Category Archives: On My Needles

Hey Bear!

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OK, I changed my mind.  I’m not up to making the amazing, complex patterns I posted about on Wednesday.  I’m sorry, but… oof.  It turns out that I’m not up to making a giant lace shawl right now.  (And, when I went into my stash and looked around to see if I had anything appropriate for knitting up those patterns, and didn’t find anything.)

Instead of going to the yarn store and dropping a bunch of money on yarn I probably won’t use (as fun as that can be), I decided to try to use up more of my leftover worsted weight.

It’s time for more bears!

Remember the Mother Bear Project?  I made a big box of bears for them last Christmas.  They deliver hand-made teddy bears to children in developing nations whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS.  You really couldn’t ask for a better cause to support.  (Also the bears end up super cute.)

IMG_3080I worked on this red, lavender and blue guy at work, while the kids were at recess yesterday.  (Recognize the lavender yarn?)  I forgot how fast these little dudes knit up.  I’m almost to the leg split, and I probably did about 2 hours of half-hearted knitting on this guy.

I’m happy to be back on the bear train!  Have you made any bears for the Mother Bear Project?  Or, have you done any other knitting for charity?

 

Finished!

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I finally got around to seaming and blocking my Stranger Cardigan!

And… I like it.  I don’t love it, but I think it’s partly that it took me an age to finish (I get annoyed with projects that take too long), and it’s partly because it’s pretty warm here (and no one loves a thick wool sweater when it’s super hot).

Anyway- pictures! Ignore me being a total dweeb. I have trouble looking like a not-crazy person when taking finished project pictures.IMG_0360

I like the shoulders- the seam between the two cabled panels is very pleasing- so neat and tidy!  And the sweater turned out nice and long- it goes down to my mid-thighs, so it’ll look great in the winter with leggings or jeans and a comfy t-shirt.IMG_0353But, I think it’s a little too long in the arms.  I’m always so paranoid about having too-short sleeves, I end up making them too long.  It’s a curse.  I might rip them back, or I might leave them.  It could be nice to have long, cocoon-like sleeves in the dead of winter.IMG_0379Of course, my favorite part is still the lovely cables up the front.  That’s what drew me to the pattern in the first place, and I still love them!  These cables might find their way onto some other projects, too.IMG_0413I’m pleased with the finished product, all told.  And I’m even more pleased that it is finished.

What’s your most recent finished object?

High Five!

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I finished my gloves!  Finally.

All I had to do was find four tiny buttons and sew them in place.  I didn’t even have to weave in any ends.

I guess I just get distracted easily.

Also I have about thirty-seven different projects going on at all times.  It’s a problem.  But not one I plan on fixing any time soon.

Anyway! I found four tiny mother-of-pearl buttons in the jar of buttons I inherited from my grandmother.  They’re a quarter inch across, paper-thin, and they almost match.  (They match enough for my purposes, anyway.)OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERACute, right?  I love them.  If ever there were buttons that could make big, squishy, rainbow-colored gloves classy, these are them.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANow I just have to wait for it to get cool enough to wear gloves.

Have you ever had a project wait for a simple finishing touch for an unreasonably long time?

Cephalopod

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I finally finished it!

Or at least I finished the knitting part!

And, it is glorious.

My Stranger Cardigan is all knit up, and you hardly even notice that the sleeves are a different color than the rest of the sweater.

The only thing is…

I think this sweater is meant for someone with significantly more arms and legs than I have.  Perhaps an octopus.  Or maybe a cuttlefish.  Look at this bad boy!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOof!  (As a side note, finishing the last arm was a pain, to say the least-  all that sweater flapping around in my lap!  Ugh!)

But, wait, a little origami, and Hey Presto!

A sweater!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANow I’ve just got to sew up the underarms and block the bejesus about of it.

I’m so close I can taste it!

Heartbreak

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I’m completely heartbroken.  My hopes have been dashed.  My best plans of a simple, fun, and easy sweater are completely falling apart.

My yarn came in the mail.  (Actually it came in the mail a few weeks ago, but I was so disappointed, I threw it into the closet and pretended it hadn’t showed up yet.)  Usually new yarn is a source of joy, but ugh…

Look:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOK, it’s kind of hard to see in a photo, but take a closer look:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe ball of yarn on the left is the new yarn- it’s significantly more blue-gray.  And the half-finished sweater is on the right- it’s a lovely pink-y lavender.

I know they look pretty similar in these photos (it’s been established my photography skills are lacking), but in real life, they’re significantly different.  Even my husband commented.  I’ve got the whole sweater finished with the old yarn, except for the left sleeve.  I can’t have a sweater with one different color arm!

This, boys and girls, is why you buy all your yarn at once.

Now I’m going to go drink a lot of coffee and come up with a plan.

You Win Some, You Lose Some.

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And sometimes you end up with mismatched socks.

If my Ravelry page is correct, I started these socks in January, but I think I probably started them earlier- probably over Christmas.

I finished one right away, then did the toe of the second one…. then…. nothing.  I stashed these socks away  “just in case,” then promptly forgot about them.  So, when I was packing for my trip, I decided to bring them along.  After all, a sock-in-progress fits in my purse, so they’re great for traveling.   The pattern was super simple (just stockinette with a single row of purls around the toe and ribbed cuff), so they wouldn’t take away from looking out the window.  And they were almost done, so they’d go pretty fast!  Win-win-win.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThey turned out pretty cute!  Nothing fancy, but they’re a pretty color, and they look ok.

Except if you try to measure them against each other.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOne sock is fully a half-inch shorter than the other one.  I swear I measured- I even counted rows!  But, something must have happened to change my gauge between when I started these socks six months ago and when I finished them last week.  Blergh.

I don’t think I’ll try to re-knit them, or rip them out… they’re not fancy enough for me to really be bothered, and they aren’t going to be a gift.  I think I’ll try blocking them out, and hopefully that’ll fix the problem.  After all, blocking hides a multitude of sins.

Have you ever ended up with significantly different socks? What did you do?

Big Head

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I think I made the world’s longest hat.

No joke.  It’s really big.

It’s an Antler Hat from tincanknits.  I thought I followed the pattern, but something happened.

The hat on the right is a normal, long-ish beanie that I made for my husband.  The hat on the right is the one I just knit up. It’s like twice the size!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAEven if I fold up the brim, it’s so long!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI look like a silly gnome when I wear it.WP_20160612_15_18_04_ProI need to rip out the crown and take out a couple pattern repeats.  After all, the pattern is absolutely gorgeous, and looks great in my Tosh DK.  It’s just too long.  Look at that great cable!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI feel like I’ve been on a streak of not-quite-correctly finished knitting projects.  Oh well, it just means I have more knitting to do!

Home Again, Home Again

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Jiggity-jig.

(What? I’m the only one who says that?)

I’m back home, and I’m exhausted.

It was great to see our families (both mine and my husband’s), and I had a fabulous time.  We played cards, ate lots of great food, and explored Pennsylvania, Cleveland and Chicago.  All in a week!  A real whirlwind tour.

And, of course, I did a ton of knitting.  You can’t expect me to spend all that time in cars, airplanes and the Chicago L and not get out my knitting.  I’ll tell you about everything I worked on (I can finish a surprising amount of knitting when I’m cooped up in the back of a minivan for 12 hours) over the next couple weeks.  But, I want to start with what might have been my favorite project.

You remember this brightly-colored beauty (the one on the right)?  It’s Knitted Wit Victory DK in Fairy Garden… Swoon.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWell, a few hours of work (and approximately 1 million ends to weave in later… no wonder I’ve never made gloves before… what a pain!), I’ve got my own crazy-lady riding gloves  (Also known as the Ringwood Gloves from Rebecca Blair- a very well-written pattern!)OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI love them!  And I love that their coloring is just slightly different.  It’s hand-painted yarn, after all.

I also love the very cool, but surprisingly simple stitch pattern.  It’s two rows of stockinette, and one of k1p1 rib.  Easy!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe gloves are dense and squishy and lovely, and I can’t wait for the weather to get cool enough to wear them.

Now I just have to find buttons for the cuffs… I’m thinking little, white shell buttons, or maybe faux pearls.  I’ll have to go through my big button jar and see what I have.

What kind of buttons would you use?

Road Trip!

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I’m taking a road trip later this week with my in-laws (Hi, in-laws!).  And that means one thing:

Dramamine? Car games? Eating at McDonald’s?

No!  It means an excuse to go yarn shopping and start some new projects.  After all, my sweater project is getting too big, and I’m out of purple yarn…

I stopped at a lovely yarn shop over on the other side of Lake Washington, Serial Knitters in Kirkland.  I’ve only visited there once before, years ago, and I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get over there again.  It has a fantastic selection of local and national brands in some of the most gorgeous colorways I’ve ever seen.

Two skeins came home with me:  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe lovely, subtle gray-blue is Madeleinetosh Tosh DK in Cloud Dweller, and the over-the top rainbow of exuberance is Knitted Wit Victory DK in Fairy Garden.  They’re both squishy, but firm, and I can tell that they’ll knit up into great hard-wearing accessories.

(And, I can’t help but smile when I look at the Victory DK colors… so gorgeous!)

I’m thinking, since I’ve only got one skein of each, I should use them to make little accessories.  The Victory DK is slightly thinner, so I’m thinking mitts or gloves.  And, I don’t care for variegated yarn knit into simple stockinette (weird, I know), so they’ll have to have some sort of texture.  I’m thinking these gloves might be just the ticket (and they’re an excuse to use some of my buttons).

Ringwood Gloves by Rebecca Blairringwoodbiggreen_medium[1]Wouldn’t they be just the funkiest, most cheerful winter accessories?!  I’m excited already.

The cloudy blue Tosh DK is just as beautiful as the hyperactive Victory DK, but in a more grown-up, classy way.  I’m thinking the subtle color changes would work really well with cables.  Something with a lot of cables.   Maybe a hat.  Maybe this one:

Antler Hat by tincanknitsiain-5-1024x682_medium2[1]Unfortunately, my yarn is a smidge smaller than the yarn called for in the pattern, but I think if I go up a size, I should be able to knit up a lovely hat as I while away the miles.

What do you think?  How should I use my lovely new yarn?

Nooooo!!!!!!!

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I have terrible news.

Terrible, terrible, heartbreaking news.

You might want to sit down.

It’s about my lovely, purple cabled sweater, the one I’ve been working on for months.  It’s… *sob*… it’s… well…  I’ve… I’ve…

I’VE RUN OUT OF YARN!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI don’t know what I was thinking.  I’m easily 3 or 4 skeins short.  I’m not even halfway through the first sleeve, and I’m completely out of yarn.  UGH!

So much for planning.  Sigh.

I’m off to the Knit Picks website to order some more and hope the dye lots aren’t too far off.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Have you ever seriously miscalculated on one of your projects?  Ugh!