FO: Thermal Mittens

thermal mittens finished, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Well, after a serious case of startitis last week, here's a finished product! I finished these up last night while watching Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy (hey, if I'm going to watch tv I might as well feel productive about it...). I like the pattern, but the yarn is a bit scratchy. I'm going to try them out today and see if I like them... otherwise they might go in the "possible future gifts" pile. Which, to be honest, these would be the first of.

Pattern: Thermal Mittens (rav link) from Hats, Scarves, & Mittens(Amazon)
Yarn: Knitpicks Telemark 2 skeins Aubergine
Needles: US 5 (ribbing) US 6 (body)
Mods: Smaller needles for both (although I probably could have forgone this and they would have been fine) and changed the thumb placement on the second mitten.... there was no indications for this in the pattern... but who wants 2 right mitts?!

what I've been up to (picture heavy)

slipper, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

So there's the product of the 4am stash dive. One slipper. It's too big for me (damn my small feet! Kidding, I actually am very happy to have small feet, especially when I knit socks!!). And for now it will remain partnerless. I feel for ya, slipper.
Pattern: Grown-up Booties by Ysolda Teague
Needles: US 8
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool Solids
Mods: So far none. But planning to add crochet border and probably a strap to keep them on.

Next up: More Stash Diving!



Pattern: Thermal Mittens by Andrea Tung, from Hats, Mittens, and Scarves
Needles: US 5 (ribbing) and 6 (body)
Yarn: Knit Picks Telemark
Mods: 1 size smaller needles than called for

I like the pattern but not the yarn. Not sure if I'll keep these or gift them at some point.


Another Mother bear. What better / more karmic way to stash bust?

And: Sweater Progress:



I've started the sleeves on this and just can't wait for it to be done. But just can't get over how boring sleeves are... (and yes, I'm doing both at once! No more one sleeved sweaters for me!)

And finally, remember how I was talking about all that yarn I brought home to make that sweater I've been thinking about for a year? Well, this is not it:



But it's beautiful and it's the last batch for a while. She still has a bit in her etsy shop and she dropped off one more batch at Lovelyarns on Sunday. Plus, it's called "Muppets from Space"!! How could I resist?!

4am stash diving

mmmm garter, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

So I started hot yoga again a couple of weeks ago... and I love it. But I'm not quite to the point where I can go and feel more energized afterward... I'm still ready to go to bed the second I get out of the shower. So I went to bed at 9:30 last night. And was wide awake by 3am. So I still need to get back into the groove of it... or force myself to stay awake another hour so I can maybe, sort of sleep through the night.

So I decided, in my semi-delirious state of early morning wakefulness, that I really needed to look through my stash and see what I could use. Maybe this comes from the potential guilt I might have from bringing home 15 skeins of yarn for a sweater I've been designing in my head for the last year... (in my defense I had completely forgotten that I had asked Sue to order it for me months ago...). In any case, I found some Araucania Nature Wool in a very pretty dark olive that I traded in a galaxy long ago and far away called ravelry. I decided that I must have something knit in it immediately, especially 'cause it was really fracking cold in my apartment this morning. So I thought about it, searched ravelry a bit, and cast on.

Why I couldn't work on this, this or this is beyond me. Actually, it's not. The sweater needs math to go on - which was not happening at 4am - the sock is far too complicated for 4 am, and the bear is kinda a bore. Not that garter stitch is necessarily the most exciting thing on the planet, but it's beautiful in it's own way.

And no, I'm not telling what it is yet. I'll leave you to guess. My only hint: not another Urchin.

a hat for.... me?!

urchin for me!, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I know, the hats. It's ridonk. But this one only took an afternoon (yesterday's to be precise) and it's so warm and awesome! The pattern is Urchin, this being the 3rd Urchin I have made... one about a year ago and the other for my cousin for Christmas... I still need to make another (also for me!) out of the Baby Alpaca Chunky 'cause it's so soft and wonderful.

This one is made of Berroco Peruvia Quick. I lurve this colour for me, although it is a bit itchier than the one I made in Alpaca... but I'll survive.

And the top view:


Details:
Pattern: Urchin by Ysolda, from knitty.com
Yarn: Berroco Peruvia Quick (less than 1 skein)
Needles: 7mm (no US equivalent)
Size: L
Mods: None necessary!

one more holiday hat

turn a square, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

So I had one more gift to knit, but fortunately it's for someone who is away until next week... so I stuck to my fun, fast holiday gift of the year and made her Jared Flood (i.e. Brooklyn Tweed)'s Turn a Square hat. It took slightly longer than the other hats, because it was worsted weight... and it looks a little big on me but that's good 'cause she has a lot more - and curlier - hair than I do.

I tried to take various pictures of the top of my head so that you could see the subtle changes in the paintbox but it's really hard to take pictures of your own head!

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:



And, finally, I got a picture of the crocheted mother bear (the one worthy of being sent in) that I made last month:



He's hanging out at Lovelyarns until ready to be shipped off in a box with 30 or 40 of his counterparts.

Details for the hat:

Pattern: Turn a Square
Yarns: Cascade Venezia Worsted (MC, about 1/3 of a skein), Knit1Crochet too Paintbox (CC, probably less than 1/4 skein)
Needles: US 6 for ribbing, US 7 for body of hat
Mods: None... although if I were to make one for myself I think I would do different decreases... I'm not a huge fan of the raglan decreases for a hat.

Un-freakin'-believable

I can't believe the response I got yesterday to my new mitten pattern. As of this morning (i.e. 30 seconds ago) 99 people had downloaded the pdf, 43 had marked it as a favorite, and 28 people have put it in their ravelry queue. To understand how HUGE this is I'll compare stats with some of my other patterns available.

The Cindy Lou Who Mittens, that have been up for 1 year and also available for free, have been download from ravelry a total of 108 times. Total. In a whole year.

The Lacey Rib Anklets, again, free and available for 1 year, have 43 favorite hearts AND have been put in 28 queues. 1 YEAR.

I'm obviously completely blown away by the response but I'm so glad everyone likes them!

ETA: click to embiggen the image... it's a screen shot of my downloads on rav for the last 3 days.

New (Free!) Pattern

Mittens fit for French Cousins, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I've been meaning to release a new pattern for a while and I made these for my cousins who were visiting for Christmas and they loved them! And I had a request for the pattern, so I thought why not write it up and offer it to everyone! It's up on ravelry already, so you can find the pattern page here or directly download the pdf. I'll also post this in the sidebar for easy access later on.

math is hard!

twisted socks, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

First post of the New Year! I thought I'd show you what I've been working on since 2009 began.

First up (above) is continued progress on Cookie A's Twisted Flower Sock. I am all the way through the heel and on my way to picking up stitches. However, that has been put completely on the back burner for this:



A mystery pattern! Actually, my own design... I just haven't decided if / how I'm going to release it to the general public. Maybe I'll just wait and see if I can get through the whole thing without ripping my own hair out first. Math is hard. And since it is a sweater (in case you hadn't guessed that much) if I want to sell the pattern (either through etsy/ravelry or to a mag like knitty) I would need to do the math not only for the size that I'm attempting to make but also for a variety of other sizes.

And yes, that is the deliciousness that is Malabrigo Worsted Merino, in colourway "Azul Profundo". And yes, it is mine, all mine. Mine mine mine mine mine!!