And This Concludes The 2015 Knitting Season

Not as much as I had hoped to knit, but due to various issues, I think this is a decent list of finished items.

January 24 - Two-Cup Teapot Cozy (me)
January 25 - Mug Cozy (me)
January 31 - Mug Cover/Cozy (Elaine)
February 7 - Redwood Boot Toppers (me)
March 4 - Veg Hat (Veronica)
June 6 - Sideways Scarf (me)
June 18 - Baby M Sweater (baby M)
September 7- Acadia Cap (me)
October 12 - Well-dressed Poultry sweater vest and scarf (Leslie)
December 12 - Toddler Pullover (Dawson)
December 20 - Blue Tulips Baby Sweater (Hendrix)


Whatever you may celebrate this holiday season, peace and love to you and yours!

Sweater Love

Y'all know how I feel about the Tulips baby sweater pattern.
Y'all know how I feel about SNA's stilleto point knitting needles.
Y'all know how I feel about the color blue.

It was the perfect knit to end the year.

Blue Tulips Baby Sweater

Needles
US 5 - 3.75 mm
US 7 - 4.5 mm

Yarn
Plymouth Yarn Encore Colorspun Worsted

How much?
1.25 skeins = 250.0 yards (228.6 meters), 125 grams

Colorway: blueberry ombre

Purchased at:
Jimmy Beans Wool

The Dark Time

This is the time of year I'm least enthusiastic about outside of the January/February freeze. Too many hours of dark, but the Winter Solstice (12/22/15) is nearly upon us and then a slow return to more daylight.

In the meantime, there are things to knit! Most recent FO, toddler pullover.

I quite like this pattern, Benjamin. It was that collar that decided me to buy it and try it out.




I reinforced the seams as kids are hard on collars.




Just a lovely knit and sweater.



Details:
Needles
US 6 - 4.0 mm
US 7 - 4.5 mm

Yarn
Plymouth Yarn Encore Colorspun Worsted

How much?
2.5 skeins = 500.0 yards (457.2 meters), 250 grams

Colorway 7762 Green Plum

Purchased at Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, Nevada



Now on to the next sweater, the Tulip, as y'all know is one of my favorites.

Darling Boy

Sweetheart, you were such a lovely young man, wickedly funny and bright that could reduce me to tears with laughter. You only mocked me gently for my terrible crochet, and quite generous in my awful results when trying to spin with a wheel.

It was such a privilege to be your friend and knit fun things for you and with you.

Be at peace, love. You'll be so greatly missed.

It Must Be Fall, Chickens Wearing Sweater Vests and Scarves

So a friend of mine has been torturing me with this fixation she has about chickens who are molting and in "need" of sweater vests. Now, I've knit various items for various organizations to help out those in need...but I draw the line at animal clothing. I knit one dog sweater and ol' Chesty McChesty Tank blew it out, so that's that.

Recently, I needed someone to care for said Tank the Sweater Killer, and my friend was kind enough to offer her home and her time to watch after the girl.

So I broke down and knit a chicken sweater vest and scarve. In my friend's favorite colors. But it was a stuffed animal chicken. I would have *totally* bought a real chicken for her, but for some reason her city doesn't appreciate well-dressed poultry.













* * *
Vest is made out of cotton yarn from KnitPicks: Dishie Multi
Scarf is made out of woool yarn: Cascade 220, color is pumpkin

Late Summer Startitis

Not that I don't have enough projects to keep myself busy, but I decided I wanted to knit myself something for this fall and winter.

It was a toss up between socks or a hat, and the hat won. And y'all know I like a good hat pattern! So I went spelunking in Ravelry and came up with Acadia. Just charming design and affordable, and I do enjoy those cable/texture knits, too.

The next step was deciding the color(s) for the winter hat, and since I have blue winter accessories, I poked around my storage tub and noticed I have no hat for my red and black accessories (my beloved cashmere scarf and cashmere hand warmers). Red and black Malabrigo Rios (super wash) was the ticket. So off I went knitting a wool hat during one of the hottest weeks of the summer. (Praise to the invention of AC!)








I. LOVE. THIS. HAT.

It's not quite finished, it's been washed and now blocked and drying. Once it's dry, I'll stitch up together the liner with the cabled band.

I followed the suggestion of the designer and went down two inches for the size due to how it’s supposed to fit (rather snug). It fits beautifully for the circumference as suggested by the designer. However, due to the shape of my head, I added another 1/4” to the hat before decreasing for the crown (size 4 in the pattern).

* * *

Needle
US 6 - 4.0 mm

Yarn used
241 yards, 1.15 skeins

Yarn
Malabrigo Yarn Rios
0.65 skeins = 136.5 yards (124.8 meters), 65 grams
Colorway: 611 Ravelry Red

Purchased at
Knit & Knot in Bettendorf, Iowa


Malabrigo Yarn Rios
0.5 skeins = 105.0 yards (96.0 meters), 50 grams
Colorway: Black

Purchased at
Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, Nevada

So Many Days Later, So Little Knitting

The hell. The last time I remember it was June, wait, July? This is what starting a different job will do to you...

Anyway, knitting has fallen to the side while I get used to the new gig. I've been fixated on Time Team with Tony Robinson ("Baldrick" from Blackadder series) videos on YouTube when I get off work and I'm perfecting my yoga form called "slug." Or my face has been buried in a book.

I'm not feeling the knitting because I've also reknit this same bit of yarn four freaking times now. It's going to be, some day, some way, a wrap for a friend of mine. I've tried several different patterns and then fell back to the standard:

Row 1 - K2tog, YO to end
Rows 2-4 - knit all

It's nothing terribly exciting, but I found I actually knit about 3 repeats while watching the Time Team last night as they dug up the grounds around some of Britain's royal palaces.

Here, stitchmarker pr0n shot for you. My glass sheep:

Meanwhile, I'm no longer angry with the Shark Hat I tried to knit earlier this year. Then there's the Steelers hat for another friend I want to get to her before football season really gets underway... And I've a pair of thrummed mittens I want to cast on in the next few weeks for a friend. I'd like her to have them before May 2016. And for some reason, I was stroking the sock yarn for a pair of socks this winter for me...remember this skein?

Yeah, I know. We'll see what actually happens in the next few months.

Summer Already?

Truth be told, some days I wake up and seriously wonder if it's May or July around here due to the unusually cool temps we've had again this year. Not nearly as frigid as last year, and the storms have been less severe and frequent. So I'm not knocking it as my AC bill would have me contemplating a diet of Top Ramen.

On to the knitting!

Since I ended 20 years in administrative assistant work at the end of May and began a new gig in healthcare in early June, I've not much time for knitting. I straggle along with my reknitting of the cashmere and camel yarn from a decade ago, the shawl I've started for someone languishes in its Ziploc sleeping bag in the work basket, and the mittens aren't even on the needles for that other friend.

But I did whip out a baby sweater for a new arrival due in a few weeks to one of my favorite people!

I went with the six month size indicated on the pattern, the child may have a large brain case as her daddy did when he was born. If not, it'll be a nice fall sweater. I'm not sure I'll make this pattern again. It was easy to follow, quick to finish, but squirmy babies and pullovers are a pain in the ass. I'll go back to the cardigan pattern after this one.

It's for a baby girl and since I'm not one to conform to society determined "traditional" gender-colors (pink/blue), I chose a hand-dyed silver lavendar color for the main body, and a deep teal blue for the color and stripes. Yeah, I didn't follow the pattern for using one color for the whole sweater either. (You're not the boss of me!)











The stripes are made up of the teal yarn carried with a thinner silk/rayon yarn that have glass seed beads, and I was told by the company I bought them from, stated that the beads are on a rayon thread tested to 200 lbs. If that baby can manage to rip those beads off, the couple have a sumo wrestler on their hands!




* * * * *
Needle
US 7 - 4.5 mm

Yarn
Madelinetosh Pashmina Worsted Onesies

Weight
Worsted / 10 ply (9 wpi)

How much?
0.9 skeins = 189.0 yards (172.8 meters)

Colorway
Curiosity

Purchased at
Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, Nevada

Yarn
Tilli Tomas Pure and Simple

How much?
0.1 skeins = 26.0 yards (23.8 meters), 10 grams

Counting Stars

Jeanne was an amazing person who was a teacher, wife, mother, weaver and knitter. Unfortunately, she passed away unexpectedly this week.

Jeanne was such a great addition to our SnB group, bringing so many beautiful projects she had knitted or wove:









Jeanne was the most unflappable individual I'd ever met. Even on the congested streets of Chicago, she kept her cool and made jokes to keep the rest of us distracted.




She took a trip with me once, and since we were drivng in an era before cell phones and GPS devices, I got us astoundingly lost. Through it all, Jeanne kept her calm and cool. She talked about her life as a teacher, about astronomy (which I'm hopeless in but find fascinating) and the probability of life in the vastness of our universe. I learned a lot on that trip from Jeanne, and laughed quite a bit, too.

I'm so glad I was able to see her and spend time knitting with her in April, it had been such a long time since we'd met up due to our schedules.

I hope she finds she was right about the amount of stars in our universe.

Yeah, That Lasted Two Months

Remember that great plan I had to plot out gift knitting which I created back at the beginning of the year?

History, baby.

So much going on at home and work, just fell so far behind my own goal objectives that I began to resent the existence of sheep.

I. KNOW.

I had to do something to get the merino love back, so I cleaned up the list and made it more humane for me.

I'm now going to snack on cheese and almonds, and contemplate how I'm going to wrangle that fucking shark hat pattern into a presentable finished object.

Meanwhile, Tank With Knitted Lace non-still life for you.

It's Supposedly Spring Around Here

I've been meaning to post this finished object for the past four weeks. However, the nasty gut virus (version 3) nailed me hard back in February, and life got in the way after that episode.

So, to the finished item!

This is going to a friend of mine that I promised back in January. My friends, if they nothing other than this one thing about me, know that gifts will usually arrive at least three months later than the celebration. If not up to five years later.

It's made from leftover yarn in my stash: Malabrigo. *sigh*









* * *

Malabrigo Yarn Rios
How much? .33 skein
Colorway: glazed carrot
Purchased at: Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, Nevada

Malabrigo Yarn Rios
How much? .33 skein
Colorway: lettuce
Purchased at: Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, Nevada

A hat based on the scrunchie hat pattern for a favorite person of mine.

Notes:
Size 7US circ needles
Cast on 104 stitches
6 rows knit
2 rows purl
crown is knit and decreased every other row (K2TOG every 8th stitch) to the top

A Day Late, A Donut Short.

I finished my leg warmers (aka as the renamed "boot toppers") on a day we hit 42F degrees. After a week where we had two days of -10F temps with the windchill.

Go figure.

But I'm ready for the next blast, should we get one this late in the winter. And with it being the Midwest, it's not out of the realm of possibility.






I adore these cables.




And if the snow is too high, reverse the cuff and bring the warmer up past the knee.










* * *

US 13 - 9.0 mm (for the cable piece)
US 11 - 8.0 mm (for the leg shaft)

Yarn
Plymouth Yarn De Aire

How much?
4 skeins = 436.0 yards (398.7 meters), 400 grams

Colorway
Manhattan

Purchased at
Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, Nevada



Notes
The cabled band is sewn together with mattress stitch for a sturdier seam.

Stitches picked up around the edge - 70 total, adjust to 68 stitches.

Shaft of the leg is 2x2 ribbing, size 11US dpns. Knit to 6” in length.

Cable pattern used:
Cast on 28 stitches

Borders
Odd rows: K2, P2
Even rows: P2, K2

Knit Stitch – K
Purl-P
Reverse Stockinette Stitch-St st

Cable 8 Back (C8B)- slip next 4 sts onto cable needle and hold at back of work, knit next 4 sts from left hand needle, then knit sts from cable needle.

Cable 8 Front (C8F)- slip next 4 sts onto cable needle and hold at front of work, knit next 4 sts from left hand needle, then knit sts from cable needle

Skill: Intermediate
Cast On: Panel of 20 sts on a background of reverse St st.

Row 1
(Right side): k20.

Row 2
P20.

Row 3
k4, C8F twice.

Row 4
P20.

Row 5
k20.

Row 6
p20.

Row 7
k20.

Row 8
P20.

Row 9
C8B twice, k4.

Row 10
P20.

Row 11
k20.

Row 12
P20.

Repeat rows 1-12 until you have reached your desired length.

Cozy Kick

We've been under a Winter Storm Warning since yesterday 7 pm, and it doesn't look like it will lift until tonight around 9 pm. Seriously big snow this time, prediction is between 10" to 12"+. We'll see what happens...

Meanwhile, I have been on a bit of a cozy kick lately. It helps use up the half skeins of lovely wool I've had in my stash for a while now. The latest mug cozy/cover is for a friend. I made it to match the fingerless mitts I knit her early last year. It's based on several different hat patterns I've used in the past few yars.








* * *
Needles
US 8 - 5.0 mm double-points

Yarn
Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted

How much?
0.25 skeins = 52.5 yards (48.0 meters), 25 grams

Colorway
Loro barranquero

Purchased at
Knit & Knot in Bettendorf, Iowa

So Hot!

First, the teapot cozy works marvelously well! Tea stays piping hot for at least 45 minutes after brewing.

I also finished up the tea mug I wanted for my mug at work. Leftover bits of a sequined yarn and some sock yarn.








The fabric can be folded over for a small mug, and unfolded for a larger mug.

I rather like the stitch holder and will use that instead of a button.

* * *

Needle
US 7 - 4.0 mm

Yarn
Rozetti Yarns Polaris
Handpainted sock yarn