Finishes and Frogging

I had a swarm of finished objects here at the end of December.  Most were gifts for Christmas and one was a just languishing project. The gift knitting was not coming along as I wanted it too, but I did rally managing to put aside my Fair Isle Vest for the time being.  First up were the two scarfs for my friend Anna's friends, who have now become my friends (don't you love it when that happens?)  The one was a lattice design using a thick aran weight yarn, the other was simply textured in a luxurious angora/silk yarn.  When I finished those two knits I quickly wrapped them posting them just in time for Christmas.  Phew!  Then comes my biggest accomplishment - I finished my mothers' cardigan sweater.  Wow, I just love how it came out.  The best part is the colorwork was much looser this time around (I knit this same sweater for her 2 years ago and my stranded knitting came out pretty tight) so it was a breeze to block into shape.  The collar lays down much better too on this version, as I made a few discrete decreases in the last couple rows.  It is a touch big on her, but she really loves it and that's the main point.  

After that project I whizzed through making some felted slippers for my son.  He asked for them way back in September so I'm a bit late getting to them, but now they are done.  They are Minecraft themed after a famous Youtuber iBallisticsquid who my son watches.  His Minecraft character is a squid and this is what the face looks like.  You see my son already has the same size feet as I do (US sized 8 1/2 Women's) at the mere age of 9 so the "fun" slippers for children don't fit him anymore.  And being only nine he of course wants fun slippers. Thankfully they were a hit.

My last completed object is a pillow of a chicken for myself.  It's the Oluffa doorstop by Lucinda Guy.  I have no use for a doorstop, or a pillow either for that matter, but I adored this pattern the moment I saw it.  It was my Christmas Day knitting and I finished her in just a few days.  We're still thinking up a name for her - any ideas?  The only tricky thing is there are some very long floats, but I did a bit of duplicate stitch in some areas to get around that.  All in all it's a very fun knit with embroidery added and I would highly recommend it to anyone.  

I was hoping to finish my White Russian sweater by Thea Coleman as it was already about 1/2 done, but sadly I frogged it instead of finishing it.  The sleeves were really, really big and I tried to fix them twice, but decided it is ultimately a flawed design for my body shape and desired fit.  I have a large bust, but average sized arms and with a top down raglan the only way to enlarge the bust is to enlarge the sleeves as well.  After reading more about sweater designs I am going to go back to a bottom up pieced sweater with set in sleeves.  You really have lots more control over sizing when knitting all the pieces separately and seaming afterwards.  Thus I frogged it, re-skeined the yarn and gave the yarn another bath so it will be all smooth and fresh with which to knit another sweater.  This is the sweater I'm planning on with an added turtleneck.  It will be my first Custom Fit Amy Herzog sweater so I thought I'd keep it simple.  

Today I'm swatching for a fresh knit to start in January.  My first choice is a Fair Isle turtleneck sweater for myself and second is this cabled vest for my husband.  I really should do my husband's first as he did not receive a knitted gift this year for Christmas, but oh the colors for the first are fabulous!   What are you working on?  Planning for the new year or just winging it?  I'm loosely planning to knit a mix of new and old projects, taking my time and knitting only things that I really love.  Happy New Year everyone!

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.

A Thing About Turtlenecks

It drives my husband nuts that I have a thing for turtlenecks.  Make that a deep resounding love of turtlenecks.  Cowls are a close second, as they almost do the same job, but turtlenecks oh they snuggle my neck, take away some of my chin and keep me pleasantly warm.  My husband though, likes to sneak up behind me while I'm busy in the kitchen to give me a ticklish kiss on the neck (which always makes me jump and give a little shriek), but with turtlenecks he's instantly thwarted.  Ha! So, now that you know how much I adore turtlenecks it won't be a big surprise that I am currently working on two turtleneck knitting projects.

The first is the lovely Hugo turtleneck poncho I talked about last time.  He has since been put in time out for the moment.  His issue, because of course it couldn't be my fault, is that the purl, ktbl, ktbl, purl detail I used to replace the cable pattern is looking rather wonky.  The increases occur on either side of this "seam" and as you can clearly see the one side is nice and tight and the other is all gaping.  I knew this for some time, but kept on knitting thinking it would go away if I knit fast enough, but alas it's here to stay.  Since it really irks me I will indeed be frogging back to the collar section to begin again, probably to use the original cable patterning.   With there being quite a bit knitting to frog back I need to steel myself to do it hence, the time out he's taking in his project bag.

Because this girl can't go without knitting for more than a few minutes I grabbed the nearest project and volia! another turtleneck found it's way into my hands.  This is Thea Coleman's White Russian pattern which I last knit and blogged about this past June.  I have only progressed about 3 pattern repeats since last time, but I'm only 5 more repeats away from separating the sleeves from the body.  That will be an exciting moment dropping those extra 160 stitches.  It should make the body rounds feel like they just fly by right?  Since this project and I are getting along well I think it will become my project for our upcoming road trip to Madison, WI.  Five wonderful hours of car knitting there and then another five coming home - yay!  We're going to the WI Sheep and Wool Festival which is about a 1/2 hour to the east of Madison.  My husband and I both went to UW Madison for college so it will be fun to show our old haunts to our son.  I'm taking an all day class on natural dyeing at the Fairgrounds while the boys go exploring in Madison.  Then we will spend the next day at the Festival and round it off with a night in a hotel in town (we're camping for the first 2 nights.)  Leaving us a final day with all three of us together in Mad town.  I hoping it's lots of fun for everyone and not just this the fiber enthusiast.

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Podcasts, Stash Dash and Gifts

Well, I almost didn't get a post done this week as I have been distracted by the discovery of knitting podcasts.  Do you listen to any?  What are your favorites?  So far, I really like The Knit Girllls, Knitmore Girls, Little Bobbins Knits, Snappy Stitches and In a Sknit and have been listening to them in my alone time during the morning before my son wakes up.  It's like sitting a chatting to a knitting friend which really appeals to me as I am looking for more knitting community.

While listening to one of the Knitmore Girls podcasts I learned about a fun "event" called Stash Dash.  It's run by Leslie and Laura of The Knit Girllls through their Ravelry group.  It's a race (with yourself) to finish your WIPs and knit or spin from your stash (no purchasing new yarn or fiber) in racing lengths of 3K, 5K and 10K.  Basically you are counting the meters of yarn you knit or spin from May 22nd to August 14th.  Since I'm trying not to buy any new yarn or fiber until next year this event is right up my alley.  I've committed to the 5K and because you can count the whole yardage of knit items upon finishing or fixing and refinishing them I am already about 1/2 way with Hubbie's 2 vests, a set of coasters and a mobius cowl.  I'm hoping to finish another cowl, a pair of socks that have been sitting around for some time, my Brown Russian sweater, some rainbow yarn, some alpaca yarn and then lastly knit a cowl (or something) for the rainbow yarn I spin.  It's rather a lot but most of these items are about 1/2 way done.

A few of my Stash Dash items are gifts.  I knit the coasters, which should be familiar from here and here (the yarn seems to keep providing and not running out,) and are a gift for our long time neighbor (13 years) Joe.  He got married last year and they wanted a house that they chose together so they moved a whole 5 blocks down in our same neighborhood.  Our neighborhood simply rocks!  It's like a small town with full walkable amenities (and I mean the basics like library, grocery, bank, hardware store etc. not just cute shops) even though we are considered a suburb of Minneapolis.  The next item is also for a neighbor who was a baby when Hubbie and I  moved into our house and now her and her twin (hence the second forthcoming cowl) have graduated high school.  The pattern I used for the one pictured is this one and the second will be knit from this one.  I've got to get moving as the party is this weekend.  The last photo is a pair of socks that have been living in my purse for I think over a year so it's time to get those puppies done.  They use this simple pattern by toe-up-sock guru Wendy D. Johnson and my only mod was to add a one / three rib so that they'll hug the foot.  They will be a gift for my mom's birthday I think. 

And that's it!  Whew!  What are you working on lately?

Joining in late with:

Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On

Ginny for Yarn Along

Beth for Whatcha Workin' on Wednesday

Sweater Weather?

The weather has turned to summer here in Minnesota so of course I'm knitting a thick turtleneck sweater.  What?  Well, I finished my husband's cabled vest and for some reason instead of going back finishing my 2nd fair isle mitten I turned to this WIP I started in December.  It's a Baby Cocktails pattern called White Russian, although mine is decidedly brown ;) , by Thea Colman and the most exciting part is I'm using my own handspun yarn.  I think what swayed me was working on Hubbie's Shetland Vest which also was knit with handspun.  Thus, it will be a balmy 91 degrees Fahrenheit  (that's 33 degrees Celsius for you all outside the US) today and I will be knitting a winter sweater.  Weird?  Yes.  But, I have better luck finishing projects if I go where my mood takes me instead of trying to adhere to my "To Knit" list.

The handspun is a lovely mix of Blue Faced Leicester and my favorite Shetland all grown and processed right here in Mora, Minnesota.  It turned out so bouncy squishy soft I wish you could feel it through your computers monitors (hmm...maybe in the future.)  Anyways, the wool spun to a DK weight making a total of 1327 yards (1213 meters.)  This did limit me a bit for finding a sweater in my size being a bit on the busty side.  What I really wanted to knit with it was this cardigan sweater but I didn't have enough yardage.  The White Russian pattern has been in my Ravelry queue for a long time because I love, love, love turtlenecks and after perusing through it I was surprised to find that I had enough (plus a bit extra) yarn for my size.  So, I cast on in December right after spinning the yarn and knit the turtle neck section, it's a top down knit, and promptly put it all away into a project bag for another day.  Maybe I'm going to sweep through my WIP's this year.  Wouldn't that be cool?  Now, I'm simply thankful for air conditioning making this whole winter sweater knitting possible on this decidedly summer day. 

Oh, and to update from this post I made the plunge and went to my first Knit Night with a lovely group of ladies who I found on Ravelry.  It was wonderful.  They didn't look at me blankly when I discussed different bind offs for sock cuffs as my husband frequently does, they talked about stashes and yarn buying freezes and so much wooly fun.  It was good.

Joining in with:

Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On

Ginny for Yarn Along

Beth for Whatcha Workin' On?   Wednesday