Knitty Gritty Thoughts

Mermaid Mitts and More

I have a huge pile of stuff to blog about in my craft room so I thought I would grab a few things off the top of the pile and dive right in - the first thing I thought I would share is something I DIDN'T knit actually.

I had been wanting to knit mermaid gloves  for ages but could never find the time so Angelika and I did a trade, I sent her the yarn to knit these (beautiful Koigu from Rhea), and she knit them, and in exchange I'm hand dyeing some lace yarn for her.  Hmm.... I think I may have gotten the better end of the deal, I better send her some extra goodies too! =)

Aren't they gorgeous??? She even matched up the pattern to the thumb gusset and made me pretty little fingers too. The little fingers make me happy, hehe! ;)

Hmm so what else?  There has been spinning, I've been trying to spin some shop samples so first off are some Sheepy Battlets spun up (this skein is a belated Christmas gift too, so it's quite nice to take care of two things on my to-do list at once! =))  These are quite wooly and natural feeling, I've never had a fiber tell me how they wanted to be spun before but these clearly were shouting at me that they wanted to be spun with a backwards draw, preferably long!  Once I listened, the spinning went quite smoothly and I'm looking forward to spinning up more.

After that I started spinning up a Hearts Afire battlet sample, this is only 1 ounce but went quite fast on my new spinning wheel (Hubby bought me a Schacht Matchless DT for Christmas, aren't I lucky???)! =) (Leah you are such an enabler!!! ;))  I just love my new wheel, I'm still getting used to it.   The first thing I did after taking it out of the box was switching it to Scotch from Double Drive, since I'm more familiar with it from my Lendrum.

It's a long story but there was actually a big mix-up from Schacht, they messed up my order and told me my new wheel wouldn't be here for weeks (if ever) after I had to already wait 2 months.  Well, it was important that it arrived before Christmas so we did some major scrambling to get 1 here.  Paradise was quite helpful and rushed me the only wheel they had, it was still new but had been taken out of it's box to demo.  Well two days later a wheel from Schacht shows up on my door!  I now have two of these wheels at my house!  I obviously can't afford to keep two, and the other is still in it's box from paradise fibers.  Anyone looking for one?   They're quite hard to find right now due to the fact that Schacht is focusing on the new ladybug and they're out of stock just about everywhere.  Paradise is offering the person who buys it a $100 fiber credit (!)  anyhow email me if you'd like more info. =)  Oh and please spread the word too - if it sells due to you referring someone I will quite happily send you battlets from my store, or a free project bag or... something! =)

But...back to spinning...the hearts afire is quite similar to the candy-cane battlets (red/white) just slightly different proportions of each.  This screams Valentine's day and hearts to me, so I spun up the sample in a DK-weight single on the new matchless with the regular whorl and a short, slightly lazy forward draw.  I prepped the battlet by unrolling it and tearing strips off, I pre-drafted slightly to try and keep both colors together when I spun.  It was very fun and easy to spin and I had a great time! =)

Ok enough of the spinning and on to sewing! =)  I've had a few people email me about the European style bread-basket pattern, so i thought we'd have a mini bread-basket sew-along.  I'll post a supply list here tomorrow so you can have the weekend to pick up a few things and then we'll start on Monday and it will last a few days.  Are you in??? =) (And let me say to the non-sewers that it's quite easy, fast and only involves straight lines.   If you're on the fence about it, give it a try! =))

Hodgepodge

Thanks so much for supporting my stash sale, there's still a few things left if you had your eye on something (make me an offer! =))  and I'll put up more stuff as I have time.  I didn't realize how much effort those things take - phew!  I'm exhausted!

In the meantime I've finished up some knitting and spinning, so here's a quick update.  I've been fighting with gauge issues lately on all my stranded knitting.  The first and most obvious is my poor little selbu mitten.  It turned out beautifully but it's still a smidgen too small, I tried to block it vigorously but to no avail, I don't know if this poor little thing will ever get a finished thumb or if I should just toss it in a bin never to be seen again?

In other gauge issue news, I started my christmas stocking for myself.  You may remember last year I knit my husbands?? Well this year I started mine, or at least with past tense being the key word.  You'd think I could use the same needles as I used before, it's the same number of stitches, etc but no luck, it's about 1 inch smaller all around.  How is that possible?  I guess I never realized that our gauge can change over time.  I seem to be knitting tighter all of a sudden and I don't like it!

In the meantime I finished a baby surprise sweater (ravelry link) in hello yarn fat sock.  It's so squishy and soft, I just adore this yarn.  I gave it a quick blocking but I still need to seam it.  Word of advice, don't seam this yarn until you soak it, mine relaxed exponentially and the shoulder seams would have definitely puckered if I tried to seam it before hand.  It took 2 skeins and I have just enough left to squeeze our a pair of booties, saartje anyone??

I've been knitting hats too - I finished the first koolhaas hat and had enough yarn left for a second (ravelry link).  I used brooks farm 4-play, what a great deal - 2 hats from 1 skein with only yards to spare!  Aren't they cute?  Both are the same size but the left one was blocked and the right one fresh off the needles.  I honestly wish I hadn't blocked this yarn, the silk in the wool blend causes it to go flat and lose some of it's 3-d'ness.  Is there a way to fix it??

And finally here's the latest handspun I finished, the roving is superwash from mama-e and this little skein of yarn has already found a new home.  I've done more spinning but I'll save it for next time, have a great week! =)

Orchid Mitts - Finito!

Whew - it feels like it's been awhile since I had a true honest to goodness FO post up here.  You  may have noticed with my flurry of activity over here that I've set my mind to clean out all my old UFO's so that I can have a clean slate at the end of the year.  Have you seen Tam's Clean Slate by 2008 knitalong?  I like the idea of it, although I know I have too much to finish that there is no way I can finish it all, but I'm going to try!

Anyhow, so I showed you the first mitt on Friday and I knit on the other one one and off all weekend and wrapped it up Sunday afternoon.  Woohoo - it feels so good to get another pair of fingerless mitts for the knitalong completed.

Pattern: Long Orchid Lace Mitts by Anne of Knitspot
Knit time: 3 months, on and off.  Mostly off =)  If you set your mind to it you could knit them in a long weekend.
Sizing:  These mitts fit like a glove, so soft and comfy.  They are done in laceweight merino however so keep that in mind if you live in a cold clime, they may not be warm enough.
Needles: 2.5mm rosewood dpns
Yarn: Fearless Fibers Golden Olive Laceweight Merino
Interested in more info?  I posted about this pattern here, here and here. 
Final Note: I love them - they're very soft and cozy and beautiful.  The only note I would make is beware knitting these on magic loop, I normally knit most everything in the round magic loop and the pattern has you move stitches around based on the how they are set up dpn's.  Either take the time to figure out where the stitches are moving too, or knit them on the recommended dpn's.  I opted for the dpn's, much easier.
Ravelry Info Here

Happy Monday! =)

Creative Mitt Blocking

I just finished my first Orchid Lace Mitt in Fearless Fibers Golden Olive, and had to get a little creative with the blocking.  I wanted to make sure the lace pattern opened up a bit.

I knew those giant US50 needles would come in handy some day - I stuck two of those suckers in and pinned them open, voila!  Perfect mitt blocking!  This is the extra-long mitt style, I already cast on for the second one and I hope to get it finished soon.

(x-posted at fingerless mitts for fall KAL)

Mitts and Bits

Whew!  Where has the time gone?  Can you believe it's going to be Thanksgiving next week?  Wow!  Elle is doing good, thanks so much everyone for all the well wishes.  She was able to come home on Friday of last week, I had a long weekend of taking care of her, I've been sleeping on the hardwood floors next to her bed so I can get up in the middle of the night when she needs me.  She's getting better though - she's already starting to raise heck like she used to, and I can tell that my new hardest thing is going to be keeping her in check so she doesn't get too spunky and aggravate her leg.  Isn't that a nice problem to have??? =)

Anyhow, so I've been cleaning out the UFO's this week.  I have so many patterns I want to make but I need to finish some old stuff first.  (Isn't this scarf pattern cute?  It just arrived in my mail today and I can't wait to cast-on!) 

So - I started with the easiest one, my handspun mitts for the fingerless mitts for fall knit along.    This project has been long in the process-

-  It started out as fiber hand-dyed by Funky Carolina, then was started to be hand-spun by me, until my dogs ate it.  Then Jenn saved me by sending me more.  Then I finished spinning it but had to come up with a pattern.  I decided to go plain with a simple pattern designed by me.  4x2 rib that travels up the hand and thumb seemed to do the trick.  It took me about 5 times knitting, ripping and re-knitting these mitts.  I found I was quite picky on how the colors matched up, the fit of the thumb, etc but I'm happy to call these finally - DONE!

I'll write up the mitt pattern soon but until then some basic stats, these were knit up on size 4 needles with my handspun that is between a dk/worsted weight (I'll get wpi stats later).  This is my first time knitting with my handspun and it was so much fun, I must do this more often! =)  Plus these knit up so fast, once I had the pattern down I can knit one in an easy evening of knitting, I need more projects like this!

In other news, I've been participating in Lynne's special swap again, my pal this time was Kim and she just got her package.  Go check it out if you're curious! =)

-Saved by the.... Jenn!-

Remember last we saw my gorgeous fiber it had been eated and chewed up by my dogs??  Well lo and behold a little package surprised me in the mail on Saturday!  I opened it up and found this---

More fiber!  Isn't it gorgeous???  But where did it come from??? =)

Jenn did something so awe inspiringly thoughtful, I'm speechless.  Literally Speechless.  She heard of my plight and emailed miss Funky C herself asking her for more of the fiber so I could finish my project!  Carrie (Funky C) had only a few ounces left from the club, that was in her own personal fiber collection but she very generously gave it up to me so I could finish my project!  Jenn bought it for me and had it sent to me so I could finish!  Wowsa, thank you so much Jenn, and Carrie! (Jenn does make gorgeous stitch markers if you're in the market!);)  Now I'm really feeling the pressure to get this fiber spun up and knit into some really amazing mitts.

In fact I finished the first bobbin last night!

I turned my attention to my other fingerless mitt project on Thurs and Friday - my Orchid Mitts!  I made some progress, I did some initial swatching on 2.5mm and 3.0mm because I don't have 2.75's in my collection for magic loop.  I was a little wishy-washy on which needle size to use because gauge-wise they were both pretty close on.  But after I washed it and blocked it I decided to go with the 2.5's.

I made a good start after ripping once but I have to say I would definitely classify this pattern on the more challenging side of things, not because the lace pattern itself is difficult but I'm having a hard time following it.  I think it's because there is a lot of discussion on rearranging the stitches on the doublepointed needles and moving things around.  The pattern is written for DPN, and I knit magic loop but the same issue would be there for 2 circs as well.  I really have to take some time to visualize where the stitch pattern would be and where I'm inserting the thumb.  It is gorgeous though, isn't it?  Now that I'm on track with the pattern I'm really enjoying it!  And the yarn too - it's from fearless fibers!

In other news I took a small cooking class this weekend.  Williams-Sonoma offers free workshop cooking classes, the last class was how to make pasta from scratch which was really interesting, I'll post more on this later as I experiment.  Next class is pie crusts, can't wait!

Boy are my arms tired!

Well what can I say, I labored on Labor Day which isn't a great surprise to me - give me a long weekend and I mange to fill it with 3 days of work.  Give me a regular sized weekend and I manage to fritter away the time and have no idea what I managed to accomplish when it was over.

I mowed the lawn and managed to find a king-sized red ant hill that I mowed straight over.  Then the red ants proceeded to crawl all over me and bite me, and yes I have the scars to prove it - *sigh*.  I rototilled using a big heavy-duty real full sized tiller.  I pulled out old plants, bought new ones and put them in.  I hung drapes and purchased the fancy double-rods which I really like to spruce up my bedroom.  Likewise I bought new bedding (600 TC sheets!) to make my room more of a retreat.  I finished the smoke ring and blocked it although I have yet to figure out how to wear it and pulled out the ripple.  It was busy, but fun.

There are three things I absolutely hate to do - guess what they are?  Put together furniture, hang drapery rods and put up pictures.  I also think it's my hubby's job but since he's not around, guess who gets to be the boy?  Me!

I have to say though I was quite proud of myself for tackling those projects, I even hung robe hooks and hand-towel rings.  All in all a very productive weekend.  How was yours??

I have to say with this cooler weather I suddenly have the attention span of a gnat.  I keep flitting from one idea to another, the rest of the trip?  Yep I'll be posting about it, don't think I forgot, but I can't force myself to talk about it anymore right now, I need a break so I can talk about knitting!  And knitalongs!

Have you joined Fall Fingerless Mitts yet?  I know it's still hot out there and the last thing on your mind is warm hands but the seasons are changing quickly.  I like to be a good hostess so I'm having giveaways for each month of the knitalong.  There will be a spinning involved giveaway as well but this month it's two skeins of Koigu for Eunny's Endpaper Mitts and VERY luxurious lantern moon sox sticks in ebony.  Ebony, people!  Pure luxury I tell 'ya~ go sign up and join us and you could win! =)

I also promised to reveal my fingerless mitt project th is year.  I do have a couple of designs in the works, and Rachel read my mind when she said handspun yarn is perfect for fingerless mitts.  She's knitting a pair, I may write up a quick pattern for the group as well.  Great minds think alike! =)

My first project will be the orchid lace mitts from Anne at knitspot knit in fearless fibers lace weight merino in this color.  Very, very happy with Deb's awesome customer service - the yarn arrived super fast and I already wound it.  May cast on tonight if I can stop rippling!

I also won a very cool contest over at rohan knitter and she sent me the most lovely package!  Everything she picked out was perfect, a beautiful handknit dishcloth, burts bees (!) and fun little treats like soak wool wash and tea!  There was also these really cute little notebooks and stickers from martha stewart that I just loved and I'd never seen anything like it.
Thanks so much!

PS - don't be surprised if you see me blogging all the time all of a sudden - the bug has bitten, trying not to fight it!

Warm Things

I finished a few things this weekend, the first is another Bea Ellis Traditional Hat knit in falk (#004/#007) instead of Heilo so it's machine washable.  I loved knitting this hat, the colors are very "Me" even though this hat is actually a gift.  As I mentioned before this is actually my 1 and only "planned" christmas gift.  I know my personality too well, if I was to commit to knitting all sorts of presents I would drive myself nuts.  This way it I knit an item and I think it would be better for someone else I will gift it but I refuse to drive myself crazy staying up til all hours of the night knitting on a deadline! =) 

It was knit on US3/5 16" Addi's with a provisional cast-on so I could knit the lining up with the body of the hat.  I think that part is key for the finishing portion to go smoothly.  I may just have to order more yarn and knit one for me! =)  Stranded knitalong item #1 - check! (BTW, I am having so much fun with the flickr group for this knitalong, check out all the neat knits!)

I also did a bit of sewing this weekend as well, I put in the lining for hubby's christmas stocking and I am really happy with the way it turned out!  I started out making a template from the knitted stocking and making it 1 inch larger on all sides.  Using the serger I quickly sewed/finished up all sides, leaving the top open.  I placed it inside the stocking next and then folded the top fabric down and matched up the seams.  I then used a bit of matching thread and a needle to hand-sew invisibly the top edge.  It really looks seamless and nice, there are a few gifts in there already and it holds it shape really well.  Yea!

The next item I finished was really old.  Actually I finished up the knitting portion last year but they just sat in my bin because I couldn't make up my mind on how to sew on the bear claws.  (Morehouse is very vague in this area)  I finally cut out the claws from felt and then hand sewed them in half to make the points, then invisibly sewed them to the top of the mitts.  Easy peasy right?  A quick crocheted chain with doubled yarn for the strings and they were done in only a few hours.  Sheesh, now I have no idea why I procrastinated so long!

So, I'm proud to present Morehouse Merino Bear Paws mitten knit kit in Chocolate on a US5 needle.  I have no idea who I'm going to give them too, but I'm happy to be done! =)

I guess that's it for now, everything else is going good.  Today they're coming to finish installing the kitchen counters, we have the tile and paint done and the new appliances are in so we're in the home stretch.  I can't tell you how nice it was to have a working kitchen again, I've been cooking up a storm, including making bread this weekend.  I used organic flour and it's such a treat to eat fresh, unprocessed bread.  Now I really want to try this recipe I read about here.

Put a Fork in it.

Thank you all for your funny comments and great suggestions.  I was just about at the end of my rope when I saw the mitts were two different sizes.  Yesterday I finally ripped the smaller one back, which I knit first coincidentally, to make it 1 repeat longer so they would be the same size.  It worked- the mitts are the same size, freshly washed and blocked and looking quite pretty.

Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, I don't know if it's the slightly damp alpaca or what, but - the mitts are ITCHY.  My whole hand got rather itchy and irritated when I put them on.  I just can't win with these, honestly.  I actually had an extra skein I was going to make a hat out of, but now I'm not so sure.  I've used other alpaca before and never had a problem.

Oh well, you came here for the pics right?  Here you go-

Lace Artist's Gloves
Actual Knit Time: 2 days, if I didn't mess up the pattern =)
Needles: US5 Magic Loop Options Needles
Yarn: The pattern called for cashmere, I substituted with Blue Sky Alpacas 100% Alpaca in color 009
Interested in more info?  All posts about the mitts here
Final Note: I spend so much time on the computer, fingerless gloves are a must-have during the winter.  Each year I knit a new set.  I love the color and the way they turned out.  As long as they stop itching me, they'll be a new favorite.

Oh yes and I almost forgot, these count for the warm hands knitalong as well, yea!

Not My Time.

I believe everything happens for a reason, that there is a right time and the right place for anything. If something isn't working out, I wait a bit, trying to be patient, for that time to come.

I had been having trouble with the second of these fingerless mitts- too many stitches, too few stitches, twisted cast on... even knitting around and around the wrong way, like a knitting blip stuck on the record player.  I waited.  I let them bide their time.  Then, I tried again. 

I waited until tonight.  All of a sudden the knitting was going so smoothly, they were practically flying off my needles.  And you know, I thought to myself "Finally, it's the right time." 

I kept knitting ferociously afraid to put them down, afraid to lose my place in the pattern and misplace my flow of stitches.  I kept at it all night and finally, just 5 minutes ago I cut the thread and pronounced them done!

Then I looked closer.

And you know what - I was wrong.  Argh!!!