Intarsia

Well, this is it.  I've finally hit the color work portion of the poncho.  I've gone from working both sides at once to working on only the right side to start with.  I'll finish that and then pick up the left side and finish that.  It feels good to be in the home stretch on this project.  It won't be long before it's done.  I'll undoubtedly need something new to knit at that point.

The color work is actually very simple.  It's just adding large blocks of color that descend in a stair-step kind of order.  Each color is added on in sequence, never working with more than the main color and two contrast colors at a time.  It doesn't seem like a lot of rows to work through so this should work up pretty quickly.  I'm excited to see how this looks in the end.  So far it's looking pretty good!

Unfortunately, this means I've almost worked through the end of yet another project.  I do have one more project to pick up in it's wake, but it involves using the needles I'm using for the Hue Shift Afghan, so I'm not sure I'll be able to juggle those two projects.  It looks like it may just be time to make another order!

The Trouble with Large Projects in Summer

Lately it seems all my knitting projects are big.  It started with the Hue Shift Afghan, which is built of four squares, though not terribly large.  I'd worked on a couple of shawls, but both were small and light enough to not be too much heat in my lap.  However, then I decided to knit the Oakwood Poncho.

Let me start with this, I love this project.  The yarn is a gorgeous color.  It seems to really suit me.  I can't wait to wear it when the weather gets cool in the fall.  It's going to be gorgeous.

Of course, that implies I'm going to make it to fall.  Right now I've got this huge, heaping pile of poncho on my lap every time I pick it up to work.  While it may not seem like much that it's 88°F (31°C) out there, but with this humidity, it's brutal.  On top of that, the A/C in my living room doesn't work that well, and the sun comes pouring in the window in the afternoon.  Let's just say it gets pretty toasty in there.  All the while I have this huge, wool project balled up on my lap and I'm trying not to die.  I'm telling ya, folks, this is a beastly thing in the summer!

So while I desperately love this project, I think perhaps it's time to start looking into something else I can order, something that will be smaller, or at least knit in smaller pieces.  Lesson learned, if I want to work on a big project for fall, either do it in fall and wear it next year or knit it in the spring!

Blocking, Blocks, and Ponchos

It took me long enough, but I finally did it.  I finally blocked my Where the Wind Blows Cardigan.  Okay, so I suppose I could have done it more properly.  I didn't exactly measure and make sure it blocked out to the right size.  I wasn't really worried about that.  I just wanted to be sure of two things:

1. The color doesn't run (because leaving pink dye on my white and pink dress for the wedding would suck).
2. I want to make sure the lace yolk really pops the way it should.  It's not a big or complicated lace patter, but the way it sits in general makes it look bunched up, and I'd prefer a much more crisp sort of look.  I'm going to a wedding, so I may as well look nice, right?

Of course, you can't see it too well in that picture.  It's cloudy out so the room is dark, though you can clearly see the art supplies scattered on the floor (thanks kids!)  It isn't totally blocked the way it should be, something I'm going to have to work on more in the future, but it doesn't look half bad either.  I hope someone captures a good picture of me wearing it tomorrow so I can post a good picture of that.  If nothing else I can make sure someone catches a photo of me before I leave or something, right?

And I've managed to get a whole second section down on the Hue Shift Afghan!  It's now half finished, with a whole row done on Section 4.  I decided to skip Section 3 because I'd heard some people didn't have enough yarn to finish the project so I decided to skip to where I'd be finishing off balls of yarn in the process.  Besides, it's going to free up room in the box I'm keeping everything in, which definitely helps too.  The scraps are going to be gifted to my daughter, though what she's going to do with them, I don't know.  Thankfully, I'm going to have enough yarn to finish the blanket, which makes me happy.

I'm really loving the way this blanket is coming together.  I'm not totally in love with the colors (again, not a great picture since it was in a dark room) but it totally works.  I've taken to calling it the Dr. Seuss blanket because the colors in Section 2 & 4 look like something out of those books.  I'm super excited to see how it turns out.  Being just past the halfway point I'm really excited about finally finishing this project, though I know I've still got a long way to go.

Finally, I've started a new project, the Oakwood Poncho, also by Knit Picks.  I ordered this on a whim because it was cheap and looked like it would be good to wear when the weather turns.  I have to say, aside from lace shawls, I've never worked on quite such a large project.  I was shocked at the number of balls of yarn I got, though the Wool of the Andes definitely has small balls of yarn.  I've worked through a good number of those balls already and I'm only 2/3 of the way up the back.

I have to say, I really like the way this poncho is knitting up.  I picked the "Wildcrafter" color set, and the colors are some lovely earth tones.  The beige the poncho is mostly comprised of is really lovely, and the gold and browns the rest of the poncho is made of look like they'll be a great combination for the color work section.  I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out.  I think this is the first project in a long time that hasn't started out with me having my doubts.  I'm really loving it.  I think the more I knit the more it grows on me.  I'll probably have more to say when I'm out of the plain stockinette and on to the brioche pattern on either side of the poncho.  I can't wait to get to that point.  It's not long yet, maybe a few more days until that happens!

Finishing the Catamaran Shawl!

Well, it's done!  I've finished the Catamaran Shawl.  It looks really pretty, and the extra repeats make all the difference in the length of the shawl.  It's actually kind of perfect for me, though I can't quite get over the asymmetrical shape.  It doesn't seem to want to block out the way it was intended too, but I did the best I could, so that's something.

Aside from the odd shape, which doesn't truly bother me that much in the long run, I really love the colors.  My daughter said it looks like Christmas colors, but I'm not so much in agreement, though I can see where she would get that idea.  I love the colors, the shape, and the lace work, so much more so now that it's blocked.

And that's another new and exciting thing for me, I've finally got proper equipment to block with!  I really could have used one more blocking pad for the shawl, maybe two, but they were sold in packs of a dozen.  Maybe I'll pick up another dozen for Christmas or something, if I really feel the need.  For the time being, this will work for most of the projects I've got going, at least the ones that need blocking.

This pattern not only was fun to knit, but introduced a new technique I'd never tried before.  The edges were bound over in an i-cord style binding, which I had never done before.  I wasn't surprised to see this was also the style of binding used for the cast off.  The technique wasn't as difficult as I feared it would be and actually worked up pretty quickly in the scheme of things.  I like the final look.  It looks sharp and matches so well with the other edges of the shawl.  It looks complete, like it was designed properly.

I'm not sure how much use I'm going to get out of this shawl, given it's not winter weight, so I won't be using it when the months get cooler, but I love it.  It seems like it will be just enough for a breezy summer day, one that's not too hot, just to keep the sun off of me and to provide the slightest layer of extra warmth.  The yarn is nice and light, so it won't be too hot.  I can see myself having plenty of opportunities for it come spring, and maybe early next summer, when the weather is still cool.  I can even see me using this shawl in the first few weeks of autumn, when the weather is just cool enough to want for something, but not enough that one of my wool shawls will do the trick.  If nothing else, I can see myself looking for an excuse to wear this shawl, just because it's lovely and I really want to wear it.

Because I Always Have to Do More

I'm "finished" with the Catamaran shawl.  I use quotes because I decided that, instead of throwing on the i-cord cast off, I was going to knit a whole second segment with the pattern repeat for a slightly longer shawl.  The shawl as it is wraps just over my shoulders and hangs about the level of my bra strap in back.  This is not the length I wear my shawls, even my nice summery ones.  I'm adding another repeat to add a little bit more length.  And why not?  I have the extra yarn.

Though, I have to say, I'm loving this shawl.  The fabric still feels a little weird to me, but it's pretty simple and fun to knit.  If it weren't I would have just called it where I was and thrown on the binding, but I love it.  The colors are fantastic.  Just everything about this shawl is wonderful.

I have to say, one of the things I like about this shawl is the way the yarn looks under the sunlight.  It's almost like it wants to shine, but isn't quite.  It gives it a really unique feel to it, which makes me so incredibly happy.  Even pictures don't do it complete justice.

This is a project I can't wait to have finished.  Yes, part of it is the satisfaction of having one more thing done and off the needles.  There's something wonderful about being able to show it off and say, "Look what I made!"  In this case it's because I'm really looking forward to wearing it out and about.  I think I'll be looking for excuses to wear it out of the house because of how wonderful it looks.  I am absolutely in love with the colors too.  The classic grays it was designed for are probably more wearable, but I absolutely love these colors.  I was a little hesitant at first, which I think I might have written about last time, but I'm not doubting it anymore.

The Hue Shift Afghan is coming right along as well, though not nearly as fast.  I'm on the last row of Section 2, which is coming along rather nicely.  I like the color yellow that's being added, and I'm looking forward to having another square down.  It's really enjoyable to see the way the colors pair up, though I think it will have lost it's charm by the time I've seen all the combinations going into Section 4.

However, this has become kind of a mindless knit.  On the right side I knit to the halfway point, then center decrease, then it's mindless knitting from there to the end.  On the wrong side I can just turn my mind off and knit.  The whole pattern is becoming pretty standard and routine.  I could almost do it in my sleep.

In a way, this kind of makes it become a boring sort of knit.  It's no longer a "one more row" kind of thing.  At first it was definitely "One more block!"  Now it's kind of, "I don't feel like working on the Catamaran.  May as well knit up another square, right?"  It's something to do to keep my hands busy while I watch television.

However, when I finish knitting one of these, I have another couple of kits from Knit Picks on the horizon!  I ordered another shawl kit (because I seriously have a problem...an addiction to shawls) and a poncho.  The shawl only comes in one color, fuchsia.  The poncho I picked in wonderful earth tones, brown and gold.  I can't wait to see how that knits up.  I'm probably not going to need it for another month, but I'll be happy to have it once the weather turns, so I want to be sure to knit it early so it will be ready in time.  Of course, that means I'm going to have to get cooking on the Catamaran shawl so I can be free to move on to something else.

Best of all, I'm finally getting a blocking set, which was much needed.  I've only ever blocked a couple of my shawls before, though I seriously should have been blocking a lot more of my knits.  I'm excited to finally be able to block things for real and not just on the carpeted floor on the bedroom or on my bed.  It's going to make so much difference in how my knits are finished!

Catamaran, Hue Shift Afghan, and the Cardigan

I finished the cardigan!  I don't have a picture of it yet, but it's done.  I'm going to try and get a picture of it with my dress for the wedding, but we'll see how that works out.  I figure it would be a good way to show it off.  I'll probably even get all dolled up to do it, if I can ever find what I did with my makeup.  I guess I'm not that feminine after all, even if my taste in knits tends that way.

Just after I finished the sweater I started a new shawl, the Catamaran Shawl from Knit Picks.  Let me first say that this is the strangest yarn I've ever knit with.  The name "Lindy Chain" is totally appropriate.  It seems like it's one thin thread that's looped in on itself to form one long chain.  It was a little disconcerting when I started the project because the texture was so weird.  I was beginning to think I would hate this project, but I think I start out all my projects with this attitude of "This isn't what I expected."

All knit up it looks like any other yarn.  On the knit side it even feels like any other yarn.  The purl side has a strange texture, but I'm finding as I work with it I don't dislike it.  I can't say I love it and this is my new favorite yarn ever (that goes to the yarn for the sweater), but I think I'm going to be pretty happy with it in the long run.  It's not a gooshy yarn, so it doesn't attract every piece of dog hair in the house either,which is nice.  It's nice to have one garment in the house that's not going to need to be hit with a lint brush every time I want to leave the house, especially for something nice and summery like this.

I wasn't totally sure about the contrast of colors either.  When I picked the kit I got, the white and green just called to me.  The original gray tones were nice, but I kind of felt like gray would just be lost on me.  I wanted something with a bit more fun.  That's why I chose the white and green.  I just had second thoughts for a moment when I saw the two in my hands and realized just how dark the green really was.

Thankfully, seeing the two colors worked together I felt a lot more comfortable with what I was knitting up.  The green and white go really well together.  I just wish I had a picture with the two in the sunlight because it's a really flattering combination.  It actually makes me think of Ireland, though I'm not sure why.  It didn't take much to restore my confidence in these colors.  They look absolutely fantastic together.

And the more I knit with this yarn, the more I realize I was exactly right when I decided to get this shawl.  It's going to be a wonderful piece for when the weather starts to change, or even with the weather we've had lately, where I want a little bit of something, but I don't want to put on a full sweater or anything.  The colors will be nice in the spring and throughout the summer, which means I'll get a lot of wear out of this.  I've already got a sunflower shawl for late summer and the fall/winter shawl from Knit Picks all those years ago for fall.  This will be great for the seasons where I've got nothing for the weather.

As for the project list, I'm slowly making way on the Hue Shift Afghan again too!  I have to admit, I like Section 2 much more than I like Section 1.  That means I'll have two sections that I like this much.  I think I'll like Section 3 even more.  I guess I just have a thing for cool colors, which is what Section 3 will be, but the blend I've got going on now is actually pretty cool.  I'm not liking all of the colors blended together, but it's coming along pretty well.  I don't have a more recent photo, but I've started the third row on this section, which lightens up the whole piece.  There's going to be a pale green and yellow after this, and then the section will be finished.  It's working up pretty quickly.

I have to say, I've started to work into a rhythm with this blanket.  Every time I knit a square I weave in the ends right away.  I hate weaving in the ends at the points of the squares, so this saves me from having to do a bunch of them all at once.  It also leaves my work nice and neat, which definitely helps.  I like being able to pull my work out and not have a bunch of strands hanging off of it.  It's also nicer to show off to people when it looks so much more complete.  Best of all, I get the hassle of weaving in the ends done right away, so I don't have it sitting over me for later.

I've really been on a binge knitting spree lately.  I've had a lot of time to sit and work on projects, and the extra money available to pick up a few project kits.  I'm hoping I can keep up the routine, though I have to admit, it was kind skip a pay period for ordering because I still had too much work to do on the projects I was working on.  The sweater and the shawl, even considering the cost of needles, were both pretty inexpensive projects, which is nice.  It means my money goes that much further.

Knitting is an expensive hobby.  I've got to eventually pick up a ball winder and swift, though I have to say, there is something meditative about hand balling yarn.  It's time consuming, but it isn't as much of a hassle as I would have imagined.  I kind of like it.  I guess that means the joy of knitting consumes that many more hours.  Then I need to get blocking pads and pins at some point.  Of course, there's the cost of yarn and patterns, though there are a number of patterns available for free.  The best ones are still paid patterns, or in books, at least where the larger projects are concerned.  If I want to get into sweater knitting, I'm going to have to face purchasing patterns.  It's just something I'm going to have to do.

At least the projects I'm getting are lasting for some time.  I can't imagine how people who crank out knit goods like they're nothing manage to have the money for it all!  I'm sure it's a decent chunk of their budget, plus they look for good deals.  I guess I'll learn to be more thrifty with my knitting as time goes on.  For now, I'm happy with knitting the projects I'm working on and getting the most out of them.  A little knitting seems to go a long way in my life!

My First Real Cardigan

Just recently I got the idea to start knitting sweaters, like real sweaters.  We're talking adult sizes here.  I decided to start simple with the Where the Wind Blows Cardigan Kit from Knit Picks.  It's a one piece construction top down sweater.  It's short sleeved, so there's no need to worry about sleeves or anything like that.  This struck me as an easy choice because it's such a simplistic design, yet gets my head thinking about the reality of knitting something wearable.  I had a feeling once I actually put it on for the first time, I'd be excited to make more.

Starting out, I fell in love with the yarn before anything else.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures that really do it justice, but the color is beautiful.  The yarn is super soft, which makes it even nicer to knit.  I just love the way this feels in my hands, which is one of my favorite parts of this sweater already.

Early on I ran into some problems, though.  First I cast on the wrong number of stitches, so I had to go back to the beginning.  Thankfully I'd barely gotten into it so I didn't have too much to pull back, but it was still not a shabby number of stitches to pull back.  It took me some time to work up to where I was again, which wasn't too bad, but it was still time lost.

Then there was the stitch count for the second increase row in pattern.  I just couldn't get it to work out right.  It turns out I was reading the pattern wrong, but by the point I figured that out I just decided to improvise and move on.  Right now it really bothers me that there's an increase in the wrong place and it's missing one in the right place, but I'll forget in time, I'm sure.  It looks fine and it's so completely subtle that I can't even find it now when I'm looking for it, so I'll just let it be and move on with the rest of it.

Knitting down into the body has been the most satisfying part.  There are some decreases followed by some increases to make shaping for the waist, I guess.  It seems really high to me, but what do I know?  I'm not exactly a talented sweater knitter, so maybe there's some wisdom in this.  It's coming together rather quickly, and I don't think I'll want to rip back and fix it if it does seem to sit kind of funny.  I doubt it will.  I'm probably just thinking to much on the whole thing and it'll be fine.

I'd planned to have this done in time to wear to a wedding in August.  With how quickly I've been working it up, I have no doubt I'll make that deadline.  I'll probably have it finished by the end of the week, if I'm perfectly honest.  I might have had it nearly done if I hadn't had to work over the weekend, even if I did just go in for one day.  It's amazing how much work can get done in even one day on this.  I think I'm just not used to working with thicker yarns.  I've done a lot of socks, which go together much more slowly, even though they're smaller.  It's kind of nice to have a piece that's coming together so quickly.

I've still been working away at the Hue Shift Afghan, one square a day on average.  I didn't do any Saturday and only finished half of one yesterday, but that's something, right?  I'm slowly working my way through it.  At this rate it should be done by winter, which would be nice.

And next on the list?  I have another shawl to knit.  I've also got to get myself some stuff for blocking, so that's on my list of things to do.  Then when I'm looking for something else to knit, I'm considering another sweater, something more ambitious than this one.

The Hue Shift Afghan

I have to admit, I bought the Hue Shift Afghan kit because I was in love with the picture on the website.  I've been a little obsessed with rainbow colored things, so it probably isn't surprising that this kit would appeal to me.  The only down side?  I didn't look on the kit information, but it's knit out of acrylic yarn, which is a bit of a bummer, but for the price, it makes sense.

This was a new knitting technique for me.  I've never done mitered squares before, so I was excited to give this a try.  It really is a simple process, when you get right down to it.  It's just rows of garter stitch with a central decrease in the middle, which makes for a simple enough pattern to memorize.  After the first square I no longer needed to refer to the pattern, not really, at least not to give me instructions on how to knit it.  I was pretty pleased with myself for the first square I finished.  It looked really good, which was exactly what I was hoping for.

Though, I have to admit, I was a little surprised at how bright the yarn was for this kit.  When I looked at the pattern it looked like pretty bold colors, nothing bright and garish.  I'd expected a little more subtlety, I guess.  As you can see from the picture, the purple is pretty intense.  It looks pretty shockingly bright, which caught me off guard at first.  I had to admit, I was thinking I might not love this pattern after all.  It's made with acrylic, which I'm not a fan of, and it's incredibly bright colors.  Shortly after I ordered the pattern I decided to make this for my daughter, so I'm kind of glad I had that in mind.  Acrylic yarn doesn't bother her.  Actually, it's best for her because it's easy to clean, which means she can be curled up in a blanket with some soup and not have to worry about spilling.  Better still, the bright colors are totally her style.

When the striping started, I thought the contrast was a bit intense.  The first row being purple against a really bright pink, it seemed like it was a little much at first, but by the time I was halfway through the square I was really kind of digging it.  It's a pretty cool color combination.  I almost wish the whole blanket was made of squares those colors, and maybe mixing in the red that comes later.  With the red it had a cool Valentine's look.  I thought it looked pretty awesome, honestly.

Though, truth be told, I was a little worried about how some of the other colors would come together.  The way the pattern works blends orange with pink and purple.  I thought those might be a bit much of a contrast, that an the gold.  Eventually those colors come in contact with blues and green as well.  Those colors all will cross and mix as a part of the pattern, though I'm not nearly that far yet.  I'm starting on the first block of the four that will eventually be sewn together, then surrounded by a border.  It's a surprisingly huge blanket, meaning I'm going to be working on this one for a long time to come.

Yet when the colors in the first square have started to blend together, I have to admit, I haven't hated it.  Section 1 is coming right along and I'm making good progress.  At this point I have the first 10 squares done of the 25 in each section.  The whole blanket totals to 100 squares and a border, which means I'll have a lot to work on for some time to come.

So far there haven't been a whole lot of snags in the process.  I did have to pretty much frog an entire square because somewhere the central decrease became off centered.  I couldn't find where it was by tinking it back, so I finally decided to just frog the square and start from pretty much the beginning.  I left the picked up stitches and the first two rows of color, but everything else was ripped back.  That was the red and pink square.  As I'm sure you can see, I've progressed a good deal since then.  I've managed to get on a couple more squares at that point, and to weave in the ends, which is the part I've hated most about this project.  There are so many ends to weave in!

That's one thing I've learned in all of this, weave in the ends as you go and it won't be so bad at the end.  I've been making sure the row gets done, then the ends get woven before I start the new row.  This not only makes it easier to pick up the stitches, but it means there's less work to be done at the end of the blanket.  Plus, I think it makes the whole thing look neater as a whole.  It would be a mess if there were a whole bunch of colored strands just dangling from the back.  Now I can hand it to someone and it looks like a somewhat finished piece of work.

All told, for a first larger than baby sized blanket project, I'm pretty happy with the way this one is turning out.  It's obviously going to take quite some time to finish.  I've barely made a dent in it and I've been working at it pretty steadily for the past couple of days.  I think when I have other projects to mix in with it, I'll make a requirement to knit at least one square every day, just to keep me motivated.  I think if I can keep moving on this project, it'll slowly get done, even if it takes me months.  At least I know I won't be without something to knit for some time now!

The Beachcomber Shawl

I haven't been doing much knitting, to be honest.  I finished the Chilly Podsters and kind of lost interest in doing anything else.  My Nutkins are still not finished.  I started some Carousel socks, but lost interest in that.  Something about the new job had me not knitting very much.

That is, until I decided to check out what Knit Picks had to offer.  I have no idea why, but I started combing through their pattern kits.  I was hoping to find a shawl, as I've knit up a couple of the shawl kits they've put out before, but I was really up for just about anything.

When I first saw the Beachcomber Shawl, I was in love.  I was a little saddened by the fact that they didn't have any kits in the original color scheme, so I picked the only one they had available.  I wasn't thrilled with the colors, but I figured I could always give it away if I didn't like it.  But I wanted to take a chance on it.  The colors might not actually be that bad.  I don't tend to go for yellow, but I do a like my gray tones.

The start of the shawl went well.  It's an easy enough, basic garter stitch with some increases thrown in on one side, decreasing on the other.  It worked up fairly quick in the beginning, the short rows and simple color changes making it pretty easy to work through.  I have to be honest, when it was just gray I wasn't loving it so much.  I thought I would give it a chance, but I wasn't expecting much.  My daughter loved the way it was working up, so maybe I would give it to her.  That wouldn't be a half bad idea.  It was a little disheartening that I didn't like the way it was knitting up, but I figured I enjoyed knitting it, so I may as well stick it out to finish it.

When the yellow first came in I was even less thrilled with the look.  It was such a shocking departure from the subtle gray tones.  I really didn't like it.  I had built up in my mind that no one could possibly like these colors together.  They just didn't flow well.  I was starting to think this shawl would end up sitting around somewhere, unused and ignored.

Much to my surprise, my daughter came in and said how much she loved it.  She thought it looked cool and the colors looked really good together.  Then Chesh came in and said he thought it looked awesome.  I felt a lot better knowing this project would be loved and used by someone, even if it wasn't used by me.  I was knitting with a purpose again, and made good progress too, until I had to go to work and put it down for the better part of two days.  Even so, with new determination, I worked my way through this shawl like it was the best thing I'd ever knit.  I was excited to see the finished project and I was looking forward to having it go to a good home.  I knew people were excited to see it done, which made it that much easier to knit.  It flew off my needles (all considering) and was done in no time.  The lace sections were simple and pretty, which made it that much nicer to knit.  The only thing that was kind of a pain was the cast off, which was more time consuming than anything.

That's when something happened.  As I was working through the cast off I started to reconsider my thoughts on this shawl.  After I was finished my opinion became that much more firm.  I was not going to give this shawl away, not unless my daughter asked really, really nicely.  I mean, I've got a few shawls, so it's not like I would be lacking any to give this one away, but I did like it enough that, without being begged, I'm not going to part with it.

I still have my thoughts on this shawl.  Perhaps I would have liked the original colors better.  They may have even been more wearable in my mind, but this shawl suited me.  The yellow is bright and cheery, and the gray makes it something I can wear with just about anything I own.  It's not nearly as summery as the original colors, but I think summery isn't really a look I tend to do.  I tend to stick with my very neutral tones, and this yellow would really break up my wardrobe, which tends to have a lot of black, perhaps too much if you ask some.  I really love the way it turned out and I can't wait to get some good wear out of it, something that will undoubtedly happen when they days get a little less brutally hot and muggy.  It's perfect and light and I'm going to love wearing it!

Nutkins and Chilly Podsters

Now that I'm back in the swing of knitting, it seems like I suddenly have so much to do.  I've got a bunch of projects that need to get done at some point, though nothing is knitting on a deadline, so that's fantastic.  I guess I could count one thing as "gift knitting," but seeing as the recipient already has two knitted gifts already, I don't think it'll be horrible if I don't get the third and fourth promised projects finished in time.

However, the first thing that needs to be talked about are a the Zombie ViXen fingerless gloves I started, oh, forever ago.  This is the first project I've put in long term hibernation for stupid reasons for a long time.  These are being modeled by Bear, because no one else's hands were available.

So why did these things get put on hold for a while?  It's really silly.  I didn't want to go back and do the thumbs.  When Chesh tried on my gloves he decided everything fit, but the thumbs were on the tight side.  We batted around some ideas, but I decided it was just too much effort and I would worry about it later.  This is generally my philosophy on knitting.

So when I saw these sitting in the stack of things to do, with a groan, I pulled them out and realized if I didn't get them done, I never would.  So I got them done.  I sized the needles up to a US 2, hoping that would solve the size problem, then I picked up all the stitches on the waste yarn.  The larger needles were kind of a bad idea.  The stitches didn't want to get picked up onto larger needles.  I probably should have picked them up on the smaller needles, then knit onto them with the larger ones, but hindsight and all of that.  In the end they got finished and fit perfectly, so who am I to complain?  One gift down and done, only a couple more to go.

Next on the list are my ill-fated Nutkin socks.  Let me tell you, these are not my favorite socks in the world.  The toe is a really lose fabric so I'm tempted to rip out the toe and start all over again.  Truth be told, that's a lot of work, and I think you saw above my philosophy on work. In spite of the straight cast on and the straight stitches, the sock still wants to twist on my leg.  That's going to annoy me.  Still, I've cast on the second sock.  We'll see how they work out.  Worst case scenario I can always pull off the toes on both of them and redo them in a smaller gauge.  Best case scenario, I just don't care and leave it.  Then again, I've noticed even superwash yarns seem to fluff up and get a little more snug after a few washings.  Maybe that will be the case here and I'll be glad I didn't fix it.

I've got to say, I don't think it's entirely the fault of the pattern.  This yarn is such a fine yarn that it's really loose on the larger needles.  I could have kept it on smaller needles and added more width to each pattern, but I thought this would be better.  Then again, the loose weave may be really nice if I can get some sock liners to wear under them to keep my feet warm.  We'll see how they work out when I'm finally wearing them.  At the very least, I've found a yarn I don't like working with as much for socks.  I think the heavier sock yarns suit me better, which is good to know for the future.

And finally, it's time to talk about the Chilly Podsters.  These were chosen because they're the only free pattern for convertible mittens that has both mitten caps for the fingers and for the thumb.  This means it's easier to do things like pull out money, write, or get a card from a wallet without having to take gloves off.  It's a practical thing.  The original request was made when the recipient was still a smoker, but now that he no longer is, they're still practical and useful.  This will be the first set of mittens I've ever made in any fashion.

Thus far I've managed the cast on and to get all the way through the ribbing.  It's been easy going to this point.  I know it's going to get more complicated when it's time to break down for the fingers for the glove portion.  It'll be easy enough to do the mitten portion, I should think.  It looks like it's pretty much little hats that go over your fingers.  That should be pretty simple.  I'd like to think this will be another quick project to knit up and not another that I'll decide to hibernate because the individual fingers are so much work.

I'm pretty excited for this project.  It's the first of it's kind that I'm doing.  I was finding myself getting bored with knitting because it seemed like there were no fantastic challenges left for me, aside from tackling a sweater.  I still mean to do that, but it's going to take some time to get to it.  I've got a good stash to work one up, but I just haven't had the ambition.  I think I need to start doing some searches for patterns I like and just go for it already.  I should probably get myself a new tape measure so I can bust out some measurements to get an accurate fit.  I'll get there.  It's just going to take some time.

Slowing Down for NaNoWriMo

Knitting is decidedly a time consuming hobby.  The most frustrating part of it seems to be winding balls of yarn when you don't have a ball winder or swift.  This latest cake of yarn happens to be my most sloppy, but all considered, it's still pretty darn good for being done by hand!

I'll be honest, I have no idea how to properly ball yarn.  I don't know how this cake thing developed, but once I started doing it I realized how easy and practical it was.  I've always liked working with cakes of yarn better.  The one thing I haven't been able to manage is center pull.  Then again, center pull balls and cakes tend to collapse in on themselves once you get towards the end and then you just need to redo them anyway, especially if you don't use up every bit of it.  Now I just need to find a way to keep the yarn from wanting to bounce around everywhere.  Right now it's not so bad because the yarn stays tucked in the center of my crossed legs, but it would be more practical if I had one of those jars or whatever that you can put the yarn in to keep it from bouncing around everywhere.

As for the hat, it's coming along fairly well.  I'm still not done, which is putting me at a third of the rate I've had for the other two hats.  Something about NaNoWriMo makes it tough to get much work done.  Thankfully, I don't have a deadline to get this done for, so I can go at whatever pace I want to.  Besides, something about knowing it's going to come together so quickly really helps me feel good about it.  I don't feel like I'm taking forever to make it.

As for the yarn, I'm really loving the color.  After seeing the pink one I started to worry that it would have weird pooling, but it really doesn't.  The colors are falling a lot more like the purple one, which I really like.  I have to admit, I'd thought about keeping the purple one for myself, but now that I see the gray, I'm pretty happy with it.  It's very wearable and it will go with all of my jackets.  That means this can be my go-to hat for winter this year.  I'm glad to finally have something that's a little more neutral.  Usually I go for colors, which don't always work with everything.  Even earth tones can be hard if everything else I'm accessorizing with has color.

Hopefully it won't be too much longer before this one's done.  It's not working up horribly badly, and being so far ahead in my novel, I feel like I've got a little wiggle room to do other things for a while.  The pattern is so intuitive by now that I'm learning to work on it without looking.  I've always felt like if I knit without looking at my work I would screw something up, but it feels so natural in my hands, at least until the knit together and yarn over rounds.  It helps to have something I can't take my eyes off of.  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was perfect for that.  It was also insanely funny, so I'm glad I recorded it.

Now that Daylight Savings is over, it gets dark so early.  That early darkness has me wanting to curl up with some tea and do something crafty, when I'm not writing, of course.  I can imagine as Christmas looms nearer I'll be looking for Christmas movies to watch while I knit, perhaps with some hot chocolate.  I'm hoping the weather change will have a lot more projects flying off my needles.  For now I'll just be happy to get finished with this hat!

And Now One For Mom

Yeah, I'm still on the kick.  I'm knitting up yet another Slouched Tuva Hat.  This one is for my mom, which I'm really loving the way it's turning out.  The colors play in a much different way than they did on the pink one.  I really like it much better.  If it weren't for the fact that I think my mom would like this one better than the gray, I'd keep this one!  Who knows, I may still decide to yet.

Since I've got the picture there, I have to point out that cake of yarn.  Isn't it lovely?  One might even say it's very proper looking.  It almost looks like it, say, came off a yarn baller.  Well, it didn't.  I actually caked that yarn by hand.  Can you believe it?  By hand!  I can't make a ball of yarn to save my life, but since I've learned how to make it look like a cake of yarn, I've never stopped doing it this way.  It looks awesome and it's so incredibly practical.  The only down side is it doesn't work so well as a center pull, but I haven't been using center pull balls anyway.  The ball of yarn falls apart too much when you get to that outside edge, meaning I have to redo the end of the ball anyway.  This may result in more yarn bouncing around, but at least I know the yarn will be in a nice, solid little ball when I'm done and I can stow away the leftover stuff for later.

One would think I'd be sick of these hats by now, but I'm really not.  I love the way the yarn is coming together differently for each hat.  You can see in this picture the way the yarn almost stripes on the pink hat, but it doesn't really do that at all on the purple one.  If I had to take bets, I'm guessing the gray one is going to be similar to the pink one.  We'll see how they turn out.

Seeing the two of these hats together makes me feel really accomplished.  This feels like the most knitting I've done in a long time, even if it is just because each project is smaller and therefore done quicker.  It may be less stitches than a pair of socks, but it feels like I've gotten so much more done.  It's more of a feeling of instant gratification.  Undoubtedly I'll be on to the third hat, or at least balling up the yarn, by tonight, if not tomorrow morning at the latest.  There's something instant gratification about it that really has me inspired to keep on knitting.  Now I just need to find the yarn to make a whole stack of these hats up so all the kids can have one!

More Slouched Tuva Hats

I hope you enjoyed reading about the Slouched Tuva Hat.  There are more.  The pattern was so lovely I decided I had to knit another for myself.  That's when I realized that there's this lovely set of yarns my mom got me at the farmer's market last winter.  We each picked out a color, though I have no idea who picked what anymore.  I'm pretty sure I picked the gray.

These yarns have been on hand for quite some time.  I've been hanging on to them, waiting for the right project to come along.  I'd thought about some kind of beret, because I love a good slouchy beret.  I wanted to do something that would really look stylish.  The problem was finding a pattern that would suit my sister, my mother, and myself.  We've definitely got different styles.  Every time I see my mom she's styled out of a catalog, probably Eddie Bauer or something like that.  J. Crew also comes to mind.  She seems to like her hats practical.  My sister is very much into the vintage styles.  She would love for me to make her a lovely cloche.  For me?  My style wanders between grunge, neo hippie yoga mom, and "hipster", though I guess one could say I was hipster before hipster.  I like my super slouchy berets, tams, watch caps, and beanies.  Finding something that would suit all three of us was definitely a tall order.

When I finished the Slouched Tuva Hat for Bear, I sent a picture to my sister.  She responded with how incredibly cute it was.  She loved it!  Immediately I snatched up a skein of yarn and cast on.  It seemed like the perfect hat.  It was practical enough that it would suit my mother.  My sister already loved it.  I needed to make my sister a Slouched Tuva Hat too!  I wanted to knit one for myself before I even made one for Bear.  It works up fairly quickly.  It was the perfect hat for the situation!

The reaction my sister had was priceless.  "You know I love looking like a Dickensian orphan."  To some that would sound sarcastic, but from her it's actually a compliment.  It's part of her playful personality, and her love for literature blending together.  She's definitely someone I find knitworthy because she absolutely loves the stuff I make.  The fingerless gloves I made for her last year were such a success that she took them with her when she went to Denmark.  I consider it a high compliment that she brought them on a trip abroad.  Traveling often means selecting what you bring carefully to avoid being burdened with luggage.  The fact that those gloves made the cut reminded me just how much she appreciates the quality of high end knits.  I even wrote about how knitworthy she was last year.

Between the gooshy, perfect yarn that knits like a dream and the pattern I love to knit, I'm having a great time with this matching hat project.  I'm working with 100% baby alpaca, and while this pattern doesn't have a lot of drape, which is something baby alpaca is great for, I think it's lovely for the project.  It has a soft, warm feel, and the slouch wants to drape and fall naturally.  I don't have to work to make it slouch down in the back.  It's truly lovely.

For a pattern that's got to fit the styles and lives of four people, this isn't a bad one.  I'm going to have a good time working these up.  The result is going to be phenomenal.  I'm so excited to see how my mom and sister are going to react to getting them for Christmas this year.  Once I get these hats done, my Christmas knitting will be done.  I might do up some matching hats for the kids this year, but I'm not sure.  Those can really wait because I can knit for them for no reason at all.  I don't need an occasion to knit for them.  These hats, however, are definitely an occasion to give a lovely gift, which is especially pleasing because it's a gift that was given to me.  There's no better way to return a gift to the giver than to have it transformed into something lovely!

The Slouched Tuva Hat

Obviously (by all the more frequent blog posts) I've been on a knitting kick.  More specifically, I've been on a hat knitting kick.  This project is no exception.  It's called the Slouched Tuva Hat.  I wasn't really sure what to consider it.  It's not really a beret.  It's kind of like a beanie.  Whatever it was, it looked like a nice knit and the model on the page was a child wearing this gorgeous red color.  I remembered that I had a red like that, and it just so happened to be in the right weight of yarn too.  I was going to knit up a hat for Bear.

The pattern worked up so easily.  It's just a four row repeat with some plain knitting and some yarn overs and decreases.  It gives it this pretty mesh look to it.  It's so simple I could easily work on it in the dark, while watching television, or as I have been, while doing school work with Bear.  I think it was a little shorter than the pattern recommended, and it seemed tighter than I would have wanted in my yarn, but I think a lot of that could have easily been changed by changing the yarn weight or the needles.  Of course, that doesn't matter because I was making it for a preschooler.

The best sign of a good hat is when the recipient refuses to take it off.  I'd call that an instant win on anything I knit up.  I love the way it looks, and it was a mark of pride that had to be shown off.  Bear wanted at least a million pictures in the new hat.  Now I'm getting requests for more hats, but not for Bear.  That one hat is enough because it's perfect.  Everyone else needs hats just like that.  At the very least, look at that face!  It really says it all!

I'm very much a beret and slouchy hat wearer, so it was really nice to be able to share my favorite style of hat with my mini-me.  I loved the pattern so much that the request to make them for everyone doesn't seem like a half bad one.  I've already decided it's going to be the pattern I use for the matching hats my mom, sister, and I are all getting from yarn my mom got me at the farmer's market.  We each picked out our own color.  It'll be interested to see the changes as Bear's hat was done out of Plymouth Yarns Dream Baby DK.  The yarn I'm going to be using is a lovely baby alpaca.  It's certainly going to have a lot more drape to the slouch, and it should make for some really nice warmth.

I've got to admit, this yarn wasn't something I ever thought I would use for a hat.  It's an acrylic microfiber/nylon blend, but it doesn't feel like acrylic usually does to me.  It's got this nice softness.  Plus, it's washable, which is great for a child.  I could have used superwash, but this is cheaper and I had it on hand.  If it gets lost, it's not a huge deal.  Given it's for a preschooler, getting lost is a reality I have to face.

I've noticed I'm on a hat kick lately.  It all started with the Leaving Cowl, even though I know that's not a hat.  There was something nice about an easy, quick knit and the feeling of a larger yarn and needles in my hands.  I ached less when I was working it up.  That was followed by my Lullula Beret.  Now I'm going to be making three more Slouched Tuva Hats.  I'll be honest, I was looking in my yarn stash to see what else I could dig out to turn into hats.  I seem to have some pretty good options.  I'm sure you're going to be hearing about those soon.  I forgot how much I like knitting hats and how incredibly wearable they are.  Unlike socks, I don't have to worry about my weirdly thick calves, my high instep, and my narrow feet.  Instead I can just knit it, and if it doesn't seem slouchy enough for me, add more repeats before casting off.  A simple hat is perfect travel knitting.  It's a small enough project to throw in my bag, and it works up quickly so it feels like I've really made progress, even if I only had a few minutes to work.  Best of all, it's a project I don't have to pull off my shoes to show off!

Little Knitter and the Sparkle Yarn

What's this?  Tacky craft store yarn that sparkles?  When do I ever knit with that kind of stuff?  Well, the answer is I really don't unless it's requested.  This Stitch Studio Sparkle is 100% polyester, which didn't sound at all pleasing to work with, but note the children's knitting needles with it?  That's because it's not for me to knit.  It's for my four year old, Bear.

This was the answer to Bear suggesting I get every set of needles AC Moore had to offer, and being disappointed when I said I only needed two sets.  Exasperated, I finally said, "Look at these needles.  They look like they have bears on them.  Would you like to learn to knit like Mama?"  The answer was an emphatic yes.  We searched the racks for some good yarn to teach my little Bear to knit, and, of course, the answer was all the expensive yarns, in blue, Bear's favorite color.  I finally spotted this gem sitting there, priced at all of $2.  For a beginning knitter that may not stick with it, this was the perfect price.  Next came the sell, which was surprisingly not a hard sell.  "Look, Bear!  This one is blue and has sparkles!"  Sold.  Bear handed back the other ball of yarn that had been carried around and snatched up the pretty, sparkly stuff.  For a whopping $2, that's quite the deal!  It's the perfect yarn for someone who may not stay knitting much past the first few stitches.  I was pretty happy.

Of course, when we got home, Bear wanted to cast on right away.  I was busy with doing, you know, mom things.  We also had a guest over, so that didn't help with my eager little knitter.  Frustration ensued as I took the ball and needles away to work on later.  I'd started to worry.  Maybe I missed my window of opportunity.  Would Bear still be as interested come morning?

Looks like I had nothing to worry about!  First thing in the morning, before I'd even really started my day, the ball of yarn and needles were found and shoved in my face.  "Mama, can we do knitting?" Bear asked with excited eyes.  "No, Bear," I answered sadly.  "We have some stuff to do first.  You promised me you would do some of your preschool work when we woke up."  So off it was to preschool work, which was flown through.  Yarn and needles were shoved back in my hands.  "School is done," Bear stated, very matter-of-fact.  "We can do our knitting now.  Do it, mama.  I want to knit!"

There I sat, squirming preschooler in my lap, casting on for hopefully a good number of stitches.  I started with 25, but realized that would be too many for the small needles and they would likely fall off the end.  20 seemed to be just perfect.  On the stitches went, with constant asking, "Are you done yet, Mama?  You're going so slowly!"  As soon as the cast one was done, we were off to the races.  Bear sat in my lap while I guided small hands to do the motions.  "Hold your needles like this," I suggested.  "Now poke your needle through this way.  Very nice!  Wrap the yarn this way.  No, that's the wrong way.  Yes!  Like that!  Hold the needle and the yarn together.  You need tension so the yarn won't fall off.  Now pull your needle through, and pop the stitch off the end!  You've got it!  Do you remember for the next stitch?"

On we went like that, me guiding hands, Bear speaking each step as we went along.  "Now the needle goes this way!  And now the yarn goes that way, not the other way.  The other way is the wrong way.  Now I have to hold my needle and yarn, all together so they don't fall off.  The needle goes through, and pull the stitch off, just like this!"  I was beaming at my little knitter's skill as stitch after stitch were worked with painstaking care.  Bear was very careful to do everything just right, and was very pleased with the first little row of stitches when we were done.

One row of knitting required a lot of focus and concentration, so after that row we needed to take a break.  Bear said, "I'm done for the day, Mama.  Knitting is really, really hard."  We set the work aside.  I expected this would be it.  I would get one little neat row and that would be the end of our knitting time.  Bear is little enough to get bored easily with a craft and not stick with it.  I tucked the ball and needles aside, waiting for Bear to come to me and ask to knit.  I wasn't going to force the issue.  I want my kids to love knitting, not feel like they have to.

To my surprise, Bear came to me the next morning, looking up at me with the biggest smile.  "Mama, we need to knit now.  Can we knit?"  Once again we did preschool first, then on to my lap to work through a second row with care.  This time went a little faster.  There was just as much pride in Bear's face when we were done.  We put the needles aside for a break and Bear said, "I think we need to do more knitting tomorrow.  I want to make a scarf."

So here we are, working our way slowly through a scarf.  I can't promise how good it will be.  The stitches will be uneven, but Bear is working at it very hard.  Even if we're done in summer, I get the feeling this will be worn every single day.  My little Bear is a knitter!  Perhaps Bear will be the only one that takes up my hobby, but at least I have one.  Maybe they'll all be inspired by what Bear is doing and want to learn too.

For four days now my little one has been working hard, one row every day.  Each day is followed by an inspection of the work, just so Bear can make sure it's all good.  Each day we put on extra invisible sparkles, just in case it needs more.  Every day we work together, as Bear's small hands fall into the rhythm almost without my help.  It may take us a long time to work through this whole piece one row at a time, but we'll get there.  Maybe as this becomes easier and Bear's focus gets longer we'll add more rows at a time.  Until then, we've got plenty to keep Bear busy, at least until we're ready to start on a bigger project.  For now this suits us just fine!

Nutkins and Knitting Disasters

There has been no update for a while.  Why?  Because every knitting project seemed destined to be an ill-fated disaster.  I made absolutely zero progress.  My Nutkin sock was too small, which really sucked, so I had to rethink that.  Then my Leaving Cowl just turned out to be a series of issues all it's own, which had me scrapping them both and starting over.

So, let's start with the Leaving Cowl.  I started this project because Sable suggested we do a KAL, though she started and finished hers long before I even cast on.  I think it's more like a matching project kind of thing.  She offered to get me the needles and insisted I'd need the 29" cable.  Well, it was too long, and by a lot.  I probably would have knit it on a 16", to be honest, and that's what I'm going to make it on when I finally get the right needles.  That was one big frustration, though I kind of fudged it with doing kind of a modified, one-sided magic loop.  It was super frustrating and I eventually got to the point where I just gave up.  Besides, I wasn't sure I liked the way it looked.  It was almost too snug.  It's too bad because it was starting to look pretty good too!

I was thinking the whole thing would have a lot more drape to it, given the way it turned out on Sable's project, but as you can see, it really doesn't drape much at all.  It would be a pretty snug little collar.  I wasn't sure I liked it and considered going with one more chart repeat, but after having seen it on other people's project pages, I think I might go back to the five I used across.  It looks pretty good and fits close enough to the same as everyone else's.  It makes it more like a turtle neck that way.  Of course, I'm not sure.  I'm never sure on these kinds of things.  I might just go with the six and see how it goes.  Of course, I do keep being reminded that a lot of people barely have the yarn to complete the project, and using a much more yarn consuming edge on the whole thing, I might want to take that into consideration as well.  If I don't have the yarn to finish, it would be a shame to have to rip it all out and start all over again, even if I could whip it up real easy in a few hours.  It didn't take me long to get where I got, but those needles were intolerable to work with.  It was much too fiddly.  I'm just going to get a new set of needles and work from there.

Then there were my Nutkin socks.  Let me tell you, that was a disappointment!  When I couldn't fit them on I decided I would just bump everything up to the next needle size.  At first I hated it.  The yarn wasn't knit as tightly as I wanted it   The color pooling got a little weird too (not that you can tell from the side shown in the picture).  I didn't think I was going to like it and I fought the urge to rip the whole thing out and start over, yet again, this time with the smaller needle and a larger stitch count.  I really didn't want to do it.  It didn't require much changing to add a higher stitch count, but it's more work, and then there's figuring the numbers on the short row heel.  It's a lot of work that I really wasn't interested in doing.  For once I just wanted a project to go smoothly.  With all of the things going on in my life right now, something easy that I can knit while watching television sounded ideal.  Of course, the pattern is simple enough that I could just fall right into the routine, but the heel wouldn't be something I could do rather simply while I sat in front of the television.  That was going to require more attention as I tried to remember to use my math, not the math in the pattern.  I decided to keep going and see how it turned out.

It's not the tight gauge I prefer with knit goods, but I'm pretty happy with the results.  So far the fit looks amazing, and since I'm working on circulars instead of DPNs, I'm able to keep fitting it as I go.  I guess I have a high instep because I keep having problems with the heel and the top of my foot.  It happens with shoes all the time too.  However, this is working out just the way I wanted it to!

At this angle you can see a little more of what I mean about the color pooling though.  One side across is really bright stripes, the other is a slow spiral up of darker colors.  I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but it started to grow on me.  I wasn't thrilled with the way the fabric was knit, not tight enough, until I tried it on and saw it stretched over my leg.  Now I'm pretty happy with it, so we're going to see how it goes up through the foot.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I may have a finished sock to go on display before too long.  It usually takes me a couple days to make a single sock, so hopefully by next week's update I'll have more to report!

All the Zombie Vixens!

It's been a while since I updated, so I figure it's about time I poke my nose in here and talk about my knitting.  I haven't been doing as much as I would like, so that's been frustrating, but I got seriously distracted with other things.  Of course, part of that has to do with working on the same project so exclusively.  This is why I've decided I really need to have a couple of projects on the needles.

The first news, the Zombie ViXen gloves look amazing.  The colors are perfectly fall, and as I was told, they almost have a camouflage feel to them, even though they're not that at all.  I originally picked this yarn for the worn denim feel I like of expected, but it certainly didn't turn out that way at all.  It was unexpected and I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but it's really started to grow on me.

This project was a bit frustrating at start.  I had to size the needles down because it was absolutely huge on my wrist.  After a while, though, the pattern became so intuitive that I was able to do all the way to the thumb increases without having to look at the pattern so much as once on the second glove.  That's always a good sign to me.  Unless the pattern is ever changing, it's kind of nice to be able to pluck it from my brain and run with it.  It makes me feel like I don't need to be tied down to the pattern and instead can really enjoy the process of knitting.  It becomes comfortable enough that I can knit while watching television without feeling like I have to watch something I don't have to pay much attention to or I'll get lost in my knitting.

Overall the pattern was pretty simple to follow.  I don't think it would be too challenging of a knit, and I recommended it to a friend of mine that's a pretty new knitter.  It's really not all that complicated of a pattern, but it comes out incredibly well.  It also works well with a yarn that's got a little more play to it.  I tend to prefer yarn that's simple and flat, not too much variation to it.  Single color yarns and kettle dyes allow the pattern to really shine and it doesn't seem to get lost in the splashes of color.  That means it's good for more complicated knits.  I tend to stick to simpler patterns with variegated yarns and hand painted yarns.  This pattern really worked in spite of the frequent color cycles.

I have to admit, I did modify this pattern.  The ribbing at the edge of the glove didn't seem to match across the gloves.  It's unbalanced to one side through the ribbing.  For the second hand I just reversed the ribbing so that it matched in complete reverse.  I also swapped the direction of the cross of the single cables.  I know stitches, when you're talking the medical kind, are done the same way, regardless of what side they're on, but I thought this was just a more appealing look.

And in case you thought one was enough, knowing I don't tend to knit repeat patterns terribly often, I decided I have to knit another pair.  Chesh saw them and immediately said he'd love a pair.  He said he wanted something more of a blue black color.  I already made him a pair of red fingerless gloves, so having an alternate color would really be good.  Wouldn't it figure that I had just such a ball sitting with no purpose in my yarn stash?  I pulled it out and he said it would be perfect.  Then he followed it up with saying he didn't want to take the yarn I'd bought for me.  I loved that yarn, but somehow it just felt like it was right for him.  I had no idea what I was going to knit out of it for me.

Just like the first pair, these are out of Happy Feet by Plymouth Yarns.  The last set of gloves I made were out of the same thing too.  I love this yarn, and I've especially loved that you could get it in a 50g skein, though it looks like they've stopped making those.  For making socks it makes more sense to offer larger sums, but the small skeins were perfect for making a pair of fingerless gloves.  I couldn't have asked for a better choice.  Now I think I'm going to have to figure out another use for the extra yarn.  Maybe I can find some patterns that are enough for a pair of socks and a pair of gloves.

The gloves are turning out absolutely great.  I've gotten everything done on them but the thumbs at this point.  They've been put into a temporary hibernation for a while because I just haven't felt like working on the thumbs all over again.  I've been yearning for another project to get started.  I'm undoubtedly going to have them finished by the next update I post.  I'm trying to keep moving on everything, keep things going and coming off the needles.  These ones are so close to done that it seems a shame to let them sit for so long.  It just means I have to get back to them soon.

The weather's also starting to get cooler, and with Chesh walking back and forth to school, I know he would appreciate having them done.  The red ones I made for him last year are getting almost daily use, and so that's a really good sign.  I'm pretty sure he'll wear these ones all the time too.  The other ones were made of a microfiber, so these being wool should be a lot warmer.  They also come up a little longer over the fingers and thumb, making them all around a warmer glove.  I'm excited to have these done for him!

In the mean time I've decided to take a little bit of a break from working on the Zombie Vixen gloves.  This time I wanted to work on socks.  I'm really upset that a few of my hand knit socks have been missing, and Sable got me this wonderful Malabrigo Sock yarn.  It's a beautiful nutty color that seemed perfect for fall.  It needed to be something that honored that color.  Also, after working with the Happy Feet, I was quite surprised at how incredibly thin this yarn was.  I checked twice to make sure it was actually sock yarn and not a lace weight, but sure enough, it's sock.

The color was what really inspired me when I picked this yarn out.  It's got such a beautiful, rich, earthy texture.  At first I thought of it as reminding me of fall with the deep reds and earthy browns, but the more I look at it, the more I think that it reminds me of chestnuts, acorns, and walnuts in the shell.  That's one of the things I always loved about fall, finding the chestnuts that had fallen from somewhere.  I was convinced they couldn't have fallen from the trees because I never saw them in any trees.

The natural choice for socks in this yarn was a little pattern called Nutkin.  Everyone seems to be making them, or at least it seems that way.  They remind me of Squirrel Nutkin from Beatrix Potter.  That made so much sense for the yarn and how it reminded me so much of nuts.

The pattern was a pleasant surprise.  The cuff is a long tail cast on that's turned under and knit into the pattern again in the most interesting of ways.  It was an unexpected challenge, though not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  I did have to go back three times to redo it in a more smooth way.  It looks amazing and I love the thickness of it.  I can't wait to see how it wears.  From there the pattern was simple enough to be easy to remember, but it's fancy enough to catch my attention.  It works well with the play of colors in the yarn.  I absolutely love the sweeping shapes each pattern creates.  It almost strikes me as leaves, but the bottom half of one leaf is the top to the next.  The heel is a simple enough short row and the toe seems pretty standard, so I think I might just knit this pair up according to the pattern.  (Yes, you may all gasp at the fact that this is my second pair of socks that I haven't modified in any way this year.)