X-mas special

Dear blog....


So, I decided sometime around december 1st that maybe I should get started on those christmas presents that I wanted to knit...
probably a bit last minute, but that's what I've been doing ever since! I feel good about my chances of success.... Natrually I wont be able to knit stuff for EVERYONE, but I comfort myself that not all of my friends WANT hand-knit stuff anyway.... and if they do they can go on the top of the list for next year.
I'll tell you what though, after this month I don't want to look at a pair of mittens ever again. I've got five pairs in various stages of completion right now, which makes the idea of knitting hats, scarfs... or pretty much anything else very attractive right now. Brace yourself for a flood of FO posts this new years!


BWAHAHAHA,
THEO

Swallowtail FO

Dear blog,

Yes. The rumors are true, I have finished my Swallowtail shawl.

Lets have a moment of silence to commemorate this occasion.

I've been working on swallowtail for a little less than a year now. I first cast on in January 2009. The yarn (knit picks palette in the pool color-way), was a present from my Gandfather (knit picks gift card FTW!) and I cast on the moment it came in the mail. I loved the pattern instantly. It was challenging, but not hard. Fun, stimulating, exciting. It knit up really fast too, and I have NO idea why I sat it down. Probably it was school that distracted me, and by the time I went to pick the pattern back up my gauge had changed drastically and I'd switched to continental style knitting (learning how to do YOs the correct way at the same time, incidentally ). I knew I wouldn't be happy with the shawl if I finished it with these obvious changes, and that I'd have to frog it and start over, which I dreaded. Procrastinate procrastinate, until finally it's June of this year.

When I re-started knitting this shawl in June I initially didn't have any problems, but I got tripped up because I accidentally knit too many repeats of the budding lace chart. It took me an indecent amount of time to figure this out, but once I did finishing the shawl was pretty easy :)

I really want to shout out to testkitchen45 who has the absolute most straightforward and helpful notes on her project. Thanks to her I discovered that my choices where 1; rip out 6 or 7 rows of lace with out the help of a safety line or 2; do 19 repeats of the budding lace chart thus dramatically increasing the size of the shawl. I chose the second option and I'm glad that I did! I initially started with 3 skiens of palette and it *looked* like I was going to manage to squeeze by with that despite all the extra repeats, but I did end up having to order a fourth skein in order to finish the bind of. It was totally worth it though. I love the size, I love the way the yarn drapes, I think the nupps are charming. In general, I think this is the most awesome thing I've ever knit and I can't wait to get another shawl on my needles.

Before I go I do want to give sixer her due... both for taking the FO pictures once again and for not complaining *too* much that our room (allegedly) 'smelled of sheep' during the two days it took swallowtail to block.

Stalling

Hey blog!

No pictures today, but I wanted to do a quick update:

The brother's treads are finished. My gauge changed again when knitting the second glove, but overall I think they turned out OK.

Progress on Rasberry Twist has stalled because I ran out of yarn. On a different note, this was my first time working with Debbie Stroller's Full O Sheep yarn and I have to say, I'm not really a fan.

The upside to all of this is that I'm (knock on wood) working on swallowtail again. Yay!

I have this super-secret goal of finishing swallowtail before I ship out to boot camp In January, so we'll see how that turns out.

'Cheers

Theo

Fists of Gauge

Hello blog,

Once again my nemesis, gauge, has foiled my knitting plans. And I'm still sitting here scratching my head as to how. In july I knit the pattern treads, Bernat satin, US 2 5 1/2 sitches to 1" gauge. The gloves fit....like you'd expect, all snug like except the tread pattern was maybe a smidge t0o long in the hand section.....but they were the right size everywhere else. My brother wanted a pair and so now.... I'm knitting the same pattern, same yarn, same plastic double pointed needles..... and you guessed it.

Noticeably bigger. Roomier. But this is where gauge has really blown my mind....when I measure it, I get the same gauge as my other pair. 5 1/2 stitches to 1". Now, I know that I'm not a math person. I'm so far from being a math person that even reading a ruler is sometimes out of my range of ability....... But seriously? No matter how many times I double-check, I still get the same gauge on both gloves, the gloves are still significantly different sizes, and I'm *still* scratching my head. I've checked over the pattern, I've cast on the right number of stitches, I'm doing everything correctly...... I just don't understand how this is possible.

In circumstances like these, the only option is to go to another knitter for advice. My knitting informant also checked my gauge, and she says that there is actually a 1/2

stitch difference between the two gauges....... which seems like a really inconsequential difference until you try the two gloves on.

Nemesis, you may have won this time, but I promise you; My day will come.

Violetly WIP-ing

Dear Blog,

It is fall. I know this not because the air has turned crisp and sweet-smelling, or because of the changing colors of leaves, but because of the even more deeply and intuitively derived senses that are common to all knitters. What's on our needles? Hats, scarfs, and mittens. What is the fiber of choice? Wool, or to those not inclined, at least something decently warm and cushy.

Something not universal to knitters, but no less a dead give away to the return of Autumn for me is the color of my knitting. For fall it's undeniable that purple is my preferred color. Purple is definitely to be found in my current WIPs.

First a hat, my second go at a beloved pattern : Laural

Second, some glorious spinning

Spinning progress;

The bad : Validating the drop-spindles' name by ubiquitous dropping, continued irregularity of spinning, difficulty in attaching new bits of fiber

The good : Spinning is slowly but surely becoming more consistent. The thick-and-thin sections are mostly clumped around the places where I have to join new bits of fiber. In my head I've worked out a perfect solution to avoid this problem that involves judicious pre-drafting. Perfect in theory but as-yet to be tried successfully under lab conditions.

Slowly slowly WIP

Hello,

there's a bit of a back log on my knitting, I finished the Penny wristers

I only knit the one glove because there wasn't enough leftover yarn for two.

And I cast on Tswirl using the reclaimed yarn from Hey Teach. This project so far has seen nothing but smooth sailing, however progress is slow. There are many reasons;

- my only US3 needle is a 16" circular, so the stitches are all bunched up tightly on the needles, which is no fun at all

- the pattern while visually appealing is dead boring to knit

- it's fall now, honestly all I want to knit is wool and cables. This project is a cotton tank top so it'll probably hibernate until summer.

In my next post, I'll tell you what I'm *actually* knitting!

FO: Rivulet

Hello blog,

Admittedly, both knitting and blogging have been a *little* slow lately, but I did recently finish my rivulet scarf!

Rivulet is a very pretty, yet simple lace pattern. I wont do specifics here on my blog, since I knit it with my own handspun (love that feeling!) Once again, it's a scarf not really long enough for wrapping around the neck. I did have some yarn left over, but I decided I liked it at this shorter length.

I really like the combined texture and feel of the yarn - it's got a bit of silky feel to it because of it's tinsel content, but there's also a rough 'homemade' feel to it as well because of my level of spinning ability. I really enjoy the juxtaposition of the luxury feel of the fiber and the variation of the spinning, and the wide diamond pattern really balances the whole thing out visually.

Another thing I liked about this fiber; the clear difference after blocking. Before blocking the lace felt bouncy - like there was a bit of extra tension going on in the whole piece, but after a good half-hour soak and a two-day block, it feels smooth and flow-ish ^__^

Cheers!

BTW, thanks to my sister for taking such good FO pictures for me, you really do deserve a raise ;)