How I spent the first day of the year

I finished these, finally!


I did the complete second mitten today, from cast-on to bind off. I hadn't intended on that, as I already had about 4" of the ribbing done, but I got so frustrated with the dpns and this yarn that I frogged it all and started again on magic loop. I knit most of the day -- it took a lot longer than I remember mitten #1 taking. I finished at 11:15.

They are OK -- the stripes almost match up (I think they are off by 2 rows). The second mitten has some problems, especially where I needed to pick up the stitches at the base of the thumb. It's a good thing that it's for a 7 year old -- one who will probably lose at least one of the mittens before the winter is over. I didn't sweat the details, just wanted them done.

The Bean was very excited when she came downstairs this morning and found the completed pair of mittens at her breakfast spot. Too bad that it's 45 degrees today.

The details:

• Pattern: An amalgam of two -- a basic mitten pattern was given to me by the LYS when I purchased yarn. However, it was knit back and forth, and I wanted to do a full project with dpns (ha!), so I converted it to in the round (with the help of my knitting instructor). When it came time for the decreases, I used another pattern that I found on the web to figure out how and when to decrease.
• Yarn: Martifil Stripe 7934, less than 1 skein ($16.00 per ball). It's really nice yarn, if a little splitty. There are few places where there was some dark blue "flashing" in spots (you can see it on the right mitten in the photo). Not my fault, though The Bean noticed right away, saying "you made a couple of mistakes." I made more than a couple mistakes, but this was not one of them.
• Needles: size 5 & 7, dpn (mitten #1) and magic loop(mitten #2)
• Time: Hard to judge. Mitten #1 took a couple of days, and mitten #2 took most of one day.
• New techniques learned: picking up stitches for the thumb (not so successful on my own -- mitten #1 was done under the guidance of my knitting instructor; I fudged mitten #2 and it is pretty messy.

Happy Un-doublepointed New Year

I hate dpns.
There, I said it.
I know I'm not alone, but I really despise them.
I wanted to love them.
I love the idea of them; there is something both traditional and zenlike about knitting on bamboo dpns, round and round and round.
But the idea of love does not a love make.

I just frogged the Bean's second mitten, which was on dpns. I'm starting over on magic loop.

Since I just signed up for the Knittyboard Sock Exchange, I need to master socks by February 28th (the date I need to send my socks to my partner). I don't have time to mess around with dpns. Immediate gratification is the key, and so magic loop (or maybe 2 circs) it shall be.

She's not REALLY a knitter

Despite my earlier post, below, proof that The Bean is not truly a knitter. Yet.

The backstory: From time to time, I do a little bit of mystery shopping. You know, I shop "undercover" and then report back on how good or bad the service was. It's not a lot of money, and kind of a pain in the neck, so I don't do it too often -- and when I do, it's total "fun money" for me to spend as I wish, no matter how impetuously.

The email: Tonight, I got an email from a company that I do mystery shops for. The shops usually pay $25 each, which is a lot. Tonight, they had a last minute cancellation and needed 3 shops covered -- and they were willing to pay $65 for each shop. I jumped at the opportunity, put on my shoes, and went to say good bye to the family. I knew that I wouldn't be back for bedtime, so I gave Bean and Belle their hugs.

The conversation:
Bean: Why do you have to go out now?
Me: So I can go make some quick money to buy yarn.
Bean: Yarn??!! How about food, or something we need? Sheesh.

(note to Child Protective Services: if we had any more food in this house, we'd need to build an addition. Really, she's not starving, and even has more than one pair of shoes).

The best gift ever ...

It was a bountiful Christmas, filled with family and friends. And though I'm still cleaning up the remnants, I wanted to take a moment to post about my favorite gift. This was given to me by my 7 year old daughter (known here as the Bean). She has been taking knitting lessons for about 2 months. She's not a very motivated knitter .. I think she likes the idea of knitting more than the knitting itself. But somehow, some way, she managed to knit me a gift in secret, with just a little bit of help from DH. It's an iPod cozy (with room for accessories, though not by design). She knit the entire piece herself, and DH helped with the seaming and the design of the drawstring closure (clever!). The buttons were the Bean's idea ... DH sewed them on. There is one on the front and one on the back, and they are perfectly aligned.

The Bean proudly informed me that there were no mistakes. I'm not looking too closely -- to me, it's perfect.

For my own sanity, I present ...

a list.

Planned knitting for the first quarter of 2007

• Down Under sweater from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Knits for Older Kids
• Hourglass sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
  
• Riding the Rails sweater from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Knits for Older Kids
• Clapotis or Fir Cone Wrap out of Claudia Handpainted silk
• Socks - my goal is 3 pair.

But before I start those projects, I think I am going to attempt to make Fetching
My hands have been freezing while knitting lately. I'm not quite sure why, but I need Fetching.

Mmmmmalabrigio -- done!

Since I've started reading message boards and blogs devoted to knitting, I noticed that posts about Malabrigo yarn would always read 'Mmmmmmmalabrigo'. I never quite understood just what was so wonderful. But this scarf made me see the light.
It's done and blocked, in plenty of time to give to Mom for Christmas. She has blue eyes, and this should set them off nicely.

Finished size: 5" x 60" after blocking
Pattern: given to me by a LYS when I purchased yarn. Basically it's a 2 cable scarf, with seed stitch border.
Yarn: Malabrigo, 1 skein
Needles: size 7
Time: cast on Tuesday evening, finished Monday evening.
New techniques learned: this is the first pattern I've done where I didn't need to refer to the pattern -- I could "read" my knitting and knew what to do next. I also tracked rows (6 row repeat) by looping a piece of waste yarn on the end of the needle (one loop per row in the repeat).

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care ...

(click photo to see a larger version)

Done and blocked!! These are gifts for my brother (striped) and his fiancee (Fair Isle) as they celebrate their first Christmas as an engaged couple.

Pattern: from Nicky's Knitted Christmas Stockings, by Nicky Epstein
Yarn: Lopi
Needles: size 9
Time: approximately 10 days for each stocking, mostly evening knitting
New techniques learned: Stranding (2 and 3 color), duplicate stitch, short rows, Kitchener stitch
Adaptations: The original pattern called for Wool-Ease and size 7 needles, so these worked up a bit larger than the ones shown in the pattern. The ones in the pattern are approximately 22" long,and mine are 24" long. The Fair Isle Snowflake stocking had a fair isle chart for the snowflake but mentioned that it could be done in duplicate stitch, which is the route I took.

Notes:

These were really fun to knit, and I'm a teensy bit sorry I have to give them away. They look quite nice hanging from my fireplace.

The pattern was very clear and easy to follow. The booklet starts out with one main stocking pattern, and the other stockings are all variations on the main pattern.

I love the way they look in the Lopi, but I didn't actually like knitting with the Lopi. Eventually I got used to it, but at first it felt like knitting with burlap, and it hurt my hands.

These are knit flat and then seamed. I still have yet to knit a traditional pair of socks, so I'm a bit sorry that I didn't do stockings made in the round, but I still learned short rows to turn the heel, and I kitchenered the toe (not too bad -- it might be more difficult on regular socks because of the thinner yarn, but I thought these came out fine).

The Fair Isle at the top of the stocking wasn't as difficult as I had feared, though it was slow because I'm a thrower and was trying to carry both colors in my right hand -- it usually ended up with me dropping the unused color and picking it up again when needed. I still managed to knit a bit too tightly, so the top pulls in a bit in the Fair Isle section, but it's not too bad and it blocked out almost totally. The neat thing about the pattern is that the top of the stocking is 10 rows of the green, and then a turning row -- the top is then turned in and tacked to cover the loose strands of the Fair Isle. It made it much easier because I wasn't quite so worried about the strands. Our current Christmas stockings (knit by someone else) are all Fair Isle, and the strands make it almost impossible to pull our goodies out smoothly.

The duplicate stitch took me just about forever. I had to rip it out a few times because I was off a stitch somewhere, making the pattern lopsided. At one point I wised up and just covered my mistake with another duplicate stitch in the original green -- it doesn't show at all. And the strands from the duplicate stitch are a bit messy on the inside.

I can't wait to make stockings for our family.