When it came time for me to make my first pair of socks (at least the first pair that I actually envisioned finishing – I did do one half of a sock last year, but it wasn’t until later that I realized that I hated the stitch pattern on the yarn and was probably never going to finish the first sock, let alone do a second!), I followed suit. I like the idea of socks from the toe-up, particularly for Johnathan, since he wanted knee-length socks and I wasn’t positive I’d have enough yarn for that. Plus, knowing that I have second sock syndrome (a syndrome in which the knitter indefinitely puts off beginning or finishing the second sock because said knitter has tired of the pattern; my first mittens were made well over a month apart!), I wanted to try two-at-a-time. Two-at-a-time from the toe up on one circular needle. I found a tutorial for it, and off we went!

The tutorial is for worsted weight yarn and larger needles while I was knitting with fingering weight yarn and tiny needles. They aren’t the smallest size I own, but just about. I cast on for two colorwork socks, with striped toe and heel, reversed a pattern from being cuff-down to toe-up, and just jumped in with both feet and started. It was a pretty enlightening experience, mainly in how easy this was to accomplish for me.

I won’t say I haven’t had my fair share of setbacks, however. First I made the socks about half an inch too short – uncomfortably short for Johnathan’s feet. So I ripped out the heels and knitted longer, then did the heels again. Then when I got to the color work, we found that it was too tight. Well crap. So, I got really mad at the socks, threw them across the room, fumed for a bit, then came up with a plan to fix it. I put out all sorts of fires in the knitting of these socks!

Starting out with a technique that is perceived as difficult to many makes me feel kind of good. It makes me feel fearless. Even though I’m not starting these things this way to show off, it makes me want to boast to other sock knitters how well it’s going. (Until I run into a snafu, that is.) I feel wonderful knowing that by not letting myself think something is hard, I’m able to accomplish it. Even the warnings on the tutorial that said tutorial should be for experienced knitters didn’t deter me. I have two successful socks in progress that hopefully will fit Johnathan’s feet perfectly – better than any store-bought sock could.

Now that I’ve conquered sock knitting, lace is next on my list. I couldn’t, of course, pick an easy project for that, either. No, I have in my queue (and the materials in my stash) for a shawl that, as written, can measure anywhere from 44″ square to 50″ square depending on the knitter. Start easy? Well, clearly that’s for other knitters. Not this stupidly fearless knitter!

I have had this pattern favorited for a while, and it was the only thing that I could see coordinating with the Grove pattern, which required the yardage that I had, was free, and was at least sort-of fitting with the style of the mittens. I probably could have made up a hat to go with the grove pattern, but I didn’t want to get into designing when it comes to hats. I’ll stick to scarves for now.

I started the hat on Monday. I must have cast it on about ten times that day, with my last attempt garnering me a fairly uneven cast on of 95 stitches. I needed 96. So I started over on Tuesday. I got the right number of stitches cast on the first time, and it didn’t look like crap! Hurrah! So I started the brim.

K1, P1, K1, P1. I got two rows into the pattern before I realized that I was not knitting, I was knitting through the back loop, which produces a different kind of stitch than a regular knit. Oh well, I’ve decided to say that’s a custom design element, meant to go with the twisted stitches on the mittens. Now it coordinates! Totally planned, I swear.

The rest of the hat was a trial at best. Not because the pattern was bad, because it wasn’t. I just couldn’t seem to pay enough attention to it to do it right the first time. I would knit two rows, realize I had done something wrong, then go back to fix it. This went on for almost the entire duration of the hat. On Saturday night, I was finishing with it, and by the time I got done, I realized that my decreases had somehow gone wrong. I ended up with twenty stitches when I ought to have had sixteen. Well, crap. So I just did a ssk, k2tog around and finished with ten stitches. That was good enough for me, and threaded the yarn through the remaining stitches and called it done.

There really was only one problem when I finished. It neither looked nor fit like a beret. I know that the Swish yarn from Knit Picks relaxes a lot when it’s washed, but I did not expect it to relax quite that much. I washed it anyway, and pulled out a plate to see what would happen. Much to my surprise, the hat fit over the full-size plate! I guess it was going to be a beret after all.

After blocking, the hat was definitely a beret. It’s not a very floppy or loose one, and it stays fairly close to my head, but it’s definitely not a beanie anymore. I love how it turned out, even with all of my mistakes.

I need more winter gear like I need a hole in my head. These mittens, though, they have been calling to me since Jared Flood released the pattern last summer in his book Made in Brooklyn. I waited until it was available as an individual PDF, because nothing else from the book was calling to me as strongly as these mittens. I got my yarn, as usual, from Knit Picks. I went with orange, partially because I liked the color of the ones in the picture and partially because I don’t have anything that’s orange and I thought it would be nice for the dreary, dull winter.

They’re not very hard to knit, honestly, once you figure out what the pattern is doing. I started with size 6 needles, but after doing part of the pattern, I decided they would be too small, so I ripped it out and started over in size 7. I’m glad I did, too, because they fit perfectly after blocking, and they certainly would have been too small if I hadn’t gone up a needle size. The cuffs are pretty easy. They are the only part of the mittens that require cabling. I used a cable needle because the yarn is slippery and with my nickle-plated needles, I didn’t want to fight with cabling without a cable needle, even if I’m capable of doing it. After the cuffs, the charts start, and they’re pretty easy to read once printed out from the PDF. I understand that they were very small in the book, but they take up a whole page on the PDF so I had no problems reading the different symbols.

Most of the pattern is pretty clear, but I did have some problems with the chart. One of the symbols is defined simply as “purl” when it should be decreasing two stitches. It appears twice on each mitten and six times on each thumb, so I really needed to figure out what it was. After searching the internet and Ravelry, I determined that I am apparently the only person who had this problem with the pattern. I looked up common chart symbols for knitting and ended up looking up a way to do a two-stitch no-lean purlwise decrease. The left-hand chart was fine – I had no problems with it. There were some mistakes on the right-hand chart where there were some missing symbols, but by that time I was well-versed in what the pattern should be doing so it didn’t mess me up at all.

Can I just say how much I love these mittens? They’re bold and beautiful. They’re also very soft, owing to the superwash wool, and they fit me very well. I can’t wait to wear them when the weather backs down from “amazingly hot and muggy”. (Okay, so it’s only kinda hot, but it’s also only June. It will be amazingly hot soon enough.)

I did goof with this, though. I ordered 3 skeins of Swish worsted based on the yardage mentioned for the mittens, expecting to use maybe half of the third skein, if that. It’s always better to have a little more than necessary, right? Well, I think I went far beyond “a little.” I used less than 1 skein for the first mitten, and I got at least 1/3 of the way through the second mitten before I needed a second skein. I used 28 grams of the 50 gram ball, so I have 72 grams of yarn left – 171 yards! That’s almost enough to make an entire second pair of mittens! I’ve decided I’m going to make a hat to go with the mittens. I need another hat just as much as I need another pair of mittens, but how can I resist when I’ve found a wonderful pattern to showcase this beautiful yarn color?

Late in April, I was inspired to join in on a test knit call for a scarf. I’m not totally sure why – every time I make a scarf, I swear it’s the last one, because they take so damn long and there’s a feeling of hopelessness somewhere around 3/4 of the way through. But this one apparently was calling to me. So I ordered some yarn (none of the stuff I already had would do!), and on the second of May, off we went!

The result was 29 days of on-and-off knitting that was sometimes very satisfying – in that it was a pattern that was easy to memorize and didn’t require too much attention to accomplish – and also very maddening – because, well, it’s a scarf! What was I thinking?! What I wasn’t thinking was that I would end up with something so singularly gorgeous. The pattern and the yarn got along very well, and I’m very, very happy with the end result.

The end result is 87.5″ of scarf, made from approximately 98.5 grams of Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Queen Anne. It is light-weight and soft, and will make a wonderful spring/fall scarf for Johnathan’s mom, who I decided some time after I started knitting it would be the ultimate recipient. Her birthday is tomorrow, so if she spoiled herself by reading our blog — oops. The scarf was easy to knit with an eight-line repeat done approximately a zillion times until I finished. If I were to make it again, I would push it just one more gram (up to 4g left instead of 5), which would probably make one more pattern repeat and use up the entire skein of yarn, save a few inches, most likely. For a one-skein project, this is pretty fabulous!

The front side of the scarf

The back side of the scarf

Best of all, the pattern for the scarf is reversible, so it won’t matter what side is showing while wearing it, as with other scarves I have made.

Now, I’m ready to profess that this was my Last Scarf Ever, but that would be a bald-faced lie. I have a scarf planned for my brother and maybe, just maybe, someday I will knit a scarf for myself. I’m not holding my breath, though. A year and four scarves after I picked up knitting again, I have yet to actually knit one for myself, or even actually plan one for myself. So, until the next time I knit a scarf, this is the Very Last One.

was looking around at the store for a new purse recently. I’ve been using the same purses for quite a while now, and they’re both looking pretty tired. Once I realized that I didn’t like any of my options in the store (people want to carry those? really?), I decided that maybe knitting one would be my best option. I’d had this bag in my favorites for quite a while, and I definitely wanted to make one. Well, what a perfect excuse!

The bag is made up of DK weight yarn – I used CotLin from Knit Picks in pomegranate (I have a thing for red, I’ve learned). The CotLin is sturdy and I love the texture of it. It’s sturdy, but soft enough to be nice to touch. The bag itself was pretty easy to make, but I had to kind of make things up here and there, because the instructions were vague at best in spots. The instructions on how to sew the liner were especially vague, and since I definitely don’t know how to sew, I had to enlist Johnathan’s help in doing so.

We bought the fabric just after the yarn came in, so it was all ready to go when I finished the bag. We set about measuring things and cutting out bits of fabric. All-told, we had six pieces: four sides, one bottom and one piece for the pockets. It took about two hours, and there was some frustration involved as we got everything sewn in. We ended up using black thread to sew the liner to the bag which looks okay, even the spot where the sewing machine jammed a little bit toward the end. There’s only one spot that got caught and sewed in funny, and it was on the side, which was going to get sewn down anyway.

I was okay with how it turned out, but Johnathan felt like he could do better. So, on May 28th, we ripped everything out and started over. The second time around, we got actual maroon thread, so it was less obvious, and he sewed it in a bit differently. Instead of going all the way around, he did the two long sides individually, then we fixed up the short sides. This time, everything went much smoother! I sewed on the handles in the car on our way down to Columbus, and the bag was finished! It is wonderful! It held my scarf-in-progress (feature post coming soon), wallet, sunscreen, sunglasses, nook e-reader, and the purchases that we maid through the day. Plus, it just looks awesome.

While we were out and about this weekend, however, my wonderful new bag met with slight catastrophe. Johnathan kept a chapstick in the car, and not thinking about hot it had been in the car, I decided I needed some. So I opened it. It was liquified. And it got all over my bag. Thankfully, a quick search on the internet showed me that this isn’t ruination, but it sure doesn’t look awesome. The chapstick can come out, if we can ever find somewhere with dry cleaning fluid. Thank good ness I made this bag out of a cotton and linen blend and not out of wool, or things would be a lot more difficult!

No matter, though – I’m very happy with this bag and can’t wait to carry it to work this week.

I started this cowl in January, while I was still working three ten-hour days a week and two fives, and doing part time eSecurity and part time help desk work. It was a nice reprieve from a very busy schedule. About a week after I started it, I was almost finished, and realized about five rows later that I’d mistakenly purled two stitches that I should have knitted. So I dropped them down to fix them. And I didn’t have my crochet hook with me, so fixing it was really difficult. I took it home that night to fix the stitches, and then promptly forgot about doing it for three months. It was late in April when I finally got around to fixing the stitches and finishing the last five rows that I had to do. In the meantime, I’d knitted two hats, a toy robot, a bag and a mitten. It took maybe an hour, at the most, for me to finish. Boy, did I feel pretty stupid for letting it sit there! But at least it’s finished now.

It’s made with Cadena yarn from Knit Picks (in cranberry) which is a little bit scratchy on the neck, but much better after having washed it. I’m going to try washing it again with conditioner, which I’ve heard can soften up the scratchiness sometimes. It’s very graphic and I think it will be lovely and warm when winter weather visits again. The red will do nicely to brighten up the gray weather.

Gotta love the funky tan line.

I’ve decided to start a new “series” of posts so that maybe once and a while I’ll actually post something! I’m going to post when I finish a project. “Finished Object” features!

First up is a set of mittens that have been in progress since November. I started these for Johnathan so that he would have warm, soft mittens for the winter, with short mitts so that he can still have the full use of his fingers and flip-tops so that he can have the added warmth when needed (like when he’s unburying his car).

The mittens are based on the News Item Gloves pattern, which is a vintage pattern from the 1940′s. It calls for dk weight yarn, but Johnathan wanted a bulky, squishy yarn, so I picked a yarn and he picked a color. I went up on my needle size to fit the yarn and cast it on circular instead of flat, and imagine my surprise when the pattern as written pretty much worked out! I made the mittens significantly longer than the pattern written, so he’ll have that extra touch of warmth in the freezing winter weather.

The first mitten was originally made with fingers, at Johnathan’s request, and as I finally started the second mitten (five months later!), I thought they would look better with just mitts and no fingers. And they do! The shaping was largely made up, and the flip-over part was also mostly improvised. I really did have to kind of make these up as I went.

I learned a few things with this project: write things down if you’re modifying anything. When I started the second mitten, I realized that I’d done some modifications, including decreasing for the wrist and then increasing again for the thumb and hand. I also had no idea exactly what I did for the flip-top, and since this yarn is a bit on the dark side, it can be hard to count stitches on it. So there was a lot of guesswork at what went through my mind as I was making the first mitten in November/December.

I also learned that it’s probably best not to let five months pass between making a pair of items. My knitting when I made the second was much tighter and, I think, more even than the first time. So the second mitten looks a little bit neater than the first. Blocking and wear will probably help, and it isn’t as if they don’t look the same. The differences are probably only obvious to me, really, and they don’t fit differently.

So, Johnathan has new, handmade mittens. Just in time for summer! Oh well, maybe it’ll go better next time.

So this week, after Johnathan got a little fussy at me about wanting to buy even more yarn, I decided to destash a little. I gave away all of the Simply Soft yarn that I’ll never use (two pinks and a purple; liked the purple but can’t ever see myself wearing that particular color myself, and I can’t keep giving Allison only purple things!), and some red heart that I bought thinking I could swatch with it, only to realize that I hate knitting with it, and my proof of concept wasn’t going to look the same on it anyway. I still have some Plymouth Encore for two aborted Harry Potter scarves that’s free to anyone who wants it for the cost of shipping. (In other words, you pay what it cost to ship, and you get the yarn!)

I also committed myself to finishing the things that I have in progress. I had a bag that I was working on that I finished knitting last night. It needs to be washed, blocked, lined and have the handles sewn on still, but the knitting is done. Today I finished a cowl that I started in January and set aside because I needed my big crochet hook to fix some stitches and didn’t have it with me at the time. It came home and sat on the table next to the couch for three months. I fixed the stitches, knitted the five remaining rows, and even learned a new bind off!

Next up: The other flip-top mitten for Johnathan, started in November and postponed because I didn’t feel like knitting the second one yet. Sadly, the pattern was semi-improvised, so I will have to try very hard to recreate it, almost six months later. But, it’s the next project I have committed myself to making, and make it I will! After that, I have another fingerless glove to make, again with an improvised pattern, this time for myself. I finished the first and cast on for the second, but set it aside when I got sick in the fall and never finished it. So, two gloves to make. There’s also the Selbu hat that I started, even got halfway through making, but later realized was going to be way, way too small for me. I ripped it out and haven’t had the patience to start again. I will be starting that after the other two, and then I will have no WIPs left!

As far as my queue goes? I have another Retro-Style Knitting Bag, this time in Harbor instead of Pomegranate,  to make for myself, Grove mittens in Saffron, Space Invaders socks for Johnathan, two more robots for Johnathan’s birthday present (incidentally, his birthday is today! Happy birthday, Johnathan!), a scarf for my brother (that I’m going to design) in Forest Heather, and a test-knit that I’ve committed myself to make by June 1 in Queen Anne. Plus a lot of other stuff that’s on the list and that I have the yarn for but which isn’t so immediate.

I’m glad I’ve committed myself to getting these WIPs done. I want to knit all these other things, so if I finish the WIPs that have been languishing, I can start on the new things that I want with  reduced guilt. That is ALWAYS A+.

Alright, back to knitting.