I made mittens!

Okay, I know I promised a post about the Estes Vest weeks ago, but then I didn't write it, and I have more to say about it than I feel like dealing with today, so instead of just not blogging about anything until I want to blog about that, I'm going to tell you about something else!
Since the last time we talked I've finished three (!) Christmas gifts, only one of which I can show you, the mittens I knit for my cousin Andie.
Project Stats: Andie's Selbuvotter Mittens
Pattern: Annemor #2 from Selbuvotter Mittens by Terri Shea (raveled here).
Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, Peony (dark) and Sand (light), less than one skein of each. Yarn purchased at Weaving Works.
Needles: Size 2 Brittany DPNs.
Time to knit: 9.20.08-10.25.08. I actually don't remember when I finished these, but I think it was around then.
Modifications: None that I remember. I don't even think I made any mistakes (fingers crossed).
Impressions: These are super cute! My cousin is 9, so I think these should fit, although I don't really have a good sense of how big her hands are. I made a girl's medium, and they're are too small for me so I'm hopeful. Her entire life has been a pink phase, which is why I picked these colors. They were supposed to be a gift last year, but obviously I didn't get them started in time for last Christmas, and then my mother told me that Andie is now in a green phase. Well, I wasn't buying new yarn. And anyway, pink and green look good together. And probably she still likes pink - you don't let go that quickly after being obsessed with something for 9 years. Right? Anyway, about the mittens. They were fun to knit - Terri's patterns are really clear and the Shetland Spindrift is nice to knit with, if a bit scratchy. It gets much softer upon blocking and from my limited experience seems to wear well. Every time I knit fair isle I'm reminded of how much I like it and how I wish I did more of it...
What else? I have three gifts left to finish, and five weeks in which to finish them. I'm hopeful that I can do it. One is probably 65% complete, one is only swatched and is of my own design (eek), and the other I can talk about as soon as I get around to taking a photo of it. It's the one that is most likely to not get finished because it's lace. We all know how it goes with lace...

And yes, I am going to see Twilight at midnight tomorrow. Did you really think I could resist? I thought I could, but then I realized I was mistaken and acquired tickets for myself and some of my newborns. We are excited beyond all reason...

Bring on the Christmas Knitting!

I realize it's just the end of September, but I have ambitious Christmas knitting plans so I needed to get a headstart. I have seven gifts planned, and a couple of them are pretty big ones. There will be no felted clogs this year (thank god!), but there will be mittens, scarves, and even garments. I've actually finished one of said gifts already (in August - hate me if you must), and several of the others are on the needles. In fact, all but three of the others are on the needles, and they're all planned and waiting, patterns and yarn just raring to go. I had to order some size 4 Harmony needles from Knit Picks to start this scarf for my grandmother (the one who appreciates my knitting, as opposed to the one who asked me this summer if I was going to, and I quote, "waste my whole vacation knitting." I love her, but she's not getting any more knitted gifts.). I'm going to use the leftover gold yarn from my Swallowtail Shawl, and as soon as I decided on this project on Saturday I walked over to the bead store and picked out the perfect shiny dark brown beads. I also ordered some larger circumference cables from Knit Picks so I can continue with the garment I'm knitting for someone, which was started on Saturday but put down once I realized I really couldn't jam all the stitches on the needle I was trying to use.

Of course I can't show you most of these wonderful gifts I'm creating, although I did think about posting them and lying about who they were for and trying to confuse the recipients, but then I just figured it wasn't worth it because they'd figure it out anyway based on color, or size, or shape, or something. Although, if you're on Ravelry you'll be able to see most of them soon, unless they're for you, in which case I won't be posting them up there! But, these are the mittens (Annemor #2 from Selbuvotter) I'm knitting for my little cousin Andie, who I really doubt reads my blog:

My grandmother is also not a blog reader, so I'll be showing her scarf in progress once I get my needles, but otherwise, just trust that if you are closely related to me or a good friend, I'm probably hard at work on something special for you!

I'm hard at work on the i-cord edging for the Estes Vest, so hopefully there will be a finished object soon!

Does absence make the heart grow fonder?

Right, I'm back. I've been here all along really, but I had some sort of fever-type plague which I think was a short-lived flu, and then I had (well, concurrently really, which wasn't fun) a huge amount of stuff to do for class and lab, and now I have a chest cold but at least I'm not alternating between crying about stress and sweating through my clothing. Sorry if that's TMI. And I had this whole big January wrap-up/February goals posts all written in my head for Friday but then I spent all day laying on the couch trying to will my head into not pounding whilst wondering who in their right mind thinks they're going on Jerry Springer to hear some good news. Ahem. Yes, it was bad enough that I didn't go to work, which is rare and was nice...but I didn't knit, because I had lost the will to live, let alone count. So, now that it's February 7th, the wrap-up/big plans post seems a bit silly, but I'm going to do it anyway.

The January goals were thus:

1. Finish Anastasia Socks - Not done :(

2. Finish secret gift project - Done, this was the Baby Surprise Jacket for Vivian

3. Finish Drops Swing Cardigan - Done, discussed at length here

4. Knit a hat for Rembrandt - Done, knit jointly by Dave and I but not yet posted

5. Finish Carpathia hat - Done, this was for Daisy

6. Cast-on and knit five inches of the Ivy League Vest - Done, see below

7. Design my ski hat - Not done, there are some potential issues here

8. Pick pattern/yarn for semi-secret shawl - Done, this was talked about here and progress has been slow but I have been working on it. Just tonight I did a repeat...

Looking back I am really happy with all that! Aside from the socks, which were a Christmas gift and are languishing. I did start the second sock and I'm about halfway up the foot, and there's really no reason I haven't been working on them aside from that I've been working on this:

Sorry the photo isn't great, but that is just about 5" of Ivy League Vest. I've been really enjoying it so far! I'm using Knit Picks Palette and I really like the yarn. I've very happy to be done with the ribbing as it was tedious. I'd like to devote an entire post to this but I don't have the energy just now so that will wait until there is more progress...

February Goals

1. Finish Anastasia Socks

2. Knit to armholes/v-neck steek (whichever comes first) of Ivy League Vest

3. Finish woven scarf - I'm going to Boston next week and this will be a good traveling project, with the socks

4. Finish the section of the lace shawl that I'm on now. I've done four repeats, I think I need to do 16 or something, and it gets longer each repeat so this isn't trivial but there is a deadline looming for this baby.

We'll see how it goes. February is a short month and it's 1/4 over already, plus I'm going to be really busy for the next couple of weeks, so I might not do as well with the goals this month as I did in January. But I will make a valiant effort at it, just for you!

Swatched!

Look what I made! An actual washed and blocked swatch for the Ivy League Vest! I'm not usually so much for the whole "treating the swatch as you will the finished piece" thing. I do generally swatch, sometimes many times, but I never wash and pin. But, for a fitted fair-isle garment I thought I should suck it up and do it right. Here's my swatch: The colors in the second photo are more accurate - sorry the photos aren't very good but the lighting was bad and this is going to be tough to photograph because it has both light (too bright with the flash) and dark (need the flash) colors.

I swatched with size 3 needles for some reason that absolutely escapes me. The pattern calls for size 4, and I'm a tight knitter, so why I thought I would need to use smaller needles to get gauge completely baffles me. I'm getting about 7.5 stitches/inch instead of 7, so I think I'm going to just go for it with the size 4s. Live on the edge I say. My row gauge is miraculously close to being correct, and will probably be spot-on (famous last words) with the larger needles. I also suspect that when I go up to a 24" circular my knitting will be slightly looser because I won't be dealing with floats across the DPN junctions like I was in my swatch. So, the swatching is finished and I'll be casting on soon, although I decided I must finish my grandmother's Anastasia Socks first. It would be a shame to have had so much of the Christmas knitting done well in advance and then to fall behind on the very last thing when I had so much time to spare. Shame on me...

Oh, David loved his hat, and was wearing it in lab today! Great success - I love when recipients visibly appreciate the knitting!!!

Fair Isle is my friend

Look what I made, look what I made! Not to be immodest, but I'm so impressed with myself. Well, actually I wasn't that impressed until Dave was really impressed, and then I thought, "Wow, these really are pretty damn cool mittens!" I have decided that the fair isle and I are friends - of the types of knitting I've done, it is by far my favorite. Why? Because you can see the project developing in real-time as you're knitting. None of this waiting for the blocking magic you have with lace, or the fear of overshrinkage you have with felting or the risk of your sweater growing upon blocking. Nosiree, just the pattern smiling at you as you go. Plus, fair isle is built for being knit in the round, and in my limited experience has not involved purling, and these are both concepts I can get behind.

Project Stats: Selbuvotter Mittens (NHM #7)

Pattern: NHM #7, from Selbuvotter, by Terri Shea

Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, Stonewash and Surf. One skein of the dark and just a tad over one of the main color. I got the yarn at Weaving Works.

Needles: Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs, size 1.5. Really worth the extra $$$.

Time to knit: October 7-November 4, 2007.

Impressions: I love them. Really. One of my favorite knits. The pattern was very clear (being a chart, of course it's clear, but the instructions were also quite good). I didn't really understand what I was doing with the decreases, so mine are a bit different from the photo (I followed the pattern colors, instead of doing all the decreases in the main color, which I think is what I was supposed to do.), but that is part of the beauty of these mittens. They are handmade and thus they aren't perfect (although I didn't make any actual mistakes, far as I know). They fit perfectly and aren't overly bulky. I think they'll be plenty warm enough for Seattle, but perhaps not for Alaska. I really enjoyed the Shetland Spindrift - it's not the softest yarn but it gives the impression that it will stand up to some abuse and last for a long time, and it's certainly soft enough for me, not having very sensitive skin. I knit these mittens quite quickly by my standards, only stopping to procrastinate a bit about the thumbs, which ended up being much easier than I feared. A bit fiddly due to the small number of stitches, but nothing unmanageable. The Crystal Palace needles are a bit spendy, but they're really worth it because they don't bend/break/chip/snag/split or any of the other problems I've had with my little Brittney birch needles, plus they're shorter than the Clover bamboo needles. All in all, this project was a great success!

So, what now? I finished the secret gift project on Friday (no photos), and these today, so that is my two projects finished before casting on the Ivy League Vest. However, as I mentioned last week, I'd like to finish the clogs I'm making my uncle for Christmas while my parents are visiting (starting on Wednesday night), so those will come first. I started them yesterday and I'm about half done with the first clog. They go really quickly so it shouldn't be a problem to whip them out in the next week and a half. I also have yarn to make my cousin Andie some pink/ivory Selbuvotters, so I'll probably make those before starting the vest, just to keep the Christmas knitting on target for early completion. Best to not be stressed about that! I also knit about five inches of the Drops Swing Cardigan on Friday, so progress is being made on many fronts. And the house is clean. We even washed the slipcover. It was a very productive weekend!

Catch-up

Ack, I am behind in posting (again). Dave and I had a lovely time in Portland on Sunday. Here is the start of his race: This was actually taken about 10 minutes before the start - they line up very early down there, and by the actual start there were even more people. Dave worked his way up to 9th (out of 80) during the race but then got a flat tire and fell quite aways back after having to run almost an entire lap with his bike. You might notice a mostly naked man in the middle of the photo - this is a Portland thing. You earn extra Cross Crusade series points by competing as close to naked as possible...I felt a bit bad for this guy because he disrobed quite awhile before the start, and he must have been freezing. Then again, it was his crazy plan to ride in a speedo. The Seattle cyclocross series is pretty big, but the Portland series is probably twice the size, participant-wise, and with many more women. It was interesting to go to a race down there - we've done it before, but only for big-deal national races. I think it was a more fun atmosphere than we have up here, to be honest...

We did make it to Powell's, which is crazy, in the best possible way. And completely overwhelming. I deal pretty well with overstimulation and lots of options, but I wasn't prepared for this. I did find some good stuff in the knitting section, but I didn't really look hard for anything else. There was so much single-word-title nonfiction it was astounding. I think unless you have a plan and know what you're looking for it can be a tough place to navigate simply because it's SUCH a huge store. That said, I can't wait to go back (with a plan).

When we got back from Portland I might have accidentally cast-on another new project: These are the NHM #7 mittens from Selbuvotter. I'm knitting them with Shetland Spindrift, on size 1.5 needles. This photo is from Monday - I'm currently just past the thumb. I'm participating in the Ravelry Selbuvotter Knitalong which started this week. I might have jumped the gun just a bit, but I'm sure I won't be the first to finish! I'm loving them so far - I had forgotten how addicting Fair Isle is for me...Last night Anne-Marie and I went to our first Seattle Knitters Guild meeting to listen to Annemor Sundbo, who spoke about traditional symbols in knitting. It was quite interesting, and we couldn't believe how many people there were - I really had no idea. I mean, I knew there were a lot of knitters in Seattle, but this was quite a whack of knitters. Of course I forgot my camera (oops). We hope to go again, but next time we'll be sure to eat dinner first - we had to leave after Annemor's talk because we were both starving (oops)!

FO: Endpaper Mitts

Voila, they are finished!

Project Stats: Endpaper Mitts

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts, by Eunny Jang

Yarn: Rowanspun 4 ply (Jade, from my favorite Ebay seller, Cucumberpatch UK) and Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4 ply (Discontinued, from Weaving Works). I have about 1/3 left of each 25g skein.

Needles: Brittney birch DPNs, size 2

Gauge: 9 st/in. My mitts came out really small - the gauge for my size was supposed to be 8 st/in

Time on the Needles: Mid-March - May 20, 2007

Impressions: I LOVE these! This is my first Fair-isle project, and it won't be the last. Watching the pattern appear is so addicting, and although I'm sure I wasn't using "proper" technique, I got pretty fast in my own way and these came off the needles pretty quickly when I actually worked on them. I know they took about two months, but there was a lot of downtime in there. I knit over half of the second mitt this weekend. Eunny's pattern was well-written and I followed it exactly except that I did a regular cast-on and bind-off because I was too lazy to figure out how to do the tubular method she recommended. I also used the same size needles throughout instead of switching after the ribbing. I think this was a wise move because my gauge was tighter than the pattern guidelines and I think doing the ribbing on needles two sizes smaller might have made these difficult to get on and off. In fact, my only gripe, and this is completely my fault (No, I didn't check my gauge. I have really tiny hands, I figured it would be okay), is that these are really small. I can get them on, and once they're on it's okay, but getting them on and off is a bit of a struggle. That said, the first one is looser, and I think that's because it's been tried on more times, so I think the other will stretch a bit as well, and if all else fails I can always block them. About the book - it was one of my birthday presents from Dave, and I love it. You can't go wrong with a good disaster...Anyway, I am thrilled with these, and can't wait to start my next Fair-isle project! Big success!!!

Early Birthday Surprises!

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their nice comments on my sweater. I really appreciated hearing from all of you!!! Of course as soon as I finished it, the weather warmed up enough that I can't really wear it to work, but I suspect, this being Seattle, that it will cool off again soon...

My birthday is on Friday, but tonight I came home to find this waiting for me:

Oliver was intrigued. What can it be you ask? Why it's a swift, from my Aunt Susan!

I had actually expected this, having requested one when my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday, but I was surprised to have it come so early, and from Susan and not my parents. Susan got me a ballwinder this past Christmas, but I haven't gotten much use out of it because it's difficult to use without a swift. It's a lovely wooden swift, and it gets quite large so I think it will accomodate anything I can find to throw on it. Thank you Susan, this will get plenty of use!!! Dave thanks you as well, because now he is off the hook when it comes to ball winding, and Oliver is also looking forward to watching a fun spinning gadget!
Then tonight at knitting club I received a most unexpected bag of birthday gifts from Anne-Marie!

There is a lovely skein of Fleece Artist merino sock yarn, which I'm quite excited to try. I've heard great things about this yarn but I didn't have any in the stash, amazingly enough. And she got me my own copy of Latvian Mittens! I had been looking for a good book of Fair Isle patterns, and Anne-Marie just finished some mittens from this book (which are spectacular, by the way). I had eyed up this book when she brought it to knit one day, and now I have my own copy! It's got all kinds of great patterns in it, some crazy complex and others completely manageable even for a Fair Isle newbie like me. So, I'm pretty excited about this. AND she got me a bright teal LeSportSac purse, which I tried to photograph unsuccessfully (it's shiny). I am not worthy - thank you again Anne-Marie!

I've made some headway on my new project (Are you curious? Have I even mentioned what I'm making?), and I think it will be blogworthy soon. Tonight I made some reverse progress at knitting club, having knit an entire row (99 stitches) doing *P2tog, yarnover* instead of *P2, yarnover*. Now, it comes as a surprise even to me that I then knit the entire next row, got to the end, of course having the wrong number of stitches, tried to fix that by knitting two together, all while thinking, "wow, that row seemed really quick," before realizing what I had done wrong. I ended up having to rip out about 4 rows because it's a lace pattern and I didn't see a reasonable way for me to unknit it or unravel and pick up the stitches properly at any point before the stockinette bit at the beginning of the lace. BUT, I've since gotten well past where I started so nothing was really lost, except perhaps some pride, because there were witnesses to this P2tog debacle. Let us not speak of it again. For the next lace section I will be putting in a life line at the end of the stockinette portion, so if I screw up again (not unlikely as there will be shaping in pattern (gasp!)) I won't have to go back too far...

Lots o' knitting

Lots of knitting was accomplished this weekend. Why I'm not getting around to posting about it until Wednesday is a mystery, even to me, your esteemed (ha!) author. Dave was off racing his bicycle all weekend, so the only interruption to my knitting time was this little guy. Oliver managed to plop himself right in my knitting space whever I got up for another Diet Pepsi (I think I drank 3 of them a day both Saturday and Sunday, plus a lot of tea. I believe in caffeine. And hydration.). By Sunday night that pile of blue had turned into this, an almost-completed Short-sleeve Cardigan with Ribbing (aka Jewel sweater):While this photo seriously lacks color accuracy, it shows off the shape/stitches/etc quite well. You can see that all I have left is the sleeves and button bands. I actually knit the first sleeve last night, and now that I can try it on (I had the sleeve stitches on stitch holders, which were much too small for my burly arms to fit through), I think it should fit, once I get the button bands on, although the ribbing bit is REALLY tight. Knitting that ribbing almost killed me - I was in such a hurry with this sweater because I love the yarn and I'm so excited to have it done. It's like an obsession. This picture shows the color more accurately:At about 10:00 Saturday evening I decided I should really break out my Endpaper Mitts, which had been sadly neglected during the one-track-mind knitting of this sweater. These are my first Fair Isle project, and although it was slow-going at first, I find the process SO addicting. I was up until 1:00 with them. I intended to Tivo the Columbo episode that was on at 11:00, but I ended up being so into the knitting that I stayed up (with decaf tea - it was too late for the Diet Pepsi) for the whole episode. By Sunday evening I had this:Done except for the thumb ribbing, and a tremendous sense of accomplishment! Sorry the photo is a bit blurry - you get the idea, and when there are two of them they'll get a proper photo shoot. Several of the Fiberphiles got together Sunday to knit at Lighthouse Roasters coffee shop, and I was so proud to get to show off my almost-completed mitt (I finished the patterned part while I was there) because this had been a mostly stealth project. I'm going to cast on the second one at knitting club tonight, and I hope to finish it by the end of the April/May Project: Spectrum period. About that - please not to mention the green socks I'm making. You'll notice I've not talked about them lately. This is because I'm not working on them, having made an error last time I had them out. I think I might have fixed it but honestly I'm afraid to go back to them and discover a frameshift that requires ripping/reknitting/binning them all together. So I'm avoiding them. Don't judge.