It's a Small World

Picture this with me: I'm at school today, casually strolling sort of fast down the hall on my way to English. These 2 guys walk past me in the other direction(well, a lot of guys did, but we're not talking about them right now), and one of them is wearing a cool hat. I saw it and thought imediately, "That looks handmade." I couldn't tell if it was knit or crochet, cuz it was black and it was going by rather fast. But I heard the guys talking, about the hat no less.
Guy A: "Cool hat, man."
Guy B(the one with the hat): "Yeah, my sister made it." This statement piqued my interest.
Guy A: "Really?"
Guy B: "Yeah, man, she knits!" This statement almost made me stop dead in my tracks. I really wanted to go grab the guy(gently, of course) and question him about this sister of his, but I really didn't want to freak him out, and I really didn't want to be late for English. It was still really cool. Maybe I'll see him tomorrow...

Episode 6: Return of the Knitter

I'm back from my fabulous Wyoming adventure! We did a lot of snowy stuff, ate a lot of good food, but I know what you're here for is the knitting, so I'll cut to the chase.
These are my first toe-up socks, and also my official Wyoming socks, since I bought the yarn in Wyoming, bought the needles in Wyoming, and knit almost all of them in Wyoming. The needles are DPNs in US sizes 1 and 0, and the yarn is Trekking XXL, color 100. I am in love, completely and utterly.

Since they were toe-up, I could make them as tall as I wanted without fear of running out of yarn. They're about 7 1/2" tall from the top of the heel, and I had a suprising amount left over(no pic here, go check out my Ravelry)

This is part of my Christmas present to myself, bought at the same adoreable yarn shop as the other color...
...and this is the rest of my present. From left to right: Clover Takumi bamboo needles, sizes 9, 11, and 13; Clover Takumi bamboo DPNs, size 1, set of 5; Lantern Moon Rosewood Sox Stix, size 0, set of 5.

I've never trusted tiny wood and bamboo needles, not believing that they would stand up to much pressure. But knew I was going to have to start a pair of socks in my luscuious new yarn, and I didn't have any of the right sizes with me(in Wyoming, I mean. They were at home). The store didn't carry any of the right sizes in metal, so I sucked it up and got some. Turns out that they're fine, and I'm in love.
This was part of my present from Mom, a very wise move on her part. I think my favorite is Mason-Dixon, but I love them all.
This is a to-be-felted bag that I took with me to knit on the trip. It's 95% done, and will stay that way for a bit because I need another ball of yarn.
This is a pair of socks I started last week, with the sacred bamboo needles and that grey yarn above.
They're inspired by the Yarn Harlot's rotating rib socks, but I've personalized them and now they're the Cyclone Socks.
Another thing my mom got me was a spindle kit from Hello Yarn, and I've been practicing. It's a simple top-whorl spindle and 8 oz. of Romney top wool. I couldn't get a pic of my first yarn up(check my Ravelry, it's there) but this is my second yarn. My first was expectedly uneven, but my main problem was that the twist was buliding up in the thin bits and leaving the thick bits all fluffy and unspun. I found in my second yarn that if I kept a smaller amount of fiber in my hand, I didn't get the big lumps so much.
I'm still majorly overtwisting, but I'm working on that as we speak.
Like my cotton pyramid? Not exactly a masterpiece, and Sugar n Cream doesn't hold up as well as stone, but... oh well. Pretty soon I'm going to start a set of handtowels for my family, in these colors. The photo's pretty accurate, and it goes with our bathrooms perfectly. I'll keep you posted.
One lonely ball of black cotton, intended for some wristbands. The design I had in mind didn't work out so well, but I'll think of something else.
Finished Blueregard socks, finally. They're been done for a while, but you know me and my fickle ways...

One day...

So I'm posting from Gail's house, where I don't have pictures, becuase if I don't do it now I'll forget. I gotta let you guys know that I'm going to be gone this week to one of the coolest places in the world(literally). We have to get up at 4 o'clock Saturday morning, and we're all thrilled.

Me, Mom, the Small Ones, Tita, and Tita's son and daughter-in-law are going to be spending a whole week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This place is freaking fantastic. We're going to have a white Christmas! I don't think I can use a keyboard to convey how excited we are. Well, think of this: The night before you go to Rhinebeck. I've never been to Rhinebeck(boohoo), but according to people who have, it seems to be on the same excitement level.

I was kind of panicing(sp?) the other day because my stash is puny(really, just look at my Ravelry) and I didn't have anything to take with me to knit. Well we went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and I got some wool for a felted bag and some cotton for a poncho. Considering that there's a yarn store in Jackson Hole that I fully intend to go to(just try and stop me...) and I do have that prize Brooks Farm Primero, I think I'm okay(please don't mock me when I come back and post about my panic attack when I run out of yarn).

In other news, I finished the blue Sockotta socks(nicknamed "blueregard") and I think I have a picture on my Ravelry. Go check it out! I'm KnitWize there too. And if you don't have Ravelry yet, you need to get it ASAP!

Jesse the Intrepid Explorer

Nothing like a change of plans...

Heather's slippers have been sitting on my worktable for a while now, just needing to be felted. I was getting kind of tired of it, so I finished them off about 20 minutes ago.
(I swear these are the same size. It's just the angle of the shot)

The slippers were fun and quick to knit, but in the felting I encountered 2 problems:

1, They're not very snug at the heel. I'm not sure how much of a problem this is, but I'm not going to worry about it. The deed is done.

2, They're small. This in itself is not a problem, they will fit Heather just fine. The problem is that 3 of the 4 people I was also planning to knit slippers for are men with substantially larger feet than Heather. I don't think I can make them both big enough and sturdy enough to fit big feet.

This is where the change of plan comes in: instead of 4 more pairs of slippers, I am going to knit 3 cabled scarves for the guys and some kind of decorative pillow for the woman. I am not mad about this change of plans, on the contrary. I think it's actually going to save me money.

I think next year I'm just going to come up with one project, like mittens or hats, and knit variations for everyone. I could buy one weight of yarn in a bunch of colors, mix and match, and use most of it up. This would be easier to organize and would hopefully remove the need for all this plan-changing.

On the downside, I might get bored knitting the same thing(however different) over and over. This is only a minimal concern, though. I plan to give myself lots and lots of time(starting no later than August) so I can knit other things and not lose my mind. Once the plan is established, there will be no changing.

I'm on a roll...

Wow, 2 posts in a week! Whoopee!
Plain vanilla sock with the awesome Sockotta yarn. This sock and I are having some relationship issues. I thought the yarn was going to stripe. I'm okay with not striping, but it's kind of pooling, and I'm not entirely sure how much this bothers me. I thought I would just keep knitting until I realise that I can't live with it and find some kind of solution(See, I'm not sure it bugs me that much. Odds are I'll be just fine. It's only minor pooling, and the non-pooling part looks great.)
Mom's Christmas shawl is done! It was a lovely quick knit, and now it's a lovely soft wrap(I'm wearing it right now. That's okay, cuz Mom thinks I made it for myself.)
Good shot of the colors.
Eyelet edge.

The only problem was that it kind of sheds. Just a little when it's being worn, but the whole couple days I was knitting it, I was constantly picking little fuzzies off of myself.

I started on Grandma's shawl a few days ago. I couldn't for the life of me get a photo with anywhere near accurate colors, so just imagine a big triangle the colors of the yarn I showed you last week. It's the same as Mom's, but without the eyelet(my Grandma wouldn't be able to see anything that subtle) Fingerless mitts for my cousin, a variation of Dashing from http://knitty.com. I made them shorter, and with only the cables on the tops of the hands. I like them, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I may need to make the thumbs wider.

I learned to knit when I was 8, but never learned anything but the knit stitch and never made anything. Last October, a dear friend of mine showed me how to knit Continental and renewed my interest. From there I shot off like a rocket, learning everything I could and knitting every waking moment. Well, I'm not quite sure when exactly I entered the maniac-knitting stage I'm in now, but I think it was after Christmas, because I didn't even think of knitting any gifts.

With this in mind, it seems a tiny bit odd to me that, after only a year of serious knitting, I feel compelled to knit every single present on my list. Just a teensy bit, though.

I feel absolutely no desire to enter into the raving-mad stage of Christmas knitting known as "IT," and I tried to stay within the realm of possiblity. I chose only(well, mostly) smallish, quick gifts, and started knitting them in August. I really think I'm going to make it. This is all I need to finish:

• aforementioned shawl for Grandma(garter stitch on US 10 needles, and it's already 3/4 done. I am not worried at all.)
• 4 pairs of slippers(don't laugh. I can easily finish a pair of these in a day. I have done it before.)
• a wire bracelet(provided I don't make some idiotic mistake, this should take maybe 1/2 an hour at most)
• some small stuffed toy suitable to entertain an almost-3-year-old boy(this also should be very quick)

I think it's completely reasonable to expect that this will all get done... If you don't think so, and you have a better idea, please let me know. I promise you will not hurt my pride one little bit.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

So I got my hair cut today. Really cut. Seriously cut. Big changes. Before:
Y'all have seen my hair before. Reasonably long, right? You wanna see the after?

Really?

Okay.

Real big changes. I love it! I can't wait til tonight when I wash it. It'll be so quick and easy!

Note that my hair is doing that flippy thing naturally: It's actually pretty wavy, but you could hardly tell before because it was so weighted down.

Big announcement in knitting news as well: Thing 1's Christmas doll is finally finished! I finished the doll a while ago, but still had to make it some clothes. I used the original pattern as a guideline and made a dress. Lots of thinking was involved: I did in mostly in the round, which changed my gauge, and the whole thing was seamless so I had to figure out how to knit the sleeves, knit the skirt top-down, then pick up stitches(provisional cast-on) and knit the body(joining in the sleeves with raglan decreases) bottom-up. I also added a placket and buttons on the back to make it easier to put on. This was a major accomplishment in itself because these were probably the only 2 matching buttons in my collection.

Remember that huge pink sock that I said was going to be a felted slipper? Well, it didn't work out so well. It turns out that even after felting, the foot was incredibly long compared to the width. So I whipped up a pair of Seamless Lopi PhD Boots, a free pattern from the internet.

(Before felting, obviously.)
This is a simple triangle shawl for my mom for Christmas. I love the stripes that the yarn is making. I was so tickled when I showed the yarn to my mom and she gushed over the feel and the color(I told her it was for me) You can't see in this picture, but there's a neat little eyelet edging along the side. Every other row, I k2, yo, k to last 2 sts, yo, k2. That's my increase.
This is the same yarn in a different color for a shawl for my grandma(and yes, I do have another ball. I have no delusions of a shawl on US 10 needles with 219 yds of yarn.
This is some yarn for socks for myself. Is that not the coolest blue? I'm in love. It's 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, and 15% nylon. I've never made socks with a nylon blend yarn, and I'm interested to see how it wears. I've heard that a bit of nylon in sock yarn is like a little dose of superpower. I'm hoping that't true, because I have 2 pairs of handknit socks that I wear at least once a week, and I'm loving them to death(literally. They're wearing down fast.)

So now you're all nice and caught up. I have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off for Thanksgiving, so I'll get lots of knitting done and might possibly remember to post something.

It's a Conspiracy

I should have seen this coming. Today I have free time in the evening, I remember how long it's been since I've blogged, I have FO's, WIP's, new yarn, and stuff to talk about, and my computer decides that today I'm not allowed to upload pictures onto the blog. Since my blog posts are not worth much without picture, this is kind of a problem... So I'm here venting my frustration. I won't make any promises(cuz you know how unreliable I am when it comes to blogging), but I'm going to try my best to post tomorrow. Hopefully the computer will be in a better mood, and you can see all my stuff.