Getting stuff done

Hot on the heels of my Jayne Cupcake (glad you liked it, folksmith!) I made another teeny-tiny cupcake design with Carin's wedding in mind: a Dalek cupcake.

Not quite as evocative of its inspiration as the Jayne, but still cute, I think. This design is also free. You can get more information by following the link for it in the "My Designs" section on the left, or just go right ahead and...

I also got back to work on a cardigan I was making for DD2.

This was taken three days ago, but it's much further along now - I've finished the first sleeve, and the second sleeve is well begun. Alas, it looks like it's going to be huge for DD2, but that's okay, it'll probably fit DD1 and DD2 will still get it...eventually. :)

My big triumph, though, was the completion of my Elizabeth of York vest. I don't even know how long ago I started it, but it was already in progress when I started this blog about seven and a half years ago, so it's safe to say that it's about bleeping time I finished it up! And I'm quite pleased.

front




side




three-quarters




back

So this is great! If I can just finish DH's birthday socks and that cardigan, I'll be down to just...um...sixty WIPs.

Oh.

Grit and determination

When last we left my Elizabeth of York vest, I had screwed up the front border, and had determined that what I could probably do in order to avoid frogging and reknitting five rows (at close to 500 stitches per row) was to rip back and reknit just half of it; and hope that my gauge the second time around was approximately the same as it was the first time around.

This weekend, I worked up the fortitude to actually do it. Surprisingly, it didn't go too badly. My gauge was off, but fortunately in the too-much-yarn-leftover-gotta-tighten-up-a-bunch-of-stitches-after-the-fact way as opposed to the need-to-tighten-up-an-indeterminate-number-of-stitches-to-have-enough-yarn-to-finish way. That done, I continued on the seven further rows on the border, plus cast-off. It was a bit of a soul-destroying slog, but I did it. And as a reward, I finally have a front border where the diagonal motifs diagonalize in mirrored directions:

(That colour is wrong; the actual yarn is more wine-like.)

I'm really close to finishing it now! I believe all that's left is to sew the side seams, do the armhole edging, and weave in a bunch of ends. Yeehaw! Can't wait.

In other good news, I finished up the first sock for my husband's birthday (in my last blog entry about it I incorrectly referred to it as a Christmas gift) and got started on the second one. No pictures of that, though, since he's here, and bringing out the socks to photograph right in front of him would be something of a dead giveaway.

And, it being Mother's Day, I got some yarn. The downside is that it was picked out by the children (well, the two older ones, anyway), so it's synthetic and sparkly and pink:

But that's okay, it's very sweet, and I will probably use it to make a "Parfait" cardigan for DD3. The lovely thing is that the older girls picked it out specifically thinking that I would use it to make something for their baby sister. I really have fabulous kids - being their mom is the best thing ever.

Finally, thanks to those who commented on how much they liked the baby bonnet pattern! :) Congratulations are due back at Joanna, whose Marianne Dashwood Shawl is in the same issue as my bonnet and is very nice indeed! I love how it looks when it's worn crossed over and may well end up making one for myself. Of course, everything in that issue that I've seen so far looks fabulous. I still have to wait for my comp copy to come in, but my mom bought a digital copy as soon as it came out and I am planning to tide myself over by spending a heck of a lot of time poring over it when I visit my parents' house this week. Squee!

Photographic evidence

margieinmaryland asked if I could post pictures of the finished 'Muppet roadkill' blanket. Sure can! Shortly after my last blog post, I sat down to weave in all the ends, and it is done like dinnah:

But wait, there's more!

We have my husband's Christmas socks: (now a little more advanced than pictured here, I'm just casting off the top at this point)

We have my dad's Christmas hat, which I bought the yarn for on Wednesday, started on Thursday, and finished the knitting of today:

top




bottom




side

I know it looks weird. Trust me, I've made it before, it all comes together at the end. Yarn is Cascade 220, and I was terrified that I was going to run out of the one skein that I bought. The pattern is Morgan by Anne Kuo Lukito, and I made it in the large size because my mom told me my dad has a large head. The pattern suggests two different yarns, one of which comes in 160-yard skeins, and the other of which comes in 240-yard skeins. Two skeins of the first yarn will do for either the medium or large size, but for the second yarn, the medium size needs one skein and the large size needs two skeins. Which means that somewhere between 160 and 240 yards are needed for the medium size, and somewhere between 240 and 320 yards are needed for the large size. Now, as I said, I'd made this before, and that time, it used up about 205 yards in the medium size. Reading through the instructions, the large doesn't take that many more stitches than the medium, so I was hoping against hope that the Cascade's 220 yards would be enough. But I was nervous. And I was especially nervous when I wound this particular skein through my yarn meter and it came out to only about 205 yards.

But, as you can see, I made it. With just 2.5g leftover! WHEW.

I did make one modification to the pattern this time: I did a three-needle bind-off to join the two halves of the peak together instead of the recommended grafting. I didn't want to cut the yarn anywhere in case I didn't have enough and had to rip back to do some yarn-saving techniques; and also, I figured the peak insert would be less likely to slice through a three-needle bind-off over time than through a graft.

I also shot the current progress of my mom's stretchy cotton Christmas socks:

In fact, the only things I've been working on that I don't have shots of for you are the design I'm working on (magazines don't want to publish already-seen designs), which you'll have to trust me about when I say it's coming along really nicely; and the Elizabeth of York vest (because I am actively refusing to have anything to do with it until I work up the fortitude to rip back half of the front border to correct my error - which, you're absolutely right Carrie K, is better than ripping back the whole thing).

The agony and the ecstasy

First, the agony. (Why not get it out of the way first.)

Sunday evening I found myself with the unnerving problem of not having any current knitting I could take with me on our visit to my parents' place. My mom's Christmas socks? Well, obviously she'd be there; can't work on those in front of her. My daughter's birthday blanket? Ditto. My husband's birthday socks? See above. So I pulled out my Elizabeth of York vest, stuffed it into my bag, and went on my merry way.

Flash forward to right after all the kids had gone to bed (they sleep a little at my parents' so my husband and I can have a little bit of adult conversation time, and then we all go home), and I pulled out my knitting. I chatted and knitted, and, just as the time rolled around that we needed to start packing up, I triumphantly finished off the last row of the chart I was working on. I knew what I needed to do next, but just for giggles I peeked at the pattern...and got a very nasty shock.

Turns out that, for those five chart rows, I'd been doing the wrong thing.

Did I mention that each row has about 500 stitches in it?

Yeah.

To explain: this is a border that goes up one side of the vest's front, around the back of the neck, and then down the other side of the vest's front. And when I started doing the chart, I didn't bother reading past the "work row 1 of Chart D x number of times" part, because of course I knew what I needed to do. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, work Chart D across the entire border, it's so obvious, let's just get going," was my thought process.

Which of course is dead wrong. Because when you have the same texture pattern going all the way along the fronts of a vest and you wear the vest, the motif will be going in the same direction on both fronts, when what you want is for the motif one one side to be the mirror image of the motif on the other side. So although I had blithely done Chart D all across the damn row, what I was supposed to do was work Chart D to the middle stitch, knit the middle stitch, and then do Chart E (mirror image of Chart D) all the way across the second half.

(I'd wondered why I had an extra stitch at the end of the first row of Chart D.)

The next question was, of course, can I live with this imperfection? Me being me, the answer is no, not very well. But the thought of ripping out five rows of about 500 stitches is really, really daunting. I'd like to avoid it if at all possible. So...what to do?

I'm going to try unravelling just the wrong half of the stitches, and re-knitting them correctly, hoping like heck the whole time that my gauge is extremely similar to the first time I worked it so I don't either run out of yarn or end up with too much yarn at the end of it.

Wish me luck. (Although admittedly the prospect of doing this is so unpleasant that it's really likely I'll procrastinate for a long time on starting the fix.)

And now, the ecstasy. More than one, actually, which is nice.

I finished the edging on the Muppet Roadkill blanket! Just gotta weave in the ends.

I finally finished these socks!

To give you an idea of why I emphasized the word "finally" in the above sentence...I started these socks when DD2 was small, and finished them completely except for the weaving-in of the ends. I procrastinated on that so badly that they now fit DD3, who is four years DD2's junior.

Sad.

Also, I got to work on a new design idea. This took a very unexpected twist when I saw how the fabric of it was knitting up and decided to make a completely different kind of garment out of it from what I'd originally intended. I really like what I've come up with, already have a pattern writeup pretty much ready to go, and I know where I'm going to submit it. I just have to wait for the issue I have in mind to open up for submissions. So that's a fourth design either submitted or more-or-less ready to be submitted. Now onto #5...

And in surprising news, I have actually managed to resist the call of New Purple Socks For Me (margieinmaryland, your complimentary remarks about the yarn so did not help ;) and the ball is still virgin in the stash. But I may treat myself to it after making good headway on whatever design #5 turns out to be.

About fuzziness

So margieinmaryland commented on my last blog entry that she enjoyed the back view of my baby daughter's fuzzy head. Which prompts me to respond:

Margie, you have no idea. :)

I am the parent of three children, and have been at this mothering gig since 2003, and yet, it is only recently that I have discovered the joys of the fuzzy baby head. For example, I took this shot a few days ago:

(Yes, I know. Be still my beating heart.)

But, heart-rending sweetness of a daddy and his baby aside, that's one fabulously fuzzy head, right?

Now compare it to the heads of my other two children at around the same age.

DD1:

DD2:

I think the pictures speak for themselves. I have never realised how fabulous fuzzy-headed babies can be because I've never had one before. Both my older kids came out with serious thatches that only got fuller in very short order. But DD3's head came out merely downy, is taking its sweet time growing in, and man, I am loving it. I rub her head frequently for the sheer fuzzy joy of it.

But...oh yes...this is supposed to be a blog about knitting, isn't it? Well, I've been doing lots of that, although I have no photographic evidence for you. Firstly, DD2's birthday Sweetness top is coming along very well indeed - it's all done except for the straps and the weaving in of ends. I had no problems finishing it off with enough pink to spare - in fact, right now I'm trying to figure out if I have enough pink to do the i-cord for the straps.

My Elizabeth of York vest has seen some action here and there.

I'm also working on a new design that I am seriously LOVING. Right now I'm doing a bunch of samples to tweak the sizing to come out exactly right. I will definitely be submitting this one somewhere and I have great hopes for it. I also took a look at the Twist Collective mood board for their upcoming Winter issue, and I do have something I was working on a while back that seems to fit the theme. Can I come up with a full proposal in ten days? Aiee. Not sure about that one, we'll have to see. I should definitely try, though, as my 12-in-12 challenge stalled out after just one design submission in January!

Back in the saddle

The knitting has been picked back up. I don't think my speed is right back to normal, but perhaps that's just because the knitting I picked up was a seemingly endless stream of stocking stitch. Eventually, though, I plowed through and finished it:

Front:

Back:

These shots are much closer to the real colour of the yarn, but in real life it's still a lot more greenish and vibrant.

And with that, I've finished all the co-worker knitting. Now I can visit the office. :)

I've also started back in on my Elizabeth of York vest. I'm getting close to the halfway point of the final border - it runs all the way around the front, from the bottom of the left front all the way up around the back of the neck and down again to the bottom of the right front. Needless to say, it takes a LOT of stitches and one row takes a very long time. And there are about 22 rows in it. And increases every other row to twist the knife just that extra little bit more.

Not quite sure what I'm going to do after that - probably I'll try to design something, although I should first get going on re-doing DD3's "Sweetness" tank top before she outgrows the biggest size I can make with the amount of yarn I have. Maybe I'll do both!

Finish-it-up-itis might actually exist

Because lookie...I finished DD2's mulberry socks:

And DD1's mulberry socks:

And my co-worker's baby gift:

And I wrote up the pattern for it:

And I've even started back onto my Elizabeth of York vest! But no pictures there yet - all I've done is started picking up more stitches along an edge. Not a huge whoop, but at least it's progress.

Better

To the best of my knowledge, I am now humming along correctly on the right front of my Ljod cardigan. I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it yet, but I'm either done or almost done the bust shaping, which means the piece is pretty close to being finished. Pictures forthcoming.

Despite this good progress, I'm still panicking a bit - 17 days left and I still need to complete the right front, do two sleeves, and finish it all up. Aiee.

When my husband isn't around, I've been working on my Elizabeth of York vest. I finished the right front and got started on the borders.

And I handed off my friend's daughter's cardigan to her parents, who will happily bring it with them when they go to her birthday party in a few weeks. Before I handed it off, though, I used the newly-discovered super-closeup feature on my camera to take this picture, which more accurately depicts how beautiful the yarn variegates:

One step back, two steps forward

DH spent a lot of time with the baby on Monday so that I could forge ahead with my swatching for my design proposal. And I did...but...in the process discovered that I needed to make a lot of changes to the charts. Changes that would take a lot more figuring and charting and swatching. I estimated that I could neglect my husband and kids and chores a lot over the next week or so in order to pull it off before the submission deadline, but that I and everyone around me would be much happier if I didn't. So I have let the second 2012 design idea drop for the moment (it's totally worth revisiting down the road, though) and submitted the first 2012 design just by itself. So that's ONE.

And in celebration of making an adult, rational decision about My Knitting vs. The Big Picture, I got a little done on my Elizabeth of York vest. Not much, though, as I discovered several rows in that I'd been making a mistake in the pattern for the past, well, several rows, and had to do some surgery.

Today, in order to keep going on the 12-in-12 challenge, I dug up all the swatches and notes I had on my next 2012 design idea. However, in the process, I ran across a chart for another idea I'd had...oh...probably a few years ago now...and started thinking about what I could do with that. So I grabbed some yarn and needles and got started on something completely different. So far, so good.

I also completed my friend's daughter's cardigan!

Front:




Back:

Those pictures, although fairly colour accurate, make the thing look pretty swampy...but in person, the colours are actually really fabulous. It should suit the soon-to-be-birthday girl very well. I really hope she likes it! I'm going to have to get in touch with the grandparents (who live near me), to see if we can get together soon to arrange a handoff so they can give it to my friend (who does not live near me) in time for the birthday.

Tomorrow...I get going on DH's anniversary present!

WIP pile-on

Startitis continues to hold me in its thrall.

My girls gave me this yarn for Christmas:

It's fuzzy and unbelievably soft. I think the girls (the older ones, at least, who chose it while shopping for me at the LYS) had the idea that I could use it as a bib for DD3, but I didn't think the polyester content would make it absorbent enough for such a purpose. So I did a search on Ravelry and realised that it would be fabulous for a stuffed toy. It was tough to narrow it down, but I finally decided on the adorable (and free!) "Sock Giraffe" pattern by Bobbi Padgett. I got started yesterday, but have only done one hoof so far. Pictures when there's actually something substantive to see.

I also decided that the older girls needed socks, so I went stash-diving and found some Patons Kroy Stripes sock yarn that I'd bought on sale at Michaels some months back. I had never quite decided which kid it was going to be for, so I thought I might see if I could actually get two pairs of socks out of it. I started with DD1's socks:

Once the feet were done of that pair, I looked at how many colour stripes I had left in the ball and figured each ball probably had about 26 stripes in it. DD1's feet had taken 20 stripes, which meant DD2's feet would take about 18 stripes, leaving 14 stripes for 4 sock legs. That would give me legs which weren't terribly long, but certainly longer than ankle socks. Score! So I went for it and started DD2's pair as well. So far, I've finished one foot:

Amazingly, I also remain disciplined on the finishing-up of my Elizabeth of York vest. This shot of all three pieces (back, left front, and partially-done right front) was taken earlier, but I'm a bit further along on the right front at this point - hopefully it won't be too long before I can start the armhole shaping on it.

Ugh, so pretty, I love it! Yes, Carrie K, I definitely recommend taking another look at it. I think it might just be my favourite texture pattern ever.

Happy new year, everyone!

New and old

The new projects are still seeing a lot of action. I completed the tea cosy:

I finished the heel of the Skew sock:

I've made more progress on my slippers:

And I started my Sweetness pattern for DD3:

(I love those colours, I think they're going to look fabulous on her.)

I had to stop there because I ran out of the cream yarn. I'm not worried, though - I knew I was going to run out because I only had one ball of the cream in my possession. However, my LYS owner says she has a second ball for me, so I'll probably pick that up from her at the next charity knit night and keep going.

And then, after getting as far along on the Sweetness as I could, something odd happened. I decided to work on an old WIP...a very, very old WIP! In fact, I'm not sure exactly when I started this thing, but I know it was years ago. Heck, it was an old WIP over seven years ago when I first started this blog. It's the "Elizabeth of York" vest from Alice Starmore's "Tudor Roses" book. And, which is rare, it's actually for me. I'm doing it in a wine-red wool that I got as a two-pound cone from eBay ages ago. I wanted to use this wool for a sweater project, so I figured I should finish the vest project first. Thus, I fished it out and continued work on the left front (the back was already done). The yarn is quite rough, but since it's going to be worn on top of other clothes, I'm not too worried. I'm hoping it'll soften it up when washed so that I can use it for the sweater I have in mind without worrying that it'll make the recipient horribly scratchy. (If not, I'll figure out something else for the sweater.) Anyway, this afternoon I finished the left front!

(This is unfortunately a horrible rendition of the colour. In reality it's much less brown and much more red.)

So amazingly, it looks like I might actually finish something for me! What a good way to start the new year. :)