No-hair day hat finished

I ran out of yarn at the very last and had to dive into my stash of leftovers. Now the hat looks like a stuffed green olive. I will call it Oliver and send it off hoping that it will find a child at the hospital who likes it.

Trouble with Tribbles

The trouble is that it is hard to see the stitches!



My interest in novelty yarn came and went along time ago, but I am having fun knitting this hat for the Boston Children's Hospital.

Jaywalking

The Jaywalker sock in Knitpicks Memories Redwood Forest is coming along and I am very happy with the pattern and the yarn. My first Jaywalker! I am using the larger size (cast on 84) and size 2 circular needle for the cuff, as I was concerned about the sock being snug when my ankle swells. I may switch to the size 1 needle on the foot portion but I have not decided yet - it depends on whether I choose to carry the pattern down the foot.

I was forced to use the new version of Blogger - I was not given a choice. I read Google's privacy policy and was not satisfied with it. Yes, I know I have an online diary about my knitting that is public, but it is the other data that they say they collect that I have a problem with. Maybe this would be listed in the meme entitled "Six weird things about me".

It wanted to come home with me. really.

I was at the LYS and this called to me again. Loudly. It said for a reasonable price I could adopt it.

It is a Silk Juggle Ball spun from the silk ends used to make saris. I wish the picture did it justice. It reflects light beautifully and the colors are rich.

WIPs for January

I am playing with my favorite ball of Manos again. I am designing a little something that I hope to finish soon. I am having so much fun with this ball of yarn.

I have only one other WIP - the mosaic sweater from Big Girl Knits that I started last month. I knitted almost 20 rows and realized it was not working. The pattern has the MC and CC reversed at the bottom of the sweater in the garter stitch band, but the mosaic pattern is not showing well. So I am starting over using the same MC and CC as the body of the sweater. Hopefully that will fix it.

My son chose a sweater he likes from Knitty.com (Avast) and picked out yarn from KnitPicks, so as soon as I am done playing with the Manos I need to settle in and knit that for him. Then I will design another pair of socks for him - it is already rolling around in my head.

And somewhere in there I am going to knit myself a pair of socks. I have only 1 pair of wool socks - the pair that I learned on. My goal is to have several pair for myself, so I better get knitting.

I had the opportunity to go to Madrona this weekend and I had to pass it up. Being self employed means no paid days off and I could not afford to miss work (It is a 7 to 8 hour trip from here, so definitely a full weekend trip). Hmph. Maybe I can scrape some cash together and have my friend snag me Sock Hop yarn. That would be a treat.

Scala sock/mitten saga

It all started off calmly and orderly. I decided to knit a sock from the November pattern on the Socken-Kreativ-Liste designed by the gifted Stephanie van der Linden. The Scala sock pattern is beautiful and well written. I wanted to finish a sock to post to the group so that I was a participant and not just an observer.

First there was this....




I really liked the detail at the top of the cuff. The thought kept coming to me that these needed to be mittens where I could enjoy looking at them instead of on the bottom of my legs where I could not see them. Before I was finished knitting the decorative part of the cuff I knew these were going to be mittens instead of socks. I played with the color dominance to make it look like hot embers at the beginning then changed dominance to the gray that looks like coals in my woodstove.

And there was this...



The way the cables trickled down the glove in little rivulets. I learned to cable without a cable needle using the information that Grumperina has on her blog. I loved running my finger down the texture of the mitten and knew these were going to be great lightweight mittens for driving. I was anxious to finish them so that I could wear them.

Then there was this....



All I can say is that I got distracted.... I had picked it up for no other reason than to carress it yet again, but I set it down near something hot and the nylon in the sock yarn scorched. I was dumbfounded. But... I decided to knit the left mitten, and then go back and cut the burned end off the right mitten and knit it again. So on to the left mitten - lip stiff, attitude corrected, face to the wind.

And this...



Do you see a left mitten? I see a right mitten and a soon to be right mitten. I tried to turn away defeat and then I gave up. I had made some mistakes in the pattern, and correcting those mistakes only made the yarn split and frizz so that it did not look much better. It also hurt my hands to knit this pattern on Addi's size 1. My right hand went numb and my left hand hurt and then ached in a way that reminded me of the carpal tunnel syndrome I had surgery for in my right hand. I was willing to tough it out just long enough to knit the mittens...but now....

So then there was this...


I was going to toss them. I knew the yarn would not make it through frogging. Then the voice of reason drifted in and told me to put them away until next fall. So they are wrapped in the pattern and will hibernate until I have the heart to deal with them again.

on my "nostepinne"


KnitPicks Memories in the Redwood Forest colorway

Soon to be Jaywalker socks designed by Grumperina. Hee hee. I can't wait.

Socktoberfest Socks DONE

Imagine Kermit the Frog yelling 'YAYYYY!'

There are about 400,000 stitches in that pair of socks. These were my first toe-up socks. I did the cast-on at the toe for the magic loop. They were knit on size 1 needles. I used Steinbach Wolle that I bought at a sidewalk sale at the LYS. My own pattern. I knit these for my son who wears a size 12 to 13 shoe. The front of the foot and cuff is knit in garter rib stitch and the back of the cuff is plain 2x2 rib. I expected the garter rib to pull in more than it did. They were definitely a labor of love. Unfortunately, I messed up the heel. I was going to do the short-row heel then panicked because it looked like the heel would be too shallow, so I did a bottom-of-the-heel flap (can you tell I do not use a pattern?). Anyway, you can see in the picture the extra fabric under his heel, and it is much worse than it looks. (Voice in head: I am not a screw-up, not, not!) The worst part was the disappointment in my son's eyes about the wonky heel, but he says he still likes them. I guess they will be house socks. Mistakes are only bad if I don't learn from them. *sigh* The good thing is that the shape of the toe fits him well. I have decided that I am going to use heavier sock yarn and size 2 or 3 needles for my son's socks from now on. And I won't be afraid to use the short-row heel.

Low Tech Fun

My swift and ballwinder. I usually wind the hanks at the LYS but I enjoyed this yarn so much I did not wind it right away. I decided that today I would wind it into a ball and play with it.

Manos. The colors whisper the promise of spring when the air is still crisp.

I only have 1 hank and so I tried to choose the project carefully. I decided to knit either mittens, wristwarmers, or a scarf. I settled on a scarf. It is narrow and has little nubs or 'fingers' up the edge. I thought it could be a short scarf maybe fastened to itself in the front with a button. Mmmm... I dunno. I am tempted to frog it and think it over some more. Maybe wristwarmers. I have had fun playing with my wonderful little ball of yarn.

Little Knittles

Hats for local homeless shelter


Knucks for the Son. (kneeded knucks for knasty weather).

Now it feels like winter

When I was little we used to get about 6 inches of snow here in the valley but now we get just a smidge.

Mittens WIP

The house is not warm enough to dry things and so I am enlisting help from the woodstove. This is one of the Scala mittens blocking. This is the project that was supposed to be socks but wanted to be mittens instead.

A year in review

I like this community of knitting bloggers very much. I have enjoyed reading the knitterly New Year resolutions. The lists of finished projects for 2006 is truly amazing.

I am not one for New Year resolutions, and I do not really care to list my finished projects for last year. Someday, though, I would like to figure out how to do a grouping of pictures of the finished objects.

It was a year ago that I started to knit again after about 15 or 16 years. As I mentioned before, I learned to knit in a community education class on Icelandic sweaters taught by a lady who lived over there for a time. I can only imagine what went through the instructor's mind when I said it was my first knitting project, but she was gracious and did not deter me. It was seamless knitting in the round from the bottom up, adding in the sleeves while knitting the yoke. I made about 3 sweaters because I enjoyed it so much and then suddenly stopped. Looking back I think that was a season of my life that became very difficult, and life was pared down to the bare bones of existing. A year ago, between Christmas and New Years 2006, I asked my teenage son if he would learn to knit with me and we both knitted scarves (I had never done flat knitting). It was great fun and it has continued to grow. I found my LYS, became acquainted with the ladies there, and discovered knitting blogs. I am really thankful for the acquaintances I have made here in this online knitting community and I look forward to spending another year with you. The generosity with which you share your knitting and your knowledge is inspiring, and I love having a glimpse into your lives and the things that express who you are.

Happy New Year! God bless us.




I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'
And he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'

"The Gate of the Year" Minnie Louise Haskins

Modeling of the cap

Beloved Daughter modeling her cap for me.