Baller, get your ball on*

I am very much a knitting amateur.  My years of knitting clock in at eleven (on and off, mostly on, since 2000) but I haven't designed anything, I knit free patterns only, I have never knit a sock, etc.  I also DO NOT OWN the following:

• digital scale                                                                                   (they're also used for baking? whatev, don't own one.)
• blocking pads and/or wires
• yarn swift and/or baller

The absence of that last bullet point has challenged my creativity for the hank-to-ball transformation that's so important before casting on.  Looking around on the internet for ideas led me to several good tutorials; I'll recreate Laughing Purple Goldfish's method below with Cascade 220 Superwash Paints in 9860 Jelly Bean.

1) Start with a hank of beautiful, squishy yarn.

makes you want to eat candy

2) Create a notch in a cardboard tube and secure a yarn end in it.

the center of a TP roll works well

3) Begin wrapping the yarn around the tube in an orderly fashion.

that's really neat, yo

4) Wrap and wrap some more; you can even create some diagonal-type patterns to keep it interesting.

using my shoulder as a makeshift swift

5) Stop wrapping once you run out of yarn.

I really like those colors together

6) See how there's a big hole in the middle without yarn in it?  Take out the tube, in whatever direction tickles your fancy.

magic will happen soon...

7) The tension in the yarn will release to the center, making a beautiful, squishy center-pull ball of beautiful, squishy yarn.

beautiful and squishy, natch

_____

* with apologies to Snoop Dogg

T. S. P. M.

That's Temporary Serial Project Monogamy... and it's over now!  Phew.  Finishing that garterlac blanket required singular focus and it spilled over to the tulip cardigan and the beginning of the Starstuff mitts [Rav link]:

Shiny! (What up, fellow Browncoats!)

Fear not: I have returned to normal, better known as business as usual, since "normal" is a bit of a stretch.

The wonderful Laura has given me six skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash Paints in two colorways (I know, what, is she nuts? amazing!) and I've had a good ol' time picking projects to go with them.  I give you the Principessa blanket, made in colorway 9867 Princess Pink:

That's some pastels right there.

The blanket is for an as-yet-unborn princess; I couldn't make anything for Punkin with this yarn, since she's following in my footsteps and skipping straight to queen.

Pattern is Baby Love Diagonal Baby Blanket [Rav link] by Lion Brand Yarn; just so you know, (free) registration at the Lion Brand website is required in order to access their (free) patterns.

I've been busy, however...

I have not been busy knitting.  There are some pictures of the newest project, so fear not.  I usually knit to take my daily stress down several notches, but lately our house full of sick people, so it's been slow-going.

Here's an introduction to the Starstuff fingerless mitts (Rav link)... pattern by Amy van de Laar, knitting by meeeeeee:

Jawoll Solid Superwash by Lang Yarns

Ms. van de Laar suggests, quite rightly, knitting these inside-out to keep the stranding loose enough; restricted circulation is no picnic.

Envy my floats

Oh, you say you want to see the right side of the work?  You drive a hard bargain, my friend.  Mais oui:

Starry starry mitt

I'm going to knit two extra colorwork repeats before starting the thumb increases at the request of the recipient.  Cross fingers the blocking will remove all traces of my anti-method madness!

Further FOs: Fancy Floller Cardigan

I realized this week that 95% of the finished knitted objects I make for are other people... but since 100% of the actual knitting is for me, it all works out.  :)  Hey, here's another FO:

Tulip Yoke Baby Cardigan (free Rav download) by Jennifer Little

knit with Knit Picks Shine Sport in 2554 Leapfrog, 

0592 Serenade, 8774 Caution, and 6567 Butter

My first stranded colorwork!!  This one is for the best dressed baby on the planet, Ms. Punkin Q. Pie.  She'll wear it to daycare tomorrow if the Packers win tonight (yes, the only Super Bowl reference of this post).

love this purple

I did a few modifications from the original pattern.
1) I chose to do a curved front -- general directions found here (Rav link) -- in an effort to conserve the green yarn.  I bound off too tightly; not quite sure how it’ll turn out on the baby body, but it’s too much work to redo.
2) Only three buttons.
3) The short sleeves with the colorwork were also due to a lack of green yarn; either I planned poorly and didn't buy enough or (more likely) there's another skein of Leapfrog hiding somewhere in a project bag.  I used a smaller size of dpns (US 2) than the circular I used for the rest of the sweater (US 3) to smooth the difference between knitting flat and in-the-round.

I like it.

sleeve detail while blocking

Here's the info and color chart for those who want to duplicate it.

Follow pattern instructions for picking up/casting on sleeve stitches [54 total stitches], then follow supplementary colorwork chart

AKA
work 4 rounds st st color MC
work 1 round st st color A
work 2 rounds st st alternating colors A and B per chart
work 1 round st st color B
work 2 rounds st st alternating colors B and C per chart
work 2 rounds st st color C (use color C for the rest of the sleeve)
decrease round: work 1 round *k2tog, k4, rep from * to end; k2tog on last stitch (with 1st st next round) [44 total stitches] 
work 4 rounds k1, p1 rib
bind off loosely in rib

Oui, c'est fini!

Huzzah, the  s.e.c.r.e.t  p.r.o.j.e.c.t  is finished, blocked, wrapped, and delivered!!

And now for the reveal...

in progress

It's a blanket!  It's for a baby girl due soon, but it's huge enough to be enjoyed by her older brothers before she joins the outside world.

nicely folded in quarters

As discussed previously, this is my first modular project and I mixed it up by choosing to do garterlac in four colors (five if you count the border, but I don't, since it was improvised.).

Basically, I supersized the Garterlac Dishcloth pattern by Dave at Criminy Jickets... like, super-supersized, with 28 or so base triangles.

border detail

Yarn is mostly Knit Picks Comfy Worsted, 3 skeins each of I054 Whisker, B980 Honey Dew, 8062 Silver Sage, and B990 Creme Brulee; border includes a little more than a skein of some extra Knit Picks Comfy Sport in white, held double, that I had lying around.


It is soft and squishy and pretty. Yay.  :)

Snow? Day

So yesterday and today were supposed to be a continuation of winter storming, the upshot being a snow day for me! (Lest you think I'm too smug, yes, I had to take a vacation day.  But that is neither here nor there.  ...wait, where is it?)  I spent yesterday knitting emergency baby gifts for a surprisingly-soon new arrival.

quick knit

Little Boy Blue Ribbed Baby Hat by Tonya Wagner
knit with less than a skein each, Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton in 39014 Spruce and 39013 Pale Green

This is a great pattern for a hospital hat; it can fit a range of baby head sizes...

from in the hospital...

even the wrong side is cute

to quite a few months later...

getting all posy

tiny mitts for tiny hands

Baby Mitts by Susan B. Anderson
made from same yarn

I loooooove striping these colors together -- such a delicious color combo in the softest cotton.  However: not green.  Blue.  I don't care what the names suggest, the yarns are blue-gray and light blue-gray.

p.s. Happy Groundhog Day!

FO: Oxford Mitts

Alexandra Brinck's Fishtail Wristwarmers (Rav link)
knit with 1+ skeins of Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4 Ply in 430 Loganberry

Ta-dah!

 These were a good time to knit, let me just say that.  I even had to think a little bit; the instructions for the right mitt say nothing more than "Work as for left, remembering to mirror the thumb placement."  So that was fun.  I figured it out.

See?

Merci beaucoup to my model, the recipient

Radio Silence

I couldn't help but notice you haven't posted anything in a while.
Yes, very astute observation, person who speaks in italics.  Such is the curse of a  s.e.c.r.e.t  p.r.o.j.e.c.t  -- by definition, I can't talk about it with any frequency, and the soon-ish nature of the deadline means that I've been going great guns on the knitting front.  With any luck I'll be done by, well, tonight.  :)

I submit to you, as proof, a border:

The addition of white, apropos of nothing

Funny, the camera thought the background baby toy should definitely be the focus of this shot.  Oh well.  Adds to the mystery, donnit!

The border, incidentally, is being accomplished on five circular needles, round-robin dpn style.  Because it's 2011, mofo.

By request: Italian bolero

So this pattern isn't Italian -- neither is the yarn -- nor the knitter!  I call it the Italian Bolero because I made it specifically to coordinate with a dress I was bringing on an extended visit to Italy in mid-fall 2009. We walked about in Venice and Rome and drove the winding mountain roads in Tuscany... sooooo beautiful.

My intention with the bolero was coverage without suggesting austerity; I also didn't want something that would take five million years to knit.

Bamboo Bolero by Lincraft

knit with 4 skeins Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Silk Solid in 3012 Spruce

I didn't quite follow the pattern on the edging.  That is, I would have followed the pattern if I wasn't so flippin ready to be done with the thing.  The fingering weight yarn and the size US3 needles were, at the time, the tiniest, fiddliest materials I had used.  So there is the matter of "Rep last 5 rounds twice"... yeah, completely ignored that.  And I bound off too tightly.  Whatev.  It's done.  I wore it in Florence -- BOOYAH.

And I still wear it!

Jewel tones win all the prizes.

Oooh, sleeve detail

The color in these photos are much truer, thanks to natural light.

The promise of progress

The Ballad of Alexandra Brinck's Fishtail Wristwarmers (Rav link)

Wednesday morning: size US2 double pointed needles; Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4 Ply in 430 Loganberry

Wednesday night

Thursday night

Friday night

Today... finished the first one!  Pictures will need to wait until I'm done with the second because, well, I'm too lazy to break out the camera again.

Look what I just got!

First and last new yarn of the year!!!

 Imma make Alexandra Brinck's Fishtail Wristwarmers (Rav link)!!

Shameless bragging about presents

Present 1: to me

I have three brothers, and I now offer you evidence that my brother M knows me very well:

Yay for Christmas!

Wacky? Definitely.

Baby? Hey, I have one of those!

Knits? Yes, please.

This is way too fun.  Some of the patterns are not my cuppa tea, but others... fuzzy Monster Booties, with red claws?  I'm so there!  And I'm making a pair in my size next!

Present 2: from me

Like any late-20-something Midwesterner worth her salt, I am friends with many women named Sarah; my oldest Sarah friend (she's not the oldest age-wise, but I've known her the longest) is moving back there from here this weekend.  She is off to start a new career (-ahem- LIBRARIANSHIP!!) and I wish her nothing but the best.  In the 20+ years I've known her, I can't remember that we've ever fought about anything, which is saying a lot for two strong-willed women!

So in honor of my friend, I've knit a shawlette that, unfortunately, is now doing quintuple duty as a double-birthday/double-Christmas/going-away present, since (I'm ashamed to say) the actual knitting on Little Fox in the Leaves has been done for over a year (most knit while unwittingly pregnant in Italy).  BUT I couldn't truly call a piece of lacework "finished" until it had been -gulp- blocked.  And now comes the reason for my stalling, because... you see...  I've never blocked anything.

I mean, not really, no.  I haven't.  I've run superwash merino through the washer and dryer.  But I've never blocked anything for reals, yo, with the measuring and the pinning and Sammy can't take a nap because there's a wet afghan tacked to the bedspread.  And even now...  not really.  But baby steps were taken!  I properly wet the piece, properly squished the water out without wringing the fabric, properly smoothed the shawl flat on a towel on my workroom floor... but it's no particular size and I didn't definitely pin it at all.  Reprehensible!

But I think it still looks gorram fabulous:

Woodland Shawl by Nikol Lohr

knit with 1 skein of Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball in 1702 Kleiner Fuchs (Google translates as "Small Tortoiseshell," but my skein said "Little Fox," so it's more righter) from LYS A Tangled Skein

I will miss you, my dear friend; it's been so great to reconnect with you on this side of the country.

Bamboo-tiful: a love list

Bamboo is awesome and here's why:

1) Bamboo and bamboo blend yarn is genius.

Renewable, soft, smooth, itch-free, hypo-allergenic, anti-bacterial, breathable, shiny!

I need this in my hands right now

2) Bamboo is the best material for knitting needles.

Durable, but not as loud, cold, or slippery as metal; flexible and lightweight, but not as slow as wood; prettier and more warp-resistant than plastic

Perfection

3) Pandas eat it.  Cute.

Having a nosh

4) People eat it.  Yum.

Hungry now?

Photo credits to the following Flickr users: allie in stitches, David Schroeter, Piper K, and puamelia -- thank you for allowing reuse (with attribution, noncommercial, no derivatives)!  It makes my librarian heart happy!

Opinions needed!!

OK.  So.  I've been working on a  s.e.c.r.e.t  p.r.o.j.e.c.t  since mid-October and it's been going... but not nearly fast enough.  It's not "due" until late February and I had thought I would have the time to shift focus to other, more Decemberly knitting.  But no, I am not yet halfway finished and it's reeeeeally boring me (for those unfamiliar with the joys of garterlac, you can read about my project research here... but even that is boring).

I'm a little at-a-loss regarding my next move; please help me via the poll at the top of the page:
Let's say you = me.  What would you do?

Bonne Année, ever'body!

Let's get started on the obligatory holiday recap, shall we?  I have arrived back home from whence I grew up; it's been called America's breadbasket, Middle America, and more unfortunately, The Heartland or the flyover.  Yes, I'm one of those statistics who grew up in the middle of the country and moved to an edge to "make it big" in the star-studded world of libraries.  Anyway, taking an infant on a train ride overnight across half the U.S. was both more and less difficult than I thought it would be.  She slept well... when she slept.  And when she was awake, she was in a great mood, prior to hour 13 of each 16+ hour ride.  Everyone loved her and agreed she was the most adorable baby on the planet.

The trip afforded much less knitting time than I had anticipated, and I just barely finished my semi-secret impulse project, a Seamless Baby Kimono sweater (design by Jacki Kelly), knit with Lion Brand LB Collection Superwash Merino (100% Superwash Merino) in Sky.  I hope the super-new baby's mama will take a picture of him in it when it fits (he's so tiny!), but until then, here's Punkin in her green version:

crying baby, lovely sweater

Three months later, it still technically fits!

The day after Christmas was the debut of Punkin's baptismal duds; she was dressed, and promptly fell asleep:

comfiness makes for zonking out

The FOs are the Lacy Scallops Christening Gown designed by Judy Lamb and the DROPS bonnet in ”Alpaca."  Both are knit with KnitPicks Comfy Sport in white.  The gown fit perfectly -- which was super lucky, since she wasn't patient enough to try it on beforehand!  I decided not to block the gown, for fear of a major change in shape, so she got white fuzz on everyone who held her:

I've cropped my mother's face out on her request: no makeup on!  I didn't make the booties -- no tiny dpns to be found -- no great loss, since one can't see her feet anyway.

The completion of the holiday season marks my return to  s.e.c.r.e.t  p.r.o.j.e.c.t  knitting in earnest; the deadline approaches faster than the knitting progresses, soooo that's a problem.  Wish me luck!

Mad Dash ta Satadah*

The holidays are upon us, whether we like it or not!  I've been swamped with a full-time job and a baby and holiday commitments...  so, of course, I've started an impulse project due by this weekend:

Semi-secret sweater for a small sweetheart

I find it interesting that all of my recent projects are due this weekend and ARE NOT Christmas knitting!

Also, just for fun -- because pictures are fun, n'est-ce pas? --  a couple photos of Punkin's Let Her Soar cabled leaf blanket, made from Laura Wilson-Martos's Serenity pattern (holla, fellow Browncoats!):

eyelets, cables, blanket in-the-round, mitered corners

Yarn is 7.5 skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Squirrel Heather.  Detail shot!

I didn't block it for real; this is after machine washing and machine drying... I love superwash!

______

* think the title is confusing, yet intriguing?  Please visit the hilarious Allie Brosh and her Spaghatta Nadle!

Put a Bee In It

I've been dealing with the creeping crud for the past week -- hence the no-posting.  Last Saturday night I had a 103° fever and my throat hurt just a little bit.  By the next morning, the fever had broken and my voice had completely disappeared... and still hasn't fully returned.  The major problem: I'm a singer with no voice at the height of holiday concert season.  It's really, really disappointing.

The only upside: lots of sitting-around, not-talking time to finish some knitting.  I've all but blocked the gown and also...

Bonnet by DROPS Design

 

 

I changed the particulars of the wave pattern, as previously discussed, and rather than bind off the lower bit before folding up and fastening, I used the darning needle to sew the live stitches straight to the bottom of the hat to create the casing:

I even managed to get a picture of Ms. Punkin Q. Pie modeling it in all its glory:

Sorry about the copious security measures; the internet is a scary place.

Next up: matching booties!