Mini-Skein Blender Socks

I got through the second color and started the third.  I’m now at the start of the gussets.

I’ll admit that the 2 strands of yarn and swapping of colors isn’t all that.  But I do like the effect.

Paul’s Chicago Bears Socks

I also put several inches on Paul’s Bears socks and I’m ready to start the gussets.  These are supposed to be his 2013 socks but given we’re 3 days away from 2014 I suspect they’ll be a tad late.

Paul’s Pismo Hat

Fortunately though I also started his Pismo hat in 2 shades of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.  I began with a tubular cast on that only took me 4 tries – that cast on is SO fiddly.  And then once I got the cast on right, I knit the first row with the tail.  Awesome.

But now I’m at the last round of the red stripe so it should be easy sailing until the decreases.

I’m calling this Paul’s I Love You This Much hat because I wouldn’t do all that twisted ribbing for just anyone.

And that probably includes myself.

SKA January 2014 plans

I decided to to the SKA knitdown for January – the technique of the month is lace and I love knitting lace socks.  The longer repeats make the knitting go quickly and the results are gorgeous.  I’ve narrowed it down to 4 designs

and 4 stash yarns

I was shocked to discover that I have very little solid sock yarn in my stash.  Enough to get me through a few pairs but they’re all in the pink/red/purple shades with the one lonely skein of orange.

Right now I’m leaning toward Isabella D’Este in the orange.

I have two more cast ons that I didn’t take pics of yet but the dark and dank day is making that impossible so I’ll show you them next time.

I’ll catch you on the purl side.

Shaw Hill

I was concerned about knitting with such a big needle but it’s been fun – and quick progress isn’t hard to be happy about.

The dye has rubbed off on everything it touches though – my hands and the cuffs of my sleeves both turned a bluish-purple.  Luckily the dye came out completely in a laundering with a dose of bleach.

Mini Skein Blender Socks

I stalked the tracking on this one as it made its way across the country.  You do that too, right?

I split the skeins in half so I could use them up fairly equally.  I’m onto the second color now and I feel a mini skein obsession coming on.

Probably best if I knit through this batch first, right?  In case you’re curious, etsy has a bunch of sock weight mini skeins.  I’d like to find a set in colors I don’t normally knit – maybe orange?

I won’t buy more mini skeins.  I won’t buy more mini skeins.

If I knit these fast enough I can buy more, right?

I’ll catch you on the purl side.

Unfortunately, the party is Friday.  If I have any chance of finishing this I need to complete the body today.  I’m not confident that’s possible.  I’ll knit like crazy today but I have a good 10 inches left on the body.  Not likely.

I do have a Plan B but I really really really want to wear this.  The fabric of the Tosh Merino Light is awesome.

Back to the knitting.

I’ll catch you on the purl side.

Phew, the party is less than 2 weeks away!

Not surprisingly, I find myself daydreaming about a more intricate project – thick, cushy cables mostly. Makes sense since the lows have been in the 20s lately.

Most of the knitting is straight garter at this point – easy to pick up at any time. And I can attest to the simplicity of working through falling asleep on it mid-row.

This pic is for Audry who asked about the seam. I think it works well in this design. I’m curious what it would look like when worked at a regular gauge for the yarn. I might experiment with that at some point.

I mentioned that I’m daydreaming about other projects. I’ve even started to plan my Christmas vacation knitting and I’m getting excited! Squishy cables and a new to me yarn that’s to die for. I can’t wait to share my plans with you.

For now though, I’m plugging away at Obsidian. After today I only have one more weekend to work on it so I have to stay focused. It’s amazing what not having the option to put down a project does for progress.

I’ll catch you in the purl side.

The cowl is done. I took a quick cell phone pic to see how the cowl fit. Ignore the sweats please – it was 6:30 am. After trying on the cowl I decided to add another inch. It’s so hard to keep going after you think you’re done, but the cowl is the centerpiece of this top so it has to be right.  I was relieved to see the TML happily stretching – and that Jeny’s Slip Knot cast on was living up to its claim.

This is the perfect kind of deadline knitting – garter stitch, very little shaping – and a clever wrap and turn to make no-purl-in-the-round garter. And at this busy time of the year that’s the exact amount of brain power I have for knitting.

I’m still very happy with my yarn choice – TML in Onyx.  Black with bits of subtle variation. I find myself looking forward to those occasional bits of silvery gray but from a far it still reads black. Fun for the knitter and fashionable too.

Now that I’m done with the cowl I’m getting ready to start the body. I can’t say I’m sad for those 6mm needles to go away. I actually knitted more slowly with those lincoln logs. I can’t wait to see how the body – knitted on 3.75mm – will work up.

Trying on the cowl got me excited for the FO.  The simplicity of this pattern is inspired. The many faces of garter stitch – big gauge, even bigger gauge and the drape of a single ply yarn.  I think I’m going to love wearing this one.

I’ll catch you in the purl side.

I obsessed the way I always do about what to wear – never considering knitting something because, well, it’s a month away.  But once I remember Obsidian I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  I needed to wear Obsidian for that party.

Needed.

I love the cowl pulled all the way down.  It’s what sold me on this design.

The pattern is pretty simple too.  If you’ve ever made a top down raglan you should have no trouble with this.

After reading lots of people’s notes I learned that a *super* stretchy cast on was needed for the start of the cowl (the part that stretches around your whole body) so I went for Jeny’s Stretchy Slip Knot Cast On.  I didn’t want to take a chance that the star of this design wasn’t going to work.

Since this will be an aggressive (but doable, right?) deadline I psyched myself up with a look at some of the FOs.  Here are a few of my favorites.

As for my Obsidian, I went with 4 skeins of Tosh Merino Light in Onyx.  Paired with a slim fitting black skirt and black knee high boots, it’ll be a modern take on the little black dress.

I’ll catch you on the purl side.

It started on my commute Monday morning.  I was listening to the latest Never Not Knitting podcast when Alana told us that she released Sprig.  All her talk about the clever construction resulting in a very wearable pullover took over my imagination.  And look at that little button detail on the sleeve cuff!  But given I had just cast on for 2 sweaters and my sweater track record isn’t…ahem…very good, I started shopping my stash.  I found some deep purple Berroco Vintage that would probably work for gauge but who wants a purple sprig?

I found myself shopping at Woolbearers on Tuesday night and came home with 4 skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK in Faded Parka – a gray-green.

Since I was substituting I was a good knitter and did a gauge swatch – washed and dried it.  I was spot on for 5 SPI unwashed, but after washing the superwash yarn easily stretched to 4.5 SPI.  So, I went down to a US 5.  It’s a bit of a risk because I’m counting on the sweater stretching out to fit me without looking like a sausage casing, but since I also didn’t want to swim in the sweater I had to take this risk.

I’m about halfway through the raglan increases.  I’ll spare you another picture of 3″ of WIP that doesn’t look like anything.

Since the pattern is so new I took a hard look at it to spot any errors and I did find one in the schematic.  I emailed Alana and within a few hours I had a reply thanking me, including the correct numbers.  I’m very impressed with her quick reply and cheerful attitude – even on a Saturday.

Would you believe that I’m gaga over all things sweater now?  I’ve been faving and researching them left and right.  I’m not sure how long this will last before I *need* small needles in my hands, but I’ll ride this one out while it’s here.  I’m sure the cold weather and the shorter days has something to do with it.

And who knows, maybe I’ll even get a sweater out of the deal?

I’ll catch you on the purl side.

First, there was Rhinebeck.

It was mine and Christy’s eighth year and one of the best weather-wise.  As Christy said, it was cool enough to wear our sweaters but warm enough not to need to cover them up with a coat.  And it didn’t even rain on Friday.  It almost always rains the Friday before.

The question that I’m sure is on everyone’s minds is Did you finish Sugar Maple?  I sure did!  I only have one crappy photo so I’m going to hold off on an FO post until I do a photo shoot.  But I love everything about it – the yarn, the fit, the colors – everything.  And it’s gotten me jazzed about garment knitting again.

The other question had got to be What did you buy?  I was quite restrained this year and only bought 2 things

7 skeins of Shelridge Farm Soft Touch DK in Lipstick.  Yep, another perfectly pink shade for me.  This one is going to be a Wrapped Pullover but I’m doing it in DK instead of Aran weight.  A sweater as heavy as Aran just isn’t practical for me – and I’m sure it’s also not very flattering.  I think I’ll get a lot of wear out of it in DK and it’s a good thing too.  With the yarn weight change I need to knit a 50 to get a 36.

Yep – a lot of knitting

The other yarn I got is another skein of Sock82Me in a much more cable-appropriate color – Lord-Love-A-Duck!  It has my pinks in it with a healthy dose of orange – a shade I’d like to use more of in my knitting.  No idea which pattern I’ll do but I can only get this at Rhinebeck so I didn’t want to miss out.

Then, there was casting on.

I started my Wrapped Pullover – it’s just to the ribbing.

And then, I cast on for Elisbeth.  Again.  This time in an even smaller size.

And finally I admitted to myself that I need a pair of fingerless mitts to wear at work.  I’m cold All. The. Time. and there’s no freaking way I’d allow myself to buy a pair of squeaky acrylic mitts.

No f-ing way.

I wanted something that covered my wrists and went up a bit on my forearm.  And I wanted simple so I can wear it with just about anything and for a while I was considering just doing a pair of stockinette mitts.  But then I got an email about the Mirri Mitts by Ambah and I knew they were the ones.  They’re almost as simple as st st but have little dots of eyelets to keep it interesting to knit and a little something special to wear.

And there was some Etsy buying.

I got a skein of custom ordered stripes in Chicago Bears colors for Paul from Ladybug Fiber Company.

And a skein of 15 Colour Rainbow from Fab Funky Fibres.

I don’t want to interrupt the stripe sequence so I’m thinking afterthought heel.  I love the little bullseye that heel forms but it’s not my favorite for fit.  So we have the classic form versus function question.  I think form will win out on this one.

And finally, a little something for you.

There’s a big group of indie designers participating in the Indie Gift Along that are offering discounts.  I got the Mirri pattern for 25% off.  Take a look at the whole list.  There are TONS of designers offering discounts – some I recognized and some there were new to me.  The GAL is a win win – support indie designers and get a great pattern out of it.

It’s great to be back.

I’ll catch you on the purl side.

I finally hit the spot where I needed to start the short rows for the straight bottom.

After tons of pondering, “oh yeah, that’s the way to do it” I bit the bullet and just started.  It’s only knitting right?

There were a couple things that made this more complicated than the simple math I thought I’d have to do:

• The hip decreases fell in the oh-so-convenient place that they’re concurrent with the short rows for the bottom.
• The asymmetry means that each side’s short rows go at a different rate

I’ve been trying it on every 6 or so rows to make sure it’s still working.  So far so good.

I think I’m about halfway done so (maybe?) I’m done with the hardest part?

Oh and I’m happy to report that it looks like the color got dark enough at the bottom that the black (not really black, more like an off-black) should match the edge at the end of the short rows.

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I think I’ll be wearing this at Rhinebeck!

I’ll catch you on the purl side.

It’s been over a month since I last worked on her.  I just need to do the hip increases and figure out how to make a straight bottom.

In other words, I still have a chance of getting this done in time for Rhinebeck.

I have to thank Christy for the motivation.  She let me know that she’s almost done with her cabled pullover to wear to Rhinebeck.  Hearing that just made me realize how much I want to wear a handknit on the fairgrounds that Saturday.

I still have a decent amount of work to do, and as I knit doubts creep in over whether this unusual shape will

• look good on my body shape
• fit well

Those doubts make me procrastinate working on Sugar Maple and find excuses to cook, start new projects and *gasp* even clean.

I just need to power through and try to make it work.  The yarn is awesome – hello cashmere – and the colors are SO me.

I’m going to think about the yarn and the colors and knit a bit more.

I’ll catch you on the purl side.