Toxic!

I came home early this afternoon with a wicked bad cold, and was thrilled to find the November installment of the Hello Yarn Fiber Club on my doorstep. Meet Toxic:

8 oz of superwash Corriedale top. Can you say socks? I love the colors, and have great plans in mind for the 3-ply yarn I want to end up with. I signed up for the doubles option, so instead of getting 4 oz, I got 8 oz. I figure that should be enough for some serious socks. I can't wait to get started on it, but it will have to wait until I finish the Wild Raspberry Targhee that is currently on the bobbin.

There has also been some serious work on The List. I finished one entire Endpaper Mitt (sans thumb ribbing) and discovered that, while it fits me perfectly, it is a wee bit large for its intended recipient.

My gauge was only off by 0.5 stitches per inch, but over 56 stitches, it works out to 7.5 inches around instead of 7. My Fair Isle gauge is definitely looser then my non-stranded gauge.

I loved the pattern, and it went incredibly quickly. I went down a needle size on both the ribbing and mitt (from 0 and 2 down to 00 and 1), and the new version (not pictured) seems to be the right size. Hopefully those will be done by next week, but we'll see.

Progress is also being made on Mr. Redjeans, but the pictures wouldn't be terribly interesting, so I'll save it until the body ribbing is done.

Mr. Redjeans

In my fevered rebound period after creating the Blue and Purple Monkey costumes, I cast on for two items for myself. One was the Bandwagon, which is now done. The other was Mr. Greenjeans, which I've been working on off and on for the last few weeks. I have rationalized this departure from The List at such a critical time by protesting that we're going to New England for Christmas, and since we've now been in Texas for five years (swoon), I am in sore need of a new sweater.

Sure.

But I'm greatly enjoying this project - mindless enough to be good for downtime, interesting enough not to be boring. The yarn I'm using is Durango from Colorado Yarns. It's mostly acrylic, but is really soft and knits up into an incredibly cuddly squishy fabric which I'm loving. The red tweed helps give it some interest.It's pretty simple - easy TV knitting - except for the cabled section at the bottom of the body and sleeves. I'm about halfway through the cable and rib section of the body, and I'm hoping I don't run out of yarn for the sleeves! I got ten balls of this from Webs at the end of last year (before TGYD07 started of course), so if I run out, I'm kind of out of luck on dyelot and all. Maybe the sleeves will end up being a bit shorter. Or narrower. Or something.

Anyhow, with this on the needles I'm having a hard time attending to the task at hand. Hopefully I'll finish soon so I can get back to The List.

C$*%)#^$) Update

OK, some small incremental progress has been made:

Two sweaters for small children - one done except for a button and some end weaving, the other not yet started
Bayerische socks - not started
Plain stockinette socks - one almost to the ribbing, but they're size 11.5! One done, one halfway through foot
Zeebee - done except for grafting
Everlasting bagstopper x 2 - not started
Two sets of Fair Isle alpaca mitts - need to be designed and knitted. And by designed I mean Fair Isle chart lifted off the internet and incorporated into an already existing mitt pattern.
Hemlock ring blanket - done but unblocked blocked and ready to go
Endpaper mitts - not started, but I've considered starting to rip out the Goodwill sweater that is providing some of the yarn

And D-day is only 5+ weeks away. I'm not sure whether to panic or be happy I've got this much done so far!

Other progress: HY Fiber Club October offering is spun, plied and drying. Hopefully I get together the summary post today (as long as I get home to take pictures before the sun goes down completely).

Trifecta

If nothing else, this blog has been good at motivating me to finish things. I guess the looming deadline coming up in a few weeks also has something to do with that, but I'll give the blog credit. I've actually been doing some finishing in the last week or so, my absolute least favorite thing about knitting. Oh, I like having things done and getting to wear them, but seaming and blocking and weaving in ends is pretty mind-numbing as far as I'm concerned. So I tend to procrastinate until I have an entire cupboard full of things that are "finished", i.e. I've finished knitting them, but not "finished", as in I could give them away to their intended recipiants because they are, in fact, really done. So without further ado, I give you the trifecta:

1) Devil's Christmas sweater, since she's going to be up in the great white north for the holidays

Pattern: Child's Pinwheel Sweater by Shelly Mackie at Elann

Yarn: Nature Spun Worsted from stash, less then one ball each of Brick Road, Blueberry and Touche Teal (who comes up with these names?)

Needles: US 8/5 mm

Start/finish: 9/19-11/11/07, but the majority of the sweater was done in about a week and a half

Comments/mods: knit pretty much as written, except that I used a size 8 for the body instead of a size 9 in order to get gauge. The loopy edgy was interminable, but looks really cute, so I'm glad I did it. I made the sleeves a bit shorter then called for, because I was afraid I would run out of yarn. Instead of ribbing at the cuffs, I used garter stitch to mimic the edge of the jacket. A fun pattern - I'm tempted to make one for myself, but I suspect it would look really silly on me...

2) Hemlock Ring (not shown in its entirety since it is going to be a C%$^&$**^& present for someone)

Pattern: Hemlock Ring from brooklyntweed

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, 5 skeins plus about 15 yards

Needles: US 10 (I think)

Start/finish: 9/12-11/11/07 (finished knitting 9/19)

Comments: Very fast to knit, I love knitting lace in worsted weight yarn. It ended up a bit smaller then I expected, about 44 inches in diameter, so if I make it again, I'll probably keep feather and fanning for quite a bit longer to get a bigger blanket. And maybe block it out a bit more severely. As it is, it will be a good lap blanket for someone for C#$#&^*. (Note: friends and family can place bids in the comments as to who gets this one).

3) Mini-bandwagon

Pattern: Clapotis. If you don't know where to find this, I'm sorry, you'll just have to be out of luck because I am not linking to it. And really, it's time to crawl out from under that nice rock you've got there.

Yarn: my own handspun, from the Hello Yarn Fiber Club June offering, colorway Thistle

Needles: US 8/5 mm

Start/finish: Started as a reward for finishing the Halloween costumes 11/1. Finished the knitting on 11/3 - completely addictive! Blocked and dried, 11/11/07.

Comments/mods: Since I only had just over 200 yds of yarn, of course I couldn't do a full sized Clapotis. And I don't really need a full sized one - it just doesn't get that cold in Houston. So with the help of numerous other folks who have already done mini versions, I decided to do one set of increase rows and then weigh the start of the scarf (17 g). I then knit straight sections until I had 20 g of yarn remaining and did the decrease rows. I probably could have knit one more straight section, but the scarf starts and ends on the same part of the color repeat, which I like for symmetry's sake.

I read the very informative post here and decided to twist my stitches on both the knit and purl sides, and to twist them so that the front leg pointed into the stockinette sections. I really like how it looks once the stitches are dropped - there's no wonkiness along the edges of the stockinette sections at all. This yarn is my first chain plied yarn, and as I've already said, I'm a big fan of the three ply. It's wonderfully soft, and I'm anxiously waiting for it to be cold enough to need this beauty in the mornings. I can't wait to show it off!

Taking stock

Now that it's November, it's time to start thinking about the holiday knitting that has been sitting in a corner waiting patiently while I have been distracted with Halloween costumes and mini-Clapotis knitting and various and sundry other things. Every year I find myself in this position, and every year I swear I will never do this to myself again. As it is, I have seven weeks until Christmas, and the following projects to complete:

Two sweaters for small children - one done except for a button and some end weaving, the other not yet started

Bayerische socks - not started

Plain stockinette socks - one almost to the ribbing, but they're size 11.5!

Zeebee - done except for grafting

Everlasting bagstopper x 2 - not started

Two sets of Fair Isle alpaca mitts - need to be designed and knitted. And by designed I mean Fair Isle chart lifted off the internet and incorporated into an already existing mitt pattern.

Hemlock ring blanket - done but unblocked

Endpaper mitts - not started

As you can see, I have a bit of work to do. And I keep getting distracted by handspun Clapotis, and Mr. Greenjeans for me. When what I really need to be doing is the C%#^%#&*^ knitting! Next year, it will all be different...

My distraction...