Good Knitting Gone Bad

Remember this?

It was a lovely little sweater. It was lovingly hand dyed, and Thing 2 was so involved in the process. He chose the colors and helped with the dyeing. He decided the order of the stripes and chose his own buttons. He was incredibly patient when I would yell in the middle of cartoons, "Hey MUC, come try this on for me!"

A couple of weekends ago, Necropolis decided to do so laundry. Yeah....I think you know what's coming:

You'll have to excuse the Joker looking expression on MUC. I made him stand in the last of the afternoon direct sunlight. At any rate, with regard to the sweater, I think it might fit my 2 year old niece about now. We're still deciding what to do. We may have another Tomten in the making (it was really a quick knit), or MUC may choose a different pattern. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

On other fronts, the holiday knitting frenzy has commenced. Here are some of the various pieces. I'm not going to tell too much, should one of the recipients happen to read this post. After the holidays, I'll be sure to be more detailed about the projects.

And, no, I still don't know what's up with the photos, but I think I have a solution figured out. I'm just too tired and lazy to change the ginormus pics at the moment.

Dancing with Myself

Every so often, I get in a weird place, where I just want have to back away and sort of crawl into myself. It’s a combination of avoidance and self-preservation, I think. I’m not a huge believer in astrology or that kind of thing, but my birth sign is Cancer, the crab.

Exactly.

So, apparently, I’m allowing my more social personality to venture forth. And, truthfully, getting back into the swing of work has been tough, as well as dealing with the current health issues. But, enough of that. Today is for fiber.

I’ve been knitting like a fiend in my spare time. Here are the fruits of my labors.



Mananita Magic. Pattern from Shawls and Scarves: The Best of Knitter's Magazine. I did it on sz 9 needles with a lace weight yarn (most of a 900 yrd skein) by The Plucky Knitter I got from The Loopy Ewe. It's a colorway called Wuthering Heights, a fabulous burgundy with some dark grays throughout. It turned out rather well, and was an easy knit. I added an additional row at the bottom, and I did a different border than the one called for in the pattern.





Black Water Socks. Pattern is my own. It's a generic toe-up pattern with the waterfall lace pattern chosen from Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vl. 1, with some slight alterations to accommodate knitting in the round and the look of the sock. Yarn was most of 1 skein of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in the Black Watch colorway (hence the name). Again, a totally easy knit. Pardon the dangly in the above pict. MUC took these photos for me. Not bad for a 6 year old.

The HUGE bag I knitted with idea of felting it. It's supposed to be a messenger style bag. It felted nicely, by the way. I knitted it on a sz. 8 in stockinette. Looking at the kids with the bag makes me laugh, because it really was a freaking huge bag before I threw it in the washer. I'll have to get a pic of it all nice and felted. Knitted with Lion Brand Wool.

Shawl knit on No. 9 needles out of a mohair/wool blend that I found at my LYS. I can't remember the name at the moment, but I do remember there are about 400 yrds in the shawl. The pattern is my own, something I kind of made up as I went on, in keeping with Aunt Dion's Shawl, since I'm still working on making something out of that, eventually. The last photo is the truest to the colors. They really are that vibrant, and that's what drew me to the yarn in the first place.

And, this is just what I had pics of. I still have 2 socks on needles, completed a Baby Surprise Jacket that I forgot to take pics of, have since completed another BSJ and it's awaiting buttons, with no less than a more BSJs on the needles. I have an Elizabeth Zimmerman Tomten Jacket on the needles for MUC, another planned for GLB, a Shapely T on the needles, and a mitered square blanket on the needles.

Those are just the projects I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more. Oh, and I have a 2 garb projects coming up at the end of the month as well.

I told you so!

The first project completed isn't any I talked about in my last post. It's a completely different project I saw and just had to complete.

The Calorimetry

The picture shows there are some issues with it, as I figured it out while I knitted, and I didn't feel like backtracking. The original instructions are on Knitty, but I had read around on various blogs and message boards there were some sizing issues with the gauge as written. I decided to knit pretty much as written, but on size US 6 needles instead of US 8 as the pattern calls for. I think it worked pretty well, and now I know much better perfectly. The yarn is Diakeito Diamusee 100% wool in their 40 (gray/mauve) color. I think my favorite part is the little band of butter cream in the center. When worn, the 'issues' aren't visible, and the headband fits very well. despite trying to roll along the bindoff edge.

All in all, I'd say it's pretty much a success, and I plan to adapt and modify a bit.

And, because I was already taking pictures, here's a shot of a felted bag I recently finished. I had intended to give this to my sister for Christmas, but I got sidetracked and didn't finish in time. It's made of LionBrand Wool Prints in Majestic Mountain colorway. I knitted it on size 8 needles, and I don't remember the original, unfelted size. Felted dimensions are -12" x 8" and the strap is 44" inches from end to end.

Now, back to the socks.