Is it a WIP or a FO?

I have figured out a way to participate in every single Tamis Amis WIP Wednesday, and Finished Object Friday ....

The Beekeepers Quilt! It's perfect ... every time I finish a hexi, I can say I have a FO. But it's also a WIP, at least until I have several hundred hexis. Perfect! I feel like I have membership in an exclusive club. I can always play at Tamis Amis' house!

In other news, I've started a Citron. With a Zauberball. I don't think it's a Crazy Zauberball...

It doesn't look crazy ... I can't find it online, and I of course tossed the ball band immediately before I needed it.

It's rather subdued for a Zaub, isn't it?

To finish this shawl, the directions say to knit three into each final stitch, which will end it with 540 stitches to cast off. I've never had that many stitches on the needle before. It's at 377 now and they are already crowded.



On a final note, don't forget January is NaKniMitMo! I blogged about it earlier. This year I'm going to challenge myself with a Russian mitten pattern. I hope to finish the Citron before the end of the year, so I can start NaKniMitMo with only the Beekeeper's Quilt in my WIP queue.

I leave you with two crazy-eyed cats reminding you to stop by and visit Tamis Amis for FO Friday!

NaKniMitMo 2013 is Coming Soon!

Just a reminder for those who like to participate ... NaKniMitMo 2013 is fast approaching! I participated at the last minute in 2011, and came up with this mis-matched pair:

There is a Ravelry group for National Knitting Mittens Month, it says "2012" on the badge but the first discussion thread is for 2013. I'm in! Who's with me?

This year, I am determined to challenge myself. I  have done colorwork before, but I always avoided the really complicated patterns. Not this time! I have a book, "Mostly Mittens (Ethnic Knitting Designs from Russia)" and I am going to knit something from it. Russian patterns don't seem to be as complicated as Latvian patterns ... in any case, I've never knit anything from this book, and I need to practice my colorwork. As I mentioned last post ... I knit way too tightly in colorwork. For example, this hat ...

Was very snug on my head. (I do have a big head, though) I'm blocking it to see if I can get it looser.

You can also knit gauntlets/wristlets/fingerless-gloves for NaKniMitMo ...

Hope to see you there!

I Need Closure

For my Bohus ... I need something to close my Bohus! Snaps, or perhaps frogs, or some sort or hooking latch-y thing! The original pattern called for a big ol' ribbon, but I am just not the ribbon type. 

Excuse the flash. Not that it did much good.

The top part actually does meet at the edges, but not easily. I will have to use a closure that allows a half-inch gap. Then it can just hang open from the bottom of the colorwork.

I just wish I were a smidge smaller around the upper torso, so it would fit properly. Plus, I knit colorwork very snugly--I just can't seem to loosen up. I should frog all the color work, then re-do it, but I don't know if I will or not. I'll put some closers on it, and see how I like it then.

Meanwhile, I hexipuff away, and I have to tell you this is a fantastic way to use up the little yarn strands laying around.

I can use up every inch of all the yarn ends I can't bear to throw away. The one on the left is my favorite -- four different bits of yarn. Cascade, knit-picks dyed with Kool-Aid, and Vanna acrylic. There might be some slight wonkiness with gauge, but I will use up all my odds-n-ends!

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis for Finished Object Friday! And if I don't see you before then, Merry Christmas!

What to Do with the Leftovers ...

The leftover yarn, that is. You know how when you do colorwork, you often buy a 220-yard skein and only use a few yards of it? Well, the Bohus Swing Coat took five different colors, but only one was used much.

Oh, behave yourself!

There, that's better.

So you see the color that was most used ... leaving me with four other colors, three of which were barely touched! Since I used the fabulous Cascade 220 for the Bohus, I went to the 60 Quick Knits for Cascade pattern book, and voila, found this:

The Tweed Watch Cap.

It'll look better blocked.


The Bohus is pretty much done, except for sewing on the frog to fasten the front. It isn't a great fit for me, too snug on the top, and too billowy on the bottom, but I'll try to make it work. It wasn't a difficult knit, and I love working with Cascade, plus I got lots of leftovers to play with! I'll showcase the Bohus on the FO Friday blog.

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis tomorrow for WIP Wednesday, and see what all the other artists are up to!

Merry Christmas!

Two Finished Objects!

The Mock Cable Wristers 

These are from the "Sixty Quick Knits for Cascade Yarn" book, and the pattern calls for them to be short; just two mock-cable repeats instead of the four I did.

Gratuitous Cable Shot.












The other FO is a decidedly less pretty set of wristers ...

They're for a child. I might not gift them. I don't think they are very nice now that they're done.

And my new perpetual WIP ....

Five. I have five. The funny thing is, I don't remember buying the dark blue yarn, or the pink-brown-maroon on the far right. I don't remember ever making a project out of those yarns.

I don't know what they're planning, but I'm nervous. 

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis on Friday, for F-O Friday! 

My Next Big Thing

 
Can you all guess what I'm doing next?

(No, I haven't finished the Bohus)


This will be a long-term project, actually, so it's my next ongoing big thing.

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis for Work-in-Progress Wednesday!

A FO and a WIP

That's the FO ... the rectangle scarf.

And here's the WIP ...

A fingerless mitt for a 7-year-old.



That's it!

Owl Booties!

Aren't they cute? They're big enough to go over a baby's shoes. And baby's shoes are always clean, right?

These Owl Booties were fairly easy. The only tedious part was putting the beads on, and that's just my irritation with threading tiny objects, I think.







I started another project:

The Tied Rectangle Wrap from 60 Quick Knits for Cascade Yarn.

This isn't Cascade (though that is my favorite yarn!) ... it's my own spun yarn. It's hard to tell in this photo, but it's yellow and orange cable-plied Merino.

The Bohus, which needs longer sleeves, has undergone some painful surgery. It required two plastic needles, waste yarn, a size 00 knitting needle, and no cats anywhere near me for an hour.

I found the end of the purple, where the colorwork ended, and tediously unknit the colorwork from the purple. I used the plastic needles and waste yarn to pick up the live threads, and the 00 knitting needle to pick the stitches apart.


Not too difficult, just painstaking. Now I'm going to add a few inches to each sleeve and figure out the best way to re-attach the two ends.


It's almost depressing, how good I've gotten at tinking. 

You know what's really sucky about all this? I tried on the Bohus, and it doesn't really suit me. In hindsight, I don't think it would suit anyone with breasts. In the future, I hope to remember that when I see a certain style of sweater modeled on a flat-chested woman ... I need to consider how an actual chest will effect the pattern.

 Not even an A cup, am I right?

The top part is a bit snug, but there's plenty of room in the rest of it. I'm going to block the top part, and see if that helps. I do have big-ish shoulders, which affects the fit of most things I knit for myself.

In other news ...

Edgar broke the first Christmas Tree ornament of the year. Even though all the breakable stuff was hung up high.

I fussed at him, but I can't be too mad at him. I think the ornament was taunting him. Look at the expression in his eyes ... he was clearly defending himself.







Thanks for stopping by!

What a boHussy!

I am sooooo close to finishing the Bohus ...

Just the button bands and general tidying up. There's about 2" of rolled fabric in the front to be dealt with. Edging, tuck in the ends, find a fastener for the front ...

Oh, and find some way to magically make the arms 4 or 5" longer. 

I figure I have two choices; either pick-up-and-knit from the medium-purple cuff down a few inches ... or steek the sleeve cuffs, snip them off, pick-up-and-knit from the dark purple part of the sleeve, then re-attach the colorful sleeve end.

What do you, the viewers at home, think?

A: Knit 4 more inches of medium-purple seed stitch border on the bottom of the sleeve cuffs

B: Steek the sleeve cuffs, snip them off, knit more dark purple, re-attach cuffs.


I honestly thought I'd be working on this all winter. Once I saw how close I was to being done, I promptly looked for new projects.

Owl booties! So cute! If you look closely, you can see the first owl head.


Don't worry, the finished product won't have peppercorn eyes.


Maybe.







And I've been spinning. I finished the lovely purple merino, but I don't know how much there is of it.

It's lovely! I'm very happy with it. I think it will have to be a shawl. Something that won't get pulled or tugged too much, because I spun the merino very lightly.


I wanted a big fluffy warm effect.

More of the mixed fiber ... very itchy stuff. Don't know what I'll do with this, but it won't be something worn next to the skin!

And I put my plastic tree up.


I don't like a lot of decorations, as you can see. I like just white lights and a few red splotches.


I crocheted the white garland thing years ago. And over the years I've knitted or crocheted little things to put on it...

Ribbon candy ...

Bells and stockings ...















It isn't very sophisticated, but I am frugal, and I have a lot of yarn.

And cats. I have a lot of cats. Styrofoam balls with knitted covers do not shatter on the floor when a cat bats them off the tree.

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis for WIP-Wednesday!

Went on a Binge

A spinning binge, that is.

These were partly done already; maybe a half-bobbin of each color. Then I stopped spinning for months, because handling wool in the warmer months in a barely-air-conditioned home is just not fun.

Yesterday, I started looking through my Ravelry groups, the spinning and spindling groups, and I was bitten by the spinning bug. I settled down at the long-neglected wheel and spun until I had finished off the purple merino, which I bought at at the 2011 MD Sheep and Wool ...

100% merino from Yarn Barn of ... Kansas? Hard to see the label, and of course I don't have it now.


Several blogs ago I posted about this yarn; I am plying it as a single with a strand of purple crochet cotton. It's beautiful, it looks very wavy and plush. I'll post the finished pictures soon. It's not easy plying thick singles with thread, but it's such a pretty effect.



The yellow and pink was purchased at the last S&W.

I spun the yellow up almost immediately, on spindles, but used the wheel for pink. I finished up the whole thing yesterday, but still have to ply the rest of the pink.

I'm making arm warmers for a Christmas gift for a 7 year old.

Since my socks always wear out at the bottom of the heel, I'm switching to giving arm warmers as gifts.

Here's what the bobbins look like next to an intrusively curious tuxedo cat.

And finally, I Trindled a bunch of Alpaca-wool-Angelina blend. Fiber by Little Barn.












The big Bohus is about 40 rows from being finished. I fear it will be too tight under the arms, so I'm going to have to unseam it there and pick up a few rows to make it looser. I don't know how it will work, though, and still fit in the armholes. It's that, or completely undo a dozen rows, separate the five pieces, and make everything a titch bigger. I really don't want to do that!

 Coraline and her mother Momma Girl enjoy a cozy warm snuggle

And winter has finally settled in over Baltimore. We've been extraordinarily fortunate so far, with temperatures in the 50s (13C-ish) during the day and barely freezing at night. But today it's only in the 40s (5C-ish) and blustery.

Coraline's baby picture. This coloring is not unusual in this neighborhood, where there are a lot of stray black cats and stray orange cats.

Have a great weekend, everyone!