experimentations

A while back the boy saw a picture of a mat made of felted wool balls that looked like river stones. It was really beautiful... and also REALLY expensive. So I did some quick internet searches and found this tutorial. Looks easy right? So we got some roving from a friend of mine who apparently has an attic full of roving, of the stashed-beyond-life-expectency quantity, and decided to try it out. Unfortunately we could only get undyed, naturally creamish coloured roving, but we thought we'd experiment anyway.

Warning: ours are NOT as beautiful as those portrayed in the tutorial:



Some of them turned out OK, once we got the hang of it. But they're not the right colour (although I think we could dye them post-felting). Anyway, it was a fun experiment to try out together! Also - large balls of felted roving take a LONG time to dry. I believe we worked on them either Wednesday or Thursday night and they're still wet as of this posting.

The only other fiber related thing I have to show right now is this:



Remember this blanket? I posted this picture back in July:



There is maybe another foot or so of actual knitting on it... I work on it in my spare time when I have some extras bits of sock yarn left over and no other projects on the go. It's a slow knit but an enjoyable one when I get to it. I have no intentions of powering through it, and couldn't even if I wanted to as the yarn comes only when I've finished another project and have left overs.

I guess that's it for knitting related news... I leave for a research semester in Spain on Monday and will be there for four and a half months. I'll try to take pictures of knitting in front of interesting Spanish monuments! ;)

sock contest

This is more of a reminder for myself, although if there are any budding designers out there you might be interested too... there is a sock design contest being hosted over at Exercise Before Knitting from now until mid-April!

Knitters without Borders

Just made my donation of half my pattern sales from etsy and ravelry from Jan 15 - Feb 28 to Doctors without Borders via Knitters without Borders. If you want to know more about Knitters without Borders, check out the Yarn Harlot.

olympic sockey

awesome socks for the olympics, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Another pair of socks for the boy, this time made as part of the ravelympics. Finished them up while watching the Canadian women's hockey team win gold last night!

Yarn is the left overs from the first pair, about .9 of a skein of Jawoll Silk.
Pattern is Rudy Got Sole.
Needles: Size 1 (US)
Mods: Only cast on 70 sts, rather than 80, and basically forgot to look at the pattern again after that. Did a heel flap, decreased to 65 stitches on the gusset... but they fit him perfectly, which is what I was going for!

EDITED TO MENTION: Those are the boys feet, he was super great about being a foot model and even attempted some pictures on his own. He didn't really understand it, but he was a great sport (get it? Olympics?) about it anyway.

snowcation!

Just over a week ago the mid-atlantic east-coast of the US saw unprecedented amounts of snow and we got snowed in for the better part of a week. So what did I do with my snowcation? Well, I already showed off the finished scarf-exchange scarf, but I also whipped up this hat:



Which is a total franken-hat, in that I had little available resources and had to sort of go with the flow. And when it was originally finished it turned out to be way too short so I added the extra orange stripe on after the fact... it's for the boy and he likes it, so I'm not going to worry about it. But definitely not my best on-the-fly pattern.

Other than that, I cast on a pair of socks (also for the boy) for the ravelympics during opening ceremonies on Friday night. No picture as of yet, but hope to be through the first one by the end of this week (or earlier, preferably).

Pre-snow I was in new york and one of my travel companions had looked up habu textiles pre-trip and I got 2 cones of this:



If you don't know where they are you'll never find them. The building is completely unmarked aside from street numbers and they're on the 8th floor in a room without windows.

scarf exchange scarf

scarf exchange scarf, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I joined a scarf exchange and finished off this scarf for my partner during this snowed-in time. There's not a whole lot else to do and internet is intermittent, possibly because of the weather, so I'm posting this as an "FO" even though it's not blocked and I haven't actually sewn the ends in... snow-boredom / cabin fever is beginning to set in...

Yarn: Cascade Baby Alpaca (2.5 balls)
Needles: US 10.5
Pattern: Vogue Stitchionary 2 - #68 "Avocado"

happy birthday!

earl grey-ish, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

The new(ish) boy had a birthday yesterday AND it was our 3 month-iversary. So I made socks!

These are the yarn harlot's earl grey pattern in Jawoll silk. I had to use just a toe's worth of a second skein, not because he has gigantically huge feet, but because the cuffs are super long.

He probably needed wool socks this weekend 'cause we got hit with the second biggest dump of snow this area has seen in over a century.

Here's me, knee deep (and not actually touching ground) in the snow:

Socksposé! The loved.

OK, finally. The "fun" post! Here, in no particular order, I will detail the sock yarns I have loved and why.

First up: Zitron Trekking XXL:



I love the way the self-striping of the Zitron worked with the pattern AND it has held up fantastically over a year and a half.

Storm Moon Knit's (now out of production I think) Twilight Sock:



These have fuzzed up considerably, but they're my comfort sock.

Malabrigo Sock Yarn:



I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOVE this yarn. By far the softest sock yarn I have ever used and it just gets softer with every wash. My one complaint about these socks have to do with the heels (aka, why I chose to put this picture up). See the heel? How it continues the pattern right down? Complete with yarn overs? Yeah. Yarn overs + heel = bad idea. I think Cookie A makes BEAUTIFUL socks (these are her Twisted Flower Socks rav link) and part of that is due to the fact that the heel fits into the pattern seamlessly. But I've had to darn the heels on both socks and I think if I had just done a traditional-style heel that would never have been a problem.

Crystal Palace Panda Silk Solid:



Truth be told, I don't get a lot of opportunity to wear knee-high entrelac socks (shocking, I know) but the yarn is still shiny and beautiful after a few washings and I get so many compliments when I wear these. I'm sure, in part, it's due to the fact that people think I have to be out of my mind to have knit knee high socks (let alone in a pattern that many knitters find daunting to begin with) but I think it also has something to do with how great the yarn is. Oh, and these are the socks that met the harlot.

Schaefer Anne / Bamboo mix:



I said in my previous socksposé post that schaefer anne might not be meant for socks. And I'm sticking to that. Especially if left alone. But these were the first top down socks I made and I did it straight from the pattern. A blind "ok, if you say that's how you make a heel flap, I'll believe you" stab at it. And it worked. And that first heel that I turned I was AMAZED. IT WORKED. And I still wear these, regularly, almost 3 years later. It's the bamboo. The schaefer still attempts to felt to itself but the bamboo gets in the way. So they're a bit fuzzy but still fit and are probably the warmest socks I own.

Crash Into Ewe Jewel Collection



Only worn these a few times since they were finished just over a month ago, and every time I wash them I worry that the giant holes created by the pattern will get caught on something in the machine. But, so far so good. The colour has faded quite a bit considering they've only maybe been washed a total of 4 times. But I still think they're pretty and the sparkles haven't all fallen out, so that's good!

crystal palace

mini mochi, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I've been blogging about the sock yarns I've used and how I've felt about them. My first post about yarns I've disliked, drew the attention of a crystal palace employee who emailed me to talk about the mini mochi I used in my socks that felted. Although I probably won't use it for socks, they were kind enough to offer me 2 skeins of yarn to replace the socks. It's way above and beyond for a yarn company to even notice a little blog like mine, let alone offer a replacement, so I just want to say thanks to crystal palace for being a pretty upstanding yarn company. I know through a friend who owns a yarn store that some of the companies can be hard to deal with, but I've never heard complaints from anyone about CPY and now I know why.

I'm thinking perhaps a gathered scarf?

Socksposé! The livable.

The second in my series about sock yarns I've loved (or not), these are the socks that aren't really "loved" but are definitely still usable. I'll give my explanation as to why each of these fits in here rather than with the lovables.

First up: Strawberry Monkeys:



Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns* Panda Cotton Print + some extras
Why they're only "ok": I actually really liked the yarn, even though I'm not a big cotton fan. And I love this pattern (evidenced by the fact that I have 3 pairs of monkey socks and would make more if I didn't think it were a little ridiculous already)... but the problem lies in the toes. I have small feet. (Seriously, like size 6.5-7 depending on the shoe maker.) I usually have tons of yarn left over after making a pair of socks for myself. But yeah, I ran out of yarn only a few rows from the end of each toe. (Panda sock yarns come in a "one ball per sock" sized skein).
All that said, I still wear these on a regular basis and the yarn has held up well. The toes were finished up with a couple single strands of bamboo held together, which is actually not wearing as well as the actual yarn. But worst case scenario, that can be easily replaced.

Next: Jaywalkers:



Yarn: Schaefer Yarn Company Anne
Why they're only "ok": Well, one problem is the pattern. Since making these I've heard a lot of people talk about how tight the stitch pattern is. And it is. Again, I have small feet (see above), and these are EXTREMELY hard for me to get over my heel. I think there has been a small amount of felting, since the yarn has 25% mohair, but I would definitely recommend making the larger size in this pattern, even if you don't think you need to. As for the yarn, I think it's BEAUTIFUL, but probably better suited to shawls, etc than something you're going to put on your feet.

Finally: More monkeys!



Yarn: Crash Into Ewe Merino Sock
Why they're only "ok": I love these socks. I wear them all the time. But the skein (which, I don't fault the dyer for but rather her supplier of undyed yarn) had a TON of knots in it (I can't remember the exact number but I'm pretty sure it was close to ten). I've also had to repair both heels, one one time and the other twice. So, while much loved as socks, I'm a little disappointed in the strength of the yarn itself.

*Crystal Palace contacted me yesterday after the first post (as a comment on the previous post, so it's right there for all to see if anyone is interested) and I replied via email. I do sometimes throw socks in the dryer, if I think the yarn can handle it. I know, I know, I'm probably killing the lifespan of my knitted socks, but I still feel a little ridiculous hanging socks to dry. However, with the mini mochi I was a little more skeptical and tried my best to wash them in cold water and keep them out of the dryer. No knitter is perfect, however, so I can't say for sure that they *never* made it into the dryer.

Socksposé! The hated.

I've been brewing this post in my head for a while... I wanted to write up a review of the sock yarns I've used and loved... and hated. I don't know if it'll do anyone any good, but you never know, right?

I've also spent a long time trying to figure out how to order them... chronologically? By love/hate ratio? So today I bring you the hated. Socks that have not held up under relatively normal sock conditions. Socks that felted or fallen apart. I'll do my best to give the details that explain why I think things went wrong and how you can avoid a similar sock fatality.

First up: the Lacey Rib Anklets:



Yarn: Knit Picks Memories (now discontinued)
What went wrong: Well, first of all, this was the first time I attempted socks aside from the ones I made in a class and I decided to make a pattern up myself. Which was fine, but I only had one ball of this yarn (which was 220yds/skein) and so I had to make them fairly short in order to make a pair. So as it stands they were barely anklets anyway. After a few washes (and yes, probably runs through the dryer) they started to felt. In the end I couldn't even keep them over my heels.
The outcome: Garbaged. Sad but true.

Next: Socks on Fire:



Yarn: Araucania Ranco Solid
What went wrong: FELTED. Within a couple of washes I could barely get these on my feet, let alone see the pattern.
Outcome: Garbaged. I really liked these socks too.

Rainbow socks:



Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Mini Mochi
What went wrong: I'll give you a guess. YUP, felted. I even had a feeling when working with the yarn that it had that potential... single ply, lots of halo. I still love this yarn though, I think it's gorgeous and want to use the worsted weight to make another noro-like scarf. Just DON'T put it in the washing machine.
Outcome: Guess again... thrown out. I kept these as long as possible but by the end they were maybe 1/2 the size they should be and there was no way they were stretching over my feet another time. Sigh.


That's it for the hated. Look for posts about the "livable" and the "loved" over the next few days.

finally!

suéter profundo, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

The pattern for my 3/4 jacket is FINALLY finished and has been posted on ravelry for purchase. Click here for the pattern page or here to purchase for $5.00.

From now until the end of February, 50% of sales will be donated to Knitters without Borders for their relief efforts in Haiti.

one more gift

gloves, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

and a horrific picture of me.

These were made for the boy (yes, there is a new(ish) boy...) so they're a little big on me. They also have a special design feature... the index finger on the right hand has conductive thread in it so he can use the touchscreen on his phone without having to take them off.

Pattern was made up on the fly, yarn was Cascade Cash Vero DK.
Conductive thread is available on several websites but usually comes in large cones. If you just want to get a small amount I got mine here.

remember these?

S1050784, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Yeah, I barely do either. I started them in JULY. Crazy. Of course I've done a bunch of other things since then, including Christmas presents and that giant blanket for my friend's housewarming. Still, it seems like an awfully long time for a pair of socks to be on the needles.

Here's a picture of the first one, so you can get a better idea of the pattern:



Pattern is Kai Mei (rav link) from Cookie A's Sock Innovation.
Yarn is Crash Into Ewe'sJewel Collection in Garnet (less than 1 skein).
Needles: US 1 dpns.
Mods: none.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas - or whatever else you choose to celebrate this time of year!

I had a lovely Christmas morning with the family, everyone came over to mum and dad's for brunch and later we will join everyone at my brother and SIL's house for dinner. And of course, after brunch came presents!

I gave a few hand knit gifts this year, all of which have been shown already here. But I also got some knitting related gifts, including yarn and a book I hadn't heard of yet.



The yarn is Mirasol's Tupa, 2 skeins, in a beautiful bright pink. My favorite! It's 50% Merino and 50% silk and has a great feel to it. I'm thinking mittens or gloves.



The book is called "Yarn Bombing" and is about crocheters and knitters who use yarn to put up "graffiti". We do this at the yarn store every once in a while and it's a fun read. It also has a couple of cute patterns, including the hoodie vest and switcheroo sweater. (I looked, only a couple of the actual knit-graffiti patterns are on ravelry so far.) The hoodie vest is actually crocheted (and I'm not normally big on crochet) but I might have to give it a go anyway!

Hope you're all having a wonderful, relaxing holiday with your family as well!

on person

S1050770, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I promised pics of this on a person, so here you are... and they're fuzzy and out of focus. I blame lighting. If I can get one on Christmas Day I'll try to get one of my nana wearing it. No promises though. And hopefully the lighting will be decent enough.

Hope everyone is having a happy and lovely holiday season with friends and family!

Christmas, check!

pretty thing, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Yay! I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't be ready in time for Christmas, but I just finished binding off this Pretty Thing for my grandmother and that is the LAST of the presents. Ok, it's the last of the presents that has to be done before the 25th. I have one more that has a bit more leeway.

I'll try to get a picture of it on a person once it's dry (yes, it is actually currently damp and blocking in that picture...).

Yarn: Malabrigo sock in Natural, less than 1/2 a skein
Needles: US 6 circs (16")
Mods: None, it is the yarn harlot afterall. Oh wait, that's a lie. I accidentally put in a purl row after the last mid-section repeat and was a ways along before I realized it. I decided that ripping back was not in the cards and left it.

Off to the post office!

Is there anything worse than following up a post with a picture of one mitten with a post of a picture of two mittens?



Yes. But only if that picture was taken by my mac cam. Because I think my real camera is downstairs and I'm feeling that lazy. These are done, commissioned by a friend for a friend currently stationed in Afghanistan. Off to the post office!

I promise, I have a more interesting post floating around in my head. Ok, I, at the very least, think it will be interesting...

commissioned

S1050756, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I don't normally knit-for-profit, 'cause let's face it, to actually get paid even minimum wage for the number of hours (let alone the materials, or the fact that this is SKILLED labour) it would take to knit something would mean that these gloves, for instance, should be worth over 100$.

BUT, I was asked by a very special friend if I would knit some special mittens for a friend of hers currently stationed in Afghanistan. They had to be the right-ish colours to match BDUs, and flip tops so he could use his fingers when necessary.

So this is mitten 1, designed with all the necessary requirements in mind. Flip top, with button to keep it out of the way, individual fingers to keep them extra warm, a shorter index (trigger) finger, and a thumb flip, in case he needs to type, etc.

I hope they help keep his hands a little warmer, it sounds like it's ghastly cold over there, and that they're still functional for all the things he needs to do. I also hope they fit.. I'm going on a large-ish size but not totally sure, especially since we've never actually met!

knitted science

Go check out knitted science on discover magazine. So cool. As a side note, Freud was interested in knitting and the crafty arts and it's psychological effect on women... I went to a talk a while back on the influence of the arts on Freud and it was very interesting. His granddaughter, Sophie Freud, discusses some of this in My Three Mothers and Other Passions I believe.

et voila!

S1050750, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

"Socks for a Winter's Night" pattern is posted on ravelry!

Rav link (for queuing and the like)
PDF link (for direct downloads)

Details:

Materials:
US size 1 (2.25mm) DPNs
1 skein J. Knits Superwash - Light Sock in Pueblo, 550 yards (I used way less than 550, any normal 400 + yard sock yarn should suffice)
stitch markers, if desired

Enjoy!

New Pattern!

S1050749, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Coming soon!

christmas gloves

christmas gloves, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

These gloves are one of the few presents I'm knitting this year. It's just going to be my immediate family at home (as far as I know) this year, as opposed to last year when we had cousins, and cousins' fiances, and an uncle... you get the picture.

So, the gloves. I love mittens, and had never attempted full gloves before, because fingers seem fiddly. But I know not a lot of guys wear mittens, unless they're dogsled racers in the frozen tundra who have seen the light of having your fingers all together. But I digress...

The details:
Pattern: Drops 85-20 Gloves size L/XL (about 1/2 way down the page... the sweater pattern is first), and rav link.
Yarn: Cascade heritage, held doubled, one skein + a little tiny bit of Davidson Domy Heather from the stash to finish up the second thumb. (That's why the thumb at the bottom of the picture looks slightly different). The Heritage *should* have been enough, according to the pattern, but for the L/XL size, apparently not.
Needles: US 3s for the cuff and 6s for the hand.

Mods: I only knit 5" cuffs, instead of 6". (Pattern calls for 15cms, which in inches is 6.) That alone should have afforded me TONS of extra yardage.

socks for teaching

S1050745, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

A new student at my fave LYS asked for private tutoring in how to make toe-up socks. I haven't made a pair toe-up in ages, but thought it might be fun to do a pair along with her. So these are toe-up with a heel-flap, and then I decided to add some lace to the cuff.

I'm a confirmed top-down sock knitter after these... I way overshot the heel placement the first time around and it was about 2 inches too long. I understand where to place a toe (especially on my own foot) but the heel was harder to gauge since I wasn't sure exactly how big it would be.

But I'll make the second one anyway, since I've decided that these will be someone's Christmas gift this year (someone with a very similar to my foot size, that is).

Yarn: J Knits Superwash Sock Light in colour Pueblo
Needles: Size 1
Pattern: in my head... possibly to be written up at some point.
For: Christmas gift / teaching

a cautionary tale of woe...

Wednesday morning I taught class, closed my macbook with word still open to my lesson plan, went to lunch with a friend and then headed down to the library to work. I got to my desk, took my computer out and opened it back up. I hit firefox to open it up and quit Word. And then the world STOPPED. My computer froze, trying to quit Word and I had to manually restart it. Only it didn't restart. It made funny clicky noises and a big question mark showed up in the middle of the screen. I might not be a big science / math / programmer type, but I know enough about computers (and macs in particular) to know that that is BAD. SUPER BAD. I ran to my friend's office and told her what had happened and she (being an amazing, awesome person and friend) dropped everything and drove me to the nearest apple store.

I spent 4.5 hours in the apple store, waiting for someone to see me. They are appointment-only so I had to wait to see if they could either get ahead of schedule or if someone would miss their appointment. By the time I saw someone I had befriended most of the people in the store and knew (ok, I was about 85% sure before I even walked in there that it was probably worst case scenario) that it was dead and gone. Sure enough the harddrive is dead, and the likelyhood that data will be recovered is practically zilch. (Although a friend's husband, who does that sort of thing for a living is looking at it... he's my last hope, and I have little of that left.)

So, here's the really bad part. The sheer-idiocy that a relatively bright person, working on their PhD can display is sometimes mind-boggling: I have NO back ups. 3 years of graduate school, poof. Fortunately I have some things, but not the most recent things, because of emails that I sent either myself or professors on occasion. But it's definitely NOT everything and NOT the article I've been revamping for the past month. And of course, photos, music, etc. Most of the photos of knitting related stuff is on flickr, and a lot of photos with friends are on facebook. But it's the ridiculous amount of work lost that absolutely kills me. If it had been another year or two, and I were 1/2 way through my dissertation or something, that would have pretty much ended my career I think.

Oh, and did I mention it was 9 days past warranty? Back up, people, learn from my mistakes! I did end up with a shiny new computer (mostly thanks to my amazingly generous parents) and I decided that investing in "mobileme" which automatically backs up to an online server so that I can access my harddrive from pretty much anywhere in the world was well worth the extra $$. 'Cause you can be SURE that I won't lose that much info ever again.

I want it!

10 stitch blanket, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Can I just say that this is one of those projects that I've put so much time and effort into that I sort of just want it for myself? Is that SO WRONG? Also, it doesn't hurt that I think it's super pretty too. But alas, the goal was to make this for someone close to me who recently purchased their first house. And I care enough about them to give them something that I'd really rather pretend was for me all along!

Pattern: Ten Stitch Blanket (rav link) by Frankie Brown
Yarn: Several skeins in several colours of several yarns (Paintbox, Mochi Plus, Jojoland Rhythm)
Needles: US9
Mods: Added a single stitch crochet border to make it look more "finished" along the edges as seen in this picture:

turn a spiral

WARNING: Worst FO pictures ever. I think my camera might be dead. Or the new batteries are duds. Let's hope for scenario #2. So I used the maccam, to the best of it's abilities.

I decided Wednesday night to make a hat for a friend whose birthday is today. This knit up so quickly and (trust me, it's better in person) so beautifully. It's sort of Jared Flood's Turn a Square but sans square and with a bunch of mods.



Here you can (sort of) see the spiraling decreases (as opposed to the original raglan decreases):


Mods: only cast on 88, did not increase, kept same needles throughout. Decided to do spiral / regular decreases, 8 times across a round.

one more etsy post

I almost forgot about the awesome present I got for my brother (at least, I think it's awesome, I hope he did too...)



Periodic table cuff links! My brother is a high school science teacher (which is, still, to me, the oddest thing ever. He's my little brother, shouldn't he be pestering me and blowing things up as a high school student in a science classroom still?!) so I thought these were awesome. And they're customizable, so I got him PM (his first and middle initials) and CO (the first 2 letters to our last name).

And:



A periodic table NERD birthday card. Both were from ShopGibberish on etsy.

more etsy love

I FINALLY got the tunic I purchased from emilyryan on etsy. I purchased it late Sept but she makes everything to order and apparently got sick in Oct, so it took a while to get here. But I don't care because I LOVE IT. Like, seriously, love. I'm wearing it to sit in the library today / teach / go to meetings. None of which is worthy of this tunic but still, much tunic love.

Gettysburg

Totally un-knit-related, but I took a trip to Gettysburg on Saturday with my friend Loralee and her family. Sadly I got NO pictures of the two of us together, and apparently I suck at the picture taking thing (although my camera has been acting weird since the DC trip and sometimes it just refuses to work. Ugh.) and only got a few pictures of Gettysburg itself.

There were 5 of us, so it was cheaper to get a guide to come along in the car with us than to pay individually for the bus tour, so we ended up going with the personal car guide. He was... enthusiastic, to say the least, and clearly loved his Gettysburg history. Which is great, but it ended up being a bit longer (and we hadn't eaten lunch...) than anticipated. He was also way too into the overtly emotional / gory details than I needed... but I also have an active enough imagination.

OK, onto the pictures! (Which, for whatever reason, blogger has opted to place in the opposite order they were taken / inputted....)

Monument dedicated by State of Pennsylvania to all Pennsylvanians who served at Gettysburg.


Hmmm... monument to... (god my memory is bad these days).



Field on which one of the deciding battles was fought. Also where our guide demonstrated on me how they fought hand to hand, which included descriptions of gouging out the eye and then ripping arteries out of the neck with their teeth. Yum.



Loralee's husband, me, Loralee's sister and brother in law. Suspiciously absent, Loralee... long story, but since it was her birthday people were calling, of course, to say Happy Birthday. She got one such call when we stepped out to see this monument and stayed in the van to talk to her friend. We thought we saw her getting out of the van as we were posing for this picture (which she was) but then she never arrived... apparently she had spilled water on my coat on her way out and was blotting it. I would have preferred the picture with her to the dry coat though!

Happy Birthday Loralee!

Loralee's mittens, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Yesterday I got to spend time with someone that I've known for a really long time - she was one of the first blogs I discovered, and one that I most admire - but had never met in person before, Loralee. She spent the day before at the Whitehouse, meeting with Valerie Jarrett and playing the with President's puppy, but I was really excited that she and her family let me spend her birthday with them! We went to Gettysburg and went on a car tour of the battlefields (during which those mittens were finished... all the while Loralee saying things like "I love that colour... those are so pretty..." and I was thinking "PHEW!" since you never know (especially when you DON'T KNOW the person in person) if people will appreciate your work). I have a couple pictures - I'm not a huge picture taker, and sadly the above one is the ONLY ONE I have with Loralee in it - but I'll save those to post those another day since I have very little knitting-related stuff to talk about of interest right now.

Except for the mittens on Loralee's hands up there! Those are Grove by Jared Flood (aka Brooklyn Tweed).
Yarn is Malabrigo Worsted in Azul Profundo
Needles were size US 6 (4mm).

Mods... a few: added an extra repeat for length; used a k2tog instead of k2togtbl to make the decreases lean the right way; and grafted the tops instead of 3needle bindoff. ALSO: they forget to tell you to move the BOR marker at the top of the mitten (and thumb) for the decreases to line up properly. I moved the first stitch of the round to the last stitch of the round and it worked out fine. Not sure if this makes sense but I'd be happy to explain in detail if necessary.

Future potential mods ('cause these are SO PRETTY I want some for myself and maybe for other family members...): Not twisting the stitches... I really liked the insides of these mitts when I turned them inside out to weave in the ends and I'm thinking its more or less what they'd look like if the knits weren't twisted. And some kind of change to the decreases at the tops... I don't love the way they are.

And they're off!

Everyone that won wanted the yarn, which means less knitting for me in this time of pre-holiday knitting crunch, and so it is off, in the mail as of this afternoon! Hope you guys enjoy!

300!!

DC was great, the conference was both intimidating and motivating... and I got sick. A head-cold, or so it appears thus far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not the flu.

But what do you guys care? You want to know who won, right?! I used a random number generator (random.org) and came up with the following 3 numbers:

11
53
35

There were a total of 67 entries, including those who were re-entered for posting on their blogs and / or directing people my way.

So WHO WON??
11 - Susan
53 - Kristin
35 - Sylvia (who I don't have contact info for... if you're out there Sylvia, please email me! gradschoolknitter@yahoo.com

Susan will get the Crashintoewe Jewel Edition in Garnet, Kristin the Malabrigo Sock Yarn in Natural and Sylvia the Cascade Heritage in Blue. It's up to them if they want it in yarn form or mittens!

prettiest mitts in the world

prettiest mitts in the world (back), originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I started these yesterday and I LOVE them. LOVE. I'm going to have to make another pair for myself 'cause these are already a designated present.

Even the palm is pretty:



Pattern is Grove by Jared Flood from "Made in Brooklyn". (Why yes, I do want to make EVERYTHING in this book...)
Yarn is Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Azul Profundo (same as the sweater that I'm currently having test-knit)
Needles: US 6.
Mods: using a k2tog instead of k2togtbl on left side of pattern so that they lean in towards the center. Going to add an extra repeat of pattern before decreasing top of mitt. As is I think they'd barely be long enough for me and I have small hands.

Oh, and yeah, this is post #299... so look for contest winners to be announced in the very near future!