Butterfly Super 10 Gray Summer Sweater

I finished this probably some time last fall, but I guess I never posted a picture of it. I really like how it turned out. I just made it with 0 ease and based on my measurements. I decreased twice in the front and twice in the back to make darts instead of just decreasing at the sides. The top front is a regular lace pattern from my stitch calendar. I used the sweater workshop guidelines to design it.

This is the yarn I bought in Toronto at SLA2005.

FO: Double Eyelet Rib Socks

Trekking XXL yarn bought on a field trip from a conference in Charlotte, NC. The eyelet rib comes from the 365 Stitches a Year Calendar, June 14. These are for me -- I'll have to try to take a picture of them on during daylight.

Ball and chain socks

I had some yarn to make my dh socks and couldn't figure out what to do so these are with afterthought heels (using Knitting Without Tears instructions) and the slip stitch chain pattern from the 6socks knitalong (sorry I totally can't keep up with that now... I've given up!)

I suggested naming these chains of love, but the old dh liked ball and chain better :)

Another dinosaur sweater

I knitted this between semesters for my niece. I knit another one about 10 years ago for my other niece and swore I'd never knit another one. It's so cute, but I hate weaving in ends! This is out of Lion Brand Wool Ease. Not the best picture but the child wouldn't stay still :) Of course, we should have taken a picture before giving it away. The scales are 3-D, too.

Whipped up Tychus for my brother in law

For Christmas. I made it about 2" shorter and only needed 4 sections. I used double stranded Plymouth Encore from the stash.
Update: I meant to include the link, oops. This is from Knitty. Find it at: http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer05/PATTtychus.html

Lazy... but still knitting...

My Dad wore through the soles and toes of his merino fluted banister socks - despite the fact that I carried wooly nylon along... I think this is the second time I repaired them but last time was just the heel.

I didn't take any pictures, of course, but what I did was pretty elaborate. I first tried to just darn the hole but it wasn't working. So I...
- cut off the sock just at the end of the gusset and at the end of the leg (with scissors, of course)
- raveled back to have an even row, knitted back so that the measurement down the leg and down the foot was the same as what it was before
- joined the leg with the foot by doing a three needle bind off of the center 1/3 of the stitches
- did an afterthought heel (following Knitting Without Tears instructions) -- which is actually a toe
- measured again, and realized how long the foot was (oops), cut off and unraveled and made a new toe

I did the same thing for the second one, because it was worn through at the toe. I made them just a smidge longer so that he is less likely to wear through them again.

I then got some "dimensional" paint from the hobby store, and painted treads on the bottom.

Hopefully they'll be safer and last longer this way. Of course, the new heel will be much easier to replace -- when I need to!

This re-knitting bit was much better than darning. Less painstaking and more tricky to figure out. My cup of tea.

Subtle Sock WIP

This is from the Pattern-a-Day 2005 calendar. Using Invicta. I got so tired of avoiding knitting the ^&*( lucky wrap sweater that I gave up on it for now... I then spent a couple of days trying to figure out what to do with the Butterfly super 10 in ice gray and finally just started on some socks. I frogged the mosaic socks I started for the 6sox knitalong and started on these. I got the first sock done in about a week so I feel much better :)

The pattern calls for a longer leg but this length is better for me. It also didn't call for any pattern on the toe, but I thought they looked a bit too subtle. The one problem is that it calls for 64 stitches (fine) but it's a 6 stitch repeat -- ooops! So increased 2 after the last ribbing round and then decreased extra at the gusset. Of course I forgot that when I went to do the toe so it's a little wierd at the end of the row. They're already a little big so I didn't want to increase 2 again.

FO: Samus

This is from the Chaco I got at Maryland Sheep & Wool 2005. I still haven't put the zipper in.

Been knitting (since the end of the semester)...

But haven't been taking pictures. I finished Samus using Chaco 100% worsted weight. I'm now back to the #$%^ clover leaf wrap. It makes me not want to knit, but I'm going to try to finish the first sleeve before I give up, again!

Finished Dr. Who

I finally finished this scarf... in plenty of time for Christmas. I used Knit Picks yarns and made the scarf for under $30. The colors aren't perfect, but close enough, I think. The yarn's worsted weight, so the scarf is really long. I only used 40 stitches across, though so it wouldn't be too wide. I used tomato, hyacinth, fern, pumpkin, snickerdoodle, chestnut, and mist. I think I'd use another red if I did it again.

I still want to knit as much but with the grad school class this fall there was no time. I'd like to make myself a sweater in the break before classes start again, but my immediate thing is to make myself wrist warmers for work.

Working... slowly....

I.. must... knit... (in a William Shatner type of voice) aack. The world is conspiring against my knitting and my fingers itch to knit. I started to fantasize about hiding under my desk at work to sneak some knitting... So besides the wrap sweater I'll never finish, I've got two WIP. 1) is the socks from the 6sox...



The other is a Season 12 Dr. Who scarf (who knew there were so many different ones just worn by Tom Baker?). I went with the less expensive Knit Picks wool of the andes. It halved the cost, but the red and the yellow aren't really right. Everything else is fine. Here's the raw yarn, I'm about 2 feet in but I don't have a picture yet.
I did get an extra purple (hyacinth). I was less than $1 away from free shipping so... anyway, I figure I can make a hat or mittens.

A Prairie Home Companion Lives of the Cowboys (on knitting)

pointed to on KR

ARGH!

I wrote out all the instructions for the doggie toy and they're gone... and my template is still messed up. ARGH!

Anyway, I did actually finish the gray socks. I skipped the last of the 6 sox socks so I'm waiting to start the next socks until October 1 when they unveil the next pattern.

Finally a FO: EV's new toy

I designed and knitted EV a little squeaky man. It's out of 100% lambs pride heavy worsted. I felted it (a lot). It's stuffed with fiber fill and has a squeaker in the tummy. You can buy packs of 4 at the pet store for $2. If I had to do this again, I would have made a smaller tummy and a bigger head. There's only one seam in this -- on the one arm. That's where I stuffed it. I went about this the hard way to avoid seams (and therefore weak points) but that's usually the way I do things -- over engineered and wierd.
Here are the pictures:

Note the blurred tail! That's so funny, she was wagging fast enough to show up as a blur :)

I will post the pattern but I'm not really recommending anyone do it this way!

Finished Chutes and Ladders, now what?

So I hurried up and finished, now I have to wait for the next sock. I've got a 12 hour car ride next week... hmmm. Maybe the Computer socks? Or the Clover lace (still, sigh), or maybe some CnL socks for charity?

My knitting has gone to the dog...

I have a new puppy So it seems like I have no time to sit and knit. Now my poor cat is sitting on the keyboard.... well maybe some progress to show next week.

I'm almost done the cuff of my second chutes and ladders sock.

Updates

I finally got to see Knitty Gritty because we got cable and broadband!! (yipee) It was actually pretty cool.

It's not really cool that it's on at 10:30 at night... She was showing how to recycle sweaters. I think there are going to be more new shows but they show the show a lot during the day. I guess I could record... hmm now I need tivo...

I finished my first Chutes and Ladders sock...




So now I'm going to risk SSS by putting these down and rushing to work on a lap robe. My Grandmother (who never needs or asks for anything) has found that her knees get cold in the air conditioning. This is somewhat surprising to me because she is always too hot. Anyway, Mom asked me if I could make a lap robe, SURE! Dug into the stash and apologetically came back with a bright pink acrylic. No labels but it feels like the soft one from Caron. Turns out that she loves pink (knew that) and bright colors and she wants all acrylic for easy care. Voila!

I'm doing a simple feather and fan with a 4 stitch border of k1p1 on each side and a few rows of garter on the bottom and top. Using worsted and size 10 needles. Her b-day is coming SOON... As you can see, it's about 30" across without being really stretched. I've got 4 skeins and I'm probably 2/3 done the second, so I'll finish when I'm done with the 4th and that's how long it will be.





updated, date changed to when I actually posted this. ok, so that's annoying, it's leaving this huge space.

Socks in Progress

I started the Chutes and Ladders for the SixSox Knitalong out of this gray self striping Lana Grossa whatever... it's pretty expensive yarn. I didn't take a picture before I frogged it -- it was so blotchy and yucky. So now I have computer socks; that is, socks I can knit while on the computer because they don't take any concentration. I think I'll try a new heel out of the Folk Socks Book since everything else is plain.

I'm now knitting the Chutes and Ladders out of a cream colored Invicta -- it does look like an Aran sweater

Yarn Touristing

I was in Toronto, Canada, for a conference this past week so I polled KR folks to find good yarn shops. Unfortunately I only made it to the two in (somewhat) easy walking distance: Romney and Lewiscraft (which is actually more like a craft store).

They were both exactly like I had heard: Romney had a huge selection and pretty bad service, and Lewiscraft had some inexpensive sock yarn. By the time I got to Romney I was so overheated from walking I could barely look at the wool so I bought 4 hanks of this Butterfly cotton. I hope it's enough to make a t-shirt. It's a very nice silver gray. Very cool looking and it should go well with the black and navy that I have so much of.

At Lewiscraft I found that the Scheepjes Invicta Extra 4ply sock yarn was on sale for $3.79 Canadian -- about $3 US. I bought 4 50gm skeins, two in gray and two in cream. I frogged the self-striping gray yarn I had started the chutes and ladders in because it looked pretty ugly. I think the cream will look like a nice aran sweater in chutes and ladders. I also got packs of cheap 2.0mm and 3.0mm DPN. They're metal but nice. They were $3.65 Canadian.

Some progress on Lucky

I'm probably 3 inches up the other front. It's going fine. Not very exciting except that I have to keep track of where I am (dec every 9 rows...). At least the pattern is well ingrained.

I'm off to a conference in Toronto next weekend so I'm hoping to have the yarn and be ready to cast on and knit the next of the increasingly inaccurately named six sox knitalong socks. I need something for travel that can be stuffed into a bag and doesn't require a lot of careful attention.