They know what I like

So, as is traditional here on the blog, I present a visual of most of my knitting-related "haul" from the holiday season:

• from the daughters: two balls of pink "Zara" from Filatura di Crosa, a DK superwash merino
• from DH: two balls of "Clown" from Marks & Kattens, a cotton/wool/nylon blend sock yarn, self-striping, in white and dark pink
• from my mom: two balls of "Sock it to me 4 Ply" from elann.com, a superwash wool/nylon blend sock yarn, in aubergine
• from my mom: two balls of "Pure Bamboo" from elann.com, a 100% bamboo sock yarn, in wine
• from my mom: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's latest book, "Free Range Knitter"
• from my mom: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's "Never Not Knitting" 2009 calendar
• from my mom: the fall 2008 issue of Vogue Knitting International
• (not pictured because I'm an idiot and forgot about it when I gathered everything up for the picture-taking) from my brother: Nicky Epstein's "Knitting on the Edge" book
• (also not pictured) from my brother: Nicky Epstein's "Knitting over the Edge" book

Obviously, I'm quite happy. I was, however, pretty confused as to why my husband got me white-and-dark-pink sock yarn. Pink is not a colour I am particularly fond of, and he knows this. Getting pink yarn from my daughters was not a surprise, since my older daughter chose the colour she liked best, and that means I get pink. :) From my husband, though, yes, somewhat surprising. It turns out that he totally thought, looking at the yarn in the shop, that it was red and white, and therefore assumed that I would adore it. He was kind of distressed when I broke it to him that the hue was really pink, and offered to exchange it. But I told him no - the yarn had already inspired me with a design idea which I'll talk more about a little later on.

Another surprise was that the sock yarn my mom gave me was originally intended to be actual socks! Unfortunately, she just couldn't get comfortable with the small size of the crochet hook which was required for the thin weight of the sock yarn, so she gave up, unravelled everything she'd done, and gave me the yarn straight up instead. ("Bartender! Sock yarn, straight up, with a twist!") This was further proof to me that the woman needs to get herself a Ravelry account - she could simply have gone in, searched for crochet sock patterns in a yarn weight she was more comfortable with, and whammo! Patterns. She gave me a tolerant smile when I mentioned this, but I may have managed to intrigue her. We'll see.

My brother bought the Nicky Epstein books from my LYS, and he said that when he went there to shop, he was looking pretty grungy. Kathy and June (the owner) were both there at the time, and evidently looked like they were wondering what he was doing there...until he said, "I think you know my sister?" and identified me by name. :) These were the magic words which proved he was in the right place, and it sounds like they had a grand old time picking out gifts for me. (They got it right...I love the books, thanks guys!)

But the knitting-related haul was not limited to me - I also gave yarn to my husband. To explain the significance behind this specific yarn, I need to give you the back story. Does anybody remember the scarf he designed and made for me? It's really nice, nothing too fancy, nothing too challenging, cable-wise, and it's totally unisex. For some time we've been talking about how he should write up the pattern instructions and sell them. After my husband's mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, I mentioned that I wanted to design something and sell the pattern as a fundraiser for a charity such as The Lung Association. He was incredibly touched, but was adamant that the pattern which should be sold as the fundraiser should be his scarf pattern, which totally made more sense.

So for Christmas, I gave him three skeins of Cascade 220 in a really nice, masculine grey. He was really, really happy about them, and loves the feel of the yarn so much that he started waxing poetic about it and telling me that he now understands the addictive qualities of yarn and how people end up with huge stashes.

Muahahahaha. And his conversion is complete. I win. (As long as our individual stashes are clearly delineated, of course.)

So on Boxing Day I sat down and interpreted his pattern notes into chart form, and we started hashing out how the final pattern should work (the original scarf used some unorthodox methods of cable crossing - such as doing it on wrong-side rows - that I recommended he change). I did some swatching to show him how things could work, and last night he cast on and started it up. (I did offer to do it for him to make things go faster, but he's really into this yarn!) I'm really excited about this project! I'll definitely post about it here when it's available for sale. DH is kind of a slow knitter, though, so don't hold your breath. :)

Toddler socks for DD2

I don't think I mentioned that I finally found these socks! There were unfortunately more ends to weave in than I remembered, but after one commuter train trip, they were all taken care of, and I had a lovely pair of finished socks. DD2 really likes them ("Mummy? Ocks!"), which I love.

And speaking of appreciated Christmas gifts...they all were. :) DD1 loved her socks, DH adored his, BIL laughed out loud at his AFK hat and plonked it on his head right away, and I got a very appreciative thank-you card from DD1's teacher for the wristwarmers and toque. (It was of course addressed to DD1, but since it talked about how much she appreciated all the effort and thoughtfulness that went into handmaking the gift, I took that as an expression of gratitude to me. :)

Fjalar for moi

This continues apace...the ribbing is done and I'm now working on the stocking stitch stretch. I did freak out a bit when I realised that I'd have to fairly precisely figure out when to stop knitting in the round for the armscyes (I'm definitely not steeking this thing) - Lavold never seems to include schematics in her patterns, which makes adjustments way harder - but I think I've got it vaguely worked out now. I'm also going to add about three inches to the overall length so that it's as long as I want it.

Even with the increased length, though, I'm hopeful that I'll have at least three balls left over. Here's where I am now, and I haven't run out of my third ball yet:



So I think the odds are somewhat decent, especially since the neckline is a low V-neck. What I want to do with the leftover yarn is a sweater for my older daughter - the colour will be devastatingly good on her, and there's a cable pattern in one of my books that I've been wanting to try for a long time. Stay tuned.

Summer top for DD2

So what's a knitter to do with sock yarn that's in a colour she's not wild about?



Make something for her kid, of course! This is a cotton/wool/nylon blend with the cotton feeling very dominant, so I think it would be fine for a summer top. I'm swatch-experimenting right now with a smocking-ish pattern from one of my stitch libraries, which I've modified to better suit my purposes. So far, I'm cautiously pleased.

What I'm hoping is that 100g of this stuff is enough to make a 2-year size, which means a) that it'll fit my kid; and b) that I can do up a pattern for sizes ranging from 3 months to 2 years and still only require that people have enough yarn as would make an adult pair of socks. I love it when I can do that - it opens up whole new possibilities for people for their sock yarn stashes.

I'm back

Not that I actually went anywhere, but man, that was a pretty long blog post drought, eh? No particular reason for it that I can give - no major stresses, lots of knitting was getting done - I just wasn't posting. As always, my apologies for the delay. But on the plus side, I now have a lot to talk about!

First up, yarn acquisitions. I haven't actually bought any yarn lately, but my birthday is coming up soon, so my fantastic MIL gave me my present this past weekend when we were there for Thanksgiving. We have...

A skein of Alpaca Sox from Classic Elite. I have been instructed that its destiny is to become socks for my elder daughter. This yarn was very specifically picked out for that purpose by the intended sock recipient when she was at my MIL's two weekends ago for a sleepover. They went to the LYS there, and my MIL told DD1 to pick out sock yarn that she liked. The child made an immediate beeline for this. More about how it's knitting up further on in this post.

A nice booklet of Sirdar patterns revolving around their "Escape" yarn.

Ten balls of Sirdar Escape yarn. My MIL was very specific that the yarn has to be used to make something for ME. That is the rule. :) She bought the book pictured above because she liked one of the patterns in it and wanted me to use this yarn for it, but unfortunately she can't remember anymore which pattern it was. So she said to just pick anything from the book that I like, or any other pattern I've been hankering after. I've been giving the matter rather a bit of thought, and I think I'm probably going to go with Elsebeth Lavold's "Fjalar" sweater.

Needless to say, there was much squee-ing when I unwrapped all of this.

For my birthday, I am treating myself to the entire week off work, starting this Monday. This means, since I will be seeing my children on Wednesday morning, that I am planning to hit the Lettuce Knit SnB that evening! I'm very excited and I hope to see lots of my friends there.

In other awesome news, I've been doing some targeted "group" advertising on Ravelry this month for my fundraising pattern, the KWB/TSF Hat, and it's definitely working! So far I'm netting over twelve times what I'm paying in advertising, which is a very good deal I must say. I'm thrilled. I can't wait to be able to gather up all the profits at the end of the year and send them out to MSF.

Alpaca socks for DD1

The presents were given to me at lunch. Immediately after lunch, I put DD2 down for a nap and DD1 went out with her dad and other assorted relatives to a nearby park to enjoy the glorious weather. I wasted no time at all, and balled up my new skein of sock yarn, much to the amusement of one of my BILs. By the time we packed up to go, I'd pretty much finished about two-thirds of sock #1. At this point I've got one sock done and am over halfway up the leg of the second sock. It's really, really lovely stuff to work with and is giving a really neat diagonal striping effect. Unfortunately, I can't show you any pictures because I'm (as usual) using my new sock pattern, which hasn't been published yet.

There are 100g in the skein, so it's probably enough to make two pairs of socks for DD1. However, she has selflessly announced that I can make the second pair in a smaller size for her younger sister. I tell ya, I don't deserve this child. She's so awesome.

Toddler socks for DD2

The sock jag continues...I decided to use up the extra yarn from this sock project by making some socks for my younger daughter. I got them all knitted up in very short order, but I still have to weave in the ends on sock #2. Again, I must disappoint in the photos department because I'm using my own pattern. I'm sorry - I do promise a deluge of sock shots once the thing is published!

Turquoise socks for DD1

It seemed to take forever, but I finally finished the super-long leg of sock #1. I am now trying to find the intestinal fortitude to cast on for sock #2.

Log Cabin blanket

More insignificant progress here and there.

Wee baby socks

I got back into these about a week ago, and finished them off. And oh, they are so darn cute. Small things always are, aren't they? I hate to tell you once again that you're going to have to wait for photos...but you're going to have to wait for photos.

Endpaper Mitts

A few weeks ago, the people who are in charge of such things in my office building decided that the increasingly cold weather was the PERFECT time to start blasting the air conditioning. Seriously. And did I mention that one of the vents is right above my chair? Yeah. It's been fun.

This of course motivated me to finish my Endpaper Mitts so I could prevent my fingers (which are rather vital to my job, what with the constant typing on the computer and all) from freezing. Unfortunately, the Knitting Fates decided that this was the right time to hit me with a big case of Knitting Stupidity. I started making every damn mistake possible. At first, it was actually going very well - I just kept going on the 1x1 rib that I'd already started with mitt #2, easy peasy. Then I switched to the main pattern, following Chart B, immediately increasing for the thumb. I was about halfway up the thumb increases when I realised that I was supposed to start with Chart A, and not start any kind of shaping for about four or five inches. FINE. I ripped back.

So I started in on Chart A. It was going okay - I was screwing up the pattern here and there and having to tink back more frequently than I would have preferred, but definite progress was being made nonetheless. I got to the correct starting point for Chart B and started increasing for the thumb again. And once again, it wasn't until I was about halfway up the thumb when I realised something was wrong. Like, really wrong. Like, hey-this-mitt-seems-really-small wrong. Like, I-have-no-freakin'-idea-how-I'll-get-it-onto-my-hand small. I checked the instructions...yeah. I was supposed to switch to a larger needle size after the ribbing.

There are no words.

I ripped back to the end of the ribbing and started again.

A few rows in, I realised I'd forgotten to switch needle sizes AGAIN.

At this point, I think the only thing stopping me from throwing in the towel (or, more accurately, throwing the glove into my fireplace and turning it on) was that it was still freezing in my office.

I finally managed to get the main pattern going PROPERLY. I still kept making a lot of pattern errors (including a few that required surgery about six rows beneath where I was, that sucked pretty hard), but at least I was now making a glove that would actually fit me.

Finally, FINALLY, I got it all done, and...



I really like them.

(Thanks to my husband for taking that shot. I tried really hard to take it myself, using various stick-like objects around the house in my mouth to press the 'take a photo' button, but without success.)

I especially really like that I did all of the colourwork parts holding both strands in my left hand. That is a new and tricky skill that I still need to work on to get fast at, but I think it does improve my colourwork speed, and I'm really glad I learned how to do it.