A Little Early Gift Knitting

I think the recipients of these knits don't read this blog, so I'm safe. Here's a little taste of my gift knitting this year. 

Quant from knitty.com; it took a little less than a skein of Noro Silk Garden Lite. This was a nice solid pattern and, by the gods, I love entrelac. Just interesting enough to feel like you are performing knitting gymnastics, but simple enough to be able to do it while watching a movie. The picture shows less of the color change than the actual Quant has, as it is quite subtle. It's more greenish on the other side, and quite lovely. The only problem for me really was putting it on to model it -- I kept knotting my hair up in the ties.

And Spirogyra from knitty.com; knitted with maybe 1/2 a skein of Knit Picks Shadow in Oregon Coast Heather (a lovely color!), held double. I was very happy with the product and it was a very quick knit. I think I finished it in a week, knitting nights in front of the "tv" (OK, we don't actually have a TV, but we watch shows on the computer. I think the first series of the new Dr. Who was the accompaniment for these.) The product was so similar to my beloved Pomatomus,  and I can't quite wrap my head around how the designer did it with a chart half the size. All in all, I proclaim the Pomatomus superior. I knit the two patterns with different yarns, obviously, so maybe that's a factor (though I did knit Pomatomus with three different yarns), but the Pomatomus mitts seemed to turn out squishier and the pattern seemed to pop out a little more, plus I have a strange affinity for twisted stitches.

All in all, I am satisfied, as I hope my recipients will be, too.

Itty Bitty Knitting Committee

Tiny Knits! Sock and sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Hat and mitten inspired by the same. The sock actually seems a little out of scale with the others; I may reknit it slightly smaller. I may also add pants to the set, depending on my level of ambition. The set is meant to be an activity in a Montessori toddler classroom. Knit with samples from Colourmart (the mitten and sweater), and leftovers from the stash (sock and hat).

No, this isn't all the knitting I've been up to. There's been a lot of gift knitting getting done (go me!) which will be blogged when gifted. I also completed another large project which experienced a few glitches. Details to come...

Delayed Isabella

Isabella was begun last summer, and set aside for a more pressing project, and then for more winter-appropriate garments. I forgot to get her back out again at the beginning of this summer, indeed only starting again in August. I didn't have too much more to do, though, just one armscye modification and a sleeve.


After knitting the body (modified to knit in the round), I discovered that I miscalculated where the sleeve needed to begin and the armscye was much too deep. It's always something with me. Being too lazy to rip back and redo the under arm bit, I did a cheaterish thing. I picked up stitches across the bottom edge of my malformed armscye and ribbed a couple of rows and then used simple short row shaping to create a curve. It looks nice, I think.

All in all, I'm happy with the product. A little worried about the drape of the cotton (or droop, rather) but so far it's behaving well.

Bonus: Isabelly! First belly shot on the blog...

I forsee baby knitting in my future...

Reincarnation

What was this


Has become this

and is much happier in its new life.



Du Store Alpakka (tynn), about 2.5 skeins.


Well, really less because I didn't bother to unravel the back of the shrug, I just cut it out and knit up the arm/leg until it was long enough to join. The arms-cum-legs had enough width that I didn't even need to shape for the butt any. The fit is a little wide-legged, but I'll tell myself it's fashionable. She loves them!

Knitting Tourist

We love to visit the Norskfolkmuseum but rarely get out there. We are still discovering new things in the place. Like this lady quietly knitting in one of the cabins -- how's that for a summer job!

And I don't know how I ever missed it before: the weaver's shop. Really, all things fiber, and lots more than just knitting. There were old spinning wheels and huge looms (both of which I failed to get pictures of) and some great displays on lesser-known fiber crafts:

Nålbinding, which I think ususally looks a little stiff and awkward like this:

but can also look soft and airy and beautiful like this:

I wish I'd bought the learn-to-nålbind kit. For that matter, I wish I'd bought the learn-to-use a knitty noddy (knitting nancy, strikkelise). As it is, I saw this display:

and bought just the knitty noddy, thinking "hey the internet is a big place, I'm sure there's good instructions somewhere..." Well, sometimes even Google can't help you, and you know how it's harder to find things in a really big place sometimes? If anyone has any pointers to online tutorials or anything, please share.

Little Boy Blue

A dear friend of mine is expecting her second little boy, and it took me the better part of her pregnancy to decide what to knit for her. I finally decided the project should have two special elements: 1) it was to be my first Baby Surprise Jacket (truly a milestone) and 2) it would be knit from yarn that I bought while I was with her, so long ago, before either of us were considering having babies (more than in an abstract sense anyway).

I bought the yarn in Munich, not even at a proper yarn store, because I was not even enough of a knitter to seek one out. It was a department store in Muenchner Freiheit... I can't even remember the name it was so long ago! The yarn was intended to be my first pair of socks (having already knit 1.5 socks, I thought I was ready for two!). The pattern was beautiful but ill-fated as a sock, not stretchy. I had to frog it off of my foot after the first time I tried it on. So I hope this is a better fate for the yarn.

And, knitting the BSJ for the first time... it reminds me of the first time I ate a mango. I couldn't stop. And I could not get enough (indeed BSJ #2 is en route right now). A truly delightful experience.

There's a third special aspect about this project. I've had two wonderful birth experiences, both at home in the water. The same midwives attended both births. During my second birth, the senior midwife was knitting through most of it. It felt so serene... just right somehow... like "just another normal birth, nothing to get excited about, I guess I'll just knit". It gave me confidence to feel she was so relaxed that she could knit! Two days later, she gave us the finished product: a perfectly beautiful BSJ. The first time I'd ever seen one, and I knew it was a special pattern right away. It turned me on to Elizabeth Zimmermann, and started me on the path to being a better knitter.

Glutton for Noro

Who could get enough?

oooo la laz

A larger project has finally come to fruition, and also come on vacation with me...

The Modern Lace Henley, thanks Pam Allen. In Knitpicks Telemark. I did a right and proper gauge swatch this time, and boy am I ever glad I did. I've got some loosey goosey knitting, and swatching in pattern with 3.5 mm turned out way over gauge, so with a bit of calculatoring, I cast on for the smallest size. I'm not actually the smallest size by any means but it fits :).

I modified to knit in the round. I could have dealt with the side-seam increase/decrease area a little more smoothly (I guess I could have stood to read today's Knitting Daily back in February when I started... where's a time machine when you need it?) Also, I left out the collar thing. Sorry, Pam Allen, it's just not me. I continued the neck band as instructed around the entire neck opening.

And, you may have noticed it's practically long sleeved. Yes, I decided while I was knitting that I would like the sleeves to hit me just after my elbow, instead of just above the elbow. I failed to consult the Oracle (e.g. the swatch). Instead of calculating from the swatch how many rounds that should be, I just knit out 10 inches of sleeve. Duh, blocked lace grows. Well, I actually don't mind the longer sleeves as they are a bit warmer for chilly Oslo mornings. Except it looks like I don't know how to knit a proper sleeve. Which I guess I don't.

Tough Love

This yarn was frogged from my earliest sock attempt -- I bought the yarn in Germany and got about 3 inches before I set it aside for a few years and moved back to the States. The next time I picked it up, I decided the colorwork pattern was beautiful but too inflexible and small for me. I managed to try it on once, then had to frog it off my foot! I took pictures... I might be able to scare them up some day.

Grumperina's epiphany about spirals really struck me, and I thought it would be the perfect color play for my old favorite yarn. I had hoped that my subsequent (10 years') experience as a knitter would make this sock more wearable than the original incarnation... but that eternal hope-spring is all dried up.

I think my cast on of 62 was too much. Me and my loose knitting. I like this yarn a lot, though, it's been with me for a long time. And I can't make something not perfect with it, so... Tough love is a frog.

Teh Uber Suxxorz

On Christmas Eve, I lost these...

In my grief and despair, I turned to yarn shopping. Who doesn't, in troubling times? The yarn smorgasbord her in Oslo is a little limited... there are lots of totally great, solid, yarns coming out of Scandinavia that I really respect. Socks, colorwork sweaters ... this place has a long venerable history of keeping itself warm with sheep hair. But the yarn shops around here are a little light on the squishy sweet, twinkly-tinkly hand-painted yarns that make your eyes salivate. So, while browsing at Bente's Butikk, I decided to spring for a skein of Rowan Tapestry. I'd admired it before, at Uldstedet in Copenhagen.

Initially, I was in love.

Then, the honeymoon ended and my suave lover turned out to be coarse, hairy-backed and stubbly chinned. And too short.

Summation: boo to Rowan Tapestry. Expensive, coarse and scratchy, and pilly after barely a month's use. Pilly in that way that isn't really pills, like you can't pull them off. Just a halo of fuzz. But not in that nice mohair way. Just ugly dread-locky fuzz.

Pictures and Unrelated T3xt

Last night I had my first dream about yarn/knitting. First, no kidding. My dear husband and I were in a restaurant in Japan and eating fantastic food.

They were giving us super huge portions, though, and I was afraid they would be grumpy that we weren't finishing them. So we were taking a kind of long time over dinner. I remember this one dish in particular was a salmon tempura with a slightly sweet sticky sauce. Yummerz. So finally we were getting ready to go and I noticed -- for the first time -- that the restuarant had a basket of yarn on the wall next to the table, with some needles. My conception was that it was like a bread basket, a while-you-wait kind of thing. I bet all the best ideas come to people while they are sleeping.

The sad thing was, I was really excited to see what kinds of fancy Japanese yarn they had,

but it was all European yarn.

Du Store Alpakka, Garnstudio, Opal sock yarn, some unlaballed balls. Not even any Kauni!

PS. Did you spot the FO in this post? It's my final pair of replacement Pomatomus mitts. If these get lost or stolen, or I end of hating (ravelry link) them (though I doubt that, they are a beautiful brown silk/cashmere from Colourmart), I will try the new Spirogyra pattern from Knitty.

Entrelac Roolz

For some reason I really dragged my feet on finishing these (no pun intended… really). I carried around the two, with only the kitchnering to do, for like 3 days. Finally I finished and I love them! I think I was procrastinating because I didn’t want to face the fact that they were actually a little too large. But, with the 6-stitch-block thing, it’s kind of hard to get a fine gradation in sizing.

Plus I think I’m just not expereinced enough with socks to tell early-on what’ll be too big for me. That, and my crazy super-loose knitting. I don’t know what’s up with loosey goosey me.

  Anyway. I haven’t blocked them yet, and I’m hoping that will make some magic happen. As it is, they slouch a bit (unless I actually have my legs up in the air admiring the socks, or it's seconds after I just pulled them up), and the heel is a bit poofified now and then. But you know what? I love the colors so much, and I love the look of the entrelac so much, and I loved knitting them so much, that I can accept the slight not-exactly-perfectness of them. And hope that blocking will save the day. Yay for me.

(P.S. it's Annetrelac, in Regia Desgin Kaffee Fassett)

kthx bai!

2008.02.24.19.09.42, originally uploaded by katy_pine.

Pattern: Knucks, from knitty.com

Knitted for my favorite Norwegian. I started these near the beginning of January in anticipation of his February birthday. It was a quick knit, about two evenings' worth of knitting (including frogging and reknitting the 2nd glove three times because the decreases didn't match properly, entirely my fault, it's a great pattern). So, there they sat for almost a month while I decided what the 8-letter statement should be across the knuckles. I did quite a bit of research and pondering and wracking other people's brains about it.

Here's a sample of other people's choices, culled from ravelry pictures and around the internet, and some from my own crazy brain:

high/five rock/roll game/over whatever nerd/core play/golf serenity rtfm/unix cuteness omg!/wtf? laughter strength read/jane bike/safe dynomite star/zero fuck/yeah patience play/loud knit/soxx play/time late/fate cats/meow half/full piss/off! song/bird love/life all()aces cozy/warm baby/wins brit/pop bull/shit purr/hiss liebling damn/cold snow/babe yarn/diva look4luv look/lush lush/life geek/girl geek/love hard/core nerd/core geek/chic

the winner:
kthx/bai!

I know, not all deep and stuff. But my recipient laughed and laughed and laughed, and I think that was worth it at least.

Ravelry Ate Me

Ravelry is an incredible tool for organizing and encouraging my knitting. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a progress bar. It's been a little consuming lately, but I've been very productive in the knitting realm.

Annetrelac Socks
Regia Design, Kaffe Fassett


sweet baby Djevellue
silke-alpaca


My So-Called Scarf
colonia 140 from handpaintedyarn.com


and some coldie-pants of my own pattern (basically)

Also we had the most amazing Stitch-n-Bitch this last Monday. We got some exciting baby-makin' news from one of our members, and met two new members. Emily has a beautiful blog and makes adorable little babushkas and gives them super-scandinavian names like "Vilde". Esther didn't have a blog but she's making charming baby hats... you'd have to see them to understand... I'll try to get a picture next time.