Monkey2's foot cozies

As I was trying on the first sock on my sleepy Monkey2's feet one morning, she mumbled, "Ooh, those feel nice.  Is this my foot cozy?"  And so they are.

yarn: Regia 4-ply Flusi Das Socken Monster in Fraulein
needles: US 1.5 (2.50 mm) KP Harmony dpns
CO 56 sts
Simple 2x2 ribbing throughout the leg & instep
Worked until hit the bottom of her big toe & did a typical wedge toe bind off.  It's a little pointier than I should've made for her feet but it does give a teeny bit of growing room.

And with that done, I'm back to my usual pile of WIP's.  Well, technically the black one w/silver sparkles retangular wrap in the top left corner is Monkey1's.  While it should be easy on size 17 needles in garter stitch, she sometimes can't see the loops well enough & so she has me correct her errors.  I did try to power through her WIP in case she could wear it to the one "formal" dinner on the cruise ship, but once we found out it would be the second night of the cruise, I abandoned it for her ruffle scarf instead.  I'll have to have her get back to it or it'll end up permanently in my pile.

Continuing clockwise from Monkey1's WIP, is the olive Berroco Cuzco Cosima.  This may be a very long term knit since many Ravelers seem to have to make a lot of adjustments for a decent fit.  The little red blob is the beginning of a gift hat so it should go quick, the blue/beige shawlette WIP is Stephen West's Blue Whale from A Verb for Keeping Warm's Pro-Verbial yarn club, and the brown infinity scarf is a Twisted Rib Neckwarmer in The Plucky Knitter MCN Aran.  Underneath it all is the mostly brainless Crystal Palace Mochi Plus Parquet Squares blankie for Monkey1.  I don't have enough to finish, so I need to order more of the colorway.

But with all that, I don't have a sock on the needles, especially with Monkey2's foot cozies being done.  I should wind my Jan 2011 Blue Moon RSC kit & cast on, but our March 2011 RSC kit is travelling towards us & should arrive soon.  Then there's 2 of the 3 kits from last year I should knit.  (Not knitting up Sweet Pea 'cause I'm saving that for the next female baby in my extended family...that lives somewhere colder than Oahu and the Philippines, that is.)  And still in the Blue Moon theme, the Socks that Rawk group has a KAL voting poll going on and I have all 5 of the paid patterns in my "library" of patterns.  But that's won't start 'til the beginning of April once the voting is done.

Then there's Irishgirlieknit's Walk Now.  I even have a skein of Plucky Knitter Primo in a neutral color that would go well with it.  I guess I'll knit on my WIP's while I contemplate which yarn & sock pattern to do next.

Playing Catch Up

February turned into an insanely busy month with Stitches West and a family cruise vacation, not to mention a couple secret test knitting projects I volunteered for.  Right now I can only share one of them since Stitches West has passed.



First off, a pair (I swear, but I didn't get tapmouse to take a pic of them on me) of mitts for Pico Accuardi's booth at Stitches West.  Deb Accuardi and Stevanie Pico (with the help of Terri) are a delightful team and I hope more knitters will discover their hand-dyed yarn, much of it with natural dyes. 

Yarn: Pico Accuardi's Stevie Sparkles dyed with indigo.  No label so I don't know if it has a colorway name
Pattern: Snake in the (Sweet)Grass
needles: Uh, I think it was a 2.5 mm (US 1.5), not a US 2.5 (3.0 mm).  I'll have to double-check my notes.  I have a bad habit of not paying attention to the 2.5 mm vs US 2.5 sizing on Ravelry's drop down menu.

No mods since it's a sample.  I've got a beautiful turquoise skein of Stevie Sparkles, so I'm hoping to make my own pair later. 

I've realized I'm not a snap-happy Stitches West attendee despite the XRX lifting the photo-taking ban this year.  All I've got to show for it is one pic of my new KCLWoods shell-inlaid spindle (Ken & his wife are so kind & adorable!) and a couple pretty Sunshine Yarns fibers from her booth.  It is possible to find a pic of me with a few other Sunshine Yarnies in her booth in the relevant Ravelry group thread.  But I'm going to be lazy and not post the link. 

And while I've been good this year at not buying too much yarn (only 4 skeins at the BMFA booth!), I did kinda make up for it with the buying of project bags and other accessories (cough*Namaste*cough).  The project bags are technically for Monkey1 who like any good young knitter, recognizes when she's at her limit skill-wise. 

Monkey1 fell in love with a sample of an On Line Solo 194 ribbon-ruffle scarf at Fashion Knit in Walnut Creek and thought she could handle it once I showed her how.  Turns out that she decided (and rightly so) that knitting with ribbon yarn is actually too fiddly.  So, being a sucker of a knitting mom, I took it over.  I agree that it is a fiddly knit, but I managed to finish it on a one-week cruise to the Mexican Riviera.  My knitting time was helped greatly when we ended up with an extra day at sea due to an emergency detour to Ensanada to drop of an ill passenger, causing us to miss one of the 2 days planned for Cabo San Lucas.  As the captain said, sometimes that's the way it goes.  DH did not like the changes to Cabo since he last went 20 years ago, so I don't think he minded as much.  He loved the old fishing village charm of it which has been replaced with very American touristy stuff combined with the agressive hawking by the vendors.

Sometime in the past month, I also managed to knit Monkey1 a new slouchy hat so I could get my Wesley beret back.  It's such a cute pattern that I'll probably knit another one in the designer's bulky weight version (inspired by a Taylor Swift beret).

Pattern: Diamond Slouch Beanie
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash Paints
needle: KP 7 Harmony circs

Just one modification in which I used Ysolda's 2x2 tubular cast on.  Love this cast on.



Once I finished Monkey1's ruffle scarf towards the tail end of the cruise, I finally cast on for my second acid green Koigu sock in which I used the C2B cable pattern from Ann Hanson's Fine Cabled Mitts pattern.  I'm so happy this is pair is finally done.  It's been six months since I knit the first one and probably longer than that when I knit the original first sock that was too small.

Fingerless Mitt Kick

My fingerless mitt kick started off with the last of my holiday gifts.  This completes a set with a pair of Rib & Cable socks that also coordinated with the Koigu acid green set I had knit up awhile ago.  Both sets just got gifted this weekend.

yarn: Koigu KPM in Raspberry
pattern: Fine Cabled Mitts by Anne Hanson
needles: size 2.5 (3.00 mm) KP dpns
no mods for the gift

Monkey2 then asked for a pair for herself in a color she picked out.

yarn: Cascade 220 in Magenta
pattern: Girly Mitts (free off of Ravelry)
needles: size 7(4.50 mm) Knit Picks Harmony dpns
mod: extended the ribbing on top to hit higher up the fingers per Monkey2's request

I haven't taken a pic of the full pair, but these are done.  I decided that Monkey1 would get  a pair of fingerless mitts that would match the Owl hat I had knit up awhile ago.  I also decided to practice my Yarn Harlot lever method on this pair since I hadn't done it in awhile.  I expected to be really tight, but maybe due to the larger size of Clover's size 6 dpns, the mitts actually came out a little larger/looser than I anticipated, not that it mattered to Monkey1 or I.  She's still growing & I have large wide hands. 

yarn: Patons Classic Merino Wool in Dark Grey Mix
Pattern: Owlings
needles: size 6 (4.25 mm) Clover dpns
no mods

After the January private trunk show of The Plucky Knitter, I decided to wind up the very first skein (& only one up to the trunk show) & knit them into a pair of mitts.  And speaking of my large hands, I had to add quite a bit of length to the pattern as written to have them fit my hand the way I wanted. 

Yarn: The Plucky Knitter MCN sport in Mansfield Park
Pattern: Foxgloves by Clara Parkes (Ravelry link)
needles: size 4 KP Harmony dpns
mods:
- longer ribbed cuff
- longer thumb gusset by doing the increases every 3rd row & added one more set of increases

Last for now, but not least, I had lost one of my burgundy Fetchings & needed a new pair in a similar colorway.  The yarn had been marinating in my stash & I finally felt it was time to knit it.

Yarn: Shibui Knits Merino Alpaca in Mulberry
pattern: Cozy Thermal Mitts (also free off of Ravelry)
needles: size 6 (4.25 mm) Clover dpns
mods:
- tubular 1x1 rib cast on & sewn bind off 'cause I was in the mood to practice

Next up: A few of my long-term projects including a cardigan.  We're going on a family cruise this spring & I'm still trying to figure out what to knitting projects to bring. 

Cookie, Ysolda, Plucky, Oh My!

I'm sure other Bay Area peeps have more exciting pics of the 2 yarny events I attended this weekend, especially since I realized I didn't take any for today.  Well I did, but it wasn't yarn.  I did take a few last night though.

A Verb for Keeping Warm hosted an event, with not one, but 3 knitterati, Cookie A, Ysolda Teague, and Sonya Philips (aka KnitSonya).  I don't have a pic of Sonya, but those are her art pieces in the background in the pic above.

It was such a well-attended event, but toward the end of the night as the crowd trickled down, those left could relax.  Ysolda & Cookie could also relax with a couple of A Verb's sample hats.  Cookie's is by Cocoknits, who was also there.  I got to meet Julie of Cocoknits & she is a blast to talk to.

Ysolda talked about how she started her designing career and about her forthcoming book which will be an awesome take on using the dress-making approach to sizing which doesn't assume that when people get larger in certain areas, that they also don't get taller or grow larger shoulders or armhole circumferences. 

The sweaters above are a few of her samples.  What was tremendous about her is that she had 2 sample sizes, one in 34 (which is her size) and the other in a 48 (or up or down a size in that range).  It was so exciting to hear what she envisioned for her book detailing her approach that sizes & how her book will be set up with the patterns that will be included. 

And on that plate amidst Ysolda's sweaters are the adorable owl cookies made by KnitSonya for the event.  They were delish too!

I made sure I blocked my Ishbel beforehand so I could wear it to the event.  You can sorta see it on me in the first pic w/Cookie and Ysolda.

I want to thank Kristine, Adrienne, their Verb staff and WonderMike for a wonderful night.  I get to continue my Verb love with my second Pro-Verbial club kit that arrived in today's mail. 

 
Since I don't have any pics from the Plucky Knitter trunk show, check out Marisol's blog post.  Lots of squishy goodness.  And it was great to meet such a nice indie dyer as Sarah.  I think we're so lucky to have really good and really nice indie dyers out in the yarn industry. 

What I will show for now is the very first Plucky Knitter MCN sport skein that I bought from Churchmouse Yarns & Teas on Bainbridge Island on my way to Sock Camp a couple years ago.  Being a Jane Austen fan, I couldn't resist the colorway name, Mansfield Park.  It's been marinating in the stash as I debate between converting the skein into fingerless mitts or socks or a beret, but I'm on a fingerless mitts kick, so I may just wind this up soon.

In the new year

Some gifts got made on time during the holiday season & delivered on time:

Hill Country Hat
Knit Picks Swish Bulky in Squirrel Heather
1 extra repeat of pattern

Some gifts got made in time, but not exactly delivered on time, but then that was an address thing:

Scarf to coordinate with the Norwegian Star Hat - motif on the 2 ends only
Knit Picks Swish DK in Coal & Dove Heather
size 8 & 9 KP circs
CO 64 & knit in the round for 60"

Some didn't make it on time & stilll need to get to the giftee:

Baudelaire by Cookie A
Curious Creek Wasonga in Ruby Slippers - special put up of 78 g/360 yds for a Woolgirl kit
size 2.50 mm KP circs
pattern size small - for my cousin

mods:
- Judy's Magic Cast On for the toes
- sl1, k1 on right side of reverse heel flap

Despite that, I somehow have an extra. This'll be for next year:

Burberry Inspired Cowl
Patons Shetland Chunky Tweed in Charcoal
size 10 KP circs
4 repeats

Since it's a fun & quick pattern, I foresee 1-2 more of these for future gifts, maybe in a drapier yarn.

So I'm now onto a little bit of selfish knitting for me.  Though Monkey1 had decided this is now hers:

Wesley
pattern size 2
The Fibre Company Organik in Magma, Desert Canyon & Heather Moorland
no mods

This is definitely for me, though it's in need of blocking:

Ishbel by Ysolda Teague

Madelinetosh Pashmina in Tart

size 6 KP circs

pattern size small

mod: Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off

I have quite a bit left over, I may see if I can make the matching Ishbel beret.  

Hope everyone had a nice start to the new year and wishing everyone health & happiness in the upcoming year.

Knee deep in holiday knitting

But first, a digression in craptastic costume sewing.  Monkey1 & her class did an "in-house field trip" called A Walk Through the American Revolution, so she asked me to make her a costume.  Unfortunately, when we were Thanksgiving vacation in the Sierras, we kept having power outages.  I had to rush towards the end and there are a lot of crooked stitches in there.

We also had a little debate on what color fabric her mobcap & shawlette were supposed to be, so I did two.  The dusty pink she eventually chose to wear during the "play," and the muslin set that I felt was a little more authentic.

At least my sister's layette set is done.  The Austermann Mosaico blanket swatch actually survived the washer & dryer fine, so she'll probably get the blanket too.

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease (the baby is a tropical one)
patterns: Baby Yoda Sweater, Kiddie Cadet & Waves of Babies Booties
needle size: mostly 8's
Sweater mods: body in the round 'til armholes.  Sleeves picked up & knit from the armhole.  Applied i-cord edging to the vertical edges.

I'm done w/the teacher gifts, but I'm waiting for the fog to burn off before I can take a pic of Monkey1's teachers black mitts. But first up, Monkey2's teacher's hat in Cal Bears colors.  Hard not to like a teacher from my alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley.

pattern: Cascade's Pittsburgh Steelers hat
yarn: Knit Picks Swish worsted in Dusk & Semolina
needle sizes: 9 & 10 KP circs
no mods

By the time I got to the Cal hat, I started to improve on my colorwork.  The first one I did, the Norwegian Star Hat, unfortunately came out too small for the adult recipient.  (No gauge stated in the pattern & I guessed wrong on the needle size I needed to get the gauge I think I needed.)  It barely fit Monkey2 unblocked.  While it loosened up a little after a wash & block, I still did another one.

This one was much better once I went up on needle sizes, but I also had to switch stash yarns since I was too anxious to wait for another Knit Picks order in the mail.

This took me forever, but my second-to-last pair of holiday socks (yup, I've got one more!) are done for a college friend of mine.  Though technically it's not a gift since he's going to trade me one of his art pieces for it as part of our negotiated agreement.  He actually wanted a sweater & my other college buddies who knit & I are still saying no.  LOL!

Pattern: Nemesis

pattern size: Large

yarn: Zitron Trekking Pro Natura 

needles: size 2.50 mm

And for a little holiday fun while we sat around during the power outage during the day. (No knitting in the pitch dark at night of course.):

pattern: WEBS free mini turkey

yarns: bits of Knit Picks Palette doubled

needle size:  KP 5 circs

Hope everyone has a nice holiday season!  And see you on the post-holiday knitting recovery side.

Pont Neuf

I had the pleasure recently of sample knitting an infinity scarf version of Irishgirlieknit's Pont Neuf pattern.  But because it was a rainy weekend when I knit it, I don't have a nice dry outdoor modelled shot of the scarf before I sent it off to Carrie. 

At the time she was headed to Stitches East & I wanted the scarf to get to her before she flew out.  Luckily I had my last furlough Friday and the rainy (not misty) weather meant we didn't go out much and stayed indoors, so I had lots of knitting time.  'Cept during the baseball playoffs which was too stressful.  There was a reason the SF Giants fan buzzword this season was "torture." 



details -
yarn: Kollage Solace in Chili - 3.1 skeins
needles: size 8 KP Harmony circs
no mods since it was a sample

Since Carrie & Kollage sent me 5 skeins, I ended up making the cowl version with the remaining 2 skeins, but I still had just under a half skein left.  Since Chili is not one of my go-to colors, this cowl will get gifted.

As payment, I got 5 skeins of Kollage Solace in Seaport, more in the color palette that I'm comfortable with & love.  So, I've gone ahead and made myself my own infinity scarf.  However, I did knit it at a more leisurely pace and not the 3 days I took to knit the first scarf.

I did add a couple more repeats of the pattern so the scarf would hang a little more loosely when I wear it doubled.  Any more than 2 repeats and it would've been too long for my height when worn singlely. 

I still have over 1.5 skeins left, so I'll probably make a pair of coordinating fingerless mitts or hat with the scarf instead of another gift cowl. 

Pont Neuf has a nice 8 stitch lace repeat, so it keeps it interesting for more experienced knitters but isn't too tricksy for newer knitters.  Give the pattern a look-see if you want to knit an infinity scarf that isn't too boring. 

knit.sock.love

I'm so excited that Cookie A has her new book out on her website available for hard copy pre-order and pdf download. I knit one sample pair and test knit another:

new pattern: Wedge

yarn: Socks that Rock lightweight in Mr Greenjeans

size 2.50 mm KP circs

I loved how Mr Greenjeans knit up so much in this pattern that I saved my own skein of Mr Greenjeans for my own pair.  I'll be digging this out of my stash & winding this up to knit ASAP.

Also in her book are 12 (I think) previously published patterns that were re-written for more sizes and different presentation.  In some cases, like the Thelonious sock pattern that I test knit, Cookie improved the charts so they're much easier to read.  I bought the original Thelonious when it was first released, but never got around to it since I wanted to find a good copier that could increase the chart size w/o losing print integrity.  The charts had all the sizes on it & were hard to read in their original size. 

However, my caveat is that attention to marker placement is a must for Thelonious and also Strikken, based on a few comments by other test knitters working on Strikken concurrently with us Thelonious test knitters.

While I've only taken pics of the first sock for the test knit, the pair is completed.

pattern: Thelonious (knit.sock.love version)

yarn: Shelridge Farms Soft Touch Heather in Highland Mist

size: medium

needles: 2.25 mm Signature Stilletto dpns

mods: none since I was test-knitting

Sockober done for now

I need to switch over to some non-sock gift & sample knitting, so while I have a pair and a half to go, I'm done with Socktober. 

pattern: Rib and Cable socks by Ann Budd
yarn: Koigu KPM in "Raspberry"
needles: 2.50 mm KP nickel-plated dpns
mods: Same as the acid green pair.  Both partners have the same shoe size. 

I'm late to last quarter's Socks that Rawk KAL, but I'm done!

pattern: Blackberry Brambles by Irishgirlieknits

yarn: STR medium weight in Tanzanite - I had to dig for this as I own only a handful of medium weight STR.  Most of my STR stash is lightweight

needles: 2.50 mm KP nickel-plated dpns

only mod: one less decrease for less pointy toes

I've been randomly knitting baby stuff while I waited for my sister and a family friend to find out what sex their babies will be.  They're both boys, so I'll probably put aside the yellow Lucky sweater (& coordinating hat & booties) aside.  The seafoam blue hat is appropriate, but I only had the one orphan skein in the clearance section of a lys.  I have to figure out if I have coordinating colors in my stash to make some type of layette set with the hat. 

The blanket would've been a good gift, but I failed to read the care section of this acrylic yarn.  Unfortunately my assumption that all acrylic yarns can be thrown in the washer & dryer was wrong.  The care label says hand wash.  Not good for a new mom.  I've gone too far along with the blanket to frog, so it will go to my Monkeys.  While a blanket is nice mindless knittig for the monkeys soccer practice (& sometimes games), I may not make an easier care one  and stick to sweaters instead.  Baby sweaters are so much faster. 

Socktober

Just in time for the next RSC shipment, I finished my Dusty Corners by Linda Welch.

yarn: STR lightweight in Firecracker
pattern size: med
needles: 2.25 mm KP dpns
mods: longer heel flap to balance out snug leg.  I probably should've re-started on larger needles, but I really like how the yarn was knitting up in the pattern. 

And to assuage my guilt in finishing my own pair of socks, I started on a second pair of Rib & Cable Socks in a raspberry Koigu KPM to be gifted to the partner of the acid green Koigu KPM.

Part of that guilt was that I had cast on for Carrie's Blackberry Brambles  first 'cause I had this yarn & pattern at a lunchtime knitting session, but not the gift sock pattern.  I had finally got around to digging up my Tanzanite rather belately for the Socks that Rawk Rav group quarterly KAL.  My mediumweight stash can be counted on one hand, so my options are limited outside of the RSC.

Speaking of the RSC, I love our September kit.  Stephen had told us he was the designer for this installment awhile ago when we had a mini-RSC Sock Camp reunion at A Verb for Keeping Warm, so it was an exercise in a lot of self-control not to blurt it out.

Love the colorway & the patterns. I'll be knitting up Stephen's pattern in his honor & saving Meg Swansen's for stash STR. It's pretty much in keeping with how I've chosen this year's RSC patterns, except for 2. I chose Cascadia 'cause it didn't have bobbles & I'm debating if I should save Sweet Pea for baby stuff as there will be 2 more March babies among my family & friends.