Another FO? January 21, 2007

Voila! The gauge-less, swatch-less, guess at the size, i-cord fingered photography gloves.

Orange, of course, as they’re for Ben. Started and completed while I was at work last night. The whole story begins with the fact I was 45 minutes early for work, and stopped off at Knitty Cat for a while. I ended up picking up 2 balls of Mission Falls 1824 wool in color #533. I didn’t know that the Mission Falls was superwash, but it is, and coupled with the fact that it’s a worsted weight made it perfect for what I wanted to do.

Armed with the ability to knit, and with Nona’s i-cord gloves tutorial/pattern thingy… I came up with these. They’re great because the 2 ‘fiddly fingers’ that you need to adjust everything on your schmancy camera are free, but the other fingers are nice and toasty warm in their little finger coverings.

There has been progress on the cardi, as well, as evidenced by this photo.

And I’ve started some photo gloves for myself this morning… I’m really enjoying the knitting of these. They’re a quick knit in worsted weight yarn, too. 😀

Escape from Fair Isle… January 16, 2007

These finished objects came about because I didn’t have anything to work on that wasn’t the same gauge of the fair isle sweater, and because MJ was making sock puppets at me (not really, she was just making socks and putting them on her hands). I decided that her socks looked like the start of mittens, and so yesterday, I sat down with this skein of Silk Garden Lite (50 g, color 2011).

And these tools… waste yarn, crochet hook, size 7 DPN’s, crocodile scissors, and bent-tip needle.

I came up with these odd-looking socks.

Ok, ok, these aren’t socks for your feet. They’re HAND SOCKS (aka mittens).

Weighing in at 38 grams, these lightweight drapey mittens will probably get shoved into my jacket pocket, for use in things like… “Opening Car Doors”, and “Holding on to the Freezing Steering Wheel”. There was almost-but-not-quite enough for another mitten left from the 50g skein of Silk Garden Lite.

These are the prototype mittens. I’ll write a pattern up once I’ve knit them a few more times. Some of the things I don’t like about these mittens: ribbing is too short, thumb looks a little wonky (because I decreased from 12 sts at the bottom to 9 sts in the middle, and then down to 3 at the top, making them pointy). They’re plenty roomy, though. I can spread my fingers out rather well in them. I’m thinking that this would be a great project for all of those one-off balls of yarn you just HAD TO HAVE because they were so pretty.

If you’d like to help me out, leave a comment, and I’ll email you back with the questionnaire. (I’m looking for glove size S/M/L/XL, and measurements of your hand. Nothing too personal!) I’m planning to have plain mittens, as well as textured and patterned, when all is done. I’m looking to publish the PDF hopefully before the month is through.

Cast-on Party! January 14, 2007

I started on the Knit Picks Palette Fair Isle Cardigan last night, joining the ribbing after 2 rows knit ‘flat’. I know, it looks like a lot of nothing, but it gets better, really.

This is about as far as I got with it before I went to knit group (which Lisa graciously held this morning).

When I got there, Sabine tried on Ellen’s Noro sweater, it’s the 48″ version, which Sabine thought she’d like the size of…

But it’s almost a dress on her! She decided to rip out her sweater front (which was about 6″ long, and wrapped almost all the way around her), and to knit a smaller size after trying the sweater on.

Liesel showed off her (pre-felted) bag that she knitted in Patons SWS. We’re waiting for the final result… it’s gotta be fabulous! (That’s MJ, Sabine, part of Ellen’s head, and Jake, the large dog-rug on the floor, looking on with pride.)

Anne finally successfully joined her ribbing in the round around 5pm, 7 hours from the beginning of the knit group today. She cast on, ripped, re-cast on, re-calcuated, and finally joined this sweater in the round.

And my final sweater…

Looking Forward… January 1, 2007

2006 was a rough year, and while some knitting got done, not enough of it did.

2007 will have more knitting, and less drama. The knit group’s going to do a knit-along for the Knitpicks Fair Isle Cardigan. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to participate because of extenuating circumstances, but my adorable husband made sure that I’d be able to knit along with everyone.

Along with another lens for my camera, Christmas brought the Barbara Walker Treasuries of Knitting Patterns (all 4), and a larger hard drive for my ibook. Mom sent us Home Depot giftcards and we had 2 of my brothers for Christmas. They were argumentative, as usual, but it was mostly verbal. I think because they’re now the same height (at 23 and 18, it’s been a long time coming), they’re less prone to duking it out. It was fun, though, and we went to the zoo with my brothers for the lights on the 23rd. We were snowed in for much of their visit, but all went pretty well (until our trip to Best Buy, where my brothers followed me through a 7″ deep puddle (when I was wearing my 8″ tall boots)).

I spent Thursday night at work, then was in a hotel Friday morning and Saturday morning (which work paid for). I went home early last night, and slept in my own bed –and slept IN this morning, otherwise I’d have woken up in time for knit group this morning. We’re meeting again tomorrow (first meet of the new year) , and I’m looking forward to the new year.

What I want to get accomplished this year: the cardigan, a top-down raglan for me, and maybe another sweater for the husband. Oh, and more socks. I have a pair on the needles for Ben that need to be finished.