Knit the Stash

Recently Fallen

2011-01-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting this page for far too long, though I do have a good reason. I was blogging at Paton's for the past year, so it isn't like I haven't been chatting about yarn, just not around here.

But that is all about to change, as I finish up my commitment there and move back over here to discuss and post about my latest knitting projects. Really blogs are nothing more than a grown up version of Show & Tell. Or as my father used to say, Bring & Brag.

So in the spirit of Bring & Brag, I would like to share two hats that recently fell off my knitting needles:

Rain Down Hat
(Ravelry Link)

This is a free pattern I found on Ravelry that makes a great hat. The recommendation is to knit it in favorite team or school colors. I chose the colors of my husbands winter coat and his running jacket. Sorry for the horrible pic, but the light today is terrible.

Machu Picchu Earflap

And with that completed, then I made the Machu Picchu Earflap Hat (Ravel linked) by bluegirl knits, using up the Cascade 128 Superwash leftovers I had from Nicholas's Christmas sweater. (Wow, I guess I will have to blog about that as well!)

As you can see, it also includes a remnant of polar fleece--because I am going to attempt to line the hat to make it extra warm. That remnant was a steal--70% off! So I got a nice sized piece of polar fleece, nearly half a yard, for a $1. And it matches perfectly. Oh, yeah, I like it when a plan comes together. Well, it isn't together quite yet, but this weekend . . .

Comfort Knitting

2010-03-21T12:23:00.001-07:00

I was working on a project that went wrong in so many directions it isn't even funny. So when I threw it down in frustration and refused to look at it for a week of moping, it was time for some comfort knitting.

When all else fails, there is something so comforting about knitting a plain pair of toe up socks with a self-striping yarn. And boy, did I need these!

Vested Interest

2010-03-03T17:02:00.000-08:00

I began this vest ages ago, and it got put down for Christmas knitting and when I picked it back up, I realized I hated the short rows I'd put in for the bust.

The project is a Vestish, which I am knitting in KnitPicks City Tweed DK, in Plum Wine. I loved this pattern the moment I saw it--seconded by my love of vests. And the City Tweed? Nummy with alpaca! Just check this out:

So all those months back when I started this, I thought I needed more shaping up in front for the girls, but when I tried it on, it looked silly, so I frogged back 7 inches of stockinette. That hurt. So this week, when I ran out of yarn on my latest Paton's project (another "oh, crap" moment), I picked this up and swore I would finish it so I can wear it to the PLA (Public Library Association) conference in Portland at the end of the month. Nothing like a deadline to get the knitting moving.

I also modified the pattern by knitting it in the round rather than pieces, so it does take some time to get from the bottom to the divide, but tonight I will hit the happy 16 inch mark and be able to start dividing it up. After a lot of cabling and calculating on another project, I am in love with the joy of just knitting, round and round.

In Between

2010-02-22T18:43:00.000-08:00

Now that I've begun blogging for Patons (you'll find me over there as "YoElizBo") I have found my knitting divided: my projects and their projects. Since I have to share what I do for them over there, I thought I would fill in with a little bit about what I've been doing on the side.

Socks . . .

I took a mini-class at Madrona Fiber Arts with Charlene Schurch (YES!!! That Charlene Schurch) and it was awesome. The class was on making socks more durable, a class I desperately needed as I have worked holes in nearly every pair I own. Mostly having blown out the heels. Charlene had some great suggestions like:

1) use the needle that gives you the tightest fabric. If you are seeing too much air between your stitches--it is too loose. Even if that means going down to 0s or smaller.

2) Use heel stitch all the way down the back and under your heel. Duh! This dense, thick fabric will keep your heels in play longer.

3) Use carry along thread to add an extra bit of support.

When I sat down this Saturday to patch my very first pair of hand knit socks, I realized all too quickly they were more hole than sock and they needed to be . . . tossed.

It was hard to do, but there it is--they gave me eight years of warm feet, so I have to say I got my money's worth with that pair.

I also took the current pair I am knitting and frogged the first sock back about three inches and starting doing the sole stitches in heel stitch to thicken up my "trouble spot."

And Using Up Sock Yarn . . .

I saw this absolutely fabulous version of the Multnomah Shawl on Ravelry and could not resist trying one with some Trekking XXL I had on hand. I think this is going to be fun, bright and warm to toss on, as well as being nice and soft.

Slipping into 2010

2010-01-27T15:09:00.001-08:00

I went into this New Year looking for something new to do with my knitting. So many people on Ravelry were doing "10 for 2010" lists--you know, ten things they wanted to do this year, but as I read the lists, I realized that I had done a lot of that last year.

I made strides in my lace aversion and actually knit several lace projects. I learned entrelac. I've given up trying to learn new and faster and improved ways to knit. I find those classes don't improve my knitting or my speed, and I end up spending money to have a teacher sniff over my knitting and telling me how much better I could be if I did it their way. And since I am a good, even knitter there really is no need for changing. Took me a few classes, dollars and soul searching to figure that out, but I'm good with how I knit.

So this year I didn't need to go out and conquer the new, I needed to find something different--a different direction. And of course, when you go out and ask the universe to send you something, amazing how it finds you. So I answered a post on Ravelry to be a blogger over at Patons Blog, and I am now part of their team. They provide materials and projects and I get to knit them. So, I essentially get paid in yarn. So the right thing at the right time. Watch for my first posts over there sometime after Feb 15th. And my first project? To cute! But for now it is a secret.

Starting 2010 off right, just what have I been knitting since the beginning of the year? Well, baby, its been cold outside and so I've been knitting slippers. Three pairs of them. I discovered that all the felted slippers and booties I had were just plain worn out, so it was time for some new feet around here.

Felted Clogs for me. I've wanted to do this Bev Galeskas pattern for ages, and then got this wonderful reddish burgundy Cascade 220 yarn in a swap and knew it was the perfect yarn for my clogs.

I love how big they are before you felt them and then "Voila" out of the washer they come and they are just your size. Though I have to admit that they took longer to felt than I would have thought. It took three run thrus to get them down to size.

But apparently you can't knit just one pair of these. And since they are uber-fast to knit and fun, I knit a pair for the oldest child, because he wouldn't take mine off.

This turned out to be the best way to get mine back.

And now there is a second pair of happy feet in our house:

Then I came across this pattern, Bunny Hop, and went into a "Must. Knit. Now." knitting zombie mode. I made a pair of thrummed mittens years ago, so I was familiar with the technique, and had to imagine all that warm wool around be awesome.

Got all the materials and promptly sat down to knit them. I love how the thrummed stitches (which is a knit stitch with a piece of wool roving knit along with the yarn) make a cool pattern on the outside.)

Of course the inside is another matter. My DH looked over one night and asked if I was knitting a poodle.

Okay, so maybe they do look a little poodle-ish on the inside, but slide your toes into that thrummed roving and you will want poodle jammies to go with them.

Case in point: I let him slip his toes in and he decided they were heaven, but complained that I shouldn't have made them pink. The boys loved them as well, but the pink is like kryptonite to the three fellows around here--they really avoid it, so these little bunnies are all mine.

Thanks for Knitting

2009-11-29T19:10:00.001-08:00

We went to the Oregon Coast for Thanksgiving and spent a good part of the week knitting while watching the waves roll in. The weather had been horribly stormy the week before we went, in fact we came skating in on the heels of the last storm--the power came back on an hour before we arrived. Very glad we decided to go on Sunday, not Saturday!

While I had just a smidgen of my Autumn Shawl left to finish, I packed up a big bag of kitchen cotton, a couple of dishcloth patterns and settled in to knit a pile for Christmas gifts. I have to admit, dishcloth knitting isn't my favorite, but I really do like having them in the kitchen and they make good gifts, so I left myself no choice but to knit them by only bringing them to work on.

Of course there is my go-to pattern, the Ballband dishcloth, that is easy to do and is a workhorse in the kitchen when you put it through its paces. I did this one in a variety of colors including a few in Christmas colors. I really love this one, with the blue/green variegated and the pretty lime green. I got so I was knitting these on remote.

Then I went on to try a new pattern that I had been dying to give a knit. This one is from the Purl Bee, which always has such cute patterns and crafty ideas. Taking a cue from the quilters, they came up with this Log Cabin wash cloths. I love that you can take four small skeins of kitchen cotton and come up with four really neat dishcloths.

These things are like popcorn, you just keep casting on and knitting without any thought until you realize all the yarn is used up and then you start scrounging around for more combinations. Hence this one, which I think I will keep as it isn't all that cute.

At the last minute, I had also thrown in the Twined hat I've been knitting. This is another one just like my green one, that I wear every morning to walk Matthew to school. I knew I should probably make another one before I start being referred to as that "green-hat lady who never takes it off."

You never know, but it could happen. So I decided to mix things up a little with this pink one. Yeah, I know, it isn't much different--but this Lisa Ellis design is the best hat pattern and the warmest hat you will ever own.

Now back to throwing projects in the car at the last minute is that you don't think it through. I started doing the decreases and realized I'd forgotten the dpns for when the stitch count gets to small for the circs. And while, yes, I know I could have bought another set, (because I did go to Custom Threads in Astoria and took a quick dash through Fred Meyer in Warrenton for some tax free Christmas shopping) I just couldn't do it when I have a perfectly good set at home. So this is where I stopped, which coincided with us stopping at Starbucks on the way down and switching who was driving.

Note to self: remember the dpns and when husband says he doesn't want a coffee, order him one anyway so he doesn't drink yours.

Addicted to Entrelac

2009-11-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

Walked into A Good Yarn Shop and found myself faced with a sample of this Autumn Shawl by Jojoland. It was like putting a leftover bowl of Halloween Butterfingers in front of me.

Ever since I took the entrelac class last summer, I haven't been able to shake the bug. It is a knitting addiction. Just one more little rectangle, I tell myself. I'll just finish this row. Then it becomes, I'll just finish this skein and see where the next one takes me.

I was right in the middle of this hat for a friend who is going through chemo for ovarian cancer, so I had a very good reason to get the hat done, but the allure of entrelac was too much and I cast on the moment I got home. After two of days of knitting like a madwoman, I bundled it all up, packed it under the bed and told myself I couldn't get it out until I finished the chemo cap. Voila! A finished hat.

Amazing how fast you can finish something when there is entrelac under the bed.

Dog Gone

2009-09-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

I have had Jill Eaton's Bow Wow Sweater pattern in my pattern collection for years. I've had yarn to knit the pattern for nearly as long. But as the years passed, I never got around to knitting it. As a mom with two sons, there is really no excuse for not having knit this quintessential boy sweater.

So when my cousin's son's wife had a baby boy (is that a long strung out line of relations or what?!) I knew I had to knit this sweater. My boys are almost too big for it, and I thought that I would give it a try in a smaller size before I knit in the larger sizes for my growing pair of lads.

What I love about this sweater is the color. That yellow just screams little boy. It also screams, "I'll be able to spot you across a crowded playground like no one's business." So I dug out the skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease that I had stashed and cast on for Wyatt. It is really an easy sweater to knit, and super simple: Here it is already to sew up the side seams:

You can't tell by my washed out pictures, but the color is really a good goldenrod, and not this faded yellow. Here it is all sewn up:

Isn't that just adorable? And if Wyatt is half the trouble his grandfather was (my cousin) his poor parents will need that bright color to keep tabs on him.

Because I Promised

2009-09-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

I saw my aunts recently and they both read my blog. And of course they were on me for not updating it more often. But with summer on, the kids at home and just everything happening, having the time to settle in and share has been short at best. So a little craft round-up.

Last spring after spending way too much time lurking about the Lady Eleanor page on Ravelry, I swore that this fall I would take a class on Entrelac. Entrelac is crazy easy, but when you read the instructions it is hard to just have faith that it will work. It is rather like Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. Just knit it as the instructions tell you to, and don't sweat anything past your current row of knitting.

Then joyfully and triumphantly watch it all come together.

But for some reason I couldn't take that leap of faith with entrelac and resorted to taking a class at Renaissance Yarns in Kent. Yeah, I could have probably found a bunch of tutorials on YouTube, or done it by digging in and knitting it, but I thought taking a class would do the trick quickly--immerse me in the technique and learn the tricks.

And I boy did I love it! I was hooked by the second tier. This is my working sample done in Wisdom Yarns Poem.

I was also spurred on to learn entrelac by a one skein project I saw at Seattle Yarn, the Simply Lovely Little Clutch. Before I even took the class, I'd picked up a skein of the Noro Tidiori that the pattern calls for.

So I took the class, fell in love, and then the next day, we went off on vacation. I had the clutch pattern and one skein of Tidiori, and knit the clutch up the first day--falling hopelessly and helplessly in love with entrelac and this fun pattern.

When folded for the clutch, it looks like this:

or this, depending on the side. That is the joy of this yarn, both sides are unique.

So the next morning I jumped online to find more yarn, imagine my horror when I discovered that this particular Noro yarn has been discontinued. So I got online and hunted down as many skeins as I could find--between eBay and Ravelry I had enough to feed the obsession.

Since then, I've been knitting Simply Lovely Clutches for everyone. I've done eight of them so far. I made myself quit this weekend, before I forget how to knit anything else.

I plan on finishing them with i-cord borders and line them with a bright and fun silk fabric. They close with the magnetic snap. And voila!

So what am I going to do with 8 clutches? Christmas gifts, folks. Teacher presents, friends, but not aunts. I've got other plans for them.

Monkeying Around

2009-07-19T12:12:00.001-07:00

I saw a book in Crafter's Choice recently that made me laugh. It was about repurposing old pillowcases. Ya, wha-a-at? So I ordered Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Pillowcase from the library and much to my surprise and chagrin, it is actually a really fun book.

So much so, that Friday night, I dug out some funny monkey fabric I'd picked up for some long forgotten project and made a groovy little project bag in about 45 minutes. It was fast, fun and now I have a nice sized, summery monkeyshines bag to haul around my latest WIP.

Which as it turns out, fits my latest project in the "Wrestling WIPs" challenge, My Lacy Stole. The yarn is Sundara's Basil over Buttercup, which I think is currently part of her July month of color. The hues and sparkle to this yarn is wonderful and it is lovely to knit with. And best of all, I have only 11 more pattern repeats and then I am done.

The pattern is free from Lion Brand and easy to do, if you cheat like I do--using stitch markers to remind me where every repeat is, and an excel chart of the stitch pattern that I check off on each row, so it is never an issue which row I am on.

Oddly enough, I haven't had the least urge to cast on any new projects--there has been a real delight in picking up these old, nagging WIPs and just getting them done. I think that is because I know that next month I am going to dive head first into Christmas knitting. I have three projects I want to cast on and finish over the month, and then I will be well ahead in my usual Fall panic over "what the heck to knit for Christmas???!!"

Am I jumping the gun? Are you knitting for Christmas yet?

Wrestling Socks

2009-07-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

I joined the WIPs Wrestlemanis 2009 group on Ravelry, (Team: Burning Down the Stash) with the much needed goal of spending the month of July cleaning out the old works in progress that need to be, well, finished. And I dug out a few:

Six pairs of socks
1 Lace Stole
1 Lace scarf
1 cardigan

So I attacked the socks first, going after all my cast-on craziness that I'd done during May and June while I was stuck at home. I've been devouring Cat Bordhi's book New Pathways for Sock Knitters, and pulling from the stash to make her wonderful examples.

These are the socks I started at Madrona last February in Cat's class on Sock Architecture. Knit on 0 dpns, and using the Riverbed architecture, they were a great learning sock. I even finished them with this cuff, which I find I like better than your usual K2P2.

I also had these socks on the needles, but I didn't like the plain heel that I had done on the first one:

So I frogged it back and did a reinforced heel. Then I noticed that there isn't a single heel in Cat's book that isn't done with anything other than a reinforced heel. Now I know why, especially when you see the difference:

I've one more pair of socks off the needles and just in need of few finishing touches then it is onto my Lacy Stole which has languished for far too long.

Goodness, Time Flies

2009-07-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

When you have pneumonia. Sorry for the long absence, but shortly after the last post, I got pneumonia and my Spring disappeared from me and now here it is Summer. At least I could see my peonies from the window and enjoy their splendor this year. We really had an awful winter, but the payback was a glorious load of peonies.

As for the pneumonia, it hit fast, hard and kept me down. You know you are really, truly, see-the-light-sick when you don't even feel like knitting for several weeks. Yeah, that sick.

But once I got to the point where I could knit, my Dad had come to stay with us and help take care of me. I was knitting this pair of socks at the time:

And he would take the kids to school or run out to get groceries and all that other stuff I couldn't do, and when he got back, he would check for progress to make sure I had stayed on the couch and wasn't getting up and doing stuff. Like I really I wanted to. He made me laugh as he counted rows and nagged at me to take care of myself. Yes, Dad! He was so good to come up from Southern Oregon to spend a week with us. We really didn't want him to go.

BTW, the socks are from Cat Bordhi's book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, using the Riverbed architecture. Which, come to look at them, I did wrong. But here is the joy and beauty of Cat's sock philosophy--they still worked out just fine.

Being housebound, I've been forced to knit from the stash, but I've found a real joy in using what I have. Odd as it might sound, getting this sick has turned out to be a blessing in many ways. It brought a lot of things into focus, including giving me back a real joy in using what I have.

My mom had been with us the week earlier when I couldn't knit, and she brought with her some knitting (she likes to make premie hats to go with the quilts she makes and donates) and I accused her of taunting me with knitting. She laughed and kept on knitting. But huge props go out to both my folks for jumping in with both feet without even having to be asked. That's why Terry and I love them so much. That and they both are great cooks and good company. What more would you want when you are sick? Or well, for that matter!

Not to be outdone by Mom's charitable endeavors, I worked on my Warm for Winter hats. I felt the need to give thanks for feeling better, and what better way is there than some charity knitting. I like to knit at least 12 hats each year for this wonderful endeavor, and so I knit these two:

This is Elizabeth Zimmerman's A Very Warm Hat. I love it because it is fun to knit, a great way to use up leftover stash and makes, just as the title implies, a very warm hat for someone who has to be outside all day. I also make sure to always do these in wool, since wool stays warm even when it is wet, and in Seattle in the winter, it is hard to stay dry, let alone warm.

This hat, the Swirled Ski Cap, from Knitting for Peace, is also from leftovers and was intended to go with a baby present, but the hat is more large toddler sized, so it is going into the Warm for Winter pile, since sadly, kids end up out there as well.

Seems funny to talk about knitting for winter in the middle of summer, but I find I like knitting these sort of smaller projects this time of year.

Stops and Starts

2009-04-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've been knitting. Really I have. Just not as much as I would like. Or rather not on the things I want to be knitting on.

That is my own fault. I went on a test knitting jag, and knit two different items for people developing patterns. One is already available on Ravelry as a download pattern and it was fun to make, mostly because I knew Matthew would love it. Here he is modeling Baxterknits' Aegean Vest. I do like this pattern and it is a great way to use up leftovers.

I decided to do this test knit because Matthew loves wearing vests. Go figure. The kid who usually wears only pajamas, adores putting on a vest. If he's going anywhere special or just wants to "look handsome" he pulls on his vest. So I knew he'd love have another one.

The two disadvantages of test knitting are being a deadline and having to stop whatever else you are knitting. Like this post heading, I've been knitting in stops and starts on two pairs of socks. I love socks for travel because I can tuck them in this fancy pencil bag I got last fall at Target. Fits in the purse and sits happily on the tray table so the yarn doesn't end up rolling down the aisle.

On this last journey (to Wichita) I ended up having a hellish trip back--what was supposed to be about six hours of travel turned in 17 hours of airport delays. And I worked on my socks, read a little Georgette Heyer, and worked on my book which has a May 1st deadline. I really like airplane knitting cause it does make me a calmer and less obsessed about the flight. But when you are in the middle seat it is darn hard to try on the sock you are knitting to see if you've got it right.

I think on my next flight, I'll just make sure I am at the heel turns so I don't have much to try on. Which if you are wondering is Seattle to Orlando. So I could probably do several pairs of heel turns over the course of that 5 hour flight. Well, let's hope it only takes 5 hours. I've seen quite enough of airports lately, thank you very much.

If Spring is here, Why am I still wearing Wool?

2009-03-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

So today is the first day of spring and I can't wait to leave this winter behind, but instead of daffodils blooming in my yard and my primroses blooming happily in my gardens, the yard is much as it has been all winter.

So I continue with the Winter Knitting. I've been working through some projects and UFOs per my desire to get some things off the needles this month. And first up is my Harmonia's Rings, a cowl/shoulder wrap Cat Bordhi and the designer, Sivia Harding were wearing at Madrona--not at the same time, they each had their own--which was tempting to just corner one of them, rip it off their shoulders and run. But then again, I can knit my own. And I did.

I used two skeins of See Jayne Knit's hand dyed merino in the colorway Chocolate Truffle Berry. Okay, she had me at "chocolate." The yarn is wonderfully soft and cozy and I've been wearing this constantly.

Sivia's pattern for Harmonia's Cowl gave me two challenges, knitting a moebius for the first time and doing a moebius cast on. Thank goodness for Cat Bordhi's excellent youTube video, I was up and running in no time and it is really addictive knitting.

The pattern repeat is easy, but lately I've found that I can't follow a chart or even simple row repeats to save my life--just way too much life filling up the bandwidth and remembering what row I am on seems impossible--so I've come up with a solution. My own sort of cheat sheet that I make for each project using Excel, and making a small chart with the rows and repeats and just check it off at the end of each row. Then when I come back to it, or forget halfway through the round where I am, I can just glance over figure it out without doing a bunch of frogging back. This is the chart I used for my Veste Everest.

I hadn't planned on doing the beaded picot bind off around the neck, but then as I was looking for something else, I found a tube of beads I'd bought years ago for something else and never used, so the beaded edge it was.

I loved knitting this so much I plan on making two more for Christmas presents, I have the yarn for one, and am keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect yarn for a second one, though I may just use some stash yarn.

The other project that found its way onto my needles after Madrona was a pair of Toast. Again at the Cat Bordhi class (that was just a day of inspiration in so many ways) I was sitting next to Kari, who also spins for her Etsy shop, Mud.Creek, and she had knit a pair on the plane up from Arizona. I was immediately enamored and when I got home, cast on. I know some people don't "get" fingerless gloves, but I adore them. My hands get too hot in gloves or mittens but fingerless? Oh, they are perfectly toasty without getting too hot.

These are modeled by one of the boys, so they are a little large on him. Again I used a skein from See Jayne Knit, a handspun silk and merino blend in Watermelon. I have another skein in another colorway, which will probably get used for yet another Christmas present.

I also finished up a small shawl on the plane to Chicago this week, which I'll get blocked this weekend. Then it might be a bit before I finish anything more because I had to sign books for two days straight, now it is my wrists who are toast and I have to take a few days off of knitting to rehab them. Stinks, but I knew that would happen. Instead I'll keep enjoying my new FOs, and dreaming of Spring.

And Spring knitting . . .

Randomness

2009-03-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

I've been starting and stopping projects for the last two weeks and can't say that I have anything to show for it. I'm nearly finished on two projects inspired by some wonderful items I saw at Madrona, but not quite done.

With so much going on around here--I've had five books I had to read for my working life, two test knit projects I'm working on, a book due next month, two books coming out in the next two months, and more travel over a three month period than I have done in like the last three years. I've been to Madrona, then last weekend went to a romance reader's conference in Portland, Or. Next weekend I am off to Chicago to sign books at the warehouse. Which means NO KNITTING for like three or four days. I need my wrist in top form to sign about 8,000 copies of my next book, CONFESSIONS OF A LITTLE BLACK GOWN and be able to keep typing on the book that is due. Yes, you read that correctly. 8K. Sigh. The glamorous life. Two days in a warehouse signing books. Actually, it is kinda fun, a sort of marathon adventure but the no knitting part stinks.

Then off to Wichita for the Midwest Plains Librarian Association conference, where I speak and do a booksigning at Barnes & Noble. Then it is off to Disneyland for spring break -- which neither of the kids have on the same week, so we are going the week in between when they both have school. We figured two wrongs make it all right. Then I get a breather for like three weeks and then I am off to Orlando for the Florida Librarians Association where I speak again and sign again, this time at the Borders in Clearwater, FL.

I was invited to another conference the week after, back again in Orlando, but twice across the country in two weeks? Uh, no. Because in July I go to Washington DC for a week for a big writer's conference. Then the Sock Summit is lurking on the horizon. I actually have a hotel scoped out, and my escape plans for that one in sort of a sketchy, hazy outline. Really, honey, I know I've been gone a lot, but this is a very important knitting event . . .

So with all this on the horizon I can't really get excited about knitting something big, like I did in February with the Vest-uary KAL. I got my Veste Everest done, which I've been wearing daily. But right now, I don't have the bandwidth to cast on a big project. So it is small, packable, easy on the wrists projects for the foreseeable future. And hopefully I can get some of my UFOs out of the stash and into the world being useful before some new wonderful can't resist, time-consuming project hits the radar.

So here is the critical question for all of you. Because when you travel you need one key piece of advice: What are the good knit shops in Wichita, Orlando, or Washington DC? Anyone?

The Dye Class

2009-02-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

I told someone I went to a class on dyeing last week and they became alarmed that I was sick. Non-knitters! Whatever are we to do with them? But I have to say the most fun class I took at Madrona was Judith MacKenzie McCuin's Just Dyeing for Socks.

Nothing like being given a room protected in industrial strength plastic and being let loose with a boggling range of color possibilities and told to "have fun." Here are the advantages of dyeing at Madrona:

1) Not in my kitchen.
2) I don't have to prep it all.
3) I don't have to clean it up.
4) And best of all, I don't have to clean it up.

So I repeated the last ones, but come on, those need to be repeated. Special hurrahs to Judith and her pair of helpers who did all the grunt work so the rest of us could play.

We started out with skeins of Worsted/Mohair mix. Mine turned into a clownish mess, but that is how it is supposed to be your first time out. I listened to other students worry over not getting it perfect, but for me, it was the lessons of doing it all wrong in the first skein that helped me with my next two: a sock blank and a skein of merino/silk blend.

Isn't this silk blend beautiful? I just love how the greens and blues and yellows blended. I'm thinking of making a lacy little scarf with this skein. The clown yarn will probably get knit into something to felt, but I have to decide whether or not I want to risk hives over knitting with mohair.

After all the painting, the skeins went into ziploc bags and then into the pot to cook. Oh, yum, Mom! What's for dinner?

Now the only downside of all this, is that we also dyed sock blanks, but mine somehow went missing. They were left on tables in the back of the classroom over the next few days for all of us to pick up, and mine got lost in the shuffle or someone just picked up the wrong one. But even if I hadn't come home with anything, I would rate this class an A+ for fun. Like being allowed to color on the walls and outside the lines all at once.

Coming Down

2009-02-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

I'm back from the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat. I've been back since Sunday night, but I couldn't type yesterday to save my life. Now I could go on and on about the classes and what I learned, and all the cool knitters I met, but I think everyone prefers seeing what you get when go to a knitting conference. So, since my brain is still mush, I give you my own personal Madrona yarn crawl. And just a warning, I do have my firewall up, so no trying to sneak over and steal my precious'es:

First up, I hit the Toots Le Blanc booth. I haven't knit up the last yarn I bought there, but that didn't stop me from stocking up, 'cause you know, it's 50% Alpaca, 50% Jacob, in a DK weight that I think will be lover-ly in the Honeycomb Vest.

After Cat Bordhi's class, I'd spotted some sock yarn in a linen/merino blend, by Tactile, that was so bright and pretty, I had to have some . . . because well, I am now an enthusiastic sock knitter. Yes, I am.

Yeah, that pink will wake up the feet. Though I may be doing something else with it. Not sure.

Then it was onto The Fiber Gallery booth were she had the Fiber Trends Leaf Lace shawl hanging in the booth. I'd been having shawl envy since I walked into the conference and there it was, taunting me. "Knit me, knit me," it whispered from across the aisle. "I won't drive you ~~to drink~~ crazy, I promise. . . " Now we all know me and lace knitting. But ahem, I also mean to give this a try. So I bought the pattern and these two skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk:

I was shopping with my new friend and great designer, Lisa Ellis and she and I went back and forth over which skeins worked best with my colors, and we had a lot of help picking them out. Isn't that great when you have lots of people to help you buy yarn?

Now I didn't need any help when I got to the Blue Moon booth. Despite having knit the World's Ugliest Socks out of one of their skeins, I still can't resist their yarns. The names and the colors just knock me over. And so I got two skeins of:

Jabberywocky in the Lightweight version. I thought if the shawl project is a success then I will try another one, and if not, well, then socks! And since I know of about four babies about to make their way into the world, I got this wonderful skein of Mediumweight STR in Grimm's Willow Wren:

Which is going to make the coolest, sweetest Baby Surprise Jacket (like this one) for some little wee pumpkin. And then I went back in the market at the last hour and probably shouldn't have, but found the colorway of Taos I've been looking for and bought it:

Okay, I bought all of it. But I was tired. And not thinking straight. And it will make the coolest . . . something.

Next, I will share all the great patterns and knits I saw, so check back! And if you went, what did you get that you can't wait to knit?

Baby's Got Back . . . And a New Shawl

2009-02-12T14:17:00.000-08:00

So now that we have all purged the memories and visual aids from my last post, on to happier subjects. Like my Veste Everest. Which now consists of a back:

And the beginnings of a front:

I also did a little more finishing and finally got the ends woven in on my
Symmetrical Flying V Shawl. After a good dunk and a bit of blocking, it turned out wonderful--though not quite symmetrical because I ran short of yarn, but I can overlook that small problem. I hadn't been real pleased with it when it came off the needles, but sometimes, as it turns out, blocking can be your new BFF.

I don't know what to post

2009-02-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

I started the week with a big bunch of enthusiasm for Vest-uary, starting my vest with a big smile, and then realizing I'd used the wrong sized needles. Well, rather than go through my four painful false starts over again, I finally got going on the back of my Veste Everest with the right gauge, the right number of stitches and the correct needles. One more repeat and I'll be at the bind off for the underarms. I feel really good about this.

I wished I felt the same about my Vine Lace Top Down Cardigan which I blocked this week. Wherein it turned into a disaster. I will not model it, so don't even ask, I look like a Boobah in it. I have no idea what happened, but I now believe I can drive my minivan through the neck opening. With. It. Buttoned.

This:

Makes me look like this:

Huge sigh. It is still sort of wearable. In my office. With the door closed. The blinds down. And no deliveries expected from UPS. I just have to remember to take it off before I go flying out the door to pick up the kids. I don't want the minivan door sliding open at school and it setting off a stampede of elementary aged children screeching, "My eyes! My eyes!" Yes, it is that hideous.

I had hoped to wear it proudly to Madrona next weekend. I don't think so. I would probably get tossed out of the conference and banned for life from ever attending again. My knitting needles confiscated. My name blacklisted at all the local yarn shops and most of the prominent online shops.

Truly, I've resigned myself that some projects were just meant to hang in the closet and remind us that knitting is a craft. And there is always room to learn.

Happy Vest-uary

2009-02-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

I know it is Groundhog Day, but to all of us on the Vest-uary KAL over on Ravelry, it is Happy Vest-uary, for all of us knitting a vest this month. Just so you can be in the know, the correct response is, "And how is your vest going?"

Being really jazzed about this KAL (which I am not really much of a KAL person, try as I might) this one is heaven sent. I'd been planning on knitting a vest this month anyway, but not I have an excuse to hang out with a bunch of like-minded, sleeve-less happy co-knitters.

I had my pattern at the ready, (Veste Everest from the Fall 2005 issue of IK), spent Friday evening winding the yarn (some Aran Tweed I bought a while back from an Irish vendor on eBay), and getting everything lined up.

In my excitement yesterday morning, after greeting my bewildered house of men with a cheery and rousing, "Happy Vest-uary" (let's just face it, living with 3 boys--and I count the DH in that head count-- just doesn't make for a lot of knitterly celebration), I was reminded that Sunday was the SuperBowl and they got on with their plans for nachos and pizza. I, on the other hand, cast on, and began knitting, until I got to the line in the pattern that read, "switch to larger needles."

Switch to larger needles? Oh, bother. I'm already using the larger needles. So I frogged what I had done, searched for a pair of size 4s to cast on with, ended up sorting a bunch of needles, cleaning out my knitting basket, and finally about kick-off, got back to knitting. I'm hoping the rest of Vest-uary goes without any hiccups. How is your Vest-uary starting out?

Homework

2009-01-28T16:12:00.001-08:00

Lately our schedule has given us some free Sunday afternoons. Around here a free afternoon is like gold, so I've been using my time to tackle some things that require some time, patience and, well, time. Like patching up my Duckie socks, and this past weekend, I tackled homework.

I'm taking Cat Bordhi's all day class at Madrona and I wanted to have a good understanding of her take on "sock architecture" before I spent an entire Saturday wondering what the heck she was talking about. So this Sunday I sat down to knit the learning socks from her book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One.

So with a latte in front of me (an essential learning tool), her book spread wide open, I started the Little Sky Sock just like a beginner would. I knit these with dpns, but for the next pair, I think I am going to use Magic Loop.

These turned out a little bigger than I expected and my gauge was off, even though, yes, I did do a gauge swatch. Heave. A. Big. Sigh. This coming weekend I'll do the second learning sock, and keep reading the book.

In the meantime, my Toe-up Socks that I started in November, but got set aside for Christmas knitting are rolling along, (another of my UFOs that must be done before Madrona), and I am just so in love with this colorway that I've renamed the socks "Apple Blossom Toe Ups", because the colors have me wishing for spring and apple blossoms.

February Swatches

2009-01-25T08:01:00.000-08:00

After finishing the Vine Lace Cardigan this past week, I found myself at loose ends--literally, because I still need to bury a bunch, but also in the sense of what to do next. Does that ever happen to you? You finish something big, or challenging, or even something small, stranded and worked on size 1 needles, and you just feel a bit off-kilter. It happens when I finish a book--I sort of knock about my office for a week, impatiently pacing about, not knowing what to do next--even though the obvious answer is right there--clean the darn mess of papers and notes up.

And it isn't like I don't have UFOs circling my knitting basket threatening to make crop circles across my living room carpet, but there is something else on the horizon that drones out their buzzing.

You see, the problem this time is that I am itching to start knitting a vest for the Vest-uary group over on Ravelry. The goal is to knit a vest during February. Yes, February. Still, ever since I joined the group I've been in that impatient, pacing mode because I want to start knitting it now. But the calendar still says January.

So I've spent some of my pacing trying to figure out what vest to make. I've been struck by two things as I've mulled my choices--the wealth of ideas that Ravelry affords you and that you can ~~waste~~ spend a lot of time searching patterns and yarns looking for the perfect project.

I winnowed my choices down to three yarns from the stash:

Emu Naturally
Mountain Colors Twizzle
Irish Aran Tweed

And the following patterns (all Ravel linked)

Honeycomb
Veste Everest
Fence
Back to School Vest
Plain Vest pattern (no Ravel link)

This weekend I dug out all the patterns, the yarn, the necessary needles and started swatching, which helped narrow the choices--sort of my version of Survivor: The February Vest.

I had thought to use the Emu for the Honeycomb, but the Emu had other ideas. I bought this yarn off a Ravelry swap to make a sweater for my son, but when I got the yarn I knew it would never do for a kid. Can you see all that wooly matter sticking out and screaming, "I itch! I itch!" So this yarn would never fly with him, but I actually have little problems with wool, so I knew it would work for me.

Unfortunately, this yarn doesn't show any kind of stitch definition, it just sort of blends away in the variegated-ness of the yarn,and the added wooliness of it. So ix-Nay on the Honeycomb with the Emu. I may do just a plain vest with a large cable up the front with this yarn, but not right now.

Next, I swatched this Irish tweed that I got off eBay ages ago. I had thought I would make a sweater out of it, but I'm not sure I have enough. And after I saw how it took to knitting the Veste Everest cable and aran inspired stitches, got gauge right on, and how it softened up when I gave the swatch a little bath, it came out the winner for the February 1st cast-on competition.

In the meantime, I am swatting at the UFOs, including these Toe-up socks I cast on in November. Considering my collection of sock yarn, I need to get a little faster with the socks. I turned the heel last night:

I'm knitting these at the suggestion of Tiennie, by knitting them both together. So I knit one sock up to the gusset, then knit the other to the same spot. That was were they were when I set them aside for a flurry of Christmas knitting. Last night I turned one heel, and tonight I'll turn the other. Then see how much yarn I have left to knit up the cuffs. Hopefully this will be one less project waiting around until my Vest obsession runs its course.

Clunk!!

2009-01-21T16:25:00.000-08:00

Look what fell off the needles today? My Vine Lace Cardigan. Another UFO moves to the done side of the board. Hurrah.

Okay, so it isn't completely done, because I still need to sew in the ends, and then block it, then sew up the sleeves. But the knitting is done and that counts for something.

Next up, I am going to try to finish my Post War Mittens before the end of January for NaKniMitMo over on Ravelry. Perhaps I should have been a little less ambitious and knit the Bella Mittens instead. Size 10 needles with yarn held doubled v. Size 1 needles and stranded fingerweight yarns. Yeah, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know which one is going to get done there.

Still, I want to make a pair of the Bellas for my Twilight mad SIL. I still may make them next month, as I now have a trip to Chicago on the books, so I could take them to her. Then I could use them to check a notch in both the Mitten KAL and the Year Long Gift-A-Long group.

I am just thrilled to have my finishing list moving along. Now with that big clunk from the Vine Lace Cardigan, the next three to finish are aforementioned Post War mittens, the Lacy stole and a cardigan I've had on the needles for probably five years. It's my oldest UFO and I am determined to finish it before it demands to be sent to Kindergarten. Yep, I'm cooking along.

How are your January resolutions working out?

Patcing up a Duck

2009-01-18T08:09:00.000-08:00

I was doing laundry this week and discovered that my Duckies (Ravel linked) had lost their heel. Not just a little worn spot. The entire heel was just gone, like someone had gone Duck Hunting and just blown the heel out. Not sure how this happened, but to say the least, I was shocked and really bummed. I just finished these in September and now they were DOA. The picture above is of my Duckies in happier times.

But as I looked at that poor sock without a heel (there is a joke there, I mean we can all live without heels in our lives) I had some real qualms about throwing it out since the other sock was fine. Then again, on cold nights, I don't care if my socks don't match--one wool sock is as good as the next. Then again, I wasn't about to just toss all my work away--and that was the rub. I adore my hand knit socks, and I labor and labor to get them done, so I couldn't bring myself to pull the life support on this barely breathing sock.

No, it was time to do some good ol' fashioned fixin'. And yesterday afternoon I did just that.

I got out what I figured I would need: a yarn needle, the dpns I used to knit the sock, scissors and the leftover yarn. Now see, there is a reason to keep all those bits of sock yarn. Now it isn't like I haven't darned socks before. When I was a poor college student, I darned and patched just about everything I had and had a small side business repairing jeans. I remember my mom and my grandmother darning my dad's thick hand knit hunting socks, so operating on my poor Duckie couldn't be too hard.

I sort of examined the patient again, and slid one of my dpns into the first row that appeared to be entirely whole and intact.

then snipped back the really fuzzy stuff until I got to solid stitches I'd captured with the dpn. Then I did that all the way around. I went very slowly because I didn't want the entire thing to unravel, but having been worn a bit and the insides were all feltly, the stitches held together rather well.

Then I knit a round just to make sure all the sides were now solid, new stitches. Then knitting only on the sole stitches, I knit up a new heel, making a triangle out of the sole stitches. I'd decrease 1 stitch on both sides every other row, until I had about 5 sole stitches left.

Then I grafted the remaining 5 sole stitches to the 5 center back leg stitches, and then sort of grafted the knit edges of the new heel to the remaining live leg stitches, using an improvised Kitchener stitch. And voila, my Duckies, they live to quack another day.

I am disappointed in this yarn, (Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merino) because the insides are felting to pieces, and they are wearing out so quickly, so I don't think I'll knock myself out to knit socks with it again.

In comparison, here is the first pair of socks I knit nearly eight years ago, and they too finally had the heel start to wear out. After eight years, not just a few months. Goodness, where did I put that leftover yarn . . .

Do you repair your hand knit socks?

The Pitter Patter of . . .

2009-01-15T16:08:00.000-08:00

FOs falling off my needles. What a happy sound. Especially since I have way too many projects on the needles. Ever since SCCD (Stash Come Clean Day), I've been concentrating on finishing, hoping to use this month to clear the decks of lots of UFOs, and then be able to go to Madrona with a clean slate ready for inspiration.

One of the first to fall were these Men's Fingerless Gloves, a KnitPicks pattern that I've done before for gifting. These were a last minute Christmas gift, as during Christmas dinner a friend leaned over and said, "Hey, would you knit me a pair of those?"

Sure, it's not like I don't have some extra yarn lying around. Out came the Mission Falls 1824 Wool I had leftover from some of last year's Christmas knitting. See, stash does come in handy.

But then I remembered why I don't like this pattern. The fingers are fussy to knit, and the mitt itself sort of pouches out above the cuff. I really had to force myself last weekend to sit down and knit the fingers. Okay, self, do two fingers and then you can knit something fun. This is not how knitting is supposed to be. But finally they fell off the needles, the ends were tucked in and it was gifted and out the door. Good riddance.

With the snowfall and disruption to the holidays, I also had time to knit up a pair of Fetchings for the kids' circus teacher. Yes, I send my kids to circus school. So when I tell them they can run away to the circus, I actually drive them there. But she's been so kind to Matthew that I wanted to do something special for her, so back into the stash and I dug up some Lion Brand Cashmere. It's a nice sub for Debbie Bliss.

I've made so many pairs of these fingerless mitts, that I have my own version of the pattern. I always add one more cable repeat to the wrist to make it longer, and then after I do the waste yarn for the thumb stitches, I reduce out the 4 knit stitches and a purl stitch right above the thumb over the course of the next 5 rows. It tightens up the portion around the fingers that if you don't reduce, on other pairs I've knit, gets way too loose.

But for every couple FOs, a girl's got to cast on something new. And to continue this theme of mitts and gloves and mittens, I did just that, starting up a pair of Postwar Mittens, from the Twist Collective. I've been eyeing the completed ones on Ravelry and just love this pattern and the endless possibilities. Pretty, huh?

And best of all? No fingers.

What have you cast on lately?

Loafer Love

2009-01-13T18:58:00.000-08:00

I mean who could resist those cute little fluffy things?

I've turned into Tiennie Knits over these Malabrigo Loafers from Coco Knits. (BTW--did you see the shout-out Tiennie got in the Knit.1 Mag? Very cool!) But I've definitely caught her multiple fever as I've made 3 pairs of loafers in the last few weeks--the Christmas pair for my aunt, a pair for my Mom, and a pair for me. Last time I talked to mom she was packing hers in her suitcase to take to San Diego, I'm not sure if my aunt has taken hers off since Christmas, and I haven't taken mine off since last weekend because they are cozy, crazy warm.

This pair was made with a pink and rose combination. Mom chose not to have the froufrou decorations--if you knew my mom, you'd nod your head and say "no, of course not." But even without the funny little fluffs, I think they turned out cute.

When I got down to knit mine, I really wanted to use the green with black soles, but I didn't have enough of the black left to do both soles--but then in the process of cleaning out the stash, I found a little bit of leftover Malabrigo from my Axel Mitts and I was off and running. Here I've knit the soles and picked up the stitches with two circs along the edges.

I've churned through nearly 3-4 skeins of Malabrigo, (2 skeins of black, the entire rose skein, and a little over half of both the green and light pink) which makes this a good stash buster project and a great way to use up smaller skeins of other yarns. I'm thinking of making a pair in superwash wool for taking with me when I travel.

This pattern is easy to follow and I've gotten it down to where I can knit a pair in two nights--which makes them a great addition to the gifting repertoire. I score them with a pair of Fetchings if you need a quick gift. Great for getting a jump on Holiday Knitting or becoming She-Ra Queen of the Year Long Gift Along Knitters.

Really, I wasn't alive then

2009-01-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

As I unloaded my stash last weekend and sorted it out. I also came across a pile of patterns from days long past--a sort of "Knitter's History" if you will. I discovered my mom's and grandmothers's favorite patterns, along with my collection that starts in the mid-80s, when I started buying my own patterns because "Ewww! Who wants to knit what their grandmother is knitting?!" As you'll see, times they have a-changed, and then again, not-so-much.

The oldest pattern I found was this one from 1953:

Notice the price? Twenty cents! Then again, welcome to my grandmothers's era of knitting. My maternal grandmother knit voraciously--even knitting dresses and suits out of fingering weight yarn. I know, because I have two of her dresses--which I used to wear when I worked in a law firm, because they are so classic, so eternal, that even though they were knit in the 50s. they still looked contemporary in the late 80s.

Isn't this just so cool? And the patterns aren't that much off from what you'd find on Ravelry today.

Sorted through a huge pile of dittos and photocopies of patterns, clippings from old magazines, old pattern books and newspaper articles, I realized my penchant for downloading patterns was an inheritance from my mother (and grandmothers) who clipped and made notations on the patterns they knit and, like all of us, planned to knit. I stopped on this page my mom clipped from Popular Needlework:

This is probably the late 60s, maybe early 70s, but I want that sweater. Just like it is called, I think this cardigan is still "Another All-Around Classic." Even 40 years later. But as we time travel forward, we hit the time when I shrugged off my Mother's Workbasket Magazine (seen here and looking very quaint and funky now):

And move into the real decade of fashion: the 80s. Coming to you live is a 1983 Patons knitting book. At least here the models all look like an Early Princess Di, but with bigger hair.

But I will say this for the 80s, we also had "Pat's Pointers" in the newspaper, a weekly column that featured questions from knitters. Can you imagine a daily newspaper publishing such a thing today? You see I learned to knit without patterns--I sat as countless girls did, beside my grandmothers and even my great grandmother when I was probably about 7 or 8 and followed what they did. And when I got to the point of knitting with patterns on my own, I had no clue how to read them. Here is one I saved with tips on SSK:

I have a couple of pattern books from the mid-80s that I will spare you the horrors. They feature models with Flock of Seagulls haircuts and are made up like Grace Slick. I shudder to look at them--especially the big shoulders and the modish intarsia. Ewww! Then again, maybe if I hang onto them in 40 years they'll look quaint and fashionable again.

God, I hope not.

Inside the Stash

2009-01-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I jumped in and pulled out all the yarn. I dug it out of my office, from under beds, out of closets and came clean with what I had. My husband says that's the first step. Admitting you have a lot of yarn.

This here on the bed is just the stuff being sorted. There is more, believe me, there is more. My mom came over in the midst of all this chaos and her first response was "Elizabeth, I taught you better. Never drag this all out when your husband is at home." She-who-knows-what-she-speaks-of. Mom quilts. And has the closets of fabric to prove it. And normally she would be right, you shouldn't be flaunting your stash in front of anyone who isn't going to appreciate it or at the very least, be green with envy, but the DH was surprisingly calm about discovering what is really holding the foundation of the house up. Even now, four days later, I am not unconvinced that he might have been swapped out by aliens.

But here was the real shocker. This is my sock yarn. I'm not a huge sock knitter, but apparently I love me some sock yarn. And lots of sock projects with one sock knit and the other languishing. Look at all this up there. This bin is two skeins deep.

I have enough sock yarn here to knit up a pair of socks for every day of the month. And not some puny month like February, but a real meaty month with 31 days, like January or December. Believe me, the all day Cat Bordhi class at Madrona next month could not come soon enough. I hope she ignites my sock knitting mojo. Something has to. That or I am going to be knitting enough Baby Surprise Jackets to clothe a third world country.

And I know the next suggestion: knit mittens out of the sock yarn. That would be helpful if I didn't already have a bucket of "mitten yarn."

But more than just having a lot of yarn, (which I have inherited, thrifted, swapped, bargain hunted, shopped and collected like the proverbial girl who can't say no) I discovered some things I'd forgotten about, some projects that are just hours away from being completed, and some that just darn need to be frogged and the yarn set free. Yes, Elizabeth, step away from the yarn.

So I sorted the yarn as follows: Projects I most want to finish, Mitten yarn, sock yarn, sweater amounts of yarn, yarn for charity knitting, and finally, Good-God-whatever-am-I-going-to-do-with-this-yarn. I've got all the yarn I need for my Madrona classes, so no need to start obsessing that I don't have the right yarn.

I do.

As I sorted, my goals for 2009 became only too clear, other than the obvious two that my husband (who probably hasn't been snatched completely by aliens) is shouting at me from the other room (being 1) no more yarn and 2) Really, no more yarn). But with the sorting came an excitement all over again for these yarns. I collected them for some mad reason and now it is time to give them life. So for 2009, I plan on the following:

1) Christmas knitting all year long - which is doable. As long as everyone wants to get dishcloths and mittens. Oh, and socks. But they'd probably expect a completed pair, wouldn't they?

2) Charity knitting. I want to donate another 12 hats to Warm for Winter next November, so I think I will knit those during my cross-country travels this year. With at least four trips to the East Coast before July, I should be able to get the hats done at 40,000 feet and clear out a lot of Cascade 220 and other leftover wools. Perhaps more of the Basic Twined Hat (see above) by Lisa Ellis or Tiennie's Norwegian Star Earflap Hat.

Best of all, I know these hats go to men and women in my community who have very little and it is a humbling process to knit for them. I saw evidence of this first hand on the news the other day as they were interviewing people in a homeless shelter and they all had hand knit hats on. Every single person. I smiled to myself. There were Sister Tufte's hats being put to work. God bless her for conceiving this project and infusing all us local knitters with the desire to help.

3) Finally, finish the first bin of yarns I sorted out. Which includes using this Mountain Colors Twizzle I bought make a vest out of. Along with two sweaters that are nearly finished, a couple of shawls and scarves and some lonely socks looking for mates. Apparently eHarmony does not match solo socks. Really, after Ravelry, wouldn't a source for the other half of your single socks be a godsend?

What have you resolved for 2009? Have you ever aired your stash?

She loved it!!!

2009-01-05T10:00:00.001-08:00

With all the snow that came down on Christmas Day, my mom and brother and his family couldn't make it to our house for Christmas dinner. So we put it all off for a week and had Christmas on New Year's Eve.

I was so excited about the Clapotis I had made for my mother, (Ravel linked) that I was a little disappointed at having to wait (well, heck I'd had it finished and blocked a week before Christmas!) but it was well worth it. She wrapped it around her shoulders and didn't take it off all evening, declaring it "perfect and gorgeous" as only a mother can. Christmas knitting accomplished!

Now I want to make one for myself. But I am going to hold off buying anything for a bit. You see, I spent last Saturday pulling out every skein of yarn I own. But more on that in my next post. Which should be called, "Treasure Untroved."

How did your Christmas knitting fare?

Loafers for Winter Loafing

2008-12-30T07:10:00.001-08:00

I made these Malabrigo Loafers (Ravel link) up the weekend before Christmas to gift to my Aunt Susie, who is currently buried in record setting levels of snow in Couer d'Alene, Idaho. When you get 30 inches of snow in one day, you need a good pair of loafers, 'cause you aren't going anywhere.

I had seen a number of these on Ravelry and purchased the pattern from Coco Knits right away because I had the Malabrigo in my stash. Not that such a notion stopped me from purchasing more while I was at A Good Yarn Shop at the beginning of the month. I had a feeling I was going to like the pattern and besides, when January 5th hits, and I have to sit down and get back to writing like a madwoman, I'll be happy to have a pair sitting on my feet--I swear the space under my desk is part Frigidare.

I knit both soles on straights first.

Then got out the circs and picked up the stitches around the edge:

And then worked the 12 or so rows to make up the uppers. She uses decreases and multiple short rows over a single row to build the front part of the uppers. I don't mind short rows in the least having gotten over that intimidation while knitting the Drops Baby Jacket. (Ravel linked). The trick to short rows is to remember to pick up the wrap and knit it together with the stitch it is wrapped around--that and remember what row you are on!

Before you know it, you have a slipper. Really, there is only about 12 rows to make the uppers and these are so easy and fast and, most importantly, cute. I did block them a little using a rolled up hand towel, a press cloth and a steam iron.

I finished them in the Penny Loafer style without the slot for pennies. When I read that these were a fast knit, I took the other knitters' claims on faith, having saved them for my last weekend of holiday knitting and believe me, they are a true quick knit, sort of Fetchings for the feet. So much so, I think this coming weekend I am going to knit up a pair for myself. Happily, I enough in my stash to make at least two more pairs.

What have you fallen in love with knitting in 2008?

Early Christmas Present

2008-12-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

I blogged on my writing blog a few months ago about how lucky I am at winning contests, but what I didn't admit was that I had never won a blog contest, which given my luck in regards to other kinds of contests was sort of puzzling. Come on, you are talking to the woman who was thrilled to win the drawing for Elephant Poop yet I can't win a single blog contest.

But my unlucky blog contest streak is over and I finally found my blog contest mojo over at the Melanie Falick and STC Craft blog. So what was my prize? I got to select an STC book, which I have several, like Handknit Holidays
and Weekend Knitting, which I love. But this is the one I've always wanted:

Which has one of my favorite patterns in it, The Luxe Neck Warmer, (Ravelry) which I have made several over the years for Christmas gifts.

And this sweater, which I've always wanted to make:

Thank you so much, Melanie and company!! I couldn't be more thrilled.

Christmas Clapotis

2008-12-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

I am on the home stretch of getting the Clapotis done for my mom's Christmas present. I've been on a strict schedule of getting two repeats done a day to make my way quickly through the middle section. I can see where people could get bogged down in the middle of this, but I find it really easy to knit and the pattern is such that it isn't too boring.

Yesterday there was a prediction for a huge snow storm to hit Seattle, and all the schools panicked and canceled school. Now in their defense, there was snow, but it went north and south of Seattle--God bless the Olympic Mountains to the west of us. They tend to take the brunt for us metro folks and divide a bad weather system right in half. So instead of wasting a day, the kids and I went Christmas shopping and out to see Santa. Now to take an autistic child to the mall is right up there with bungee jumping without the harness buckled. But Matthew was so excited to see Santa, that he went in his room and got his best shirt, vest and pants on, without even being told to do so. This is a child who NEVER wears a buttoned shirt, but for Santa he was a perfect angel, until he saw the line of children waiting ahead of us, and I could see in his eyes how hard it would be for him to stand in that line and wait.

Then a Christmas miracle happened. One of Santa's helpers noticed us---because we'd been by several times, and asked why we weren't getting in line. And I quietly explained how the line would be too hard for Matthew, but it was okay as long as he could look at Santa from the sidelines. Well, the elf wasn't happy about that and took us to the head of the line and let us cut. No one complained and everyone understood and it was such a wonderful gift.

We left the mall, the three of us, all smiling and happy, shopping for Daddy all done and the world a little brighter.

Well, today we finally got the snow that was predicted for yesterday, no mountains could stop this, and we are all home for another snow day, and it is peaceful and beautiful and time for me to get back at my Clapotis.

'Tis the Season

2008-12-11T10:03:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to sit down and blog for days, but this time of year life gets really nutty. I've been baking like a madwoman, because then I can shove it all in the freezer and have it ready for the marathon that is Christmas Eve and Christmas around our house. House guests, family, friends, a steady stream through our door and I like to have a big bowl of punch and plates of cookies at the ready.

I've also gone into my twice annual social whirl (the Romance Writer's conference being my other tug out into the world) and the Christmas season started early with an invite to Debbie Macomber's annual Christmas knitting tea.

I really look forward to this every year because of the chance to see what all the other knitters in her neighborhood have been working on over the last year. It takes a bit of arranging to go--getting hubby to cover the afternoon kid pick up and all, a ferry ride across the sound (which is just a treat, even to a Seattle native like me) and then the drive through the country, that is just across Puget Sound. Really picks up the spirit!

But this year had the added bonus--I went over early so I could go to the yarn shop Debbie has opened with several partners, A Good Yarn Shop in Port Orchard, Wa.

Close your eyes. Now imagine a shop where you could have all your favorite yarns in stock. Yeah, you've got it. I've been really good about NOT buying yarn. Let's just say I fell a bit off the wagon. Okay, I sort of nosedived off the wagon. But oh, gracious heavens, the yarn I got!

As I told Debbie, "I just signed over my last advance to you." Debbie laughed, my husband wasn't as amused. Ah, men, if they only understood! And besides, they are mostly for Christmas presents, which I am frantically knitting.

But even better, I met Lisa Ellis, of Lisa Ellis Designs. She is one of the partners, and was sitting at the work table sewing up the most to-die-for Christmas sweater. I mean, it was gorgeous. And Lisa--what a fun person. Do you ever meet someone and think, "wow, she's my sort of people."

Then I fell in love with one of her designs. Now I am always on the lookout for new hats to knit, because I love knitting hats, and she has this pattern for a Basic Twined Hat, (Ravel linked) that when I saw the sample, I knew I had to try it. But it is done using the Swedish two end knitting technique, or twined knitting, or if you want to get really fancy, Tvåändsstickning.

Now my Swedish is limited to perhaps a trip to Ikea, so I sort of imposed on Lisa to teach me in a couple of minutes of how do twined knitting.

And I have to say, while it is a bit slower, it is really cool. The finished fabric that it makes is fascinating, and Lisa picked the perfect yarn in using the Crystal Palace Taos. Though I will say that yarn, because of the twisting and unwinding you have to do, did get a little breaky at times, but it spit spliced right back together, so I wasn't too worked up over it.

So over the last few days, I've knit two these two twined hats for my nieces. I am having a really hard time resigning myself to giving up the blue one. I have to say that it is the prettiest hat I have ever knit.

My model here was a bit wiggly, hence the less than perfect picture, but oh, how yummy and pretty this hat is. Now on to two more Turn a Squares, a pair of Malabrigo Loafers and finish Mom's Clapotis. Before the 24th. A Christmas miracle, indeed!

What are you knitting for Christmas? I'm always looking for suggestions for next year.

It Was!

2008-12-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

As I said before, I stressed about being without enough projects for a five day trip. I'm not the only one who does this--the Yarn Harlot posted recently about stressing about having enough for her knit night--in a yarn shop. It was comforting to know that my turmoil and issues are shared by others.

I did make a good jump into my Christmas knitting, casting on a Ballband Dishcloth on the car ride down. It was pouring rain, the freeway was hectic and my husband's driving tends to make me nervous. So I cast on, cast up a prayer and just knit. And lucky or not, he missed the exit and we had to drive five miles down the highway to get turned around, then got trapped by a train for a half an hour (no, honey, you can't beat that train), then road construction on Hwy 30 outside of Clatskanie had us stuck for another 45 minutes. So I got a dishcloth done on the way down to Seaside.

I'm sort of amused as to how the colors pooled, and have a second one cast on that I hope will be a little less looking like a red state - green state dishcloth, and a little more like it's been mixed with Christmas Cheer.

After I finished the discloth, or what I should probably call "A Christmas Divided", I cast on and finished Jared Flood's Turn A Square Hat (Ravelry linked) for my son. I had intended to save it for Christmas, but when it was finished, I wanted to try it on him, and he loved it so much, I let him keep it. It hasn't been off his head since. This picture is already dated, as the braces came off this week.

But I do love how the Plymouth Boku yarn changes with the stripes, and how it blended so nicely with this skein of Cascade 220 I found tucked away in the stash. I've come to think that found yarn in the stash is right up there with finding spare change in the cushions.

Now with that said, having knit this hat and knit it for a kid, I would recommend starting the decreases around 4 1/2 inches or even 4 rather than at 5. The hat is a little big for Nick, but as he says, "I'll grow into it." And he probably will.

I plan on knitting two, maybe three more of these before Christmas--all for the nephews which I have in spades (6 at last count). They only take about two evenings to knit, and it is fun to watch the colors shift. I found online a black and gray colorway in the Boku, so I am on the hunt for it locally, because I think it would make a really killer man hat.

Finally, in between a dishcloth, a hat, a mitten (the other is still not cast on), I also began a Clapotis for my mother. So far I am through the first two sections and diving into the long stretch of the third, but I love the pattern and find myself knitting anxiously to the point where I get to drop a stitch.

Isn't this Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb absolutely gorgeous? This is one of those projects that you knit wondering why you want to give it away because it is so soft, and gorgeous. But it is a good excuse to buy more yarn and make one for myself.

But is it Enough??!!

2008-11-23T15:56:00.000-08:00

That's always the dilemma I face as I prepare to go away. How do I know if I have enough knitting with me, because horrors of all horrors, what if I run out???

Now me running out of knitting is about as likely to happen as it is the kids will remain in good spirits the entire car ride and not ask once "are we there yet?" But still I fret about this more than I probably should. Once I get a trip on the calendar, I immediately start to consider what project(s) will be coming along. I also have to balance how much room I have for extras. Oh, heck, who am I kidding? There is always room for my knitting,

right alongside the book or two I always tuck into my packing. Skip the emergency kit as long as I have a good book (or three) and a great project (or five), I'm good. Though here I am with some great knitting and a Georgette Heyer I've never read (Faro's Daughter)--this could present some problems. I'll have to learn to read and knit at the same time.

But back to that "what should I take with me" question. I do give this lots of consideration. I know better than to try and haul a sweater along, but then I get antsy that I will burn through a bunch of small projects and be stranded. As if. I never go anywhere without bringing along a Mapquest printout to the nearest LYS. I suppose that does confirm it, I am completely neurotic.

But there it is. Five days away from my stash. I had to be prepared. Sort of like mapping out the Thanksgiving cooking schedule. Over the last few weeks, I've been tucking the yarn and patterns into my travel bag, and today I went through and double-checked it all, reading over my patterns to make sure I also have all the necessary needles and tools. I went with a theme--Christmas knitting. Sort of my own Christmas knitting boot camp. Such as Jared Flood's Turn A Square Hat

for the oldest hero and the DH. I hope there is also enough of this wonderful Cascade 220 for mittens for Nick. Should be. I swear sometimes it is nearly impossible to get to the end of a skein of 220, but I'll give it my best shot.

I've also got the Clapotis for my mom, more mittens for Matthew (who is gradually learning to wear them), Christmas dishcloths (truly emergency knitting) and my current socks, 'cause it would just be wrong to leave the house without them.

Now I just have to keep my fingers this will be enough. (Of course it is, but I can't help but worry.)

So what would you pack if you had five days to do nothing but sit around, eat, read and knit?

Ah, Good Intentions

2008-11-21T13:50:00.000-08:00

You see, I had all these good intentions to knit from the Bucket List and stick with it. And for the most part I sort of have been. Wow, is that a terrible oxy moron. But with it being November, I always intended to knit a new sweater this month. I love a new winter sweater--something warm and cozy that I can toss on when my office gets cold.

So I started the Vine Lace Cardigan with yarn from the stash (see all the good intentions there: knit from the stash, knit from the list, keep your eyes on completing things.) In the midst of all these good intentions, I actually made some great progress on it--getting the yoke done, the sleeves knit and making the join up.

Then I went to the Holiday sale at my son's school and discovered that one of the other mothers dyes yarns. Sarah Brown Design. Which is sort of ironic, because I have a character in my books by the same name. I couldn't figure out if it was Fate tempting me or taunting me. Gads, why not just put a plate of fudge in front of my keyboard.

So I fell off the wagon and bought two skeins (one in this colorway and another in a great boyish mix called "Ultra Hulk." Then my cold feet overtook my desire for a new sweater and I immediately cast on a pair with this lovely colorway, Honeysuckle. I knew I wanted a fast pair of simple toe-up socks. Besides, I can't look at this color way and not feel happy.

So taking hints from Tiennie of Tiennie Knits and Big Sister Nicole over at Stash & Burn, I knit the first sock up to the heel, and then cast on the second one and am in the process of getting it up to the heel. Hopefully by knitting them in tandem, I will avoid the dreaded second sock syndrome.

I also used Judi Becker's Magic Cast-on, as demonstrated by Cat Bordhi. I LOVE learning new cast-ons, and this one is a dream and so very easy. And Cat is a hoot to listen to. I took a class from her years ago, and got into her all day class at Madrona this coming February. So I am just whetting my appetite with a little pre-Madrona sock love.

But now the sweater is calling to me again, and I so wanted to get it finished by the end of the month. With only a week to go, plus Thanksgiving in there, I seriously doubt that is going to happen, but I am going to put in a good effort this weekend and see how far down the body I can go.

My feet will still be cold, but they have some very happy socks coming. I promise.

FO Mitts

2008-11-16T07:32:00.000-08:00

Since I've been digging through my stash of late, I've found various FOs in various states of abandonment. One of those, I couldn't resist finishing this week, if only because the weather keeps getting nippier and nippier, and eventually my Fetchings won't be enough to keep my fingers warm as we walk to school in the morning, hence the very essential need to finish my Axel Mitts.

No one could blame me for setting aside my NaNoSweMo Vine Lace Cardigan for a few days to finish them--I knew I couldn't. I'd been digging through my stash like a rag picker, looking for my Malabrigo (kinda hard to find when you only have two skeins of Malabrigo) because I've become obsessed with the Malabrigo Loafters. I love having something warm and woolly on my feet during the day and these just look like heaven if you stalk the Ravelry page like I do. So one morning, I couldn't stand it any longer (okay, my feet were cold) and a stash diving I went.

And found the Malabrigo under one finished Axel Mitt and the rest of the skein connected to one half knit mitt. I was all gung ho to frog them both until I slid my hand into the finished one. Ooooh. Way to warm and cozy. No January wind off the Sound is going through those babies. So I decided to finish the second one--and discovered why I stopped--the stitch count was all wonky.

Note to self: when you set aside a knitting project in disgust, pin a little note to it for later. Something like: BooBoo-Head, you messed up the stitch count. Or maybe, Don't even try, for the love of God, just frog this *&(%$ thing.

So I frogged the second one and recast on and in about two nights had a second finished mitt. Now here's the thing--why didn't I do that last February when I originally cast these on? I can't remember why, and I suppose it doesn't matter now.

Oh, BTW, these would make a great, quick Christmas present for just about anyone--well unless they live in, say, Phoenix. Add a purl stitch to either side of the front pattern, and then an extra stitch or two in the palm and they would easily fit a man's hand.

What have you got unfinished that is nagging at you? Or better yet, have you found something recently that you thought you should finish?

Third Times The Charm

2008-11-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

This is my 3rd round with knitting Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket, which can be found in her book, The Opinionated Knitter or in a download from Ravelry.

The first time I knit this, I didn't quite believe it would work.
"You knit it flat??" Imagine me turning a skank eye on the pattern in utter disbelief. And sadly, yes, I do talk to myself like this.
"And then do some origami and it turns into a sweater?" Shake head.
"Okey Dokey." Get the yarn and needles out.

You cast in a sort of blind faith that is will all work and just follow the directions exactly as they are written. Until all of a sudden you can start folding it and you get a tantalizing peek as to how it works.

Then you can't knit fast enough and suddenly it is time to do the bind off. This time I did an i-cord finish, which I'd never done before and I'm convinced now is the best way to finish this jacket--leaving the edges smooth and, well, finished.

Then came a trip to the store for buttons. I wanted ones that would pick up the bits of purple in the color and just pop off the jacket and say, "Hey, you might not be able to tell just yet, but I am a boy." And happily I found exactly what I wanted.

And ta-da you have a beautiful, washable, (thanks STR!) made-with-love baby present.

Particulars:
Needles: Knitpicks Options Size 4
Yarn: Socks that Rock, Medium weight
Color: Algea
Buttons: The racks at JoAnne's
Knit For: Jamie's Baby

Have you ever knit one of these? What yarn did you use?

I "Heart" Fall

2008-11-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

I had planned on starting a Liesl for NaKniSweMo, or perhaps a Cropped Cabled Sweater that I found in a Classic Elite booklet, but as the weather took a decided dip into the realm of chilly, I reordered the List and decided to use the Rowan RYC Soft Tweed I had in my stash for a Vine Lace Top Down Cardigan by the Sweater Babe.

Why this pattern?

1) Topdown. Need I say more?
2) Doesn't it look like the perfect December-March sweater?
3) This yarn is about as soft as they get.

Soft, quick, warm. Oh, yeah, the perfect NaKniSweMo project.

I started swatching yesterday, couldn't get anywhere near gauge, not and get it to look right, so I downsized to a size 10 needle, did some math and cast on until I found the right mix for this ultra soft, very loosely spun yarn. I have no idea how the lace pattern will look, but I did spot another sweater done in this yarn on Ravelry, and it looked just great.

That's the real blessing of Ravelry--you can do some serious investigation into a project before you find yourself mired into a mess. Use everyone else's missteps and knitting expertise to save you from finding yourself in the same swamp. That, and it's a great way to really blow an hour or so of "research surfing."

BTW, the Baby Surprise is done and I will give a full report in my next post. Just got to find the right buttons. Happy Fall Knitting to all and to all a good stitch!

A Rainy Sunday

2008-11-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to this big dark cloud coming across Puget Sound and the rain pounding down on the roof. There was the drip of the eaves as they overflowed, and all I could think about was that it was a perfect day. For staying inside and knitting.

The husband had already announced his plans to go into work for part of the day and the kids and I bid him goodbye and settled in for a very lazy morning. Emphasis on lazy.

Besides, I had a project sitting on the coffee table just waiting for me. I'm knitting my third Baby Surprise Jacket and each time I make one, I continue to marvel at the sheer, unbelievable brilliance of Elizabeth Zimmerman. The first time I knit a BSJ, it took forever, because I didn't quite trust such simple instructions, but now, with my third one, I just happily knit along, and following the directions in the contented knowledge that my odd collections of garter stitch rows, with their decreases and increases, will all of sudden go from this:

To something (with a little magic origami) that starts to look like a baby sweater:

I think I spend more time fiddling with it and admiring it than I do settling in and knitting it. LOL. What happy knitting and a perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday morning.

A Little Sidetracked

2008-10-30T06:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am back on the bucket list as of last night, casting on my third Baby Surprise Jacket, but I got a little side-tracked trying to finish my last hat for Warm for Winter. And ended up knitting four more hats. So that might be considered a lot side-tracked, but after digging around in the stash, I found yet another skein of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky, and since I was on a roll . . . well, I decided to keep knitting hats.

I have two places to lay the blame (other than my own compulsive "see yarn, knit yarn" tendencies): Ravelry and Stash and Burn. Ravelry for the obvious reasons. But Stash and Burn for Episode 61: Single Skein September -- Nicole and Jenny gave me way too many ideas, and then I just couldn't quit knitting hats until the yarn was gone. If you are looking for hat ideas and ways to burn up single skeins, it is a great episode.

However the hats I found on their podcast and the hats I ended up making are different, due to Ravelry's incredible search engine. Search using the filters and you can sift your way through all kinds of parameters to find the perfect pattern for the yarn in hand. Take this hat, The Republic Hat by Nicole Reeves, which is a great way to use up a chunky yarn and makes a great hat. I loved this blue one so much, that I very nearly couldn't give it up. Catholic guilt sort of ate me for a few days, and then I knit another one and then a another one, and finally, I had one for myself without any trace of guilt.

Finally, I got down to the last bit of yarn, and knew I had enough for a baby hat, so it was back to Ravelry and another search, and much to my surprise I came up with this:
The Fetching Inspired Hat, which is designed by my good friend Grace over at Grace Knits A Lot. This is just the cutest hat (my apologies for the sucky picture) but it used up the last of the Lion Brand, and now I am done with Warm for Winter.

I am. I am positive. Quite sure. Especially when I found out that the baby for the Baby Surprise Jacket is due in about two weeks.

Surprise, indeed!

Matthew, Would You Like Some Mittens?

2008-10-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

After years of carting Matthew to special ed classrooms all over the district, this year he is in our home school. The one just up the hill and right around the corner. So finally, after all those miles, we can walk to school. I suppose that happened now because in the greater scheme of things, he's finally reached the point in his development where he can walk to school, safely and without a tantrum. Not something I would have said when he started school a few years ago, but in the last 12 months he's grown so much, and has settled more into our world, that it isn't as much the struggle to go places as it used to be.

Now that October is waning and winter is coming, the weather has a real nip in the air when we make our trek each morning. And the other day, as we both chugged our way up the hill to school, he slipped his small hand into mine and gave it a squeeze and, small miracle, held on. Let me explain, most autistic children don't hold hands, don't like to be touched, but here was Matthew, clinging to my fingers and smiling up at me.

So Mommy the knitter said, "Matthew, are your fingers cold?"
"Yes."
"Would you like a pair of mittens?"
"Yes."
"What color?"
"Red."

That, folks, is a conversation, another little miracle that wouldn't have happened a year ago. So when we got home that afternoon, we picked out a mittens pattern (Later Gator Mitts on Ravelry and from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation
), agreed they could be both red and green, and I knit them up. Along with a scarf he also requested. Of course, I know the whole time I am knitting these things, he will never wear them. But he was happy that I was knitting them for him, and I'm just happy to be able to walk to school and have a little conversation every once in a while.

BTW, this is big brother modeling, because of course, Matthew won't wear mittens. But he has a pair now, just in case he's in the mood for another little miracle.

The Bucket List

2008-10-20T14:27:00.000-07:00

So I had one of those sort of moments (well, probably like a sleepless hour or so) where you realize that the accumulation of yarn has outstripped the output, not only that, but that you have an embarassment of riches going on. A sort of AIG of yarn accumulation. So rather than seek a government bailout, I have put a moratorium on purchasing. No more cruising the Ravelry destash forum, no more eBay, no more shopping online. I even canceled the day I had planned on going on a mini-yarn crawl to look for what else, more yarn. Can't. Do. It.

So this morning, on a dismal Monday here in Seattle, I cleaned out, sorted and came up with my own sort of Knitting Bucket List. A finish it before I die list. In addition to that, a no more new projects until the previous one is finished kind of philosophy. The problem is that I'm not finishing projects, let alone even getting to the ones I kept adding to the stash, so I came up with a few rules:

1) No more than three projects on the needles at a time.
2) Keep a Bucket List of what I have in my knitting queue.
3) No yarn purchases. None.

In essence, knit from the stash, baby.

After sorting through all the patterns I've got printed out and piled up, knitting books, booklets and magazines, and the various projects I've got all over the living room, bedroom, my office and downstairs, I came up with my Bucket List of future projects using my Hello Kitty notebook (not because I'm a Hello Kitty fanatic, but because obviously I don't throw anything out) that I keep in my knitting basket for gauge notes and such. Here are the immediate projects:

1) Matthew's Scarf

This is the green and red scarf Matthew asked me to knit. I'll tell more about this when I finish it and can get a pic of him modeling it.

2) Warm for Winter Hats

I promised myself to knit at least six hats for them, and I made that with this blue hat here done in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky, but what I hadn't counted on was having enough left from the skein to do another hat. Instead of just stashing half a skein, I am going to knit one more hat--since it takes about two nights to do one--and then I won't have to put this yarn back into the stash and one more head will be warmed.

3) The Simple Yet Effective Shawl

I don't have a photo of this, but the picture on Cosmicpluto's blog gives you a good idea of what this is. I have more sock yarn than I can shake a stick at, so I cast one of these on the other day thinking it would make a nice Christmas present. Darn it if this isn't a great take-along project, and there is no second-shawl syndrome when you only need one shawl and not a second one. :)

That's my first part of the list--the projects that are allowed out and in the knitting basket and nothing can make its way onto the needles or out of the stash until one of these is finished.

The rest of the list looks like this-all Ravel-linked:

4) A Baby Surprise Jacket out of the Socks that Rocks I've got up at the top of this post. The kids' old babysitter is due in November, so it is time to get it whipped out for the new little nipper. BTW, she'll make a great mother.

5) An afghan. I discovered a poncho I knit out of Wool Ease Thick & Quick that I never finished. Yeah, a poncho. Remember when everyone was knitting those? That tells you how old that sucker is. So the yarn is being re-purposed.

6) Sweater for me. I have this Classic Elite pattern book with this comfortable looking sweater using Duchess yarn. I don't have Duchess yarn, but I have something else that will work. Knit. From. The. Stash. Treasure hunting from the comfort of your own home.

7) A 2nd Simple Yet Effective Shawl. To get ahead on the gift giving.

8) A Clapotis. Yes, I am the last person on earth to knit one.

9) Thrummed Socks.

10) Dad's Socks out of Mariner's yarn.

Here's the sad truth. I can knit all this without having to buy a single skein.

So now that I've come up with my Bucket List, what is yours?

Finished the Hats

2008-10-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

I did it! Knit up six hats in the last four weeks for Warm for Winter. I completely ran out of the brown for the third A Very Warm Hat, and ended up nearly using all the gold. I have just about cleaned out my stash of leftover Cascade 220 between Pipp's Purses Felted Doctor's Bag and these six hats.

I know, I know there are only five hats in the photo. Missing is the Chunky Cabled Beanie by Stitch Cafe that I whipped out the other night. Of course, I found it on Ravelry after doing some searching for cable AND hat. Got to love Casey's Search Engine skills. In no time, I found this fast, easy pattern. In going with use-up-the-stash-leftovers objective that was this project, I dug out a skein of Lion Brand Chunky Wool-Ease that I had leftover from some old Christmas knitting. It worked perfectly and I have enough left to make one more, which I will do this week during my carpool-drag-the-kids-all-over-from-4-to-6 afternoons. And that will put me one over my goal, and use up the rest of that skein. Two great notions.

Now allow me to wax poetic over my love of Lion Brand Chunky Wool-Ease. I had forgotten how much I enjoy knitting it.

Sure there are lots of great yarn out there, expensive yarn, but there are also some really great, relatively inexpensive yarns that do a yeoman's job. The Chunky version of Wool-Ease isn't easy to find, as most of the places that carry Lion Brand tend to overstock, IMHO, the Thick and Quick, which I think is like knitting with nylon rope, but the Chunky is yummy soft and makes great (aka very quick and inexpensive) Christmas presents. I usually end up ordering it online from Jo-Ann's, which I did this week (mulberry) and it was on sale, making it a bargain. I love the cable pattern from the hat, and thought it might make a fun, zip up the front cardigan. Just going to play around with EZ and do my own thing. Sort of nervous about making it up as I go, but then again, I'm not knitting with silk and cashmere here.

What is your favorite sort of bargain yarn?

Little Projects . . . Big Notions

2008-10-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have the idea that I am going to blog once a week and then the weeks sort of fly by. Since I blog twice a week already on my writing blog, coming over here seems to get harder and harder, but I will try to do better.

I suppose it might have to do with the projects I am doing--hats for charity. There really is nothing awe-inspiring about knitting hats, as I've knit so many over the years. But I promised myself I would knit at least 6 hats for the Warm for Winter program and I am nearly there, and in the process using up more of my plethora of Cascade 220 leftovers. This hat above is A Hat Fit for A Boyfriend (Ravel Link). If I made this again, I would probably make it a little bigger, but still an easy pattern, though I messed up the decreases. After this one, I decided to try the Coronet hat, which is a Knitty.com pattern from Winter 2003, which you can see here in all its pink glory.

I have to admit that I did not like making this hat, nor do I like how it turned out. It is just fine as a hat, but personally I don't like it. I know it will look cute on some young girl who needs a warm hat, but not on my head. I also didn't like knitting the band of cable and then picking up stitches around and continuing. I'm being picky, but I just didn't find any joy in knitting this pattern, so it is unique in that I won't be revisiting it. I do like the notion of having that extra band around the ears, which offers some great added warmth, so I decided to knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's A Very Warm Hat. This pattern can be found in her Knitting Around book or The Opinionated Knitter book, and do be warned, turns out to be a really addictive pattern that eats up little half balls of Cascade 220, leaving loads of room in the stash bins.

You knit one hat and then pick up stitches around the edge and knit another. I know, I know, what annoyed me in Coronet thrills me in this pattern. Go figure.

The colorwork portion is a snap to memorize and knit, and makes that nice double warm portion, and when added to the second cap, you have this earmuff effect around your head. 4 layers of woolly warmth. Not even a good icy December Seattle wind is going to get through that.

I finished my second one last night and immediately cast on a third. I think I'll get at least one more out of the brown and gold yarn I have, maybe a second, then I will be up to my half dozen.

As I knit these, I try to imagine the life they have ahead and I worry about the people who will receive them--living on the streets in the dead of winter must be horrific. My hats seem so small, so insignificant in comparison to the greater problems of finding shelter each night and warm meals during the day. I just pray as I knit that they offer comfort and a small hug into a life that might be devoid of even those.

If you have hats you want to donate, visit the Warm for Winter information page, or if you don't live in the Seattle area, and still want to send along a hat, email me (elizbo AT elizabethboyle DOT com) and I'll send you my mailing address. If you get it to me before November 16th, I'll make sure your hat gets in the collection bin.

What charities do you knit for?

This Poor Blog

2008-09-12T13:58:00.000-07:00

I have been neglecting it shamefully. And I have no excuses. But I have just lacked the desire to get up here and yammer on. Lazy. Lazy. Lazy.

I finished the Felted Doctor's Bag (Ravel linked) I started, and felted it, but haven't taken pictures of the finished purse.

Here is Mr. Tater inspecting my knitting. I'll get the felted photos up some time next week, if I get to Value Village and find some handles. I'll cut them off a .99 purse and make this truly a second hand and stashed purse. This is a great pattern as it used up a lot, and I mean a lot, of leftovers. Good for all those little balls of Cascade 220 leftover from hats and mittens and scarves.

I also spotted this skein of Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merino in Lady Slipper on the Ravelry destash group and bought it, and am now turning it into a pair of Duckies. Love the yarn and the pattern by Aquaknits.

Finally, as I was sorting out the rest of my leftovers of Cascade 220, I realized I should be doing more charity knitting. Especially now that winter is coming and the call has been put in the Seattle area for hats and scarves for the homeless, The Warm for Winter Campaign. I knit this last weekend in Seahawks colors and in honor of opening weekend of football knitting season.

This is the Hat Fit for a Boyfriend pattern, and I may or may not knit another one. I'm thinking of doing the Elizabeth Zimmerman hat that is double layers--both to use up yarn and make a hat that will keep someone's head nice and toasty. It does get cold in Seattle, and I used to volunteer at a homeless shelter for older men, and they would come in at night so bitterly cold from a day on the streets. Warm hats sometimes are the matter of life and death. If you would like to knit a hat and send it to me, I'd be more than happy to add it to the bin at my church, just drop me an email at elizbo AT elizabethboyle.com. A stranger who could use a helping hand will thank you right around Thanksgiving and all through the winter.

I LOVE this Sweater

2008-08-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

When I went to the Sartorialist today, imagine my surprise and thrill to see such a pretty hand knit sweater being modeled. At least I think it is hand knit. Just lovely.

Languishing Blog, Red Hot Needles

2008-08-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

I've been knitting like a fiend this summer, having finished not one, but two sweaters. I am astonished. I am so NOT a summer knitter. But this summer the projects have kept me knitting and it hasn't been too hot to knit here in Seattle with the exception of last weekend when it was in 90s and the house was hovering at around 87. And no, I don't have air conditioning. Most folks in Seattle don't.

I've also been completely monogamous all summer. First with the February Lady Sweater, then the Liesl that I knit in five days. I kid you not. Five days. I promise a blog next week about both sweaters which I am already planning on knitting 2nd ones, something I never do.

And lately I've been working on the Flying V Shawl with the yarn I bought at Noe Knits in San Francisco. Don't you love the way my new Knitpicks Options needles look with my shawl. Nothing like coordinated knitting. I'm nearly finished, not that this shot shows it, but had a complete breakdown of control last night and had to start another project.

What was the project that lured me out of my safe and productive one project at a time mindset?

Felted Dr.'s Bag by Pipp's Purses.

You can find finished ones at Ravelry or get your own pattern at Pipp's Etsy site.
Way too cute. And I have tons and tons of little balls of leftover Cascade 220 that need a home in something. Like another purse for Elizabeth.

BTW, if my husband asks, I'm NOT knitting a purse, bag or other hand carried contraption in which to put girl things. Not in the least. It's a sweater. For a clown. Yeah, that's it. It's a clown sweater. He'll believe that.

Why Travel if Not for Yarn

2008-08-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

I was off last week to the Romance Writers of America annual conference in San Francisco, but before I got down to the business of writing and working and meetings, I got the chance to hang with my good friend, Debbie Macomber and go on a yarn crawl she organized.

Okay, you haven't lived until you've gone into a yarn shop with Debbie. It is a riot. There are authors who write about knitting and can barely make a purl and pass themselves off as "knitters", and I won't mention names, but Debbie isn't one of those--she LOVES knitting. She adores yarn. She's a knitter's knitter. A few years ago when we were at a conference, she and I ran over to a local yarn shop and I came home with all these projects that I thought were way over my head and she was so encouraging that I think I knit them purely on her faith.

But along for the ride were Candi Jensen--of crochet fame and producer of the Knit and Crochet Today on PBS, and who was our delightful chauffeur and hostess to her hometown, Renata--Debbie's to-die-for right hand assistant, and fellow authors, Christina Skye and Marie Skinner. Here's the whole pack of us at ImagiKnit. (Moi, Christina, Candi, Debbie and Renata.)

Christina and I knew each other years ago when I lived in Phoenix for a year, but haven't crossed paths since, so it was wonderful to see her again. Of course we had to keep pulling her away from big, thick, heavy yarns, since she still lives in Phoenix, a place that really isn't designed for wearing a lot of wool. And who wouldn't like an author who wears her own hand knit shawl in her author photo! Here's Christina trying to make an anonymous entrance into Noe Knit where we both ended up buying the pattern for Artfibers Symmetrical Flying V Shawl and skeins of Blue Heron Yarns Beaded Rayon to make it.

Now this is the sort of project I would probably walk right past in a shop, and quite frankly, I did. Then it caught Christina's eye and she asked the lady in the shop if she could try the shawl on. And when she did, Wow! What a difference between hanging on an armoire, and hanging around one's neck. The drape and pattern were beautiful and we were both hooked on the project. I hadn't brought any knitting with me, hoping to find the perfect project on our crawl, so when I reached to buy needles, Christina insisted I borrow her Knitpicks Options, especially when I confessed I had never tried them. We all joked over lunch, "you can borrow a book and not return it, borrow a recipe and claim it as your own, but knitting needles--those you must return."

Can I just say these needles are incredible?! Where have I been? By the time I got home, I was online and ordering a set. And yes, Christina, the moment my new set arrives (in 5-7 days) yours will be winging their way back to you.

But back to our crawl. We started at ImagiKnit, which I have heard all about over the years from listening to Jenny and Nicole's podcast, Stash and Burn. The folks in the shop are very helpful, overly nice and when they realized Debbie was in the house, brought out all the stops for us. They also confirmed for me that Nicole is as nice and chatty in person as she is on the air. Met a few other Ravelry folks just shopping and since I was wearing my brand new and completely done February Lady Sweater, I got stopped every few feet. ImagiKnit is an amazing shop with floor to ceiling yarns and in every fiber and color imaginable. If you go to SF, it is a must stop shop.

With all our shopping and gabbing, we only got to the two shops (ImagiKnit and Noe Knit) and didn't make it to our planned stop at Artfibers, but Renata confided in me a few days later that she'd snuck out of the conference and hit it and bought a bunch of yarn, including some to die for silk. But then again, she wasn't the only one to bring home more yarn than books from a writer's conference. I also picked up enough of this, Terra in Cornflower to make another Liesl sweater. (Ravel linked). I knit one last week before I went to conference in like 5 days, so I would love to have another because it is so pretty and so much fun to wear.

One Down

2008-07-09T14:57:00.001-07:00

One sleeve left to knit. Really, really love this pattern. I keep pulling it on and just love how it looks. And it is the sort of sweater that looks great on a variety of body types--which you can't say about a lot of sweaters.

Helps that we are in the middle of watching Season Three of 24. Love me some Jack Bauer, but it can get a little tense, so I have to make sure I'm on the right row of the pattern before I begin each row.

I very surprised at how loyal I've been to this project and how much I am itching to finish it and get started on a Liesl. (Ravel linked here.) Knitting sweaters in the middle of summer? Go figure. Who would have thunk such a thing! Really these designers could be kinder and release these cool patterns in September for those of us without AC.

Just plain dogged determination

2008-06-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

Each posted finished February Lady Sweater over on Ravelry just renews my desire to get this finished. I am nearly done with the body. This is a photo from a few days ago:

And now I am onto the garter stitch around the bottom edge:

I'll finish the body tonight and start picking up the sleeves. I'm not sure if I will do them with dpns or magic loop. But one thing is for certain: They will go faster than the body did! This must be love because I haven't looked at another project since I cast this on. I just can't wait to get it finished, the only thing holding me back is my wrists which have been sore of late because I am also typing between 12-20 pages a day right now, but tomorrow that all comes to an end and I'll have the entire weekend of no typing v. knitting v. sore wrists to balance. Just knitting. At least until the wrists give out. :)

The Calendar Says June, But It's February Around Here

2008-06-22T18:51:00.001-07:00

The February Lady Sweater that is. Have you seen this? Maybe on Ravelry? Have you cast it on yet? Because this is like the Central Park Hoodie craze all over again. I had been looking for a sweater project for like the last three months, and when I spotted this on Ravelry, I was stash diving. Thank goodness there were no children in my path because I would not have been responsible for flattening them in my haste.

So the bag of Berroco Touche that I had stashed is now lovingly (and hopefully with enough yardage) being knit into a February Lady Sweater. I've always thought this Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern would make a great adult sweater, in fact the mom of the last baby I knit the original version for (see here) tried conning me into figuring out how to make her one. All I could think was, "yeah, not before I knit one for myself." Now the very divine and goddess worthy Flint Knits has done all the work.

You don't think that when I finish this one, I'll owe my friend a sweater?

Two Socks and a Stole

2008-06-08T16:27:00.000-07:00

I finished Mom's birthday socks, but I haven't had a chance to gift them on her yet. I'm only posting a picture because she's already seen one of them.

And since I've got those done, I've been working on the Lacy Stole from the Lion Brand Pattern Library. Instead of doing it in cotton, I decided to try Sundara Yarn Aran Silky Merino. The colorway is Basil over Buttercup and it is simply the most gorgeous yarn I've ever knit with. I love the rich colors and the way it just glows. Besides, after listening to everyone rave and rave about her yarn, I had to try it for myself. I think I might be hooked.

Since I have never been all that capable at lace knitting, you might be wondering why I would tackle a project like this. Well, I have to go to a conference at the end of July with lots and lots of formal events and I wanted something to throw over my shoulders that would be different and elegant. So I took a deep breath and decided to try lace. This pattern looked relatively simple and then I read a great suggestion by someone on Ravelry about knitting lace repeats: mark each repeat with stitch markers.

Well, duh! Why hadn't I thought of that before? Sometimes the most obvious solution just flies over my head. So these markers are making this very simple to knit. I haven't memorized the pattern repeats yet, but I feel pretty comfortable with them and have had only one missing stitch--which was easily fixed. The reward of getting out of one's comfort zone I suppose.

What have you tried lately that was out of your comfort zone?

No, My Feet Aren't That Long

2008-05-24T06:22:00.001-07:00

My goodness this photo makes this sock look like it was knit for an octopus. Actually it was knit for my mother, who has very narrow feet. But isn't this yarn divine?! It is "Original" Duet Sock Yarn (dk weight) from A Swell Yarn Shop. Actually, I picked it up at Renaissance Yarns during last weekend's Destination Yarn Tour, that encompassed 24 yarn shops in the Greater Seattle area. I got to three--but I think I scored just fine with this yarn, which knit like a dream, didn't pool at at all (like the World's Ugliest Socks) and is so yummy soft. I love the fact that it comes with coordinating heel and toe yarn.

I can't believe I've let this blog slip so badly, but I blame the work. I am on a really tight deadline in my writing schedule, (the book is due August 1) and so I am spending all my time in front of the computer writing and working--go figure. Unfortunately, this blog is on the bottom of the priority list when it comes to typing extras, since after doing 35-45 pages a week, my wrists get a little sore. But thank my little early bird for rousing me awake this Saturday morning and giving me a little extra time to write something, anything about my knitting and not about Lady Gossett and her pirate lover--which granted is turning out to be a whole lot of fun--and even though I LOVE being a writer, it is still a job. I do keep up my writing blog, so if you want to look into my alter-ego life, as Elizabeth Boyle, Romance Author, drop by.

And for some reason, my knitting (unlike my writing) keeps getting stalled. Maybe I can only be creative in one direction at a time. I started a vest in some Mountain Colors I picked up like a year ago, but it came out way too big, so I frogged it. I've got two lacy sort of projects on the needles. Yes, me and lace. I keep trying. But they are the sort of things I slog along when I feel like I have the energy and patience.

I did venture into a little sewing project recently and made a couple of bags for sock projects. I saw a cute little cube bag on Etsy and now for the life of me can't find the link, but I thought they would be easy to make. And after consulting with She-Who-Sews-All, aka my mom, I came up with a pattern and made three in like no time.

I sent the turquoise ones to Jenny & Nicole of Stash and Burn as thank you gifts. I love their podcasts and those two have kept me laughing and entertained through hours and hours of Matthew's therapy appointments. For years, I have spent between 15-20 hours a week sitting in really boring waiting rooms or in the therapy sessions waiting and knitting. Their podcasts makes the time fly. Now, Matthew is down to only one outside weekly session, (thank goodness with the price of gas these days!) and the rest of his therapy is at home, so I listen to S&B when I go walking. If you haven't listened to them--do!

I'd rather hoped having a bag just perfect for sock knitting would inspire me to knit up my sock yarn, and that seems to be working. Now I just need to find the perfect "lace" bag to get me going in that direction.

Catching Up

2008-05-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

Oh, bad blogger. Really slacking. But let me explain. I took a knitting class a week ago and was going to blog all about it. Then I took the class. And as my grandmother always said, "if you can't say something nice . . . " So that experience just sort of weighed on me all week. Do I just air my dismay all over the internet or just be polite? I'm choosing polite, since I did learn a few things. And I'll just leave it at that.

On the knitting front, I finally finishing slogging my way through miles of garter stitch to finish the Drops Baby Jacket:

It is an ingenuous little piece of knitting--you start at left front band and knit around the body, breaking off and knitting the sleeves and top portion, rejoining and continuing around until you have a complete knit. It was one of those projects that you start and sort of slog around on, and then get a bee in your bonnet to finish and I just kept knitting.

I was also in Portland recently, and got a chance to shop at Knit-Purl, one of my favorite yarn shops. I picked up two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Layette. Isn't this a pretty colorway? I've never knit with their sock yarn before, but couldn't resist casting on a toe-up sock almost immediately. This close up just shows perfectly how pretty it is:

I also fell in love with this "Moss" Pear Tree Australia yarn, which is their Knitting Yarn in a light worsted weight. What I love about it (besides being 100% merino and totally, completely, yummyily soft) are the slightly darker slubby bits mixed with it.

I've been playing with it, swatching it for gauge and various needles and stitches with the idea of doing the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. (Ravelry Linked) and looking at all its incarnations to find one I love. But choosing is proving hard when you see this one or this one with the picot edging. Or this one.

Sometimes the dreaming is just as fun as the knitting.

The World's Ugliest Socks

2008-04-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

Bar None. And just in case you aren't convinced:

Project: My First Toe Ups by Ann Budd, from the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Socks that Rock, Medium Weight, Christmas Rocks colorway
Needles: Size 2 1/2

And despite what my husband says, they do not glow in the dark. Really.

Finishing it all up

2008-04-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

I've read on some other blogs about other knitters making the push to finish up some projects--like this Seaman's Cap for the Christmas at Sea program. I can understand this urge to finish. As spring hits (like it did today in Seattle in a big way) I just don't have the desire to dive into something huge, but I do feel a sort of guilt for all my abandoned projects that have fallen to the wayside because I've developed a crush on something thing to knit.

But happily most UFOs are forgiving, as long as you can remember where you were in a stitch pattern, what needles you were using (I am notorious for pulling needles from projects for something more important but not making a note about what needles I just yanked free) or where you put the rest of the yarn. On the needle front, I've gotten good about tying "needle knots" in the tail of the cast on. 8 knots for a size eight needle and so on. Haven't quite figured out what do about 1/2 sizes, but for the better part of valor a safety pin and a post-it might be a good idea.
Here's an UFO that I've sitting neglected in the knitting basket since Christmas. This is my first pair of toe up socks, using the Interweave Knits (Summer 2007) article by Ann Budd. I had bought this skein of Socks that Rock (I believe the colorway is "Christmas Rocks") in November thinking it would be cool to wear Christmas socks for the holidays. Now I never specified which holiday and it looks like they will be adorning my feet just in time for May Day. Besides, there is too much yellow in this skein for Christmas. Now the colorway has done nothing but pool, they are ugly as sin, but I am determined to finish them because when I put the one completed one on, my toes nearly died and went to heaven.

Their other benefit is that they have taught me a couple of new techniques: A Turkish cast on, short row heels, and toe up simplicity. But here was the rub, I did all that several months ago, and had stopped knitting Sock 2 just before the second heel. And what a heel it turned out to be. After my third rip out, a few tears and the husband's requisite comment: "But I thought you knit to relax . . . ", they very nearly ended their life on the needles.

But like most things that baffle me at 10:00 at night, come the next afternoon, a good latte in front of me and a quiet hour at the kitchen table, I muddle my way through it . And that is what I love about knitting. That no matter how difficult a pattern or a technique looks, if you just sit down and do it one stitch at a time, and don't look ahead and don't let yourself get flustered by reading directions ahead that appear to have been written in some ancient, forgotten tongue, you can do it.

Now where did I put that yarn for those Monkey socks.

Slammed with Busy-ness

2008-04-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

And not enough knitting. I just finished another book, my 14th I think, and with it came just way too much time in front of the computer and not enough knitting. I did take a few hours on my recent trip to Minneapolis to finish A Better Bucket Hat (modeled here by Matthew, because he wasn't opposed to putting on Mom's hat for a pic) and then knit up another Two Hour Handbag, from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders.

Note on the Bucket, I made the hat a lot shorter than the pattern called for, about 2 inches shorter. I ripped it out like three times trying to get it to the right depth, but now it is perfect and it worked great at keeping both the Minneapolis chill and the return to snow here in Seattle hardly noticeable.

I do love a good simple knitting project when I travel. Okay, I love traveling. Can't say the same thing for all the craziness that comes with being a Mom-about-to-abandon-her-helpless-family and having to leave clueless Dad in charge. Oh, he can cook and clean and feed them and get them to bed. It's all the running around with the kids that just puts him over the edge. (Try it the other 360 days, buddy) So to save some angst and household peace, I foisted off one kid on my mother and left the DH with the little man. But still, I had to leave the detailed instructions for the school pick ups, drop offs, lunch menu essentials and backpack essentials. Men just don't speak the language, you know?

So nothing made me happier than breezing through the airport solo and then flopping into my seat with nothing to do but turn on The Tudors on the iPod, and knit away, knowing that no one is going to interrupt you with "Mom! When is Dinner!" or "Mom! Matthew is __________(insert some sort of disaster here and do be creative, because I doubt you can come up with anything Matthew hasn't done.) A couple hours of knitting and watching Henry VIIIth cavort can cure all kinds of ails. Oh, yeah. Mom Heaven. Can I book a seat on this flight every week?

But I've gotten done with this book feeling creatively drained (dark angsty heroes always do that to me) and I just can't get my knitting cojones together to cast on a sweater or some other really challenging project-- something lacy like this or this. So I've come home and settled into easy knitting, one Axel Mitt done, (apologies for the horrid pic) and the other on the needles (note to self: need more Malbrigo--isn't that just a crying shame.) and another Seaman's Cap for Christmas in Winter.

I'm ready for spring and some gardening and some outside time, and nothing more challenging than a dishcloth or two. Which I just happen to have an unfinished one laying around, as well as a skein or so that need to get out of the stash and have a life.

What have you got lying around that you pick up when you just can get that swatching vibe going?

Lenten Promises

2008-03-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

I saw this call for hats early in Lent and made a promise to myself to knit one. So finally this week, I settled in (having realized that it was Holy Week and time was running short) to knit one.

I used up yarn from Nicholas's Weasley Sweater, yarn that would have sat in my stash otherwise. There is something satisfying about using up those type of skeins. And this pattern for a Seaman's Cap makes a nice warm hat that pulls down over the ears. There is something so satisfying about a simple charity hat.

Now on to Easter.

My Winter Doldrums Package Went on a Bender

2008-03-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

So The Winter Doldrums Dishcloth Swap was my first exchange. It was very fun to get to know Cetta and put together a package for her and to have a Secret Partner who mailed such nice notes to me and made my weeks in the swap very enjoyable. Then she sent me an email letting me know the package was on its way, along with the tracking number so I could watch it traverse the country.

Little did we know, the package had a mind of its own. Innocently enough, it left Carrboro, NC and eventually landed in Las Vegas. As you can see that is were the trouble began.

March 05, 2008, 3:19 pm, CARRBORO, NC
March 05, 2008, 7:30 pm, RALEIGH, NC
March 07, 2008, 11:07 pm, LAS VEGAS, NV
March 08, 2008, 1:28 am, LAS VEGAS, NV

And thus began nearly a one week bender in Vegas. Now I know what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but how could I not spend most of the week envisioning my package having a really good run on a craps table and sucking down free drinks. And obviously I wasn't too far off the mark, because this is where the pieces get a little fuzzy. After a week in Vegas, suddenly my package ends up:

March 14, 2008, 9:33 pm, EL PASO, TX

El Paso, Freakin' Texas? Okay, I can imagine that after a week of drinking and gambling in Vegas, taking in the comped room and a few shows, one might be a little off the mark, but El Paso? Now I've driven from Vegas to Seattle, and quite frankly, Texas wasn't anywhere on the itinerary. Someone really needs to suggest to the Post Office that perhaps a more direct route might be through Reno. Or Sacramento. But El Paso? Gads. And have you looked at these pictures. The poor package looks like it got mugged. Twice. That or the Post Office took the "Flate Rate" definition a little too literally and tried to flatten it.

But there is a happy ending to all this. After shaking off the hangover, my package finally saw the other side of the continent.

March 15, 2008, 11:55 pm, FEDERAL WAY, WA
March 17, 2008, 7:12 am, SEATTLE, WA

Hurrah! I could hardly contain myself and keep from opening it up right there in the Post Office. Then again, it appears that the PO somewhere (Vegas? El Paso? Come on, 'fess up) had already opened it. Probably smelled the chocolate . . .

But they didn't get their hands on the really good stuff:

See all the pretty little packages! I was so excited, and the insides were well worth the wait,

All things I love. Notepads, which I always need. Pencils, which as a writer who edits and does a lot of hand writing and notes in pencil, those are always fun and I just hate writing with plain yellow pencils. And the llama! How darned cute is that little guy.

And stitchmarkers. The kind that just make me smile. I always need stitch markers and have envied people with their pretty ones for ages. So now, I'm in the fancy stitch marker club.

Best of all is the Eco yarn which I can't wait to try out, given my current tenuous relationship with wool. And of course, the dishcloth and cool little scrubby, which were placed right to work. Thank you, Cathy, so much!

Bootie Call

2008-03-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Or maybe it should be "Baby Call." Got your attention though. So with the coming of spring seems to also be the arrival of babies, and Matthew's beloved OT is having her first, so I happily started knitting. I picked up two skeins of this lovely Angel Baby DK from The Yarn Stash and started off by knitting my favorite baby sweater pattern, the Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman.

I made one last year for my editor and the sweater became "the one we always reached for." Her words, not mine.

This one, which I knit much more confidently--because despite having complete faith in EZ, there is a flicker of doubt that runs through your mind when you read her instructions and have that "huh?!" moment. I knew it actually works as long as you faithfully keep track of your stitch count and your decrease/increase points. I only frogged back once.

This Angel Baby yarn knit up perfectly at 6 stitches to an inch on Size 3 circs and is perfectly baby soft. I think white is a great color for baby stuff because most of the time the spit up barely shows. And the yarn is machine washable, which makes it very mom friendly, or rather, spit up friendly.

The best part was having enough leftover to knit a pair of Mary Jane Baby Booties. Believe it or not, these are my first pair of booties. I was "oohing" and "ahhing" the whole time I was knitting these, which was like 2 hours total, and wishing I had another little one. But of course, an entire night of sleeping without interruption snapped me out of that foolishness.

I think the new arrival will look pretty as a picture and boy will we all miss "Kris Bounce" as she is known around our house, now that she's off to the joys of motherhood. Kris, thank you for all you done for Matthew.

If At First . . .

2008-03-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

I tried and tried to start an Elizabeth Zimmerman February Baby Sweater over the past week or so and utterly failed. It isn't like I haven't made one before--I made one last summer for the newest edition to the family. I've even got proof here. You might have noticed that the picture above is not the February Baby Sweater. Let me explain the bait and switch. Or as I call it "If I have to Frog this %$#@ Sweater one more time."

For some reason, I couldn't get the February sweater to work to save my life. First I knit the garter section for way too far. Frogged it back. Then messed up the lace portion. Frogged that back. Messed it up again. Frog some more, add swearing this time. Quite honestly, when you start swearing at a baby present, you really need to put it down. You're putting the wrong sort of mojo into it.

So finally I just frogged the whole darn thing and tossed the yarn back in the stash. Instead, I cast on the Drops Baby Jacket with some KnitPicks DK Swish I had bought to make the Peapod sweater. Of course, my gauge is off by mile, but I don't care that it is turning out to be way too big. Here's the cool part of knitting for babies. They get bigger. And eventually, voila, the sweater fits. And I love how you knit it around the body, starting at one front and making a lap around. And the short row shaping keeps the garter from becoming too boring.

And happily, the mojo is right on.

Finding Spring

2008-02-22T11:26:00.001-08:00

Isn't the is most wonderful colorway you've ever seen? It makes me think of a bucket of tulips at the the Farmer's Market. Or Berry Sherbet. Or Fruit Punch. Or a bunch of other colorful, happy things.

I had an entire skein of this Sugar 'N Cream and went wild with it. Knitting that dishcloth up above (a modified version of the Mason Dixon Burp Cloth) and this one, a modified type of Ballband dishcloth from Thrifty Knitter using up that fun green I had leftover:

I love it with this old Haviland Cake plate. And here is both of them, modeling together:

It was all I could do to keep myself from running up to the hardware store for paint and start redoing my kitchen. Okay, thankfully I have a book due March 15, so that is more pressing than my wild-hare idea to have an apple green kitchen with yellow and pink accents. And if that isn't enough, then I still had some left, and knit this Petal Dishcloth, which couldn't be easier. Though next time, I will stick to one color because it took me almost as long to bury the ends as it did to knit it.

And then last night, finished another Ballband:

And my gift stack continues to grow:

Baubles for All . . .

2008-02-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

Well, it is Valentine's Day and baubles are a girl's best friend, or rather make that bobbles, in this dishcloth:

I just love this cloth, which is Bonbons et Calissons Dishcloth by SmarieK Knits. I made it from the Lion Brand Organic Cotton, which is very, very soft and oh so wonderful. Just thought you might like a touch of romance on Valentine's Day.

BTW, the doc lifted the no-wool ban, so imagine me doing the happy dance yesterday. Then I got home and settled down to knit . . . another dishcloth.

Hangin' With the Dishes

2008-02-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

As part of the Week 3 question, we are supposed to trot out our stash. Thank goodness it is only limited to dishcloth yarn, because that I can haul out and photograph in a snap.

So I decided, since I have such a limited amount of stash to at least dress it up a bit, since after it is knit, it is destined to a life of wiping plates and cleaning counters.

It is sort of a kick to get my knitting redirected, (with the wool ban and all) and I went back to my roots and knit the Grandma Dishcloth that so many of us did as our first knitting project.

The pastel colored one with the lacy rib is Textured Ribs, from the Nifty Knit Dishcloths booklet by Leisure Arts. I really like the Mini Cables Cloth in this booklet as well. The one I am currently working on is Bonbons et Calissons Dishcloth by SmarieK Knits. I'm using the Lion Brand Organic Cotton, and worked my first bobbles last night.

Though I am sort of shy about showing my bobbles in public, I thought you might like a sneak peek.

Or maybe I should rename this photo, KnittingGirl Gone Wild, because . . . well . . . I'll let you figure that out for yourself.

The No Wool Diet

2008-02-05T07:08:00.001-08:00

There are lots of words that will strike fear in the heart of any knitter. "The dog ate my Options." "I can't find my pattern." "I ran out of the dye lot and I only need one more skein." But there are two words that are will cut you straight to the heart:

No Wool.

Why not just take my knitting needles and stake me? was what I thought when the doctor told me to stop knitting with wool. You see, the hives got really, really bad, so I went to another doctor, who turned out to be very thorough (as opposed to shrug-his-shoulders-and-just-toss-a-bunch-of-medicine-at-it doctor) and she put me on the No Wool Diet. I don't blame you if you are so worried or frightened now that you stop reading and run. I probably would. So if you are nervous now, don't read much further.

Apparently you can develop these sort of allergies with time. And it isn't just wool, you have to worry about, but any animal based fiber. Alpaca, mohair, cashmere. So I had to pack it all away and for the time being I can only knit with fiber based yarns or acrylics.

Yeah, I warned you, scary stuff.

I drove home in sort of a daze. "My stash. My lovely stash," I muttered.

Then I remembered. I had a bunch of cotton stashed. I sort of brightened, felt the sun rise over the horizon, and knew life as I knew it wasn't over, just different.

Dishcloths, anyone?

Two Hour (and Four Minutes Felting) Handbag

2008-01-30T10:41:00.000-08:00

I like to keep a skein or two on my desk as I am, ahem, working, if only to daydream about or to consider what I am going to knit with it. I bought this skein of Crystal Palace Taos, in Mineral, to make mittens for my mother for Christmas, but she made some comment about not liking mittens, so it got tossed on the desk for further contemplation.

Then I got the book, 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders and as I was leafing through it the other day, I spotted the pattern for the Two Hour Handbag (Ravelry linked). While it calls for a bulky weight yarn, I just doubled up the Taos and sat down Sunday night with Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (Well it purported to be Mansfield Park, for it had little resemblance to dear Jane!). And in less than two hours, I had this:

I really love the way the colors came out, and the Taos is so easy to knit with. Now I intended to make this as a thank you gift for someone. Then I tossed it in the washing machine, felted it, (for only four minutes--thank goodness I checked it as it felted VERY fast) and it came out like this, in these very Monet sort of colors and I was enchanted. I can't get the colors right with my camera, but trust me, it is wonderful. And so perfect for something else I wanted, that I can't give it up. So next up, you'll see what I've turned my Two Hour Handbag into.

A whole new look and a little bit of knitting

2008-01-27T14:10:00.000-08:00

So what do you think? I got a makeover. At least my blog did. I can't seem to scare up the time to get my hair even trimmed, but Knit the Stash got a whole new lease on life courtesy of Haven Rich of Enchanted Web Design. She's just getting started skinning blogs and pages for folks and so she did this for me, which I think is so wonderful and perfect for Knit the Stash. If you are looking for someone to give your blog a more personal touch, contact Haven and tell her Elizabeth sent you.

I've made some progress on the Weasley Sweater, but when I went to try it on the kid, the length is just perfect for right now. Which stinks, because I deliberately made it a little extra long for him, and then two weeks later the kid fits into it. I swear he goes to bed at night and just spends the next 9-10 hours stretching. But I'll have some yarn leftover and if it is really too short next winter, I'll just knit a 3 inch waistband down from the current rolled edge. That, or I'll knit the other sweater in Charmed Knits that is really a great "boy" sweater, Harry's Red Cable Sweater. (Ravel linked so you can take a peak at one.)

I've also been knitting on some dishcloths for the Beat the Winter Doldrums swap. I love the yarn I found at Hilltop East. (Or as my husband says when the VISA comes, "The Hill I should have resisted climbing.") It is Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton, and it is wonderful to knit with. That's a bit of the skein up there at the top. So soft, that it is hard to give up. I also got another skein of it in the Dyed Cotton for my swap friend, so she could give a spin. I decided to try something a little more challenging, going for something more spa-like since I had this scrumptious yarn, choosing the "Turn Back Time Spa Cloth" from the January 2008 issue of Creative Knitting. I've linked it there to Ravelry, so you can see some different versions. The cloth is knit in the round, first on dpns, then on a circular. It was great fun to watch the pattern emerge and made for interesting knitting, as each row is different.

I've had so much fun knitting these two "spa cloths," I think I am going to knit a few more and use them as hostess gifts at the Rose City Romance Writer's Reader Luncheon, which is April 26th at the Governor Hotel in Portland. If you like books, consider going. It has to be my favorite non-knitting event of the year. They have all these fabulous baskets they raffle off and each table is hosted by various local romance authors. And when I say fabulous baskets--I mean really, really, great baskets--full of goodies and books and fun stuff, all donated by authors and writers. And the proceeds raised go to Oregon Literacy, which is a wonderful organization that helps adults attain their goal of learning to read. I think I should be able to knit 9 dishcloths between now and April. And believe it or not, I've got the yarn stashed . . . Okay, I suppose that wasn't much of a stretch of the imagination.

What do you want to knit before April?

Knitting Forward, Knitting Back, Contemplating Cloths, and Wondering about Swaps

2008-01-20T16:21:00.000-08:00

Working on my Weasley almost non-stop and have finished the back,
and nearly the front. I had to make an after dinner emergency run to Seattle Yarn because I thought I had some silvery yarn to make the initial with (having had the request for Ravenclaw colors), but I couldn't find it. Then I tried every yarn I could think of with it, and couldn't come up with a combination I liked. So I begged help from the great gal behind the counter. And in all of five seconds, she cocks her head, looks at it, walks over the racks of Plymouth Encore and pulls out this brown that is just outstanding. I never would have done that, but its perfect. Never hurts to ask for a second opinion.

I am singularly unimpressed with my intarsia, its all poofy and odd shaped stitches. I tend it knit really evenly--I'm not bragging, I just always have knit really evenly, until this intarsia and it looks like hell. But instead of pulling it all out and doing it over (as I have had to do with the neck line) I am going to keep it--it has that Mrs. Weasley homespun look to it. At least that is what I keep telling myself. Besides, it is for a nine year old boy. Like he's going to point out my beginners stitches to one and all.

This entire project is going really quickly, which is good as I have to get knitting on my swap cloths. The topic this week at the swap is should you call it a dish cloth, dish rag, face cloth, or something else. I don't think it matters--it was knit with care and meant to be used, not framed and put in the Smithsonian. For goodness sakes, use it until it looks like a rag and then beg for a new one.

Now onto my final matter. For all of you who have been in swaps, what are some of the things you've received that you really liked, loved, or found puzzling. All suggestions and ideas are welcome!

Beat the Winter Doldrums

2008-01-13T14:33:00.000-08:00

So I joined the Beat the Winter Doldrums swap. This is my first swap and I am so excited.

1. Do you knit, crochet, or do both?
Mostly knit. But I can crochet, as long as it isn't too complicated.

2. What types of needles do you enjoy using for making dishcloths? Straights.

3. What types of cotton do you enjoy using for making dishcloths? Is there any that you've been wanting to try? Sugar 'N Cream is my usual choice. I've been eyeing the Lion Brand Natural Cottons, thinking they would make some great spa cloths for gifts.

4. What color(s) are your kitchen and bath decorated in (if any)? My bathroom is yellow and navy blue, and my kitchen is a homage to 1980s rose pink and gray with white melaline (sp?) cupboards, all of which I would give my right arm to gut down to the studs. My dream kitchen? Cranberry!

5. What are your favorite colors for yarns? Least favorite? Favorite colors? Blues, bright greens, sea glass colors, love reds, pinks, purples. Not a huge fan of orange, metallics or browns.

6. Do you like Winter, or do you count the days until it ends? Yes and no. I do like it when it snows--though in Seattle that is a rare treat. I DON'T like the dark days, but my house is light, with lots of windows, so even on the grayest days, I don't mind it too much. And besides, with my Christmas Cactus finally blooming over my desk, I can enjoy a little bit of winter joy.

7. What's your favorite way to brighten your day when you're down in the dumps? I generally don't get down in the dumps. Not my way or personality. But a bunch of sunny daffodils or tulips from the grocery store or chocolate will cure just about anything. Or at least that is what I keep telling myself and it seems to work.

8. What is your favorite treat to indulge in and when your down in the dumps? Cookies or chocolate. If they are one and the same, even better. And really, why wait until you feel sad to eat them? If you eat enough, you never get down.

9. Do you drink coffee? Tea? Cocoa? I adore coffee. I have a wonderful espresso machine that grinds the beans at the push of a button and the coffee comes out all hot and fresh. I try new beans all the time--love rich, earthy beans--not the froufrou ones that come drenched in flavor. Just good beans and milk, thank you. I also enjoy herbal teas for the evening. We have a tea here in Seattle that I love--Market Spice tea, all orangey and cinnamon and spice, mmmm! I drink it sometimes because it really perks you up especially on a foggy, gray day. It's the perfect winter tea!

10. If you could take a vacation starting tomorrow and go anywhere for one week and money were no object, where would you go and what would you do? Oh, this is so easy--London. I absolutely adore London--the history, the sights, the people, the museums, the shops, everything. I've been several times and could go once a year for the rest of my life and never be bored. I've been planning my next trip of late (not that I have a date yet or the husband pass to go, but it never hurts to be ready) and this time I want to see the Fan Museum, go back to Sir John Soames House, the Silver Vaults, some extra time at the British Museum, find a good tea shop for afternoon tea, take one or two London Walks, and stay in a B&B in a Georgian built house, catch a couple shows. The V&A costumes, because last time it wasn't open. Just basically revel in Regency London sights and make like I'm Jane Austen for a week. Gads, I am such a geek!

11. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should be aware of? Not a huge fan of mohair or fluffy/fuzzy sort of yarns.

Onesies

2008-01-13T12:02:00.000-08:00

I've found myself knitting onesies this week. One glove. Finished one of my Curiously Clever Clogs. And started one Fuzzy Foot--I don't think you can call it Fuzzy Feet until you cast on the second one, but I might be wrong on that. The Clog and Foot may just have to take the back burner for a while, because I've been getting hives on my hands for the past few months, and I personally think it might be a mohair problem. I've knit with a lot of mohair in the last six months, and I think that might be the cause of my woes--having gone all the other usual routes of soaps, lotions, odd foods, vitamins and all the other things derm people like to look at. So I am banishing the mohair from my knitting corner for a month and see if my hands and arms clear up. And if they do, I may have a stash busting sale on a bunch of Brown Sheep, and half finished Brown Sheep projects.

So what then? I am going to knit the Weasley Sweater for oldest little hero for his birthday. He wants one in Ravenclaw colors, so I found this nice tweedy blue/bluegrey blend, that is soft and washable. Then onto some baby sweaters for friends with spring babies due. I picked up some lovely pink and green Swish to make the Peapod, and then perhaps this Drops baby sweater which I spied on another blog and thought was too cute.

What do you have on your needles or in the line up right now? Ever had problems knitting with mohair or hives from a fiber? What helped? And please don't say give up knitting.

OPP. Do you Have it?

2008-01-06T19:52:00.001-08:00

I've come to the stark realization that I suffer from OPP. Now prepare yourself, for you might discover that you suffer from it as well, and quite sadly, I don't think there is a cure for it.

What is OPP, you might ask? Well, let me enlighten you, but be warned, this is not for the faint of heart.

OPP is quite simply a deep abiding lust for Other People's Projects. There is no stopping OPP once it strikes, and quite frankly, my yarn stash is staggering under this folly.

"Oh, there is no such thing as OPP," you may scoff, but I present the evidence:

Just look at my last post, Monkey Shenanigans. I saw that hat at a knitting tea--a nice, lovely afternoon of tea, wonderful food, and a friendly knitting show and tell. I was fine until that hat popped up and then I HAD to knit it. I HAD to. I was in the yarn shop the next day jonesing for a fix of sock/rag yarn.

You can't get it in until tomorrow??? my OPP mind raged silently, while I stoically smiled and thanked the overly helpful store owner, then went outside the shop and took deep calming breaths.

Still cynical? Okay, then why I am currently knitting the Curiously Clever Clogs? Because those crack dealers of OPP, Jenny & Nicole over at Stash & Burn mentioned it in their Felt Me podcast. I could have gone my entire life without knowing about these clogs, until Jenny or Nicole mentioned them and began describing them. They used words like "freaking clever" and went on and on about how challenging they were. Of course, then I had to go look at the pattern over at Stitch Divas, and the next thing I remember is waking up in the middle of my Brown Sheep stash trying to decide whether to make the inner soles lime green or orange.

I would like to blame Stash & Burn for quite a few of my latest bouts of OPP, but I fear that ~~bragging~~ revealing more of the truly ~~cool~~, no, ~~tempting~~, no addictive projects they promote on their "knitting podcast" (which really is nothing more than an Methadone stop for OPP addicts like myself) will have you, gentle reader, rushing off the WEBs to order four skeins of Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb to make the Clapotis. Not that I would ever do such a thing. No. Never. Now where did I put that dammed Visa card?

No, I really shouldn't put all the blame for my current bout of OPP on Stash & Burn, because Ravelry is just as problematic. Ravelry for OPP victims is like opening a Godiva stand outside your local Weight Watchers meeting.

What? I can surf HOW many Other People's Projects?

Did you know that 15 other people have the Clogs in their queue? And the Clapotis is listed 3798 times? Do I really need to look at all of them before I knit mine? Well, of course I do.

I would like to think there is a cure for OPP. The cynical might say stop listening to podcasts or haunting Ravelry or reading Tiennie Knits, because she always has something cool going on or Brainy Lady because after reading her blog I had to hunt down an old knitting book she shared because again, I HAD to knit one of the hats in there. But that ain't going to happen. These people fuel my creativity, or at least that is what I am going to keep telling myself. I wonder if I could get OPP declared a medical issue, and have my insurance company cover my yarn expenses. Laugh, you might, but come on, if they can cover Viagra, yarn isn't too far to dream.

So fellow sufferers of OPP, there is no reason to lurk about the web, head hung in shame, VISA card propped up in front of the keyboard. Let's unite. Share where your favorite OPP hangouts are. Because truly I don't know about you, but I don't think there are enough ways to taunt my knitting muse.

Monkey Shenanigans

2007-12-29T12:07:00.000-08:00

When I was at the knitting tea a few weeks ago, one of the projects someone showed off was the Sock Monkey Hat from Knitty. OMG! How cute! And I knew I'd hit the perfect gift for my nephew.

So I raced over to my LYS, got them to order in the yarn--big hurrahs to The Yarn Stash in Burien, because Bonnie will go the extra mile to get you what you need.

So with a couple of skeins of Lana Grande, Color 6012 in hand, some white, red and black Cascade 220 plucked from the stash, I knit up a Sock Monkey hat. Really, this is the quickest hat to knit--and so much fun.

However the next morning it went missing. You see Sock Monkey mania is contagious. And the lure of the Sock Monkey is hard to contain.

However, it didn't take long to discover where the hat had gone.
You see, Sock Monkey hats make great new heads for your local Brown Bears.

So I ended up knitting another Sock Monkey hat for the nephew, and then my dad saw the hat and decided he wanted one for fishing . . . Watch out, this project is catching . . .

Must. Keep. Knitting.

2007-12-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

That has been my mantra for the last few weeks--but after cranking out endless, and I do mean endless, neckwarmers, gloves and mitts, including this scarf for my sister-in-law, until my hands gave up last night. I mean, I couldn't knit another stitch.

I have one more neckwarmer to go. 2/3 thirds of the way through the gloves for my nephew. The hat I knit for the other nephew has been absconded by my oldest son--so that must be replaced. I had hoped to knit a pair of fingerless gloves for my dad and husband, and finally a pair for my mother. It just ain't going to happen. At least not all of them.

When I cried "uncle" last night, my hands throbbing in pain, and declared that I couldn't knit another stitch, I could see the panic in my son's eyes--you see, he and dad had just gone shopping for Christmas, having a guys' night out, and I knew they had gone to Hilltop Yarn Shop. His panic was something akin to "No, mom! You can't stop now. Not after we bought you . . . " I soothed him by saying, 'I just needed a break, but I'd be back at it by the next day' and his relief was nearly palatable. I love kids at this time of year.

Really, give up knitting? Yeah, right.

A Christmas Tea

2007-12-16T18:30:00.000-08:00

As a romance writer and a knitter, I am very lucky to call Debbie Macomber my friend. She's been a writing mentor for years, and over the years we've shared our love of knitting with random trips to yarn shops while at writing conferences, and Debbie is always showing me some new technique she's picked up from some fabulous knitter she's met in her travels. She's just the nicest, dearest woman you could ever want to meet.

And every year, she hosts a Christmas Tea for her "knit friends." It is a very varied group, young and old, shop owners and novice knitters, who all share the love of fiber. This year it took some finagling to get go, but the husband, dear man that he is, left work early to pick up the kids so I could take the ferry over to Port Orchard for her party.

The highlight of the party is Show and Tell. Everyone brings projects they've completed, usually with a story attached and shares them with the crowd. That is Debbie above showing off a vest she finished this year that had been a UFO for awhile. Her goal for 2007 was to finish several of her UFOs and that was one of them.

Many of the projects that are shared are Christmas gifts, like this very cute dino sweater that was going to a lucky grandson.

I am so jealous of the granddaughter who is getting these slippers:

One of the guests teaches all over the area on the intricacies of knitting with beads. She brought a gorgeous sweater she'd knit thousands and thousands of beads into, as well as these socks that were just remarkable:

Finally, we got around to Debbie's office manager, Renata, and she shared a lace shawl she'd knit.

Can you say, "Shawl Envy?!" Then all too soon, it was time to go home and I was sorry that it would be another year before I got to see these wonderful women again, who make me laugh over their mishaps (which quite frankly there isn't a knitter in that room who hasn't made a similar mistake) and their pride in a new skill tackled. So it was appropriate that I rode the ferry home, with a front row seat for the crossing over Puget Sound, watched harbor seals frolicking and rolling in the water, while I considered what I would knit in 2008 . . . while I sat snug and warm in my car, doing what else? Knitting.

The Christmas Needles are Flying!

2007-12-09T13:08:00.002-08:00

Been knitting like a madwoman of late--trying to get some Christmas presents on the way. Helps when it's been raining like crazy here in Seattle, and I've been a bit under the weather, so curling up and knitting Christmas presents keeps me from feeling too guilty about neglecting the writing--but that only means I'll have to crank pages in January and February. Though when you see the packed malls and all the people scurrying about this season, I can know I am not the only one putting things off to the New Year.

My 2007 gift of choice is the Luxe Neck Warmer, which I've been knitting with every type of yarn I think will work, including several out of the Lion Brand Cashmere:

I love this yarn. Warm, soft, great to knit with. A little pricey, but it only takes two skeins to knit one neckwarmer, and I think when I get everyone's done, I am going to take the leftover yarn and make myself one--striped in the Lion pastels. I've also made a couple with the Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk, which makes a really luxurious piece for around your neck.

What I love about this neck warmer is the stitch pattern is so easy to memorize. Of course, after knitting seven of them, you would hope that you could remember a 4 row pattern. Here is my favorite--the baby blue in the Lion Brand Cashmere--the lace really stands out and I know my aunt is going to love it!

Now here is a rub with my annual make a ton of gifts--Matthew has a male teacher now! Really don't think a lacy neck warmer will work there so I downloaded the Knit Picks Men's Convertible Fingerless Gloves pattern, ordered up a bunch of Shamrock yarn in Reilly,

and knit up a pair yesterday:

I'm going to modify the pattern when I make the next pair and leave the size 7 dpns on until I get up the hand a little bit, then switch to the size 9s. They are a little pouchy on the husband's hands. I kept using him as my hand model and he kept assuming I was knitting them for him. Sorry, honey. I like the pattern and yarn--a very fast knit, though the Shamrock is a little splitty to knit with, I think the final product is a great, warm glove.

I keep adding more projects to the knitting basket and have a feeling some of them may end up being birthday presents for later in the year . . .

What is everyone else knitting for Christmas???

Christmas Knitting Suggestions

2007-12-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

While I am still knitting away on the Luxe Neck warmers (I think I've added three more to the pile since I last posted) I thought I'd share something I made recently that would make a great quickie gift if you are looking for one.

Consider trying Amanda's Squatty Sidekick, especially if you've never felted before or if you love felting and know how quick felted gifts can be. I had offered a handknit purse as a prize to a group of readers on a bulletin board a while back--hoping that the winner would like pink, since I had just finished a pink purse--but she wanted black, so I tried this pattern, which I'd had printed out in the pile "must knit patterns" that stacks up on my desk.

I used that old reliable for felting Cascade 220, but might suggest Manos as it makes great felted fabric. Really, this is for a quick Christmas present, so whatever you have in your stash that will felt should work. Can you read between the lines already--December knitting desperation is setting in early this year. But this purse knits up really fast, especially with those big fat needles.

Then into the pillow case protector it goes.

I hope no one thinks they can felt without a pillow case protector. Unless you want to see the Maytag man or find out if Sears is offering "one year free financing" as you buy your new washer, don't felt without one. Then into the washing machine, with a little shot of Eucalan, and come old towels and a pair of ratty jeans I keep just for felting. When it gets to be the size I want, I trip the washing machine over to the spin cycle and let it get all that extra water out. I know some people say not to spin it out because the felting might get creased, but I have never had this happen. I just take it out of the washer, pat it into shape and let it air dry the rest of the way.

Then I take a look through Mom's button jar for just the right button closure and voila, a quick gift.

Even better with a selection of books for tucking in for a quick read--especially since you now know the author! Great Christmas presents, don't you think?

Christmas Knitting

2007-11-11T16:24:00.000-08:00

Nothing like finding that one thing to knit for everyone for Christmas. In the past I've knit hats, scarves, last year it was dozens of pairs of those great Fetching mitts. But this year, I've looked and searched and tried in vain to find that one pattern that fits all. You know the sort, that you can knock out by the dozens in all sorts of colors that is going to be universally loved? Yes, I know, those patterns are gold and this Fall all I've found were more like tarnished silver. Good, but not quite there. Then I happened on the proverbial pot of gold:

The Luxe Neck Warmer

Aren't these great? And they knit fast. Like really, really fast. I would never have found them if it hadn't been for the podcast, Stash & Burn. They had a one skein theme going and they mentioned the Luxe Neck Warmer from the book, knit2together. I didn't remember the pattern, but they way they discussed it (especially as a great stash buster) piqued my curiosity and I dug up the book at the library and was immediately hooked. So a huge shout out to Jenny and Nicole of Stash & Burn! You've got my needles flying.

Now the pattern calls for a bulky weight yarn, and I wanted to make mine out of several skeins of leftover Lion Brand Cashmere I had tucked away. A quick search on Ravelry led me to Veganpurls who already knit this and left great mods. So a shout out to Michelle as well!

The tan and colored ones used up the Lion Brand, so I dug into my Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, and I'm further modifying the pattern (~~cast on 96 stitches~~ on size 8 needles--better yet, cast on only one repeat--84 stitches--mine with the double repeat is a little too big) and I'm almost done with the green one. I'll cast on the next one tonight. At this rate I'll have my Christmas knitting done before December 1st. Just in time to start baking cookies.

So what are you knitting this year for Christmas?

Knitting in Circles

2007-11-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Have you ever felt like every project you touched was destined to turn into a disaster? That's the story of my knitting lately. So, I am starting a campaign to rename October 2007 as Frogtober. And I have the evidence to prove that this is an apt and appropriate thing to do:

The Case of the Too Big Mitten

Have you ever seen anything so big? I knew when I was knitting it on my trip to NYC that it was turning out too big. The cuff was fine, but by the time I got to the flip part of the mitten, oh brother, I was in trouble. But I finished it anyway so I could get an idea of how far off these mittens were so I could downsize them to make them into fingerless gloves for the husband, and then another pair for my son's teacher for Christmas, and probably a pair for my dad. They are frogged now, but not recast--I'm going to take them with me on our Thanksgiving travels and hope I have better luck on that trip.

And I offer Case #2 in my crusade to rename last month, Frogtober:

The Sweater that Makes Me Itch

This is the sweater I decided to do with the bag of Rowan Kid Classic I'd picked up on eBay ages ago. I went to all the both of modifying the pattern to knit it in one piece, added short rows for the bust so I could get a tighter fit, and am nearly up to the underarms--and horror, upon horror, the darn thing is making me itch. Well, quite frankly, everything is making me itch this fall, but this Kid Classic gives my wrists and hands a rash that drives me nuts. But I refuse to frog it. I've never been bothered by any sort of fiber--ever. I have to believe this is a phase, and this sweater will get knit. Eventually. In the Spring.

And then there is my Wicked sweater--which I had to cast on three times before I got the stitch count right, the gauge right, and finally cast it on and start it without discovering four rows in that. it. is. flippin. twisted.

So I've set aside all these larger projects and I'm going to do some safe knitting. Neckwarmers for Christmas. Mittens for Matthew's caregivers. And hope that November is the month that brings back the mojo.

Calling All Knitters with Extra Stash

2007-10-22T18:52:00.001-07:00

Just like this bag. Have I got a quick stash busting recipe for you:

The Second Annual Warm for Winter Campaign
Goal: To collect 1,000 scarves and hats for homeless men, women and children before mid-November. And believe me, they couldn't come too soon, because Seattle has already had its first winter wind storm.

To your stash, add two needles:

And you have a scarf for someone who has very little.

I also dug around and found a pair of mittens that I intended to gift someone but then found out they hated blue. And a child's hat that the intended child has gotten too big to wear. I figured I would dedicate two weeks of my knitting life to making scarves and a few hats. Want to join in? Take the next two weeks--clear out some yarn, and warm up a stranger . . . it will warm your heart in the process.

For more information or to donate some quickly finished FOs, contact warmforwinter AT yahoo DOT com.

NYC is all about the yarn, right? Wrong.

2007-10-15T19:10:00.001-07:00

It is all about the buttons. I was all set to take a real fun yarn crawl while I was in NYC a week ago--I'd gathered all my possible patterns together and had been virtually shopping for weeks, but just before I left I cleaned out my knitting basket and hit my pile of swatches. For projects in progress. And realized the last thing I needed was more yarn and more projects.

Then I realized I hadn't booked my hotel on the edge of the Fashion District because I love dodging clothes racks--but because it has tons and tons of little button shops that stock buttons you can never find at Joannes or Hancocks or Pacific Fabrics. Suddenly my crawl took on a new meaning. So off I went to Sixth Avenue with swatches in hand, and discovered that a lot of the button stores that I've haunted for years have forsaken their lot in life and gone over to beads. Beads! "I don't need beads, I need buttons," I found myself muttering, that is until I rounded a corner and spotted one my favorite places to find buttons, MJ Trimming.

This place is like funky, unusual, cool sewing heaven. Trims, buttons, rhinestones, and accessories rise on the shelves in a panoply of choices. I found these red buttons right off for the Wicked cardigan I am making with the yarn I picked up at Madrona last year. I've since torn it out and need to recast on, but definitely these buttons are motivation to get going on it. I just love them! And again, they aren't the sort that you find hanging on a card in the mega fabric stores.

Then I pulled out my fuzzy swatch and had to really search. This blue isn't the easiest to match, and but I wanted buttons that would stand out. What do you think?

I know, bling, bling. But oh, so pretty and wonderfully old fashioned. Here's the ironic part--I got this Rowan yarn on eBay for a steal--the buttons cost twice as much. Isn't that pathetic? But it is better than haunting Value Village for the next six months looking for a second hand sweater I can buy for its buttons. Again, it is motivating to have the buttons right there, sort of urging you on to finish so you can wear them and get your money's worth out of them. Of course, then part of me is saying, wouldn't they look gorgeous on some yummy dark blue sweater . . . but that would require a yarn purchase. No, I won't . . . I can't . . .

Lucy Done!

2007-09-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

I finished my Lucy in the Sky sweater yesterday by sewing on the buttons. I was so excited to have it finished, I immediately wore it out to a luncheon I was attending. Of course no one at the table was the least bit crafty and they looked at me oddly when I started to talk about knitting. Hmmm. Okay. No knitters here. So I knew it was time to get home and brag shamelessly about my new FO.

I started this last spring with Cascade 220. Ran out of steam after finishing most of the body and getting the sleeves cast on. Picked it up in August and got fired up to finish. So I did.

I knit the sleeves on two circs, and don't like how they turned out. They have a line up the side--the gap between the circs--that didn't block out and has me a little irked, but I still love the sweater. I won't knit sleeves like that again. Any suggestions?

The best part of knitting these bottom up sweaters, is that once you join the sleeves, it is nothing but decreasing--so every row goes a little faster. When I got it done I went to my favorite button shop, my mom's sewing room, where she has jars and jars and boxes of buttons, old and new. I found these very old pearl buttons--and decided to try a new technique in sewing them on, by backing them with really small, clear buttons. It worked great, and made the sewing easier and the buttons feel so much more secure and stable. I'll use that method again.

I am so pleased with my new sweater, I have cast on another, and I have two more that I am going to cast on in the next few weeks. I think I am going to try to finish all three before Christmas. Maybe mixing up the knitting a little will keep each project interesting enough to see them through.

Almost Lucy

2007-09-14T18:47:00.001-07:00

I slogged through the sleeves about a week or so ago, got the whole kit and kaboodle joined together and am getting so close to finishing this sweater that just the very whiff of finishing has been motivation enough to really keep the needles moving. I've been dragging it everywhere--to the carpool, little guy's therapy, in front of All My Kids--anytime I can get a row or so done.

Of course the joy of knitting a bottom up sweater is that it is all decreases from here on out, baby. Nothing but decreases.

And the other joy? Not much finishing. Join the underarm stitches, weave in the ends, and then block it. As for buttons, I haven't any yet. I'm off to NYC in a couple of weeks and since I'm staying in the garment district, I thought I might shop for buttons there. Any recommendations???

I've been waffling about what to do next, trying to find that perfect Fall project when I saw Luanna here in the Berroco newsletter. It was love at first sight. I'd found my Fall sweater to get my needles happily clicking again. But I hit a snag when I couldn't find a color in Softwist that made me want to click the order button. Nor did I want to add yet another pile of yarn to my bulging stash. I've got yarn for a Bristow, a Knitty Thermal, and countless other sweaters--shoehorning in another 19 skeins? I had to draw a line.

Then this morning, as I was once again avoiding work and drooling over this pattern, I remembered a yarn I had in my stash that I bought a year or so ago on eBay. It is this lovely heathered Cascade 220.
Oh, yeah, I had my Luanna! But then I did a little math (gads I hate math) and realized I was two skeins short. Curses! But a quick check on the web and a few frantic emails later, I had two skeins from Chris at Alpaca Direct.

So now I have even more motivation to get Lucy done so I can get swatching Luanna. Hey, what is this I have about knitting "L" sweaters. Next time I'm thinking of making a little hop in the alphabet and going to N, as in Neiman.

As Summer Wanes

2007-08-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to avoid casting anything new on until I get a few more FOs under my belt. To that end I've been dragging around the sleeves for my Lucy in the Sky cardigan. The sleeves seem to be taking as long as the body took, but once I get them all joined, I should be done in a flash. Of course, now that I've said that . . . .

I'm making this sweater out of Cascade 220, that wonderful old workhouse of a yarn, but I'm not really liking how the sleeves are coming on by knitting them on 2 circs. I keep telling myself they will block out just fine.

I've also been knitting on a pair of Charade socks:

I like this pattern, it makes the Fleece Artist Sea Wool just pop and sparkle. The yarn has a great sheen to it, and this pattern on accentuates that.

And on a whim, I decided to swatch a bit of this:

I've had this bag of Rowan Kid Classic on the shelf for ages, and with Fall approaching I was thinking about doing a regular sweater, but who I am kidding, I want a cardigan out of it. Perfect for some it's-September-and-I'm-ready-for-Fall knitting. Besides, I always can use another cardigan. I think I could live in cardigans.

What are you dreaming about knitting this Fall?

My dream LYS

2007-08-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth meet Artistic Knits. Or rather, Elizabeth’s Visa meet Artistic Knits. Well, you can’t go into a yarn shop just for buttons and NOT do a little stash enhancement, especially when all the shop stocks is hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn. Art yarn. From floor to ceiling. Be still my funky loving heart. And not a plastic button in sight.

I mean, when you pull up to a place and the car parked right behind you has this license plate, then you know you’ve found a little piece of merino heaven. And angora. And cashmere. And bamboo. And anything else those wonderful spinners can think of to make into yarn. I need to look up the patron saint of spinners and light a candle to them, because where would we knitters be without these gifted, talented artists?

I have to confess when I first walked into Artisan Knitworks, I was a little worried. Because the front half of the shop is devoted to arty hand knits for sale. Now usually, this would have my nose in the air, because I am, after all, a knitter, but the hand knits they had for sale were gorgeous and inspiring. Nose tucked back into place, I dove into the shop. And found myself in a room of sock yarn. Art sock yarn. All kinds of gorgeous, wonderful sock yarn. I did a silent shout out to Tiennie and wished she could be there, and then grabbed a few skeins before I turned around and found her there, having arrived a head of me and had been in the back using the facilities, having already had her way with the shelves. (Tiennie, just teasing—cause you know you are my sock hero.)

Now I'm not much of a sock knitter, but I do love the yarn. And I keep trying to fall in love with knitting socks, because I adore hand knit socks on my feet. But still, I don't need more sock yarn, so I started to back out of the room of when then this black/red/grey skein screamed “Make me into Monkies.” This 50% wool, 50% bamboo skein from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm is divinely soft. Being the warm-hearted and red loving gal that I am, I found it impossible to walk past a screaming skein, so I grabbed it up, gave it a hug and tried to get out of the room before I found more temptation. Unfortunately the lady working there was blocking my path, ready to suggest more yarn for me to adopt, including this one:

This is a skein of Tiny Toes in "Irish Heather" from Interlacements. From the way she described how this yarn knits, it sounds like it works up very similar to Socks that Rock, so I was hooked. We talked socks, me being the only mildly interested sock knitter and her being one of those toe up, Turkish cast on, two at a time on two circs sock types. I envy you all, because while you're speeding along, I poke and purl at an endless pair on my dpns like some old grandma on the freeway. But she had me hooked and with a color like "Irish Heather" I couldn't resist. The blue in the picture is more a really, deep saturated purple, and the greens are rich and varied.

So with my arms already full and my Visa card starting to whimper inside my purse, not to mention my Stash at home already complaining about having to move over yet again, I swore to myself that I would make a beeline to the cash register. Instead, I found myself in the main room surrounded by too much yarn.

"Just came in for buttons," I reminded myself. "Don’t look left or right, just get to the cash register and get out of here." So I rounded the table of snacks set out for the knit in that was about to begin and found myself nose to nose with this:

Should have closed my eyes. Should not have looked. I am so the sucker for green and blue. This is from Dancing Leaf Farm in Maryland and the yarn is Tango, a 70% wool, 30% Mohair, that is in the Pansy colorway. It is a bulky worsted and has that feel to it that makes you think of a very warm sweater that is going to keep you so very cozy.

I immediately saw it in a top-down cardie. Something just in time for winter. Something to snuggle into when I have the house back to myself and I can work in blessed peace and silence. Really, I should be commended—you should have seen the pretty pink skeins of a variegated wool and angora mix that knitted into something that was just this side of heaven. But with my arms full, and the idea that I only had so much room in my suitcase (the open space made by the Brio train set I'd brought for the nephew--which seemed rather too big when I packed it in Seattle, but in hindsight it was a good idea because the hole it left was the perfect size for my much lighter yarn.).

You know the next time the husband says, "Honey, let's go to Detroit and visit my mother," I don't think my feet will drag quite as much and I'll know to pack light . . .

I've found my groove . . .

2007-08-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

Knitting baby clothes. They are:

A. Small, in other words, knit an entire sweater in a week. Unless you are Tiennie, this is a huge feat.
B. Can be knit with cool yarn without a huge dent in the Visa bill.
C. Are then given away to someone who is going to drool all over it. Literally.

My latest FO? Another EZ Project. I am getting dangerously addicted to these Elizabeth Zimmerman projects.

This one is the Baby Jacket from the Knitters Almanac. I made it out of RK Cashsoft DK. The stuff is incredibly soft, but a bit splitty. I knit it both on metal straights and Clover Bamboo circs (size 4) and had problems with the yarn snagging with both. Not that it doesn’t knit up lovely, but those snags are frustrating.

As the mom of boys, there is something so fun in knitting something cute, lacy and pink. Well, nearly pink. These shots show the color really well—not quite a lilac, not really a pink.

I bought the yarn at Churchmouse Yarns on Bainbridge Island a few months ago, intending to knit another little sweater out of it. But after I knit the Baby Surprise Jacket, I thought I would try another EZ project and I loved it. I am so not the lace knitter, but this lace pattern had only two lines to memorize (well, three if you count the purl rows) so it wasn’t too much for my lace-impaired mind to wrap itself around. Despite the snags, I think it turned out real ‘purty.

I’d also picked up these buttons for the sweater. I’m a sucker for shell buttons and these flower ones were too cute! Especially when I knew I was knitting for a little girl. Of course in my mind I’d bought six of them, and put six buttonholes in the sweater, only to sew them up and find I only had five. Of course, I finished the sweater while back in Detroit, as we were there to see the new baby, and I was seriously bummed at being out a button.

Which meant only one thing: I had to go out shopping for more buttons. I hit JoAnne’s which just didn’t do it. I don’t mind JoAnne’s and shop there for stuff all the time, but when I put the time into knitting something special, I just hate putting cheap plastic buttons on it. Yeeeeewww! So after a foray into Joanne’s I knew I needed to find a yarn shop. Shucks. Darn. Twist my arm. And did I ever find a yarn shop. But more on that in my next post.

I showed the sweater, minus the last button to new mom, and she was delighted with it, and said she'd probably wouldn't use that button any way. And then she carried off the sweater and my button woes were over. And the baby?

Here she is, Baby Katy, with very proud cousin Claire holding her. Aren't new babies heaven?

Saturday afternoons are for . . .

2007-08-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

finishing a baby sweater before the kid goes off to college. Well, it isn't that bad, but it should fit little Amelia perfectly for this fall. After a hectic, stressful week, it was nice to just get out the necessary tools and bits and pieces and finish this cute little sweater.

I found these perfect buttons at Hancock Fabrics for 30% off, which was way less expensive than the "$4 a button" buttons I found at the LYS. Oh, they were cute, but buying them would have cost more than the yarn did.

Then I discovered a hank of embroidery thread in my needlecase that matched the buttons, so I was able to use two threads of embroidery floss, then doubled. Here I am anchoring the thread in, which is something I learned when I did a lot of seamstress work. Anchor the thread to the garment first by taking a stitch or two, then sew on the button.

And in about twenty minutes, the buttons are on and the sweater is ready to be wrapped and tucked into the mail on Monday. A completed Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. When I do something like that, I realize how silly it is to let FOs sit around waiting for buttons to be sewn on, but then again, maybe they sit around waiting for an afternoon like today when I need a sense of accomplishment, with very little effort.

BTW, here's a good question. On the always entertaining podcast, Stash & Burn, they were talking about sock mojo and sock yarn stash and what was a good way to burn it up on something other than socks. They mentioned the EZ Baby Surprise, which made me smile--because that was exactly why I chose this yarn for this sweater.

So what other projects have you used sock yarn for, other than socks?