Two Finishes for the Post of One!

In a previous post, I mentioned that I was working on something, and that it was seasonally relevant, but not a turkey. I posted this picture:

I'm pleased to say that the project is now finished, and now for the big reveal:


Dixon the Duck

The seasonal relevance? College (American) Football, of course! Let me explain... Mr. Tall's biggest flaw is that he is a fan of the USC Trojans (boo! hiss!). The downside to this is that he watches the games whenever they're broadcast here in the UK and they are his team of preference when he's playing NCAA '07 Football on his PlayStation. The big problem with this, of course, is that the Trojans are just one of those teams that always seem to win and do well (boo! hiss!).

So... Dixon the Duck. With all the USC Trojan game watching and PlayStation playing going on around the house, I needed a little something of my own for some sanity. Enter Dixon, named after the UO Quarterback, who has sadly been injured.

The pattern for the duck comes out of Fiona McTague's irresistible book,
Knitted Toys, which is definitely worth a look at as there are a lot of great patterns and the pictures are superb. The sweater was adapted from The Incredible, Custom-Fit Raglan Sweater, and the "O" was charted out from the school's official logo and knit using intarsia in the round.

To get the sweater just right, I knit all duck pieces, and did all the finishing, save poor Dixon's head. I decided it was best to keep Dixon un-capitated until I had finished the sweater, and so he sat and waited patiently.

Un-capitated Dixon

I'm quite glad that he's finished, despite the sagging bowl hopes for Oregon, we'll cheer the team on anyways!

Dixon

Details:
Start-End: September 21 - November 23, 2007
Pattern: "Duck" from Knitted Toys: 21 Easy-to-Knit Patterns for Irresistible Soft Toys by Fiona McTague
Yarn: King Cole Merino Blend DK
Needles: KnitPicks Options US 4/3.5 mm
Other: I knit the head and sleeves in the round, and the legs and feet connected in one piece. If I knit this again, I would try to knit the body and head in one piece to avoid some of the seaming up.

Oregon Sweater

Start-End: September 27-November 23, 2007
Pattern: The Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater by Pamela Costello
Yarn: Palette Yarns #018 (DK) in green and scraps of King Cole Merino DK for the "O"
Needles:KnitPicks Options US 4/3.5 mm
Other: I tried the intarsia-in-the-round technique found here. It worked well enough for this purpose, but it's quite noticeable on the back of the sweater, where I started/ended the rounds. I'm not entirely sure if it's because of my error or the fact that intarsia-in-the-round just isn't meant to be.

Tidbits and Miscellany

First, thank you all so much for your helpful comments on my last post. While I started blogging for myself and my own record keeping, it's really great to get support and advice from others out there. Knowing people are stopping by is great motivation in so many ways.

Yarn Sale
One "LYS" in this area is actually a news agent. They have a small (but luxurious) selection of high-ticket yarns - RYC, Rowan and the now discontinued Jaeger. Unfortunately, they have recently decided to stop selling yarn, and are selling their inventory at 2 GBP a skein!!! This is roughly a 50-60% discount over normal prices. I did indulge, but won't be sharing my finds with you today. The majority of what I purchased is for Christmas knitting, and some recipients-to-be read this blog (hi mom!). So much of the fun of gift-giving is in the surprise, so I hope you'll understand. If you are local, head out to Market Cross News in Beverley (located in the Saturday Market) and go wild!

Things to Come
I have a few ideas ruminating in my head for recurring posts here. I hope to get the first of these started in October, so stay tuned and check back. If there's anything you'd like to see or see more of (would you like to know more about me? want more pictures?), let me know!

In Progress
I'll post more details on this later, but here's a part of what I'm working on right now. It is very seasonally relevant, but it's not a turkey.

Bird Leg

FO: Petunia the Purple Pachyderm

Petunia the Purple Pachyderm

Start Date/Finish Date: May 27 - July 3, 2007
Pattern: "Lovable Toys" from Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK in lilac (doubled throughout)
Needles: KnitPicks Options 4.0 mm
New-to-me Techniques: Mattress stitch, Kitchener stitch, picking up stitches, provisional (crochet) cast-on, magic loop

My sister-in-law's shower is scheduled for July 14. I think I have this finished in time to get it shipped back to the states. For me, this means it's not quite as last minute as I'm capable of. Go me!

I've heard of people a little less than happy with this pattern. I didn't really have any problems following it, but I also read the directions for finishing and stuffing the elephant, ignored it and did it my own way. I reasoned it would be a lot simpler to sew on ears and arms if the body wasn't stuffed, which it was. Furthermore, the state of un-stuffedness meant that symmetry was a bit easier to accomplish, though it still eluded me to some extent.

At this point, I can't say what I think of the yarn. I bought 4 more balls of this yarn in the pink colorway so that I could make the NIP a sweater, so I'm reserving full judgment until I've worked on that a bit. For the purposes of this project, I felt it was a bit splitty (is that a technical term?). Perhaps it was because I was holding the yarn doubled, perhaps it was just the pointy-ness of my pointy sticks, but we shall see.

Perhaps I've been to the Build-A-Bear workshop one too many times, but I couldn't allow myself to seam up a hand-knitted toy without including a heart.

Petunia's Heart

Ok, stop laughing. That really is a heart. At least, it's as much of a heart as I could try to do on my own without a pattern. Don't you know that knit elephants are supposed to have V shaped hearts?

Now all that is left is to obsessively finish up my Hogwarts Scarves as the movie and book release are fast approaching!

Eye Candy Friday: Petunia

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a niece-in-progress. As a baby shower gift, I've decided that I will attempt to knit her two things. One is the Matinee Coat from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby. The other is the Elephant Toy from Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

The second step (after pattern selection) was to find the yarn. I needed little girl colors (the mom is a bit particular that way), and I wanted to find yarn that was soft and completely machine washable. I ended up with some Sirdar Snuggly DK.

Baby stash!

I decided to start with the elephant. I've been calling her Petunia the Purple Pachyderm. I'm over halfway done, and all I can say is that (for me) this is definite tongue-out knitting! That aside, I am learning a lot and enjoying the process. I thought it best to share (honestly) my experience knitting this up so far. I expect that experienced knitters will get a good chuckle...

Following the directions, I started with the arms. To complete them, I had to learn how to do a mattress stitch, which seamlessly joins up stockinette stitch. I figured out how to do this, to my great pleasure. As promised, here's photographic proof:

Elephant arm

From there, it was time to work on the body. This is knit starting by knitting two squares for legs, keeping the stitches live, then joining the legs and knitting in the round for the body. Then comes the shoulder shaping. I must have done something wrong in how I joined the legs or something, because the shoulders (as I knit them) would have ended up in the middle of the chest and back.

*much mumbling and frogging*

At this point, I ended up frogging everything (except my perfect arms). I decided to knit this up holding the yarn doubled. I like how it's made the fabric feel a bit stronger and sturdier - a good idea for a baby in my mind. This time, I saw that the shoulders were going to end up in the wrong place, so I just did some mental math to get everything in the right spot.

I knitted happily along, pleased with punch at myself. I put stitches on a stitch holder for future use in the trunk (can I just say how much I love the KnitPicks Options set - the cables are perfect stitch holders!). I stopped knitting in the round and instead knitted back and forth. Then... I had to do a provisional crochet cast on. At this point, my internet was down, I didn't have the pattern book handy, and only one of my books covered this - poorly.

I followed the book directions carefully, made a chain, cast on the stitches, and knit around in the row. At this point, my book mentioned removing the crochet chain, which I did... and those "new" stitches unraveled. (You saw that coming, didn't you?).

*puzzled frogging*

I then this again... and got the same result. Even if it's wrong, at least I'm consistent, right?

*frustrated frogging*

I decided to back slowly away from the needles, saving my mumblings for my ISP, and wishing for restored internet.

I have since had my internet restored, and I realize the error in pulling out the crochet chain before it's time. I haven't yet had the time to sit down and move forward (again), but this time I hope to make it a bit farther before needing to frog.

Elephant, currently. Frogging count: 3

YATTA!

I am pleased to announce that I have just successfully taught myself mattress stitch, and Petunia the Purple Pachyderm has one done arm.

The better news is that (as of this posting) the second arm should be a match.

Photographic evidence to follow... stay tuned.