Holiday FO!

Pattern: Kind of based on KnitScene’s Issue 1 Pattern 37

Yarns: This, This, and This (doubled) Handspun Yarns
Needles: Bamboo US 10s
Recipient: Me!

Because I actually got some decent self-portraits here is another shot, this time straight on…

Over on the side bar is a hat all alone shot.

I really like this hat. It’s a tad on the large side, but not enough so that it falls down and it does mean my hair doesn’t get plastered to my head when I wear it. It’s also *very* warm. I followed the dimension of the pattern and next time, for my head, I’d shorten it another inch as I don’t really need the ear flaps on there at this depth.

I started this on Wednesday the 21st and actually completed all of the knitting that day and then washed and blocked it that evening and it was ready to wear on the 22nd. It looks pretty fun with my new parka too. This is my first significant handspun knit item for myself (this excludes the warmlets) and only the second significant handspun knit all together, both having been knit in December. Overall I’m pretty happy with it.

I was laughing as I was knitting it, as the greenish yarns in the hat are my first and third skeins of singles ever spun on my own wheel and I was really, really, happy with them. They are crap! LOL! What progress I’ve made!

I’m a day late at coming back from what I had mentioned in my last post last week because yesterday I just needed more recuperation time. I had a restless night of sleep on Monday night so when I woke up I just grabbed my book and had been determined to read just a couple chapters and then start my day. Before I knew it, it was 1pm and I had only 6 pages left (having read over 250) and my mom called. I talked to her for a little over an hour, finished my book and then my best friend from college called to catch me up on the goings on in his life and letting me know he is moving to Chicago and we talked for over an hour as well. Before I knew it, it was 3:30 and I had accomplished nothing, LOL! So, I did a couple loads of laundry and played this new PS2 game SIL3 turned us onto and DH decided to pick up on Monday night. It’s just my sort of speed of video game, but I needed to practice so I could compete semi-fairly with DH in the battle mode

Oh, and one more note… C&)*@$t is out in our neighborhood yet again. I’m posting from the comfort of wonderful Catalyst Coffee once again. There is no estimate on the resolution of this outage so I may or may not be back tomorrow. If WordPress had auto posting like TypePad I would utilize that, but alas, I’m not equipped to do that so you shall have to wait with baited breath to see if I return tomorrow or not…

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!

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…

Snow-filled Weekend!

No, the northern Colorado front range did not get snow as forecasted. But, I got to spend time with Snow TWICE in one weekend!

First, she heard that it was just DH & I for Thanksgiving so she invited us to join her band of merry makers on Thursday. And, a wonderful day it was. I had a big dinner planned and most of the groceries purchased to make a special meal for DH & I already, but since DH is vegetarian I don’t usually get the oportunity to have turkey - let alone pie (and 3 kinds at that from a legendary local bakery which most people just cannot compete with) and fart loaf!

Following for the food fest (I was actually pretty proud of myself for not overindulging much and staying comfortable full) G planned an outing for the late show of Pride & Prejudice. It’s no BBC mini-series, but was it was pretty good (there will be a more thorough review at some point this week at Culture Catalog - probably later today).

Then, on Saturday I cooked our delayed feast and invited SIL3 over as we discovered on Thursday that the remaining siblings were scattered throughout the state on Thursday and we had assumed she had gone to celebrate with her boyfriend, but had not. DH was not feeling well (we think he *might* have given himself food poisoning trying a bit of his homemade cheese from a batch that wasn’t cook quite properly - don’t worry he’s kept careful track of these things and won’t be giving out wheels from questionable batches). I think he’d learned that if it doesn’t smell like the type of cheese you made it probably isn’t a good thing to try a bite. So, I got to scratch one dish of the day’s meal and made a feast for SIL3 & myself. It was great and I sent some leftovers home with her so I’m not eating only thanksgiving leftovers this week. I have plenty but will be able to mix them up with other things.

Following that massive cooking and cleaning frenzy I went to Snow’s house again for knitting and conversation. We were of the delusion that we could watch a movie, but it just wasn’t happening. We’re all too talkative, LOL! I also discovered that g’ma’s mohair lace seaman’s scarf is not a good visiting project. I kind of already knew this, but I made such amazing progress on it on Wednesday night at DH’s write-in that I thought it would be okay. However, in the two hours or so I was at Snow’s I only got 1.5 pattern repeats and the seed stitch edging and BO done. I’m going to try real hard to not cast on for the second mitten until I at least have this gift off of the needles.

It is SnB tonight and I’m looking forward to hearing of everyone’s holiday adventures over the weekend. Two of the gals were on rather lengthy road trips for the holiday and I’m sure they will have stories to tell. I will pull out the provisional cast-on for g’ma’s scarf and start the ribbing sometime today and I’m sure I’ll be able to handle doing the ribbing while visiting and listening to tales.

I have no pics for you and I’m sorry. However, yesterday was spent cleaning and decorating. I’m still not done. I’m doing it in stages, but now I have to alternate cleaning and decorating with baking, for I have a holiday knitting tea to put on Saturday afternoon! I’m not usually much of a baker. I prefer cooking to baking and DH is the opposite so that usually works out well. However, I’ve planned the menu for the tea to give me an opportunity to par take in recipes that are special to me at the holiday time and we haven’t really done that before, despite my not spending the holiday with my family since 1999. Not to mention DH is involved with the last days of NANOWRIMO and trying to complete his novel, but his being sick this weekend has put him quite behind. So, it’s up to me and I’ll be able to do it just fine, I just don’t enjoy baking as much as cooking.

I hope all those who celebrated this weekend had a wonderful time!

We Have a Mitten!

I have completed my first colorwork piece. Okay, so technically it is only half of a project. But, I did it! I’m soooo excited and I *love* it! It even fits my semi-man-hands (of the things I got from my dad, it was his hands and his depression - thanks Dad!). It seems my floats were tensioned well as there is still some give to the fabric. I did run into a little trouble though…

The book recommends using k2tog and ssk for the decreases at the tops of the mittens. However, some of the ssk decreases threw off the pattern a bit. From what I can tell of the photos of the mittens in the book this was not a problem for that pair of mittens.

It isn’t drastic and I certainly won’t be ripping back this mitten. But I’d like to know for the other mitten and perhaps any future colorwork projects (yes, Ashley, I’ve been bitten and there will be more in my future) I’m wondering if there is a better left-leaning decrease to use or some manner in which to reduce this problem?

Oh, and it didn’t give directions on what to do for the final round when you decrease to one stitch between the 3 “seam” stitches on each side of the hand. So, I did a centered decrease as described in some of the patterns in Stahman’s book. So, I slipped two sts together as if to knit to the right hand needle, knit the last stitch and passed both slipped stitches over that one together. It looks great! I’m proud of myself for remembering that somewhat more subtle centered decrease.

Also, thanks to all of you who have signed my Frappr map! Some of you I knew were out there reading, but many of you I did not know. So, I have several new blogs added to my “test drives” folder in Sage. I look forward to watching your knitting and spinning over the coming weeks and months.

I hope all of those celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow have a pleasant and safe holiday!

Mittens from Halland Commence

Well, I’m sloooooow at stranded knitting. But, it’s not going too bad. I ended up going with to the write-in and knitting while listening to a book on my Nano. They did a 30 minute challenge to see how many words they could each write and my smart ass husband asked me how many stitches I made. I seriously didn’t keep track, but I’d say at most, I probably completed 3 rows, but probably more like only 2. That’s only 100-150 stitches per 30 minutes… Slooooooow….

But, I’m new to it more or less. I’m liking this pattern because aside from the initial block you rarely have more than three stitches of one color in a row so you are fine just floating over three stitches. It doesn’t catch on my rings or anything. I’m also spot on gauge-wise, though I’m not positive if my floats are quite loose enough or not. Though I was able to pull the cuff over my hand onto my wrist so I suspect I’m okay. Plus, it should loosen up a tad when I block it I guess.

I have the initials done as well…

I think I’ll follow Heather’s example and put them on the inside of the wrist instead, as I love the design on the cuffs and think that is better for showing off to the public than my initials. Especially considering my initials suck for making 5 sts high by 3 sts wide letters - KRS! It sucks! I’ll do the date on the other mitten though I will probably just do either 2005 or 1105. I’m leaning towards 1105 since it’ll be easier to squish the ones in there and not have to expand the box. Plus, the 2 has got to be nearly as sucky as the K!

I’m glad I found a project that I’m looking forward to working on. Almost to the point that it is the only thing I want to work on today. That said, there is a pair of flannel PJs that I really want from Target but ours doesn’t have my size (well, I might be able to wear the size they have in, but I like oversized PJs) so I’m going to Loveland to check out their Target. And, yes, I checked online and they are out and it says nothing about being backordered or restocked etc. And, I *must* have these PJs. Mom and Amber say so!

One Last Post for Today…

If you were to knit initials and a date into the cuff of mittens, which way would you orient them? Would you have them read right when looking at the mittens with the cuffs on the bottom or would you have them read right when looking at them with the cuffs at the top??