Surprises

My dad likes surprises. He once unwrapped one of my Christmas presents to take out the real gift and wrap it up in a different box after he figured out that I had taken a peek inside the package. He couldn't stand me not being surprised on Christmas morning. The best part for him though was chronicling the whole humiliating affair for all to see what a bad little 13 yo I was. He'll gladly show you the pictures if you ask.

So when my brother announced that his wife was expecting, he didn't want to know the gender of the baby. I say screw that! I wanna know! Well, the surprise didn't last long because apparently my mother had to just blurt it out. It's a boy! I'm going to have a nephew!

So much for that surprise, but I still like good surprises. Like DH springing a Galen Rowell print on me as a wedding gift (it's the one with 2 emperor penguins greeting each other). But, since this is a knitting blog, I have knitted surprises for you too!


Nephew's Log Cabin Blanket
Pattern: Log Cabin knitting in Mason-Dixon Knitting
Materials: TLC Cotton Plus (51% cotton, 49% acrylic. 168 yards per 100g ball) 1 ball each in spruce, cream, mint, yellow and kiwi. Size 7 Addi Turbos 32"
Gauge: Irrelevant!
Finished size: 25" x 32"

Started: February 19, 2007
Finished: March 10, 2007

Great, mindless knitting. The yellow in there sort of bothers me, but this project was great in that I could control just how much yarn I could use. I used up all of the Spruce and Cream, but I still have a little of the mint, yellow and kiwi left over. I'm okay with that as I'm sort of growing a mini Cotton Plus leftover stash that I think will turn into a crazy striped baby sweater.

Indigo Ripples Skirt
Pattern: by Kat Coyle in Interweave Knits Spring 2007
Materials: Elann.com Sonata (100% mercerized cotton. 116 yards per 50g ball) 6 balls EXACTLY in color Deep Olive. Size US6 Addi Turbo 24" and 32" needles.
Gauge: 22 sts and 30 rows/4"
Finished size: 26" waist, 34" hip and about 23" long

Started: February 24, 2007
Finished: March 6, 2007

Modifications:
Increased in stockinette section every 4 rounds for 3 sets of increases, then every 8 rounds until there were 14 sts fewer than called for. Omitted last purl round on ruffle before binding off. Changed bind off to purl 2, *transfer 2 sts back to left needle, then p2tog, p1* repeat to end. Did not do i-cord tie.

Discussion:
Y'all know how I like to live on the edge. Well, I was stash diving and found that I had almost enough DK weight cotton to make the smallest size in this pattern. I figured that with the tendency of cotton to stretch out as you wear it and with the hip measurement being a few inches larger than I needed it to be, I'd be fine if I just didn't increase as much and eliminated enough stitches to contstitute one repeat in the lace section.

Well, the skirt turned out to be a bit clingier than I think it was intended, but as I wear it, it does seem to stretch out as I predicted and it will be fine. I was happy to get the rush towards the end where I joined in my last ball of yarn as I started the ruffle, and I discovered the ruffles eat up yarn like nobody's business. I had to eliminate the last row before the bind off and I ended up with absolutely no leftovers. I think maybe 5 yards if you count all the excess I trimmed off when joining in new balls at the side.

If I had to do it again, I probably would have eliminated the last 10 rounds of lace to shorten the skirt up a bit as I'm short and it currently falls to just on the knee and I like my skirts a bit shorter than that. I may also have added in a bit more length to the stockinette section as the lace can be a bit revealing and not for the faint of heart. And certainly not for anyone who wants to bend over. If you ever worry about coverage on your rear, definitely lengthen the stockinette section. I'd also skip the waistband instructions and just do a hemmed waist band with elastic inserted. I think that would be a much cleaner finish, though I do like the brown suede ties I used here instead of the i-cord.

I would caution anyone who's thinking of doing this... I think the yarn requirements (at least for the smallest size) are not very generous. If you substitute like I did, give yourself a bit more yardage than they call for in the pattern unless you like to live on the edge like I do. I was smug thinking that I'd have leftover when I didn't have to join in the last ball until I started the ruffle. But just know that the ruffle took the entire 116 yards in that ball! Here's a pic of the lace pattern detail and the ruffle.

Okay, they weren't really knitted surprises, just I hadn't posted about either of these projects and then Pouf! they were finished. Well, no need to go into the gory details on such straightforward projects, right?

BTW, today's walk with a bit of running in it was 5.5 miles and took 1:08:15. Same time as last week's long run. I'm actually pretty pleased with myself here as I was pretty dumb in my selection of time of day to do this. When the Santa Ana winds are blowing in LA making it about 85 out and you're planning on running on concrete with little shade, do you think it's wise to start your run around noon?

Lookee!

Look at what arrived today!

That would be a gently used Yamaha Clavinova CLP-240. And it plays pretty well for it not being an acoustic piano. Well, at least well enough to fool this piano player. The sound is great, and I'm surprised I'm actually blogging instead of playing it.

A few answers to reader's questions: Chrissy - no I haven't found a distance where running starts to feel good. It just seem to hurt less now, but I suspect that might be because I'm walking most of it with only short bouts of slow jogging. Actually, my walking is sometimes faster than my jogging, so wrap your head around that! Steph - I'm training for the Disney half marathon. Supposedly DH's family is going to make a trip of it and DH promises that he'll do a Goofy (marathon plus a half on two consecutive days) if I do the Donald (half). I think he's pretty goofy.

But this post has been long overdue, so I'll just show you quickly the couple of finished objects that have been off the needles for what seems like forever...

Helmet Liner
Pattern: Found at Operation Home front here.
Materials: Cascade 220 (100% wool. 220 yds per 100g) 75g in color 8407. Size US8 needles.
Gauge: approximately 4.5 sts per inch

Started: February 6, 2007
Finished: February 20, 2007

Yes, this is finished, but I unfortunately have no pics of this to share. Maybe after I do another one. I gave this already to the ladies at Compatto, so you'll have to wait for the next. Fortunately, I have some black Cascade 220 in my stash with no particular plans for it. Off it goes to become yet another liner for the troops! Somehow, the charity knitting gives me so much satisfaction that I've dug out some old orphan leftovers from my stash to try to make some preemie hats for Stitches from the Heart. Yay me! Sorry... I'm trying to have a much more positive mental attitude, so you'll have to suffer through all of the sunshine I'm blowing up my own rear end for a while now.


DH's Koigu Socks
Pattern: You're Putting Me On Socks by Judy Gibson
Materials: Koigu KPPPM (100% superwash wool. 175 yd per 50g ball) 100g in color P830. Size 1 US Addi Turbos, 24" and 32".
Gauge: 8.5 sts/in in st st.
Finished size: to fit a Men's size US11 foot

Started: November 6, 2006
Frogged: November 7, 2006
Frogged: November 12, 2006
Re-started: January 26, 2007
Finished: February 19, 2007

This was a standard 68st toe up sock with 2x2 ribbing for the leg. Boring as all get out to knit, but DH loves them. I was having serious trouble getting the fit right with the Chevron pattern from Sensation Knit Socks, so I punted. DH wanted plain socks anyway. He commented when he first wore them (unblocked of course - I hang my head in shame) that they had a certain texture to them. Not bad, but definitely noticeable. We threw them in the washing machine and they softened up REALLY nicely. I might be a Koigu convert now! If only the pooling didn't bother me so much...


Godson Sweater
Pattern: Top down simultaneous saddle shoulder sweater in Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top with argyle border from Nicky Epstein's Knitting Over the Edge.
Materials: Knitpicks Shine (60% cotton, 40% modal. 110 yards per 50g ball) 175g in Sky and 25g in Cream. Size US3 Addi Turbo 24" and 32".
Gauge: 25 sts/4"
Finished size: 22" chest and 12" from top of shoulder to hem and 6" from underarm to cuff.

Started: January 27, 2007
Finished: February 13, 2007

What finally worked for me on the border? Well, I took a hint from Eunny and spread apart my stitches on the needle every few stitches, and that seemed to help me from making my floats too tight. That worked like a charm for me! Anyway, I'm quite proud of this sweater, but I don't really have the energy to blog much more here.

Besides, the piano is calling...

Happy Wednesday everyone!

No knits for you!

So I haven't been knitting that much lately... well save for a little charity project that Compatto is organizing. I've been in many times since my last post about them, and I'm really getting to like it there and keep wanting to go back. It doesn't hurt that I run by there about 3 times a week these days. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm training for a half-marathon, but I do have issues with follow-through at times. Keep me honest, and keep asking me about it!

Anyway, I did manage to finish a DH's godson's sweater on Tuesday at SNB this week. For such a small sweater, boy did it have a million ends to weave in! I'll post the FO picture at some point when it's finished drying. IF that ever happens.

So I'll leave you today with pictures. Yes, I know, wedding and honeymoon pictures are SO trite, but that's all I have and I still have yet to finish going through them all. And I swore to myself that I'd post about my entire honeymoon, so you are unforunately the ones who have to suffer through the slideshow.

For some reason, I really like this picture. Can't explain it, except that I think it's because neither of us looks like we have a stick up our butts posing for the camera. And well, we look happy. Can't ask for much more than that, right?

Routeburn Track Jan 1-3
The Routeburn Track is designated as one of New Zealands' Great Walks. They apparently go through and designate some of their hiking paths that they think are particularly beautiful or whatnot as Great Walks and then put in extra plush facilities. I think I'd agree that this one was a great walk. It was my first multi-day hike and yes, I carried a pack with my gear in it. It only weighed about 15 pounds, but I'm still proud of myself for doing it!


Anyway, here we are looking clean on our first day... that wouldn't last. This was just one of many mini waterfalls we encountered on the first day of the hike through the forest. Lots of crystal blue streams and swing bridges. We stayed at the most flash (not flash pasteurized as I originally thought, but rather swank, fancy, upscale) cabin you could imagine in the wilderness: gas stoves, mattresses, lights at night, flush toilets and running drinkable water were all provided. This was the view from our cabin at the Routburn Falls.

The second day we ascended above the tree line and walked up to a saddle between two mountains. I can't tell which is exactly the view from the saddle because it was all just so darned gorgeous, but here's what I think it looked like:

After the saddle, we walked along a very dry ridge which was really weird considering the lush green terrain we had experienced the day before. It's a good thing we like mountains because that's pretty much all we saw for this entire section of the track. We then descended back into a different type of forest that reminded DH of the Ent forest from Lord of the Rings and then arrived at our cabin. Again with a spectacular view:
The last day was spent again circling around a valley along a ridge with intermittent breaks in the forest to reveal more mountain scenery, but the highlight of the day was definitely the giant waterfall:

We like waterfalls. I don't like how dirty I was by this time, and thankfully you can't smell us here, but we still had fun.

And I dare say that I might have liked this hiking thing. *gasp!* Don't let DH find out or else he may send us on some two week winter camping expedition through the Andes with a 3000 vertical gain daily.

On hold

Sorry about the last couple of posts lacking content. I think the template has figured itself out on Blogger, but y'know, these things never really are finished. I'm just putting my frustration with the lack of comments on old posts on hold.

Also on hold is DH's godson's sweater. I'm mad at it. Check this out:

Yeah, so if this were a waist cinching sweater for me, the 2 inches of puckering (10%!) would be okay, but let's face it... the waist isn't exactly the trimmest part of a baby. So, out goes the border. I've yet to pick it back up, but I think at least the yoke turned out okay.

I also discovered a new (to me) LYS in my neighborhood. I literally ran into this one while deluding myself that I could in fact manage a half-marathon in one year's time off the couch when I hate to run. Sometimes I wonder about my logic. Anyway, the store is called Compatto Yarn Salon and they seemed like a nice little store. They have a selection of yarns that complement the offerings of the other 6 stores within a 5 mile radius of me (obscene that density, isn't it? lucky for me though...). The owner, Nancy, is quite friendly and is willing to talk with you for days. The shop dog is fluffy and mellow, both a big plus in my book. If you're in the area, go check out Compatto. The other 6 shops in case you're interested are of course, A Mano (the furthest, but still my favorite), Stitches from the Heart, Jennifer Knits, Yarns Unlimited, Wildfiber, and L'Atelier on Montana.

Belated FO postings:


Grandmother's Pink Socks
Pattern: Petticoat Socks by Veronik Avery in Weekend Knitting
Materials: Elann Esprit (98.3% cotton, 1.7% elastic. 100yd relaxed per 50g ball) 150g in Pink Pearl. Size 4 Addi Turbos.
Gauge: 15 sts & 24 rounds/2" in st st.

Started: October 25, 2006
Finished: January 24, 2007

Modifications:
Most importantly, this sock was worked from the toe up instead of top down, so the lace motif is actually upside down. I also figured out what pattern to use half-way through the sock, so the instep pattern is omitted. Here, I used a short-row, heel-flap heel and worked the lace pattern as specified. After the sock was long enough, I threw in 4 m1 increases evenly distributed and did this once every 2 pattern repeats. I tried to alternate the locations of the increases such that the lace pattern stayed symmetrical.

Here's hoping that my grandmother's much more shapely calves fit into these socks. They're pretty stretchy, so I'm hoping the elastic will do its job...

MIL Scarf
No pattern
Materials: Knitpicks Decadence (100% Alpaca. 131 yds per 100g ball) 200g in Winterberry. Size 10.5 Knitpicks Options.
Gauge: What, does gauge matter on a scarf?
Finished size: 5" wide by 54" long unstretched

Started: December 7, 2006
Finished: January 27, 2006

This scarf was a winter gift for my new mother in law. A couple of years ago, I gifted her with the Branching Out scarf, and she loved it. I figured this time, I'd go for something warm instead of decorative, so I just cast on something like 22 stitches and worked a fisherman rib with slipped stitch edges until I ran out of yarn. The scarf stretched A LOT when worn, so it should be plenty long enough to wrap around her neck and keep off the mid-winter Ohio chill.

Yeah, all the self-portraits I took with this scarf made my nose look ginormous, so you don't get to see any. I'm vain.


Dunedin Dec 29-31

Ha, ha! I'm barely a month behind. That's not so bad, right? Yeah, at this rate, I'll be done telling you about my honeymoon by the time our one year anniversary comes around.

We drove down the coast towards Dunedin and on the way stopped off at Oamaru. There's a blue penguin colony there and disappointed though I was to discover that blue penguins are nocturnal animals. We didn't have time to wait around, but I would have loved to see the little guys hopping out of the ocean and marching home to their nests across the beach. As it were, this was all I got to see:

We were told that Dunedin is the most Scottish of all the New Zealand cities. Cities is a term I of course use quite loosely here as it's home to around 100,000 people and that would barely register as a city back home. Anyway, the architecture was all quite beautiful with churches taking center stage. We did attend mass during our stay in Dunedin, and well, I was just creeped out that Away In the Manger didn't sound at all like the tune I know. The church also bordered on sadistic wth the unpadded, fixed kneelers and 8 inch deep pews. I'm glad that masses don't last for 2 hours. No pics of the inside, but it was actually more attractive than the outside.

The sole reason for us traveling this far south was because I have a certain thing for animals. And the Otago reason is one of the best to see them all. So we signed up for the best tour of our trip to see the royal albatrosses, fur seals, sea lions, and yellow-eyed penguins with a bonus Fjordland crested penguin thrown into the mix. I was suprised to see the fur seals and sea lions in such close proximity to the penguins as I though the former ate the latter. But I guess if you're hanging out on the beach, you live and let live. Here we are a few meters from an adult sea lion and a group of adolescents:
The rest of our time in Dunedin was spent at the Speight's brewery and the Cadbury chocolate factory. The former was actually an excellent tour on the history of brewing, that facility in particular, even for a non-beer drinker like myself. The latter, well, let's just say that dumping a ton of chocolate from 20 meters up does NOT qualify for an interesting attraction. And DH never let me live it down. Here's the highlight of the Speight's tour... Yes I am ridiculously pleased that the sign actually applied to me.

Comments

AAgh!

All my comments seemed to have disappeared when I switched to the new Blogger. I've been using Haloscan, and well, this didn't work out for the old posts even with their nifty installation wizard.

I've supposedly turned on Blogger comments since they now have the email me when a new comment is posted feature and trackback and that's what I really wanted anyway. But I can't get that to work either on the old posts.

Any help here?

filler

because you need a vacation from my vacation...

Forgive me for all of the old posts that may be showing up in your bloglines account if you actually subscribe. I just switched over to the new blogger and saw that they have a categories function now. If you've been with me for a while now, you've probably discovered that I'm a bit anal and well, organizing information makes me absurdly happy. So I'm going back through ALL the posts and adding tags to them all. Anyone know how to add the categories to the sidebar?

I also saw this meme over at Every Word's a Purl and thought that it might give you some insight into what our house is like.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

Well, our place is in a state of perpetual disorder, so I knew that I wouldn't need to go to the bookshelf to find a book. What, like bookshelves are meant to store books? More like whatever falls out of your pocket, right? Anyway, I clearly live with an engineer. I have plenty of brochures on my desk, but none of them go up to page 123. The only real book, well...

"...Given the generator polynomial g(x) for a cyclic code C, however, we can make meaningful comments about C's ability to detect errors in a variety of situations. We consider three situations below that are generally considered in the design of computer communication systems.

Error pattern coverage." - Error Control Systems for Digital Communication and Storage by Stephen B. Wicker

What I want to know, is, who is this C person, and I want to be able to detect errors in more than just 3 situations! And the rest of the page is some sort of table, so sentence five was actually at the bottom of the page. BTW, I think that "Error pattern coverage." isn't actually a sentence, but since they bothered to put a period at the end of it, I figured that they considered it a sentence and so should I for this exercise.

Feel free to self-tag as I did.

First FO 2007

Before I get to any knitting content, I just have to say that today is my DH's birthday. Today he turns 28 and it seems only yesterday... Anyway, after all of the stress that we went through over the past year, I'm surprised he still married me. I guess it's a testament to his patience and understanding of me. He shows me every day what it is to love someone through thick and thin. And of course it doesn't hurt that I find him totally hott!

Triangle Edge Cardigan by Debbie Bliss
Pattern in Quick Baby Knits
Materials: Knitpicks Shine (60% Cotton, 40% Modal. 110 yards per 50 g ball) 190g in Cherry. Size 3 Addi Turbos.
Gauge: 6" sts per in.
Finished size: 23 in wide... I hope this is one perfectly round baby!

Started: December 24, 2006
Finished: January 15, 2006

Modifications:
Used short rows to shape collar instead of joining new yarn for each point. Omitted buttons.

Discussion:
Another basic baby sweater with a twist here. The triangle edging (which you can't see in this craptastic photo) adds a little bit of interest to this basic drop shoulder cardigan. I considered putting the buttons on, but frankly, I just didn't understand her instructions and I don't like YO buttonholes. So it'll be a little jacket type thing that will just be worn open. This one is for DH's cousin's as-yet unborn but due at any second now daughter. It's roomy enough so that this baby can spend then next 6-9 months growing into it. I'll once again voice my concern over Debbie Bliss baby sizing, but then again, I've never had a growing like a weed baby before either, so maybe the generous sizing is a good thing. Do tell if you have an opinion.


Lorna's Laces Quarter Socks
Materials: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport (100% wool, 200 yd per 70g) 1 skein in Mixed Berries. Size 1 Addi Turbos 24" and 32".
Gauge: 8.5 sts per in
Finished Size: 7.5" circumference, 8" foot length

Started: January 16, 2007
Finished: January 23, 2007

These were some quickie socks that I started while in New Zealand. I decided that they had been in my stash for long enough, but I didn't have any particular pattern in mind and knew that 70g was going to be a stretch. I didn't think it would be quite as short as they turned out, but I still think they're a reasonable length. I'd just have preferred that they were an inch or two longer in the leg.

I started these toe-up using a 24 st Turkish cast on. I increased every other round until I had a total of 64 sts on the needles. I worked one round of k4, p4 alternating with one round of all knits until the sock was long enough to reach the pointy bone on the top of my foot, which I guess to most people would be the start of their arch. I increased every other round until I was two inches short of my heel and then turned the heel a la Beaudelaire. From there it was knit in pattern until I was almost out of yarn, and then I started 1x1 ribbing until I actually did run out of yarn save a few yards. I cast off with the faux kitchener cast off.

Meh... the socks are a touch on the large side, but I have a tendency to slightly shrink my socks, so this isn't a bad thing. I was just surprised at the gauge I got with sport weight yarn. Do I really knit this tight, or is this typical for Lorna's sport?

I also finished off the MIL scarf on 1/27 and my grandmother's pink socks on 1/24, but I don't have a good picture of either of those yet. Maybe DH will be nice enough to take a picture for me sometime this week when it's not grey and raining out.

After having wiped ALL of my WIPs off the plate, I dug in for baby #2 of 5 for the year (that I know about). This one is for DH's soon to be godson! We were really excited to hear that DH's cousin wanted him to be the godfather, and this is DH's first time in that role. So I wanted a little something special for this baby in hopes of kissing up to the parents so they don't change their minds about making DH his godfather. I pulled out Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top, and just went for it using her saddle shoulder sweater outline as a guide. I say outline because it really is just an outline. I cast on yesterday and the above picture was taken this morning, but I've already divided for the sleeves and body and have about 2 inches of body done. I love how small babies are...

I'll finish up with a quick update on the next leg of our trip...

Christchurch/Castle Hill Dec 27-28
We arrived in Christchurch after a long delay at the airport in Auckland late on the 27th. It didn't give us much time to look around the city, so we got up early the next morning so we could pick up the rental car and get on the road. Let me just say that adjusting to driving on the left side of the road took a while. The rental car did have a nifty reminder on the dash board in the form of a giant yellow arrow saying "stay left", but well, if you're looking at that too closely, you're surely not watching the road to see if the oncoming truck is in your lane or not.

But we drove out to Castle Hill and checked out the climbing. It's supposed to be a world class destination for bouldering, and I can see why. The entire area looked like a god had sprinkled giant boulders across a golf course. Or someone came by and knocked down Stonehenge. I can't decide which. Here's the two of us at the start of the day 50 yards off the road and about half way to the first rocks. Nice, short approach, eh?

The climbing itself wasn't my style. It's limestone and heavily climbed, so a lot of the rock was polished and at least for the problems I was trying, didn't seem to have much by way of feet. The style was also much more throwing for slick slopers, then beached whale mantling to top out. The boulder below was one of the exceptions to the yucky top out trend and the only boulder I got to the top of during my entire trip. Of course, I wasn't really trying either, opting instead to just enjoy the scenery. Fields of green, long grass blowing in the wind, and meadows of small wildflowers peppered with limestone of all shapes and sizes all with the southern Alps as a backdrop. Can you blame me?

She returns!

and you thought I'd been swept away by an albatross...

no, no, just off on my honeymoon. In case I didn't mention it before or you hadn't gleaned it from my last post, DH and I took a delayed honeymoon to the bottom of the planet where we drove around a lot on the wrong side of the road, stalked wildlife, sheep and people's dogs, laughed at roadsigns and billboards, hid from the sun, fell for all the tourist traps and otherwise had a grand old time. I'll be slowly posting the highlights from our Kiwi adventure over the next few days (weeks? I hope for your sake not...) so be forewarned that I'm going to hijack this knitting blog for some travel pr0n.

But before I dive in, I should mention that I did manage to finish 3 projects since last we left off. I just don't have any progress pics to show you and everything's wet still from blocking, so watch this space for a cute baby sweater, some quickie socks, and finally polishing off the g-ma socks.

Auckland Dec 25-27

DH and I left on Dec 23, lost Christmas eve somewhere over the Pacific and landed in Auckland on Dec 25. We figured that we'd go with the good old standby for Christmas evening of Chinese food and a movie, but we found out that Kiwis really do take their Christmas holiday seriously and completely close up. So we took our loopy sleep deprived selves for a walk about the city center and marveled at the funny sounding signage: "Dogs on Lead", "Beware of trucks maneuvering", and "Park and Display" (which immediately brought images of Hugh Grant and Divine Brown to mind).

The next day, we met up with a friend of a friend for some Boxing Day fun. We took the ferry out to Rangitoto but we might as well have arrived at some beautiful deserted island in the middle of the Pacific. Lush greenery around and some of the best views of Auckland to behold:

Okay, from the top there were definitely beautiful views of Auckland, but I have a thing for lighthouses.

We then rewarded ourselves after the 3 hour hike (boy does that cure jet lag!) with a visit to a Belgian beer cafe. Belgium is known for its mussels, and so is New Zealand for their green-lipped variety, so we went for two pots of steamers there. The waiter was so apologetic for the mixup with our order that they decided not to charge us for the drinks we had and brought another round, supersized, again for free. I think DH had almost a liter of free Lefft Dark, so he was happy. I was happy with the Texas sized mussels:

We were told that it's actually illegal to pull anything out of the water less than 4 inches there, so apparently this is normal. If I were home, I'd be wary of eating anything this large for fear of toxic waste contamination causing the mutant gargantuanism, but hey, this is New Zealand, nobody lives here to dump anything in the water!

We toured 2 of the extinct volcanoes that make up the seven hills of Auckland and discovered that Kiwis are a practical bunch. Not only do they use their public spaces as park land, but they also use it as farm land. I was very pleased to see the bovine and other inhabitants of the park:

The next day, we explored the city to check out the various churches and their stained glass windows. Then we ventured out to the Waitakere area to hit the black sand beach. I guess these beaches aren't exactly LA beaches where people hang out all day basking in the sun:

Next up: Christchurch

Post-Script: If you're still reading this, then you must be truly interested in my ramblings. So I have more to share. Turns out DH's brother popped the question to his girlfriend while we were away! We're extremely excited for the two of them and cannot wait to see them wed. They are a loving couple and very good for each other. We wish them all the happiness in the world.

Post-Post Script: My brother announced to me yesterday that he and his wife are expecting! So I guess that makes me an auntie-to-be, and one crazy busy knitter. I have burp cloths, blankets, bibs, sweaters, hats, booties, and toys all lined up, so get ready to see a whole lotta dishcloth cotton at Chez Spaz. Just don't tell DH that it also means a few more trips to Michael's since dishcloth cotton is hard to find round here. Unless you think babies will like the scratchy tweed?

TTFN

As if this blog weren't neglected enough... I'm heading out for the honeymoon and honestly, I'm not going to think about blogging for the next month. So I'll see you on the other side and have a merry Christmas, happy new year, happy MLK day and well any other special events you may be celebrating over the next four weeks. Here's hoping that when I get back, there will be lots of pics of DH on the volcano, in the sound, on the glacier, with the penguins, and of course hanging from a rock.

Oh yeah, and maybe some knitting pics as well.

Equestrian Blazer

So now that we're hitting the two month anniversary, people have been asking us how married life is. What am I to tell these people? My response has been sort of flippant... At least now my parents won't be embarassed if I get knocked up, and people don't start to shift from side to side and hang their head as if they just heard some dirty little secret when I mention LIVING with a MAN. But honestly, I don't really feel like anything has changed except for the outside world's view. I feel just as committed today as I did a year ago. I just have extra bling now. Okay, and maybe it's just less pressure. I'm hoping that this is all good, and not just the honeymoon period. Oh wait, that starts in about a week! Yay!

Enough about that already... I know what you're really here for.

Equestrian Blazer by Kate Gilbert
Pattern in Interweave Knits Winter 2006
Materials: Rowanspun Aran (100% wool. 220 yd per 100g skein) 340g in Gables. Size 5 Knitpicks Options needles.
Gauge: 19sts/30 rows = 4" pre-blocking
Finished size: 33" bust, 22" long (neck to middle of back hem), 21" from shoulder seam to cuff after AGGRESSIVE blocking.
Total yarn cost: $26 from Cucumberpatch UK

Started: November 8, 2006
Finished: December 12, 2006

Modifications:
Accidentally removed 1" of length just before shaping for armhole. Fudged the edging.

Discussion:
Where to begin. First, the fit I think turned out okay. I wore the sweater a bit more and it stretched some in addition to the aggressive stretching and pulling while the whole thing was wet to adjust the size. I attribute all remaining issues I have with the fit to the -1" of "petite fudge factor" I accidentally added. The collar opening is pretty wide, and since the whole thing is about an inch higher than it should be, the collar sort of sits on my chest a bit strangely. If my girls were any bigger, I think this would be disastrous. As it were, it doesn't seem to be a major problem, but I don't love the way the bottom of my shirt sticks out from the hem of the jacket. The jacket just isn't long enough. No, I'm not going to cut and graft in extra length. Not on a seamed sweater. I'll live with it, thanks. BTW, here's where I'm trying out the new camera's 3 second delay function. The old camera only had a 10s option. Yeah, 3s is just not long enough.

The edging is where I last left off, isn't it? Well, I decided to go back and pick up 4 sts for every 5 rows for the collar edging and 1 st for every cast on st for the bottom edging. I knit one more row and bound off in purl so it would be a looser bind off, and this worked like a charm. An unexpected hurdle was the simple instruction, "seam the short selvedges" between the collar and bottom edgings. Great, the only problem is that the edging switches right sides between the collar and the front opening, so it'll just look weird if I seamed it straight up. So I decided to sort of roll up the edging into a tube at the point where it meets and I seamed the pick up st of one to the cast off st of the other and worked around. At least this way, the reverse stockinette side is always facing, even if it looks a bit awkward upon REALLY CLOSE inspection. The only issue remaining was the collar's tendency to curl. The collar then met the steam iron and decided to behave. BTW, that one row buttonhole is my new favorite as it just looks so clean and has nice firm edges.

There were two things about the pattern that I would change if I had to do it all over again in addition to the edging modification I mention above. The sts for the left front (but not the right) were a b*tch to pick up on collar shaping rows. Upon careful consideration, I think this is because the increases on the left are done on the edge stitch, but on the right, they are done 1 stitch in from the edge, thus creating a nice selvedge to pick up sts from. It boils down to changing the collar shaping directions to ... purl to the last collar stitch, with the left needle, lift the purl bump two rows below last st completed and purl it, purl 1. See "Knit Left Loop" at knittinghelp.com for an example of this on the knit side.

I'd also change the sleeve increases. I followed the pattern exactly and had to knit straight from the last set of increases for 3+ inches before starting the sleeve cap shaping. This indeed formed a little, barely noticeable point under the arm as Jenna Wilson warned me. I asked the designer if this was as she intended it to be since the schematic made it look like the increases ended just before the sleeve cap shaping. She said it'd be fine, so I went with it. The sleeves look okay, but they do look a bit more roomy through the forearm than they do at the bicep, and I think that's because too many of the increases were placed lower on the sleeve. For my taste, I'd spread them out more and increase the overall length a bit as well. The sleeves seem short to me (and I have short arms!) and I made them to the specified length. It boils down to adding 2 rows between sleeve increases in the pattern.

Overall, the look is classic and there were plenty of clear, shaping instructions to keep your attention. This was certainly not a boring knit and if you like short rowing, this pattern is for you! The knitting was also pretty fast as it took less than 3 weeks of off and on knitting to complete all the pieces. It took just as long to seam and decide the fate of the edging.

A word about the yarn: Rowanspun Aran is a great bargain since the yardage is unbelievable and can be found on sale since it's been discontinued. The labelled gauge of 16 sts/4 inches seamed too loose for the yarn, but 17-18 sts was just fine. The yarn is a bit of a pain to work with as it's dry and stringy, but once washed, it softens nicely and fluffs up into an attractive fabric. There are definitely variations in the thickness of the yarn and the tweedy flecks make it a pain to maintain consistent tension. But of course, I love the look of tweed, so I'll put up with it. But DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, attempt to mattress stitch with this yarn! Pulling more than a couple of stitches together resulted in yarn breakage, so I had to be very careful to adjust the tension of the seam on EVERY row and even then I had a few breaks requiring me to undo the seam by an inch or two and felt the yarn back together. It was a royal pain and took me the better part of a day to seam everything! Unfortunately, I was stuck away from home due to a snow storm and had no other yarn to seam with, so this was my only option. A crocheted seam might have been okay, but I'd just as rather recommend seaming with a different yarn.

Previous posts about this project:
Just do it! on November 7, 2006
Progress on November 10, 2006
Why we block on November 20, 2006
The Suspense on December 8, 2006

the suspense

is apparently killing me. Will the jacket turn out? Will it fit? Will I ever learn to photograph red?


This is the state that the Equestrian Blazer has been in for the past 10 days. Seamed and ready for the border. Only I suck at picking up stitches again, so I've done it twice and ripped it out twice and I'm reconsidering my options. The instructions tell you to pick up one stich for every row. Common knitsense tells you that this is more stitches than one would normally pick up to expect it to lay flat. Sure enough, the border ruffled. So I ripped out and picked up 2 stitches for 3 rows since the gauge is 19 sts/30 rows = 4". This resulted in the bottom fitting like a boa constrictor and the collar ruthlessly curling inwards as if to hide underneath the rock that I'm calling for my own when I finish a whole sweater that doesn't fit. Should I crochet a little border on here? Maybe a little picot edging could be cute instead of a standard bind off? Or perhaps pick up some number of stitches between these and use a stretchy lace bind off?

I'm THIS close to finding a small friend to give this away to because I picked the wrong size to make. A word to the wise, when choosing sizes for this pattern, make sure to consult the schematic. The finished size that I was intending to make is 32.5". I met gauge exactly (that never happens, I should have been suspicious) and so my piece measured exactly the same across the back as the schematic shows for the back. Only, if you multiply the measurement for the back on the schematic by two, the result is 31.5".

Yes, I understand that the front has a deep V and so there's a bit of wiggle room when it comes to fit across the bust. But it just FEELS small. I wanted it fitted and have usually never had a problem with making something with a bit of negative or only one inch of ease. This one though... I don't know.

You'll have to wait though until it's sunnier out and I'm having a good hair day before I show you the fit. And maybe by then I'll figure out the trim.

Why we block

Mostly, it's because otherwise, our knitting would look like total crap. See example. I'm going to lightly block here just for ease of seaming, but I'm hoping a full-on soak will make the fabric bloom a bit to fill in those holes where the spin was a bit on the thin side.

I finished the fronts and back of the Equestrian Blazer from just two balls of Rowanspun Aran. I'm trying to figure out exactly how two sleeves and two rows of stockinette around all the edges of the jacket can possibly add up to another 2+ balls of yarn. I WILL however be slightly annoyed if I end up with almost a full 100g ball again when I'm done.

Cuz I'm living on the edge y'all. I decided that since I almost always (except just ONCE) end up with at least one full ball and maybe a partial on top of that after swatching and knitting up a garment that I'd just to hell with it go with what I had in my stash for this project even though I was a full 50 yards short of the specified yarn requirements in the pattern. What the heck. I can always make sleeves shorter to match my smaller frame.

Or inadvertently in this case, take out an inch throughout the body because I can't read directions. Check your pattern schematic, or else you could end up shortwaisted in your sweater. Which, in my case, might actually be a nice surprise.

Since I probably won't be posting again this week, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

One step forward...

Woohoo! I figured out what lace pattern would work for my grandmother's pink knee highs! I knew it had to be relatively simple, so a row of eyelets was about all that could work here, but hotdamn if that doesn't count as lace! I'm using the leg chart from the Petticoat Sock pattern by Veronik Avery in Weekend Knitting. I also came up with a plan (a plan! from the Spaz! say it ain't so...) for how to do the calf shaping relatively in pattern. I won't tell you now for fear that actually vocalizing it will curse me to fugly results.

but as the rest of the saying goes, ... two steps back. In the middle there are DH's Koigu Chevron socks. Clearly I had a serious case of denial going on when DH kept stretching the things THAT FAR just to get them over his toes. Somehow, I thought turning the heel would make it all better. *sigh* If only positive progress were as fast as negative progress. I swear I knit at like 30 sts/min, but gosh darn it if I can't unknit at something like 15000 sts/min. These poor things have been frogged TWICE in one week. I guess Koigu holds up like a champ to frogging.

BTW, did y'all see the Sahara pattern that Knit and Tonic Wendy did for Stitch Diva? That's right up my alley! Only maybe tack up the neckline a bit more... no one wants to see that because let's just face it, cleavage is a whole lot sexier than no cleavage and a whole lotta sternum action. Long sleeves maybe? I'm thinking maybe a bit more fitted sleeves and belled just at the cuff instead of from elbow to cuff. Will have to wait for the pattern to come out and see how I feel then.

And because I haven't done one of these in a long time...

You paid attention during 91% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

Damn! I love taking tests (freak) so I was pissed off at #10 and #14.

Progress

It occurred to me that DH hadn't made an appearance on this blog in quite some time, so I thought perhaps that I should remedy that and also show you my WIPs at the same time. So here ya go. That's my Equestrian Blazer on the left, a little bit past the armhole shaping on the back. DH's Koigu Chevron socks are on the right just after turning the heels.

That's DH in the back. How he falls asleep like that (for HOURS I tell you) and doesn't wake up with a charley horse in his neck and rug burns on his knees is beyond me. Why he felt the need to fall asleep sniffing the corner of the couch I also couldn't tell you.

I blame it on the Glenrothes and 17 yo Glenfarclas.

Yes, in fact, I just left him there and went to bed after snapping this picture. What a loving wife I am...

Edited to add: DH wanted me to clarify because apparently I made it sound like he'd had too much to drink and passed out this way. No, in fact, my DH is talented enough to do this stone cold sober. To be fair, he had come over into my knitting space to nuzzle his head in my lap as I knit and fell asleep that way. But when I got up, he didn't seem to notice and just kept right on nuzzling with the couch as a suitable substitute. I still don't get how one can fall asleep kneeling, so I stand by my initial assertion that this is a weird sleeping position.

Just do it!

Yes, I'm one of those people who isn't a well informed voter. I don't know where all the candidates stand on specific issues that I care about. I don't know the pros and cons for all of the fourteen bazillion ballot measures that are to be decided. But I'm still planning on voting. At least I can and I am free to make any decision I want, as uninformed as it might be. So my question is, which is the lesser of two evils: to vote unintelligently or not vote at all?

So when I last left off, I was contemplating the pink socks. Several of you left me fantastic links for lace knee highs and I checked them all out. So, here's where I am now.

Yeah, not so much. I found out after a couple of inches of a very simple lace pattern that this super sproingy cotton yarn has something of a boucle texture to it that looks like CRAP in lace. So I think I might have to revert to plain knee highs here and tell my grandmother that her cotton pink lace knee highs might need to wait a little longer for the right yarn. Knee high Hedera sounds good... I just need to find a mostly cotton, smooth yarn that stretches appropriately for socks. Anyone? Anyone?

But since I couldn't just be stalled doing nothing, I decided to cast on for a pair of socks for DH. That's Koigu in a chevron pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. It looks a lot like the zigzag Jaywalker pattern, but oh well. I tried to swatch for 4 other patterns with the Koigu, and nothing would show up with the short color changes there to muddy everything up. So, back to zigging and zagging.

I also tried a different toe here... something that Charlene Schurch refers to as a star-toe. I have no idea what that means, but I figured that with as mauled as DH's toes are from climbing, his toes tend to curl under slightly. I thought that a more round like toe might fit his feet better than the flat toe that seems to be pretty common to most patterns. We'll see how it turns out. But right now what's bothering me is the cast on. I did a Turkish cast on and then started increasing 4 sts evenly spaced every other round. So now I have stupid pointy places on the toe which I dislike. Do I pick out the cast on and just run the end through the live sts that I free to close up the toe? I'm scared of doing that, but I think it'll work. Anyone think this will be turn into another entry for Dumbest Thing I Did Today?

Finally, I got the Winter 2006 Interweave Knits on Friday. I knew there was a jacket and a sweater in there that I both have a comparable yarn for and want to make. So I started swatching for the Equestrian Blazer. First on US6 (bottom) and then also on US5 (above the purl ridge). Anyone notice a difference here? Yeah, neither could I. What's up with that? I think I'm just going to go with the US5 since neither seems tight enough to meet the gauge, but as it is, my overall size is only going to be 3/4" larger and I can deal with that for a jacket.

And yet again, forgive my inability to photograph red yarn. What's up with that?

Now, off to vote!

Winging it

Okay, so despite the horrific outcome that was my last attempt at winging it, I'm going with it again. This time, I blame my grandmother on it. So you see, something like 5 months ago, she requested a pair of lacy pink cotton over the knee socks. I'm wondering as I sit here and type this if this isn't some sort of sick dress up fantasy she's been harboring for years and years, but ewww, it's my grandmother!

Anyway, that's all the direction I got. I've been looking but just haven't found a pattern that I like, so to heck with it... I'm winging it. I decided that she didn't really want all over lace on the foot anyway, so I went ahead and knit the foot plain. I had read the directions for Widdershins or maybe it was Baudelaire on how to do a heel flap toe up sock, but of course, I decided to start these while traveling and I didn't have the foresight to print out either of these patterns. So, random spazzing ensued, but I managed to reinvent the wheel correctly.

Wow, do my feet always look that flat and squat?

Anyway, I really like this toe-up heel flap thing. DH has extremely deep heel cups, high arches, but very low volume feet, so the short row heel didn't seem to fit his foot type as well. In fact, he can barely get his Jaywalkers over his heel, but once he does, those babies are NOT going ANYWHERE. So I think I'll be using this construction for all his socks in the future.

Another plus... no picking up stitches and the slipped stitch heel flap thingie hides my embarassingly sloppy wrap and turns quite nicely. Now if only I can come up with a better way of hiding the holdes at the top of the heel flap and gusset intersection... something better than Elizabeth Zimmerman's advice of knitting a stitch together with its neighbor. Any ideas?

So now, it's off to research some sort of lace pattern to use on the leg. What do y'all think? A large lace panel up the front of the sock, or two smaller ones on either side? Any suggestions on a lace stitch to use?

So now what?

I'm sure that anyone who's had a big blowout wedding has probably experienced this... the so now what phase. I've spent most of the last year stressing out about getting married (notice I didn't say planning... my mom took care of everything. I just stressed out) so now that I am married, what the heck to worry about now?

Well, conveniently, the holidays are coming up! I could stress out about how I've spent the past many months selfishly knitting myself 4 sweaters, but I've decided that a stressed out Spaz is an unpleasant Spaz. So, people get what they get if I decide to make them something. I may even NOT knit for one or more of the three newborns coming up this spring. Who'd a thunk it? Does that make me self-centered? Maybe. But does that also make Mr. McSpazzitron happier? I'm quite sure it will.

Decided to finish up a UFO after having absolutely nothing new to cast on for. Yes, I guess that means that technically I was lying about not having anything on the needles, but long forgotten projects don't count, do they? It was a bag that I had looming for quite some time. So long in fact that I can't even remember when I cast on for it. Anyway, it required about 3 balls of Kureyon, and I had visions of an uber-cute flap type bag along these veins. But instead... here's what I ended up with:
I knit fug. I'll admit it. It was best laid plans, but it's just plain fugly. I think it had promise, but it just turned out strangely proportioned: 13.5" wide and 5.5" tall... aesthetically unpleasing. It started out as a good enough idea... knit a multidirectional bag using two circular needles to avoid seaming that still ended up with a three dimensional bag instead of just a flat pouch. If I had it to do over, I would have added an extra ball, shortened the straps and knit it a bit taller and omitted the flap. Yes it would have ended up being a run-of-the-mill bucket bag but the corners knit on the diagonal at least would have provided some interest . I took notes as I went in case anyone else wants to reproduce my fug.

The worst part of it all? Kureyon felts SO slow and I spent an hour and a half of my life standing over a steaming kitchen sink hand fulling this thing, and it's not even completely felted. I'm starting to rethink my luck with knit bags. Witness the tweed misproportioned flatness completely devoid of any function despite its promises of being a "roomy tote". And yet...

BTW, did anyone notice that the top in the picture is actually a real pattern? How did I miss that before? If only I had tons of scraps in the same yarn to play with this. I could totally go for a tartan plaid top... maybe just without the shoulder draping panels though. Whoa. I think I just got my engineering geek on there. Only engineers and the late Payne Stewart can pull of plaid.

Mrs. McSpazzitron!

Okay, okay, I did it! I'm officially Mrs. DH! We had a great time at the wedding, and for the most part everything came off without a hitch. All I can say is that when they opened the doors to the church and I started walking down the aisle, I couldn't stop myself from smiling from ear to ear and had to restrain myself from giddy laughter. It was such a high. And marrying my DF, now DH, is everything I could have hoped for. But he still smells. Anyway, I posted a link to the photographer's webpage on my wedding blog, so if you're really all that interested, feel free to flip through the 1400 pictures...

But nothing's changed on the knitting front... I'm still madly knitting away.

Icarus Shawl by Miriam Felton
Pattern in Interweave Knits Summer 2006
Materials: Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud (100% alpaca. 440 yards per 50g ball) 80g in Horizon. Size US3 32" Addi Turbo circular needle.
Gauge: Does it matter on a lace shawl?
Finished size: 32" from neck to center point and 75" along neck edge.
Total yarn cost: $8 from Knitpicks

Started: August 1, 2006
Finished: October 9, 2006

Modifications: eliminated one of the stockinette repeats... so how did it end up this BIG?

Discussion:
One of my friends said that triangular shawls are like puppies, they start out all cute and small... and then they grow. I'd have to agree with this project. I just about wanted to pull all my hair out so that I'd match DH by the time I got to the second to last chart. Then he went away and left me to my own devices. Which meant that I ate too much junk food, drank a lot of soda and watched the entire first season of Grey's Anatomy as I finished the last two charts of this project.

I had intended to finish this shawl in time for the wedding. I did... and it was blocked 4 whole days before the wedding, but alas, it stayed in the car in the mad rush to get dressed. So while I was freezing in my reception for the first hour, it sat idly by and watched me freeze from the garage.

But, it's not too awful. I didn't have a shawl pin, and I have absolutely no idea how to wear a shawl. See picture at right. We'll see if this one's a keeper. Hard to say because it's just so yummy soft, but again, I'm pretty petite and this shawl certainly isn't.

Previous posts about this project:
Last post as Miss McSpazzitron on October 6, 2006
MIA again on June 9, 2006

Sienna Cardigan by Anne E. Smith
Pattern in Interweave Knits Fall 2006
Materials: Plymouth Suri Merino (50% alpaca, 50% wool. 109 yd per 50g ball) 340g in color 799. Size 8 24" Addi Turbo circular needles.
Gauge: 18 sts and 24 rows per 4"
Finished size: 32" bust, 20.5" long, 22" from shoulder seam to cuff.
Total yarn cost: $25 from Bo Peeps Wool Shop

Started: October 4, 2006
Finished: October 22, 2006

Modifications:
I changed the gauge because I didn't think that the published finished size was a good size for me and also because I didn't think I could get gauge with this yarn. I went ahead and just used the same stitch count and row count for everything and went with the principle that all proportions would shrink down appropriately with the smaller gauge. Also, picked up button bands and collar stitches all at once instead of separately and seaming the collar to the button bands.

Discussion:
Okay, so the style is a tad on the old librarian side, but hey, everyone needs a cardigan, right? At least it's not black. But more importantly, this is my first seamed set-in sleeve sweater, and I didn't have any major seaming issues this time! It took me the better part of 4 hours to just set in the sleeves, sew sleeve and side seams, but I honestly think I did a pretty good job. I even took a picture of it. Okay, most normal people don't take pictures of the inside of their sweaters, but I thought the seams and the places where I picked up stitches around the button band and collar look very nice. I'm taking a step away from the super Chinese mentality and actually allowing myself to say that something is good without wishing it would be better.

The shape is pretty classic, so what makes this sweater different is the details. First of all, I don't think that the picture in IK did a very good job at actually showing what the faggoting cables along the front edges looks like, so I took a close up here. I didn't realize that the inside of the cables was open until I started knitting the front... and that was a pleasant surprise.

I even had a good time picking out buttons for this piece. I chose these buttons because they're a classic shape and color, but the swirls of green in them picked up the color of the sweater so perfectly it just made it that much better. And by the way, when sewing buttons to your sweaters, how do you do it? I took one ply of the yarn I used on the sweater and used that, but the individual plies are so easy to break that I'm a bit worried about it.

And the cuffs. There wasn't a good picture of what the cuffs looked like in the photo spread either. So here's mine. The directions tell you to go back to the cast on edge at the cuff and pick up stitches and then immediately cast off. I tried this, but my usual cast-off is so tight and when I went up a couple of needle sizes, it still didn't look like anything much. So I decided to try out the lace cast off that was used on the Icarus Shawl. I like the way it looks... kind of like it was crocheted on, and it's stretchy!

So now what? I have absolutely NOTHING on the needles right now. How crazy is that? I guess I could start on my Christmas knitting, but I'm feeling really selfish right now. I think this is a holdover from last year's crazy holidy knitting blowout. How much fun will this be when I start to panic come November? Stay tuned...

Last post as Miss McSpazzitron

Because next time, I guess I'll be Mrs. McSpazzitron! and DF will turn into DH. Sadly though, dear husband just doesn't have quite the same ring as dumb f*&^#! or *sigh* dear fiancee. Wish me luck in the next week and hope that we come out on the other side of it okay. But, we'll be wearing these when all is said and done, and I LIKEE!

But in the meantime, I should probably show you all the pictures of everything that I've been working on in the past two months of non-blogging.

I started on Icarus and while it's STILL not done, it doesn't look that much different from this:

Sadly, this picture was taken two months ago, and it's still not done. At least now I'm done with the stockinette part and only have 23 really LOOONG rows left to go.

But here are the FO's in finishing order:
Two-Tone Bag
Pattern by Kathy Merrick in Fall 2005 Interweave Crochet
Materials: Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed (100% wool, 100 yd) 200g each in color 06 and 04. Size H hook.
Gauge: 15 HDC = 4"
Finished size: 23" wide and 16.5" deep

Started: August 4, 2006
Finished: August 28, 2006

Discussion:
I see why crochet is so popular. It goes just so darned fast! The only problem with this bag is that the handles stretch a lot and the size. I've decided that the red-headed Interweave model must be about 7 feet tall because in the picture it looked like a great roomy tote, but on my it's clown-sized. Completely out of proportion for my height-challenged frame. I was planning on using it only for a knitting bag since it's huge and well, knitting doesn't tend to be very heavy but can definitely be bulky. It doesn't keep stuff in very well, so I might consider felting the whole thing, but I'm still as yet undecided there.

Previous posts about this project:
Really MIA on September 24, 2006
43+ on August 31, 2006
Back again on August 13, 2006



Hooded Pullover
Pattern by Vladimir Teriokhin in Fall 2005 Vogue Knitting
Materials: Filatura di Crosa Ultralight (53% alpaca, 22% wool, 25% nylon. 154 yards per 50g ball) 270g in color 61. Size 7 Addi turbo circulars.
Gauge: 4 sts/in
Finished size: 34" chest

Started: May 4, 2006
Finished: September 18, 2006

Modifications:
Knit the sleeves in the round from the top down by picking up the total number of stitches called for in the pattern before sleeve cap shaping and reversing the sleeve cap shaping with short rows around the armscye. Lengthened the length of the hood.

Discussion:
I discovered yet again that I'm short with a long neck and sputnik sized head with this sweater. The high empire waist ribbing on the model looks cute, but on me, DF says, what's up with that weird ribbing thing around your middle? It's supposed to accent the boobage, I think, but I'm not sure. Instead it just sits in a weird place on my ribcage. Oh well, it's roomy and comfy and just a little warm. Not as warm as I had hoped because well, the huge slash down the neckline to my belly button allows for a lot of heat escaping.

Also, this was a good candidate for playing, "What's she hiding?" The model is looking down at the ground and has her hands up by her ears supposedly "pulling" on exercise rings on the beach. Okay, we all know that these models are starved to the point of not being able to hold themselves up, so what's really going on here? Well, it's the abysmal hood shaping really. The instructions have you knit until the hood measures 6.5" from where you pick up stitches around the neckline, then knit about 1" of top shaping and bind off. Well, the last time I checked, most people have necks AND heads, so the hood comes out to be way too small to allow for anyone to have both of those body parts without the shoulders of the sweater pulling up around your ears. So much for the "roomy hood" in the description.

A note about the yarn substitution... I'm pretty happy about the alpaca blend that I used here. It's a bit rougher than I'd have hoped for an alpaca, but it certainly gives the same fluffy appearance as the Skacel Alpaca Leggero that's suggested in the pattern. But given that I couldn't possibly afford (at least I don't really want to) 16 balls of the stuff at about $10 a ball, I was especially happy with my substitution at $25 for the sweater. The color really isn't that neon pink, BTW, it's much more muted, but still hot pink. Yes, my wonderful photographic skills when it comes to reds rears its head again.

This sweater was really pretty straight forward. The time it took me to knit it is not at all indicative of how difficult it was. I blame the protracted knitting time on alpaca not being terribly fun to deal with when it's 100 degrees outside.

Previous posts about this project
Really MIA on September 24, 2006
Decision point on June 2, 2006
Designing on May 31, 2006
Legacy on May 9, 2006

Cross Over Tank
Pattern by Gayle Bunn in Spring/Summer 2005 Vogue Knitting
Materials: Patons Katrina (92% rayon, 8% polyester. 163 yards per 100g ball) 240g in Lilac. Size 7 Addi Turbo circulars 24".
Gauge: 21 sts/4"
Finished size: 24.5" bust (unstretched)

Started: September 24, 2006
Finished: October 2, 2006

Modifications:
Omitted side seams and neckband seams.

Discussion:
Who in the world would want to seam with elastic yarn? With my finishing capabilities, I knew that the seaming would have been a disaster if I had elastic yarn thrown into the mix, so I deferred to seamless knitting. In the end I had a total of 6 ends to weave in. I like that.

And let me just say, never again will I knit a tank top with 6 inches of negative ease no matter what they say about the stretchiness of the resulting fabric. It's just plain scary to see something that small come off the needles. I like it too though, and with the help of Elann I think I managed the cheapest garment of the year. Okay maybe my super on sale t-shirts from the gap were cheaper, but can you really beat $8 for a hand knit garment? For an adult?

Oy, I just noticed that I'm wearing this tank backwards in the picture. There's supposed to be interior waist darts on the front that you don't see here. Oh well, at least it's mostly reversible!

Ugh. Gotta get my hair chopped off after the wedding. These last few pictures were just HIDEOUS! If you're still reading this, man are you devoted! Thanks for hanging in there with me and I'll be gone for at least a week or two. Hopefully there will be more non-knitting related pictures to share by then.