The finish line approacheth

Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover for DH

Either Friday or Saturday night, I had a sewing and ends-weaving-in marathon and finished the damn thing. PHEW. That was a whole lotta ends, and it sucked hard. But I ploughed through it, and the only thing remaining to do before I consider this officially 'done' is to block it. Ordinarily, I wouldn't bother, because it looks pretty good now. However, a fair bit of the front and sleeves were made using yarn that had been previously used for the smaller size that I started with, so it was all kinky. And unfortunately, it knitted up kinkily (is that even a word?), so it needs a good soak to relax. I'll give you pictures when I've done that and it's looking right.

Trouble is, I have no idea where or when I'm going to block this damn thing. I was thinking of bringing it over to my mom's when I drop my older daughter over at her place on Tuesday (they're getting together to make a gingerbread house, very exciting stuff) and blocking it there, but my mom said today that she's planning to pick DD1 up...so I don't know. I think I might call my mom back when DH isn't around and rearrange that plan.

Herdis for niece

Finally finished up the sewing and ends-weaving on Tuesday. I think it came out great:


front


back


button detail


gusset detail

I like it. Wednesday morning I sent it out to my niece, along with her Christmas presents, and it should be there early this week. DONE!

Pixie Outfit for DD1's doll

Last night I sewed on the buttons, so this is complete!

Lacy Ribs Scarf

After finishing off three projects, I found myself kind of at loose ends for something to do. I do have one more Christmas project to finish, but I'm procrastinating because I am SO tired of finishing, and that's what's left to do on the last Christmas project. I want to KNIT, dammit. So I turned back to this project. As planned, I ripped out everything I'd done and re-did it with one fewer pattern repeat width-wise. I kept going, and once again used up the whole ball. It looks good, is about as long as I'd expect half a scarf to be, and now all I need is to back to the yarn shop and get the second ball I need to finish the thing. Alas, it is incredibly snowy here, and although I succumbed to lunacy and actually went out to the shop in this weather, I discovered that the owner was far more wise about the elements than I, and had stayed home and left the shop closed up. So I'll have to wait until later this week to get ball #2.

A Very Harlot Poncho for moi

Once I could go no further on the scarf project, I went hunting through my knitting project baskets and dredged this up. Then it occurred to me that I might enjoy it a little better if I wasn't knitting it on a circular needle with horrible joins. So I switched to my Denise Interchangeables, and oh...the difference was like night and day. The stitches slide across the joins like budda. So I'm moving along on it really quickly now.

Something for Raymond

This past week, one of my best friends called up with the staggeringly joyous news that they have a little boy in their home now that they are fostering-to-adopt. I am delighted for her and her family. Naturally, I must knit the child something as a welcome gift, but it has to be perfect. I suppose I could whip up some lovely sweaters, or something, but I thought a cosy blanket would be much more personal. Blankets also have more potential to be cherished objects that make children feel safe, which I figured would be very important for this little tyke. Plus, I really want to knit my mitred corners blanket pattern again to work out the kinks in the instructions, because I think I'm going to submit it to Knitty. (I know that they don't ordinarily bother publishing blanket patterns, but this one has a very nifty and unique construction, which might be enough of a 'hook' to motivate Amy to publish it. We shall see.)

So! I shall be doing my mitred blanket pattern for this little boy. I want to use the 10 balls of royal purple Patons Astra that I picked up from the LYS at their sale this summer. Unfortunately, I've calculated the yardage I would need, and the 10 balls will not be enough. So I have to see if the LYS has two more balls in the same dyelot. Please cross your fingers for me.

Low-level Christmas stress

Thanks guys, for all the compliments on the MIL's Christmas gift. It has since been labelled, wrapped, and put under the tree (along with almost all the presents we'll be giving people...yes, I'm actually on top of things this year, don't hate me), and is awaiting a serious plotzing on Christmas morning. :) Tumblina, CONGRATULATIONS on getting out of vest purgatory. I'm delighted for you (though not, I'm sure, as delighted as you are for yourself). Good luck with the slippers.

Self-patterning socks #3 for moi

Last week my mom treated me and we went out to see this flamenco company perform. I greatly enjoyed it (although there were really only two dancers that were worth watching 100% of the time), but of course there was knitting time during intermission, so I pulled this out of my purse to work on. I got a few more inches done on the leg, I think.

Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover for DH

Very close to the finish line now!



Here you see the completed front, back, and sleeves, with the shoulder seams of front and back sewn together and the first part of the neckline (the folded-over ridge) done. I'm currently working on the mini-cowl part of the neckline that gets sewn in behind the ridge.

Herdis for niece

I'm kinda panicking on this one, because I'd like to have it done by Monday so that I can mail the package of Christmas and birthday presents out to my niece in Nova Scotia on Tuesday. That would give it 10 business days to get there, which would give me a lot of confidence that it would arrive in time for Christmas. Any later than that, and the confidence starts to quiver and shake.

Fortunately, it's fairly quick work. Since diving back into the project on Friday, I have corrected my gone-too-far-ness on the left front, finished the left front, done the right front, sewn the shoulder seams together, and sewn the back neckline:



You can't tell, but I'm really screwing the pooch on stuff like symmetrical decreasing and making the lengths of all the pieces exactly the same. This is because I'm in a rush and therefore not double-checking such things. However, I think the fudging is trundling along at an acceptable level.

Next up: sleeves.

I also have my mother's permission to steal buttons from her button stash for this one, which means - assuming her button stash contains buttons that would work with this cardigan - that I don't have to waste time shopping for them. Keep your fingers crossed for me?

'Honey, I lost my hat' hat for DH

My devoted-wife, hat-replacing activities turned out to be completely for naught when my parents came over last week...they brought DH's hat with them, which he had left at their place earlir. A thousand curses. Oh, well. The new one is thicker and warmer, albeit definitely too short. I shall have to add some length...one or two inches, I think.

Fair isle tank top

Well...*gulp*...I did it. Finished writing up the pattern, getting all the diagrams and charts and legend symbols and photos and whatnot together, and sent it off to Knitty. And now...I wait.

AUGH!

In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya...I hate waiting.

Of course, what I'm really hoping for is that Amy sends me an email immediately, gushing about how it's the best design she's ever seen, she's putting it on the cover, I'm a genius, hordes of knitters will flock to knit this pattern, it'll be the next Clapotis, my fortune as a designer will be made, etc. etc.

Right.

(Someone please tell me I'm not the only one with delusional knitting designer fantasies?)

Actually, speaking of Knitty, I really like a lot of the stuff in the new winter issue. I actually can't remember liking a single issue so much before. Ice Queen, Three Tams, Tudora, Aoife, Fair Isle Rapids, Chevrolace, Toasty Topper, Doddy and Jeanie (more appropriately named 'Genius', I think) are my favourites, and there are even more things in there that I might end up knitting, too.

Crazy

What does an intelligent, forward-thinking knitter, with seven urgent projects on the go and less than a month and a half to go before Christmas, do? Why, cast on two new pairs of socks that have nothing to do with holiday giving, of course...

Self-patterning socks #3 for moi

I couldn't resist starting to work with some of the sock yarn I treated myself to on my birthday, just to see how it would stripe. Well, this is how it stripes:



I'm not as crazy about it as the striping I had imagined in my head, based on what the yarn looked like in the ball, but I'm still going to enjoy the socks.

Self-patterning socks #whatever for DH

And after casting on the first ball of new sock yarn, well, the cat was already among the pixies, so what the hey, I cast on with the second ball, too. Work stalled, though. This is not, unfortunately, because I have the willpower and sense of responsibility that would enable me to resist a non-deadline project. It is simply because I couldn't find the fourth needle. I think I did spot it, however, this morning while taking knitting pictures.

Dumbass. Why do I do this to myself? Why?

But wait...it gets even better.

Ragna for brother

Knitters Attic is moving to a new location, and they had a pre-opening sale in the new spot this past weekend. I bought 10 balls each of Magic Garden Allsorts in a bright, strong blue, and Patons Canadiana in navy. The Allsorts doesn't really have a purpose yet, although I have generalized thoughts of making something really comfy and cosy for DD2.

The Canadiana, however, has a definite purpose. I bought it to make Ragna for my brother. I would have preferred to make it out of something more natural, but I had been forewarned (and strenuously so) by my mom that my brother's laundering skills are extremely limited. Apparently, he just dumps stuff in the machine without checking the care instructions. Anything requiring handwashing or, heaven forbid, blocking, was going to be ruined in very short order. So, acrylic it had to be. And at $2 per 100g ball for the Canadiana, I had my clear winner.

So yes, you guessed it, I couldn't resist and cast on for the sweater.

The pathetic thing is that this is going to be a gift for next Christmas. For heaven's sake, I have knitting time crunch for Christmas 2007 going on and I cast on for something planned for Christmas 2008? I suck.

The sweater, on the other hand, is looking pretty good. I'm working on the flappy bits right now to start:



I'm not enjoying the knitting as much as I could because the yarn is pretty squeaky. But the finished fabric feels good.

Fortunately, I'm not a complete moron. I do have excellent panic knitting progress to report as well.

(Oh, and Brigitte? This is all further proof that you should never feel bad about your WIP table. :)

Fair isle tank top

All sizes have been knitted! (Carrie K, there were five.) All measurements have been taken! All photographs have been snapped! This has enabled me to release the needles I was using back into the projects from which they were stolen. All that's left is to take the all notes I jotted down as I went, and incorporate them back into the pattern instructions; package all the graphics and photographs together; plug the pattern into Knitty's submission template; write up a submission email; take a deep, fortifying breath; and hit 'send'.

Elizabethan Jacket

A few more ends have been sewn in. What I'm really procrastinating about is taking out the ironing board and iron, wetting a towel, and pressing the pleats down on the darts. It will be a dull and awkward task and I'm not looking forward to it. However, it must be done, and then I can sew in the sleeves. Maybe I'll kill two birds with one stone and hem up my new kitchen curtains at the same time.

And thanks very much, everyone, for your comments and compliments on the project.

Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover for DH

Well, The J and Carrie K both like the striping on the sleeves exactly the way it is, so now that I've freed up the Denise cable for the project, I've forged ahead. We have sleeve progress:

Herdis for niece

This project is another winner of having finished all the sizes for the fair isle tank top - I was able to put the 4mm points back on the cable that was holding the left front of Herdis, and finish it. Actually...more than finish it, to be brutally honest - I went eight rows too far. It's supposed to be the same length as the back, and I miscounted how many rows I finished on the back, so... Well. It won't be that hard to rip back.

Pixie Outfit

This is doll clothes item number 2 of 3 (no, they are not Borg) which will be gifted to my elder daughter for Christmas. I originally started the project using some emerald green yarn from the stash. I thought I had enough, but as I ran out before even finishing the first leg, I was grievously mistaken. So I switched to some royal blue instead.



Want a close-up of those buttons? I made 'em myself out of polymer clay some years ago:



Just gotta sew them on and figure out buttonholes (the pattern tells you to crochet them on, but I don't think that will make the button bands match up very well), and then I'll be done!

Inside-out comfort socks

I ripped back what I'd originally done on the leg, and the heel, and then ripped back the foot to the correct starting point for the heel. I then did the heel a second time, and re-started the leg. I'm now working on the top ribbing.

Snuggly romper for DD2

And finally, we have a project that was finished long ago, but which only recently became the right size for its intended recipient.



I can't stand how adorable she is in this thing. It's pure cuddle inspiration. Okay, I can't resist. One more shot:

More goodies

Birthday largesse:

There you see a kit and needles for a lovely vintage knitted beaded bracelet and necklace (from my MIL); a newsletter from my MIL's LYS (for Christmas gift inspiration); a Patons poncho booklet which DD1 independently chose so that I would be able to knit her another poncho once she outgrows her current one; and, from my own little family, two balls of Meilenweit 50 Seta/Cashmere from Lana Grossa (65% virgin wool, 15% silk, 16% polyamide and 4% cashmere, for socks...I can only imagine how lovely they will feel on my feet).

More birthday largesse:

And here we have two treats for myself: On Your Toes sock yarn; plus June's (owner of my LYS) gift to me: five balls of Baby Micro, which I will use for a baby jacket I'm designing for my book.

My other birthday treat involved getting both girls down for naps and heading out to the LYS for about an hour, SOLO. I had a great time. Thanks, June and Mercedes!

I'm so lucky!

Calorimetry for DD1

I had so much of the Sirdar Click DK left over from my own Calorimetry that I thought, heck, why not make a mini one for my older daughter. The need was especially pressing since, at the time that I had this idea, she had a field trip to a pumpkin patch in about two days, and would be outside in damp, sorta-cold weather for a few hours. I cast on only 80 stitches instead of the pattern-instructed 120, and stopped the short-row decreasing when there were 26 stitches on each side of the stitch markers and 28 stitches in the middle. I think it took me about an hour to get done. DD1 chose a button, I sewed it on, and shazam...



She looks pretty cute in it, although we do need to remember not to put ponytails at the top of her head when she's going to wear it, as they make the band fall down too low:

Calorimetry for moi

I finished it super-fast, tried it on and was insanely disappointed. It was too wide and I looked supremely dorky in it. I did briefly consider posting a photo of me in it as proof of the dorkiness, but then realised that humiliating myself on a global scale was not my idea of fun.

Anyway, I ripped the whole thing out. Then, inspired by the success of DD1's mini-Calorimetry, I restarted with just 84 stitches in the cast on. I worked the short-row decreasing until I had 26 stitches on each side, with 34 in the middle. Result: a band that actually fits me, and lots of yarn left over.





Oh, and happy ears for me.

Branching out for DD1's teacher

A few more repeats have been done on this. Nothing huge, but progress is progress.

Fair isle tank top

I completed the 24-month size. It looked great, and took less than 3 balls of the main colour. I took all the necessary measurements, and a good photo, and then steeled my heart and ripped it all out. The 18-month size is now in progress.

Herdis for niece

No actual progress to report, but I did finally take a picture:

Doll clothes for DD1

Why do I keep piling on new Christmas knitting projects? However, this seemed like too good an idea to save until a birthday or next Christmas, so I've taken it on, too. (Also a good way to mow through small bits of stash.) I'm planning to do the "Jack and Jill" dress, the "Doll's Wardrobe" skirt, and the "Pixie Outfit" suit with hood from my Patons Beehive "Just for Dolls" booklet, in the medium size to fit her doll named Simone. I suspect it will all be a big hit.

Taking care of business

Last Wednesday, Mercedes at the shop felt me out about whether I'd be interested in maybe filling in for her on her days off.

Um...duh. :)

Obviously, I'd need some training as to how to ring people's purchases up, and on store policy/procedure, as well as a bit more instruction on where everything is, but hey...if they want me, I'm so totally there.

In other news, I'm pretty tickled that my Spanish Knight WIP comes up when you Google for the pattern. Carrie K, you should not be surprised that I'm still not done...I am totally stalling on it and I have no idea which Christmas is going to see my mom receiving it. Definitely not 2007, I can tell you that! (It's okay, I'm giving her something else nice.)

But onto Carrie's question...I've checked out the Hempathy yarn on Ravelry, and have looked at a bunch of projects that use it, and I think it would be a good yarn for the Spanish Knight sweater, yeah. The gauge is right, and Hempathy seems to show up cables really nicely, so I think you have a winner. Now, I've never felt that yarn, so I have absolutely no sense of how it's going to drape, but everything else about it seems to work, so if you think its drape will match with the sweater pattern, I say go for it.

Calorimetry for moi

I kill earmuffs. Seriously. Every pair of earmuffs I've ever had (that wasn't butt-ugly) has either been lost, or I've broken it. Even those wonderful earmuff earphones that I got last year as a Christmas present from my parents? Fell out of my coat pocket later in the winter and...gone. (The look on my dad's face when I told him this was sooo guilt-inducing. My stomach still sinks into my toes whenever I think about it.)

The really annoying part about this earmuff-losing talent of mine is that I really need earmuffs, because I have seriously wussy ears. Even with just a little bit of breeze and a hint of cold air, they start to hurt and I get a headache, and it's just not a good scene.

So here we are, as the cold weather begins once again, and I have already hurt my ears being out in the cold without any earmuffs. Therefore...Enough! Is! Enough! I resolved to whip myself up a Calorimetry quick-smart before things get any worse. So yesterday at the shop I went looking for some nice aran-ish weight yarn, and I got stuck. I couldn't decide between a really nice and inexpensive merino in forest green, or a lovely dark powdery purple which was a 70/30 acrylic/wool blend (also affordable). So, what the heck - I splurged and bought 'em both. I was originally thinking I'd make two, and then I realised that I could really do my ears a favour, and make a single, reversible band with a double thickness! Green on one side, purple on the other. Perfect!

It is knitting up astonishingly fast:



Although I don't know how big a fan I am of the purple now that I'm actually working with it...it seems a bit insubstantial and fluffy, in a 'hollow' kind of way, if that makes any sense. However, attached to the green merino (which is fantastic, although unfortunately now discontinued) I think it should be fine.

And hey, is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the clicking of the needles when doing 2x2 ribbing continentally taps out the beat of the "Mazel Tov" song from Fiddler on the Roof?

(Am I too weird?)

Herdis for niece

Rats. I forgot to take a picture of this for today's entry. Oh, well. You'll just have to imagine for yourself, then, how well the left front is coming along: I'm well into the neckline shaping. However, the project has once again stalled because I have cannibalized the needles for something else. Yes, I'm fickle. What of it?

Branching out for DD1's teacher

Coming along bee-yew-tifully!



The instructions call for 36 pattern repeats from a laceweight yarn, but I've done 12 repeats so far and I think I really just need about 24 or 25. So I'm very close to being done. Isn't it purty?

Fair isle tank top

And I'm working on this again. I decided to change the pattern (AGAIN) so that the yoke would have some negative ease (about 5-7%). And I think, think, that I have a final pattern. I'm now working on the 24-month size to determine the final yardage needs. Then of course, I'll do the 18-month size, and so on until I've got yardage requirements finalised for all five sizes. (Yes, I'm doing the largest ones first so that I finish garments more and more quickly the closer I get to the end. Less of a mental slog that way, I think.) I'm so excited about this design, so I really want to get this done fast so I can send it off.

Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover for DH

I'm back in the land of uncertainty.


(Sorry about the blurriness.)

See the light, thin strips in the dark blue stripes? That's me working the original ball of dark blue in with the new balls of navy blue in an effort to minimize the difference between the two colours. Unfortunately, in spite of my original hopes, the difference between the two dark blues is not minimal, so I don't think it's working. Bleah. So I'm not sure whether to keep going doing it this way, or to alternate stripes one new navy, one original dark blue. I think I'll do two sleeves two different ways and see which one I like best.

Again, bleah.

Goodies

One thing I forgot to mention in my last blog entry...adding myself as a 'designer' on Ravelry inspired me to write up the pattern for the Arabesque baby blanket I made last year and make it available for free. (Otherwise, I would have had only one design on my designer's page, which looks pretty lame. Admittedly, only two designs also looks pretty lame, but it's much better than having only one.) You can download the new pattern (in PDF format) from the sidebar. Hopefully, if anybody makes it, you'll drop me a line to let me know what you think of it.

To my utter astonishment, someone on Ravelry began to make a wrap using the stitch pattern because she says, "I just love the design!" - WOW! (She seems to have since changed her mind and deleted the project, but hey, it's the thought that counts.) CatBookMom thanked me for the pattern - you're welcome! As well, twelve people have put it in their Ravelry queue (waiting list). This makes me both completely flattered and excited, and unbelievably nervous at the same time. The absolute topper is that four Ravelrers have favourited the blanket project itself, and one of them - are you ready for this? - is Norah Gaughan.

Yes.

It's been several days since it happened, and I'm still plotzing about it.

And I got a giftie! Mercedes at the shop was getting herself some patterns and thought she'd get an extra copy of one that she figured I'd like. What a sweetie, eh? It's Desert Sun, from Goddess Knits. It's really beautiful - I don't know when exactly I'm going to make it, or what I will make it from, or whom it will be for, but it's definitely on the list.

In other news, the silver lining in DH's job running out is that he is now free on Wednesday nights. And that meant that I hightailed it over to Lettuce Knit last week for the SnB. Fun times, fun times!

Finally, as you can probably tell from the seriously long delay since my last blog post, I've been spending a lot of time on Ravelry. However, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with entering projects, stash and needles, so I think I'm slipping into a bit of a routine now and will probably spend a little less time there. It's still awesome, though. I'm finding people with the same knitting interests as me (hi, Brigitte!) and that means getting to see really cool projects. (Which of course means that I have now probably achieved PABLE - Project Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy.)

Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover

So I took the two skeins of navy alpaca back to the shop to see if they would kill me if I tried to return them. Mercedes was all for it until she realised it had been a sale item - apparently the rule is, no return of sale items. She felt really bad about saying no and, from the look on her face, I'm sure I could have persuaded her to break the rule and make an exception for me, but I didn't mind in the slightest. It's a fair rule, and by enforcing it, she clamped down on my wishy-washiness and enabled me to make a decision: now I have to keep the yarn, so I might as well continue with my plan of making striped sleeves. I will hopefully get around to casting on for the first sleeve (with the navy) soon.

Herdis for niece

This progressed a wee bit more before I cannibalized the needles for another project. (I have no shame.) But then, after I was done with that, I picked Herdis back up again and finished the back:



I made an executive decision about the height of the back - it's supposed to be 16.5" long, and when you hold it up so that gravity is working on it (as it would when it's actually being worn), it certainly is 16.5" long. However, lying down, it's much less. (Such is the way of working with cotton.) I decided to pay attention to the worn-on-the-body measurement as opposed to the lying-on-the-ground measurement. I think this was the right decision.

I'm now in the process of casting on for the left front.

Fair isle tank top for DD2

This is the project for which I have been stealing needles from other projects (and ignoring other projects, too). Totally, totally worth it. I decided to use the Kool Kotton I had bought earlier in the year for another project for the main colour, and, because Kool Kotton isn't available in the contrast colour I wanted, some TLC Cotton Plus.

When I showed it to my husband after working on it for most of the day two Thursdays ago (I probably would have been able to complete it if I hadn't f**ked it up so many times, but as it is, I had a fair bit to be able to show him), he burst out into superlative praise.

I did the 12-month size, and then started on the 6-month. That was finished this weekend, and I tried it on my (soon-to-be-6-months-old-where-the-hell-does-the-time-go) baby daughter for a photo shoot. I think the effect is really adorable, and I got some meltingly cute shots of my baby. Alas, as much as I am chomping at the bit to share them with the entire world, I'm going to be submitting the pattern to Knitty, so unfortunately you will have to wait. (Unless the pattern gets rejected, in which case I will just self-publish it.)

Like, totally top

I found what I think will work as a substitute yarn! Mystik DK from Estelle. (I tried to take a picture, but it turned out badly.) What I'm actually thinking of doing is swatching this Mystik up to see if I get the same gauge as I did with the (discontinued) Schaffhauser St-Tropez Câblé that I originally wanted to use. If I do, then I'm thinking of using the St-Tropez for the model piece and recommending the Mystic DK as a substitute when I submit the pattern. Hopefully, this plan will work.

Branching Out for DD1's teacher

DD1 has spoken - we are going with the 'violet' colourway. The shop didn't have it, so they ordered it in at breakneck speed and it was in before the weekend.

The yarn is knitting up into just the most gorgeously soft, gossamery fabric, but it is heck to work with - I don't know about you, but I find fine laceweight yarn on 5mm needles to be awkward. So it's going pretty slowly. I'm willing to accept that, though, because the finished project is verrry nice:



I've set myself a goal of doing one 10-row repeat every day. At that rate, I'll be done by early-mid November - loads of time.

Foot-pampering socks for moi

This has come out again recently as something to do while hanging around supervising my older daughter. We've had gorgeous weather around here lately, and so we've been taking advantage of it by spending a lot of time at the local playgrounds. There's not much for me to do while DD1 clambers all over the ladders and bars and slides and whatnot, so when she's doing that, I've been working on the sock. (Naturally, the sock loses out when she wants to swing or play catch.) So it's starting to see some measurable progress:

(Still no steeking on the Elizabethan Jacket, though, sorry, Carrie K!)

Knirvana

Okay, I'm back.

Oh.
My.
GAWD.

As I'm already in, I can't use the waiting list checker anymore to see how quickly they're inviting people, so I don't know if I'm rubbing salt into the wounds of any readers who are still waiting for their invite with little hope of getting in anytime soon...but...WOW. It is awesome, awesome awesome in there. Firstly, for a site that has a ridiculous amount of stuff in it, the navigation is really simple:

You can go in and work on/look at your own stuff - 'notebook', where you can keep track of your projects, your stash, your wishlist (designs and yarns), your bookmarks (projects, stash, designers, yarn brands, news/updates), your friends (you can see who they are, what they're doing and what they've posted on their blogs lately), your groups, your needles & hooks, your books (what you own, what you've used, and what you'll need to make the stuff on your wishlist), your messages, your blog posts (which you can link to specific projects), your contributions to Ravelry (if you've volunteered to be an editor of patterns and/or yarns), and your within-Ravelry transactions (right now only donations show up, but ultimately it looks like there will be a within-Ravelry pattern sales feature).

Then there are the sections where you can see what everyone has contributed: patterns, yarns, people, forums, groups and help. Patterns and yarns have browsers that are AMAZING. For instance, with the pattern browser, you can choose what weights of yarn you want, the categories you're looking for, the ratings of the patterns, and other filters, like only seeing free patterns. These choices are all available clearly and easily down the left side of the screen, and as soon as you click on or off something - SHAZAM! - the list of patterns updates to reflect your selections. It's stunningly usable.

Everything is user-driven, so if, for example, the pattern you want to use for a project you're adding isn't in the database, you can add it. The volunteer editors go through everything and clean it up later. If you're a designer, you can email Jess to get your account linked to your designer page, and then you have access to edit the information Ravelry has about you as a designer.

:::pause to take deep, calming breaths after all that:::

Anyway, it's totally righteous and it's everything I've ever wanted in an online knitting site. Seriously. And with the addition of more and more people and their own projects/patterns/yarn/etc., it just gets better and better.

Initially, though, it's a big slog. I've input 113 of my projects, added 11 books to my library, added 84 items to my stash, added a whole whack of needles to my inventory, and I'm not even remotely done. However, the adding is pretty damn fun for an anal kind of person like myself. :)

Okay, enough of the gushing...back to the knitting...

So the person who was interested in the learn-to-knit class showed up at the shop last Wednesday hoping for something totally impromptu, and, fortuitously, there I was! So we had a little shopping expedition for yarn, I sat down with her, taught her how to knit, made a little pocket money, and everyone went away happy. (She's really good. Her tension is even and her speed is ridiculously fast for someone who just started. I was highly impressed.) It was fun! Next on my list: send the lace class outline to June.

As for the projects...well, let us say that the startitis continues its stranglehold on me...

Branching Out for DD1's teacher

It's almost October, and Christmas is coming. (I know, those of you in denial don't want to hear me say it, but unfortunately, it's true.) I've started to make The List of all the people whom we gift, and all the gifts we want to give (there are a lot of blanks - making The List is the first step towards getting gift idea inspiration because we can see what we need to come up with). New on the list this year is DD1's kindergarten teacher. She is a very lovely woman in her 30s or 40s who pretty much looks exactly like a slightly rounder Meredith Baxter Birney. She would look stunning in blue-toned pastels, and I want to make her Branching Out in Zephyr Laceweight Wool-Silk. I'll give DD1 a choice of about three or four choice colours (violet, ice blue and teal are currently jumping out at me) and away we'll go. Can DD1 keep the secret between now and Christmas? Hopefully, yes. She's been doing well on other Christmas knitting secrets so far, so I think we'll be okay.

Herdis for niece

One of the things we always have to put together at the same time as the Christmas gifts is my niece's birthday gift. Her birthday is right at the beginning of January and she lives in Nova Scotia, which means the easiest thing is to pack the birthday gift in with the Christmas gifts and mail them over all at the same time. This means that the birthday gift needs to be ready for mid-December, so if I'm going to knit her something, I should start now.

And I have indeed decided to knit her something this year. (It's all DH's fault. If he weren't so keen on my finishing up my Ljod project, I wouldn't have been flipping through my copy of The Viking Knits Collection, and I wouldn't have seen the Herdis pattern, and I wouldn't have been inspired to make it.) I'm using a sportweight, kinky softball cotton that I got a cone of from Knit Knack on eBay a few years back. I think it's coming along nicely:

Market bags for my household

For a while I've wanted to make mesh market bags so that we could 'go green' with our groceries and stop bringing home plastic bags. Ravelry's pattern browser allowed me to narrow it down and decide upon Jodie Danenberg's Saturday Market Bag pattern from MagKnits. I'm using some worsted weight cotton I bought from Zellers who-knows-how-many years ago that was originally going to be turned into diaper covers (I gave up on that). Right now, bag #1 looks like this:

Like, totally top

I tried starting this top with the Nobile yarn, and did some calculations once I came to the end of the ball. I figured out that the XS size would take probably about 10 balls, which works out to $129.50 before tax and I really can't justify that. I know people are free to make yarn substitutions, but I still think I should make it vaguely reasonable to use the original yarn (for myself, too!), so I'm going to look for something else at the store today.

Fair isle tank top for DD2

Old Navy is currently advertising a "Fair Isle Sweater Collection", and while some of the stuff really isn't fair isle, one of the tops got my inspiration in gear for a baby tank top. I'm going to hunt for the yarn at the shop this afternoon - I'm thinking a cotton/acrylic blend would work really well.