Thursday 27 February 2014

The Birthday Socks, take two:

Well, since last years Birthday Socks were so very well received, I'm trying again this year, (though I'm starting even earlier!)

I'm working on a pair of Business Casual Socks, which are coming along quite well.


I hadn't intended to start them quite so early, but I found on Ravelry yet another KAL group, this time hosting a "Sock it To Me" Sock Knit Along.   I figured that 'why not, it will hopefully get these done well before the actual birth date rolls around this year!

 The pictures a bit dated, actually, I am further along then that.  More pictures, well, whenever I get around to it, I admit!

Birthday Knitting Done Early!

Usually, I find most knitters writing horror stories of knitting the day of someone's birthday, or frantically knitting presents on Christmas day.

And I admit to doing that myself.

But not this time.

I finished the River Runs Through It Mittens.


They're for a birthday in December, so I finished with lots of extra time.   No frantic knitting on this project!

Also, they're for the Sweet Georgia Knit-Along on Ravelry -- for which I've started a third project, the Vancouver Fog Fingerless Gloves.  These are also a December Gift, though in this case, they are a Christmas gift.



See, I'm really trying to be good about my knitting this year!  And even better yet, so far it's working!

I even assembled a big list of all the things I want to knit for Christmas/Birthdays this year here, on Ravelry.  (I'm glad that pretty much no one on that list has a Rav account, and those that do don't know who they are on the list!)   Anyway, I'll see how well I do!

Tuesday 25 February 2014

. . . So it helps if you read the pattern. . .

It really, really does.

Remember my tension fail I wrote about last week?

Well, it's not so much that my tension got screwed up, it's that I didn't actually read the pattern.   I thought it was supposed to be 6 repeats of the colour-work chart.

No, it's 1 repeat of the chart all the way around with the rest of the sock in the stripe pattern.

. . . .

Well, don't I feel stupid.

On the plus side, I've frogged right back on this sock, and I'm taking the opportunity to learn two-at-a-time socks. I tried once before, but Magic Loop left me with a headache and a horrible tangle. 

But, as usual, with so many tutorials out there, finally something 'clicked.'   In this case, it was Silver's Sock Class' Two Toe-Up Socks on One Circular Needle Tutorial, which has been absurdly helpful, and finally made sense to my head. 

I'm hoping doing my socks (and sleeves, and gloves) two-at-a-time, will eliminate second sock/mitten/sleeve syndrome, which I have in spades.  I have very few finished socks and many socks without mates. 

I'm actually really excited about the idea two-at-a-time.  So far it's been really interesting. 

Sunday 23 February 2014

The end of the Ravellenics

Well, the post title pretty much says it all.

I did manage to finish both the projects I set myself up to do.

One was the Fair Isle Hat:



And the other was the Quick Bulky Socks:


It's quite nice to have things off the needles, I have to admit.  But I'm also very glad the Ravellenics are over.  They definitely kept me busy.

Thursday 20 February 2014

Test Knit Socks and a Tension Fail

Ok, so I finished the first of the Colour-work socks.

However. . . I had a tension fail.


As you can probably see, the tension on the second set of the stitch pattern is very different then the set on the first stitch pattern.  And I have absolutely no clue why that happened.  It's the same stitch pattern, same needles, so the fault isn't in the written pattern, just that my tension varied.

Now yes, your knitting tension can vary during the day, or even longer.  But this is a more extreme example of that!

Well, suffice to say, even blocking didn't save it.  While yes, I finished the test-knit, I'm still going to have to frog back to the heel and re-knit that part on larger needles.

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Fun with Beads and more Ravellenics 2014

Well, last night I finished up my Stella by Starlight Headband.


It's a) a WIP for Ravellenics 2014, and b) my First Quarter project for EatSleepKnit's Yarnathon.

The beads were my new challenge, and they actually weren't as hard as I thought they would be. I did have to do some digging through my tools to find my teeny-tiny crochet hook, but once I read this knitty tutorial, it wasn't hard at all, just fiddly. 

I'm glad I finished it, and I'm surprised I still have a semi-decent quantity of yarn left, enough for another small project.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, at the moment. 

Friday 14 February 2014

Ravellenics 2014, and a Finished WIP!

Well, it's official:

I've been sucked into the entertainment value that is the Ravelry Ravellenics 2014, despite not watching any of the actual Olympic events.

So, I have a few things to add:

1) I'm working on a pair of Quick Bulky Socks:


The pattern comes from Toronto's very own Knit-O-Matic, via their blog, and the yarn is Briggs and Little, leftovers from the Fall Lake Slippers.

I just finished the first sock today, and I'm hoping to finish the second by the 23rd (the end of the Olympics).

2) A Fair Isle Hat to match my Fair-Isle Mittens.

I've only just gotten past the ribbing, but the worsted-weight yarn (also Briggs and Little. . .hmm, I'm seeing a pattern here), means it does knit up reasonably quickly.

Finally:  Ravellenics allows you to enter works-in-progress, that you finish over their time-span,  and I did just that.  I finally finished my Glacier Sweep shawl!



It took quite a while, but I'm loving it.  It's warm (which has been nice given the recent weather, even if it is starting to warm up), and it's squishy, and the colour is just wonderful.

Wednesday 12 February 2014

The Other Half of the Sock-Along

Well, I finally finished the first of the Elementary Watson Socks.  They're only a season late, right? 


The pattern is actually quite awesome, and it is free, but the woman's size knits up big.  A lot of people in the Sock-Along found too big, sadly.  I have small feet, but I also knit these at tighter tension then the pattern calls for, and it worked out ok, even if they are a touch long in the foot. 

Anyway, I've started in on the toe of sock number two, and I must say, they seem to be knitting up faster this time.

I've had lots of knitting time, since I finally got Sim City 4 to work on Windows 7 (and that took a lot of fiddling, let me tell you!)  I've also been doing a lot of knitting to Babylon 5, since I've got a bunch of upcoming deadlines for things that need to be done.

However, I'm looking forward to this Friday. Assuming all works out with getting a reservation, I have a date night on Valentines Day!  (Ok, it's sappy, yes, but I'm still looking forward to it.  We're making it a treat and going to a seafood place, so it should be tasty!)

Friday 7 February 2014

Tanis Fiber Arts Etsy Shop Update!


So, Tanis Fiber Arts has an Etsy shop.

And I think my pocketbook was a lot happier when I didn't know about this.

But today, from 8 am to 8 pm, she's offering 6 colourways on 3 different yarn bases.

I already put in my order, (which I am very excited about!) but the new colours look awesome!

More details about exactly how this works is on her blog.

Finished Things!

Wow, there's so much going on with my knitting that there are a few things to update with!

But, I'll start with this post on some new finished projects!

The first is the Sit and Knit Mitts.





This whole night-time photography thing really sucks. . .

And the second is the ever-languishing Pyjama shorts.




These have -so- much seaming it's brutal.  If/when I make these again, I'm definitely going to alter them somewhat to be in-the-round.  I'm also going to make the one size smaller, too.