Merry Christmas!

We're recovering from a whirlwind of torn wrapping paper and too much sugar over the course of the morning, but I will leave you with a few pictures of the crowning glory of our handicrafts this Christmas:

Look! Himself is crafty too! I assisted in painting and making cushions, but he designed and built these all by his lonesome. Granted, there have been some very late nights in the last week (like 2 or 3 am), necessitating some parental naps early today, but they are a huge hit.

Sadly, Himself is the poor lone soul who isn't getting a handknit item for Christmas. Rather, he is getting one, but it's not done yet. I'm onto the armpits of the back, and cranking along, so if he gets really lucky, it'll be done by New Years. But I'm not going to make too many promises!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The last of the Christmas knitting. Finally.

A quick (approximately 4 hours) cowl in squishy alpaca blend, using only half a skein so I can make another one.

The Guy Next Door cowl by Devin Fredrickson, Berroco Ultra Alpaca (50% alpaca/50% wool), 110 yds on US 6/4.0 mm needles. Started 17 December during "The Illusionist", finished 18th December during "The Golden Compass". Max of four hours to finish, but probably more like 3 if I hadn't messed up and dropped a stitch. The pattern calls for five repeats of the stitch pattern (12 rows), but I did an extra half-repeat for good measure.

My only beef with the pattern was the fact that the stitch pattern was set up so that it didn't repeat evenly - the last repeat of the pattern in the round was shifted a bit to avoid doing something funky over the start of the round. I think, with some judicious shifting of the start point, I can make it so there don't need to be any hijinks, which would be fabulous because I love this stitch pattern, and I think it should be a hat and maybe a men's sweater.

Just lovely movement. This was my first time using this particular yarn, and I really like the feel. It was quite crisp while knitting, maybe even a bit rough, but after a bath it bloomed nicely and is really soft.

My other final project was re-knitting my too-large Cool Beans sock. Now the pair matches (more or less).

The only thing left to do now is haul down to the post office, and pray to the weather/Royal Mail/USPS gods that packages arrive in time. They really should have been mailed a week ago, but maybe I'll get lucky? I can only hope...

FO: Tappan Zee Deux

In the interests of keeping this at least a little bit of a surprise, I've tried to do some close up shots to give a sense of the finished item, but no big reveal. Maybe Mom will send me a modeled shot once it arrives.

A second Tappan Zee, made from handspun merino/silk, with US 5/3.75 mm needles, 26 Nov - 7 Dec, no mods to the pattern. The orange is a bit more, ehem, robust then I was aiming for, but I think it will be ok.

I even used some of the labels Mom gave me a while ago.

I hope she likes it!

Another Christmas FO: Baktus

It's been all-handspun knitting, all the time here in the Porpoise household. The next lovely holiday item to show you is my first Baktus.

Pattern: Baktus scarf by Strikkelise
Yarn: handspun 18 micron merino from Hello Yarn, colorway Maldives, details on the spinning here and here. Guess it didn't end up as Girl Mittens after all...
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
Start/finish: 5 Dec-8 Dec 2010
Comments/mods: There are some patterns that are perfect for handspun yarn, and I'm beginning to suspect that anything in garter stitch is a good candidate. This incredibly easy scarf/shawlette is designed so you can use every last inch of yarn - my Inner Puritan (TM) approves of such efficiency and thriftiness. You weigh the yarn when you start, begin increasing and keep going until the scarf is the width/size you want or you've used up half the yarn (by weight). Then you decrease, ideally ending up by casting off with only a few inches left over.

However, utilizing handspun throws a bit of a monkey wrench into the works, particularly if you are using two skeins that were spun at different times, with different grists. Like me. Ooops!

 

Skein 1, spun first, 886 ypp, 155 yds. Skein 2, spun several months later, 1427 ypp, 214 yds. Riiiiiiiiight... Apparently I split the top in half lengthwise, because the color sequences more or less matched. Both were chain plied. I started with the lighter weight yarn (Skein 2), and merrily knit my way along for 184 yds (155+214/2=184.5) and then started with Skein 1. I was probably halfway through the decrease section when I realized that a) I was going to have leftover yarn and b) the stripes weren't matching very well.

Dilemma...if I knit more increases with Skein 2, I would use up more yarn, but not know when I needed to start decreasing. But...if I started knitting with Skein 1 from the beginning again, I would end up with two pieces that would mostly match stripe-wise that I could then graft together in the middle.

Garter stitch grafting requires cider

I knit up all 155 yds of Skein 1, counted the number of stitches I had, ripped back on the first piece (Skein 2) and increased to the same number of stitches - I then worked straight in garter stitch without increasing until I had a couple of yards left. I grafted in garter stitch using the directions from this article on Knitty.com. The result?

Tiny amounts of leftovers that even I can't justify holding on to. Saweet. I was hoping the difference in grist wasn't going to be very noticeable, but it is. Thankfully one side is nice and drapey, and the other is cushy and cuddly. So one side can go up against the face/neck, and the other can drape tastefully over a coat. That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

This beauty started off as a gift for my Dad, but then I thought that maybe our recent late night back porch visitor might like it. It is now destined for someone else in the States (sorry Dad, but it was calling someone else's name). I think I'm going to end up spending a metric crapton at the post office next week, with at least three parcels of knitted goodness to fling westward. I hope Royal Mail is up to the challenge!

Current Xmas 2010 list countdown:
Presents to be knit (total): 13 (two of which aren't due until January), so 11 by 25 December.
Presents now finished: 5, with 2 more about to be finished this weekend.
Total remaining in the next 15 days: 4-6, two of which need to be mailed to the USA. One of the others definitely won't be done (my husband's lovely Aran sweater. Hopefully he'll forgive me). The rest? I'm crossing my fingers...

FO: Handspun Northman Mittens

I can't remember if I did this last year or not (I don't think I did), but this year I've decided that, in the face of just over three weeks to Christmas, and a lot of gift knitting that must be done, thereby obliterating any other potential blog fodder, I am going to do the FO posts as the Os are Fd (so to speak). Otherwise I'll be forced to post a picture of my narrow escape from Sleeve Island and that will stay at the top of the blog for the next few weeks. And that's not what any of you want to see - grey cables are not very interesting photo montage material. So without further ado...Present #1 (that I'm blogging about in December - some of the others have already been mentioned and won't be revisited).

Pattern: Northman Mittens by David Schulz of Southern Cross Fibre fame
Yarn: For the outer mitts - handspun pencil roving from Artisan Threads, in natural white and naturally dyed teal, approximately 135 yds teal and 80 yds white. Also some handspun brown BFL for the cuffs, left over from the Norwegian Snail Mitten extravaganza last year - no idea how many yards. For the lining - 120 yds of handspun BFL singles that were dyed by me with Burgundy Jacquard Acid dye.
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm for outer mitten, US 5/3.75 mm for lining.
Gauge: Outer mitten: 6 sts/inch, lining: 5 sts/inch.
Start/finish: 28 October - 29 November 2010. They would have been done faster, but I had a wait of about a week and a half while I tried to get some more teal pencil roving, and then I had to spin and dye the lining yarn.

Comments/mods: Let's start with modifications: besides using handspun instead of commercial yarn, absolutely none. This pattern was a joy from start to finish - well written, nicely laid out, with gorgeous pictures and fantastic charts.

I like the purled cuff quite a lot - using two strands of yarn for alternate purl stitches creates an interesting texture. The pencil roving had a bit of lanolin left in it, and the rustic yarn made for a slightly scratchy outer mitten, but the lining solved the itch factor. And Gill at Artisan Threads was very helpful in procuring me another ball of the teal roving when I ran out (I may have even gotten some more of the white roving too. Just to have on hand, you know).

I really like the lines and patterning on the thumb gusset.

I even managed to remember to switch charts for the left and right mitten, so the amount of swearing involved in the completion of this project was greatly reduced.

For the lining, I spun a singles yarn because I thought that some feltability might be a good thing for mitten lining. And the Spintelligence Fibre Club has me in a singles spinning mode these days. This yarn was spun at 6.25:1 and soaked in hot water until it cooled (overnight). It then went in the dye crockpot with a 2 DOS burgundy dye solution (volume dye/weight of fiber) for a couple of hours. I let that cool overnight, and the dye bath was largely exhausted the next morning.

The BFL made for a soft and squishy lining, and my inability to loosely tie my skeins led to a Malabrigo-esque kettle dye job. Result! So these are destined for some lucky someone somewhere with cold hands. Any one want to predict who? There might be a prize in it...