My mom, the Lion, and the Harlot

My lateness of the season is well recognized - as a friend wrote in her Christmas card "I always look forward to your January letter". True to form, I didn't manage to get my gift package for my family sent out until December 23rd - and forgot to include my mom's present inside it.

I had been planning to send my mom the Booga Bag I knit for her last summer as a Christmas gift, but forgot to put it in the package I shipped down with all the Christmas presents. When I called her and told her her gift was coming later, she excitedly asked "well, what is it?" After prodding, I told her it was a felted bag. After a faintly disappointed pause, she admitted, "well, I'd really like a poncho".

Again, time to drop back and punt. My mom LOVES purple. She also loves synthetics - if it generates static electricity pulled over your head, she's into it. So on Boxing Day, I dutifully fought the crowds to buy a couple of skeins of Lion Brand Homespun, downloaded the Yarn Harlot's Very Harlot Poncho pattern and cast on.

I am by no means a yarn snob and was indeed seduced back into knitting by novelty yarn, but the Homespun was slippery, sweaty, and squeaky. I did not LOVE knitting with it, and when my crocheting stepdaughter on the couch next to me asked "what smells like rubbing alcohol?" I sheepishly indicated the pile on my lap. However, a couple of episodes of Firefly, the movie Serenity, and Bogarts Treasure of Sierra Madre later, it was done.
And although the yarn is not fun to knit with, the finished product is warm, silky, and comfortable.
Hooray! I feel like such a good daughter. Here it is.




In other holiday knitting, I finished off my Conwys. I went from thinking "yay, this twining cable is so fun and easy" to "when will this tedium end?" and was very happy to cast off. I am fretting about whether it will fit my friend, but since her feet are almost the same size as mine, I should stop worrying and just put it in her mail box.
These were on size 1 addis using Magic Loop, Fortissima Colori sock yarn, and would have taken a lot less time to knit if I wasn't so distracted by other projects....



Like these Polar bear mittens:




These are fulled mitts from the book "Knit Mittens". I think they are based on the traditional Lovikka mittens. In any case, after knitting they are fulled, brushed, and embroidered. This only took one evening to knit in Alafoss Lopi on big needles, and an hour or so to full the next morning.

I'd always heard that fulling or felting hid all sins, but in this case, the mittens started out the same size, then felted to slightly different dimensions. Oh well. They are still very soft, thick and warm.

I am also still somewhat addicted to Moebius knitting:



This is one of Cat's shaped Moebius scarves, the Mercurial Moebius from the First Treasury of Magical Knitting. The shape really makes the scarf behave differently when worn, and is very warm.
This one is Noro Kureyon in colorway #90, held with some sort of variagated mohair I had in my stash. 100 stitches MCO on size 13 needles - another fast knit.

I'm not sure about the fingers...I put them on by misinterpreting Cat Bordhi's instructions. I might rip the edge back and cast off more sedately.

Meanwhile, I am still working away on the Samus body, trying to keep up with my pal Andrea, cast on for legwarmers a la the Mintyfresh Legwarmer Knitalong and my moebius enabler Loretta has tempted me to cast on for the Arrow Pathways scarf. Since I am sleepless these days due to fretting about school and life, the only solution I see is to keep knitting.

Welcome Yule

Susan Cooper's poem always gives me the shivers, in a good way. Most of all, it means we can look forward to the lengthening of days.

The Shortest Day

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

much holiday distraction!

Because I'm on the costume committee for my kid's dance club, I'm making some blouses for the older girls. Trying to get three of these done by Sunday evening is cutting into my valuable knitting time!



They're not at all difficult, just time consuming, and the gussets under the arms are annoying. However, the dancers need them for free movement, and I'm pretty sure nobody wants to experience the embarrassment of having your underarms rip while on stage.

I did manage to salvage complete a few near disasters objects: the Rimrock Cape turned into a simple, but comfy moebius scarf. It turned out looser and springier than my first moebius, even if it was a similar weight yarn knit on the same size needles and same number of stitches. The yarn itself is pretty springy, and perhaps the diagonal knit/purl stitch pattern made the fabric more elastic. This one can be wrapped twice around the neck like a cowl, or half a loop pulled up like earwarmers.



Pattern: Rimrock cape (collar portion) from Cat Borhdi's Treasury of Magical Knitting with Painted Yarn in colorway Midnight Garden. Size 10 Boye circular needles to make apx 50" length, 130 stitches MCO

And the Freakishly Large Christmas Stocking cuff turned into a Freakish Large Beret:



Pattern was orginally Christmas in Tallin, morphed into the beret from Gwen Steege's Knit Socks!, size 4 and 6 circular needles, Briggs and Little Regal.

But really, it is ridiculously large, and at first I despaired that it could only be used as a variety of household objects, such as a poinsettia cozy:



or a medicine cabinet:



or a stuffie bed:



or a fruit bowl:



To comfort myself, I'm making another pair of socks from remnants, and Conwy from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. I had my doubts about this yarn, because I was worried that the colour changes would hide the stitch pattern, but the hues are soft and heathery enough that the twisted vine cable shows up fairly well, especially when the sock-in-progress is tried on - the cables pop out nicely then.



The pattern asks you to decrease to 60 stitches, and though I tried that, I quickly realized there's no way a cabled pattern is going to be comfortable on my leg with that number of stitches on a size 1 needle. So I ripped back to 64 stitches and will go from there. I say "my leg", but I really mean my friend's leg, who is pretty close to me in proportion. I only have one friend that will genuinely appreciate a handknitted pair of socks - so they're for her.

In the queue:
some sort of legwarmers, since I froze pretty much every part of my body last week (-17 C here, ugh)
Mittens for myself and the kids - ditto

Really, I should just drape myself and my family in hanks of wool from now till June. Four strong winds just won't stop blowing in Alberta, most particularly, from the Arctic!

Ready to rip

The moebius scarf that I was trying to turn into a cape (first Rimrock, then Lost Trails, for those who know Cat's book) is rapidly turning into a candidate for "You Knit WHAT?". A good lesson for me in colour and tone - although the colours in the thicker yarn for the cape portion do appear in the scarf portion, the overall effect is a darker tone that just doesn't work overall. I'm about to insert a lifeline (actually a really long circular needle) and get rrrready to rrrrrrip.

To the good, though, I was able to use up the last bits of yarn from my first three pairs of socks. Knitting toe up I managed to squeeze these out. Kind of short, but nice for around the house. I'm just thrilled I got four pairs of socks out of 5 skeins!

My first moebius is done

I love it! I finished it late Friday night while watching Horatio Hornblower (again with "must knit to good TV). It was very close - I had no idea applied i-cord took up so much yarn! I thought I had plenty of yarn left when I decided to bind off and by the time I finished I barely had 6 inches left to graft and weave in.

Nothing fancy, just a simple purl ridge moebius scarf in a wool/alpaca/viscose blend. I used both 50 g skeins on a 40 inch size 10 needle, which really was too short for comfort, especially casting on. It's exactly how I want it, though - just enough width to make a comfortable shoulder warmer.

And then of course, there is always the "Prithee, which way to the monastary?" look. Which could come in handy around here in the chilly chilly wind.

I'm already working on my second moebius from Cat Bordhi's book, in the yarn from the previous post. If all goes well, it might end up being the RimRock cape.

Maybe for a moebius?

Maybe for a moebius?
Originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

Although I am still happily working on my first moebius, I am already thinking ahead to my next Moebius project from Cat Bordhi's First Treasury.

Since I'm not about to buy more yarn (it's hard enough to hide yarn, now I have to hide Christmas presents too) I started digging around for some yarns that might work together.

Many of the patterns in the book call for Mountain Colors Moguls, which is pretty hard to get around here (can it even be gotten anywhere?)

But I think I can get the bulk by combining yarns. I was thinking of using Noro Kureyon, perhaps bulked up by Mission Falls merino. The long hank is a DK/light worsted superfine merino by paintedyarns in Edmonton. And the fuzzy stuff at the top is a Mohair/nylon from my LYS.

I guess the answer is always "swatch and see!"

Is this really a good idea?

I cast on for Christmas in Tallin this morning:



It was fun and interesting trying the Kihnu Vits braid around the sock cuff, and I found it helped to hold the yarn tensioned behind the neck so I could use my fingers to twist the yarn.



However, the cuff is coming out HUGE. I certainly expected it to be bigger than the pattern measurements, since I was using a worsted weight yarn, Briggs & Little Regal, and larger needles (size 4). But I wasn't quite prepared for how much bigger. I don't think I could afford the amount of chocolate it would take to fill this sucker!

A bigger problem, though, is the colour. They're just too.....Christmas-y. I mean, they scream "school craft fair!" which is not intrinsically bad, just not my intent.
I'm not sure what to do from here on. I could either turn this cuff into a very Christmas-y hat band, or just plow on and see what happens.



Meantime, I'm diligently using up my sock yarn leftovers, to make room for more sock yarn, of course.

At last! it's done

At last! it's done
Originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

I started the waistband for Samus when the pattern first came out with the fall issue of Knitty. However, after the first swatch I put it aside, and when I came back to it after learning how to cable without needles, I found of course that my gauge had changed. I managed to get back to my original gauge by using size 7 needles, and the pointy ends on the Boye's definately helped.

Finally, with the help of the BBC production of Ivanhoe (I feel I must knit to good television, if not a good audiobook), the waistband is done.

Now I'm ready to pick up the stitches for the body, and since it will be straight stockinette, I can drag it around to theatres, if I want to. I have been thinking of perhaps adding some waist shaping, if I can figure that out.

This is in Paton's Classic Merino Rich Red, chosen mostly because it's easy to find at the local stores.

More hats, and Road to Oslo is done

Hooray - I cast off Road to Oslo last night. As promised, this was a fast knit once you get past the colorwork cuff. There is definately a difference between the first cuff, knit two handed, and the second cuff, knit carrying the yarn in both hands. But, the difference could well be just because I was paying more attention to keeping tension on the contrast colour loose the second time around. I also lurked intently at Fig and Plum's entries on her Norwegian socks, from Nancy Bush's Folk Socks. Her detailed information was extremely helpful! I am a long way towards feeling ready for socks as detailed as hers, but some day, I hope.



For much easier colorwork, I made Knitty's Vinter lue in Gjestal chunky. It felt a lot softer than the Lopi, and a bit less fuzzy. As someone at Knitty suggested, I knit the hat itself on 6 mm needles rather than the recommended 5 mm, which I think was a good call. It made the hat slightly large, but it's easier to shrink a hat down than enlarge it. I'm not going to bother with the braids, as I think part of the reason DS likes it is because it looks like a medieval helmet. This was a really fast, fun knit - two evenings for me, but I think a really diligent knitter could knit it in one.



I also finished up my third Silk Garden beanie. I love these beanies. Perfect by-the-pool (indoor, obviously) knitting.



Last but not least, I got my Treasury of Magical Knitting last week and cast on for a Moebius purl ridge scarf yesterday. I only had a 40" needle, which made casting on and knitting the first few rows a real test of grip strength. Now that the fabric has grown, it's going much better. I worked on it yesterday while watching Wallace and Grommit at the theatre. (highly recommended, btw!)