Here's Spike Modeling the Tomten and Booties

Name and face obscured to protect privacy ;) . Actually, we (my DH and I) are calling the new niece Spike.

FO: Hat for Baby Spike (the new niece)

Baby hats are such a joy to knit. I finished this one in only hours and it's so pretty. It's long enough that it can be rolled up.

Finished the Beaded Socks

I don't know but I'm glad to be done these. They were really the problem children. First they were too big (ribbet). Then I was not paying attention and messed up the bead pattern (left it). Then I decreased down a lot so they fit better and they were too tight (left it, I can get them on and it makes the saggy beads stay up :( ) ...

I liked the actual beading -- I'll do that again. I did try the star toe for the first time and kind of like it. I didn't read all the way through the instructions though so I don't know if I did a standard one... Turns out I didn't need to use the navy for the heel, I have plenty of yarn left. Oh, well, see for yourself.

The new niece is here, her sweater and booties are done

That all works out well. My new niece came on Wednesday -- all healthy and happy. I've finished the sweater and made some booties from the Falick book.

A sweater for my niece to be

My BIL and SIL are expecting (any time now actually)... so I decided to make the baby sweater from Knitting Without Tears. I'm too lazy to run downstairs to check the name of the sweater ... it's something like Toten? Ah well. Here are pictures. Incidentally, I did run out of the light pink but EZ says that it's good to use a contrast to show off the cool sleeves -- so there.

FO: My MIL's Poncho

It was supposed to be done in November for her birthday but we were finally able to give it to her on the 2nd after church. It really looks great on, but you'll have to take my word for it. The proportions are just fine. The individual rectangles are 17"x34". Here's a picture of it:

Here's a detail:

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.