The moon was absolutely gorgeous, especially with all the snow framing it. It was a quiet, still night, peaceful but almost foreboding. It was a night when vampires could have gone walking or werewolves might have come alive and it would have fit the mood.
(This, btw, took many, many attempts to make it work, to the point of thinking it never would. In the end...basic flash. Go figure.)
Look what I made! I cast on last night when Jennie and I popped in a first season episode of Stargate Atlantis and cast off tonight just after another first season episode of Stargate Atlantis. *g* Probably about five hours of knitting, total, plus extra finishing time.
This is a Calorimetry, in a soft-spun corriedale wool. The colorway is Ianto, dyed by YummyYarn of Etsy, and based on Ianto's excellent suits. The button is sparkly and from a cheap pack at JoAnns.
I modified the pattern in several ways - I used a US7 needle instead of US8, cast on 96 stitches instead of 120 and did 8 repeats of row 5 and 10 repeats of row 7, instead of 15 and 17 respectively. Too many people had complained that the pattern turned out huge, and they were right. I may have done an extra set of repeats, but the 96 was absolutely perfect and the width is still fine. It doesn't smoosh my bangs and it does cover my ears, which were the two things I wanted from this.
And, well, look. I'm damn cute in it. ;)
I have two more skeins of this on the way, and they shall be matching De-Lovely fingerless mitts. This will be a classic set that Ianto would certainly approve of!
A scarf for my mother! It's about twice this length now and going much more smoothly. It's a drop stitch scarf - k1, yo, k1, yo 2, k1, yo 3, k1, yo 2, k1, yo and then knit the knits and drop the yos. Easy technically, although getting the dropped yos to look smooth took practice. (ie, they are so not smooth here, although the last few unphotographed rows are!) I think it's looking neat, though, and it's going fairly fast.
My friends Rory, Amy and Erin came over last week to help me decorate the Christmas tree and make cookies. These are Alton Brown's sugar cookies and everyone at home and work agreed that they are the best sugar cookies ever. They aren't too sweet and are just delicious!
So see, I am still being (somewhat) crafty. ;)
I actually have been knitting since the last post. I figured out my error on the slipper I was ripping out and finished the pair. They are warm and cozy to wear. I've also got about half of a Chinese Wave dishcloth done, but I think it's on hiatus for the moment - it's no longer a gift and the pattern is annoying. I really need to find a non-slip stitch pattern to do - I've overdosed on them! I also knit a wee little Christmas gift that I hope will be enjoyed despite its simplicity.
I had and have all these grand knitting plans, but that's really all that's been done. I've been stressed with school and turning to my computer to relax instead of knitting. Now that I'm on winter vacation for the next six weeks, I hope to get more things made.
At the top of the list: an Ice Queen cowl in dark purple with sparkles for me, and a drop stitch scarf in brown and dark red for mom.
Oy. All this time, I've been afraid to knit socks not just because of small yarn and needles, but the knowledge that I would inevitably lose interest in knitting an identical match to the first sock. So true - even with a quick knit like mittens, I can't get myself going on #2!
Finally, after weeks of not knitting because I was so stuck on that dratted second mitten, I gave in and started a new project. Ridiculously Easy Mary Jane Slippers. They were, in fact, ridiculously easy. And, also, too big. I knew it when I was knitting, too, but convinced myself otherwise until trying it on at the end. So I started the next one, casting on 20 stitches instead of the noted 30. This is the result and I love it. Comfy and soft. Three Irish Girls Galenas Chunky, Stash Menagerie October club yarn in Tolkien. I like the color, but it's too muted for me to really love it.
But you only see one here. Sigh. That's because I went to rip out the first one and ran into a problem. I had slipped the first stitch on each row to have a nice edge around and now I can't rip it out!!! Things tangle, rows get overanxious and unravel before I get to them, and I have to keep feeding the unwound yarn through the slipped stitches which is a pain in the neck. But I only have just enough yarn in the skein to make a pair, so I NEED to frog it! But I just can't bring myself to make myself yet - even in the 30 minutes I tried that first night, there was hollering and yarn throwing.
So now I'm stuck again. LOL
Three Irish Girls Peregrine Merino in Siofra.
I love it and am annoyed with it by turns. The colors are gorgeous and pooled perfectly and, the pattern is good. But I picked it because none of the finished projects on Ravelry had pointy tops and what does mine have? Pointy tops! Argh. I tried to fix it, and while it did solve a lot of aesthetic issues, the point never went away.
Also, it's much too large. I do have small hands, I guess. The thumb is a great length, but the rest of it - there's about half an inch at the top, and I can actually bend my fingers inside it without the mitten moving. Oops.
But hey, that thumb is gorgeous. Look at the perfect striping!
The big thing during World War 2 was "Knit Your Bit!" Knit for the soldiers, knit to save money, knit knit knit. There were even songs about knitting your bit - most were awful, but one was Glenn Miller.
The National World War II Museum, down in New Orleans, does a lot of cool outreach things. One of them is hosting Knit Your Bit, where they collect scarves to give to veterans. When my friend and I saw that, big WW2/40s geeks that we are, we wanted badly to participate. So we did!
This is my monstrosity, all five and half plus feet of it. (Yes, it's taller than I am!) It's Lion Brand Thick and Quick in Charcoal and Claret on size 13 needles in a mistake rib pattern (k2p1 on both sides). It causes a neat ribbing and is very warm and cuddly.
And yes, Harry Potter fans, you are not wrong. I totally stole the trapped bar stripes from the 3rd and 4th movies. ;) Most people won't recognize it, but I do love it. I hope my veteran does, too.
The James Bond Capelet: so temporarily named because the yarn color is 007. My very first knit garment! This is the collar, with two rows of the actual capelet and four adorable stitch markers from Meghan. It's actually the Anthropolgie Inspired Capelet that is hugely popular on Ravelry.
I've been stalled on this since July - lots of other fun projects have captured my attention. I still love it, but with reservations. The color is gorgeous - but will I wear it? Does it match anything? People who made it complain about how it rides up in back - am I comfortable enough with short rows to fix that on my own? Will the sleeves be too tight? I'm not one for layers usually - will I really wear it?
My current thought is to skip the sleeves and turn it into an actual cape. Kind of Victorian, very cute, potentially very me. Would I feel comfortable wearing something so unusual in public, though? Would I be okay knitting something I only wore around the house? Possibly. And the idea of making it a cute cape has renewed my enthusiasm. Things to think about! Any comments either way?
Recent Comments