Swatch

Here is a bit of a teaser r.e. what's been on my needles the past few days. I can't show you any more of the project for a few more days since these are going to be gifted to someone who may, on occasion, stop in and read what's going on with my sticks-n-string habit.



I think the person for whom they have been knit will like them.

Just watched Nanny McPhee for the first time. Cute movie. Have I mentioned that I can hardly wait for the first Deathly Hallows movie November 19. I re-read the book at the beginning of summer. (I guess being a huge Harry Potter fan is my guilty pleasure.)

Happy Knitting!

Hmmmm . . .

What does this:



have in common with this:


???????????????????

Well, together they make up this:



Pretty drastic example of sock yarn gone potentially bad.

The cuff seems to be striping in this mock cable stitch pattern I'm using.

But when I got to the stockinette foot, forget it! It's pooling, BIG time!

I suppose it might drive some folks crazy.

I've decided I like it.

Also, I have entered the extremely tedious "ruffle" section of my second Citron shawlette and it occurs to me I haven't shown you the color. It's blue. BRIGHT blue.



Apparently I don't have too many problems knitting the shawlettes. It's the blocking that is tripping me up. (So far there are two in the queue ahead of this one!)

Happy Knitting!

Ho, Ho,....HO NO!!!!

Holy Cr@p fellow knitters/sewers/crafters! There are exactly [ONLY!] 39 days until Chrismas (40 if you're willing to still count today!)

How are all your projects coming along?

I made some progress over the past week/weekend. I finished a pair of mittens for my holiday giving. (Not going to anyone who reads this blog, so I can picture the finished item!)



I turned 2 heels at once and started up the legs on the pair of socks I'm knitting from the hand-dyed sock blank.



And I started another quant for the younger set.....(I'm doing these for the younger ladies on my gift list.)



It's been a bit of a rough week as far as news of people I know discovering terminal illness or deaths (one unexpected and another I knew was coming, but still hated getting the news....) Thank goodness for knitting! Keeps the hands occupied and stills the mind/heart. I'm telling you....a lot of thoughts and prayers are knit into all these items as I pondered all the news this week.....

I don't know how much you've got on your "to do" list as far as hand-made items for Christmas goes, but if you're like me then it's time to kick it into high gear!

Happy knitting!

Fools Gold

The minute I saw Chris Church's pattern, Fools Gold over at Knotions, I knew it was a pattern I HAD to make for my niece and nephew (whether for Christmas or otherwise).

It is simply THE cutest hat I've ever seen!

Even though they were actually visiting this past weekend, I went ahead and cast on for the project. I had some Swish bulky from Knit Picks left over from another project. It is a washable, 100% wool, so it seemed ideal. I started Friday night, knit a little on the hat Saturday evening and completed it Sunday afternoon in a couple of hours. (All total, knitting time was around 3-4 hours....I think.)

Here's the completed project:



. . . and atop a real head (though, granted, a head larger than the one it is intended for!!)




Chris Church's design rocks! It was easy to knit (and fun too!) It only takes about 135 yards of bulky weight yarn (1 skein!!) and a U.S. #10 24" circular needle. I think the wee kiddies (and their mom & dad) will like it!

Happy Knitting!

Doing the Two Step

As in two steps forward, one step back!

Believe it or not, this mitten's entire hand was knit by Friday evening last week.
As I neared the lovely, pointed tip I had the sneaking suspicion something was wrong.
(That, and the fact I kept trying it on as I knit the decreases.)




WHEN will I learn to trust my gut instinct? (And the plain facts of what is sitting there on my body, clearly not fitting??!!)

The hand section was not long enough before the decreases began and thus the mitten did not fit.

While these mittens are lovely, and fun to knit....they're not exactly easy to frog.
I spent two hours Saturday evening tinking (that's unknitting, stitch by stitch) them to the point of where the decreasing had begun. It was tedious! (I've gotten good at wrapping stitches to ensure short carries on the back!)

Since then, they've been sitting and waiting for me to have a brainstorm on exactly how to lengthen them without overboard the other direction and ending up with palms which are way too long.

In the meantime, I've gone back to knitting on the endless garter stitch baby blanket from EZ's Opinionated Knitter. Bleh.

Happy Knitting!

My First Chart

I printed off some knitter's graph paper and have been playing around with some charting for a mitten pattern of my own design.

This will be the back of the hand:



I plan to do the palm in alternating vertical rows of color. Right now I can't decide if I want to do black mittens with the pattern in red . . .

OR

red mittens with the pattern in white......

What do you think??

Here's the pattern for the wrist area:



I will likely use the Latvian 2-color cast on and do a fringed edge with a braided band above it before beginning the wrist pattern. If I don't think the wrist is long enough, I can add another braid before starting the main heart pattern.

Not sure who the receipient will be. It will be fun to see how it looks knit up. I may find I have to adjust the chart. We'll see. It's kind of cool though!

Something Rotten in the State of Iowa

(With apologies to William Shakespeare.)

Yes, there is something rotten in the state of Iowa. It's me!!!!

Today I received a box from Washington state. This is what I found when I opened it up:





This was graciously and generously put together for me by my spoiler in the Reducio Sock Swap #4 from Ravelry. Since I was/am a member of Gryffindor house, my mini sock is done in Gryffindor's house colors.



The fun new element in this round was the addition of something related to the care of magical creatures. Thus my newest friend, Ryuu:



Ryuu is a unique little dragon (only 3 have been found!) He doesn't breathe fire. Instead, Ryuu is a guardian of all things fiber related! Isn't he just the cutest?

Of course, all things in Hogwarts swapping are delivered by owl. This is the one that delivered all my goodies safe and sound:



With a little help from:



And, I also received delicious Starbucks chocolate and my very first handmade stitch markers (I can't TELL you how cool I think they are! I'm going to be showing ALL this off to all my knitting friends next Wednesday at sit-n-knit!)




I have to say a hundred "THANK YOU'S" to Dawn in Washington for the wonderful swap gifts!!

My First BSJ!

Well, I just completed my first EZ Baby Surprise Jacket. I made it with the intention of giving next April for a 2nd birthday, but it's so darned cute, I may add it to the Christmas gifts!

I knit it with CotLin from Knit Picks, in the Kohlrabi color. My guys thought it wasn't a "boy" green, so to give it an added masculine touch I trimmed it in brown and added football buttons.

Everyone was right. Elizabeth Zimmerman = genius.

First (& Quite Possibly LAST) Intarsia

My knitting pals elected me as the perfect person to help a fellow citizen of our fair town in her quest to find someone who could knit matching Christmas stockings for her grandkids so that everyone in their family would have the same stockings hanging this year.

It seemed innocent enough.

And they hit the hamartia on the head: knitting hubris.

I received the package of yarns, needles, bobbins, and pattern in June.

I started attempt number one in June.

I set it aside by July 1.

I thought, "I'll take it on vacation."

It got left behind at home.

School started, work projects piled up, the seasons changed.

The bag sitting in my stash room mocked me.

The commissioner phoned me. "How's the project coming along?"

November rolled around. I started again.

I frogged it.

I started again.

Frogged.

Tried again.

Frogged.

(Sensing the pattern here???????)

Finally, after an intense two weekends (and a few intense week nights between),
this is the result.




I had an inkling before I began that there was a reason I'd avoided intarsia prior to this. All my suspicions were confirmed.

It's time consuming. It makes me anxious rather than helping to relieve my stresses and anxieties. It's fiddly.

Basically, it's a very HIGH MAINTENANCE kind of knitting.

I'm not very likely to repeat the experience any time soon.

I deliver said stockings on Wednesday.

I hope she likes them!

My Sweater

Well, I finished the sweater I knit for myself. Here it is!



And in full . . .



It is pretty much exactly what I suspected it would be:

Really, really comfortable.

Incredibly soft (I mean, it's baby alpaca and cashmere for crying out loud!)

Beautiful color

Perfect fit (I adjusted the pattern to make it longer in both body and sleeve length.)

Not wearable outside the house.

Why? Well, because it was knit with worsted weight yarn on size 8 needles and as I've always suspected regarding sweaters for myself any such knit would look "bulky" compared to machine knits at fine gauges.....SOOOOOO.....add that to my already "bulky" frame and it's not exactly flattering.

Even though I TOTALLY love the sweater, I'm afraid that if I go out of the house in it people might mistake me for a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon that got loose. Shamu in blue. It just wouldn't be pretty.

(Your first hint should have been the fact the photos of the sweater were of it laying on the floor rather than on me!)

Anyway, we'll see if I ever get up the nerve to knit something on needles small enough to make something that looks nice enough on me to wear in public. I think that would be a HECK of a lot of knitting!

Circle of Faith

As I've been photographing the local churches for the book I'm doing, I realized that several have had round stained glass windows. Here are 4 of them, though I've shot several others too.

It's been nothing but grey here for several days on end now. I thought I'd get a little bit of a "pick me up" when I noticed a post on Ravelry that Brenda Dayne had posted a new episode of Cast On. But alas, something is wrong and I am currently unable to download it.

Drat.

Guess I'll just keep knitting on my sweater. (Though the siren song of sock yarns is calling me.......)

Happy shooting and knitting!

And Now For Something Completely Different . . .

. . . a sweater . . . for ME!

I'm in the process of knitting a sweater for myself. I chose the February Lady Sweater pattern from Ravelry. Here's a picture of the original from the lady who created the pattern which was inspired by Elizabeth Zimmerman:




(NOTE: This is TOTALLY her picture!)

The one I'm making for myself is from Knit Pick's yarn, Ambrosia. It is 80% alpaca and 20% cashmere. It's heavenly! It's in the colorway "night sky" which is a blue headed down the steel/grey path. Everyone who has seen it has "oohed" and "aahed" over it.

When I get a chance I will take a picture and post it.

This is hell week for me as far as work goes. The book is supposed to go to the printer on Friday. The magazine is long overdue and far from being done. And I am also working on two advertising projects, one of which is due Wednesday.

Can you say "over-extended?"

Also have to squeeze in some medical and dental appointments for a variety of people and pets this week.

So it's a good thing I have this sweater project to keep me de-stressed, eh?

Happy knitting!

Calling All Movie Costume People!!!!!!!

I posted on Ravelry my interest in this knit item from the movie, The Village.



I like the look of this collar type scarf and wondered if the pattern was available.
Someone responded that they liked this piece from the same movie: (the older lady on the right)




Surely there's a market of knitters out there who'd LOVE to make these types of things.
What pieces from movie wardrobes would you like to see made available as patterns???