Finished October Knit-Along

I finally went and got some buttons and attached them to finish my Cctober Knit-Along! You can find the pattern here.

I have never attached buttons to my knitting before, so that was a new experience, but after watching a few videos, I felt pretty confident to do it, and I think it turned out well.

 They aren't spaced perfectly evenly, and I thought about moving the center one down a little bit, but I really don't want to.

The fit is good, although the middle button is a little tighter than I would really like. Maybe if it makes me uncomfortable while I'm wearing it, I'll move it, but for now it's fine.

Someone else said that lighter yarn lends itself to this pattern better, and I do see that, but I'm already finished with it, and I'm still perfectly pleased with the results.

And that concludes my first knit-along project. I loved having something that was different than the normal things I knit as well as having a date to have it finished by. All those years of school really have me (and lots of people I know) conditioned to work on deadlines. I can't wait to start November's knit-along!

Happy knitting!

Green Bay Packers Hat

I've been trying to start knitting Christmas presents for everyone, and I do have something for most everyone. There are a few people left I'm still worrying about, but it just occurred to me the other day that I ought to get my sister's boyfriend something. She always wants to get my boyfriend presents, so I figured it was only fair.

Last week I was at Joann's looking for circular needles to knit hats for boyfriend and his friends for Dag anyway, and so I popped over to the Red Heart Team Spirit self-striping yarn. Then I realized that I don't know what teams he likes, so I texted my sister and asked her. I was a little appalled to learn that he likes the Packers and the Cubs, but I grabbed some green and yellow yarn and some Clover Takumi US 9 16 in. circular needles and was on my way. I was a little annoyed with Joann's when I got to the knitting needles section and found they only had two brands of knitting needles and a rather poor selection within those. I wanted some metal needles because that's what I'm used to and they're cheaper than bamboo. Unfortunately, they only had 29 in. and up lengths in the metal needles. I wanted (I was guessing) a 16 in. needle because I wanted to be able to knit hats on it without any fuss. I found what I was looking for in the bamboo  needles, and they were on sale, so I guess it was okay.

Next was for me to ask my sister if her boyfriend would wear a hat or if I would have to make him something else. She reported that he would, but he wanted it to be a sports team hat (check) with a pom pom on it (doable).

Yesterday I actually sat down and started his hat. At first I wasn't sure what kind of hat I wanted to make, and then I really looked at the hat pattern on the yarn, and decided that was the way to go. The pattern said to cast on 90 stitches on US 7 needles, and since I had US 9, I decided to cut it down to 80 stitches. I did check my gauge, but for whatever reason, each test swatch I did came out claiming I had the same gauge as the US 7 needles. I mean, I knit pretty tight, but not that tight. So 80 it was. However, I misread the directions some a little. It said to start the hat on straight needles-no big, I would just start on my new circular needles-and then purl one wrong sided row before switching to double pointed needles. This instruction for whatever reason didn't make sense to me at the time, and I got it into my head that what that meant was for the first row to be purled so the hat wouldn't roll because of the stockinette stitch. I later realized how incorrect I had been, but by then it was too far to go back, and it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference.

Yesterday afternoon I sat and knitted the first 5 inches of the hat, and then did the first couple decreasing rounds. While I was knitting those first couple rounds, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to finish the hat the way it was, but I don't have double pointed needles large enough to swap out, so I thought I'd learn the magic loop. I knew it was meant to be done on much (much much) longer needles than 16 in., but it was kind of late, and I couldn't think how I could get it onto my longer circular needles. So I pushed right on through and finished the hat using the magic loop on 16 in. needles. It was a pain, and then next time I make a hat on these needles, I am going to do something else, but I managed it, and the hat looks pretty good if i do say so myself.

Last night I also knitted the ear flaps onto the hat. I wasn't sure how it was going to work out, but I was really glad I used the thumb cast-on (the first thing she shows in the video-I know she says there are problems with it, but it's the way my grandma taught me to cast-on, and I really like it for hats and things that need a lot of stretch) because those stitches were so easy to see and pick up. They were so easy, and they looks so cute.

So after that, I was finished with the hat for the night.

Not because I actually hat finished it, but because I didn't feel like making the pom pom, and I don't have a big enough crochet needle to do the edging the pattern calls for. I've never done edging on a hat before, so I was on the fence about doing it at all, but I'm hoping it will make the hat stop rolling, so I'm going to set this hat aside until I can pick up the right size crochet needle. Okay, I might make the pom pom, and I did cut the lengths of yarn to make the braids which I can't attach until the edging it done.

Happy knitting!

Boyfriend's Finished Irish Mittens

I finished my first pair of mittens! They went to smoothly, too, aside from I missed a part of the pattern and didn't leave any space between the cuff and thumb gusset. Here's the pattern.

Boyfriend doesn't seem to mind though. They fit him great and look great on him.

Now he has a hat, scarf, and mittens all in the Irish flag colors!

However, it turns out that I still have a ton of orange yarn left. A decent amount of white, too. Unfortunately, I've already put the green into my scrap blanket. So I'm going to pull what I have of the blanket apart, re-ball the green, and make one more Irish project. I think I'm going to try socks, although I've looked at a couple of patterns and they look really confusing. I'm going to keep browsing for a good pattern. I want a magic loop toe up patterns because I want to be able to size it on boyfriend as I go, and I want to learn the magic loop.

Happy knitting!

Sister's Scarf into Sister's Mittens

After deciding that I wasn't going to make my sister a scarf to match her headband, I couldn't decide on what I did want to make her, so I just asked her what she wanted from choices including a cowl, an infinity scarf, and fingerless gloves, possibly with the mitten topper, in other words, things I haven't made before. Much to my chagrin, she wanted mittens. Not even gloves. Mittens. Which makes her mittens the third pair I've started this year and ever. Not that they're hard or anything; it's just that I'm getting a little sick of knitting mittens.

I thought about looking for another pattern so at least there's some variation, but then I decided against it. I want to colors of the yarn to be visible, so I'm not going to work with multiple colors, and I don't want to make patterns all over the hands because I want to mittens to be comfortable and it just seems like a cable or something up the back of the hand would be annoying.

I made a fair bit of progress yesterday. This is the same pattern I've used for all of my other mittens. This is the women's size. The cuff is 25 rounds and the hand up to where the thumb gusset will start is 20 rounds. That's how far this mitten is along: up to where the thumb gusset will start. I think this is a good size so far, and I do like using the bigger needles better than the smaller needles I'm using in my grandmother's mittens.

Happy knitting!

PS. I am going to try to start taking pictures using boyfriend's smart phone because i can't take much more of this webcam.

Dad's Scarf, Restarted

I finally got around to restarting my dad's scarf, and at first I really wanted to do the brioche stitch. It looks gorgeous, it's warm, and it looks masculine enough that I could give it to my dad. However, I don't know if the brown variegated yarn I'm using is just the wrong type of yarn, the needles I used were too big, I was messing it up, or the pattern just looks like that when it starts, but the first couple of inches of the scarf in the brioche pattern looked so bad that I ripped the whole thing apart and tried it twice more before I just gave up on the brioche stitch for now and went hunting for another pattern.

A lot of the other patterns I have in mind are either not great for scarves because they are one sided or they're kind of girly. While I wanted to do something that would be new for me, I also wanted to make something that my dad will actually wear, so I finally decided on a ribbed scarf with garter edges. It's 28 stitches across on US 10 needles and the pattern goes like this:
row 1: k4, p4,* repeat from * to last 4 stitches, k4
row 2: k4, *k4, p4* repeat between * until the last 8 stitches, k4, k4
So far, so good.

The way the ribs roll in as ribs do, I think it'll make a really warm scarf, and hopefully my dad will like it, especially after I've been working on the thing for years. I used a long-tail cast-on for the scarf, and I'm not wondering if that was really the right choice. I mean, it's not as if it can't stretch to the appropriate shape, but it is scrunched together as the end. I guess that'll just  be a problem for blocking to resolve.

Happy knitting!

New Colors in the Scrap Blanket

I've been excitedly working on my scrap blanket as projects have come off my needles leaving me with not quite enough yarn to really make anything else. I have since finished boyfriend's green and white Irish mitten and the black from the slippers, and so I've put those two colors into the blanket.

However, as I started boyfriend's orange and white Irish mitten, I realized that I'm going to have more orange left than I anticipated; way more than I can conscionably put in the scrap blanket. This has left me with a choice: either find something else for the orange or rip apart the whole blanket for the green and make one last Irish themed project. I think I have enough yarn for socks, but up to this point I've been avoiding socks because I'm scared of them. I guess now is as good a time as any to start on some.

And I guess if I rip apart the blanket, I can do a different pattern. I am less than pleased with how this one is turning out. I didn't think about it, and now my edges are curling in. There are also a couple of places where I messed up, and I would like to go back and fix them. Then again, they're places in the green, so I guess it won't be an issue with the green gone.

But then pulling the green out leaves me wondering if maybe I put the purple into this scrap blanket before it was really finished. I'm not sure what I could make with it, but I could probably make something. Should I pull that apart and set it aside, too?

I've got some decisions to make about this blanket, and I'm leaning towards pulling it apart and using the remaining green, orange, and white to make socks, but we'll see if I can bring myself to do it.

Happy knitting!

Progress on My Shawl

I'm still so pleased with how my shawl is turning out. It's almost two feet long now, but that means that what I've been afraid of is going to be true: I'm going to need at least two more skeins of yarn to finish it. That's alright, I guess, but I don't have a lot of fun money to spend on yarn right now.

The inevitable has finally happened as well: I messed up a row somehow, though I'm not sure what I did exactly, so in the next row, I was one stitch short. Luckily, I noticed the stitch was missing in the repetition it was missing in, so the pattern across the rest of the row wasn't off. I looked down at the row below to see if I could find the stitch that I dropped because then I could just pull it back up and be on my way, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. So rather than rip back to where I dropped the stitch and probably mess my shawl up more, I just left out the knit 2 together (k2tog) in that row and carried on. For as far as I am in this shawl, I'm surprised that's the only real mistake I've made. Well, once I think I kept using slip slip knit (ssk) after I was supposed to have switched back to k2tog, but when I looked back I couldn't tell, and I couldn't remember, so I just let it be.

I'm so excited about this shawl, and I'm definitely getting faster at the pattern which is nice. I am honestly a pretty slow knitter. Not because I can't go faster, but because I'm not trying to. However, all of this knitting I've been doing as of late has really been helping me to knit faster without really trying.

Happy knitting!

Progress on Grandma's Mittens

I'm pleased to say I've made lots of progress on my Grandma's mittens. The double pointed needles I was waiting for were in the pair of Irish flag mittens when I wrote the last blog, but I finally got them out and got into this mitten in a big way. I also learned in these mittens, as compared to boyfriend's mittens, that the plastic needles in the hand and as a stitch holder for the thumb are significantly superior in that they can bend a little so the rounds above the stitches on the stitch holder can be knitted closer together rather than having this weird slight gap like boyfriend's do.

This is the same pattern I used for boyfriend's mittens, except first of all I made the women's size, and second I decided to use US 3 and 4 needles rather than US 4 and 5 like the pattern says, so I added four stitches to it to compensate. Since I added four stitches to the pattern, I was a little nervous at how the mitten would work out, especially once I got the the hand and decreasing. I added two stitches to each side of the thumb, and it seems to have worked out perfectly. The mitten is a little snug, but in a good, cozy way.

I was a little nervous to do the thumb, but it came together perfectly. It's a good size and fit and looks good. Altering the decrease wasn't really bad. It took me a little bit to figure out what to do, but I managed it, and I don't think you can tell that it's a little weird.

All in all I'm very pleased with how my grandmother's first mitten turned out. There is one more difference between this mitten and boyfriend's mitten that you may notice. When I made boyfriend's mitten, I missed the part of the pattern that said knit until the piece measures x inches long, and then put the stitches for the thumb on the thumb holder, so imagine my surprise when I went back to the pattern to reference for my grandma's mittens and i saw that and realized I hand't done it on his mittens! So I did it here and they fit great and look great, but I don't think boyfriend's mittens fit poorly in any way. They just look a little silly. And of course I caught it before I finished his first mitten, but not by much, and it fit okay, so I decided not to rip out the whole thing. But now I know.

The variegated yarn looks great, the mittens fit great, and I'm getting better at mittens. This year's knitting is going very well!

Happy knitting!

My First Attempt at Slippers

I've been wanting to try a pair of slippers for a while now. I have this black yarn that's kind of beaten up because it's been around for a while, so I figured I could make a trial pair of slippers with this yarn for myself. If there are mistakes, no big deal. I have also been dying to try the magic loop method. I poked around Ravelry, and much to my surprise, all of the types of slippers that I want to make aren't knitted in the round but on two needles. This was a little off-putting, but I don't want to dive into a pair of socks yet, and I did still want to use of that black yarn, so I picked a pattern that looked reasonable in the pattern as well as in the picture and set off.

I decided to practice my long tail cast-on for this project because I've only even tried it once before and then it was for a project that I frogged and haven't restarted yet. It took me three tries to cast on because the first time I didn't use enough yarn for the tail, the second time I felt like I had too much, and the third time I finally got it.

As I was knitting the first 14 rows of the pattern which are all worked in garter stitch, I started looking down at my ball of black yarn and started getting paranoid that I wouldn't have enough. At that point I decided I'd also work in some of the white yarn I have. I know there's going to be more of it than I need after I finish boyfriend's mittens, but I've never made this pattern before, and I wasn't sure how much of the white yarn the slippers would take if I knit the stockinette stitch body of them with the white. I finally decided that I could also start pulling from the center of the skein I'm using for boyfriend's belt since he wouldn't miss just a little bit.

Then I had to figure out when I was going to switch colors. I decided to do all of the garter stitch in the black, and then for the body have 2 rows of black in the middle, 4 rows of white on either side of it so it would really pop, and 4 rows of grey beyond the white on each side. Also by keeping each color in even numbers of rows, I kept the funny multi-colored purl side all on the inside of the slipper, although I don't think it really looks to bad. I almost wish it were the outside of the slipper.

I knitted the slipper with US 6 needles, and when I was binding off, the pattern suggested that I use a size 8 or 9 needle. I took a minute and decided on the 8, and now I wish I'd used the 9 because the cuff is a little tight, but not really uncomfortably so, so I guess it's alright.

I knitted one entire slipper yesterday. Partially because once I start decreasing I don't like to stop in case I get confused, although in this instance I don't think that would have been really possible, but partially because I still have a ton of time on my hands while I continue to look for a job. But I get lots of knitting and baking done.

Finally, I tried the slipper on after I made it and was pretty disappointed with my afternoon of work. The toe is weirdly pointy and there's a seam right up the middle of the sole which drives me crazy. I had boyfriend try it on, and he said it wasn't as bad as I seem to think. Still, I think I am going to give them as a Christmas gift after all. I think they look nice, they're reasonably comfortable, and they don't take long to make. Plus the color changes keep my interest.

There are a few things I'm going to do differently when I knit up the other slipper, but I haven't totally decided what yet because obviously I want them to look the same even if it means sacrificing a better way of making them.

Happy knitting!

October Knit Along: Mostly Finished Cuff

Goodmorning, knitters. Sorry it's been a few days; I've been on the job hunt like crazy which has been taking up a lot of time. But a few days back I took an afternoon and finished my cuff!

The cuff before binding off or doing the I-cords.

One day I was trying to knit my goal progress for the week on the cuff, and then the next weeks, and then I had the whole thing finished remarkably quickly and easily, and all I had left to do was bind of and knit the I-cords.

I was more worried about the end of the pattern than I had been for any of the rest of the pattern. I had never knitted I-cords before and I was a little skeptical on how they would work and look. I also, if you remember, modified the pattern so it was 15 instead of 25 stitches which was fine until the end when that mattered. So I had to take what seemed like hours trying to figure out how many stitches to bind of before starting the I-cord and then what to slip and where to begin again and then how many to bind off. It seemed so complicated. But then I started knitting and, surprised as I was, the end of the cuff came together quite nicely.

The I-cords that will be the buttonloops and the bound off edge of the cuff.

Now all I need to do is find some buttons to put on the cuff, and I'll be finished! Well, almost since I've also been too lazy to weave in my ends. Okay, and I clearly haven't blocked it. Mostly finished, after all. But, since it's only mid-October, I bet I have enough time to make another cuff. I think I'm going to try the framed cuff.

Happy knitting!

More Progress on Boyfriend's Belt

I'm pleased to say I've made quite a bit of progress on the grey garter stitch belt. I've been trying to work on it some each day because while it doesn't necessarily go quickly, it is easy, and it is helping to improve my knitting speed.

For whatever reason, the camera decided that this grey looks kind of purple today, but it is grey.

That being said, it's now about 6 feet long! I know in my last post I said I thought that would be about as long as boyfriend wanted it, but I've talked with him more about what he wants, and it turns out I was misunderstanding him some. When he said sash, he didn't mean shoulder to hip sash, he meant, well, he meant a type of belt. What he wants to be able to do it loop it twice around his waist and have it dangle some so that when he's all dressed up for Dagorhir (his LARP thing) he'll have places to tuck things into the belt. I'm not sure if it's going to work, but that's what he wants. He also wants it to be twelve feet long, so I'm only half way, but it is going faster than I thought. Then again, on a Friday night after a few adult beverages, it is the project I still feel confidant picking up and not messing up, so it does have time available to it that other projects don't.

This project has size US 3 needles.

All in all, I'm very pleased with how it's coming together. I'm not sure it will totally work for what boyfriend wants, but so far so good, and I think it should work for a while at least.

Happy knitting!

Problems with Sister's Lace Scarf

After I finished my sister's headband a few years back, I started on a scarf. Originally, I followed the pattern which basically said to do to repetitions of the lace. And the picture below is the size the scarf sat at for more than a year. 

A week or two ago, I picked up my sister's scarf again. I knitted through the pattern once or twice and happened to glance at my ball of yarn only to realize there was no way I was going to be able to make anything scarf length the way I was going with the amount of yarn I had left. So I frogged the whole thing and started over only doing one repetition of the lace.

As you an see, I got a fair ways in the scarf before I realized that the scarf was curling in way more than I wanted, and I also got to thinking about how the pattern is not reversible. I decided that while this had been a good pattern for a headband, it was probably not the best pattern for a scarf, and I frogged the whole thing again.

Now comes yet another question of what should I make for my sister? I do want to use this yarn, and I already made her a headband. Maybe a scarf with a different or more plain pattern so she could still wear it with the headband? Maybe not a scarf at all. I guess I have been making mittens, although I suspect my sister will want fingerless gloves or maybe fingerless gloves that have a mitten part to cover the fingers. I'm not sure yet, but it's on my mind.

Happy knitting!

Irish Flag Mittens

Good morning all! I hope your days are starting as well as mine. Boyfriend didn't work until 9 today, so when he got up just a little bit ago, he made the coffee, so I'm already sitting here with my cuppa!

At this point, I can't for the life of me figure out why I was so scared of mittens. They're going miraculously well as well as quickly. So quickly that while I meant to take a picture after I finished the thumb gusset, it didn't take years and I was so excited that I moved right onto the hand of the mitten. Of course, I haven't started shaping the top of the mitten yet, nor have I tried knitting and attaching the thumb, but I think I can handle it.

At this point the piece measures just about 8 inches and is on the US 5 double pointed needles. I wasn't sure what a stitch holder was or if I even had one, but I figured my cable hook would do the trick, so that's that.

This mitten looks huge to me, but I have to keep in mind this is the men's size, and I have pretty small hands anyway. I've had boyfriend slip this on a few times to make sure it's coming along correctly, and it looks great on him. Once these mittens are finished, I'll be sure to have him model his hat, scarf, and mittens all together.

Happy knitting!

Re-Starting Dad's Scarf

If you read my post about my October Knit-a-long project, then you know that frogged all the progress I had made on my dad's scarf because I couldn't find yarn to match the original. I wasn't as upset as I could have been because I haven't worked on it for a while, and also the elongated chevron looked pretty silly on the end of garter stitch.

My dad's scarf before I frogged it.

I'm notorious for just buying a skein of any yarn that I think looks nice if I have some spare cash on hand. Just one skein. Rarely do I buy yarn with any specific project in mind, but rather because I think I'd like to make something for a specific somebody. This often lands me in some trouble because I'll get the yarn home, make a project with it, and then have some left over, but never quite enough for whatever it is I want to make. This has happened to me with multiple scarves because looking at the yarn left after another project it seems like there's going to be enough for a scarf, and then I end up having to start over making a thinner scarf or give up entirely. This is the situation I'm in with my dad's elongated chevron scarf. But I thought to myself, "Hey, I know where I got the yarn, so I'll just go back and buy another skein and I can finish this scarf up." Unfortunately, my lack of planning meant I went to the store without the yarn and came home with a similar skein of yarn that didn't actually match the original.

Now not only am I going to have to start this scarf over, I'm going to have to start it over with the new yarn and leave a decent quantity of the other yarn without any idea of what I want it to be. At first I thought the old yarn would be a perfect candidate for my scrap blanket, but it just seems like there's something else I could use it for first because there's more than I really want left for me to add it to the blanket. One of the previously finished projects I have that I have not yet had the chance to post about it the hat I made for my dad with this yarn. I don't want to make another hat with it, but I'm not sure what else I could use it for. That is, until I found the October Knit-a-long.

October Knit-a-long project made with the old yarn from my dad's scarf.

I'm not sure if the cuff is going to use up enough of the yarn, but that's a problem for November. Now that I have that yarn in something, I just had to decide if I wanted to continue my dad's scarf with the elongated chevron patter. Well, I didn't really because the pattern is a pain to knit, and I think I'd have to do the whole scarf in it to make it look even reasonable, and I'm not sold. Maybe it would look better in a blanket. I have been drooling over the brioche stitch recently, and I think that's the way I'm going to go with this scarf. I'm pretty nervous about doing the actual stitch for no particular reason, but hopefully it will work out, and I'll have a scarf I can actually give to my dad.

Happy knitting!

Reorganization

As you may have noticed, I've recently been approved to have ads on here, and I only realized yesterday that they had shown up only not with the web browser I was using. As a result, I'm going to be reorganizing my blog to make getting to everything as easy as possible.

I've also recently edited the photos in the sidebars of my works in progress as well as my finished projects so you should be able to click on those photos and go to the most recent blog about each item.

Any comments on the organization are welcome.

On another note, today is the perfect day to curl up with some coffee, your knitting, and a good movie because it certainly is unappealing outside.

Happy knitting!

October Knit Aong: Pretty Twisted Cuff

This month, I decided to participate in the October Knit Along. I haven't done a knit-a-long before, and I was worried it was going to be some huge project that I either wouldn't even come close to finishing or would take over in place of all the other projects I have going. Happily, it isn't a huge project at all, but rather, a simple enough looking cuff.

An image of the Pretty Twisted Cuff from Knitty.com

The first decision I had to make was what yarn I was going to use. I wanted to use something variegated, because the pattern said it was good for colorful or gaudy yarns, however, the only variegated yarns I have available right now are this purple-which I didn't really want to use for this because I felt like it just wouldn't look right, the brown I got to finish my dad's scarf which turned out to not match and which I fully intend to use to start my dad's scarf over, and the brown yarn which was in my dad's scarf. This seemed to me to leave only one choice: I was finally going to have to admit to myself that I just couldn't finish my dad's scarf with the yarn I had started it with, and I had to completely frog it. That undertaking done, I joyfully started on the cuff.

I started the cable cast on several times before I could really figure it out. The first time I tried it, I was convinced it was impossible, but I told myself to calm down and try again. The next time I tried to not pull my stitches so tight even though it seemed like that would make the end of the project look sloppy. It was still a nightmare, but after several more attempts and me letting my stitches be a little looser every time, I finally managed the cable cast on with ease, and I was left wondering how I could have screwed it up so badly to begin with.

Part of the problem may well have been the tiny little needles I'm using, US 1s. Those are the needles the pattern says all of the sample cuffs were made with, so those are the needles I'm using. I've tried previously to use needles smaller than US 3s only to quickly give up. This time, with not pulling my stitches too tight in mind, I'm having a completely reasonably time with this project.

Well, reasonable after I figured out the linen stitch (which has instructions in the pattern linked above). The first time I read through the pattern I did not understand what I was meant to do. I read through it again and was just as confused. But I told myself I won't get better if I don't try, and it may well make more sense when I'm actually doing it, so after figuring out the cable cast on, I began to attempt the linen stitch.

I'm still trying to find a solution for the coloring with this different webcam

While I was right that I would understand it much better once I was actually doing the stitch, that didn't stop me from convincing myself I had screwed it up somehow and pulling out my first several rows two or three times. Finally I told myself that I was doing it right and if I did make a little mistake here and there, it would be okay. I may very well be keeping this cuff for myself after all, so what difference does it make. Plus, the very beginning of the cuff will be covered up when it's on, so it doesn't matter anyway. I think my yarn is heavier than the yarn used in the samples because when I cast on 25 stitches, the cuff was 4.5 inches wide, and that was wider than I wanted, so I cut it down to 15, and now it's just over 2 inches wide.

So it's so far so good, and I'm just so pleased with how the linen stitch is turning out. I think this yarn was the right choice, and I'll be able to wear this to and LARP events because it'll be period enough!

Happy knitting!

Boyfriend's Mittens

When I decided to start my grandma's mittens a few days back, I was thinking that mittens couldn't be that hard, and I could use some practice knitting in the round with those double pointed needles anyway. I still had some green orange and white yarn left from the Irish things I've made for boyfriend, and I estimated that I had enough between the three of them to make him some mittens as well.

These mittens are from the same pattern from which I'm making my grandma's mittens. I'm using the men's size and not making any adjustments which means I started with US 4s for the cuff and I cast on 44 stitches. After I realized adding a few stitches to mittens might not be as easy as adding stitches to other patterns, I swiftly decided to do everything for the hand of boyfriend's mittens first so I can see what they look like following the pattern exactly and where to make adjustments for my grandma's mittens.

Originally I was going to have just the thumbs be white and the left mitten be green and the right mitten be orange. Then I thought I could knit one mitten green and white and one orange and white, but then I tried casting on and knitting with two strands and quickly scrapped that idea, and then I thought why not have the cuffs be white and then depending on how I feel when I get to it the thumbs can be white or not.

The color still isn't super because this is right next to the window by necessity, but the cuff is worked in ribs: k2,p2* all the way around

The only real problem I had with these mittens that I didn't have with my grandma's is the needles. All of my other needles are metal and these are plastic. I've never worked with plastic needles before and I was disconcerted at how much give they had in them. Unfortunately they are my only set of double pointed 4s, so I'm stuck with them for the other cuff of boyfriend's mittens as well as the bodies of grandma's mittens. But good news: I'm done with the first cuff of boyfriend's mittens so as soon as I have time and courage at the same time, I'll start on the hand of the mitten with US 5 double pointed needles.

Happy knitting!

PS. Tomorrow the post won't be up until, at a guess, around noon as I have a job interview at 9:30, but it will be up. Wish me luck!

Progress on the Grey Belt

I pulled out boyfriend's grey belt again last week and have been working on it for hours most days. I have come to a new level of annoyance with these small needles because after the first day when I worked on it for about ten hours, I found it had only grown about ten inches. I'm not going to pretend that I wasn't also cooking and watching tv and trying to pick up a little in that time, but still.

As for technicalities, I realized in my last post about the sash that I neglected to say it is 15 stitches across and the yarn is Red Heart Super Saver Charcoal. I know I'm lousy about saying what type of yarn I'm using, but I'm trying to remember. One would think that it would be pretty quick work, but it is not so! So I'm soldiering on. I think it will be nice once it is finished, even if I suspect I'm going to have to put the gold tassels on myself. I also think it will be a while before it's finished. Like next March for the season opener for boyfriend's LARP thing a while. I know last year I said I hoped to have it finished for Christmas or at least March, but this time I mean it.

It's over two feet long now, and I imagine he's going to want it to be about five or six feet. Then again, I'm not really sure. I guess I could measure him to see how long it ought to be from shoulder across the torso to the hip and then back up across the back to the shoulder again, or I could just keep knitting and every foot or two hold it up to him and check it out. Let's be serious: it's going to be the latter. I think he wants to be able to wear it as a sash and a belt which is going to affect length because it can't dangle too long as a belt, and I imagine it will need to be pretty snug as a sash, but obviously those are two different lengths. The reason for those specification is that while he's wearing it he's going to be fighting. I almost put quotation around fighting, but I think he would have been offended if he ever saw it. The reason is is this LARP thing; well, it's where everyone dresses up (hence the sash that will be part of his garb or costume) and hits each other with foam weapons like foam swords and even foam-tipped arrows that they shoot out of real bows. There are all kinds of specifications of which I'm unsure, though not as unsure as I wish I were, and I won't go into them here, but I wanted to give an idea of what this project was for. Hats and scarves and headbands have obvious uses, so I didn't need to extrapolate, but with this sash, I felt as though I did because it's use isn't as clear.

Happy knitting!

Lacy Shawl for Me

I've been knitting on and off for several years now, and I've been thinking recently how I've never made anything for myself. It just never seemed right. But now everyone has these cozy items I've made for them while I'm still shivering over here. So I decided that it is finally time for me to make something for me.

I got this burgundy yarn last year, Bernat burgundy, and I've been wanting to make something for myself with it while feeling too guilty to actually start. I finally decided that I am going to make myself something, and I decided that it's going to be a shawl.

After searching around for about an hour I came across something that looks like what I want: easy enough that I can handle it while still looking cute and lacy. You can access the pattern for free here.

This is an image of the shawl from coatsandclark.com.

I had a little decision to make when I started this shawl. The pattern calls for US 9 (5.5mm) needles, and while I know that gauge isn't going to be especially important in this, I didn't want to stray too far from that because the size the pattern claims the shawl will be is about the size I want it to be. Now, I knew I didn't have any US 9 straight needles, but I knew I had a US 9 circular needle. However, the pattern is only 78 stitches which is not exactly call for circular needles. It wouldn't hurt, and at least I would be able to get another set of my circular needles out and loosened up. I also have a set of US 10 1/2 (6.5mm) straight needles. If they were US 10s, I would have started with them right away without another thought, but my straight 10s are still attached to my sister's lace scarf and they're short needles, so I'm not sure they'd be the best choice anyway. I was hemming and hawing over what needles I wanted when I realized I had US 10 circular needles. I started with those right away.

Slightly blurred close up of the pattern with close to true color.

Larger view of the pattern, but with weird washed out color.

I quickly used a knitted cast on to cast on my 78 stitches and then knitted one repetition of the pattern on the first day. I admit I let it sit around for a few days, but yesterday I finally felt productive enough to work on my shawl. I knitted through the pattern twice more so now you can actually see the pattern in it, and I'm to my favorite part in every project when the project starts to look like whatever it is and not just a unclear lump. The shawl is 19-20 inches wide and about 7 inches long. The pattern says it should be 17 inches wide, but that's just the difference between the 9s and 10s. The pattern also says it should be 58 inches long, and mine may well reach that length, but as soon as I'm running low on yarn and don't think I'm going to be able to go through the pattern once more and knit the last few border rows, I'm going to bring it to a close. Then again, if it ended in the middle of the pattern, it wouldn't be super noticeable. I mean, I would know, and other knitters would probably notice, but it would still work just fine as a shawl, and that's all I really want.

This is the project I have going right now that I'm by far the most excited about. The pattern is turning out really well, and I'm not pulling my hair out trying to knit it. The yarn looks gorgeous, a bit better in real life, I must admit, because my webcam does this weird thing if I wait too long to take the picture. My only worry now is that I'll run out of yarn and have to get another skein. At least I found the paper that tells me the brand and color, so I'll be able to find the same color if it gets to that.

Happy knitting!