I have been naughty.

Good thing it's not near Christmas or Santa would yell at me! I have been casting on new projects without finishing old ones. There is so much to show you that I keep neglecting to show it all in blog postings. And I won't fit it all in this one either.

One fast knit was this little hat for my friend Ronise, who's undergoing chemo. This is the kind you can wear a scarf under, but it's also alpaca so very very soft if it wants to be next to the skin.

My aunt gave me a beautiful ball of Filatura di Crosa Gioiello that she bought in Italy, requesting I make it into a scarf for her.



Well, 200m of yarn isn't much, so I knew it would have to be lace of some sort. I decided to make Red Skies at Night [Ravelry link], and I'm enjoying the knitting process — it's a nice lace pattern, just complicated enough to keep your attention, but easy enough to relax a bit — but I am not liking the fabric at all.

I'm thinking I need to use smaller needles (these are US #4s) and maybe a more-stockinette pattern, something like a small version of Clapotis. Just not sure. Any opinions? This just doesn't seem like it's doing justice to the yarn.



More new stuff in the next post!

Welcome to the Teenies!

And Farewell to the Noughties*, at last. A decade I am really not sorry to see the back side of.

I know it's been ages since I posted. First I went on a little road trip and visited The (sadly blogless) Grace, and Earin and her menagerie. Why no photos? Because when I got home from the trip, my nearly-new 8gig SD card had a corrupted directory sector. In lay terms, that means your computer or camera can't properly read the disk, even though your data is still on there. Rob is working on some sort of computer program to pull out the photos but in the meantime, I can't share with you. Earin has some photos on her blog, though.

But I bought another card when I got home! So I can at least show you the yarn I bought on the trip, just a little bit of Mini Mochi (which I'd heard about and not seen before):

Really the operative phrase is "not touched", because this yarn is mind-bogglingly soft. I bought two balls of each of the colorways above. The ones on the left are for socks for my friend Pat; I don't know about the ones on the right, yet. It was just too pretty to leave behind.

Rob got some nasty bug — either a really bad cold or swine flu — followed by a sinus infection, but he was over it in time for us to have a great New Year's Eve party.



We had three sets of house guests, including Becky, Mike and Jen, and Jess (all the way from Australia). Here is Becky at the wheel of our friend Greg's awesome Tesla:

And here is Jess admiring her investment in a pair of Jimmy Choo's:



I've managed to come down with my first sinus infection since the surgery. I'm pretty down about it, but I am getting a little bit of knitting done. I finally finished the mitts for James in Afghanistan:

Though I've just heard that (1) he's coming home early, at end of February and (2) he has to work in a room he refers to as "the boiler room" because it's so hot. So I'm not sure how much use these will be to him, but I might send 'em off anyway. I don't know what else to do with them — they certainly don't fit me!

Hope your Teenies outdo your Noughties!

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* – a book by my friend Tim which is really worth a read

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... (plus, sewn bind-off)

I did run the ties through on Hey, Teach! but I haven't redone the buttonband yet, so will wait until I'm done to show you 'after' pictures. Meanwhile I haven't been idle! I finally picked up Rob's socks, which you last saw back in March. I had finished one sock, determined that it fit, and then never started the other one. Well, it's actually a bit nippy these days and Rob could use those socks! So I got about an inch into the ribbing on sock #2 last night. These poor socks were started in 2006 (!!!) so it'll be a wonder if I can even make the 2nd sock match the first given the weird way I take notes. We'll see...

I also snuck in and knit a pair of Debbie Bliss' Two Tone Baby Socks. They're very cute but SO many ends to weave in for such a small pair of socks! Then again, it's not like a baby's going to make a lot of miles on these things.



Finally, I'm making progress on Rob's gansey! After some screwups, I finally got the neck done, so it is a complete sleeveless vest at the moment:

The pattern said to bind off neck in pattern (that is, 2x2 rib), but that looks so messy to me, so I decided to do a sewn bind-off. If you haven't done this before, it's really easy. You make a tail 3-4 times as long as the area to be bound off, then put a needle on it and do this:

1. First, pass the needle and yarn right to left (purlwise) through the first two stitches on the needle and snug up (don't pull tight);
2. Then, pass the needle back left to right (knitwise) through the first stitch only and snug up;
3. Finally, drop the first stitch off the needle.


Repeat until you have bound off. It makes a really stretchy bind-off with a lovely look, much nicer than binding off in rib.

Pre-adjustment "Hey, Teach!"

Just so you can see what it looks like pre-adjustments:



I'm wide, but not quite that wide at that spot. And you know how it is — you never want to look wider than you are; as wide as you are is PLENTY. So I think I'm going to try a ribbon through the ribbing (need to go buy some fabric ribbon first) as some of you suggested. And I'm definitely going to redo the buttonhole band. Somehow, even though I count the same # of rows on the left and the right fronts, I ended up having WAY too many stitches on the buttonhole band. And I tried cutting it down, but did the math wrong -- so it's still more stitches on the buttonhole band than the button band. That's only part of why it's gapping, but still -- having them the same would help. Then I might put some hooks on the back of the buttonhole band in between the buttons, to help smooth out the connection.

Yeah, I know I have one more button to sew on. I'm lazy.

And now, a trip back in time

Only a few weeks back. But I just realized I forgot to show you pictures of Hedgehog #2, now safely in the hands of Elinoire the Hedgehog Keeper and her Dastardly Companion, Sylvie!



I'm totally in love with Ysolda's ingenious design. What a great way to use up small amounts of yarn of any size!

Progress!

I have only one sleeve remaining to be sewn in on my Hey, Teach!

OTOH, some of you know that sewing in sleeves is my least favorite part of knitting (I love mattress stitch, but sleeves are hard -- no matter how many times I count stitches and work the math so it'll go in evenly, somehow there's always more stitches on one side than I had counted). So it could take a few more days!

I also think I'm going to reknit the buttonhole band, which came out WAY looser than the button band. Unfortunately the whole back of the sweater is also more tightly knit than the front, but I think that'll block out. Or it'll just look slightly shorter in back. I'm not a perfectionist, just a pragmatist ;-)

I love this already (I've been trying it on as I go), but I wish the ribbing in the middle drew it in more. It makes me look more like a refrigerator with a head than my already more-than-chance resemblance. Middle age has left me without pretensions to a waist, and though I've lost some weight recently (lots left to go), I still have a thicker waist than I used to at the weight I'm at now, if that sentence parses. So having a sweater that sort of flies out widely right under the bust is perhaps less than ideal. I still love it, but some internal elastic may be beneficial.

Oh! I also finished a second pair (smaller size) of mittens from the pink monster yarn.



I can't decide whether they should go to Carson or go to Afghans for Afghans.

Duh...

My "Hey, Teach!" is coming along nicely...

... except for one little thing. I seamed up the right side (left side of the photo), and then I took a closer look at the shoulder:

Whoopsie! Yep, folks, that would be a twist. Almost a Möbius shoulder. Not exactly the world's most useful style (though it can be done on purpose, and does look lovely in an evening gown), and, at any rate, not what I was looking for in a sweater :-) Tee hee.

It's easy to fix, though. I closed the shoulder with a three-needle bindoff, so it'd be fastest to undo that and redo it rather than redo the seam.

What are you guys up to? I'm all ready for Halloween!

In a hurry

Afghans for Afghans has an emergency call for mittens, socks etc for 7-14 year olds! The trick is that they need them fast. They have a shipment going out in a week or two — they don't have the final date yet but close to end of October is the most likely time. So if you have a spare ball of wool (wool only!) in your stash, please consider knitting up a fast pair of mittens or socks to send. There's info at those links with the address, etc.

I used it as an excuse to cast on, even though I'm making great progress on Rob's gansey and on my Hey, Teach! I had a ball of pink Araucania Magallanes burning up in my stash, and I bet some pre-teen girl would go crazy for a pair of mittens in these. So here I go. Shouldn't take more than a few days and I can pop these in the mail.
To encourage you to at least check out A4A, I'm holding a contest. Just leave a comment on this post (you don't even have to commit to knit anything) and I'll enter you — drawing on Friday morning for this booklet that I got with a copy of the British magazine Knitting:

New and old...

I really do get itchy to cast on new things, hence the "Hey, Teach!". But cotton is hard on the hands, and my carpal tunnel's been yelling at me, so I needed something wool to trade off with. Rob's feeling cold lately (he's dieting), so I figured I'd haul out his felted Old Way Gansey and work on that.


The brown's actually much deeper than that, but I can't get it to photograph properly. At least you can see the lovely pattern here. It's going well (middle body is done, both sides; nearly done with the upper back, and then I'll finish the upper front and start the sleeves) but it's scarily huge. That, of course, is because it's due to be partially felted and this yarn shrinks a lot when felted (according to my swatch, anyway). But it makes me very nervous. And of course I'm also nervous I'll over-felt it and turn it into cardboard. It's so lovely and soft right now. But at the moment, so long it'd cover his butt. Not a manly look.

"Hey, Teach!" is not forgotten, though. I finished the back:
and started the left front. It's such a fun knit.

And to top it off, I finally bought buttons for Ysolda's Tiny Shoes. Sadly, these Shoes are now far too small for the baby for whom they were knit -- and may have always been, they really are preemie sized -- so I'll hold onto them until there's an appropriate neonate on the horizon. They're awfully hard to photograph so I tried stuffing them with napkins (serviettes for you UK and AU types):

Getting well means... less time?

It does seem like somehow I have even less time to blog since I got well, but I think that's because I'm putting so many other things back in my life at the same time!

I am knitting, though perhaps not as much as I was before because I'm not just sitting around every evening -- so that is good and bad :-) No regrets about getting well, though.

Thanks for the comments on ripping the star blanket. I totally agree and I don't really mind ripping it. In a way, I hoped everyone would say 'rip' because I was not at all happy with it. I'm a process knitter and I'm rollin' with it.

I am almost done with this hedgie -- I haven't photographed it in a while but I'm sewing on the eyes now.



And I started a "Hey, Teach!" on the 19th. I know I've got a lot of in-progress projects, but I wanted one that I could work on while chatting with friends and watching TV. The lace pattern on "Hey, Teach!" is pretty easily followed just by reading your knitting, and there's lots of stockinette. I'm really enjoying the knit, even though I'm using cotton and it does stiffen the hands. It's shocking just how many people on Ravelry are knitting or have knit this, but it's no surprise -- it's really a fun knit. No idea how it will look on me and I don't care -- if it doesn't suit me, I'll find someone who likes it!

What're you up to with your fall knitting?