Red Herring, White Elephant

For all the stupid hype, the mittens are ded. Ded and gone. In replacement, we have this.



Which, if I finish in time, will be for the white elephant gift exchange with my wife's family. Same base chart, just knit three times over and with acrylic. If I'm giving it away as a joke gift, no sense wasting good wool.

And now as I look at the photo, it will probably end up way too f$cking tall. #%$%^@#&*!

Off and Running

Here's my progress so far on the first mitten. I like the picot edging, but not the fact that it's flipping up so badly. I should've knit it with smaller needles. And maybe I knit one too many rows before picking up the hem. Oh well, can't look back now. I already had to frog about 8 rows at lunch yesterday because I messed up the thumb gusset.

Dealing with all the floats is starting to get a bit tiresome, but I'm hopeful that the pattern will keep things interesting enough that I can push through to finish them on time. I'm not planning to knit at lunch today as my arms started hurting after knitting last night. Though I also did a lot of typing yesterday - stupid work - so hopefully the restful afternoon will help. I also need to remember to ice, and I might try some immersion icing tomorrow.

Finally, I'm a little concerned with stitch definition on these; I'm hoping blocking will help. However, I'm also worried that they will block larger than I need them to be. I forgot about that when making my size calculations. Hopefully I can block them longer instead of wider.

Making Adjustments

After casting on at lunch yesterday, I realized the original chart I made was going to be far too large. So, I pared it down by 4 stitches, went down a needle size and now I think they'll be spot on. Shrinking the chart forced me to move in the small snowflakes a bit, but that's ok. I also added a small snowflake at the bottom right and designed the palm chart. I originally had the small flakes on the palm a lot closer, but decided it looked too dense.

Given that my 'gauge' was off when estimating how wide to make these, I'm no longer sure of the length I have charted. I didn't want to delay starting any longer than I needed though, so I'll try to recalculate the length today and adjust on the fly. I figure I can take out the top snowflake and start the decreases at the top sooner if need be.

I cast on again last night and made some nice progress, about halfway up the deers' legs. If I can make that much progress each day, I'll definitely have these done in time. I'll try to get a WIP photo today and post tomorrow.

Finally, here's a Ravelry link to the original fornicating deer chart.

Naughty Reindeer

I decided to knit some mittens for a Christmas gift. Yeah, I know it's in like 3 1/2 weeks, and yeah, I know my last post was about laying off the knitting, I don't wanna hear it. I've been feeling better lately, these shouldn't take long and it would mean a lot to me if I could finish them on time.

What I do want to hear, is your opinion on the chart. The reindeer I didn't design, but I added all the snowflakes. At first, I had a lot larger version of the largest snowflake and it totally dominated the reindeer. (Get your mind out of the gutter.) I think it looks better the way I have it, but I'd love some second opinions. Are there too many small snowflakes? Not enough? Is it permissible to have four different types of snowflakes on one mitten? Any suggestions for a palm pattern? I'm thinking dead simple there to help speed things up. Voice your opinions, complaints or suggestions in the comments and I thank you in advance.

Sad but necessary

Sad thing the first: No pictures for two blog posts in a row Fixed!

Sad thing the second: Sad for me at least... I'm going to drastically cut back my knitting time for the next month or so. I've been feeling some pain in my left elbow lately and up until now have just tried to help it out with stretching. To start, I'm cutting out all lunchtime knitting - I've been wanting to read some books anyway - and limiting myself to an hour of knitting at night, and stopping immediately if I feel any pain. I'm also going to be more diligent about stretching, warming up and icing my elbow. I dealt with some Achilles pain over the summer and don't want a repeat performance in my arms.

Sad thing the third: I started the raglan sweater I mentioned in my previous post. With my anticipated knitting-down-time, not only is it going to take longer to finish, but I suspect it's what pushed my pain over the edge. I'm using Bartlettyarns Fisherman 2-ply which is a very 'woolly' yarn. What I mean to say is that it's sticky and doesn't slide through the stitches or on the needle all too well. I made some adjustments - smaller tips on the left needle and two circulars to avoid bunching of stitches - but it's not enough to alleviate the stress on my elbow and forearms.

Sad thing the fourth: Again with the diminished knitting time, I'm likely not going to get to knit the warm stuff for the outdoor hockey game I wanted to. At least I have a bunch of fingering weight wool socks and hats and mittens I can wear. I don't need new stuff. I also probably won't get to knit the Christmas item I wanted to, but that was to be a surprise gift anyway. Maybe next year.

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ETA: I fixed the no photo problem. Yay, only 3 sad things!


Baby's First Halloween

Am I Crazy?

For some strange reason, I feel the itch to knit a sweater. Now, to be completely honest, I've been contemplating sweaters for months now. I have all sorts of aspirations to knit complex Aran cardigans and even have yarn to knit a few. But that's not what I'm talking about this time. I feel the sudden desire for a simple, clean, raglan sweater. No cables, no stitch pattern, just miles of stockinette and some ribbing on the edges; maybe go crazy and turn it into a cardigan with a shawl collar.

Why? I have no idea. With all the knitting I already have planned this month - boot socks and mittens for The Big Chill at The Big House (Go Blue!), a Christmas gift or two, obligatory baby knits - my knitting queue is pretty full. Yet here I stand on Nov. 2 staring down the fact that the only completed sweater I knit for myself took over two months. I don't know if it's the allure of NaKniSweMo, but the sweater beckons nonetheless. The last time I tried deadline knitting a sweater - Ravelympics 2010 - I gave up before I even started. At least, if I do decide to do this as part of NaKniSweMo, I have more time.

FO: Persian Paraphernalia

Pattern: Paraphernalia by Taina Anttila
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Persia #852
Needle: Knit Picks fixed circular, size 1
Started: October 31, 2009
Finished: May 8, 2010
Mods: Simplified cable pattern after foot
Ravel It!

I'm actually wearing these socks today, so I thought I would finally blog about them. I finished them way back in the spring, but they sat around waiting to be blocked and photographed while I worked on more socks. They finally got their first outing last week.

I started these socks almost a year ago, on Halloween last year. We were driving my brand spanking new Jeep back from Austin, TX. The yarn is Malabrigo Sock which I received in a Puck This! swap from Judy. I love the color. It's a dark yarn with enough variation to keep things interesting. As you can see, there was no pooling, which is a plus in my book.

I can't remember how I discovered the pattern, but I was in love with it as soon as I did. Unfortunately, I had to make some modifications to the cables, as they barely fit over my heel. At first I thought I could just remove the intertwined cable pattern from the gusset area - it stretched really badly - but I ended up having to adjust the pattern all the way up the leg. You can read more about my attempt to fix the gusset here, which actually worked, I just had to rip back after installing another tangled cable after the fix.

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Thank you so much to everyone who offered congratulations on my previous post. We're very excited, scared, nervous, happy, etc. I'll be cranking out baby knits as much as possible, but there's quite a bit of work on the house - and other things - still left to do in the remaining 6 months. I may be able to get stuff knit, but I'm not too sure I'll get them blogged. As you know, my consistency is a bit lacking.