knitting in the dark

Last weekend I decided to start a new sweater and participate in NaKniSweMo 2008 (ravelry link)… apparently I missed the memo about the month being half over already! So I knit up some swatches and washed and blocked them and cast on for Notre Dame de Grace last Monday - the 17th.

I doubt I’ll finish the whole sweater by the end of the month, but I’m going to try anyway. And this is on top of the currently hectic work schedule… crazy! This new sweater is probably also partially to avoid attaching the sleeves and sewing the buttons onto Demi. I really dislike attaching sleeves…

But anyway, this is how far I got Monday:

Not too bad, right? That’s about a quarter of the body before it splits for armholes (yes, I’ve adjusted yet another pattern to be knit in the round - who needs seams?). I have a feeling the sleeves will be my downfall; sleeves always take a lot longer than I think they will - and a lot more yarn. Maybe I should cast on a sleeve and alternate work between the body and the sleeve?

And this is a picture of the pirate girl playmobil keychain that the FAO Schwarz salesman gave me Wednesday in front of a mountain of reddish double seed stitch that night:

And I finished the back on Friday while watching Casino Royale. I’m glad this pattern is so simple; I would have been too busy watching the movie to work on something more complicated! I do believe he is my favorite Bond yet.

I’m just about halfway through the five skeins of the Ultra Alpaca I bought this summer from WEBS, so I’m a little worried that I will run out of yarn before finishing the sleeves, but hopefully it’ll be just right! I’ve been planning to knit this sweater since the pattern first came out - I bought the magazine right away strictly because of this sweater - and it seems the perfect time to be knitting it up ’cause it’s just now becoming cold enough here for a sweater under my coat.

And I will have lots of knitting time on the train this week as I have to go to Boston for work…

On my list for Rhinebeck was yarn to make the man I’ve been dating a hat (upon his request). I had not yet picked a specific pattern, but I have always admired the Koolhaas design (ravelry link). Wait a second - “always”?!? - didn’t it come out just a year ago? Ha! Moving on… I am, however, decidedly NOT a fan of the library building in Seattle that inspired the design.

At the back of a bottom shelf at the Oak Grove booth (ravelry link) I found a lovely merino/angora blend (which they don’t seem to make anymore) in an almost-solid midnight blue called “ink.” It was a perfect match for the Koolhaas pattern and not at all itchy for his clean-shaven head. I was pretty sure it would only take the 150 yards found in a single skein, but I decided to buy a second… just in case. But what if I wanted to knit a second hat out of the same lovely yarn? I ended up buying all three skeins on the shelf; they were very reasonably priced and are the perfect color to make hats for persons with fair skin and blue eyes (which just happens to include the man and my entire family and myself).

During my first week in Baltimore we had our evenings off, which meant plenty of knitting time in front of the TV in my hotel room (a double treat since I don’t have a television at home). I finished the hat in just two days. Then I tried it on. And it hasn’t left my head since. It’s not masculine enough for the man anyway (he confirmed this when he saw it yesterday), which means I’m keeping it and knitting him something plain and based on a hat I bought at J.Crew eight years ago and still wear frequently. And the third skein will become a duplicate Koolhaas for my mother as a birthday or Christmas gift. I wonder if she stops through here regularly enough that I just ruined the surprise… I guess there’s only one way to find out!

pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood
size: smaller
yarn: Oak Grove 25% Angora 75% Merino, color: Ink
needles: 3.75mm INOX dpns
started: 23 October 2008
finished: 25 October 2008
notes: I didn’t change the pattern at all; it’s perfect as is.

I finished my first planned Christmas gift of the year during Socktober…

I started these Hederas (Ravelry link) on a train to Connecticut to visit a friend and her fiance,

started the second of the pair on the bus up to Rhinebeck for the Sheep and Wool Festival and finished them on the train to Baltimore where we did the tech rehearsals for the first national tour of the How the Grinch Stole Christmas musical (Coming soon to a city near you! If you happen to live near Boston, that is… next year we’ll be expanding to others, though).

These socks are a gift for my friend who just moved to Australia with her boyfriend (his job relocated him for the next two years). After completing the pair I realized that Christmas happens during the summer for those persons living in the southern hemisphere - oops! I associate Christmas with cold weather and wool socks and the like. Oh well. I’m pretty sure she’ll like them as she has admired on more than one occasion a pair of Hederas that I knit for myself.

The yarn is Trekking XXL, which I love for gift giving because it tends to hold up pretty well to being tossed into the washer and dryer and I would never expect people to hand wash items I knit them unless they are specifically requested. Her feet are just a touch bigger than mine and I’ve made her a pair of socks before that fit her, so hopefully these will also as I probably won’t see her for quite a while to make adjustments.

pattern: Hedera out of Spring 2006 Knitty by Cookie A
yarn: Trekking XXL color 145 from The Loopy Ewe WEBS
needles: my trusty sidekicks, four INOX 2mm dpns
started: 11 October 2008
finished: 24 October 2008
mods/notes: I shortened the heel flap, but I think that’s the only change. Also, I <3 Hederas - if you like to knit socks haven’t knit the pattern already then you should.

I completed a long-lingering sock project in October, knit a complete pair, started a pair that will be given as a Christmas gift, and knit a hat.

This pair began way back in July; I started with the Bellatrix pattern (Ravelry link) and made it all the way through the first sock, but with this yarn it just looked warty and lumpy and the bumps occur in too regular a pattern for my tastes.

I think the pattern really needs a more varigated yarn - with more colors and short stretches of each color, because there are some beautiful versions on Ravelry… and maybe a change of needle size around the ankle to add some shaping there, cause this is not appealing:

I started the second Bellatrix but couldn’t get into it and it was quickly frogged and knit up into the first plain stockinette sock I’ve knit for myself.

I let my date do a few rounds one evening on the train (he already knew how to knit and wanted to trade his book, Look Me in the Eye, for my knitting)… but he knits extremely tightly and I always have to go down at least two needle sizes because mine is very relaxed - if our gauge isn’t compatible does that mean our future is doomed? Usually I rip out whatever few rows I let someone else do before taking my knitting back, but I thought it was sweet that he wanted to work on my project, so I left it in…

I ripped the first Bellatrix out back to the cuff ribbing and reknit the second sock in stockinette. It seems that there’s enough yarn left after knitting myself the pair to knit a third sock… I do have small feet, but the yardage in the skein seems generous compared to many other smaller dye companies.

The yarn is Lotus Yarns Buddha (superwash merino/nylon blend) and I love the dye job and the thicker cushy texture of the yarn. This color is called Bloodflowers, for a song by The Cure. I am absolutely looking forward to buying more yarn from this etsy shop, but I have to knit down some of the sock yarn already in my apartment first!

pattern: none
yarn: Lotus Yarns Buddha in Bloodflowers
needles: INOX 2mm dpns
started: 25 July 2008
completed: 13 October 2008

On a side note: my favorite part of Bellatrix was the reverse side of the stitch pattern: