Charades. Two of them. Woot!

A mere 6 months (um, and four days) after Wendie sent me the first one, I have a pair. Couldn’t be prouder. Seriously, yo. This is a really great pattern, done in my all-time favorite sock yarn, Koigu, so there was no reason for them to take me this long. But no matter, they’re finished now.

And I’m happy to say that I came pretty close to matching Wendie’s gauge! I was nervous about this, since I find myself becoming a tighter and tighter knitter as the years go by, and when I started the sock I was definitely knitting at a smaller gauge than Wendie. I thought about going up a needle size, but instead I made a conscious decision to knit a bit more loosely (better on the hands anyway), and I ended up being only maybe 1/4″ off in circumference–not enough to affect the fit at all. Yay!

The pattern, as I said, is awesome. I really like the herringbone stitch–it’ll go faster if you work the YO by bringing the yarn over the needle from back to front, rather than under and back over–and I might be knitting all my toes like this from now on. Oh, I’ll be knitting more Charades, yes I will. Genius designing, Ms Sandra.

Wendie, thanks for my awesome socks, lady! Yarn/Needle/Mod info on Ravelry.

Cleaning house forces you to come to terms with stuff, sometimes. Like how much you suck at sticking to a project, for example:

The back of a Demi. Abandoned because the twisted stitches made almost every stitch of this sweater a physically painful experience. I’m so torn here–I really want this sweater. But I don’t know if I’ll ever want to knit it, because it really, really hurt my hands.

The body, one sleeve, and a few inches of another sleeve of an Hourglass. Abandoned because I lost the notes i made on the sleeve shaping for the first sleeve, so I’ll have to recreate those notes by examining the sleeve and counting the increases and decreases and the rows between them. In other words, because of sheer laziness. I’ll probably tackle this one first.

The body of Tangled Yoke. Abandoned when I realized I’d frakked up the waist shaping and would need to rip back and recalculate, based on my own actual measurements rather than on anything related to the actual pattern. Oh lordy–all those long stockinette rows for nothing. On the plus side, I can now knit continental, so re-knitting should take much less time!

Of course, seeing all these half-finished gray lumps in one place makes me want nothing more than to go cast on something cute in bright pink–which I would no doubt get halfway through before abandoning. Because, apparently, I am that knitter now.

I haven’t been knitting much since my semester finished–been on an intensive spring cleaning binge instead–but when I’m flung myself down on the couch, exhausted, after scrubbing down the windows and the like, I’ve felt the need for something soothing to knit: a pattern that lets me not think too hard, warm, soothing colors, and sweet, sweet Koigu softness. Enter my Project Spectrum Second Sock Project Earth sock:

Good like good chocolate. You may remember that the first sock of this pair was knit for me by Wendie, using Sandra’s awesome Charade pattern, and I’ve really put off knitting the second for far too long. Wendie, this is a totally fun knit–thanks again, girlie!

I’ve also put off for far too long a huge thank you to Elspeth, who knit me another single sock as part of our own little swap–that Drunken Bee I knit was for her. Elspeth not only knit me a lovely springy sock (it’s the Coupling pattern from knitty)

but she made me a gorgeous little bag to keep my project in, and–because she knows the way to a girl’s heart, she sent along some organic heart-shaped peanut butter treats for Bailey,

who of course loves them. E, please forgive me for being a butthead and not blogging this sock long before now; if I’d been blogging anything at all, this would’ve been it!

Papers marked, final grades calculated, and I can finally breathe deeply and put the semester behind me. Here’s what I’ve been up to…

 

Oh, and this:

Oops.

An email from my hosting service prompting me to renew my account reminded me that this is my third blogiversary. Three! I had no idea when I started that I’d keep at it for six months, let alone three years. Thank you all so very, very much for everything: for being sources of inspiration, information, support, enthusiasm, and friendship. Even when, as now, I’m in something of a bloggy slump; I haven’t been posting much lately, or getting around to your blogs, and I’m sorry about that. I was thinking about formalizing it into a wee blog break, but instead I’m just going to say that I’m in an ebb right now, but soon things will flow again (um, like when my semester ends, perhaps?).

But in the meantime, I do have something to show for myself, just in time to be included in the Blog Year Three FO archive: A finished Shetland Triangle.

I made it big: the pattern calls for only 10 repeats, and I went for 15. Which was nearly the death of the entire project, by the way: I ran out of the 4 skeins (880 yards) I’d originally commissioned from Adam a quarter of the way through the bindoff. I know! But luckily Adam had also sent along the sample skeins he tested the dyes on, and so I spliced in about 15 yards of that to finish the job, bringing me to just under 900 yards of DK for the whole project.

I might not have trusted the spit-splice on a bindoff row on another yarn, by the way, but the BFL felts as soon as you look at it, pretty much; I tested it, and I had to exert just as much force, if not more, to break the join than I did to break the original strand of yarn. So I think it’s safe, and obviously I blocked it out with no trouble, so there we go. (Although honestly, part of me wanted to keep it unblocked–it’s so springy and snuggly when it’s in its egg-crate state.)

It’s super warm, and, I think, appropriate for Project Spectrum on multiple levels: the lace pattern, I believe, is traditionally referred to as “fir cone,” but when I look at it I see little candle flames flickering everywhere. That, plus Adam’s phenomenal red, plus the warmth of the shawl itself, make it the ideal Fire project.

Love! So much, in fact, that I have yet another shawl planned for the Earth months. Stay tuned!

PS Project details are on Ravelry.

Edited because I can’t resist adding this picture. Let’s all pretend it so that you can see the sheeny goodness of the BFL, ok?

Just a little taste of what’s in progress around these parts: two Project Spectrum knits and a baby quilt.

This is about 6 and a half repeats of Shetland Triangle done in Adam’s swoony 1700 MHz BFL. I want to have one major Project Spectrum project for each of the elements, and this is my Fire shawl. I am so loving it–the BFL is wooly but soft, and the color is just perfect, perfect, perfect. And the pattern is easy-peasy; another good first lace project for anyone thinking about taking the plunge. It’s hard to put this one down.

The second thing is my current traveling project: a pair of socks in Krista’s Pink Lady colorway.  These are sportweight, so I’d like to have them done before the end of March, but that might not be possible; the shawl is definitely my knitting priority right now. One before the end of March, maybe? I’m up to the gusset increases on this first one, mostly thanks to being stuck in a hotel room overnight thanks to a giant blizzard on the Pennsylvania/Ohio border. Winter. I hates it.

And finally, a project that my friend Alex asked me to undertake: a baby quilt for her friend’s new little boy. I’m using the Stacked Coins pattern from Last Minute Quilted and Patchwork Gifts, which is just a lovely little book. Although as with the knitting version, which I also adore, “last minute” is really just the most ludicrous fantasy. I mean really. This one is flying along, though, as quilts go, so I’ll hopefully be done soon. At which point I will resist the urge to keep it for myself and mail it off like a good little crafter. I think.

Here’s one of the things that got bumped in line ahead of the Log Cabin Pillow tutorial:

A log cabin heating pad cover! I know, I know, I can’t stop with the log cabin. But seriously, I love it: it’s so versatile, and it makes the most out of small amounts of great fabrics. This project is based on a project from Denyse Schmidt Quilts, but Denyse’s heating pad is apparently much smaller than my mom’s, so I tossed out the pattern and just used the concept as an inspiration.

The original has a hemmed edge, but I went with a binding on mine; we’ll call it a design element, but it’s really because I made it a little bit too short (the heating pad I was working with was about 13×23) to turn a hem. I think the binding is cheerful, though, so it worked out.

Cheerful was the name of the game on this one; my mom’s up for a knee replacement in a few weeks, and has been using the heating pad quite a bit, so I thought she should at least have something bright and springy to look at. And I went with a garden theme too, since the knee replacement will prevent her from doing much in the garden this spring. Finally, a worthy use for a tiny bit of that Liberty lawn Philippa sent me forever ago; I’ve been hoarding it, because I feel a little unworthy of Liberty lawn, but this seemed like just the project for it. Thanks again, P :)

Goodbye, Cherry Blossom Jaywalkers:

They had a good life: March 16, 2006-February 20, 2008.

And in any case it was a well-timed demise, really, because hello Pink Peppermint Jaywalkers!

Yep, the first of my Project Spectrum Single Sock Reclamation project is complete. Woo! Now I can start in on my next Fire project:

1000-odd yards of BFL, custom-dyed for me by Adam. About to become a Shetland Triangle. Yessiree.

Jaywalker Specs
Pattern: Duh. Knit over 92 stitches, one of Kathy’s extended sizes.
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Pink Blossom Stripe. Inspired, originally, by Kara’s red ones.
Needles: Clover bamboo 1s
Mods: Picot edging.
Started: April 2006. HA!
Finished: February 24, 2008

What is is about the Koolhaas that compels people to knit more than one? It’s just one of those patterns, I guess, that looks pretty complicated, so, points for impressive, but that is actually a zippy little knit, easy to bang out in a couple of days, so, points for speed.

I just knit myself one of these, and have a couple of more in the planning stages, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to skip this one to the head of the queue.

It’s a test-knit for Amy in her soon-to-debut Madelinetosh Tosh Worsted, in the Glazed colorway Mourning Dove. I’ve got some of this color in Amy’s sock yarn, and I’ve been paralyzed, a little, by it: what pair of socks could possibly merit such gorgeous blue-grays? What if I picked the wrong socks, and they didn’t live up to the yarn? No such problem here; Amy asked me to knit a Koolhaas, I complied, and it’s really a perfect marriage of yarn and pattern. Check out how the delicate variegation spirals around the ingenious decreases at the top of the hat:

It looks wholly organic, like whorls on a shell. And the variegation is just enough to highlight the textural qualities of the Koolhaas without overwhelming them.

Ideal, really. This hat (sniff) is on its way back to Amy for extensive wash/wear testing, bu you better believe I’ll be first in line for another skein when it comes on the market!

Specs:
Pattern: Koolhaas, by Jared Flood, form the Interweave Knits Holiday 2007 issue; also available as a single pattern from the Knitting Daily website.
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Worsted, Mourning Dove. I’m not sure when Amy’s putting it on the market, but I’ll tell you the minute I know.
Needles: Addi 6s and 8s
Mods: I knit five repeats rather than 4 to account for using a slightly lighter-weight yarn than called for. This isn’t a mod per se, except that ridiculous heteronormative IK insists that 4 repeats is the “woman’s” size while 5 is the “men’s” size, as though all women have the same size head, as do all men, and that all mens’ heads are larger than all womens’ heads. Which is patently ridiculous. They do it for socks too. Of all the things I’ve been disliking about IK lately, this remains at the top of the list.

PS The pillow tutorial is coming, but it’ll be delayed a little bit in favor of some other, more pressing commitments. Stupid life, getting in the way of craft.

Despite my newfound resolve to post things as I do them, rather than piling up a giant backlog of FOs that make me resist blogging at all, I’ve let these pillows languish on Flickr for a little while:

That’s because I was waiting for them to get to their recipients, so that when I blogged them, I could talk about who I made them for and why. You guys know, of couse, that one of the best things about blogging is the friendships that grow out of it. Which, I know some of my real life friends are like, “but, but, how can you be friends when you only know them from teh internets?” But seriously, we know: you can, absolutely. And I’m so lucky in so many of my internet friends–lucky to have come in contact with some of the most creative and talented people I’ve ever encountered, and lucky that many of them have been just incredibly generous about sharing those talents with me. I’ve had two particular people I wanted to return a little bit of that karma to for a while now, and with regrettable slowness, I finally got around to doing something about it.

This pink and brown pillow went to Amy. Amy has one of the most amazing touches for dyeing out there; there isn’t a madelinetosh yarn that isn’t an absolute thing of beauty. I took my inspiration from this pillow in part from the MadTosh website; it’s sweet and vintage and delicate, much like many of the pink florals in the pillow. But Amy also creates gorgeous strong colors in her yarns, and she lives in Texas, which is a place that doesn’t take saccharine lying down, so I wanted to give the pillow some strength as well, to ground it (like Amy’s grounding herself lately with her forays into natural dyes). So I threw in some browns, and some modern prints too, like the paint-by-number birds at the top, to offset the sweet little feedsack florals that might have been too sweet on their own. I dug up a couple of prints that had both pink and brown to hold everything together (although there’s also a blue thread holding it all together; robin’s egg pops up in many of the prints, both pink and brown). I love the final result: just like Amy, vintage and modern, sweet and strong.

The orange pillow went to Maritza, who is probably the person–whether she knows it or not–most responsible for my color sense, which has vastly expanded since I started following her work. She’ll throw colors and patterns together in ways that I would never have done, but which, upon seeing, I immediately feel the need to copy. (Let’s not forget, shall we, that it was Maritza who originated the Watermelon Tourmaline/Farmhouse Chevron craze that has not yet stopped sweeping the internets.) I knew Maritza’s pillow had to be orange, for a couple of reasons. One, she has a blue chair that I covet so hard, and her bedroom walls are blue, and I could just see an orange pillow exploding with awesomeness against all that turquoise. And two, I wanted to incorporate a particular orange floral–the one up on the top there–that we had both independently picked out within, literally, minutes of each other last year at Purl Patchwork, each without knowing that the other had just been/was just about to be there. Coincidence? or Sign? I ask you. I drew in some blue here too, to tie back to the chair and the walls, but also because, when I think Maritza, I think orange and aqua. I just do, and that is a good and happy thing, so I ran with it. The result is just like Maritza: colorful and vibrant, grounded in tradition but happily stepping outside of conventionality.

I am so lucky to have such amazing friends. Thanks, Amy and Maritza, and the rest of y’all too. If anyone wants a pillow tutorial I’m happy to provide. Thanks for the pillow love, y’all, and especially Sew Mama Sew visitors! Tutorial is definitely coming; check back this weekend!