Post Turkey update

Oriel Lace
I finished knitting the second sleeve a couple weeks ago and blocked it last week. As I started to assemble the sweater, I still worried about it being too small, even though I’d added 2 inches to the length. I tried to pin it on myself but just couldn’t properly contort my arms to get it right so I got a friend to come over and help. The bodice is a bit snug, but I think that can be resolved by re-blocking since I did a half-assed job of blocking the front & back. The weird thing though is that the sleeves are too short. Too SHORT?!? I have freakishly short arms, this has never happened to me. And they aren't just a little short, more like 5 inches. They’re also a little tighter than I like so now I need to frog them about halfway. Ugh. Time for Oriel to hibernate for a while. At least I got the front & back reblocked before stashing it away.

Making Waves Bag
This one went fast because it was easy tv knitting. I finished knitting last week. It felted a bit unevenly – when it came out of the washer it didn’t have square corners. I wrestled, stretched, and beat on it to get it close to normal rectangle. I ended up blocking it flat. It looks great – I love the color even though the cables don’t show up as well as they did on the blue version for Jennifer. I’m considering felting it a little more and reblocking. The only problem with that is it means I have to not use it for a few days and I’m quite attached to carrying it right now.



Christmas Knitting
Yes, it’s that time of year again. I knit gifts for my nieces and nephew each Christmas. Even though they’re still quite young they are very opinionated so I decided to let them pick between mittens and slippers as well as what colors they wanted. On Thanksgiving I brought along the feltable portion of my stash. My nephew was too busy sledding on the hill out back to consult on colors (he’s such a boy), but paused long enough to say he wanted slippers. One niece wants mittens and the other wants slippers. Then the girls dove into the big bag of yarn with gusto. They spread out the skeins all over the floor and started picking out colors. After about ½ hour of debate they settled on all of them. Yes, they wanted all the colors. That’s what I get for asking a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old. The 3-year-old especially liked the Noro. I don’t know what I was thinking, putting the Noro in the bag, because I’m not willing to use it for anyone but me. She’ll remember it too. I talked to her on the phone yesterday and she reminded me. Hopefully she’ll like the slippers enough to forgive the omission. I started the first pair yesterday and finished one of the slippers. They have a purple sole, pink uppers, with a rainbow of colors in the cuff. They’re about at girly as a slipper can get!


Other stuff
I’m still moving along on the Pomatomus socks. I finished the heel gusset on the way to work this morning, so now I’m in the home stretch of the foot. If I pay close attention to the chart, I could finish these this week.

Last week I finished the second sleeve on the olive cardigan. Whew, 4 sleeves done in the last 2 months. No wonder I don’t want to deal with frogging the Oriel sleeves yet. I started the back on Friday, but only got about an inch done.

A Hat I'm Thankful For

I'm really really happy about this hat. It fits me perfectly, but oh yeah, I promised Rob that it's his. darn. =|



It looks good on him too - darn again. It hides his crazy hair anyway. He needs all the help he can get with his hair, and he seems to be cold most of the time - so a super warm hat that hides his colossal mangy mane is my gift to him.



I finished this over Thanksgiving - a reason to be thankful for sure. The pattern is Red Light Special using Knit Picks Telemark sport weight yarn (awesome stuff) and Misti International Alpaca Worsted for the lining - nice and soft for tender ears. I love that it's sport weight - really warm and thin, especially with the lining.



Oh, and I'm putting a "If found, please return to:" label in it this time.

I suppose I just might alter the pattern and make a similar one for myself.

Chomp Chomp

Meet my new traveling companions, Gilly & Dilly. They don't match a whole lot of what I wear but they don't care. Like me, all they want to do is eat and chomp on stuff. I had no idea how insanely cute these would turn out to be. DAMN.


Pattern is "Later Gator Mitts" from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. Yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Grass and Cranberry. I modified the pattern (somewhat accidentally), but they fit now. I bought the largest googley-eyes I could that could still be sewn, instead of glued, on.



I think I smiled through most of the project, especially when putting on the white doofers. Poor guys are missing a couple of them - but that's what they get for trying to snack on the kitty. Bad Gators. Yes, there was a kitty run-in this morning. Score: Mr. B, 1 - Gilly, 0 (actually -1 since Mr. B swiped a tooth).

Hee hee. I think I might get into more trouble when wearing these - it's almost as though they have a mind of their own. In fact, I can now blame most of my inappropriate behavior on them.

Chomp Chomp. You know you want a pair.

Lookie what I found on the doorstep

Ah yes. FINALLY. The Knit Picks yarn has arrived.

Mine for Rob's Hat:




And SissyPrincess' - probably for socks. again.

Fall Foliage

I love fall. It's my favorite season. So I obviously need a new hat to celebrate. Here's my finished no-foiled project from the Knitty's Foliage pattern. I used Cascade 220 Heathers (naturally, yes again!) in Color 9489 (red wine). I always thought I had a large-ish head, but after meeting some of my knitting friends (ahem), I have learned that it's large for the southern states, I guess. What I'm getting at is that I stopped short of the full pattern for my puny noggin.

This is a great pattern with just enough lace to keep it fun.

This is the image before I added extra ribbing. I thought it would look great as is, but I think it looks more flattering with a turned up rib. Yes, it looks good but I picked the best possible photo. Trust me, it looks better with a brim.

The best part is that I completed most of this within a lazy, sitting on my bohunkus in front of the tube, kind of day.

New yarn! and other random stuff

Last weekend I went to the fiber arts sale here. I expected it to be a bit larger. Most of the goods were finished objects - some very nice ones - but I was on the hunt for yarn. They had a few baskets of delicious hand-spun or hand-dyed yarn. The violet silk was scrumptious but out of my price range. There was a variegated wool in glorious fall colors that I pictured as a Sunrise Circle Jacket, but there wasn't quite enough.

I came home with some fingering weight pink mohair. The color is glorious but the yarn is a little scratchy. It's only single-ply which means it really isn't durable enough for socks. I tried not to buy it. Picked it up, put it down, picked it up, put it down. Somehow 2 hanks ended up in my basket.

Then buried under some cotton in colors too bright to contemplate I found beauty. It's hand-spun wool so soft that I was convinced it had silk in there. Then I smelled it. Some of you understand smelling yarn. This stuff is awesome. Initially I wasn't sold on the grey color, but there was no way I was going to let this stuff out of my grubby yarn-mitts. Now I love the grey. It has just enough warmth to still look decent on me as a hat or scarf or gloves or.... oh the possibilities!

Onto other topics. I got rid of the red superwash wool I've had in my stash (Thanks Irene!).
Somehow a couple weeks ago a skein of Trekking XXL in some lovely golds and greens migrated into the stash. I have reason to believe this happened to someone else too.

I love the harmony sock needles. Finally, needles sharp enough to make Pomatomus a joy. I cast on the 2nd sock and got through one repeat before returning to other things.

Last night I finished the 2nd sleeve on the Oriel Lace. That's right. Now all I have to do is block that, reblock the other 3 pieces, assemble, knit the collar, and weave in the ends. Why does it still seem like finishing this is so far away?

The real distraction has been Ravelry. I got my invitation last week and I'm obsessed. Addicted. Gripped. Fanatical. Help!