Muppets

Amazingly, considering how much free time I've had on my hands, I'm behind at this blogging thing! Today I play catch-up.

A week ago, Mom and I went to Loops and Links and played mitten.

Look, I made muppets! The pattern is Quick and Easy Holiday Mittens. I have no idea if this pattern is available online somewhere--Ravelry has 53 pages of mittens, and I gave up on page 6. What can I say? They're mittens. Knit double-stranded with Plymouth Encore Mega and something furry (I lost the ballband) on US 11s over a measly 18 stitches, these mittens are easily completed in a day. I giggle every time I put them on--they're so cute.


I also forgot to mention that I made BrotherDavid try on The Ho while he was home.


No real detail in the photos, unfortunately, but look at that elegant fit! The length is very nearly perfect--three fingers below the kneecap, as is traditional. (It's a little closer to four right now, but I figure they'll relax a little with wearing and end up truly perfect.)

I am so relieved. Now I can start on the second one.

And I just have to relay the wonderful compliment David gave me. He said, "You know, a year ago I watched you make your first little square of knitting, and now I come home and you hand me the most beautiful sock I've ever seen!" (Or something like that. The wording might be slightly off.) *Preens* In just a year, look how far I've come! I'm astonished that I have the ability to make the things that I've made, like a kilt ho and a wrap and a freakin' squid. This knitting stuff is really neat.

Christmas

I think I might be truly grown up: this year, I was so excited to give presents I could barely sit still, and receiving took a back seat.

Grandma loves her wrap. She's already plotting how to take it with her to bridge to show off to her girlfriends. (Whew!)

Here we see the Parental Feet, clad in their gifts.

For Dad, Fuzzy Feet. For Mom, Dublin Bay Socks. I seem to be well ensconced in my Blue Period. (Eat your heart out, Picasso!)


Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Mom and I crocheted some elves.

Meet Elmer and Abercrombie. Abercrombie (on the right) is the older brother; Mom made his body, head, and hat and did the finishing, and I made his limbs and his collar. Abercrombie is also the responsible brother--his hat is always neat-looking, he works hard and plays hard (as a good elf should), and he's a bit befuddled by Elmer. (For Elmer, I crocheted the head, body, and hat, and did the finishing, while Mom did the limbs and collar. Each of us made one whole elf, yet each elf was made my both of us.) Elmer is the quintessential bumbling younger brother. His hat is always askew (I'm not quite sure how the top of it ended up looking like a corkscrew--I swear I followed the pattern!), he's a little clumsy (Uh, his legs aren't really on crooked, it's just your imagination), and he's always got a goofy grin on his face. These elves have personality!

I hope everyone's holiday was a pleasant as mine was!

Tee Hee!

I made a tampon squid!

"This is a rare opportunity; the only known footage of the elusive Tampon Squid hunting its natural prey in the wild. It sidles up to the tampon..."

"...grabs its unsuspecting prey with its two feeding tentacles..."

"...and quickly devours it, before..."

"...swimming off, almost more quickly than the camera can capture it. What an amazing glimpse into the little-known world of the Tampon Squid."


Do I care that the finishing looks like it was done by someone's blind uncle? No. The reasons for this are threefold.
1) The cold I've been fighting off for weeks has finally beaten me. I'm officially sick. (Now I'm on vacation!)
2) I made this thing to hold tampons, not priceless jewels.
3) Imagine the inside of an actual squid. Now take another look at the "eating" picture. Looks pretty good, huh?
I think I've made my point.

I love this thing! It's possibly my favorite knitted thing ever.


Lest you think that all I've been doing is knitting strange but useful personal-care item cozies, here's something else I made.

It's a two-layer red velvet cake with homemade frosting. My dad and I collaborated, and it's fabulous--moist, layer-y, yummy, red. All the things you could ask for in a cake.

I'm looking forward to handing out gifts tomorrow. I'll try to remember to get some reaction shots, but I make no promises.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Home for Christmas

Well, I made it home safely after an uneventful (if very long) drive. And it looks like it's shaping up to be a very knitty holiday! I remembered that there are two friends here who will need Christmas gifts, so what shall I do? I shall Calorimetry. I'm almost done with the one I cast on last night.

This afternoon I'll be helping my mom's friend and neighbor learn how to purl so she can make a Christmas gift hat.

Saturday is a mitten class at a LYS in DePere.

And Mom and I are going to crochet elves, plus work on knitting some socks while I'm home!

Ahhh. Much better than working!

Avast!

Last night, between counting condoms (thousands of condoms--thousands) for AVOL and heading to the Hustler store to help supply their teaching kits (I do the best volunteer work ever!), I managed to do a little knitting.

The pirate socks are done!

You know, it's not getting any easier to photograph socks on my own feet. So I got to thinking, I really need some sock blockers, just for taking pretty pictures.

Like that one.

They're not perfect as far as sock blockers go, but they're serviceable! A few weeks ago I found some clearance stiff plastic placemats, and I bought them with the idea that I could use them to put in purse bottoms and stuff. Well, I laid out the pirate socks on one of them, traced slightly outside them with a dry erase marker, made some cuts, and voila!

The cheeriest sock blockers in the world!

I hand washed the socks last night, and they're still wet this morning. I might just have to wear them tomorrow.

And I'm already planning the next pair of Pirate Socks.

Second Post: Good Day

Oh, Internet Shopping, how I love you! Without you, the mailman would not have brought me this today:

This yarn, which so perfectly matches the one skein of Regia Bamboo I bought the last time I placed an order, foolishly not considering that I would probably need two!

Without you, I wouldn't have this, either:

Pretty, beachy, lovely yarn, with which I intend to make these. As soon as I finish the second Pirate Sock, which should be later tonight. Tomorrow at the latest.

Yarn, good news at work... a girl can't ask for much more in a day.

Wrap Pictures

I am completely obsessed. I made another Calorimetry, this time as a gift. I don't have a picture of the finished product, but I had to stop a few rows in and document the way the colors were working out.

I take my Calorimetry medium-rare, thanks.

Even though I used Soy Wool Stripes again (a different colorway than before) it didn't come out symmetrical! I don't know if I just had the magic skein the first time around or what. I did like the asymmetry of this one, though. I embrace the chaos. The recipient now shares my obsession with these things (thank goodness!), and wants me to make her some more. Hmm, let me think about that... Okay!


Some friends brought me a late-night snack yesterday, and I prevailed upon them to take pictures of me in Grandma's Gift Wrap.

And the stripes still aren't straight. Whatever. They're straight in real life.

This is my response to seeing the first picture that was taken (not appearing here). It seems that after a long day at work my hair is bad, my face is red, and I look kind of drunk. This picture is much more flattering.

In two days I'll be driving home for the holidays. No jobs, hardly any responsibility... so I'm looking at 10 days of solid knitting. I may have to rent a trailer to haul yarn...

In case I don't do much blogging/reading while I'm home, I hope everyone has a lovely second half of December.

Friday FO

Last night after Second Work I finished binding off the latest incarnation of my Calorimetry obsession.


(Wow, my nose looks really long in that picture. Is my nose really that long?) Anyway, my new Calorimetry matches the red gloves I made to wear with my dress coat. Now I just need a scarf (or some sort of neckwarmer) and I'll have a full matching winterwear set! Good thing I have some more red wool at home.


I did a little better with the sewn bindoff on this version of Calorimetry. The last two were too loose, which led to the extreme curve you saw in the floor picture of Calorimetry 2. The solid yarn isn't nearly as charming as the SWS, though. For my next one (what?) I'll try a variegated yarn.

I'm also making decent progress on my second sock.

It's not going quite as quickly as the first one did, but then, last time I had entire days to work on it uninterrupted.

I pulled it out to squeeze in a few stitches while we mere employees were waiting for the manager to be ready to leave Second Work last night. The one guy who was there looked at me, incredulous, then said, "Hello, mother." I flipped him off and informed him that I was working on the coolest socks in the effing world. (It was late. I was tired and my internal censor had already gone to sleep.) He continued to look skeptical, but the other woman who was there was quite impressed. I just can't get over the amazing awesomeness of these socks! The pattern is fantastically cool, and I'm shocked that I'm pulling it off so successfully.

At least my coworkers at First Work appreciate my knitting. Look what a friend and coworker gave me for Christmas!

Yay!

One Down!

I finished the first Pirate Sock last night--hooray! As is my habit when I finish the first of a pair, I then spent a little while walking around in one sock. (After I got home from Stitch 'n' Bitch, that is. I try to confine the worst of my weirdness to my own home, with mixed success.) These will definitely need to be washed before I wear them for any length of time. The black yarn (Regia 6-ply) is stiff and itchy. Not at all soft. This is my first experience with using Regia sock yarn, so I'm really hoping it'll soften up with washing. Otherwise I'll just have to wear these socks over another (thin) pair, because there's no way these babies are going to sit in my drawer!


I even cast on the second one last night. I'm only two rounds into it so I didn't bother with a picture. My passion for these socks is unabated; I resent having to work (two jobs!) today (and tomorrow!) rather than just knitting.

Sigh. Sometimes I hate being responsible.

Calorimetry 2, More Sock

I took a few pictures of Calorimetry 2 this morning.

That one was the best. See what I mean about the crazy perfect symmetry? It was unintentional. Mmm, creepy eye-looking headband thing, how I love you! And I love the red one I cast on last night, too.

I also took a few pictures of the Pirate Sock on my foot. (I can't put this thing away! It is the coolest sock ever. This might be my new standard sock pattern. Henceforth, all socks shall be pirate socks! Okay, probably not.)


It's difficult to aim a camera accurately at the front of your own foot. It took a few tries. I'm just relieved that the skulls still look like skulls when they're stretched out! (Ignore the blinding white of my skin. My parents wasted all the skin pigment genes on my older brother.)

And here's a slightly darker side view, with a bit of the contrasting heel visible. Ooh, so sinister!

With my shapely ankles and calves, I think this is about as long as I can go, cuff-wise, without adding calf shaping. This sock is longer than any of my previous socks--and I like them longer. I keep tugging at the shorter ones.

I'm obviously still completely, madly in love with these two patterns--I give myself until January 1 to go nuts on selfish knitting, then it's time to get a little discipline back and finish Abby's Afghan (which I have made a little progress on) and make the Second Ho. It's important to let yourself go a little nuts every once in a while.

Yarrrr, Mateys!

Yesterday at Stitch 'n' Bitch, I asked for some advice in keeping the floats on my skull and crossbones socks loose enough to get the sock on--unfortunately, it pretty much amounted to what I already knew: do it more loosely. Me? Knit loosely? That's a pretty tall order.

I managed, though. :)

I don't have a picture of it on my foot, but rest assured I obsessively tried it on every few rounds and it does fit. I am completely enchanted. I barely spoke at SnB yesterday, because I was so fascinated by watching this take shape. Colors! Pattern! Stripes! Skulls!

I'm changing the colors a bit from the original pattern; I was supposed to knit the body of the sock in grey (based on my assignment of colors as "main" and "contrast"), then the heel and toe in black, but I decided I wanted a black sock with red (multi) heel and toe and just a few grey accents. I'm such a renegade! It's the pirate in me.

I just couldn't put it down. I worked on this pretty much all afternoon and evening, and I knit from the top of the skulls to the heel gusset.

So cool. These are going to be the best socks ever!

Friday and Saturday were devoted to Calorimetry. I finished the first one on Friday night.

Yes, I said "the first one." You can't tell from the picture, but that thing is stretched so tight I'm afraid it'll snap and take someone's eye out. I really should have swatched. Where did I go wrong? It was a combination of picking a random (smaller) number to cast on and being too lazy to find the right size needles (and therefore using smaller ones), I think. Note to self: 90 is too few if I'm using 7s. I immediately cast on another, this time with 100 stitches, and that one fits much better. It worked out perfectly; I had just enough yarn, and the second Calorimetry is perfectly symmetrical, color wise. Not just almost symmetrical, like the one on the picture.

The only thing wrong now is that it's too damn warm to wear it! It's not supposed to really cool down until Thursday.

But I'm completely enchanted by this pattern, too. I want to make about 8 more of them, in many colors. I really, really love the way the colors worked out in Soy Wool Stripes (the yarn I used), but I want to try it with solids and variegates. More Calorimetry!

At the very least, I need one that matches my red gloves. Perfectly reasonable, right?

I Almost Forgot!

Look what St. Nick brought me!

Thanks, St. Nick! I was completely surprised. :)

Busy Learning

First, I'd like to take a moment to remember my fish, Coltrane, who passed away peacefully in his bowl last night. Coltrane, you were a good fish. *Bows head*


To answer your question, Mom, I did not cast on for the Buccaneer Socks on Monday. I cast on this:


Yesterday, however, I came to accept that it was just going to be too small, so I frogged it. I then spent an hour untangling the mess that happened when I tried to find the end (seen above).

Then I cast on the Buccaneer Socks.

Look! Stripes! I made stripes! (I know that I've made stripes before and wasn't nearly as proud as I am now, but these stripes are somehow better.)

I saw for myself what all those bloggers were talking about when they said there was a jog on their stripes.

Not that I doubted their wisdom--it was just kind of cool (in an extremely nerdy way) to make it happen myself.

I started the chart for the skulls and got three rows into it. Then I thought, "I'd better try to this on to make sure that my floats are loose enough."

Well, shit. Not loose enough.

I plan to frog those three rounds and give it another shot.

In the meantime, though, I put on my brave hat and did some surgery.

I unwove the end, pulled out about 5 rounds, repeated the decrease round, and voila!

A glove whose size has a reasonable relationship to the size of my own hand!

It was a very productive and satisfying evening. Unfortunately, though, it left me without a portable project. So I cast on a Slightly Clerical scarf from Mason Dixon Knitting.

This is yarn I got when I was home in October: Sensations Fever in purple. I picked it up because it's beaded--you can see the lighter dots in the picture above, kinda--and because I like the way this looks with the green I also grabbed. I can make beaded knitting without having thread beads or, y'know, learn a new technique! But the beads are getting lost in the yarn's extreme fluffiness! So I'm going to frog this and give it another try with significantly bigger needles, to make a looser, more bead-friendly fabric. This project needs some fiddling, and I also neglected to wind the skein into a ball (because I'm lazy), so I was still without a portable project!

So I cast on Calorimetry.

Is there a 12-step program for this?

Pictures!

Hmm, I'm not doing very well with posting more often, am I?

Well, at least I've got some pictures to show!


Here are the Selfish Gloves, in all their glory. They are cleverly staged so it's not completely obvious that I fell into a black hole when I was working on the left thumb, and my escape velocity was so great that the thumb is nearly an inch too long, which I didn't notice until after I had woven in the ends and painted the palms and fingers (because I'm not very bright). (Lousy, stinkin' karmic retribution! Don't worry, karma, I'll get right back to my gift knitting. Promise.) They're red! Pretty!

I wore the red gloves in the holiday parade last Saturday, walking with AIDS Volunteers of Lexington. It was cold that day, so I needed a hat, too.


It's a twisted rib hat, double-stranded worsted on US 17 needles. I made it in just one day, so karma didn't feel compelled to punish me for more selfish knitting. (Unless you count the way the seam looks, since the hat is knitted flat and I'm too ashamed to show the picture of the back. But I think that I'm probably just really bad at finishing.)

Finally, a picture of the Tiny Bootie of Enormous Cuteness.

(One Hour Baby Booties, from Stitch 'N Bitch Nation) It still doesn't have a mate (or the little strap that it's supposed to have), but look how cute!

And now, like a good and dutiful person, I am back to gift knitting/crocheting.

Except for that one sock I started for myself. (Don't tell karma.)

Friday!

Last night I did something I haven't done in a while: I sat on my butt, in my apartment, all by myself, doing whatever the hell I felt like doing. (Ahhh! So much better than going to Second Work!)

What did I feel like doing? Knitting. Knitting a teeny, tiny, adorable baby bootie. *Melts* Bootie! Yep, just one, because it's so teeny and tiny that I'm not convinced it will fit on an actual human foot, no matter how new said foot might be. (I also neglected to photograph the teeny, tiny bootie. Oops! It's small and red--use your imagination!)

After I made a teeny, tiny bootie (so cute!) I worked on the Selfish Gloves. I felt entitled to work on them because of finishing the Gift Wrap. I also neglected to photograph the Selfish Gloves. They're red, too, but not so teeny; more adult hand-sized, really. Did I manage to finish them last night? Will I be wearing them in the parade tomorrow? Will I be waving a hand covered with a half-finished glove and several dangerous DPNs around?

Um. I'm not sure why I was building suspense there. Not even I really care about the suspense. I did finish the gloves last night, and I finished weaving ends this morning before work. Tonight before Second Work I plan to desecrate the knitwear with dots of fabric paint, so I'll be able to grip the steering wheel, and once that dries my gloves will truly be done. Hooray! [Um, obviously I won't be gripping the steering wheel until after the paint dries. Sorry about the dangling modifier.]

One more Christmas present to finish, then it's back to wedding stuff. I'm excited that Brother David and Future SIL Abby will be home at Christmas; this way, I don't have to risk the First Ho in the mail, and I get to see his reaction in person. (And it had better be good!)

Hooray!

I finished it! I finished Grandma's Gift Wrap last night. I even had time to do a few rounds on a sock before it was time to go home.


Here it is, in all its glory. (Sorry it's so dark. It was close to 11:30 before I finished weaving in ends and laid it out to photograph.)

That's 41 stripes of 8 rows each. I still haven't gotten the hang of making the stripes lay straight, but here's a detail to show you how pretty they are.

The texture shows reasonably well in this one.

There will be more (and hopefully better) photos to come; maybe even some with the wrap actually wrapped around a person.

And I'm sure we're all happy that soon there will be other projects for me to blog about!

Tardy

Yikes! Has it really been over a week since I posted?

Sorry about that. I've been busy.

This is going to be a short one, crammed into a fifteen minute break. First, the pink hat on the glass head:
It isn't very camouflage-y, as I said, but I think it'll be appreciated.

On the Grandma's Gift Wrap front: I am two stripes away from casting off. Two stripes. That's 16 rows. 1824 stitches. Can she finish at Stitch and Bitch tonight, Bob? Well, Sue, we'll just have to watch her wine consumption and hope she doesn't screw up again!

I finished my dad's Christmas present, but no pictures 'til next year.

And I made a glove. For myself.

It has a few minor flaws that you wouldn't notice unless you were looking for them, so I'm not going to point them out. (Look, folks, she can be taught! It's not cool to denigrate your own handiwork.) Pretty glove! I'm done with the cuff of the second one, even.

That's about all I have time for today. I'll try to get back into a more regular posting schedule!

Hats, and Oops(es)

Every Christmas, my office "adopts" a family through Circle of Love. This year our family has three children--twin 9-year-old boys, and a 6-year-old girl. The boys love the outdoors and list their favorite color as "camouflage." So I got the bright idea to crochet hats for them (and for their sister, so everyone's head will stay warm). Bernat even has camouflage yarn! I pulled out the Easy Crocheted Hat pattern Mom gave me, and voila!

Um, wait--that's not very camouflage. That's actually kind of stripey. Let's try that again.

Now that's what I'm talking about! Oh, the magic of substituting 2 rounds of hdc for a round of dc! I had enough yarn to make 2 hats, so the stripey one can go to another charity.

Because Bernat has several colorways of camouflage, I was able to make the second boy's hat similar, but still different. I figure that twins have a lot of the same things, this way they'll be able to tell their hats apart.

Hmm, that picture looks way too dark on my screen. It's two shades of green, dark brown, and black, and looks very nice. Better than the other ones, I think.

Finally, for the girl I was at a bit of a loss--she didn't give a favorite activity or color. But Bernat had the answer...

Pink camouflage! The above picture was taken before my physical therapy appointment. Below is a picture taken after my appointment--more specifically, after a waiting room visit. It's amazing what you can get done when you're early for an appointment and your doctor is late!

I'm much less concerned about the striping in this hat--I have a feeling that even if it wasn't striping it still wouldn't look like camouflage. I'm not even sure if the girl likes camouflage, so the striping might even be better. I've only got about 4 more rounds before I'm done with this one--yay! I'll take a picture of it on the head once I finish.

Yesterday was Stitch 'n' Bitch at ReBelle, and I made nice progress on Grandma's Gift Wrap. Except for the part that I screwed up. I keep saying that I'm going to fix these damn errors as soon as I notice them instead of knitting on in denial, but what did I do? I noticed the error and knit 10 more rows before accepting that I need to go back and fix it, instead of just biting the bullet and ripping out 2 or 3 rows. 10 more 114-stitch rows, for a total of 12 or 13. Argh! I was just so excited about being nearly done... See, I finally passed the 60-inch mark! (Well, that's counting the 10 rows I have to rip out. Crap.) So here's the plan: Tomorrow night I'm going to take the wrap with me to SnB and rip out what I need to rip (if I can't work up the courage to do it tonight). Then I'm going to redo that white stripe, plus the next (teal) stripe. By the end of tomorrow I will be done with the teal stripe. After that, I'm doing one more repeat (white, purple, white, teal)--and then I'm binding off, wrapping the damn thing in tissue, putting it in a box, and wrapping it up. After I take about a zillion pictures of it.