Must. Make. Mittens.

I have been taken by a strange desire to knit mittens and mittens only lately. I'm sure this has nothing to do with Mitten Madness. Or the fact that I can churn out a pair of basic mittens in two evenings. I finished the cabled fingerless mittens two weeks ago while watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for class.

I thought these were going to be too small but they actually fit me quite well.

And they're warm because they're 100% wool. The pattern is the Mock Cable Wristers from 60 Quick Knits.

Saturday I started a pair of plain mittens using the No Swatch, No Gauge Mittens for Kids pattern by Jean Gifford. I finished them up on Sunday, soaked them Sunday night, and they have been drying since earlier this morning.

This is really a pattern I can get on board with. You use whatever yarn you have and whatever needles you need to make a dense fabric. The resulting mittens are great for charity since they are guaranteed to fit someone. The yarn is some Classic Wool in the colorway Bird of Paradise. I will probably use this pattern as a template for designing some patterned mittens or for game knitting.

Since I finished the classic mittens I had to start a new pair of course.

This is some of the left over yarn from the No Swatch mittens. I'm making some more fingerless gloves. This is using a game knitting technique.

When a predetermined action happens in the show you are watching you wrap the next stitch and turn. The whole mitt ends up being made from short rows. I must say that I'm really loving the game knitting ebook that I bought. I would highly recommend it. It's given me lots of ideas for knitting projects and since I watch t.v. while I knit it's a great way to incorporate the two.

I guess that I have done some other knitting besides mittens. I'm still working on my Red Dragon socks. I'm past the heel turn but I don't have a progress picture to show for it. I also finished the pink sweater.

I think it's adorable. This isn't for anyone, it's actually for sale in my shop. I plan on adding a few more baby things and washcloths over the next few weeks. For now though I have mittens to knit...

On Hold

I got my snow day on Friday!
The big problem is not the snow (which really was only a light dusting) but the ice. The area between the cars in the picture is actually a solid block of ice. And it has been since Friday morning. Because we here in the South aren't used to snow and ice and wintry weather, the roads become a demolition derby of sorts and it's really best to stay inside. Which I did. Things actually seemed to have gotten pretty bad this time because the news kept reporting about accidents caused by ice on the roads. My favorite was the 27 car pile up on an on-ramp. The DOT admitted they "might have missed that ramp" when they were de-icing. Really? You think?

So, instead of getting out into the fray, I dyed some roving. It's drying right now and hopefully it will be ready for pictures by tomorrow. I need to get it divided into samples and shipped for the Phat Fiber box by the 15th. Fingers doubled crossed that everything will be done on time.

I also had some knitting queued up. I had originally planned to finish up my mittens for charity. At the last minute I changed my mind and made this instead:
The 5 Hour Baby Sweater! Cute overload. The color is more accurate in this photo:
As you recall, I'm knitting a blanket for my friends Cliff and Jenn. I'm still working on the blanket but I thought that little Sophia might need something to wear too. This really would have only taken 5 hours if I had a) been able to work on it non-stop and b) done the i-cord drawstring on a smaller needle the first time (for future reference if you decide to do an i-cord instead of the crochet chain suggested then use a smaller size DPN than a 10.5, like a size 7). It did turn out well and the new mom seemed to like it.

The mittens got finished tonight instead.
These will go together with the hat and slippers already completed to H 2 H International. I've challenged myself to try and knit a set of slippers, a hat, and mittens a month to send to H 2 H. That means one set down, 11 more to go! Since the month isn't quite up, my interim charity project is going to be a pair of socks (maybe more than 1 pair even) for Global Knit. Speaking of socks...

The socks for myself are trucking along.
Working on the heel flap tonight. This is my own hand-dyed BFL in Trick or Treat. Hopefully will get more of this dyed soon and then in the shop(s). Rain is forecast for us in the next week. Hopefully there won't be any more ice. I'm tired of slipping on the way to my car every day. Besides that, it's just plain cold here!

Christmas Recap

I hope everyone out there in bloggy world had a very merry Christmas! Let's do the time warp again and go back to last week.

Wednesday: I started by washing and sewing the buttons on the BSJ for my cousin Britt.
Then I finished up my mom's gift (the fabled Last Knitted Gift of '09...which you will see more of in a moment). And finished all the wrapping.
Penelope helped by keeping Brandi's pizza pan warm.
Then checked to make sure the gift boxes were the proper size.
By then she was pretty tired so she took a little break on the snuggie.
But woke up and moved to the floor to guard her toys (including a new catnip toy she got for Christmas from me).

Thursday: The fam and I traveled to south GA to my aunt and uncle's house where we had a big Christmas dinner and gift exchange with my extended family.

My cousins Jake and Harrison got their sweaters. Jake asked me back in the summer to make him a sweater. I was a little afraid that he wouldn't remember asking me but those worries were unfounded.
As soon as he opened it, he looked at me and said, "You made this for me, didn't you?!?" He was really excited. Later that evening he even put it on and wore it around. My mom has some great pictures of him in front of the Christmas tree. He was even jumping and running around in it and it was holding up well (Am I the only person who's paranoid that the first time someone wears something I've made it will totally and spontaneously fall apart?).

Harrison got his sweater as well but he was little distracted by the Mickey Mouse play tent and G.I. Joe figures he'd gotten.
Friday: Christmas Day was spent with my parents at their house. My aunt Becky was there as well to open gifts from Santa. And an unoriginal hat from me :)
I won't post the pictures of my mom since she'd probably not like that but here's some pictures of the scarf I made her (The Last Knitted Gift of '09).
I had some fun bundling up in it.
It's the Irish Hiking Scarf made from Eco + in a bright fuchsia color. It turned out super lush and warm. I didn't have time to block it but I did wash it at my parent's house and laid it out to dry.
This picture doesn't have the correct color but it shows the stitch pattern really well.

Saturday: My brother and future SIL came over to my parent's house to open their Christmas presents (they were with my future SIL's family for Christmas Eve and Christmas). My brother had to try on my Rockin' Bones hoodie that came in the mail (a gift from Santa).
What sucks is that he looks better in it than I do. I told him he could pull off the punk/emo look. That night we went out to eat for my cousin Brianna's birthday.

Sunday: This morning I woke up and knit for about an hour on a slipper for charity. After church I drove to Thomson, GA for a Christmas themed wedding shower for my brother and Brandi (my future SIL). Between driving there and back I've been in the car for over 5 hours. Now it's time to relax and watch some t.v. and finish knitting my slipper. And also try and fight this head cold I've come down with. Tomorrow I'm thinking I'll sleep in as late as the cat will let me and then dye some yarn. I'm already thinking of my New Year's goals so I think it might be time to revisit last year's goals and see how I did.

A Little Bit Sentimental

Before:
And after:
That's 10 inches of hair, gone. Whacked. No more. I cut it this morning and will donate it to Locks of Love. Oddly, the whole process made me a little sentimental and retrospective. Those 10 inches of hair represent 2 years of my life. And a lot has changed in that time: I had a different job, I was dating someone, I hadn't opened my yarn shop(s) yet...but some things have remained the same: I was still a blogger, I was still knitting, and I still had my cat. I plan on doing this again so it will be interesting to see what 2 more years down the road will look like.

This weekend was very busy as I traveled to Columbia, SC for my cousin's wedding. I had a little time in the car to knit on the last Christmas present of '09 but for the first 2 hours I was in the car by myself so there wasn't a way for me to knit. I did give Brandi her mom's Christmas scarf that I blocked the previous week.
The first picture gives a more accurate color but the second really shows off the stitch pattern. The yarn is some of the alpaca I brought back from Peru. I can't remember what the stitch pattern is called but I'm sure it was something about leaves. It turned out nicely and it looks very classy. I hope Brandi's mom will enjoy it.

On Monday I spent the day finishing my Christmas shopping and picked up buttons for the Baby Surprise Jacket. I spent way too much time deliberating but I finally settled on plain chocolate brown ones.
I really wanted some yellow-y honey colored ones that matched the contrasting stripes but, of course, nothing looked just right. I found these adorable bear ones but they were a little too big and I figured that the mother of a 5 month old does not want to spend more than about 20 seconds trying to button a jacket. They were crazy cute though. With these last few projects almost wrapped up I'm already getting ready for the post-Christmas knitting. Bring on the festivities!

BSJ

I have one incredibly cute FO to show you...
The Baby Surprise Jacket is finished! It's so cute! I still need to sew up the shoulder seams and weave in ends and find buttons but for all intents and purposes it is done. The last little bit where you are knitting 200 stitches or so isn't the funnest thing I've ever done but as soon as it came off the needles I was squealing over the cuteness and wanted to cast on another right away. Not tonight though. Tonight I'm baking some cookies for a holiday party tomorrow and washing pants for work. I'm exhausted so as soon as this second batch comes out of the oven I'm off to bed.

Thanks to everyone who left comments on the book and the scarf. I'm glad that others have enjoyed reading the book and I appreciate all the kind compliments on the gift. It is nice to knit for those who really enjoy it!

Finish Line

That title may be a bit misleading since there are only a few things that have actually reached the finish line and there are still more that are on their way there and maybe even one that hasn't left the starting gate yet (gulp). Did I mention the deadline was Christmas? Double gulp. But on to the finished stuff.

Last night I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning finishing Spinning Forward.
This was the book I purchased a few weeks back when Terri (the author) came to out Wednesday night knitting group and did a talk/signing. The book was great and I couldn't wait to see how it turned out so I stayed up extra late finishing off the last few chapters. Several things I really liked about this book: Easy read but still pretty well developed, nothing seemed too contrived. Also, the chapters were short. In another fiction knitting book I started (hmm, hmm, Friday Night Knitting Club I'm looking at you...) the chapters were so long and involved I could only get through about one a night and I was trying so hard just to slug my way through so I wasn't truly interested in seeing what was going to happen next. With Spinning Forward I found that the chapters were just long enough to pique my interest and make me want to keep reading to see what was going to happen. Was there anything I didn't like? Not flat out. I thought one of the story lines was a little bit far fetched but then, that's the fun of fiction, the mostly improbable can happen. I also wanted more knitting but then again, I live and breath knitting and can never get enough. I think a non-knitter would actually like reading this book because it wasn't overtly about knitting. Overall, a really great read. I can't wait for her next one!

Next done thing: Warm Woolies! I sent in my box the Monday before I left for Thanksgiving and I knew the prizes were due to arrive any day now. Yesterday I found this in the lock box by my mail slot:
The top one was a "Ravlery Prize". I wrote a little paragraph (I'm post #23) about why I like(d) knitting for Warm Woolies and they sent everyone a thank you gift. The bottom box was for the 10 for 10 challenge. Here's what was in the Ravelry prize box:
10 skeins of Rowan 4-ply Soft in a pink/salmon color
1 skein of Blue Heron in rayon and metallic in hot pinks, oranges, and reds. It reminds me of a recycled silk yarn.
6 skeins of Artyarns cashmere
A yarn requirements booklet (which I have been wanting/looking for for over a year...), 2 copies of The Big Book of Knitting (I will be giving one away, don't know when or how...maybe a contest or something...?), Finishing Techniques and 2 sets of bamboo circulars.

In the other box there were these goodies:
Domiknitrix and Little Treasures
14 skeins of Alchemy Synchronicity in denim blue, grey, and white
10 skeins (not all shown (obviously)) of Rowan kidsilk spray in a fuchsia/purple color
3 more sets of circulars
And, hidden in the bottom, 3 more books! Fabulous Felted Handknits, Wrap Style, and Miss Bea's Band (a kid's knits booklet). Overly generous, in my opinion, and warmly welcomed. I plan on using some of this yarn to knit a few things for charity, in the spirit of honoring Warm Woolies. I've been trying to find other organizations that collect clothing for orphanages or even orphanages that will accept donations of clothing directly. Specifically in Russia and Eastern Europe. I've found some pretty good leads but do you have any idea how many orphanages there are in Russia?!?! And every other time I click on a website it has a link to another website that has links to 10 other websites. Before I know it I've lost myself down the rabbit hole. But it's also a lot of fun imagining the possibility of connecting with one of these groups and seeing clothing distributed to kids.

A final FO, Harrison's sweater.
2 down one to go...and here it is! I had started a Baby Surprise Jacket for Britt.
This was from yesterday night. Notice I said, had started. See, I knew that Elizabeth Zimmerman was notoriously vague and this pattern is notoriously awkward for people who have never done it before and the pattern is old and some other adjectives involving notorious and...well, I threw caution to the wind. I didn't read the wiki. I didn't join the group. I didn't sweat it because I figured, hey! if Elizabeth Zimmerman doesn't think it's important enough to include in the pattern then I can just muscle my way through it. I'm a competent person. Right? Right?!? Um, well, 14 rows in and it just didn't feel right. I mean, it looked ok but it wasn't consistent enough for me. So, I found a row by row counter chart thingy, came home and poured myself a hot cuppa and sent that baby to the frog pond. After working on it for the first 45 minutes of The Nightmare Before Christmas, the first hour of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (I got bored with Nightmare and switched it to LoTR), the better part of A Charlie Brown Christmas and (finally) Prep and Landing (cute, btw, hope you caught it) I have this:
18 rows of much better looking BSJ. The only thing that will keep me from getting further tonight is if I lose my battle of wills with the heater (it is staying set on 69 until snow falls and that is final!) and go take a hot bath.

For My Ravelry Friends

Warm Woolies Sweater In the Round

(smallest size, suitable for an infant)

Size 10 ½ needles, bulky or double worsted yarn (about 2 skiens)

1. Cast on 63 stitches and join.

2. Work 1 ½ inches in edging of your choice (garter, ribbed, seed, etc.).

3. Increase 7 stitches in next row by knitting into front and back of each 9th stitch, ending with 70 stitches.

4. Work in stockinet stitch (knitting every round) until piece measures 7 inches from cast on edge.

5. Work underarm/armhole as follows:
a. Next round: knit 21, purl 14, knit 21, purl 14.
b. Next round: knit all stitches.
c. Next round: knit 21, purl 14, knit 21, purl 14.
d. Next round: knit 24 stitches, slip 8 stitches onto stitch holder, knit 27 stitches, slip 8 stitches onto slip holder, knit remaining 3 stitches.

6. Your two armholes separate the front and back. The front and back should each have 27 stitches (3 stitches in garter, followed by 21 in stockinet, followed by 3 in garter).

7. Work the back as follows:
a. Work for 3 inches keeping 3 stitches on each edge in garter stitch and middle 21 stitches in stockinet.
b. Continue for one inch working all stitches in edging of your choice (garter, seed, ribbing, etc.).
c. Next row: knit 7, bind off 13, knit 7 remaining stitches.
d. Place 14 remaining stitches onto a stitch holder.

8. Work the front as follows:
a. Work for 2 inches keeping 3 stitches on each edge in garter stitch and middle 21 stitches in stockinet.
b. Continue for one inch working all stitches in edging of your choice (garter, seed, ribbing, etc.).
c. Next row: knit 7, bind off 13, and knit 7 remaining stitches.
d. Work each group of 7 stitches in edging pattern until piece measures same as back.

 
9. Bind off shoulders using three-needle technique.

10.Work right sleeve as follows:
a.Slip 4 stitches from the stitch holder onto your right needle and 4 stitches onto your left needle (this is the armpit of your sleeve).
b.Knit the 4 stitches on the left needle.
c. Continuing around the armhole opening in a clockwise fashion, continue to pick up and knit stitches until you come back to the middle of the armpit where you started (you will have knit the other 4 original stitches that you slipped from the stitch holder at this point). You should have 30 stitches.
d.Continue knitting in stockinette until sleeve measures 6 inches.
e.Work one inch in edging of your choice (garter, seed, ribbing, etc.)
f. Bind off all stitches.

11.Work left sleeve the same as the right.

12.Weave in ends.

I'm going to work this out in larger sizes once I get back from my trip. Feel free to copy and use... just don't sell it :) Enjoy!

I'm Back!

Wow. It's hard to believe I'm actually sitting at my house, on a computer (that I own), on the internet again (finally). Yes, I took the plunge and purged my savings account. The result of this unholy union is this beautiful baby:

I give you Mac-y. His name is a shout out to any Homestar Runner fans out there (remember Strong Bad's Lappy and Compy?). If you aren't familiar with Homestar, check it out. It will consume your life for about 3 weeks but then you will rejoin society and finally understand all those, "Seriously" and "Checka, checka, checka, checka, checkin' my eeeee-mail" quotes your friends have been making for years (or maybe that's only my friends).

Ok, enough about that. I must rave that my experience with the Apple folks was quite nice. They gave me honest, helpful answers and didn't try and sell me any unnecessary crap. And they didn't push me when I turned down stuff they threw out that I "might want." I did score a nice free printer.

It replaced the behemoth I used to have.

And they even helped me fill out the rebate before I left the store so I wouldn't forget to do it. How nice.

I picked up Mac-y on Tuesday but haven't gotten around to blogging yet. Wednesday through today I spent 9 hours in teacher training for my job. It was pretty interesting because we got to play around with a lot of the new materials we would have next year. Unfortunately, it lasted all day. And yesterday and today I had to teach a lesson when I got home. I was going to go out to see a friend of mine who was playing an at a local pub tonight but I'm just so tired that I couldn't get up the energy to go out. Plus, I'm a total homebody and since I have been lacking on that this week I just want to be here in my house with my high maintenance cat (who "helped" wake me up this morning by standing on my chest).

Sadly, the knitting hasn't been very productive or exciting. I finished the wee little baby sweater on vacation (all it needed was sleeves).

Pitiful for a whole week but I think it's very cute. I can't decide to do with the left over half skeins that I have though (this was made with 2 strands held together so that is why half skeins is plural). It's for Warm Woolies so I was thinking of making some socks as well. But then I wasn't sure there was enough and I don't have the right DPNS and I could use the circulars but the last socks I made that way came out 2 different sizes and... So, needless to say, nothing else has been cast on.

I've also been knitting on this though.
Look familiar? It should. This is the back to the Big Pink Sweater Thing. Or maybe it's the front. I can't remember. It makes for good mindless knitting though so I have just been picking it up every now and then to knit a couple of rows while I watch TV.

I live next Saturday for Moldova for 2 weeks. I have promised myself that I will take my sock yarn and knit some Jaywalkers (Ravelry link). I have to go my Knitch next week to pick up some DPNs in the right size. Maybe I will pick up some yarn to and get re-energized about knitting (Not that I'm not excited about knitting. I just don't have anything exciting I want to work on right now).

Ok, so I just spent like 10 minutes trying to upload a picture of my Not a Honeymoon Cami because I did finish that and I wanted to show you how it turned out. However, if you upload a pic after you have typed in stuff and put in other pictures Blogger does not like it. It is hard to move the picture. So, I went through all that trouble. Then I went to delete a sentence and accidentally deleted the picture it had taken me 10 minutes to insert and position correctly. Instead of losing my mind and trying to do that all again I am instead providing a link to my Ravelry projects and you can see it there. Sorry but I like my sanity.