2012: A Knitting Summary

I humbly apologize for leaving you for such a long time.  My excuse is that I was knitting a lot, plus I got called as the president of the women's organization of our local church (7/17/2011), plus I got a (temporary) promotion at work 12/16/2013, plus the band (Salt Lake Scots) upgraded from a Grade IV to a Grade III (10/20/2012).

Now that the promotion is over, and I've gotten used to the other two issues, I have found a moment to let you know about it all.  

In January 2012, I made an Andean Chullo Hat

by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence in a kit from Knitpicks.  It turned out beautifully!  
In February 2012, I made a pair of Owlings Fingerless Gloves, a Ravelry pattern, with beads for the owl eyes, but I don't know how to do beads properly, and the beads fell off.
In March 2012, I made Small Son a pair of Simple Skype Socks by Adrienne Ku.  But the yarn I chose did not have any nylon in it, so they sort of sagged out.  They are now waaaay too big in every direction. A new pair from new yarn is now in the plannign stages.
In April 2012 I made a Piper's Journey shawl by Paula Emons-Fuessle using yarn from Quince and Co. I made it because it was designed by a piper and I AM a piper. It was pretty, but pretty small.  I use it as a scarf.  For my mother's birthday, I made her a Piper's Journey shawl, too.
In July 2012, I used some purple thrift-store ALPACA yarn that my sweet husband found and made the Gnarled Oak Cardigan by Alana Dakos. It was Such A Deal! I messed up a bit on the cabling at the yoke, but at that point, I didn't care.  I just wanted to wear it.  I put in some markers to straighten myself out, and went on from there. The markers worked, and most of the cabling looks wonderful.
In September 2012, I made two Penelope

shrugs by Cecily MacDonald:  Quince and Co Finch in burgundy  for Daughter #1 and Quince and Co Finch in Dogwood pink for Daughter #2, for Christmas. I got both the pattern and the yarn from Quince and Co.
In October 2012, I started an Owl Hat 

by Knits-R-us for my husband, who specifically requested it. I purchased it from Knits-R-Us, but she accidentally sent me the Giraffe Hat instead.  When I emailed her the discrepancy, she immediately emailed me the Owl Hat and said the Giraffe was free.That was very nice of her.
In December, learned my One-and-Only sister was struggling with addiction issues and didn't want to see or talk to anybody in the family.  I could respect that, but I REALLY wanted to give her a hug.  So I made her the current Knitting Pipeline Knit-A-Long, the Hyla Brook Shawl,

with the burgundy Finch left over from the Penelope shawl for Daughter #1 .  At the end of the instructions (I wasn't going to add the ruffles; neither me nor my sister are "ruffles" people), it was about as big as a headscarf, and I was out of yarn.  I posted on the Knitting Pipeline forum, and PuffySheep (on Ravelry) had some she could send me, but was leaving out of town in a few days.  She didn't see my email, and didn't actually send it until she got back to town.  And guess what town it was.  Yep, Salt Lake City.  I could have driven over and picked it up!  But it got done in time for me to mail it to my One-and-Only sister on 23 December, and she got it for Christmas.  A hug for every stitch.  It made her cry.  It was supposed to.
Also in December, I made Daughter #3 a pair of Laurel Socks

by Wendy Johnson. I don't remember where I got the variegated yarn from. Somewhere Local.  The pattern was pretty complicated, and I was frustrated with it not working out, so I just put in some markers, and figured the variegated yarn would cover any pattern deficits.  And there were plenty of those.  But she liked them anyway. 

I started 2013 at a running knit.

Small-ish Son I didn't have time to make anything for.  But I had a Blackberry Cardigan

that I had started for myself awhile back, and it was too fussy, so I left it.  Most of the yarn was still in its original skeins from KnitPicks.  So I put them all in a box and gift-wrapped them, and promised I would make him his sweater ASAP.

I started that sweater right away, 27 December 2012. I got the back done by early January, the front done by mid-January, and the 1st sleeve  2/3 done by 1/29/13.

The back is plain stockingette stitch, the front has the central Celtic cable from the Blackberry Cardi up the middle, and the sleeves each have a 2-strand cable (the center of the Blackberry Cardi Celtic cable) up the center.

He wanted it to be a turtleneck, so I knitted the crew neck version and added a really tall collar. Not quite tall enough, it turns out.  The next turtleneck I will make at least 7" long.

By 3 February 2013 I had finished Sleeve #1, and started Sleeve #2. I felt like the princess in The Seven Swans, trying to finish the last sleeve before Small-ish Son's birthday the next day.

By 4 February 2013, I had 17” of sleeve #2 finished, but did not complete it. So I guess Small-ish Son will always have one swan’s wing instead of an arm. Sorry, kiddo.

This story does have a happy ending, though: After cake and ice cream and clean-up, I sat down and finished the rest of the second sleeve, and sewed all the pieces together.  It was blocking before the day ended.  So it really was finished by his birthday, just not by his party.

There is more to come.  Daughter #2 and her husband announced at Christmas that they are expecting a baby girl in mid-May!

I can't wait to knit for my own granddaughter!

Catching Up

What have I been doing?

Let's see. And hopefully I will be able to add photos, so you WILL see.

1. I finally finished that bamboo sweater. It's short-sleeved, with lace sleeves.

It fits.

It's beautiful.

I'm keeping it.

No photo yet, but it's coming.

2. My friend, who has 6 girls, is having a boy in November. She asked me to make him a little sweater out of brown Merino, so I did. It took me less than 2 days. It's the style she wanted, but it isn't what I would have chosen for my baby. Here it is:

3. I made ties for the men in my life. Here's my son's:

4. During our trip to Ireland, Wales and England, I made wrist warmers for Daughters #1 and #2. Here are Daughter #1's:

5. I discovered Teeny, Tiny Mochimochi. These are the tiniest things you could possibly imagine. Just for an example, here's the first little gnome I made. He has his own little computer to book a flight on, and a tiny little airplane to fly on (although he has to ride on top).

6. In July, I got the ladies from our ward Relief Society to make 2 twin-sized quilts for donation to Primary Children's Hospital here in the city. One was made of pastel colors and wasn't (to my mind) very interesting. The other was made of bold colors. I really liked that one, and had a difficult time parting with it. I had to put it in a bag so I couldn't see it before I could give it away.

Immediately after that, I got called to be the President of the aforesaid Relief Society. Whoda thunkit?

Now it is October, so Christmas is preying on my mind. I have two projects in mind.

A. A shrug for a daughter in bulky, washable yarn. No buttons! It should knit up quickly.
B. A short scarf that buttons around the neck for another daughter, also in bulky, washable yarn. It should knit up quickly, also.
The yarn for both of these projects is on the way. Until then, I'll make more mochimochi!

Oh. And finish the Christmas stocking for my son-in-law. It's 8/10 finished! Seriously! The stocking is my work project, the mochimochi are my traveling project, and the shrug and scarf are my at home projects.

Then, after Christmas I will get the yarn and cast on for my Celtic Cable sweater.

So I have been busy. Too busy to post to the blog. I hope to correct that in future.

Third Time's Charm

Once upon a time, this yarn was in skeins. It's a bamboo blend that I got at a local fabric store years ago. Over the course of a YEAR, I knit it into a rather shapeless sweater, which had so many problems with it (caused by me) and was so frustrating to look at as a result, that I frogged it and it sat around like this for 2 more years.

Since it was bamboo, I decided I would try again, but this time make a short-sleeved summer sweater. So, the yarn took a bath and hung lightly weighted over the bathtub for 24 hours, and then it looked like this:

I took it to my local yarn store, Black Sheep Wool, and used their skein winder to wind it into usable skeins. So far I have the back and most of the front finished. The sleeves, as I said, are short, and have a lace pattern on them, which I am really excited to get to but . . . Murphy's Law. . . they are the last thing to be made.

This is my Home Project because it's rather bulky to carry around.

The tie, mentioned previously, is my Traveling Project because it is small and can fit into my bag.

I'll keep you updated on both.

It's Alive!

After 11 months, I finished the Handsome Husband sweater! And he's worn it multiple times! I should have posted about it sooner, but life (and death) got in the way and I forgot.



Also, Not-So-Small Son was taken with the idea of a knitted tie. I found a pattern, and a color he liked (yellow, of course), and literally whipped it out. I had some trouble lining it because the instructions are overly fussy and came to naught, but eventually it got done. He wore it on Sunday but I was . . . out of commission. As soon as I catch him in it again, I'll get a pic posted.

Then, Handsome Husband liked the tie and wanted one for himself, in a different color of course. I'm in the middle of that. It's miles of tiny rows and lots of turns, so rather monotonous.

I also made some beautiful fingerless gloves with a lace inset on the back, in black to match my band sweater. Pics also to be posted soon . . . probably after Memorial Day, as my time is not my own this weekend. I usually spend it wandering through cemeteries and piping for the living--and the dead. I have another skein of French Provincial Blue for another pair of these gloves, and Oldest Daughter wants a pair in Burgundy . . . Luckily, they're quickly made.

After Memorial Day weekend.

The Dresses Have Begun

Last week my Handsome Husband finally got sick of our living room carpenting. We got some beautiful hardwood flooring from Ikea, and on Saturday he and Small Son put it all down. I helped, but only as much as I could injure myself. We still have the baseboard to put in, but we'll probably do that on Wednesday.

No, we did not sew the boards to the flooring. Nothing was knit or crocheted. So what does this bit of history have to do with sewing? Let me 'splain.

I have two dresses to make for Cat's wedding: a bridesmaid dress for Bethe and a Mother-of-the-Bride dress for me. I have been sick of that carpet for quite some time. I did not want to lay that beautiful fabric down on that horrible carpenting, and the floor was the only place big enough. It would have ended up irreparably hairy, and Cat would not have forgiven me. Ever.

Do you see where we are going here?

Today I had two hours and a 13 by 15 stretch of hardwood. I cut out my dress.

It's a step forward.

The Handsome Husband Sweater

Even though I'm going to be sewing for the next big while, I still need a knitting project to use up all those waiting times: doctors' offices, traffic jams, kid lessons, etc. The yarn that HH wanted was suddenly on sale at $1.49 per skein. It's Knitpick's Telemark in a lovely Rosemary green.(You might say Army green if you were vindictive. It's the same color.) This is 100% Peruvian Highland Wool sport weight. Hand wash, dry flat. I was strongly recommending the same yarn that I used for the previous sweater, of which I will say nothing at the present time as it is a present. I recommended it because it is Superwash Merino wool: soft and machine washable. Lovely to work with. But not on sale.
So I got the Telemark.
You have to order when it's on sale or the price will go up.

So I had 30 skeins of Rosemary colorway wool sitting there looking accusingly at me in its wirey way and nothing on the needles. Thirty skeins can do a lot of accusing. I knit my swatches in the pattern (5 sts per the inch), worked out the design, and cast on.

I now have almost 3 inches knitted of the back. The back is going to be 5" longer than the front, so I couldn't really put ribbing on the bottom, so I left it un-ribbed. The diamond pattern makes a lovely scalloped edge that HH may or may not object to. If he does, I'll add an I-cord border.

I've also collected the bamboo yarn into a bag, ready for skeining, washing, drying and straightening. The pattern I want to make is called Lace Saddle Tee by Lisa S. Rowe in the Interweave Knits Summer 2010 Issue, page 95 (instructions) and page 91 (picture).

But that's for later. I've got a pair of pink socks to get done before October.

The Bamboo Sweater Is No More

A couple of years ago I found this delightful bamboo yarn. It was pretty pricey, so I bought one skein each time I happened to be in that particular store, until I had . . . quite a few skeins stored up. I picked a short-sleeved lace shirt to make, but when I actually started it, I couldn't get the stitch count to come out right. I must have been doing the yarn-overs wrong or something. Anyway, I changed to a long-sleeved v-neck sweater from my Knitters Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd.

I knit on that thing for a year. The ends of yarn were joined inside the skeins with tiny little joins. The v-neck wasn't centered. The body was too short. The sleeves were too long. After one wearing, some of the ends came untied and started to unravel big holes in the sweater. In frustration, I let it sit for a year. Then I decided I didn't want to waste all that yarn and money, so I unraveled the whole thing.

I finished today.

I have another short-sleeved sweater pattern that I want to make with it. Bamboo is a good yarn for a summer item, so it will be perfect. I just have to remember where I saw that pattern. I think it was an Interweave Knits magazine. This year. And I have to put the yarn into hanks and soak them and hang them up to dry with light weights to get the kinks out.

First I'll make the bridesmaid dresses.