more cardi progress

Here's a photo of the past couple day's progress (12/26, baby!). I'm gradually getting better with the camera, though I'm still taking multiple shots and then taking the best one. The cranberry is actually a nice Christmas red... and like all red yarns that I've worked with, is slowly dying my bamboo needles pink. :) If I get knitting time tonight, I should be reaching the point (15") where I add my short rows. I need to do six wraps, and I'm planning them four stitches apart since that will mesh in with the ribbing nicely.

Okay, have to do some lab work now.

Still chugging along. :)

This picture is actually from Monday night, but for some reason I didn't get around to posting until today.




Due to some heroic knitting efforts, I finished the Ribbi Cardi sleeve caps on Sunday. This probably had a great deal to do with the fact that I'd confided in my DH that since I'd gotten so little knitting in on the sweater since Thanksgiving, I figured it wouldn't be done in time, but that I wasn't willing to tell everyone else to go to hell so I could work on the sweater. Apparently, my DH took that as a licence to tell me to go knit so he could create havoc elsewhere. :) Monday at SnB I cast on for the front panels, and you can see my Monday progress sitting on my needle. I worked on the front panels more last night, but I don't have a current picture of that yet... maybe tonight. :) Counting short row shaping, I'm at 7 out of 26 inches on the front. My DH actually asked me why I wasn't knitting at one point last night. Sometimes he amazes me.

In knitting and gauge news, I don't seem to be rowing out too badly in the sections that are plain stockinette. I'm really hoping this continues as the weight of the project grows. I hate rowing out. I also seem to be bang on gauge of 4.5st/inch. *crosses fingers* I really hope this continues. In other technical details I made the sleeves in the biggest size with an extra k2p2 for width out of Wool of the Andes in Charcoal. It took me six balls to knit them both at the same time, but at the end of the sleeve caps I think I have two half-balls left. This is handy because I'm thinking of making the collar black, but for all you crazy kids who are thinking of using this yarn to make the Ribbi Cardi in the largest sleeve size, you'll definitely want six. :)

I got some great advice from the LJ community called Advanced_Knit about putting short rows into my sweater so that it will fit better around the boobular area. Right now these people are my heroes. :) While my mother is a C cup and not a D, the advice is still very pertinent. :)

Good luck with all the Christmas knitting out there! I have to poke the centrifuge again. :) Maybe another post tomorrow.

Why, hello!

Yes, yes, twice in the same week. Egads!

My good friend Inertiacreepies came over last night to borrow the laundry equipment, giving me an excuse chance to drink tea, knit, and chat with her and Ladyscience for most of the evening. Shucky darn!

Anyway, I finished up the ears on the Elenuial hat, and took a really crappy picture of it this morning for the blog.




Anyone know how to make navy blue stockinette show up well? Sheesh. Other than that, I'm very pleased with this hat, and if I can find my pom pom mold it may sprout pom poms from the ends of the strings.

What else have I been up to? An in progress photo. (Arguably an equally crappy picture.) It cracks me up how much these look like pants on the needle.




These are the sleeves for Mom's Ribbi Cardi. Since she's got long arms, like myself, I need to knit 20" of sleeve before starting the decreasing. At 6 rows per inch, by my math that's 120 rows. Photo was taken at row 80. (Chug chug chug.)
For a while I despaired of ever finishing these, especially knitting two at once. I'm feeling hopeful again, as I remember that the decreasing part of the sleeves goes much faster than the increasing and I'm almost to that point. Almost. Whew.

I'm thinking about adding some short row shaping to the front pieces of the cardigan to accomodate my, er, busty mother. (Very few people are surprised where I get my bra size from. ;) Has anyone added short rows to the front bits of a raglan sweater? I'm thinking I don't need to alter the sleeves. I'm definitely going to knit both front pieces at the same time so I can match the short row shaping - as well as all the other shaping involved. I've altered the cardi pattern a bit already for length, too... I think I'm taller than the designer, so a comfortable length on her resulted in a cropped sweater on me. (woops) I've also added a repeat of the k2p2 rib to make the shoulder a bit fuller, as my footballer frame is probably larger than the designer as well. ;)

Hopefully in a week I'll have a completed sleeve picture followed by a new pair of Cranberry 'pants' on the needle. I'm looking forward to working with red yarn rather than black, though the notion that I'm giving my mother 'Coal' (Wool of the Andes) for Christmas is highly amusing.

Holiday Knitting Update

Hello all!

I had a nice weekend last weekend, (gaming Friday and Saturday!) and then picked up SkullLady & her boyo at the Framingham Express Sunday night. Delta being what it is, they were a tad late. This was nice as I got ahead on some more holiday knitting, but it was not-nice in the sense that I was pretty dead to the world yesterday. Many apologies if my drooling and exhausted self was offensive or spacey yesterday.

So, a whirlwhind update on the holiday knitting, as I dragged out and photographed everything that I still had (in most cases) and took pictures of it for the blog.

First up:




I lengthened the Mom Legwarmers. They are still considerably fugly, but they are warm and at least look like leg warmers now. They also fit well. As my DH said, "Ill conceived but superbly executed."

Next up: Felted goodness. I do like felting things.




This is the pre-felted Knit Picks Nantasket Basket, in Wool of the Andes Coal and Natural. I thought it looked nicely penguin-y. This is also two balls of Wool of the Andes knit together (Bluebell and Winter Night) to make a felted dice bag for Kit. Unfortunately, I had to give Kit the dice bag soon after felting and blocking, because I wasn't going to see him closer to Christmas. I did learn that the felted dice bag attempt that I made blocked nicely into a blue fez that stood up on its own, but alas, I took no picture. If people are curious, I'll post the fez pattern. It worked okay as a dice bag, but the felted sides were a little thick given the doubled yarn and I hope Kit doesn't have too much trouble closing the bag.

The post-felted Nantasket Basket...



I really liked the way this pattern turned out, even if my handle was a little off center. I hope my MIL will like her basket. Many thanks and props to Inertiacreepies for lending me a cake pan upon which to block said basket. (If I'm going to keep making felted containers, I'm really going to need to make a point of getting better blocking molds.)

Now, you wouldn't think purple Lion Brand Wool-Ease would be hard to find, but for some reason none of the craft stores in this town carries it. And my friend Mary, who requested purple for her holiday socks, had also requested purple or green for her hat last year. Last year I caved and got green, even though purple is her favorite color. This year I splurged and bought her a purple. (Trust me, the socks in the photo are royal purple. Many apologies for the questionable photo.) I used Joan's Wool-Ease Sock pattern with Reynolds Encore Worsted and a smaller size needle than I usually use for the sock pattern.




The Encore was a bit more expensive but soft and a pleasure to knit with.

Last but not least, my friend Hazilya mentioned that she saw a hat with cat ears at the store and was thinking of making one. I told her that I'd knit her one for Christmas (foolish me, adding to the Christmas list before Thanksgiving!) and gave her the hat on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I felt a little like an Indian giver as I didn't attach the ears, but as she was planning on putting a face on her hat I figured she'd value options over convienence. Hazilya was thrilled with her hat, and sewed on the ears and lined it that very evening. I'll have to get a picture of her wearing it. This is stash leftover Mission Falls in Stone, and was barely enough to make what you see here.




It is worth knowing that Hazilya's boyfriend, Elenuial, asked me for a hat for Christmas the following Monday. While I would have appreciated knowing this back in October when I asked my friends to tell me if they wanted knitted things for Christmas, I'm a sucker and am currently working on a hat for him. Ladyscience helped me out by selling me some navy blue Mission Falls stash yarn of hers to make the hat, especially since Mission Falls is being discontinued. Currently, I have just to make the ears, take a picture, and give the ears to Hazilya so she can attach them and line the hat. I'm thinking they'll be disgustingly cute.

What else am I working on? The Ribbi Cardi sleeves for Mom are inching along. I'll take an in-progress photo and post it, as I've noticed more FO pictures than in progress pictures here.

Only nineteen days left... I hope I can finish in time. :)