If you've looked over in the sidebar lately you'll notice that I've gotten a bit behind showing off some finished knits. There's even a particularly fabulous pair of finished mittens that hasn't even seen the light of day yet! I know. Shameful.

who's got toes?*

While it is tempting to declare this "FO Week" and get everything caught up, I know that as soon as I make any sort of declaration I'll get completely wrapped up in something else and wander off. You know, like last week when I promised to blog some WIPs and then got very involved in practicing my cello and watching reruns of Bones {cough}. So we'll see.

For now I'm going to kill two birds with one stone and get a couple of pairs of Plain Old Socks off my chest. Nothing fancy here, just a couple pairs of my standard-issue toe-ups to send off to the SILs for Christmas.

Captain Whitelegs strikes again.

Grape Fizzies:
Pattern: my toe-up version of Priscilla's Dream Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts
Yarn: Trekking XXL, Color 109 (it reminds me of grape soda.)
Needles: size 1 dpns
Start to finish: October 2009 - September 2010 (the majority of this time was spent waiting for me to do the final tubular bindoff on the second sock.)
For: My SIL Kasey, who claimed them when I was knitting them at her house in Oregon last December.

send spray-tan

Lemongrass Plain Old Socks:
Pattern: my toe-up version of Priscilla's Dream Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight, Color: Lemongrass.
Needles: size 1, and 1.5 dpns (I switched to the larger needles halfway up the leg.)
Start to finish: February 2010 - November 2010 (I have no idea why they took this long.)
For: My SIL Anna, who claimed them when I was knitting them at her house in LA last February.

more fizz please

*the question that Thunky asks every baby he meets. (A: "YOU'VE GOT TOES!!!")

Posted by Elli at 8:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I spent this past weekend buried in yarn. It was fabulous. Lots of peaceful knitting time, listening to an excellent audiobook,* with a couple of breaks for important things like a good movie and some cookie-baking. Want to see what I worked on?

Predictably, the Sprig Mittens:

These things reproduce like rabbits.

Knitting Fever (distributors of Araucania) has fantastic customer service...when I messaged them about the wonky skein of navy they quickly arranged to have a replacement sent to me. Yay! I officially love them. Their yarn rocks pretty hard too. And the gauge of the replacement skein is spot on (see the two mittens on the far left).

Since that photo was taken I've finished the thumb on that second navy and tan mitten. I just have to weave in the ends and I'll have a FO to show you! But I am so easily distracted by other projects. For example...

The Forgotten Shetland Triangle

did you miss me?

Geesh. I just checked Ravelry and found out that I started this shawl in October of 2007. At the time I wanted something fancier, so I started a different one in silk thread and left this plainer Cashsoft 4 Ply version to languish, assuming I'd frog it eventually.

Fast-forward to this summer when I pulled it out just to have some simple lace to work on...I've been working a few rows here and a few rows there...nothing intense...until yesterday I realized that it was actually getting pretty large. So I got busy with the edging and I worked the last row of the chart last night before bed. All that remains is the bind off and a nice blocking. You'll be seeing this one soon!

Grove Mittens

*sigh*

At my current rate of a few rows a day, maybe these mittens will be finished by the time the snow arrives. I love this pattern but I just can't seem to memorize the charts, hence the slow-going. But they're so pretty that I couldn't resist throwing in another picture.

Lemongrass socks

s'up?

My current toe-up Plain Old Socks. If you've been around for a while you may recognize the yarn as the stuff I originally used to cast on for a pair of ill-fated Jaywalkers. The yarn was a tad too bulky though...much better suited to some plain socks. And plain socks are the ultimate movie-knitting. Especially when subtitles are involved.

I switched to 1.5mm dpns for the calf, which is why the striping on the yarn changes further up the leg. I'm still trying to decide if it was the right choice. But I'm assuming that the recipent of these socks will just squnch them down, so it really won't matter.

That's it for my weekend! I hope yours was as nice as mine! How's that fall knitting going?

*The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins. Fall is for listening to mysteries!

Posted by Elli at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Well then. Coming back to this blog feels a little bit like reopening an abandoned cottage...stuffy and dusty and in need of a major scrubbing and airing. A big job, but not a bad one considering that if I do it, soon this place will be full of knitterly friends and wooly goodness again. And that way lies fun.

I think we can all agree that I've fallen pretty far behind in the Reporting of Knitted Stuffus. So if you don't mind I think I'll just cut my losses and start from where I am. And where I am, currently, is the Land of Sock.

Hallo! I look like fizzy grape soda. Yum.

A nice, simple, uncomplicated sock. Just right for the over-stimulated knitter.

{the deets: priscilla's dream socks (my usual toe-up mods) knitted in trekking xxl, color 109}

Posted by Elli at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Thanks for all the cashmere love, guys! I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to do with the yarn, but you can be sure it'll be colorful! Also, if you think you'd like to try the sweater-unraveling thing, make sure you poke around online and read a tutorial or two. There are lots of useful hints out there.

Now! On to some finished knitting:

get your shoes and socks on...it's time to roll around on the lawn!

The Specs:
Pattern: My normal toe-up version of Priscilla's Dream Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, from the Fall 2000 Interweave Knits; also in the book "Favorite Socks." {ravelink}
Yarn: Cookie A. Handpainted Sock Yarn, 1 skein
Needles: Bamboo dpns, size 1
Start to finish: Fall of 2007 - Fall of 2008
For: Kricket, on the occasion of her 25th birthday (Gifted in late September. On time!)

Notes:
Another pair of plain old socks! This time I shook things up a bit and did a plain stockinette leg with a rolled top. As usual, I will refer you here if you are curious about the conversion to toe-upness.

The Yarn:
This Cookie A. Handpainted seems to be a pretty rare breed. Nice though! Squishy and lovely, and the colors are even better in person (these photos got a little washed out).

The Funky Thunky pose (I don't ask questions. I just do what he asks):

yes...I will be dressed as the Corpse Bride this Halloween. why do you ask?

Final Verdict: Faboo! Time to cast on for the next pair.

Posted by Elli at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Christmas knitting is in full panic mode here at Chez Elliphantom. If there were a virtual elli-cam you could witness me flitting between projects and not being able to finish any of them because I keep distracting myself with something else I should be working on. I totally love the holidays. So productive. Too bad it makes me all twitchy. Here's our sampling for today:

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.

Posted by Elli at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)

Look, more socks!

The Specs:
Pattern: A toe-up version of Priscilla's Dream Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, from the Fall 2000 Interweave Knits; also in the book "Favorite Socks."
Yarn: Luna Park Ornaghi Filati.
Skeins: 2 balls in colorway 203.
Needles: Bamboo dpns, sizes 1 and 1.5.
Start to finish: June 16 - August 18.
For: Kricket, who claimed them first.

Hello. We are shortrow toes.

Notes:
Another pair of two-month live-in-my-bag pull-out-when-I-have-a-spare-moment socks. Seems I consistently have about one socks-worth of free minutes a month. It is nice to know that it all adds up to something, isn't it? See what the non-knitters are missing out on? Accidental productiveness. Incidentally, non-knitters are also strangers to the thrill and danger of shot-gun sock knitting...each day knitters everywhere risk their lives knitting in the passenger seat. What if the airbag deploys during a minor fender-bender and causes the knitter to be impaled on their own bamboo dpns, turning a minor incident into a spleen-puncturing ordeal? Wait. I seem to have lost my train of thought. Oh yes...the socks.

I knitted these in pretty much the same manner that I did the last pair. If you are curious about my conversion to toe-upness you can find the details in that FO report.

The Yarn:
The yarn was pretty meh. Meh-ness previously blogged about back in July.

Always looking for new and thought-provoking angles, Thunk insisted that we take a few shots like this:

I like to think of it as the Wicked Witch of the East shot

Final Verdict: Soxy. Time to cast on another pair!

Posted by Elli at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)

Wow! It's kind of hard to come down from that Demi post, but I guess it's time to move on. Thanks much for all the thoughtful comments; I'm all pink and blushy here.

Getting back to the slightly more mundane...here's the latest Plain Old Sock project I've been carrying around with me:

This is Luna Park, color 203* and you're looking at sock number two. I haven't posted about this project yet because, well, let's just say that I'm a bit underwhelmed. The colors aren't quite as charming knitted up as they were in ball-form, and the yarn is annoyingly unbalanced which means both socks have a bit of a twist to them. Also, for merino it feels an awful lot like regular old sock yarn. Nothing special folks. Move along.

In other project news, I finished the first half of Hanami, picked out the provisional cast-on and started knitting the second half. Everything was looking lovely...I got a few inches in before I noticed that I was getting some nasty pooling. What gives? Needless to say, Hanami is in time-out for a while.

Fortunately, I have (relatively) new yarn to console me:

Hello. We are an impulse purchase.

Two Saturdays ago I may have spent some quality time in the sale section at Stitches and Scones in Indy, and we all know I'm nothing if not helpless in the face of discounted lambswool. I blame Wendie for taking me there and Jared for making a cameo as the little voice in my head who kept saying "but it's Tweeeeeeeed...**"

All right, I'm off to go knit now. More new-projecty excitingness coming soon!

*Didja see how I remembered to tell you what yarn I'm using for a change? 10 points for me!
**I'm sure he's not this whiney in real life.

Posted by Elli at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)

I seem to have accidentally finished some socks!

I need some sun. Real bad.

The Specs:
Pattern: A toe-up version of Priscilla's Dream Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, from the Fall 2000 Interweave Knits (also in the subscriber-only portion of their website).
Yarn: Trekking XXL.
Skeins: A little under one ball of color 110.
Needles: Bamboo dpns, sizes 1 and 2.
Start to finish: March 19 - May 18.
For: Me!

Notes:
This has been my brainless take-along knitting for the past two months. Considering that I just did a few rows here and a few rows there, I was pretty surprised when I suddenly found that I was finished.

Thunk says I'm not really this white in real life. Really.

I achieved toe-up-ness on these by starting at the toe "seam" with a non-invisible provisional sort of cast-on (basically the long-tail cast-on onto two needles, alternating stitches between needles until I had my 76 stitches). I held one needles-worth of stitches on some dental floss (makes your knitting nice and minty! Just don't use the whitening variety) until I had completed a short-row toe. Then I just I put the held stitches back on the needles, knitted the foot, executed a PGR shortrow heel, and proceeded up the leg. Easy-peasy!

The Yarn:
As plain old sock yarn goes, I love Trekking most of all because of the colors and the way they never come out the same way twice. It's common for the colors in two of the three plies to match up, creating a dominant color band, but this was the first time I've ever had all three plies synch up. You can see where it happened on the ankle of one of the socks...there's about an inch or so where it looks a little more rainbow-riffic. I thought about cutting this section out of the yarn, but I kind of like it.

Final Verdict: Nice warm socks, just in time for summer!

Posted by Elli at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (42)

There has been regrouping. There has been knitting.

Need a refresher on what’s on the needles over here at Chez UFO? Me too.

brittanies, jump rings, and alpaca cloud

Starting back with the oldest and most languishy of the lot, we have the Flowerbasket Shawl, started sometime in the spring of 2005. Those of you who have been hanging around for a while might realize that I’ve only blogged about this project once (back in January of 2006) when I hauled it out in all its neglected glory to motivate myself to get a move on. As you can probably guess, no moves were made…until last weekend.

I’m currently cruising along with less than two repeats to go before the edging. Somewhere in the past two years lace knitting has got a whole heckofalot easier for me. Time to finish this one up!

Demi: most of a front, all of a back

Ah yes, the lovely Demi. I started her in November of 2005 and the front and back have slowly materialized over time. Problem is that I keep getting distracted by other projects and shunting her off to the sidelines. No more! The goal for Demi is to get her knitted before the weather gets too hot so she’ll be ready to keep me warm when autumn hits. My other secret goal is to get her knitted before Jared and Ashley finish theirs (don’t tell).

Sockiness

Jaywalkers:
I started the Jaywalkers in late December and I’m only up to the gusset on sock number one. Seems I just lost momentum.

Plain Old Socks:
No problem here! This is my current portable and brainless project.

So that’s the lot. Only four projects total (and two pairs of socks hardly count, if you ask me). The biggest problem is those two ancient hangers-on up at the top. Time to pull a yaiAnn and get them all outa here!

p.s. If you’re wondering where that green baby sweater is…it’s FINISHED! FO report soon.

Posted by Elli at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)

When you do a search for “knitting ennui” you get 298 results (soon to be 299, once I publish this). If you take out the quotes you get about 64,200, which is why I shouldn’t be surprised that I’ve finally hit a patch myself.

Stamps are wooly too.

Causes of said lack of knitterly enthusiasm? Start with a project that I’ve lost steam on (baby sweater), add a large dose of nice weather (finally!), a touch of carpal tunnel (boo!), a bit of under-the-weatherness (hello allergy season!), a rekindled interest in my stamp collection (you thought knitting was my nerdiest hobby?), and having the tv hooked up (two words: time sink) and you get one unproductive Elli.

Though I did do a bit of sock knitting. See?

A little summer on the right. A little winter on the left.

For those of you who asked about the yarn…I know it’s Trekking XXL, but I’ve temporarily lost the label. It seems I’ve been slacking off in the apartment-cleaning department too.

But things are looking up. I don’t have much planned for this weekend and I think a nice long sit-down with the knitting is just what I need.

Posted by Elli at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)

Knitting has been a bit on the slow side here at Chez Ripalot. As I so briefly mentioned in my last post, I’ve been doing battle with some seed stitch. Lucky you, now you get to hear the Whole Gory Story.

burning the candle at four ends.

So. Little Green Sweater. About the time I get to the underarms, I decide that I want to make the sweater a bit larger. No problem, right? The neck is now too small for what I’ve got planned but I just have to rip back the inch of seed stitch that is the collar and a few of the raglan increases, and then reknit the collar back on. So I went on my merry way. I finished up a ball of yarn on the body and, thinking this was a good time to do that quick little ripping job, picked out the cast on row.

Now some of you probably already know this but I feel it is my duty as a (now older and wiser) knitter to tell you:

The only time you can pick out your cast on row and just rip away is when you’re working in straight stockinette (maybe there are exceptions to this? Anybody know of any?). With seed stitch…well, it’s a royal pain. Every little stitch loops around other stitches twice making it nearly impossible to rip out. It’s like a bad dream.

To make things even more pain-in-the-toochus-y, I decided that I didn’t want to just snip off the collar and call it good. I made the oh-so-brilliant decision that, to avoid the minor pain of weaving in a couple of ends, I would save the yarn as I ripped it out. And pull the whole length of saved yarn through every. little. stinking. stitch. as it was ripped out. Yes, I know that this is insane. I knew it was before and now that I’m typing this out I’m beginning to wonder if I’m certifiably loony. Because really people…it took me a few evenings to do this (not whole evenings, thank goodness, but probably a total of 4-5 hours spread out over a few nights). Do I really hate weaving in two extra ends that much? Seems so.

Ok. Change of subject!

I also knitted and ripped out the toe of a sock.

So there you have it. I have achieved negative knitting this week.

Posted by Elli at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (30)

I'll go ahead and say it. Fickle knitter, thy name is Elli. First I get you all worked up about new projects and how there will be Picovolis and Rivers up the wazoo and then, you guessed it...I go and work on an old project that you probably don't even remember (we're talking bottom of the basket here). But hey, I finished something!

Recent shoe purchase inspired by Amanda

The Specs:
Pattern: Your basic toe-up frankenpattern.
Yarn: Regia Cotton Surf
Skeins: A little under one ball of color 5411.
Needles: Started on Addi size 2 circs, switched to bamboo dpns, sizes 1 and 1.5.
Start to finish: Sometime last summer - June 18
For: Me!

Notes:
These socks started out as my first and only attempt at the two socks at once/magic loop method. I managed to knit up to the heels before switching to dpns (yup! I'm a big old quitter). I used my favorite PGR shortrow heel, knitted a k3 p2 cuff and finished them off with a stretchy bind off (the one that involves picking up and binding off an extra stitch at even intervals around the top of the cuff), which seemed to work pretty well. It's a little ruffley looking, but I don't mind.

The Yarn:
Cotton Surf is 41% wool but it still knits like cotton (makes my wrists hurt), is pretty inelastic, and tends to be fairly splitty. On the plus side, it's nice and soft and the colors are nice and fun. No comment on warmth yet...it's too hot to give these more than a five minute test wear. So, not a bad yarn for what it is (being cottony isn't actually a sin after all) but I think I'll stick with wool sock yarn from now on.

Final Verdict: Everybody loves a good sock!

Posted by Elli at 8:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

I've been hiding WIPs from you. Shameful, I know. To be perfectly fair, I haven't worked on any of these in the time that I've been blogging--they've all been loitering at the bottom of the knitting basket. Since I've been in a cleaning mood lately, it seems like an appropriate time to introduce you to the Projects Which Languish:

Apricot Jacket from Rebecca 27

I started her in September. I got 500 kinds of insecure about knitting a cotton blend. I put her down.

Heirloom Bag from Rowan 37

This was started over Labor Day when my sister Rae came to visit. She wanted to crochet something (being good at that sort of thing) so I gave her the leftover KnitPicks Shine from the bolero I'd just made her. I had some other colors sitting around (originally for Anouk) and she whipped up all of the crochet motifs in about a half hour. I started the bag part, but once Rae went home I lost steam. Mostly because the colors are, well, a bit vile. But I'm going to finish it. And besides, Rae just asked me about it on the phone last night.

Flower Basket Shawl from Interweave, Fall 2004

The oldest WIP going, I started it last spring when I thought I'd get a jump on the Christmas knitting. It turns out that I hate knitting lace. A lot. I picked it up again this fall and didn't get much more accomplished. It is slow. It is tedious. It makes me want to eat glass. I'd be crazy to rip out all my hard work now, right? The really sad part is that people keep citing this as an easy beginner lace project. Oh the shame.

Regia Socks

Also started last spring…a pair of toe-up magic loop socks. Much to my surprise, I loath the magic loop. I'm going to be a total wimp and finish these on dpns.

So there they are. Hopefully putting them up in the sidebar will motivate me to finish them.

Posted by Elli at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Another one down! See how short the Current Projects list is getting?

In real life they are the same size, I promise.

The Specs:
-Pattern: Priscilla's Dream Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, from Interweave Knits, Fall 2000 (also in the subscriber-only portion of their website)
-Size: Men's medium [76 sts]. This is why I don't join sock exchanges...
-Yarn: KnitPicks Color Your Own, dyed by me
-Skeins: Nearly an entire 100g skein (2g left over—I didn’t run out!)
-Needles: size 1 and 2 bamboo dpns
-Start to finish: Sometime last summer - January 10.
-For: Me!

Notes: I knitted a strand of sewing thread into the heel to increase the durability of the merino and make them last a little longer. I'm not sure how much good it'll do, but I thought I'd give it a shot. The yarn isn't superwash and they don't really fit inside any of my shoes, so I'm not sure how much I'll wear them. They are my favorite colors though, so I'll probably wear them around the house.

How would I rate them?
Practicality - 3
Cuteness - 10
Final score - 6.5

Oh, and after reading Knitting Iris' post on fading kool-aid dyed socks, I think I'm going to steam these just in case I didn't set the dye properly. The first sock (the one that I knitted last summer) already looks like it's faded a little bit.

P.S. DWTS is on tonight! Keep voting for Jonathan and Anna! If you missed last week's show, you can see the video clips here.

Posted by Elli at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Well, Christmas provided with me with such a huge heap of blog-fodder that I froze up for a while there. That and vacation makes me lazy. So I guess I'll just jump back in and start where I left off. I finished Lou's socks! That was back on (counting on fingers...) er, December 20.

The Specs:
-Pattern: Priscilla's Dream Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, from Interweave Knits, Fall 2000 (also in the subscriber-only portion of their website)
-Size: Men's small (80 sts)
-Yarn: Steinbach Wolle Deo Socke Antibakterielle (tee-hee)
-Skeins: Nearly 2 skeins @ 50g each
-Needles: size 1 and 2 bamboo dpns
-Start to finish: Early July - December 20. (severe plan-aheadage combined with last minute knit-panic)
-For: Lou for his birthday/Christmas

Notes: This is the only sock pattern I've ever used. It's a versatile pattern as it has a nice range of sizes for many gauges. I also really like the PGR short row heel. However, I think that after this pair (and the still unfinished octo-socks) I'm ready to move on and try another pattern. Maybe something with some cables? Maybe something toe up? Any recommendations? My only requirement is that it has to fit large feet. Nobody in my family has smaller than size 10 feet.

Final Verdict: Cozy socks all around!

P.S. Thunk has made some improvements around the blog over the last couple of days including (but not limited to) getting rid of that weird gap below the Categories button and making me a Finished Objects page. Yay!

Posted by Elli at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On Sleeve Island. Send Hula dancers. I need something to distract me from the Endless Miles of Stockinette.

On a slightly different tack, remember how I was going to knit just three Christmas gifts this year? How I decided that it was the best way to avoid holiday knitting insanity? Well, apparently I can't take my own good advice because a few other things have crept into the queue.

Thing One: Trellis. For Thunk's niece O. This baby needs a snuggly sweater. Oregon is a cold, cold place and her parents requested something warm for her to wear for Christmas. My knitter's alarm bells went off so I ordered some Jaeger Matchmaker Merino in the color tinsel. The yarn should be here by the end of the week. Justification: It's a small sweater; I should be able to finish it before the 10th of December when I see her, right?

Thing Two: Socks for Lou. Lou deserves some socks. I could give you the 20 or so reasons but I'll keep this short and just give you two. One: he gave me a big beautiful wooden swift last summer (no occasion). I had told him I was saving up for one and within the week he had bought one for me. Turns out that, when he was a little thing, his mother used drag him to yarn shops and then made him hold her skeins while she wound them into balls (see? knitting trauma can result in more thoughtful men). Second reason? His birthday is in December. Besides, I've almost finished the first sock.

Don't worry, I have huge feet. They'll be large enough.

I’m using the same basic pattern that I did for the Octo socks, and this yarn. I'm guessing that "antibakteriell" is a cognate.

Also, I'm planning two or three smallish mystery knits (I don't even know exactly what they'll be yet). Justification: I am going on a cruise to Mexico in a couple of weeks and need small, mindless things to knit on the plane/ship. As we already know, I can't really bring anything that requires pattern reading if I'm going to be around people. And, as you can see, I seem to have a burning need to knit something for everyone I know.

So what does this do for my Christmas knitting schedule? Well here's the plan:
-December 4: Finish Laurent (doable, if I stay on task).
-December 9: Have most of Trellis finished. I figure I could do some finishing on the boat, if needed.
-December 10-17 (on cruise): Knit Lou's second sock and get one or two more small gifts knitted.
-December 18-20: Finish any remaining small gifts.
-December 21-28 (in Washington) Wrap up lose ends and finish Thunk's sweater.

I know I'm just asking for trouble, but there's no harm in trying, right?

Posted by Elli at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Angela asked about the Kool-aid recipe for the octopus* sock yarn, so I thought I'd share. It's pretty simple.

I used one 100g skein of sock yarn and the following Kool-Aid combinations:
-darker blue: 1 packet Berry Blue
-pale blue: 2 packets Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade
-pale green: 1 packet Arctic Green Apple and 1 packet Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade

If you do more than one skein at a time you might have to increase the Kool-Aid a bit (?) I don't think I exhausted any of the dyebaths, but this was months ago and I can't really remember all that well. Experiment at your own peril.

The self-striping yarn tutorial found at ginabeana is great. If you plug in your gauge, the number of colors you want and your desired stripe width and it tells you exactly what to do. I did a 5 row stripe, in case you were wondering. Knitty also has a good article on dying that shows color swatches for some flavors. Can I just say how much I love the smell of Kool-Aid dyed wool? It's like scratch and sniff stickers.

In other news, I cut it a little close, but it looks like I'll have enough yarn to do a second Octo-sock. I have a whole gram to spare.


But where are the other 3 grams? Grrrr. Maybe the label weighed 3 grams?

*why octopus? The colors reminded me of a little tag painting of an octopus that Susie did over at boygirlparty.com. Her shop is closed for the time being (sad) but she does really fab work. I love her owls and octopi.

Julia wanted to know where campus is. I've never attended IU...I leave the school-going to Thunk these days. Maybe if they had a PhD program in knitting it would be a different story.

Posted by Elli at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I want to get at my size 1 dpns so that I can use them for a certain knitting experiment but they’re currently occupied with this sock:

I Kool-Aid dyed this yarn last summer and I love how the colors turned out. However, I abandoned the sock when I realized that I was cutting things pretty close with the yarn. Think I’ll make it? I just have to turn the toe. Oh, the suspense.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day here that I took the afternoon off work. I was able to make some good progress on Thunk’s sweater (almost finished with the back now), finally ordered some yarn for Mum’s Christmas Sweater, and took a stroll around campus to soak up some of the fall colors. Now I'm all recharged and ready to face the weekend.

Posted by Elli at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)