Stress

I don't talk about my day job very much here, partly because it has nothing to do with my knitting (aside from when co-workers are expecting and need knitted baby things), and partly because it's just good sense not to give tons of details about what's going on in the office. However, recently my job did start affecting this blog because my workload - thanks to the poor planning of others - became abso-friggin'-lutely HYUUUGE. Generally I am very good about being sanguine about office stress and leaving it at the office, but around late January/early February, things became truly ridiculous and the stress started to follow me home. Consequently, there wasn't a whole lot of blogging going on.

However, this is not to say that there wasn't any knitting going on. In fact, there was rather a lot of that, which was great, since it brought balance and sanity to a brain that kind of needed those things. :) I just didn't feel up to talking about it all.

But now that the crises (yeah, plural) have passed, things are exponentially better and I've finally gotten around to taking pictures. I can't show you everything, because some of what I've been working on needs to stay secret for the moment, but here's how the knitting is coming along.

Undergrowth for Jenn

When last we looked at this, I had emailed my friend to ask her if she liked the way the colours looked, and I was waiting for the verdict. Well, she emailed me directly and commented on the blog, and the result was a resounding "hell, yes", :) so I got started. I've since gotten a little sidetracked by other stuff (see below), so I'm not quite finished yet, but I have started the decreases and I'm pretty pleased with how it's going:



Although, in typical 'me' fashion, after having spent so much time upsizing it, I'm now worried that it's too big. But I'm going to try to have faith in the measurements I took of the hat liner that's supposed to go underneath this thing and ignore my nagging doubts.

Balaclava for moi

I don't think I made any more progress on this since my last blog entry, but at least I now have a picture:

Gryffindor Tie for DD1

In further preparation for the Harry Potter-themed birthday party coming up in late March for one of DD1's classmates, I found the perfect self-striping yarn, and a really good-looking tie pattern: Men's Bias-Knit Tie, from KnitPicks. I'm making it smaller than the pattern calls for because DD1 is of course not a full-size adult male. :) I don't know how well that'll work out, but I guess we'll see! I haven't gotten too far yet, though:

Secret thing

And then, in the middle of all this, I got an idea for a design that I just had to chart...and try out...and buy yarn to make the prototype for...and start the prototype...and...and...my goodness, I'm terrible at delayed knitting gratification! I want to submit this to a publication, so I'm not going to say much more, but I'm very optimistic about how it's going to turn out.

Semi-secret thing

So last weekend I headed out to my LYS to buy the yarn for the secret thing, and I took DD2 with me. June, the owner, hadn't seen her for a while and was delighted with how much she'd grown and, I think, her generally charming ways. :) She asked my kid what her favourite colour was (purple), and next thing I know, the child is carrying around three balls of purple "gift yarn" and June is suggesting that Mummy could make something for her out of it.

Okay, then!

I figured, since June was nice enough to give me yarn, that the least I could do was design a pattern she could sell (if she wanted to) in her shop. So I made something up. When I'm done, I'll print out some copies for the LYS, and will also make it available for online purchase here. I'm not going to give too much of it away just yet, but I can tell you that...



...parts of it look like a Muppet made the ultimate sacrifice so my child could have a new garment. ;)

Shoulds

As pathetic as it is that I'm getting distracted by new and pretty patterns, I've been doing pretty darn well getting through my list of "should"s lately. For one thing, I am making some progress on my balaclava. Not a lot, but I am fairly close to dividing for the face hole.

For another thing, I took only two days to check another item off my list. Last year, I made my Mom a Snapdragon Tam for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I made the medium size (because she has a medium head-size), it was ridiculously large on her. After a while, she realised it was so bad that she really couldn't wear it, and asked me if it was possible to re-do it in the smaller size. Of course, I could. :)

So Sunday morning I cast on, and by Monday evening when we were over at my parents' place, I was able to finish, weave in the ends, and block it on one of her dinner plates. I told her it would be ready to wear once it was dry, and could she please take a picture of it and send it to me. The picture will have to wait, because she hasn't had a chance to do that yet, but she tells me that the revised version fits bee-yew-tifully and she loves it a lot. Yay! :)

So really, when you think about it, I've been quite responsible. Throw in that Gryffindor vest I did for DD1, and my grandmother's 95th birthday present, and I actually start looking kind of like a machine. :)

Therefore, I'm not feeling that much guilt about the prospect of indulging in something new. Especially since the something new can actually be manipulated into becoming something from my "should"s list.

I mentioned last time that one of my most wonderfullest friends had asked me to make her a hat. She has a really neat "liner" type thing to wear for the winter that is deliciously warm, but since it is a liner, it's meant to be on the inside of headwear, and it looks tremendously dorky worn just by itself. Since it already provides enough warmth on its own, all she needs is something fairly thin over top that looks purty, so she asked if I could make something like that for her.

Well yes, yes I could. :) I found the PERFECT yarn for her. And I mean perfect - I saw it and it just screamed her. And as a total plus, it was on sale. :) I couldn't decide which of two colours to get for her, so I bought two balls of each and let her decide, figuring I'd make her socks out of the unused yarn, or something:

(She chose the purple one.)

But then I got to thinking...how would this work up if I used both colours to make Undergrowth? I'd have to make the hat bigger than the biggest size given, to fit the liner underneath, but I figured I'd just expand the number of stitches so I can do six repeats of the chart each round instead of five. That'd make the overall shape of the hat less smooth all the way up, but I think that's going to be a good thing - I don't want the shape of the liner underneath showing very much, as it certainly would under a snug-fitting, sleek-lined hat. I was concerned that there won't be a huge contrast between the two colours in some spots, but I figured I'd just have to cast on and give it a whirl in order to see. (Shucky darn!)

I kind of love it a whole lot. There are, however, a few issues:

• It's about a quarter-inch too short. (The liner is 8 1/8" high, the resulting hat is barely 8" high.)
• The circumference is far too small. (The liner is 24" around, the resulting hat is 19" around.)
• The contrast between the two colours isn't pronounced enough to make the pattern really "pop".

The sizing problems can be fixed pretty easily - I can use 3.25mm needles, do 7 repeats of the pattern per round, and add a braid or two at the bottom. The contrast problem, however, may take some doing. I think if I'm strategic about which sections of the variegation of the turquoise I match up with which sections of the variegation of the purple, the pattern will pop a lot more, but I think there are still going to be a few spots where the contrast is pretty bland. However, it's still just so pretty, I can't get over it.

All these modifications, however, are pointless to start experimenting with unless my friend actually likes the basic look of the hat. I have emailed her with pictures and am awaiting her verdict. If she likes it, I will rip out what I've got and re-do it with the modifications I think will work. If she doesn't like it, I will rip it out anyway because I still need the yarn. :) Either way, I don't consider knitting this first experiment as a waste of my time because it was amazingly fun, and it only took about two days. I highly recommend this pattern, it's terrific.

Living in the now

As a nod to the New Year, I am going to pause in my catch-up of the stuff I've been doing in the past few months, and show you the stuff I've been working on lately.

Firstly, I started making myself a balaclava. I need one because, although my winter coat this year has a hood that does up very snugly to block most of the wind from reaching my (terribly sensitive and wussy) ears, an extra lining of protection for my ears would be a smart thing to have. Also, the collar of the coat comes up only to about my chin, so I need something to cover up my nose and mouth, too. This hasn't been a big deal so far because the winter hasn't been very serious so far, but, as it always does, it will get very cold and windy over the next few months and I want to be comfortable on the (inevitable) days when my commuter train is delayed.

Nikol Lohr's From Russia, with Love pattern will take care of both these requirements very nicely. I'm using some of the pinkish-red Angora Extra in my stash, doubled up. It's looking really good:

As you can see, the cable is coming out very nicely, and it feels bee-yew-tifully soft. Unfortunately, I am struggling working with the angora, as it keeps shedding as I knit, flying up into my nose and my mouth. This does not bode well for having it as a nose- and mouth- warmer! So I'm not sure how successfully this project will turn out.

However, it's been put on the back-burner temporarily, as I am now concentrating on making Anna Dalvi's Ironwrought Scarf. This is a beautiful pattern that I think could be written more clearly, but it's still quite comprehensible. I got off to a very good start right after Christmas:

And I'm now chugging along on the main pattern:

The yarn is Meilenweit 50 Seta/Cashmere from Lana Grossa from my stash, which is a really nice 65% merino/15% silk/16% nylon/4% cashmere blend.

The scarf is going to be for my grandmother, who turns 95 soon, and we are having a party for her this weekend. I'm adjusting the pattern slightly so that it's a bit wider and a bit shorter. (The finished length given in the pattern is 80". My grandmother is probably around 4 foot 9. No woman of that height needs an 80"-long scarf! I'm aiming for somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50-55 inches instead.)

Shouldn't be a problem having the whole thing done for the weekend. I hope not, anyway!