Category: knitting

merry merry!

Okay, I’m actually not all that merry this year – I just can’t seem to find that Christmassy spirit. Oh well. Keep on trucking, I guess! I do finally have all my gifts set, but I do need to do some (erm, possibly all) of the wrapping up tonight.

The vest turned out fine, quite nicely in fact! I’m just about to sew on the buttons, the fake-woven-leather kind. I’ll try to get a modeled shot tomorrow!

At our gift-exchange dinner last weekend, my aunt remarked that my grandmother would probably like the hat I was wearing (Gretel), so I quickly cast on for another in some super yummy Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted.

It’s in Cranberry, which my camera’s doesn’t love – it’s darker and richer than it looks in the photo. Currently still drying, so it might need to be wrapped tomorrow. Good thing people won’t be over until suppertime.

I’ve made an eggplant casserole for my Christmas dinner main, since everyone else will be eating turkey/roast beef/salmon (yeah, it’s a lot of meat), and put together yummy yummy taco dip. I baked up a batch of Ysolda’s gingerbread cupcakes in my mini cupcake pan and they are super cute! One batch made just shy of four dozen minis. My icing is a bit runny though, I’ve already put in a lot of sugar so now I’m hoping that a sit in the fridge uncovered, and frosting the cakes right before serving, might help it along. Any other ideas? I should’ve made it a cream cheese frosting…

While I scramble to do all those last-minute things, I hope all of you who celebrate Christmas have a great one.

And for those who don’t – have a great Thursday!

December 24, 2008
whaaaat

So there I was, binding off the buttonband on my grandpa’s Christmas-gift vest, looking forward to starting (and finishing) the armhole bands when I decided to lay it out…

And saw that I’d somehow completely twisted one front when I attached it to the shoulder. And picked up and knit the entire buttonband with it twisted like that.

Of course, it was late when I noticed, and I was rather angry at myself for making such a stupid mistake, so I had to fix it right then (although I considered just tossing the whole project!). I ripped out the buttonband, but then when I tried to take out the shoulder seam…I couldn’t find the end. In a moment of weakness I took out the scissors and…

…I cut my knitting, but in the wrong place. Of course. Eventually I did find the seam, took it out, reknit the shoulder which now had a hole in it, sewed the shoulder back together properly, and picked up the button band again. Now I’m almost done the second armhole band, then it’s onto blocking and all that stuff.

Take this as a lesson, folks – don’t just keep your knitting all balled up on your lap.

December 21, 2008
now featuring sock yarn

As I went through my sock yarn bin, I realized that I don’t have as much sock yarn now as I used to – at least, not in sock quantities! I’ve been stashing a lot more sock yarn in sweater quantities, as it turns out! Lots of sock yarn being used to make scarves, too.

Nevertheless, I did dig up some that I’m just not in love with anymore – time to move on.

More info on Flickr and Ravelry.

It’s not allll re-organizing around here, I have been doing just a wee bit of knitting – man, I just don’t know where the time goes, but I don’t think I’ve been using it very effectively.

My grandfather’s vest has been getting a little time in, but it still just looks like a blob:

I need to seam the shoulders and do the button and armhole bands and then I’ll be done! That’s on tap for today – I hope.

And because I can never leave well enough alone with the on-the-needles list, I started something for myself, too. I’m bypassing a lot of winter this year by going on my trip – that’s prime knitting season! So I thought I’d try to get at least one more sweater in before I go. It’ll be my trip sweater, to be worn basically every day anywhere it’s cooler (Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Edinburgh).

It’s another Lucy sweater (it’s been over two years since I released that pattern? crikey), a bit bigger this time, and will be longer too. I’m thinking of re-releasing a new version of the pattern with a couple bigger sizes and a new layout, but I’m not sure – I certainly wouldn’t be able to get to it before my trip, but maybe during it.

I’m using Dream in Color Classy in Black Parade. I love this yarn (I’ve got 2 sweaters out of it!) but this colour is rubbing off on my hands all over the place, and that sucks. I can’t decide whether I should try setting the dye on the other skeins before I knit with them, or just on the whole thing once it’s done. The second option will leave me with black fingertips a lot, though. Hmmmm.

December 16, 2008