Motoring along at a good pace

Lots of good knitting progress going on these days.

Maria Sings for DD1

Finished!

from the front:


from the back:
being worn, from the front:


being worn, from the back: (the peace signs were totally her idea)


endearing photoshoot outtake:

Parfait for Shoshana

Went to my LYS this weekend and picked up the yarn, and got started:

Midwife gifts

I think I have made some decisions.

For the woman I think is going to end up being the primary midwife present at the birth, I will be making Frilly Scarf by Tove Backhammar, out of some of my light brown Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed from the stash, which I picked up at a super sale a few years back from The Studio's online store (which is staffed by unbelievably nice people, if my shopping experience was any indication):



For the other member of my primary care team, I will be making the Colonnade Shawl by Stephen West, out of some more yarn picked up at that same sale from The Studio, this time Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran:


(the colour there is unfortunately not too accurate - it's actually lighter and less pinkish)

And finally, whoever shows up as my backup midwife at the birth will be receiving the Brambles Beret by Amanda Muscha, in I-don't-know-what-still-need-to-figure-that-one-out. I'll probably go stash-diving once again because I'm getting a real "wow, I'm being so responsible" kick these days about working through the stash.

Intentions

Typically, when coming off a time-sensitive knitting project (or, as in my case recently, two time-sensitive knitting projects), I will feel rather at loose ends and start looking for something new and interesting to do. This despite the fact that I already have scads of WIPs lying around the house waiting for me to pick them back up again, some of them probably also time-sensitive. And yet, invariably, I will find myself with brand-new and exciting projects planned.

And that is exactly what is happening right now.

Maria Sings for DD1

The time-sensitive knitting project still on the needles, and about to be unceremoniously dumped for other things, is my older daughter's shrug, which needs to be finished by her recital in a few weeks. Fortunately, I am not being completely irresponsible with it...



As you can see, I've done the first half and am well on my way to finishing the second half.

However, other stuff has definitely crept onto my radar.

Hobbes for baby #3

Firstly, I was no longer able to resist Tall Tiger, by Browneyedbabs. I started it on the weekend and it's going very well indeed, if a bit macabre-looking at the moment:

Parfait for Shoshana

Also this past weekend, I threw a 50th birthday party for my fabulous husband, and we got to catch up with some friends that we haven't seen in a while. One of them was a friend I've known since grade six, who has been following the parade of knitting project pictures that shows up on my Facebook page, and was apparently really wowed by my Parfait design. Her daughter loved it, too.

Well.

If that doesn't make a pseudo-auntie want to make a girl a cardigan, what will? My friend's daughter has a lovely golden skin tone and apparently likes pink, so I was thinking of using the Marble yarn from James C. Brett again, this time in the "Moss" colourway, which is the lighter yarn used in this project:

Eye-bleeding socks for Hector

And speaking of 50th birthdays, a very dear friend of mine recently celebrated his, and I want to make him something suitably celebratory. He is very much into unspeakably awful (read: bright and obnoxious) plaids, so I thought that Kilt Hose by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence and Nina Isaacson, using the brightest sock yarn leftovers my stash could provide, would work really, really well. Sadly, the purchase link from the pattern's Ravelry page doesn't work, and I can't find it any-damn-where else. So I've PMed Kerin on Ravelry in the hopes that she can help me get my hands on a copy. I've also messaged the birthday boy's wife (also a knitter) to get an idea of how big the socks should actually be.

Liv for Hazel

Then, of course, we have the cardigan I spoke of in my last entry, which I want to make for the very nice lady who is letting my grandma and my uncle live in her apartment while their own condo de-toxifies this summer. (Although there is still apparently the issue of convincing my grandmother to go along with this plan instead of moving back into her toxic unit next week, sigh.) My mom agrees with me that Liv is an excellent choice for this lady's style, and says that if I made it in navy, it could replace her favourite cardigan (also navy), which is kind of falling apart right now. I do have some great navy superwash in the stash, but it's worsted and the pattern calls for sportweight. I've figured out, however, that I can use the instructions for the smallest size and probably still end up with something that will fit the intended recipient, although I may have to shave a few stitches off the sides so that it's not too wide.

Now I just have to figure out where the hell I put all my pairs of 4.5mm straights.

Midwife gifts

We're approaching the point where I will need some. I've been musing over a bunch of possibilities. For one of my midwives, I particularly like Duet and Rodekool quite a bit, and a few other patterns, but I'm having a tough time matching up pattern ideas to what I can find while stashdiving in a way that makes me happy. So I will have to keep thinking on this one. Also, I still need to do a serious think about what I would like to make for my other midwife.

Celtic Pennies for DH

I gave them to DH for his birthday and he adored them. Sadly, as feared, they are way, WAYYYYY too huge on him, so I will have to rip them out and do them all over again. Sigh. I keep reminding myself that it's the thought that counts.

So far, so good

I don't want to tempt fate by getting all arrogant or anything, but I think I can cautiously say that so far, my deadline-driven knitting from my last entry is going well.

Celtic Pennies for DH

His birthday is tomorrow and I finished them on Friday. They're now drying from the blocking.



I strongly suspect that they're much too huge, but nonetheless, I think they look great. We'll just have to wait and see. I did have to cut out several rounds from the toe chart so that the foot length wouldn't be ridiculously long on DH, but it still looks okay.

Sourpatch for DD2

I appear to have achieved escape velocity from the Black Hole Of Eternal Stocking Stitch, because...



Just finished this evening. And not only do I love the result, but I also love the miniscule amount of yarn I had remaining when it was all over:

Maria Sings for DD1

The shrug is not, alas, finished like the other two projects, but it's still doing quite well and the latest comparison of shrug-to-child's-actual-body from this morning showed that I'm close to being at the halfway point, with a few weeks to go.

I may, however, get distracted from the shrug by another project that there's no rush to finish at all. (Typical.) There's a bit of a backstory to this one. My grandmother and uncle have basically been chased out of my grandma's condo by the fact that when their condo board decided to redo the decor in the building, they chose to use oil-based paints. Every. Freakin'. Where. They are not the only residents to have been unable to bear the resulting toxic atmosphere in the building, and are basically out of a home for the next few months. Yeah. Being displaced from one's home is ever so conducive to the continued good health of a 95-year-old woman.

(In case you couldn't hear the drip-drip-dripping sound, that last sentence was pure sarcasm.)

However, by a marvellous stroke of luck, one of my mom's good friends in her building is away for a few months, and, as it turns out, is more than happy to allow my grandmother and uncle the use of her unit during that time.

I am more grateful to this nice lady than I can say.

I must knit for her.

I'm thinking seriously about Liv, by Elsebeth Lavold. I would want to convert it into a cardigan rather than a sweater, but that looks like it will be super-easy. I just have to wait for my mom to tell me what size she wears. Oh, and get yarn for it. (Although I may have something in the stash that will work.)

So...will I have the self-control to hold off on starting this until after my daughter's shrug is finished?

Yeah, I'm thinking no, too. My ability to resist Startitis is non-existent.

Deadlines

Sourpatch take two for DD2

How am I supposed to finish this before the end of the summer if I can't get out of the Black Hole Of Eternal Stocking Stitch?



Seriously...I've been working on the bottom part of this thing forever and I'm still acres away from getting to do the seed stitch hem. Meeble.

Celtic Pennies for DH

Still loving this design.

Also, still finding things wrong with the pattern instructions.

For one thing, I ended up putting the heel at the side of the foot because the instructions just said to start working the heel flat over 36 stitches right after getting you to finish off the last round of the leg. And the rounds begin and end at the centre back of the heel. Ergo, if you work the heel over the first 36 stitches you come to when the instructions tell you to, presto, you will have a heel at the side of the foot. Admittedly, I'm an experienced enough sock knitter that I might have been expected to catch that error before I did the entire heel and had to rip it out again...but other knitters might not be.

Then there's the chart for the toe - the very first row with decreases should also be the first row with "no-stitch" symbols...but no. Again, I knew what to do, but someone else might not.

Lastly, the pattern gives you the option of doing the "Estonian Heart of the Blossom Closure" for the toe. I had never heard of such a thing, and the pattern didn't include clue one as to what it was or where to find out more. (FYI, I searched Ravelry forums for information, and it's apparently the thing where you just thread the yarn through the stitches and pull tight.)

But I will say it again, the design is beautiful, as you can see for yourself.



I have to finish it by Sunday. Yeep!

Maria Sings for DD1

I discovered recently that this lovely shrug I had made a few years ago for my older daughter...



...now fits my younger daughter.

Ergo, older daughter needs a new shrug. Particularly in light of the fact that her First Ballet Recital Ever is coming up, and her costume has no sleeves, and having a shrug to keep her warm backstage would be a great idea.

So we went hunting! She chose the pattern "Maria Sings", by Roberta Soleri.

So far, so good:



Whether I can get it done in time for the recital, though, is anyone's guess.