Washcloth Extravaganza

I've been sick some this week, which means that washcloth knitting has been about the right level of mental activity for me. They're short, entertaining, and don't take much exertion. So I've been working my way through my stash of Sugar 'n Cream.
First, here are two Ball Band washcloths I did a while ago.

The "mortar" for both of them is the Sunkissed colorway, and the colors for the "bricks" are Cornflower and Yellow.
The washcloths I've been making this week are ones I've created from stitch patterns in a little book I have from Leisure Arts, "Beginner's Guide: Knit Stitches & Easy Projects." I've just been adding garter or seed stitch borders and selecting a number of pattern repeats that will result in a stitch count between 40 and 50. Here's the first one:

Horseshoe Print in Key Lime Pie. I really like the scalloping that happened on the cast on edge, and I might try blocking this one.

Next is a Trinity Stitch pattern in Cornflower. This is a great bumpy stitch to use for washcloths, but I can't do it for very long at once. The pinching-and-pulling motion I do with my left hand when I "purl 3 together" gets pretty stressful for my thumb. I need to practice knitting this with looser tension.
I've started one more in a Saxon Braid stitch pattern using Yellow. After that I estimate that I'll still have enough Sugar 'n Cream for 4 to 6 more washcloths. I've already done 10, and I think 15 is the minimum I'll need to give them as gifts for Christmas. Here's the current supply:

There's definitely a color scheme here.

Fall, Football, and Knitting

I love this time of year. The leaves are starting to change, the new school year has all its promise, we're getting some beautiful weather and I get to start thinking about getting my sweaters out of the closet. We're getting close to baseball playoffs and the football season has started.
I've always been a big baseball fan, but before I became a knitter I was not a football fan and didn't even really understand the game very well. In 2004, I had just started knitting in earnest that summer and was really enjoying knitting while watching baseball games on TV. I knit Christmas stockings throughout the playoffs, but then the Red Sox swept the World Series and I was suddenly all out of baseball for five months. I needed more knitting-friendly TV, and thought perhaps football would be just the thing. 2004 was Ben Roethlisberger's rookie year in the NFL. Ben and I went to college together - by which I mean we were in the same school at the same time. So I decided to become a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers right about when Big Ben got the job of starting quarterback.
Football has really grown on me, and now I enjoy the game itself, and not just as background entertainment for my knitting time. This confuses both my dad and my husband to no end. Neither of them like football at all, and would feel their lives no less rich if no such game existed. Neither of them particularly like baseball either. I thought for a while this summer that I wouldn't get to watch football this season. The switch to digital TV has not gone smoothly in my town and I'm really not pleased with the situation. But recently we borrowed a better antenna from a friend, and we're getting quite a few channels again, and I've had football on TV each week so far.
This is the first year I've had this blog and a Ravelry account, and so far football season is being really good to both. These past several Saturdays and Sundays I've really caught up on my Ravelry updates, have sorted out my pictures and have started catching up here on the blog. As the season continues I plan to finish my two current projects (guitar strap and Secret Project), knit a couple of Christmas stockings for the new nieces, knit lots and lots of washcloths, start more socks, and hopefully work on the nieces' blankets and get started on a layette set for my cousin's baby-on-the-way.

Clessidra socks

Finished object!

This pair of Clessidra socks is the first completed project from the yarn I acquired in anticipation of fall. This is also the first project I've made for myself in a while. From the Spring 2007 edition of Knitty, these socks are named for the hourglass cable pattern that goes up the back of the legs.

I started these knee-high socks during my church's leadership school, did a lot of knitting during my family's vacation at the lake, and finished them on a weekend trip to help my brother settle in to his dorm at college.
I really enjoyed this pattern and the yarn. These pictures don't capture the colors of the Malabrigo "Velvet Grapes" sock yarn very well -- on my monitor they look much too red. Most of the yarn is a deep purple with stretches of dark red wine, and spots of brighter grape-purple. There was a bit of a difference between the two skeins, but not enough to be very noticeable. The colors didn't pool on most of the socks, but started to on the heel flaps and ended up in a bit of a barber-pole stripe on the feet.

I like the way the stripes kind of continue from one foot to the other. This last picture comes the closest to capturing the colors.

I'm looking forward to wearing these socks with some of my knee-length skirts as the weather starts to get cooler.

My brother's guitar strap is coming along well, and I've got a good start on the Mystery Christmas 2009 Project. I updated my Ravelry account yesterday, so a lot of the details are over there. The Mystery Project isn't there yet, but it will be. The intended recipient does not have a Ravelry account, so the scoop on this project will be up there before it's here.

I had a great time making these socks, and I need to find another pair to make. My mom has such small feet that store-bought socks never come close to fitting her. George's guitar strap is currently filling my daily travel-knitting needs, but after that, I think I'll try to start a string of Mom Socks.

I'm off to knit and try to distract myself from the lack of a group Knit Night tonight!

Fall Yarn Acquisition

Over my two weeks of vacation -- one at Leadership School, and one truly on vacation -- I have done quite a good bit of knitting. But before I show that, I'm going to give the details of the yarn I bought in my fall yarn binge. This binge missed my LYS's fall sale by two weeks (note to self: plan a little more next year), but I was seriously low on projects going into vacation weeks, and that just couldn't be allowed.

First, the yarn for the 2009 Christmas Surprise Project:

Plymouth Yarn Encore, worsted weight, 75% acrylic, 25% wool. I needed to pick a machine-washable yarn, and on the only day I had allotted for shopping for this, there happened to be not a huge selection at the LYS. I am, however, very happy with this yarn, and probably would have chosen it even from a much larger selection. The color is named 0668 and is a wonderful heather green with lots of light orange, and little hints of blue.

I swatched for this project on Vacation Week 1, going back and forth between size 8 and size 9 needles. I forget now what I decided and Leadership School took enough of my mental energy that I neglected to write it down at the time. I believe size 8 will be what works best. I have yet to sneak satisfactory measurements for this project, so work has not yet begun in earnest. The picture may or may not show all of the yarn - I'm trying to keep even the size of the project secret. Last year's secret went very well and I'm hoping to repeat that performance.

Next, the yarn for the Guitar George Strap and for my socks:

On the left is Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy (designer's choice), approximately sock weight, and 34% hemp, 41% cotton, and 25% modal. This color of orange (named 015), is just the right shade for my brother. I'm significantly modifying a belt pattern to turn it into a guitar strap, so the amount of yarn was a bit of a stab, but I think it will work well.

One skein of this has already transformed into the beginnings of a strap. That brought me to a point where I needed more information on guitar straps and it looked like I was nearing some decision points, and it felt easier to start my socks.

On the right above, Malabrigo sock yarn, 100% Superwash Merino Wool, in color 204 "Velvet Grapes." On my monitor, this picture looks significantly darker than the yarn. I absolutely love this yarn. I spent a long time choosing it and I'm very pleased. I'm making knee socks, so I needed to buy two skeins, making them quite the most expensive socks I've ever owned, but they are definitely going to be worth it! I finished the first sock on Vacation Week 2, and am almost at the end of the calf decreases on the second sock.

Also in this fall's acquisition I bought a set of 6 Brittany double pointed needles - size 1 and 5 inches long. These are the right size for both the guitar stap and the socks, so my brohter's gift is being pushed back a little more while the socks are on the needles.

Cross stitch and more washcloths

So I just barely finished my secret cross stitch project in time. I made a wedding sampler for our friends who got married on Sunday. Absolutely everything about the whole event was gorgeous. I would have had (just barely) enough time to snap a quick picture of the finished and framed project, except that when Pat borrowed my camera for his Independence Day weekend trip, both sets of batteries got worn out, and they hadn't been recharged yet. So I'll have to wait until T&B get back from their honeymoon and open presents before I can get a picture of it. It was quite a push Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to get it done, but I made it. I've been cross stitching MUCH longer than I've been knitting, having started when I was six years old. I love it, but knitting is so much more portable and versatile.

I made more lunch hour washcloths:

The rest of the super size ball of Summer Splash Sugar 'n Cream in hmm... what's it called... a trellis pattern. There was just enough, although I'm still defying this "square" concept.


Zigzag Eyelet pattern in Key Lime Pie color, still Sugar 'n Cream.

After this year's cross stitch binge was over, I spent all of Monday's Knit Night choosing and buying yarn for my next THREE big projects: (1) This year's Mystery Christmas Project, (2) a guitar strap for my brother (probably also a Christmas present, but he knows about it, so no mystery), and (3) socks for ME! I needed to buy all this at once because for the next week I'll be at my church's Leadership School. Eight full days of driving to Wisconsin and back (carpooling = extra knitting time), and sitting in seminars and services and group meetings. Very excited for all of the learning and knitting I'll be doing. There will be some internet access there, so hopefully I'll post in more detail about each of these projects and yarns soon, but for now, here's a teaser snapshot of my knitting bag from Thursday:

Now I'm off to pack. Will I have more clothes or more yarn in my suitcase? It's a toss-up.

Christmas in July

Toward the end of last year, a customer came into my LYS asking if there was anyone who could do some duplicate stitch for them. She had some beautiful old Christmas stockings which needed new names on them. I gather that these stockings are on their next generation of users. No one who works at the store had both the time and inclination to do a bunch of duplicate stitching, but the next time I was in for Knit Night, I was doing the finishing work for my 2008 Stockings, which included duplicate stitching names, and they passed the job along to me. I made arrangements to do this job after this spring's blanket knitting was done, and I left them for her when I went to Knit Night on Monday.

I'm pretty good at duplicate stitching - having made over 25 Christmas Stockings so far - and feel pretty good about how this turned out. Here is a shot of part of the lettering.

I didn't have anything in the stash that exactly matched the red used in these stockings in both color and weight, so I had to do a little bit of hunting. Caron Wintuk worsted weight in "Christmas Red 3005" fit the bill. It was a smidge too thick (perhaps just because it's new), but I think it worked out well. There were four stockings and this project took two Knit Night sessions to complete.

These stockings resemble the Mary Maxim intarsia-based stockings I usually do, but are a pattern I've never seen before and have different detailing, including the size and spacing of letters. Sample stockings were included so that I had a model for the lettering, but I largely had to work that bit out on my own. It took a little longer that way, but I thought it was a fun challenge. My favorite detail:

jingle bells on the toes.

I've worked a little bit on some more washcloths during lunch hours this week, but all my evening time has been devoted to the secret cross stitch project. I hope to post pictures of this next week. Then I'll need to buy some yarn for this year's big Christmas project as well as some socks for me. I'm going to a conference week after next --- six and a half days of presentations, work groups and discussion. I'll need to stock up on yarn and prepare some good-sized projects!

Cotton Candy Wrap-Up

Today I met my two new nieces and gave them their cotton candy dresses. Here are all three of these dresses before they got the finishing touches.

It's hard to get accurate color on all of the dresses at once -- the purple is a deep plum and the pink is bright Barbie-pink, and its hard to get the camera to capture both of those colors together.

These dresses were really fun to make. The smaller ones I did in about a week each, although those were weeks with an unusually high amount of knitting time. The larger one is for a three year-old (Niece C), and since the largest size given for the pattern is 24 months, I had to do a bit of math to size it up, and it took longer. This one still doesn't have a button; I couldn't find anything just right in my small stash, so I'll probably take the dress to Knit Night tomorrow and go on a little hunt.
Here is little Niece H's pink Cotton Candy Dress:

When last we saw this dress, I had knitted sleeves for it (link also has details on pattern). While I think I followed the instructions correctly, the size of the sleeves didn't seem to have any relationship to the size of the armholes. I contemplated re-knitting the sleeves, but I think it is quite cute as a sleeveless dress, too, so I just edged the armholes the same way as the neck and left it.
Step-mom Lou, these babies' grandma, provided these two buttons from her generous crafting stash.

Niece V received the purple dress:

This one took about one yard less than two skeins of the Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton. These are in the 12-month size.

The nieces are just too sweet. I got each of them to sleep on me a bit today, and got to take Nephew V (two years) for a run around the yard, so that was a great "baby fix."

I've just finished a paying knitting job, and tomorrow I'll take it back to the LYS and post about it. Meanwhile, this week my focus needs to be on a secret cross stitch project, so I'm off to work on that.