stash, knit, repeat

A test-knit is finished and released, so I have yet another FO to share!

Pattern: Mintyfresh’s Merion Mitts, hot off the presses

Yarn: MadelineTosh Worsted, color “Celadon Pottery” (from initial run of Magnolia Society)

Time to Knit: A couple of weeks–these are very quick.

Notes/Modifications: No modifications, since this was a test-knit. I’m not even sure if I really have notes for you, but I love these mittens so much that I want to at least share some pictures with you.

These mittens are chock full of very clever details. Seed stitch palms (including the inside of the thumb!), a slightly curved shape, and twisted rib.

They fit very well, and even though I test-knit the small size for my sister-in-law I wished I could keep them for myself. Jacob loved them too, as he loves everything hand-knitted.

The yarn, too, is fantastic:

Amy named this color “Celadon Pottery”, and you can see for yourself what an amazing job she did. It’s a dream to work with, soft but sturdy, and one can’t really say enough about how great MadTosh colors are.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

I know, I know. Two posts in two days! But I finally finished this, and I just couldn’t wait to show you all.

Pattern: Tomten Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Yarn: Sundara sock yarn, “Bronzed Forest” and “Mossy” (both from Autumn Seasons Collection I)

Time Elapsed: I finished the knitting in around a month of “work time”, but waited ages when I ran out of yarn and then again (for a whole month!) before putting the zipper in the finished product.

Notes/Modifications: I used a smaller gauge than she recommends–fortunately, the pattern is modular. For those interested in the numbers, I cast on 168 stitches and wound up with a 6-12 month size jacket. I lengthened both the body and the sleeves to make it a larger jacket-style sweater.

There is something to be said for writing up a FO entry as soon as you finish a project–I’ve mostly forgotten all of the in-progress stuff for this sweater!

I used two different colors of sock yarn, both from the “Autumn” season of Sundara’s first Season’s Collection. Convinced I’d run out of yarn well before starting the hood, I begged and bought and traded my way through several other hanks of these colors before finding two from the same dye lots. In the end, I needn’t have worried–the sleeves went extremely quickly and I’m sure I would have had enough yarn for the sweater with a mandarin-style collar.

All’s well that ends well, though–with the extras, I’ve already knit Jacob some socks and I have plenty more left. The yarns look gorgeous blended together (I did 2 rows of each and avoided all end-weaving–thanks, Ms. Monster Yarn, for the suggestion!

When I finished the sweater, I knew it needed a zipper. Nothing else would tame Daniel’s adorable pudgy belly so nicely, and nothing else would be half as quick to get on him. Poor Tomten sat for over a month, waiting for its zipper. I finally screwed up my courage last night, and it was far, far easier than I thought it would be to put in.

I guess the only downside to the whole project is that I feel like the shape of the arms is weird when laid out flat. This might be me–looking at the finished product, it seems to me that I should have decreased on the underside of the sleeve instead of the top. But I’m too lazy to check, because it looks just fine when worn.

All in all, this is a very successful first hand-knit for the new addition to our family.

Well, I think so, anyway. And Daniel can’t talk to argue.

Richard Scarry’s “Busy, Busy Town” is the current favorite “read to myself” book around these parts. So of course, I give you the Busy, Busy Sweater:

Pattern: Chunky Cabled Sweater, from “Adorable Knits for Tots”

Yarn: Sublime Cashmerino Aran

Time Elapsed: Somewhere on the order of a month?

Notes/Modifications: I knit the 3 year old size, but lengthened the arms and length to accommodate my lanky toddler. To get the numbers, I measured a sweater that fit him well. All in all, this was a fun knit.

Jacob is a real sweetie about asking me to knit him things, but this time he out-did himself. He followed along on my progress avidly, wanting to know exactly what each piece was and how they would fit together. The morning after I finished the sweater, he retrieved it from my knitting basket, put it on over his existing shirt/sweater combo, and then refused to take it off. It’s gotten nearly daily wear since, excepting the days that reach above 40 degrees.

With all of those cables, in an aran cashmere blend, this is one warm sweater. For all of the apparent complexity, this was actually quite an intuitive knit and after the first couple of repeats of the major cable I didn’t need the chart anymore. (Oh, there’s one mistake in the directions, which is noted on Ravelry–I forget it now, but one of the rows should be a “rest” row and it’s listed as a cabling row instead. Row 6, probably?)

I guess the last thing to talk about is the yarn. The Sublime really lives up to its name in terms of the knitting experience. It’s smooth, it’s shiny, it’s got excellent stitch definition and is gorgeous when cabled. The downside is predictable, too–it’s a bit pilly. Still, I’d definitely work with it again.

Jacob says he’d wear it again, too–this sweater is his “favoritest”.

I wasn’t sure I’d like it, honestly.

Pattern: The Good Luck Cowl

Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug, Color 118

Time Elapsed: Under a week

Notes/Modifications: I knit this pattern exactly as written. It is my first cowl, and I was more than dubious about how useful it would be, but one hank of yarn isn’t really enough for a scarf and I knew I wanted this around my face.

The yarn was a gift from the lovely Marlena and I really couldn’t be happier with it. The color is gorgeous, it’s soft but not pilly, it’s springy as all hell.

The pattern was clear, easy, and fun to knit.

And as it turns out, a cowl is really quite a useful thing! At least if you live in Boston.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

When Jacob asks for socks, he gets ‘em.

Pattern: Basic 52-stitch socks, 3×1 rib

Yarn: Sundara Sock, Bronzed Forest

Time Elapsed: Something like a week or two

Notes/Modifications: This is a made-up pattern, so modifications are nil, although I did notice that the 48-stitch ones are getting a little small. But still, no earth-shaking anything to say about these socks.

(He asked for them, and pestered me about them while I was knitting them. And then said he wouldn’t wear them for photos, and when he relented and put them on he hid his feet.)

He said he’d only let me get some proper shots of them if I wore socks and took pictures of my socks, too.

The Sundara is leftover from Daniel’s Tomten, which is still sitting on my dressform waiting for a zipper. I’ll get around to it before he outgrows the thing, I promise. It’s a lovely color, the Bronzed Forest, and Sundara’s sock yarn was nice to work with as always.

And really, there’ nothing cozier than a snuggly family in hand-knits, right?

While 2008 was nowhere near as difficult a year for our family as 2007, there was plenty of upheaval to go around. We moved from Monterey back to our house in New England, we had a baby, the husband switched jobs to a very intense start-up that failed to get what they thought was secured funding thanks to the credit crunch and laid him off after just five months, and Jacob switched schools.

With all of that, it’s a wonder any knitting happened at all.

1. February Baby Sweater and booties, 2. Syncopated Cap, 3. Flower Basket Shawl, 4. First Rivendell completed before baby born., 5. Cleopatra wrap, finished, 6. A. in sweater, 3, 7. Every shot of a toddler’s feet is blurry, 8. Final shot of beret and socks, 9. Christine’s baby blanket, I, 10. Bear in cable tank top, 11. Matinee Coat, I, 12. St. Anastasia, 13. Conwy, I, 14. Pomatomus, Complete, 15. DSC_0012.JPG

At the start of the year, I hopped onto this crazy idea to knit a pair of socks each month. Kelp did a great job (seriously, click through the link–you’ll be amazed), but I failed pretty miserably at this task. In fact, it’s pretty clear when my carpal tunnel hit and then disappeared–I didn’t finish a thing all summer.

Unable to knit, I finally picked up a new hobby that I’d been thinking about since my dad’s mom died.

I’m not sure this will ever come even remotely close to knitting in my affections (that last quilt has sat, quilted and bound, awaiting just the final hem, for 2 months now), but the quilting definitely kept me sane while I couldn’t knit.

What’s on the horizon for 2009? Hopefully our personal lives will be smooth sailing with no major disruptions. We could definitely, definitely use a quiet year to enjoy our many blessings.

Happy new year, everyone! Thanks so much for joining me here even when the knitting pickings are slim. I wish you all exactly the kind of 2009 you’re hoping for.

The destashing felt so great. The bulk of my stash is once again stuff I’m excited to knit with and dream about, it eased our finances enough to splurge on a couple of things, and hopefully it made some other folks happy too.

Meanwhile, knitting continues on at a maddeningly slow pace:

Yeah, that would be the very beginning of the front of a worsted-weight sweater in a 3-year-old size. In two weeks. SIGH. I ultimately decided to finish the back to see how it looked, and I think that many of you are right in that the muted color allows for a more complicated stitch pattern without looking too busy. Jacob pronounced it “gorgeous” and is harping on me to finish it. Maybe I’ll try to get the thing done by the time his school starts next week?

Of course, his feet are cold, too.

I had plenty of the emergency-acquired Bronzed Forest left over from Tomten, and I was stuck without appropriate needles at knit night one week, found a pair of dpns in my purse (just in case, you know, I ever had a sock emergency), and cast on. These are just basic 52-stitch socks (I get 8 stitches to the inch) in a 3×1 rib pattern.

I’m anxious to finish all of the Jacob knitting, though. One of the splurges I made with the destashing cash was to get some sturdy, less-spendy yarn for a more casual sweater for me. I feel badly wearing my really nice sweaters with the baby, who is still unpredictable in the spit-up department. The solution?

I can’t wait to cast on! Happy New Year, everyone!

Thank you all so much! I’ve knit most of the back of the aran, now, and as many of you said the muted color of the yarn is really balancing out the cables. I think it looks fine, after all.

I can’t believe I’m really going to make a pictureless post, but I wanted to mention something here. My stash has really been stressing me out lately, and the Sundara Seasons fingering silky merino that arrived yesterday made it worse (I’m not that into two of the colors). So! It’s time to do something about that, and that means destashing.

I’ve never destashed before, so I’m not really sure how this goes, but I’ve listed things that I’m happy to part with here in Ravelry. (The Sundara FSM will be up there once I get good pictures of it.) Some of the yarn is stuff one can buy in stores, some has been discontinued, some is festival-only. All is available for roughly 10% off of retail. All has been stored in ziploc bags in a pet-free, smoke-free home.

Hi! Can we just pretend that it hasn’t been nearly a month since I last posted? That my knitting time hasn’t actually been eaten up by two adorable, variably-drooly little boys? Because I need your advice.

The knitting on tomten is finally finished, and it just needs a zipper to be truly jaunty. Photoshoot to come soon, I’m sure. With the knitting done, though, it was time for something else on the needles.

Enter the Chunky Cabled Sweater by Zoe Mellor, from “Adorable Knits for Tots”. It looks cute as pie in the book, and I had some Sublime Cashmerino Silk Aran in the stash that was suitable. Here’s the progress so far:

I like it, but here’s my question: Sometimes when I look at this sweater, it seems sort of busy. The back, front, and sleeves are all done in this cable and moss stitch motif. Is it too much? Should I make the back and/or sleeves simpler? If so, how? Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?

Things may be looking up for the EZ knits, around here.

Pattern: Baby sweater on two needles, or the “February Baby Sweater”, Elizabeth Zimmerman

Yarn: Madelinetosh Sock, “Gracious” colorway (from the first run of Magnolia Society)

Time Elapsed: This version of the sweater and booties set were knit in under a week.

Notes/Modifications: This is a sweater with a saga. In short: Since the pattern calls for dk-weight yarn, and gives no schematics, I was worried that a sweater knit in sock yarn would be too small. So I upped the sizing, and ran out of yarn.

I then ripped it out and re-knit as written, figuring it’d all work out. And it did–the sweater measures 18″ around, which is a fine size for your average 3-month-old girl. Knit as written, I had enough yarn left over for a pair of garter-stitch booties, too. While I may not have enjoyed getting to know my inner process knitter, I will admit it turned out okay in the end.

Now let’s just hope the wee one this is for stays “indoors” for another week or two!