Lesson for today: read the pattern and pay attention!

Two weeks into September and I haven't yet shown off my August work. Tim and I had agreed to do socks and I chose Bloomin' by Jeannie Cartmel (link goes to Ravelry pattern page). So while socks aren't something I would consider challenging normally, it seems I inadvertently selected a pattern that was a challenge for me.

I started out simply enough. Two at a time on one long circular needle. Most of my sock knitting has been on double pointed needles but I've recently done a few pairs simultaneously. But what I did not for see was each sock starts out with a different chart (in order to have a mirrored design). So I was constantly flipping back and forth from chart to chart. This lead to me forgetting to actually read the darn pattern. The design on the top of the foot is a stem with leaves in stockinette on a reverse stockinette background. The bottom of the foot should be knit in stockinette. Did I do that? Heck no, I just assumed that I should purl my way around the sock. *headdesk* About the time I was approaching the heel, I discovered my error.

Yeah, so I was a bit upset with myself because of course the socks were taking a great deal of time to complete with all that purling. So for the heel and the rest of the sock, I decided to flip the back to stockinette. Also the circular needle slows me down so starting with the heel I slid one sock onto dpns to finish it and then finished the other. Overall, they look lovely. Although when I was blocking them, I thought that I had made another huge error. Take a look at the cuffs of the socks in the finished photo. They don't quite look like each other, do they? But do you see what I didn't see until I took them off the blockers?

Yeah, one is inside out. I must have forgotten to flip it when weaving in ends. Doh!

After much delay

I've been busy keeping Tim in a dungeon procrastinating. Actually, I've been hoping to find my camera so that I could post a better photo of my finished mittens but no luck so far. So here is the iPhone version:

They turned out very nicely indeed and I finished knitting them on the last day of July. However, the ends weren't all woven in by midnight so by Tim's calculations they don't count as finished. Doesn't matter to me, they are lovely completed mittens and that is all that really concerns me.

I was fretting about the garter stitch edge while knitting them but they've mostly blocked out flat so that's good. All in all, I'm very pleased with the mittens. I'm planning to make a hat to match in November for our hat month in the almanac project.

As for the August project, my socks have been knitted, I just need to block and weave in ends before the end of the month. Photos for that coming soon!

Too much to tell

Sorry for the long absence but Teri locked me in the dungeon it's a not so fascinating story...

I went on a road trip to visit my sister in Wyoming, which is where I finished the Andalus Mittens on July 12.

I really like how they turned out and I think I will keep them for myself...

I went from my sister's to the Men's Rocky Mountain Knitting Retreat in mid-July and had a fabulous time.  I met guys from all over...Florida, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, Pennsylvania...too many to name. We stayed at a lovely resort in Allenspark, Colorado, (just down the road from Estes Park), ate great food, hot-tubbed, played tourist, and, oh yeah, knit. There were a wide variety of classes (Tunisian Knitting, dyeing with food color, continental knitting, etc.) and a very full schedule with several field trips (yarn stores, a spinning wheel factory, and an alpaca farm). We actually saw a bear in the wild...well, between the ranchettes where the alpaca farm was located. During one of the field trips to Estes Park I walked down to the stream/river of icy cold snow melt, took off my shoes, and stood in the rushing water. It was frigid, but on that hot day it felt absolutely wonderful!

Upon my return to Kansas City much drama ensued.  I won't go into details here, but it's like being back in junior high school and the mean girls are in charge...My therapist hit the nail on the head when she said of one of the mean girls, "What a Narcissist!"  I've moved on and at this point I'll just quote one of my favorite knitters who says, "Knitters are Bitches!"

Along with the aforementioned drama I managed to hurt myself. I went to see Circe Du Gay (it was wonderful) in the Kansas City Fringe Festival and during an audience participation bit I blew out my Achilles tendon. Surgery followed five days later.  Let me just go on record here saying I would make a terrible drug addict. I was prescribed Percocet (acetaminophen and oxycodone) which left me shaky, nauseous, and groggy...I slept something like 12-14 hours a day...and that was with me only taking ONE pill every TWENTY-FOUR hours (prior to bedtime) where the bottle said I could take 1-2 pills every FOUR hours...I think that would have put me in a coma!

I do already have the August project done but I think that deserves a separate post...

Nothing more to see here...Knit along!

Slow progress

While Tim is pushing ahead full steam, I'm slowing trekking up the hill. Not only is he a faster knitter, but he's also more focused. Well done, Tim!

But I do have a bit of progress to show off so far...

Yesterday at lunch, I finally made it to the thumb separation. And the good news is that it seems to fit me so far. A good thing considering I picked the colors to match my winter coat. You can see in this photo how the garter stitch hem keeps flipping up. I'm not convinced yet that blocking will fix this. At this point, my options are to just flip it to the underside and stitch it down or to cut it off and knit some sort of other hem. I'm leaning towards the second option because then the hem border could be in the purple yarn.

Anyway, I made more progress last night after work while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation (streaming now on Netflix!) and cringing at the sweaters that they put on Wesley. I'm just starting the first flower on the back of the mitten in purple. The colors contrast so nicely and I'm much happier with his yarn choice than my original pick.

So, a little bit of progress to show for my time. Time to stick to my knitting for a bit and get more accomplished!

Shaky Start

So, I diligently started the Andalus Mittens on July 1...and things went badly.  I wanted to do a different hem (just a provisional cast-on, a quick four rows of plain  stockinette, a purl row, four more rows of plain stockinette, and then join the live stitches with the provisional cast-on before starting the color work).  Total failure.  My color work gauge is so much tighter than my regular gauge (and I am a tight knitter to begin with) that I couldn't knit tightly enough in plain stockinette to match my color work gauge and I didn't want to decrease the stitch count.  (Did I mention these mittens are going to be bulletproof?)  So after multiple tries...*cast-on, knit, rip, repeat from *...I finally gave up and did the called for four rows of k2, p2.

I worked through the wrist pattern and decided I wasn't happy that I wouldn't be able to wear it when I was done.  So, I went stash diving...I came up with some Bonkers Handmade Originals Hand Dyed Sport Wool (given to me by Teri) and some Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash.  I had not yet learned my lesson, so I tried to do the different hem with the same tragic results...*cast-on, knit, rip, repeat from *.

I finally decided to do it (mostly) as written and now, the first mitten is done!

Onward!

Nothing more to see here.  Knit along...

And we're off!

I searched through Ravelry to see if I could find a different pattern that could work with the Tove yarn and I didn't fall in love with any of them. So instead I searched through my stash for a fingering weight yarn that would work with the Vinterblomster pattern. Success!

Here's my swatch...

The white yarn is Jawoll, green is Cascade Heritage and purple is Crafty in a Good Way (a local yarn dyer). I would have also swatched the green on a white background but if you look closely in the upper right corner, the needle snapped.

No matter, on the morning of July 1st before heading to work I cast on for the first mitten. I had company from out of town for the holiday weekend so as of today I only have this much to show:

I've almost completed the second chart which will probably be completed very soon. I'm not thrilled with the look of the garter stitch hem so I might flip it under and stitch it down...or I might cut it off and knit an actual hem. Time will tell. Not something I have to decide right now. Of course, I'm even debating lining the mitten too. Clearly I'm over ambitious as always.

Swatching for the Andalus Mittens

Here is my swatch...

I did the cuff pattern twice; the one on the right was done with 3.25 mm (US size 3) and the one on the left was 2.75 mm (US size 2).  The one on the right was bang on 8 stitches to the inch while the one on the left was right at 9 stitches to the inch.  I like how the one on the left looks (the one on the right looks pixelated), but it will result in a mitten too small for me to wear.  I don't feel like trying to modify the pattern to get a mitten in my size with the look I prefer so it looks like someone will be getting a gift of mittens in the near future.  Who will be so lucky?

Nothing more to see here.  Knit Along.