Sidetracked

Posted by knitting

May 13

I bet you’re kind of wondering what ever happened to photos of my April sweater…. Hey, whatever happened to that sweater anyway.  It’s the February Lady sweater downsized (or a Sweater on Two Needles upsized) to fit my 7 year old.  It’s coming along, but slowly.  Through no fault of the sweater’s, I have been sidetracked.

I discovered a sweet little sock pattern, the Turkish Bed Socks by Churchmouse Creations.  It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s very satisfying.  I knit two of these sets of socks.  The first is out of some very old Koigu that I had used scraps of for something.  Then the dog found it and decided that it would make a very sweet sheepy chew toy.  There were some breaks in the yarn, but nothing that I couldn’t live without.  The second pair is from Suibui sock yarn in screaming pink with acid green.  They’re very fun and very girly.  Both sets of socks work great with clogs.  The only problem (slight, slight problem) is that my ankles get a bit chilly in this cool spring air.  I’m now on the lookout for an anklet pattern that will be just as sweet and fast.

I did modify the Turkish Bed Sock pattern slightly.  The pattern calls for you to knit a long rectangle that goes around your ankle, then knit the heel flap and bottom of the foot.  You’re supposed to seam the rectangle together with the bottom of the foot after you are finished knitting that portion.  However, I’m not a huge fan of seaming.  I really don’t think it should be necessary in something as small as a sock.  So…. I left the rectangle stitches on the needle while I knit the heel.  As I knit the foot bottom I joined the bottom to a live stitch left on the needle with either a SSK or a P2tog.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

 

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Swatch-buckling

Posted by knitting

Apr 17

I confess, I am not the world’s most dedicated swatcher.

Most knitters know what a swatch is (it’s a sample size of how your yarn will behave with a certain size needle), but just in case here’s a little explanation of how to swatch correctly.

Back to the confession, because confession is good for the soul, right?  I tend to swatch for an inch or so, maybe as much as three, to make sure that I get the right gauge.  If my gauge isn’t coming out right, and it usually isn’t, I switch to a small size needle.  With me, I almost always know I need to go smaller.  I keep going smaller until I get to the correct gauge.  If I’m really feeling sassy lucky, I do the gauge swatch as part of the garment.  This works especially “well” with sleeves and sock cuffs.  Just cast on the number of stitches for the sleeve and away I go.  I measure after a few inches and then rip and redo if need be.

There’s just one teeny tiny problem.  Knitting tends to behave differently once it’s been washed.  Yarn blooms, the fibers stretch out, sometimes it acts completely differently from the yarn you think you had.  All of a sudden that perfect gauge swatch is big and floppy.  The sock cuff that fit perfectly is now sagging down around your ankles.  Not to mention what happens to a perfectly good sweater.  To get a completely accurate gauge swatch, you really need to wash and block your swatch first.

And that’s where I tend to cut corners.

As in I don’t do it at all.  Or at least I didn’t.  After my last two sweaters haven’t fit as well as I’d like, I am trying to turn over a new leaf.  I have swatched for my April sweater – the February Lady Sweater/Sweater on Two Needles sized for an almost 8 year old girl.  I’m also proactively swatching for my May sweater, done in fingering weight alpaca.

Wish me luck in turning over this new leaf.  I’m a little nervous about the sizing for the April sweater, but I figure if my gauge still leads me wrong at least this time it will fit my 6 year old instead of being given away to a much taller person.

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It’s Good Y’all

Posted by knitting

Apr 2

Lily Times 2

I’ve managed to go an entire month without posting about my March sweater. It is moving right along, just as a good sweater ought to.  (It’s a good thing when a sweater behaves itself during the knitting.)  I do have to admit that I got a little nervous as I skeined up the last 110 yds. of hand painted yarn. I had Kool-aide dyed this years ago, so there was no hope of matching the yarn.  (and I tried to match it by doing some serious stash diving) I knew I’d have to knit fast to make sure I had enough yarn to get through.  I put the body of the sweater off to the side while I finished the cap sleeves.

There was enough yarn to finish the bottom of the sweater and there should be plenty to finish the neckline.  It’s currently soaking in my bathroom sink.  I have to block it to get the cute front pocket portion to lay correctly before I do the neckline edging.  In the meantime I’m swatching for April’s sweater.  For the first time I will be wet blocking my swatch.  I think experience is showing me that I need to wet block my swatches for accuracy.

There are no good pictures to show of the sweater in progress.  One of the pitfalls of Superior in March is that we have very few sunny days.  It’s tough to get a good picture on a grey foggy day.  Especially when I don’t normally have a moment to take a photo until 10pm.  So instead, I give you adventures in iPad’s Photobooth.

Autumn

The kids were having a ball with this yesterday.  As we drove home from my parents house I had one kid on the iPad reading books and the other on the Nook.  We’re such a techy family all of a sudden.  When Addie discovered the Photobooth icon it was clearly a new toy!  All I heard from the backseat was, “click, click, click.  Here take a picture of this.  Click, click, click.”  Addie’s favorite for herself was the twirl function, which just made her look like she had a sad birth defect.  I really prefer my children looking like themselves.

 

 

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Beekeepers Quilt

Posted by knitting

Mar 19

Since you asked, the Beekeepers Quilt is moving along nicely.  I have been slowly working on it again since mid-February.

Beekeepers Quilt Version 2.0

Someone (who shall remain nameless) has gotten me into the habit of trolling the mini skein swaps on Ravelry and looking on Etsy for good selections of mini skeins.  Somehow this is much more appealing than breaking into my perfectly good skeins of yarn that are sitting in drawers at home.  I haven’t joined any swaps per se, but I have participated in a few destashes.  I’m just not willing to commit to skeining up a zillion tiny skeins of yarn and sending them off to a zillion people.  I’d rather pay $4 a pop to have someone else do it for me.   Does that make me a snob?

I think it might.  It certainly makes me a sad person who doesn’t own a swift to make it easier on myself.  (sniff, sniff, poor me!)

I haven’t figured out how I want to lay out the hexipuffs yet.  A lot of people do the random layout, which is cool.  I had originally thought to do this in a Grandmother’s Garden style layout, but now that the recipient has turned out to be a boy, I’m not sure I want a flowery quilt.  The other option would be to do a random layout with a tan border.  My husband is a fan of this layout as he likes things clearly defined.  If this is the case, then I’m definitely going to have to buy some tans and browns to make it work!

Beekeepers Quilt Version 2.5

Any thoughts?

 

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Hexi-puffing

Posted by knitting

Mar 12

Little Red Bicycle Hexipuffs

Since I was able to knock out the February sweaters (yes, there were 2!) before the end of the month, I spent some time working on my Beekeepers Quilt.  I also spent some time shopping for my Beekeepers Quilt.  One of my favorites has been the Little Red Bicycle mini club.  I had seen Little Red Bicycle yarn at Sock Summit, but I really didn’t find anything super amazing about it (which tells you how completely overwhelming the yarn and yarn fumes can be at something like that).  Now that I’ve knit it with, I am completely in love with this yarn.  The last package I got contained a little sample of handspun yarn (green puffs above).  It really is fun to knit with handspun, you just don’t know what’s going to come out next.  She also has a base with cashmere (blue grey puffs above) in it that is yummy to knit with.  All in all, I have converted to be a LRB fan.

I’ve also been stalking something called the Mini Mall on Ravelry.  It’s a place where people put up mini skein swaps or destash their skeins of minis.  I’ve bought a few different types of minis there, including 2 lots of Sanguine Gryphon yarn.  Since this isn’t being dyed anymore I was really happy to get my fingers on more of it.

As for my March sweater, I’m knitting the Goodale pattern out of some hand dyed yarn that I’ve had for several years.  I originally dyed this thinking it would make a great school cardigan for Addie.  However I never really found a good pattern I liked for the yardage.  Plus it has more varigation than the school would probably like.  I’m hoping that I’ll have enough yardage to squeek out slightly longer sleeves.

The January sweater has gone to live with my mother in law as it fits her better than I.  It ended up being a better fit for a tall person.  When am I going to realize that I am NOT 5’9″ tall?  She did comment that it was a bit low cut for her, but since she’s going to wear another shirt under it anyway, I don’t think it really matters.  I’m hoping to get a photo of her in it for the blog.

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The Little Things

Posted by knitting

Feb 29

It’s the little things in life that really make a difference.

  1. A snow day even if it did come with less snow than I had hoped and 50 mph gusts.  They closed one of the highways near my house so I decided to stay home with my hubby and kids.
  2. Having electricity back after 5 hours without it.  The kids enjoyed “pioneer day” at our house!  Lunch was a little interesting, but we survived.  We ate some cold leftovers or sandwiches and were happy that we didn’t have to go out in the blizzard.
  3. Having some time to work on Hexipuffs for the Beekeepers Quilt.  I’ve become slightly addicted to finding mini skeins of yarn on Etsy.  It’s so fun to use a mini skein rather than great big huge skeins of yarn.
  4. Finishing my 3rd sweater in the month of February!  With two sweaters, a pair of booties and a hat, we know my new nephew won’t be lacking in clothing.

Modular Cardigan

This is the Modular Cardigan from Grammy’s Favorite Knits for Baby.  I used Frog Tree Alpaca’s Mariboo yarn.  I have just enough left over out of the 3 skeins to squeak out a matching hat.  I did it in the smallest size since I wanted to have something that Baby X can wear almost right away.  It’s a cute sweater and a very quick knit.  So quick in fact, that I didn’t realize that the sleeves were supposed to be in stockinette stitch rather than garter.  Oh well, I think it’s kind of cute.

 

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All the News That’s Fit to Print

Posted by knitting

Feb 21

There’s nothing like a new baby coming to kick your knitting into high gear.  I became a proud Auntie once again last week.  Our new nephew was born on Friday afternoon, healthy and happy with a full head of hair All the babies in our family are born with more hair than most adult men.

In the past week, I have finished

Professor X Sweater

A 6 month size sweater for Professor X (what we’ve nicknamed the baby).  Made from Sanguine Gryphon yarn in Abu Dhabi colorway.  Sorry for the crummy iPhone picture, it was the only one I took last night that was remotely OK to use.  This would be my official February Sweater for the 12 in 12 challenge.

A pair of baby booties, also for Professor X.

My January Sweater.  Yes, it’s actually done.  I do need to sew on buttons still.  I think I’m going to do the ribbon button band from the Knitmore Girls to give the button band more stability.  I’ll show pictures and talk about it more when it’s all done.

And I started a new baby sweater, just to see if I can get it done in the remaining days.  Have I mentioned I’m crazy?

 

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Less Than a 2 Minute Update

Posted by knitting

Feb 11

I finished the sleeve on my January Cardigan.  I wound up the last ball of yarn so that all of the button band and collar would be from the same skein and packed everything up to take to my parents house for the weekend.

I packed everything except for the smaller size needles that I need for the button band.  (*&%#$ %#$  I packed extra yarn (force of habit) and a pattern for my February sweater.  I didn’t pack the needles for this pattern either.  I didn’t pack my back up scarf just in case.

My mom, sister and I had some errands to run this morning so we went to Walmart.  Normally I stay as far away from Walmart as I possibly can.  However, knowing that they had some knitting needles I decided that it would be fine.  They have No. Needles. Under. Size. 6.  None.  (Well except for a set of size 3 double points that would not help me.) Not even straight needles in a 4 or 5.  It wasn’t as thought they were just out either.  They don’t stock them.  I think I just stared forlornly while my sister patted my back.  Someone really needs to open up a knitting store in this town.  Seriously.

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2 Minute Update

Posted by knitting

Feb 9

Velynda Cardi in Progress

I sure wish I had a finished sweater to show you.  It’s almost the end of the first week in February and I don’t have a finished January sweater.  However, I am close.  Thanks to two classes I took last week I am very close.  I’m finishing the ribbing on the second sleeve and just have the button band and collar left to do.  Not too bad considering that I started on January 5.

The great thing about the 12 Sweaters in 12 Months challenge that I laid out for myself is that it is MY challenge.  If I don’t get a sweater done every month the world will not end.  I will not get fired and my children will not care either way.  My husband will only notice because I’ll shove it in his face to admire and then take up most of the hallway with blocking the sweater.  It’s ok.  I make my own rules when it comes to knitting and the number one rule is that there are no rules.  Knitting. Is. Fun.

I’m debating what I’ll do for February, but considering that I’m not done with this one and that I’ll have a new little nephew any day now, I think he deserves some new knits.  Probably something in the newborn size so that I can get back on a semblance of a schedule.

Does anyone have suggestions on a cute newborn sweater for a boy?

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Resolutions 2012

Posted by knitting

Jan 4

I’ve never been very good at picking resolutions for the year.  About the only one that ever worked for me was giving up french fries for an entire year.  But I think that was because it finally hit me that I feel a lot A LOT better if I don’t eat fried food.  It’s a gall bladder thing that I like to ignore and pretend doesn’t exist.  And really, if I don’t eat fried food, it really doesn’t exist.

I’ve tried to pretend that I resolve to Knit Only Out of My Stash. I’ve tried to pretend that I resolve to Buy Less Yarn.  I’ve even tried to pretend that I will Knit Only Patterns and Yarn That I’ve Pre-Packaged Into Cute Little Bags and Made Into My Own Kits.  Yeah, that didn’t work so well.

So why would I think that participating in my own version of a 12 in 12 would work?  The challenge is to knit 12 sweaters in 12 months.  The idea intrigues me.  The problem?  The yarn store in question is 2 1/2 hours away and I need more yarn like I need a hole in my head.  (Really, I do not need a hole in my head).  So I probably would not participate in buying the yarn at their store (although it’s a perfectly lovely store and if my in-laws wanted to buy me a gift certificate to the store since that’s where they live I certainly wouldn’t turn it down.)  However, I don’t think I have enough sweater quantity yarn in my stash.  I’m sort of the queen of one skein purchases.  I do have enough (I think) for the

Sullivan - February

and the

Featherweight -April

and the

White Russian - June

and I’d probably find yarn to make the

Zephyr - September

and maybe this one.  Although I might try to modify it to have long sleeves.  I’m not a huge fan of short sleeved sweaters.

Rusted Root - July

So that’s 5 out of the 12 months.  What if I threw in child and baby size sweaters to round out the months?  Could I even do it?  The baby sweaters would help me “catch up” on months that I would be behind.  Is it possible for me to finish an adult sweater in a month with my limited knitting time?  Could I keep focused for that long?  After all, I am the poster child for “Ohhh… shiny!”

Is anyone interested in knitting these along with me?  Pick your own sweaters from the 12 in 12 list or start your own list.  I’ll start January with a sweater I’ve already picked out for myself.  Velynda by Bon Marie Burns.  I have some navy blue Malabrigo that I bought with a gift certificate my hubby’s Aunt gave me.  Leave me a message in the comments and let me know what you’ll be knitting.

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