FOs: Tidbits for a Hipster Baby

I have a hipster friend.  She is very sweet.  She will be having a baby soon.  So I've decided to help her make her baby look as much like a tiny elf as possible.

MITTS!

Newborn Norwegian Sweet Mitts [Rav] by Jennifer Hoel; knit with 35yds of Lion Brand Sock-Ease in colorway 202 Taffy

These are so cute I just can't stand it.  Keep warm, hipster bebe!

HAT!

Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap / Djevellue [Rav] by Gro; knit with 40yds Lion Brand Sock-Ease in colorway 202 Taffy, 20yds Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock in colorway Dragonberry, and 20yds Cascade Heritage Silk in colorway 5619 Christmas Red

MODS: adjusted for newborn sizing + extra pointy-headedness

Also: this baby gets a sweater some time next month... but not yet.
Also also: my January heart knitting has been very straightforward, but February's is going to be interesting and pretty, due to ahead-of-time stash scouting, yarn-weighing, and special calendar placement.
Also also also: I have another design idea percolating in my brain...

Mot-less Monday: Citrus Slice

Free Pattern: Ally Square

Okay, folks.  I finally have the itch to offer something as a design.
It's a colorwork chart!  (What?! I know.)  There's lots of talk going on about the Olympics being held in Russia next month, what with their human-rights-violating legislation...  SO in support of the LGBTQ community worldwide (especially any brave LGBTQ athletes competing in Sochi this year -- some protests are about being visible):

ALLY ♥ SQUARE 

Intermediate colorwork chart from the straight ally flag

©2014 Big Knitting Trouble. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

MATERIALS 

• approx 65-100 yards of worsted weight plied yarn in the appropriate colors: black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple + additional color of choice for text
• US #8/5mm knitting needles (straight OR 16-inch circular)
• Tapestry needle (for weaving in all the ends!)

Gauge: 15 sts/22 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch

Recommended needle size and gauge suggestions are for achieving an 8” x 8” square; your mileage may vary.

Please note: the square, as knit according to the instructions below, will curl a LOT; please take this into consideration when planning its final destination (seaming it into a blanket with other squares, edged in garter stitch or single crochet border for a stand-alone thing, etc.). 

DIRECTIONS

Cast on 31 stitches using a long-tail cast on.  Follow 44-row colorwork chart. Bind off.

• The “ALLY ♥” text is loosely stranded using any contrasting color (aqua in the sample)
• The rainbow sections alternate with striped black and white, achieved through intarsia

click to embiggen

Approximate yardage for each color:

Red: 1-2 yards; Orange: 3-5 yards; Yellow: 5-8 yards; Green: 8-12 yards; Blue: 8-13 yards; Purple: 8-13 yards; White: 8-13 yards; Black: 21-30 yards; Text:  4-7 yards

FINISHING

Block gently.  Weave in all ends.

New Year's Resolution: Love Every Day

I'd like to apologize again for up and disappearing at the end of 2013; it wasn't what I wanted BUT it was what I needed. I'm not one for resolving for the new year (because I basically have no willpower, HA!), but I feel the need for a fresh start and some jazz hands... so in this vein, I'm nebulously resolving to BE MORE POSITIVE and specifically resolving to find joy in small ways daily.

I've started something similar to the Memory Jar that's going around Pinterest, spinning it more into jotting myself a note -- "here's the silly thing I've found to enjoy today!" -- and plunking it into a jar to be reviewed and re-enjoyed at the end of the year.

There is also a daily knitting project associated with this brain shift...
Five minutes every morning, dedicated to knitting three short rows and finishing it into a teensy heart:

Sweetie❤KNIT❤Heart [Rav] by Jackie Loewen

There are a couple innerestin stitches here and there to solidify the shaping, but the pattern itself is really easy to execute and memorize.  The trick, of course, is blocking violently vigorously to turn a vaguely organ-shaped blob into a recognizable heart.

Looks better in the daylight, trust me.  I hope it'll be a good way to use up all the tiny scraps I can't bear to throw out as well as a good reminder to take a mental break every day, even for five minutes.

Feel free to leave any of your resolutions and/or wishes for the year in the comments -- we can do this! Bring it, 2014!

FO Catchup: Post-Evenstar Shawls

Disappearing at the end of 2013 was not my intention; shawls n stuff kept happening, I just didn't document it.  There was a bit of December where I didn't knit for six days straight... but let us not speak of that horrible time!  These shawls have one thing in common: I'm keeping all of them SO THERE.

Fatal Refraction!
I got to do a test knit eeeeeee!!  Sorry, I'm still really excited this happened; I follow the Stitched Together blog and podcast, and you should to if you like to read about knitting (which all awesome people do).

Point of the story being: I got to test-knit a shawl design and I luff it:

 Refraction Shawlette [Rav] by Stitched Together Designs; knit with less than a skein of Cascade Heritage Silk in colorway 5619 Christmas Red

 

It's not free, but it's worth it.  Bonus: my shawl is on the pattern page, because I'm a boss.

Milk and Mulled Wine!
Okay, I talked about this one in my month-of-September recap, but I wanted to call it out again because I can:

Eyelets on the Prize!
Back during the aggravating government shutdown, I had a false start with a shawl pattern.  I still want to knit it eventually, but the pattern I ultimately chose works much better with the lovely yarn:

Eyelet Lace Shawlette [Rav] by TemptingEwe Designs; knit with a whole skein of Lost City Twin Canyon Merino/Silk Fingering in colorway Rock Bottom

MODS: 26 full repeats of rows 6-11, plus 1 row 6 and plain bindoff (picots drive me crazy) with US8 needle

The yarn is definitely busy, but it's so so soft and the eyelets in the pattern kept me from falling asleep.

 

 

 

Thank you again to Laurie for the yarn -- it's so beautiful and I hope to enjoy the finished product for a long, long time!

2013: The Year in Shawls

Buongiorno, principessa, and thank you for always forgiving my tendency to disappear for months at a time.  Have I mentioned that you look stunning in that color?  It's true!

It's 2014 now -- a most Happy New Year to you -- which stirs the recapper in all of us.  So without further ado...

TWELVE SHAWLS IN 2013?  YES, it happened!

Most were gifts for the deserving and a few are mine mine mine -- success on the shawl front!

Shawl	Project	Pattern [Ravelry links]
1	Arrowed	Arroyo [Rav]
2	Next Stop Everything	Bigger on the Inside [Rav]
3	Grito Bandito	Springtime Bandit [Rav]
4	Techni-Cover	Melon Sorbet [Rav]
5	Shawl Showdown is GO	Fall of Leaves [Rav]
6	Dru Flies	My version of Summer flies [Rav]
7	Gryffindors Always Pay Their Debts	EZ 100th Anniversary Gull Wings Half-Circle [Rav]
8	Urban Druid	Lavalette [Rav]
9	Estelio han, estelio veleth	Evenstar Shawl [Rav]
10	Fatal Refraction	Refraction Shawlette [Rav]
11	Milk and Mulled Wine	Lagune [Rav]
12	Eyelets on the Prize	Eyelet Lace Shawlette [Rav]

There will be more content on this blog more frequently in the coming year, and that's an almost-promise you can take to the bank!  For now, besos and hugs and holiday cheer from my household to yours!

Mot-less Monday: Pieces of Halloween

Things I Knit While Furloughed

From October 1 - 16, the US Government was shut down due to lack of funding; I was one of the hundreds of thousands of people who were effectively laid off during this time.  With no known date for work resumption and no paycheck in the meantime, I applied for unemployment, looked for temporary jobs (guess what? they don't exist!), and did a boatload of commissioned knitting to ease the stress.

My green monster baby blanket grew by leaps and bounds, from 50% to 76.3% complete:

at 50%, off the needles for maximum purtiness

no room! nooo rooooom on the needles!

These legwarmers were so nice, I wanted to keep 'em... but I didn't:

Hanging Out on a Limb [Rav] by JM Cobb; knit with 2 skeins of Spud & Chloë Sweater in colorway Skydiver

action shot modeled by the happy recipient

MODS: 97 rows between CO and BO to achieve 16” length; used a climbing eyelet stitch pattern in place of every other knit rib

I'm also in the process of baby sweater-ing for a pair of twins and their older brother!  Two 3-6 month sweaters down (minus the buttons, of course), three more sweaters in various sizes to go...

There was non-commission knitting as well!  I started an Olive Branch [Rav]... then thought better of the yarn/pattern combo...

Nope.

...and ultimately cast on a simple eyelet triangle shawl from the world's softest yarn:

Much better!

And there was a gigantic chill pill... because I totally needed one:

Chill Pill [Rav] by KnittingPony; knit with less than 15 yards each of Universal Pace (discontinued) in 19 Yellow and Cascade Heritage Silk in 5619 Christmas Red

MODS: used a provisional cast-on of 34 stitches and knit the decrease instructions twice, once for each color

And now I'm back to work, with a mountain of email to dig through with relief.  Let's hope this doesn't happen again in a couple of months, when the stopgap "debt deal" expires.

Say, Do You Remember

Start the music and join me on a journey to last month!

"September" by Earth, Wind & Fire

There was a flowered hat for my friend's birthday present...

Blooming Spring Hat [Rav] by Muraka Mari; knit with half a skein total of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in colorways 87 Neptune Blue and 80 Vintage Denim

There was a set of boot cuffs for my daughter's teacher...

Basic Boot Cuff [Rav] by Mindy Lewis; knit with half a skein total of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in colorways Fisherman and Blush Heather

There was a cabled coffee cozy made of sneeze-inducing llama yarn...

 

Cabled Coffee Cup Cozy [Rav] by Kate Atherley; knit with 30ish yards of 100% Suri Llama in colorway Waverunner, from the Edinburg Gap Llama Company

There was a pretty pretty pretty pretty shawl:

Lagune [Rav] by Sue Berg; knit with less than a skein total of Knit Picks Gloss Lace in colorways Natural and Port

MODS: added contrast striping in stockinette section; increased until 273 sts per row before beginning lace edging

 

 

I used up the very last of my Evenstar yarn to make this beauty!

And then I got furloughed.  Thanks, US Congress, it's been real.
More on that tomorrow.

Yikes, Slow Down!

Too much is happening and it's all such a blur, you guys.  I'm finding the need to re-read my own blog to find out where I left off...  so what's up, you ask?

I had a fingernail snap completely in half while doing laundry, so that wasn't fun at all.  The picture is horrible and makes it look like I had been punching a wall immediately prior to snapping a photo:

My hands are "hard-working," it's true, but the blotchy redness is nowhere near this extreme in real life, and I am, in fact, a delicate flower (ha!).  I am also a former nail-biter, and other former biters will know what I mean when I say: this was an actual injury, with blood and pain and stuff, because I have a permanently damaged hyponychium on each nail.  SCIENCE!

On to knitting stuff:
Baby blanket is bigger!

This blanket is so not a baby anymore; in spite of Fingernail Pain with a Capital P slowing me down, I have now caught up and am going at my breakneck "ideal pace."  I'm on track to be halfway done by October 1 -- how's that for tempting fate!

Hey, let's look at some random Egypt-themed projects!

heavily modded Phone cozy [Rav$] by Kate Atherley; knit with some Wullenstudio Superwash Sock Merino Nylon in colorway Sister Golden Hair and a bit of Three Irish Girls Springvale Sock in colorway McNamara

Santa's Jolly Christmas Balls [Rav] by Helen Mathews; knit with some Bernat Satin Solids in colorways Navy and Amber

OK, I'm done for now.  More later.  -whoosh-

FOs: Dream Stripes Plus; This One Won't Hurt You

It's very rare that something turns out exactly how I pictured it... but it happened this time:

modified Dream Stripes [Rav] by Cailliau Berangere; knit with approx one full skein's worth (440yds) of fingering weight leftovers

The edging is Petal Trim, found in Betty Barnden’s Crochet Stitch Bible [Rav], and I think this shawl looks even better than the pattern as written.  It's just kinda swoopy and stripy and pretty... yay.

 Also pretty, but in a different way: yarn uterus!

Womb [Rav] by MK Carroll; knit with less than 20yds of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in colorway Rose Heather

MODS: worsted weight rather than bulky weight yarn; down 2 needles sizes (to US6); no pipe cleaners

...yeah, I really don't have much to add on that one.  :)

The green blanket hasn't really been touched since last week, so I'm going to get right on that, and... what else.  Sorry, I'm tired, yo.  Bed sounds amazing right now.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm okay g'night.

WIP Wednesday for realsies + FO: Autumn Dewdrops Cowl

Works in Progress on a Wednesday at Big Knitting Trouble?  Escandelo!

But first: a delicate FO:

Lacey Small Shell Cowl [Rav] by Teyani; knit with a quarter skein of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace in colorway LP10 Red Rover

This uses up most of the leftover from the firework-looking shawl I finished earlier this year (the one that took forever and made me cry for several reasons) and the beads are a modification... I needed an excuse to keep using that beading gadget.  It really is genius.

I was trying to wait until September to cast on anything big, but this project couldn't wait:

This is meant for an excellent friend as she recovers from some excellent surgery (if you doubt that surgery can be excellent, then you don't know the kind of pain she's had to endure while waiting for it). It's a shawl, it's stripy, it's stashbusting, it's simple, it's soon-to-be-finished -- and not by me!  Another excellent friend, intrepid home-improver Jill Factotum, will be crocheting an edging (double the crafters, double the comfort) and we're doing the mathings today.

I won't get any HPKCHC points for it (started during break month, cowl already turned in for Detention points, only partially crafted by me), but that's kinda not the point at all, so I'm more than okay with it.

The blanket swatch has grown into this bowl-shaped beauty...

...and I can't believe I'm already halfway through the first (huge) chart.  My right arm can believe it, though; I'm getting some forearm twinges, and since my job is entirely computer-based, I need to slow the knitting down just a skosh to stay healthy enough to type.

The next three months are going to be slightly insane.
Insert self-pep-talk here.