Christmas Knitting - Part 3

THE SCARVES

Sadly, the scarves to match my parents' hats and gloves are not quite finished yet.

For mom, I'm working on Danica from Knitty.

Danica, Seahawk Style*

I haven't started Dad's yet, but I'm thinking of either doing a scarf with narrow vertical stripes, or the similar-yet-different High School Colors Scarf.

ONE MORE UFO

For my niece, I have in progress the Matinee Coat from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby. I'm knitting the sides together with the back, to eliminate some seaming up. Over the holidays, I got so far as to reach the point where I finished the lace and then started working the upper, stockinette section... until I realized that at this point I needed to be knitting the back and sides separately. Much frogging and yarn detangling later, I am here:

Matinee Coat

THE HATS (again)


Mr. Tall on a snowy Christmas Day

Start-End: December 21 - 22, 2007
Pattern: A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend by Stephanie Nicole
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solid in #152 Oxford Gray
Needles: US 8 (5.0 mm) 16 inch circular Addi Turbos
Notes: I fell in love with the way the decreases in this simple ribbed hat worked. On one of my days off, I cast on soon after Mr. Tall left for work and finished late that evening (technically, early the next morning). Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour, but I was simply amazed. About a year previous, I spent a few weeks making my first ever hat (and knitted item) - The Chocolate Ribbed Hat. It was amazing to me to think of how much I learned in just one year.

Decreases on the Hat Fit for a Boyfriend Husband


Spiderman Hat for my nephew, Wyatt

Start-End: December 18 - 27, 2007
Pattern: We Call Him Spidey from PumpkinKnits, based off the Generic Norweigan Hat from Hello Yarn.
Yarn: Patons Fab DK in #2321 (blue), #2323 (red), and #2311 (black).
Needles: US 3 (3.25mm)
New-to-Me Techniques: Fair Isle Knitting, Continental Knitting
Notes: Despite using DK weight instead of 4 ply, I kept the needle size the same as in the original pattern. The resultant hat is too small for me, but still a bit too big for my nephew. I really enjoyed this pattern and could see trying to design my own chart in the future. I taught myself how to knit Continental so that I could speed up the colorwork by knitting one color Continental and the other using the English method.

Wyatt in his Spidey hat


* All apologies for the weird WIP photos in this post. I prefer to shoot in natural light, which has been lacking a bit lately in this area.

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

WIP: Toe warmers

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

I'm sure that Eleanor Roosevelt never intended this statement to be applied towards something as harmless as knitted footwear. Nevertheless, I think it is still sage advice for anyone embarking on their first pair of knitted socks.

In fact, I decided to truly look fear in the face and for my first pair of socks cast on... a pair of socks. Toe-up. I think they'll fit, but keep your fingers crossed for me as it's still a bit early to tell.

My first socks

I started this while on our Swiss vacation on the train from Interlaken to Luzern. I had to frog a couple times as I kept dropping stitches that I couldn't coax back on the needles. To ease my frustration, I would look out the window at the gorgeous scenery we were moving through - gorgeous blue-green alpine lakes. At first, I had to go really slow to keep confusion to a minimum - which sock was I working on? Which yarn? What needles? (This is where KnitPicks having different colored cables would be extremely useful).

The details: These are the "On Your Toes Socks" designed by Ann Budd. They can be found in the Summer 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. The wool is Cygnet Wool Rich 4 ply, which I picked up at a Sheepish Woolshop Tour. So far, it's ok to work with. I still have a bit of difficulty when I drop stitches in that I find the yarn a bit splitty.

In other WIP news, I have finished all the pieces for my Ballerina Wrap Sweater. All that's left is to piece it together and add the edging. I'm not entirely convinced that I know what I'm doing, but I think that I will once again listen to Mrs. Roosevelt's wisdom.

WIP: Ballerina Wrap Sweater

On Sunday, August 5th, my brother and his wife welcomed a beautiful new edition to their family.

Denay Brooklinn

This is the niece-in-progress (as was) that I had made Petunia the Purple Pachyderm for. I have another project on the needles for her - a ballerina wrap sweater from a Sublime booklet.

Ballerina Wrap Sweater

From top left, clockwise: one sleeve, back, front pieces. All that is left is one more sleeve, the picot edging and the sewing up of the pieces! While I enjoy the pattern, I'm already trying to figure how to do it all in one (or fewer) pieces.

Like so many others, I apologize for my lack of recent updates and content. If you can bear with me for 3 more weeks, I'll be back to "normal". Mr. Tall and I are off tomorrow evening for almost 3 weeks touring the Swiss alps and part of Bavaria. I have packed some sock yarn and patterns to give socks a go (truthfully, I'm a bit apprehensive!), and am truly hoping to at least keep up a weekly post of scenery and (hopefully) knitting.

WIP: Blocking!

I am 99.9% done with one of my three Harry Potter PoA-style scarves! This is the first project I've used 100% wool for, and it's the first project I've ever blocked. Originally, I wasn't planning on blocking it, but I wanted to make sure that the crease along the side went where I wanted it to, and I did have a few patches of uneven stitches, so I decided to give it a try...

For blocking, I chose our conservatory - it's one of a few rooms in our house long enough to hold the scarf, and the fact that it can be shut off from the house is a huge advantage as it keeps curious cat paws off the scarf.

I read up what I could about blocking (it seemed fairly straightforward), and nervously dunked my scarf in a bucket of water. My makeshift blocking board is two yoga mats laid end-to-end. The yoga mats are nice in a pinch in that pins stick easily into it, and there is already a bit of a grid pattern. Now that I've used it, though, I think I will take some time to mark off a few pre-set lines at 1/2 inch (or so) intervals.

It took a couple tries to figure out the best way to tackle a soppy, large scarf. As my rounds weren't done with jogless color changes, I really wanted the uneven bit to be on the edge, where the fold is. After a couple failed attempts, I started a couple repeats from one end, pinned a set of trapped bars on the jogged end, and then made sure I had half the stitches showing. From there, I just kept measuring and pinning, measuring and pinning. Mr. Tall came and asked if he should start dinner (no, not done yet!), and when I finished, it was dark outside. This may not mean a lot depending where you are in the world, but here in England, in June, it's not dark until 10:30 p.m. or so. I had spent 2.5 hours blocking!

Blocking scarf - only a couple inches from each end didn't make it into the photo.
This is 106 inches long (8'10") and 9.5-10 inches wide (I gave up on total perfection after awhile!)

I'm not yet calling this a FO - it's still drying (not aided by the weather, unfortunately), and I still need to trim the finge.

I've also been playing with some different layout options for this blog - I may have that up in the next day or so, so check back!

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.

Eye Candy Friday: A tale of three scarves

For those who may not know me too well, it’s time I came clean about something: I’m a geek. I’m a nerd, a goober, a weirdo, whatever you want to call me is fine by me (so long as it’s not derogatory!).

Having gotten that (startling, I know) confession out of the way, it should come as no surprise that I like Harry Potter. Two of my friends and I make book and movie releases an event – as much as we can given how far-flung we are.

For the last movie release (Goblet of Fire), we all dressed up in our HP gear, and met up at the cinemas at Pacific Place mall in Seattle, Washington. Mr. Tall even got into the spirit by dressing up as Hagrid (the kids loved it!)


Mr. Tall and myself at the Goblet of Fire premiere

That orchid in my hair? That was from Hawaii… See, the movie came out the day that Mr. Tall and I arrived back in Seattle from our Honeymoon in Hawaii. (Is this proof enough of my geekiness yet?) The wonderful cloak I’m wearing was made by my friend Suzi and her mom.

So, fast forward to now. I’m now living in the U.K. which is a mecca of all things Potter. My two friends have decided to come out here for the release of Order of the Phoenix and the release of the final book (Harry, you better live!). As such, I have decided to put my knitterly talents to use and make us all scarves representing the house we think we’re in! Here is the story of these scarves. (All patterns came from atypically.knit)


Suzi's Gryffindor scarf

I started Suzi’s Gryffindor scarf first. I wanted to use one type of yarn for each scarf, and I found the colors best represented by every knitters favorite whipping boy, Red Heart Super Saver. I realize I’ve likely made the scarf a bit wider than it needs to be (it’s just over 9” wide), but at this point, I’m not frogging.

I bought the yarn for this scarf when I was visiting the states last October. At the time, I picked up 4 total skeins of the red and 2 of the yellow, as half of it was for a fellow knitter here who had her own Gryffindor scarf to make.

I knitted along quite happily, that is until I finished my first skein of red yarn without being halfway through the scarf!!! No worries, after all, it’s labeled as “No Dye Lot” yarn, which means it should all be the same, right? My parents were out visiting last month, so I had them pick up an extra 4 skeins of the red to bring with them. Long story short, the red they brought didn’t match the red I already had! At this point in the scarf, I really didn’t want to have to frog and start over, so I emailed my friend also making a Gryffindor scarf. Luckily for me, she had started a scarf, but frogged it only a couple of repeats in, when she realized she didn’t have enough yarn. All should be right in the world, as we’re going to swap – the 4 balls of the new “no dye lot” for the 2 of the old. Phew!

My favorite thing about this scarf (at the moment) is how far I’ve gotten! I’m not sure yet if I’ll make it the full 14 repeats or not, as the recipient is the shortest of the three of us!


My book Ravenclaw scarf

I really, really had my heart set on a book Ravenclaw scarf. However, I really couldn’t find a suitable bronze in any of the yarns I wanted to use for this project (I really didn’t want to spend $20 or more to use Plymouth Encore for a scarf that would largely be a novelty). I had bought some Caron Simply soft, in a beautiful dark blue, and a “bone” color, which is a light tan/khaki color. While not quite the “bronze” I had envisioned, it would have to do.

Then, one night at SnB, I was talking to She-of-the-Gryffindor-Scarf, who let on that she had the yarn for a book Ravenclaw that she was not going to be able to use, as wool and her don’t get along at all. So… would I want it? Yes, please! I therefore became the very happy recipient of some KnitPicks Wool of the Andes.

After my scare over “OMG! NO YARN!” with Suzi’s Gryffindor scarf, I started knitting this one up. While I initially had planned to knit the scarves one at a time, I wanted to capitalize on my parents visit and have them bring me more, if needed. Good thing I did, as I ordered a couple extra skeins to be on the safe side.

My favorite thing about this scarf is that it’s mine. I haven’t yet kept anything I’ve knitted for myself, and this will be my first “for me” finish. It makes me glad that I ended up with WotA, and that I ended up with book Ravenclaw colors.


Katie's movie Ravenclaw scarf

Again, I started this one up in response to concerns that I wouldn’t have enough yarn to finish, but didn’t get too far before my parents came out for their visit. I went ahead and ordered more anyways, but am unsure if I’ll need it or not.

Katie opted for movie Ravenclaw colors, and I think the combination is gorgeous. I’m knitting this one up in Caron Simply Soft, and I truly think the blue is simply to die for! There’s not a whole lot to say about this as I’ve just finished the first set of trapped bars.

My favorite thing about this scarf is that it is sooo soft. As much as I like WotA, there are some days when it feels really nice to me, and others where it is a bit scratchy. I’m very glad to have this scarf there that I can work on when I need a break from the other two yarns!