FO Friday? Not Quite!

Aside from it needing blocked, it doesn’t look too bad. That is of course until you measure the size - 11.5 inches across by ~9-9.5 inches deep. My head circumference is 21.5 and I kind of like the fit on me because it won’t cause hat hair, but it’s secure enough it isn’t going to go flying off. Grandpa’s hat size is 7 3/8 which translates roughly to a 23 inch hat circumference. That is of course for hats that don’t have stretch etc. That means the hat just matches his head circumfrence and should fit a little snugger than on me…

However, will those three rows of corrugated rib ever lie flat, even with blocking? That was the end of my yarn. If I ripped back past the last increase round I did (oh yeah, I did this hat from the top down, ala Susan‘s live dangerously, don’t swatch hat pattern - there is PDF link in the right hand column) I would be sure to have it snugger (and it is alpaca so it doesn’t have the bounce back of wool and, might it grow in the blocking process???), the Norwegian Star motif would have to be a little shorter going from the 14 st version down to the 12 st version. Couple that with the decrease in circumference by 8 sts and I should be able to get another 2-3 rounds of corrugated rib in there at the bottom which would hopefully make that curl a little easier to block out…

Please note, the problem with sizing on this hat is all mine, and not of the base pattern. But, I was worried about making the final circumference 10% smaller because of the stranding and the alpaca. I was afraid if I went that small it wouldn’t stretch enought to fit and I figured a little large was better than too snug. Add to that the fact that it’s hand spun and somewhat early hand spun and measuring gauge was really kind of like throwing darts. Thus I have this alpaca hat dilemma…

I did do the entire straight part of the hat yesterday. Though I was pretty dilligent and did not much else from about noon onward through almost 10 pm. Well, I took some breaks to give my wrists a rest, but not much. Oh, and also to add into the equation - DH is staying home from work again today…

So, what would you do?

FO Thursday too?!?!? Yep!

Pattern: FiberTrends Felted Clog Slippers
Designer: Too lazy to go look…
Yarn: 2 Skeins + a little of Lamb’s Pride Worsted in Persian Peacock M124 and 3 skeins Paton’s UpCountry 80930 (discontinued)
Needles: Addi Turbo’s in Size Recommended
Size: Smallest Man’s Size
Recipient: Amber (my sister), Size Wm’s 11

I substituted a thick Lopi-like yarn (the Paton’s Up Country) for a doubled worsted for the soles and color of the slippers because there was NO brown worsted yarn to be had at the LYS when I was acquiring the yarn for this project. It ended up working out just fine. I did nearly run out of the Lamb’s Pride, but luckily had enough left over from a previous project to finish. Since they are just slippers I didn’t worry about dye lots and it didn’t seem to make a noticible difference in this project.

I did have issues with the weaving in of ends distoring the slippers, though that was mostly on the soles so I’m not worrying about it. They feel find, the edge of one just looks a little odd. I should shave these, but I’m suspecting my sister will need to do little additional hand felting to get them to match her feet so I’m debating. At this point I don’t have a sweater shaver (and well, I would like one, I have a sweater stone on my Christmas list with the in-laws so…) and don’t relish the idea of hitting the retail jungle on December 15th. So, we’ll see if I get somewhere that has them before I get the package ready to ship than great, if not, oh well.

Some gals at one LYS last year were discussing using the liquid latex for dipping tool handles in from the hardware store to put non-skid bottoms on slippers. I was thinking it would probably work even better to get a little texture to that so was thinking about stitching on some of the sticky, bumby shelf-liner stuff and them dipping them, but I’ve decided my sister needs to finish sizing them before doing that. So, I’ll give her a little certificate entitling her to have me do that the next time I’m visiting or she can just ask for the directions to do it herself.

This color combo is her favorite right now and I had been hoping to lcoate some flannel loungewear in that color combo to go with them, but no such luck. But, as it turns out this next week she’ll be moving into her own place once again so I’ll just stick a Target gift card inside of them so she has a little help in setting up house once again. I know how expensive it is to have to rebuy all those cleaning supplies etc. Plus, each place has different requirements in terms of storage solutions and such. I think it’ll be well recieved.

Here’s a bit better, but not so original look at the slippers…

FO Tuesday!

Pattern: Alberta Scarf from Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves
Designer: Myrna Stahman
Yarn: Fiesta Heaven in Adirondack, 1 skein
Needles: US 7 Addi Natura’s
# of Pattern Repeats: 3 wide plus 6 sts wide borders and 7.75 repeats lengthwise plus 8 row border
Dimension: 49.5″ X 8″ pre-blocking, 55″ X 12″ post-blocking

I don’t know why I ended up with 7.75 pattern repeats on the first lace panel, but that’s what it was when I went to match the second one. Go figure. But, I don’t think I had enough leftover yarn to have finished that quarter of a repeat on both ends anyway, so it was good luck! I have maybe 3 yards remaining from one skein.

Overall, I like the idea of seaman scarves. They do lay quite nicely. However, with a yarn that gets blocked severely, most of those scarf patterns were much too wide, IMHO. The finished dimension on these is 22 X 12 inches for each lace panel and 11 inches for the ribbed section. It will definitely cover well, but I don’t think it will double as a nice fashion accessory, as it covers all of my ample sized body. It will no doubt be plenty warm though. I could reduce the width a bit by decreasing those borders, I think I could easily cut them in half which would reduce the width by about an inch or so. The yarn also pooled quite unusually in little dashes of color making it appear somewhat stripey. It isn’t quite my taste, but I love the color combination and it will look lovely on Grandma’s complexion and she’ll be bowled over with the lace work I’m sure. I know it’ll be well loved and probably shown off to the ladies are the hairdresser’s and at church.

Snow saved the day with the blocking as she let me steal her blocking wires on Sunday afternoon. It went quite slick to block this scarf with those and our steamer. It was really odd to watch the yarn swell and relax when the hot steam hit it. It cause little undulations. I thought about taking video, but ultimately decided it was so subtle it probably wouldn’t come across at web resolution.

I’ll leave you with a closer look at the lace pattern…

I started Grandpa’s hat last night, but more on that later in the week…

I Hope You Had a Good Time!

If you’ve had your fill of goodies and tea, please feel free to hang out and knit in the living room. I can light the fireplace if anyone is interested…

I do have a little party favor for those in attendance…

The much asked for Nifty iPod Nano Necklace pattern has been written up and added to the free knitting patterns section of my web site. So, those who are giving Nano’s this year for Christmas may knit necklace cozies to go with them. Or, knit one for yourself if you have a Nano. While the directions only contain info for fitting the Nano, a little experimentation and/or math should allow you to adjust the pattern to fit any of the iPods or other personal MP3 players of your choice. The Nano sized one takes less than 50 yds of sock yarn and only day of dedicated knitting of a weekend of sporadic knitting.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Tomorrow we will return to the regularly scheduled fibery news.

EDIT: This was quite late in being posted because the diesel wouldn’t start this morning because of the cold so I had to take DH to work. There were some network troubles getting me on the Internet this time around. Also, I still can’t always answer e-mails do to these troubles, so I apologize. It should be warm enough and he won’t be leaving before 7am for a dental appointment so I should be home and have full e-mail access so I’ll reply then. I’m sorry for any inconvenience.

Alberta Grows!

Grandma’s Alberta Seaman Scarf has grown by leaps and bounds since you last saw it. Of course that was roughly six weeks ago. I confess that it didn’t really get any attention until last Wednesday. I had gotten distracted by the mittens and holiday prep and illness etc. But at SnB on Monday night I pulled out the provisional cast on with some tediousness and started the ribbed section. The provisional cast on would not unzip with the mohair so I had to pick out each stitch indivdually. But it was easy and realatively painless while a few of us bitched about current events in our lives and caught up with all the events of the holiday weekend.

I have roughly another inch or so to go on the ribbing. It was suggested that you knit the ribbed section to be 70% of the circumference of the wearer’s neck, but I have no clue what g’ma’s neck measurement is. She is somewhat short and relatively petite these days so I’m thinking the smallest of the range given (10 - 12 inches) will be appropriate. It doesn’t fit me well at 10 inches, but I’m a sizeable woman (though another 5 pounds lighter despite the holiday and a two week hiatus from water aerobics).

I’m still not positive how happy I am with the yarn. I *love* the color combination, but it seems awful stripey. Though a few said how much they liked it on Monday night. Since it’s a scarf and the same number of stitches across over the whole length I guess it isn’t the worst thing to appear a bit stripey because it’s the same over the whole thing. But, I’ll reserve final judgement until after blocking.

In the meantime, here is a close up shot of the pattern semi-blocked with the aid of my feet while I took the pic…