This has been my longest UFO, ever. (Unless you count that vest I started when I was 10 or 11 and is probably still sitting in pieces in my parents' basement... but let's not.) Started May 25, 2009 (according to ravelry, anyway), this blanket has been worked on in multiple countries, and through both good and bad times in my life. 
It is comprised of the ends of many a skein of sock yarn (3 held together at a time on size 7.5mm needles), and is big enough to fit comfortably on our queen sized bed.
Of course, there will always be more ends of more skeins of sock yarn (because I'm definitely not done making socks), so I'll just have to find another never ending project to use them up...
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
now what do I do with my sock yarn leftovers?
Monday, January 21, 2013
another day, another baby knit
This time it's the buzzbee hat, from wooly wormhead's wee woolly toppers. This is my third hat from this ebook... I figure if I had to buy the whole thing I might as well get my money's worth out of it.
And yes, that is a measuring cup holding it up... isn't it the cutest? I kid, I kid. I ran around the house trying to find something that would fit, including multiple bowls, none of which were the right size. After four or five trips back and forth to the kitchen I told DH I felt like Goldilocks.
This will head off in a couple of weeks to meet the newest addition to my friends' families... there are so many this year it's getting hard to keep track. But it'll join the zig zag blanket (which, by the way, was finished just under the wire, with "mom" giving birth while it was blocking) and we'll go meet a very dear little boy very soon!
Expect to see more wee woolly toppers this year.. I know enough soon-to-be babies that I may just make it through the rest of the book before 2013 is out!
Friday, January 18, 2013
am I seeing things?
I can't show you much more of what I'm working on right now because I'm thinking about sending in the design for potential publication... but I needed a collective answer to a troubling question. Do you see a line? I recently switched skeins and, as with many handspun yarns, it looks to me like there is a distinct difference between the two. Am I seeing things or does anyone else see a difference?
Monday, January 14, 2013
blocked, waiting for baby
Thank you to those who commented yesterday. I realize I wasn't really clear in how I finished off the border on this thing, so I'm going to try and attempt a better explanation. If you have no interest, feel free to skip the rest of this post!
Knit on border:
Instead of binding off at the end of the project, cut your yarns and choose the one you wish to make the border with. Using a DPN of the same size as your project needle, cast on 5 sts.
Row 1: With a 2nd DPN, knit 4 sts. Slip the last st as if to knit. Slip the first stitch on your bind-off row, also as if to knit. Knit these 2 sts thru-back-loop.
Row 2: (Can be done using project needle): Turn, knit 5.
Although the picture is actually from the other side of the blanket (where I cut off the border and picked up live stitches again), this is what it will look like after a few rows:
Repeat these two rows until there are no live stitches left on the project needle.
Turn corner: Work short rows (Knit 4, w&t, knit to end, knit 3, w&t, knit to end, k2 w&t, knit to end, k1 w&t, knit to end). Then repeat short rows in reverse (knit 2 w&t, etc until you have knit 4 and w&t'd the last stitch).
Now you will work the border along the side. I slipped the first and last stitch on every WS row when working the body of the blanket, so I had a nice space to pick up all the way along.
RS rows: knit 4, sl1-kwise, pick up one stitch, psso
WS rows: k5
Once you have picked up all the stitches along one side, you'll turn a corner again and do the same along the bottom. Or, if you're really smart and thinking ahead, perhaps you'll have cast-on in such a way that you'll have live stitches that you can put back on the needle. Or, if you have no fore-thought, like me, you'll cut off the border that you dislike, pick up the live stitches again and hope for the best from there!
Once you've completed all four edges, you'll be back to where you ended the body of your blanket and cast-on for the border. My suggestion: Turn another corner, then turn the whole blanket over. Pick up stitches in the cast-on edge of the border (5 total) and work a 3 needle bind-off to connect them together. Unless you're absolutely staring at it, I don't think you can tell the difference between that and the other corners at all:
can you tell which corner has the cast-on edge?
It still furls out a bit on the corners, but that's a function of the pattern and unless I wanted to be super-agressive in my blocking, I don't think it can much be helped. I still think it's much better than the original border I knit.
Please note: none of this is new or made-up by me. I read about knitting the edge on in EZ's Knitter's Almanac and the corners and side borders are adapted from the 10 stitch blanket. Credit where credit is due! I'm not sure if or where I might have seen the corner turn to 3 needle bind off before, but I am sure I cannot be the first.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
the border is the hardest part
Apparently, much like in writing, my finishing of a project (in this case knitted) is the most time consuming. I started this blanket on the 2nd of January (my first full project of the year!) and immediately disliked the way that the border was sitting. I had already modified it to remove the side border stitches so that they could be picked up and knit later on, and I was starting to wish I had done the same for the bottom border too.
And yet I knit on. I knit on to the point of no return and when at knit group last week, I asked a few people what they thought of it and one woman cried out "but you can't rip all that back!"... so I didn't.
Instead, I knit on. I knit until it came time to bind off... but instead I did this:
And then continued around the corner and down the side... and when I got back to the cast on edge I did this:
(If you can't tell, there's a needle in that first row... and if you don't know what comes next, well, it's not for the faint of heart. In fact, it's so dastardly, I didn't take any pics... I cut off the bottom edge.)
So, how did it turn out? Well, I'll tell you this: it's currently blocking, which I'm calling a good sign. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the full effect though!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
WWFY Sweater finished!
I sent off the WWFY sweater a couple of days ago and it should (hopefully) be getting to its final destination today!
Pattern: Shiraz
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: US 6 and 5 (just for the collar)
Mods: None.
Fingers crossed that it fits the intended recipient well and she's happy with our "exchange"!
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
spoiled rotten
The last swap is over and the new one is open for business, and I feel like a spoiled child after a rather exuberant Christmas. Above is the first package I received, from an angel swapper who was just supposed to knit me socks! Instead, I got a lovely pair of asymmetrical socks (my fave type of sock pattern, truth be told), a wonderful project bag, hot chocolate mix, holiday cards that look like fair isle designs, a skein of sock yarn, a mini skein of the leftovers from the sock that will go into my never ending blanket and a pedicure kit.
I figured that my "angel" had become my new swapper and that was that. But only a few days later the doorbell rang and...
My original partner sent me another whole package minus the socks. She had hurt her shoulder earlier on in the swap and asked the other moderator to find an angel for me, but still put together a package nonetheless.
I don't think you need any further proof what a fantastic group this is, but even so, I'll give you the close-up on my gorgeous new socks:
Really, does not do them justice at all.
Come join us! You know you wanna.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Happy New Year!
2012 was full of ups and downs for me. In ups: I finished my thesis, defended it successfully, and completed my PhD program. I also became an Aunt for the first time, which is a joy that will keep on giving! I fulfilled an academic dream: to take students to Spain and teach them about the place, it's people, history, and culture. As for downs, well, the job market is still scarily competitive and the next six months or so (fingers crossed for something more permanent for the next academic year) are going to be hard. I'm lucky to have a very supportive family, and great friends, and I know I won't want for anything financially or emotionally, but that doesn't mean it won't be strange. I'm going to work on research and probably knit a LOT, so expect more posts for the foreseeable future!
Above is a screen shot of the last week of 2012/ this morning's stats for the blog. This past week I offered a holiday deal and it is the first post that has ever surpassed the baby leg warmers pattern (only available on this blog, not as a download on ravelry) in number of page views per week. Never has another post appeared above it. I know it sounds small, but it was super exciting to me, so thanks for that!
Onwards and upwards to 2013, I say. The first sock swap of the year is now open for sign-ups and I do hope you'll all join us. We have such fun! Speaking of which, I'll save it for tomorrow, but I did get some AMAZING packages (yes, packages) this past time round. Stay tuned for their reveal!
Monday, December 31, 2012
and a yarny new year
DH spoilt me this year with yarn. I only got to open (most) of my presents last night from him, as we were off visiting family all over the place and decided to keep our own Christmas for ourselves.
Above is Plymouth Yarn Angora, 4 skeins of black and 5 of baby blue.
He also got me a whole bunch of everyone's fave, mmmmmalabrigo:
10 skeins of silky merino in "purple mystery" and...
5 of "dill".
I made myself a sweater in Malabrigo Silky Merino years ago and it is still going strong, so I know that this could make at least 2 sweaters (I used 6 for the first sweater and I have 15 now... even with full length sleeves I should be able to get 2 sweaters worth out of it). I'm thinking one of just the purple and maybe another with green as the main colour and stripes or something of the remaining purple for the 2nd? Or perhaps something completely different... we shall see, shan't we?
I hope everyone else had a wondering holiday, and don't forget, you can still take advantage of my holiday deal until midnight EST tonight!!
Friday, December 28, 2012
Little thing the third
is really little.
Ok, fine, we can look at it a little closer... 
It's an ewok! Ok, fine, we can get closer still...
An Ewok on Hoth. Or in Canada. Either way.
Early on in our relationship, DH saw this when I was perusing things on ravelry and really really wanted it. I saved it in my queue, where it had sat ever since. What can I say? I love him, but really cannot crochet.
I didn't have time to do anything major for anyone this Christmas, so I went thru my queue and saw this guy sitting there, forlorn. I decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot.
I'm sorry to say that this project reinforced my hatred of crochet. I probably should have used a bigger hook with the woolarina, and the dolly was too splitty for crochet. And I hold on too tight. And in the round my crocheting often ends up inside out, somehow… probably because I sometimes end up throwing the yarn as opposed to holding it in my left hand. Old habits die hard.
Mods: improvised the hood in garter stitch (aka KNITTING) because I couldn’t understand the crochet directions and I think it was way easier my way. That’s what I’m going to tell myself, anyway. I’m not thrilled with my embroidery skills, either, but I think his face turned out ok.
Raveled here.
Speaking of small things, I found a close-up picture of the duck boots on my dad's camera, for those of you who want to see more of them (although who could pass up the cute baby pic for this?!):
And, to make a long post even longer, don't forget to take advantage of my holiday deal, explained here.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Little Thing[s] the Second
The only real knitted present this year was for my new niece. It was her first Christmas, so of course she was rather spoiled. She's too young to remember, though, so we'll make sure it doesn't go to her head... too much, anyway.
Some of you may have guessed from my earlier post that these were duck socks. They were a little fiddly, with the strange cast on and the applied i-cord, but the end result is well worth it. I'm sorry I don't have a better FO picture, but the cute baby makes up for it, no?
Mine raveled here.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
A holiday gift from me to you!
From now until the end of the year I am offering a special gift just for you, oh faithful readers!
You may choose one of my pay-for patterns on ravelry, for free, including the above jacket. Just check out my pattern page and use the coupon code "holidayknit" when checking out (no quotation marks necessary).
Happy knitting! And happy holidays too!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
what a difference an i-cord makes
secret detail shot... it's all you're getting [be]for[e] Christmas
The [thing] on the right is finished, and has some beautiful applied i-cord detail. It took an hour just for the middle one (there are 3), so you'd better be ooohing and aaaahing over it!
The [thing] on the left is still in progress and does not have any applied i-cord on it. Yet. See the valley sort of in the middle (right where it first touches thing-on-the-right)? That's where the middle applied i-cord will go.
If you know what these are, best not to shout it out in the comments, there could be recipients (or in this case recipients' mothers) lurking.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
little thing the first
Yesterday I posted that I was going to try and get a few things done before Christmas .... and then cast on this!
Pattern is: Elfin, yarn is Manos Maxima, needles are US 6s. Took less than a couple of hours!
A friend who recently had a baby asked if I could knit a hat for her new little girl, and of course I would! I hope that it fits and keeps her adorable little head warm all winter!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
sweater progress
Not much to say, but the sweater for my Will Work For Yarn Swap is coming along. A couple of sleeves and a collar and we'll be set to send it back to its proper owner!
Christmas knitting really didn't happen this year, which I'm sad about, but between the WWFY swaps and teaching for my first semester post-PhD, I got a little busier than expected. That said, there are a few small things I'm hoping to crank out before next week, and will update if/when they're done.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
wednesdays are for
what I've been up to.
Not much, honestly, but I did manage to get through one skein of cascade 220 (of 7) for the shiraz sweater I've been working on for someone in the WWFY group.
Hoping to crank this out along with Christmas presents (only a few this year) before the big day.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
NaKniSweMo 2012
Done! With plenty of time to spare. I haven't done the math yet, but I cannot imagine that fingering weight on size 3 needles with extra stripes and increases added could not add up to 50,000 stitches!
It needs a good blocking... if you look closely at the above picture you can see the collar curling down a bit... or in this next one, the hem has flipped back up, in spite of repeated attempts to tame it:
In any case, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I kind of wish that the neck were a little tighter... but I'm pretty sure it's much better than my first attempt. I made a lot of mods, most of which were explained in a previous post.
The only thing that has changed since then was the addition of sleeves. Instead of binding off at the sleeve divide, as per the pattern, I put the stitches on holders. To achieve the sleeves I made, I finished up the last row of the grey stripe, added a blue stripe, grey stripe and another blue stripe, as per the pattern chart. I finished them off with a cuff done in the same way as I did the bottom hem.
Just in case you missed the info last time:
Pattern is: Elfe
Yarn is: Claudia Hand Paints fingering in Deep Blue (approx. 2.5 skeins) and Neighborhood Fiber Co Studio Sock in Grey (almost a full skein... there are a few bits left, but not enough to do anything with).
Needles: US 3
Raveled: here.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Swap Package Received!
Shockingly, my swap package only took a week to head across the atlantic and into the arms of it's new sock-loving owner. You've already seen it in bits and pieces, but above is the full package. Socks, of course, (pattern is by the seine river) yarn from Longmeadow Farm, soap, also from longmeadow farm, spinning fiber from purple moose felting (this was my "reward" for the WWFY socks... I knew that I wanted to get my swappee some spinning goodies and couldn't decide what I wanted for myself so picked this out for her instead), and an ornament made from my oh Christmas Tree pattern.
I'll be honest, she took much better pictures, so hop on over to her blog (in Spanish) to check them out!
Espero que te guste el paquete, vayque!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
it FITS! [insert maniacal laughter here]
Considering I was pretty much flying blind on this one (see: crazy amount of mods, listed below), I cannot believe it turned out as well as it did. I'm a little concerned about the rolling neck/hemlines but I'm hoping that a good solid blocking will sort that out.
Here's the next big dilema: the sleeves. I put the stitches on holders as opposed to binding them off because I wanted to make them longer. However, the added stripes to the body has left me with very little (approx 7 grams) of the grey left. It's more than enough to finish off the stripes at the tops of the sleeves (each needs one more round to match the stripe on the sweater) but I don't know that I'll get another full stripe (I'd need enough for 5 rounds on each sleeve) out of it.
I do, however, still have 32g of the blue left. So, I could finish the grey stripes off at the tops of the sleeves and then add as much blue as I possibly can to get a longer sleeve. Or just do the requisite number of rows for the next blue stripe (10, I believe) and then bind off/create a cuff like the neck/hemline.
Thoughts on the sleeve dilema would be much appreciated.
As for the pattern/mods/etc:
Pattern: Elfe
Yarn: Blue is Claudia Handpaints Fingering (so far 2.25~ skeins); Grey is Neighborhood Fiber Co Studio Sock (all but 7g of one skein)
Needles: US 3
Mods: - much smaller needles
- adding an extra purl round to the neckline
- jogless colour-joins
- using L colour pattern, but M cast-on and increases.
- knitting 9 rows (as per L instructions) before separating sleeves
- 23 rounds after sleeve separation (before waist shaping)
- waist shaping as per L instructions
- bottom hem: add extra knit row, BO purl-wise with colour B
- did not bind off sleeves, on holders to add length later
My version is raveled here complete with these mods.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
sneak peak
You've seen the socks, and here's a small idea of what my swapee will find when they open their package... but this is it! At least, until it arrives...
Pattern: Oh Christmas Tree
Yarn: Handspun by Gekko
Needles: US 6
Time to make: less than 2 hours, including stuffing and sewing-up.
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