Merry Christmas!

I finally finished my Christmas knitting yesterday while in the car on the way to the inlaw's. The last gift finished was a cowl for Mom, and we didn't get to her house until this morning. The fact that I finished her gift yesterday was fantastic, especially since I've had to finish gifts in front of her on the actual holiday more than once.

I finished DH's Jacques Cousteau hat last Tuesday. I worked on the majority of it in front of him, and he was still surprised when I plopped it on his head shortly after weaving in the ends. He had forgotten that I said I'd knit him a hat, and so I won Christmas this year.

Pattern: Jacques Cousteau Hat
Yarn: Cascade 220 in 9465
Needles: US7
Rav Project Page

Sorry about the mess on the island behind DH. I've been an adult for 10 years, but I can't figure out if I'm supposed to keep every bill statement that comes in the mail or not. Since everything is digital now, I suppose I can just shred them. But I'm still scared that something bad will happen if I get rid of them, like somehow I won't have proof that I paid the bill or something. I'm weird like that. So I stack them on the island and pretend they don't exist. Moving on.

I finished the second of the 54 hats last week around Sunday or Monday. The second looked the same as the first and both fit the girls. They seemed to like them, so that's good. Both hats together took less than a full skein of Malabrigo Worsted.

Like I said earlier, I finished Mom's Stacked Eyelet Cowl in the car yesterday. Mom wanted a "manly" color since she's pretty much a tomboy, so I picked Malabrigo Silky Merino in Smoke. She liked it as well, and it fit.

Pattern: Stacked Eyelet Cowl
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino in Smoke
Needles: US7
Rav Project Page

I came across the most adorable little pattern on Friday night for a mini snowman. I made one in the car on the way to the IL's, although I had to finish it at their house. I think it's so stinking cute that I almost can't stand it. When I make the next one, I'm going to make sure to make the arms lower so that they won't be covered by the scarf.

Pattern: Minimochi Snowman
Yarns: Lang Jawoll in White, Tempted Good Grrl in Onyx, and Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Pool
Needles: US1 (I thought I was going to snap them several times)
Rav Project Page

I started the Palouse Mitts back in October during a bout of startitis. I've completely lost interest in them. I'm not sure why though. They're cute and everything, and I haven't had any problems with the pattern. Could it be the yarn? I think this is the third time I've tried to use it-it's Madtosh in Green With Envy. I guess I'll wait to frog them and see if I can get motivated again to look at them.

Speaking of frogging, I finally killed the La Digitessa Socks today. I'd lost my place when I accidentally deleted my stitch counter app, and if I remember correctly, I don't think the row counter jived with where it looked like I was anyway. And they didn't fit.

I had a bit of stash enhancement this week. I got several minis, but I don't want to try to show you all of them and explain what they are lol. I also got my Tempted Burlesque package. This is the debut of the Feisty Grrl line (100% SW Merino). The colorway is Blue Blood. I really like it, but I'm not sure what I'll make with it.

It's finally time for the blanket. I've managed to knit 8 squares since yesterday, so I averaged 1 square per day for the week. Since it'll require 720 squares if I do the size I've planned, I need to do at least 2 per day to finish it within a year. I'd like to have it done in 6 months or so, so I need 4 squares per day. Now that Christmas knitting is done, I'll have more time to devote to it. I measured it on the floor today, and it is 55" across, so it is 7" longer than intended (1st square=2", so 24 squares should equal 48"). I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't make it as I've planned. I'm going to need to buy a lot of minis, that's for sure.

# of squares done: 38
% complete: 5%

Christmas is coming, whether I like it or not.

For Christmas this year, I only had to knit 5 items: 2 Stacked Eyelet Cowls, 2 "54" hats, and 1 Jacques Cousteau hat. Christmas is a week away, and I have finished 3 of the 5 (1 cowl & both "54" hats). That stinking blanket sucked away my desire to knit on anything else. However, I have all week to finish the Jacques Cousteau hat for DH (I'm approximately 75% done with it), I'm off on Friday (and maybe half of Thursday), and I have a 4 hour drive to the IL's on Saturday as well as all day Saturday to knit the cowl for Mom. I'm not too incredibly worried.

I just finished the second of the 2 hats for my friend's daughters. I'm a little concerned about them fitting, but they both fit on my head, so I think it'll be ok.

Pattern: "54"
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Gerino
Needles: US9 dpns
Rav project page

I think I'm going to start a thing called Blanket Sunday. It'll be an easy way for me to watch my progress on the blanket. I doubt I'll post every Sunday, but hopefully I can be somewhat regular with it. Since my first blog about the blanket was last Sunday, I'll count that as the first installment. Here's the blanket as of yesterday (haven't worked on it since then):

# of squares done: 30
% complete: 4%

The blanket was supposed to be 4 feet wide by 5 feet long. The first square was 2" wide (in square orientation), so 24 squares should be 48". However, the blanket is wider than I am tall (I'm 4'11"). I haven't actually measured it on the floor, so maybe the weight of the squares makes it stretch enough to make it longer? Either way, this blanket is going to be huge. H-U-G-E.

Stash Expansion Extravaganza

I may have gotten carried away with stash enhancement this month. I just wanted some self-striping yarn.

My new babies, L-R: String Theory Continuum Self-Striping in Coronal Mass Ejection (bought from a destash on Rav), Spinning Fates Toula in Sam The Snowman (Etsy purchase), Lollipop Yarn Feelings in Shazam (Etsy purchase), and Gynx Yarn Sock in Oil Slick (fantastic Christmas present from Gnome). Clearly I need to block Etsy on my computer.

I don't think this one counts as a self-striping, so I photographed it alone. I love the colors in this skein so much-I can't believe no one bought it before I did!

It's Another Crafty Girl's Strong Sock in Hideous Zippleback (another Etsy purchase... sigh). Finally, Tempted is offering a 20% off Christmas sale, so I convinced DH that I really need more blue yarn. Sidra came home to me.

Then there was the yarn that I bought for Christmas presents. I personally don't think it should count as stash enhancement since it won't be staying here for long, and therefore shouldn't count towards my total number of skeins acquired. Just sayin.

First up is another skein of Malabrigo Silky Merino. I'm going to make the same cowl that I made as a Christmas present for one of my friends (I'll show you that here in a bit), the Stacked Eyelet Cowl. My mom is a bit of a tomboy, so I got her a manly color, Smoke (per her request, nothing "pretty").

I'm also going to knit hats for my friend's 2 daughters, so I bought some Malabrigo Merino Worsted in the Gerino colorway. I think I'm only going to need one of them though-the first hat didn't take much.

I finished a Christmas present about a week ago. I am awful about keeping presents until Christmas, so the recipient already got it. She loved it. :)

Stacked Eyelet Cowl
Needles: US 7
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino in Blackberry

I've finished one of the hats for my friend's daughters. One more to go.

Pattern: 54
Needles: US9 dpns
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Gerino

I'm knitting the Jacques Cousteau hat for DH's Christmas present. I've knit on it in front of him and he hasn't even noticed. Since I have until Christmas to finish it, I've set it aside for now while I work on other Christmas knitting (I need those hats done by Thursday, 12/15). I have somewhere between 4 and 6 inches. I start the decreases when I get to 8 inches or so.

Jacques Cousteau Hat
Needles: US 7 dpns
Yarn: Cascade 220 in 9465 (aka dark brown)

Finally, I have a shameful confession. I've jumped on the sock yarn blanket bandwagon. I started Shelly Kang's Sock Yarn Blanket last Monday. I have a small OCD problem, and I agonized over the decisions I had to make with this blanket. Do I knit it in diamonds like the original? Or in squares? If I go with diamonds, do I live with the sawtoothed edges or do I knit triangles to fill them? If I go with squares, there is a nice solid border. Regardless of orientation, do I knit a border? I had to start over 4 times before I finally decided on the square orientation. I still haven't decided whether or not to knit a border around it. The thought of picking up all of those stitches is a tad bit intimidating, but I do have a 60" knitpicks interchangeable cable. I also need to decide how big to make it. Each square is 2" wide or so. I think I'll probably want a 4'x5' blanket, so that'll be 24 squares wide by 30 squares tall. That'll be 720 squares. Sheesh. It's a good thing they're fun.

Here is my blanket as of 10 minutes ago:

I've had to make myself put it down in order to knit Christmas presents. When I finish a gift, I get to knit on the blanket for a while. As long as I do 2 or more squares per day, I'll have it done within a year. I hope to be done by May.

Starting this blanket made me realize exactly how few sock yarn remnants I actually have. I could have sworn that I have a lot, but I don't. After joining the blankie mania group on Ravelry, I discovered the world of sock yarn mini skeins. People apparently divide up skeins into mini skeins of ~20yds or 5g and then sell them or swap them. There are Etsy sellers who sell them as well. Since starting this blanket, I have bought.... 28 mini skeins. I've received 9 of them in the mail so far. I have to stop myself from buying more. Here's what's come so far:

2 mini skeins of Colinette Jitterbug in the Jay colorway. I have approximately 40yds total, and have already knit a square with one of them.

Next up are 7 skeins of Sunshine Yarns Sock Yarn in Deep Within, Peacock, In Bloom, Biosphere, Be Thankful, Everlast, and Bella. They are 6g each, totalling approximately 155yds. I've already used Be Thankful and Everlast in the blanket.

There should be some kind of warning on these things about how addictive they are. Good grief.

Stilwell

I had a very lovely long weekend (I've been off since Wednesday), and I put a lot of knitting time in. This is what my Stilwell looked like a week ago from today:

By last Thursday, I had progressed to this:

I finished the sweater on Friday (although I didn't weave ends in until after blocking). I discovered that I don't have a stopper for my kitchen sink, and I didn't see the point of filling up the tub for a sweater. Therefore, I pulled out our cooler, wiped it out, and gently washed the sweater in it. I'm not sure if I should feel resourceful or hickish lol.

I pinned it out on the blocking mats and promptly waited forever for it to dry. I don't know why there are stripes in the sweater; they are not visible when it's dry.

Finally, after the application of a fan, the sweater dried today. :D

I knit the sweater out of Jo Sharpe Silkroad DK Tweed. It took a little over 4 skeins of the blue (and I mean a very little over 4) and less than 1 of the white. I used a US9 needle for the stockinette sections and a US11 for the colorwork. In retrospect, I probably could have gotten away with using a US10.5 for the colorwork because it's a tad bit loose. Not bad for my first raglan sweater and my first fair isle sweater.

I have made quite a bit of progress on another knitting project, but I can't show you until after I finish it and give it to the recipient (a blog reader). It's supposed to be a Christmas gift, but I seriously doubt I'll be able to hold on to it that long. Since I'm nearly done, I'll be lucky to keep it for another week. I've also made a point to pick up reading again so that I have an escape from the stress of life. I've decided to reread a favorite childhood series of mine, starting with All Creatures Great And Small by James Harriot. So far, it's just as lovely as I remembered.

An FO and Startitis

I finally have another FO. I finished my Hitchhiker Scarf, made from my one lonely skein of Wollmeise.

I've been teaching my friend Kristie to knit, which has lead to a very serious case of startitis. I recently started the Palouse mitts using my skein of Madelinetosh Sock in Green with Envy. I got it from one of the Loopy Ewe clubs from last year.

I've also started Stilwell. I bought the yarn for this sweater (Jo Sharp Silkroad DK tweed) almost 2 years ago. I managed to hide that yarn purchase from DH until I started the sweater last week. :D

I'm a little bit concerned about the tension in the fair isle section, but I'm choosing to ignore that voice in my head for now. It's good practice for learning to ignore the rest of the voices anyway.

Annoying sidenote: while looking at the picture above just now, I realized that there is a glaring error in the top section of the fair isle. I can't believe that I didn't even notice it until just now! It's bad enough and obvious enough that I can't let it go. I'll have to figure out where I went wrong too. Boohiss.

I also started a hat in an effort to placate the startitis (it didn't work since I started Stilwell after I started the hat). It's the painted forest hat on size 15 needles. I can't remember what the yarn is-berroco hip hop or something like that. I bought it when I was a brand new knitter. My wrists hurt for 2 days after I worked on it last, so who knows if I'll finish it. I may just do one row every now and then until it's done.

Since I'm doing a lot of work related to music right now, I got my I Am RadioU shirt today. RadioU is a freaking fantastic Christian rock radio station. You get the shirt for donating to them during their Unleash the Music fundraiser. You can stream them online or use the app for iphone & android if you'd like to listen to RadioU (they are an actual radio station-90.5 in OKC-check their site to see if you can pick them up where you live). So here I am in my shirt today, although it's a bit big:

My year of concerts continues on-this Thursday the Rock and Worship Roadshow is coming to OKC. I'm most excited about seeing Disciple, Group 1 Crew, and Hawk Nelson, but MercyMe, Jars of Clay, Trip Lee, and Matt Maher will all be there. The best part is that you get to see all of those bands for $10. The drawback is that it's open seating and I had a bit of crowd anxiety at an event I went to on Friday. I think I'll be ok this time though. I'm excited! I love concerts so much.

\m/

The FO happydance

I have an FO! I have an FO! My last one was March 1. Seriously. MARCH 1, 2011. That's over 3 months ago. Anyway, I finished my Interrupting Cow socks on Sunday. Aren't they cute?

The yarn is Shibuiknits sock in Spectrum. I love this pattern! Laura of The Knitgirllls designed it. It was super easy and well-written. I would say it's easy to memorize, but I'm all about reading the pattern so I don't have to think. But it would be easy if that's your thing.

I started these socks out of frustration from the stress of knitting for other people. I just wanted something for me. So they have officially been christened my happy socks and will be worn when my mood needs improvement. I expect they'll get a lot of wear lol.

In other random news, there is a minor event coming up this week. I'm not very excited about it or looking forward to it like whoa or anything. THIS WEEK IS ESTES! I'M SO EXCITED! (Yes, if you were in front of me right now, I would have yelled that at you and probably jumped up and down in excitement while clapping as well.) Gnome and her DH will arrive at my house around 9pm tomorrow night and we will leave at 4am-ish on Thursday. Since DH is an EMT and normally gets up around 4:30 for work, he gets to drive first. We'll drive alllllll day Thursday and eat dinner at Gnome's aunt's cabin that night. Friday will be devoted to relaxation and we are going on the ghost tour at the Stanley Hotel (I <3 Stephen King) on Friday afternoon. We'll hit the Estes Park Wool Market all day on Saturday and then drive home on Sunday. ::happydance::

I've been planning my car knitting for over a week now. I'm going to knit the Aargh! gyle Socks from knitpicks (rav link). Here is a photo that I ganked from Ravelry so my non-rav friends can see it:

Some of my lifegroup friends find my knitting obsession (and tattoo) a tad bit amusing. I mean, how can you not see a girl with a knitting tattoo and immediately think she's clearly hardcore and shouldn't be messed with? Right?! Well, they didn't get that memo and find it amusing instead. So I am knitting these hardcore superbad skull socks to prove how hardcore I am (let's see how many times I can fit hardcore into a sentence, shall we? I really should look for a synonym to use instead.) I'm going to use Tempted Good Grrl Into the Blue for the CC and Stacy dyed a lovely black for me for the background color. It should come in the mail today. ::fingers crossed::

Rawr.  \m/

Holy crap I made yarn

I've been spinning my little heart out lately. I have enough roving now to consider it a stash (6 braids). Here's what I bought last week to practice on before the Tempted roving for the SAL comes:

BFL roving from Fiber Optic in Spring Fling colorway:

The next two are both from CJKopec and are 100% merino. The first one is Raspberry and the second is Wild Berry.

This one is so freaking cute! It's Jungle Boogie Merino Top from Indigo Muse. I had planned for it to be the first one I spun, but I was advised against practicing with merino because of its short staple length.

Finally, I bought some superwash BFL from Spincerely in the Harvest colorway:

It became my first pretty handspun (the other skein was my first, but isn't very pretty in my opinion). I didn't spin all of it-I tried to split it in half so I could make 2 singles, but apparently my first half was spun  a bit thicker in places than the second. The second had more yardage, so I stopped on the second half before I was completely done with it.  I plied it tonight:

I think I may need to get a plying spindle. I fit as much as I could on my poor little Alice. I made a homemade lazy kate to hold the singles:

Finally, here it is resting for the night. I want to "thwack" it when it's wet (in other words, beat the snot out of it against the side of the tub), and I can't do that while it's so late. DH would kill me for making that much noise. I put my human physiology book to good use:

Overall, I'm pleased with it. There are definitely thick and thin areas, but overall it's relatively even. This is an improvement over my last spinning. I hope I have enough to make hat out of it.

In other news, I finished another WIP. Remember the Aragorn socks that I started in January 2010? And that they were supposed to be a birthday present for March 2010? Well, I finished them last week and my friend received them today. I am so happy that they fit her! I was worried that they may be too small.

I'm knocking out the WIPs, but I'm replacing them just as quickly with new projects. Currently I have the Lady Bertram shawl and the Ribbed Ribbons socks on my needles, and my poor Geodesic cardigan keeps getting ignored. Maybe one of these days I'll pull it back out.

As if I don't have enough hobbies already

I've wanted to spin for a while now, but I really wanted a wheel (and honestly turned up my nose at spindles because wheels are prettier). But the wheels I want (either a Ladybug or a Lendrum DT) are pretty expensive, and I don't have the spare cash laying around. Let's face it-I tend to be very obsessive with new things initially and then drop them out of a lack of interest after a week or so, and a $600 spinning wheel costs too much for me to just lose interest.

The Knitgirllls and Tempted are doing a spinalong on Ravelry, and I wanted to play along. Not having a wheel, I was going to sit out. A few people on Plurk had joined in the SAL, had bought spindles, and then plurked about them. A little voice in the back of my mind kept chattering on about spindles and roving, getting to play along with everyone else, and how pretty Tempted's roving would be. DH still hadn't gotten me a Valentine's Day present, so I asked for a spindle. After getting recommendations on Plurk, I decided to go with a Golding 0.75oz 2" Cherry Tsunami.

Isn't it beautiful? I want to name it. I was having trouble choosing between Jacob and Alice (lmao), and while I'd like to be able to say that I'm having private time with Jacob, I think the spindle wants to be named Alice. So Alice she will be.

I bought some roving at the DFW Fiber Fest in 2009, but I can't find the receipt to figure out what type of wool it is or where I bought it. Whatever it is, it's 1oz of wool.

Now it's yarn!

I don't have a chair with a back on it, so I had to improvise when I skeined it. I'm glad that I bought that tennis racket lol.

I got approximately 25 yards or so. There are quite a few places where I dramatically overtwisted it, but I think the overall product is is decent for a first attempt. I don't think I'll be able to knit anything with it, so it'll likely end up as a decoration. I have some wonderful green roving coming from Fiber Optic, and of course Tempted's roving will be here in time for the SAL in April. I'm going to buy some more roving tomorrow so I have plenty of fiber to practice on.

In other news, I finished my Clapotis on Friday night. It's right purdy. I don't think I'm going to block it.

Finally, GUESS WHAT. Gnome and I are going to the Estes Park Wool Market in Estes Park, CO, on June 9-12. We're going to stay in her aunt's cabin. I'm so freaking excited. I've never been to CO. We're also going to the DFW Fiber Fest in April. This will be my third year there, and I actually met Gnome IRL there for the first time (we'd been e-friends for a while before that though). Yay for fiber fests! One of these days I'll make it to MDSW, Rhinebeck, and the Sock Summit.

On A Roll **SWAP SHAWL SPOILER POST**

It's only halfway through January  February, and I've already done twice as many shawls as I finished in 2010. I am participating the Knitgirllls Small Shawl Swap on Ravelry, and I finished my shawl last night!

The pattern is the Leaf Shawl from the book Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn A. Clarke. When I started asking my friends if anyone had the book, everyone kept telling me that the book is a "design book." I had no idea what that meant, so I stubbornly decided that I was going to do the pattern anyway. Once I got into the book, I finally understood what they meant. The book has 4 or 5 different lace patterns, and you can put them together in various ways to make different shawls. If I wouldn't have been so hell-bent on doing the Leaf Shawl, this would have been a great opportunity to "design" my own shawl.

The yarn is Tempted Good Grrl. I had the pleasure of helping Stacy dye it on my weekend at Tempted Estates in mid-Jan. Stacy did most of the work by dying it green; all I contributed was the light brown spots scattered throughout the yarn.

DH is my post office mule. I sent it and a secret project with him and they were mailed out this morning. I really hope that my swap partner likes it. The partner list has been posted in the spoiler thread on Ravelry, but I don't know if my partner looked at it. I decided that I would just peek at the list to see who got my name and not look at their project. My grand plan failed, but I am THRILLED with the results! Lala of the Knitigirllls is knitting for me! I've seen the shawl on the podcast and I can't wait for it to come.

Happy Valentine's day! DH is buying me yarn and maybe a barnes & noble giftcard on Friday for Vday. I made him a Mexican casserole and looked pretty yesterday for his gift. I'm down to 5 WIPs. I'm trying to knock out the Aragorn socks next since they were intended to be a birthday gift last year. I need to finish the second sock by the end of March, and I'll give her one sock for last year and one sock for this year.