Beginning, Middle and End

I worked on several projects this week, finishing one, reaching the halfway point on another, and just getting started on yet a third.

My section of the men’s knitting group contribution to the Blanton tree-covering project turned out better than I would have thought. I made sure that the pink and orange didn’t touch, which helped. I knit three colors in four rows, and then then the fourth color in either 7 or 8 rows. It made a nice flow. I decreased by binding off. In my last post I wrote about getting the yarn. By 9pm that day, I was done. Which is a good thing, because my eyes were hurting.

On Tuesday I managed to finish the first of the January Woodland Winter Mittens. The thumb is nice and long, if a bit narrow. While I can get the rest of the mitten on snuggly, it’s difficult to wedge my meaty man-thumbs into that little tube. I reversed the yarn dominance on the thumb because I wanted the black lice pattern to pop. I like how the colors carry across and match between the thumb and the body of the mitten. I have to do a little bit of weaving in around the crotch of the thumb and for the cast-on, but then this one is basically done. Now normally, I’m a fairly monogamous knitter, but Multiple Mitten Malaise is a possibility here, because Tuesday night I cast on for a…

…new sweater for me! The pattern is called Kerouac by Jenn Jarvis and it’s in the spring 2009 issue of Twist Collective. Don’t snort when you look at the picture of the model. Mine will be a larger size, should have more ease, and I’m planning on making it a bit longer. Also, I’m not messing with the stripes. I’m making mine in a nice gray (Cobblestone Heather, actually) using the new sport weight of Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks. It’s a small-gauge sweater, which was my goal with this. But be careful what you wish for; this thing is made on size 3 needles. It could take a while,  but I ain’t scared.

I’m knitting the sweaters, but definitely not sitting still these days.

Mitts & Bits

The January Woodland Winter Mittens are rolling right along. This picture doesn’t quite show current progress, but I’ve just about gotten to the decreases at the top. I think I’m on track – I got to try them on a real live woman with lovely hands and everything. All systems are go.

I’ve definitely changed colors for the last time on the main part, which should speed things up a bit. Then it’s the thumbs – and then another mitten. There must be a mitten equivalent of Second Sock Syndrome, and whatever it’s called (Multiple Mitten Malaise?), I feel it setting in. I’ve enjoyed knitting this mitten, and realize that a mate-less mitten is just about the saddest garment in the world, but I kind of want to knit the other patterns now. Must. Knit. Second. Mitten…

At my men’s knitting group this afternoon, I got my bits of yarn and knitting instructions for my part in our group’s effort to wrap a tree at the Blanton Museum as part of Magda Sayeg’s art installation.  Man – these colors. Any combination of two is within the realm of normality, and really, even any three colors can be made to work. But throw in the fourth, and it’s all quite jarring. I’ve knit with pink before, but this is P-I-N-K. Eye-watering, retina-searing, vision-blurring, glaucoma-inducing, migraine-making pink. But knit it I will. 

I get to a geek out on a bit of math to figure out how to do the decreasing I need to do – I’ve been assigned a section that involves a knot on the tree’s trunk – so it’s going to be fun for all that. Plus, we get to arrange the colors in any kind of strip combination we want. Oh – and we do not have to weave in any ends. Who has ever had a pattern with the instructions, “Don’t weave in ends. Someone else will deal with that.” ? I’d buy that pattern.

Janus

January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doorways, gates, beginnings and endings. An apt name for this month. And, as it so happens, the theme for my latest project.

This week, a package from Knitpicks arrived, containing a bunch of yarn for a cardigan I’m planning to make, plus a kit. Yes, a knitting kit. I’ve never knit from a kit before, but I saw the Woodland Winter Mittens kit in the catalog, and because I love me the dark colors, stranded knitting and the cold times of year, I had to try. It’s quite a bargain, too. Yarn for six pairs of mittens, plus the pattern, for under $30.

Each month’s mitten features a different winter-themed scene on the backs of the hands and a different geometric pattern on the palms. So all of the months bear two faces in these mittens, not just January.  The “winter” months in these patterns run from October to March – a bit of a stretch, I know, but if you had to pick six months for winter, those would be them. And “winter” sounds better than “the months where you don’t necessarily sweat every day,'” as they are known in these parts. I really do like all the colors, although I’m a little meh about March. I decided to start with the January pattern since we’re soaking in it right now. Not sure if I’ll be finishing before the end!

I began this first pair on size 1 needles as called for, but quickly figured out that I was under gauge, so I switched to size 2. Things are better now. I’m having a bit of a time with the needle changes using magic loop – I may switch to DPNs to see if that works any better.

(In My) Solitudes

Apologies in advance to the late, great Duke Ellington.

I finished up my Solitude Socks. Very squishy and very warm. Here’s the recipe, in a nutshell.

I started with a 32-inch size 2 circular needle, then using Judy Becker’s Magic Cast-on, I started with 10 stitches. Using the magic loop method, I knit a row, and then increased every other row until I hit 22 stitches per side, 44 total stitches in circumference. I knit two more rows, then started 2x2 ribbing on the instep of the sock – the row starts and ends with two knit stitches.

When I got to where I wanted to do the short row heel, I used double wraps and started the heel on 8 unwrapped stitches. This is the only part of the socks I wasn’t entirely happy with. Despite double-wrapping the short row stitches, I still ended up with little holes. Janelle suggested trying the no-wrap short row heel technique at Happy Knits. I’ll try to remember this for next time.

After the heel was completed, I knit 15 rows as I had for the foot of the sock, and then switched to 2x2 ribbing for the remainder of the cuff. As mentioned earlier, the front of the sock started and ended with two knit stitches– now the back of the cuff started and ended with two purl stitches. I knit until it looked like I was running out of yarn, then I used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind off.

And that’s it! Now I have a nice, thick, warm pair of socks. Thanks for this yarn, Janelle!

Brickerworks

I finished up the red Bricker socks on Thursday evening. I think they turned out great. Earlier pictures I’ve taken of these give the impression that the yarn is more of a peachy or coral color. But I tweaked some of the photos using Picnik via Flickr and it got them to look more like what my eyes see when I look at them. I wish I could get my camera to do that.

Speaking of “what I see,” about a month ago I decided that what my 45-year-old eyes were seeing up close was not ever going to come into focus again and my arms were just getting too short. So I got some reading glasses. I haven’t been wearing them consistently for knitting – so much of that is done by feel – but it’s amazing how much better I can see when I wear them, especially for reading.

I’m stunned that this change happened so quickly. Having never worn anything but sunglasses all my life, it’s taking a bit of getting used to. But once I started using them, I was addicted immediately. Now I find myself dealing with all the things that veteran spectacle users are probably quite used to – smudges, positioning them just right, and mostly – where the heck did I put those things?

I’ve got a couple of things coming in from Knitpicks (mail already came today – so much for this weekend) for some projects I’d like to start, but in the meantime I’ve decided to start – what else? – another pair of socks. While digging around for some extra placemats a few weeks ago, I stumbled across some yarn that I’d put away in a drawer to keep away from curious basenjis. Janelle gave it to me as a gift several years ago. It’s Solitude sport weight in a Suffolk/Dorsett blend mixed with nylon.

Suffolk and Dorsett are sheep breeds used more for eatin’ than knittin’, but according to Solitude, they grow a “fine springy wool that is perfect for sock yarn.” Is it any consolation to a Suffolk or Dorsett sheep that they are so versatile?

What I’m making is a pair of toe-up socks in this beautiful midnight blue yarn. Because of its thickness, I’m using size 2 needles, although the resulting fabric is still pretty dense. These will make excellent around-the-house or hiking socks. It’s tough, without being too scratchy. It will definitely hold up to wear. Now I need to remember how to do a short-row heel. It’s been a while since I’ve done one…

Chin Picks Win

I nearly spilled my beer when I saw knitwear designer, yarn maker and the fastest crocheter in the world, Lily Chin, on tonight’s episode of Top Chef.

While watching people line up for portions of the Elimination Challenge dishes, I saw a face that looked somewhat familiar and I said to Jeff, “That looks like Lily Chin.” He just ignored me, because I’m always mouthing of during TV shows and movies along the lines of “That’s the guy that played the _________ in “____________”. Jeff is a very patient man.

But then, moments later, she appeared on screen again, actually sitting at the same picnic table with Tom, Padma and Gail. Then she spoke. That clinched it.

I’ve always found Lily Chin intimidating. When I’ve seen her on TV (Knitty Gritty, Knit & Crochet Today, etc.), I just stare in fascination. She speaks and works so quickly and with such confidence. I’m always amazed at her total mastery of all things knitting and crochet-related, and know that I would just be a total butterfingers if I ever had to knit in her presence. I’m sure she’s a very nice person, but there’s just something about her that scares me a little.

Not only does she know yarn and have mad knitting and crochet skillz, she also knows a good piece of fish when she tastes one. She was commenting on Carla’s Smoked Blue Fish with Lettuce Wrap, Pickled Watermelon Rind, Shallots Radish, and Bagel Croutons – the winning dish of the challenge.

Brickworks

It’s a nice, cloudy, damp chilly day here in Austin – perfect knitting weather. I put on Jeff’s Irish Moss sweater (one of the earliest FOs featured on this blog), and headed down to my men’s knitting group to get some knitting done. I hadn’t really touched the needles since finishing up the Pile-able Pups earlier in the week, so it was good to get back to the Bricker socks. I’ve finished four repeats of the cuff pattern on the second sock. I start the heel after six repeats. I ‘m doing this second sock totally by magic loop, unlike the first sock, the first half of which I did on DPNs. Not this time. I just hate not being able to try socks on myself when I use DPNs.

In other news, our men’s knitting group is going to participate in an art installation put together by Magda Sayeg. She’s known around these parts for covering things in knitted fabric (see example, right), and this time around her aim is to cover the trunks of the 99 trees in the courtyard of the Blanton Museum of Art in early March. Doug went to the organizational kick-off meeting and snagged tree number 65 for Guys in Austin with Yarn.

We’ll be making a trunk cozy out of four colors of Red Heart yarn, including a garish pink, the colorway of which one of my fellow knitters suggested should be dubbed “amoxicillin”. I suspect that may be it about halfway down the third pillar back in the photo above. The colors and fibers (acrylic for maximum outdoor durability) have been chosen for us, but we get to decide how thick we want the horizontal stripes to be. It’ll be kind of  fun to be part of a local fiber-y art installation. I’ll post info and pictures as things develop.

Snips and Snails

I finished the Pile-able Pups! I’m off work this week, so I had time to knit pretty steadily over the past few days. There are a lot of weird roadblocks with these – remembering how to do all those little things that you only do every once in a while – sewing on toy limbs, embroidering, seaming horizontal onto vertical fabric, etc. But, boy, oh boy was it fun. I kept giggling to myself as I finished them up. Luckily, I finished while there was just enough afternoon winter daylight left to get a few pictures. My unpile-able pups were running around outside, and I hoped they might be interested enough that I could get them in a picture, but a squirrel put in an appearance and they had other priorities.

Some things I might have done differently: I don’t see why you couldn’t keep the stitches live across the opening and Kitchener stitch it closed after stuffing it. I don’t really mind sewing a cast-on edge to a bound-off edge, but it does put that little ridge under the fabric. Maybe it helps with stability? Also, I wish my picked-up edges were neater and tidier. That might have to do with the extra tight tension I used so that the stuffing wouldn’t show through. Perhaps if I’d not tensed up so much around the edge stitches they wouldn’t appear slightly puckered like they do.

My Pile-able Pups are pretty roly-poly and not as box-like as I expected. I was a bit dismayed that they didn’t seem pile-able at all right after sewing up the bodies. In fact, they were about as pile-able as three Russet potatoes. Others’ I’ve seen on Ravelry seem much more like bricks. I suppose that’s where the legs come in. If it weren’t for them, there wouldn’t be any piling with these three fat puppies – or “less active” as it says on the dog food bags – as if dogs would have their feelings hurt by advertising copy.

I hope little H.J., due in a few months, enjoys playing with these little guys as much as I enjoyed making them.

And I hope he likes green.

Puppy Pile

I’ve started working on some Pile-able Pups for a baby shower next weekend. I’ve always thought these were cute. Janelle knitted a pile-o-pups recently, and I thought this would be a cute toy to knit for a new little boy who’s due to arrive in a few months.

The pattern calls for size 5 needles, but I had size 6 DPNs, so I’m just knitting very tightly. Janelle is right – knitting all those little parts is tedious, but it’s good TV knitting. Here, my very un-pile-able pup, Kate (she likes her space), models a paw. Pona is much more pile-able, but only with people. For the last few evenings, he has spent most of his time curled up on Jeff’s lap. But get out a camera, and he takes off.

The past few evenings, Jeff and I have been watching episodes of Speed Racer on DVD. Because we’re little boys from the 1970s. They are a hoot. In the episode Challenge of the Masked Racer Part 1, Mom Racer knits!

Chim Chim decides to play a prank on Spritle by putting Mom’s ball of yarn on Spritle’s snack plate to see if he’ll put it in his mouth. He does, mom yanks vigorously on the yarn (as one does), and Spritle goes flying. Chim Chim, of course, is quite amused.

Later, Mom sends the boys off to bed as she finished up a few more rows…

Go, Mom Racer, Go!

Red

A world about to dawn!

I put away the Oliver socks. They’ll just have to wait for some other day. Instead, I started on another pair of socks using a pattern I bought at the Sock Summit last year and yarn I purchased a little over a year ago in Tulsa.

First the yarn. It’s Cascade Heritage, which I’ve used before and has some of the best stitch definition of any sock yarn I’ve ever knit with – right up there with Malabrigo sock yarn. The colorway -- near as I can tell, since I’ve misplaced the ball band sometime between this morning and now – is the very utilitarian and easily recognizable “red.” Not crimson, scarlet, candy apple, fire engine, chianti, vermillion, nor even a color of nail polish my mother used to use, I’m Not Really a Waitress. Nope, just red.

It’s well on its way to becoming a pair of socks using an Anne Hanson pattern, Bricker. As I mentioned, I purchased this at the Sock Summit from a booth (can’t remember which one, although I’m leaning toward the Briar Rose booth – can you remember Janelle?). I’d been waiting for the right yarn to make this with, trying to keep to my mantra of busy pattern / plain yarn. I’d forgotten I’d picked this yarn up in Tulsa. I stumbled across it when I started a rather faint-hearted attempt at getting some of the yarn stacked up next to my chair tidied up and out of basenji reach. As soon as I found the yarn, I abandoned the tidying project, wound this ball up, and got knitting.

I'm having fun with this, using DPNs, which I haven’t done for a while with socks (I’m a big fan of magic loop), and just enjoying following the pattern. It reminds me a lot of the Moya Cowl I made for my sister, which in turn is based on a scarf. The pattern looks different and more brick-like when stretched out. Hopefully, you’ll get to see them soon. I’m itching to get back to them right now.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for 2010 to be over and looking forward to 2011. If I don’t post again in the next few days, here’s hoping that all of us have a happy new year!

Some Decorum Restore, I Implore

Repeat after me: I love my dogs, I love my dogs, I love my dogs…

We got back from our trip yesterday, and the dogs’ sitter informed us that Pona had gotten a bit “chewsy” about some of my knitting. Seems he got a hold of the first of the the pair of Oliver socks that I’d started some time back. It’s what I was working on in locations and situations where working on The Blanket was impractical.

You may recall that I attempted this pattern once before, only to find that I’d gotten shortchanged on the amount of yarn in a hank that I’d purchased for this project. Now, it seems that this pair with this yarn is doomed, too. I might be able to pick up and finish the end with the yarn I have remaining, but I’ll have to think about it. I would spend much of the second sock worrying whether I had enough yarn left. I may just start a different pair and put this pattern to sleep for now.

The crime fits the personalities, though. Kate is usually only interested in balls and skeins of yarn – they look like dog toys. Pona has a darker bent and seems to only be interested in mauling FOs. My fault entirely for not properly putting this away before I left, but still….Grrrrrr!

Boxing Day

We’re halfway home. We left Steamboat Springs early this morning (-3 degrees Fahrenheit!) and drove to Amarillo today. I’m really going to miss being in the mountains. The views were so stunning. Well bundled in handknit goodness that I so rarely get to enjoy in Texas, I wasn’t ever truly cold. It was so nice to wear handmade socks, sweaters, hats and gloves every single day for a week. And, I found that 10 degrees in the still mountain air is way more comfortable than 45 degrees in a Panhandle gas station parking lot with a 25mph wind! Should be home late tomorrow afternoon.

Here’s a picture of both socks finally on Gracie’s feet. I spent a good chunk of Christmas Eve making the second one. She decided she’s going to wear them on her first day back to school next week. I gave them to her on Christmas Eve, and I don’t know if it was a newfound appreciation of handknits or just the idea of someone getting something someone they didn’t, but my nephew Michael asked for a pair of “green socks with white stripes.” The color he pointed to when I tried to narrow things down was a Kelly green. Yikes. And my niece Kathleen asked for a long scarf, like they wear in the Harry Potter movies. She also wanted green. When I asked her if there was any significance to that color, she just got a mischievous glimmer in her eye. Watch out for that one. So I have a few orders that I’ll have to fill.

Everyone liked their cowls and gaiters and modeled them proudly. I’ve only now realized that due to the scattered nature of our locations on Christmas day (some of us skied, some of us didn’t), I never got a picture of everyone wearing them. But all seemed pleased. Speaking of pleased, I heard from Jeff’s mom that his cousin was very happy with baby blanket they got in the mail last week.

I’ll call 2010 a good year, well knit.

Gracie’s Blues

Just a quick post to show progress on a pair of blue socks that I’m making for our niece Gracie. I’d made one for her at Thanksgiving, but it was too small. This one is fitting her much better.

When I tried this on her last night, I asked her if it was long enough. I, of course, was just thinking of the length of the cuff. She very politely agreed that it was long enough, but then added that “it would be nice if it went all the way down to my toes.”

The cuteness!

Skiing had been fun. I decided to hold off on the gifts until Christmas day – the gaiters and cowls I made for them really wouldn’t be doing much good at cutting the wind like the store-bought ones they’ve been using. Gracie has been very curious about all the colors in my hat – I think she’ll be surprised.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. I’m very happy to be spending time with and being surrounded by the people I love. It’s the best any of us can hope for.

Look, I Made a Hat

Where there never was a hat!

Jeff and I watched an old PBS version of Sunday in the Park with George as I was, well, finishing the hat. Watch it if the first few words of this post don’t make any sense.

I made a chunkier version of Jared Flood’s Turn A Square Hat for myself out of the leftover bits of Berroco Vintage Chunky that was used for all the cowls, gaiters and neck warmers that I’ve been knitting over the past few weeks. A little something for me to enjoy. I’ve only taken it off to sleep and get a haircut since it came off the needles. I’m going to get a kick out of seeing whether anyone catches on that all of the colors in their various garments are in this hat. It just worked out that there was room for 7 two-round stripes on the basic background color.

I modified the pattern to a chunky yarn. I figured out the gauge and then came up with a number, divisible by four, that would get about the same circumference – 64 in this case, as opposed to the 96 in the original pattern. I also didn’t mess with changing needle sizes between the ribbing and the main body, nor did I do any increasing. I wanted this to be snug. Other hats I’ve made for myself have been to big – I think I overcompensated for what I perceive to be a larger-than-average melon – so I wanted to keep things on the small side. At the point where there were to be 26 stitches between the four decrease points, I had 16. Everything else pretty much followed the pattern.

I love it. Some commenters over at Flickr asked if I was going to knit something for Jeff from some of this yarn, but he took a pass. He generally thinks that handknit things are too scratchy for wearing next to the skin – and believe me, hats are touching a lot more skin than they used to for both of us. So this one is mine, all mine. I’ve started calling it The Precious.

Think about it. It has all the colors of the cowls and gaiters I’ve knit over the past few weeks, so it must have some sort of power over them, like Tolkien’s The One Ring:

Two cowls for the in-laws through sis and bro
Two for the siblings, younger of three
Four for niece/nephews on slopes of snow
A hat for the knitter – that would be me
In the land of mountains, where the skiers go
One hat to rule them all, one hat to bind them
One hat made from them all -- for him who entwined them

Closing Act

With the casting of and sewing up of this last piece, Cowlapalooza and Gaiterfest 2010 officially comes to a close.

The final garment is for my sister-in-law, Suzanne. It’s very different from the others, in that the stitches run horizontally rather than vertically. In essence, it is a short scarf with the ends sewn together. The unevenly spaced cables combine with this ocean-y color to create a nice wave effect, I think. The part near the seam is a little wider than the other part, but I don’t think it will be noticeable when worn. This garment is more loosely structured than the others – it was made on 10.75 (7mm) needles, and being sideways, gravity has more of an effect.

Because of the slow start, I was worried that I might not get all these done, but I finished last night with a few days before we head up to Colorado. I still haven’t decided whether to give these to everyone when we arrive, or wait for Christmas. They might be nice for the cold weather, but truth but told, they’re not very wind resistant and not exactly practical for keeping necks warm while swooshing down slopes. I’ll keep thinking about it.

Now I need to get cracking on those blue socks that I promised Gracie at Thanksgiving, and I have an idea of what to do with the leftover yarn from all these projects…

Koolhaas Kowl

Again, I’d queued up a pattern in Ravelry that just didn’t float my boat, so I improvised a little.

Even though I didn’t do I good job with the fit, I’ve enjoyed the Koolhaas Hat designed by Jared Flood that I made for myself a few years ago. I’d worn it the other day, and it got me to thinking that I could use that same stitch pattern for a cowl for our youngest niece. I dragged out the 2007 Holiday issue of Interweave Knits and got going.

I like the results. It pulls in quite a bit, but then our niece is 6 years old, so she doesn’t have much neckage. I made a mistake at one point that required slipping all the stitches off the needles and unraveling back a few rows – I just couldn’t figure it out otherwise. This really is a fun pattern to knit, and if you can manage the two-stitch cable twists without using a cable needle, which isn’t all that difficult, it goes that much faster.

My major modifications from the hat pattern:

• I only cast on 64 stitches
• I only did four rounds of 2x2 ribbing before beginning the pattern since I’m using a chunky yarn
• I didn’t do any of the decreasing

One more to go! This next one promises to be quite different…

Honeycomb Cable Cowl

Come to the Honeycomb Hideout! Cowl number 6 is off the needles.

This one involved improvisation on a couple of levels. I’d originally queued up a much simpler cabled cowl in Ravelry, but right after casting on I realized it was going to be boring to knit and look at. So, I grabbed a stitch dictionary I have. It ain’t no Barbara Walker treasury, but it does have some interesting things in it. I’d always admired honeycomb cables, so I thought I’d give them a try.

The book’s pattern has  the honeycomb cable in a motif covering 22 stitches – the cables themselves are over 16 stitches, and the rest cover the field of purls from which the pattern pops, plus a little staggered garter line that runs up the middle. I cast on 66 stitches to make three repeats.

Originally, I’d planned this for my sister-in-law Suzanne, but it ended up being a bit small, forgetting that cables tend to draw fabric inward, so this one is going to my niece Kathleen. I think it will look quite sharp on her. A pessimist would say that the holes created behind the honeycomb pattern will let in the chilly mountain air. An optimist would say that these will allow one’s neck to breath.

Two more to go. Here’s to optimism!

Moya Cowl

I keep getting faster and faster with this cowl and gaiter knitting project. I’m worried that I’ll start feeling the effects of time dilation and look up to find that everyone around me is 90 years old.

This pattern is Agness Kaku’s Moya Cowl. It starts with a picot edging made with yarn-overs. I ended up knitting or purling (more purling!) the cast on edge folded behind the work together with the stitches in the fourth round of the pattern. It was kind of fiddly. I couldn’t manage getting the yarn back through the cast-on stitches with my needles. I had to resort to using a crochet hook which really slowed things down. And I always manage to twist the stitches when doing this sort of thing. Still, I’m glad I did it. I remembered how much I disliked sewing to get the same effect around the hem of the Samantha Dress I made last year [Flickr] [Ravelry].

The pattern is basically Kristen Kapur’s Puzzle Scarf knit in the round.   It looks like there is shaping at the top, but that’s just the pull and drag of the different knit and purl bands. It makes four evenly spaced crenellations around the edge in which to place one’s chin, ears and pony tail (should one possess such an appendage). I think Susan will like it.

Now that I think of it, I will probably be aging at the same rate as everyone else today. Lots of errands to run – including finally getting that baby blanket in the mail! But I imagine I’ll get some knitting done, too. Five days until we leave and only three projects left. This really is do-able!

Snow Day Gaiter

The boys’ gaiters are finished with this fourth one, a Snow Day Gaiter for our nephew Michael. A simple yet elegant design: six rows of garter stitch on either end, filled with rows of garter stitch ribbing – alternating knit rows with rows of K2P2.

The original pattern called for casting on 72 stitches, but since I’m making this for an 8-year-old neck, I thought I’d reduce it a bit to 52. The last gaiter I made was on 58 stitches, which, with the yarn I’m using, was stretching the limits of what could be knit comfortably in the round on my shortest cable from my Addi Clicks set. So I switched to the largest cable and did this using a magic loop.

For getting such a slow start, things are really moving along! And now, to tackle the cowls for the women and girls. It might seem odd that I did all the gaiters for my male relatives first. It’s just that I’m going through the order in which I queued these up in Ravelry. I looked for the men’s pattern first, thinking they might be a bit harder to find.

Wonky

Gaiter/Cowl #3 was on and off the needles in about 19 hours. I cast on yesterday evening after work and started the bind-off at the morning’s knitting get-together, finishing at home. This one is for our eldest nephew, Christopher.

The pattern is Wonky from the Summer 2009 Knitty. I modified it a little bit. The pattern calls for three 8-round repeats plus 7 rounds. I did five repeats instead, to make this one similar in length to the gaiters I knit for my brother and brother-in-law. I did reduce the circumference a bit by reducing the number of stitches in the stockinette section (i.e., the wonky part) from 12 to 8, for a total of 58 stitches cast on. And rather than doing a regular bind off, I did Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind-off after consulting with some fellow knitters.

I think Christopher will like it.

        

While enjoying coffee outdoors today, we knitters were visited by an 11-week-old English Bulldog named Buster. The cuteness was off the charts. He had a little bell around his neck that was perfect for the season. Such huge paws. Such sharp puppy teeth. No problems socializing him with people, that’s for sure. His owners were very kind to let us ooh and ahh over him so much.

And now it’s on to Gaiter/Cowl #4 for our nephew, Michael James.

Fisherman's Rib Gaiter

Attendance at the Cowlapalooza and Gaiterfest is light so far. This week has been filled with events every single evening running until 10:00pm. I've had time to run home for a quick bite after work before having to head back out for chorus rehearsals and our nephew's winter concert. It's been hectic, and I've only been able to grab a little time here and there to do a few rounds.

Not a good pace, I admit, but today is the last day of classes and the needles of progress will click on. I was able to bind off this gaiter after breakfast and before work. It's a simple 1x1 fisherman's rib over 64 stitches. I had seen a pattern for something similar in Ravelry, but it involved a totally reversible Fisherman's rib -- meaning that one alternated rows of knitting into the stitch below with rows of purling into the stitch below. A little fiddly, yet doable -- however, it seemed to be eating up too much yarn so I ripped back and did a one-sided version. It's not quite as long as the first one, but it looks kind of cool. Sort of a turtleneck without the rest of the sweater.

Six more to go!

Cowlapalooza and Gaiterfest 2010

Over Thanksgiving, Jeff and I were invited to go skiing in Colorado with my brother’s family. My sister and her family will be there too. And, while I generally try to avoid the hassle and bustle of that phenomenon known as Christmas knitting, I decided that I needed to come up with something warm and cozy for all of the family to wear. So I needed to come up with a plan for handy garments that I could knit fast.

My first instinct was scarves – great for stash-busting and quick to knit. I even got started on one. But since I need 8 garments, I slowly realized that I may not be able to get everything done before we head up. After talking with some of my fellow knitters yesterday, I settled on making cowls and neck gaiters. They knit up quick, there are tons of free patterns available, and you can make them from one skein on large needles. Thanks, Snowden, for suggesting this!

So I headed over the Hill Country Weavers where I had a credit from a return I’d made a few weeks ago. I dithered around for an hour or so, grabbing skeins here and there, before I was pointed toward a pile of Berroco Vintage Chunky. Great for size ten needles with good yardage, nice heathered jewel tones, and totally washable.

The next step was figuring out what to knit. There are TONS of free patterns in Ravelry. I just grabbed some that looked like they would fit the eight people I’m knitting for – two adult women, two adult men, two boys and two girls. I’m going to have to do some adjusting for the some of the kids’ cowls to make them fit, but because most of the patterns are fairly simple, it shouldn’t be too hard to adjust them.

First up, is the Cowl’d and Frosty Morning, which I’m knitting for my brother-in-law. The pattern is basically four rounds of seed stitch, followed by 11 rounds of stockinette. Repeat that two more times, and then add four final rounds of seed stitch. I used Jenny’s Surprising Stretchy Bind Off from the Fall 2009 issue of Knitty, and all was done. I cast on last night and finished this morning. I think my plan is going to work.

One down, seven to go. Admittedly I started with the most simple one. My knitting time is going to be limited next week as I have something going almost every evening, most of them associated with the chorus’ winter concert. But I think this is do-able.

Wish me luck.

Tamarix Terminatio

It’s done! It only took me a little over three months, but I’ve put the finishing touches on the Tamarix Quilt. There was nothing so satisfying as going over to Ravelry and putting this project to rest status-wise.

We got a call from Jeff’s dad earlier in the week. His little first cousin once removed did indeed arrive on Monday. So she’s four days old today. I haven’t seen any pictures yet, nor, sadly, do I know the little one’s name! However, I have it on good authority that she’s gorgeous – as I knew she would be.

I was able to get the applied I-cord edging done during the evenings this week. I tweaked the pattern a little bit with this feature. The pattern called for a five-stitch I-cord, but after reading someone else’s comment in Ravelry, I decided to scale this back to a 3-stitch I-cord. I didn’t want the blue-ness to be too overwhelming and wanted a trimmer, less floppy edge. Also, rather than using the method suggested in the pattern, I used the method outlined by Elizabeth Zimmerman in The Opinionated Knitter and which I used when making the garter stitch throw for my in-law’s last year. Here’s the video if you want to refresh your memory. The main difference is that EZ calls for a yarnover which seems to do a good job of hiding the underlying color (green in the photo above) from peeking through.

I’m so happy to have this finished. And although it was frustrating at times, and I lost my mojo halfway through, I’m pleased with the results. I have enough yarn to crank out something else – while I’m on a garter stitch kick, I should try a Baby Surprise Jacket…

But alas, I have other knitting to do. It turns out I’m going to be spending my Christmas holiday somewhere much colder than here with Jeff and eight other relatives. Relatives who will need to keep themselves warm in the cold and snow. More on that next time.

Delivery Imminent

I got some news recently that reminded me of the episode of Keeping Up Appearances in which Hyacinth is expecting the arrival of her new three-piece suite which is an exact replica of one at Sandringham House and is to be delivered by a van displaying the royal warrant. In order to make sure that her neighbors (especially that nosy pseudo-hyphenated Mrs. Barker-Finch at number 23) know all about it, she directs poor Richard to set up traffic cones in front of their house, along with a sign reading, NO PARKING. DELIVERY IMMINENT.

No parking, indeed. Because it turns out the baby for whom I’m knitting this blanket, originally thought to be arriving sometime in mid-December, will now make her appearance on Monday, November 29. Two days from now. As in day after tomorrow. Imminently.

Well, the blanket will be getting there some time after that – a not-quite- so-imminent delivery on my part. I finished square number 100 just a few minutes ago, but I still have to re-weave a few of the early ends I wove in before I tried a new method that I’m happier with, and I still have to attached the applied I-cord edging. But the end is very much near.

And, I got a rare request for a handknit item this holiday weekend. My youngest niece requested a pair of blue socks – so that her feet wouldn’t be cold. Gracie hates being cold. I’m happy to oblige! One evening while she was here, I whipped up a prototype. All I had was a dirty machine-knit sock snatched from her dirty clothes pile to work from for a size reference, and I’m afraid it turned out a bit small. But the cool thing was, I totally knit it while watching TV for a few hours, and didn’t consult a pattern once! While it didn’t fit, she adored the color, so it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with something she likes.

A-Minus

I’ve finished 9 of the 10 rows – 90%! It’s actually starting to feel like this project will be finished.

Plugging along. I got to work on this during the week more than I thought I would – plus at various knitting groups meetings. One of which was at my house. So fun to have everyone here. All I had to do was make some coffee. We talked about all our crazy families, Thanksgiving plans, and the bizarre phenomenon of TV shows about people who don’t know they’re pregnant. It was the general consensus among us all, although only a couple of us have ever carried children, that one should know these things.

After everyone left, I caught Miss Mess relaxing quite comfortably – on the blanket! Luckily, she wasn’t interested in pawing at it, chewing on it, or otherwise molesting it. She was more intent on the squirrels that were taunting her outside the window. But it was a bit of a wake up call. It’s so easy to get complacent about such things, and although Kate is by no means an evil dog, it is in her nature to be inquisitive around un-anchored soft things.

As I’ve mentioned before, I sometimes have to knit the squares into a corner. Because I couldn’t quite figure it out, I’ve been knitting them separately and then sewing them in. The seams look a bit different, but they’re acceptable to me. But today, the inevitable happened. I sewed one of the squares in with the wrong side showing. It took nearly an hour to pick out the woven in ends and re-do it. But it’s undetectable at this point.

I’m hoping that I can get the final row (and dare I hope the I-cord edging?) done during this long holiday weekend.

Seven Tenths

For reasons that are murky to me – but probably have something to do with guilt – I picked up the Tamarix Quilt again this week. And, I was able to add a whole row. This row had four squares that had to be sewn in by hand, due to my inability to knit squares into the corners, so I might have even been able to crank out more. I’m hoping to get some more work in on it tomorrow

In other knitting news, I’ve had a hankering to make myself a button-up cardigan. My office gets cold. It’s on a northeast-facing external wall. I’ve been using an old cotton hoodie for those times when it gets a bit chilly, but that needs to change. I need something a bit more librarian-y and Mister Rogers-ish. The pattern I’ve picked out is Kerouac by Jenn Jarvis. I’m not going to make mine striped, though. Gray is the color being considered. I wanted to knit something on small needles, and this fits the bill. I did get some yarn last week for my birthday, but it didn’t quite work out. It was a bit thinner than sport-weight, so by the time I got gauge, the fabric was too loose. I’m thinking of doing some shopping over at Knitpicks. If anyone has a favorite sport-weight yarn that would work for this, speak up!

On Friday, I attended a meeting of local academic librarians. One top of getting great ideas, I was pleased to see that two other librarians brought their needlework with them. One was using Tunisian Crochet to make a scarf. I totally want to use this technique – I think it would be great for place mats. Staci used this technique a while back to make a most awesome baby blanket, and has recently put yet another one of her helpful instructional videos on Tunisian Crochet. Everyone should know how to do this. It’s so easy, and the results are so cool.

Medical History: Diagnosing with Yarn

Today, I depart from the usual tediously detailed ramblings on knitting to bring you a little story about how colored yarn was used in early research into color blindness. Interesting, no?

I'm currently reading Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages, by Guy Deutscher. It's quite good so far. In the early part of the book, there is a section about how the vocabulary of color arose (or didn't) in various languages and what that might have to say about cultural development. As it happens, at the same time that linguists were talking about color vocabulary, the concept of color-blindness was recognized.

And an early tool in the diagnosing of color blindness was something called the Holmgren Test for Color Blindness. Devised by Swedish professor Alarik Holmgren after a horrible color-blindness-related train crash, this test was used to determine color blindness in employees of occupations related to public transportation and shipping and other trades where being able to discern color accurately was of great importance. This tool was also used in cultural anthropology research to test the detail of color vocabulary amongst various groups -- for instance, noting whether a language discriminated between blue and black, for instance.

In the color-blindness application, those being tested were asked to choose from among the available scraps of yarn for the 10 pieces that best matched, say, a light green. Clicking on the image above will take you to the web site for the the UK's Science Museum's website on the history of medicine. From there, clicking on the image takes you to a very large version where you can read the tester's instructions inside the lid of the box. I think it's cool that some of these original 19th-century kits have been preserved -- and that the pieces of wool inside are still so vibrant -- assuming those are still the originals.

Thus endeth the lesson.