Sundara

In browsing through Ravelry and various other places, I found this lovely scarf (Rav link) and these lovely socks (see Socks of Kindness in Sundara s.y.). I had given up on the idea of the scarf in it, because it's only 400 yards, but smelinda ended up with way more than enough yardage for the pattern, so it's back in the running.

Given this yarn:



And given that I don't plan on buying very much Sundara s.y.(*cough*$$$$*cough*) and given that I want to have about 30 yards left over to make a mitered blanket square...

What do you think I should do?


Feel free to leave impassioned arguments for one or the other, alternative suggestions, or creative insults in the comments.

Stop! In the name of mymittsareawesome...

I totally love these. They were great fun to knit, fit very well, and are warm warm warm. The only problem I have with them is that I have to take my watch off to wear them, which puts me in deep ignorance of the time and at a big risk of losing my watch. It's from Target, not exactly a family heirloom, but I like it and really want to keep track of it. Anyway, stats:

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Deep Seaflower colorway (Warning: looks virtually nothing like the manufacturer's colorway pictures; check Ravelry for an idea of what it really looks like.) and Louet Gems in Cream
Pattern: Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang
Needles: 3.0mm KnitPicks Nickel plated (Medium size)
Modifications: None? None. I did use a different tutorial than the one she suggests for the tubular cast-on, because the one she linked crashed my browser on multiple attempts to access it, and so I left off the set-up rows for CO and BO. All else was done as the pattern said to.



Picture-taking had to be solo and the day was cloudy, so these are not the greatest shots. I wanted to get them done, though, before I wore them -- the Endpaper Mitts have lots of natural predators, such as the slightly torn steering wheel cover, the car keys, and the Overexcited Mutts Welcome Home Committee.



Anyway, I highly recommend this pattern and am plotting to make another pair soon, this time out of some nice Koigu. The Smooshy and the Gems did not come close to being the same thickness, and I was still working out tension issues through these, which makes them not quite as matchy as I would like. The next pair will be knit better, and probably loved about the same.

Moving On

After finishing the second ridiculously long single rib scarf in four months, my life became a desolate, lonely, empty wasteland. I became unsure about what my values were, and I felt my identity slowly melting back into the void. With the little strength and motivation that remained, I bleakly cast on for some Super Easy Legwarmers.



Ah! All better, tra la la. Sweet Single Rib eases the feeling of impending existential doom.

But for serious, I am loving these legwarmers. When I put the mohair (Crystal Palace Kid Merino) next to the Cascade 220 Quatro (color 5016) for the first time yesterday (terrible, considering I've had both for months with the intent to use them together) I kind of thought "ew." The mohair shade is a lot cooler than the kee-razy purple/pink of the Cascade. But knit up, it's pleasantly blendy and fluffy. These suckers are going to be warm.

I took Emily's excellent advice, and cast on some Endpaper Mitts:



And I'm loving them. I've done colorwork before - Ufserud is languishing, needle-less, in the UFO pile, though, so I've yet to actually complete colorwork. But, working with a yarn from each hand wasn't a completely new concept for me, and I'm getting more proficient at it. That's a really nice feeling.

This yarn is Louet Gems Fingering in Cream and Dream in Color Smooshy in Deep Seaflower. I got 3 skeins of the Smooshy with a Clapotis in mind, and expected to have enough left over for a pair of socks. The Smooshy goes really really far, I've found, so I still may get some socks out of it, too, once the Clapotis is done.

Funny that when the Clapotis and Endpaper Mitts came out, I liked them but had no intention of ever making them. Then in the fall, I woke up one morning and found myself wishing I had a Clapotis to wear. Surprising, but I went with it. Same deal for the Endpaper Mitts -- no desire to do such teeny colorwork, but then when my hands started freezing at work, they were all I could think about.

If you're looking for stuff to do on Ravelry, try the Endpaper Mitts gallery. The color combinations are endlessly entertaining.

Fee Fie FO: Gimme Scarf!

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, 4 skeins black, 4 skeins orange
Inspiration: a scarf Keith Richards wears in Gimme Shelter
Needles: size 8 straights
Pattern: Yarn is doubled. Entire scarf is worked in single rib. CO 48 stitches, work with main color for 28 rows, switch to CC for 28 rows. Repeat until you have 9 sections of MC (8 of CC), bind off. Weave in ends, add 4" of fringe to each end (by which I mean, cut 8" lengths).



Keep in mind that this scarf is long relative to a 6' tall Other. It's 103". That's 43" longer than my tape measure. If you want a shorter scarf... stop sooner.

Socks, socks, stuff

My knitting efforts have been largely reduced to ball-winding and dreams these days. Well, and knitting -- plodding through the end of Gimme Scarf, which should be done here soon, with a bit o' winter left to enjoy it. And two finished pairs of socks:



Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in the Arugula colorway
Pattern: plain stockinette over 72 stitches
Needles: Size 0 Harmony

These socks were knit mostly in the dark; cuff #1 was Juno and The Savages, and cuff #2 was There Will Be Blood and License to Wed. One of those last two easily qualifies as the greatest movie I've ever seen -- I'll let you guess which. Oh, and with these I discovered that my in-the-dark gauge may actually be different than my with-sufficient-light gauge. Weird.



Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in the Giant Peach colorway
Pattern: Charade
Needles: Size 1 Knit Picks nickel-plated
Modifications: my own heel and toe, co 68 instead of 64

These were super-fun reward socks, which guarantees what feels like a breakneck pace. But while I felt that these were finished in no time at all, they actually took about a month.

I wore these this week, and while the Smooshy is lovely, I'm having doubts about its purpose as a sock yarn; the best way to describe the ball of the foot after one wear is "smashed." I'm definitely withholding judgment for now, but am planning a couple non-sock projects with the Smooshy in the near future.

I love how this yarn worked with the Charade pattern, and find that stitch pattern to be terribly clever. I can confirm Ravelry reports that it is less stretchy than a regular rib.



This gorgeous thing is a skein of mediumweight STR in Fred Flintstone. I got it through a swap with a generous Raveler and have been planning to make some Swirl socks with it, but after winding it up, two things are blocking my path. 1) This yarn should be knit in the month of November, and no other time, and 2) This yarn should be paired with Sunstone and made into a Chevron Scarf. Yarn doesn't normally speak to me like this (so forcefully!) so I've put it aside and am eyeing it warily from time to time.

Up next are more socks, though I'm not sure which yet, a Clapotis, and some Endpaper Mitts. What's at the top of your queue?

Done Pinwheel, Diamond Patch Socks

Done!



Pattern: Pinwheel Blanket (Rav link)
Yarn: KP Shine Sport, about 7-ish skeins
Needles: size 6, one set DPNs, two sets DPNs, Inox circ, Addi Turbo circ

I'm very happy with this. I wove in the ends and secured them with sewing thread at our Knit Night, grousing all the way. But it gives me peace of mind, and when you knit something that you hope will be used for years, you need peace of mind.

I joke about having so many cousins and innocently having knit a blanket for the first child without realizing that it was going to obligate me to knit one for so many others, but really, I very much like doing this. I believe in handknits the way that some people believe in... I don't know, sacraments? (Without being as important as all that, of course.) What I mean is that I believe that this gesture means something. One ought to welcome new beings with things one has made by hand, just for them. And I feel like things that are easy replace things that are meaningful too often.

Bah.


I was poking through my queue on Ravelry, and came across the Diamond Patch Socks (Rav link) sitting so calmly in my queue, so I thought I'd write about them. My awesome, indulgent mom got the pattern for me for Christmas, and I eagerly sat down to look it over after the yarn buzz had worn off a bit. And it is 12 pages long, and each and every page hurts my head in a unique way. I've not done miters before, though I want to do a sockyarn blanket using mitered squares and understand the basic technique that that will use. Can't uncross my eyes long enough to figure out if it's the same as the one being used here.

I can and have enjoyed healthy, stimulating challenges. But this time, I took some self-protective action:



I put this tiny little book in a page protector and buried it under a pile of stuff.
Come mid-August, when the sun is melting plastic for sport and 3 matching skeins of Koigu have magically appeared in my stash, that might be the time. Now is not the time.

F.O.'d!

I finished the Crusoe socks, and really, thank God for that.



I'm drowning in WIPs right now, and even though I'm plugging away at everything, nothing is actually getting finished. I'm 10 rows, 10 thrums, and a thumb away from finishing the thrummed mitts. 1.5 skeins away from finishing the pinwheel baby blanket (one more skein of yellow on the way, because when you plan out colors on the fly, you're not allowed to order anything you might need, right?). One flap and matching mitt on Dad's They Probably Won't Fit Glittens-cum-Mi-ttens. Still stuck at the toe of Earl Gray Sock #1 because the idea of putting it onto waste yarn and having Other try it on again is alone enough to send me to bed for a week.

Gimme Scarf is about the only thing that's visibly progressing. Other is very happy with it, which means that I am very happy with it. It's about twice as long now as it was here:



Oh, and I knit the entire cuff of the second plain stockinette Felici Arugula sock through the movie There Will Be Blood and in the car on the way home. Putting aside the sock for a second, that movie is incredible and you should see it in the theater if you have the chance. It's not a fun movie, it's not out to entertain. It's more out to blow your mind with sheer quality and awesomeness, and it succeeds.

And back to the sock, Knit Picks is discontinuing all of its Felici colorways and coming out with new ones in March, in case you've been putting off getting some specific one.

Oh, ah, and I may have obtained some sock yarn. Can't be sure.




Oh, also I cast on for two railroad rib socks at the same time.



These I'm allowed to acknowledge the existence of, because they are teaching socks -- I'm helping two of my friends make these as their first socks, and I'd like to be able to model the techniques from the same pattern. Even though most people might find this pattern boring, I really, really love it. I don't really have to think about it at all, and they go surprisingly fast, and I like how they look.

So yeah. Onward.

Gimme Scarf

Prototype shots for Gimme Scarf:

Frogg'd

If you read Blink, you might remember the guy who could tell within an instant of a server's motion if they were going to fault. Well, I've known in much the same Lizard Brain kind of way that I was going to frog the first Charade sock because it was just a little tiny bit too small since about the second round of pattern. That didn't stop me from knitting on it, not until about 3" into the pattern, because why should I frog it? It's going so fast! See, I just did a repeat! And there it went again! Oh, I would try it on here and there and think hmm, it could be a bit looser, and hmm, 64 sts on 1s is a little smaller than I tend to like. And then go back to knitting on it.

Honestly, I'm not even sad about the frogging, just relieved.

Now, half an inch back into the cuff, I'm thinking: will 68 be enough? But now I'm just being ridiculous.

I May Be Smooshing a Ranch House

To begin with dessert:



I have cast on a pair of Charade socks (PDF) in Dream in Color Smooshy, colorway Giant Peach. And if you are a sock knitter, and you haven't gotten any Smooshy, or if you have and it's been hanging out in your stash because you've been working on other stuff, well, I say to you: Now is the Time for Smooshy.

Yesterday at my second job (call it a hobby job, a yarn money job, a job I still have because I kind of never quit it) I spent many hours becoming increasingly enamored with the idea that this Giant Peach would look freaking awesome in the Charade pattern. So after an hour of enthusiastic, then rather impatient ball-winding -- why does that always take longer than I expect it to? -- I finally cast on. And the Smooshy has an almost preternatural softness to it, but it's also got very nice body and I'm concentrating a lot on not knitting it as tightly as I'm tempted to.

Main Course Knitting includes this:



which is destined to become a single-rib striped scarf for Other. Patterned after a very hip one that Keith Richards sports in a video of some kind from the '70s. I swatched on 6s and a) don't like the fabric, and b) don't like the idea of spending the next 600 knitting hours of my life on it, so will try again with the yarn doubled and bigger needles.

This:



is a rather terrible low-light picture of what promises to be a nice baby blanket. Pinwheel pattern, in Knit Picks Shine Sport. Shine is 60% cotton and 40% modal, and it is slick and soft. Very nice. If not for the Stash Knit Down group I'm in on Ravelry, I would have purchased a bunch more of it to stash for inevitable future baby blankets. For now, round and round I go with what I've got.

Tassel, yarn in the mail, lotsa do lotsa do

I just retrieved a very soggy box of yarn from the front step. The box was soggy, the yarn was not, the pattern was damp. What I got was a skein of Risata with which to finish up Other's socks, some more self-striping sockyarn, and enough Shamrock in Fitzpatrick to make my Dad some convertible mittens for his early February birthday. He's about the only family member who didn't get a handknit for Christmas, so even though I suspect he doesn't have a great need for convertible mittens, they're the best thing I can think to make him.

And here is the finished stocking cap:



I love love love it. It is loud and happy and rather completely over the top.

Well, that was easy... *waits for house to crash down around her*

Man if I'd known it would take 3 minutes, I might've offered up some actual knitting pictures. Unfortunately, the sun got home before I got home, so my finished hat and finished kind-of-boring raven socks will still have to wait until tomorrow.

There will be tassel...

...tomorrow.

For now, I am here to tell you that from now on, I will be posting at http://www.dittenknitten.blogspot.com.

That is, if I can get this blogger stuff worked out. Hahaha.

my blog is the clown car of the knitting world

I wandered away from the thrummed mittens for a bit, in order to participate in some knitting... not fiascos, not adventures, not abominations. What, then? Well, situations.

Situation 1: Crusoe socks: in which I learn that tennis ball green + reddish purple are not really my colors.



This is some long-stashed Sunshine Yarns Soft Sock in Dragonfly. For Crusoe, I scoffed openly (scoff scoff scoff) at the idea that a 48-stitch cast on would be in any way relevant to my foot. I picked up some 2.25mms and cast on 72. And that worked out well, because this yarn is thin. So thin that while I was still working on the gussets, I decided rather grumpily that with a thicker yarn I'd be to the toe by now. But I am forging ahead, and generally like how these are coming along.

Situation 2: That Stocking Cap I Mentioned Before: I run out of yarn and follow the pattern directions way past the time that I decide that the pattern directions are not giving me what I want in terms of this particular Stocking Cap.



Actually, my capsule summary pretty much says it all. I bought more yarn -- the store had a big old pile of it, even though I'd gotten it months ago. Months ago on sale at half off, actually, so I got the honor of paying over $20 for a skein, which did not feel so great, but I do like the yarn more than I thought I would. Knit up it got a bit quieter than it seemed in the hank, and the second skein (of exactly the same dyelot) is somehow softer than the first.

As for the problem with the directions not giving me what I wanted: I frogged and re-knit.

I finished the knitting a bit ago, so now it is time for me to get my tassel on. The tassel is, in my opinion, the best part.

Situation 3: Felici Arugula Stockinette Socks, most of which I knit in the total dark and which, being 72 sts on size 0s actually are probably a bit too small but hell if I'm going to rip an entire cuff knit in the dark.



Situation 4: Fingerless Thrummed Mitts, which, it being above 50F so consistently these days, I haven't even given a thought to. Well, no, actually, I'm about to the thumb of mitt #2. Making thrums has gotten a bit old. But, these are a nice antidote to Crusoe, because a few rows of knitting actually do make a difference in how it looks. I need near-constant positive reinforcement, apparently.

If I am being good, my next post will not be about the Way Easy Legwarmers (or whatever they're called - from LMKG) and Thraven Pomatomi I've just cast on. At least not unless I've got some finished tassel to show you...

Thrummed Mitts Progress Report; or, How Many Pins Did They Use to Set Your Arm?

The temperature today was 7. Degrees Fahrenheit. I could REALLY have used some thrummed fingerless mitts when taking the dogs out and scraping off my car this morning, but have only finished one, and haven't even woven in the ends on that yet, and even I was not ready to take that fashion plunge.

I started off, as Ravelry would give the impression most people do, making the thrums too large.

Here's a crappy in-progress by-lamplight shot, on the assumption that poorly lit pictures are slightly better than no pictures at all:



Not really understanding the instructions for how to place a thrum that came with the kit, I relied on the Yarn Harlot's excellent FAQ (linked in the last post). She says you should knit through the back loop of the thrum and the stitch it was placed with on the next round, so I did. Unfortunately, as I am finding with the one-row scarf (which I just realized is hers as well - what is it with the YH and those ktbl-s?), when I ktbl, the left side of the resulting stitch sits there all bloated and bulky, while the right side fades away. With enough yanking, I can kind of even them out, but it is not pretty.

To get back to the too-large thrums thing, I eased off of them a bit once I ran out of the ones I had industriously made before starting. I wasn't increasing the number of stitches nearly as drastically as the pattern called for (which happens in accordance with the thumb, which I was needing to be a little tighter because with the top open, I would only be placing thrums near the bottom, as I did not relish the idea of creating some kind of thumb-sized sockyarn flap, hoo boy is this a long digression) um, so, laying off on the thrums and keeping about the same number of stitches as the cuff should, I hope, allow for blood circulation to my fingers. Which is right up there with being swathed in roving for keeping them warm.

I hereby apologize for that paragraph. And I'm not even done yet.

So ANYWAY, the too-large thrums at the bottom of the mitt, plus the nice, gentle pastel palate, kind of gives the impression that my entire hand is in a cast.

About once a year, a freshman guy walks into his English classroom with a hand wrapped up in tape and maybe plaster, after having put his fist through some plate glass as the culmination of a fight or at least confrontation concerning either a woman or a guitar. Sometimes both. With these mitts, I will be rocking the "I got drunk and put my fist through a plate glass window at about 4am last night" look.

Not any of this is to say that I'm not completely in love with these mittens. I love them. The one that's done is so freaking warm. And soft. And pretty, if medical-looking.

To my surprise, 4 rounds past the last thrum plus a bindoff row was enough to keep the thrums from spilling out the top of the mitt, so I can stop fretting about which sockyarn to pillage for a flap on the inside. Now if I can just go back to knitting on them rather than writing about them for pages...

A spinner I am not.

So, after some involved and self-centered calculus, I have determined that the answer to one small problem of mine (namely, freeeezing hands in the morning as I'm trying to make my car legally drivable) is: Fingerless Thrummed Mittens.

Stay with me here.

My Hurry Up Spring armwarmers are the right shape - long enough over the hand to protect from snow, short enough to offer dexterity required for car scraping, key using, and putting on the second mitt - but wind cuts right through them. Also the right one tends to stretch out of shape pretty quickly. Also Noro Kureyon doesn't belong right next to skin.

Clearly, the answer is something more substantial. While I love the idea of mitts in sock yarn, I can't imagine that sock yarn is thick enough to really block out the cold. I also have a very nice pair of fleece mittens that, due to the elastic around the wrist, will never be put-on-able enough to be comfortable. And I haven't ever met a pair of straight-up gloves that were warm enough.

Enter Fleece Artist Thrummed Mitten Kit in Wildflower:



My reasoning is that ridiculously warm mittens - tops = warm enough fingerless mitts.

I'm not a spinner, and though I know the words that go along with spinning, like fleece, and top, and roving, and carding, and spinning wheel, and drop spindle, and ply, and etc, I do not really have a true understanding of what those things mean. I smile and nod politely and even admire the beautiful colors of all the objects that fall under the aforementioned words for pre-yarn, but really I'm just waiting for the conversation to turn back to knitting.

Though I've contemplated buying some of the stuff before, this is my first time dealing with roving at all, and I started off being a bit suspicious of it. It seemed so delicate at first. Then, following the Yarn Harlot's FAQ, I tried to simply pull a bit off. Hahaha. If this is the strength it will take to make thrums, screw the thrummed fingerless mitts, I'll just carry my car to work, I thought.

Then I remembered that adage (or is it more like a law of physics?) that it's easier to break single sticks ten times than it is to break ten sticks all together. So I kind of spread the roving out and completely stopped caring how much came off at a time. Much better.



So, my tentative plan for the pattern for these (by which I mean, barring a better idea) is to do about 2" of ribbing instead of an open cuff at the bottom, because I'll be able to put them on easily. Then I'll knit and place thrums up until I reach about the top of my pinky finger. I'm not sure yet how I'll finish the tops up; right now I'm considering a flap of sock yarn on the inside to prevent the thrums from spilling out over the fingers. Not sure how/if to tack that down yet.

I'm off of work tomorrow and they're predicting 20 degree highs for the next week, so I will be working hard on these.

wo0t, 100 posts!

I hope your midwinter gift-exchange holiday was as frickin sweet as mine was.

yarn yarn a thousand times yarn

It's been awhile since I've written about a specific instance in which I was an idiot, and hey - the topic happens to have presented itself again, so what the heck.

About a year ago (I think - I can't find it again), I was reading KnitSpot and saw the red stocking cap that she'd knit out of her own handspun, and it immediately went into my queue, the pre-Ravelry one in my head. If anything could make me take up handspinning, it would be seeing things like that. She mentioned (maybe in the next post) that it was being test-knit and would go into her pattern shop. I bought yarn for it oh, nine months ago and have been waiting oh-so-patiently to buy the pattern. About once a month I'd consider e-mailing her to ask when it was going to go up, and with the glut of Christmas knitting my future project planning is going full blast, so I decided I wanted to cast on for it right when I finished all this other stuff.

(I basically only have one hat. It's black (coronet in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran) and I really like it, but really, a knitter should have more than one hat.)

So, finally I got around to finding her e-mail address and composing the inquiry, when I came across the link to her pattern shop. Where I immediately found the the pattern for the stocking cap.

So I guess whenever Knitty publishes Shedir and Elizabeth Zimmerman comes out with Ganomy, I'll be ready to go.

knit knit knit blah blah blah

Unoriginal hat is done and given:



I did the old bait 'n switch when I gave it to her - she knows I'm making the house beret for her (she requested it, picked out the colors, and approved the yarn), and was expecting that to be her birthday gift. I had to explain what the colorway was (see "bonus matching accessories," below) but the color does look a bit different in the chunky yarn. We immediately marched upstairs and did a preliminary try-on with her scarf, and it matches well enough to wear them together.

So I'm counting that one a success. My Mom is the world's single best receiver of knit objects and other handcrafted gifts - she wore it for most of the day.

Oh hai

With application season in full swing, classes (well, class) winding down, and knitting deadlines looming and then passing unmet, the knitblogging has fallen by the wayside. But it's not all panic attacks and final projects at chez orooni; there has been some knitting, too.

There have been FOs:



Hoofle Foofle Uptown Boot Socks - I didn't run out of yarn, yay!





Dragonfly Seasilk Montego Bay Scarf - ready to block and give by the slightly modified deadline of tomorrow. (ETA: is now blocking.) I'd suspected when I finished the first one that I hate making braided fringe. This confirms it. However, I love how it looks, so there's likely more braided fringe in my future, grumble grumble.

Can I also say how much I love the combination of pattern and yarn? The seasilk doesn't roll past the 3 or 4 stitch stockinette edges at all. Whereas regular fingering-weight is all like AAAHHHH why am I shaped this way?!?!, seasilk just lounges on the chaise, all like Dahling, I don't want to move to the verahnda... let's just stay here, shaaall we?. And then collapses in a faint.

There have been Started Os:



House Beret in Ravenclaw colors - a Christmas gift for my Mom. She requested it and approved the yarn (by which I mean I practically had to do that thing where you pry each finger off the skein individually to get it back - it's Malabrigo worsted weight), but she won't see it again until its been fully hatified.



Unoriginal Hat in Titania, a birthday gift for my Mom. This will be a surprise -- she's making a chevron scarf in Titania and Midsummer's Night, and she's working really hard on it and it's gorgeous. Nothin says happy birthday like bonus matching accessories, right?

And, finally, there have been knitting fugues:



which is to say, I have no idea where this 60 stitch 3x1 rib cuff in MW Corvid STR came from. Uh, or the identical one on bamboo needles, either. With all the mandatory deadline knitting going on, I could not possibly have cast on a mindless no-deadline project for myself. Bizarre.