December Resolutions and Knitting Holidays

So, the knitting this month has been going really well. I'm already done with my December resolutions! :)

My Dad's vest is finally, finally done!

After yet another problem with the right armhole, it got finally done. I had picked up only slightly too many stitches and thought I could correct it with a couple of unibstrusive decreases.

Well, as you can see, the decreases weren't all that unobstrusive, so I frogged yet again.

But now look!



All bands are finally done and as soon as I can get my Dad to model, you'll even see a picture of the whole thing. In case you haven't noticed yet, I am so glad I got this done. I've been working on it on and off since March and simply couldn't stand it anymore. So, 7.5 50g skeins of fingering weight yarn later, I have come to the resolution that from now on I'll mostly stick to smaller projects. :D (Mostly being the operative word here, since I seem to have developed a fancy for complicated lace shawls and am phantasizing about several.)

Then the Scrolls socks are also done. I'm seriously in love with this yarn and have almost a third of the skein left over, so my worries regarding the thinness of the yarn were no problem after all.


And finally Odessa.

I'm in love with the pattern. It's well written, intuitive and looks very pretty. Unfortunately the resulting hat doesn't suit me at all. Somehow I need thicker hats to balance my face and my hair, so at the moment I'm trying to find somebody who'll wear it. My Mum is out since hats suit here even less than me and I'm not sure if my best friend will like the colour. But we'll see...

I just realized this post is getting ridiculously wrong. Sorry about that, but I won't be able to post again until January because of the whole limited Internet situation, so I just have to squeeze everything into one post.

For the two weeks I'm at my parents I have a lot of knitting planned. Let's just call it my holiday resolutions and the go back to the regularly scheduled monthly resolutions in January. :)

(1) RPM socks in Cherry Tree Hill Potluck

I've been meaning to knit this pattern for ages, so it's finally on my list.

(2) Slippery Socks in Jitterbug Jewel


(3) Bellatrix in Koigu KPPPM


(4) Mini-Clapotis in Lang Yarns Silk Dream

I already started this and really love the combination of pattern and yarn. And since I'll probably have a skein of yarn left over, I'm also planning to knit a
(5) Clapotis Cap in Lang Yarns Silk Dream

(6) Coronet in Lang Yarns Mille Colori

I'm kniting a scarf from this yarn and will have about two skeins left over. So I started Coronet. Since the gauge is different I increased the cable to a twelve-stitch cable, instead of 9 stitches, and addes two rows in between the cables. Very pleased with the result so far, but now I have to pick up the stitches for the main part and after the horror that was my Dad's vest regarding picking up stitches, I'm really not looking forward to that.

Looking up at that list, I'm thinking I might be slightly over ambitious... on the other hand, I have nothing to do but knit and read for the next two weeks... sounds like heaven. :D

Sorry, no links this post. I'm at my parents with only dial up and am writing this offline. As always, however, you can find all of the information on my Ravelry projects page and queue.

And now have a good holiday season and happy new year!

December Resolutions

So, not so much on the current projects list today, but a list of what I have/want to do this month.

First and foremost:
(1) Dad's Vest

This is what it currently looks like. The neck band, as well as the left armhole are just too big. I tried picking up according to my gauge, but somehow that didn't work. It was supposed to have been finished for my Dad's birthday at the end of October. I haven't touched it since the day before his birthday when it became clear that I wouldn't be able to finish.

And I'm determined to finish it before Christmas. Because my parents are not getting anything knitted for Christmas this year, this might actually work.

I need to pick out the cast offs of the bands I already knitted, rip them, pick up the *right* amount of stitches (how much that is I haven't actually figured out yet) and knit the armholes and neck again.

(2) Odessa
The SSEC Operation Reindeer Recognition this month calls for something knit in the colours of the Sami flag. I bought some beautiful Rowan Cashsoft DK in red, along with some red beads that I've been meaning to knit into Odessa, so this is finally a good chance to get started on that (even if it means starting yet another project).


(3) Scrolls Socks
I fell in love with this pattern the first time I saw it and already started the socks.

They are knit in SWTC's Tofutsies, colourway Get Your Feet Wet. Even though the yarn is multi-coloured the pattern is really distinct and the colour changes only add character, not obscure the pattern. So I really think it won't be a problem to finish these. :)

And I absolutely love the yarn. I was a bit weary at first, because it seemed very, very thin, but I'm getting an amazing mileage out of this and the sock is simply so soft and thin and scrumptious that I want to touch it the whole day. Only small problem is that it smells a bit weird, but I hope a good wash after knitting will change that.

Oh, and yarn count from last month was 23.11 miles and as of yesterday I'm down to 22.76 miles! Since I only count the yarn as knitted up when the whole project is finished, if when I finish Dad's Vest that will absolutely blow my numbers through the roof. Should be more of an incentive... :)

November Clean Up

So, how did I do for my November resolutions?

(1) Dad's Vest
Haven't touched it. No,wait. That's not true. I have touched it. But only to lift it to grab other stuff below it in the knitting bag.
(2) Child's First Sock
Success!

I really like the pattern since it can hold my interest and at the same time is easy enough that I don't need to look at the chart. And I really love the Regia Bamboo.
(3) Pomatomous
Another success!

These almost kicked my arse. I started them almost 2 years ago and ran into some problems with the pattern 1.5 repeats from the toes of the second sock. So they sat in my knitting bag... and sat there... and sat there. And I finally finished them in only two days and that despite the fact that the toes were giving me all kinds of trouble because I kept running out of yarn.

As you can see, the toes are stripey and the top is even fully in a different colour. The contrast is a bit too great for my taste, but I am so not ripping these out again.
(4) Estonian Socks
Small success.
I started these, but don't really like the way the cuff is knit.

This is the cuff according to pattern. The garter at the tops keeps folding over, because the stranded knitting is so much thicker, not to mention that the non-stranded rows seem so much wider than the stranded ones.
So, I started the second one differently:

Instea dof garter I did a folded cuff, dark grey in the back, then started with the stripes accoring to the pattern, but did it completely in stockinette. I also went down one needle size (to 2.5mm) for the non-stranded rows and will do the stranded rows in 3mm. Like it better, but somehow the stranded knitting isn't speaking to me at the moment... too many tangles.

It's very strange. At the moment I have lots of time for knitting, but I only feel like knitting simple stuff. As soon as I run into the slightest problem, but complicated part, I stop and have to resist the urge to start something new. But more about my current startitis and my December resolutions tomorrow.

November Resolutions

Figuring I need to start blogging less sporadically, as well as keeping ahead in my list of WIPs and the delightful evil that is Ravelry's queue, I thought starting the month off (well, almost) with a few resolutions for this month's knitting might be a good idea.

(1) Dad's Vest

Much further done than in this pic, but still both armhole and the neck band to go. Picking up hundreds of stitches at a time is not my idea of fun, especially not in a darkish grey yarn. Still, nothing too tedious for my dad, so this has got to get finished.

(2) Child's First Sock
Blogged about them yesterday. Less than an hour of work left and I just can't seem to sit down and do them. This has gotta change.

(3) Pomatomous

I started these in early 2006 and am still not done. I love the pattern, love the yarn, but I'm not quite sure anymore where I left off in the pattern. And I'm not that happy with the stripey toe that's necessary because I ran out of yarn. Still, I finally wanna finish them.

(4) Estonian Socks
I've been coveting these since I saw them on Mustaavillaa's blog and even though I plan to make them with one two colours of yarn, I want to use Lorna's Laces Flames for the stranded part and some simple dark grey sock yarn for the rest of the sock. My idea is to knit the cuff and stranded part first, cut the yarn and start from the toe up and graft the cuff and sock together (in case you can't tell, I don't mind grafting :D) so I won't have to worry about running out of yarn and seeing right away if I have enough LL left over for this (about half a skein).

On the Needles

During the Easter holidays I had been planning to finally finish all of my sock WIPs, some of which have been WIPs for over a year. (I now realise that this might have been a tad ambitious for two weeks, but one can dream, right?) Then the idiot that is me forgot her knitting notebook with all the pattern modifications in Aberdeen and I only finished the Mata Hari socks. No photo of the finished project, because I suck that way, but... I have planned some changes to this blog layout (and have actually been futzing around with it already, learning some basic CSS in the process) and that includes a better way to keep track of my stash and a finished projects page.

So I will have photos then. Let me just tell you, they are gorgeous. Simple as it is, I'm absolutely in love with this pattern, especially since it works so well with varigated yarns and is much more interesting to knit than pure stockinette. It also goes incredible fast and I think my next Lorna's Laces Socks (in Amethyst Stripe) will be done with the same pattern. I also started to plan a pattern with a similar premise but more random lines of yarn overs. Unfortunately I'm a bit out of sock yarn for testing (and can't justify buying more and having it delivered here since my suitcase will already be bursting at the seams and I have less thn four weeks left here), so it'll have to wait until I get back to my parents.

Anyway, back to Aberdeen after Easter, I started with some presents for my parents. They are both turning 60 this year and especially my father is incredibly hard to buy or knit for, but I finally settled on a sleeveless sweater in a dark gray, knit from sock yarn (yes, I am officially nuts). I saw a pullover made out of it at my LYS and really liked that, so I modified the pattern a bit, based it on a sleeveless sweater my dad already has and am currently a bit less than half-way through.

(Klick images for larger pictures)

I would be much further along, but I only took 3 skeins of yarn back with me and left the rest at my parents because I figured it would take me a while to knit up those 3. And then it didn't. If I had those skeins with me, I think I would be as good as finished already. The knitting just flies even though it's fingering weight yarn at 165 sts per row and it's not even pure stockinette, but a small pattern of vertical stripes made by slip stitches and garter stitch. I'm so looking forward to finally getting back home and finishing this.

Then there is the present for my mother (which needs to be finished much sooner, but isn't nearly as entertaining). It's the Lead or Follow Lace Scarf from Heart String Fibre Arts in Rowan's Scottish Tweed 4-Ply in Sea Green.

(Klick images for larger pictures)

Very pretty yarn, a bit rough to work with, but I'm at that point where the scarf just doesn't get any longer and I still have 3 balls of yarn to go, so I work a few rows here and there and instead I had an itch for socks that needed to be scratched. Badly.

I still had some Koigu with me here that used to be the Elfine Socks (PDF). Again the pattern was very pretty even with this very varigated yarn (I have colourway P609), but it's only knit over 65 sts and despite the lace that was too small around the heel for me. If I understood the pattern right (I decided this a few months after I had last worked on the sock, so don't quote me on it), I can only increase by increments of 13 sts to keep the pattern right and 78 is a bit much, even for me. So that sock went to the frog pond.

Since then the Koigu has been sitting there, teasing me. From time to time I would try out a new pattern (pure stockinette and one with little daisies), but both just didn't look right. And then while paging through my sock books I had en epiphany: Entrelac. I love entrelac, the way it's knit and the way it looks and I tried it out with different numbers of stitches on the needles and for the squares (let's not talk about the Giant Sock of Doom at 72 sts / 9 sts per square) and finally settled on 56 sts and 4 sts per square, which is pretty close to the pattern in Socks, Socks, Socks. The pattern was the inspiration for me, but I couldn't make head or tails of it, so I simply made a short row toe, started with entrelac triangles (according to the directions on this site) and frogged a few rounds later.

Giant Sock of Doom (72 sts round, 9 sts per square)

56 sts round, 4 sts per square

(Klich images for larger pictures)

It was still too large, the fabric was very stff because the sqaures were so small and I noticed the pattern ate up yarn like nothing (and Koigu is only 160m per 50g), so instead I started one with 48 sts round and 8 sts per square. That worked quite well and I even finished the heel and started on the leg, when I decided to frog again.

Only this far up the leg and I was almost out of yarn; also very, very short toe

Stretched too tightly over the heel

(Klick images for larger pictures)
The captions say it all, really. I have a plan, though. I wrote down the pattern so I won't forget and when I get back home I can buy a skein of contrasting yarn (already have some in mind, I just hope my LYS still has it), knit longer toes with it, make a longer short row heel with it, so I a) won't use as much of the Koigu for those parts and maybe the pattern in between, and b) have bigger and better fitting sock. I also still have to figure out how to do the cuff, because I want to keep the lines made by the interlocking entrelac squares, so I'll have to see what to come up with for that. Perhaps something similar as I'm planning for the neck and armhole bands for my dad's sleeveless sweater.

But despite the very frustrating frogging, I did really enjoy this experience and learned something very neat. In order to not go insane with the constant turning, I remembered a Knitty article on backwards knitting, which I dug out and once I finally focused on it, managed to learn pretty quickly. And I mean really, really quickly. Perhaps 5 minutes to understand and work the first few sts and then an hour or so of working on my sock and I knit backwards almost as fast as forwards. I can only recommend that technique. Very neat.

And then, of course, my newest obsession has helped with the knitting time (and the fact that classes are over for the year and I only have some studying left to do – about which I'm not thinking yet): Podcasts. At first I was a bit iffy about the whole idea, because one of the things I love most about knitting blogs are the pictures. And obviously podcast = no pictures. That was until I was bored and started listening to the first episode of Lime'n'Violet. Let's just say I've now (4 days later) listened to all 35 of them and leave it at that. And I'm already sure I will be branching out into other Podcasts. I have a very addictive personality, so I know I'm doomed, the same way I'm doomed with all the new links to to yarn shops I'd never heard of (I might have ordered some Toefutsies and Cherry Tree Hill in an absolutely gorgeous and incredible colourway (Earth 2), but more about that when they arrive - once more at my parent's place).

And I started one other project, but I'm not that far yet and I think it deserves it's own post, so more about that later.