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No, I am not talking about me, but instead, about a Christmas gift. I am not even looking at the rest of the list, with its chattering stream of to-dos waiting for the needles and hooks. Actually, I am not stressing over it, but I am trying to keep at it. The list merely contains ideas and suggestions, and is a nice place to start. What excites me more than this completed knit is something I picked up at the store while someone else was being a sleepyhead. Shhhh...he cannot stand surprises, or the idea that there is a present here in the house waiting. For the health and sanity of both of us, I hope it remains below his radar.
Enough about that, let's get to the fo. I made a Misbehaving Moose hat. I really enjoyed knitting it. As a matter of fact, I do have supporting evidence for that claim. I have already begun another. It will be a partner to the first. I think these are fun hats, and I am glad to be able to send them to their recipients, soon. I want to be sure that the presents arrive in a timely manner. You know how I can be with the post office.
Since I gave away mine, I need to get a new fake head for my model. I have learned some things. I should have gone straight back to the store to replace the head after I gave away the first one. I should not have spent all of that time on eBay looking at other possibilities for displaying my knitwear. I do not need a mannequin. I do not need mannequin parts. I would have to knit many more socks to justify buying those legs. Fake hands to model gloves and mittens would be great, but finding a good matching pair is more of a challenge than I would have thought, and also, refer to sock/leg statement above. My neighbors already think I am weird enough when I take pictures of my knits outside without seeing me with fake people and body parts as models to assist me. Spending hour after hour online looking at mannequins, messes with my head. Still, that silver inflatable one is relatively inexpensive, although it is headless, handless, and footless.
I did not realize I have been presenting myself as powerful and in control of things both great and small. I was merely acknowledging that according to the calendar, it is a different season. Lest anyone feel jealous by thinking that I have been enjoying crisp, clear, Autumn-like weather, let me assure you that has not been the case. We have been in the eighties and rainy. The fungi are exploding. In between the sprinkles, showers, and downpours, it is a grey, suffocatingly humid existence. I was looking at the numbers for current conditions the other night, and they had us listed at eighty-one (I think) degrees, and ninety percent humidity. Blech. The weather people tell us there will be a cool-down next week. They have been offering this same hope most of the month.
I have been mixing my looking forward with digging in the past. Some of this has been unpleasant and difficult, but I feel like I am making progress. Still, some of it has been good. I dug a hibernating project out of the stash and resumed knitting on it. That first glove has sat alone for far too long, so I cast on for its partner. It is already time to start the digits. I will definitely need a photography assistant after that, or at least the tripod.
One glove knit and its partner ready for fingers is almost fo territory. I think that entitles me to cast on for something new. I am thinking lace. Of course, that is usually the case.
Am I an easy mark, or what? At first, I just had a nice laugh as I read the dares. Before long, my mind had wandered to the stash, and I was mentally running through possibilities. As soon as I 
chased away a headache, I was digging through yarn bins and casting on 118 stitches. Then I remembered to prevent another potential pain by checking errata. I may have a new hat before the end of the week.
This project came along at the right time. My other knitting has been giving me trouble, and I have not quite found the next thing I need to knit. The Yoruba Hat has been a great companion today. It has kept my interest, but been easy enough to set down when I needed to do other things.
My poor Brucie-Pie is ill. I hope this is not the flu. He has needed my help throughout the day. If he feels the same way in the morning, I will take him to the doctor. If he gets feeling much worse during the night, we will be on the road. I suppose I ought to get a bag together just in case.
My love for Groundhog Day is known far and wide, but understood by few. Even I have difficulty explaining my love for this day. I tried describing the holiday to my nephew with the hope that he would be excited about the day, but it would seem I have failed. I told him that if the Groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter, but if the Groundhog does not see his shadow, spring will be here in six weeks. First, he scrunched up his face in puzzlement. Then he declared the whole thing to be stupid. He is now trash-talking the Groundhog and its day. Fear not, for I am far from giving up on him.
I have mixed feelings over the best way to spend this day. I just try my best to make it special. I have been known to use the Groundhog's shadow results as an excuse to leave the house or to stay home in accordance with my desires. It has been suggested that I follow the Groundhog's ruling when deciding whether to attend Monday night knitting. Of course, being in serious hibernation mode, it would have been a surprise if I had gotten out of bed during daylight hours.
During the time that I am awake, I have been knitting. I have begun the second sock. I am ready to begin the second glove. Yes, I have finished the first glove. I like it, and am excited at the prospect of having a new pair of gloves.
In honor of the New Year, I decided to cast on for something new. I decided that not only did I want a new project; I wanted to try something new to me. I decided on gloves. Enter Annemor #8 from Selbuvotter. I chose Knit Picks Palette in Clematis Heather and Rainforest Heather. 
Sometimes I think I like the color combination, and other times I feel like the pattern is lost. I believe I will keep with them, but I am going to need to frog. I did not check gauge, but rather grabbed needles, yarn and pattern before leaving the house today.
Even when I felt like I needed to go up in needle size, I kept knitting. I was just enjoying it so much. I will say that these colors and the lighting at my mom's house are not a match. It was a bit difficult to see what I was doing, but I just wanted to keep going. When I tried on the glove in progress, I knew I needed larger needles. Tomorrow can be day two, take two.
The gift knitting has been great, but today it messed with the blogging. I had a post nearly ready to go when I realized it would have to wait. Life is like that some days. So today, you just get a picture of the inside of a hat. Tomorrow should be better.
Project monogamy has made the blogging this week a little more difficult. I have been working Mom's lace. I have developed a nice rhythm with it. It feels like I am moving quickly through the center. It is easy to go from thinking, "I'll just go to the end of this repeat," to finding that I went past that and I am back to the nupp row. Once I knit the nupps, I might as well knit to the end of the chart, and the cycle continues. These are the most enjoyable nupps of my knitting life. Anyway, I am now hopeful that this will be a birthday present. I have passed the halfway point.
Wednesday night knitting had a happy bonus. Life finally allowed a friend to get out to knit with us. It was so wonderful to see her. I have missed her very much. The night flew. The knitting grew while we caught up on things. The next thing I knew, the barista alerted us to the fact that the store closed ten minutes previously.
Another thing that happened tonight was a request for a progress shot of the llama earflap hat. Now, with such kindness and flattery, how can I refuse?
Some knitting goes better with extended, uninterrupted stretches of quiet. This hat is that kind of knitting. I feel like I have the hang of the Philosopher's Wool style of two-handed Fair Isle knitting. I will not use this method every time for colorwork, but it is good for this hat, and I think I will like it for mittens and gloves.
This is also a very entertaining knit. I like watching as the llamas grow. Next up are their little heads and flowers. I think I want to use the Flourish and Spirals for the last two small charts. After that, it is time for the crown. This is not a quick knit, but I am making good progress. I would really like to have it finished by December 1.
I gave away my Monday and have nothing to show for it but a bad mood. Actually, I have come to terms with it all and am doing my best to display a more pleasant affect. The single serving of chocolate ice cream in the freezer is ready to swoop in and assist.
Anyway, I think my evening would be best spent knitting something that requires significant attention. Either that or a challenging aerobics workout might be a good choice. That being said, I do not know that I will have the opportunity for that kind of knitting, and definitely not for the workout. Never fear, there is plenty of other knitting to do, and it will help me.
Lest this all be doom and gloom, I started the son's hat.
I decided what to knit for the son. When he saw it in the Knit Picks catalog, and noted that it is the
type of hat he likes, I went to order it right away. However, it was unavailable at that moment. I checked back later, and saw in my Saved for Later basket that I could add it to my shopping cart, and I did so immediately. When it arrived a few days later, I was so excited. I looked over my kit, and discovered that they had made a few color substitutions. I think they did a good job with the other colors they chose, but I was still surprised at the changes. In my stash, I have one of the three back-ordered colors, so I can use Bark (as in the original pattern) instead of its alternate, Navy, if I choose.
My color options are not the only choices I face. The pattern for this hat is neat. There are extra charts from which to choose. For example, I can use either the ripples or the llamas chart (the charts label them as alpacas, but they look more like llamas to me) on the earflaps. There is plenty of yarn in this kit to make more than one of these hats, but the son is probably the only one who would wear one.
I am excited at all this project offers me. As the earflaps are worked back-and-forth, I have my first opportunity to work stranded on the purl side of a project. I also plan to try a different method of colorwork. I have never tried this before, but I think it might be ideal for this hat. I have also seen the beautiful work of other knitters who employ this technique, and I would like to try it.
Now all I need is to make the time to get going on this hat. I have everything set aside in a bag, and the kit calls to me. It has several different calls. At times, it comes from the colors, or it can be the promise of new techniques and learning, and other times it is knitting for my son and the impending deadlines that urge me to this project. Whenever I do sit down to knit it, I know I will enjoy it, and it will be a wonderful labor of love.
I am not quite sure how this happened. This greeted me Saturday afternoon with pleas for repair. I still have yarn leftover. I will try to fix it, but am not looking forward to the work. These are the perils of knitting for children. At least I know my nephew has been wearing his pirate hat.
It did not take long to figure out where I needed to continue in the pattern for my EPS FIYC. When I last worked on it, I had a few more rounds before it would be time to join the sleeves to the body. The long rounds were about to get a lot longer, but I did not mind. Attaching the second sleeve was almost a big mess when I tried to be more clever than necessary.
I am enjoying the knitting. I have missed working on this. Forgetting about the weather (yes, forgetting about the weather is best), this is perfect knitting for wherever I am. I have probably thirty, nearly four hundred-stitch rounds of plain knitting before it is time to strand. It seems like a bit much when I think of it that way. Anyway, I had a small task to complete before I reach the color work section. I had not decided how to arrange the colors in the Fair Isle portion of the sweater. A little time with colored pencils and blank charts was all I needed. Now I can return to the joy of mindless stockinette in the round, unless, of course, I decide I am ready for some lace.
The summer break has just flown by so quickly. It is hard to think about kids returning to school this week while the weather is still so hot. My nephew will attend a new school this year, and we went with to attend the orientation session yesterday. There was not enough room for us get inside the cafeteria and within hearing range of whoever was speaking, so we just made our way to the classroom. My sister has a boatload of paperwork to wade through.
While summer is not yet over, all of this has me thinking about the knitting goals I set at the beginning of the season. I have made my way through the easiest of them already. I have so many things I would like to begin, but I also want Icarus and the EPS FIYC finished. I fear that if I were to begin some other project, these will get pushed further and further away and risk never being finished.
So, what am I to do? Enter, the Ravelympics! Maybe you thought I would use this time to begin and complete something new. However, I have decided to compete in WIP Wrestling. I am using this event to help me make my way through these two beloved projects that deserve to be finished. To prepare, I must see where my progress stalled out so long ago. If I see that I am closer to the finish line than I thought, I may enter another event. I am considering the Shawl Relay. I think it has been watching the fast shawling of some other knitters that put this last idea into my head.
When we last spoke of my Tangled Yoke Cardigan, I had joined sleeves to the body and was motoring on towards the cables. I was so sure that this would be the fun portion of the sweater. I was wrong. I am a wee bit disappointed that I have not found this part more enjoyable, but it is not for me. Still, I am plugging along and hope to have a new sweater soon. I begin the first of the 5-into-1 decreases the next time I pick up the project. I guess I had better begin the quest for buttons.
Since I am working on the second sleeve of the EPS FIYC, it is not a great photo opportunity, either. Fear not, there is beauty and joy to share. First, gaze upon my lovely mittens. I lightly hand-felted the hands and thumbs. That Knit Picks Bare Fingering Weight feels a bit lighter than the Palette. When I finished knitting the hands and thumbs seemed a bit big and floppy, so the mild
felting was a perfect choice. I love my new mittens.
Cinderella had that nice bibbity-bobbity-boo stuff that turned household critters and garden bits into a nice evening. Good for her. I think we fare better with our Fairy Godknitter. I won a nice contest over there, and the prize package is fabulous. Thanks, Joan!
We have accidentally become involved in a camping adventure. I hope to finish this mitten and be home. I packed more yarn just in case.
The verdict is not yet in on my latest spinning. I plied this afternoon, and now it is skein-washing time. If it needs a bit more help, I will treat it harshly. It is the Romney/Mohair blend. I think I have about 200 yards of this yarn, now. This was a pretty quick spinning to finished yarn adventure.
I will share with you some spinning that I think will work, and one finished mitten. I spun up the superwash a while back, and it rested for quite some time before plying. Now that I have two left mittens from two different pairs finished, I can cast on for the mates. I had begun the decreases on the top of my mitten too soon and had to rip back and add a few more rounds of plain knitting, but now I think I have it right. I have not woven in the ends or washed it so I can better match the right mitten to what I have done on the left. I suppose I could weave in ends, but that is not the task for today.
I was a bit distressed to read that Sock Madness 2 is in danger of not happening. It was such a neat event last year, and I hoped to participate again this year. Hop on over and add your input, and help, if you can.
Still no word on my Knit Picks order. I just did another check on the gmail to see if there was a notice of it shipping, but no such luck. However, I did get a surprise. It would seem that there has been a hiccup in my gmail notification. I was wondering why I the inbox was so quiet. Now I must catch up from the fourth, onward. I do feel a little better, and some insecurities have been quieted.
Speaking of insecurities, I had a bad dream the other day. I took a nap after posting the colors for my EPS Fair Isle Yoke Cardigan. I dreamed that I got all of these nasty emails and comments about how those colors would not work, and that I did not understand the pattern.
Continuing on this thread, I am not sure if I am making it out to knit with the Skanky Knitters tonight. I do not know if I am up for it or not. My husband is off visiting his sister. If he returns in time for me to go, then it is meant to be. If not, I will give it a go next Monday. I will get ready for it just in case. Also, I have to catch up on email.
Thank you for all the kind words. I am feeling a little better. I am getting ready to order the yarn for my Fair Isle yoke cardigan. I found this chart, and used it to help guess how much I will need. 
I have decided to use Iris Heather for my main color, and Blush, Hyacinth, Cream, and Blue Note Heather for the colorwork. I have also considered seeing how Garnet Heather, Marine Heather, Clematis Heather, Rainforest Heather, Calypso Heather, Lilac, or Purple might work in the mix. I think I will be all right with my guess of ten balls of my main color. It is my guess that at 231 yards in each 50g ball, I should not need more than one each of the colors used in the Fair Isle yoke portion. There will be quite a lot of plain stockinette in the round before I get to that part.
I have begun a pair of mittens for myself. They are Meida's Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush. I have chosen Navy, Ivy, Red, and Cream for these. I am past the colorwork on the first mitten. The next thing is adding the waste yarn for the thumb, and then it is mindless stockinette until the decreases for the top of the mitten.
I finally plied the bobbin of superwash singles that have been sitting on the bobbin for so long. The finished yarn is drying now. I got to try out one of my new bobbins and my precision lazy kate that I got for Christmas. My husband expected something more from the lazy kate, but I am pleased with it. I was able to use the downtime for sanding, finishing, and assembling.
I have not been doing so well lately. Oftentimes, I have even been unable to knit. It is just one of those things that happens with me. I managed some garter stitch. I knew 
that I could not begin my husband's right mitten and hope to manage the chart and stranding with accuracy and skill. I sat around. I decided on the yarn and colors (mostly) for my Fair Isle Yoke cardigan. I did not manage to determine the amount of yarn needed for it. I flipped through books. I wandered about Ravelry. I tried to do the things I ought. Still, I was losing ground. So, I decided to cast on for my Tangled Yoke Cardigan. Did I ever get gauge? Nope. I realize now that I made an error when I did not read carefully about the Rowan Felted Tweed. I saw on Yarndex where it was called DK. I then substituted Knit Picks Merino style, also called DK. I just am not going to get the pattern's listed gauge with this yarn. Instead, I am trying the knitty math, and maybe this cardigan will fit me.
Let me tell you, those decrease instructions are tough to follow with my brain the way it is. The piece is littered with mismatched stitch markers. I am counting on my fingers, on my Mini 
Kacha-Kacha, making little marks on paper, and knitting along. The garter rib is growing. It is not photo-worthy.
Instead, I share some pictures of my husband's left mitten. I wove in the ends and washed it. It fits, and looks good.
