vacation knitting, in sweater form

Perhaps you were wondering what I've been doing for the past month and a half. The answer: knitting sweaters!

For awhile I was just knitting on the Bauhaus sweater (Ravelry link) for Snowflake. This is a big deal project for me! It's the first time I've done 2-color knitting with more than two colors, by which I mean, different colors on different rows.

I knit the torso.





Then I did my first steek!! Snowflake took pictures.



Then I picked up and did the first sleeve.



And repeated again for the second sleeve.





...But my progress stalled when the Sarlacc (also known as our couch) ate one of the needle tips. Whoops. Here's a picture of it eating some other stuff.



Meanwhile, I also started on the Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie, also known as Sweater 2.



I did eventually buy a zipper for it, but I haven't gotten thread to sew it on with. Other than that, it's done.

I also started on Mr. Greenjeans for Li-Mei, also known as Sweater 3.



It's waiting for a button, and then it'll be done.

Oh, and I finally finished my wedding stockings... in time for my wedding! There are better pictures than this, I promise, but we haven't gotten them from the photographers yet.



Plus I made two tiny socks that Snowflake and I carried during the wedding... to prevent cold feet! :)

Oh, and I made a pair of wristwarmers for Kyra's sister. I don't have any pictures of them, but they look just like Kyra's.

Now I'm working on an Enid cardigan. I love the insides of the hems!!





It's out of Classic Elite Fresco. This yarn is really really nice. I love it. I think it's the 10% angora.

And some Houdini socks out of Malabrigo Sock in Velvet Grapes. Some crazy pooling!







Ok, so I didn't actually read the pattern. I sort of skimmed it like a year ago to get the basic idea, which I thought was awesome. Speaking of a year ago, I can't wait for the new Twist Collective!!

blanket blanket blanket

The last few weeks have been aaaall about this wedding. What? No, not my wedding. The wedding of my dear friends Nat and Dori.

Step 1: Knit them a blanket.



Yeah, Snowflake discovered that he could get under the blanket when I wasn't even done with it, and he stayed under it after I bound off. I eventually wrest it from his grasp and sent it to Nat and Dori.







...Eventually.



This was the Saffron Cables blanket by Kathy Zimmerman, originally from the fall 2006 issue of Interweave Knits -- the same issue that brought us the Swallowtail Shawl and the Father and Son Socks, both of which I've made. It was a good issue.

Step 2: Get to San Diego a solid week before the wedding and help Dori and her family out. Talk about CRAZY.

Step 3: Get home and realize how comparatively little I have to do for my wedding. Relax.

I've also knit a few other things since my last blog post, but mainly it's been all about the blanket.

This is a shawl I made for the (former) head of the linguistics department, who retired this year.

Blocking...



Done.




This was the Heartland Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark, who brought us the Swallowtail.

And I also test-knitted a shawl for Kristin Omdahl. I bring you the unblocked Wagtail Wrap.



Yup, I'm sure it looked better after blocking.

Meanwhile, I've been working on a pair of fingerless mitts for Kyra's sister. They're a replica of Kyra's, more or less. :) Pictures later!

photo dump

Well. Apparently I haven't posted photos in a long time. Fortunately, I haven't been knitting that much in that time. So here we go...

As you know, I finished my Riding to Avalon hoodie. Then, my roommate Emerson helped me take some pictures of it.




I also knit a gorgeous pair of Maelstrom socks from the first Twist Collective. It was my first Twist pattern to actually make (rather than just drool over) and I could not be more pleased. This is a truly gorgeous Cookie A. pattern. These are out of Dream in Color Smooshy in Visual Purple. It was my first experience with Smooshy, and I just loved them. Also, the color is way more gorgeous in person than it is on the Dream in Color website, which is really a good thing to know. Also, I would like to rejoice that WEBS now carries Dream in Color! Yay!




I also made a pair of socks for Snowflake. These are out of Knit Picks Essential in gray, and they are the Father and Son Socks pattern from some past IK. They were simple but not too simple and fun to knit, and I am very glad I did them. I think they look great on him. And I loved the yarn. I'm considering having it be my go-to yarn for solid sock yarn.




I also made a pair of legwarmers for me. This is the Mosey pattern from Knitty. They're out of Cascade Eco Wool, most of the leftovers from my dad's Christmas sweater. I love them, but I don't really know how to wear them. The pom-poms are probably my favorite part.




After that, I made Gytha, my second Twist pattern. Again, I just loved this. Possibly the most exciting part of this was the border: you have to pick up a bunch of stitches, and then just bind them off in the round. Not only does it do a LOT to make the (essentially) stockinette not curl (after blocking), it also looks really great! I was worried about the gap that occurs at the beginning of the round, but TechKnitter's awesome instructions told me how to make that gap totally seamless. It looks great! I just love this sweater.




I also FINALLY got Emerson to pose for some decent gansey pictures. I think the pictures are pretty decent indeed.




Since then, most of my time was taken up with knitting an Aeolian shawl from the current Knitty. This thing took forever. First of all, it has a ton of beads, which really slow things down. The beads also cut down on knitting time because they made the project non-portable. Also, the rows get longer and longer, which is a difficult thing and I had almost 1000 stitches near the end. Also, I ran out of beads and had to go get more. Finally, I ran out of yarn. I made this out of Silver Moon Farm fingering that I got at Rhinebeck in colorway Smoky Plum. This yarn was so great, and even better, I was counting it as sock yarn. It was about 1100 yards, and I juuust ran out. I had about 20 stitches left to bind off. Fortunately, my knitting buddy Eleanor had bought the exact same yarn and was happy to let me use a tiny bit of it to finish my bind off! Yaaaaaay!!!! I used 9-stitch nupps and my only mod was that I just did the bind off normally, not holding two strands. If you were to do exactly the same as me, using 7-stitch nupps and the alternative border, I'm pretty sure this could be enough yarn. Some pictures follow.






Soooo... now I'm working on a couple things, mostly surprises that I can't talk about. I'm also doing a mohair shawl test knit for Kristin again, so that's working.

Oh yeah, I should mention that I just realized that I can write comments on my own blog entries replying to other comments, and those comment people might be able to hear me. Yay! This means I will start answering those questions I get in comments.

And phew! I'm sleepy. Good night!

I love Twist Collective!

The new Twist Collective is up!!

Twist Collective has done so many things right this time.

1. LOTS of guy patterns. I love them guy patterns!
2. The most adorable babies ever wearing super adorable baby clothes.
3. Some awesome socks.
4. Some stashbusters.
5. Awesome fair isle.
6. Sweaters I want.
7. Lastly, someone has the same philosophy of knitting as I do and has published it in this prestigious online magazine.

I'm not that pleased with the allover-lace sweaters. I'm just not really sure I like that.

My heart was only broken once in the course of looking at this magazine. You see, I know a very cute toddler by the name of Alina, and I have been looking for something that I can make her out of the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Alina colorway. I think Little Liza Jane is this pattern, but sadly the Alina colorway has been discontinued. Weep!

In other news, I got yarn for Gytha yesterday
and am eager to start. In fact, I got $77.95 worth of yarn for $42.36. Thank you, WEBS, for having awesome discounts, and GL, for giving me an awesome gift certificate!!

counting: sweaters and socks

Today Snowflake commented that he thought I had made more socks than sweaters. So I did a count.

Of course, it's not true. I have knit more socks than I sweaters. By my count*, I've knit 33 socks, and I've only knit 16 sweaters**. (Why the uneven number? Well, I'm more than halfway through a pair of socks right now, you see.) So hah! I've knit more socks than sweaters.

Of course, what Snowflake meant was that I've knit more pairs of socks than sweaters. I've knit 16 pairs of socks, and I've knit 16 sweaters. So yeah, it's pretty close. But judging by the way this last sock is going, I should be up to 17 in the very near future.

By the way, my Riding to Avalon hoodie is dry and I'm wearing it right now! Yaaay!

*It wasn't that hard to do the count. Yes, I've been knitting since I was 6 or so, but I haven't been knitting sweaters or socks that long. I knit my first pair of socks near the end of my freshman year of college, and I knit my first sweater near the end of my senior year of college. So all my sweaters and almost all my socks are on ravelry.

**To be a sweater, it had to have sleeves. Vests and sleeveless tops don't count. Baby sweaters do count. I've knit two baby sweaters, so if you don't want to count those, we're down to 14. I've got a number of sweaters at near-completion, and I didn't count those.

sock thoughts and a happy Ravelry story

As some of you know, I'm a sweater knitter, not really a sock knitter. Despite this, I have recently started thinking about sock knitting. For one thing, Snowflake discovered that he loves handknit socks. (He recently called his one pair of handknit socks his "reward for doing laundry".) For another, I joined this Sock Marathon KAL where we try to knit down our sock stash between February 1 and August 1. Now, I don't have that much sock stash, so after I counted it all I decided to try not to increase the sock stash by August 1. So far I haven't been doing too well. Here's how it has gone.

Initial count:
1 pair's worth Araucania Ranco Multy in purples
1 pair's worth Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in Lenore (black)
1 pair's worth Dream in Color Smooshy in In Vino Veritas
1 pair's worth Malabrigo Sock in Velvet Grapes
1 pair's worth Maple Creek Yarn Bamboo in Forest
1 big shawl's worth Silver Moon Farm Fingering in Smoky Plum
2 pairs' worth Zitron Trekking XXL in blue stripes

Bought since February 1:
1 pair's worth Dream in Color Smooshy in Visual Purple
2 pairs' worth Zitron Trekking Pro Natura in off-white

On its way:
1 pair's worth Knit Picks Essential in gray

Knit since February 1:
1 Maelstrom sock in Smooshy Visual Purple. The second sock has been started.

I decided to use the DiC for the Maelstrom sock for practical reasons. For one thing, this beautiful semi-solid is gorgeous, and yet does not fight with the fairly simple lace pattern. For another, the DiC is in one big hank. For me, this means it is not conducive to socks two-at-a-time. The Maelstrom sock pattern is also not conducive to two-at-a-time, since it is sort of chart-heavy and there are different charts for each sock. Put those things together, and I am very pleased with my decision to combine this pattern with this yarn. Sadly, I probably won't have pictures to show you until the second one is done, but it shouldn't be too terribly long.

Now I need to think about what to do with the rest of this sock yarn.

The Trekking Pro Natura is for my wedding stockings. Perhaps you guys can help me decide! Which should I make: option a or option b?

I bought the Smooshy In Vino Veritas with the intent of using it for Jared Flood's Druid Mittens. I still think this is a good idea.

For the STR in Lenore, I'm considering buying the Lenore pattern and actually using that. I've heard it's a great pattern.

I bought the Maple Creek Bamboo with Vinnland in mind. I still think this is a good idea too, although I keep forgetting about it.

Since I have so much of this Trekking XXL and since it's self-striping, I think that the best idea would probably be some striped knee socks... or however tall it goes, anyway. I'll go toe-up and just keep going until I run out of yarn.

And finally, I plan to make a pair of gray socks for Snowflake with the KP Essential. I have a few pattern ideas for this one too.

So the only stuff that doesn't have a plan is the Malabrigo Sock and the Ranco Multy. I do really want to try out the Houdini sock idea, and the best way to do this would probably be to do a plain one with a lovely multicolored yarn. Perfect! Maybe I'll try out the first pair two-at-a-time with the Malabrigo, since it is neatly wound into two balls due to the awesome knot that they put halfway through, and figure out what to do with the Ranco Multy later.

Phew!

I promised you a happy Ravelry story! Here's what happened. I was knitting on my Riding to Avalon hoodie hood, when I discovered to my dismay that I was about to run out of yarn. (It's Queensland Kathmandu DK, I got it on closeout at WEBS, and they don't have any left.) I was sad, but hopeful that I would find a solution. I went onto Ravelry and searched people's stashes for this yarn in this color. I was delighted to find that not only did people have this yarn, but they had it in the same dye lot as well! Yay!

I found one person (AmandaCathleen) who had used a small amount of the yarn for colorwork and had 4/5 of a ball left. I figured she didn't want it anymore, and I was right! I gave her a mere $7 through PayPal and two days later, the ball of yarn was in my mailbox! So great!! Since then I have used this ball of yarn to finish knitting the sweater, and it's now downstairs blocking!





What with the fact that the sweater is soaked in these pictures, the flash, and the fact that I'm generally not a good photographer, you can't really tell what's going on. But I'm loving the buttons!

And no, I don't really know how to block a hood.

this hat is fabulous

Well, some things have happened.

For one, the Turn a Square hat that I'd been wearing all winter? Lost it. :( I think I left it on the bus.

We are now more than two weeks into February, which is the first month of this 6-month sock yarn destashing marathon. I haven't been doing so well. I've bought 3 pairs of socks worth of yarn, and I've knit... nothing. Yeah, not so good.

However, I did finish the Jabberwocky socks back in January! Yay! They're the ever-popular Leyburn socks pattern in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock lightweight in the absolutely gorgeous Jabberwocky colorway. They're much darker in real life, I had a terrible time trying to capture the colors with my camera.




Also, I knit a lovely cowl for my friend Aynat. The pattern is called Balsam, and it's a lovely simple spiral lace. She wanted to be able to pull it up over her nose, so I substituted 2x2 ribbing for the garter stitch edges. The yarn is Berroco Palace, which is just a dream to work with. 50/50 wool and silk, worsted, squishy, gorgeous. I loved this quick little knit.





I may have made a trip to the yarn store on Valentine's day. My friend Wendell needed moral support, I swear! I ended up walking out of there with some off-white Trekking Pro Natura, hopefully for my hypothetical wedding stockings.



I also made off with a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy in Visual Purple to be friends with my In Vino Veritas that was already in my stash.



I also grabbed Knitter's Workshop by EZ (can't believe I didn't own any of her books before this!) and some reeeally pretty buttons that are intended for my Riding to Avalon. Oh yeah, my Riding to Avalon is almost done. I'm about halfway through the hood right now.




And finally, I picked up one skein of Malabrigo Worsted in what is possibly the most gorgeous colorway ever: Oro y Vino.



Yes, that was only half the skein. That's because I made the other half into a hat yesterday.



So fabulous!! I love this yarn and this hat. There are lots of pictures, but since I took them all myself, some of them are more successful than others.





But I think they all capture the colorway beautifully.




Oh yeah, and I finally got some pictures of Tom's Sheldon. Here he is, posing with my Silver Moon fingering weight.



And I finally took some pictures of my long-since-complete Central Park Hoodie.





I just bought the Maelstrom pattern from Twist Collective. I will knit some socks!