Now with actual knitting content!

Finished 1 of the blue socks, now to get the other one going. Impressed the hell out of myself by doing the kitchnered toe from memory, didn't look it up at all. Pretty much did the whole sock that way, other than the cast-on number & needle size I just winged the whole thing. The toe decreases are a bit messy as I only did k2tog for it, but I still like it just fine.

Feeling Blue

The blue sweater only needs 20 more rows before the ribbing; then of course it will need sleeves of some sort. (The photo is really blown out, sorry.)

I've got a sock on the needles that I had hoped to work on this month & get half a pair done, but my wrist has been cranky so I've gotten ever little knitting done this month.

On the sad news front this hat I knit got up in the washer & dryer & now is tiny.

Blue Sweater & Holiday Gifts

Still knitting on my blue sweater & while it's going slow it is still going.

I finished the last of my holiday gifts

I might still put some fringe on this, not sure.

Does this need a pom-pom or tassel on top? I just don't know.

Oh me, oh my, where do I start?

Been a whole lotta crazy at my house lately as you may have guessed by my absence. There was some knitting done, but not very much. I've mostly been caught up in getting evaluations done for the girl-child through our school district. She's had some behaviors that spoke to me of being outside the common. She had about a billion tests & evaluations & in the end they agreed with my original opinion that she has Autism. She'll be doing some 1-on-1 work with the speech therapist to get some better communication skills & with the occupational therapist to get some more skills for writing & comfort being on swings & stuff. They will also help her work on "reading" people as she's not as good as she could be with that.

On the knitting front I'm still chugging away on my sweater; no pics it's been icky out here & the color photographs so poorly indoors. I did finish a hat I meant to get done back in Oct & the recipient (roommate's sister) adores it & had been harassing me for ages to get it done. It's a Capucine (Rav link too).

My sister passed away in Jan a few years ago. She had worn her earlobes stretched for at least 20 years. I have decided to stretch my lobes to have a visual maker on my body in remembrance of her. I'm up to a 14g-12g. I was up to a 12g, but had taken my plugs out to wear some dangles & when I went to bed I took the dangles out & forgot to put the plugs back in so I dropped a size overnight. I'm hoping they'll go back up to the 12g pretty quick.

Anyhow there's my mega-update.

☺

Blue Sweater Update

Going slow, but it's still going. Sorry the color is so far off.

My winter hat shall be

This one!

The color is a bit off, it's more green that the photo shows. I usually like to use no flash & natural sunlight, but early winter in the midwest doesn't really have good sunny days. The yarn is handspun & is a Merino/Silk blend. It was a treat to knit up & I've had the yarn for over a year & finally decided it was time to knit it. I always have trouble knitting up handspun, I'm worried if I mess it up then I will have wasted the spinners time & skill. I need to get over that attitude since I've still got about 1/3 of this skein left & a whole nother one that I'd love to make something else with.

What I've been knitting lately

A Who Hat for the roommate, it's made with Stitch & Bitch line of yarn & is the bamboo blend one.

Some Bella Mittens for a dear friend who loves the Twilight crap. I'm running behind on them, but they will be done before the snow falls & that's the important part.

I just finished up this blanket square for a dear sweet woman who lost her husband suddenly. My heart breaks for her & I hope this blanket helps her feel the hugs from all of us knitters in the computer who are thinking of her & sending her love.

I also finished up a hat for my dad's wife & am still chugging along with the blue sweater as well as the red one.

Owl Hats for Everyone!

So I'm kinda on a hat kick again, but this time it's Owl hats. Isn't that the best hat pattern? (Answer: Yes, yes it is.) I made a newborn version using DK weight & it's so cute (not blocked yet, sorry).

I've cast-on another one in the adult size already, I love this hat.

I have been working on the blue sweater for a bit & I am doing a few mods on it; doing M1s instead of YOs for the raglan & no puffy sleeves. Well I was knitting along & had marked up my pattern to change those two things & was blindly knitting. One spot called for 2 rows of purls on the shoulder to help the shoulder sit better with the puffy arm going on. I knit them & then realized they'd look like crap with the flat sleeves so I dropped my stitches & picked them up again across both shoulders & they came out great! I was sure I'd mess up & have to frog the whole thing & start over.

Before:

After:

The Saga of The Red Hat

This is a long & sad story. I got this beautiful yarn in a swap on Rav

Pretty isn't it? I think it was my most coveted yarn in my stash. I wanted to make the perfect hat from it so I hunted for ages til I found the 16 Cable Hat & of all the slouchy hats it's the best one (that might be opinion rather than fact).

So I start knitting it up.

It was crocking like mad, but I figured it was just due to it being red & wasn't as bad as it seemed so I kept knitting along.

I got done with it & snapped a shot before I washed it.

Then I gave it a quick wash with some vinegar to set the color, you'd be shocked how much dye just poured out of this hat! It stained the pot, my sink was dark hot pink (I was able to scrub it out with BonAmi). This is the hat still wet after a few tries to set the color.

Yeah, doesn't even look like the same hat does it? I tried a few more times to set the color & kept failing.

Pretty hat for sure, but not the colors I wanted at all. I then gave it a bath with some OyxClean to see if that would help since it's not like it could get worse.

It's not properly blocked in this shot, sorry. It's still pouring out color & I'm not sure what to try now.

I do need to say the dyer was awesome when I told her what was happening. Best guess is this is just a dud skein. She was happy to refund my $ when she saw photos & I've got more of her yarn & would shop there again without hesitation. Often with smaller shops you either get people who just blow you off when you lodge a complaint or you get awesome people & she totally falls in to that group. There is no way for me to stress enough this was a fluke cursed hat & not the fault of the dyer.

What's New!

Well it's been a bit so I do have a few new things to report. First up is my birthday present to myself. I bought myself this nifty circular needle case from The Loopy Ewe

Isn't it cute? It's a Namaste circular needle case, I went with the color Lime. Right now it has all my needles in it, but I hope as I get more needles to have 2 or 3 of these so I can split up brands.

I'm working on this hat right now, it still needs a tassel on the back & either tassels on the front or i-cords if I'm getting low on yarn.

It's slightly more muted in real-life, my camera does this turn all red tones in to extra vibrant thing & I dropped out of the local camera club before I figured out how to fix that. I should pop in on a meeting one day & see if they can tell me what button to push to correct for that.

This is one of the 2 baby items I did. This one is for a friend who is due in Sept & doesn't know if she's having a girl or a boy. I just didn't want to knit in yellow or green, I fear the child will get enough of those & I think this comes off neutral enough.

As for the other baby item, you'll have to wait a day or two until they've gotten it in the mail. I don't want to ruin the surprise.