What's your knit?

What kind of knitting do you like best?

Over the last six years of knitting, I've learned that I love cables, and I like lace (but not, yet, in laceweight yarn). I like ribbing, too, and eyelets and fagoting.

I don't like colorwork much yet, probably because I'm still fairly lousy at Fairisle, and I hate the twisting involved in intarsia. Mosaic is just 'ok'.

And stripes.

I hate stripes.

Now, this isn't because I hate weaving in ends. I don't. I actually find it comforting and calming, and if I really want to avoid it there are often ways to do that. But when the edge is going to show, you do not want to carry the yarn up, and sometimes even when it won't, that will add bulk in the wrong place. So you have to clip. And I think my hatred of stripes is really a hatred of being tickled, because what I don't like about stripes…

… are all those darned tickly, wiggly, iggly bits of yarn that tickle my arm and knee while I'm knitting.

Really I'm just silly.
 *keeps knitting*

!(*$#(@*$#(@%&#@(@#($@#

I am really not enjoying sewing up this dadburned corgi.

Whew - almost had two posts in a month there!

Missed it by [<- this ->] much... ;-)

Managed to finish up these little fingerless gloves. It's a good basic pattern, though it doesn't have gusseted thumbs, which I prefer. But it's easy and straightforward. I knit double-length cuffs and fingers for warmth, as these are for a friend who has autoimmune problems and a lot of hand pain at times.

This is Phildar Preface, a basic jeans-color sock yarn, for the trim and Mini Mochi for the body of the gloves. I used the same skein for both gloves, as I thought it would be fun to get different parts of the long colorway, and one is much lighter than the other. To me it looks like sunrise and sunset. I love it.

So of course I can't resist having 15 projects going at once, so I cast on for another — I started a baby sweater for Rob's cousin's new son. No photos yet, but the baby blanket I was blocking a few weeks back is now in the arms of its new owners, so here are some photos of that — I am really happy with it even though it took me literally YEARS and lots of frogging:

(Sorry I forgot to rotate that last photo and I'm too lazy to fix it :-) )

Hope you're all having a good summer. It's still hot here!

At rather long last

Well — I haven't posted because I haven't accomplished much. Near-constant house guests and social activities don't combine well with projects that have all reached the "need to do math" phase. I have about 16 projects going, and they were all at that stage. That's what happens when you start a new project every time you hit that point. It's possible I have too much social life.

One option when you need an easy project that won't add to your 16 is to knit a washcloth. Or Tunisian honeycomb stitch one, as I did in this case. I've been using these washcloths for years to wash my face, they have just a little bit of nice friction without being too scrubby. I normally knit them from dishcloth cotton, which gets boardy and smelly over the years (I think it dries too slowly, so mildew occurs). Now I'm trying a cotton-nylon blend which I'm liking quite a bit.

On the plus side, I had a little bit of down time and I finally did the math to sew the border on this puppy!

It's a baby blanket, originally intended for a child born four years ago, now intended for one that was born in May. I need to sew in the ends and block it, but chances are good it'll be done and actually shipped to the recipient in the next two weeks. WHEW. A pretty, pretty pattern but a pain in the neck for me — I had to reknit the first third of it several times. Though, oddly, the border went like clockwork.

This was another project that needed ripping back:

Fingerless gloves for my friend Josie. She has narrow fingers, so I started knitting it with two sizes down of needle instead of the usual one. But it was awful going. The yarn was splitting, the fabric was uneven, I couldn't keep my tension right. I finally gave up, ripped and reknit in the larger needle. I didn't change the pattern. She has big palms, just slim fingers, so I'm hoping that by knitting the wrist and fingers in the two-size-down needle it'll come out all right. One glove finally done except the thumb!

How are you all? Is anyone still out there?

Happy summer!

Slow but steady

There's not much point in posting another photo of the lace edging for the baby blanket, but it's going pretty well. I need a total of 4 corners and 72 lace repeats; I've completed 1 corner and 29 repeats. It's going to take a while and I'm sure the baby will be born before it's done, but it's not impossible!

I did block the hoodies, and I have even bought buttons for them! Maybe I'll finish sewing buttons on one of them today. In the meantime, here is a teaser photo of one of them blocking...

Do those colors pop or what? I'm delighted!

I may or may not have mentioned I've also started some fingerless gloves for my lovely friend Josie. I'm not 100% sure of the color choice now that I've started it, but I'll go on and finish and if I don't like them, I'll make another pair. I'm using 00 needles because she has slender hands, and I couldn't find a small enough pattern.

The blue is the 'trim' and the multi is the body. I'm just not sure. This is a 1x1 rib so it looks a bit odd close up like this. You have to remember how small it really is.

Nice thing about knitting is you can always redo or start over. All it costs is yarn. And heaven knows I have plenty of that...

Heading towards the finish line!

I thought I blogged before I went out of town on a trip, but I realize now that I didn't, so sorry for the long gap. But that long gap yielded some results!

This little puppy is all ready for blocking, then buttons — ends are sewn in and everything!

And this one just needs one cuff sewn in and it, too, hops into the blocking bath:

And check this out — this silly star blanket I started about 4 years ago for a baby that is never going to get it now :-) – it's now planned for my cousin's child, due next month. The blanket portion is finally done!

I was dreading knitting the miles and miles of lace edging that have to go around this — and I know I'm going to hate sewing it on, especially since I forgot to slip the stitch at the start of every row on the main blanket, so it won't match up for mattress stitch. But once I started knitting the lace, I just fell in love. Even with all the lifelines, you can see it's going to be just spectacular!

That's the news from this end of the knitting universe. How are you all?

%/@#*($*@(#$ corgi !!!

Ok. I like corgis. The four-legged ones that are warm-blooded and bark. But let's face it, knitting one out of sock yarn on US #0 needles (which, in case you didn't know, are pointy and like to make holes in your fingertips) is not going to be my idea of a good time. And sewing it up is going to be... uh. Even. More. Fun.

Here are some of the parts:

Why am I doing this, you ask? Well. My friend Deb begged for a knitted corgi. She begged many times over a long period of time. She wore me down.

If I get through this without stabbing someone with those needles, I'll be doing well.

Coming along quickly!

I'm actually making good progress on the boys' cardis. This one just needs the arms hemmed, sewn in, ends woven in, blocked and buttons:

 

 And believe it or not, this one is almost done too. I'm just finishing up the hood now; then I'll do the orange button band and hem/sew in arms. The arms are knitted.

As usual, I'm looking forward to button shopping. As the buttons will go on the contrast-color bands, I'm thinking of going with purple, but I'll see what strikes me at the button shop.

Meantime, I've started a project that is going to make me cuss my way into the lower layers of Hell – the corgi from the book Best in Show. Tiny needles, tiny yarn, colorwork (which I am not yet comfortable with), tons of little pieces, tons of sewing up. I must really like the friend I am knitting this for. Might not like her so much by the time it's done. ;-)

Still here, really!

I know, I haven't been posting. For a long time that was because I wasn't knitting. But I'm knitting now!

We've had house guests non-stop (with lots of overlaps) since Thanksgiving, but they have all gone home now, and I feel I can breathe a little and blog a little :-) Don't get me wrong — it was great fun — but it's also nice to have a little time for my own hobbies again.

I've been knitting on two lovely hooded cardigans for a pair of twin five-year-old boys.  One said his favorite colors were purple and red; the other, purple and orange. So that's what they will get. This is the Bar Harbor Hoodie from Creative Knitting.

I am using Cascade 220 Superwash, by the way — one of my go-to yarns for knitting for kids. Not so much babies, because it's not crazy-crazy soft; but it is a nice cross between soft and hard-wearing, perfect for kids.

This one is done except for the arms and weaving in the ends. Oh, and buttons. Purple heather and red heather — love it.

 This one's obviously the orange ones. I tried three different "orange" colors from Cascade and ended up with this tangerine one. It needed to go well with the purple, be different enough from the red, and look more orange than yellow. I think this is good. As usual, the photo isn't perfect, but you can catch the luminous quality of this tangerine.

I'm doing a trick with the sleeves. Instead of just knitting 1.5" of the 3x1 rib, I knit 1.5", then a row of purls, then another 1.5" of rib. The bottom 1.5" will be turned in and sewn like a hem. This makes it reversible, and this means that the ribbing can be turned back and still look good. I think this will help the 5-year-olds wear this size-6 cardi right away, and it'll fold down when they're ready for it. Finally, if they can wear it long enough, I can take the hem out and let them wear the ribbing as 3" long (the purls won't detract too much, I don't think — they'll look like a design element).

What have you all been up to? I'm hoping to get bloggin' a bit more in 2012.