Better

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

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

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

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

One step back, two steps forward

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

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

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

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

Front:




Back:

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

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

Work proceeds apace

My 12-in-12 challenge is going fairly well so far. I've got my first submission all ready to go. I haven't sent it off yet, though, because my second submission is going to be to the same publication, so I'm going to wait until both are finished and then send them off in a single package. The second submission is proving a little trickier because it takes way more swatching and planning and perfecting. But hopefully it'll turn out okay. I'm pretty excited about both of them.

After that I will be going full-tilt on things that need to be done for February. I've already made good progress on one thing: the Parfait cardigan I started back in June for the daughter of one of my bestest friends. Her birthday is in February, so that's the perfect time to give it to her. (And I made it in a pretty big size for her, so the fact that she's had half a year of growth since I started is not going to prevent it from fitting...I hope.) I'm on the very last tier before the neckline and am very pleased so far.

The other thing that's in February is my anniversary. In honour of it, I will be gifting my husband with a cardigan...for me.

I know that sounds weird, but there's a perfectly logical explanation. Bear with me.

Years ago, my MIL gave me Elsebeth Lavold's "Designer's Choice book one: The Viking Knits Collection" for Christmas, and enough Silky Wool yarn to make myself pretty much anything in it. (Later on she also gave me the PERFECT buttons for it, so I'm completely set.) I can't remember when I started it, but it was probably shortly after I got the book. I've been working on it excruciatingly slowly in fits and starts ever since - I think I have the back done and one side almost done at this point. And the amount of time that it's taken me to finish it has been absolute torture for my husband, who thinks it's a fabulously sexy cardigan and has been salivating at the prospect of seeing me in the completed garment this whole time. :)

Therefore, as a love present to him, I am planning to have it all done in time for our anniversary.

To that end, I went hunting for the book yesterday...and couldn't find it. This seemed very strange to me, since I was fairly sure where I had left it lying around and it was in absolutely none of the many logical (and some illogical) places I looked for it. I began to suspect, therefore, that perhaps my husband had taken it? To work on something for me for our anniversary, perchance? (He has admitted that my gift is going to be a knitted one.) So when he came home, I mentioned that I'd been looking for it (under the pretext of finishing off a different project I've got that also uses the book), and...wouldn't ya know it...he managed to "find" it really quickly. Now, I could be completely wrong about my suspicions, but the facts of the situation do make it a reasonable theory, I think. I have no idea what he'd be making, though. He's not a fast knitter, so I don't think he would be trying a sweater or cardigan. Maybe it's the Gram cap, or mittens, or the Tyra hat. We shall see.

And in between all this proposal-preparing and deadline knitting, I've been making some progress on other stuff. DD1's socks now both have legs:

And I'm getting ready to start the legs of the socks for DD2.

I haven't made any progress on DD3's giraffe toy, but I did at least take a picture of the one measly hoof I've done so far:

And I started and frogged the Tyrolean Mittens from Marcia Lewandowski's book "Folk Mittens". This is as far as I got:

I started them as a charity project for my LYS's charity knit night, but firstly, it turns out that charity knit night has now turned into just a regular knit night, and secondly, even though I went down to a sport weight yarn from the called-for worsted weight yarn, the mittens were still coming out really big. I love the pattern a lot, so I'll have to try again another time at a smaller gauge.

Why your significant other should know how to knit

Sunday evening, I finished my older daughter's shrug. Therefore, come Monday morning, I had to find something to put in my bag so I could knit on my commute and lunch.

I was feeling a bit uninspired by everything else I had in progress (yeah, what else is new), so I decided to start the Parfait cardi for my friend's daughter that I talked about in my last entry. I printed off the instructions (it may be my own pattern, but I certainly haven't memorized the whole thing), packed up the yarn and needles, and headed out the door.

The observant among you will notice that I did not mention there that I actually packed the instructions that I'd printed. Yep, I left them sitting there on the printer tray.

I realised I was instructions-less on the shuttle bus to the station.

(You know those dreams where you find yourself naked in public? Yeah, it feels a lot like that when you realise there is NOTHING YOU CAN KNIT ALL DAY.)

However!

Sitting at home at that very moment was my husband, who knows how to read knitting patterns. So I called him, told him where the instructions were, and said that I was making the six-year size and needed to know how to get started. He ran me through the number of stitches to cast on, the width of the front bands, the number of pattern repeats to make per tier, and from there my knowledge of the pattern took over and I was able to actually knit for the rest of the day without any trouble.

But can you imagine if he had no idea how to read a knitting pattern? It would have been a tortuous, knittingless day.

So go forth and share your knitting abilities with those closest to you. Some day it may pay big dividends.

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.