Gearing Up for February

So, I won't be posting much today — I was planning to post my uFo's, but instead I caught Jess' nasty sneezy/fluey bug. So I'm off to sit on my couch, drink warm liquids and knit. I have to work this afternoon, whether I feel well enough or not (which I don't) so I'm going to be girding my loins and screwing my courage to the sticking point.

And stuff.

I'll be back later -- hopefully with more content.

February is For Finishing (and it doesn't hurt to get a head start)

Those of you named Jess, who were reading my blog last year, will remember February Is For Finishing. The idea here is that we shall make solemn oath to Fearlessly number our uFo's, and upon enumeration we shall Finish, Fling or Frog them. This will thereby allow us to begin the spring months with needles unFettered.

So, here are the rules:

• During the first week of February, catalog and post your uFo's. No Fibbing or cheating here! You have to be Fearless. (On a side note: if you still have uFo's left over from last year's list... you might want to reconsider whether or not you actually want to knit them. I'm just sayin'.)
• Do Not (and this is very important) Do Not cast on any new projects during February. Swatches obviously do not count.
• Finish, Fling or Frog as many uFo's as you can. There may be a prize for the knitter who completes the most projects!

And, because no thing-a-long is complete without one....here is a button:


In the spirit of Finishing, I've already gotten a head start, and finished up a few old projects from last year.

Rowan loves his new Pirate Sweater -- he wouldn't have been more pleased if Cap'n Jack Sparrow himself had handed the sweater to him.

The project is made of Wool-Ease Black and Ivory on size 8 needles. For some strange reason, I have extraordinary luck getting gauge with Wool-Ease. Too bad the stuff wears for crap, idn't it? I believe this will be my last "major" project using Wool-Ease. Too many acryls were harmed in the production of this yarn.

Also, I still hate Intarsia. Forever.


In other news, I've finished the "Super Sekrit Project for Someone Who Doesn't Read This Blog." I'm counting on the fact that she doesn't read it (or won't remember come next December) because its going to be a Yule gift.

The observant among you will recognize Knitty's Branching Out...in a somewhat altered form. See, I was going to use up this one skein I had of Knitpick's Merino Style, but it only netted me half of a scarf. So I got my buddy Jess to order me another ball -- sure the dye lots would be different, but they wouldn't be too different right? Wrong. End result was I still had a skein of Knitpicks Merino Style with nothing to do with it, and half of a scarf. Nice. It was my daughter Rhi that offered me the solution. So here's my merino Scarf-cum-Bag (speaking of things that sound dirty but aren't).

The Final Tally

I've dug around my archives (and my knitting bags) and here are the final results for 2006:

drumroll please

In 2006 I completed a total of 9 projects. Given that I am the UFO Queen Herself, I feel pretty alright about that total. It includes, I would like to add, no less than THREE lace shawls. Yessirree bob. A complete listing can be found here.

Now the bad news. Well maybe not bad, per se. But, okay, less spectacular news. In 2006 I began 13 new projects. Not that 13 new projects is bad in and of itself, but my overall UFO count is not whatchacall "shrinking." The complete list can be found here.

Plans are already being made for "February is For Finishing." Details will be posted soon!

Merry New Year!

I have a bit of a tradition around here of setting myself knitterly goals for the coming year. I have some non-knitting related goals as well, the perrenial "lose weight/become more healthy" of course, as well as the ever-popular "become more financially stable." These were both on my list last year — and I will say that I'm in a better place in both arenas. I've lost approximately 30 lbs. (with minimal fat-recidivism) and we are no longer actively hemorrhaging money. So, more of that please for the coming year.

Now on to the (far more interesting) fiber related goals.

Goal the First: May I finish more things than I start*

Goal the Second: To finish or make significant progress towards finishing either Morgan or Rowan's Big Bed Quilt.

Goal the Third: To continue to stretch my skill set — to accomplish more fiddly feats of lace knitting, to begin designing patterns, and:

Goal the Fourth: In keeping with Goal the Third, to learn to spin.















Last year I kept a "started in 2006" and "finished in 2006" running tally. It may come as no surprise to those of you that know me, but that list isn't completely updated. In the next week or so I'll be posting the final tally from 2006. I plan to do the same thing for 2007, but I've decided to include quilting and sewing projects. After all, while this was initially fashioned as a Knitting blog, I do have other crafts, and by golly I'm giving myself credit wherever the heck I can.


*Stolen verbatim from Jess, if you were wondering.

Knitters Without Borders

No time for a proper update — your irregularly scheduled blogging will be back after Christmas.

But for right now, go read this. Now go make a donation. Even if all you can afford is $5 (two cups of bad coffee at a gas station), then give that much. Stephanie makes her case eloquently so I'll say no more here. Go now!

And Happy Christmas.

Flowers For Nanny

Happy Thanksgiving!


Once I actually sat down and worked on Rhiannon's Flower Basket Shawl, it went together very quickly. I really love this pattern, and as this is the second of the three I'll be making, I guess that's just as well. This took longer than the one I made back in January (9 days, people), but I don't have nearly as much dedicated knitting time now as I did back then — so what're ya gonna do? It was still faster than the Ragnarok Shawl.


There is something so very cool about blocking a shawl. Others have written about this marvelous phenomena, so I'm repeating old news here, but blocking lace is just groovy. Steph has likened pre-blocked lace to Ramen noodles — and she does have a point.

I do think that I'll be adding blocking wires to my Christmas wish list this year. I never seem to be able to put quite enough pins across the top of a shawl to make it as straight as my little anal-retentive heart desires.

Project Specs:

• Pattern: Flowerbasket Shawl by Evelyn Clark
• Needles: Size 7 addi turbos
• Yarn: Knitpicks' Palette in Fog

Under Construction

Please pardon my mess -- my blog Template is under construction. I'm in the process of re-vamping my sidebar.

Wish me luck.

The Death of a Dear Companion

I've no pictures of completed works to show you, but I have been a busy girl the past two weeks or so. My beloved and trusty Singer machine, my fiber-companion of some 18 years passed into the veil two weeks ago. By which I mean, in my overly dramatic way, the tension is frelled beyond all hope of my repairing it. I borrowed my bestest Gretta's machine to finish the Halloween costumes. (Y'all did catch that it decided to bite the big one a week before Halloween, right?) Her machine is a simple two stitch machine (it does straight and zig-zag) and yet it ran so much more smoothly and efficiently than mine. I believe that my poor old machine had been ailing for some long time, but I had acclimated myself to its ways, and did not see.

This is the part where I explain that my husband is the most marvelous creature in all this Middle.... Tennessee. (Sorry, I've been having my annual re-watching of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It makes me talk funny.) Anyway, point being, that when my sewing machine died, my old-man first spent several hours trying to make it be go. He doesn't know from sewing (in fact he's nervous of the whole concept of making things with string) but he does know machines. When that failed utterly, and I was sort of staring blankly in shock and horror at the carcass of my beloved (and filthy! How come I never noticed it was so dirty?) machine, he says to me, he says, "Baby, you've got to have your tools."

I love that man.

I spent the next several days researching my options, and am now the proud and ecstatic owner of a new Brother 6000. I'm a fickle creature I am, as I'm already so enamored of my new machine that I'm like "Singer? Singer who?" Frailty, thy name is seamstress.

Dude. It has 60 stitches.

I'm a happy woman.

Ragnarok

Okay, here are the promised pictures of my Ragnarok shawl. I know this is totally old news, but hey, the pictures are pretty, and I did say that I'd post them.





In other news, I'm on the edging of the Pallette Flower Basket Shawl for Rhi. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the weekend. Its a quick knit, and I hope that I'm not too sick of it before I finish the one I'm promised to make for my friend Alisha. Next in queue, however, before I make FBS #3, is the Swallowtail Shawl (also designed by Evelyn Clark).

When I grow up, I'm so totally designing lace shawls and stoles.

Chaos is Come Again

Its finished. Done. Kaput. Through. The End Times are upon us, and I finished the Ragnarok Shawl (formerly known as the 2nd Mystery Shawl).

I have to tell you, I'm glad I did it. I learned a lot, and its a lovely shawl. That said I will NEVER EVER NEVER (I feel very emphatic on this point) NEVER knit the thing again. When I grow up and design shawls they will not have three feet of cast off edge across the top. No indeedy.

Here it is in its pre-blocked, just-off-the-needles, dental floss state. (Please to ignore the funky mattress under the shawl.)

And here it is a-blockin' -- And now that I look at the picture the left hand side is pinned a bit crooked, but I'm not going back to fix it now.

Project Specs:

• Yarn: Knitpicks Shadow 100% Merino, Oregon Coast colorway, 1.65 hanks (approx. 700 yds.)
  
• Needles: Addi Turbo circulars, size 7
• Pattern: Mystery Shawl 2 by Renee
  

And the only reasonable response to finishing such a momentous and large project? Just a little bit of a Flower Basket Shawl. You know, just to take the edge off.

About Daddy

Earlier I explained that my father's death was one of the reasons that I needed a break from this blog for a while. I just ran across a comment that he left in the last post I made before he died.

The various kntting projects look wonderful. I am astounded at your speed and skill. Knitting is not an easy skill, but once mastered it seems to proceed on its own, the inner life taking charge and setting the spirit free to contemplate, pray, adore and dream of many things.

Thanks, Daddy.


Neil Andrew Mogensen
November 29 1937 - May 21 2006

Questions Answered

My lovely Jess leant me her camera, so this post ought to be a little more interesting to look at, at least. I have started working on the Ragnarok Shawl again. I've earned three penguins since I posted last. (Reward sticker for each repeat completed. Look, I need what motivation I can get, okay?)


Elizabeth asked, in the comments, about whether or not the intarsia skull n' cross bones on the Pirate Sweater for Mr. Adorable is centered correctly. Well, as far as I can tell, yes. Now the pattern does have two different charts, depending on size, so my guess is that the person who was having troubles may have been using the wrong chart.

Now, all of that only applies to horizontal placement. If she's referring to vertical centeredness, I'll have to get back to you.

In other news, I've finally gotten pictures of some finished objects. I realized that I also need to bump up both my "started" and "finished" counters. I'll worry about that later though. On to the pictures!

First, socks. Now, these are cool because at no point during the construction of these socks did I refer to a pattern. Nawp, not once. Yeah, I'm that cool. I used Knitpick's Palette in peach on size 3 needles.



I've also finished a Warshcloth of Mason-Dixon Knitting fame. I used Peaches N' Cream, or possibly Sugar N' Cream. Cream was involved anyway.

Knitting, Quilting and Christmas

I haven't accomplished a bloody thing in terms of knitting in FOREVER. I have a fingerless flamin' glove (one glove, mind you -- I do have two hands) nearly finished. I have one (yep, one) Glad Raggs sock done and about half of one (there's that number again) dancing toe up sock done. I still haven't finished the edging on the eternally unfinished MS2 shawl. Grrrr.....

I bet it would be totally counter-productive to cast on a new shawl or a third pair of socks, huh?

On the other hand, now that my sewing room is mostly re-arranged, I've started sewing again. I threw together a dress for Morgan that I cut out for her last year (luckily her growing has all been up this year. It still fits). So that's a project finished, and some RAM freed. I've also made two more Dear Jane blocks, bringing my total up to 38. I decided that I'm going to have to seriously rethink my layout -- I'll post specifically about that later.

I've also started working on some Christmas presents. I am hoping to actually have things finished before, you know, December 25th this year. Wish me luck.

A Longish While

It has been several months since my last post. While I have been silent, I haven't stopped knitting...exactly.

Here's what's been going on. In May, my dad (and one of the chief readers of this blog) died of a long and protracted illness. I am so very glad that he is no longer in pain, but I needed a little time before I was ready to come back here.

In other news, I was promoted at work to an Ops Lead position. This means more money (hooray!) and less time to knit at work (boo). By less time, please understand that I mean "none."

So there you have it. I'm still alive, still kickin', still knittin', about to learn spinnin' (thanks Jess!), and fixin' ta get back into quiltin'.

And that's all the news that's fit to print.

Oh wait, and one other thing: Rowan (of the adorable sweater-grubbing) has started Kindergarten. He had his little pre-Kindy-garden test today and they said he did very well and they were looking forward to having him. Woo hoo!

That Which Is Gonna Be

Earlier this week I posted on the projects that I have in progress (with the notable exceptions of the "rilly sekrit gift for someone who doesn't read this blog" which I cannot show pictures of for reasons that ought to be obvious, and of the green spring tank top that was at work the day I hornswaggled Jess' camera.)

So anyway, I digress. Frequently.

While I was out takin' pictures of my current and recently completed projects, I also took artistic, gardenish shots of the projects that I've lined up in my queue.

Here we have a project I'm pretty excited about. there are a lot of things about this little stripedy cardigan that I really like. (Oddly, one of the things I really like is also one of the things that I'm proposing to change....the color scheme).

What I don't like is the construction (seaming up ickle stripes doesn't sound like my idea of a good time), and the weird poofty ribbing thing around the bottom.

So, in an unpredented fit of ballsyness, I decided to revamp the pattern. The swatch there is my idea for a new color scheme. More details as I have them.

For Rhiannon's birthday, I intend to reprise the Flower Basket Shawl in another gauge. I'll be using Knitpicks Palette in Fog. I plan to up to size 9s or so, to make it nice and airy. I should swatch. Wouldn't that be craziness?

I must admit, I find it mildly disconcerting that I'm making such a "grown up" item for this daughter. Scroll up a second and look at the cardigan I'm about to make Morgan....when did Rhi grow up? Where was I when that happened? The sweater I'm knitting Morgan is more like what I'm making Rhi "ought" to be like, ya know? In that place inside my head where Rhiannon is still six?

In other news, I've also got another Flower Basket Shawl lined up for a friend who is going to pay me actual pennies. (I'm excited.) I'll be using Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Midnight. I plan to use size 8s, or maybe 7s....we'll see how it goes. I'm looking for that balance between too airy and too small.

That Which Is

While I don't actually sit around and try to come up with abstruse or bizzare titles for my posts, I do seem to have a knack for it, don't I? I want to show a bit of my current projects, and a bit of what I'm lining up to work on next. Hence the title. These fall under the "That Which Is" category. Tune in for "That Which Will Be" and pictures of upcoming projects.

First we have That Shawl. You know the one. The one I will be knitting during Ragnarok, when I bless out Fenris for eating the sun, because its TOO DARK TO SEE TO KNIT!

And a close up of the lace edging:
This beauteous piece of work is in Knitpicks Shadow, a 100% Merino lace weight wool in "Oregon Coast" The variagations in this yarn are lovely.



Behold sock #1 of "Gladd Raggs." I'm way behind the group on this bad boy, they were supposed to be done on April 1. Alas. Woe. Etc.

I'm actually considerably farther along on this now than I was when the picture was taken. I've turned the heel and begun decreasing the gussets. I've also altered the pattern to continue the lace down the front of the sock. We'll see how that goes, ya?


And finally, of course, Rowan's ARRRRR Pirate Sweater. Since this picture was taken I've actually worked the intarsia up to the crossed bones. I hate intarsia. In case I hadn't mentioned that yet, here in this forum, let me just put it out there in front of godandeverybody, I hate intarsia. Evil, evil, needleart from tartoros. (Please note that I am not objective on this subject.) So why am I knitting this sweater, you ask? Dude, have you met my son? He has Jedi mojo, a helmet of +2 Cuteness and Persuasion.....I'm besotted. Is the thing.

You can't see much from the pictures. It's black and cream Lion Brand WoolEase, and all but about 2/3 of the front is completed.

Spring Has Sprung!

The grass is ris!
I wonder where the birdies is?

Things are spring all over here in Middle Tennessee. We have entire flox of...flowers in our front yard. The trees are blooming, the noses are running—in short, its my very (second) favorite time of year. And with the world around me being so industrious, how could I help but get caught up in all of the very NEW-ness of everything?

What does this mean? Why, new knitting projects of course!

But before I show you what's coming up in my queue, I'd like to point out that I have finished something. The observant among you will have noticed that my counter now reads "4" projects finished in 2006, and Morgan's Heart Cardie's ickle meter is up to 100%. Yes, genties and ladlemen, I finally finished the sweater that I started knitting her back in 2003. Good thing I was bollocks with gauge back then, because it fits her perfectly now.

I like to call this next shot my "Heathcliff on the Moors" photo. I would like to state for the record that the child loves her new sweater, and was grinning like a fool the 15 seconds before and after this picture was taken. I'm just sayin'.

Book Review: Inspired Cable Knits by Fiona Ellis

I'll start out by saying that I have a particular fondness for cables. The traditional styling, the celtic flavor.... I'm all over that. However, it is very often the case that the knitting patterns that utilize cables have a tendency to fail to live up to the promise of their design elements. The sweaters are, in a very real way less than the sum of their parts. Or, to be less tactful, they suck.

This is not the case with Fiona Ellis' new book Inspired Cable Knits.

It is very rare that I look through a new knitting book and find even two patterns that I would consider knitting. From this book I can think of four off the top of my head that I am seriously considering knitting (and here's the kicker) for myself. Yes, Ellis includes a size range from XS up to, in some cases, a 52" chest.

The very best part of the book though, is Ellis' commentary on the design process. The book is broken into four basic design concepts or inspirations: time, change, energy, and nature. Each design reflects in some way its parent category, with detailed descriptions of why she chose each element.

Each sweater is laden with symbolic meaning, what do the empty spaces represent? Why does the cable curve to the right rather than to the left? There is a language hidden within each sweater, a secret communication between the knitter and her project.

The concept of mindful, symbolic meaning within a project deeply appeals to me. I am inspired, much as the book's title promises, to not only create some of the sweaters held between the pages of the book, but also to deepen and enrich the intention hidden within my own designs.

Projects Completed in 2006

1. Flower Basket Shawl
2. Rhiannon's Magic Stripe Socks
3. Half-Circle Pi shawl for Morgan
4. Heart Cardigan for Morgan
5. Funkadelic Warshrag
6. Peach Socks
7. Mystery Shawl 2 Ragnarok Shawl
8. Flower Basket Shawl for Rhiannon
9. Calico Yarf Scarf for Gretta

Projects Begun in 2006

1. Flower Basket Shawl
2. Mystery Shawl 2
3. Glad Raggs
4. Arr! A Pirate Sweater
5. Tank Top
6. Peach Socks
7. Funkadelic Warshrag
8. Better Be Gryffindor! Scarf
9. Dancing Sockies
10. Flamin' Fingerless Gloves
    
11. Rhiannon's Flower Basket Shawl
12. Calico Yarf Scarf
13. Cream Eyelet Socks