Finished in '07

It's been a good year. Here's to many more!

Curly Wurly - A Sweater Story

Look Ma! A sleeve!

This is not the first time I've cast on for the Marseilles Sweater from Interweave Knits, Summer '06. I just wasn't ready back then to tackle the cable chart but now it is a breeze. Plus, my yarn choice this time round is about a gazillion times better, Queensland Collection Uruguay DK, a blend of merino, alpaca and silk. FABULOUS. Now run, don't walk over to Little Knits... you can thank me or curse me later for that link as you see fit :)

Unfortunately I'm having a break from knitting today due to screaming back ache (yah, knitting solidly for about five days straight will do that to you, be a dear and pass the IcyHot will ya?) and am spending Christmas money instead. Two picture frames down, one to go!

Also, if you have knitscene's new issue, check out page 96 ;)

So this is Christmas.....

...and what have you done? Another year over, a new one just begun!

I'm not sure if I should tell the world what I did for Christmas because you'll either feel sorry for me or be really jealous. Firstly Christmas Eve was spent baking mince pies (kind of a gross picture since I had to use the flash):

And roasting chickens at my friends house where I was kept company by this furry little critter:

"The Big Day" was spent on my own watching crappy TV, making chicken stock and knitting. KNITTING UNTIL MY FINGERS BLED. OK, slight exaggeration but I did knit a lot. See?

That's a whole sweater back folks. In three days. Uh huh. Details to follow when I'm not being distracted by my house mate using my swift and ball winder....

T'was the Sunday before Christmas....

... and all through the lab,
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even the tired graduate student who feels like banging her head against a brick wall trying to figure out WTF is going on with this data.

Ho ho ho folks, ho ho ho.

Forgive me for not feeling very festive this year. Maybe it's the not going home, maybe it's the work piling up around my ears but I'm just not getting it this year. At least I've managed a little diversion before going back to work...

Pattern: Cabletini by Wendy Knits
Yarn & Needles: Knit Picks Essentials in Burgundy, 2.25mm dpns.
Modifications: For the toe: Cast on 12 stitches on one needles, K1fb in all stitches (24 total) and pull out the needle (yes really, pull out the needle!). The stitches separate into two rows of 12 stitches, one row for each of two needles. K one round, K1 K1fb K5 and add a new needle. K5 K1fb K1. Repeat (4 st increased) etc, etc. For the cuff: I stopped cabling and did 10 rounds of P3 K3.

Oh yarn, you never had a chance to become stash and you will never be on my feet! For alas you are too big for me. (Gauge swatch a sock, you must be kidding me!) These socks will be going to my friend Em who has been having a rough semester.

Whatever shall I knit next?

Spending to Save

I've been a naughty girl. Despite saying that I wouldn't buy any more yarn, somehow two skeins of Knit Picks' Essential found their way into my recent needle order. I am sticking by my reasoning that I actually gained free yarn and paid for shipping by adding them to my cart, and a) who can refuse free yarn, plus b) I've cast on with it straight away so it didn't even have stash status for more than about a millisecond.

Believe me? No, neither do I but I PROMISE that this will be it for a while. Honest. Fo sho.

I did get more dpns and a fancy little doo-dad to make my commuting knitting a little less exposed to the savage environment of my purse. It is made of cardboard which saddens me slightly (it is a JUNGLE in there, I tell you) but hopefully it should make things a bit more portable :)

Cabletinis, pattern available here (pdf).

Why, hello there!

If you're clicking over from Knitscene, hello! If you've been clicking around for ages, well, um, hello too :)

Happy Tuesday, I made another hat! This is for my lab manager Jeff who has very kindly been the test head for all my other Facebook hats. Thanks Jeff :)

Pattern: A hat fit for a boyfriend.
Yarn & Needles: Patons Merino Evergreen (IT'S ALL GONE NOW!) plus odds and sods of scraps. 4mm dpns.

The craziness continues. The media attention is obviously going to my head....

Pom Pa-Pom Pom Pom

Another day, another dollar. I really like this hat, can you tell?


But I'll be giving it away tonight to my buddy MattMatt, who said "I you make it for me it doesn't matter what it looks like, I'll wear it." You have to love friends like that :)


Pattern: Braided Hat
Yarn and Needles: Berocco Peruvia Grano, less than one ball. 4mm dpns.
Modifications: Changed the rib from 2x2 to P1 K3 P3 K3 P1 repeat so that the cables would flow out of the ribs.

BTW, I've got this blocking on a flowerpot thing down to an art form. Also an art form, pom-pom making. I love a good pom-pom! I am a bit OCD when it comes to them though, I spent around half an hour giving this one its hair cut. But it's a good pom-pom well worthy of the time spent on it. Can you tell it's Friday? I've lost the plot. POM-POM!

Foiled

Geez, planning a retreat for 120 people sure can cut into your knitting time!

All I have to offer today is a crick in my neck and this:


No prizes for guessing what it is :)

Deja Vu

For someone who hates having their picture taken there sure are a lot of photos of me cropping up all over the t'internet. I just wish I could clone stamp away the eye bags in real life as easily as I do in photoshop :(

But hey look! ANOTHER HAT!! I know this is probably getting boring but will it help to know that I only have enough of this yarn left to make one more hat? One more lonely hat in evergreen and then I'll stop. Because I have to.


Utopia Cable Hat (ravelry link because I'm feeling lazy today). Unfortunately as written this hat is both on the snug and short side. So I blocked it. ON A FLOWERPOT. It is now substantially larger although not so much in the length dimension. I tried it on a male colleague here in lab and it is a tad short on him. Boo. Whatever, it's going to Chicago anyway. I'm sure this problem would be solved by using the correct size needles. Also, whatever.

All hats all the time.

You might be spotting a theme.


All five of the people who asked for hats were guys. Guy hats are generally a little dull. Don't get me wrong, I love the colour of this yarn and Raph's hat looked so much like a freakin' sea anemone that I was really tempted to keep it (instead I spent $4 sending it to France). But for this particular friend I thought ribs were the safe way to go (did I mention the 25 3/4" head circumference. My waist is 25"). Simple, effective and with neat decreases on the crown.


Pattern: A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend. I did not name this pattern. Bobble-head is definitely not my boyfriend ;)
Yarn and Needles: Seriously?
Modifications: I cast on 10 extra stitches and knitted and extra half inch before decreasing to accommodate the largest noggin in the world. It may not look like it in the pictures but this hat is very lose on my 22" head, I'm hoping it will neither be too loose or too short on his.

Hat number three will be a fiesta of cables and goofiness. This has been OKed by the prospective owner. I'm thinking maybe Frivoli (pdf) or the Utopia Cabled Hat or the Caramel Cable Hat or or or....

Facebook Faux Pas

Misplacedpom is: Wondering how many hats she can knit in a 48 hour period while pretending to write her immuno paper. Also, does anyone want a hat?

Five people, FIVE PEOPLE!! said "yes". It wasn't quite a real offer to knit everyone and their mom a hat but it seems like now I have to :) This is a no pressure project since I'm done with my Christmas knitting (except maybe one more hat for the BIL) and it has the added bonus of using up all those stray skeins of worsted in my stash. Win-win for all concerned. And I managed to put on clothes and makeup for the photo shoot. Go me.


Pattern:Snowball Hat from Interweave Knits Fall '07.
Yarn and Needles: I'm thinking of have my 4mm dpns surgically grafted to my body. Patons Classic Merino in Evergreen, maybe half a ball out of the two left over from the V-neck vest.
Modifications: I added an extra 16st to the cast on (96st in total) to accommodate another repeat of the cable chart because my yarn was finer than the pattern suggested. I also added a bunch more rows for the same reason and extra decreases to both compensate for the extra stitches and to reduce puckering at the top. This ended up making a pretty star shape on the crown of the hat. See?


Now I'm just waiting for an address and this little hat will be winging it's way to Toulouse to my friend Raphael :)

"Not too itchy"

That's what my sister asked for. While it's less important in the mittens, I know from bitter personal experience that it really does matter in the hat. (Don't get me started about the time my dermatologist told me I should steer clear of wool because of my persnickety skin.) So I knew I had to find a hat pattern that, if it didn't already have one, could be modified to incorporate a liner and would be a kind of "one size fits all". Ribbing was obviously out and I had to choose wisely to find a hat that wasn't too boring nor would make her look like a pinhead. That's right, my sister is a tiny-handed pinhead.

This is what I came up with.


Pattern: Coronet by Alexandra Vergiel, Knitty Winter '03.
Yarn and Needles: Cascade 220 in 8886 (purple) about half a skein, and Debbie Bliss Cathay in 11 (red-purple) about a third or less of a skein.
Modifications: Just about everything, I used the pattern more a jumping off point and as a reference for how many stitches to pick up but then figured out the rest for myself. Please note the rather spectacular graft on the cable band, sometimes I amaze even myself ;) Here is my recipe for a lined Coronet:

Knit the cabled head band as instructed (I did 17 repeats) and graft together. With RS facing, pick up 90 stitches using the liner yarn and knit ~3", place on scrap yarn. Again with RS facing, pick up 90s in the wool yarn and knit until the same length as the folded under liner. Next round pick up one stitch at a time from the liner and K2tog with the wool. Knit some more then do decreases. Mine are different from the pattern (because I didn't even look at it by this point) but what I did isn't really important :)

If I'd have thought about it a it more or been so inclined I would have knit a complete liner, or at least taken the liner up to the height of the decreases just to make the join a little less apparent. I did want it to be longer than just the cable's width thought to make sure it completely covered the forehead.


I'm coming to realise that a lot of my FO pictures are taken in the morning. In my pyjamas. With no makeup on. I think I should really make an effort to change that!