What Hath Spring Sprung?

It has been way too long since I've posted.  I've been knitting a lot, though.  And thinking of lots of things I want to say, here or somewhere, and just not finding the time.  I'll try to catch up a little!

It has been a very busy spring.  We have officially joined the ranks of over-scheduled families.  (Is there a badge?)  It happened SO quickly; I didn't see it coming.  Eli wanted to play Little League, but he was not going to give up cello (nor did we want him to) nor Hebrew/Sunday school (he would give that up, and I would let him, but his father feels strongly that the pain of religious education must be handed down from generation to generation.)  And recitals and science fairs and Auden wanted to play soccer ...  And my parents were here visiting from California this week, and last weekend was a reunion with my college roommates, and this week the children are in a play and next week I have a concert with rehearsals all week ... next year something may have to go!  

Knitting (combined with mindless television) has been a great stress-reducer.  Except all my knitting has been going wrong!

I started this sweater for Auden, Gretel by Penny Straker, but even though I swatched very carefully, my gauge got much tighter when I knit in the round and the sweater was clearly going to be too small.  Now I am bored of so much stockinette and think I will knit her a cardigan from Rowan Pipsqueaks instead, even though I love the Gretel and have heard wonderful things about Penny Straker patterns.

And then there were the socks for Will, which I went great guns on until it became clear I was going to run out of yarn; I don't know why I thought one skein of Cherry Tree Hill DK was going to be enough, but I did.  So I thought I'd make the toes gray, with leftover Lorna's Laces, and then I ran out of THAT and now the toes are purple and gray. *sigh*  They are not the things of beauty I once envisioned, though I know the toes won't show, and I haven't been able to get motivated to finish them off.

THEN I decided to make the cabled purse from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts for my friend Julie's 40th birthday, using the leftover Koigu from the scarf I made my friend Alison for her 40th birthday.  I didn't check gauge, and halfway through the purse was coming out VERY tiny! About 3" wide instead of the 5.25 called for in the pattern.  I couldn't bear to rip it out – it's not a hard pattern but it's a little bit fussy – so I went ahead and finished it and managed to spray-block it (around a plastic container lid) to about 5".  Hopefully it will stay that way!  It is a fun way to use Koigu; much quicker than socks and a better spring/summer gift than a scarf, I think.  This could be my go-to girlfriend gift.

Still plugging along on my cabled cardigan; no disasters there, thank goodness!

I will try to be back sooner.  Thank you for putting up with me!  And thank you all for your wonderful comments, which I love reading despite my lack of replying.  

I'm Still Here!

I've even been knitting. Finished these red socks for Eli, made progress on my Bridget cardigan and started these socks for Will:

I'm using Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Sport, which is such a pleasure.  Very squooshy and *so* quick to knit.   I'm in love with the colorway (Java).    I broke my no-yarn-buying resolve and ordered it from A Sheep's Tale, which was having a fantastic sale on CTH.  (They still are, but I don't know how many colors are left.)    I really love it, especially after my traumatic experience making the red socks.  The yarn itself -- Lang Jawoll -- was fine, though I think it may be thinner than your average sock yarn -- but my attempts to use the spool of matching reinforcing thread that came with it was a comedy of errors.  I can't bear to recount them all here, but suffice it to say that reinforcing thread, or at least this reinforcing thread, is a TERRIBLE thing to rip out.  Up there with mohair.  I ended up with an enormous snarled mess and having to cut the thread several times.  I also didn't enjoy knitting with the thread and I didn't like how dense it made the fabric.  So I won't do that again!  The socks are nice and cheery, though, and Eli seems to like them.

I finished one front of the Bridget cardigan and have  moved onto the second -- so far so good.  I am such a nimrod, though, that after berating myself for forgetting to write down what needles I used for the ribbing of the first front, I then forgot to write down which needles I used for the ribbing of the second one.   'Cause I wouldn't want the back to match, either, would I.   *sigh*  I think it was 6s, though.  


I apologize for my long absence.  I have been busy, but also thinking a lot about this blog and what/who it's for.  I imagine many people are having the same thoughts since Ravelry came along.  Anyway, I won't bore you with that now.  Plus, my children are demanding a game of LIFE, so I  have to go.

Until next time!  Happy Spring, everyone.  It's coming, I'm sure of  it!

Rose's Got Pants

But more importantly, Rose has the cutest little sweater you ever saw ...

Is it not adorable? Does it not make you squee with its adorableness?


I started to knit Rose some pants, I really did. Out of this very yarn, which I must confess, I did end up buying, for $3 (the buttons cost more than the yarn!) in the sale basket at the Village Yarn Shop. (And which I LOVE, 'cause it's 6-ply and it knits up SO much faster than regular sock yarn.)

Anyway, I started the pants, and they were so ugly I could not go on. So ugly I could not even record them for history in a picture. Auden, of course, liked them. And was not interested in a sweater, no matter how adorable, when Rose needed pants. But I found these nice purple pants at an Etsy store and all is well in Auden-land.

Life is too short to knit ugly pants, even for a doll.

Pattern: Miniature Cowichan Cardigan by Veronik Avery. (Is there a non-miniature version? I kind of want one.)
Yarn: Regia 6-ply Crazy Color, 1 skein, plus Cascade 220 Superwash for the collar.
Needles: US3
Modifications: I skipped the colorwork, obviously, and did regular instead of twisted ribbing, mostly because I was too lazy to get up out of my chair and figure out how to do a twisted purl stitch.

How Grownups Waste Time

I had a little bit of yarn left from my mom's socks, and Rose (Auden's American Girl-ish Hannukah present) needed socks ... so I made the world's most boring doll sock. However, since I used smaller needles than the pattern called for (Rose has fine sensibilities) and didn't check gauge, they don't actually fit Rose. They do fit Sasha, my childhood doll that Auden also plays with, but as Auden pointed out to me, "Sasha doesn't really need socks. She doesn't go outside much. And she doesn't have shoes."

Meanwhile, Rose has socks with puppies on them coming from eBay, and what Auden really wants is for me to make Rose some pants. So I'll rip this out ... but I may have to try again one of these days -- look at those tiny gussets! How cute is that!

Apparently knitting doll socks puts me in the ranks of crazy knitter, if I wasn't there already. My husband seems to think so , anyway -- he refused to join in on any discussion re. what kind of sock Rose might prefer. Just gave me a concerned look.

I did persuade myself that no yarn can be purchased for making doll items. No yarn ought to be purchased for any purposes, actually, it is getting hard to fit guests in the guest room.

I'll just keep burning through my stash, one tiny sock at a time ...

Under the Wire

These are for my mother's birthday, which is Friday. I finished them just before noon and mailed them off, with the post office's assurances that they would be in California in two days. Whew! Kind of silly to spend months on a pair of socks and then rush through the finishing. I didn't have time to wash them – although I'm partly glad because I would be so depressed if they pilled too much right away. The cuffs were already looking discouragingly frayed; I had to trim off the fuzz and
escaping antennae. I liked knitting with the Regia Silk, and it looks very nice, but I don't know if I'll get much feedback on how it wears. (Or even *if* it's worn. We shall not think of that!:)

Not being pure silk, these do not drape in the luxurious manner of the book illustration; however they did insist on posing with pearls, just like in the book.



In the end, the fit was OK. If I made another pair, which I probably won't, I would change the shape of the heel flap. And I'm sure there were some minor errors in the pattern that aren't in the errata. But overall, a very nice pattern.

By a stroke of knitter's luck, a piece of our car began dragging on the ground yesterday and I had to spend the morning at the Honda dealership while it was repaired. Only $20.99 (to replace broken clips on the undercarriage) and more than an hour of uninterrupted, guilt-free daytime knitting! I was very happy.



Pattern: Anniversary Socks, from Interweave Knits Favorite Socks
Yarn: Regia Silk, Color 002
Needles: Knitpicks Options DPN, Size 2.5 mm (The size between a U.S. 1 and 2)
Modifications: Only to fix errors. If you make these, CHECK THE CORRECTIONS!!!!

A Windy Day ...

and some squirrels in our yard are looking for new homes!

Moving Right Along

Well, after working on every small project I could think of instead, I have finally started the Bridget cardigan. So far so good! I am still amazed by the very fact of cabling (and the fact that I can do it) though I think some of that will wear off by the time I get through two fronts and the back ... there are a lot of cables here. And no charts. Charts would help a lot. I may need to do something about that.

One early success: I was able to drop down four rows to add in a cable I'd left out (one of the little ones on the left -- you can see where it's kind of loose) instead of having to rip back. Baby steps! The Options needle points are killing my fingers with all the pushing through cables; I might switch to my Inox and see if they're pointy enough to do the job.

So that should keep me busy for a while. It's not traveling knitting, though. Nor is this, the semi-abandoned Anniversary Sock:


I tried it on again yesterday. Can anyone else see the skewing I'm talking about in the picture above? The diamonds are not symmetrical ... they pull to the right and kind of slant over into the cable on the right, while there's a neat straight division between them and the cable on the left. Did I do something wrong to cause this? Or is it just part of the design? It bothers me less than it did before. Anyway, I wasn't going to rip back because of that, but because I thought it was too short and the heel fit badly:


I love the eye-of-partridge heel but this one is a strange shape -- very short and wide, not a square at all. If I rip out past the heel will I ever re-knit the rest of the sock? and if I don't, will I ever re-knit the second sock??!! I think I should finish these socks; it's very nice yarn and they're very pretty. And they're for my mother, who so far has only one garter stitch scarf to show for her knitting daughter. I think I will make Kathy help decide when she comes here next week. (!!!!) All my knitting decisions rely heavily on Kathy. :)

And finally, I realized I never posted a picture of my Hannukah yarn. My sister-in-law Nancy gave me The Book of Yarn, which I love, and this beautiful sock yarn:


The colors, especially of the one on the right, are not ones I would have chosen myself, which I like, because I tend to buy the same colors over and over. Eli is already clamoring for socks from the "fire" yarn!

Purty Hat

There. My children are hatted and mittened for winter. If that doesn't make a knitting mommy proud. Also, who could ever be mad at a 9-year-old who loves his homemade knitwear so much he insists on wearing all of it – hat, mittens and Harry Potter scarf – for the five-minute trip to his friend's house this afternoon? (Well, I could, actually, but we shall not mention that here.) Of course, he then forgot to bring any of it home! but it has been retrieved and all is well.


Pattern: Norwegian Star Earflap Hat by Tiennie
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash
Needles: US 8 (and my wee US 6 short needles for the I-cord.)
Size: Adult
Modifications: I made a four-stitch I-cord.

What a lovely pattern! Very easy to follow, though you wouldn't know it from the umpteen false starts I made on this hat. I had many ideas, such as making it double-thick, and starting from the top down, and doing ribbing instead of earflaps ... but in the end Eli wanted earflaps, so he got them. It is a little big, but he has such a big head I was afraid the smaller size wouldn't be big enough. I want to block it and see if I can tame the rolling in front and back a little (Tiennie, if you read this, did you do this?) but he may not let go of it long enough for me to block it!

The kids and I are off to Maryland, but before I leave I have to post these pictures of our knitting family the other night; after a long day at the children's museum and swimming with friends (AND a pretend-Friendly's dinner at home), the next morning the children decided they wanted to knit! So they pulled out their knitting, which has sat untouched for months, and charged ahead. To my surprise, they both basically remembered what to do (I had taught them the Waldorf poem – "In through the window, out through the back, peek through the window and off pops Jack" – which seemed to help, and they are – for now – wrapping the yarn the way other people do, which seemed easier to learn than my way, though – *sniff* – less efficient!) They were both so darn cute about it all, and quite persistent. I did some cleaning up and salvaging of stitches now and then, but really they were both knitting! Auden even taught Eli how to do mushroom-knitting; I think he was impressed that she could do it so well. (I got him his own today so he can try left-handed.)


Auden helps her big brother.

Everyone knits.

Eli hard at work on his scarf.

And now, I'm off. Happy New Year everyone - see you in 2008!

Snow Day!

The huge blizzard we were supposed to get never came, but the kids ended up with the day off school anyway, which seemed only fair after all the hype. We did get more than a foot of snow over the weekend – we're moving up in the Great Snow Race, woo hoo! (Why does Buffalo get all the hype? They've got nuthin' on us. Of course, we've got nothing on Syracuse ...:) The kids spent half the day inside in their pajamas until I finally tossed them out into the snow.

Two happy children ...

and one VERY happy dog!

Some meager and belated updates ...

I finished (except for blocking) another "Scarf-as-a-Collar" for Auden's kindergarten teacher. It took less than a skein of Claudia's Handpainted sock yarn, with a bit left over, yay! (Adding in a second skein the last time I made it was a pain.) I hope it's long enough – the last one I made longer and then thought was too long; this one seems the bare minimum for length. Maybe blocking will help some.

And I'm mostly done with a pair of striped mittens for Eli, inspired by Loribird at From the Wool Room. Mine are in Cascade 220 superwash (I love the Heathers she used, but I have seen what my children do to their mittens!) also using the Ann Budd Book of Patterns from the library. (What a great book! I think I might need a copy of my own.) They're a very fast knit – I finished the first one in two afternoons of Munchkin-chaperoning – and quite adorable, I think. My only reservation is they're thin - I hadn't really thought about how much thickness the colorwork added to Auden's mittens.

And that's all at the moment, really. The Anniversary Socks are hibernating until I stop being too depressed to figure out what's wrong with them and how to fix it. I toyed with the idea of making another teacher gift by the end of the week but ... I don't think so. Wouldn't she really rather have a Target gift card anyway? I need to finish these mittens, make a hat, make myself a headband ('cause my ears are getting cold) and then get down to business on one of these many sweaters which I now own the yarn for. If they could just settle the television writer's strike, my knitting time would be all set. :)

In case I don't post again this month: Happy New Year everyone! and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. May your holidays be warm and safe.

Rufflicious

Here is Auden modeling Kira's Ruffles scarf, which I sent off in the mail today. I think it's cute – I don't love my choice of yarn, which made the scarf a little too thick and heavy. I hope it's long enough – I could have gone longer but I was so bored of knitting it! plus the heavy thing. And then I squashed it in the box with my nieces' other gifts, who knows what it will look like when it arrives!


Pattern: Ruffles scarf from Scarf Style.
Yarn: Scoubidu in stonewashed purple, 2.5 skeins
Needles: US6 straights.
Modifications: None

And here is my Anniversary sock for my mother, in progress. It is a very nice lace pattern, but it does something strange when I try it on and look at it stretched out - the lace skews to one side. I will have to take a close-up picture to show you. I am not changing it now, and I guess I'd better do the other one to match, but it looks odd to me.


These are clearly not going to be done for Hannukah, though I am knitting them faster than any sock I've knit before! I'm using my new Knitpicks DPNs, size 1.5 – I like that they are shorter than my other needles and the gauge seems good. My poor fingers are quite sore from their sharp points, though (good for the mini-cables) and I'm not sure how I'm feeling about their weight.

So that's all the knitting that's going on chez Hilary! I need to start something else mindless to take with me to Wizard of Oz rehearsals (Eli's a Munchkin) etc. Maybe I will make a teacher scarf after all ...

Two FO's

Count 'em, two!

First, my Dashing gloves in Malabrigo for Eli's temporary cello teacher, with which I am inordinately happy (the gloves, not the teacher. I am very happy with her too - hence the gloves - but I believe that is happiness of the ordinate sort:). I need to make more fingerless gloves. They're fast! They're funky! I am not quite clear on the usefulness, and they are very long, but I love them anyway. And I love the Malabrigo, the Malabrigo colorway (Paris Nights) and the way they feel ... I just hope they don't disappear into pills on the first wearing.

Pattern: Dashing, from Knitty

Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in Paris Nights

Needles: DPN US6

Modifications: I knit 20 rows instead of 24 after the third cable to shorten the wrists slightly. I also decreased five stitches before the castoff so they wouldn't flare, and I used the EZ sewn bind-off. (Is there ever a reason not to use that? I am quite addicted to it, and it matched my cable cast-on quite well.)

Second, the Diagonal Ridges scarf for Nada:

I still need to block it, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. It is a very pretty pattern (thanks Kathy!) and the wrong side looks just as good as the right:

Pattern: Diagonal Ridges scarf from Ann Norling, Six Lace Scarfs

Yarn: Times Remembered Prime Alpaca, sportweight, color Musk

Needles: Knitpicks Options US4

Modifications: Cast on 33 stitches. I used the EZ sewn bindoff for this, too.

Signs of Addiction

More yarn has appeared at my house and I am at a loss to explain just why. Last month I was virtuously selling off stash and then ... something happened. I think I was using up my Paypal balance and I got carried away. Just a little! Some serious enabling by the ISO group on Ravelry and the Destash blog. I really need to get off of those. And then there was the siren call of a sale at Sonny & Shear ...

It's all beautiful! There's Noro Silk Garden in pinks and purples, which I have a plan for, sort of:

Fleece Artist Merino Sock in Mermaid:


Claudia Hand Painted sock yarn in Plumilicious ...


Dream in Color Smooshy in Some Kind of Summer (I love this already!):


and Dream in Color Classy in Petal Shower, or Shower of Petals, which will make a lovely baby sweater, as soon as someone I know (someone? anyone?) has a baby girl.

Not too terrible ... except of course that there's a sale at a going-out-of-business LYS I really want to go to, and Shop Night at the Knitter's Guild meeting next month ... and it is not like I am exactly churning out the knitted items.

*sigh* I need a budget.

Tomorrow: FO's! I promise!

Bad Parenting

We interrupt this knitting blog to bring you a cautionary announcement: It turns out that allowing one's children to have one night of "eat all the Halloween candy you want" may not be such a great idea. Apparently parents are supposed to be smarter than their 5-year-olds about how much is enough/too much, and not let them end up awake half the night with a tummy ache and then send them kindergarten only to throw up on the table. (I say apparently, because although both said 5-year-old and her mother have stomach aches from too much candy, one of them – and it's not the 5-year-old – is still eating leftover candy.)

*sigh*

I could swear I read this eat-all-you-want-once idea in the paper. (And of course I believe everything I read in the paper!) I think it was a dentist who suggested it. Well, her teeth are fine.

And now she's itching and blotchy all over and I have a call in to the doctor. I feel like such a bad mommy!


Postscript: Well, it is looking less like the candy is to blame and more like she is just plain sick. So I guess I can feel less guilty.

Here is one possibility of how she GOT sick ... the world's most unhygienic Halloween game, astonishingly instigated by the teacher. It involves serial licking of a laminated construction paper jack-o-lantern, with only a wipe of a wet rag between children, at least one of whom had had a fever as recently as that morning. I was so astounded that I could do nothing but sputter "I'm really grossed out" and watch as my daughter went ahead and played. (I should have jumped in like a proper Type A mom and screamed "Go first Auden, go first!")


Well, who knows if there's any relation. But it was seriously gross.

On a more positive note, here is Auden's class all suited up for Halloween. It sure doesn't look like any of my elementary school classes! It warms my heart. I just hope all that diversity is rubbing off on her somewhere.

Back to knitting content next time, I promise!

Happy Halloween!

After the Whacking

This is the beginning of my alpaca scarf, using the skein that I dunked in hot water/dunked in cold water/dunked in hot water/whacked against the wall:


It DOES look different from the swatch I made from the undunked and unwhacked alpaca (below), but it's not entirely a controlled test. (Different pattern, the second swatch is washed and blocked, etc.) However it seems less hairy, and I didn't ruin my yarn, so I'll take what I get. The idea is, I guess, to very slightly full the yarn so that the hairs don't stick out as much. I should have taken pictures, but I was too terrified of felting the whole skein to think about anything else! The whacking against the wall is very satisfying, for the record.

I like the top pattern -- it's Ann Norling's Diagonal Ridges -- better (just like Kathy said I would:) but I think mine is too narrow (only 5.5 inches -- the pattern calls for 6 and I think maybe I want a little more than that) so I'm going to start over. Pooey.

EDITED TO ADD: Never mind. I dug out the scarf in this pattern that Kathy made for Will and it is the same width and it looks fine. Onward!

Forgot to take a picture of the new, improved socks I started for my mom and today it's pouring. But I think I'm starting those over too. I missed a cable, and I want to try the new size needles I ordered from Knitpicks (the larger size 1s, which fall between the regular U.S. 1 and 2 sizes.) Last time I knit a sock on 1s it drove me insane, but I would like a slightly finer fabric.

That was my blog break, back to spring fall cleaning!

p.s.

I pulled out the box of scarves, gloves and hats this evening. Fun to see all the handknits in there. Not THAT many, not compared to many of you who are far more prolific than I am. But it still tickles me to have made any practical items at all.