Slave to the Needles

As time goes by...

So, I've been trying to churn out some cowls and ornaments for the St. James Cathedral Advent Bazaar.  Eight cowls  (from Last Minute Knitted Gifts)and at least that many ornaments (from Handknit Holidays), thus far. I'll take some pictures before I sell them all, but really...tubes and balls (hur...I said "balls").  Not so much with the exciting, although there is a lot of baby alpaca and cashmere involved, so at least they're luxurious if a bit simple.

Hopefully after the first of the year I'll get back to knitting real stuff - I started a cashmere pull-over vest a while back that needs to be finished, and it's time to knit up the next kit sweater in all of it's "Autumn Gold" glory.  Another kit about to be won on eBay for a song, too.  Red, this time.  If it's not too cool a red, I'll keep it.  Otherwise, I think it would look good on a bunch of people I know, so maybe I'll make something and give it away.  It *is* the Season of Giving, after all...

Geez, seems like every time I turn around...

...three months go by

I've finished the Ivory Ariann:

 

It still needs buttons, and I'd like to get a wide belt to wear with it, since it's a bit...uh...snug.  But whatever.  It's cute, and makes a nice little jackety thing, and will look awesome with the matching skirt.  I can hardly wait for it to be cold enough to wear the full ensemble.  Hee!

I also finished the pukey green sweater (Something Red).  I still need to weave in the ends and block it, but it turned out well and fits.  Again, I can hardly wait to wear it with the matching skirt.

Since these two great accomplisments, I've started a cashmere vest, finished another monmouth cap and began a little bag based on an Egyptian design from Rutt.  Because I?  Have ADD.  ::sigh::

Two more inches

Two more inches of collar, and I'm done with the Ivory sweater.  It's gone much faster since I ripped it out and started over, but it's really not that hard of a knit. I should finish it on Sunday.  And then i can start this sweater in this yarn.  The skirt's been done for ages, and I'd love to have the outfit complete.

I'll have a fair bit of yarn left over, too.  I need to find something interesting to make with it.

Well, I've upped my knitting quotient a fair bit...

Work continues apace on the ivory Arianne sweater.  I'm paying MUCH better attention to the directions, and hope - in earnest - to not screw it up this time.  Although I'm still not entirely pleased with the button holes.  Meh.

Next on the docket for "real" knitting is Something Red, but in the avocado green from the kit to match the skirt.  I may squeeze an Instant, Total Gratification project first, but maybe not.  We'll see.  My queue at Ravelry is long and long.  I have such grand planz...

OMG, I'm a bad blogger

Entire civilizations have come and gone in the time since I last posted here.  Lessee...I put off the Mafalda cushion to do...other stuff.  Like...um...stuff.

I knit another Monmouth cap, I think.  And didn't knit anything at all there for a while.  And then I frogged the white sweater and started the body over because I farked it all up.  And I have a little bag on tiny needles, based on an Egyptian pattern I charted out of A History of Knitting. That seems to be going well.  Aside from that, not so much on the knitting front.  I am lame.

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHH!!!!

:: sigh ::

The "Mafalda" Cushion chronicles...

First try: screwed up the pattern, because I didn't have complete information.

Second try: made a lovely mobius strip.

Third try: apparently forgot how to count and ended up with eight extra stitches.

In spite of all of these omens to not knit this damn cushion, I WILL WIN.  I swear it.

I'll take a quick break to knit up another Monmouth cap, but then the gloves? They are off.  I will load this damn thing up, and I will knit it through to the end, and it will be fabulous. FABULOUS, I say.

La la la...no witty title...just a post...

So, first things first.  The Monmouth Cap.

Based on a cap in a museum in Wales, I think.  Referenced in Shakespeare and a few other period sources.  I've found two different ways of doing this cap, this way being the one I don't really like, now.  I'll try the other way (provisional cast-on, making the brim easier to connect when you get to that point) one of these days.  It's a fairly easy knit, and kind of neat when it's all done.

Also, I threw this one together for the BF out of baby alpaca (mmm...baby alpaca...):

In other knitting news, I've cast on AGAIN for the Mafalda cushion (13th C. Spanish). Teeny weeny needles, teeny weeny yarn.  But...it should be pretty stinking cool when it's done.  I'm actually looking forward to doing this one.  I haven't been excited about an SCA-related project in a while, so this is pretty big news.  I found a scan of the photo of the original extant cushion, which made Rutt's description make a little more sense.  But still....460-some-odd stitches.  Oy.  Good times.

Piles of yarn everywhere, some plans, and a bunch of books.  Damn my full-time job anyway...

Hatz

I got a wild hair and knit up a Monmouth Cap out of Reynolds Lopi.  I loves it (picture soon). I'm cranking out a 3/2 rib baby alpaca beanie for Airplane Guy, too, and then I'm going to start work in earnest on the 13th C. cushion I've been jonesing for.  I'm hoping I can get gauge on the 000 circs I just bought, but I'm not entirely optimistic.  We'll see, though.  A friend said that a lot of people knit smaller when they're stranding colors.

She Lives!

Wow.  The end of the year got a little crazy, there.  I was scarcely knitting at all for quite some time.  Thank god for a week's vacation and a bunch of hockey. 

So, when you left our intrepid knitter, she had finished a cowl.  Since then, the following has occurred:

I finished up one of the Cashmerino baby hats I had lying around and gave it to Sadie.  It is unbelievably cute on her.  Disgustingly cute, even.  But it fits, which is the most important thing.

I finished a baby kimono for D & S's new little girl, Mallory.  Baby alpaca (ZOMG! I *heart* this yarn!) from Knitpicks in the pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting.  Went together like a dream.  I hope she can wear it for more than half an hour, 'cause it's TINY.

In October, I went to Scotland for a week, and met up with some old friends and their new family.  Of course that meant that I had to knit stuff up to give them, like Alex's scarf (some nice Merino from my LYS in a cool pyramid pattern - to the left, there),


Darren's Men's (not so) Cashmere Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts,



a frilly hat for Tatjana and



a nice striped beanie for Milan.





'Course, Darren just told me that they're moving back to Australia, so won't have much in the way of need for warm, woolen things, but ::shrug::

I also tried my hand at knitting with cotton.  I managed to complete the Moss Grid Hand Towel from Mason-Dixon Knitting, with enough yarn left over to make a matching wash cloth.  I'm mostly pleased wtih the result, but I don't think I'll do that particular pattern again.

As for ongoing projects, I've got a mental block about finishing the finishing on the little dress (I hates pieces patterns, I does), but need to get on that since the baby's due pretty soon. I started a quilt square for Mallory but didn't finish it in time, so it will probably become a pillow. I also tried to come up with something out of a minty bouclé yarn, but was thwarted, like, 50 times.  We'll see what comes of that. And this break from work has brought me a bunch of time to make some headway on my Ariann sweater (one sleeve down, about 1/3 of the other completed at this writing).  I also just bid on ANOTHER kit (to add to the lovely ivory kit I won a couple of months ago). This one is a beautiful heathery purple - I'll probably make something for Ma out of it since I look like barf in that color, but we'll see.

I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions, but I do intend to stay on top of knitblogging a bit better, because I intend to stay on top of knitting a bit better.  There was a severe rift in the Work/Life Balance towards the end of last year that I hope not to repeat, and working from home a lot ate into my commute knitting time.  But you know what they say about the Road to Hell...

Oh. Thank. God.

Hockey and knitting.  Two great tastes that taste great together.  A game this morning (LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks, live from LONDON!), and a double header tonight, featuring My Sekrit Boifriends, the Detroit Red Wings.  I'm working on a work project today, but tonight?

Me + Hockey + Knitting = Joy!