Mitre Me This

This is pretty much all I've been working on.

It's a fun knit, you knit the squares, then you pick up and knit the side triangles. I chose to make the side triangles match one another so it wouldn't be too helter-skelter. The matching side triangles give it an intriguing hourglass motif.

And thanks to my friend Melissa  for this cartoon:

Don't forget to stop by Andrea's and check out all the FAF blogs!

Zauberball Madness

I'm not normally a fan of fingering-weight yarns, but the Zaub is fun. I don't even mind that the socks won't match, because there's enough yarn to take the socks all the way up to my knees! I did a toe-up, and split the ball in half, so I can just knit till it's done! Toe up socks are awesome that way.

I've made four panels for the mitred scarf. There would be five ... except I foo-ed one up and it was lopsided. I *thought* it was a simple, easy pattern, but I messed one up because I wasn't paying attention ... they're pretty quick to knit up anyway, but if I don't hurry I won't have a wearable scarf before Spring.

Here's a pair of slippers I threw together for myself, from some leftover Cascade.




That's about it ...




Oh, wait....


One small treat for myself.

A portable, ventless fireplace ... a Brasa fireplace.

It is perfect for apartments or small houses ... no batteries, no plug, no need to vent. It runs on "bio-ethanol," which is a really fancy way to say "de-natured alcohol." 

I love it. It warms the room and it's very cozy to sit and knit by! It's not the same as a wood-burning fire, but it's better than the eighteen candles I was lighting before.



Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Don't forget to stop by Andrea's to take in the awesome!

Oh, and if you want to give me and my friends some encouragement ... stop by our fitness blog, Three Friends Fitness,    and see what we're up to!  

Let Me Tell You About My Dreams

This morning, I hit the snooze button to the point of insanity. I finally gave up and re-set the alarm for two hours later, intending to call in sick after the alarm went off. Well, that's what I did ... but in the two hours between re-setting the alarm and the alarm going off, I had a long dream in which I repeatedly tried to call in sick, but couldn't ... either I was trying to call in to work on my ipad, or I was using my phone but couldn't press the right buttons and had to keep starting over, or I had a strange phone in a weird holster, that had no guts in it. I didn't feel a bit rested when I woke up. I frequently have exhausting, busy dreams, and wake up feeling as if I'd worked all night!

So I took a sick day, and had a nice quiet day. I started two new projects (no I didn't finish the WIPs, thanks for asking):

A mitered square scarf:

In Cascade, and the book is 60 Quick Knits with Cascade. I make eight of those squares, then stitch them together. It's a quick, easy project, you just have to pay enough attention to get the SKNP in the correct place.

I started a toe-up sock with a crazy Zauberball. It's mesmerizing, watching the color changes.

I ignored the growing pile of WIPs on the coffee table.

I walked my doggie, and we befriended a new Rottweiler in the neighborhood. He (or she) is very shy, but was happy to meet me. I think it's an American Rott, very large and sweet-natured, and with a lean frame, rather than a stocky one.

I'm pretty sure we're going to be BFFs.

And I photographed two of my stray kitties, Momma Girl and Coraline, in one of their favorite pastimes ... teasing the pit bull that looks out the bedroom window of the rowhouse next to mine.

I Love Diamonds!

The wooly kind, that is. When it comes to jewelry, I prefer opaque stones.


The diamond pattern vest is very easy to knit, and has a lovely pattern to it...

There's a neat little 0 in the middle, where the diamonds cross over.


I'm in something of a knitting funk right now, so I haven't made much progress on it.

And here's some brioche ...



It is really, really, really not easy to work. Not outside of the basic sl1yof brk1 stitch, anyway.

Single color brioche is easy enough. Bi-color is a bit trickier. I've started this tiny piece over three times, and I'm still doing something wrong at the edge!

It's pretty, but I'm not sure that will be enough to save it.







In other news, Baltimore finally got some snow.

Well ... not really snow. A half inch of some awful slushy stuff fell overnight. It was more like that stuff sno-cones are made out of. Very uncomfortable to walk on.

Doggie was not amused. She doesn't like it when her feet crunch through the crust. She doesn't understand where the grass is, and thinks she has to have grass to do her "business."











An amusing aside, totally unrelated to knitting. Can you spot the error in this photo?

Happy Fiber Arts Friday, everyone! Don't forget to check out Andrea's  site!

Voila, Y'all!

Remember this? Guy with a little head in a bulky cabled crew neck sweater? Me grousing about brown cables and brown yarn and brownbrownbrownbrown till I sounded like a broken record?

This is my version:

Also,

It's very bulky, nearly ten 100g skeins of yarn. This is the second iteration of it, after the first was too big and I had to rip it apart (last blog post) and do some adjustments. I shorted the sleeves by three inches (could have done four) and seamed it in as closely as I could while maintaining the armhole structure. I am *really* glad I re-did it, because it looks much much better now, and fits Jeff nicely.

Oh, by the way, Jeff is father to the adorable Mairwyn...

So, I learned a lot from this pattern. I learned that men aren't built like women (yes, I didn't know that ... I am, after all, a Spinster woman), and that Paton's sizes are probably a little generous. I learned that it's really good to let a large project rest a week or so before attacking the seaming. And I learned that you should always leave a bit of the woven-in ends sticking out, so you don't have to search for them when disassembling the piece to fix it.

Anywho, it's finished, and I'm rewarding myself by learning brioche. I've just started, and already want to stab myself in the forehead with a dpn. Should be fun!

The Saga of the Brown Sweater

Oh-oh! This blog post is a repeat ... I have edited yesterday's post to add one little thing for today ... the vest I am working on now that the brown sweater is done.

Tada! That's as far as I've gotten.

What follows is Wednesday's blog post....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I finished the Brown Sweater around New Year's Day ... but alas, it was too big!

It was too long in the arms, and too big around. 

I knew there was only one thing to do ... re-seam it. Pick out the stitches on the side seams and the stitches holding the sleeves in, and then un-bind-off the tops of the sleeves ... frog 3 full inches on each sleeve ... then put the stitches back on the needle and bind off once again.

I did that, then I re-attached the sleeves to the body.

The sleeves were bigger than the sleeve holes, so I had to be careful not to let it pucker. I suppose this means it will be roomy at the shoulder.

To make it smaller around the body, I seamed it with about an inch surplus on either side.

It made a big panel down the sides, but thankfully, it lay flat on its own. I only had to stitch it down at the bottom and top corners. It should be about 4" less circumference now ... I couldn't make it any smaller, or the sleeves would have been wonky.

On the right side, the stitched seem isn't even visible!

The seam just disappears into the pattern.


















I will give it to the recipient again this weekend, then take some pictures of it on a real person.

I learned a lot about seaming while doing this sweater. I've seamed lots of garments before, but on this one, I did a much better job. I learned the "trick" to it. I'm almost disappointed that my vest, a WIP, doesn't need any seaming! That's how much I liked it.

So it's hopefully done. I can't make it any smaller around, but if the sleeves aren't the right length, I can lengthen or shorten them. I really hope it's all juuuuuust right, though! Emotionally, I've moved on from this sweater, and am growing attached to the vest (also in Paton's wool) that I've started.

Happy New Year! Tune in again this weekend for the grand photo finish!

So Far So Good!

Five days into the new year ... so far, I'm doing okay on my resolutions!

I frogged *four* WIPs ... it was mildly painful, but I did it. Now I only have two WIPs going, and I'm trying very hard to stick to just those two, until at least one is finished!

My new perpetual-brown-project, the Malabrigo Crest of the Wave Scarf. It's about a foot long. I want it to be long enough to wind around my neck a couple times, and dangle ... so you'll be seeing this for a while!

Another Paton's project, a diamond pattern vest for myself. I've just started ... so you'll being seeing this one for a while too!


Now that I look at it this way ... two long projects sound very boring, don't they? I should keep a small project in constant rotation, so as not to bore the blog community. Just three WIPs ... that's not too many. Totally manageable. I'm sure I won't go nuts and cast on four more, nah ... I wouldn't do that.



I also finished the Big Brown sweater ... but it's too big, so I need to disassemble it at the seams and make a few adjustments. The lovely Berrocco Boboli scarf is finished as well; I'm not ready to show it off yet, though. It's short, and I need to get some buttons to fasten it at the neck. Plus, it's upstairs, and I've already put the camera away.

I caught a ferocious chest cold over the New Year's holiday. How ferocious? Well ... on day two, I didn't even want to knit. That's how bad. In any case, what that means is I still have not spent the lovely $50 gift card I got from my co-workers! My boss traded me cash for it, so now ... drumroll ... I *can* spend it at  All About Yarn, my Favorite Local Yarn Store! (In last week's blog I explained that it was an Amex gift card, and AAY doesn't accept AMEX). I know this blows the whole no-buying-new-yarn resolution, but c'mon, people ... it's gift money! Surely that doesn't count, since I'm not spending my own money! In any case, I might spend it on knitting books.

So how is everyone else doing? I'm still icky-sicky, but on the plus side, all the coughing has made my stomach sore, which means I'm not eating as much, and I lost five pounds or so in the last week (I've been exercising too, but the sore-tummy-not-eating helped it all along!)

Don't forget to check out the lovely blogs at Andrea's!   

Happy Fiber Arts Friday in the New Year!