll have some opportunity to enjoy it.

Pattern: Clapotis

Yarn: Great Adirondak Sireno, Nantucket Blue colorway

Needles: US5 bamboo circs

This yarn was a real splurge for me. Two of the lawyers I work for got together and got me a gift certificate to WEBS for the holidays, and I decided that I might as well get something amazing and splurge, so… I did. Considering that it’s 675 yards to the skein, it’s not as much of an extravagance as it seemed at first. But how extravagant is this clapotis? Beautiful drape, soft to the touch, and the colors just glow.

This was my third clapotis, and I think I’m finally bored with the pattern, but it makes such warm and distinctive scarves that I know I’ll keep coming back to it. There’s a real elegance in the construction that never fails to delight me, even when I hit that never-ending stretch of straight rows.

I haven’t blocked it this one out yet, but I think I’m going to have to. I prefer the waves of a loosely-blocked Clapotis, but there’s some serious curling going on right now that is hiding those waves. However, that doesn’t interfere with my more visceral enjoyment!

More pictures on my Flickr here.

Other notes:
Thanks to Glenna C I’ve fallen off the destashing wagon, and now have a sweater’s worth (plus some) of KP Palette at home, to turn into a Venezia sweater. I estimate this will take approximately a million billion years. I have not yet climbed back on board the wagon, either, as there might have been a little blackout while at the Blue Moon website today. (Not responsible for any debt incurred from clicking that link.)

I have discovered the gloriousness that is the Lime & Violet podcasts. I have been catching up and was listening on the train this morning (while weaving in ends on baby booties for a coworker) and nearly spat out coffee on several occasions. The guy next to me gave me a nervous look ever time I started chuckling, which just made me chuckle louder. What did he expect, really? Two crazy ladies who alternate between TMI and discussing the glories of fiber are really an unbeatable combination.

And then, inspired by all this talk of dying yarn, I went and bought some half-off easter egg dying kits at the drugstore on my lunch hour, with a goal in mind: attempting my very own hand-dyed yarn. Because I need more fiber-related insanity in my life.

On the needles: Second half of my Jaywalkers, sleeve of Baby’s First Sweater, my never-ending Lady Eleanor, and almost done with the baby booties. Phew.