FO: Starlight, Starbright

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable holiday season. Ellie enjoyed her first Christmas as much as she enjoys everything else right now. It was fun getting her dressed up and telling her Santa was coming (even though she was more excited to see her cereal spoon on Christmas morning). Anywho, I've finished Starlight, Starbright and couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Pattern: Starlight, Starbright test-knit for Kirsten Jensen, Raveled Here. Pattern to be released very soon!
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette in Mai Tai Heather, Sky and Green Tea Heather. 1 skein each. Buttons found where else? Joanns.

This is a really delightful little pattern. At a gauge of 8 sts to 1", it's not a quick knit, but seeing the finished product, I would choose to knit one of these instead of 3 or 4 quick-o baby knits. I had some serious knitting-brain-farts when starting this, but if you're familiar with Norwegian style knitting, it will be a piece o' cake.

I made a few mods to the pattern, but the main one was knitting the sleeves in the round with steek stitches and then separating them after securing the steeks. Why haven't I thought of this before? I avoid DPNs at. all. costs. I don't even know why I own them, except for the occasional i-cord, I suppose.

I know it's mid-January and all, but I didn't get a chance to show you all lady Eleanor's Christmas stocking I churned out the week before Christmas. I couldn't let my first born have no stocking hanging on the fireplace on Christmas Eve, even if she didn't notice. Besides, my outdoor lights are still up (yup, we're those people).

For deets, follow the link above. I made up my own chart for the snowflake and snowman to fit the number of stitches I needed for the repeats.

I'm ready for a break from fair-isle now. I'm getting back to Allure, which I started way back in July. My goal is to finish by Super Bowl (in which I hope, but don't expect, to see my Ravens). Hope you're all staying warm and toasty during this dead-of-winter period with your yarn and needles!

Holiday knitting!

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments on Gavyn. I hope that it works out for anyone who knits it!

It's December, 9 days until Christmas, in fact, and my holiday gift knitting is about 60% done. But, before December even got here, I finished my Christmas stockings for me and Bill.

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and Bare Worsted. Colors: Fern, Evergreen, Winter Night. I bought 2 skeins of each Wool of the Andes and ended up using about 1 1/2 of each for the two stockings. I also used some leftover Classic AL in Aged Wine.

Pattern: Cascade Christmas Stocking [Ravelry] [Web Link]

Mods: I ended up knitting the heel with the decreases every round instead of every other round. Otherwise, it was too big and floppy. I also went back at the end, snipped a stitch and ripped out the top. I decided that knitting our names into the top would make the nicest looking finished result. I searched on Ravelry for a free letter chart and found this. I modified it a little to accommodate the size of my stockings, and I think it turned out great, if I do say so! I also did a ribbed edge at the top instead of a rolled one.

I also have done a little Christmas shopping for, eh, . . . myself. The latest issue of Interweave Knits featured a page on some lovely knitting accessories. I bought these:

4" x 4" and 1" x 1" gauge squares by KaratStix. They arrived in a lovely package and are just darling. They definitely beat my crappy tape measure I've been using!

Knit Klips [Website] With all the sweaters I knit and sew together, I thought these would be a great. I've already used them to seam together my Ribbon Trim Cardigan, and I didn't have to rip out the seam because of mismatched edges.

Hope you all are having a stress-free December. I got my Christmas cards done, and holiday baking is next. Anyone have a good recipe for oatmeal cookies? Happy Holidays!

And then there were eight

This is a knitting first for me: I have EIGHT projects on the needles right now. Here are the 4 I cast on for in the past week.

Top Left: With all of the neckwarmers and cowls floating around Ravelry, I have to join in the trend. This is based on the Cashmere Neckwarmer, but I am knitting it with the stitch from the Herringbone Neckwarmer.
Top Right: My Christmas stocking! Bill's is finished, except for the loop for hanging and I need to add his name. Any suggestions on how the heck to do this? I tried embroidering it on, but it looked like crap.
Bottom Left: The popular Green Autumn mittens by Jared at brooklyntweed. I know I swore off Vogue patterns, but hey, it's Jared! It's the first pattern of his that I've knit, but his patterns seem to be generally well received by other knitters. These are for my good friend Jen who will experience her first Wisconsin winter this year.
Bottom Right: Cream gloves, to match my Irish Hiking Scarf. I started these on election night (but got distracted by all the excitement, and champagne...)

As if those aren't enough, I am working on a baby sweater for my friend's baby's first birthday. This is an "original" pattern. Once I get it done, I will give you more deets.

The other three WIPs are my Ribbon Trim Cardi, the Seamless Hybrid and Bill's stocking, which are progressing nicely. I also plan to make hats for my dad and brother for Christmas, so who knows, I may have TEN projects on the needles next time I check in.

Fair Isle: Check!

When I made my knitting-new-year's resolutions in January 2007, learning fair isle was on it. Almost 2 years later, I can finally check that one off my list. Better late than never, right?

I started this last week and seriously sat down with two colors in hand on Friday night. After some groaning and You-Tubing I finally found a method that works for me. I am a continental knitter and wanted to try holding both colors in my left hand. No dice. The yarn got tangled (hence the groaning, and some screaming). I settled for knitting the main/background color continental-style and the foreground color in my right hand using the English method. It became quite addicting, and actually since I took this photo, I have almost finished the stocking.
Deets: It's the Cascade Christmas Stocking pattern (FREE), and I love it. It's kind of a choose your own adventure.

I also finished My So-Called Scarf.

Pattern: My So-Called Scarf [Ravelry] [Web Link]
Yarn: 2 skeins of Manos Del Uruguay in Wildflowers (color 113). I didn't alternate skeins while knitting, and although they are slightly different, you can't really tell when it's worn. The colors are fun and I really liked the stitch pattern.
Mods: I just slipped the first and last stitch of each RS row to keep the edges neat.

Since I last blogged, I was given two awards. Claudia graciously gave this ol' blog a blue ribbon:

And Angie gave me a Brilliante Web blog award:

Thank you! You both made my day.

FO: Red Lace Top, Christmas Stocking

A summer top and a Christmas stocking finished together? Yep, that's right. It's almost the last official day of summer, so what better time to debut the Red Lace Top, which was actually finished weeks ago.

Pattern: The contruction of this top was pretty simple. Susan was kind enough to send me a copy of the lace chart, and I basically knit up a gauge swatch, figured out how big I wanted it to be and calculated how many stitches to cast on. I knit 2 rectangles (no arm shaping) until it was the desired length. Then I joined together about 17 sts on each shoulder side using a 3-needle bind off. The stitches in the middle I put on a 16" circular and knit 1 round of 1x1 rib and the bound off. I sewed the sides seams and then picked up stitches around the armhole with a 16" circular and knit 2x2 rib for about 6 rounds. Made an i-cord, and that was it!

Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport in Cherry, about 6 skeins.
Verdict: Pretty good. I wish I had 1" more of ease (I thought this sucker would stretch, but nope). This was a fun knit and could easily be adapted into any stitch pattern.

I also finished my first official piece of knitted footwear that's not intended to be worn.

Pattern: Striped Christmas Stocking from Holiday Knits
Yarn: Leftovers of Elsebeth Classic AL in red and white, di Ve Zenith in green.

It was fun to make a giant sock and learn the basic construction of footwear. Regular readers will know that this is my first piece of knitted footwear!! I think this one is going to be the doggies' stocking. I have had "Learn Colorwork Dammit" on my to-knit list for a very long time, so I plan to attempt to make some more interesting stockings for me and Bill. I found a great free pattern on Ravelry and have ordered some cheapo yarn in different holiday colors. I haven't cast on yet but plan to soon. First I have to learn how to do colorwork. Right!

In other WIP news, I am nearly done the 2-year in progress Grannie Smith Cardigan and a My So-Called Scarf, just in time for chilly weather. Enjoy the weekend!

This week in my knitting world

Happy Saturday! Thanks for all the nice comments on Orangina. Although the lace projects around here have been turning out well, I am getting close to needing a hiatus from lace patterns. I'm ready for some wool and cables....
But, before I can dive into fall knitting, here's what's going on in my knitting world.

The knitting for the Clover Lace Cardi is completed finished - yay! Now I just need to finish seaming. I actually don't mind this part at all and like how it's coming out so far. I hope to have this in the FO category this week.

I told you all last time that I started knitting Christmas stockings. I am using the striped Christmas stockings pattern from Holiday Knits. You may have noticed that I have never knit socks before and this is my first official piece of footwear. Wish me luck! I read through the pattern and it seems pretty straightforward. I am using leftovers from some sweaters of the past to make this, so it's a great stashbuster.

The last summer knit I have in the WIP category is the Red Lace Top. I haven't really given this much attention at all and would like to finish it this month. September is still warm and will allow me to wear it, but I am a little tired of cotton and lace right now.

Last week I did something I thought I would never do. I joined Facebook. I only did this to play the games on there with Bill (we are addicted to WordTwist), but I've found it less of a popularity contest than I thought it would be. I actually caught up with some old friends from college that I haven't talked to in a long time. But, Facebook also made me apprectate Ravelry even more and what a lovely, friendly, helpful and small (relative to Facebook) community of knitters we are.