Work In Progress

Kate-a-palooza - Day 1 (FO)

I'm shamelessly stealing my friend Nova's birthday idea.

An eight day celebration of me, that culminates on my birthday! 

And this year I'm celebrating by giving away something each day here.  I missed my blogiversary and thought that this would be a good way to say thank you to all of you.  I appreciate you coming to my little corner of the web.

What are the gifts? Mostly knitting related, but not entirely.  We're a bit cat obsessed and I'm a horrible displininarian. So, I try to keep them away from the yarn, but I can't promise, if you're really allergic.

First up, a loofah, the same pattern I used at Christmas. And a loofah wouldn't be nearly as nice without something to use with it. I discovered Spiced Vanilla scent from the Body Shop at Christmas this year and I'm in love.

 

An alternative use for the loofah would be as a cat bonnet, but Sasha didn't appear enthused. 

So, just tell me - bath or shower?  I'm a bath person every time.  I've turned down apartments because they only had a shower.  I love bubbles but mostly I just relaxing.  Usually I read too.  

Just leave a comment any time before 11:59 p.m. on May 13th. 

Pattern: Loofah or washcloth (and my Ravelry) 
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream Shade: Lavendar, 78 yards
Modifications: crocheted tie
Knitting yardage total 2012: 1111

Nightshade Annis (FO)

Have I mentioned the sad fact that members of my family are allergic to wool?  This signficantly impedes my ability to easily give knitted gifts.

I decided to make something special for my Mom's birthday and purchased some yarn at the Thanksgiving Eat.Sleep.Knit sale. At Christmas time, when we were discussing my knitted gifts plan, she mentioned that she would not be opposed to a cashmere/silk knitted item. 

Well, who among us would be opposed, I ask you?

And ironically, what had I purchased to make my Mom's birthday present? Why some Sweet Georgia CashSilk. In my mother's favorite color. I could claim I bought fancy yarn because this is a significant birthday for my Mom, but I only realized that fact about 2 weeks before her birthday.  I just love her (everyone together, "ahhhh").

And the yarn? It is a dream.  

The sheen is amazing.
The feel, divine.

When I become independently wealthy, I'll have worsted weight cashmere/silk dyed to order.  And I'll knit hats out of it.  In stockinette. Because I can.  A girl can dream, can't she?

I decided that after I was finished with Christmas knitting, I would start and give myself plenty of time to knit. But that was before I met... The Neverending Mittens of Doom.  Since they weren't done until February, I didn't cast on until late February.  It's a formidable caston with 356 stitches.

When I went for my girls weekend, I took this project with me. And fortunately, had the good sense to set down this project before we were too far into the drinking game.

This is a good project because it's 18 hard, focused, very long rows of lace - with 156 nupps in those rows! 

And then stockinette.  There is still a bit of attention necessary on the stockinette, but smart use of stitch markers makes it quite easy. The construction of the stockinette section is ingenious, rocking back and forth from the center. It results in a large middle section, 

but is almost circular, allowing it to easily drape your shoulders without coming off. 

no, i cannot explain why I look like that in the picture. Partner says cute, I saw peculiar.

Because my mom's birthday was while I was gone for work, I knew I had to a firm deadline. In addition to my girl's weekend, I needed a 5 hour marathon knitting session one night. That was only necessary because I lost nearly 10 days of knitting because of my work schedule.

In all, it took 21 days, start to finish, including the 10 days I didn't knit a stitch! It really was an amazingly fast knit.  And, I only used 320 yards, so while the yarn is expensive, you really can create a special gift for a special person with far less than one skein.

And my mother said, "It may be one of the nicest things I own." She has also told me of her different schemes for showing it off to other knitters.

Win!

Pattern: Annis (and Ravelry) 
Yarn: SweetGeorgia Yarns CashSilk Lace, Shade: Nightshade, 320 yards
Modifications: I cast on with US 10.5 to be certain my caston was loose enough
Knitting yardage total 2012: 1033

Generosity-inspired scarflet and a giveaway (FO)

Well, up front, I'm not hosting the giveaway, but two people are, for a good cause. Amanda and Jody, by the 20th and 21st respectively.  So head over there for the chance at a neat shawl!  Or don't and keep my odds high(er)! ha ha

So, on to my knitting.  This is part of the continuing Generosity series. :) 

When I left on my last business trip, I knew I wanted to knit something for a lady that would also be there. We're often the only women on the trip, so we've had some great times together - she introduced me to a traditional Japanese bath house years ago and this year we went to a Korean spa three days in a row!

I wasn't sure what I wanted to knit, but I knew that it needed to be kind of small. The mystery blue lace item that hasn't yet been blogged had me knitting right up until I left so I knew I'd be starting on the plane.

see... plane knitting!

I thought about hats, and had some great ideas, but kept returning to the idea she has curly hair and what a hat would do to her hair.  And, since she lives in Canada, so I wanted it to be useful (warm!). 

Right before I left, a designer re-wrote a pattern, and I thought, "That's it!" 

I chose some yarn that I was gifted with earlier this year (another blog post that is yet-to-be-written). I tried to capture the subtlety of the yarn, but failed each time. 

The pattern was more fiddly than I realized. Not hard, but a lot of turns and increases and decreases (which really, should have been obvious from the onset). When I was done with it, I wasn't happy because I didn't really like the yarn and it rolled on the edges and didn't look like leaves to me. But it was, in deed, a plane project (about 5-6 hours): 

However, I forged ahead (because frankly, I didn't have a choice - the person that discovers yarn and pattern delivery at 30,000 feet will be a millionaire!) When I got to my hotel, I washed and rolled it in a towel to 'block' it.

And when I took final FO shots, was pleasantly surprised. At least with browns and neutrals, it didn't look too bad. 

I worried - even on the plane - that I'd made the neck part too long. I followed the pattern, but kept thinking it should be shorter.  Frankly, at this point, I have enough knitting experience that I should have trusted my instinct. My friend is Japanese and is petite. My instincts ended up being correct, which frustrated me later since it didn't hug her neck. 

In the end, my friend seemed very happy with it. Her niece is actually a knitwear designer and she kept saying she was going to show it to her. Ack! I hope her niece isn't still wondering why I didn't make the neck shorter! haha! 

Post wash (in the picture above), the subtle colors are easier to see. I like the flatter look as well, though I probably flattened out the leaves too much. 

I liked the generosity themes involved - a free pattern, gifted yarn, and an FO as a gift to thank a friend.

Pattern: Anthro-inspired Scarflet (and ravelry)
Yarn: Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran, 147 yards
Modifications: none, though I should have made the neck smaller, for the recipient
Knitting yardage total 2012: 713

Day 29 & 30 - Last (FO) and my Companion

So, the five hour hat ended up being a 6 1/2 hour hat with a multi day delay while I resisted the sewing up.

One good thing about making a mistake with the first caston (I can't really think of two, honestly) was that I was able to see that my heavy worsted weight yarn was going to create a gargantuan hat!

On the flight back home I started again, but started with a gauge swatch (gasp!).  From that I realized that my cast on needed to be 100 stitches for the brim (vice 120) but I kept the spiral the same, though I knew it would make it more dramatic.

By the time I landed, I had all but the final decreases completed.  Then it became a game of picking up the hat, putting it down, finally blocking it, and then moving it around and carrying it with me for days without sewing it up.

But finally, a hat!  And I love it because I think it's unique and spunky. 

 

I chose the colors with intention.  I thought I'd use up the handspun from Partner's Christmas hat.  The hat only needs 30 yards of the contrast color, so I checked before I left and I had about 37 yards - perfect!  Then I decided to look for another light, natural color yarn and found this. The origin of this yarn is a separate post, but it's an orphan, no label and just my touch-intuition to tell me it is 100% feltable wool.

So, now I have a hat to complement my Companion's. Nice segue to the final day's picture, no?    

C'est Fini! The month of craft photos is over! I doubt I'll do that again! But I had fun.  I hope you did too. 

Pattern: Escargot (and ravelry)
Yarn: no idea! mystery yarn that was given to me and the last of the hand spun, 170 yards
Modifications: caston 100 stitches for the main hat, but kept the spiral the same
Knitting yardage total 2012: 566

 

The Neverending Mittens of Doom (FO)

Had these gone on much longer, they would have become The WIP that Shall Not be Named. 

I think my case of Second Mitten Syndrome was exaserbated by the knowledge that the thumb was not right and I would need to do something about that with the second mitten. 

Not too big an issue, if I'd know what the “something” was. I finally stopped feeling sorry for myself and checked out the book of finishing tips. Great idea, except gussets and thumbs and all of that were not covered in it's precious pages. I hopefully looked through a magazine dedicated to small accessories, including numerous gloves and mittens, with no success.

I went back to the first book. I guess, hoping that a chapter had been magically inserted since the last time I looked. And then I read something on finishing sweaters (which is really the focus of the book). It essentially said this:

for the love of God, when you're finishing, have the right side facing out so you can see what is happening on the side people will actually see.”

I have never had the right side of a garment facing me while I was finishing. I always thought it was better to know where the stitches were going so I could make sure I was splitting stitches. 
Armed with this novel approach, and a finishing technique of tracing stitches, I went to work. I left a super extra long end when I added the thumb. And then, after looking on the back to get the yarn started, I turned the mitten right side out and traced the knitted stitches, intentionally having my end showing on the right side. I tried the mitten on and found different gapping stitches, and then traced more stitches. I tried, pretty unsuccessfully to capture this, as I showed in my other post.

These are the thumb gussets of The Neverending Mittens of Doom. The top one is the second with the reinforcing as described above. After taking these pictures, I went back and redid the thumb gusset on the first one to close that hole (and clipped the random ends that show up in a picture or two). 
I know I still need another technique when I have contrasting yarn but I think this is a workable technique most of the time. I also think it serves a double purpose of reinforcing the stitches in a high stressed are of the fabric. 

Now that I have all of that talk of finishing out of the way, I'll very briefly talk about the rest of the mittens. I love them. I did all of the cable work without a needle and there were some rounds – 8 cables over 50-odd stitches that were tedious. But I love the seamless fliptop and the snapdragon pattern makes a nice bit of splash. I did read the pattern wrong and didn't make the flip top long enough... about 9 rows short, if I recall correctly. They are a bit tight on me, but my aunt has smaller hands. I left the little speck of red yarn there on the right mitten - I thought it was funny; I don't know if my Aunt will pick it off or not. 

These are a gift for my aunt that did so much for our wedding, so I wanted to make something extra nice for Christmas (or Valentines, as it ended up). She has a dog that she walks in the snow a couple times of day. I hope that these keep her hands warm, but available for working with leash, locks and keys. And a little button with a flower to remind her that spring will come. :)
Pattern: Snapdragon Fliptop Mittens
Yarn: Cascade 220, 176 yards
Modifications: Accidentally made the flip top too short by misreading the pattern
Knitting yardage total 2012: 396

Day 17 - Last FO You Used - Porsche Altounyan (FO)

Another cheat, because I'm also going to cover my first FO of the year.  And no, it's not mittens, though those have finally winged their way to their new home.

The improvised hat of the Five Hour Hat Challenge, is actually a super luxurious alpaca cowl. I'll admit to twice using it as a hat (you know, since I didn't finish the challenge or bring another one with me).

A free gift from Lily Kate, Altounyan is a simple stockinette cowl with a few tucks to add some texture and visual interest. I think it looks better as a cowl than a hat, no? 

The yarn was wonderful. My Mom gave me the yarn for Christmas and it is amazing - soft and light - knitting with kittens, as my friend said. I love the deep, almost chocolate color.  The picture above is probably the truest to color.

I would have been done sooner, but I managed to split two stitches and didn't realize it for about 11 rows.  I struggled a bit on the first row of picking up stitches from rows beneath - I kept losing sight of what row and stitch I was working with.  So, I took some advice from littlecloud and used a DPN to pick up the stitches. I'm not sure how she did it, but I counted down 11 rows, stuck the DPN through (front to back) and it was perfectly placed to grab the purl bump.  For the other stitches in a gather, I just worked on the back of the work and was able to see where the yarn pulled and it was easy to grab the adjacent purl bumps.

Once again I didn't swatch and it bit me in the hindquarters, though only very gently.  I could have made a taller cowl that was more fitted to the neck. But that's okay, as it's plenty tall enough for me. I only had 18 inches of yarn left when I was done! 

Partner was helping with the photo shoot.  I wanted to capture that it was too large around neck.  He wanted me to channel my inner Tyra. 

I'm very happy with this knit.  I love the feel of the yarn and how the sheen and depth of color in the alpaca is allowed to shine in this pattern. It's oh so light and soft. I love that I was able to use up all the yarn and it has a nice fit. I tried a shawl pin later to close up the top and that worked quite well.  The first FO post of the year!

Pattern: Altounyan (and ravelry)
Yarn: 100% alpaca yarn that my mom picked up from an Oregon non -profit Headles & Treadles, artist is B. Simpson, 100 grams, ~220 yards
Modifications: none!
Knitting yardage total 2012: 220