I gotcher good news and I gotcher bad news

Leafy Baby Poncho

I'm delighted to announce that I finished the 12-month size, blocked it, did two photo shoots with my daughter wearing it (I couldn't get a decent shot of the front when she wasn't looking miserable during the first shoot), finalised the pattern, and posted it for sale.


front


back

I think it looks really sweet, and will work with just about any 100g amount of sock yarn (there are some heavy sock yarns that may not have enough yardage; but if you've got something close to 400 yards, you're good). I think it's tremendously cool when you can use sock yarn (particularly self-striping or self-patterning sock yarn) for something other than socks (although socks are, of course, tremendously cool in and of themselves).

If you're keen, you can hit the 'Buy now!' link for it on the side bar.

Mitred corners blanket for Raymond

THE KNITTING IS DONE. Ahhhhh. What a fantastic sense of relief.

Alas, following shortly on the heels of that relief was a sense of utter fury. I started to graft the end stitches to the beginning stitches, and had done about 85 of them before I realised that I hadn't lined them up right - the end stitches were shifted 'off' of the beginning stitches by one lousy stitch. A thousand curses. Now I am faced with the unenviable task of undoing all my lovely grafting.

There are no words.

You rest, you rust

Endpaper Mitts for moi

Project whore that I am (that'll get me some interesting hits via Google, won't it?), I could not resist the sudden urge that hit me last week to make Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts pattern. I'd been thinking about it for a while, because it's such a good-looking finished product, and because it does get a little chilly sometimes at the LYS, as well as at my office, to which I must return in two months (*SOB*), and in order to stay functional in a chill, my hands need to be covered. And I must say, these mittens are an extremely handsome way to achieve that covering.

Moreover, this project would force me to learn another type of cast-on and bind-off, and it would also be an excellent opportunity to practice stranded knitting holding both strands with my left hand, which has been a goal of mine for some time. Throw in the joy of finding something new to do with sock yarn, and you have a winner.

And so, off I went.

This is a delicious pattern. Extremely simple, with extremely gorgeous results. Despite having (as always) a Schedule, I couldn't seem to put this down (good thing I'm about two weeks ahead of myself).

I just finished off the first one today and am LOVING it:



The stitches are a tad wonky where one of the needle joins was (the fault of my still-inexpert-but-improving-decently skill with the single-handed stranding technique); it's a touch itchy (the fault of the yarn); and the side seams have a tendency to travel because they twist around my hand a bit from their intended side-of-the-hand positions (I think this must be the fault of physics, because the mitt itself fits very snugly indeed)...but those are the only non-gushing things I have to say about it. Despite the indoor temperature of my house being perfectly reasonable, I have been wearing this thing since I finished it (except I did take it off to dump a load of diapers in the washing machine...after all my hard work there's no way I want this thing tainted with urine).

I do feel a little tickle of second mitt syndrome at the back of my brain, but I'm pretty sure I can get over that.

(P.S. For anybody thinking of making this pattern, it's touted as 'reversible'...I'm pretty sure this refers to being able to wear the mittens on either hand, as opposed to being able to turn it inside-out and have it look good.)

Everything else on my plate has slowed way down because of the Endpaper Mitts, though.

Mitred corners blanket for Raymond

I'm on the last eighth! The end is nigh!

Leafy baby poncho

I just finished the third repeat of the self-striping pattern this afternoon. I'm guessing it'll take about five to finish the thing, so not far now.

I promised photos

Carrie K has pointed out to me that although I may have made the Arabesque Baby Blanket pattern available for download, I never actually posted any pictures to the blog itself. And so, here is the remedy for that...

blanket


pattern detail

Whaddya think?

Mitred corners blanket for Raymond

Some years ago, a certain baby boutique sold the crib I'd ordered out from under me, forcing me to crawl around on the shop floor dismantling a store model at 37 weeks gestation in order to actually have something my baby could sleep in. (I won't even try to pretend I'm not bitter. It's been almost 5 years and I still despise the owner - who totally did it on purpose because he wanted to sell it for more than my agreed-upon price - with the red-hot fury of a thousand suns.)

Now, my beloved LYS is a completely different story. It is staffed by lovely people, and the chances that the yarn they set aside for me would be accidentally sold to someone else are astronomically low. Nevertheless, my past trauma has made me totally paranoid about this sort of thing no matter who the retailer is, so I went back to the LYS as soon as I could, and picked up my two additional balls in the same dyelot just so I would have them for when I need them.

And I'm now pretty close to needing them. I'm working on the seventh eighth of the blanket, which means I'm over three-quarters done. It is a behemoth-like sea of purple, and I really like it. I can't wait to finish it, photograph it, and put the pattern up for sale!

Leafy baby poncho

I am fast approaching the end of the ball, and am coming to the conclusion that it's still not going to happen for the 24-month size. No biggie - I figure a baby pattern that goes from 3 months to 18 months is still pretty good.

I don't want to 'spill the beans' yet about something that I want to either sell or submit to a magazine, but I did want to provide a picture to show how the yarn patterns - no harm in that, eh?



(I over-sharpened it a bit to compensate for the blurriness, sorry.)

Child legs for DD1

I weighed what's left of the ball, and I've got really quite a ways to go until the halfway point (of course, my understanding of where precisely the halfway point is would have been improved by weighing the ball before I started knitting with it, but I'm an idiot who doesn't think ahead, so there goes that idea). I guesstimate I've got about 6 inches more to do before the first leg is finished, so I'm not worried at all about running out of yarn.

I've also taken an updated picture:

Oil-slick rainbow socks for moi

Heel is done, leg has begun:

In other triumphs, my husband finished the scarf he designed and started as a Christmas gift for me a few years ago. It's red and cabled and gorgeous and I love it. I'm going to help him write up the pattern so we can self-publish it.

Squee!

(No photos today, sorry, I'm trying to get this posted quickly...next time.)

Earlier this week, I was overcome with delight when I discovered (through Ravelry, of course) that someone is using my Arabesque Baby Blanket pattern. You can see her latest project update. I'm so excited!

She has two complaints about it, other than the usual "damn, but baby blankets are big and take forever" thing (which I can't do anything about, obviously):

1. The chart is too small
2. She loses count when doing the lace rows

She makes excellent points.

Speaking to the chart size, the motif is big, which means there's a lot of chart to fit on the page, which translates into small squares on the chart, which means it can be hard to read. My apologies to any future users of this pattern who also encounter this problem, but since most people don't have printers which can take ledger-size paper (nor do most people have ledger-size paper in the first place), I had to stick with a printout size of 8.5x11", and that limits how big I can make the chart on the page. Maybe enlarging it with a photocopier would do the trick, if you don't mind your chart in pieces?

As for losing count, stitch markers between pattern repeats would definitely come in handy for anybody who is losing track of any pattern. In hindsight, I should have suggested using stitch markers for this purpose in my instructions, but I am one of those weird people who almost never needs to use stitch markers for that kind of thing, so I tend to forget to mention it when instructing others.

However, all in all, she seems to be loving the blanket and she says that it's pretty, which puts me over the moon. I can't wait to see the finished product. (And I really, REALLY can't wait to see her baby - once it's finished gestating - using the finished product.)

But wait...there's more!

Today (also on Ravelry), I got a message from Patrick at Village Yarns in Toronto. He wants to make the Arabesque blanket too, and display it in the shop along with a reference copy of the pattern instructions.

Be still my beating heart. Multiple people want to make my design? The hell you say! I'm THRILLED.

And speaking of my designs...

Mitred blanket for Raymond

This is coming along very nicely indeed, although I am using up far more yarn than I anticipated. (Fortunately, the LYS has set aside extra in the correct dyelot and will reserve it for me as needed. Phew!) I'm now working on the second half of the blanket, and it's looking great.

Leafy baby poncho

I worked and worked on the poncho, enough to realise that there wouldn't be enough yarn to make a 24-month size, but that I would be able to make an 18-month size. Having established that fact, I ripped it back to where I needed to start the garter stitch hem for the 12-month size (to fit my baby daughter), and then finished it up. I tried it on my kid. It looked incredibly cute, and even let her move her arms around (which I was a bit worried about). Unfortunately, the neckhole was too small - it wasn't actually strangling her, but it was too close for my taste. This also resulted in some difficulty getting it to fit over the shoulders - you could do it, but it took some tugging. So I decided to rip it all back and start again with a bigger neckhole, and varying the circumference for each size. That way, it can just fit straight over the babies' heads without needing to bother with putting a zipper in (which was my original plan).

So I am starting with the 24-month size, in the hope that the new, bigger neckhole might free up enough stitches to have enough yarn to do the whole thing. If not, then I'll know I can still only get an 18-month size max, and then I'll rip that out (I am so not looking forward to that point) and start all over again with the 12-month size as the model piece for my daughter to wear.

This has clearly turned into a bigger project than I bargained for. However, I'm still ahead of The Schedule, so I'm not worried.

Child Legs for DD1

The first leg has grown quite a bit, it's at least a foot long now. I tried it on my daughter today and it fits really well. She also really likes it, although she wants it to come right up to the top of her leg instead of mid-thigh (which was my original plan). Hopefully there will be enough yarn to do this. Speaking of which, I should really weigh what's left of the ball to see whether I'm at the halfway point yet.

Oil slick rainbow socks for moi

I needed the long DPNs that this project was using, and I had a not-in-use set of short DPNs kicking around the house, so I traded. And then after I traded I figured, "Oh, what the hell," and started knitting a bit more on these socks. (No self control.) As a consequence, I'm about a half-inch from starting the heel.

It's not always about me

As I've previously mentioned, a few years ago, my husband decided to learn how to knit, for the purposes of, as he put it, "self defence". Actually, there were more reasons than just that. He, being a sweet and caring man, knew that knitting was vitally important to me, and therefore wanted to know more about it for my sake. (Awww.) As well, he wanted some golf club head covers and really liked the idea of making them for himself.

He's turned out to be a remarkably fearless knitter. His second project (still unfinished, alas) was a cabled scarf for me, the pattern for which he made up himself. His third project was a basketweave scarf for our elder daughter, again, making up the pattern. (The fact that the basketweave stitch pattern has been around for a long time is of no consequence as far as my being impressed with him is concerned...he still invented it out of his own head without knowing about it beforehand.) His actual knitting is slowly done, he still keeps a death grip on the needles, and his gauge needs to be more onsistent, but his grasp of the basic concepts is strong and he has absolutely no problem with diving right in and inventing his own patterns. He is truly a wonder.

Lately, he's been picking my brains about socks. Partly because he wanted to start making socks for himself, and partly because he wanted to surprise me with socks for Christmas. (One has been made so far. It fits great.) Finally I told him that he could stop knitting just because I like knitting. However, it's too late. He is now, by his own admission, hooked.

[insert evil laugh here]

(Sadly I cannot show you photos of all the great stuff he's working on. He went to work and took all four of his current WIPs with him in case business gets slow. Perhaps another time.)

Socks are particularly obsessive for him, he tells me. This week he dropped by the LYS and picked up a 100g ball of some self-patterning 'On Your Toes' because the two pairs he's currently got on the needles are not enough. Have I created a monster? Perhaps.

He has become rather frustrated with the scarf he's knitting for me, though. It's now reached a stage where the length is a hindrance, and apparently (he tells me), men cannot sit with their legs closed - not only because they don't want to squoosh their goolies, but also because their hips just don't like being placed that way. (Who knew.) So the scarf keeps falling through his lap and pulling on his needles, which of course is a hindrance to the knitting. Last night as he was knitting, this happened to him one too many times, and in frustration he cried out,

"Get out from between my legs, you great big floppy thing!"

Ahem.

So anyway, back to me...

I self-published a pattern! It's the Lacy Ribs Scarf I recently finished - the weather finally cleared up enough on Wednesday that DH and I could go outside and do a decent photoshoot.


'in action'


pattern detail

If you'd like it, there's a 'buy now' link in the sidebar, or you can follow the link to the pattern page and click the 'available for purchase' link from there. Whether or not you feel like buying it, please feel free to comment on what you think of it...and do be honest. I'm on enough of a high from selling several copies already (holy cow, that is an AWESOME feeling!) that hopefully, even vitriolic criticism wouldn't bring me down too much. :)

Actually, I'm on a bit of a self-publishing kick right now...

Leafy baby poncho

I have already deviated from the 2008 Schedule. (You knew I would. However, it's pretty shocking how early in the year it happened.) I was going through the sock yarn display at Knitter's Attic, and came across a skein of On Your Toes that had lots of pinks and pale yellows and aquas in it. I held it up and remarked on what a truly 'girly' colourway it was, and how it could be turned into some great leggings for my eldest one day, or maybe a shrug, or something. You know. At some point in the future.

"Take it home," said June (the owner). "Make up your own shrug pattern, we'll display the model in the shop."

(You see how I am surrounded by temptation? Even my friends aren't helping me to be good.)

But I was strong. I did not yield. I put down the ball and left it there when it was time for me to go home.

Not an hour after I walked into the door of my house, I was seized with total inspiration to make a top-down baby poncho out of the sock yarn. I knew exactly how I was going to construct it, and how I wanted the lace pattern to look, and DAMMIT, the sock yarn was still sitting in the shop! Augh!

In the absence of the yarn to make the poncho, I grabbed some spare yarn and started fiddling with the pattern idea I had in mind. After many frustrating attempts, I triumphed and got the look I was going for. Alas, the yarn was still at the shop and I had to wait a few days before I could go in and pick it up. But once I did, I started it right up and am currently cruising at a wingspan of about 8 inches. I like it a lot. With any luck, there will be enough yardage in the ball to make a poncho that fits my younger daughter so that she can be the model when I self-publish the pattern. Whee!

Mitred baby blanket for Raymond

Being distracted by irresistible inspirations for other patterns has fortunately not hindered momentum on this project. It's going very well, and I'm actually ahead of Schedule with it - I finished this week's quota last night, five days ahead of when I had to.

I'm very eager to get this thing finished, photographed, and available for purchase. The construction of the blanket is so nifty that I can't wait to share.

But it's not all mercenary around here. I have been doing other stuff.

Anniversary socks for DH

I finished these! It took a little finagling with the yarn to make everything stripe exactly like the first sock, but they turned out great. I really, really like the way this yarn striped.



They are now hiding from DH in one of the baskets beside the living room futon. (I write that not for your own edification, but for mine. I can easily see myself tearing the house apart on the eve of our anniversary next month trying to find where the hell I put them, unless I write it down here.)

Paisley Long Shawl

I mentioned in my description of the Christmas haul that I had received (from my wonderful MIL) a kit to make the Paisley Long Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. The yarn that came with the kit was three skeins of 'Ruby'. This is an unutterably gorgeous wine-red. However, I had something different in mind. I wanted to make it out of three colours, blending and gradiating across the length of the shawl: 'Mahogany' (a plum), Ruby, and 'Cinnabar' (a lovely red with an almost indiscernable hint of brownishness). Fortunately, June at Knitter's Attic was extremely generous (considering that the kit was bought at another shop), and let me exchange my two extra skeins of Ruby for the Mahogany and Cinnabar. I think the colour effect is going to be stunning:



I wish I could say that I was going to start it soon, but it is sooo outside the realm of my 2008 Schedule, which really can't take too much more after-the-fact modification. Alas. (Sob.)

Child Legs for DD1

This has become my 'purse project' - the one I stash in my purse for emergency knitting needs. :) As such, it's seen a few inches' growth recently.

Ragna for my brother

Last week sometime, I think it was, I made the BRILLIANT move of going to the LYS with a knitting bag packed chock-a-block with projects...but not their patterns.

(Seriously. Could I be any more dumbass?)

Fortunately, Ragna was one of the projects, and I'm at the point where I'm just repeating the cable pattern over and over again until I hit a length somewhere past two feet. It's easy to look at the cabling that's already there and figure out from that what to do next, so it was the only project I was able to work on. I probably got about another inch or so done. (It's so hard to concentrate on knitting when you're in a yarn store that needs help putting the stock on the shelves. :)