Made a mousie for Diana ("goddess of the hunt")

My DC (dear cat) has a nasty old muslin mouse I made her last year that she's slobbered on so much it's really gross. My DH and I decided to make her a new one for this year. I hunted up Wendy's pattern and used the "Lydia R. Haile's Nose-Down" version. We dumped some catnip directly in, and then wrapped more in some cotton jersey and tucked it inside. The yarn is 100% wool worsted weight. It's really scratchy and I wish I had washed it before stuffing but we were in a hurry to give it to my DC. I used size 5 metal DPN. It took me about 1.5 hours.

Here she is playing with it:

In case you're wondering, I didn't do anything special to get the tail to curl up, it seems to be doing that on it's own!

Progress on the beaded socks

These are the correct size around and I'm now on the foot. This picture was as of 12/18, too, but I haven't really worked on this recently because I've been trying to get the poncho done. I did the heel in dark blue so that I can get most of the foot done in the light blue before I run out. There's a couple of mistakes on the beads, I don't really mind, but they are more obvious than my usual mistakes.

Still working on the poncho

I'm working on the second rectangle and it's really taking a while with breaks to make cookies, go to work, go shopping, do Christmasy things.

Here's where it was as of 12/18:

I'm now at 29", going to 34".

Update on beaded socks

I lied, the beads do have the size on them. Here's what the package looks like. They're 6/0.

The socks were huge.

So I put one on and threaded the needle through.

Wow.

Then I frogged, and cast on 64 instead of the original 84. I'm now done 1.5 rows of beads. BTW - I'm knitting a row between each row of beads. With the size of the beads and the size of the yarn it just looks better.

v. v. excited about the beaded socks

They're probably going to be a little big, but so cool. I made quite a bit of progress today. On the knitalong list, they mention a few ways to place the beads:

1. knit the stitch like normal with the bead there and adjust the bead so that it's vertical on a leg of the stitch
2. purl the stitch and have the bead go across horizontally
3. slip the stitch with bead over both legs (not threaded on in advance)
4. knit the stitch with the bead over both legs (not threaded on in advance)
5. sew the beads on later (not threaded on in advance)

I did #2 after #1 didn't really show up. I think I'm really getting the hang of it. Maybe I'll make a little beaded purse? Oh, oh, how about the hem of a poncho for dressy instead of using fringe. Hmm, maybe I saw this on knitty already?

So here's my progress:

Ribbing prior to adding the beads

The beads about halfway done, then minutes later:

Cool new pattern from SixSoxKnitalong

It's beaded! I just returned a book to the library on that and so wanted to try it. Luckily, last night was the SnB and my favorite LYS owner had a cool little package of cobalt blue glass beads that go perfectly with the leftover flame yarn. She let me take them to try them out and I've already threaded about 300. For my legs and gauge I need to do the pattern 17 times around... ah well. It's been fun so far. Take a look at these perfect beads and be jealous, very jealous.

BTW- my sweater class will now start in early January - so if you are in Maryland and do want to learn to knit a basic sweater... let me know.

First half of the poncho

Overall, showing the lace better:

closeup, showing the cables:

Finished Fluted Bannisters

SIG-KNIT?

Hi any and all. I've been away presenting at a conference and knitting away. Unfortunately I then got home and frogged all I had done because it was too wide : ( . I was traveling without any measuring devices because of airline issues (plus, they would probably break my yardstick in my luggage, LOL).

My notes from the sessions I knit through are so much better - I paid much closer attention.

The title of this post comes from another knitter at the conference. This particular organization has Special Interest Groups so she wants to start up a new one: SIG-Knit! I'm in. Actually a very nice British gentleman stopped to ask if it helped me concentrate. He was a knitter as a child but now leaves it to his wife and mother. Now that he saw me do it, he might start back up.

To come soon: finished fluted bannisters (just have to graft tonight), 1st rectangle of the poncho.

Completed flames

I had to wait until this morning until I had a "willing" model. My dh is such a man. While that frequently comes in handy... he is completely unable to follow such simple directions as "flex your feet" or "put your feet closer together" or "turn to the left." These are the best pictures I could get, but at least you get an idea of how they look on.

The flames graph

If you like, you may print out the graph for the flames sockshere. If it looks like it's missing a few lines, then mouse over and click on the little orange picture with the 4 blue arrows pointing out. It should print landscape on 1 8.5x11 sheet.

For the German KAL

I picked up this Sockotta:

It's colorway 502. The people on KR all thought that all of the Sockotta colorways splotched, pooled, or "sparkled", but this one is supposed to stripe. I'm not into the striping, but we'll see what happens. I need to get busy on my other projects first, but I can't wait to swatch this.

I did another pair of socks from Sockotta and at first I wasn't very impressed with the yarn. But, it is much less expensive than others, and they wear great and feel good on. One skein makes two socks.

Almost there!

The flame socks are almost done. It's funny Carole commented on how she's going to miss them... after all I knit them every SnB I go to! Here they are modeled by the handsome end user (with the furry legs... don't worry, it's not me, it's my dh).

Instep	Bottom

They're actually a little farther than that now. The first one is completely done and I just need to weave some threads and do the duplicate stitch on the second one. They are going to be kind of like fred flinstone toes because they were within an inch of the final length when I got done the pattern. I did have to buy another skein of the Navy. Luckily, another knitter at the SnB was able to give up one that she had picked out (thanks Judy!) because the LYS ran out of that color.

baltimoresun.com - Stitching a knitting network

An article about our local SnB! There are pictures in the print version... and there I am, happily knitting away on the couch. I understand that free registration might be required.

Quick note: "add to my Yahoo" works now

If you moused over it in the past (over there on the sidebar) it wasn't a link. Turns out I left out an " . So it works now. If you like reading your knitting blogs in Yahoo instead of in Bloglines or by following a ring, click away!

The lovely *POWER* ball winder my DH made me

He actually made this a while ago, but we just got a chance to use it yesterday. I needed to wind off a bunch of wooly nylon onto a separate spool so that I could do 2 heels at once. The winder is meant to do center pull balls, but for the wooly nylon I just wound it around a toilet paper roll so it won't get tangled.

The motor that turns the spool is from an old power drill. Mark hooks that to a potentiometer and that to either a battery (this time from his cordless drill) or a power supply. He's thinking about adding a footpedal from a sewing machine to control the speed. This time he stood there and adjusted the pot while I'll guided the nylon. Pretty cool!

Still flames...

Going very, very slowly... but I'm committing to at least 2 complete rows per day so I'll get there sooner or later!
Here's how they look now.

Heel	Instep

As promised

Here's Caitie in her new poncho. Picture courtesy of my Dad.

Progress on the fluted bannister socks

No chance last weekend, and now there's no light when I get home from work. Here's a picture anyway.

I really like this pattern. It's easy to remember and knit and goes really quickly.

In other news, Caitie tried on her new poncho and it fits great. Just a few minutes before she had been complaining that everyone had a poncho but her! I also taught her to knit again. She's a real pro at the long-tailed cast on, but still shakey on the knitting. I left her with some acrylic worsted weight and some size 10s. Maybe she'll practice. I'll try to post a picture of her in it, but my camera's batteries went kaput and I had to rely on Dad's pictures.

Cool hit map trick

Pointed out by MonkeyMagic
It clusters and maps the IPs of visitors. Pretty cool. You'll see a huge cluster where I am, let's see who else?

Where are visitors to this page?
(Auto-update daily since 15-OCT-04)

If you'd like to get it yourself look here.

Found some wooly nylon

After many discussions on Socknitters about how to reinforce socks made from non-sock yarn, I decided I needed to get some wooly nylon for the socks I'm making from merino. I went to Joann's (I know, I know, but I wasn't buying yarn, I was buying wooly nylon). Anyway, they were really busy, what with two employees outside smoking, a brand new employee having a line of 5 people waiting to have fabric cut and the other employee with a line of 5 people at the register, so I just kept looking around. I found serger thread, but I wasn't sure. Then... at ankle level, in a bin, I found some... in HOT PINK! Argh. I dug around squatting there and finally pulled out a spool of hunter green. I wanted to get black so it would go with everything, but oh well. It's actually pretty cool but I'm not sure how easy to knit with it will be. As soon as the tension is off of it, it fluffs up like my hair in August! I also need to pull some off onto another spool so that I can continue to do 2 socks at a time. So how much? hmm.

Progress on the flames

Whoa. These are slow. I guess I'll work on these more tonight after I finish casting on the fluted bannister. If you can see the chart in the background, the first like 10 rows are pretty much just a couple of light colored stitches here and there so I'm going to do them in duplicate stitch. I'm still going to run out of navy yarn.

Don't the flames almost look like tuning forks?

Some good ideas

While my DH and I were running around the mall last night trying to find me shoes for my conference presentation today (and no, I didn't find any, all I wanted were some brown suede with a cute rounded toe and like a 2.5" heel, is that so hard?), I saw a poncho at Banana Republic that looks kind of like what I had in mind for my MIL's. When I went online to link to it, I found that they list ponchos as a top trend, and have a whole page on them (which is apparently what's making my browser crash so beware). I really like all of these designs. I guess I will put fringe on the one I'm making. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate for an adult poncho.

Swatching 6 Sox #3

ARGH! I did this post last night before I went to bed and apparently IE died and it didn't get posted.

Anyway, this is for the 3rd of the 6 Sox Knitalong. It's actually only my second and I'd like to do the to the clover when I get a chance. This pattern is called fluted bannister and I'm trying to make it for a man so I went digging through my stash. I ended up swatching this very soft 100% merino that's in a beautiful deep green with blue in it. I can't get a good picture at night so I'll try again on the weekend. This swatch is done flat on size 2 addis. The bottom is just plain knitting and the top is the pattern.

I'm going to add a wooly nylon (yet to be purchased) to the whole foot so they can be worn around the house.

In other news, I'm about a foot in on my MIL's poncho (cool) and am about 12 rows from starting the flames on the flame socks. The new pattern is posted for the Deutsch knit along and it's a beautiful slip stitch pattern. Now I'll have to find 2 more yarns in my stash!

My parents are awesome!

I just got back from a nice dinner out with my parents -- a belated celebration of my birthday. They gave me this snazzy little digital camera, extra storage, extra rechargeable batteries, and a nice dinner out.

Also, upon request and without any raised eyebrows, I got Dad to bring me this:

Now you may say, why on earth did she get her Dad to bring her a log? Well, it's actually cedar that's cured to perfection -- nice and stinky to keep the bugs out of my stash and off my new cashmere sweater (thanks FIL!). My DH will cut it into little chunks when he gets the chance. Much fresher and better than buying the little packaged blocks at the store.

I got my Dad's foot measurements, too, so maybe he'll get a little surprise for Christmas.

My DH gave me the cutest B-day card ever!

I think it's wishing me a clean birthday, LOL.
The envelope was great, too:

Swatch for my MIL's Poncho

This is the indiecita alpaca held two strands together. I tried first using one strand but it was only little tiny stitches and just didn't look like I had imagined. I then tried 2 strands on size 5 straight needles but that looked a little tight so this is using my nylon size 6 circ. I tried using my Denise but the point isn't too pointy so it was harder to to the sl1-k2tog-psso maneuver. Normally I like their shape and feel much better but for this project they were causing a little frustration.

Time now to consider the dimensions of the poncho. I'm doing the two rectangles version, but for someone a little more voluptuous topside than me. Holey Moley from Knitty seems to be a nice shape so I'll use those dimensions: 18"x34". In my calculations, the front will be 25" long, so that should be adequate.

Oh, yeah. You might be wondering about the pattern. I got Barbara G Walker's (first) Treasury of Knitting Patterns through ILL. This pattern is called Lace Cable or Germaine Stitch. It's from page 275.

Finished Caitie's Poncho

I think it turned out well and it is unique. The proportions of the rectangles weren't exactly right so the neck was a little too big. I could have picked up stitches and knit around, but I decided to knit a couple of 18"x2" strips and sew them in.

That actually worked really well. I was talking about this at the Stitch n' Bitch last night and the yarn rep who was there said, "of course, you never want to go smaller than 18"x25" rectangles." Well she didn't know I was knitting for a child, but I looked around for proportions when I was figuring this out and found 1:2 to 1:3. Hmmm. She's saying 1:1.4. I ended up with like 1:2.5. The fringes are 6 strands each wrapped the long way around a CD case. I didn't even weave in some of the ends - just made them more fringe.

Here it is on. Keep in mind that I'm a lot taller than the end user!

All these pictures were taken just about in the dark so that explains the wierd colors. It's actually this really pretty cranberry. It's really warm, too. I was happy to get it off my lap!

Had a great time at Knit Out DC 2004

It was a bit smaller than I expected, but luckily Kim found me pretty quickly so we hung out and chatted the rest of the day. The fashion shows were the best part. The ones from the yarn companies weren't as cool as the ones from the shops. Some of the shawls were amazing! I also got to see RosebyAny (and DH), Knittens (and BF?), and Lauren. Lauren took a group picture.

The weather was fab and I found out about a ton more LYS that I need to visit! Hmm, my birthday is coming up...

Knit-Out DC

I'm definitely going, either taking the metro from GR or NC. Looks like a lot of fun and some time knitting on the train. Say hi if you recognize me from the picture from the previous post. I really don't look that scary in person!

Me looking a bit demented in my new FO

I finished the striped little cardigan. It fits great. I'm not so sure about the buttons, but they are there to stay now. This was actually a pretty complicated project. A few lessons learned:

1. I really do hate weaving ends in on cotton, so a cotton striped sweater is not so hot an idea
2. I really do like sweaters done using Fee's ideas from the Sweater Workshop but maybe the applied button band is slightly more attractive
3. When you're doing the raglan decreases in ribbing, when in doubt have another knitted stitch on the front side, always use k2tog and SSK instead of going back and forth with the purl equivalents
4. I can make a sweater that fits (although now I want to lose weight)
5. Duh, do an even number of rows of each color, weave the colors in on the sides like in fair isle, but only with a knit stitch
6. Socks are still more fun

This picture was taken in very low light and I didn't ask the DH to fix it.

So I *am* crazy...

I just joined another knit-a-long. A sock knit-a-long. That's pretty crazy alone with how busy I am (working 1 full time job, 1 part time Sundays, and perhaps teaching at my LYS), but here's the real kicker: the knit-a-long is auf Deutsch. That's right, in German. I had 1 semester in college (I know how to say I've got a book by Kafka, I'm flying to Vienna at 11, and that I want a beer) and a class when I was in 8th grade.

So everyone's going to help me and I'm going to use the web translators. We'll see how it goes! Here's the link to the group: http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/mustersockenknitalong/. Ah, the universal language of knitting. Perhaps I should do French first since I am actually almost fluent in it. But I'll take this opportunity.

Geez. I apparently accidentally posted this on my library blog by mistake. ACK. Oh, well, maybe nobody saw it?

I LOVE the new issue of Knitty

I want one of everything but I AM going to make blaze.

A book review (trying something new)

Debbie Stoller
Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook
*****

I'm trying out a new trick. I really do like this book, though. It's not too serious yet it pretty much teaches you all you need to know to knit.

A poncho for my niece.

She's 12 and I think this would be a great b-day present. Gee, I hope she doesn't read my blog? Anyway, I'm making it out of this fuzzy cranberry-colored acrylic that is also from the stash. It will be warm and durable this way. I've tried several patterns and I'm going with the two rectangle approach. I tried to do point up, but that didn't work with my stitch pattern, then I tried a couple of other things... no luck. So, I finally made a little paper poncho (who suggested this on their page? sorry for not giving you credit!) and figured out the dimensions.

I'm using the lacy zigzag (Nov 1 from the perpetual calendar) and size 10.5 or 11 needles. My rectangles will each be 10" x 30". Here's a progress picture. It's actually going very fast but it's hard to take a picture of it since the batteries are about gone on the camera and it's very dark.

New Addi's and 365 stitches calendar

I finally spent some of the gift certificate that I got for being in a focus group in the beginning of June. Now I can do more socks at the same time! Woo-hoo. I had only DPN in size 1 but now I have a pair of 24" Addi turbos in size 1 (2.5 mm). I'm thinking about doing the pattern for the flames socks using them although they are slightly larger than the Brittanys that I've used for the rest of the sock. After all, my gauge will no doubt change anyway since I'll be doing Fair Isle for the patterns. I like to live dangerously.

I also got the stitch a day calendar. Yes, I know there are errata, lots of errata... but I like having the stitch pattern on the little easel. It makes me happy. I'll definitely use some of the stitches in the ponchos I'm planning. I had better get started on those! Maybe some socks, too.

Finished Making Waves

This was a great little pattern. I learn something new every project I complete. I talked to my stash angel (Jill) and she says the yarn is Harrisville Singles. 100% wool. I washed my socks and added some pantene conditioner to the rinse water and they still feel pretty rough, but that's what sockliners are for.
Here's a review of what I did from my post to the SixSox list:
I started from the toe up and did 2 socks on 2 circs. I used40 stitches on the instep and 32 on the bottom of the foot and have the pattern going from the end of the toe increases all the way to the cuff. I did the upside down flap heel over 32 stitches (from the "you're putting me on" pattern) and then continued for about 4 rows on the back in just plain stockinette. Over these rows I increased to 40 stitches so I had 80 stitches around which was plenty for my voluptuous leg. I then did the pattern all the way around and finished with a 2x2 rib and then stretchy bind off.

Progress on the little cardigan

I've joined the sleeves and have started the raglan decreases. I hope I have enough buttons. It will be interesting to see how this ends up. I re-knit the sleeves at the same time using 2 circs the way I do socks. If you think keeping track of two balls of yarn is tough, try 6 -- one of which is still attached to the body of the sweater. I ended up not taking this project anywhere because getting it in and out of the bag made for a hopeless tangle. I just love these buttons. My LYS proprietor, Carole, helped me pick them out and they're perfect.

Here's a close-up of the buttons (I have 6 total):

My poncho for my MIL?

I just love this poncho that Lizzi designed. I was thinking about a similar design for my mother-in-law but actually now that I think about it maybe my idea is completely different! I want to do it in a worsted weight Alpaca on larger than normal needles for an airy fabric, with a cable design up the front bordered by YOs. The shoulders might also have YOs. Hmmm. Still, Lizzi's given me some ideas! I don't really want to do fringe on the bottom, though, so I'll have to think of a way to edge it without having it roll. hmmm. Ideas? Maybe I can pick up stitches along the edge and do a border? But not lace, of course.

Closer views of the toe-up heel flap

The seeds quickly tossed yield results...

But only for the early birds...