all gylls present and accounted for

One back, with all duplicate stitching completed and all 10 million ends woven in. Phew!

arr.

One front, with all knitting finished and (since this photo was taken yesterday afternoon) all existing ends woven in. Duplicate stitching has commenced.

I'm still fairly certain that I won't have enough black to do the armhole and neck ribbing but I'm choosing to remain in denial. I'm leaving for vacation in a week so all responsible brain cells are being diverted toward packing, not knitting. Well, except for those required for the packing of the knitting. That comes before all else.

who am I? where am I?

I may have been holding out on you. This is my current guilty pleasure knitting. Whenever I start going cross eyed from knitting the Argyll V-Neck (yes, still working on that...) I pick up this little gem of a half-sweater and get happy all over again.

For those of you who will ask, it happens to be the Aran Crossover Top, by Mari Lynn Patrick, from the 2005 Holiday Vogue. Only one other person has some progress shots of this up on Ravelry. Why, you ask, have so few people cast on for this little treasure? Check out the photo from the magazine. Yup. A sad case of overexposed cables. But I will do my darndest to salvage this little gal's reputation.

The yarn is Jaeger Baby Merino in a shade I like to think of as Muted Macaroni. Very tasty.

In other news, I'm still plugging away on the Argyll.

Almost. There.

I'm a bit concerned that I'll run out of the black yarn...which is ridiculous because I have way more than enough of the other colors, but I refuse to buy more until I find myself high and dry.

Thanks for all the advice on the handspun, by the way. You will be pleased to hear that my twist is set.

So I made some yarn, and frankly I'm a little underwhelmed. Granted it's been a couple of years since I've spun anything and I did pick the crappiest of the recently-purchased roving to practice on (some hairy el cheapo Romney with a goodish bit of v.m., short ends, etc.), so I'm not giving up yet.

The deets: 4oz Romney, 2ply. A tad underspun, but surprisingly balanced. Not worth measuring WPI yet, I think.

What I learned:
-Making a little reference card with a sample to refer to does in fact help me spin a more consistent thickness.
-I should probably split the roving by the number of bobbins I plan to fill so that I can minimize the leftover singles.
-Buy nicer fiber!

Abe Lincoln agrees that this is quite possibly the most unremarkable yarn ever.

The plan: plain old mittens look like about the only option here. I'm going to definitely knit with this so that I can see what I need to do differently.

Question for all you spinners out there: do I need to wash it and set the twist before I knit with it, or can I just knit and block?

*I figure if I name my yarn, I'll be more likely to keep track of it. So I'm starting with the beginning of the alphabet and moving on from there. We'll see how soon I make it to Xavier, Yul and Zebadiah.

Fast forward to yesterday when Wendie and I made our annual sojourn up to the Fiber Event, in Greencastle, Indiana*. Wanna see what I got?

Romney, Alpaca, Cormo x Border

Blue Faced Leicester & silk (indigo/osage), Corriedale & silk (osage/cochineal/madder), Corriedale (indigo)

more Romney, Shetland lambswool (from Theodora the sheeplette)

Clun Forest, Wensleydale, Border Leicester

Icelandic handspun from Schacht Fleece Farm (spun by Mandy from Chloe the sheep)

the coolest cotton towel ever, handwoven by a fellow named Ivan, purchased from his granddaughter and great-granddaughter

That's mostly fiber, isn't it? All natural and local and (best of all) in small enough quantities that I can just mess around and see if I like it...kindof like a fiber buffet. Looks like my inner spinner may have woken up (or alternately, my inner misguided fiber-buyer may have just gone on a wild rampage).

*proof that I was actually there can be found on Nicole's blog. I did not take pictures. In my defense, it was horribly cold and rainy and I didn't want to take off my mittens. Had I taken pictures they would have been of the gals (Wendie, Orata, Nicole, Kalani, Leigh, and Bloggless Norma), the poor frightened sheep that was bolting around the grounds with people running after it (strangely enough, the ONLY live sheep I saw there yesterday), and my blue lips. Thankfully we had boys and a nice lasagna to go home to. There was also a Wendie-made blueberry pie for dessert which was FANTASTIC. A good day.

Exhibit A

the hat is startled by the photographer

The Specs:

-Pattern: Twiggy Bobble Hat by Andrea Tung, Pattern here.
-Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed.
-Skeins: Less than one skein of Cocoa (143).
-Needles: Size 7 circs and dpns.
-Start to finish: Knitted sometime in September 2007.
-For: me!

The Pattern:
I could pretend that I vividly remember knitting this hat, but that would be silly. I only have the vaguest of recollections. I may as well have been abducted by aliens, brainwashed into thinking that I knit this hat, and returned to Earth.

Here's what I can dredge up from the bottom of my brain: There was some errata (ravelry link).

Exhibit B

it perches quietly on the head of the common knitter, with whom it shares a habitat

Notes:
I love this hat. I love that it's a bit oversized (for those of you who have never seen me around other people for scale, I am tall. I have a big head. Not freakishly large, just too big for many hats). I love the reverse stockinette. I reeeeeeeally love the bobbles, though occasionally they'll invert themselves and you have an inny instead of an outie. I consider this endearing.

Final Verdict: A fantastic hat. High thee hence and knit one for yourself.

I kid you not. It was like my life was on some sort of crazy sisyphean loop: *calculate increases, knit said increases, notice mistake, unknit, reknit correctly, change my mind about how the increases should be spaced, unknit. Repeat from * until delirious. And to make the whole experience just a little bit more trippy, I had the same song on repeat the whole time. And those of you who have ever listened to Billy Joel's Goodnight Saigon for four hours will agree with me that someone should have stopped him from rhyming "soft soap" and "Bob Hope." For peetsake Billy.

And since the knitting I'm doing is of the secret variety, you get a picture of last weekend's baking experiment:

Hello. I am heaven with a hole.

Recipe here. Don't fool yourself into thinking that they are any healthier than the deep-fried variety...they just don't make your house smell like an all-night diner when you make them. Also less danger of grease fires. Safety first peeps.

That said, my wrist needs a little break from the tiny stitches now and again, so I cast on for something a little chunkier. Join me in welcoming the Snowy Tomten to the family...

Hola. I am Scandinavian.

And can I just say Holy Cow, this thing is knitting up quickly.

For those of you who will ask (because you always do) the yarn is Joann's Bellezza Collection Doceltto. It's a hugely soft wool/nylon/cotton blend that seems to be machine washable. I'm hoping that will appease whomever will be laundering this white baby garment.

flashing a little garter

In other news, Bloomington FINALLY has a new yarn store! A couple lovelies and I went and checked it out today. I'm giving it a 7 out of 10 for now. Points were docked for a) no Rowan (what?), b) small needle and handpainted sock yarn selections, and c) shelving all the yarn with ball bands hidden (why oh why?) but points scored for a) general friendliness and helpfulness b) having a pretty decent stock for having recently opened c) carrying more than one kind of wool wash and, most importantly d) the fact that they exist.

And is it as warm by you today as it is here? It was 69 degrees on my car's thermometer when I was driving home an hour ago. The windows are open! There are birds! The sky is blue! I'm going to go knit outside.

But I digress. Enter the long-lost Argyll V-Neck:

Hi there. I am masculine yet sassy.

I know...long time no argyle. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE knitting this vest, but life happens, whatever, blah, blah blah...and I've gotten sidetracked.

No more. I've hopped back on the argyle wagon and now we are inseparable. Who knew a repetitive geometric intarsia pattern on size 3s in fingering-weight was my knitting soul mate? Not me, that's for sure, but I'm going with it. We have a date tonight with Part 3 of Pride and Prejudice. I'd better go get pretty.

So today you get my sisters.

See? There they are. Rae and Krick.

Besides being some of my most favorite people in the world, they've also got blogs. Sally forth and give them a visit, whydon'tcha? Better yet, flood them with commenty love for me.

Made by Rae
Rae mostly sews adorable things, but there's a little crochet and other craftiness in there as well. She's the mother of the wee nephewling so there's some general baby-upkeepy stuff too.

Bibliokrick aka We Have Unlimited Juice?*
The hilarious account of the life of the fledgling librarian who is my little sister. With promises of embroidery soon (hint, hint, krickie).

What are you waiting for? Go and give them a holler for me.

hello. I am your designated knitting content for the day.

*this is the current name. Yesterday it was different, so don't be surprised if it's called something else tomorrow.

Howdy. We are Pomtastic

The Specs:

-Pattern: Herringbone Mittens with Poms, by me! Pattern here.
-Size Knitted: Medium
-Yarn: Cascade 220.
-Skeins: Less than one skein each of Coral (7830) and Natural (8010).
-Needles: Size 6 dpns (size 4 for ribbing).
-Start to finish: October 2007 - February, 2008.
-For: Recipient as of yet unknown (which explains why I wasn't really in a hurry to finish these).

Upside-down mittens! I really know how to shake things up.

Notes:
You probably thought I'd finished these already, since one of them appears in the pattern and has been paraded around blogland for all the world to see. But that was just the single mitten I knitted up to test out the smaller size. Now there are two and, as someone's wise mother once said, mittens really are better in pairs.

Not much new to say about these. If you really want to read a full FO report, you can take a gander at the last one, which is here.

Final Verdict: neat-o complete-o!

This is my Mum

You may say to yourself “didn’t we just see a Mother-in-Law modeling a blue shawl designed by Evelyn A. Clark?” What of it? The matrons in my life like their blue triangular shawls. Who am I to argue?

The Specs:
-Pattern: Shetland Triangle, by Evelyn A. Clark, from Wrap Style.
-Yarn: Blue Moon Silk Thread, one skein in the color “Haida,” knit doubled.
-Needles: Size 6 circs.
-Start to finish: November 29, 2005 - December 16, 2007.

Notes:
My first attempt at this shawl was all wrong. Mum had requested a navy or black shawl for her Christmas gift and, come October, I found myself traveling down the uncomfortable road of “this yarn is not quite what I had in mind…” with 4 balls of navy Cashsoft 4 Ply. It was so soft. It was so squooshy. It was so…blah.

Wendie gets full credit for pointing me in the direction of the silk thread. She and Mr. Wendie were visiting (Thunk and Señor One-Ply-Short share an enormous passion for boy-type nerdly pursuits) and I was woe-is-me-ing my little heart out to Wen-Wen about the all-wrong-ness of the Cashsoft. Thank goodness for knitterly friends with an eye on the hand-dyed yarn market, is all I can say.

The Pattern:
A typical Evelyn A. Clark pattern with an easily memorized pattern repeat. To sum up: no problem-o.

I inherited all of her good qualities.

The Yarn:
I really like the Silk Thread…it’s lovely and silky and drapes like a dream. My only complaint is that the dye didn’t penetrate the entire skein, leaving little undyed patches here and there, which is not so nice in a super-dark colorway. I was on a tight schedule though, so I didn’t have time for complaining and exchanging. It looks fine knit up (the white just looks like a little extra shine on the silk), but I’ve definitely become a center-of-the-skein checker. Heed my wisdom born of experience and go and do likewise.

Mods:
I knitted an extra six lace repeats. I agree with the Bigger is Better philosophy of shawl knitting. It’s difficult to sweep around looking fabulous if you have to keep adjusting your wrap. Make it big. Make it enormous, if you must. The worst that can happen is that it’ll look dramatic.

Final Verdict: Lovely, lovely, lovely.

The Specs:

-Pattern: Chicago, by Louisa Harding, from Rowan 37.
-Size: Medium.
-Yarn: Rowan Calmer, 6.5 skeins Sour, and less than one skein each Blush, Coral, and Lucky.
-Needles: size 8 birch, (size 7 when called for).
-Start to Finish: August 11, 2007 – December 26, 2007.
-For: My darling sister Rae, Christmas 2007

Notes:
Rae has been asking for this sweater since Rowan 37 came out (which was in 2005, if I remember correctly), so I'm pretty darn pleased that I finally delivered. There were some initial reservations about all those little flowers, but in the end they weren't so terrible. Because knitting is like chocolate. Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.

I knitted her a cardigan.

Mods: I think Ms. Harding got a little carried away with the extras on this pattern. At heart, it's a basic ¾ sleeve cardigan but then there are a) an eyelet lace pattern, b) 52 little knitted flowers, c) 2,500 knitted-in beads d) 18 buttons/buttonholes, and e) a ruffle at the bottom. That's a lot of stuff on one sweater.

The key to making this one a winner was to strip it down a little. I nixed the ruffle from the get-go…it doesn’t appear in any of the pattern photos (and why doesn't it?) so by the time I discovered its existence it was already out of the question. The beads knitted into the lace pattern were vetoed by Rae, thank goodness. So the whole project was a little less crazy-making than it could have been.

The only thing I added was 4 extra buttonholes (and buttons). Toward the end there I got a tiny bit lazy and didn't feel like doing buttonhole math. So I just knitted on buttonholes until I ran out of room. So 22 buttons it was. They're all hidden by the flowers, so it doesn't really matter anyway. Not that they aren't fantastic buttonholes.

It looks nice unbuttoned with a fancy shirt too.

Errata: The instructions for the little flowers say that you’ll have 6 stitches at the end…you won’t. You’ll have 11. If you want to have 6 stitches, omit the K1s. I just knit the 11 stitch version and they looked fine.

The Yarn: I love Calmer. So delightfully sproingy. I did have to go up a needle size since sproing makes me knit tightly.

Finishing:
I'm particularly happy with my set in sleeves. I used the crochet method (my current favorite) with a half-thickness of yarn to keep the bulk down (you just slap the pieces right sides together and crochet along the edge through both layers). So tidy!

To attach the flowers, I first arranged them on the sweater and then basted them into place. Then I just starting sewing those little buggers on and didn't stop until I was finished. Each one has three little glass beads into the center but you can't see them in the pictures (note to self: take closeups next time).

I picked out transparent buttons that are the exact same color as the sweater so that they don't distract from the knitted flowers. Normally I like buttons to stand out a bit, but in this case I thought they would just clutter things up.

Final Verdict: Woo! With a side of Hoo!

Christmas was good...and that's all I have to say about that for now. I'm feeling a bit paralyzed by the thought of summarizing the last month or so in one post, so I think I'm just going to sprinkle a little Christmas here and there as I remember things.

Today's holiday tidbit: Thunk's Mum in her Christmas flower basket shawl (yes, I waited 8 months to gift it. That is what we call delayed gratification).

I have the cutest mother-in-law ever (photo courtesy of the parents-in-law).

Other items of note:

1) I have somehow accumulated six unblogged FOs (the earliest is from September). I plan on doing something about that. Soon.

2) My camera is on the fritz. What exactly caused this is anyone’s guess, but I think I may have freaked the poor thing out a bit by taking too many pictures of yarn last week. In other news, my Ravelry stash page is up to date!

This is a photo I dug out of the elliphantom archives.

3) I’m amazingly behind on my blog reading. So behind that there’s no way I can catch up. If you would be so kind, do me a favor and let me know if there’s anything good I’ve missed, K?

That's it for now. More soon. Really.

First up, Mum’s blueberry-flavored Shetland Triangle:

Hello. I am silky and blue.

This project hasn’t managed to make it onto the blog yet for various reasons. Back in October I knitted almost an entire one of these in navy Cashsoft 4-ply before I decided that it wasn’t up to snuff (read: too chunky and blah-looking). So that version got sent to Project Purgatory to await its fate, and I ordered up a hank of Blue Moon silk thread in the Haida colorway. Much better. I’m knitting the shawl with the yarn doubled and it’s turning out just exactly as I’d envisioned. Hooray!

Ho there.

The Chicago cardigan for my sister Rae is on the home stretch. All parts are knitted and the main body of the sweater is assembled. Still left to do: picking up and knitting the neckband and buttonbands, weaving in ends, and sewing on all those dinky little flowerlings. Anybody want to come over and help with that? I’ll feed you Christmas cookies and homemade hot cocoa! Anybody? What, no takers? Darn.

The current Plain Old Socks:

Mmmmm...cookie

The usual recipe. Knit with the rare and wonderful Cookie A. Handpainted Sock. Kricket has claimed this pair already and, since she’s worn the heck out of the last pair I gave her, I have no qualms about sending these her way. We’ll see if they get done by Christmas. They get lower priority since she did get a birthday knit this year.

In other knitting, the Argyll vest knitting is on hold until I get Chicago and the Shetland Triangle finished. More projects planned. Stay tuned.

p.s. those of you drooling over the fishie bobbins from the last post...I regret to inform you that I found them at the thrift store. I do recall that they were made by Phildar, and it looks as if they have some similar ones for sale on their website. I have no idea what shipping from France costs.

p.p.s. no links in this post. I have to get back to my knitting.

Even the bobbin fish are eating it up.

That's the back you're looking at there. I'm just a couple of rows short of the armhole decreases.

It's a good thing I'm enjoying myself now, because the finishing on this one is going to be murder. All those thousands of little ends to sew in. And don't forget the part where I go back and put in the little argyle lines with duplicate stitch. Oye.

Twenty-five days to the big C. Double oye.