Slogging Through the Sweater

I have a project that I am having to push through right now. You know those longer projects that are exciting to start. Fun to figure out. But then about half way through you hit the wall. The project goes into a very simple pattern repeat, 5x1 rib pattern, that seems to go on forever! 

Agatha is that project right now,

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Lot's of Knitting Going On.

2 sweaters, 1 shawl, 1 cable beret, 1 cabel scarf, 1 pair of 2 at a time socks, 1 pair of sheep cuffs, 1 square from the GAAAAAAAA.  

Wow no wonder I feel like I am spinning!!

Finished projects first, makes me feel better. 

Mara Shawl   Rav Link

Here she is blocking on an insulation board. The are cheep and have a plastic film on one side. Just really big!

Mara was done with stash yarns.

The garter section is Colinette Jitterbug color Dusk, I just love the colors in this.
The purple section is koigue and
the green is Louet opal.

I tried to do this in a solid color but just couldn't do it. Too boring? But loved making this version.  

Daybreak by Stephen West

One of the hostest new desighner out there. He has a real architechule sense to his designs. 

Yarn: The dark brown is shabui knits sock and the green is crystal palace mini mochi in fren.  
Needle: size 4

Again I used stash yarns. The shabui I had started another project with so I didn't have quiet a full skein and I was running out at the end so the bottom brown section is shorter then the pattern. I decided to use the green of the mini mochi I had left to bind it off with. I really like the green on the edge.

Fun fun knit.  

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What have I been Knitting?

I love January. It is such a quiet month. The house feels quiet after putting away all the christmas decorations. Outside feels quiet with the cooler weather. My knitting feels quiet after the mad dash to get everything done in time to mail and to put under the tree. My knitting is so quiet I am having a hard time finding something that I really want to knit. A bit of a stooper I would say.

Camera to the rescue. Time to take pictures of finished projects and show them off.

Socks for The Marvelman

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What is on the Needles

Where did the month go??

I have been knitting away on class projects and socks. Here is what is on my needles.

Toe-up socks: This pair has been giving me some trouble. The yarn is a light weight fingering and I am knitting on a size 1.5 needle. That means that my row gauge is smaller then normal. I usally knit the foot to 3" before the heel. But doing this with this yarn I ended up with a sock that was too short.

Hmmmmm. Now what?

I took out the heal and knitted for another inch and then tried the heel again. Better, but the heel was still to small.

I took it out again and made the largest size on the pattern, I had been making the small for the other socks I have done off this heel pattern. So I have my fingers crossed that this will be the final tweak.

There has to be a mathematical way of figuring this out. I will have to start researching that.

Oh No!! The "M" word!

I have done a little research and found this pattern with lots of "math" and also found this book which has several heals and the "M" to go with them.

Kauni Yarn changes it's color.

I found this great Rainbow Scarf (blogged here) that used the double knitting technique. Decided it would be a great class last winter. It was a good class but a little difficult because of the colors changes happening. After knitting on it and teaching the class I decided that it was way too heavy to ever wear here in So Cal.

I casted off the 6" square as a souvenir of this project.

So now what does my Kauni Rainbow Yarn want to be?

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Knitting, Lot's of FO's

I have been finishing a lot of projects lately. Feeling the need to find all my needles missing in action or held captive on different projects. Finishing projects and gaining back needles is much more fulfuilling then buying more needles because I can not find the size I need.

Botanical Hat by Stephen West

I made this for Wesley. It was sort of an add on christmas present I made when he came down mid January for a visit. I used Casacade for the black and Noro silk garden for the color. This is a really fun hat to make. I think there are at least 3 of them in the knitting group now. The guys seem to really like it too. It is reversible and designed from a really cool architectural design. Very guy like.

Barb's Koigu Ruffle by Kit Huchin

I was looking for something fast and with a lot of color. This has been in my queue for a while. I went stash diving into the Koigue corner and come up with this. The pattern is a really easy knit as long as you can get past the idea that you cast on and cast off a crazy number of stitches (648!!) But you are knitting two together right away for the ruffle...... It was a great addition to my wardrobe.

Hemlock Ring by BooklynTweed:

This has been in my queue even longer then the ruffle scarf. I used the Knitpicks City Tweed in Brocade. I love this yarn. It is really soft and the tweed is wonderful. I made mine bigger then the pattern so I could use it as a lap blanket. I had a hard time getting the blanket to block perfectly flat. I would go up at least 3 sizes needles sizes bigger to cast off and use Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy bind off for the k2tog sections and a regular bind of during the yarn over sections. I really enjoy using this as a lap blanket in the evenings while I knit.

Byzantine by Susan Pandorf

This was one of the most fun projects I have done in a long time. Mosaic knitting is really easy and fast and watching the colors change made me happy!

Clapotis by Kate Gilbert

 This is one of the most knit projects on Ravelry (14,735 as of this post). The pattern came out in Knitty the Fall of 2004. I resisted knitting this one for years and then within a few of months I have now finished my second one. Why did I finally fall you ask?

Because of Noro sock yarn and Noro Scarf Stripping. I love love the way this turned out and the silk garden sock yarn is pretty soft.

Whirligig Shrug by Stefanie Japel

 I knit this up really fast for a class. It is another great instant gratification knit. The pattern is from Interweave Knits Weekends 2009. I used Soft Wave Cotton from Queensland. I think it was a closeout yarn from Webs at some point. It was in my stash. Of course Miss Claire will end up with this at some point. It sure is fun having a little princess to knit for after having boys of my own.

Last, but the most fun of all, is Mr. Bender, a character from Futurama. This is a B-day gift for Wesley. We used to enjoy watching this show together when he still lived at home. As an art student he has great appreciation for such creations.

I have most of my needles back and the knitting is a bit quiet right now. The only thing really on my needles is Baudelaire by Cookie A , my second pair of Toe-up socks. I am already on the second sock in less then a week. The pattern is easy to memorize, learned a new heel and I just love knitting these. Socks may be back in my life just in time for summer!

How many needles are missing in action at your house?

FO: Holiday Gifts

My Christmas knitting has all been received and I can now post about them. I was pretty ambitious this year but I did complete it all in time, which has often not been the case. So I am feeling rather good right now.

I knit the Every Way Wrap for my Mom. (Ravelry).

Yarn: 12 skeins (1,176 yrds, 600 oz) of Berroco Ultra Silk.
Gold 6113

Make sure you down load the Errata before you start. The key to the chart is wrong.

This was a pretty straightforward knit with cables. I love that they are reversible so there is no wrong and right side. I have to say that cabling with yarn that has no stretch is a bit hard on the hands and made the progress a little slower then I wanted. Having said that, the yarn showed both stitch patterns beautifully and the sheen from the silk makes this very luxuious. I chose the silk because my mother doesn't like wools around her neck and I new this yarn wouldn't be the least bit scratchy. It was also on closeout at Webs so the price was right. The silk makes this something she can wear throughout the year in Utah.

I knit the Sweet Pea Jacket by Kate Gilbert (ravelry) for my youngest sister, JN, who also lives in Utah.

Yarn: Berroco Peruvia.
#4777 Blue Nile 7 skeins (700 gr, 721 yrds)

Needle size - 11

Size: I had major gauge issues (blogged here) with this. I ended up knitting the medium size as far as number of cast on stitches and such go, but used the measurements from the small size. This ended up working out perfectly.

My sister is amazed at how well it fits, as though we had fittings during the making of the jacket!! This was a very succesful knit and after I figured out how to deal with the gauge it was a fast and easy knit. Big needles and big yarn, almost instant gratification.

This is the Striped Clapotis for my other sister, LA, who is in the Bay Area.

Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden sock. I used three skeins of color 211.
Needle: #6

I used both ends of the same skein and alternated the two ends every two rows, like the Noro Scarf. I love the way the dropped stitches stripe one way and the colors striped the other. I love the colors. A few times I took out a color as it came up so I didn't have the same color on both ends of the yarn. But that didn't happen to much.

I was burning some late night knitting oil to get these done and in the mail before we left for our vacation on the Dec. 13. Even though I started them relatively early in the holiday process, LA's in Aug, Mom's in Sept, and JN's in Oct. that was still too late.

Next year I am going to reinstate the "knit the christmas present when their birthday comes up" rule. I did this one year and it worked so well I am not sure why I have not continued to do that. Their birthdays come in May, June and August so it works out really well.

I am telling you this now so that you can remind me in Sept or Oct when I come up with the big idea to knit a major project for someone for christmas you can refer me to this post. I have too many other things to knit, with class samples and all, not to be more organized about knitting the things that are really fun for me.

My family really appreciates handmade gifts so it is pleasure to knit for them.

Do you have any good ways of dealing with handmade gifts for the family?
Do you knit for your family and/or friends?

My Knitting Weekend

I am in full swing of holiday knitting. My little knitting fingers are tired indeed. But I have to be honest and say that the project I have worked on most this weekend is an UFO.

This is the blanket I started for Josh last christmas. I worked on it a lot last winter. But it is a big blanket, he is a big guy and I just couldn't get it done before the weather turned too warm to have a giant blanket on my lap. The hardest part of pulling out a hibernating project is trying to figure out where you are and what still needs to be done. I was so happy to find that I have only the borders left to do.

But oh those borders are longggggggg.
If the stars work in my favor this week I should have it done by Thanksgiving. As long as I get it to him before this christmas I have been successful. Right??

Added Dec. 28, 2009
I finally got some pictures of the finished Bronco Blanket with Josh. He uses it all the time!!