Keeping on knitting

Time for a two week check in on my insanity...

I'm still crazy. Bat-shit, even. 65" wide and about 18" deep right now. I'm aiming for the astronomical length of 88". Told you I was certifiable.

You what the most awesome part of this project is? Well, you see all that yarn on my couch? That was all sent to me by my flickr friends and my Sit n Knit friends. They have enabled me in the most wonderful way. Seriously. This project is so, so addictive is because every square is a little gem of awesome in its own right, plus there is so much colour and texture for me to play with that I can't help but immediately pick up stitches for the next square as soon as the ends are woven in from the previous one.

And, to say thank you to all these wonderful people I've been making Kiva loans, one for every five people who sent me yarn. So far we've helped a teacher in Nicaragua purchase a computer to further her own and her student's studies, a baker in El Salvador buy flour, sugar and cinnamon to expand her wholesale business, and a liquor store owner in South Sudan pay for distillation equipment. This makes me happy :)

Now off to knit some more....

Insanity Blanket

No really. What was I thinking?

I got a bee in my bonnet a couple of nights ago about reorganizing my stash since it had gotten a little out of hand and was spread out across my apartment. This lead to me assessing the amount of scrap sock yarn I had squirreled away with no real purpose. So I cast on. And knit.

And knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit......

I'm following the directions for the Sock Yarn Blanket by The Heathen Housewife. I'm knitting on US2/2.75mm needles. And I'm hooked. Completely and utterly hooked.

But I am going to run out of yarn. Thankfully though my flickr and twitter and Sit 'n' Knit New York peeps are coming to my aid and many have promised me their scraps. I CAN NOT WAIT. Seriously. I have considered unraveling things, snipping bits of yarn off of as yet unused balls of sock yarn, I even made up a cart of random 50g balls of sock yarn from Little Knits that I didn't buy. But soon little packages should be arriving from my friends and I can resume my crazy.

I can't wait.

The BIG one

And so to the last of my holiday gifts. One I may have alluded to here. It started out innocently enough with a pile of neatly cut triangles in very thin cotton. 110 isosceles triangles to be precise.

The there was much cutting of random strips of black and red fat quarters. Then sewing, lots of sewing, to create 110 string pieced triangles that looked a little like this.

Then there was more precision cutting of triangles, more sewing and pressing and piecing to create a top that looked a little bit more like the spiderweb I was going for. There were borders made and sewn on, an improvised back pieced together. Basting, quilting and binding. Acres of hand sewing. And then there was this.

The pattern inspiration and cutting templates came from a book, "Scrap Quilts from the Depression", that I picked up in a secondhand store in Vancouver. The pattern calls for 20 octagons (160 triangles) for a queen sized quilt but since I was aiming more for a cuddling-on-the-couch sized quilt I made the top from 12 octagons.... OK, so you got me. I made it from 12 because I ran out of fabric to piece onto and the inclination to sew any more triangles after I hit the 110 mark. I was worried it would be too small with only 12 which is why I added the framing sashing. But saying all that, I really like the way it looks with the frame, and it ties the back to the front better. Or something like that.

After the front was pieced I went on a month long sewing hiatus while I slogged though an obscene amount of bioinformatic data analysis for my Big Scary Annual Faculty Meeting, after which I was left with four days to finish the quilt before I flew home. FOUR DAYS! I originally had a completely different idea for the back along the lines of the back of the Mod Sampler but after laying it out I realized that it wouldn't work without more triangles (see above as to why that didn't happen.) So instead I made a rectangular patch out of the remaining 14 triangles then sashed my little heart out, mimicked the final frame on the front and called it a good 'un.

I basted and quilted the sucker in one day. You may recall that my machine does not like quilting. With this quilt I discovered that my sewing machine prefers me to use a heavy duty denim needle and that I really, really, REALLY need to support as much of the weight of the quilt as possible to prevent drag, and then the thread wont snap. In fact it only snapped three or four times compared to the thirty or forty times it snapped before. I'd call that an improvement.

The next day I made and attached all the binding. I hand sewed the entire circumference in one afternoon. Basically I finished the whole damn thing with a day to spare. GO ME.

But after all that, what really matters is this.

I think they like it.

Catch-up: Impromptu little knits.

Aside from all the shawls, there were two other small knits that were made for gifting and both were made with yarn I'd received for free! The first was a hat for Dash.

With a single skein of Knit Picks Gloss DK from the Ravelry goodie bag at this year's Rhinebeck party, I cast on 90st on 4mm needles. I joined in round and K1 P1 for 1.5", then switched to stockinette until the hat measured 6" or so. Then spiral decreased down to 9st (K8 K2tog repeat, K one row, K7 K2tog etc etc). Then for extra flourish I made a pompom with the leftover yarn. I'm not sure if it is actually going to be big enough for Dash but hopefully it'll fit this year.

Next up was a gift for my lab secret Santa. We pulled names on Monday afternoon (incidentally immediately after my Big Scary Annual Faculty Meeting) and gave gifts on Wednesday. Since I pulled someone I knew would appreciate a hand knit I immediately went home, wound up yarn and set to. Maybe four hours later I had this.

Pattern: Darkside Cowl by Sarah Fama
Yarn & Needles: Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend received in a goodie bag at the Knit1 launch party I went to forever ago, US8/5mm dpns.

The fact that I tied the package with leftover yarn and that the gift was, um, knitted might well have given me away as Santa. But it was very well received and hopefully will be worn!

Catch-up: The shawl edition.

It's that time of the knitting year when a bazillion secret projects suddenly get let loose on the internet. My creaky, old blog is no exception. There were projects that were kept under wraps, some that happened spontaneously, and at least one that I'd been working on since September.

First things first! The gift I knit for my sister way back in September, never got around to mailing for her October birthday, and that was finally gifted in late December. I'm good at planning ahead, just not so good on the follow through!

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark, Interweave Knits Fall '06.
Yarn & Needles: Brooklyn Handspun Soft Spun, Odd Duck (about 2/3 ball) on US6/4mm needles.

This shawl is very pretty, if a little small. I contemplated adding a few repeats to the bud lace section but then didn't even attempt to calculate what would happen to the stitch counts if I did that, so I ended up knitting exactly as written. Maybe if I make it again I'd investigate the math a little more thoroughly. Still, my sister likes it and the colours in the yarn are fabulous, everyone is happy :)

The next shawl to fall off my needles was a spontaneous plane knitting project conceived mere hours before I flew to the UK. I ended up gifting it to my mother.

Pattern: Yvaine by Liz Abinante. Modified to make full use of the yarn (repeated 14 rows stockinette 8 rows seed stitch throughout) and to change the method of increasing (yo instead of m1l/r).
Yarn & Needles: Fleece Artist Somoko, Mermaid from the Ravelry Summer Camp Swap. Lovely yarn, very soft and warm. US8/5mm

The last shawl I knit was for me, out of some very special yarn. I won a skein of Plucky Knitter Merino Cashmere Nylon at Rhinebeck in 2008 and have been waiting for something special to make it into. I give you Lavalette:

It's beautiful and so, so soft. I definitely saved the best for myself!