Another Christmas Knitting Finish

I never did find the same ornament pattern I'd lost, but this is a pretty cute replacement. If I ever do another one, I'll use sport or fingering weight instead of the worsted the pattern calls for and make the neck a few stitches wider.

Still no progress on the slippers because I was feeling way too pregnant and achy to knit after taking the kids to a Christmas craft party and karate yesterday. Maybe tonight...

The Christmas Knitting Continues...

I finished Heath's hat at 3am Sunday morning, despite the fact that I hadn't even cast on until after midnight. My plan was just to get it started, but I did the first five rows the pattern and then the purl rows, and then thought I'd just keep going until it was time to decrease the top, and then the top only needed eleven more rounds, and by then I'd totally lost track of what time it really was and was forcing myself to ignore the fact that I've got little kids who expect Mommy to actually move in the morning....

Alex insists that it's far too girly for her brother and that she should wear it instead. At least she spotted the hat in my knitting bag and not her slippers, which I'd hoped to finish after she went to bed last night. Instead, I gave in to exhaustion and went to sleep myself about ten minutes after I got the kids all chased off to bed.

The day wasn't a total knitting loss -- I started the second Cape Cod Sock and a sock for hospital knitting (because it's finally sunk in that no matter what else happens, I am going to be spending some time in a hospital at the end of this pregnancy and may want something mindless to knit on.) I love toe up socks, but the figure-eight cast on is fiddly and I don't always get it right on the first (or second) try. So I tend to put off starting new ones. Now, I've got my Cape Cod sock for a simple project to work on while the kids are in the room, and the other one as an even simpler project to work on when I just want to have my hands moving.

As for the rest of the Christmas knitting... The needles I own won't cooperate with the laceweight yarn for the neck warmer, so that's on hold until I drive into town. I did find some yummy grey yarn in my stash yesterday, so I may go back up and dig that out to see if I can adjust the pattern for bigger yarn. It'd knit up faster and probably be warmer, so if the ruffle doesn't work I may just pick a nice lacy stitch pattern and work with that. My ornament patterns vanished sometime between 3am Sunday and yesterday afternoon. I know they just got picked up and put in with something else, but I can't find them and I can't print out another copy from the internet because of course I don't remember the name of the pattern I finally decided to use.

Today's goal -- finish the slippers!

My Christmas List

Over the past day and a half, I've managed to put a very reassuring dent in my Christmas knitting list. DH's present, a helmet liner to wear hunting, is done and took a lot less time than I thought it would. Either that, or I squeezed in more knitting hours than I'd expected to. Whatever did the trick, it left me feeling a lot calmer about the rest of the knitting I still hope to get done.

I've decided not to tackle the wristwarmers for my sister, because they look difficult even before I add in the fact that the pattern's written in Norwegian. Maybe she'll get those next year. For now, I'm debating between two scarves I already have finished.

There's an ornament for the Knittingmothers exchange, which could be done in an hour or two if I used a simple pattern, but I really want to try that itty bitty aran stocking I found a pattern for...

There's a pair of slippers for Alex, which should go quickly. I had one almost half done this morning before I realized how impossibly far off the gauge was. Now that I've found the size dpns that pattern called for, I should be able to knit them in a few hours.

I want to make something for a friend who I swear bundles up more than anyone I've ever met in my life, so I'm hoping that the lacy little neckwarmer I found in InKnitters will knit up in time.

If I make something for Alex, I've gotta make something for Heath, so there's a hat pattern in the 2006 Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar and some yarn he picked out ages ago. How long can a hat take? And if I knit for the older two, I've got to knit for Quinn. Probably the basketweave toddler socks from my to-knit list.

21 days till Christmas...five projects left on the list....it could happen...

dreaming of sock yarn...

I dreamed of soft merino sock yarn last night, after finishing the first of my Cape Cod socks. The wool was soft and yummy in the skein and to work with, but I wasn't prepared for how it was going to feel to slip my foot into the finished sock. I was just hoping it would fit right, and suddenly my foot was wrapped in this heavenly warm cocoon of gorgeous yarn. My husband might have thought I was a little nuts when I made him try it on so he could feel for himself why I need more sock yarn from Knitpicks even though he seems to think I have enough yarn already. Once the second sock is done, I've only got two more skeins of this wonderful merino to play with. In Paper Doll, the colors I was dreaming of last night.





I can already tell the second sock is going to interfere with my Christmas Knitting.

Craft Warehouse has racks and racks full of fluffy novelty yarn on sale for $1.99 a skein, which we discovered totally by accident yesterday when the kids and I stopped to price yarn for Christmas presents, just in case I couldn't knit what I need to finish with stash yarn.



The pink eyelash is for the bodice of this. The red stuff is for a scarf for me, because I absolutely love the color and was intrigued by the texture of their sample scarf. The black and white zebra is to swatch and see how it would work with a scarf pattern I want to try. And I've got my fingers crossed that when we go back up to town next week, I can find something that'll work for a Vegan Fox. There were lots of shades of brown in different textures, so I'm hopeful.

And if I wasn't sock crazed enough by the merino, Socks Socks Socks finally came in at the library. I've checked this book out before, but now that I know I can actually knit socks, I'm looking at it through new eyes, thinking I could knit that and that and that and that.... I definitely need to get my own copy of this one. I was so absorbed in it last night and this morning, I totally forgot I also brought home Loop de Loop.

The Christmas knitting is looking less and less like fun....

I missed Thanksgiving

Actually, I lost an entire week to the nasty bug that made the rest of the family kind of sick but sent me and #4 to the hospital. Twice. My Thanksgiving dinner was two liters of IV fluid and a cup of chicken broth. Bill and the kids got something from a convenience store. The turkey is still in the fridge, hopefully still safe enough to cook. I've got to call the Butterball hotline and see what they think.

And while I was missing that, I missed most of Knit Unto Others. I'd hoped to do a bunch of premie hats, but only managed one before I got sick and two more once the nausea passed enough for me to try knitting again. I'll do a few more when my Christmas knitting is done -- or after Christmas, when I run out of gift knitting time.



My back issues of InKnitters got here the other day, and I'm so glad I ordered the set. I did wind up with one I already have, but the others are new-to-me and even though I've barely glanced through one of them, there are at least three projects besides the baby bunting I ordered it for that I want to try. And I think I've got suitable yarn for all of them!

I can see how I missed the baby bunting when this issue was on the stands. The picture in the table of contents is tiny, and hidden in the fold next to the staples. And it's not nearly as cute in the magazine as the picture on the designer's home page, which triggered the whole pattern hunt. None of the four projects I want to knit are visible on the table of contents page, either not clearly or not at all. Makes me wonder what else I've been missing as I quickly flip through the knitting magazines in the grocery store.

Knit Unto Others

My plan is to knit premie hats for the Special Care Nursery at the local hospital, five before the end of the KAL and another five before baby #4 is born at the end of February. I've been meaning to knit them hats for a little over a year now, so hopefully this will get me motivated!

Working on my WIPs

Despite two spectacular mistakes -- how could I first manage to knit the right side rows on the wrong side and then, only a few hours later, manage to graft the wrong sides together? -- the blue lace scarf is done, except for blocking. I haven't figured out where to spread it out yet. The sewing room or attic, probably, I just need to get up there and get it done while the kids are all occupied.

The Cape Cod socks are still coming along, the Lacy Kerchief Scarf is waiting for me to have some peaceful time to spend with it, and the cardigan is still shoved in a dark corner. I've got thoughts that I should finish it before the end of the year, but not enough motivation to actually pull it out and cast on for the sleeves.

Socks!

This has got to be one of the neatest things I've seen on a knitting blog. FIFTY SEVEN pairs of hand knit socks all laid out together in a gorgeous ring...I obviously need more sock yarn if I'm ever going to have that many wonderful socks. It does not matter that I hardly ever wear socks. If I had socks that pretty, I'd wear them. Even if I didn't wear them, they'd provide me with lots of hours of stress relieving creative time. Which I need.

I can't buy pretty sock yarn, so I'll work on using up what I've already got. That way if the house ever sells, I'll have a good reason to buy more.



This is the first of the Cape Cod (Knitpicks Sock Landscape) socks. Instead of the basketweave pattern I had in mind but kept avoiding, I'm using the Waterfall Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks and thoroughly enjoying myself. This stuff is turning out to be just as nice to knit with as it felt in the skein. Hard to believe that three days ago all that was done was the toe shaping.

I know better

Every time I cut down on my WIP list without starting new projects to take the place of the ones I've finished, I regret it. Especially when I finish all of the easy stuff and leave myself with nothing I can just pick up and knit away on while I watch the baby play. Starting new projects is never as easy as it seems like it should be. I spent a couple of hours swatching to see if I can use my Opal crocodile yarn for a baby sweater (with a pattern that calls for almost identical yarn)...couldn't get the gauge right. Cast on for a lace pattern dishcloth to see if I liked the pattern enough to make a shawl in it....frogged after it was obvious that the thing was going to be huge.

I still don't have a decent baby watching project. Instead I've got the Lacy Kerchief Scarf (Interweave Knits, Summer 2005).



Love the pattern, love the yarn (TLC Cotton Plus I originally bought for a Honeymoon Cami), love the knitting....but I'm not going to be able to play with this one unless the kids are asleep or really occupied with something. I'm actually knitting lace from a chart!

Having the washer and dryer on the porch makes laundry a much bigger project, especially now that it's so darn cold out there. But I braved the elements this afternoon to wash and dry the Euroflax Stole, and it didn't fall apart in the process. No pictures, because the kids move it as fast as I stretch it out to dry and it's going to need more competent blocking later. For now, it's softer and drapier, and I'm a lot happier with it. The color doesn't go with any of my maternity stuff, so it'll be a while before I get to wear it.

I've spent most of the rest of the day knitting and have high hopes for this evening. Quinn's finally got socks that fit --



He won't keep them on his feet, but I guess I can carry them around as proof that my little guy does have something to keep his feet warm, even if he doesn't seem to want them that way.

Sensational Knitted Socks came home from the library with me last night and after a quick glance through it, I'm thinking this may be the sock book I have to own. Lots of neat stitch patterns, adjustable by size and yarn type.... wonder if I can test the stitch patterns out on toddler socks....

I love this little hat!



It's Julia's Hat from the 2006 Knitting Pattern a Day calendar (September 6), and I knit it up with the Knitpicks Dancing left over from those weirdly striped socks. I like this stuff much better as a garter stitch baby hat. It's cushy and stretchy and when I can, I plan to order enough of the yarn for a whole little baby sweater. Hopefully that will be while #4 is still tiny!

And just as much as I love the yarn, I love the pattern. It's worked in short row wedges with bobbles and fringe (which don't show up well in my picture, but trust me, they're cute!) formed by casting on and binding of stitches. I can see myself using up a lot of leftover sock yarn on these. There's also a toddler size, so I'll have to make one for Quinn.

I don't hate this as much as I did last week...



After knitting and knitting and knitting and making absolutely no progress at all, I flew through the final skein and it's almost done. I just have to weave in the last few ends and wash and block it. The ends I'll do if Quinn naps long enough. The blocking will wait until I find out why there isn't any heat in our house today. Right now, it's too cold to want to mess with anything wet.

When she was good she was very good, but when she was bad she was horrid....

Why isn't it possible to cheat on my yarn diets just a tiny bit? For me, it's all or nothing. After posting to the knitlist to see if anyone could tell me what yarn and needles I'd need for the baby bunting and finding out that all I really need is the pattern, I'd pretty much convinced myself it would be perfectly reasonable to order the magazine. It's for the baby, after all, and #4 deserves something special and wonderful that was made just for him or her. As opposed to the things I've been making for Quinn that keep turning out too small because I get so caught up in the whole "making things for my babies" mood and don't bother to read the size information until I'm halfway through the project.

Then we went to Walmart to do the grocery shopping and I had to walk through the yarn aisle just to see if the brands they carried came in good baby bunting colors, just in case I didn't have 800 yards of something good already. Not because I was going to buy anything. The yarn is next to the fabric. And the Halloween prints -- and the wonderful autumny stuff -- was fifty cents a yard. Baby will need a little car seat quilt with ghosts and brightly colored moons and stars. I needed the prints with pumpkins and candy corn and leaves. And it was one of those "now or never" things.

I guess I'm going to have to feel guilty about the magazine and work really hard to keep myself in line for a while. Or haul something else to grandma's antique mall. She just sold the absolute ugliest painting on the planet -- the one that I was ready to haul to the dump because it was too bad even for Goodwill -- for eighteen bucks. The thing didn't even have a frame. She tells me she can get quite a bit for the bench by the front porch (which has friends just like it in the barn and garage, so it wouldn't be a loss) and the lamp in my sewing room. Converting the junk the sellers left behind into yarn is fun -- probably the next best thing to finding an old spinning wheel hiding in a dark corner.

The library books I reserved are starting to trickle in. Last trip, I came home with Knitting Over the Edge (lots of neat possibilities in there!), That Dorky Homemade Look - Quilting Lessons From a Parallel Universe, and Alterknits. When Interweave Knits ran the pattern for the Laptop Cases, I thought it was cruel that the model was wearing a really cute knit scarf and of course they wouldn't have the pattern for that. The pattern's in the book, and the scarf attatches to a matching shawl to make a wrap that I've absolutely got to have. Of course it's knit in two strands of yarn and the gauge is over Fish-Scale Lace. That should be easy to figure out a replacement for, right? The yarn the pattern calls for would make it a $316.00 project -- yikes! Somewhere in my future there's got to be a yarn that will make something like this.

For now I've got the Euroflax. It's starting to look like something now that I'm into the third and final skein.

After finishing the magic stripe socks (is something finished if the ends aren't woven in but you've worn it twice? ), I tried swatching for the Truly Tasha shawl, decided I didn't like what the yarn was doing, thought about using the yarn (salvaged from a thrift store sweater) to follow the witch's hat recipe that was posted to one of the lists last week, was feeling too lazy to go up to the sewing room to get the right size dpns, and wound up working on the Euroflax Stole instead... I've been plodding away on the feather and fan stuff ever since.

Have I mentioned how disappointed I am with this yarn? Yarn that costs that much should be really really nice to knit with, not stiff and scratchy and slippery and mean. I've seen how nice it's supposed to get after it's been washed a few times, but I don't trust it.

What I'd like to be plodding away on is that Heartstrings baby blanket I bought the Denim Style for, but I'm trying to make myself finish the stole before I cast on something else that uses exactly the same pattern.

And I --really-- want these! I want to buy a skein of Shimmer to make Frozen Lake, and the Andean Treasure (or something else nice and green) to make The Woods Are Lovely, Dark and Deep... stupid yarn diet...stupid house that no one wants to buy... stupid website that won't let you print a 12 page pattern without cutting off half the written directions and charts... I'm running out of ink and can't find the box with all of my extra computer stuff, which might or might not have an extra ink cartridge in it.

I did copy the text and pictures into my email program and get them to fit on a page that way, and I'm sure I have SOMETHING in my stash that'll make pretty triangular shawls, but Frozen Lake is going to have to wait until I can buy the Shimmer because it's so neat looking the way it's designed.

The wish list just gets longer and longer...

So long ago I can't remember when it was, I read a post on Socknitters that explained how to start a sock from the toe up and gave it a try. Everything was going wonderfully until it was time to start the heel and I realized that I didn't have the slightest idea what to do next. I tried something, which didn't work, then put the whole mess onto waste yarn and hid it from myself. It popped out of hiding now and then, but even though I'd figured out how to do a short row heel, I guess I thought that frogging back my miserable attempt at a heel and picking up the stitches would be to hard. Actually, I'm not sure what I was thinking, because once I finally picked it up again it took two evenings to finish the first sock and would've only taken a couple of days to knit the second one if I hadn't been doing everything but knitting.

It's easy to avoid knitting projects, even the ones I want to do. I let myself get scared by people who posted that there wasn't enough yardage in a skein of Magic Stripes to knit a pair of size 10 socks....I couldn't divide the yarn evenly in half because I don't have an accurate scale (that's near the top of my list of things to buy after the house sells)...I was afraid of messing up my "good" yarn (even though in this case, the good stuff had been bought with a 40% off coupon and would be easy to frog or replace if something went disastrously wrong) ....

Because I was sure there wouldn't be enough yarn, I made them short. A lot shorter than they needed to be, but they fit and I like them and I'm going to try making a tiny hat of pair of socks for #4 with the yarn that's left over.

Hopefully this hat:

I tried last night, but wasn't paying enough attention to the instructions so I'll be starting over this afternoon.

Just because I feel like knitting socks in stockinette and plain old k2p2 ribbing instead of doing a pattern stitch on the instep and cuff doesn't mean I'm wasting yarn. I've got myself almost totally convinced that's true. Which is good, because all I seem to want to settle down and knit right now are stockinette sock feet. I cast on for one of the toddler socks I've been meaning to do, but after a few rounds decided that I didn't like the way the yarn looked or want to fuss with cables. So I pulled out the sock I started in Magic Stripes and then abandoned when I realized I didn't know how to make a heel and the foot was too short anyway. That sock's done now, I've got a good start on its mate, and I'm eyeballing the three other skeins of Magic Stripes that have been aging in my stash....

Devilish Little Horns

I worried about running out of yarn, or that it might not fit his little head, but I never even thought about what a pain picking up the stitches for those little horns would be, let alone knitting them in the round and doing the decreases! Or trying to get a picture of it while he chased me across the room, but I can't complain about that.

The pattern is from here, and I think the yarn might be Woolease left over from Besotted. Quinn's big sister insists that he needs more of a costume, but I don't have the time -- or the yarn -- to knit matching pants, even if I do have a pattern for them.

My socks, which I expected to take forever, somehow flew off my needles:



They've got their little problems (like those weird blue and yellow striped pools of color), but they fit and they were so much fun to work on I'm ready to cast on with some of my pretty sock yarn.

How many days do I have left until Halloween?

I had it all planned out -- spend the next three days finishing my sock, then finish the blue scarf and knit the little devil baby hat for Quinn. There was lots of time to get my Halloween knitting done without abandoning my other projects. Then the cruel folks at Knitty had to put up Yorick. I so need to knit this to wear trick or treating. I've got yarn that should work, I'm just not sure I've got time to make it and the hat before Halloween without totally abandoning the houses.

I'm also really intrigued with this month's Month of Softies theme....especially after seeing the Zombie Rag Doll.

It's quiet here. Both boys are napping and Alex is reading and I'm revelling in the fact that I'm in my own house using my own computer, even if it is set up on the bedroom floor because I shouldn't try to lift the monitor.

This was the view from my kitchen sink this morning:



It'd be more poetic without the Durango sitting there, but I love the trees and the mist and knowing that there are deer and elk out there -- along with the frogs and raccoons and the cat the previous owners left who wants nothing to do with us but we occasionally spot skulking in the distance.

And I've got knitting pictures:



Branching Out, which I finished a while ago. After the first few pattern repeats, which had me wondering if I really should have blown the last of my yarn money (for a while at least) on laceweight wool and shawl books, it got much much easier.



And the Broadripple Baby Socks. This is some of Alex's mystery yarn, which I had to trade the Goodwill alpaca for. From a distance, it looks a lot like Fixation, but it's definitely something else. I love the dense squishy fabric it worked up into and the color, which reminds me of rubber rain boots. They're too small for Quinn, because his Mommy didn't read the size until she had her heart set on the pattern and yarn, so they'll be waiting for #4.



And my socks, which I'm knitting in Knitpicks Dancing with bits of a couple of different patterns. I started out hating the color and the weird blue and yellow stripes -- how does the yarn do that? But now that I've got one done, I'm anxious to finish the second so I can wear them. And after that, I want to start a pair with the other color of dancing I ordered to see if it's got any neat tricks.

The tangle of sock yarn has been tamed! And I didn't have to resort to the scissors, and I'm almost done with the sock. Which would be finished by now if I hadn't been dumb enough to let the baby play with my skein of yarn while I was trying to knit with it.

I bought a little doily pamplet/book/thingie and a skein of pretty green crochet cotton at Walmart while I was grocery shopping yesterday (any yarn purchase that costs less than $5 and goes in with the groceries can't be considered breaking the yarn diet, right?) and the doily books I had reserved should be in by now, so if I can get all three kids occupied at once, I should be able to give this crochet thing a try soon.

After reading the Yarn Harlot's reasons NOT to learn, I'm convinced that this is something I've gotta do. Fast? Uses up lots of yarn? So I could possibly make sweaters for the kids (who will outgrow them fast, so it all balances) with cheap yarn from Goodwill or the discount stores which would make dh see how much yarn I'm using and agree with me that I need to buy more pretty stuff from Knitpicks. Unfortunately, he might pay too much attention to what I'm knitting and what yarn I'm using.

And I don't have the energy to haul the kids to the other library where they'd actually have crochet books with baby patterns...

It's been a whole month without my computer, and I'm handling the deprivation a lot better than I thought I would. I still want my internet access back -- NOW -- but I'm not obsessing about it every minute of every day. I've got other things to keep my occupied (besides the family and the homeschooling and the moving...)

Like the Yarn Harlot's new book. I spent two weeks bugging the local bookstore until the copy I ordered finally came in. Now I'm toting it around from room to room wiht me, enjoying the cover with the shocked little sheepie on the front and reading a chapter now and then.

And my sock. Despite the fact that I'm using fingering weight and size 1 needles and have huge feet, I've made it up past the heel, in the process discovering that I can barely get my foot close enough to the rest of me to wrestle a partial sock onto it. Luckily I got the size right on the first try, so as long as I don't lose this one before I need to compare it to its mate, I should be okay.

All that's left to do is the leg, which would be the easy part. If I hadn't let Quinn hold my yarn while I worked on the heel, turning it into a scary tangle that totally wasn't his fault. And if he hadn't shot out out a little hand with that unexpected speed unique to destructive not-quite toddlers and pulled a dpn loose from 30some teeny tiny stitches, which I couldn't fix until we went to the new house so I could get a teeny tiny crochet hook from the sewing room. The stitches are all back in place and now I need to decide whether to keep fighting the tangle of find some scissors in the hopes that it'll be easier to fix without a sock and needles attatched to one end.

I've done a few more repeats on the Euroflax Stole and finished Branching Out except for the blocking, which I'll wait and do at the new place. I'm ignoring the blue lace scarf because it doesn't look like much fun and I've got something like 16 more 20 row repeats to do.

I want to try some of the worsted weight toddler socks that I printed the pattern for months ago and thought I needed yarn for, totally forgetting about the two skeins of highland wool I bought for I-cord Booga Bag straps and then never used....And the Baby Broadripple socks...and a crochet doily if the book I reserved came in and it's got good directions...