Pictures

Oh, what the heck.

Father-in-law in earflap hat -


Made with Lion Brand Wool-ease thick & quick, took less than 24 hours to finish. Based on the Camo Earflap Cap.



The trio of Clapotis:



First one is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport, the other two are Cherry Tree Hill Supersock DK. The pattern is here.

The armwarmers:



First pair is Lime & Violet Sasquatch Sock, second is Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock. Pattern is Elegant Gauntlets from
The Knitting Experience: Book 2: The Purl Stitch

Nephew's hat:


Yarn is Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool and Brooks Farm Acero held together. Pattern is Brother-in-law basket weave hat.


Dad's scarf:


Yarn is Lion Brand Wool-ease Chunky. Pattern is Under Water.

Niece's scarf:


Yarn is Jo-Ann Sensations Spectrum. Pattern is Drop Stitch Scarf.


That was all the gifts. I was finishing up Dad's scarf on Christmas Eve, but everything was done on time. One of my resolutions is to start holiday knitting by February ;-)

Down to the wire

Finally finished the armwarmers for the nieces. I'm not totally happy with them, but they're damn good for a first effort with something like that on small needles. And if the girls want better I can make more for next year ;-)

Still need to tuck some ends on the clapotis (clapoti?) I made for Mom, MiL, and Dan's aunt. Given that it's all of maybe 2-3 per, that's not going to be a big problem. I want to do some blocking of them, but not full-on pinned down.

Have things for other niece and Dan's dad, too. Still need to finish the thing for my dad. Debating making a scarf to match what I made for the nephew.

I'm debating what to make after this. I do know one thing, it will be something just for me.

Gift knitting

We went to my parents' for an early Thanksgiving celebration the weekend before. I'm glad I decided to go ahead and try one of the in-process arm warmers on the nieces, because while it fit the younger one just fine, it didn't even come close on the older one. She's in competitive gymnastics, and, wow, that girl has some muscles.

I also decided to switch yarn for the older one's set. I had been working on her pair, and she didn't seem to like the yarn much. And after I thought about it, it's really not her. So I dug into my stash and came up with some jewel toned sock yarn that will be perfect for her. I'm on the first set of decreases already, which is pretty good since I didn't start it until Thursday.

I screwed up on the decrease section of the younger one's armwarmer, so I'm tinking back. I can't quite figure out where it is, but going back to the last decrease should help. I've been a little too mindless in my knitting on these, I screwed up on the older's one, too, but decided that a well placed-decrease would fix the extra stitch that creaped in there. And given how long it took me to find the increase, it won't be an obvious thing.

Still haven't made a final decision on the nephew's present, other than a funky hat of some sort. He's 15, almost 6 ft tall, and occasionally needs to be taken down a peg. I took the Wii with us, and he was being way over competitive until his dad took him down in a big way playing cow racing. Heh.

I had started a clapotis for Dan's aunt, but while working on it discovered that I seem to be allergic to alpaca. I had the whole itchy, watery eyes and itchy hands going. So I have some other yarn to use for it, now. And I think I'll make one for my SiL out of some Brooks Farm yarn I have in my stash.

Still not sure what to make for Dad. He's always a gift giving challenge.

I am feeling better, slowly getting back to decent energy levels. Had a sleep study awhile back and I will be getting a CPAP on Tuesday. I hope that helps the levels, too.

I'm almost done

Have I mentioned that I've never actually completed a knitting project yet?

*waits for the laughter to die down*

No, really, I haven't. Until I started on the projects I've documented here, all I've done were scarves that bored me to death to the point I frogged them or hid them in the closet.

All I have left on the hoodie is some seaming and 3 rows of knitting I can't do till I seam the hood. Given that I woke up at 4am for no good reason and I'm a bit fuzzy, I've put it aside for tomorrow or Saturday to finish.

While working on the clapotis, Dan asked if I would make one for his mom, too. So I just ordered that yarn. The one I'm working on is over half done.

I've been flipping through the projects on Ravelry to see what else I want to make for holiday gifts. I want to use some of my stash yarn, so the fact that I can search based on type of project and weight of yarn really rocks.

And tonight I have a sleep study, so to entertain myself after I get there I'm taking my knitting. Given that, I probably will be brain dead tomorrow (and might take tomorrow afternoon off work) I'm thinking the seaming will be on Saturday.

Yesterday men in trucks came and cleaned up our front beds. They were a complete and utter mess, weedy, unkempt. Dan and I hate yardwork, and it showed. Since we're going to sell the house in the spring, we decided to get it landscaped now to give the plants time to establish themselves. I think they did a great job. We'll have them back in the spring for touchups.

Hello, hello again

Am still here, just been busy. I have made wondrous progress on the hoodie, only one and a half sleeves to go plus seaming. It's going along better since I got my KnitPicks Options set. I got the nickel-plated tips for now, but I will probably get some Harmony tips, too. The yarn is sliding a lot easier on them than it was on the Denise set.






I know it's a little hard to see the detail, I suck at pictures. But that's the body and the hood, with the sleeve on the side.

I've also made good progress on the Clapotis. I'm on the straight part, and I have the pattern repeats down so it's somewhat of a mindless knit. The hoodie is top priority right now (the kid is growing, after all) but the Clapotis will be finished next.



The color is a bit off in this picture, it's better in the following one:



I've been adding tons of sock patterns to my Ravelry queue, because once I get all the holiday knitting done I'm going to make myself some socks. I have the yarn, after all ;-)

And I love knitting during conference calls. Since all of my meetings are via phone, I get a lot done. Most days I have at least one meeting, and there are very few of them that I have to give my whole attention to.

Whoo-hoo!

I've been slacking about posting lately, but it's for a good reason - I have a new job! I didn't talk about it up here much, but I unexpectedly found myself in need of a new position back in July, and from that disaster I found something that is going to work out so well in many ways.

One of the really good things is that I'm working from home on a regular basis. I will be traveling to 3 different data centers occasionally, but for the most part I will be in my home office.

The other really good thing is that Dan and I can relocate to Lafayette, which will make his school commute a lot better. Right now he's driving about 2.5 hours a day back and forth. Cutting that out of the day will give him so much more time for other things, including sleep :-)

But on to the fibery goodness!

I've been working steadily on the hoodie. The back is complete, I'm working on the front now:




Switching to the Shine yarn has made a HUGE difference and it's working up very nicely.

I've also been working on the girls' armwarmers. I've switched which set is going to which girl, after getting Mom's input. I had to frog one that I'd bound off when I realized that I'd left out a HUGE section during the increases. D'oh!

I was going to post more, but apparently I have a migraine coming on, so more later.

I should have known better

I will admit I was a bit worried about using the KnitPicks Crayon yarn, given its texture. But, hey, I know how to read stuff, right?

Not knitting. I've crocheted for years, but at knitting I really am still a n00b.

After several weeks of frustration, I've frogged it. 7 inches of stockinette.

I ordered some KnitPicks Shine to replace it. Still going with red.

I'll make something for Dan from the Crayon at some point. Later. Maybe I'll even crochet it.

On the other hand, I've made real progress on both sets of armwarmers. I've cast on the second set (so I'm working on the first one of both sets) and I really like how the colors are working together.

I'll post new pictures later.

Progress!

Here's part of the present I'm making. It's more red than it seems to be - I'm using KnitPicks Crayon. It's coming along well, other than the mind-numbing stockinette.














I'm also working on armwarmers for my nieces for Christmas. I've had some somewhat started and had to frog it. I just cast it back on and haven't gotten very far yet. It's made with Lime & Violet Sasquatch sock yarn. The one for the older one is in hydrocodone.











The colorway for the younger one is vicodin. The names were inspired by Miss Violet's trip to the ER for migraines - there was a whole series of medication-related named yarns :-D

Not a lot new

I did end up frogging the armwarmers for Meredith. I've restarted them, but haven't done much with them yet. I am on the endless stockinette on the back of Gabriel's gift, but it's coming along. Just a few more inches and I start making the insets for the armholes.

I'm going to take pictures of it later. Steph, if you're reading this, you're not allowed to look ;-)

Mail call!

Got a box from KnitPicks! Got the yarn I need for Gabriel's gift, 2 sets of circulars (2 & 3 in the 32" size, want to see if I can magic loop with them) and 2 more books.

I've been buying too many books lately - when I add things to my Ravelry queue it tells me which books I need for those patterns, and most of those books are ones I wanted to have anyway. But, yeah.

And now I have 3 projects on the needles.

Been spending too much time on Ravelry

My queue at Ravelry is HUGE! I'm not going to knit anything that I don't a) already have the pattern for and b) already have the yarn for unless it's important, like an item for Steph and Pete's new arrival. I had been racking my brain to find the right thing for that miracle baby, and it came to me yesterday when I was browsing patterns.

Of course, I had to order the yarn and #3 needles. I have 2 sets of interchangeables and neither of them go down to a 3. Sheesh!

The pain meds are making concentrating on my knitting really hard right now. Good thing I'm on the 9 inches of mindless knitting on the fuzzy feet. The good thing is since I'm working from home I can knit when things are slow :-)