Tag Archives: FO

yarrrrn.

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spindles

Those of you who’ve been reading for awhile know that I’ve begun practicing with a drop spindle. I posted some practice “yarn” this spring, but honestly, I was having a hard time with drafting and getting an even, longer-than-a-millisecond spin with my spindle. Enter Mel of Pipe Dreams and Purling Plans. In September, Mel held a contest in conjunction with fundraising for the Breast Cancer 3Day Walk in DC, and I won the beautiful spindle in the foreground above. This spindle has made all the difference. It spins forever, which has given me the practice I need to figure out how to draft and spin more consistently. I’m considering this my very first yarn — spun from 2 oz of BFL in colorway Sadia from A Verb For Keeping Warm. It is a beautiful, complex gray. Here’s what it looked like when I took it off the spindles:

prewash

I then soaked it in a warm water bath, and weighted it as it hung to dry to straighten it out.  I waited all day yesterday for it to dry, and last night I wound it into a skein:

tada

And here’s the skein with a dime for scale:

tada-dime

This looks pretty thick-thin, but much of that has to do with switching spindles and making it over the drafting hurdle part of the way through this projct. I’d say most of the yarn is solidly dk weight, and none of it is thicker than a heavy worsted. I’ve begun a new spinning project already, and I can already see my own progress. This is seriously addicting.

Happy New Year! I’ll be back soon with (perhaps) a quick review of my knitting year, and some resolutions for 2009.

FO: leftover socks

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blurry-leftovers

blurry-close-up

Apologies for the blurriness, folks. We all know how hard it is to take pictures of one’s own feet. Details on these socks: Cascade 220 superwash, maybe 3/4 of a ball? I bought 2 balls to make a pair of men’s size 10.5 socks, and started a new ball for each sock. I made these with the leftovers. Same basic Ann Budd pattern, size 5 needles. My toes are nice and warm!

Also, this guy wants you to know that even though he is on vacation, he is getting a lot of work done on his green toy:

pooch1

pooch2

Boh is currently snoring loudly on the couch. He worked very hard today.

still knitting…

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First off, the boy seemed quite pleased with the socks and mittens. He tried everything on immediately on Friday night, and was showing off the mittens at the Saturday farmers’ market. He’s a bit camera shy, so I have no modeled pictures to share. Onto holiday knitting:

side-square2

There’s a wireless signal in my bedroom at my parents’ house. I’m not sure if this is good or bad for my holiday knitting. Either way, it is good for blogging. Today, about twenty minutes before my brother arrived, I finished Turn A Square, and to echo everyone who has already made one (or twenty), I love this pattern. I want one, and I will definitely be making a bunch more. What a nice hat to add to the knits-for-boys arsenal. Take a look:

square-blurry

flat-square

Also, I started another pair of Cruiser mittens for my mom, in Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton. (My mom has a wool sensitivity/allergy, which makes knitting for her tough.) I’m giving her a Namaste bag for Christmas, but I wanted to tuck something warm and handknit inside, so I’m hoping I can squeak two mittens out of one skein…

cruiser-2

I’m making the smallest size, because this yarn is a bit thicker than the Malabrigo I used on the first pair, and because it is cotton, and I want the cuff to be snug.

I’ll leave you with a winter shot of a cardinal at the feeder in my parents’ yard. I’ll be back when I have more progress to report!

cardinal

too ambitious?

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blocking-mittens

Maybe not. Yesterday I managed to knit mitten number two, and now the pair is blocking. The outsides are dry, but the insides may still be a bit damp when I gift these later today. I have them on the heater, and if they magically dry in the next few hours, they will be immediately useful.

I wanted to post a picture I snapped two minutes ago of the snow falling outside, but wordpress says I can’t upload any images at this moment. I guess that means the other project I started yesterday will also remain a mystery for now…

Back to knitting!

FO: june bug socks

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june-bugs-fo

Hooray! I love these socks. Not quite done in time to be appropriately celebrated as part of socktoberfest, but still the fastest full-size socks to come off of my needles to date. To review (raveled here): the yarn is Yarn Pirate BFL sock in colorway June Bug. The pattern is one of the basic Ann Budd patterns from Getting Started Knitting Socks – 8 st/inch, 72 stitches CO. I used 2.5 mm needles. These are a tad big around the ankles, but the foot and heel fit well, and the yarn feels like a dream on my feet. In fact, I may need to acquire some hip clog-like shoes in order to begin showing off handknit socks. Always on the incentive program, perhaps I’ll do some internet window shopping after I read another 100 pages.

Also, it is time to decide on patterns and yarns for the next pair(s) — anybody have favorite sock patterns for boys to recommend?

Happy Monday!

si, se puede!

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si-se-puede

Apologies for co-opting a slogan of hope to mark the completion (finally) of my first BSJ. I’ve somehow misplaced all of my teeny tiny needles, and had to use a paperclip to poke the yarn through the holes of the buttons before rethreading my yarn needle and weaving in the ends. I hope to have this off to baby William later this week. He’s just over a week old — let’s hope he gets to wear this a few times before he outgrows it!

I hope that my subtle display of partisanship above does not offend. Four years ago, I worked as an organizer for a nonpartisan youth voting initiative, and despite my extreme disappointment in the partisan outcome of that particular presidential election, I remain committed to the importance of civic participation in the democratic process, despite its flaws.

Regardless of who you support or why, please vote today. It matters.

cowls.

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I know I’m way late to the party on this one, and I have to give Hilary credit — she was talking about knitting cowls out of all of the warm, beautiful yarn we were petting at my LYS, and suddenly I was buying this gorgeous skein of Manos to make a cowl for a friend. Over the weekend, while soup was being prepared, I made some serious progress on cowl #1. (So nice to be able to knit in the kitchen — not something you can do by yourself.)

Apologies for my dirty mirror. Here’s another shot:

I followed the worsted weight mods for the Dolores Park Cowl, but didn’t pay much attention to gauge or needle size (I used US 9s), so it turned out a bit more slouchy than I was expecting. It looks enormous on the table! I wore it around the house for a bit yesterday, and I’ve decided that I like it this way — with a sheepier yarn, perhaps it makes sense to go for something slouchier to improve comfort and create the right amount of warmth. I’m convinced now, but I NEEDED to make another just to make sure. I had some extra Malabrigo laying around, so I cast on 72 st, using the 9s again, and roughly followed the pattern, though I threw in a decrease row about 8 or so rows before the second purl ridge.

This is perhaps a tad snug — perfect in Malabrigo, but perhaps it would be annoying to a non-knitter in a different yarn? Also, this confirms for me that cowls should be bright! I think I’m going to hold onto this one, as it has already come in quite handy for keeping me warm while Boh takes care of his morning business. I’d also like to note that I began knitting this cowl yesterday, after beginning work on a paper for this afternoon, and that I completed the cowl last night. The paper is still only half written…

Also, I’m super excited to link to a shot of one of my pinwheel blankets in real life. Remember that wedding I went to in California last month? The one where I was weaving in the ends to the green pinwheel just before the ceremony, and thus had no picture of the finished product to share? The newlyweds in question purchased a house this year, and have been posting pictures of their progress as they turn it into “home”. Check out that blanket draped over a chair in the living room! One of these days I’m going to need to make a pinwheel blanket to keep, though I imagine Boh will fight me for it.

toast and socktober.

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Whoops! Saw these last week at A Friend to Knit With and just had to cast on. I used random leftovers of Cascade 220 Heathers. Finished one immediately, and then life got in the way. I’ll be happy with my schoolwork progress if I read two books this weekend, and after I finished the first one, I sat down to knit on my second mitt. One episode of Craftlit later, and I was weaving in the ends.

I just learned that I’ve been assigned a carrel in the library stacks, and it is a bit chilly up there. These will be perfect for helping to keep my focus on my reading… I can’t believe we’re already 5 weeks into the semester. How did it become October? Now I will awkwardly transition to Socktober. I did an absolutely horrible job last year — I managed to not finish the pair of socks I already had on the needles. You heard it here, folks. I am vowing not to repeat that peformance. I’m going to finish at least one pair of socks, and to increase my chances of success, I’ve cast on for the Through the Loops Mystery Sock! Take a look:

Boh doesn’t seem to think I can do it. The yarn is sunshine yarns in a lovely variegated green — a gift from a knitting group friend months ago. These pictures do not do it justice, but I am thrilled with how the cuff is coming along. I’m going to reward myself with some more knitting time if I can make some progress on this second book. Hope you’re having a great weekend!

brought to you by the letter B.

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Brussel sprouts…

Boh asleep on my Bed (note that his head is on the pillow. Silly dog)…

Beret #2. How did that happen?

(no-knead) Bread #4. This time I used bread flour, and Boy is it Beautiful!

I didn’t actually plan for today to be sponsored by the letter B, but it is nice when things turn out that way. Here are the details of my accidentally cast-on and completed star crossed slouchy beret #2:

Yarn/needles: Malabrigo leftovers from Foliage and sassymmetrical, US 11 needles.

Mods: A bunch on this version: On the increase row after the first pattern repeat, I did K3, M1, rather than K2, M1, to make it slightly less slouchy. The second time through, the pattern directs you to do a repeat and a half. I eliminated the half repeat, and began the decreases, knitting the appropriate cable row partway through the decreases. Also, I did some stripey stuff to stretch the Cinnabar color a bit further, and I like how it turned out. Again, the cables and the large needle size make the resulting hat super squishy and soft. It will be easier to put Beret #1 in the mail with this one here for me to enjoy.

Time to slice into that Bread…

FO: star crossed slouchy beret

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Ta-da! This was super quick and quite fun to knit. The cables increase the squish factor of the Malabrigo, and while the variegation is a bit busy, I am quite excited to send this westward to its rightful owner. Here’s another shot of the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, in which the dog demonstrates his usefulness as a table/backdrop:

Using the eyeballing method, this hat took about half a skein of Malabrigo. I may make one for myself out of my sassymetrical leftovers. This is where a scale would come in handy…I’ll keep you posted. In other news, here are some pictures of yesterday’s victories:

Delicious collards from my local farmers’ market, cooked with garlic, ginger and chile.

My very own yarn! (Dog for scale.) I’m not sure if you can get a sense for the thickness of this yarn, but most of this feels like a light worsted or even a heavy dk. I need to get better at spinning the spindle levelly, and at joining new pieces of fiber without getting an ugly blip in my yarn, but I am feeling really good about this. Dividing my roving into more vertical pieces, and doing more pre-drafting to both lengthen the roving strips and separate the fibers from each other made all the difference. I had a lot of fun with this, and am looking forward to practicing a bit more.

I also have a recent yarn acquisition to share, purchased at my new LYS. This is absolutely gorgeous, local, undyed alpaca. I bought two 8 oz 660 yd skeins, and I’m wondering if I could turn this into a drapey Gathered Pullover. What do you think? Other ideas include a luxurious shawl or lacey shrug.

Thanks also for all of your kind words about graduate school and the transition. It feels truly indulgent to be able to set most of my own schedule and focus on reading and writing and thinking. I’m sure my anxiety will begin decreasing once my seminars get past their introductory meetings and I am able to work through the transitional cobwebs by participating.

Alright — off to do a bit more reading, and then some baking, spinning and frolicking with the dog. Happy weekend!