A needle here, a needle there

I'm leaving tomorrow. For a change, our flight isn't until later in the evening, so though we're departing from Sioux Falls (185 miles away), we still don't have to hit the road until noonish, which means that I might actually sleep the night before flying for a change- it's not fear of flying that keeps me up, it's fear of missing my flight. Evidently, my subconscious assumes that if I stay awake all night, I won't oversleep... It doesn't care if I drift off while driving to the airport, I guess. Anyway, today is an organizing and packing day (with American Idol tonight- btw, I'll recap as I can in SoCal, but I'll also set the DVR here, so if I don't have time to check the performances/auditions online there, I can watch them and recap when I get back home).

In the meantime, I've done some knitting.

 This leftover hat is made from yarn that I bought at Yarnia in Portland, during the '09 Sock Summit. Both yarns have some cotton content, and both are made up of multiple strands (some of which did not get caught in every stitch, as you can see in the scan).This one knit up on size 5 needles. Both of the yarns have a metallic strand, which also doesn't show well in the scan. Not a sparkly masculine colorway, this.

 I always do the exercises along with the class when I teach the Fair Isle design workshops. Above are the worksheets, preliminary charts, and the colored chart for the stocking I designed during the Winter Retreat last week in Asheville. I don't always like my class designs well enough to come home and knit them, but this one turned out rather well.

Don't you think?

This amazing knitted set is one of Malfrid Gausel's American Girl Doll designs (the photo is from her pattern). Yes, you're seeing correctly, the pattern has instructions not only for the wonderful Nordic Sweater and hat, but a pleated skirt, tights, shoes and a collar. Since the upcoming trip is mostly vacation (with one day of teaching in the middle), and all appearances to the contrary, I cannot read all day every day, I am suddenly taken with the notion of knitting this ensemble. I'm using dark green, gold, and white yarn (which means I'll be combining colors in the sweater and hat), all leftovers of course.

I've cast on the dark green skirt (all 270 stitches!) and have already been reminded that it is impossible for me to memorize even a 2-row repeat. But since the inside pleat folds are purls on every row, and the outside pleat folds are alternating slip stitches, it doesn't really matter if I get off a row or not (it's a doll skirt, for crying out loud, and it's not going to be entered anywhere). I figured if I started with the skirt, the rest of the set would be gravy. I'll post progress pics. If there is any progress.

Oh, just in case you want to tackle this one yourself, the Kristen in February pattern is available for purchase and download as a PDF file. The Fair Isle seems straightforward enough, though be warned- the English instructions read like they were printed directly from a translation engine. You'll have to do a fair amount of figuring out what it all means.

I'm not the only one who has been knitting lately. Susan, who completed her very first Fair Isle project in class in Asheville, went home and designed this cool Skulls and Hearts hat. Way to go, Susan!

I'll be back tonight with the AI recap, and I'll probably check in tomorrow before we leave. If not, I'll catch all y'all from Sunny SoCal!

The calm between the flights

I've pretty much re-acclimated from my week in Asheville (though the fact that winter arrived while I was gone is still something of a shock), and I'm sort of unpacked. I have some paperwork to do (entering receipts and expenses... that sort of tedium), but in general, I'm just relaxing before we leave again on Thursday. The upcoming jaunt is almost entirely vacation (with one class at Loop and Leaf on Feb.1, in Santa Barbara, which will be great fun), so resting up for a trip that is mostly going to consist of resting up, seems silly. But, as you all know, I am nothing if not silly.

 Before I left for the Winter Retreat, I finished this hat. I wanted to add to the very small pile of *masculine friendly* colorways in the Big Tub 'o Knitted Things, but I suspect that the girls will love it too.

When I teach the Fair Isle design classes (half-day hat design, and half-day Christmas stocking design), I always do the exercises right along with the class. Sometimes, I'm not happy enough with  my design to come home and knit it. This time, I was pleased with both designs. I'm excited to see how the stocking is coming along. I imagine I'll finish it before we leave for SoCal. I may even cast on the hat.

In the meantime, the Obsessive Long-Term Weather Forecast Watch has begun- it only needs to be calm (not even warm, just calm) at 9:10pm on Thursday so we can take off on time (and I suppose, it needs to be nice at LAX, but it's nearly always nice at LAX). It can be nasty right up until that moment (as it is right now- below zero air temps, well below zero wind chills, new powdery snow blowing around). So far, the forecast looks good (we're using Allegiant, which flies out to LAX from FSD twice a week. Period. If one flight is cancelled, you're SOL, so though all this worry is selfish, it's also reasonable). I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Leftover, and not so much

I've finished a couple more hats.

 The above hat was knitted with a single ball of leftover yarn. I love how the yarn striped all on its own, though I'm not so thrilled with the pooling up where the decreases start. The transition from the wider stripes to the narrow ones is a bit jarring. I think maybe I should have switched to plain black yarn for the decreases.  This one is going into the BT'oKT.

While this hat wasn't knit from leftover yarn, it's certainly a testament to why a Big Stash is not always a shameful thing. My grandson (the only boy in a veritable sea of girls) is a big Harry Potter fan. A Harry Potter fan whose feet seem to change size daily. I'm not knitting socks for him until his shoe size stabilizes a bit. But I still wanted to knit something for him, and so I came up with the notion of a Gryffindor hat. I had no deep red (the hat is a bit more burgundy than it looks in the scan) and not enough gold in the leftover bag for the project, so I broke my Leftover-Yarn-Only-Rule and rummaged around in the New Yarn Stash. This yarn is not *new* as in newly purchased, it's *new* as in never used. In fact, these particular yarns are easily 9 years old, from back when I bought yarn willy nilly, as protection against The Great Yarn Drought that never materialized.

So, my while my stash is still embarrassingly large, the upside is that when I needed deep red and gold sock yarn, I rummaged in the boxes and bins, and low and behold,  found deep red and gold sock yarn.

Yay me. And Yay for stashes!

And now I have deep red and gold yarn in the leftover bag.

Leftover Hat Recipe, and some wonderful knits

 Here's the latest leftover yarn hat. Not very manly, is it? Pretty? Yes. Masculine? No. This is yarn I bought at the '09 Sock Summit, and used as Road Knitting to make socks on the way to the Michigan Fiber Festival last summer (and which were gifted to my niece). I love how the stripes are working out (it's not officially a self-striping yarn).

Elizabeth asked in the comments, for the basic recipe for these leftover hats. It's easy peasy:  Approx 34gr fingering weight sock yarn, 16" size 2.75mm circ and DPNs (or whatever needles will give you 8sts=1"). CO 140 sts, join (without twisting). Work 6 or so rnds of K2P2 ribbing and then K until the hat measures 5" (more or less, depending on who is the recipient). Decrease every other rnd as follows: Rnd 1: *K 12, K 2 tog*, rep around, Rnd 2: K, Rnd 3: *K 11, K 2 tog*, rep around, Rnd 4: K. Continue, working one less st before the decreases on the Odd Rnds, until you K2 tog around. Cut yarn, weave the tail through the remaining loops, tighten and tie off. Weave the ends in, wash and block. This makes a snug beanie. If you use slightly heavier yarn and 3mm or 3.25mm needles, you'll get a looser hat. If you want a smaller hat, CO 10 or 20 fewer sts. As I said, easy peasy.

 Robin knitted these gorgeous Macaroni Socks (from The Big Book of Socks). She adapted the pattern a bit because the yarn she used was finer than what is called for in the pattern (yay for adaptation!). She said that she hasn't even gotten to try them on because her 12 year old daughter has appropriated them (yay for daughters who love handknit socks!). Thanks for sharing!

Susan took my Nordic Christmas Stocking class at NCFF last September, and made this wonderful stocking! It turned out beautifully! It happens that I'm teaching that class at the Winter Retreat in Asheville next weekend, too.

Next weekend? Yikes, I'd better finish getting ready.

Restocking the BT'oKT

Somewhere along the line, I thought I had an extra week before I headed out to Asheville for the Winter Retreat. Imagine my surprise when I actually looked at the calendar and counted those little boxes... It's a good thing that I got all of my workshop materials mailed last week.

One of the things I did notice in December, as I chose hats from the Big Tub 'O Knitted Things, is that I'm obviously not drawn to masculine or neutral colorways. Only one or two of the three thousand hats that I knit last year even came marginally close to being Man Colors (and yes, I know, there's no such thing... but a great many men still do not want to wear pink. It is what it is). So one of my jobs this year is to stock the Tub with some Manly Hats.

 This one comes close. It's all made from teeny little balls of leftover yarns- I used up an entire baggie of them. Woohoo!

I'm pretty sure this one doesn't qualify, but boy is it pretty. It's from some Twisted Fiber Arts bamboo yarn (I don't remember the colorway, but it doesn't matter, EVERY Twisted Fiber Arts colorway is beautiful), and I'm thrilled there was enough to knit a whole hat with the single yarn (and not just because there were no ends to tie in).

The hat I'm working on now is all Neon Pink, Yellow, and Green, so... nope... not Manly, but it's awfully pretty too. But if maybe one out of every five hats or so is sort of neutral, I should have enough for my guys come next Christmas.

Done

I'm nearly done with my shopping (just a few local and online Gift Certs left to buy). It helps that The Hub and I are not giving each other gifts since we're traveling in about a month and that will suffice. Also, I have a sinking feeling that we will be surprise gifting ourselves with a new pressure pump for the well. Sigh.

I'm actually done with my Christmas knitting. Or at least, I'm done with the knitting that has to be done by Christmas. We're celebrating another Holiday in late January in SoCal, and I have to knit a couple of pairs of socks for that, but I have plenty of time (well maybe not plenty, since I'll be in Asheville for nearly a week in the interim, but still... there's no rush right this moment).

All of my packages have been shipped, including this hat.

 I'm not thrilled with the floppy flower, though it really does curl more (and look more symmetrical) than it appears in the photo. I spread it out to show you the lamp work button and bumblebee bead. All of the yarns are handspun.

 I like how this hat turned out. It's knit from leftover self-striping Opal yarn which is easily ten years old, and is at least sort of masculine-looking, something very few of my hats manage. It's already on the way with a shipment of these hats,

which still does not deplete the Hat Surplus in the Big Tub 'o Knitted Things. I love the BToKT.

And we have a new member of our extended family. I was thrilled to finally find a home for this whimsical sweater. I knitted it years ago, confident that the right human being would come along eventually. I'm so glad that she did.

But for the most part, I'm done. Now to sit back and relax... or maybe finish getting my Asheville workshop handouts printed...

The BT'oKT

Well, it's time to dig into the Big Tub 'O Knitted Things, and get them ready for distribution.

I think at least eight pairs of socks will go to new homes, and easily fifteen hats, including these two new ones:

 This hat was knitted from leftover Opal Harry Potter yarn (I think this was the Dumbledore colorway). I had just enough to make a nice, adult-sized hat.

This one is made up of leftover bits and bobs. It's smaller, for a younger person. I like how it came out as well.

I have another hat on the needles now, though it's not going to anyone specific. Yet.

 These hats are going in the mail tomorrow. The white one was a special request, and I still need to crochet a floppy flower for it. That's tonight's goal.

These socks all stay in the general vicinity, but they need wrapping. The fun part is choosing who gets which pair (though a few are size-specific and were knitted with certain persons in mind). The fact that nearly all of these socks and hats were made from leftover yarns tells you #1 that my stash was/is obscene, and #2 they were all *free* (and yes, I know that my time is worth something, but using up the leftover bits of yarn makes me feel virtuous and thrifty).

On another note altogether- take a peek at the hit counter at the lower right of the main blog page. I am awed and honored that you all put up with my blather, and (evidently) keep coming back for more. Thank you, each and every one!

Adventures in Smarty Pants Phones, and other stuff

My phone service provider merged with AT&T a long time ago, but it wasn't until this morning that our service actually switched over, and I was able to use my new iPhone. There's going to be a learning curve with this thing, I can tell. Not the least because the keypad is QWERTY, which should be easier for me (given that I, you know, try to make a living using a keyboard), but I've been texting with an ABC setup for about 4 years, and the transition is going to be bumpy. And I'm scared silly of the auto-correct function. I read Damn You Auto Correct, and I know what horrors can ensue (!!WARNING WILL ROBINSON!!- this site is absolutely and totally NSFW, and it is even less safe for the young ones- bad words are everywhere- so click at your own risk. Also, put your drink down first).

I am also afraid of what this is going to cost me- I signed up for the plan with an extra 200MB of data downloading, but I have a sinking feeling that I'll run through that in the first week. I'd better hie myself to the store and upgrade my contract. Sigh. The first app I downloaded was Facebook. The second, was Kindle. The third was RunKeeper, which unfortunately confirmed what I knew already: I am slow and terribly out of shape. It also told me something that I didn't know: my route isn't as long as I thought it was. What I assumed was a 2 mile run is actually only 1.85miles, which means that my usual 3 mile run (which I am building back up to), is probably only 2.5. Sigh. Working on the assumption that public humiliation will speed me up and keep me honest (not that I've ever fudged on the running- not on purpose anyway), I'll let it autopost my stats to Facebook every day. That'll show me...

Next up: getting some iTunes. I made a deal with the devil last year to download Crystal Bowersox's American Idol recordings, so I already have an account. I hadn't gotten any of Casey's songs this year, but I'll do it now, since an iPhone is also an iPod (and a computer, and, for all I know, a 3-speed blender).

And I suppose I'll succumb to Angry Birds.

But all that was this morning. Before that, I did some jewelry making.

This set is for Sister #3.

And I did some knitting. I finished the Bobble Leftover hat.

These yarns are Twisted Fiber Arts Playful- Netherfield, and whatever solid green came with Firefly.

I had about exactly enough yarn to complete this hat (with about 15 yds of Netherfield left-the green ran out before I could finish the final band properly). I have had a hard time getting clear close-up shots lately, and this one is so nice, I just had to include it. BTW- the Knitting Back Backwards Bobble is one of the techniques I teach in my Little Tips and Knitting Tricks class.

One of my knitting friends is going through a rough health patch, so these socks are for her. This yarn is Twisted Fiber Arts as well- Kabam (bamboo/wool/nylon), in the Valkyrie colorway. The flash really picked up the sheen. It's wonderful yarn, and I'm truly knitting love into every stitch.

I do intend to work today, but maybe first, I'll figure out how to take movies with the new phone...

Wrapping and Swatching

In between American Idol, and the winding down of Michael Scott's tenure, Deadliest Catch's new captain who looks exactly like my son, (I'm not kidding. I showed this comparison of the two of them to a good friend, one who has known us all for a long time, and she chose the wrong man)

not to mention multiple Alec Baldwins, and the amazing Ron Swanson, it's sort of surprising that I'm getting anything else done in the evenings (daytimes are for work, and I've actually been working- go figure).

But I have found some time to play:

 I'm getting a little bettter at wire wrapping. This bracelet is for my youngest sister, who is very fond of the color yellow. It's a made of shaped wire, so no clasps are needed. I like this style, and I think I'll continue with it, if for no other reason than fit isn't an issue if you can bend the bracelet to fit any wrist.

 She also likes bling.

 This set is for my Sister #2. She likes coral (me too).

 I had a really hard time getting the camera to focus. I like the sort of haphazard look, though I probably wouldn't be able to execute any other- I'm not proficient enough in wrapping yet. I'm going to make a set for Sister #3 as soon as some purple beads arrive (I bought some, but it turns out that they were actually blue. Darn Wal-Mart lighting anyway).

I cast on another leftover hat for travel knitting- this one will alternate bands of the above yarns, with some bobbles thrown in just to give me a ton of ends to weave in. It's going to be pretty darn cute, I think.

And I'm working on the design for Cassy's wedding shawl. The first two edging swatches didn't come out right- the angle of the sawtooth was too sharp, and tight. I think I've fixed both of those problems and will try another swatch tonight. If it comes out, I'll take a pic. I should take a pic either way, just to show that a lot of notions that look good on paper, don't quite work in real life. But you all knew that anyway.

And it's still raining, but at least we don't have any new snow.

Dutifully Ignoring Mother Nature

Yeah, it's snowing again. Still. So what? You think that's going to keep us home from Frog Girl's Spring Program, 80 miles away tonight? Ha, I say. Hah!

When I'm not eyeing the sky and grumbling, I've been knitting.

I finished the latest leftover hat. The texture holes show up more in this shot than they do in real life (the flash picks up the styrofoam). These are handspun yarns, I love how this hat came out.

And as always, I love the look of the decreases. I continued the *K2 tog, YO* up through the decreases- it looks okay, but I miss the spiderwebby effect. I probably won't do that again.

I experimented a bit with some wire wrapped earrings. The beads are all my own lampwork (leftover from my bead making obsession). I am finally running low on beads- I may have to fire up the torch again. I rather wish I could wear earrings (unfortunate metal sensitivity), but these are all going to good homes.

I've begun work designing Cassy's wedding shawl (title: Cassy's Wedding... sometimes the obvious name is the right one). After looking through my stitch dictionaries, I ended up winging a sample chart for the edging. I'm sure I'll have to knit several swatches before I get it right. I plan to knit the saw-tooth ends separately and then pick up the body stitches.

I'm excited to get started but it probably won't be today. Or tomorrow. or Thursday. Daytimes are for MG Fantasy 3.0, and the next few evenings are already scheduled. It's a good thing that the wedding isn't until July.

More of the same

More spinning, more knitting, more sneezing, more snow, more agonizing over changing the MG Fantasy into a 1st Person POV (which was my suggestion, and the absolute right way to go, but still tricky). Same old, same old.

I've had a hard time getting the true colors of the natural cotton yarns to show up in a photo, but I think this one captures it well. L-R: Cream Cotton 71yds, 2-Color Brown and Cream 129 yds, Buffalo Brown 127yds. Total: 110gr. I have given up on the cream cotton (which might be Pima)- it's extremely soft, and I love the color it boils out to, but it's hard to spin. The fiber comes out in clumps no matter which end I spin from, and it's a pain. I have about a pound of this stuff, and I think I'll put it up on eBay so some better spinner can do it justice. I'm sure not doing it.

It occurs to me that all of my photos make the yarn look like it's worsted weight. I thought I'd take a comparison pic- it's not all fingering weight, but most of it is thinner than sport (except for those fat spots, which I think adds *character*... yeah, character... that's it...).

I'm almost done with the latest leftover hat. I decided to carry the texture and striping up through the decreases, which throws off the decrease rows once in awhile. I'm not going to wrestle with evenly spaced decreases on the same row as the *K2tog,YO*. So there will be a couple of extra rows in the crown, but still, I think it'll look fine.

I think I'll take a break from leftover hats for awhile (or at least reserve them for travel knitting), because I have a wedding shawl to design and knit. I have plenty of time before the wedding, but I am known for skating deadlines, and it would be nice to have this one done early (given that Procrastination is my middle name, it's A Good Thing that I'm starting now).

P.S. The cold is better. I think I'm on the other side of this one- I give Zicam all of the credit (and bronchitis all of the blame- it's really true that once your immune system is compromised, you're vulnerable to very bug in the vicinity).

Friday, Friday

You know, that Friday song isn't nearly as bad as Jar of Hearts, which gets lots of radio play. I thought Jar was a prank song the first time I heard it, with all of those horrible rhymes. But that chick is deadly serious. At least Rebecca Black has Stephen Colbert and Taylor Hicks on her side.

Anyway, it's Friday. In desperation, I started taking Zicam, which is nasty stuff (especially for that 15 minutes when you can't eat or drink anything afterwards), but I have to admit that I feel much better. Maybe there's something to it after all. And yes, I read about the loss of smell lawsuits, but that seems only to apply to the spray and swabs, not to the tablets.

My evenings have been Idol, or sneezing and whining, but I have done a little knitting in between. This is another leftover hat, knit with handspun yarns. I love how these colors are coming out. I may keep t his one for myself.

This bobbin of cotton singles has been on the wheel for several days, waiting to be plied. I'm getting better at the long-draw in general, and cotton spinning in particular, but you can see that I still overspin in spots (those are those little corkscrew areas). Luckily, most of that comes out in the plying.

Sometimes I just like to look at the handspun yarns hanging over the railing. I still have no idea what I'll make from these skeins, but it'll at least have pretty colors. Again, all of the colors are natural, organic, undyed cotton, except for the blue, which is made from recycled blue jeans.

My herbs and tomatoes have all sprouted. On the left, are three different heirloom tomatoes (I hope they're different- the packet had several varieties, which I tried to separate before planting). On the right are chives, parsley (which just sprouted yesterday, finally), and lots of basil. When they grow a bit, I'll thin them out, but for now, I'm enjoying watching them grow. Which will be in the house for awhile because...

this is what my world looks like today. Sigh.

Bits 'n Pieces

It's been a long time since I wrote a post just about the knitting I've been doing. It's nice to get back to the  normal routine, which won't last, since I'm leaving again, in a week, for the Pacific Northwest this time.

But in the meantime,

 I finished this leftover hat on the way to Sioux Falls, before we left for California. It's all Noro and  Boku, with a little bit of the Noro/Angora blend in there, so it's fuzzy. These hats are so quick-to-knit, and they fit so well into my Stash Busting Routine.

 I finished the Araucania boot socks, knitted from the yarn I bought (woohoo for appearances- the only time I can buy yarn!) at Loop & Leaf in Santa Barbara. I worked a very easy waffle texture, which plays off the tweedy colorway very well.

 I'm keeping these for myself- a souvenir of my trip! (and the wonderful folks at Loop & Leaf)

 This yarn isn't leftover, though it is from the stash. It's Opal Harry Potter themed yarn, which is no longer being produced. I bought it at Expressions in Watertown, SD, when I was doing a signing for I Heart Felt. This colorway is called Dumbledore, though I can't imagine why. Nothing about the combination of colors suggests Dumbledore to me- I would have expected blacks, browns, greys, and maybe some electric yellow, though I can't tell you why I think that. In any case, it's lovely yarn, and these are going in the BToKT for Christmas (I know who's getting them already).

In the Very Cool Section: reader Chris knitted this felted bear (from Knit One, Felt Too) for a friend who has a new baby on the way! Thanks for sharing, Chris!

And in the Blatant Self Promotion Section, look what I found on Amazon this morning!

And cooler yet? The #1  book on the Fashion list is 101 Sock Yarn Wonders. I'm in that one too!!!