A couple more FOs

I went to a holiday party for my knitting group, and a couple of things happened.

We have a gift exchange, and I got this lovely yarn spun by smallsmallfaery:



It's about 130 yards of Romney, and although it says 11wpi, which is a worsted / aran weight so it will be perfect for my big Chevron blanket*.

And I was thoroughly embarrassed that nearly everyone was wearing a Noro Striped Scarf, and mine (which I started ages and ages ago) was still a WIP. So I got motivated:



Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in colors 40 and 233, 2 skeins each
Started: 1/18/2009
Finished: 12/18/2011

So, just shy of 3 years later I have finally finished my scarf! I feel pretty silly admitting that, but I just don't often get into the mood of knitting something in 1x1 rib. Now that it's done I've been wearing it most days!

Then while traveling for the holidaze, I finished a must more recent project, Melanie's 2011 Birthday Socks.



Yarn: Sophie's Toes in Grandma's Blueberry Pie
Started: 11/6/11
Finished: 12/24/11

Melanie modeled them and had the idea of posing with the lights leading from the tree to the plug, so we did.


*another WIP I really should put some stitches on

Shawlettes

In September of last year, I knit the Milkweed shawlette, and I found a new love. This knitting craving goes well with my fingering weight stash, and the end result is a little touch of girly without being a full on shawl. Best of all, it's faster than a pair of socks and makes a great gift!

Which is why I've knitted a couple of shawlettes lately. First off, Damson:



Pattern: Damson by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Sock in Gold Dynasty
Started: 10/17/11
Finished: 11/6/11

I've had this yarn hanging around from the Woolgirl sock club for a while, and when I decided to knit a shawlette for someone who loves fall colors I figured this was the right yarn.

Unfortunately, for some reason I ran out of yarn quite a bit before the end. I checked and double-checked my gauge, but I'm really not sure why. (I also foolishly ignored the comments of another Raveler who had run out of yarn using this same kind.) Luckily I was rescued by someone else with the same yarn and was able to finish the shawl! I've already picked out yarn for my Damson, one with lots of yardage. ;)

Then I knit Multnomah as yet another gift shawlette:



Pattern: Multnomah by Kate Elsa
Yarn: Yarn Daze Sock in Snoopy Pirate
Started: 11/20/11
Finished: 12/4/11

I have a couple more on the needles for me, but first I feel the need to knit some socks...

Socks, Steeks, Blankets, and Elijah

I got my contributor's copy of Yarn Forward No. 33, and got to see my very own socks in it!



It was a very exciting moment. :) I'm not sure if the magazine is out in print in the US yet, though.

I sewed some steeks that I didn't knit or cut!

Since my friend Erin was so kind as to lend me her sewing machine, she needed me to sew the steeks for a little sweater she was knitting for her daughter. I was a bit worried as my sewing skills are minimal, but I managed.



You can see the finished sweater here.

I presented a non-knitted knitted gift!

This year I didn't knit for the holidaze. Instead I prepared a choice of elephants for my sister - a powerpoint slide with pictures of three different elephant patterns for her to choose from. She picked Elijah, and I will be knitting him soon.

I met a baby, and gave her a blanket!

I knit Undercover with some Three Fates Yarn that Stephania contributed - it was our joint gift to the baby.



The blanket turned out very nice, but the pattern has several errors that I put in the notes on my project, just in case you want to knit it.

I started my first Mystery KAL for Isaz!

It seems to be going well so far!



Next time I probably shouldn't wait so long to post. ;)

A Rare Occurrence

I finished two things in a row that aren't socks. Last time it was the Odessa hat, this time...



Pattern: Cinnamon Grace
Yarn: Yarntini in "So Corny", the September 2010 club color
Started: 10/9/10
Finished: 10/24/10

Of course, both of these non-sock items were gifts. ;)



That picot bind off? Over two hours.

Again

Pattern: Monkey
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed Sock in Jay
Started: 9/24/10
Finished: 10/4/10

I dashed off a quick pair of Monkey socks for a gift. It's something I tend to do quite frequently since I have the pattern memorized. Besides it's easy and looks good in almost any yarn. Something a little "fancy" for hardly any work... that's one of the types of pattern I like best.

Yesterday I started something new...



A carrot? Maybe... stay tuned.

Monkeys for Marti

I talked before about yarn that just seems to be cursed. My Solstice yarn was like that until I recently made the plain stockinette twin socks with MJ.

Well, I've cured another cursed yarn! On our last knitting adventure afternoon at Neptune Coffee, Marti ripped out the second pair of socks that weren't working with this yarn and gave it to me. After finishing a few projects I cast on for some Monkey socks - seriously, that pattern looks good with almost anything!

Today we were back at Neptune knitting, and I presented her with the no-longer-cursed yarn... but it looked like this:



Yarn: Socks That Rock in Lucy
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Started: 7/3/10
Finished: 7/23/10

And they even fit!

Now for my next STR project - it takes up a good portion of my stash, so it makes sense that I should be knitting something with it most of the time. Erin and I have several unknit kits from past years of the Rockin' Sock Club. I made a goal to knit all of them by November 2011 (if the deadline seems weird, it's for my 101 in 1001 project).

Well, today I'm starting Leafling.

Listening to: The Promise of Deceit ~ Katatonia, Lithium ~ Nirvana

Peapod

My first FO of the year is not socks. Shocking, I know. There are a few pairs of socks close to being finished, but this little project took precedence.



Pattern: Pea Pod Baby Set (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash
Started: 11/16/09
Finished: 1/10/10

Making this sweater was actually kind of fun, but it reminded me why I like socks so much. First there's the separate pieces all with their own ends. Then there's the blocking... before seaming. And the seaming. And then the blocking after seaming.

Honestly it wasn't so bad, and I did promise Stephania that I would knit this for her baby oh so long ago. Way before November. Way before the baby was even born!

After I got out my big Vogue book and looked up the proper way to seam (wouldn't seam without it!) I ended up very happy with the final product. And I can even seam while watching Deadwood on DVD. :)

Finishing

I didn't do much holiday knitting this year. Mostly because I didn't really think about it and then there just wasn't time, but also because I was busy finishing something.



Pattern: a highly modified version of the Holiday Stocking (which appears to be the same as the Scandinavian Stocking which is found in a book) by Donna Kay
Yarn: Jamieson Shetland Spindrift
Started: 11/29?/07
Finished: 12/23/09

I started this a couple of years ago for my mom, and foolishly decided to modify it to have snowflakes instead of the... holly? presents with bows?... on the original. I decided if I couldn't tell what the motif was supposed to be, it should probably be something else. And I really like the snowflakes except they're almost all different so knitting them was an exercise in staring at a chart in a quiet room.

Also the purl-bump checkerboard pattern on the cuff and heel was horrible to knit. I also modified the heel to be a normal sock heel since the pattern has some weird square thing with decreases. No thanks!

Well, the stocking was well received and I'm very relieved to finally have it done. It turned out great but I think that's the last time I knit something like that!

Another (nearly) finished object is the knitting area in my living room.



Currently it's mostly occupied by my handknit sock laundry (which I thought might be interesting to some of you - can you spot any socks you recognize?), but soon that will be moved away and when I obtain a chair it will be a great place for spinning or knitting.

Knitting in the media

Last night I was finishing up a pair of Monkeys (more on that later) while watching Frasier when I saw this:



Yep, that guy is "knitting" what appear to be crocheted granny squares. One would think that someone doing the show knew how to knit, because at one point the man is making fairly realistic knitting motions... but then again maybe not.

I posted something about this (but no picture) on Plurk and got a response from Aesox about a Jockey ad with a spinning wheel churning out knitting. The picture is a bit hard to see - it's possible it's just really thick yarn and someone jammed a cake of it on a spinning wheel, but it's hard to say.



These Jockey girls do a lot of things in their underwear, including riding horses. :o

I'm sure there are many other examples of failed representations of fiber arts - in fact I know I saw one a while ago with a ball of yarn tangled around some needles of someone who was supposedly "knitting".

In any case, back to those socks...



Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Night Watch
Started: 11/23/09
Finished: 12/5/09

These originally started as the Hedgerow Socks, but it seemed like a lot of ribbing for not a lot of pretty. The pattern was just so plain, and it hurt my hands to be changing from knit to purl so much. I decided to go back to one of my old standbys - Monkey is such an easy pattern to knit. The pattern is easy to memorize and it's also easy to tell where you are in the pattern by looking at the stitches. Plus it's minimal work for what I think are very pretty socks.

Belated Candy Corn

I started the Candy Corn socks intending to finish them to wear on Halloween.

Well, two things happened - they didn't stripe which made them less candy corn-ish to me, and then I had a lot of other knitting to do. Actually three things, because I got sick over Halloween and only wore my PJs.

But while I was visiting Boston I saw my friend Cathy and she likes bright cheery colors and said she would take the socks off my hands. Because I am not a fan of yellow or orange (or white really!) if it's not candy corn.



Yarn: Candy Corn from Macek Designs
Started: 9/5/09
Finished: 11/20/09

You can see a little candy corn-like triangle at the heel turn...

My dreams of candy corn striped socks continue, and I picked up some of the Yarntini candy corn striping yarn. Maybe next year!

Birthday Socks

I have a tradition of knitting birthday socks for my little sister, and some for other holidays too. Actually, strangely enough, it all started with the first Ravenclaw scarf!



Then there was the Rainbow scarf:



And some rainbow socks:



Those ones had quite and adventure with a chewful puppy and were jokingly gifted to her again the next year with the foot re-knit. But her real socks the next year were these:



And then, in 2008, these:



There were some other holiday gifts in between - a red and black striped hat and these bright cheery socks last year:



This year my baby sister turned 21, and I can hardly believe it. But here are this year's addition to the lineup:



Yarn: Lisa Souza Sock! in Little Devil
Pattern: plain ol' socks
Started: 9/12/09
Finished: 11/10/09

This is the first time I've used Lisa Souza, but her base yarn is probably different now as this skein is pretty vintage. It seems to be the same base that most indie dyers were using in 2006 - the soft slightly fluffy 2-ply that's quite thin. This skein had great yardage, and I really liked the way the yarn knit up almost-striping - the black stripes don't always complete. The variation in the red part of the skein also gives it a neat look.

I asked my sister because I was considering doing a more exciting pattern, but she says that she likes the plain ones best. The yarn was acquired in a swap in October 2006, and had been patiently waiting in the stash. It was always intended for my little sis, so I don't know why it took me so long to knit it!

I'll see her for Thanksgiving, so the socks will be gifted then. She stayed at my place for Labor Day weekend, and it inspired me to pull the yarn out of the Expedit, wind it up, and start knitting her birthday socks.

Knitting Fun

Thursday evening I went to Stitch & Pitch. I learned that Seattle was the first city to do one, and I believe this year was the 5th. My socks had fun hanging out at the ball game.



Then Saturday morning the same socks and I headed down to Salem. The socks got finished on the train!



Pattern: Summer!
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential in Dusk
Started: 3/4/09
Finished: 8/28/09

Then I got to give Snarfy her socks, which she tried on:



They fit! And I think she likes them!



Now, my goal for Summer of Socks this year was to finish my sock WIPs. It's ending September 1st, but I had been thinking that it ended at the end of the summer (September 22nd). So, I've decided to continue working on sock WIPs for the rest of the summer.

Next up? Kai-Mei.

Oh Snarfy...

One of the fab Salem knitters, Snarfy, had her birthday at Sock Summit on Saturday. I wanted to give her these socks before leaving Oregon last weekend, but they weren't quite done. (See, the socks actually have nothing whatsoever to do with her birthday, but I figured it was a good occasion.)



Yarn: Dashing Dachs in Froggin'
Started: 5/20/09
Finished: 8/13/09

I posted this yarn in my stash on Ravelry one day, and Snarfy commented "OMG hot". I almost thought it a joke because... well let's just say this yarn is not really my style - but you could have guessed that. Of course, while I was knitting it I got comments both ways, so it seems that Snarfy isn't the only one who really liked this yarn.

In case you're wondering, skeined up it looked like this:



I got it from the Woolgirl club, and it was destined to sit in my stash for all eternity... but then Snarfy rescued it. Since I hadn't used Dashing Dachs before, I told her I'd knit the socks.

The base yarn is that standard 2-ply merino that many indie dyers use or have used - I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but it's quite thin and rather loosely plied. It knits up nicely, though. Even though the colors weren't my favorites, I have to say I'm impressed with the dyeing. The black is *very* black and most of the colors have pretty clear "borders" and don't bleed into each other. The light blue does blend a bit with the bright green to make it a little bit of a darker green, but it looks good. And the bright green and yellow sort of fade into each other. But there aren't any muddy spots where the colors touch, which I was really pleased with.* Overall a very nice yarn!

* When taking the dyeing class with Tina from Blue Moon at sock camp, she talked about how she loves the magic of the colors blending together and forming other colors in between. Maybe it's my analytical / control freak tendencies speaking, but I can't say the same. ;)

Listening to: the menu music for Tru Calling... I'd better go finish my DVD!

WIPs

I have 22 WIPs on my Ravelry page. In truth, I only have 20 because 2 of those are actually design projects that are complete, but that I haven't marked as FOs because I like to wait til I can show pictures. In this case I might have to bend that rule.

I go through phases of casting on, I'll start many *many* projects and I'll work on them all a little bit at a time - or at least a good portion of the projects, there are a few that have been lonely a while. Then finally I'll finish them, and it will look very impressive like I finish a lot of things at once. That is a trick.

Here are a few pictures, mostly of ones that I seem to be lacking photographs for entirely.



I started the Horcrux socks as twin socks with Eloise back in Salem I think. The yarn is the Harry Potter Opal in Draco.



These are some plain socks I promised to Snarfy because the yarn color scares me, and apparently she finds it "OMG hot!" I was happy to relinquish it to her, but since I haven't used this brand of yarn before - Dashing Dachs, if you're curious - I thought I should actually knit the socks myself.

And for something a little different... one sock!



Yes, I started my other Nebula, which is something of a minor miracle since when I knit socks one at a time they generally take me years to complete. The DPNs are also a trick - I believe I cannibalized the needles for another more pressing project. :o

There's another project which I'll likely be finishing Saturday, so I'll just save that one til then...

Listening to: Sober ~ Tool, How Soon Is Now? ~ The Smiths

Knitting vs. Real Life

Well, combine secret knitting with big life changes, and you get blog silence.

First of all, the knitting! Last weekend I went down to Oregon for a baby shower for my friend Stephania, so now I can reveal a bit more of that secret knitting:



Pattern: Blossom
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine in Sky (4 skeins)
Started: 4/28/09
Finished: 5/20/09

This was a fun pattern to knit, although the construction was not at all how I had expected. Here's a picture of it blocking*:



*Note: The second attempt at blocking included pins.

The pattern has ties, but a coworker with a young baby told me that ties are not that great on her baby so I decided to modify it to use a button. I think it turned out really cute, even without the suggested embroidery. My embroidery skills are questionable, so I decided to leave it plain.

The secret knitting is slowly coming to an end, so soon I should be able to post projects in real time.

As for real life, I just started a new job - this time in my field. It's keeping me a little more busy than my part time yarn store job was, so I haven't had quite as much time to knit. But, then again, now I have a longer commute...

Surprise!

Some of my secret knitting can finally be revealed....



Know what that is?



How about now?



It's my very first Baby Surprise Jacket!



Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy
Needles: size 7
Started: 4/22/09
Finished: 4/28/09

I'll share one more picture after I put the buttons on - I couldn't decide if buttons were ok for babies, but the verdict from the mom was yes, so buttons there will be!

Sunday I went to my first baby shower for this round of babies. It seems that many people I know are having babies this summer / fall so there's been a lot of baby knitting in the works, most of it secret. Now this one is un-secret, so I can share it with you!

This is my first BSJ, although I know almost everyone has made one already. It's a pretty easy pattern, though I did find the chatty style it is written in a bit off-putting. And the random capitalized words? Strange! But, nonetheless, it is a lovely little jacket and a truly innovative pattern. I think it came out really well.

Alpaca?

I didn't know what I was going to call this post, but then I realized that a lot of it revolves around not-alpaca. You'll see...

First, I knit this hat - which *used* to be the Alpaca Ski Cap - for the store. The yarn that was originally used was discontinued and so I knit it in some lovely Cashsoft Aran.



Another bonus of working in a yarn store is that you get to knit things you wouldn't make for yourself, but still enjoy knitting.

And on the first Friday of each month, there is a spinning group that meets. The owner was kind enough to lend me her folding Lendrum since my Kromski Symphony isn't very portable. I grabbed some fiber on the way out the door yesterday morning and got a bit of a surprise when I went to spin it. There were two little braids of fiber labeled "Alpaca" which I believe I got from a secret pal at some point. Well, I pulled it out and it certainly wasn't like an alpaca I have used! It had a lot of guard hair and really didn't feel like alpaca to me... not the soft squishy fiber most of us are used to. I don't know if it's just a different kind of alpaca or if it's llama perhaps? In any case, it spun up quite nicely anyway. I was jokingly calling it "fake alpaca" all night.

The resulting yarn is not as even as I usually spin, but it was a new wheel for me and it's a single treadle with scotch tension - much different than my large double treadle double drive wheel. All things considered it turned out well!



Here's the mystery-alpaca plied and drying in my bathtub. There were two colors, a navy and a brighter blue, so I plied them together for a barberpole look. I like it!



You can see the barberpole effect in that picture, as well as the guard hairs. The yarn looks a bit fuzzy - like you'd expect from an angora yarn, but isn't quite as soft.

I've been doing some other spinning lately, but this one at home. At Sock Camp my roommate Marisol bought one of the Sheep to Shoe kits, but wanted a worsted weight yarn. She's just learning to spindle spin, but decided that since the fiber wouldn't fit in her suitcase and she wasn't sure how fast she could get it spun, that she'd leave it with me.



The colorway is "The Claw" and this part kind of matches my wheel! The color repeats are very long, so I haven't hit the purple yet.

And last but not least, I got one of katkoe's random mailing Wednesday surprises, and came home tonight to a little envelope with these:



Stitch markers with the names of my (usually) beloved cats in an envelope that appears to be made from plastic bags!

My friends are awesome!

Happy Friday the 13th! I actually like Friday the 13th, it's usually a pretty good day for me and so far this one has been too.

Yesterday I headed over to Stephania's house for some dyeing. Here are the results (with a bit of sock laundry too):



The yellow is a semi-solid wool/nylon I dyed in the crock pot for a design I've been thinking of. The turquoise is on her wool/bamboo base, and was also dyed in the crock pot. It turned out much more variegated, though.

The two flats were a cute idea I had... I've been wanting to get some blank flats and paint a star on one - I'm not dumb, I know it won't come out as a star on the socks, but it's like... stealth stars! So when we went to the Superbowl Sale at The Purl District and I saw that Flat Feet was 50% off, I decided I'd go ahead and pick some up. The light blue flat was a semi-solid that I thought would work well for painting on, and the darker blue one was just such a nice color.

I always think it's strange when I see Flat Feet with vertical stripes because that's going to come out just like if you dyed it in a skein - what's the point of doing it in a flat? So I doctored up the dark one by painting some horizontal stripes - they're not really going to show up over the darker yarn, but there will be stripes of different colors in the lighter sections. I think it will be a cool effect.

For the lighter flat we printed out a star and cut it out, and I painted around / over the paper. Then I spattered the flat with the same blue so that it wouldn't be only confined to the star area - I think it will add some interest. :) Both of the flats only show half - the other side is painted to match.

Then today I got a package from my most amazing friend Cathy:



Before I left Boston, I lent her a book, a project bag, and gave her some yarn one day when she was at my house with nothing to knit. Perhaps because of that - though I don't quite remember - she said she'd knit me a pair of Conwy socks. I have a shorter pair that I knit, but I *hated* knitting the pattern. I love the resulting socks, though. She likes knitting the pattern so I gave her a skein of my JKnits and she made me those Conwy socks.

I got the package today returning my stuff, sending me the above socks, and with a bonus yarny gift - Aussi Sock which she said I hadn't tried yet and it was my colors. Right on both counts!