Pride goeth before the fall

I only have myself to blame. But that doesn't make me any less exhausted.

I prided myself on minimizing the amount of Christmas knitting I had planned. While all my knitterly friends were frantically finishing mitts, hats and socks, I thought I was finished.

Then, last week I remembered about the dreaded 'teachers gift'. Being the 42nd person to hand over a "Number 1 Teacher" mug wasn't the best idea, not if I didn't want my kid to fail JK. So, when I heard my daughter's teacher, Mrs. H, talking about how her hands were so small she usually bought kid sized gloves, I was struck by inspiration. Fetching was the answer! Short, sweet, beautiful and practical. And fast. Did I mention fast?

I picked out a skein (color: North Sea) of one of my all-time favorite yarns, Alpaca with a Twist, Highlander, and went to work. The Highlander, which is a blend of alpaca, wool and microfiber, is so exquisitely soft that the finished objective is almost secondary to just feeling the Highlander slip through your fingers as you knit.

All but the 2nd thumb was finished by Monday. Ha! Take that Christmas Knitting!

Remember all that pride go-ething before the fall? Yesterday I remember the teacher's assistant in the class. Drat! I needed a second pair of Fetchings. After some misadventure finishing up the 2nd glove yesterday (cabled in the wrong direction, frogged, reknit, forgot the thumb hole, frogged, reknit), I cast on for a second pair of gloves in Blackthorne. I think the ladies at my Thursday night Sit 'n Knit were actually placing bets on whether I'd finish them in time.

Cast on: 7 pm.
Each glove: takes a tad over 2 hours.
Last school day starts: 9 a.m.

Staying up till 3 a.m. to finish Christmas knitting for teachers: priceless and exhausting.

Excuse me. I need to go take a nap...


PS. No, I didn't even get a chance to take a picture, but they look like this other pair I made last winter.

Chicken or the egg?

You never think it’s going to happen to you. Sure, other people maybe. But you’re organized. You’ve got a system. You don’t have a problem; you have it all under control.

And then it happens. You lose a WIP (work in progress). Well, not you. Me. I’ve been on a bit of a sock bender lately. There’s the socks I was inspired to design after picking up some exquisite deep purple Handmaiden Casbah sock yarn. And its mate that I test knitted in a spring-like shade of green. A week or so ago I was bored and needed a simple project for the waiting room of my doctor’s office. So I started a Zauberball sock. Not 2 days ago, a colorful ball of Opal Zwerger Garn caught my eye, causing me to wonder how it would knit up.

But as I ripped skeins of yarn out of their shelves last night, I was searching for none other than the delightfully soft, appropriately blue-green flecked Diamond Luxury sock yarn (in color Nile) I’d shaped into one half of Cookie A.’s Pomatomus. No one I’ve met can pronounce the word, which is the genus of the blue fish. So in Ravelry, I called these my Hippotamus socks – close enough and much easier to pronounce.

Did I lose my Hippos because I have too many WIPs? Or do I have too many WIPs because my stash is too big? Chicken or the egg?

So now, I’m searching for my Hippopotamus. The first artist’s rendering produced looked like this:

 

I sent her back to the drawing board, where she produced this:

Sigh. I can only imagine that my Hippopotamus is lurking somewhere, barely visible within the warm, wooly confines of my oversized stash. Kinda like this:

 

Having a nap perhaps?

 

I just hope that there hasn’t been some “life-on-the-Savannah, survival-of-the-fittest” fight to the death happening in my stash.

 

Who do you think would win? The Hippopotamus or the Malabrigo? Maybe that ball of eyelash yarn hiding in the bottom draw – I never can seem to get rid of that stuff.

Rainbows in November

I finished these socks a couple weeks ago, so when my camera reappeared and the sun came out, it was time to share some November rainbows with you.

These socks were knit with Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn and were a wonderful lesson to just go with the flow and accept their fraternal-ness. I normally go for the understated when it comes to socks. Grey, black or white. Knitting, however,  has changed that. Why wear grey or black when you can have some hand knit goodness on your toes? And what a better way to cheer up a dreary month like November than to add some color to your feet!

Sock details:
Noro Silk Garden Sock, on 3.5mm needles, knit top down.
2x2 rib for the cuff then 3x1 rib for the legs, continuing the ribbing down through the feet. I used the knit1, slip1 method for the heel flap, which is one of my favorite methods. I typically weigh my sock yarn before I start and then allocate 25% to the leg, then when I’m within a few grams of that 25%, begin the heel flap.

And then there’s the Noro scarf which I’m working on.

  

I picked up a ball of grey-brown, black and grey Noro and alternated it in a 1x1 ribbing with a very colorful Noro in my stash. Everyone who sees it is enthralled with the way the colors transition. Only we knitters know it’s Noro that does all the work.

Delayed gratification

Talk about the opposite of instant gratification. Out of the blue, Suzy put on the Robin Hood jacket (by Zoe Mellor) that I made for her umpteen (er...3) years ago. Jacket details are posted on Ravely.

It was one of the first few projects I ever did after learning to knit (wanted to teach myself cables), made out of Walmart acrylic. It's apparently a size 2 but still fits her, except for being maybe a tad too short.

I'm trying not to get excited. She never wears what I make for her. But she's had it on for 20 minutes now. Validation! Victory!

But sweetie, I'm still not knitting for you anymore, at least not till you can appreciate it.< /div>

Absence makes the yarn grow fonder...

Or something like that.

I got all caught up in the whole summer experience and neglected all things bloggy. But I'm back. Part of the problem was that we lost our camera, so I couldn't take yummy photos of my WIPs and FOs. Then we found the camera, and now it's lost again. I think it's playing hide and seek.

I'll have to hunt it down, because I finished the Rona shawl, which turned out just as breathtaking as I imagined. It was a tough one to block, but worth the effort. And I also need to show off my Every Way Wrap from the Fall Interweave Knits. And I totally amused my knitterly friends at the local Sit 'n Knit night with my Fish Hat, Dead or Alive from Knitty.com. The fun part was creating a matching set of mittens. The pattern for those will be coming soon.

Just some highlights for now. I'll be back regularly with photos to share what I've been up to.

Frustration

A few weekends ago I had the standard knitters' dilemna: what to take with me for a weekend away. We were going up to the in-laws for 2 days, including a 3 hr drive each way - knitters heaven! I ended up packing some Handmaiden sea silk that I wanted to use for the Vogue drop stitch scarf. I also decided on starting some socks, the ultimate in portable knitting. I think I showed perfect restraint by only packing 2 projects for my 2 day visit.

To my delight, there is a wonderful little yarn store in Owen Sound. It had a few gems, brands I haven't seen locally and a couple colors of Mission Falls cotton I had been looking for. I may have to visit the in-laws more often so I can visit the shop again!

I found some time here and there to knit. But as I worked on the drop stitch scarf I wasn't particularly enjoying how the colorway was knitting up. The yarn is dyed a beautiful blue/turquoise/green/gold. Unfortunately the colors weren't pooling in any manner whatsoever, so it just seemed like a hodge podge of conflicting colors.

After investing a couple hours, I wrestled with deciding whether I should rip back and see whether a different gauge or width would change things. I ripped it. Then I realized I didn't have a bigger needle to cast on a second time.

Then I looked to the sock yarn to satisfy my yarn craving. The pattern was for toe up in a method I hadn't done before. Foiled again! No instructions. :(

So there I was with beautiful yummy yarn and nothing I could knit. I felt so helpless. So frustrated. So....unfair!

Of course, this made it easier for me to offer to do the driving on the way home so hubby could rest.

New threat to my stash

They don't look very dangerous (except to chicken and tuna), but with all their kitten energy, I'm sure I'll have an adventure or two to relate once they get better acquainted with my stash.

Meet the newest members to our family: Chewy and Crumb, 3 month old female tabbies.