Mittens

 First, the little 'uns. Finished now, and used all of the yarn. Sadly, they're too small for the girl, so I sewed up some fleece ones for her, because I felt that letting her be mitten-less wasn't an option, and I had other things to knit. No pictures of those, though.a

Next up, my first stranded colorwork project. Done in Knit Picks Chroma (color transitioning yarn) and Palette (black) they were my sister's Christmas gift, and my only Christmas knitting project. (I went more with sewing and scrapbooking this year).

They're a little oddly shaped, and kind of snug, but they seem to work just fine, and I think they're kind of pretty. The color work was a lot of fun. It made for slower knitting, and tearing the first mitten almost entirely out when it was all but done wasn't fun, but the rest of it was a pleasure. I even learned how to fix mistakes a row or two back. A little tricky, but possible. In short, I'd love to make more stranded mittens. Some time. Right now, it's socks I must finish.

I've also been mulling over the possibility of not buying any new yarn in 2012, with the exception of two Very Special Projects. But I'm not going to set that idea in stone just yet! The hardest thing is that my stash is mostly worsted weight acrylics, and lately I've been working more with lace and sock weight, uh, non-acrylics. But I have so much of the former, that I feel it's kind of wasteful to just have it in tubs, taking up space. What to do?

FO: Shipwreck Shawl

"Better late than never," they say. Well, here, a bit late, is the blocked Shipwreck.

I don't really feel a need to say much. It turned out to be lovely, in spite of my running out of yarn fiasco (I still am under the illusion that I ought to have some scraps left over, so the jolt of reality remains strong.) The recipient was suitably thrilled, too. Which is always gratifying, even if your gift was just a thank you gift for what they've done for you. I guess if you gave someone a thank you gift they didn't like, it would feel like you were saying that you didn't appreciate what they'd done. But we did. So I think it all turned out well.

Well, we can dream...

Last week, I think I mentioned the potential of a progress report. We all see how beautifully that turned out (cough, cough.) But there's a good reason for it. Well...a reason. How good it is, you decide.

Grandma came as planned, and we sewed. Made nice progress, too, if I remember rightly. And then, she took all the sewing back with her, except the little dress, and the cape, which was sweet of her, because I probably would have gone crazy trying to finish everything up. (Although the sense of accomplishment would have been grand.)

In spite of the fact that only a couple projects were left, there's been enough happening around here to keep us all busy.  I only took pictures of the crafting front (they're coming!), but in other news, we've harvested almost everything out of the garden. It looks very bare and cold. Actually, scratch that. It doesn't look fruitful by any means, but since we're starting to build it up with railroad ties around the edges, and since we threw most of our leaves onto it, it's hardly bare, at least on the west end. But no growing things in the vegetable patch. This all means that I had tomatoes to deal with. Lots of them. So yesterday I spent about eight hours chopping, peeling, seeding, mixing and canning. We got salsa from the ripe tomatoes and green tomato relish from the green ones.

Not to mention, we've harvested our popcorn- an heirloom variety called 'Smoke Signals'. Look at all the variation in the kernel coloring. Love it! (Ok, so I guess there was a non-crafting picture.)

Now on to the crafting front...in the week following Grandma's visit, there were...issues. Of epic proportions. Hey, it felt epic! I got to the bind-off row of the shipwreck. Actually, I started binding off about six rows early, because I was running out of yarn, and the border was huge already. And the yarn ran out about halfway around the 1,160 stitch border. Not to be bothered, too much, because I knew I was, under no circumstances, rip out even one row of that thing, I continued binding off the other stitches. There may be a technical way to describe this; basically, I stopped knitting new stitches to b.o. with- I just used the old ones...which left me with a single loop at the very end. Should have seen that one coming. At this point, I became a knitting heretic. I considered my options. Would I recant, and retract my last hours of labor? I would not! Mend my ways, using sewing thread? (Don't ask). In the end, I opted to cut the offending loop, tie it around a 'stable' stitch and knot it. And then I felt better. I finally blocked it last night, but have taken a finished object photo yet, so this is the unblocked version.

Then there was the dress...

...which I should have rotated before I added the picture. About the time the bind off problems were occurring, I also hit a roadblock with this lovely little item. While ironing up the hem, I scorched a hole in the fabric. I could have cried. Both of my projects, so near the end, were causing such troubles. Especially the dress. You can fudge on a bind off, but a hole...a little harder to fix. Providentially, I'd cut the dress a couple inches extra long. Admittedly I wanted it to be longer, but at least I was able to hem it up further without it becoming too short...So it's done. Finally. And with the wedding this weekend, I am much relieved.

And...grandma came again yesterday! And she brought the things she'd been working on! Another picture that should have been rotated...this time of the little man's vest, pants and bow-tie! Now he'll match his sister at the wedding. So nice to have this done. He'll wear a long sleeved white shirt underneath, and he'll be handsome. :)

And bloomers for the girl, who doesn't yet sit like a lady. They're rather frilly, aren't they? With little brown boots and cream colored tights...I think it will be lovely.  

We did little in the way of sewing while Grandma was here yesterday, but she did my dishes, while I took a nap (thank you! thank you!) and we got the storage room organized to the point where it doesn't seem hopeless any more. I love my Grandma. :)

I've also been working on the cape. First I thought I'd put lace on it, then opted to take it off, since it was, uh, difficult to put on straight, and getting it around the shoulder didn't look like fun. Not to mention, the clasp I had for it wasn't working with the lace. The details of it show up far better with the plain fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

I have yet to sew it on, and there're one or two things left on it, but an hour or two should finish that up.  And then, I started a winter hat...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who'd Have Thought?

If you know me, I tend to be rather confoozled by technology. I take the longest way to do everything, and would rather not attempt too much of anything requiring power cords, memory chips, or the possibility of losing hours of labor by accidentally hitting the wrong combination of keys on the keyboard. But blog posts without pictures, at least, posts about knitting, tend to be rather boring, so I gathered up my courage, and pulled the memory card out of the camera and did with it what I saw my husband do with it a week or so ago, and what do you know- I found pictures! I'm a little too excited perhaps, but this means that instead of going back and posting about a project finished more than a year ago, I can show you what I've been doing recently. There's rather a lot of it, so we'll start with the most recent finished object, which was tied off last Thursday, and unpinned from blocking today.

 It's a doily- with tulips! My husband keeps giving me a hard time about this; it's a wedding gift, and he keeps claiming that I picked the tulip pattern because of my Dutch descent. I protest, but he's relentless. I guess it doesn't hurt if he believes that.

 I have no idea how many hours I put into this, but it did remind me of how I do like to crochet, though I've been a bit knit obsessed lately. I like how, in a circular doily, you do something different every row, yet can memorize the row's repeat in no time. I think having a deadline helps, too, otherwise all the picots in this pattern might have caused it to stall.

See- picots on the leaves, on the border, and on the netting between the tulips. Yuck. In spite of that, this pattern was fun. I'm tempted to make it again. Sometime. Maybe. Just because of the tulips.

FO:Melon Shawl

 

It was suggested that someone in this household take it easy tonight. For some reason that suggestion comes around regularly. But it helps to hear it. So...I'm (trying) to figure this blogger thing out. I got further than last time- this time there are pictures. I'm still not sure how to put them where I want them, but maybe that will come.

Anyway, the object of this post has a bit of a story behind it. A short story, but still. A year, or two, or so, ago a very dear friend presented me with the book Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. It was one of her most brilliant ideas to date, and I decided I had to make her a shawl, which I in turn presented to her, and now, in digital form, to you.

 It's long, and blue, and beautifully drapey if I do say so myself.

I must admit though, that I didn't take the pictures...but I did ask for them to be taken, so I'm pretty sure copyright laws are not being infringed. :)

Details: Melon Shawl from VLT
Yarn: Knit Picks  Kettle Dyed laceweight (discontinued) in Altitude, almost 3 skeins
Needles: U.S. 7, Knit Picks Options
Mods: I knit the Cyprus border from the same book instead of the suggested border.