January and February

First of all, let's see what happened to the projects I planned to finish during January.

(1) Coronet
Done!

Once I actually sat down and picked up the stitches this was done so quickly. It's very warm and good to have something so bright with current rainy weather. Which brings me to...

(2) Danica
Done!

Haven't managed to get an FO photo yet, but it doesn't look that different since I only added 2 repeats to the length in the photo. It's a bit on the short side, but since I didn't want to buy yet another skein, I decided it's long enough. And it does go round my neck twice, so it's okay. A bit on the scratchy side, since it's not merino wool, but again very warm and colourful.

(3) 2 squares for the Log Cabin Blanket
Done!

Actually finished three squares, all in the lavender/grey combination.

It's just as pretty as the one in the two shades of red and I can't wait to make more.

4 / 35 squares. 12% done!

(4) knit Column of Leaves Hat
Done!

Knitted in worsted weight Malabrigo, I'm not quite sure yet with how this turned out. It could be a bit longer IMO. But the yarn is great and I can't decide what to do with the rest of the skein and the other skein I have in a different colourway.

(5) knit Bellatrix
WIP
I started to knit Bellatrix in Lorna's Laces Black Purl, but compared to the others I've seen on Ravelry, my colourway seems to be a bit darker, so I didn't like the way it looked.

So I frogged and started it in some lighter yarn, fittingly called Slytherin. :)

You can't quite see it on the picture (and the weather it too bad to take a better one), but the dropped stitches make the stripes move in wave form, which I think is very neat.

(6) start Ella
Done!

More than done actually, since I'm more than 50% in, just about in the middle of the first side panel. It takes a bit longer, since I'm using lighter yarn than in the pattern, and so added one repeat to the triangle part and also one repeat to each side panel. With the yarn I have I should be able to make 156 of the water lily leaves (at least they look to me that way) and I'll have to make 155, so keep your fingers crossed that my calculations were right.

(7) block Luna Moth Shawl
Done!

Finally, after 6 months of sitting there unblocked, I blocked it and put it on the wall as decoration since I wouldn't ever wear it and it's not really my Mum's colour. :)

Also, as you can see in the sock picture above, I made myself some very handy sockblockers.

Very easy to make following this tutorial.

So, my February resolutions:
(1) finish Ella
(2) finish Bellatrix
(3) 2 more squares for the Log Cabin Blanket
(4) finish Felted Tote
(5) start Child's French Sock
(6) start Candle Flame Shawl

As always, you can find more specs on all of my projects on my Ravelry page.

Growing

It's really fun to see that you've actually grown as a knitter. Patterns, stitches and instructions that seemed absolutely incomprehensible or difficult become more and more comprehensible over time, until at some point you don't even notice that there was a time when you couldn't knit that well.

Not to say that there's not always room for improvement, but it's great to see that you've already come a long, long way.

What made me realise that I had grown incredibly as a knitter (and as a stasher, but let's not talk about that ;)) was Ella. I fell in love with this pattern when it came out in fall '05 and wanted to knit it right away. At that point I had been knitting on and off for about half a year, had finished a hat and scarf and thought 'tangy' wasn't something I couldn't handle.

Out came this atrocity:

My first apology has to be about the photo quality; it was before my days of owning a digital camera with macro setting.

But there are a couple of other things, that I can only shake my head about today as to what the hell I was thinking.

1. The yarn. Seriously. The YARN. It's an orange acrylic mix with some metallic gold glitter in it. In my defense, on the website I bought it from, it looked more like red, but still. It glitters. And the only thing I was concerned with was getting a yarn with the same yardage, because I thought it had to be exactly the same.

2. Acrylic for lace. 'Nough said.

3. 6mm Addi Turbos. Blunt as a rusty knife and in a diameter that's way too big for me to enjoy since I prefer 5mm or less.

4. The pattern. I just couldn't read it right. Never got beyond half the second section. I always noticed some mistake at the end of the row and since I couldn't tink back with yo2 in there and also couldn't read stitches well enough to know early on that there was a mistake in the row, I ripped this out about 4 times.

That's what my new Ella looks like:


4mm needles, in a lovely dark purple sock yarn. Two repeats of section 2 in. And the shawl is coming out great (I'm so looking forward to finally blocking it). The pattern is so incredibly easy that I can watch TV while knitting and only need a quick glance at the instructions at the beginning of every row to see the ration of straight stitches compared to the increases and decreases (if you have a look at the pattern, you'll see what I mean) and off I go.

And I just can't understand how there was a time when I couldn't see that all the increases are over each other and therefore when something doesn't line up there has to be problem somewhere, or how I constantly got the wrong numbers, when until now it has only happened about three times and that was only tinking back a couple of stitches, because I was too distracted by the exciting TV show.

This realisation that I have, in fact, grown as a knitter, even though it was so natural that I didn't even notice it, is a great way to celebrate my third knitting anniversary. So, happy knitaversary to me! :D

RPM Socks

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck
Needles: 2.5mm

I hadn't knit with CTH before, and I absolutely loved it. All the way up there with Lorna's Laces and Tofutsies in my favourites list. It's soft, squishy and very, very comfortable.

I was worried about the pooling, but I don't think it interrupts the pattern at all and for once I even don't mind that it's not evenly pooling on both socks. However, at first I thought it might and so I tried out a new heel, so as to not interrupt the spiraling.



Yarn Harlot recently posted about her afterthought heel and I decided to adapt the idea a bit.

First, (since I was knitting toe-up) instead of my usual short row heel, I simply started the leg pattern where I later wanted the heel to go.



Here you can see what it looks like afterwards, with the heel inserted:



First I picked up half the amount of stitches (36 here) right on the last row of the sole (with this pattern it's really easy to see which stitches need to be picked up, because it's basically framed by purl stitches).



Then I cut the middle stitch in the row below and started picking them out and picking up the stitches in the row below that.



That's what it looks like whith all stitches picked up.



So far I was following what the Yarn Harlot did, but I didn't really like the kind of heel she did (hell, I don't even like that as a toe) and I was also a little worried about the decrease seam being uncomfortable under the foot, so I did a short row heel instead. A bit more work, since the stitches need to be grafted at the end, but I think well worth the effort.

I started with the short rows from the leg down, since I thought the grafting would be easier on the stockinette sole.

This is at the half way point:



The last two rows of the heel, I was careful to not only pick up the wraps, but also two extra stitches from the side to prevent holes and then knit all of those together. Quite easy to do (despite the k5tog and p5tog) and so far it's always worked.

This is before the grafting:



And this after:



There is a small line where you can see it's grafted, but a) it's on the sole, and b) it'll probably even out with washing.

Et voilà: gorgeous socks!

Back from the Holidays

Happy New Year to everybody!!

So, just a quick post with the results of my resolution and the new one for January and then I'll post a couple of more detailed posts about the projects in the next days. Lots of goodies! :)

Holidays:
(1) RMP Socks in Cherry Tree Hill Potluck
done!


(2) Slippery Socks in Jitterbug Jewel
started, but somehow lost steam after the first heel


(3) Bellatrix in Koigu KPPPM
nope

(4) Mini Clapotis in Lang Yarn Silk Dream
done!


(5) Clapotis Cap in same yarn
done!


(6) Coronet in Lang Yarns Mille Colori
just picked up the stitches for the body of the hat, then realised that I brought the wrong needles

January Goals:
(1) finish Coronet
(2) finish Danica
(3) 2 squares for the Log Cabin Blanket
(4) knit Column of Leaves Hat
(5) knit Bellatrix
(6) start Ella
(7) block Luna Moth Shawl

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.

Toting Bags

It figures that as soon as I join the SSEC I start knitting basically anything but socks. :)

I've been meaning to try felting fulling for a while and finally found a project that I think I'll actually get use out of. It's the Teeny-Tiny Felted Tote, although mine won't be quite as tiny, because I do want to get some use out of it.



I'm a mix between process and project knitter, so while I do want to try out new techniques, the result also has to be practical for me. And with 3 skeins of SWT Karaoke, compared to one skein of Noro Kureyon, I figure this will be just big enough to work as a small project bag for my desk, so I won't have my knitting lying around all the time. The colour is Wild Cherry and it's a very subtely varigated yarn.

It's knit on 5mm needles and I'm already well into the third skein, so I'm pretty happy with how quickly it's going. It's perfect phone conversation or reading knitting, so I usually get a few rounds done every day.

I also have an incredible itch to start new projects. I got Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr a few days ago and am simply itching to try one of those out. I actually have five of them in my Ravelry queue, something that I'm falling more in love with by the day, btw. It finally gives me the feeling that I can actually work through my stash, not only by telling me how much yarn I have (23.1 miles as of November 13th), but also finally is a way for me to see (and therefore use) all the wonderful yarn I have in my stash.

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).