More February Lady Sweater! (Still No Pics)

It's really hard to take a picture of a one-armed sweater when you're wearing it.  I'm just not coordinated enough to hold out one arm while taking a photo with the other. At least not unless I'm hoping to take a photo of the wall or ceiling.  Yes, I could have just lay the sweater on the floor for the photo, but that isn't half the fun or challenge of taking action photos. :o)

Anyway, the February Lady Sweater for my Sis now has one completed sleeve.  That leaves me with approximately 15 days to finish sleeve number two, which is completely doable.  And find buttons, which may be a bit trickier. Finding buttons for things I wear is hard enough. Finding buttons for something for someone else to wear is harder.  I'm tempted to not put buttons on it and let Sis pick out and sew on her own. She's got a whole lot more choices for button shopping than I do.

I am pretty certain that the sweater is still a surprise.  Last week, when I was agonizing over what airplane knitting to pack, she did mention that I could always knit her more socks. (It was really cute because she specifically said she didn't mean to be pushy and I had just mentioned re-discovering the sock yarn she purchased just after Christmas.)  I did mention that I couldn't work on her socks just yet because I had one project in the queue ahead of them, but that I'd get to them very soon.  I made no mention at all of the sweater.  I think we're good.

Now I just need to figure out if a) I have enough yarn left to make the February Fitted Pullover too and b) if I'll make it for her or for me! I should have enough yarn for the 3/4 length sleeve version. The long-sleeve version might be a bit dicey.  She might wear the 3/4 length sleeve version once she tries it on.  If she doesn't, I may just have to claim it as my own.


New Job Prospects
I've got a decent chance of getting a new job in the next few weeks.  If things go well, I'll be moving most of the way across the country, which means packing up the stash.  I'm giving serious consideration to sending most of the fleeces off to be processed before the move and then have them shipped to my new address after they've been turned into roving.  That would greatly diminish the volume of stuff to pack in the fiber room.  It would also do wonders toward getting me to actually DO SOMETHING with the multitude of fleeces.  Let's face it, I've not managed to process a single one yet and some of them I've had for probably seven years.

The other cool thing about my potential new job is that the dress code is more relaxed.  Of course what's odd about that is that I suddenly feel the urge to knit a bunch of nice sweaters (cardis, jackets) so that I can dress nicely and professionally.  Making a point of knitting a little bit each day, I've figured out that I can actually accomplish larger projects, like sweaters.  I used to think they took far too long (1-2 years), but now I can see that isn't the case.  Heck, the February Lady Sweater is just one sleeve shy of completion and I only started it a month ago.  If I work on worsted weight projects that are mostly seamless, I should be able to manage 4-6 sweaters in a year without giving up my sock knitting or the occasional shawl project.

Speaking of shawl projects....I've promised myself that I can buy the two skeins of Silk Thread II for the Evenstar Shawl just as soon as I get an official job offer.  Hopefully things will progress fairly quickly on the job front since the KAL starts on the 12th and I don't want to end up hopelessly behind.

February Lady Sweater Update

I have finished the body of the sweater and am progressing on to the sleeves. I'm a bit worried that the sleeves might be too wide, but it's a bit hard to tell for certain until I knit them a couple of inches. I'll definitely be decreasing to the wrist, which isn't in the pattern, but we'll get it sorted out. I'm tempted to use short-row shaping at the top of the sleeve, but haven't really thought that through yet. I'll probably try it as written and then work on modifying it. Seems simpler that way, don't you think?

So far I'm on my fourth skein of yarn.  I'm not sure I'll have enough leftover to actually knit the Fitted February Pullover as a companion piece for my Sis's birthday sweater.  I'll know for sure after the sleeves are done.

Evenstar KAL
I've signed up for the Evenstar KAL with Susan Pandorf. I have, so far, managed to refrain from purchasing two skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silk Thread 2 in the colorway Winter Solstice. This is the yarn Susan is using for her shawl. It is BEAUTIFUL! It's a glowing silver gray color and is just perfect for something titled Evenstar.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a happy bunch of holidays, whichever ones you celebrate.  My sister loved her new Crabby Socks (shown here being displayed by my nephew).  My niece loves to steal my sister's socks, but this pair are way too large for niece to wear. Niece did, however, ask if I could knit her socks and also if I could teach her to knit.  I promised her knitting needles and knitting lessons for her birthday.

Sis and I hit Wool and Company in Geneva, IL on a day we got to hang out without kids.  She bought yarn for me to knit her FOUR more pair of socks and I bought the yarn for her February Lady Sweater.  I inadvertently bought enough Cascade 200 to knit both the pullover and cardigan versions, so I think I'll knit her both.  I initially cast on for the pullover, but then she said she was leaning toward liking the cardi better so I started the cardigan last night.  I should be able to get one of them done by the end of February for her birthday.

As presents, I received The Opinionated Knitter by EZ and Sock Innovation by Cookie A.  I really like the chattiness of EZ's newsletters.  I am thrilled by the extensive and detailed explanation of designing that Cookie wrote.  It helped solidify some ideas I've had about writing patterns and gave me some insight into a different way of thinking about designs.

On the knitting front, I added a couple inches to the default Yarn Harlot One-Row Scarf that's become my  mindless travel knitting.  I also managed to finish my Blueberry Sweater. Well, finish it except for the weaving of the underarms.  I'm happy that it's done, but I'm not as happy with the overall sweater as I'd like to be.  For starters, I think the arms might be an inch too short (which may or may not be fixable with blocking).  The other issue has to do with the shoulder "seams".  They stick out too much, giving the shape of the sweater an 80s big shoulderpad look that I really don't like.  Of course I have already sewn in the ends before I really thought about the fit and shape.  I think I was just so pleased to have actually finished an adult-sized sweater that I wasn't thinking clearly.  Now I'm putting off the underarm weaving until I decide what I want to do (if anything) about the sleeves and shoulders.  I've got plenty of yarn left (5+ skeins) so making the sleeves longer is definitely an option.

Future Knitting Plans:
I've had a blast with the new Strauch ball winder that Boy gave me for Christmas.  Being a wise Boy, he correctly deduced that buying me a handy tool like the ball winder might facilitate the production of more Foot Hugs for his feet.  He actually ordered the ball winder from Otto Strauch himself and it arrived on my doorstep just two days later!  I did spend the first weekend after its arrival winding a bunch of sock yarn, so Boy might be right about that Foot Hug production connection....

Despite finishing several items in the past few weeks, I'm not experiencing any knitting slump.  Quite the opposite, actually.  Once I get Sis' February Sweaters finished, I'm not sure what I'll focus on.  Several of my family members have now mentioned getting socks again, so I suppose it's time for round two of socks for them.  The last time I knit everybody socks was probably 7 or 8 years ago, so I can't really disagree with them.  I still have two shawls in progress too (Errold's Grove and the Fall 2009 Goddess Mystery Shawl) and the Tri-Cities Socks.  Maybe I can knit two rows of the Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl a day, then work on the February Sweater....  At least my knitting energies are focused on getting projects finished, rather than starting new ones. :-)

Bad Computer, No Biscuit

I had some lovely photos of my finished Serpentine sock uploaded on my laptop Sunday. Apparently a power surge yesterday caused my laptop's brand new hard drive to lose its mind.  I think I deleted photos from the camera so I'll have to remember to take another pic.  Even worse is that I lost the before picture to my French Press Slippers.  The unfelted slipper was about 2 feet long.  The felted slipper fits a size 9 woman's foot quite nicely, albeit a bit loosely about the top opening. I love to document the huge differences between before and after with felted items.

French Press Slippers
These were a lot of fun to make.  I'd been enamored of them before the Yarn Harlot fell under their spell.  (They remind me of the ballet slipper-like house shoes my paternal grandmother used to wear.) Having had a not-so-fun day on that particular day, I used them as a spot of personal retail therapy. I used some stashed Plymouth Galway in navy for them.  I didn't whip out the pair in 90 minutes, but I did get them knit in perhaps 3-4 hours total knitting time.  I have neither put the straps on them nor purchased buttons. There's no telling how long that will take.

Crabby Socks!
I have started sock number 2 for my sister.  I foresee no reason I can't get these finished by Christmas.  I might not even have to work on them in front of her and pretend that they're mine. (She's used to seeing me constantly knit.)  I don't think I'll manage to get my pair finished, though I should be able to make a dent in getting them started. 

I think I have the hang of the magic cast on for toe up socks.  I had to look it up again for this one, but I think I've got it stored in my brain now.  The slip stitch goes on the top needle and the yarn goes round the needles from under/outside. 

The Russian cast off that Wendy describes in her book seems to be a winner in terms of stretchability and simplicity.  I like having an option I can use in case I don't ahve a yarn needle (making the sewn cast off impossible).  It doesn't always happen, but sometimes I don't always have extra tools available and I'd hate to get stuck with no way to proceed.

Pictures of all this stuff coming soon!!!

A Brief Update

A deceased hard drive in my laptop has rather cut into my blogging lately. It's just not as much fun to sit at the desktop computer in the computer room to blog when compared to sitting in the comfy chair with the laptop  while watching old movies.

On the other hand, I have gotten more knitting done....
The Socktoberfest socks are complete. They're a bit larger in circumference than I'd like but a trip through the washing machine this weekend helped that immensely.  From here on out, they'll primarily be handwashed.

I had a sincere go at the Fall 2009 Mystery Shawl and promptly made a mistake about three rows into it.  I'm in the process of tinking back.  I need to figure out where to put markers in it. There are some motif repeats, but nothing really sticks out as a Place Marker Here spot.  Once I get that done, I think progress will pick up dramatically.

The Tri-Cities Sock is past the heel and gusset shaping.  I don't remember where on the foot I am.  This is back to being a 4-5 row repeat so works pretty quickly.  I won't get both socks done by the end of the year but I might get them done by the end of January.

Taking precedence in the knitting queue is a new project: The Crabby McHappypants socks for my sister and me.  The yarn is Socks That Rock Mediumweight in the Crabby McHappypants colorway (corals and blues).  The whole idea came about when my sister commented that she was named  "Assy Jackass McSmartypants" at work one day for being a Smartass/Smartypants.  Later that week I stumbled upon the Crabby McCrabbypants and Crabby McHappypants yarns.  Since we've both been called Crabbypants before too, we thought Crabby yarn was a must have.  Both of us liked the colors in the Crabby McHappypants better than the Crabby McCrabbypants, even if we do like the latter name a whole lot more.

Now I need to knit at least one pair of socks between now and Christmas.  I'm not sure I can get it done.  I've got a lot of baking and some shopping/shipping to get done too. Ideally I'd like to get both pair finished, but I think that's definitely out of the question.

The pattern I've chosen is Serpentine Socks from Wendy Johnson's new book Socks From the Toe Up.  This is my first foray into toe-up socks.  It took a bit of extra research to figure out Judy's Magic Cast-On, but once I got past that, I figured things out quickly enough.  It was really fun to learn a new technique too.
 
The only thing I need to keep tabs on now is what numbers I use for cast on stitches, length to gusset/heel shaping, etc.  It's not going to be difficult to do, unless I start getting top-down and toe-up numbers switched around.   In hopes of preventing that, I'm putting an old index card box to good use and creating an index card for each of my sock victims recipients.  The front of the card will hold the relevant measurements while the back will hold the information about the actua socks I've knit for them.  Ideallly this would be kept on the computer, but a hard copy card system should work well enough for now.  I'll build a real database later if I get bored.

Update: I have finished the first of the Serpentine Socks. I'm totally sold on the toe-up method though I still prefer DPNs over 2 circulars.  I hate having to push the stitches over the join to get them to the needle tip. It feels like it slows my knitting immensely.

Long Time No Report....

I still haven't purchased yarn for my sister's February Lady Sweater Pullover.  I'd still like to knit it for her (February) birthday.  Perhaps that will be my bit of Thanksgiving shopping this year....

I have, however, actually been knitting.  I am halfway through the 2nd sock from Socktoberfest.

I'm halfway through the first sock of my Tri-Cities Socks (aka Pittsworth by Spilly Jane).

The Fall 2009 Mystery Shawl is still stuck in Clue #1.  I went through a period where I screwed up every row I knit, so I put it aside for a while.  Once I finish my socks I'll pick it back up.

 Darning Pile
Not long ago, Yarn Harlot talked about her experience with Shoemaker Syndrome (or Cobbler Syndrome).  She observed that while she knits socks all the time, she tends to knit them for other people rather than herself and that her socks all tend to be of a similar vintage so they wear out at about the same time.  I have the same problem.

This is my pile of socks that need their heels darned. 

It's only four pair.  I've been trying to remember how old they are and, as near as I can tell, it's been five to eight years since these were knit.  I can't say that I'm terribly upset or surprised that the heels might have small thin spots by this point. On the other hand, I dislike darning socks, not to mention that there is only so much darning that a given sock can take, so I should probably start planning to crank out a stack of replacement socks for myself. Fortunately I have somewhere around 185 sock patterns stored on my computer (plus the hardcopy patterns on my bookshelf) and sufficient sock yarn in my stash to knit 30-ish pair of socks.  I think I'll be in good shape sock-wise before too long.

After I discovered the first pair of socks which needed darning, I when through the rest of my socks to check for others that needed repair.  I also grouped them all by color, just to see if there was a trend or pattern. Surprisingly there really isn't. The most common color is various shades of red. I have no handknit socks in the following colors: black, tan, white or yellow.  I could really use a pair of socks that is dark green (and of course I have no dark green yarn in the sock stash).  The closest match to my dark green sweater I could find today was a pair of socks that is lime green and purple (Lorna's Laces Jungle Stripe). Other than that, I seem to have most colors represented in some way. Mind you, I still have clothes that don't match any existing socks, but if people aren't used to seeing me wear socks that don't entirely match my clothes by now....

I haven't any idea what socks to knit after I get these two pair finished.  Heck, even if I did decide on something (as I'm sure I have done at least twice in the past), I'm sure I'd change my mind before I actually get them started anyway.  At the moment, probably because of the socks I'm currently working on, I'm rather enamored of patterns with twisted stitches. Perhaps something like Pamina or Lohengrin or Magic Mirror.  We'll see what I like when the time comes to actually pick something. :-)

Slight Change in Plans

I came across a pullover version of the February Lady Sweater and sent the link to my sister (she for whom I was going to knit a FLS for her Feb Birthday).  Personally I think the pullover would be more flattering on me and decided that I'll knit myself one soon.  Sis was initially wishy-washy about which she wanted.  I put my foot down and told her to tell me which one she really liked cuz I wasn't going to spend my time knitting her something that held no magic for her.  She laughed and said pullover.

Finally, Procrastination pays off!  I hadn't even purchased the yarn yet, much less cast on the sweater.  w00t!