YOP #25-#29 or Funny How Not Posting for a Month Allows for More FO Pictures

The last month has been....interesting. Not completely an "oh, God, oh God, we're all going to die!" sort of way but there were moments that certainly felt like that. Work, travel and home life all took their toll on my desire to write. I'm going to lay all the blame squarely on the ballet I worked just before Christmas. My last post was just before that headache. (I love ballet and I love the Nutcracker but the company that rented our hall were anything but professional; it made for a difficult week.)

But now, onto my knitting!

First, I finished Here Fishy, Fishy.

My sister was very excited for it. I brilliantly left all my tapestry needles at home and we were in Colorado visiting family. Mom brought me one of hers and I finished the hat in front of my sister. I tried to be sneaky but I'm about as sneaky as a kitten wiggling it's butt before pouncing. Unfortunately, my sister's head is larger than I realized. So I told her I had enough yarn to make this hat again if she was okay with that. This means I'm making the same hat with the same yarn and have simply added two horizontal repeats of the pattern. I'm even calling it the same thing and have simply added a "II" to the end of it. Of course, now that my sister is moving to Texas (it's sock yarn, so I doubt it would have been warm enough for her in North East Montana) and there is no impending holiday visit, I've slacked on finishing the second one.

Her head is also taller than I realized, so I'm adding a vertical repeat as well. It's a lovely pattern (a Cookie A one) and I love the yarn. Mom gave it to me after the Yarn Along the Rockies this fall. It's from a shop called Stash and it's simply called Sock Yarn. There is no colorway name but Husband has dubbed it "OMG Pony Pink".



Husband tried to convince me that I shouldn't cast on any new projects before the end of the year. That didn't happen because we were about to have a polar vortex and I had no gloves. I "stole" a pair of Husband's gloves but they didn't fit right. Since I took two weeks off from work (one week in Colorado), I had plenty of time to make myself a pair of mittens. A bigger challenge was to have them be finished before the New Year. I started them on December 29th and finished them, including weaving in ends, on the 31st. My first pair of mittens took months to finish and were also huge.

The first mitten

I knew nothing about gauge at the time. It was the first project I did in the round. The yarn had originally been bought to make a normal scarf for the guy I was dating at the time for those times when the 18-foot long scarf was just excessive. Shortly after I bought the yarn, I broke up with him so I eventually decided to make something for myself. The pattern was taught to me and had a lot of "about like" steps to it. Kind of like when cooking without a recipe and you just put in a bit of this and some of that. The pair to this mitten was an inverse of the colors. They were a lovely pair and I was very sad to lose the one. I looked everywhere for it. One day, when I had about an hour to kill before work, I learned that there was a yarn shop a block away from where I park. I had driven past Depth of Field countless times and never realized that it was there as it was just part of the scenery. I stepped inside and wandered around, touching and petting the yarn. Eventually I realized I needed to go to work and I wanted to buy something. Knowing that I didn't have much of a stash at the time, I asked for a suggestion for a good mitten yarn. Not only did the woman help me find some nice bulky yarn, but she also showed me a wonderful pattern by a local designer. It's an amazingly simple pattern though it does involve some math, and the woman told me that she uses the formula on other mitten patterns she likes so that they are a perfect fit. The pattern is called "Fittin' Mitts: Mitts That Fit". I love these mittens more than my first pair. I could probably have added a little room in the hand so it isn't so tight but I don't mind too much.

Gingy

I had originally called them "Ginger Mitts" as the yarn colorway is called "Spiced Gingerbread" but after watching Shrek the Musical 2.5 times in the last week (don't judge), I've renamed them "Gingy". Husband insisted I add some sort of loop so I don't lose them, which I did and then made little bows out of the tails. I don't think the bows are going to last much longer. They are starting to fray a little bit. Even during our polar vortex, my hands were getting sweaty in these mitts. Definitely a success!

Next up, after some personal drama, I found I had a lot of time on my hands and that I needed some mindless knitting. In this time, I managed to finish Fuzzy!

The best part was that Husband was going to be seeing his cousin the week after it was finished. I wrote a little card and asked him to take a picture of his cousin's daughter with it. I didn't get a picture. Instead, he took a short video on his phone. The little girl had taken the blanket and draped it on her head and wrapped the ends around her hands. In the video, she is bouncing her hands and herself in a happy little dance. That makes Fuzzy a huge success! I was happy with how it had turned out though I was nervous on how it would be received. You never know with young ones especially young ones that you've never met. My hope is that this blanket becomes worn and treasured for decades. I have a feeling that this might just happen.

This week we have a visiting Japanese student. Part of the deal of my bonus son getting to go to Japan for free was that we would have to host a student ourselves. As it is January and it's going to get stupid cold again while the student is visiting, I offered to make him a scarf as a gift. Husband agreed and said I could make a scarf similar to the one I made back in July. I used the same yarn but didn't cast on as many stitches. It's a little longer than the first one and much narrower. I also slipped each first stitch of all the rows with the yarn in front and then knitted the rest of the row. The edges have this nice look to them.

Full scarf

Close up of one edge

I've recently started a couple of new projects even though there are a few more on needles that need to get finished. I may be waiting for the Ravellenic Winter Games 2014 to begin...

After I made Husband a cowl, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to have one. I started a test knit to make one. It's a "scarfowl" as it can be a scarf or a cowl. There are 3 possibilities in the pattern: a buttoned cowl, a loop cowl and a scarf. I decided to do the loop cowl.

The yarn is hand painted and suffers from what Husband calls "radio static" where it isn't stripping or showing a pattern. In this pattern, he does like it because there's a consistency with where the colors are landing. It does move as the cowl progresses but it looks lovely. I believe it's the cabling that makes the coloring "acceptable" because the cables are more than just a knitted pattern. The stitches are raised up and give depth to the pattern. A flat pattern would probably disappear in this colorway.

The other new project is long overdue and is for a friend. She asked through facebook if someone would be willing to knit some dogs for her. Payment would be the book the patterns are in and whatever else we could agree on. I messaged her as I'd been eyeing this book and agreed. She bought the supplies and sent them to me through campus mail (we both work at the same University; my co-workers were amused). Last Friday I finally started the first dog, Gillian.

The gauge is completely off and this is going to be a larger dog but my friend doesn't mind at all. I'd read some reviews of the first book saying that it wasn't very clear or easy. So far, I've found this pattern to be both. Husband and I enjoyed a movie while I whipped the legs out. I'm nearly done with half of the body. This is definitely a sit at home and work on project. You can see a little bit of yellow paper sticking out of the bottom of the book. This is my pattern marker. I do wish pattern language was the same universally. The authors are British. I'm use to seeing kfb instead of inc for knitting two stitches in one. It's small things like that which make me grateful that books include abbreviation keys. I hope to have a new progress picture for next week!

  Finished Objects

• Japan Scarf
• Birthday Bag 
• Socks, the Final Frontier
• Ladders to the Sky Socks (Test Pattern)
• Waves of Love 
• Colormatic  
• Here Fishy Fishy I
• Gingy
• Fuzzy, the baby blanket
• Japan Scarf II

Works in Progress

• Fruity Tulip Socks (currently in a waiting to be frogged state)
• Police Box
• The Angels Have the Police Box 
• Here Fishy Fishy II
• Scarfowl
• Gillian

A year later: Looking back at my knitting

It's now been just over a year since I feel I could truly call myself a knitter instead of someone who would occasionally (and quite randomly) knit something. The mental marker for me is Chicago TARDIS. Last year, I was working on my first pair of socks, which won me a Ponds button for being able to talk about something that isn't cool as though it is cool. I believe Husband was trying to hide his face in embarrassment at that point. I've done a lot since then and feel it would be good to recount it as a way to remind myself that I have actually done a lot.

First Socks

This was the first pair. I had bought this yarn years ago with the purpose of  making arm warmers. That was a thing for me for a while. With how stupid cold it's gotten again, it may become a thing again. October 2012 found me wanting to knit something. Apparently I was bored. I didn't want to make arm warmers though. I pulled out this yarn and decided since it was sock yarn, maybe I should make socks with it. A year later, I see little things that I could have done differently but I'm still happy with how these turned out. They were the gateway into becoming a "serious" knitter. This was one of my last projects made on cheaper yarn. The yarn had been bought at a Jo-Ann Fabrics. When I was first starting, I couldn't tell the difference in how things knit up. I certainly can tell the difference now. And I know it won't be the last project. Some things call for cheaper yarn, like knitted toys.

Purple and Blue Socks

I started these socks at the end of the year with the high ambition of being able to finish them before the year was out. The ball of yarn, which came with a sock knitting kit, wasn't enough to make the pair of socks, so I purchased more yarn (from Jo-Ann Fabrics again; I didn't know any better at the time!) to finish them off. With a bum ankle from some wall running, I wasn't going to be doing much for New Year's Eve. The plan was to stay up all night to finish these socks. It didn't happen. I have learned after these socks, to be much pickier about my yarn choices. Thankfully, my oldest bonus kids bought me some yarn for Christmas and Husband gave me a gift card to a local yarn shop. He also gave me a book on Derby inspired knitting.

Hat Knitting

In January, I went to a local yarn shop to join in with some Minnesota Rollergirl skaters who were making hats for charity. I brought Husband along to get him out of the house. He sat over in a corner and worked on a drawing. I worked on making my first ever hat. I had received a bunch of smaller double pointed needles and interchangeable circular needles for Christmas, so I was very excited to try them out. The skaters had patterns and yarn, so I picked some out and started the hat. This was an amazingly frustrating process. I was trying to figure out gauge and it was a mess. The first hat was enormous! I made another hat with the same pattern, which ended up being toddler sized (no photo of it though I did gift it to friends with a young boy who was going through a phase of loving hats).




I used up more of this gray yarn from Husband (left over from another project) to make another hat that was actually decent sized. An adult could actually wear it. It was also my first time contacting a designer because I didn't understand the pattern. I still managed to drop a few stitches and screw it up a little but I was overall happy with how it turned out.


Derby Leg Socks

Once again casting on with Jo-Ann Fabrics yarn, I knit these leg socks using the magic loop method. It was a fun and quick project and I really enjoyed making them. I loved having all my derby friends ask me about them. This does remind me that I need to get back onto my skates soon....












Cookie A Socks

 Knowing that I had enjoyed my sock knitting experience, my mom signed me up for the Cookie A Sock Club, which she had already joined. I had no idea what I was getting myself into so I was excited. I remember an early post about it on facebook and having friends who have knit for much longer than I have responding in awe that I was going to tackle her patterns. It's probably good that I didn't know what I was getting into. I have learned a lot from these projects though.

Things I've specifically learned from the Sock Club

• How to pick up dropped stitches in a pattern after a needle breaks and you loose a bunch of stitches.
• How to read charts. How to follow a chart when there's also a decrease in the chart.
• How to let a project sit after messing it up instead of continuing to work on it and making it worse.
• How to dye yarn (I wanted to have my Tiberius socks in the "right" color for Kirk).
• How to do a short-row heel.
• How to knit two socks at a time using magic loop.
• How to become addicted to really, really nice yarn.
• How to make all kinds of cookies.

I gifted one pair of socks to my mom. She's made me tons of socks but she's never received socks before, so that was special for her. I entered one pair of socks into the state fair and scored a 94/100. Of the 12 sock patterns we've received this year (though let's be fair, I only just got the last 2 this past Monday), I've completed 3 pairs. I've been distracted with other projects lately. The patterns from August didn't really jump out at me and I wasn't up to the complexity of either of the October patterns. And I had a space suit to make.

Gifts

 I appear to have made quite a few gifts this year. I made, in less than a week, an alpaca scarf to send with my bonus son to Japan as a gift to his host family. It turns out that the father of the family was a ski instructor in Europe... Good thing I (really Husband did it) convinced my bonus son to take the scarf with him...

 My youngest bonus daughter likes things that she can put other things into. Boxes, bags, nut shells.... So back in April, I bought a kit to make a beaded bag for her. This was my first time incorporating beading into a project. The best part was that the kit included the needle to get the beads onto the yarn. They really did think of everything. I then placed an old heart-shaped silver box into it to give to her as well. She does like her containers. She was so happy and surprised by it that she was actually silent when she opened her eyes.

 Last January-ish, I posted a facebook pay-it-forward gift thing. The requirement was that the first 5 commenters would receive something handmade by me during the yarn. I'd tried to do something like this once before and pretty much failed. To be fair, so did the person I had commented on to receive something from. The thing is that if you comment on someone else's status, you then post this on your own wall. This year, I've managed to gift 2 of the 5, which is better than in the past. One was to my mom (her socks) and the other was to a friend who I don't see very often. It was the first time I did a test knit and that I made socks for someone that I didn't have there with me to have them try them on. She loved them when she got them and they fit perfectly! 

My husband asked me to make a pair of socks for a friend of his as he knew she would appreciate them. I pointed out that she was more of a shawl/scarf person and I should make her one of those. We don't get to see her very often these days but earlier in the yarn when she was visiting, I showed off my yarn collection to her. It wasn't very sneaky of me but I managed to find one that she really loved the color and the texture of without giving away what I was doing. She just received the shawl last week and she loves it. She really loves unique things. I told her that this scarf has several unique things to it.

• Every purl stitch and yarnover was done incorrectly but it was off the needles so I wasn't going to redo it, especially since Husband told me I was done. This means it's different than the others out there.
• The yarn is a limited edition color, club member only color from Indigodragonfly.
• The yarn is a merino, seacel blend which I haven't found very often.

Husband asked me to make him a pair of socks to walk on the wire. I made them out of yarn from a yarn exchange and it's an acrylic and wool blend but knowing how hard he's going to be on them, I though that this was the best option. As much grief as he's given me on my sock obsession, he was amazed with how well these socks fit and with how much it improved his wire jumping. He's had classmates notice the socks and ask him about them. I'm sure he beams when he tells them that his wife made them for him.

And his recently finished cowl. I was going to surprise him with it but he saw the supplies in the car one day when I went to bring him a lunch at work. I love that he tells me that I don't have to knit him anything. I know that I don't have to knit him anything. I enjoy making things for him. He takes care of them, appreciates them and tells everyone I made them for him.



The Tally
In the last 12-ish months, I've made:

• 2 pairs of vanilla socks
• 3 hats
• 3 pairs of Cookie A socks
• 1 pair of wire walking socks
• 1 pair of test knit socks
• 1 pair of leg socks
• 1 beaded bag
• 1 scarf
• 1 shawl
• 1 cowl

for a grand total of  15 finished objects. Not too shabby for only getting into this a little over a year ago!

International Scarf

 

This scarf if pretty special. Right now, it's on it's way to Japan to be given to my step-son's host family. He's spending 10 days in Japan on an all expenses paid trip. 

This past Tuesday we finally got the information for the trip and there was a mention of gifts for the host family, which didn't surprise me. I had already mentioned it to my husband that something would be needed. On the paperwork, there was a note about something handmade. When I went to visit the college I ended up going to and when I did a home stay in England, my mom sent me with handwoven alpaca (or llama, I don't remember now) scarfs. I wanted to do something for my step-son, to be able to contribute to his experience. So I decided to knit a scarf. 

The last scarf I made took me a long time. You can probably guess why by this picture:

 

That's an 18 foot long scarf. It took months and months to make. I didn't have months and months to make this scarf and my step-son certainly didn't have the room to pack a scarf this massive in his suitcase. I had 5 days.... It was a good thing I was on vacation this last week as I dropped all other (okay, there's only one other project right now) projects to work on this scarf. My husband and I took a trip up north and I knit the entire time in the car, 3 hours each way. I even frogged the scarf at one point because I didn't like the needle size.

I'm mostly happy with the final project. It's not as long as I would have liked and it wider than I had intended but by the time it was giving me a good idea of how it was going to shape up, I didn't want to frog it again. It turns out that the host family live in a "Siberian type" climate so this scarf will make an excellent gift. My step-son was a little reluctant at first to bring it because a scarf is a "weird" gift for July. I'm glad he decided to bring it. I even had time to block it, which gave it a little more length. I can't wait to hear what his host family thinks about it when he gets back.