Christmas knitting

I don't know about you, but for me Halloween marks the true rush toward Christmas. Oh, I start thinking about Christmas knitting mid summer. We'll be sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows and my mind may idly wander to if/what I will be knitting for gifts especially if we pass by a yarn shop on our wanderings. The spousal unit doesn't put any thought into the holidays until December 20th (tho, it did surprise me when he picked up a watch yesterday and said that perhaps that would be the perfect gift for one of the boy children we have around our house).

I'm picky about who I'll knit for. There are two gift recipients in my family who enjoy hand knit socks. (One of these recipients will actually send me sock yarn hoping for socks). This year I have several requests on wish lists for hats. This time of year is difficult for a lot of knitters (or at least it is for me, you'll have to speak for yourself). Back in July if I said "I'm knitting this as a holiday gift" I was looked at as if I had a screw loose. I'd hear "but the holidays are half a year away!" Come October I find people asking me "Can I pay you to (fill in a craft here, in addition to knitting on occasion I also sew), I'm thinking of giving (fill in gift) to (fill in recipient) for Christmas.....oh, and I need it in time to mail". Rarely do I "hire out" to knit/sew/cook gifts. My general rule is, if you want me to knit your dear old dad a scarf, I should know your dear old dad. And I do have a list of the things that I will willingly knit for gifts. That said, and as snotty as it probably sounded, I do knit for my younger children's school senior luncheon, Santa's breakfast and the Giving Tree. Most years I donate a knitted item or three for door prizes. One year I donated a lace scarf to be raffled off for the PTO. My charity knitting is my favorite and yes, I'm lucky enough that I will pass up a paying knit job to give my knitting away.

I'm not sure what the point of this post is. I'm here with my cup of coffee in hand, working on this lovely beret for my girl child. I am hoping that I can scale this pattern down, or write one that will work so I can knit a matching one for her doll. Then there are ear flap hats to knit, and socks and a scarf and and and. There's always something waiting in the wings.

Disappointments

First let me say that I have a love/hate relationship with Colinette Jitterbug Yarns. I love the colors, I love the feel of the yarn (that said, I think it knits up into a very very warm pair of socks, not something you'd ever feel and say "gee, this feels summery"). There's just something that I love about the yarn. But there's a dark side to it too. For some reason it seems to be skimpy on the yardage. I've knit a total of two pair of socks from Jitterbug and the others I've had to frog back because of this (see photo above). Yes yes yes, I could always knit my socks from the toe up, but I prefer a top down sock having never gotten a toe up sock to fit quite right. So there you have it, a lovely sock from Cookie A's first sock book, knitted to the toe, where I ran out of yarn (after I took this pic I knitted several more rounds just to further convince myself that I'd run out). So now this lovely yarn has been rewound is will be a finger weight "Traveling Woman" shawl-ette/scarf/something pretty that will be seen.

knitting in the new year

So my new years resolution, such that it was, was to keep track of my knitting this year. I know people who catalog all of their knitting projects, the needles, the yarn, the gauge, etc. I knit whatever I fancy and when it comes off the needles often it goes to whoever it is knit for with nary a picture or thought about it. After forty odd years of knitting I have no clue as to how many things I've knitted. At the end of the year two friends mentioned that their sons birthdays were coming up and how the boys love my sons fish hat. So I begin my year with the fish hats.....just as I ended the year with the fish hat. As I type this I have several skeins of yarn sitting next to me because my second project for 2011 will also be a fish hat (done in blues this time). Then perhaps I'll break the fish hat streak and knit socks, or a sweater or.........

A Dainty Chevron cowl

"A Dainty Chevron Cowl"

When it gets cold I love having the option of something other than a scarf. Sometimes I just don't want to fiddle around with the wrapping of the scarf or dealing with the ends. I want something I can just pull over my head and go. Of course I am such a style trend setter that I'm known, much to the embarrassment of my children, to pull my cowl up over my head as a makeshift ear cover or hat (okay, sometimes I pull it up over my face like a mask and chase them around). Here is one that I knit as a gift for a friend.

1 skein Happy Feet sock yarn
16 or 24" circular needle size 6
Marker

gauge, while gauge is not vitally important here, I mean chances are a little tighter and you'll still be able to wear it, a little looser and it will be more cowl-y.

Gauge: 22 sts to 4 inches

Cast on 120 stitches and begin to knit in the round as follows. Place marker to mark where your row begins and ends (but you already knew this).

Knit one row
Purl one row

Begin lace pattern:

Row 1 (and all odd rows) knit
Row 2 & 4: *ssk, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, k2tog, k1 rep from *
Row 6: *yo,ssk, k3, k2tog, yo, k1 rep from *
Row 8: * k1, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k2 rep from *
Row 10: * k2, yo, sl 2-k1-p2sso, yo, k3 rep from*


That sl 2-k1-p2sso......slip 2 stitches together as if you were going to knit them together, knit the next stitch then pass the 2 slipped stitches back over the knit stitch. This type of decrease makes the middle stitch more prominent in the pattern.

Work rows 1-10 8 times
K one row
P one row
Bind off as follows k2, sl sts to left needle k2tog tbl, k1, sl 2 sts back to left needle, k2tog tbl. continue to bind off this way until the end.

I am currently working on this and will post a picture and if I can figure out how to post a chart I'll do that too.

Happy knitting!!

Knit on

A mom of a couple of girls in girl child's karate class is pregnant with her 6th baby. She doesn't know if it will be a boy or a girl so I tried to be as gender neutral as yellow and lavendar can be. I'm sure that baby (or mother) will not care about the color of the sweater. The pattern was easy peasy (tulip cardigan) kit from some yarn I picked up from a yarn outlet (great place, name brands marked waaayyyy down).

Meeting the not famous famous

It's funny when you think about famous people. We've all heard of wildly famous people....Robert Redford, Brittney Spears....you know movie stars, tv stars, rock or country stars, well known authors. But there's the not-so-famous famous people too. These "not-so-famous" people are well known in certain circles. I certainly don't know whose famous in my husband's line of work, but there are certainly people that are well known, but not famous. For me it was meeting Wendy Bernard and Leah Radford (and Mary Kay of Mamascrapalota fame)...and forgetting my camera. I had finished my "Slinky Ribs" from Wendy's book and wore it, it was a surprise to me while I was browsing around waiting for the thing to start to look up and see Wendy standing there and a surprise when she exclaimed "hey you're wearing the sweater from my book!" Perhaps it shouldn't have been such a shock, but I was so star struck. She's very pretty and funny and laid back and just the person you'd want to hang out with. I didn't chat with Leah Radford, but she too is pretty and seems like someone who'd be fun to be around.

So, that was my exciting evening. For a non-knitter perhaps it would be a huge yawn, but for me I practically floated home (it was cold enough when I left home I was concerned that it would snow, but it actually warmed up enough that nothing was freezing when I got home...so no worries). So, I returned to a check register for the PTO that needs some work before the meeting tonight and wine that had reached the "specific gravity" for the next step of stuff that needed doing, but even today collecting my things for the meeting and such I'm still floating.

Still puttering along (at a breakneck pace)

Summer sped by this year with a minimal amount of knitting. Actually when I look back I can't really think of anything that we did this summer besides doctor appointments (once the husband was employed again). We did manage to go camping a whopping three times, which I admit is better than not at all. The youngest son did keep us busy with his inability to remain healthy, I believe that we're on the right path and the poor little guy is doing much better.

I did manage to finish a little top for Girl Child out of Knit Picks Cotlin. It's a "Drops" design and is quite fetching I think on her. She liked the purple yarn, but so far hasn't really worn the top. I'm hoping that she'll wear it with a nice little turtleneck underneath it this winter, or perhaps next summer or at least wear it before she outgrows it. I wasn't enamored of the pattern and for some reason found it to be a tedious knit, don't know why, it could have just been my mood.

I also started (and finished) a little cardigan based on the "Tess" pattern by Marie Grace Designs. I had wondered what would happen if I just cast on for the neck of a sweater did a couple of rows of garter stitch and then added on for the front, back and sleeves just like I do for most of my sweaters. The result is a lovely little square neckline. The problem is my child is pretty narrow and I think that were I to knit another sweater like this (and I probably will) I would narrow down that neck a bit....and perhaps add some short row shaping to the back to bring the back neckline up just a wee bit.

I am nearing the end of a "Slinky Ribs" from Wendy Bernard's book for myself. Love the pattern, which for once I am following, but am already making changes in my head for the next sweater I knit....which I would say is going to be fro that pattern, but the changes I have in my head are so many that the only thing I appear to be planning on keeping is the rib knit stitch and the fact that it will be a sweater.

That's pretty much my life in knitting right now. I'm staring at several "obligation" knits...which, perhaps it's wrong to call them "obligation knits" when truly they are slated to be gifts. But I guess when the yarn is in the stash and it's not been cast on yet so there are still so many many possibilities for it except for the fact that if it's sock yarn more than likely it will be socks and when it's your mom's favorite color...well, those socks will be a gift for your mom...no, no matter how you slice it the yarn and project become "obligation knitting" of course I could do what she's done to me in the past and just wrap up the pattern, yarn and needles and give them to her for Christmas....

I do, actually, still knit

So much has been happening lately that I just don't get to the computer (or the camera for that matter) on a regular basis. It seems that everytime I go to use the computer I have a child standing next to me asking to use the computer, and if I dare say "no" then....well...it's just easier to turn the damn thing off and no one use it. Or the husband is on the computer. He did accept a job and this is his second week of working. I found it irrita....er... interesting that he could have a computer in the basement that he does all of his work on and the looking for work, and yet he can spend an inordinate amount of time on the computer that I use. But, what can I say he's the one with the job that pays for the computers.

But, knitting. Yes, I do, actually, still knit I just am lazy about getting pictures of what I knit. A while back (meaning a few months ago) I ordered some Canapone from Elann (Canapone being their hemp yarn) with the idea that I'd knit girl child and I matching skirts from it. What I did not realize is that the Canapone is a very light weight fingering yarn, not the DK weight that they claim it is. Perhaps it's dk weight if you aren't knitting a skirt, but I'm telling you for a skirt, it's fingering. But I digress, I had no interest in knitting a skirt from the yarn when it landed in my mail box and I wasn't about to send the stuff back so I knit a "Lacy Little Top" by Lana Knits. I am very very happy with how the top came out, happy enough that I'm planning the next one. I may even get around eventually to knitting a skirt...but from allhemp6 which (to my understanding anyway) is heavier.

I am a slow slow knitter

I am a slow slow knitter. I admit it. It's not really that I'm a slow slow knitter, it's that other things happen in life that eat up my knitting time. There's the kids, the housework, laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, the computer...oh so many many things that crop up. It can take me an hour some days to complete a row on something as small as a sock depending upon how many interruptions I have. At the elementary school I'm teased because normally I have a sock I'm knitting tucked away in my purse. Just in case. Just in case I have time while the kids are in one of their specials (pe, library, etc), or if I'm in the work room waiting for the copier to free up. But all this means is that there's not a lot of picture taking of my knitting. Somehow posting a picture with a mere row or two done would bore everyone (including me) to death. But knitting is happening. The butterfly shawl is coming (slowly) along. Now instead of looking like a lacy square, it's scrunched up on the circular needle looking more like a rag than a lovely shawl....not exactly exciting picture material. Once I get it worked far enough that there's something besides the little butterfly motifs I'll take another photo of it. I cast on some socks, but 8 rows of ribbing isn't much as far as saying "hey look at these socks".

Oh, look at the time! Youngest son stayed home sick with a fever today (and yesterday) and it's already time for me to go fetch girl child from the bus stop.

The Cross Hatch lace sock and my favorite model

Here is my dear Stella holding Girl child's "Cross Hatch Lace" sock. I've just cast on the second sock and perhaps when I get it done I'll have girl child model both of them for me. Amelia mentioned my darling footrest and I thought perhaps I'd tell a little bit about my model/footrest. This picture (minus the sock) is pretty much what I see when I am sitting at the computer and look down. Miss Stella. Miss Stella was a gift from my husband a little more than 14 years ago after my first miscarriage (I've had 4). When she came to live with us she was a 6 week old ball of fluff. She's dried many a tear, and shared much much laughter and many many good times. Now she's 14 (she turned 14 in June), nearly blind, nearly deaf and quite stiff...tho she still plays and is just as sweet as can be. Because she is so calm and patient it is easy for me to toss my knitted goods on her and have her "hold" them for me to photograph. She never complains and will hold perfectly still for hours on end (sometimes prompting us to hold a mirror under her nose). She is in the twilight of her life and I simply can't bear to think of her no longer here to put up with my warming my feet on her, or perching my knitting goods on her. Jenny (the sawed off hound) just isn't the same.

It snowed last night and I need to shovel off the back deck. Old Stella can't navigate the stairs especially in the snow, so she has "deck potty privileges" when she was a young thing she got in trouble for pottying on the deck, but with age comes privileges. She's earned them. So perhaps I'll go and shovel off the deck for my dear little old lady, and then settle in with the mate to that sock.

Where did I learn to count?

So, I finished my mom's first sock. You know, I mentioned my mothers ridiculously small feet....she wears a woman's 4.5 (childrens 2) and I wear oh, say a 7.5 (or an 8 depending upon the shoe). I measured the sock as I knitted along. I put the sock on my 9 year old son's foot (since he wears a children's size 4 shoe, I figured that it should be in the right size ballpark, as I decreased the toe. I finished up that bad boy and looked at the lovely lovely sock..........

Lookie there, I think that my mom's lovely sock will fit my sister perfectly....think she'd like a pair of lovely blue socks for Christmas? I swear the toe must have added a foot in length to these. Because that foot in the picture is mine...my size 7.5 foot. Perhaps it's Karma, I kept saying that mom wouldn't like them, but I was going to knit her socks anyway because she keeps dropping hints. Methinks that the fact that these came out much much too large is a sign (of course it could be a sign that I should keep them and not gift them to my sister, but really if I do know one thing, I know that my sister loves her hand knit socks...especially if she doesn't have to knit them).

Another Friday

I'm sitting here balancing the checkbook, no...really I am toiling away at balancing the checkbook. Of course I do find balancing the check book to be less than thrilling so I do have to have a break to check ravelry (because I obviously have time to knit all of the projects I find. and it's fun to look at other people's projects), oh and perhaps a break to open and close the door a thousand times for the dog who feels it is her duty to go in and out like a yoyo (that will change when it snows, then I'll have to throw her out). Yep, I'm balancing the checkbook so that I can knit when I'm done...oh! Look! A cloud in the sky. Okay....focus (and finish my cup of coffee that should help with my focusing powers).

Okay, checkbook is balanced. Some of my yarn is photo graphed. Middle son just shook his head as I'm photographing sock yarn (he said I should dump out the garbage bag full of yarn our neighbor gifted to me and show that, but I'm not quite ready to do that. I told him to get back to school....he goes to online high school).

The only project I have on needles at the moment (for some reason I'm not one to have multiple projects going, sometimes I'll have a sweater AND socks, or a sweater AND a hat, but rarely do I have 5 or 6 things going at a time) is a pair of socks for my mom for Christmas. Since she wears a children's sized 2 shoe I'm anticipating a quick knit. The yarn is some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock I bought a ton of from ebay last year, the pattern is Twin rib from Charlene Schurch's "Sensational Sock" book. I hope that mom likes her socks since once they're done they won't fit anyone else in the family. The only person with feet smaller than my mom's is my 6 year old daughter. So if mom doesn't like the socks instead of strangling her with them we'll give them to girl child.

And now, enough with the rambling, I have things to do and some knitting to get done (and housework, always housework) before our Friday night racketball-a-thon.

Later gators!

Yellow

I knit hats for the hospital that my last two babies were born in. When I brought them home they were wearing a hand knitted hat knit by a volunteer and I thought that when my babies got old enough that I could knit again (for so long it seemed like I had a choice, I could knit while they were asleep or I could sleep. Sleep often won). So I've been knitting hats for a few years now. As word has gotten out that I knit hats for the hospital I get donations of yarn. Which is really really nice and helpful (only sometimes does the hospital seem to have yarn to use). My very own mother has been one of the bigger contributors of yarn. The hospital volunteer ladies post that the preferred colors for the baby hats are blue or pink (or white. Or the varigated baby colors). So naturally my mom has drowned me in yellow yarn. So to disguise this yarn I knit lacy baby hats and basket weave hats with a touch of blue. Really in the winter it doesn't matter the color of the hat because when the baby leaves the hospital all you see is a pile of baby blankets covering a car seat carrier.

This is what the hospital is getting when I next drop off the hats:

















My sister sent me some of the tofutsies yarn and I knit a pair of socks and a pair of footies from the yarn:

I have another picture to post, but it is a gift for a friend and I don't want to mention it here until I know the gift has arrived safely at it's destination. But one hint. It's not yellow.