FO Friday -- Blocking Rocks Edition

Man, I LOVE it when I finish a sweater.  I love it even more when it fits and doesn't turn out kind of wonky.  And I gotta say, I had some concerns.  Here's how Lorna Suzanne looked when the knitting was done and the ends are woven.  It's pretty much the definition of wonky:

Yikes.  But I gave it a little swim in the sink, carefully squished some water out and then used approximately eleventy billion pins to wrangle it into submission.  Like so...

Seriously folks, I'm a girl in need of a set of blocking wires.

**This is the part where I show you the "after" bit, with the buttons all sewn on and the sweater looking fabulous on me... except for the part where it's totally still wet.  Sad panda. 

I contemplated going after it with the hair dryer so you guys could see, but that seemed a bit rash.  Instead, you get this picture with buttons carefully balanced amongst the pins, where if you squint, you'll be able to tell sort of how it might look say, tomorrow...

I promise I'll come back this weekend and update the pics on this entry with something more satisfying.  Sorry! **

Okay, so it took me until Sunday evening, but here are pics of the sweater in its full glory!

Pardon the squintiness, I was looking directly into the sun, and in a mad rush since Mr. Right and I were headed out to the trail to try out our brand new backpacks (more on them later!).

Here's a slightly closer shot...

That shows off the lace better.  I love this thing, and it's just a smidge bigger than I expected.  The only thing I wish was a smidge different was the neckline. It's a bit lower than I'd like.   If I had it to do again, I'd keep working the front for another inch or two before starting the decreases.  But as it is, I love it quite a bit, and am planning to wear it to work tomorrow. 

And one final shot of the back:

Pretty decent fit, I think. 

The yarn wasn't quite the color I wanted, but I think it worked out okay in the end.  It's Valley Yarns Northampton, which is dirt cheap and not bad to work with.  I used just over 4 skeins and so have enough left over for a pair of fingerless mitts or some such.  Not a bad deal at all.

As for the pattern, it was awesome to knit and the designer was incredibly patient with all my silly questions.  I read somewhere that she named the sweater after her mom, which I thought was an incredibly cool idea.  So cool that I totally copied her.  On my project page, this is actually called Janet Lavonne, who just happened to be the world's coolest grandma (despite her rather appalling fashion sense). 

She tried until she was blue in the face to teach me how to knit, then finally gave up and taught me how to crochet instead.  That didn't take either, but I think she'd be pretty pleased (not to mention jaw-droppingly surprised) to find that I'd actually knitted a whole (wearable, even!) sweater and named it after her. 

Next up in the ol' sweater queue is Narragansett, which totally line-jumped Idlewood when I found that amazing Shepherd's Wool that I picked up at the Loopy Ewe.  I'll start swatching as soon as I finish my Mousie (more on him Wednesday)!

For now, I'm going to go pester Mr. Right into taking me out to dinner to celebrate sweet sweater-y (almost) success.  And then I'm going to go check out everyone else's FO successes at Tami's and Fiber Arts Friday.  Can't think of a better way to start the weekend.  Cheers!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.76

Hey, y'all!  Welcome to Not-So-Much-Progress Wednesday!  Mr. Right has been so kind as to pass along his creeping crud to me over the last week, so there's not been a whole lotta knitting going on around here lately.  Just lots of sniffling, grumbling and the tiniest bit of whining.  And I haven't been much of a prize to be around either. (Kidding!  No, really...)

Anyway, Lorna Suzanne has a collar now, and I'm getting ready to pick up the button band tonight. 

I best get with it and find some buttons so I know what size to make the button holes.  Suggestions, anyone?  I'm thinking something simple and pewter-ish or dark shell, but am open to ideas (or links!) if you'd care to toss any out there.

The sock is marginally bigger...

though it only got worked on while the Broncos were being decimated in New England on Saturday night.  Yikes, that was an unpleasant game for us Colorado folks.  Good season, though!  Thankfully, I'm still loving both the pattern and the yarn. 

Finally.  Finally, there is some mitten attached to my epic cuff.  It's not much mitten, but it's there, and it's growing. Slowly.  At this point, though, I'll take whatever forward motion I can get on these.

Mr. Right was very proud of his artsy fartsy mitten photo, and was very sure you would all appreciate it.  So here it is, in all its glory.

Personally, I like the "Look!  A flower!" pic myself, but I might be biased.

At this point, I'm kind of dying to finish something, so I'm focusing on the last bits of sweater now.  Once I get there, I hope I'll relax a little, but I'm already itching to get that Idlewood going.  And the mitten finished.  And the sock...

For now, I think I'll just go bask in the warm glow of too much cough medicine and other people's successes at WIPW.

Work in Progress Wednesday v.75

After last Friday's adventure in an abandoned mine, we now return to our regularly scheduled WIPW programming.

I gotta say, I had so much fun knitting that Peerie Flooers hat, and I was soooo excited to start the mittens.  And folks, it just isn't going well.  Case in point:



Remember this picture from last week?  I snapped it and proudly proclaimed the cuff to finally be finished.  Yeah, not so much.  I started reading the next section of the pattern which said something like, "Now join the oatmeal colored yarn."  And I said out loud, "Oatmeal colored yarn?  I'm already knitting with the ...   ...   Oh.  Crap."  That's right.  Half of that ribbing was supposed to be done with light blue, and I totally just didn't make that switch.  Off to the frog pond, again.

(Many) Hours later, it looks like this:



Not much different, but I assure you there was LOTS of work involved in getting there.  This time, the cuff really is done, the ends are woven, and I've attached the cuff lining to the mitten, joined the freaking oatmeal colored yarn, and started working up from there, with lots of help from my knit night buddies.

Attaching the cuff was a fiddly process, for sure.  But I'm over the hump now, and promising to keep the chart close by as I dive into the body of the mitten.  Say a little prayer for me.


Lorna Suzanne, on the other hand is a much better behaved project.



I had some math trouble with the neckline cast off, but I fudged it just a bit and it turned out great.  Next up is picking up stitches for the collar.  Yay!  I also tried it on a couple of days ago, and while the sleeves are a bit tight, it's nothing a good blocking won't fix, and the rest of it fits pretty darn well.  Phew!

In other news, we went 4-wheeling with a bunch of folks in the snow on Sunday, which was a lot of fun.  Also, pretty:







And, since I am a smart girl, I always take a knitting project with me for those times when we drive half a mile and then 3 trucks get stuck so we sit for an hour.  Unfortunately, the sweater was too big to bring, and the mitten was too fiddly (fair isle in the cab of a truck?  no thanks), so I had no choice but to cast on a new sock that would be just right. You can call me Goldilocks.

I had some Socks That Rock in Motley Hue that's been languishing in the old sock stash for ages.



I was so smitten with the colorway when I bought it that I didn't realize it was sport weight yarn and not fingering.  Oops.  Last week, I finally found a (free!) sock pattern that calls for sport weight sock yarn, and now my Duckies are on the way.



This is a fun little pattern, and I gotta say, I'm wowed at how fast this thicker yarn works up.  It's amazing!

Finally, in case you're part of the Blog Hub Group on Ravelry and haven't already seen it -- There's a swap looming!  I totally signed up, and you should too.  It's going to be a blast, and I'd especially love to send fun little packages to one of you.  So go sign up.  I'll wait.

Okay, good job.  Normally, I'd tell you to go check out everyone else's WIPW entries, but I figure I've been bossy enough already today.

Work in Progress Wednesday v.74

Happy 2012, y'all!

You'd think that being on vacation I'd have found lots of time to knit over the last week, but umm... not so much.  I did manage a bit of it, though:

Lorna Suzanne is up to the start of the collar now, and I'm a little bit stuck.  I want to make sure that I understand the next step of the pattern before I go any farther, so I'm taking a pause to message the designer (who's a total rock star, by the way), to double check before I muck something up.  Good idea, no?  Anyway, here's how it looks now, a bit bigger than last week, but not too different:



I'm just a couple of hours of knitting away from collar and button bands, so hoping to get back to it soon.  Still loving the pattern and the yarn, and now convinced that I'll have enough of the latter so I'll actually be able to complete the former.  Bonus!

While I've been pondering sweater yokes from afar, I've been making a mitten cuff:



And it's done!  I'm a bit wary of doing a knitted hem on the turned up cuff lining, since it's in the round and there are dpns involved.  I've written a tutorial on doing them flat, but this seems more fiddly.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Hopefully there will be some actual mitten attached to this by next week.

And now for the really exciting news:  I'm going to Stitches West!!!  I know.  I can't believe it either.  I've actually been once before when I lived right around the corner and had knitted a scarf or two.  We went and checked it out on a Saturday, and it was huge and overwhelming, but I didn't have any idea that it was any kind of big deal.  What a waste!

Anyway, it happens to fall on my birthday this year, and so my former co-worker, who's since moved to New Hampshire (Hi, BB!) is flying out and meeting me, and we're going to do it up right this time.  We're taking a class with Cookie A (sock mistress extraordinaire, as seen here and also there), and going to the market preview, and just generally planning to soak it all up.  I'm also giving myself carte blanche on yarn purchases while I'm there-- don't get too worried, it's nearly impossible for me to spend money so I don't expect to go too crazy.  But I can if I want!  Eep!  I'm SO excited!  Is anyone else planning on attending?  Let me know, it would be super fun to meet up. 

For more yarn-related joyful excitement, go check out all the rest of the WIPW entries.  I'll see you there!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.73

Ah, the post-Christmas collapse!  I kind of love it.  I have a whole week of vacation to do not very much at all, and that's a pretty rare thing around here.  So, (surprise, surprise) I've been knitting my face off!  Awesome.

Remember that sleeve I was whining about last week?  Done!  I'm so glad to be on the other side of the whole sleeve business that I'm actually weirdly happy about knitting rows that have 200+ stitches.  Yep, the raglan decreases are in full swing around here...

I'm hoping that I might actually be done with the body of the sweater and on to the button bands and collar before the end of the week, but we'll see.  So far, I'm pretty happy with the way Lorna Suzanne is coming together, even if it does look like it would fit a 6-year-old at the moment. 

I also dug out the formerly mucked-up-and-then-frogged mitten cuff this week and got the ribbing going again.  So far, so good this time.  Fingers crossed.

Look what I found in my Christmas stocking! 

I'm very proud of Mr. Right for venturing into Barnes and Noble and purchasing a knitting magazine.  A move like that is pretty far outside his usual comfort zone.

And then under the tree... this:

I know, right?  It's kind of like me giving him an issue of, well... Vogue Knitting.  I tried to interestedly  flip through my new jeep magazine in an effort to be a good significant other, and guess what fell out!?!  A receipt for a set of Darn Pretty interchangeables from Dyakcraft!  <<insert joyful jumping up and down here>>  He's pretty good at being sneaky some times. These needles are beyond lovely and handmade in the US, which is a rare find these days. They were at the tippity top of my Christmas wish list, and I'm so so excited to have them -- in 12-14 weeks. Ah well, I know they'll be worth the wait.

Anyone else have a knitterly Christmas?  I'd love to hear.  Meanwhile, I'll be spending the rest of this week getting Mr. Right ready to travel.  We found out today that he'll be leaving in the next week or so for a 6 month (!) assignment, part in California and part in Alaska.  More details to come as we figure stuff out, and I'll pop in to visit the rest of the WIPW posts when I can.

In the mean time, Happy New Year, guys!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.72

Hey, WIPW peeps!   Welcome to Christmas crunch time.  Anyone else feeling the strain just a bit?  I have just a couple more presents to pick up for Mr. Right, and then some wrapping to do, and then I can collapse.  I'm sooooo ready for that last part, since it means I can actually get to knitting again.

This week, I have sleeve.  It's within just a couple of rounds of being transferred to waste yarn so that I can knit its mate. 

I have to say, knitting a sleeve on incredibly dull bamboo dpns is less fun than I'd like.  In fact, I contemplated a one-armed sweater for just a quick minute before I decided it was more pathetic than trendy.  Sigh.  I'm so looking forward to getting back to the actual business of sweater-ing and the sleeves just seem like a dumb side trip.  Somehow I think I'll appreciate them a bunch more when I'm actually wearing the sweater, but we'll see.

I also have part of a puff.  It won't take long to finish, but I've discovered that all sock yarn is not created equal, and puffs made from Noro are pretty, and HUGE. 

(Random thought:  Isn't it weird how different the same countertop looks in sequential no-flash shots?)

I'd put this puff at about 30% bigger than its companions, but I guess it's not a huge deal since they're all quilt-tied together in the end which will allow for some size variation, right???  Here's hoping.

For now, I'm going to crawl into bed (it's bedtime on Tuesday night here), then crawl through the last couple of work days before vacation.  Somewhere in there, I'm going to go visit all the other WIPW entries for a little Christmas cheer (and Hanukkah happiness and umm... Festivus festivity?).

So until the aftermath, and next week's glut of New Year's resolutions...

Merry Christmas!*


*if you celebrate something else this time of year, I wish you all good cheer in that, too.  I'm just a Christmas girl, and get a little defensive about no one uttering the phrase "Merry Christmas" for fear of offending folks.  So, no offense intended -- just tons of seasonal happiness for all of you!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.71

Happy Wednesday, folks!  It's official, even I'm starting to feel a tiny bit panicky about Christmas.  I'm usually way ahead of the game with this type of thing, but all that craziness last summer threw me off my game a little bit.  (Quick update:  Mr. Right and I are doing well now, still working on things but definitely heading in the right direction.  Yay!)  Anyway, I still have some Christmas prep to do, and I'm betting I'm not alone.  Anyone else?

In other, less urgent news...  Lorna Suzanne is still sailing along at a pretty good clip.  The body doesn't look much different than last week, but it's a couple of inches taller and officially on hold at the armpits, patiently waiting for its sleeves.

I had a bit of a scare on sleeve one, wherein I looked at the cuff I'd just finished and declared it to be ginormous.  Seriously, this thing looked huge.

I contemplated frogging, but instead put it aside and frogged the Peerie mitten ribbing to get rid of the stupid mistake I made right at the beginning.  Why are the really dumb mistakes always right at the beginning?  Anyway.  Ta da!  It's a mitten lining once more.

I'll put some elbow grease into it this weekend and see if I can get it back on track.

Once I took a few deep breaths and picked up the Massive Sleeve Cuff again, I realized that this pattern calls for 3/4 length sleeves, and as it happens... my forearms are somewhat larger than my wrists, and the Massive Sleeve Cuff is really just kinda normal-sized.  Awesome.  I love it when that happens.  Now I'm back to soldiering away on sleeve #1, and longing for 2 finished sleeves so I can join everything onto my circ and get back to some nice long rows. 


Oh!  And the Idlewood yarn arrived this week, much faster than expected.

So you see, I really need to get this sweater done so I can start on that one.  Isn't it pretty?  I kind of love it (It's Cascade 220 in the Cordovan colorway).

Finally, I've been rather hopelessly obsessed with the Pinterest world the last few days.  It's such a time suck, and there's so much cool stuff.  Anyone use this site?  Thoughts?  Got a spare invite?  Because at the moment, I'm on the waiting list.  And I'm not the most patient person ever.  I'm super curious to know what your experience has been if you'd care to share.

ETA:  Thanks, Nikki for the Pinterest invite!  I'm all set now, but if anyone else would like one, let me know.  I'm suddenly in a position to send them.  Yay!

If I can tear myself away from that, I'll be making the rounds, checking out everyone else's WIPW entries.  Join me?

Work in Progress Wednesday v.70

Greetings from the frozen land!  It got just north of 20 degrees farenheit here today (that's -7 celsius) and it felt like picnic weather.  Yesterday, it didn't get much past 3, which is really freaking cold regardless of the scale you use.  I had to knit just to keep warm.  Sacrifices...

Last week, Lorna Suzanne was just a tiny little seed of a sweater, and it looked like this:

Today, I'm about 2" from stopping at the armpits and knitting up the sleeves.  I LOVE this pattern.  I do not LOVE making these cute little berries in the lace.  They're kind of fiddly.  But I can totally live with it if the sweater turns out half as well as it's looking at the moment.

Gauge is still running a tiny bit bigger than the pattern, so I remain ever hopeful that it will fit like a glove when it's all finished.  Everyone cross your fingers, please!

Since lightning fast (at least for me) sweater production didn't seem like enough to keep me busy, I went yarn shopping.  What?  It was 20% off Saturday.  I had no choice.  I bought this:

It's Kia Ora Rimu fingering by Zealana.  Quite a mouthful.  I found it on clearance at my LYS, and had passed it up a few times already.  But it's 60% New Zealand Merino and 40% possum (!) and soooooooo soft.  It's kind of ridiculous.  Know what's ridiculous-er?  I bought it to make a baby dress.  For a baby.  Crazy, yes?  I couldn't help it, it's exactly the right shade (It's a heathery dark denim color.  Honest.) for what I wanted and did I mention soft?  So soft.  It's going to grow up to be Fiona's Top, a ridiculously -- sensing a theme here? -- expensive pattern that I justified by convincing myself I'll knit it for every girl baby who comes along.  It's that cute. 

I also ordered, because 20%!  Off! -- 5 skeins of Cascade 220 in Cordovan to knit an Idlewood.  It was totally an impulse buy, but I think it'll be pretty. 

And, over Thanksgiving, I ordered a set of Candy Skein minis for my Power Puff Quilt, which are totally amazing.  Look...

It's a whole rainbow of puff ingredients.  You get enough of each color to make 2 of each puff, but I'm planning on one solid puff of each color, then some stripey puffs and some rainbow puffs, and, and, and...

Also, they come with these eensy little candy beads!  I have no idea what I'll do with them but they are adorable.  Seriously. And you'll just have to believe me on this one, because every single picture turned out blurry.  Sorry!

Also, they came with (Suddenly, I'm doing a Ginsu knives commercial* here...) this sample of Candy Skein Delicious, which might be the softest thing I've ever touched. 

I'm going to have to find a pattern to justify ordering a pile of it after Christmas, because at the moment the queue is a bit backed up.  Luckily, Christmas vacation is just around the corner.

...which doesn't in any way mean that Christmas is just around the corner.   I'm sure you still have plenty of time.  No need to panic.  Yet.  In fact, you should treat yourself with a visit to WIP Wednesday to see what everyone else is up to.  Rushing around can start next week or so.  (Is it working?  Are you less stressed now?)

*I <3 the internet.  It's amazing what you can dig up!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.69

Happy Wednesday, guys!  It's an epic day, 'round these parts.  I finished the socks!  Both of them, even!  Aaaaaand... I got to start on a new project.  Very exciting, indeed.

No more about the socks until Friday, as I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I love them a bunch, and they turned out super comfy as a bonus.  Yay!

To celebrate, I knitted up a swatch for Lorna Suzanne fully expecting that I would need to go down a needle size.  Not so much, actually.  I was almost spot on, running a fraction of a stitch bigger than the gauge that was called for.  This is perfect, since I'm knitting a size that's just a tiny bit optimistic at this point.  I'm still losing weight, but not at last summer's heartbreak rate, so I'm hoping it should all work out perfectly.

With the gauge swatch getting the nod of approval from my Monday Night Knitting pals,  I dove in and cast on for the actual sweater last night.  181 stitches.  And then I knitted 3 rows of the garter stitch border.  All on the wrong size needles.  Sigh.  Really, I'm just here to boost your knitterly self-esteem.  See how much lamer I am than everyone else?  You're welcome.  Anywho, once I got that bit sorted out, it looks like this...

And here's a close up that's more accurate for color.  Sorry!

Breathtakingly beautiful, no?  I'm just now finishing the first repeat of lace and am a nervous wreck since I can never tell how lace is supposed to look until it's too late.  It looks so easy and yet I always manage to muck it up.  Not my strong suit for sure, but really I should be able to do this.  Right? 

The Peerie mitts are still hanging around, about to be frogged back to the cuff lining since Mr. Right's mom, bless her heart, took one look and pointed out a mistake in the first round of ribbing.  More sigh.  See?

I really want them to look as great as the hat, so back we go.  But with the socks having graduated to FO status, they're the dpn project on the front burner and progress should be faster over the next couple of weeks.  Here's hoping.

And now, if you'd be so kind as to leave any examples of dumb things you've done in the comments, I'd be very appreciative of the company.  Then, once you're done making me feel better, you should go check out all the other WIPs out there this week.  I'm sure they're knitted on the right size needles.  Mostly.

Work in Progress Wednesday v.64

Hey y'all!  It's officially the Wednesday before my sweater class with Ysolda Teague, and you know what that means, right?  Right.  I can think of little else.  I ordered yarn for my next sweater, which has arrived just in the nick of time.

The pattern is Lorna Suzanne (which appears to exist only on Ravelry), a pattern I became instantly smitten with.  Caveat:  The project page makes it look an awful lot like an old lady sweater, worn over a collared blouse and with a little chain holding the collar together, but really, it's not.  Take a look at the finished sweaters -- it's a super cute pattern and I'm looking forward to diving in.

My instructions are to bring a swatch in progress to class on Sunday, so I plan to get that going tomorrow.  Is it bad form to bring a swatch for a non-Ysolda sweater to a Ysolda class, do you think?  I hope not...   I'm having a bit of a hard time getting to the swatch though, as I've finally (barely) started on Peerie Flooers and it's really, super hard to put it down. 

...which is lucky, because I just now realized that I was supposed to do 3 rounds per color and I've done 2 of each.  And then I cut the yarn.  Sigh.  Guess who's frogging 3 colors worth of fair isle tonight?

In happier news, Snug is not making an appearance here this week since I finished it up last weekend.  I'll add the buttons and give you all a proper show and tell on Friday.  Here's a hint:  It's pretty stinking cute.

Over on the back burner, Sock is still trundling along.  I've got another inch or so of foot to go before I start decreasing for the toe.  And then... sock #2.  Some day.  I'm almost sure of it.

Finally, I'm putting together the last mini skeins for the beekeeper's quilt sock yarn swap now that everyone's yarn has arrived, and am hoping to get everything mailed out by this weekend.  Fingers crossed!

Phew!  It's been a busy week.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to get ready for the blizzard we're expecting tonight.  In true Colorado fashion, it was 80 degrees (27 C) yesterday and we're expecting a foot of snow to fall between tonight and tomorrow afternoon.  What's the weather doing in your neck of the woods these days?  Are you building an igloo, or still trying to beat the heat?  Share in the comments!  And then go visit WIPW -- there's amazing stuff happening out there!