Category: Finished Projects

And The Winner Is…

Lorna’s Laces Watercolor, in a landslide. The Opal Orange was second, thanks to Claudia stuffing the ballot box. The other two were tied for the finish. There may have been a few convicted felons voting as well, so the vote may be thrown out months from now. But for now the LL will be my next pair of socks, though I think I will keep that orange stuff close by for inspiration. I’ve become a bit partial to it myself.

John’s Striped Socks are now done. I finished them up this morning as my sweetie cooked me bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns for breakfast. And he did the dishes, so he certainly deserves a new pair of socks.

He put them on as soon as he got out of the shower. Conveniently, the temperature has dropped 30 degrees since yesterday, so he will actually be able to wear them. What was that rumor about the arrival of summer??

You might notice that these socks are identical twins. It took a bit of fiddling, but those stripes match nearly perfectly. This was my first foray into toe-up-short-row-heel socks. I still like doing them the other way, but this method has the definite advantage of allowing you to use every bit of yarn if you want longer socks. I know that a lot of sock knitters don’t like top down socks because they despise grafting toes, but I actually enjoy that step. It’s nice to know more than one way how to do something, though.

Here’s the morning cat picture:

Yes, that’s a pile of wood in my kitchen where the table used to be. We are in the middle of some home renovation. All the ratty cat-puke stained carpet on the main level will be replaced by wood flooring, and it got delivered Friday morning. At 6:15 AM. There’s more going on, including a few projects that involved cutting holes into walls that didn’t have holes, and plastering up a window that we just hated. It’s been a mess around here. The floor is due to be installed in a couple of weeks, but the wood was here, so there it is. We actually aren’t going to replace the kitchen table. We figure everybody always ends up in the kitchen hanging out at parties, instead of using the other rooms of the house, so we’re going to put a sofa and coffee table here instead once the renovation is done.

We’re off on a road trip on Tuesday for a couple of weeks. We’re headed to Napa for some wine tasting (out of plastic safety glasses, of course). We’re going to head down the coast of Oregon and California, then drive back up through the Mt. Shasta area. On the trip home we’re taking in a Shakespeare play in Ashland, Oregon, then spending a day with friends in Portland. I’m taking my laptop along, but posting will depend on wi-fi access along the way. I heard a rumor that Oregon and northern California have some swell yarn shops. Then when we get home, reality will set in, and I will have to get to go back to work, after three months off.

I’ve updated my Finished Projects page as well with all the details.

Lavender Sweater

Started: September 04
Finished: January 05
Yarn: Elann Sonata, 100% mercerized cotton
Pattern: cardigan pattern created with Sweater Wizard software
Edging on cuffs and bottom from Knitting on the Edge, by Nicky Epstein

What I learned:
This was the first big thing I designed with Sweater Wizard. This is a nice software package, and the software developer has a Yahoo group with excellent support. I will definitely make other sweaters with this.

This was a relatively easy sweater to knit. The lace on the cuffs rolls a bit, and because it’s cotton it doesn’t hold the shape when blocked very well. With some serious steaming before wearing, it behaves relatively well. Next time I put a lace border on something I’ll experiment a bit first to find a lace pattern that stays flat.

One of the nice things about a blog is that you can keep track of your projects as you go along. One of the bad things about a blog is that everyone else can keep track of your projects as well, and they know full well that it takes you four months to knit a freaking sweater that has little shaping and is mostly stockinette stitch. It’s the process, it’s the process.

2004 Roundup

Before I get to the Roundup, however, check out the Yarn Harlot. Her post from yesterday articulated what I think a lot of us feel. But $10,879 in less than 24 hours?? This is an amazing, lovely thing. I sent my entire family and several friends an email that challenged them to give up their “wants” as well for the next week and donate the money to Doctors Without Borders, and referred them to Stephanie for inspiration and prodding. She said it much better than I can.

2004 was a good year on the knitting front for me. The best thing I did was to start a blog. After a few posts of “see what yarn I bought today”, I quickly realized that I better start knitting or nobody would come back to see what I was up to. This is not to say that I have quit shopping (I have not totally lost my mind), but the blog has kept me working on projects instead of letting them languish forever.  It also makes me rip stuff out and do it better so I don’t have to show pictures of total crap.

Here is a list of what I finished this year:

An Aran baby blanket for John’s grandson Sam, AKA “cutest baby in the world”.

A vintage style matinee coat for my great niece, also born this year.

John’s sweater. I may be most proud of this one, as it took me the longest to finish.

The fizzy orange creamsicle scarf.

That damned ice blue sweater.

A goofball bucket hat.

The Audrey sweater.

Montego Bay socks.

Eggplant Hat.

I found a few more projects that I finished early on this year that I never put in the gallery until now.

I knit a hat for John.

And a simple shawl for me.

Now that I have it all in one place, it looks like a lot more knitting than I really thought I had done. One of my goals this year is to use up some of my yarn stash. I have a huge collection of sock yarn, as well as bags of yarn purchased to complete at least five or six sweaters. OK, maybe more. I would like to practice some of the finishing techniques so that my sweaters turn out looking a little more professionally done, and less like I drank a fifth of bourbon while sailing through the buttonbands.

And speaking of buttonbands, I am nearly done with the lavender sweater. I have finished the collar and the buttonband, and am in the middle of the buttonhole band. Then it will get the pee-wadding blocked out of it and be ready to wear.

Here you go:

And here is what the buttons look like. Of course, they won’t all be crowded up at the top of the sweater like that.

I am still working on the Birch shawl, though somewhat sporadically. And a pair of striped socks. Once I finish this sweater, I’ll show pictures of my progress on those two. I’m getting a terrible urge to start a new project as well, so I better finish this one soon!

Eggplant Hat

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran

Pattern: Kid’s Fruit Cap, by Ann Norling

Started: September 16th, 2004

Finished: same. Yes, you can make one of these easily in a day.

These are fun to make, and kids seem to like hats in the shape of fruits and vegetables. The Cashmerino Aran is a bit heavier gauge yarn than the pattern calls for. I made the medium size, and it fit a 2 1/2 year old girl just right.

Montego Bay Socks

Yarn: Sheep’s Gift, in Montego Bay, from Joslyn’s Fiber Farm

Pattern: Blueberry Waffle stitch pattern; I generated the sock pattern with Sole Solution software.

Started: June 2004
Finished: August 2004

What I learned: This was a no-brainer sock, with a pattern I have used before. It was just plain easy mindless knitting. I guess I learned that easy mindless knitting suits me fine sometimes!

Audrey Sweater

Yarn: Rowan Calmer, in Flamingo

Pattern: “Audrey”, from Rowan Magazine 35 (Spring/Summer issue)

Started July 2004
Finished August 2004

What I learned from this one: I learned about shaping with darts, and how to make matching increases so they look reasonably neat. I also learned how to make a lace neck band to sew on after it is knit.

Project Round-Up

I thought it was time to update where I am on my projects.  I have 3 things going at once.  I would probably have fifteen things going at once if I didn’t arbitrarily decide to limit myself to 3.  This may not sound very Bad-Ass, but it’s my blog, I can do what I want.

First there is the pair of socks that is taking forever.  I have yarn for about another 50 pairs of socks waiting once I finish this pair.

This is Sheep’s Gift, in Montego Bay, from Joslyn’s Fiber Farm.  The pattern is the Blueberry Waffle sock pattern, from here.

I don’t mean it to sound like I am sick of these.  It’s just hard to get excited by wool socks in August.  I’ll change my tune in January.

Next is Audrey:

This is Rowan Calmer, the pattern is “Audrey”, from this summer’s Rowan magazine.  I’m workin’ on it, OK?

Then there is (was) this:

You can clearly see that this is done.  This is the Bottom’s Up Bucket Hat, by Bonne Marie of ChicKnits.  You’ll find the pattern for sale on her “Patterns” page.  The yarn is Schachenmayr Rainbow, from Elann.

If you can count, you realize that this leaves me with only 2 projects on the needles.  I have not completely decided, but I think this will be next:

This is “Birch”, a shawl pattern from Rowan #34.  That picture does not even come close to the yarn color.  I gave up after about five photos.  In reality, it is a deep lacquer red.

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I am listening to Folk Alley, recommended by Rachael.  This just rocks.  Well, OK, it’s folk music, but you know what I mean.  If you have streaming audio capability, listen up.  If you don’t, well, which century are you living in??

Ice Blue, Finished!

Here it is:

There is another picture of the finished sweater, and the specifications here.

I had to do the cast-off on the turtleneck twice.  I finished this thing at 2AM last night (don’t ask), and when I tried it on, it barely went over my head.  I had done just a plain pullover knit cast-off.  I went to bed with my June Hiatt knitting bible, and read about sewn cast-off methods.  This morning I ripped out the edge and re-did it, and it turned out perfectly.

The sewn cast-off is pretty easy.  I took a couple of pictures, and although they are a bit fuzzy, here they are:

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

The first step is to put your needle through the second stitch on the left needle as if to knit; pull the yarn through.

Then put your needle through the first stitch on the needle as if to purl, then drop that stitch off the needle.  Fiddle with it a bit to make sure it’s not too tight or too loose, and repeat these steps.  With the last stitch, go  through it as if to knit, then fidget around and find a place to hide your yarn end so it looks right.  June’s instructions run to two pages, and are much more detailed, but this is the basic idea.

I’m most proud of the way that the cable drifted into the ribbed collar.  The two cable branches continue right up into the columns of ribbing. This was totally accidental, but if I had not done this, I would have ripped and done it over this way.

I’m getting rid of my On The Needles page.  It’s too much stuff for me to keep track of.  I’ve decided for now to have 2 pages, the main blog page, and the finished project page.  At some point I will set up a list in the sidebar for things I’m working on.

Ice Blue Sweater

Pattern: Schoeller Stahl Winter 2002/2003

Yarn: Schoeller Stahl Sunshine, color 09 (catchy name, eh?)
88% wool, 12% polyamid

Modifications: I changed the cable down the front so it was a cross-over cable, with a purl row on each side.

Started: April 2004
Finished: July 2004

What I learned from this project:

I learned how to drop a stitch down many rows and knit it back up with a crochet hook, rather than ripping out those many rows.
I learned how to do raglan shaping, somewhat painfully.
I learned that I can change a pattern feature to suit the way I want it to look.
I learned how to do a sewn cast-off to allow for a stretchy neck so it will go over my head. I learned this on my SECOND attempt at casting off the neckline.

John’s Sweater

Yarn: Classic Elite Provence, in mariner blue and ivory shades. The pattern called for the blue stripes to be 2 different shades of blue, I just used one. The yarn is 100% mercerized cotton; very nice to knit with.

Pattern: Seaside Stripes, from the book A Close Knit Family, by Melissa Leapman.

Started: I think I started this in about 1999, when I first started knitting.

Finished: June 12, 2004

For: My husband, John (the model)