The Thing With the Strategic Baby Handknits Reserves . . .

. . . is that it often happens that as soon as you finish (or even almost finish) a handknit planned for the reserves, a baby shows up out of the blue to claim it.




Claimed. (Already!)

We chose the coconut buttons I'd been considering for Freya. Coconut? They look more like chocolate to me. Mmmmmmm. Chocolate. (Does anyone else see it?)

The Last of Freya

So much to share!

First, Freya. She probably could have used still more ease (I'm now convinced it couldn't have been just the sports bra -- I think I also seriously underestimated how much ease the design needed), but it looked so good on her as is, Freya went to Mom:

Anonymom.



Together, we chose the greenish buttons:




And a final look at those cables (I just love them):




Why am I not more upset that it doesn't fit me?

Well, partly because this yarn was on a super sale, and when I bought it, I bought so much that there is actually enough left to make another Freya and 1/2. Not that I plan to make another one, at least not immediately.

But mostly because this is par for the course.

I have made four sweaters ever -- not counting kid sweaters, which are pretty much guaranteed to fit at some point -- and none of them has worked out as planned:

1.) A cabled vest thing (out of some truly awful seafoam acrylic yarn -- what was I thinking???), knit before I understood that there was a thing called "tension." It was supposed to be for me, but it could have fit my Dad. Perhaps two of him, which is saying something. I was a teenager, and the older ladies of the lunchtime "Happy Hookers" club (risque, eh?) I occasionally attended were highly amused. This put me off knitting for a while.

2.) The Doctor's Sweater. Also quite a while ago. He chose the yarn. He chose the pattern. What seemed like a few years later, I finished. The neck was too tight and the sleeves were several inches too short. I think I said I would fix it, but he claimed that the yarn was a good deal more scratchy than he thought it would be, so even if I fixed it, he probably wouldn't wear it that much. (!!!) At the time, I was a little . . . uh . . . disappointed. (In him? In the sweater? Who knows.) But now I think he probably realized that it was beyond my powers to fix, and so he'd better get out now and blame it on the yarn. That one is still somewhere in the Doctor's closet, never worn except for the one time the Doctor tried it on. This also put me off knitting for a while.

3.) A top-down raglan, using one of the "Custom Fit Your Raglan" pyramid schemes out there on the web. It fits, in that I can fit into it. It doesn't fit, in that it looks just awful. Baggy in all the wrong places. Too tight in others. (Have no idea how I managed it!) I can't wear it so much in public, but it is good for keeping warm 'round the house. (Wool.) Too bad it is dry-clean only, because that is a lot of trouble and expense for a cr$ppy jumper one only wears at home. Increasingly cr$ppy with each wearing, as it pills. Gobs and gobs of pills already, and the thing was knitted only a year ago. That being said, this one did not put me off knitting. Probably because it was kinda, sorta wearable.

4.) Freya. You know the story there. Totally wearable. Just not by me. I am not put off knitting one jot.

Better luck next time?

I rather thing so. Because if there's any pattern at all to my adventures in knitting bad sweaters, it is that each sweater is a distinct improvement over the last.

Hopefully that is actually the case -- as opposed to a delusion, which is also possible.

You see, I have my eye on a new sweater, and this one I think I would actually be more-than-miffed if I messed it up.

I don't have the pattern yet, but I am given to understand it will be in my super-splurgey holiday gift to myself.

Which hasn't arrived.

But I'll give you a hint.

It begins with "Aran" and ends with "Knitting."

(Gack! I can't believe I bought it either.)

More soon. (I made out like a bandit.)

While You Were Drying

The blocking of Freya continues. She must be somewhat dryer than she started (she must, right???), but it sure doesn't feel that way. I had hoped to wear her to a party this coming Saturday, but that is seeming less and less likely.

Possible.

But not likely.

In the meantime, I am kicking around some ideas for other green washable yarn candidates. I swatched and washed the Rowan Felted Tweed, and found that when they say the "gentle" cycle, they really mean it. Probably the stuff should be called "Rowan Only Partially Felted Tweed." It doesn't shrink dramatically or anything like that (at least not on the "gentle" setting), but it clearly wants to be slightly more felted than it is. Which means that if the sweater accidentally went through the regular cycle with everything else . . . disaster. So. Anyone tried the Valley Superwash from Webs?

On another front, the Doctor asked me for a hat, um, a while ago. (Last January!)

I had cast on for a double-knitted hat like Alison's months ago, but the yarn (127 Print) just wasn't working very well with the double-knitting technique. Or at least not with my double-knitting technique, which admittedly is lacking. 127 Print is a single ply, and I kept snagging just a few fibers every time I slipped a stitch. And there's one slip for every single darn stitch. The hat (all one inch of it) was looking pretty ragged. Also note the yarn is not so nice after frogging.

I was so down about the whole thing that I wasn't even considering it to be a real project.

But here I have some time on my hands. (Not really!) So I picked it up again.

I still wanted the functionality of double-knitting -- although I didn't need the double-knit stripes; my yarn would do that for me. But I wanted the hat to be two layers thick, reversible, and I wanted my cast-on edge to have all the stitches (extra stretchy) rather than later picking up another set of stitches for the inner hat / lining.

I figured I would have just enough time to re-start and finish this in perfect time for Freya to dry.

But I'm already done.

Two hats in one!
The Doctor likes the teal side best, but I'm partial to the black.


And . . . Freya is still quite damp.

But she could be dry any time now. (Really, she could!)

So I really can't start working on anything too big.

I'm actually considering weaving in some of those ends on that pink and green mitered square baby blanket . . .

Anything, really to avoid working on that scarf for V.

(Most of our "Winter Gift Exchange 2006" is actually happening in early 2007, so I've got plenty of quality procrastination ahead.)

Super-Quick!

Super-quick, that is, if you don't wait a full two months before sewing up the two (2) very short seams, weaving in the two (2) ends, and affixing the five (5) buttons . . .





Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman in mystery fiber (eBay strikes again!).

My copy of the pattern is from The Opinionated Knitter, but it is available on its own for an exceedingly reasonably price ($3, US) from Schoolhouse Press.

Modified Short-Row Hat

So . . . I think I mentioned, oh, a few years ago, that I was trying to make this hat by Véronik Avery for one "V" out of Noro Kureyon.

And I think I mentioned that I was having a leeeeetle trouble with the gauge.

Ya see, the fit of this hat depends on both the stitch and the row tension being just right.

Somehow, simultaneously, my stitch gauge was too loose and my row gauge too tight. (Ugh.)

Which meant I was going to end up with a hat that was too tight around and whose brim was too long.

In other words, a hat for a Conehead toddler.

V is neither that young nor a Conehead.

What to do, what to do?

Stubbornly didn't want to change needles. (And, really, in which direction would I go? My tension was both too loose AND too tight. Holy Headache, Batman!)

The compressed row gauge probably isn't too much trouble, really. To fix that, I suppose, I could just add one additional repeat. (Or possibly two . . .)

But the pattern is not easily modified to be shortened, lengthwise.

Only thing for it is to continue to deny the problem and "Knit On!" (I don't think that's quite what E.Z. meant . . . )

Good thing, too, because upon finishing the knitting . . . bolt of lightening.

FLIP UP THE STUPID BRIM, GIRL!

So, we have:





I have my fingers crossed that this will fit V, because I really don't see any way to make further modifications. It fits me perfectly, and my head is sized in the norm. (Physically, at least.) So there is some hope.

Yeah, yeah, I hear you, I hear you: "Okay, yeah, that side looks okay, but what about that seam issue?"

So here's the flip side:




Yeah, but where's the seam?

Right here:




WHERE?

HERE:




Required scissors. And possibly too much hubris.

In the original pattern, there are "set up" and "end" sections. They are what make the half-diamonds, etc., at the beginning and ending of the knitting. This makes seaming easy, because you can just use a straight three-needle bindoff. But if the colours of those half-diamonds don't match up perfectly, it looks a little wonky.

My colours definately did not line up. (Who has that kind of luck, I ask you?)

So . . .

I skipped the "end sections" when I got to them. And then I SLASHED OUT the "set up" sections. (Tried unraveling, but you really can't unravel this from the bottom . . . probably a good thing, really, given how much trouble I had picking up stitches on this new edge.) Picked up what I hoped were the right number of stitches from where the "set up" sections used to be. THEN I did the seam, zig-zagging back and forth along the diamond edges.

The garter stitch part of the seam doesn't match exactly (the three-needle bindoff adds a row of knitting). And I wasn't able to perfectly fit the diamonds into eachother. But all in all, I think it is better than the alternative.

If I were to do this hat again (and I rather think I won't), I would skip the "set up" sections entirely. Maybe this would require fewer or additional stitches cast on, but since it is a provisional cast on, I think that it is probably possible to cast on way more stitches than one actually needs and just not use the extras.

Frog Proof

Claudia Handpainted is frog proof.

You see, before these were plain 'ol ordinary stockinette socks with a plain 'ol ordinary gusset heel . . .

Hello, cankles! And hello, stash! (There, in the background, you can see what you might call the tip of the iceberg.)




. . . before that (a year ago), they were Jaywalkers that were too big . . .

. . . then Jaywalkers that were too small . . .

. . . then (again) Jaywalkers that were too big . . .

. . . then picot-edged socks that had *no* stretch because I was knitting too tightly . . .

. . . and then once I finished the first plain ol' ordinary sock, I promptly cast on four too few stitches for the second, getting all the way through the heel flap before realizing it (Doh!) . . .

. . . but still, after all that, the yarn is beautiful.

In a related story, I have jumped on the insane-making-a-blanket-out-of-leftover-sock-yarn bandwagon:

From left to right, leftovers from the Doctor's First Oversocks (Regia Strato); Mum's Birthday Socks (Plymouth Sockotta); My Greece Socks (Lorna's Laces); My Striped Tweedy Socks (Meilenweit Colortweed); and My Plain Claudia Socks (Claudia Handpainted, probably in Carousel). Gee, three pairs for me since the blog started . . . now that's what I call GREED. Tasty!



Other knitters who are (or were) on this bandwagon include:

Shelly at The Heathen Housewife (Trendsetter! With the KAL and everything . . . )
Gail at Gail's Good Yarn
Gwen at Shoes and Yarn
Noricum at Soapbox
and at least one super-extremely-famous knitter, Wendy at Wendy Knits

Anyone else out there in Crazy Land?

Funny, That

So now that I have more time to knit, I find I'm doing less knitting. Whaaa?

But I have finished those socks in Lana Grossa Meilenweit Colortweed (no pattern):




They might look a little skinny when off the foot (that's the magic of 2x2 ribbing), but I assure you they fit perfectly:

I'll Bet You Were Beginning To Think . . .

. . . that I would never again finish a project! (I was beginning to think it.)

And although weaving in four ends barely counts, it does count. (Barely.)

Another Cloud Hat (A.K.A. Dulaan 2007 Item #9):





all the leaves are brown,
and the sky is grey . . .

Secrets and Socks

So the deal is that I'm working on something that is intended to be a gift and that I don't know whether it will turn out at all. You know I have no trouble blogging about things that don't turn out, but with this one, I'm more than a little concerned. If it doesn't work out, I'd like the option of just forgetting about it. And if I blog about it . . . well, it will never go away, then!

What I will say right now is that it is something to go with this (can't leave well enough alone, doncha know), and that I'm using Noro Kureyon. Promise that if it does turn out, I will post all the gory details. (Probably if it doesn't work out I will post the even gorier details.)

In the meantime, I have managed to finish these babies, just in time (okay, way late) for Mom's B-day. After I had them all wrapped up, I realized that the toe on the second sock doesn't match the first. The first had a round toe, decreased to 12 stitches, then kitchenered. The second I decreased to 6 stitches and just pulled them tight. Doh! (If she wants them fixed, I'll happily do it, but they were already wrapped and everything!)

Plymouth Sockotta, colour #617. No pattern per se, but on 72 stitches, with a bit of ribbing, a regular ol' gusset, and round toes.



And now, why I will probably not be doing round toes again:





Two of my Brittany Birches bit the dust on that last toe!

Never before have I snapped a needle. And then TWO of them, gone, within minutes of eachother. (I guess they were trying to tell me I was "going the wrong way" with the toe. Why do I never listen?)

Baby Norgi (Now with Cat Bonus)

Baby Norgi, in the smallest size:





Closer shot (see the puckering?):





Special Cat Bonus:

Warshrag

Something to Blog About

In avoiding the Pit Of Despair (and lack of blog-fodder) that is the pseudo-Prairie Blanket, I have managed to weave in the last of those ends:






Dulaan 2007, Item #8.

I am going to keep the mismatched ribbing -- don't think it looks all that bad, and I'm really anxious to move on to other things.

Here's a closer shot of the yoke pattern:





This was done free-style, sort of like knitted doodling. (Very fun.)

As for the rest of the "pattern," I think it went quite well. I have a few nits, but these are problems I have with my own choices (don't think the 2x2 ribbing at the neck quite works) more than with Zimmerman's directions.

I do think that if I did another yoke-type sweater, I would try distributing the yoke decreases a little more evenly. Zimmerman suggests three rows of relatively dramatic decreases. Instead, I would decrease fewer stitches over more rows. As it is, when laid flat, I have some puckering in the yoke. I suppose this might be necessary to a good fit, but I think it more likely that it might be reduced somewhat (without harm) by a different pattern of decreases. I just can't tell whether it is a feature or a bug. (I lack a person of appropriate size to test this.)

When I joined the underarms, I did get loose areas (we won't call them holes) at either side of each underarm. I solved this by reinforcing a little with the darning needle. There might have been a better way to deal with it, but I think it looks fine:





Finally, Zimmerman's false seams are just brilliant. They do help immensely with the blocking. And, although I was a bit worried that they would look awkward, it turns out that they are hardly noticable:






(There's one going straight through the photo -- I know it's there, and I still have a hard time seeing it.)

Mission Accomplished?

In my quest to reduce the number of projects I've got going on, I finished my second-to-oldest project over the weekend. (The oldest being the Baby Norgi . . . incredibly patient, that little guy.)

Socks for the Doctor.

You'll probably notice that the proportions of these socks seem a little off. This is because these are "oversocks." The Doctor and I might have made that word up. Anyway, they're socks meant to be worn over other socks for warmth in the winter. So being roomy was more important than length in the cuff.

Other details: Toe up, "figure eight" cast-on.

Stockinette foot and heel, with three-by-one ribbed cuff, over 72 stitches except for the last inch or so, where I added another pattern repeat to further prevent constriction:





Made from Regia Strato purchased on sale from here (currently available in some colours here -- excellent price!). Can't say which colourway as I tossed the ball band ages ago.

Knit simultaneously on two circulars (Addi Turbos in what they call size "1," although I'm not too certain what sizing system that refers to), except for the heels, which were "afterthought" heels using magic loop. Really don't see myself doing either the two circulars or the afterthought heels ever again.

So, that's two pairs of socks finished in recent days.

Victory!

If I were strong, I would leave it at that and move on to finishing something else. But knitters need their rewards. And there isn't really any harm in starting a new pair, since that would still be fewer work-in-progress than before. So:





But I neglected to bring that one home with me yesterday. So . . .





What is wrong with me?

Those Socks That Only Needed a Toe

I'm making progress, people! Finished a few things, the first of which are these:

Stitch pattern is the same as Conwy from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road.

But I didn't really bother following that pattern -- I know from a previous and very frustrating experience that a true Conwy doesn't actually fit me.

So, these guys have an extra six stitches (one additional pattern repeat), and the calf shaping is eliminated. We probably differ on several other points, but I really couldn't say which, as I stopped paying attention to the pattern long ago.

Some other details:

Size 1 (US) Brittany Birch dpns.

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Flames colourway.

Top down, with ye olde heel flap. Close-up of point where cuff, heel and gusset meet:

Have no idea how I avoided that gaping hole I usually get at this point. Probably I picked up 17 extra stitches here, rather than the 1 or 2 extra stitches that are generally recommended (but that never really seem to help in my case).

Perhaps it is boring of me, but I've now tried many, many of the exciting-and-new methods of knitting socks, yet still I think this is my favorite. At least for knitting socks for my own feet.

Unlike a short row or afterthought heel, the heel flap allows me to make the heel just as roomy as I need it -- which is quite roomy. (I can't, for example, wear Jaywalkers. Believe that I have tried.) In any event, the socks I have made using these other methods are always a bit tight in the heel. Unless they're a bit loose everywhere else. The heel flap gives me flexibility, options.

Doing it top-down allows me to check the fit of the heel separately from the fit of the foot, before even moving onto the gusset. If I've got it wrong, I only need to re-do the heel. With a toe-up sock, if I've got the fit wrong, it is invariably because I followed the pattern and didn't start increasing soon enough to get the larger gusset I need. Which means a heck of a lot more ripping.

As for the DPNs: Yep, just like everyone else, I've got problems with laddering. If I'm doing a ribbed sock, I can hide most of this. If I really, really don't want the laddering, I'll use magic loop.

Magic loop is quite nice, until I get to the heel. Just don't like it as much for that. Couldn't say why.

Two circulars? Very bothersome, all those needles flying about. I thought I'd particularly like doing two socks at once, but really all this means is that if I don't like the shaping, I have to rip out twice as much.

One final comment: Lorna's Laces is very nice. But you all know that already.

Warshrag

Warshrag

Warshrag

Sibling Rivalry

Yes, yes . . . I am actually working on the no-sew mitered squares Problem.

But that will have to wait. The Brat wants to talk to you now.





Helloooooo! Finally!

What Anonyknits isn't telling you is that I've been done for days and there hasn't been blogging about me. MEEeeeee! There was blogging about my sister --

NO! I'm NOT a boy!!! Anonyknits made me for a girl whose parents don't like pink, or purple, or anything "girly." (Why are they having GIRLS then???)

You can tell from the next photo that I'm much prettier and nicer than my sister. My sister is the one underneath me. She got done first, but she's stupid and weak so she totally bought it when I tackled her. LOL! That makes me closest to the camera, where I belong.





So, whatwasIsayingOH! I'm much nicer than she is. None of those nasty sleeves.

I also have an edging. It is supposed to be "crab stitch." A crochet thing. Anonyknits never did it before, so I'm pretty sure she did it totally wrong. LAME! I guess it doesn't completely suck. (But YOU DO! LOL!)






This message brought to you by Bouton d'Or layette & junior HS n° 14. Item #5, Theme Oranger.

Love is Irrational & Often in Poor Taste

What can I say?

I was in the store (buying that cotton) and someone new caught my eye.

Someone fuzzy.

And almost entirely fake.

But soooo soft . . .





(love)

(crush)

(giddy, giddy love)

Maybe no one else will understand.

But I don't care.





I'd keep the hat for myself (even though it is really not my color).

Only it isn't the right size.

So Dulaan 2007 it is. (Item #7.)

Soooo soft . . .

I am Such a Liar

Lying to myself; lying to y'all. . . .

(Where will it end?)

As it turns out, I do not have the yarn for Posy.

I have most of the yarn for Posy.

I am missing my single ball of accent color. This throws a major wrench into my plans. It isn't that it is at all difficult to acquire the yarn. It is that a decision is required. What color to choose??? I am thinking off-white. But I could go with a lighter or a darker blue. Or green. It is only a tiny, tiny bit of accent. But the accent is in the very first rows of ribbing. So it isn't like I can start this one while still putting off the decision.

So Posy is on hold.

Indefinately.

On the brighter side of things, I am home again. And the green baby sweater / shirt thing (she of the incessant whining) is done:





This is the Theme Oranger Pullover from Bouton d'Or layette & junior HS n° 14. It is item #4 if you follow the link. (The blue vest I am also working on is item #5.)

The "oranges" in this one are even more subtle than the "butterflies" in this one. That is to say, there are no oranges whatsoever in the garment. (They did go maybe a little overboard with the oranges in items #1-3, so I guess you can't blame them.)

I like this pattern very much. It is very simple stitch pattern, just knit and purl. It has a clever construction, in which the shoulders are not seamed but buttoned. This makes it actually usable with the young people. (I am thinking of doing this with my Baby Norgi.) Also, bonus: you get to finish all the knitting (including the collar) before you do any seaming. I like this a lot. Knitting collars after the seaming is a pet peeve of mine.

However, the seaming itself is a little tricky. To get the shoulder right, you have to overlap the front and back while setting in the sleeve. See (color not accurate):





Since I naturally did not get it right the first time, this was pretty time consuming.

And then -- there are two arms, after all -- you have to do it again.

Finally, the yarn: Jaeger Siena, a 4-ply 100 percent cotton. I have to say, it is very pretty, but Rowan's 4-ply is much softer. Definately easier on the hands. Less shiny. And -- believe it or not -- less expensive. (Gak!)

I guess I wouldn't mind the cost, because I didn't actually use all that much of the yarn (it's a baby sweater). But the Siena is a lot like one of your thicker crochet cottons. So I probably could have done almost exactly the same thing for way less.

So I say unto ye, avoid the Jaeger Siena.

Live and learn.