Malabrigo March Madness and So Many WIPs!

Well, I'm almost to my one year anniversary of the knitting journey! Wow! I can't remember how I spent my "down" time before I started knitting. So many non-knitting years, just wasted!

One year ago tomorrow, Pamela was set to have the baby, so I bought a "Complete Beginners Guide to Knitting" DVD. On April 2, 2009, while she sat in labor, I sat and enjoyed the DVD, it was quite productive and made time go quickly. The DVD was great, it started with how to hold the needles, so simple, you would think, until I realized I was completely wrong....Best money I ever spent. I left the hospital with a Grandson, and without the DVD -- I passed it on to one of the nurses.

I finished Mom's birthday mitts! This was a great knit. The pattern is Susies Reading Mitts and is free from Dancing Ewe Yarns. I made these from just over one skein of Malabrigo Twist in Indiceita colorway.

I'm also working on a cardigan for Shaylin's Graduation present. It's out of some beautiful silk that was gifted to me by my ravelry friend, Gwynneknit. This is another free pattern, it is the "Orange Wave Cardigan" from Jennifer Lang.



One of my most ambitious projects is part of the Malabrigo March Madness. I'm not exaggerating the madness part. I must have been crazy to cast on so many projects at once. This is the Geodesic Cardigan, made from Malabrigo Lace, in colorway Burgundy. I hope to finish this before I retire. Wow...knitting lace, takes fingers far less clumsy than mine! LOL

And one more for the Malabrigo Family...this is my Springtime Bandit. Another great pattern!

And finally, the last part of the set I'm working on for Grandma. These are some beautiful mitts, made out of the Mal Silky in "Lillita" to match the Beret and scarf I finished earlier this month. I feel like I've been a knitting fool. These have been tough because I'm not a dpn person, and I've never knit on anything on size 2 needles. Ouch!

I've got so many WIPs right now, I'm a bit overwhelmed. Hopefully, now that Malabrigo March is about over, I can start wrapping a few of these up!

William and Wool and Hippie Gear

I've had a productive weekend. I managed to make not just one, but two hats for William, and mitts. The first hat I made him was too small, so I gave it to Lizzie for baby Jake, when he gets here. Should be anyday now!

These wool hats were made from JL yarn. Not one I've used efore. I had a few surprises, for example, the yarn that appeared to be green and blue, surprised me with lots of purple. So, I cut a several purplish color sequences out, so the hat would be boy appropriate. I was a little disappointed with the colors in the yarn, but the texture and the feel of the wool was nice. It's very squishy and fairly soft, before first wash. It's really very soft after wash. It will be a good warm hat for baby hippies.

Chris named the first one a "Hippy Hat" based on the colors. When we gifted the first hat to Dan and Lizzie, Lizzie sent us a "Thank you" for the "Hippie Hat." We never called it a hippie hat to them, so it seems the sentiment is prevalent. No dispute, this is the hippie hat, so one guess what I called the mitts. :-)

The hat was made based on a pattern, but the mitts were pretty much improvised. A lot of things I'll do different next time. At the end of all the photos, I'll put my notes of how they were made.

Notes on the mitts:

Well, I thought I’d give this a try, I used “Mitts 101” from Knitty.com as a guideline. I’ll consider this a good first attempt. I know the things I’ll do differently next time, and next time won’t be too far away as these won’t fit for very long. LOL.

Made for William, almost 10 months old:
Cast on 20.
Knit 10 rows of twisted rib (k1 in back, p1)
Begin St st. & Knit 9 more rows then knit in waste yarn for the thumb.
Continue St st until it measures 2 1/2 inches from the beginning of St st.
Decrease 2 rows (start of each needle k1, ssk, k to last 3, k2tog k), then knit one row even, Twice.
Decrease 1 row (same decrease pattern as above) and one more row even.
Graft.

Next time:
Ribbing should be doubled (at least) I want this to go further up his wrists to cover any gap left by a jacket. It’s okay for now, but not great and no room to grow.

I measured his hand and started the decreases at the exact point (2.5 inches) which is the distance from wrist to tip of pinky. If this yarn doesn’t grow, next time I’ll know to leave a little wiggle room, but he did seem to get a good grip (even without the thumb being done).

He loves the gloves. I could hardly get them back from him. He wanted to keep feeling everything with the glove on.

Definately not a perfect job, but I still consider it a win!

Note on the yarn: Will not buy again. I lost almost an entire skein of yarn to purple that had to be cut out. Didn’t expect purple on a skein that appeared to be all green and blue on the outside.

Also, there was no consistancy between the color repeats within one skein, nor between the two skeins used. Same dye lot. I tried cutting out the purples, then as I started finding knots (one in one skein, 2 in the other) I figured why not try and cut color sequence so I could match the gloves, but the same colors used in glove one did not show up again for glove two.

Hotter Off the Needles and Buggy Things!

I finished these this a.m. in time for Pamela to wear them to school. Pamela and school...wow! It's been a long time since I've said those two words together, in a positive way. I think she is as thrilled about going back to school, as I'm about the prospect that she finally realizes where her priorities need to be. So, to the Flamboyant Gloves:


Unfortunately, I lost track of rows early on. I thought I counted right, I double checked 3 times, but with this thick/thin yarn, it's really difficult to see the twists, let alone "count" them. So, the end result is that one glove is about 1/2 inch longer than the other. I figure I'll block them to be the same size. I tried to match the stripes up, but the color repeat was not consistant. There was not another repeat of black to lavendar to pink, other than the cast-on on the first glove. I ended up with less than 1 yard of yarn left, and this is not in one piece, it's what is left from weaving in. All in all, I consider this a win.

Pamela did wear them this a.m. I finished at 7:17 a.m. and she left at 7:29.

I was trying to think of things that bug me. I'm happy to say, that I really couldn't think of many things, though. This is all that I could come up with:

1. When people say "fer" instead of "for" (guilty, but I try and catch myself!)
2. Like, when people, like, you know, say, "like" (aarrrrggghhh!)
3. Thin women who claim they are fat (okay, it's probably just thin women period, who bug me)
4. My neighbors who let their doggies out to poop, and they ALWAYS do it in my yard. We've been here 6 years, and they only poop in our yard...oh well, they're good neighbors, so we bite the bullet.
5. When premium movie channels show movies that were originally "Movies of the Week" on channels like "Lifetime" or "Hallmark" or any regular station for that matter.

Not a bad little list. And I was worried that I woudn't be able to come up with anything. Apparently, I'm not as cheerful and upbeat as I thought.

So, on that note, let's try these notes:

Hot Off the Needles!

I've done some small accessory knitting this past week. Just a few small things to use up single skeins of yarn, or odds and ends. I've taken a shine to making mitts, at least as far as entertainment value, the quality needs serious work. All these items are highly functional, and have already been getting used these past few days (well, except for the Flamboyant Mitts shown last...they are still on the kneedles).

This is my Manos Del Uruguay cap, as modeled by my loving husband. Aaaaah, isn't he cute?

I made these mitts to match the hat. They've both been really very warm. Combined, the two projects used less than 180 yards of yarn. That was a bit of a surprise, but the Manos Del Uruguay feels like an Aran weight to me, so perhaps this is right on mark.

I've also started another pair of mitts for Pamela. She's named them "Flamboyant Mitts." I had one skein of Classic Elite Desert in colorway "Northern Lights." It's very pretty, but the thick/thin of this yarn (and the Manos) makes for a very irregular stitch. I think I'm ready to move to something more consistant in thickness, so that there is more uniformity in some projects for awhile. These mitts have been very quick. Just started yesterday afternoon, and both are done except for the thumbs and weaving in the ends.


Well, it looks like I got my post in for this week, just in time. I'll leave you with this closing thought....Be happy....this could be your kid!

Resolution Update!

Okay, first things first, obviously I've already gotten off to a poor start with the "write in my blog once a week" resolution....but I have an excuse (to this, I hear in my head, my father's voice saying, "Excuses are like assholes, everyone has one...")..

Quiting the Red Bull took quite a toll on me. I slept almost a week straight. Only waking for a few hours each day. It was rough. I finally broke down and did decide to allow myself one soda a day, so I didn't have such a shock to my system, making such drastic changes all at one time. (I also quit smoking as well, but didn't list this, as I never really felt like a smoker, no one smokes in the house, and I primarily only smoked at work, to get out of my office cage, but I decided since I never really "want one" why smoke any at all? So I dropped those completely...haven 't had one since last year....in another month or so, I can consider that I did quit!)...

well, back to the one soda a day. This definately helped. I now wake up in the morning and actually get out of bed....LOL....

Since I decided to allow small amounts of caffeine into the diet (still, no Red Bull yet this year) I have exercised almost everyday, and I keep increasing the time I exercise...hopefully I'll see results soon. Also, now that I am awake, and among the living again, I will try to get on track with the one blog post a week resolution!

I made some mitts for Pamela this week, to go with her hat...

I also made a hat for Christopher, to go with his beer shooting mitts....these have really gotten a work out!!

I joined a Kauni KAL, but haven't managed to participate. My new schedule of helping my daughter with William while he is at school is pretty intense. I've only gotten as far as winding the first skein of Kauni...

Watching William has been fun. The biggest hurdle I have, is keeping him from biting the dogs nails (I've heard of biting your own, but the DOGS??) LOL