Ahhhhhhh

Look what is finally finished! Isn't it a beauty? The Eyelet Cable Wrap Pullover from Knit and Style October 2006. I used Lush from Classic Elite yarns and am totally in love with this yarn. It's 50 angora and 50% wool and is so soft and cuddly. Yum. This sweater fits perfectly but I will have to wear a camisole to avoid flashing cleavage, but oh! That's a black velvet ribbon laced through the last row of cable knots. The worst thing about this sweater was the sewing up. Not counting how long (an hour? maybe more?) it took to sew the neck cable band on, the seaming of the sweater took over 2 hours. Yuck. I like to sew and I love to knit, but I hating sewing my handknits, but am too cheap to have the LYS do it.


And I also finished these socks over the weekend. They are Monkey from Knitty.com. Has anyone noticed that my last three pairs of socks, Monkey, Beaudelaire, and Pomatomous, have been designed by Cookie A. for Knitty? She has the most innovative patterns, and fun to knit, that I've come across. The yarn is from Knit Picks called Memories. The colorway is Hawaii. I, however, think it looks more like Playdoh ice cream. It is not a color I would have chosen had I seen it in person instead of ordering off the 'net, but it turns out I love the way it worked up in this pattern.

Happy Knitting!

Measure Up

Look at this cool toy. It's a yarn meter. I originally purchased it so I could divide single skeins of sock yarn into two (hopefully) equal skeins. But it's proving to be invaluable for leftover skeins also. This way I know how much yardage I have and don't have to guesstimate. And doubly lucky for me I have a not-so-little guy who absolutely loves to use the ball winder. Adding the yarn meter has apparently doubled the fun.

Happy Knitting!

A Sense of Community

The little guy and I hang out at a hobby shop near my home. We sometimes spend hours there, our record is 2.5 and probably would have been longer but they were closing up for the day. The staff has come to know us and encourage me to sit and knit while LG roams the aisles and dreams of what he'll spend his allowance on or save up for or what he'll get for a gift. When he's not doing that he's using the remote control glider simulator honing his skills so he can fly his plane more skillfully.

While sitting there knitting I am listening to the conversations taking place between the staff (all men) and the customers (usually men). The staff knows all the projects the customers are working on. And they take great interest in the progress and the finished product (model railroads, trains, planes, slot cars). It reminds me so much of a knitting store. There are a couple of differences: the talk stays on the project and the conversation is short. At a knitting shop the proprietor would not only know the project(s) but also tons of personal information about the customer. And the conversation would be long and detailed. We women like this sort of thing. But the men, they still have a sense of community.

And the staff did ask where the socks were that I had been knitting the day before, they were quite surprised to see them on my feet!

Here is my current project for the hobby store knitting; one trip to the shop resulted in 21 inches of ribbing.

Happy knitting!

Oat Couture Vest

I finally finished the vest I knit on the trip to my ex-father-in-law's funeral. I knit the whole vest on the trip to and from Idaho (obviously I wasn't the one driving!) in November, but dragged my feet on putting in the zipper. I like to sew and I love to knit, but I hate to sew my knits. But putting in the zipper was not nearly as difficult as I had built it up in my mind. I basted it in and then sewed it using the sewing machine. Not difficult or even time consuming.

This pattern is by Oat Couture and I purchased it and the yarn (Encore Chunky) many years ago to do on a knitting getaway and never even started it. I had even swatched and had the needles stuffed in the page protector with the pattern for all that time. I will probably do this pattern again, but with some modifications. One thing I would do differently is to do ribbing all the way to the armholes just on the sides where the side seam would be (except I changed it to knit with no side seams). I think this would give it more shaping and be more fitted. This pattern has changes for three weights of yarn--a real plus. This pattern is so basic that it's a good basis for creative license.

Happy Knitting!

Blue Fish

Pomatomus, the genus of the blue fish. These socks were a very fun knit. The pattern never clicked while doing the first one, so I put it away for months. But Thursday night I got out the pattern and the yarn and started the second one. And got through the gusset before I decided I should go to bed. And Friday night I finished it. With the second sock the pattern clicked immediately-maybe it needed the months to percolate? I love the way they look, the way they fit, the yarn, everything about them. The biggest mistake? I only did two repeats on the legs instead of the three called for. Next pair, and there will be a next pair, I will do all three repeats.

Specifics: Pomatomus from Knitty.com. Lorna Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Georgetown.

Happy Knitting!

Finished Objects

Take a look at the finished objects! Actually only one of the dishcloths is a finished object for 2007, but the socks and the slippers are FOs for this year. The slippers are a pattern from the KnitList and the socks are Baudelaire from Knitty.com. Dishcloths are various patterns and adaptations (ie mistakes). The link to the entrelac one can be found in my sidebar: Garterlac. The slippers are RedHeart yarn--why do I always forget how difficult it is to knit with all acrylic, especially the really inexpensive kind? But we had to have camo slippers! Baudelaire is done with Regia Silk--a silk/wool/polymid blend which is a dream to knit with. I love how the Baudelaires fit and how they look. They were my first successful toe up socks.


Here is January's decoration for my key hook at the top of the stairs. It was surprisingly hard to find snowflake ornaments at the after Christmas sales. But JoAnns provided and at only 60 cents each!

Happy Knitting!

Fetch!

I finally jumped on the bandwagon and made the fingerless gloves, Fetching, from Knitty. The gold pair are made from Aurora 8 by Karabella yarns. This blogger has raved about the Aurora yarn (100% merino) so much I had to try it for myself. It lived up to its reviews. It took over just one ball of the Aurora 8. The navy pair is made from Ecco by Zitron--100% superwash merino. The navy pair turned out lighter weight and finer than the gold because of a different gauge (and took less than one ball). However, both pairs fit beautifully. The ribbing gives a great fit. The navy pair was gifted to a gal in my office who is always cold. I'm not a fast knitter, yet I managed to finish one pair in one evening.

These were almost the last knits for 2006, but on New Year's Eve I manage to knit a few dish cloths for my soon to be daughter-in-law. You know you're a real party animal when you spend New Year's Eve knitting at your mom's house and are in bed by 12:30. You know that wild single night life isn't all it's cracked up to be ;)

Happy Knitting!