Happy New Year

Let the record show that I finished my 2007 Christmas knitting a week before Christmas. Yes. I can scarcely believe it myself. I'm not going to gloat any more than that, though, otherwise the fates will squash me next Christmas.

Although, I rather think the fates are already squashing me, albeit in a different way. I am (hopefully) at the tail end of cold #4 since October. It SUCKS.

As far as the Christmas knitting went, everything was extremely well received. DD1's teacher thought the scarf was really beautiful (DD1 said there was gasping upon the first sighting, excellent). MIL adored her cardigan/jacket. My mom appeared delighted with the shawl and marvelled over the feel of the yarn. My daughter was totally excited about the dolly clothes and has been playing dressup frequently since we got back home from the Christmas visiting. DH adores his sweater and was actually totally surprised by it, despite dumbass moves on my part during its making, such as accidentally leaving the pattern lying out in full sight. BIL seemed marginally pleased with his socks (intense emotional reactions to good things are not his style).

So, a success, right? Not by half.

Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover for DH

I was able to sneak over to my mom's place and block the sweater there a week before Christmas. The next evening we were at my parents' place, so she packed it up and covertly handed it off to me when we arrived. DH never saw a thing.


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Looks pretty good, eh? What could be wrong with it? Well, remember how I realised about halfway through DH's sweater that it was measuring too small? How I ripped everything back and started all over using the large instructions to make it wide enough?

Yeah. Well, it's too big.

I could scream. I mean, he is crazy loving the sweater, and totally doesn't care that it's a little sloppy, but I care...rather desperately, actually. This is a sweater that is supposed to cling gently (and hotly) to the male torso. The loose fit gives it a completely different look, which - while kinda nice - is not the one I was going for. (I was going for the hotness.) I am seriously tempted to knit the whole thing all over again. DH has told me not to be silly, but I'm sure I could steal it back from him without his noticing.

But wait...it gets better.

Elizabethan Jacket for MIL

This was brought out of its giftwrapping to the tune of delighted exclamations and superlative compliments. After all the gifts were unwrapped, my MIL immediately picked it back up so she could try it on.

Well.

Firstly, it took her about 10 minutes to undo all the buttons. (They may have been a tad too tight for the buttonholes. However, they were such a perfect match to the cardigan that I couldn't resist using them. Besides, I didn't find it that difficult to shove them through the buttonholes. Unfortunately, as my husband pointed out, I am not in my mid-70s with arthritis starting to affect my manual dexterity. Crap. I never thought of that.)

Secondly...once the thing was on, it was too small to button up the front. It just sits there open, gaping widely. I made the correct size, I got gauge, I blocked to measurements...but it's still too small. Figure that.

However, although my sense of perfection is deeply offended by this, I'm not that worried, because first of all, it being too small to fasten means she never has to struggle with the buttons, and secondly, it is totally more her style to wear it like a blazer. So, even though I screwed up, I win.

Now, of course, it's time to look ahead to the new year. And that means...(ominous musical chord)...looking at The Schedule.

You may have noticed that my sidebar here is filled with serious Schedule backlog. There were many projects I planned to do this year that I shamelessly threw over in favour of other projects. This is, of course, not how The Schedule is supposed to work. I am supposed to stick with it, otherwise it is pointless and I go back into my bad habit of making my husband a knitting widower. (Which actually happened hardly at all this year, despite my lack of respect for The Schedule.)

So, the question I must answer is, is there any point to making a Schedule for 2008, if I totally blew it in 2007?

The first step is to figure out what I want to accomplish this year.

• ASAP: blanket for the hopefully soon-to-be adopted son of one of my best friends (estimate: 7 weeks)
• ASAP: Girlfriend Shrug for DD1 before she grows out of the damn thing (estimate: 2 weeks)
• February 17: anniversary socks for DH (estimate: 1 week)
• April sometime: vest for myself (estimate: 3 weeks)
• spring/summer: Wheelie (estimate: 1 week)
• May 25: Muppet Roadkill blanket for DD1 (estimate: 2 weeks)
• June 5: birthday socks for DH (estimate: 1 week)
• Christmas: Ragna sweater for my brother (estimate: 8 weeks)
• Christmas: something out of the Sea Silk for my mom (estimate: 3 weeks)
• Christmas: something for my MIL (estimate: 7 weeks)
• Christmas: socks for my dad (estimate: 1 week)
• date unknown: thank-you sweaters (2) for the kids of the friend who gave me all their hand-me-down clothes this year (a lifesaver, Kathy, if you're reading this, I seriously can't thank you enough) and refused to take any money from me (estimate: 7 weeks)
• date unknown: 'Like, totally' top of my own design (estimate: 4 weeks)
• date unknown: two more patterns for my book (estimate: 6 weeks)
• date unknown: one or two cute things for DD2 (estimate: 3 weeks)
• date unknown: leggings for DD1 (estimate: 1 week)
• date unknown: Ljod (estimate: 3 weeks)

Result: I'm overloading myself by two months. Some things are going to have to go.

Non-project items on my list include:

• learn to knit stranded with the left hand holding both strands
• put together a lace knitting class
• write up my lacy ribs scarf pattern and start selling it

I know there are more, but I can't remember them right now.

So all in all, a damn full year. Might be worth writing up a new Schedule after all.

Jack and Jill dress for DD1's doll

This was the last thing I finished. One week before Christmas, I borrowed a crochet hook from my mom, finished off the back opening, found some buttons, and sewed them on.


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Very cute stuff. Fits the doll I intended it for perfectly. DD1 adores it.

Self-patterning socks #whatever for DH

As promised, I ripped back everything I'd done on the first sock (almost the whole foot before the heel turn) and started again with four metal needles. The first sock is now done, and I'm working on the heel of the second.



I really, really like the striping on this one. It takes a really long time to come around to the beginning again. The only weird thing is that the first repeat on the first sock is the reverse of all the other repeats for (as far as I can tell) the rest of the ball. So I'm going to have to do something clever after I turn the heel of the second sock to make it stripe in the right direction up the leg. But that shouldn't be too hard. I'll have loads of yarn left over, too.

Ragna for brother

Once I finished all the Christmas knitting, I started working on this guilt-free. But I stopped working on it once Christmas came because we were spending a lot of time at my parents' place, and it doesn't really make a lot of sense to work on your brother's Christmas present in front of your brother. Still, a very good head start has been made on Christmas 2008:

A Very Harlot Poncho

This has seen a fair bit of action over the holidays. Whether it was because everything else was all packed up in the car ready to go for the various trips; or because it was something I could work on in front of other people without worrying about giving away a surprise; or because it was just mindless, stress-free knitting; it got attention.



Consequently, it's much closer to actually being finished...which probably means that I'll be packing it away soon, and it won't see the light of day again for about a year.

Child legs for DD1

So I was looking at my new ball of Trekking XXL, and it occurred to me how many of the colours also appear in DD1's favourite skirt. And then I wondered, why should I have to make socks with this? What if I made a child version of Baby Legs? She could wear them with the skirt, maybe over white tights, and it would look super-cute and swizz.

So I cast on.

I went for at least three inches wondering when the colourway would cycle around to the beginning again, until I remembered that I'd read on a number of blogs that Trekking doesn't repeat! So I became zen with the idea of fraternal leggings, and continued on.



They are going to look awesome when they're finished. I'll post exactly what I'm doing to make them once they're all done, but really, it's just two 2x2 ribbed tubes wide enough to fit your kid's thigh.

Self-patterning socks for moi/Turquoise child legs for DD1

My MIL, lovely lady that she is, gave us a sum of cash (among other things) for Christmas, and told us to go out and have fun with it. So on New Year's Eve, we packed up the kids and headed to Pizza Hut (DD1's favourite restaurant). We had an absolutely lovely time - DD1's behaviour was impeccable, and DD2 was actually interested in the different surroundings and did not make strange with the people making goo-goo eyes at her. (!!!) We did have an incident when she barked her chin on the table, but some Mummy Hugs(TM) soothed her in fairly short order.

Anyway, I was knitting on the turquoise self-striping socks I'd started a while ago while we were waiting for the pizza to arrive, and I started questioning why I was making them. I wasn't as jazzed by the striping as I thought I was going to be (why does sock yarn sometimes look so different in ball form than in sock form?) and didn't see myself loving the socks too much when they were finished. Then I thought about the leggings I was making for DD1 out of my new Trekking XXL, and suddenly...I knew I wanted to make leggings out of this turquoise yarn, too.

I thought about it a minute, ran the idea past DH (who was sad because he hates the idea of frogging anything), ripped out the needles and frogged the whole thing back.

The yarn now looks like this:

Oil-slick rainbow socks for moi

I started up with the Sockina yarn that DH gave me for Christmas:



What can I say, I just can't stand the idea of sock yarn hanging around not being on the needles, I guess.

Lacy Ribs Scarf

On Sunday, I actually managed a quick trip to the yarn store. (They're having a Boxing Week sale.) Among other reasons, I really wanted to see if I could find a second ball of the OnLine Nobile to be able to finish this scarf - I'm really stoked about writing up the pattern and starting to sell it. After much hunting in the back, with a lot of help from June (the owner), I found it!

I whipped up the rest of the scarf in fairly short order and had it finished by New Year's Eve. Now I just have to pose with it for pictures, write it up, and - shazam! - I can start selling it online. June also said she'd be willing to sell it as a kit in the shop. I'm so excited!

Mitred corners blanket for Raymond

The other thing I was hunting for on my yarn store trip was more yarn for this blanket, since the 10 balls I originally bought will not be enough. It took us a while (and great patience and diligence on June's part, thank you so much June), but we found more in THE SAME DYELOT, hoorayhoorayhooray. I bought three balls just to be safe. Next step: write up pattern, then follow it.

This has been an absolutely huge post, but I have one more item to talk about. It's very cool, so please bear with me.

A few weeks ago, someone contacted me on Ravelry. She'd seen, in my stash list, the leftover Bernat Sox in the "Army Hot" colourway from some socks I made for my husband a while back, and really, REALLY wanted it. She apologized if this was a rude thing to ask (since the yarn was not marked as for trade/sell), and wondered if there was any way she could pay or trade me for it.

Well, let's see...

• not rude at all
• delighted to hand it off to her
• no payment required

However, she insisted that she would send me something. Apparently she works at Webs (be still my beating heart), so she could pick me up something fun really easily.

It arrived yesterday. Know what it is?

That is 50 grams of Malabrigo Lace Baby Merino, my friends, in a gorgeous deep azure.

Crazy, right? I'm really not sure what universe I've entered into that this is a fair exchange for 12.5 grams of acrylic sock yarn, but, my guilt aside, I am incredibly happy to have it.

If anyone has any ideas of what I could do with a single skein of this, please feel free to suggest. A scarf is the obvious answer, but if there are more creative ideas out there, I'd love to hear 'em. I'd also like to hear any suggestions as to what I could POSSIBLY do to make it up to the Karma Gods for this incredible piece of largesse.

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:


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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.

How it's going

Mendocino for DD1

I now have pictures!


'in action'


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Fair isle tank top

Serious relief over here at Insanity headquarters. For awhile there, I lost the notes I took for the 24-month size. I looked all over in a bunch of logical (and some not-so-logical) places and I could not find the piece of paper. Finally I did a desperate hunt in one last illogical-but-sorta-logical place, and to my INTENSE relief...there it was. Phew! I did NOT want to have to make it again. I was worried that I or another member of my family had pitched it in the recycling.

Anyway, the 18-month and 12-month sizes have been done, measured and photographed. Next up: to rip back the 12-month size and start the 6-month size. I'm getting closer! I'm very excited.

Lacy Ribs Scarf

I came to the end of the ball and I'm not even at two feet on the scarf yet. So I think I'm going to rip it back (again) and re-start with one fewer rib pattern in the width.

Elizabethan Jacket for MIL

Coming along bee-yewtifully:



The collar is done, the button and buttonhole bands are done, and the front and back neckline steeks have been lashed into place. The monumental task of weaving in ends has begun, and I've begin to cut up armscye steeks in preparation for sewing in the sleeves (one of my least favourite sewing tasks in the world). My heart is starting to quail at all the sewing and weaving I have ahead of me, but we're definitely closer to the finish line now.

Branching out for DD1's teacher

Done! Here it is blocking:



Hey, the observant among you may ask, did she buy blocking wires? Nope! My husband made those wires just for me (he just cut off lengths of a sufficiently thick-gauge wire and filed down the edges so they wouldn't catch on the knitting). They work very nicely and I like them a lot.

The scarf itself has blocked out to slightly shy of four feet long, and looks absolutely delicious.

Inside-out comfort socks

My BIL#1 and MIL visited last weekend (yes, I hid both of their knitting project presents), and while BIL was distracted, I checked out his shoe size (8). Then I got DH to come over and try on his brother's shoes. The verdict is that BIL's feet are slightly shorter than my husband's, but also a touch wider. So I did a calculation about how many rows the heel would take before the turn, how much length that would work out to, and then figured out that I needed to start the heel shaping when the foot was about 8" long, based on the fact that I knew my husband's feet were 10.5" long.

Last night I turned the heel and was happily working my way up the leg when the subject of my husband's feet being 10.5" long came up.

"Where did you get that number?" he asked, surprised. I told him that I had measured his feet some time ago, and memorized the number.

We brought out a ruler. His feet are actually 10 inches long.

(insert your choice of expletive here - I was certainly thinking them all)

So I will be ripping back all the leg I've done, the heel, and some of the foot, until it's about a quarter- to a half-inch shorter than it was when I started the heel shaping the first time.

Grumble grumble.



Farewell.

Kilt hose

I brought the one sock I'd made into the shop and compared it with the original that the guy from the band left. It's smaller, so I figure next time I'll make it with 5mm or 5.5mm needles instead of 4.5. I left it there in case the guy comes back.

Foot-pampering socks for moi

This has been seeing some work when I'm stalled on other things and just want something quick to pick up. I think I'm going to start the heel flap at the end of the current colour stripe.

"Old knitters never die..."

The grandmother of one of my mom's friends recently died, and left a fairly big collection of needles. The granddaughter didn't know what on earth to do with them, so my mom took them for me. I know what to do with them.

I haven't quite finished sorting them all out because I've only used a UK gauge on them so far - I need to use my American gauge to determine more precisely the sizes of some of the needles. But a few things are clear. Firstly, I didn't need to buy two sets of 2.75mm DPNs at the store last Sunday (oh, well); secondly, I am not going to run out of sock needles anytime soon; and thirdly, my concerns about not having enough DPNs for a larger-than-four-people sock class have completely vanished.

Also in knitting inheritance news, a few weeks ago, the neighbour across the hall from my parents unfortunately died. Since then, my dad has been helping the woman's sons clean out her condo. Turns out she was a hoarder (we inherited a large package of toilet paper), and also a knitter. My mother says there are over 100 balls of yarn waiting for me to pick up when we have next have dinner at my parents'. (!!!) Most of it is acrylic, but some of it is wool, and a little bit of it is mohair. I'm going to keep a little bit of the stash for myself, but most of it is going to better causes:

Someone posted to the GTA forum on Ravelry telling the story of a librarian teacher at an inner city school (i.e. no money) in Toronto. She's started up a knitting club for the school kids in an effort to keep them out of trouble. 70 kids showed up on the first day to check it out. 40 kids signed up to be in the club on a long-term basis. This was a vastly larger turnout than they were expecting, so they're kind of screwed for needles and yarn for the kids. Therefore, I have emailed the teacher offering the excess of needles and yarn that I now have. (If you, too, have an excess of knitting supplies you'd like to donate, send me your email address at wipinsanity at gmail daht calm, and I'll pass it along to the teacher so she can get in touch with you.)

I love being able to help!

In other news, DH picked up some sock yarn at the store at the same time as he was shopping for my birthday gift. Funnily enough, it's the exact same yarn I used to make these socks for him. I taught him the long tail cast-on, told him how many stitches to cast on, and how to start the ribbing, and away he went on DPNs. He's very slow, but he's doing it. I'm so proud. (Pictures to come when there's something significant to photograph.)

Moving forward on my plans to try and make money from my knitting, I set up a business account at PayPal, and a free account at Payloadz. This combination will enable me to offer paid patterns for download! Very exciting stuff. I don't have anything to offer yet, but stay tuned.

Mendocino for DD1

On Monday, I finally got off my heinie while DD1 was at school and gave the thing a 45-minute soak in Eucalan. Then I blocked it, picking off as many bits of pumpkin patch dirt from DD1's field trip as possible. Therefore, I can now say that it is, at long last, officially finished! Hooray!

Photographs forthcoming - I don't think I have time to do them now because I'm trying to finish this entry before DD2 wakes up.

Lacy Ribs scarf for Mercedes

About a month ago I think it was, I blogged about having taken home some Nobile yarn from ONLine as a possible contender for a top I'm designing. It turned out not to be a good fit, so now I have this ball of Nobile sitting around not doing anything. Mercedes at the shop told me I could turn it into a scarf for her instead. So that's what I'm doing. I've cobbled together a bit of ribbing, garter stitch, and one of the lace motifs redacted from my daughter's fuzzy white blanket, and I'm getting something that looks pretty cool, although I'm still fiddling with the design in order to be able to get a full-sized scarf out of just two balls (there is not a whole lotta yardage with this yarn).

Once I finish the scarf, I'm going to write out the instructions and print off some copies for the store to sell. I'm also planning to make it available online as my first sellable item from my Payloadz account. I'm pretty excited about having a 'product'!

Doll's Wardrobe skirt for DD1's doll

Done!


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Ain't it purty? One article of doll clothing down...two to go.

Inside-out comfort socks for BIL#1

A number of months back, my elder BIL was hanging out at our place, and I happened to look at his socks. I noticed pretty quickly that they were inside out. When I mentioned this to him, he was completely unsurprised, and revealed that he does that on purpose. That way, the smooth, comfortable stocking stitch side of the socks is touching his feet. Naturally I was instantly inspired to knit him a pair of socks where all the ends were woven in on the stocking stitch side, so that he could wear them with the reverse stocking stitch facing out without the socks looking so blatantly inside-out. In the summer I found some terrific sock yarn that I thought he would really like, so I decided to make him some "inside-out" socks for Christmas. This week, I started them. I am knitting them inside-out. No way am I going to purl an entire pair of socks.

They do seem a little big to me so far, though. I'm going to compare them to some of DH's socks to see if I need to rip back and stop the toe increasing earlier.

Fair isle tank top

To my disgust, I realised that I had misaligned the two different stranded motifs on the 18-month size, and had to rip back most of it. However, I've now finished the stranded colourwork component and am about to start on the skirt.

Elizabethan Jacket for MIL

The approach of Hallowe'en and the huge amount of Christmas projects I've taken on has thrown me into a bit of a Christmas panic. This panic gave me the chutzpah I needed to do the blocking last night (which also involved cutting two of the steeks). It looks absolutely marvellous - it blocked more-or-less to the required measurements and all the ugly rippling and puckering is gone:

Branching out for DD1's teacher

Bit by bit, I keep going on this.

Kilt hose

Last time I was at Knitters Attic, Mercedes said that someone had come into the shop asking about getting someone to knit kilt hose for their bagpiping troupe (or band, or something like that), and how much it would cost. Apparently they used to have a lady who made kilt hose for them, but she's died and they need someone else to do it. The guy dropped off an example of a sock she'd made to give us an idea of what needed to be done. I redacted the pattern and tried it out (I love a challenge). The result?





Not too shabby, eh? It may be acrylic, but it's really comfortable. I timed myself on how long the sock took - 5 hours and 45 minutes (more or less). That means I could do a pair in 11.5 hours.

What would you charge for something like that?