Twas the night before Christmas . . .

. . .and like all knitters out there, I have "just a bit more to do."  Why do we do this to ourselves?  Every year?  Too many people we want to knit for and even toward the final date we are adding folks to the list.

Confession:  (and you'll be making the same one, I bet)  I didn't get it all done.

Here's the last bit that will be wrapped tomorrow before dinner at 4pm.

Hats --

backside -- before all the weaving

Grandson and his friends will each receive their own Grammy Knits hat, pattern courtesy of Tanis Fiber Arts free pattern.  I bot lots of Patons Canadiana worsted acrylic and mixed it up as I knit each hat.

The first one was fun; the second one, okay.  The fifth one?  Not exactly a "Ho, Ho, Ho."  But they are all done.  PS  I do not like duplicate stitch.  It's tedious and sloppy no matter how carefully you work it.

Enjoy your family time.  Drive carefully.  Eat what you want.  Laugh and hug and let the Light shine.

Clarity

I don't know much but these things are very clear to me.

• It's pretty clear that if I'm knitting a scarf I'm neglecting the matching hat.
• It's pretty clear that the 220 stitches for the afghan and the 40 row cable pattern are daunting, especially on November 27.
• It should be obvious to me by now that some of the projects just won't make it to the "finished" pile in time for gifts.  

But no, I'm still matching up yarn and patterns and recipient for YAP (Yet Another Project) to be completed in time for Christmas gifting.

So the over-arching question for today, for me and for all knitters out there:

Will we ever learn not to add so many projects to the gift list?  

Maybe friend Darliss has learned her lesson.  She just reported the completion of the 7th pair of sox (14 sox!) for grandkids.  Each sock had some duplicate stitch embellishment and some included color changes.  Result:  weaving in ends, lots of ends.

I'm using the calendar as my guide.  This means gifts that have to be mailed need to be finished long before the ones I finish late into the night on Christmas eve.

Here are a few progress pix.

Green lace shawl finally made it to the
blocking board.  Still unable to
capture the brilliant celery green even after
trying 3-4 settings on the camera.
This one will go in the mail by week's end.

Brown and teal will go to a special friend and her husband
-- delivered by hand.
Multicolor hat and scarf to another special friend
-- mailed by end of this week.
Red/Black/White hats -- need 3 more!  All will
be delivered in person on Christmas afternoon.

Battleboro hat will be delivered in person the week before
Christmas.

This one from Weekend Hats, also will be
hand delivered the week before Christmas.

Mailed the mushroom seafarer's hat today to NYC.

So when I'm not doing whatever else life expects of me, I manage to knit on something.  This morning it was a scarf while sitting in the car waiting.  Then I also got to frog it cuz I figured I really did not have enuf yarn.  Maybe this project will migrate to something else.

On the stashbuster front, located some additional sparkly stuff while cleaning out part of the garage.  This is a real find since it will make the headband/turban I have in mind.  

Minus one -- plus one.

The math works, but clarity is still foggy.  The sun here is finally burning off this morning's fog, while I am still in the mist and haze of entirely too many projects planned for Christmas giving.

I reckon I'll never learn.  How about you?

Abundance -- Stashbuster

      It's a hat for a Seafarer.  I will ship it to The Seamen's Church Institute of NY and NJ as part of their Christmas-at-Sea program.  If you wanna participate here's the site.  www.seamenschurch.org

Though, honestly, it looks like a mushroom, probably because of the color I chose.

Lots of ribbing and then garter stitch.
It's NOT knit in the round, but back and forth
on straight US6, with worsted.

I had a full skein of Bernat Waverly, an acrylic I love because it's soft and knits up smoothly.  The color is Bark.  You'll need about 3-3.5 oz for the hat, in worsted.

After the decreases are finished (for the crown)
then the remaining needles are placed half on each needle.
Kitchener stitch is used to join the edges.

I can now log YAH (Yet Another Hat) onto my Christmas knitting list.  And just about the time I thought the list was ending, I discovered two more hat recipients.  More StashBuster projects.  

I am thankful I can knit.  I'm grateful for yarn, whether natural fiber or acrylic.  

Mostly I am thankful for the abundance which surrounds my life.

Matched Set -- Stashbuster

This time a hat and scarf that match.  I really like Bernat Mosaic.  It's acrylic so that may turn some of you away.  But I like it for cowls, hats, scarves.  And it's a lot like some of the Noro, without the high price tag.

See the twist in the hat?  Even with the color waves
the pattern is still distinctive.

Here's the Spiral Hat from the Mosaic free patterns. (see note at end of post, pls.) It's a twisted thing -- K2tog and then M1.  This means, among other outcomes, that the beginning of the round moves to the left.  After my fiasco with the Willow Beret I paid close attention to this spot.

Color is called Fantasy.

The scarf looks a bit distorted.  It's hanging over the side of the bed.

The crown continues nicely with the twist created by the
K2tog and the M1.

The scarf is an extraction from a Red Heart pattern for a shawl.  It's a really pretty shawl, but with only 2 balls of Mosaic, clearly a shawl would not emerge.  Instead I put pencil to paper and figured out the repeat, a multiple of 12 plus 1, then added 3 garter stitches on each side for the border.   Here's the Red Heart pattern -- Romancing the Shawl.  Great name, huh!

I have come to a new place with my knitting.  Sure I like the challenge of a new cable or lace pattern.  But right now I am enjoying the pleasure of knitting things that, for me, are relatively easy.

• They are easy for me to complete in a reasonable time.  
• Each pattern uses yarn and needles that I can easily put my hands on.  
• Each item is wonderful as a gift.  

I am looking forward to more of this kind of knitting.  It's the relaxation I need right now without the pressure.

I wish you joy with your knitting.  Life has so much chaos on its own; we might all be better off if we un-chaosed some of the knitting we choose.

One knitter's opinion.

Christmas Knitting

I'm counting on the fact that the folks in my life who will receive knitted gifts are not generally readers of this blog.  Isn't that a life irony?

This year I'm working on "manageable" which means things that happen fairly quickly.  This means no complex shawls, no afghans, and no sweaters.  (Confession:  have started designing a vest for myself using some stash bulky -- size US 10 so that might happen too!)

A portfolio of sample projects --

Matching hat and toe-up socks.

The Hat is called Grammy's Knits from Tanis Fiber Arts blog.  The pattern includes mittens.  You must check her site!  She has some fabulous patterns.  The blog is well-written.  The pictures are wonderful.  The hat is a free pattern so it's in my Hats folder on Goodreader.

My first time with toe-up sox.  I have a copy of Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson.  She includes at least 6 different cast-on methods.  I decided on the "Easy" Toe -- if you have the book it's on page 18.  Worked out quite nicely.  I decided to do two at once and will make a red toe and heel, a black foot/instep and finish with ribbing in a stripe of all 3 colors.  

It's 'fussy' I'll admit.  Cast-on is with waste yarn, 1/2 of the
stitches you'll need at the toe.  

Two toes.  Pattern is Worsted Weight Sock from
Big Book of Socks by Kathleen Taylor.
Love, love, love this book -- great variety of
techniques, designs and yarn.

I'm also sorting this out --

Major heartache here.  It's a nice lace beret, from Webs, the Willow Beret.  Great yarn from Valley Yarns Merino, knit on US7 and 8.  

Big "however", however -- five lace repeats around the 120 stitches.  Somewhere in the middle of the second set of the 10 row repeats I stopped looking at the beginning of the round.  Managed to do only four repeats and didn't realize this till I was 4-5 rows into the mess.  

If you look closely above you'll see that I slipped the 'good' knitting onto a smaller circular, a US4.  Then I carefully frogged 5 rows in one section.  I was able to locate the last row of correct pattern knitting, but only after I knitted 2-3 rows and -- Yikes! -- it still wasn't right.  

Might have been less time-consuming to frog the entire hat down to that spot but I just could not bear to unknit stuff that was knit correctly.  Eventually the problem was corrected and I'm now half way thru the last repeat of the 10 row pattern.  And then there's the last 15 rows of decrease pattern to form the crown.

Hope to finish later so you'll see this one again.

Used alternate US 7 and US8 to recover the section I
frogged.

Back on track with US8

Highlighting my progress on Goodreader.
(Very hard to capture color on this yarn.)

Blue skies here, plus some sunshine.  Everything is sparkly.  Leaves are mostly on the ground and form piles and piles of yellow and brown ground cover.

I hear the East Coast is setting up for YAS (Yet Another Storm).  Yikes!  No knitting there.

I sure am grateful I can still knit.

Mostest Biggest

This one is huge.  The neighbor's tree is shedding, as it does every year about this time.  Found this one on the back deck.  It's the most biggest gigantic-est leaf I've ever seen.  Too bad I can't make sox from it.

Meanwhile, we've had lots of rain, though nothing like the tragic weather events on the East Coast.

 I left this pitcher on the deck the last time I felt a need to water thirsty plants.  That was probably early October.  Someone will have to fact check the first date of our NW rainy season (which will end on July 15, 2013.)  The pitcher holds 2 qts.

Meanwhile, closing in on the last bits of knitted-on lace border for the green lace shawl.  Pattern from Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby, one of my favorite lace designers.  

I've turned corner #3 and am making my way across the bottom
of the shawl.  One more corner and a border repeat to
connect to the starting point.
Hope to have this on the blocking board tonight.

When my elderly eyes weary from tiny stitches, I turn to larger needles and yarn.  You've seen this one before, during a progress report.  It's from Weekend Hats, page 89.  All done.  Yarn is Bernat Waverly, very soft.  I used #7 Kollage square point circular (confused!?) and the Magic Loop Method.

The green hat (though it looks gray) is part of Christmas gift knitting, which is the most wonderful knitting I do.  The quiet time with yarn and needles allows me to remember the person for whom the gift is intended.  Now and then I listen to a Rosary and do some praying.  It's all good.

Meanwhile, more rain, and more of the mostest biggest leaves from the neighbor's tree.  It's Fall in the NW.

#17

The last 4-5 months have been marked by a series of "events' in my husband's health -- heart not working correctly, blood pressure too too high, several falls, a week of nose bleeds (you don't wanna know), accommodating to limitations, hospitals, ER trips, etc.

Knitting not so much.

The #17?  In any day, we each encounter event after event.  Some are part of the every day nature of life -- adding laundry detergent to the list so you can do the next load.  Others have more impact -- a trip to the ER at 4:30 am.  Most days we manage the chaos with a minimum of anxiety -- the first 16 items in the daily encounter are a 'piece of cake' so to speak.  It's #17 that can throw us into a tailspin.

Pick your own number and maybe that number changes daily.  Believe me I don't keep a list but I do know -- and so does poor dear husband -- when #17 arrives.  Friday it was the reminder beep from a smoke alarm that the battery needed changing.  #17 -- the smoke alarm is at the apex of a cathedral ceiling and I have no ladder and sure as hell do not wanna listen to that annoying beep all day.

Firefolks to the rescue.  We're lucky to have a program that funds their visit and work to check all smoke alarm batteries.  No more beeping.  Safety assured.

Moving on to the next set of life encounters . . .

Here's the pix of what I've managed to work on, knitting-wise.

  A crocheted Hair Scrunchy.  Love Stitches.

 A couple of hats because I had the yarn, had identified the recipient, I could maybe concentrate enough to finish.  White one  Battleboro Hat from New England Knits, using Bernat Winter White worsted acrylic.  Green one is from Weekend Hats, using Bernat Waverly.

Green lace shawl from Victorian Lace Today.
Center 26,880 stitches are complete.
One side of knitted on border ready to turn the corner.
The celery green is really prettier than the pic shows.

Second time thru the Feldge Shawl by Megan Goodacre
of Tricksy Knitter.  This one is for moi.

Husband and I are looking for the "new normal" -- that series of daily events that are reasonably predictable, even if in total they re-define our life dramatically.  Next is an EP (electrophysiology procedure) to discover more about the heart activity.

I hope to have finished several of the above items before I choose what to put into my knitting bag for a long, long day at the Cardiac Cath Lab.

Been there, done Hat

Okay, it's a groaner.  It's Monday and groaners help remind us that we can laugh at ourselves and our situations (sometimes.)

Finished the hat for re-submission to TKGA for the Master Knitting Designation Level 1.  This time I managed the following:

• Used smaller needles for the ribbing;
• Used yarn that was light and bright so the stitches show clearly;
• Finally 'got it' for the jogless join-in-the-round when knitting with colors;
• Used duplicate stitch for weaving in those pesky yarn tails;
• Knitted and assemble yet another top=knot.

Hoping for the best.  Still more paperwork to edit.

TMI:  The hat in the pic below is covering a roll of toilet paper.  I reckon I might have an entire set of paper-toppers if I have to keep knitting hats in colors that may not be choice #1.

Hope your Monday is as bright as the orange and yellow in the Been There Done Hat.

Hat revisited

Surely not as wonderful a title -- or story -- as Evelyn Waugh's great classic.

I've been revisiting the hat for re-submission to TKGA.  Lots of items to consider from their critique.

• Smaller needles for ribbing (I absolutely spaced on this when reading their pattern!)
• Brighter and lighter colors, so they can see the stitches.
• Better transitions when changing colors.

It's bright, you can't argue with that!

The ribbing is knit using US5 dpn's and the hat is knit with US7 dpn's.  To minimize the possibility of a ladder between needles, I'm knitting an extra 2-3 stitches from the next full needle before I consider the right needle full.  In this way, I'm 'knitting around' (my term) and the transition stitches between each of the 4 needles changes every row.

Challenges with the color transition?  Yup, I've read it at least 6 times.  "When you get to the end of the first row of the new color, pick up the right side of the stitch in the row below (in the old color) and k2tog with the old color and the new."  Seems to work, when it's done correctly.

The tip of the white/gray needle points to the first
color change.  Without this new-to-me method, the
color change would look like a stair step when the
orange is joined.  This only happens when knitting in the round
as in with dpn's or circulars.

So I'm carefully and studiously knitting the hat.  Still have a pile of paperwork to resubmit so will have to set aside an afternoon or evening to plow thru that, including the pattern for the cable swatch.

And like life -- which I am wont to remind readers -- knitting often demands closer inspection, more careful navigation, and a revisit of mistakes big and small.  I think we enter such re-examinations, such re-visits, with the hope that we won't repeat the silliness, the foolishness, or the mis-reading of a knitting pattern.

Makes for better knitting, no matter the outcome from TKGA.

Embellishing the Hat

Remember when I said the hat was a done deal?  Well . . . it wasn't, not exactly.

Lots of finishing 'chores' to do --

• Weave in all the loose ends on the back side
• Finish a top-knot thingy for the crown of the cap
• Add reverse crochet to the edge of the hat

The top-knot thingy is made of I-cord.  Check YouTube for instructions here.  I decided to make several bits of cord and then loop them in and out of one another as I attached each cord to the top of the hat.  And of course I had to use all three colors that appear in the stripes.

Three different cords, using either one or two colors per cord.

The I-cords look like this.  The solid pink one is already attached to the hat.  The other two have loose threads at each end which I will weave from front right side of the hat to the back to attach the cords to the cap.  (Of course, this process also adds to the number of loose ends that must be woven into the backside to anchor and hide all the threads.)  At the same time I will interlace the cords so the top-knot thingy is interesting and unique.

I-Cord, using DPN and 3 stitches.  Check Nancie Wiseman's
book of Finishing Techniques.  Great book.

I didn't like the bottom edge of the cap.  Just the edge of pink ribbing and it seemed boring.  So I got out Nancie's book and looked up "reverse crochet."  It's a weird stitch because you work it around the edge sort of behind yourself.  Check it out on YouTube where someone will have all the details.  Here's a link to Reverse Single Crochet.

Needs to be steamed a bit but I like the look.

I can now say, truthfully, that the hat really is a done deal.  I have the pile of orts to show for it.  Nancie's book is indispensable, with clear pictures.  Each technique has a list of pros and cons which can help you decide if that technique will work for your item.  Exceptional book, perhaps one of the very best I've ever added to my resource shelf.

My scissors, darning needle, and pile of thread ends
after completing all the weaving in.

The scissors in the pocket are in the cover photo.
My scissors, from Germany, are almost buried in the
pile of thread ends.

Sure am glad this one's finally really over.  It's cure and colorful, but that last bit of work -- weaving in and embellishing -- is just plain tedious.  Nancie even suggests a glass of wine to help the chore seem less a chore.  You gotta do this part or you'll never have a finished item.  But it's my least favorite part of the process.  I think most knitters will agree.

This bit of tedium is right up there with scrubbing grout in the shower -- nothing much fun about it except for the anticipation of a finished, hand-knit item and/or a very clean shower.  Good things come to those who can outlast the tedium.

Hat City -- ta dah!

Hat!  Hat!  Hat!

I like the striping and I like the colors and I'm glad it's finished.  Though it's not quite done yet.  Still have to weave in all the loose ends I tucked inside before I took the picture.  Then I have to steam it a bit and get it into shape.  All the steaming may help even out some of the irregularities in knitting, which is one of the purposes of blocking (shaping into the final shape and size.)  

Final step will be to stuff it into a zip-lock and cram it into a notebook so it can be squashed by its cousins, the swatches, and sent off for 6 Master Knitters to pick over.  Being me, I've already identified some things they'll find -- the ribbing at the bottom may be inside out (explanation too long and not worth belaboring); those color transitions are sloppy; I didn't strictly follow their pattern (10 rows of each color and make sure there's contrast.)

As for the pattern, you can't count the rows using my amateur photo but I actually did 2 rows of cream in between each color change, with 8 rows of dark pink each repeat.  Last time I checked 8 + 2 = 10.  And they did say I could use other colors.

We'll see.

The hat is knit in cylinder shape until it's time to close the crown.  Here are two pix to give you an idea.

Big hole.  Big hole to let in the cold air.  Big hole that defeats
the purpose off the hat.  After several rounds of one of those
get-rid-of-stitches techniques I'm left with only 11 stitches
and a tail of yarn.

Enter the darning needle.  Big eye to accommodate yarn.
Thread the needle and weave the yarn back through each stitch
left on the needle.  Slip the needle out of the stitches and
using the thread tail like a drawstring, gather
all the stitches into a closed star of sorts.

One more swatch -- still avoiding it just because I can.  Right now I'm back to the mohair scarf and the blue shawl.  Both are close to the end so look for pictures soon.

I mentioned the quilt that is making its way to Heather Spence Designs.  One close-up -- this blog is about knitting, not quilting, but I decided to share.

Tonight we will attend the Christmas Concert by the  Choir of the West Pacific Lutheran University.  Always a wonderful musical and seasonal experience.  Finely trained and exquisitely disciplined in their delivery.  Every song, every voice, every note, reminds us that this is the season when we await the greatest gift of all.

Fun hat!

It's no longer driving me crazy.  I think I've conquered the new color transition technique.  The striping is working out nicely.  I'm almost to the crown where I will get rid of stitches on purpose to slowly close the cylinder.  If you get rid of stitches too quickly the crown of the hat looks like the ones worn by garden gnomes.  Cute on a baby, but not for this RP.

The cream stripes show off the darker pink.
TKGA was explicit in asking that contrast be strong.
I think that's a definite and noticeable contrast.

Remember that cream yarn I un-knit?  Soaked it in cold water yesterday and hung it to dry.  Still a bit damp but here's what it looks like after treatment to restore it to original condition -- no squiggles from previously knit stitches and the soft loft of the yarn is preserved.  Will need this for that last swatch I'm avoiding.

I'm really liking the striping -- and the inside shows off the two colors, as well as the mess of loose ends that will have to disappear into the other stitches.

This close-up actually shows a neat backside.
Trust me, there's lots and lots of loose ends.
I hate loose ends.  They mean I'm not done
when I finish knitting.

Meanwhile, despite a promise to myself not to take on impossible-to-finish-without-going-crazy knitted Christmas gifts, I have this one on the needles.  It's from "One Skein Wonders" edited by Judith Durant.  Great book. LYS's from all over the US submitted designs for scarves, shawls, baby things, mittens, bags, etc.  Each one takes one skein/ball of the suggested yarn.  This one is page 55:  Gossamer Shell Scarf.

The yarn has some mohair.  It's variegated so you should
see several colors -- burgundy and blue on the needle and
olive on the ball of yarn.  

I re-discovered the top of the bed in the spare room.  Put several things into UFO boxes, organized needles and other accessories, cleared the top of the sewing machine so I can finish the borders on the latest Mystery Quilt from Heather Spence Designs.  We'll be doing another for spring.  

If you enjoy quilting AND want to help cancer patients cover their always present and always skyrocketing cancer treatment expenses, join Heather's spring MQ.  It's 10 USD and funds go to help offset treatment expenses not covered by insurance.

Heather Spence Designs