Spinning Jenny

Still more socks

2009-07-06T20:52:00.006-04:00

Here I was thinking it had been a couple of weeks since I last blogged and that I should get back to it only to discover that it has been more than a month. When I think back to all of the things I planned to share I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. From now on, though, I fully intned to blog at least twice a week. With any luck this will also motivate me to knit more than just plain mindless socks.

When last I blogged I was half way through a pair of Wanidas. After I finished the second of the pair (which I still haven't photographed) I cast on for a pair of Rick socks from the same book.

This pattern makes a beautiful pair of socks (again, only one of which I have managed to photograph). All of the twisted stitching make it a more time consuming knit but well worth the effort.

The Rick, Wanida and Grey and Blue Monkey socks were given to my mother for her birthday. I managed to finish the Rick pair the night before her birthday, much to my relief. I was also relieved that she hadn't guessed that the socks that I was knitting and she was admiring were in fact for her. So you can blame at least some of my lack of blogging on my mother.

The next pair of socks on my needles was another pair of Monkeys. These were comissioned by my mother for one of her friends. They are knit mostly out of Kroy sock yarn, but since I ran out before the end of the second sock I had to employ another bit of stash yarn. Had I been making these for myself I would have ripped out the first toe and knit it to match. My mother has an odd penchant for asymmetry so the socks don't match. I've been thinking of these as my 'toe the line' monkey socks.
Lest one get the impression that all of my sock knitting was for gifts, here are a couple of pairs of ankle socks I have been working on (one pair finished and one half done):
Since I am wearing shorts at work a lot I decided that ankle socks would come in very handy. Of course, since I finished the first pair the weather has become cooler and I have been wearing pants and full sized socks but the theory is otherwise sound. By the end of the summer I hope to have quite the collection of stash busting ankle socks (just in time for winter).

Socks, socks and more socks

2009-06-09T20:04:00.008-04:00

Having not done a lot of knitting in the past couple of months, I am now on a sock knitting jag. It started with the pair of Monkey socks I cast on at the end of the month. I chose to knit them because I was in need of a pattern I could knit easily and I had some stripy yarn in my stash that I thought would work well. I'm quite happy with the result as is my mother who has claimed them for herself.

I planned to follow the pattern as written but I forgot a couple of the plain knitting rows in the pattern. I didn't feel like ripping back so I knit both socks with a slightly compressed lace pattern. They are knit out of the Austermann Step sock yarn that contains Aloe and jojoba. It is nice soft yarn but it makes my nose run when I knit with it so I don't think I will be buying more of it.

I finished the Monkey socks on the fourth and immediately cast on for a pair of Angee socks from Cookie A's new book. I used the Louet Gems yarn that didn't work for the Intertwined Leaves socks and a 2.5 mm set of needles. I'm much happier with how the yarn worked with this pattern. I still found the fabric a bit loose and when I knit with this yarn in the future I will try to remember to go down to a 2.25 mm needle for the heel and sole of the sock.

I was far enough into the foot of the sock when I realized I wanted the fabric a bit tighter that I didn't want to rip back. Since the yarn is super wash I simply put the finished sock in the dryer for a little bit and that tightened everything up just enough.

I finished the Angee socks on the seventh and the next day I cast on for the Wanida socks from the same book. By tomorrow I should have the pair finished. I hope the next picture I take captures the colour of the yarn better. It is Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra in Pumpkin, though I find the colour much more coppery in person. It has a lovely shine that is really hard to photograph.

The Wanida pattern is a much quicker knit than the Angee but that might be in part because I have already knit a pair. In fact I knit the pair that appears in the book.

The sample knitting was fun and the fact that a pair of socks I knit appears in a book makes me happy. It doesn't hurt that I also get my name in the acknowledgments. I would jump at the chance to sample knit again.

Finally, while I am on the topic of socks, I should share a pair of socks that I knit just before my life got turned upside down. I knit these out of yarn I spun up back in October of 2007 (and blogged about in November 2007). Since I only had 200 yards, I knit them toe up and finished them with a picot edge. They fit much better than my first pair of handspun socks and I only wish I had had more yarn. Still, having ankle socks can be quite useful in the warmer months.

Stress relief

2009-05-31T23:12:00.003-04:00

There's still time for another blog post before May turns into June (!!!). In keeping with the end of the month I have the end of a project to share. Unfortunately it is not a finished object but a frogged object. I'm trying to avoid thinking about the theme of unraveling.

I originally cast on the Interlocking Leaves sock pattern on April 22 using 2.5 mm needles. I found the fabric a bit too loose so I ripped out and started again with 2.25 mm needles. The fabric was perhaps a bit too dense but I persevered during the times I felt like knitting. I got the lace pattern more or less memorized and I started to make actual progress.
At this point I stopped and tried it on only to discover that the heel was uncomfortably tight. I could have just ripped back and reknit the heel but I wasn't happy enough with how it was turning out to make that worthwhile. As of this evening the sock has been frogged.

I still really like this pattern and would like to knit a pair of socks from it. First I need to find another sock yarn (I was using Louet's Gems super fine.) Then I need to find another pattern to use with this sock yarn.

In the meantime I have cast on for a pair of Monkeys in one of my stash yarns. I think I can handle Monkeys. Maybe casting on will act as some sympathetic magic to help me find and start a new job.

Maybe I should also cast on some lace, and maybe a sweater,...

I should have been blogging

2009-05-29T23:26:00.005-04:00

May is almost over and I don't want the whole month to disappear without a single post. It has been a very eventful couple of months since last I blogged. I kept meaning to blog but I was too caught up in what I was doing to sit down and type about it.

The first thing I should have blogged was my return to crochet. I learned to crochet when I was 12 or 13 but never learned to follow patterns. Mostly I made slouchy hats following my mother's instructions.

Early April found me wanting to learn how to make one of the many wonderful hexagon blankets to be found on Ravelry. I tracked down the great instructions on attic24 and re-familiarized myself with the names of the stitches. After a couple of mistakes I had the hang of it. I practiced with leftover yarn I had and was completely hooked (pun intended?)
I've got a small pile of hexagons started using leftover bits of my hand spun. I especially love how hand spun singles and crochet mix to produce shapes with lovely drape. Branching out I also found simple instructions for granny squares and started making them with hand spun too.

I should also have blogged my adventures in woolen spinning. I recently bought some hand cards and I finally sat down and started making rolags. I'd done a bit of long draw spinning with some commercial Shetland roving but I'd never tried with hand carded rolags. My first attempt was with some old fleece my mother passed on to me. I eventually made it into a bulky three ply to hide some of the unevenness that comes with learning a new technique.
I kept practicing with various bits of fleece and left over roving and I now feel quite comfortable spinning this way. I also feel comfortable doing some colour blending with the handcards. I also tried spinning cotton from a rolag with some success.

The crochet and woolen spinning all took place in early and mid April. At the end of April Ken and I broke up and I moved back to Regina. I found new homes for my Lendrum and the old non-functional spinning wheel but packed my old Production wheel. Most of my stash is now stashed in with my boxes of books and other possessions. But I have my spinning wheel and spindles out where I can use them regularly. I find spinning to be a relaxing and calming thing to do while I try to find a new job and place to live.

The last week or so I've been practicing spinning on my top whorl Forrester spindle. I've now got the hang of rolling it off my thigh for speed and I've been spinning lace weight pretty consistently. My favorite result so far is a silk single and a merino single plied together. I don't have much of it but I'm sure I will find something nice to do with it.
So that's what I've been up to in the last two months. Fingers crossed that things settle down and I can find a job, unpack my stash and get knitting again.

Sweater pictures

2009-04-02T21:21:00.007-04:00

So apparently it takes me as long to get around to photographing a sweater as it does for me to knit it. Last Thursday I finished the last of the knitting on my handspun yoke sweater and now I finally have pictures to share:

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, though it is a bit loose in the yoke at the back. I was worried that it wouldn't have as much ease as I wanted but it relaxed when I washed it and now it fits just as I wanted. I'm glad I washed my gauge swatch else this sweater would have been much too large.

While I'm at it I should share some pictures of my Juno sweater:

It is the leftovers of this sweater that went into the body of the yoke sweater. I finished it at the end of January but only took pictures of it today. Sigh.

Maybe now I'll get around to finishing and photographing my Tempest.

Soon with button bands

2009-03-25T21:03:00.003-04:00

Not a great picture but I didn't want to wait for daylight. Today I knit a bottom for the sweater and one button band and then I ripped them out. I took time to take the picture between knitting and ripping.

I decided that I wanted the dark collar to go all the way to the end rather than being interupted by the button bands. I also decided that I wasn't completely crazy about the ribbing I was using for the button bands. Garter stitch seemed like a better fit. Since the bottom of the sweater is also garter stitch I decided to rip it out too and have a nice continuous band of garter stitch with mitered corners.

So now I'm working on reknitting the bottom and button bands. Once that is done I'll rip out the current collar and reknit it so that it meets. Then I will have a finished sweater. Hurray.

Now with sleeves

2009-03-24T21:37:00.002-04:00

Well the yoke sweater now has sleeves. It took me a few tries to get the sleeve length and shape right which means I now have a couple of extra ends to tuck in when it is finished. I like them as they are now, though.

I decided to do the cuffs using a size smaller needle and discovered that I do have 5.5 mm DPNs after all, but I don't have 5 mm DPNs. Grr. So I knit the cuffs using the 5.5 mm DPNs and slightly fewer stitches. As a result I knit the stockinette portion of the sleeves flat and the garter portion in the round. In other words I unintentionally made sure I was always purling every second row.

Now I'm planning to pick up stitches for the button bands and the bottom of the sweater. I'm still debating whether I should knit these in 2x2 ribbing or garter. There is also a little voice telling me I should skip the button bands and put a zipper in instead. I'll sleep on it and decide how to finish this sweater in the morning.

A slightly strange sweater

2009-03-22T17:39:00.007-04:00

I think I'm finally working on a knitting project whose progress deserves to be blogged about. In fact I've meant to blog about it since I cast on on Thursday but knitting kept getting in the way. Luckily I ran out of yarn and had to search my stash which gave me a good reason to set the knitting down, take some photos and write this blog post.

First a bit of background. When I dyed the Falklands handspun blue I was planning to knit it up into a sweater for Ken. To that end I knit up a striped swatch using the Falklands and some aran weight blue tweedy wool I had left over from knitting my Juno sweater (which still needs to be properly blogged). I liked the swatch but wasn't completely crazy about the stripes. The two yarns worked really well together, though, and it was a great way to use the thicker skein of Falklands.
Bumming around Ravelry I discovered these two sweaters (Ravelry links) and fell in love. I decided to knit myself a yoke sweater with the Faulklands for the yoke and cuffs and the navy tweed for the rest.

I had one problem however; the yarns knit up best on a 5.5 mm needle and although I had two pairs of straight needles in this size I lacked circulars and dpns. I didn't want to buy more needles so I decided to stick with straights. I wanted to knit this sweater from the top down so that I could adjust edgings and cuffs and over all length based on how much yarn I had left. I therefore decided to knit a top down sweater with side seams and underarm seams.

On Thursday I cast on for the yoke which I was knitting all in one piece. I started by following Barbara Walker's top down instructions. I wasn't sure whether to change the rate of increase (4 stitches every row) since I was knitting garter stitch rather than stockinette. I knit and ripped several times while adjusting the increases and the number of stitches cast on. By the end of Thursday's knit night I had decided on using the same rate of increases and following the Walker pattern had produced this:
On Friday I ripped all of my work out and started again without the extra neckline shaping. I increased 8 stitches every wrong side row and soon had the yoke portion completed. Part way through the yoke I had too many stitches to fit comfortably on one needle. Since I had two pairs of straight needles, I put half of the stitches on one needle, half on the other and then knit them using a third. It was just like knitting on DPNs while working flat rather than in the round.
Since the yarn is thick, the pattern simple and the needles big this project is just flying along. The fronts and back are basically done and I'm just working on the sleeves. If all goes well (and I don't have to go searching through my stash again for more of the leftover yarn) I think this sweater will be done in a couple of days.
Back to knitting for me.

More handspun

2009-03-16T19:49:00.005-04:00

It's Monday again which means it's time for my weekly blog update. One of these days I'll get on a more frequent schedule but until I do Monday is blog day. This last week I did some spinning and finished a pair of socks but I'll stick to the spinning for this post.

My most recent creation is the result of having a few bits of BFL top lying around which had been dyed in various shades of green. I used these bits of fiber to soak up excess dye from some of my earlier experiments with darker greens. Some of the top was a saturated yellow-green and some was a much less saturated blue green. I split these into strips and alternated them as I spun. I then plied the resulting single to itself to get a nice sport/dk weight yarn.

Before I spun it up I was thinking that I would probably over dye the yarn but once I saw how it was coming out I decided to leave it as is. I really love this little skein and I can't wait to knit it up into something. Spring is coming, though, and I no longer feel the need to knit mitts or winter hats. I only have about 170 yards and I'm not sure what to do. I'm thinking I might do something with stripes. Suggestions?

Prior to knitting up my BFL leftovers I was working on a couple of pounds of Falklands. Well it started out as a couple of pounds of white Falklands wool form Hello Yarn. Some of it got spun up as a two ply which I have been making into the wintergreen mittens (the subject of a future post, I promise). The remainder I used getting the hang of spinning on my old Quebec Production wheel (also due a proper blog post). I spun the singles on the production wheel and turned them into a three ply yarn on the Lendrum (with some cursing). A couple of weeks ago I finished up the last of it.

Since it was spun over the course of several months with long breaks in between, the final skein doesn't quite match the previous ones. It is better plied but it is also thicker and stiffer; the last skein is an aran weight and the others are dk/worsted. I'm currently trying to decide if I knit it up alternating skeins or knit separate projects.

I'm getting ahead of myself. After I finished all of the spinning I decided to try dying it (the cat thought it should be left as is for her comfort).
I got the big stock pot and tossed it in with some blue dye and vinegar. Thanks to temperature gradients I didn't get an even colour, but I'm still happy with the results. The final, thicker skein is 350 yards and the others are 126, 260 and 442 yards respectively. The two large skeins are much too large for my ball winder to handle so I've balled them up by hand. I took this picture after the 350 yard skein was balled but before I did the 442 yard one.All of this Falklands yarn has a beautiful sheen. I would jump on the chance to knit more Falklands. It drafts beautifully and produces a really beautiful worsted spun yarn.

Now I just need to decide what to knit.

Handspun and Garter stitch

2009-03-09T17:48:00.006-04:00

I guess it is time for my weekly update. I have a lot of spinning and knitting to show off from last week and I think I'll split it up into a few posts. Today I want to show off a couple of baby gifts that got mailed off to their new home this afternoon.

The octagonal baby blanket finally got its stars. I used this knitted stars pattern, only worked in the round. The actual colour of the blanket is somewhere between how it appears in these two photos.

I also knit up a Baby Surprise Jacket. A trip to the library got me the pattern and I had the yarn already spun up and waiting. It is the pink and green merino that I had originally intended as part of a handspun swap. It wasn't up to snuff as a skein but it knit up really beautifully. It is so soft and springy. I was really worried that I would run out of yarn since I only had about 250 yards. As it turned out I had just enough. There was only about a yard left over after I had cast off.
The jacket took about a day to knit and I would gladly knit another. It really is a very charming pattern.

Update

2009-03-02T19:12:00.003-05:00

I thought I'd write up a quick post before I fell too far behind on my blog again. I've been doing some spinning recently but I don't have any pictures at the moment. I spun up some baby alpaca that has been sitting around for quite awhile. It is lovely and shiny but I was surprised by how much dirt came out when I set the twist. I'm used to very clean roving/top but I guess alpaca doesn't need washed like wool does so that step is sometimes skipped. Next time I use preprepared alpaca I'll be sure to wash a bit before I spin.

I also spun some of the dark BFL that I dyed red. I haven't figured out the yardage yet and I'm not sure what it will become. I also discovered a partial bobbin with undyed dark BFL singles on it so I plied it up.

I think I just convinced myself that I should do a yarn photo shoot in the next couple of days.

I do have a picture of my most recently finished pair of socks. They are a simple ribbed design using some yarn that has been in my stash a couple of years. I used to have the label but I don't think it came with me when I last moved. All that I remember is that is is hand dyed and that I bought it at a booth at the Kitchener Waterloo Knitter's sale. These socks are for someone else but I've already cast on a pair of socks for myself using the yarn leftovers. I seem to be on a bit of a leftover sock yarn knitting jag. Pictures to follow.

Catching up

2009-02-22T18:10:00.004-05:00

Sorry it has been so long since the last post. I got caught up knitting with my hand spun and then I caught a cold which derailed my knitting and blogging plans for a couple of weeks. Despite a cough that doesn't seem to want to go away I am feeling better and am ready to sow off my recent knitting.

My most recently started and finished project is a pair of monkey socks. I ran across my Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn leftovers and decided that I had enough for another pair of socks. I was almost right. I dug up some leftover Louet fingering yarn for the toes and now I have a new pair of socks.
Before I got sidetracked by easy socks I was working on a couple of pairs of Wintergreen mittens. I knit the first mitten on 3.25 mm needles without swatching and it came out just barely large enough. I like it enough that I'm not going to frog it but I decided to knit another pair on larger needles. The second pair is going to be a gift and I've been fiddling with the pattern to get it just right. I won't go into all of the details right now but here is a picture of the first mitten and the first attempt at the second pair of mittens.
I thought I might prefer green on white but then I decided that white on green really looked better so I frogged. Since then I've been through so many different adjustments that these mittens really need their own post. I will mention, though that these are knit out of the green handspun BFL that I dyed and the white Faulkland's two-ply that I originally spun as part of my 3 wool sweater. I'm glad I didn't use it in the sweater because it is perfect for these mittens.
Finally here is the octagonal baby blanket that I knit in garter stitch using the Garnet merino and the Crown Mountain Farms Corriedale I spun last month. I'm planning to embellish it with a couple of knit stars and then get it in the mail for a friends' baby who is due at the beginning of March. Looking at the baby blanket and my newest socks I'd say I'm on a blue/purple and red jag.

Hat and yarn

2009-01-28T19:46:00.006-05:00

I may have mentioned this before, having blog posts planned out seems to get in the way of my blogging. After my last post I planned to get picture of my hat and sweater taken so that I could write one post about both finished objects. I managed to snap a couple of pictures of my hat but the sweater, while finished, remains unphotographed. If I hadn't been planning a post with both items I would have certainly posted my hat photos last week.

The sweater almost got photographed today but the light wasn't bright enough, so it will just have to wait. Here are a couple of pictures of my Thorpe:

The first one shows the colour best but I like the second one because you can see more of the coat I knit the hat to match. I love this hat but I think I may knit another red hat. Thorpe is warm but somewhat hair crushing. I have vague plans for another slouchy hat to match my bright red coat.

While I don't have pictures of a sweater to complete this post, I do have some handspun pictures to share. The garnet merino from a couple of posts ago is all spun up and ready to be knit.
It is about 220 yards of DK/Worsted weight yarn. I'm still planning to use it to edge the baby blanket that I'm knitting out of handspun. It is so soft and beautiful and should go wonderfully with the Twilight Corriedale.

The other handspun I have to show off came to me as part of a swap (the swap I spun the Amethyst merino for). This is a really beautiful skein of 50/50 shetland and merino in blues and yellows and browns. I can't wait to knit this up into something. I'm thinking gloves...

Finishing touches

2009-01-22T15:08:00.003-05:00

Yesterday as I was writing my post about all of the spinning I've been doing I decided that I needed a quick project to knit up. Enter Thorpe using leftover yarn from a sweater that I keep promising to post about. Since I was using a heavy worsted weight yarn instead of a bulky yarn I knit the larger size and got a hat that fits my small head.

However the worsted weight yarn also gave me a thin feeling hat and since I made this hat purposely to match my heavier winter coat I decided that the hat needed to be thicker. So I cast on for a lining using the black Cascade 220 that I used for the trim.

Now my hat is nice and thick and the perfect pairing for my cold weather Hudson's Bay Blanket coat. The other benefit of knitting and sewing in the hat's lining was that it got me in the mood to do some sewing up. I dug out my partially sewn up Juno sweater and got cracking. I might actually have it as a finished object in the near future. (We shall not speak of the Tempest which also needs sewn up.)

I will post pictures of the hat tomorrow once it is dry and I have decided if I am going to embellish it with a tassel.

Dyeing and Spinning

2009-01-21T13:49:00.007-05:00

Lots of pictures today. I have been spinning up a storm these days, which probably explains why I haven't been knitting much (well not knitting much since I finished all that knitting I was doing).

It started off with some merino that I spun up for a hand spun swap on Ravelry. Though I loved the colours I hadn't spun merino for a long time and the result was more uneven than I liked. I'm sure it will knit up beautifully but I didn't think it made a very nice swap skein. I think I may try knitting the baby surprise jacket with it. It is about 250 yards of a dk/sport weight yarn.

Since I still needed a skein to swap I played around with dying some white merino I had on hand. It came out a really lovely mix of purples (I think of it as an Amethyst colour). It also spun up much more evenly. It has been sent to and received at its new home.

Between the two merino swap skeins I started spinning the Crown Mountain Farms Corriedale Pencil roving. It spun up really quickly and I now have 680 yards of worsted weight yarn. The plan is to knit this into some sort of baby blanket with a softer merino edging.

With that in mind I dyed up the rest of my white merino. I was aiming at a sort of raspberry colour and got a darker garnet colour that I am really happy with. I purposely dumped in more vinegar than needed so that the colour would break and give me something more mottled. I really can't wait to start spinning this.

Once the merino was as full of dye as it was going to get I still had rather a lot of dye in the water. I dug out my dark BFL and dumped it in to soak up the last of the dye. I'm also thrilled with the colour it came out and it too may become part of the baby blanket.

All of this hand spun baby stuff is for a couple of grad school friends of ours who are expecting their first in early March. Winter babies need wool as far as I am concerned. It is also a lot of fun to make baby stuff. So stay tuned for cute knitting.

Another finished project

2009-01-19T11:04:00.002-05:00

After finishing my Cafe Latte skirt the only project that I still had on the needles (omitting the two projects that are waiting to be seamed) was the Cliete. I dug out my red roving and spun up enough yarn to finish the last repeat. Unfortunately I used the wrong red roving (I have two batches) and the new yarn didn't have the same saturation as the rest of the shawl. It took me knitting many rows before I finally admitted to myself that it really wasn't a close enough match. So I sat down again with the other red roving and spun up some more yarn.

Once I had the right yarn, it didn't take me long to finish knitting up the shawl. I finished the bind off last Friday and then washed and blocked it. I thought about taking pictures of it yesterday but it was kind of grey and dreary. Today is also kind of grey and dreary but I took photos anyway.

The picture doesn't exactly capture the colour but it is close. When Ken saw it pinned out he said it looked like a phoenix and it really does have a fire/feather look.

First project of the year

2009-01-12T14:56:00.004-05:00

I'm glad I didn't make a New Year's resolution to blog every day otherwise I would be feeling pretty disappointed about now. I'm going to blame short winter days and my inability to get decent photos taken of my WIPs for my lack of recent posts. Today, though, I finished my first project of the new year and got Ken to take some pictures while it was still light out. Yay.

This is Veronik Avery's Shocking skirt. I wanted to knit a skirt but I didn't want a light summer weight skirt that seem to required a slip which sort of undermines summer wear-ability. A nice worsted weight wool skirt seemed perfect and this is a beautiful design.

I knit it with a variety of yarns. I originally planned to knit it using Knit Pick's wool of the Andes in Chocolate and Cloud. I ordered the yarn at the same time as they yarn for Ken's sweater. Unfortunately Cloud was back ordered so the project was put on the back burner. I finally decided to use a light beige Cascade 220 with the Chocolate Wool of the Andes and Lamb's Pride's Brown Bear for the accents.

Though I bought the Lamb's Pride especially for this project it took me a while to decide if it was the right thing. I tried a dark brown handspun and a navy blue tweed
as accent yarns before deciding that the Lamb's Pride was the best of the options. Part of my indecision was fueled by the fact that I don't have much brown in my wardrobe and I'm not always sure what looks best with it.

I've been thinking of this skirt as my 'Latte with Cinnamon" skirt. The mix of dark brown and light beige remind me of milky coffee and the Lamb's Pride is the perfect cinnamon colour. Now I just need to wear it out for coffee.

Trying on my skirt for the first time made me want to mix and match some outfits:

It looks great with my Tangled Yoke. Peach and brown is one of the colour combinations that I love and tend to return to again and again. I actually thought that I might use peach yarn for the skirt accents before I decided to try something new.

I also love how it works with my Value Village Shearling coat. Now I just need some nice brown boots...

Wrap up

2008-12-31T15:35:00.005-05:00

Between traveling and holiday craziness I've put off blogging too long. Now that the year is at an end I thought I should post my last couple of projects.

I almost finished Vinnie while in Regina. I managed to get everything but his cape knit before leaving. I had to knit his cape and stick it in the mail. Sadly it arrived just after Christmas; but I'm sure my nephew will forgive the tardy wardrobe.

I'm so pleased with how this turned out. It is such a great pattern with lots of nice little details. I think if I knit it again I will knit the clothes on a slightly bigger needle. A bit more positive ease would make it easier to get his pant legs and sleeves on.

I did go up several needle sizes for his cape which required that I adjust the number of stitches so that it would be the correct size. I wanted the cape to have more drape and I also wanted it finished as soon as possible. I also added some elastic suspenders to his pants since they weren't staying up the way I wanted. A heart tattoo on his upper arm was my final modification.

Vinnie was my second to last Christmas knit. At the last minute I cast on for an improvised pair of mittens to 'match' Ken's hat. I ran out of the blue background yarn and had to knit the thumbs in different colours. While not finished when I gave them to Ken, these were done by the end of Christmas day.

On the unfinished knitting front I've run out of yarn for Cliete. I'm trying to decide whether I should rip out two rows of knitting and bind off or sit down and spin enough yarn to give me another repeat of the pattern. I've completed 8 repeats and I'm tempted to try for the suggested 9 repeats before binding off. If it were only one row to be ripped the shawl would be finished by now I'm sure.

Finally, I washed the green shawl/lap blanket and it decided to stretch into something resembling a scarf. Since I'm having doubts as to the softness of the mill spun yarn I'm using I think this project will be frogged. I'm already thinking about using the green hand spun for a hat and mitten set.

A lot of knitting

2008-12-15T15:03:00.010-05:00

While I haven't been blogging since I began my trip home I have been knitting. On the plane I cast on for a simple ribbed hat for my brother. I finished more than half of it between knitting on the plane and knitting while waiting for the connecting flight (Winnipeg airport is not a very exciting place to spend a few hours).

I used most of a ball of Cascade 220 Heathers, 3.75 mm needles for the crown and the rolled up knitting, and 3.25 mm needles for the under ribbing. I think it is a bit tighter than I want but I'll wait and see what my brother thinks. If it is too tight I'll knit him another one and find this one a home with someone who likes tight hats or has a small head.

Once the hat was done I concentrated my efforts on knitting the Pirate Mittens for my other brother. I just finished tucking in the ends early this afternoon which is good since I will probably be giving them to him at dinner tonight.

These are also knit with Cascade 220 on 3.75 mm needles. I was trying to get a looser gauge so that the mittens would come out larger and fit a man's hand. Unfortunately I got the exact gauge the pattern called for (I can't believe I just wrote that!). I could have tried again on larger needles but I liked the fabric I was getting so I ripped back to the end of the cuffs and added 12 stitches (2 inches circumference). I knit a white stripe between two black stripes on either side of the patterning on the back of the mitten to use up those 6 stitches and I just knit the extra palm stitches in the palm pattern. Since I also wanted the mitten to be longer I moved the thumb 6 stitches (1 inch) down. Since the mitts have lots of cuff this worked out really well.

Despite all of the ripping back and adjusting these mittens were a quick project. I still have lots of both colours of yarn, too. The black yarn remainders are being pressed into service for Vinnie's cape and shirt. Vinnie is actually the only Christmas knitting that I still have to finish so I'll be working on him exclusively for the next few days.

With all of this knitting I also managed to finish a simple sock (which completed the pair) and embellish the Urchin I knit using my wine coloured hand spun.

Very little knitting

2008-12-08T22:03:00.003-05:00

Despite my plans to start a mitten or a hat, the only knitting I did today was to finish the second leg of Vinnie's pants. Most of the day was spent getting ready for a last minute early trip home to Regina. Since I decided to make the trip home the deadline for my much of my Christmas knitting has been moved up. With any luck I will be able to finish (and start) a hat or mitten on the planes tomorrow. It may be a day or two between blog posts for the next few days.

Complete Rooster Monkey

2008-12-07T22:55:00.002-05:00

I got distracted last night and didn't post, but tonight I'll make up for it with a finished object. The rooster monkey socks are off the needles and just waiting to be blocked. As you can see they really do need to be blocked to show off the design properly.

I'm so happy with how these came out. The yarn and the pattern work so well together. I'll miss typing "rooster monkey," though.

Now I need to get back to the rest of my Christmas knitting. It is time to cast on some mittens or a hat. I'll see what calls to me tomorrow.

Progressing

2008-12-05T17:42:00.002-05:00

Last night was post-less because I spent my evening at the Plateau knit night. Knitting and pie go so well together. Why can't every night be Plateau knitting night.

All of my current in progress knitting continues. I've finished half of the leg of the second monkey sock. I knit a few rows on my shawl. Vinnie now has two legs and half a pair of pants. The green shawl center is finished and I'm just washing it to see if I can get it to soften up a bit before I knit the border.

As soon as one of these projects is done I'll cast on another. It is actually kind of nice to have such a variety to work on. If I get bored or tired of a needle size I just switch.

I'll post pictures of something tomorrow. The safe money is probably on socks or Vinnie.

Half a rooster monkey

2008-12-03T20:56:00.002-05:00

One sock down and one more to go. Then I need to cast on for a couple of pairs of mitts and a hat, and finish the vampire and green shawl. Actually that list doesn't sound so bad.

My Christmas knitting might even be done early enough that it will reach its recipients early. Since most of it is being put in the mail, finishing a bit early is a definite plus.

Maybe I should do some of Meridith's knitting. Wait, she'd probably want the finished pieces back... sigh. There goes another perfectly good stash acquisition plan.

Christmas socks

2008-12-02T21:46:00.002-05:00

My Christmas knitting has begun in earnest. Today I cast on for a pair of socks using one of the skeins of Blue Moon Fibers that I got in the mail last month. I started by casting on for the Herringbone socks from the Winter Interweave Knits which arrived in the mail today.

I cast on for the smaller size but soon realized that it was going to be too small to fit over the heel. I could have cast on for the larger size but since I was finding some of the slip stitches fiddly and time consuming I decided to use a different pattern.

Since I have yet to knit a proper pair of Monkey socks I cast on this quick and charming pattern. Second time was the charm. I'm really happy with how the yarn is striping in this pattern and how quickly it is knitting up.

Poor Vinnie didn't get any attention today, though I did add a few more rows to the green shawl. This should be a month of many projects, though the abandoned sweaters will likely not be worked on.

Green Thing

2008-12-01T21:54:00.003-05:00

I said that I would post a picture of my green shawl when I was half way through the center section. This evening I finished the third ball and attached the fourth so I guess I have to share a picture:

Despite being a flash picture this pretty accurately captures the colours of the yarn. It still looks like a long strip of knitting but that probably won't change until it is off the needles. At least I think my 6 balls of yarn should be enough for the center section. I'm not sure how far my hand spun border yarn will go though...

In other news I've been offered some black worsted yarn for Vinnie. I've knit one of his legs down to where the black attaches and I'll probably knit the other one tomorrow. Then I can knit the red part of the cape and the white bits of his clothes. By that point I should have the black and be able to finish him off (perhaps with a bamboo DPN through the heart).