Play Ball!

Last time, I mentioned that I was working on one other round thing. It's time for the big reveal...

It's a knitted baseball that I made for my friend Staci for her birthday. The pattern is Play Ball! by Dagny Heidig. It's really quite clever. It's simply two hourglass shapes seamed together, which when you look at a baseball, is basically how they're constructed. The knitting doesn't take too long - I estimate about 1.75 episodes of Dr. Who - but it does take a while to seam up. I didn't do as well with the seaming as I would have liked, but the red "stitching," embroidered on afterwards, mostly masks the seam line anyway. Not being an expert, I'm not sure if I got the stitching right, but I think it's close.

Staci is an excellent knitter and a great friend. Those of you who know Pona will appreciate that she basically nursed him back from the brink of death for many months before handing him off to us. We have the easy part, as evidenced by his snoozy, relaxed self snoring gently next to me on the couch as I write this. Such a sack of lazy contentment, bless him.

Work progresses on the Hillhead Slipover, although not much this week. I'm still quite happy with the process. It's definitely a project to keep one on one's toes. As worried as I was by the amount of yarn I used in swatching, my fears of running out of yarn are mostly behind me now. I'm about a repeat-and-a-half from the armhole steeks. I really don't remember how those are handled. Of course, I could just study ahead in the pattern, which might allay those fears. I seem to remember a bit of an issue with decreases that didn't match up near the shoulders when I did the Vaila Slipover, which is basically the same construction. Must remember to compare the two.

 

In the Round

It's pretty much where I'm living my knitting life these days.

I took a bit of a break from knitting rounds on the sweater to add to my other round(ish) project, the Christmas Balls. I hadn't completed one in nearly a month! Good thing I'm ahead of schedule. This one, number 25 in the series, is called Falling Star and is knit in two double panels rather than the usual four single panels. I bedazzled the heck out of it and ran out of red beads in the middle. I was also running low on fiber fill, so I stocked up on all that this weekend. The bag of fill I'd been using was one I purchased years ago and thought I'd never use up. Hah!

I did get more done on the vest this week, although progress seems slow as I'm working. When I grab a photo at the end of the week, I can see that I've added to it. It's one of those projects where it's helpful to look at small goals rather than the "big picture" while working. At the same time, I'm starting to notice that the flow of colors looks better at a distance. Up close, one doesn't get that blending and shading effect that gradually shifts across tones and hues. Rather, while knitting, it's as if I'm staring at small sections of Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte. I'm not comparing my work to his (as if!), but you get the idea.

I also worked on one more round thing this week, but it's a gift, so I won't be blogging about it or posting any pictures until it's been given. Shhhh.

 

Light, Dark, Light, Dark...

Not much to report -- still working on the Hillhead Slipover. I hope to get a lot done this weekend. So far, I've completed a little over one 28-round band. For the large size, I need to knit 3-and-a-half bands before starting the armhole steeks. Still a ways to go, but the pattern is filling out and thus getting easier to follow.

I find when working with the pattern that it helps to come up with a Morse Code in my head for each round, replacing the dits and the dahs with light and dark. Each pattern section is 32 stitches wide, in four primary sections, two of which are the same, interspersed with the two others that differ. These, in turn, can be grouped into 16 stitches, which are made by adding up two odd-numbered sections. Hard to explain, but there is a symmetry here that is very satisfying and soothing.

Just had to come up for air for a bit. Back at it...

April Fool's Paradise

We're at Jeff's parents' house this weekend, attending some family get-togethers. I'm really enjoying myself, and the dogs seem to be having a good time, too. We've gotten in some good walks, and the north Texas springtime seems to agree with them. I got a shot of Pona in some bluebonnets (because that's some sort of state law enforced in late March through early April) and in it he seems almost blissful. You can thank me for cropping out some of his anatomy in the comments, if you wish. Thank goodness for a wet winter, Lady Bird Johnson, and Lupinus texensis.

I've made some progress on the Hillhead Slipover, but not much. The body of the sweater is knit on a 28-round repeat, and I've managed about 18 this week -- enough to start seeing the pattern develop. I've already started celebrating when I don't have to change colors, and cursing when I have to change both. But I am weaving the new colors in and the old colors out as I go, which will save me some grief at the end. It slows me down, but I suppose it's worth it. Plus, I suspect it builds character or something.

Yesterday, we went to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth to see The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings From the Clark. I found what looks like a list of all the works from the exhibit at the Kimbell on the Clark Museum's website, if you care to take a gander.

Jeff brought this one to my attention. It's The Shepherdess; Plains of Barbizon by Jean-François Millet (1814-1875), painted around 1862. While her big old Bouvier des Flandres is keeping it's eye on the wool-on-the-hoof, the shepherdess knits on a sock. Where can I apply for this shepherdess gig? On second thought, I probably shouldn't bother. Looking at Millet's oeuvre, I'm pretty sure all the sock-knitting shepherdess positions have been filled.

Waisted Weekend

After working last weekend to get gauge, I spent this week casting on and knitting the ribbing. I did the lion's share of it yesterday and finished the ribbing this afternoon.

The ribbing is done on US1 (2.5mm) needles, so the fabric is a bit dense and cramped. It's made in a 2x2 pattern, with the lighter background colors from the main pattern being knit, and the darker pattern colors purled. To execute this, the colors have to be held in the opposite hands from where they will be held once the pattern starts. Confusing, no?

In the ribbing, both the pattern and background colors flow from dark to light and back to dark, which isn't exactly how it works in the pattern. And the turquoise (or Caspian) is grouped with the pattern colors, whereas on the charts it is a background color. I thought it would be eye-searingly bright, but I have to admit it works here.

Now I get to multitask through switching to a larger needle while simultaneously starting the pattern and remembering to increase every 15 stitches. Piece of cake, right? I predict the next row of knitting will take hours. I'm looking forward to getting this on the "larger" needles and watching the pattern develop. That's really my favorite thing about stranded knitting. I just need to remember to take my time and consult the pattern from time to time to make sure I'm on track.

Oh -- and while trying to be patient between swatch making, swatch washing, and swatch drying last weekend, I managed to crank out an additional Christmas Ball. I like how the motif flows from one quarter-panel to the next in this one. I've used so many red beads (over 300 so far!) that I'll need to go purchase some more soon. And some fiber fill for stuffing. I've been going through that stuff like there's no tomorrow.

.25 Millimeters

My latest project is called the Hillhead Slipover. It has already been the source of much drama.

Let's start with the carbon footprint that I have stomped across the planet's northern hemisphere. The yarn is grown, dyed and spun by Jamieson's in Scotland. Thinking I would save some money, I ordered the yarn from a place in Canada at the end of January. But after several weeks, I learned that two colors were back ordered. I cancelled those colors with Store 1, and ordered them from Store 2 in Wisconsin. But store two told me that one of those colors was back-ordered with them, too. So I cancelled it and got the problematic color (black -- really?) from store 3 in Oregon. Fittingly, these orders arrived in the reverse order in which they were purchased. Two months after starting the process, I finally had all the yarn. You can click on the picture to see the color names in the notes at Flickr.

Then came the gauge issues. The pattern calls for using size 3 (3mm) needles to get a gauge of 32 stitches over 4 inches. I grabbed some size 3s and knit the awesome swatch on the top, but my 32 stitches spread over 4.5 inches. Doesn't sound like much, but gauge differences compound like interest. Staying with size 3s would turn this vest from a roomy 48" to a man-swallowing 54"! Then I took a closer look at my needles. While they are indeed size 3, they are 3.25mm. My size 2 needles are 3mm, so I made a new swatch and got gauge. Always go by the millimeters on needle sizes, people.

It appears I'm on track for this project. Time to cast on -- finally.

March Mitt-ness

This certainly wasn’t part of my plan for spring break knitting, but I picked up and finished the March Woodland Winter Mittens in a matter of days.

I’d been looking for something to do while waiting for more red and white yarn to arrive for Christmas Balls, and this project had been languishing for a while. It’s my least favorite of the 6 patterns, but it worked as that thing you go to when you’re between projects. I suppose if that between phase lasts long enough, you just finish up all your backup projects. I completed the right mitten (on the left in the photo) on Monday, immediately cast on the for the left mitten, and by this morning, the Ides of March, I had finished blocking both of them. It was very thematic to split my time this week between working in the yard and knitting designs based on spring blossoms. Of course, the kind of budding seeds and bulbs as depicted here happened close to a month ago. We’re in full bloom in central Texas these days.

I ended up liking this pattern more than I thought I would. I think the design fits into a mitten shape quite well. I do have to say that the palm pattern is my least favorite so far – not memorizable at all, and not particularly striking, to my eye. It does work better at a distance than close up. So now I’ve completed the October, January, February and March patterns. November (deer and mountains) and December (Northern lights) are quite nice – I’ve been saving them up for last.

As of yesterday, all the yarn has finally arrived for a new stranded knitting project that I’ve been wanting to start for months now, but had trouble tracking down all the yarn. It was quite a saga, part of which I’ll fill you in on next time around.

Little Christmas Eve

When I saw this as the title for the chapter of Christmas ball patterns I tackled this week, I thought maybe the authors were just trying to find categories to plop things under, but it turns out December 23, Little Christmas Eve is a real thing in Norway. It’s the day when all the final preparations for Christmas should be made, and the tree brought in, prepared for trimming.

The chapter starts with a pattern called Sledding Run, and features a little figure sitting on a toboggan. Now, I don’t know if either Arne or Carlos have ever spent much time behind 18-wheelers on an American interstate highway, but I’m thinking they have gotten just a wee bit of inspiration from a certain silhouette commonly found on tractor-trailer mud flaps. I’ll let you know if I find any Yosemite Sam ornaments in the book. This pattern stretches across two panels, rather than four. You can’t see it in the picture easily, but there are bejeweled snowflakes on the sides between the two sledders.

Next come two tree-themed patterns, Pinecone and Christmas Tree. Pretty self-explanatory, both of them. So far, I’ve been following the color schemes as set out in the book, as to whether red or white is the background color. In most cases, I think white works better, but in both of these, I like the red.

    

I’m not sure I did the increases and decreases very well on the pinecone. It looks nice enough in the picture, but I wouldn’t inspect the top and bottom too closely. I used 48 beads across the 4 Christmas trees, including a little gold one for the star. I bought gold beads at the outset, but right away decided I didn’t want to use them. I made an exception here.

And finally, I made Decorating the Tree. Now this design, based on a mitten pattern in a booklet by the Norwegian Handcraft Association, isn’t specifically related to Christmas, but the authors say it reminds them of someone decorating a tree with garland. So I shined up the “garland” with a few beads. The three stitches at the bottom of the figure make rather realistic shoes, I think, but someone needs to tell these ladies that the bustle went out over 100 years ago. That’s some serious junk in those trunks.

I’ll be on Christmas Ball Hiatus for a few days. I finished this last one with only 5 inches of white yarn to spare. I thought I had more, but checked, and realized I’d only order one hank. So I’ll have to wait until more arrives. I’m also running low on beads and stuffing. But I’m a little over 40% of the way through this project (23 out of 55 balls), way ahead of schedule, and still enjoying it immensely.

Christmas Greenery

Brought to you in redery and whitery.

I completed three more Christmas Balls this week – all from the chapter called Christmas greenery. The first, Selbu, is based on a pattern found in Selbu mittens. A quick Google search found the image on the right at the blog Yin & Yarn. You can see almost the exact motif from the ball across the wrists of the mittens.

      

Arne and Carlos describe this motif as representing a four-leaf clover.

Fittingly, the next ball’s pattern is called Three Leaf Clover. This one was kind of hard to pull off, because of the long floats between red stitches. I found that putting the red bead in at the base of the three leaves caused the red yarn to pull at the one other stitch on the entire side. I had to work a needle under the pulled stitch to try and loosen it up but it still looks like the “stem” is broken. It’s not bad enough for me to want to redo it, but, still, kind of wonky. Although this pattern is worked in quarter panels, the pattern bleeds across panels in an interesting way.

And finally, the third pattern is called Poinsettia. A bit stylized, I think, and very quilty. If you’d asked me, I would have thought I’d used many more silver beads so far, but a quick glance at this (and the tubes of beads) shows me the opposite. In fact, it looks like I’m going to have to get some more red beads, in addition to some more red yarn.

I am having all kinds of problems tracking down the yarn I want for a big project I want to start. So far, yarn is coming from two places. And I’ll probably have to order from a third. The first place told me part of my order would arrive from the mill in a week or so, but when I checked three weeks later, was told it wouldn’t be available until April. So I canceled the unavailable colors in order to try somewhere else. There was no indication on store 2’s website that they were out of one of the colors I ordered, but I can tell by how much they charged my credit card that they’re only shipping one of the colors – no correspondence with me about that at all. This is so frustrating. Why do online retailers not keep their inventory up-to-date on their websites?

So I wait and search. In the meantime, I can always knit more balls!

Après-Ski

After the lull of finishing the sweater earlier this week, and while waiting for some yarn to arrive in the mail, I’ve been able to knuckle down and get a few more Christmas Balls off the needles. 16 finished so far – right at 30% finished!

As of today, I’ve finished the four balls in the chapter called A Ski Sweater. This chapter  features designs based on motifs commonly found in traditional Norwegian sweater patterns. The first, called Christmas Stocking, is a pattern often found on Norwegian stockings, and, according to the authors, on Latvian mittens. This was an unusual pattern in that the hanging loop doesn’t match the fabric from which it emerges. Turns out the rule is that the cast o-on color at the bottom of the ball dictates the loop color, because of the way the loops are attached.

The second two designs in the chapter are variations on the traditional X’s and O’s commonly found in Stetesdal Sweaters – a term that was new to me. Do an image search on the web, and you’ll get it right away.

    

The first variation here has a lice pattern in the increase and decrease sections, while the second is solid red. The middle sections are identical, although I changed up the bead colors and placement for a little variety.

The fourth and final design in this section is called Halling Border, and is from a design found in the book Norwegian Knitting Designs, written by Annuchen Sibbern Bøhn. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to represent anything specific, or if it is just a pleasing abstract design. It kind of reminds me of an open book.

When I finished this ball, I had about 8 inches of red yarn to spare. I have a second ball handy, but it appears I’ll need to order at least one more – possibly two, just to be safe. I’m really enjoying this project. I’m getting much faster at these, and it’s always fun to figure out whether and where to insert the beads. I’m starting to worry now about getting done too quickly!

I probably just jinxed something by writing that…

Men’s Sweater Finale

It’s done!

I can’t tell you how much I love this pattern. I can’t vouch for the other sizes, but the XL version is just the epitome of symmetry. All the 6x1 ribbing matching up all the way around – for those drawn to simplicity, and, well, a sense of pattern in their patterns, this is just about as good as it gets. The only downside was having to model it this afternoon in 76-degree weather. That kind of sucked.

The knitted in zipper has stayed in, and so has the little bit of piping that I sewed around the neckline to give the sweater some scaffolding to hang from. Really, for a sweater with no sewing, I did manage to work with needle and thread a lot. That usually intimidates me, but it was all voluntary and all worth it. Thanks, Staci, for such a cool pattern and for the bits of free advice.

And to all the people who suggested I go for the blue – and you know who you are – thanks.

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah

This weekend, I finished up the sleeves, blocked and knitted in the zipper on my Men’s Sweater. I LOVE it.

I first read about knitting in a zipper, rather than sewing it in with a needle and thread or on a machine, in an article in the Winter 2010 issue of Interweave Knits. Staci shows how to do this in the video that goes with the pattern.

I had a bit of drama around the whole zipper issue. First of all, I thought the space at the top of my sweater was 12” long – a standard zipper length. But after measuring post-blocking, I realized it was actually 10”. And the first zipper I bought was too narrow – and despite the navy assignation, a bit too purple-y. After doing some yard work this morning, I ventured out and bough a chunky dark blue zipper. The shortest I could find without going under 10” was a 14” zipper, but I learned from the package that you can just whip-stitch some thread around the length you want 8-10 times, and then cut the zipper a bit below that. Who knew? Probably everyone but me.

For this technique,one uses a tiny little latch hook to build a little crochet chain on one side of the zipper tape (the opposite side of the one showing here). The chain is built on the same row gauge as your knitting, because you use your actual knitting as the template for marking the stitch points on the tape. Genius! It was a little tricky – I had issues with the tape bunching a bit, but I relaxed, and things got a bit smoother. The setup of creating the chains takes a while to do, but the sewing in takes no time at all, and it turned out marvelous!

So let’s call this sweater done. I didn’t finish until nearly dark, so you’ll have to wait a bit for pictures taken in daylight. Here, Kate shows us all what a little sunshine can do for one’s outlook. We suffered through some wet and stormy days this week. The yard love it, but the dogs, not so much. While I worked at the bamboo and other pesky weeds that are threatening to become sentient, Pona and Kate took advantage of today’s abundant sunshine. I think I may have to put this sweater away until next year, at this point.

Sleeves Perceived

I’ve had a bit of time to work on the Men’s Sweater, and I’ve all but got the body finished.

Just about an inch more of regular knitting, then I think I’m going to take the short row tail-lengthening option, and then it’s on to the sleeves. I’ll have about 5.5 balls out of my original 16 left at that point. I’m a little worried that I’ll have enough to finish, but I had breakfast with the designer this morning (I love writing that!), and she assures me that I’m good. Fingers crossed. This fits me about like I expected, although it’s a good thing the 6x1 ribbing provides built-in give. I don’t really need it right now – but it’s nice to know it’s there. Ahem.

I’ve only finished one more Christmas Ball since the last post – Handcraft Border. It’s the second in the chapter called Tradition. The description says that it reminds the designers of patterns in Eskimo sweaters. I can kind of see that. It also has a bit of a runic look to me. For such a simple design, I made a LOT of mistakes while putting this one together. I always seemed to be getting a row ahead before realizing that I should have added beads, and right here in this picture I can see a white stitch that is terribly distorted. Still, I’m having lots of fun making these – they only take a few hours each, and I’m a little ahead of my one-a-week schedule despite my slow start. Maybe after I get the sleeves started on the sweater I’ll tackle another one.

Ball Bearings

I kind of lost them a bit today.

I was distracted this afternoon by the episode of Dr. Who I was watching while knitting this drippy Sunday afternoon. I mean, really, can one be expected to pay close attention when listening to such riveting dialog as this, spoken by a Dalek to his minions in the Empire State Building: “The pig slaves will take the lift!” I’m hoping at least a few of my readers understand.

Turns out I was thrown off to the tune of an entire row – that’s right – I just skipped one – and managed to do so for the entire round. At least I was consistent! I didn’t realize my mistake until I had finished the entire ball, stuffing, hanging loop, and all. I can’t believe I got that far without noticing. I thought for a moment that I might just unravel the whole thing, but I’d done such a good job of weaving in all my ends, that in the end it seemed it would be less frustrating to just start over. So I did, and I’m glad.

I think my tension was better the second time around, and the second version seems, overall, rounder. This pattern introduces the chapter called Tradition, and is called Secret Rose. Now that I’ve confessed my secret, hopefully this won’t happen again. But on the up-side, I will have knitted an even number of balls when I finish this project. Assuming I don’t do this again.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the old one. Keep it as a spare? Keep it handy as a reminder of the dangers of knitter’s hubris? Or I could just get rid of it. It is inferior after all. Exterminate! Exterminate!

Special Delivery

A package came in the mail today for me, filled with knitterly goodness.

I’d set out to get some green sock  yarn to use for the one tri-colored pattern from 55 Christmas Balls to Knit. Since I was using KnitPicks Stroll for the red and white, I thought I should stick with it for the green. I found this nice Aurora Heather color. A nice deep green with some highlights, I think it will work great. I’d also thought it might work as a good toe and afterthought-heel color for some Felici sock yarn I have called Green Veggies – but it might be too dark. We’ll see about that later.

But I didn’t just want to order one ball of yarn. So, to make the shopping and shipping worth it, I got a copy of Clara Parkes’ The Knitter’s Book of Socks. After reading Janelle’s glowing review, I knew I’d need to get it eventually. And it was on sale. Then, I remembered that I hadn’t been able to find my retractable tape measure for a while, so I had them throw one in.

Other than that, I’ve been focusing on the Men’s Sweater. I’ve put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn, and I’m to the endless round-and-round of 6x1 ribbing. But I’m making progress.

Oh, and I bought some yarn for a super nice project for me – but more about that later. It’s time for me to make supper. Kung pao!

Joined

It’s been a weird knitting week. I’ve grabbed some time here in there, getting a bit of progress done on the Christmas Balls, and even more on the Men’s Sweater.

Up to this point, I’ve been knitting flat. With eight stitches added every other row, the growth in width is rapid. After a foot or so, the instructions tell you to join the two halves together and continued knitting in the round. Yay! This means I don’t have to do nearly as much purling. I’m a much slower at purling than knitting, so I’m already making great progress. In fact, soon, I should be getting to the point where the sleeves happen. So far, I’ve been through three balls – it feels like I’m really tearing through the yarn on this project. I suppose I’m unfairly comparing it to the Christmas Balls, where it looks like I’ve barely made a dent in the yarn.

    

I finished up two more balls this week, finishing the chapter on Children’s mittens. The one on the left is called, simply, Mitten. It was the first ball in which the pattern color crept to close the cast-on and bind-off ends. The second, Dovre, is based on a motif common in Norwegian knitting, and was inspired by a jacket worn by one of the authors’ grandfather. I liked it because there weren’t any long floats, and every fourth row was solid white.

I’m on hold for a bit with the Christmas Balls right now. I’ve caught up to mid-February on my schedule. I was trying to strike while the iron was hot, but the next pattern is a tri-color one, and I didn’t have any suitable color to go with it. Some green yarn is on order, and I’ll pick up again when it arrives. In the meantime, I’m going to try and make us much progress as I can on the sweater. And speaking of sweaters, I wore my Vaila Slipover today, and it made me very happy. I’m thinking of knitting  another one from The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. I’m going to take a look at some yarn options right now…

Half Dozen

I’ve gone to town on the Christmas balls these past two weekends, and I’m caught up on my ball-a-week schedule that I set back in mid-December.

The patterns in the group are grouped in themes. The first five comprise the chapter called It will be Christmas soon and are all snow-themed. In order, from left to right, the patterns are called Snow Crystal, Frost, Snowflakes, New Snow and Snowman.

  

  

Last night I made the first in the next section, Children’s mittens. They are all taken from motifs found in mitten patterns. The first one is the Eight-Petal Rose, and is from a pattern on a child’s mitten that the authors found in the handcraft shop of the Norwegian Handcraft Association in Kristiansand.

I’m not sure if the knitted-in beads are working quite the way I expected. Close-up, they are always a little off, either sitting above or below (usually) the stitch that’s squished through them. You can see this with the silver bead in the center in the picture of the Eight-Petal Rose ball on the right. I’m hoping that when these are on a lighted tree, they’ll provide sparkle in the right places. Close up, they kind of create a blurred, jittery effect that I hope won’t be as noticeable from a distance. Perhaps I’m thinking about this too much.

So far, the Eight-Petal Rose has been my favorite. I think it’s the balance of red and white, plus, I like symmetry. The Snowman was the first one that wasn’t symmetrical from the center of the pattern, so, despite it’s spare-ness, it took a bit more concentration. Also, there were some crazy-long floats to manage in that one.

I’m still working on the men’s sweater, although the more increases I put in, the longer it takes to get across each row. The mittens, alas, are on hiatus for right now.

Learning to Knit a Men’s Sweater

I’ve already knit sweaters for myself and Jeff, so I have knit a few men’s sweaters, but not like this one. There a lot of techniques that are new to me in this pattern, and I’m learning a lot already.

The design is called Learn to Knit a Men’s Sweater and was created by my good friend, knitting buddy, and foster mom to our sweet, sweet Pona, Staci of Very Pink.

Staci uses a very cool teaching and pricing model for her designs. She offers videos for free, some for basic techniques, and some specific to patterns she produces. So if you buy the pattern, you have high-quality, ready-made videos at your fingertips to help you along. It’s a great idea, and I’ve already found the videos quite helpful. Here, Staci introduces the techniques and tutorials at her Very Pink YouTube Channel:

 

Very Pink Channel Intro

 

I’m making the extra-large version, and I’m using around 16 balls of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed in Prussian Heather. This picture skews a bit toward the purple, but the color is really more of a slatey-blue.

There is so much to this pattern that is new to me in a sweater – top-down construction (not very common in the men’s patterns I’ve seen), an I-cord edge that is knitted as you go, and that new method of knitting the zipper in, rather than sewing it. I can’t wait to get to that part!

Three projects on the needles at once. I’m out of control.

One Down, 54 To Go

The yarn for my Christmas ball project finally arrived, and I got started yesterday. Today, I have my first one finished. A little behind schedule, but I’m happy that I’ve begun.

Arne & Carlos, in their book, suggest gluing what they term crystals on to some of the designs to give them a bit of sparkle. I can’t imagine anything glued to knitting actually staying. Also, this looked a bit like bedazzling to me, and I wanted something classier. I’d run across a technique for adding beads to knitting using a crochet hook, so I decided to do that. Thing is, I don’t know squat about beads.

Luckily, Donna, a friend and work colleague, does know about beads. So we went shopping yesterday afternoon at Nomadic Notions and got some very nice glass Czech beads in red, clear/silver and gold. I have some very tiny crochet hooks that once belonged to my great-grandmother and were given to me by my aunt, and they’re doing just the trick. Some of the beads’ holes are too small for the hook, but I have enough beads that this shouldn't be a problem. In any case, I’ve been pleased with the results so far.

I used some acrylic stuffing for the balls, although Arne & Carlos call for using wool batting. They claim that it makes for a more uniform filling. I did have a few lumps and bumps in this one, so I might try that. Also, my crochet chain for the loop at the top is twisting in on itself. Do any crocheters know what this means? Wrong hook size? Do I need to go up or down in size? Not a problem when it’s actually hanging from a bough, I imagine, but it would be nice to know.

I’m going to start another one right now.

Meanwhile…

I’m really excited about two projects that I want to get started, but the yarn hasn’t arrived. In fact, although I ordered it nearly a week ago, it still hasn’t shipped. Grrrr.

So, because I needed something to work on, I decided to tackle another pair of mittens from the Woodland Winter Mittens kit, which I purchased from the same company that hasn’t shipped my order. What strange power do they have over me?

This is the 4th of the 6 winter month patterns – March. Regular readers will know that I’ve already completed October, January and February. October, November and December are my favorite designs, but I’m saving the latter two for later. I do really like the color palette of the March mittens. Very brown and green.

The March pattern features bulbs pushing out of the ground. The picture here shows the patterned palm side. It’s not easily memorize-able, so I’m having to pay close attention. But, I started this Tuesday afternoon and have been able to get this much done in two evenings of knitting. As in the October pair, I’m going to try and add a few stitches to the thumbs to make them a little more roomy.

Unmatched Game 2012

As I took this final picture of the pair of Movember Mystery Socks, which finished this morning, I immediately realized that the two skeins of one-of-a-kind Lorna’s Laces sock yarn were each one-of-a-kind. Although they use the same colors, one of them definitely has more of a darker shade to it. They’re not the same color at all. It wasn’t noticeable at all until fabric was knit up from the two skeins. Kind of maddening. But then again, it’s only noticeable in bright natural light, so I’m just going to ignore it. I don’t think anyone will notice, especially when they’re on my feet and in side a pair of shoes.

Give this free pattern a try. It’s very clear, and the instructions are both charted and written out, depending on your preference. I usually prefer charts, but I found that I switched back and forth – I found the charts easier for the leg, but switched to the longer written instructions for the patterning across the top of the foot. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I really like how the little ogee motifs grow out of the ribbing. Integrating the ribbing at the top into the pattern is a very clever design move. There are a few holes created by an increase that makes three stitches out of one in several places, but they don’t bother me too much.

I was finally able to order some yarn for the Christmas balls. I had planned to get started on that weeks ago, so that year-long project is already several weeks off schedule. At the same time, I ordered some blue yarn for a sweater for me based on a Staci Perry design. I can’t wait to get started on both! Stay tuned for pictures and details…

Happy New Year

I started off the new year by finishing a sock. The first Movember Mystery Sock in the mystery Lorna’s Laces colorway is done. I almost knitted it twice.

When I last mentioned this sock. I was almost down to the toe shaping. I’d tried it on several time and was okay with the fit, but the last time I tried, I just had to admit that it was too big. So I ripped the whole thing out and went down from the 2.25mm needles I’d been working with to 2mm. Much better, although the fabric is a bit dense.

So much to love about this sock. I like how the ogee-shaped mustache motif starts in the ribbing, and then continued down the leg in just two places. The first version of the sock had 4 pattern repeats; this one has 5. I don’t mind the little eyelet holes created by making three stitches out of one. This picture shows the foot of the sock a bit distorted so that you can see one of the mustache motifs right on the top of the foot. And the toe decrease is not like one I’ve ever done before. It happens in thirds, and one of the decreases is centered on the bottom of the foot. It’s fairly abrupt, so it has to take place faster than the usual toe one does.

One modification I’m considering for the second sock is doing the improved ssk (slip 1 as if to knit, slip 1 as if to purl, then knit the two stitches together through the back loops) for the travelling stitch down the foot. I don’t think the traditional ssk is matching up well with it’s opposite k2tog.