NaKniSweMo Day 6

Just a quick progress shot as of my lunch break today. I sepereated the sleeves, and have about 160 rows of k3p3 and p3k3 checkerbord before I'm done with the body. I might do the sleeves at the start of the next ball of yarn so I can more effenciatly judge how long to make the sweater.

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NaKniSweMo day 4

Almost done with the increases. 33 out of 34. Will be starting the body tonight.
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Christmas Knitting in November

I've been busy the last few months getting a head start on some Christmas knitting, so I could "relax" in November and work on NaKniSweMo again this year. I started in March (yes March) with Aeolin for my mother-in-law, but that is still unblocked, and will probably remain so until closer to the holiday or the next time my parents have the kids overnight.

Other projects that I have knit are Ice Queen, for my mother. I knit this in about two weeks (off and on) using JeggerSpun Zepher in Juniper and light gold beads.



And pulled up over my head.

For my 15 year old Emo Brother-in-law, knit York. I'm going to embellish around the moth to make the sculls look more like the sculls from the Punisher, but I need to felt it a bit more still. I'm waiting until I have both sinks cleaned out and both kids asleep at the same time. I figure I have until Christmas to get this done, so that miracle is sure to happen sometime between now and then. I knit this in one day while home sick and watching a Buffy marathon.

I'm not sure who this one will be for, I might send it to my sister in Germany, or I might save it for myself. This is knit from my homespun Falkland that I knit during the Tour De Fleece this summer, and is nice and soft and crunchy.

In regular knitting, my Arisaig is coming along nicely. I have the back lace piece finished, and have started on the right lace piece. I'm still pretty confident that the changes I have put in to make this a pullover will work and look nice, but it is going to take a while to do. I am glad that this isn't what I decided on for NaKniSweMo.



But this is. Therapi. Knit in my own hand dyed yarn, using Wilton's Leaf Green (a whole container for seven skeins). I'm 38 rows into the yolk (have 30 more to go) before it is time to separate the sleeves and work on the endless 3X3 ribbing for the body. But I'm sure that I will be able to have this finished before November 30th.

Now back to knitting.

FO! Alphamitts

A few weeks ago I finished the Spiderman Mitts for Corwin's birthday, and Kaylee kept steeling them and putting them on. Corwin demanded that I knit Kaylee a pair of mittens of her own. After a night of searching Ravelry and getting Corwin to ok the pattern and pick out colors, I started on the Alphamitts. It took me two weeks of lunchtime knitting to finish these.

I presented Kaylee with the finished mittens this morning, and she was very happy. She took them to show her brother, and her daddy, then, smiling, tossed them in the trash.

Pullover Fail

Saturday I started working on my modified Arisaig pullover. I decided I would try to knit the pull over in one piece, with a provisional cast on at the start of the lace and would split at the arms. After much adding, casting on, frogging, re-calculating, casting on again and fudging I had the cast on started. All 368 stitches. It only took one repeat of the 16 row chart for me to realize that I was fucking crazy. Yeah. I frogged again last night and am going to work the body in pieces, and will seam, and knit the ribbing in the round. Take two begins tonight with the back.


This weekend also had me dying the yarn for my NaKniSweMo project, Therapi. I wound up dying 7 skeins a nice bright leafy green, and realized that the green is the same shade as the school colors for the Uni that I work for and graduated from. Oh well, it is going to be the office sweater. I just hope I will have enough yarn.

I did finish the Chickidee Cowl and Ice Queen, and will try to get pics up as soon as I block them.

Vine Yolk Cardi, now with buttons!

I sucked it up last night and sewed buttons on my cardi. Nothing special on the button front, but I'm wearing it at work today and it is so comfy and warm in our cold office. Might have to make some arm warmers to match though.
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Sickness, Changes, and Casting on like crazy

I've been sick for 10 days :( Not the flu, but a head cold turned upper respiratory infection. Breathing has been hard to do the last few days, as it feels like my nasal passages have been rubber cemented together, but other than that, I feel ok. I've missed two days of work, which gave me some time to knit and spin a little, but not much, as I spent much of those days sleeping. I cast on for two projects during that time, Ice Queen and Kernel from Knitty. Ice Queen will be a Christmas gift for my mother, and I'm using yarn that has been in the stash since 2005 (when I first started knitting) and have been using as scrap yarn for years. Kernal is being knit in conjunction with the Sexy Knitter's Club current knit along. Its my second project using my hand spun yarn:

The other thing I cast on for in the last few weeks was a pair of mittens. After I finished Corwin's Spidy Mitts, Kaylee kept steeling them and putting them on around the house. Corwin came up to me and said that I had to knit her her own pair, so she would stay out of his. I am knitting the Alphamitts in Knit Picks Palette, Calypso Heather and Lilac (both yarns left over from other projects). Corwin picked out the colors to use and they look awesome!

I finally got photos of Kaylee's Jacket on here with the buttons and ties done. She loves this coat, and the matching hat, and asks for it to be put on in the mornings. Everyone who has seen it has mentioned how cute it is on her.



I've also finished Corwin's Pembrook Sweater, in time for him to wear it on Photo day at daycare. Oh my goodness, this was a knitting marathon, but so worth it. I knit the whole sweater in less than 10 days, and I say it is just about perfect. The only problem is that the dyelots of the yarn (which I had in stash forever) didn't match up, and the labels had been long gone, considering I had started and frogged many projects with the yarn over the years.

I'm trying to finish up as many small projects as I can this month so I can devote November to NAKNSWMO again. Right now I'm debating between two sweaters: Therapi and Arisaig. I have enough yarn in stash for both, and both would be challenging projects for me to do.

With Therapi I would need to dye yarn, and reading the commits on it at Ravelry, the yarn amounts on the pattern are way off, almost 50% off. I'm debating either a leafy green or a dusty rose color, and would have to dye in two batches (and alternate skeins). I'm thinking I'll overestimate by a few skeins and shorten the collar if I run out, but I'm dreaming of a nice big comfy cardi to keep in my office. The downside is that this whole sweater is knit in one piece, and would be rather cumbersome by the time I finished it.

Arsaig would be knit in KP Palette, and modified very heavily. I think the project as shown on Knitty looks sloppy and baggy, and I've seen other's project pages where they have modified it to be a pullover and I think it looks great that way. I'm thinking I'll knit in one pice, starting with a provisional cast on at the start of the lace, knit up from there, and then after I have that done, decide just how much overlap I will want, and knit the ribbing down from there. Since the sleeves are knit in pieces, this would be the more portable project for me to take to work for lunches and on car trips to the store or my parents. All changes would be documented on the blog.

Time to get back to knitting

FO! Vine Yolk Cardi

I finished the Vine Yolk Cardy from the fall Twist on Saturday. Pardon the cruddy camera phone shot. I still need to go find buttons for it after work today, but wanted to post a quick pic.

My Knitting Time is No Longer My Own

It has been taken over by the kids! Ok, I'm still able to get some knititng time for myself, there is the Chickadee Cowl that I am knitting in my Purple and yellow handspun on my lunch break at work, and a few rows of my Vine Lace Cardi at night when the kids are in bed, but lately the kids have been ASKING for things.

First, I saw the most adorable coat in one of the Knit Picks catalogs, for the Smock Coat by Debbie Bliss. I had to make it for Kaylee. And I enough CotLin in my stash in Lantana. The knitting took about a month from start to finish, and since this photo was taken, I have added buttens and a seed stitch belt.



Then it was time to start on the yearly birthday knitting for Corwin. This year he vetoed every sweater pattern I showed him, asking instead for "Spiderman". We did a search on Ravelry and came up with Spiderman hat and mittens.




The yarn is Knit Picks palette in Bare and Calypso Heather that Corwin and I dyed into the red and dark purple for the hat (yeah for using up more stash yarn!) Since finishing them, Corwin has worn the set every day and says that we need to dye more yarn up so I can knit him a sweater. I don't think so.

Instead, I think I'm going to knit him Pembrook from the summer Petite Purls, in more stash yarn of blue cotton ease, and I may add sleeves to the sweater.

Corwin has also requested that I knit mittens for Kaylee, so she stops trying to steel his, and I found the perfect pattern, Alphamitts, which I can also use stash yarn for.

In all of this kid knitting, I still have to knit a scarf for Michael, a hat for my dad, and a few more sweaters for myself. Thank goodness I convinced Steve to let me buy a lot of yarn with the last tax refund, knowing that we would spend this holiday season dirt poor.

The Start of the Vine Yolk Cardi

I cast on for this Tuesday and I'm loving it so far. Right now this is my lunch project for work, at least until I finish C's hat and mitts and K's coat
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