Apparently, I really like socks. Which reminds me…I really need to knit myself another pair or two…
What type of sock are you?
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Now to get November’s done. It’s on dark green fabric and it’s making me cross-eyed!
The September Challenge is over, and the October Challenge has begun! So how did I do on my September goals? Let’s see:
The October challenge is a little different – we’re supposed to pick one “scary” project from our UFO pile and finish that. Here’s mine: the blanket poncho from heck. I can’t decide what to do with it, though – see the project page for my options. And I do have several other goals for this month:
So…the chances of finishing my scary project are sort of small – but the list is scary, so that counts, right?
Remember the Jayne hat I made a couple of weeks ago? Well, I just finished knitting not only the second adult hat but also a baby-sized Jayne hat! How cute is this, I ask you? (Denis and I have decided that it definitely falls into the “really stinkin’ cute” category.) Click on Carrie (or here) to see more adorable pictures!
It was almost beyond my math and measuring skills to make this hat, because I basically knit the equivalent of three hats to get this one. The first time it was too small – I didn’t believe Carrie’s head could be 3/4 the circumference of mine, so I rounded down. The second time it was too short, because I really didn’t have enough gold yarn left but I was trying to make it work anyhow, so I ripped out all the way back to the orange and added a couple more rows. The third time I had used a different yellow to try to lengthen the top and it just looked awful, so I ripped out the top third again. And then I had the brilliant idea to finish it off in orange. And left it that way, because, well, it’s so stinkin’ cute!
Carrie and I went to a fiber festival today!
The blue/green/purple combo is a merino/tencel blend. The seller was tactfully trying to tell me it’s not so good for a beginning spinner, but I couldn’t resist it. I’ll practice before I try it! The rainbow colored top is wensleydale, which is good for a beginner. The spindle is a Bosworth, and is made from chochin rosewood. (It currently has some very basic wool on it so I could remember how to use a drop spindle!) And the llama doll is for Carrie.
The neat thing about the llama doll? I swear Carrie’s been saying “llama” all afternoon. At least, if I say it she’ll repeat the sounds. And if I ask her where the llama is she goes and picks it up. Could “llama” be her first word? I’ll see if she says it tomorrow too. (Although, technically, she says “duh” for duck and “daw” for dog pretty consistently too, so those could also be first words…)
Here are more pictures of our adventure. (Including fuzzy fibery animals!)
We’re halfway through September, so how am I doing on my goals so far?
I think by the end of this weekend I will be able to knit the second Jayne hat, block the ladybug sweater, and finish another ornament. And maybe start the socks or a hat to match Devan – since that will be the sweater Carrie will wear sooner, it’s a higher priority than the ladybug hat.
I think finishing everything will be a stretch, especially since I still need to steek and sew the ladybug sweater, but we’ll see – it’s only halfway through September, and look how much I’ve accomplished so far!
There are quite a few things in the new fall Knitty that appeal to me. I think the only thing that I might knit soon, though, might be this scarf. (So many projects, so little time…)
Oh, and after sleeping on it, I’ve decided that Devan is fine as is. Now I’m trying to decide whether to block before assembling. I can go either way on this. Blocking makes things nicer to seam up, but it’s not as though I need to stretch the pieces to the measurements they’re supposed to be, so technically I could garment block. Or I could just sew it up and let Carrie wear it and not block it at all…
And in other knitting news, I just finished up a hat. Yeah, you know how I pretend to be normal and all? It’s all an act. I’m really a total geek at heart, and in a previous life I used to go to, um, Star Trek conventions and so I guess it’s not all that surprising that I had to knit myself a hat for the premiere of Serenity. If you haven’t seen it, Firefly (the sadly short-lived TV show that the movie is based on) is an absolutely fabulous show.
The pieces are all knit for Devan, but I’m waffling over the sleeves. This yarn only has one solid color stripe, the sort of magenta color, and it’s quite a short length. For the fronts of the cardigan it wasn’t a problem, but the sleeves are wider – so there are places on both sleeves where that color didn’t go all the way across a row. Since I started the sleeves in exactly the same section of the yarn pattern, they’re (almost) identical – meaning the places where the magenta color doesn’t show up on one sleeve it doesn’t on the other. Should be fine, right? Nope. Because…when you fold the sleeves in half and lay them down as though they’re attached to the sweater, the back of one matches the front of the other. (Clear as mud, right? There’s a good picture on the project page.) Anyway, I guess my choices are to: 1) ignore it, because it’s still cute; 2) rip both sleeves out and knit them in the round, eliminating the “pooling” effect of knitting back and forth; 3) rip one sleeve out and start it on the wrong side – theoretically, this would reverse the striping, but then I’d have to do my increases on the purl side and they probably wouldn’t look the same.
I think I’m over-thinking this…but I could use some advice. I’m mostly just afraid that it will look like I made a mistake, since not everyone will realize that it’s self-striping yarn and I have no control over where the colors go. In the meantime, I’m going to work on something else for a day or two so I can get some distance from the problem.
I’ve joined the September Challenge. The goal is to finish two projects this month, preferably projects that were started prior to this month. Of course, being the over-achiever I am, I’ve picked more than two projects to finish. So here are my goals:
That’s not too many goals, is it?
And I still can’t believe it’s already September.