distelfink

I got an email notification that the March sock club kits shipped...so it seemed like a good time to start this year's January socks.


For this kit they sent out two smallish skeins in different colorways, and both patterns involve stranded colorwork. Compared to other techniques I feel I'm a little behind on colorwork. I've only done a few colorwork projects and one of them is a Dale of Norway vest that's been stuffed in the cedar chest for years because I lost the pattern, oops.


I re-charted the cuff to read RSC 2011, since originally it said "bff bff bff bff" which is an acronym I don't think I've ever used. The rest of the leg will have a sort of floral leafy motif, but I'm not far enough along to quite see it yet. I find this project not so relaxing as it takes a lot of concentration for me to follow the chart. (I managed a whole 3 rounds while watching "Whip It" yesterday!) I might have to start something else in tandem, preferably monotone with a stitch pattern that you can just memorize and go.

What's that? I just bought 3 skeins of madelinetosh pashmina for 40% off at my LYS's spring sale? What a coincidence!


I'm pretty sure this wants to be a shawl. Hmm. Tempting.

oh snap

1 weekend, 2 completed projects, 13 inches of snow.



(Love that squiggly line down the front)
Cascadia is DONE, after over a year, and after all the sturm und drang and stuff at least they're cozy. I knit the large size when I definitely should have gone with medium so they're more slipper socks than anything I would try and stuff in my shoes and wear out of the house. Re: my fears of running out of yarn - I had exactly enough - about a 4 inch tail after binding off the cuff.

I finished those on Saturday and we had a little extra time this morning to snap pictures, because outside it looked like this:


and we had to wait for the plow to come...which made me glad that yesterday I finished this:


Look! Just like Hobbes! At least the red scarf is getting some wear during the same SEASON it was cast on.

Once again because I'm just so surprised: 1 weekend! 2 projects! What do I knit now? Maybe my other eight WIPs?

red.

I started Jim's red scarf. I started it about ten times... I tried the red herring scarf but it really bothered me. Then tried Henry and that wasn't working either... then I got a clue that I just wasn't liking anything non-reversible for this project. So.


K1, P1, lather rinse repeat.


Slipping the first stitch of every row to create a nice edge. I'm a little touchy about edges.


My current small-project bag, courtesy of my mom. Owls! The scarf just barely fits in there now, I think it's a little better suited to socks and the like. Luckily the scarf should be finished soon.



So socks. I'm doing the Rockin' Sock Club again this year, and the first shipment came, reminding me that I knit a grand total of one (1) RSC sock last year. Not one pair. One sock. I did the first Cascadia and got so frustrated with the heel that it took me 6 months to finish the first and then another 6 months to cast on the second. Of course all that time I told myself not to start any other socks as Cascadia wasn't done.


So here we go: Cascadia #2. What you see is what I did in...2 weeks? I think that's right. I'm a little worried about having enough yarn to finish, though I suppose now that I'm out of the heel there's really not that much left.

I have this vague idea that I might try to both keep up with this year's club patterns AND knock out the corresponding patterns from last year. 12 pairs of socks in 2011?

The latest acquisitions...


From left to right: STR Pinky Swear, STR Aubergenius, and the Araucania Ranco Multy that I won from Kate! Yay! It got here last weekend but I only got to take a picture today.

Anyone else on Pinterest? Wanna be pinning friends? Holla at your boy, I mean girl...(say in a Tim Gunn voice)

greetings from michigan

Where I am without my usual photographer for a few days, so in order to document the Christmas gifts I made this year and gave to Michigander recipients, I was forced to use my little point-and-shoot. So please excuse this momentary lapse in artistic quality, but the blogging gods demand sacrifice. The knitting must be recorded!


Hey I made gloves! I made gloves in a week! And they were very nearly finished on Christmas morning...but not quite. I made these for my sister out of the leftover Cascade 220 from my Central Park Hoodie, and some Dale of Norway something-or-other for the trim. I used the Garter-Cuff Gloves pattern in Weekend Knitting, a book I've gotten a lot of nice gift patterns out of. These were my first-ever knitted gloves and I had fun making the fingers and trying on the gloves as I went (and throwing up the horns 'cause the pattern has you knit the pinky and index fingers first). They don't gap at all between the fingers (as far as I know...Molly will have to let me know how they stand up to wear) but the fingertips are a little pointy - perhaps a different bind-off would fix it.

My only other yarn-type gift this year was a set of ornaments for my mom:

That's a lousy picture, but you get the idea - I used scraps from some past projects to make tiny knitting ornaments, using this tutorial. I used mod podge to tack the yarn to the "needles" in an effort to prevent them from falling apart in the future, but I don't think that's actually much of a risk as the balls are wound tightly.

And what is Christmas without a little stash enhancement?

Oregon yarn, from Jim's brother (thanks Jon!)


Michigan yarn, courtesy of my grandma


And super soft Debbie Bliss yarn, from my dad with the condition that I make something for Molly, as this is her color - I'm thinking some kind of shawl as she's constantly cold and draped in blankets.

And if you'd like to enhance your stash as well, Kate is having a giveaway on her blog where you can win one of three lovely-looking skeins of yarn. So go comment!

I'm working on a list of all of my UFOs, but it's going to have to wait till I'm back in Ithaca and can look through everything - so far just based on the blog I've listed about 9 projects...eek! Maybe I can make the start of 2011 good and productive on the knitting front.

this one is just right

I knit a scarf.


Just enough ruffles, exactly what I was going for. (I love Laura's designs, the Galileo mittens are just about the coolest things ever. Next to my scarf of course.)



Knit with Lana Grossa Evento, which is mostly cotton, but wrapped in fluffy merino and oh so warm, as I learned during this photoshoot.


Ruffles ruffles love love.

And soon I'll start a new scarf since someone around here said he wanted one.



It's Cascade 220! Are you surprised?!

december?

It's December? What? I haven't posted since...September? Huh? Well - I had family visiting in September, and then work travel and then work got quite hectic and then I had to pass my candidacy exam. Now I finally have a reasonable schedule again and a Masters degree (!) and a little time to knit. So maybe I can have my blog again too. Yay :)

After my exam I knit and I knit and I knit and I bound off the front of isabella (buy yarn for summer top in the spring! start knitting summer top in August! finish knitting summer top in December! it's perfectly logical!) and I got ready to seam the sides and...


Hey that looks kind of funny. Um...


Oh cool! Way to bind off the front two inches shorter than the back! Awesome work! Fantastic. So maybe refusing to get up from the couch when it's time to check length and smoothing the work out on my lap and measuring with too-short ruler...isn't quite as effective as I'd hoped. The back is the correct length, so the front needs to be ripped back. Um...when I get around to it. Maybe after some Christmas crafting. Jim snapped this photo of me making ornaments by our tiny tilted tabletop tree last night:


Yarn + wine + no longer working 15-hour days = life is good. No matter how wonky my other knitting turns out.

ock seeks knitterly advice

I'm embarrassed by my UFO list right now. So embarrassed I don't even want to make it into a real typed-out list, even though I know it's still out there. Waiting.

So...hey look at my new scarf!



Schaefer Yarn Anne (the solid brown skein - merino, mohair and nylon) and Audrey (the rainbow skein - merino and SILK!), going to be a linen stitch scarf but seriously, I could just wear the bare skeins around my neck all winter and probably be happy. My mom bought me this yarn when she and my grandma were visiting Ithaca last weekend. My mom is a nice mom. The woman who rang us up at the yarn store asked to borrow her.

Because I have no shame, I cast on all 400 stitches last Sunday (the scarf is knit lengthwise) and took this as my travel/comfort project on a trip to a conference this week while lovely Isabella languished on my dresser (along with the second cascadia sock, 3 other unstarted RSC kits, my stained glass scarf, what am I doing I said I wasn't making a real list! la la la can't hear you!)...but I've only managed a row and a half, because my needles, well, they suck. For this project. This is where I need your help, because I had this exact problem on a previous project with these exact needles and I need to escape the cycle of disappointment.

The needles: ChiaGoo bamboo circs, size 7, 24 inch length.
The yarns: for both projects, lovely sticky wool-and-other-animal-fiber blends, fine-ish gauge, 3-ply. Prone to splitting, at least with these %&*! needles.
The problems: myriad. The tips on these needles are way too blunt. The joins frankly suck and I have to yank at the (beautiful, delicate) yarn to get from cord to needle. Because the going is so difficult I end up holding the work in a death grip and making the (did I mention beautiful, delicate) yarn all sweaty and knitting tighter than necessary.
The question: Is there another brand of wood or bamboo circular needle that won't cause these problems? I'd also be willing to go with a plastic needle, but I really don't want to use metal. I'm looking for pointy tips and smooth joins. I've heard good things about the KnitPicks Harmony needles, but I actually don't like the fact that they're colorful. Yeah, I know. I'm like the knitting Grinch or something, but I feel that brightly colored needles would distract from my communion with the yarn.

tl;dr; here's a kitty picture.