Head, meet desk

I am the stupidest knitter to ever pick up needles.

Well, maybe not that bad, but I am a knitter who had NO previous knowledge of how to construct a triangular knitting shawl.

See, it turns out that the side stitches form the TOP of the shawl, not the SIDES of it. The sides are formed by the last row, which is "bound off" by working an edging around it.

That would be why the shawl refused to stretch the way I tried to make it stretch. That would explain the weird shape.

I went and dug it out of the trash and pinned it out the right way (which I thought was the wrong way, but whatever way worked was fine by me at that point), and was ever-so-proud of myself when someone in Livejournal's knitting community told me that, duh, I got my sides mixed up.

Hence, my head got very intimately acquainted with my desk.

Anyway, here is the blocking shawl with the hole still in it:



And here is the hole after darning:



Overall, I do really like the shawl. I just hope I caught all the loose ends around the holes and tied them off, because, well, it'll come apart if I didn't. I'm also freezing my yarn, in case I have moths (eek!).

But, I am happy. The shawl is big and soft and light and fits beautifully. I'll have to post nice pictures of it soon.

Miserable failure

Remember the shawl?

Well, it's now in the trash.

First, I cast off too loosely, making it look like this:



I could have redone the cast off edge and made it tighter, but just soaking the thing gave it holes:



I can't frog it, because the yarn is too fine. I'm really not sure how to fix it. I don't WANT to fix it. I want a nice shawl, not a fixed one.

So I threw it in the trash and will now go sulk over a cup of tea.

Yay!

Remember the fir cone shawl? You know, the one I started back in APRIL? I figured out how to do the edging! Well, more to the point, I figured out how to adjust the edging so that it actually fits my shawl. I don't know if there's an error or just information left out from the instructions, but it really had me stumped. I ended up doing four repeats where I was supposed to do three, and now I have completed one side, done the peak, and have only 2.5 repeats more to go!

After that, of course, is the bind-off (a very, very long bind-off), weaving in the few ends, and blocking. Hopefully pictures tomorrow!

Finally, some knitting

I've been so busy with other projects -- namely cleaning everything in sight -- that I haven't done much knitting. Just as well -- I'd have no tendons left in my hands had I kept up my crazy knitting pace!

Here are the things I HAVE done:

-Organized all cupboards and drawers at my house
-Lots and lots and lots of laundry
-Washed 20% of my windows
-Cleaned the living room
-Finally framed and put up wedding pictures! (You know, 15 months later...)
-Oh, and knit these:


They're house socks for my friend J., who is expecting in November.

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish (LOVE!)
Needles: Boye DPNs, size 3, set of 4 (including the bent one that ran into a recliner)
Pattern: Cabled sock pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks; cable with moss stitch panels pattern
Notes: 12 rows of 1X1 rib, plus 1 cable repeat (8 rows) formed the cuff. A regular flap-and-gusset heel and easy toe were used. I reversed the cable on sock #2 for symmetry. They're about a half-inch too short for me, because J. has a smaller foot.

Also on the needles is this:



It's the elephant from World of Knitted Toys. I actually have the head made, but I ran out of stuffing. The body took a whopping bag and a half of stuffing! I need to get over to Joann's and get more. But this sucker is HUGE! Over a foot long, and about a foot tall. Crazy!

Also, I have discovered I have floors. What a crazy concept!

Just when I thought I was all socked out...

...out came a bunch of awesome, free sock patterns.

Like Knitty's Cablenet and Red Herring and Diamante. And Magnits' Snowflake, Snicket and Lombard Street. And Eunny Jang's Bayerische socks.

Sigh. I'm going to go broke with sock yarn alone. I won't even go into everything else I want to knit.

But I've been pretty good this week. I've been trying to organize the house, drawer by drawer and cupboard by cupboard. It's progressing, slowly. So knitting has not been progressing very much, which is good because my hands need a break.

On the needles now are an elephant from World of Knitted Toys and worsted-weight yarn cabled house socks.

No more baby things!

Marathon baby knitting is over. I shipped the package off today after working on it for the last 2 weeks non-stop. I am seriously contemplating taking a break from knitting, if for no other reason but to give my poor hands a break. But we all know I won't.

This weekend I finished 3 more things to add to the pack. Here they are, starting with the most boring.

Obviously, my older niece needed wool socks, too. So I made her a pair. I used size 2 needles this time, and boy did they feel huge. The socks, however, came out to the same size as the blue baby socks I made! So they might be too small. Or the blue ones might be too big. I'm not sure!



(Knitpicks Palette, size 2 DPNs, 32 stitch socks with short-row heel and standard toe, because I was at a friend's house and didn't want to follow a pattern.)

Of course, Niece #2 needed a Trellis like her big sister has:



Please ignore the unevenly spaced buttons.

(Wool-Ease, size 8 needles, smallest size made.)

Finally, I thought another toy might be nice. Since monkeys are an inside joke in our family, and since my brother and sister-in-law got me Knitted Toys for my birthday (in Russian!), I thought that making the monkey from it would be kinda neat.





Altogether, the package included:

-The green hat for my surrogate grandmother
-Thujas for my sister-in-law
-Socks, mittens, and hat set for Niece #2
-Mary Janes for Niece #2
-Trellis for Niece #2
-Socks for Niece #1
-Duckling, monkey, and clown for the girls to share. (I made the clown a loooong time ago. It was the second toy I've ever made. I didn't have a recepient for it when I made it, so it just sat around my house.)

Altogether, 11 knits, 10 of them made in the last 3 weeks...

You know, I really do need to step back from the knitting and, oh, I dunno, clean. But...

By the way, I love the new Knitty! I must make Serrano, Sherwood, and Cablenet. I love Ivy, Diamante, and Red Herring.

Labor Day

And labor I did! All weekend long. My husband and I took a road trip, with him driving, so I had alot of car-knitting time. Then I had alot of sitting-around time, and sitting-around-chatting time, and I knitted during those, too. I knit in the car on the way to the mall and restaurants. I just knit alot.

In fact, in the last week, I completed 6 items, 5 of which were started that week, too (the last was the duckling from the last post, which sat for over a year before I finished it!). They're small items, true, but still.

What did I make, you may ask. Well, remember these socks?



I made mittens to match:



I made them up as I went along, loosely following sizing directions from Adorable Knits for Tots. I really freakin hope they actually fit. They should, given how big they are in my hand, but I'm a bit concerned. Please excuse their unblocked state. See that row of loose stitches? I'd really like to fix that up.

Also, is this considered my own pattern? Like, should I write it up? Or is it too much of someone else's because of the cable and the simplicity of the mittens? I guess the cable is pretty much public domain at this point. I don't entertain thoughts of making money off this pattern, but I do need pattern-writing experience and creds, y'know?

Anyway, after making the mitts, I also wanted to make a matching hat. So I did:



Here it is, modelled by a ball of yarn for lack of a little head. By this point, my hands couldn't take any more size 0 needles, so I went up to a whopping size 2. And they felt so luxuriously huge and easy to use!

I made the hat up, as much as one can make up a hat (write up pattern?). It might be a bit shallow, but the ribbing is pretty adjustable.

I think the hat looks nifty from the top.



The socks, hat, and mittens are all in Knitpicks Palette, and are intended for Niece #2.

And because you can't leave the momma presentless, here are some nice, warm house socks for her:



These are just shortened Thujas. Seriously, these were the fastest socks ever. They're just a touch big, but they're not meant to be worn in shoes, but rather go over other socks.

I used Knitpicks new Swish superwash yarn for these, and I am very impressed with it. I thought the pair of socks would use 3 skeins of yarn, but it used less than two. Granted, these are only ankle-length, but I wear size 9 shoes, so they're not teeny. Then, this yarn is so very, very soft. It doesn't feel like superwash wool at all! It actually feels alot like Mainline -- soft and cottony -- but is also wonderfully elastic and easy to knit with. Plus it's not splitty at all. I used size 3 needles with it easily. In other words: LOVE. Which is good, because I have 2 more pairs of socks to make out of it, plus a baby sweater. (On the bright side, I'll probably have enough yarn left over to make myself a pair of house socks, too!)

On the needles now is the Trellis (half a sleeve and assembly remaining). I would like to make 2 more toys and a hat for my older niece before sending off the package early next week, and I think I'll be able to.

Finally: I am so, so sorry for how remiss I've been at keeping up with y'all's blogs! I haven't forgotten anyone, I promise, I just have been so scatter-brained.