Emilee Knits

The Hemlock Ring blanket was for my grandmother, and the trusted couriers who delivered it were my parents. While they were in Illinois they also visited my cousin and her new baby. I made a Sheldon for him, and they delivered that also.

I’m surprised that it took me this long to make Sheldon, considering the fact that I read Ruth’s blog regularly and I’ve made my share of knitted toys. It’s a great pattern, and I would encourage anyone to make it. I’m particularly impressed at how the relatively easy pattern on the shell captures the look of a real turtle shell.

I used Mission Falls 1824 cotton, which was a good choice. I think the rustic texture is particularly suited to a toy reptile, and I had plenty of it around the house. It did come out a bit bigger than called for as a result, but that was not a problem.

Thanks Ruth, it’s a great pattern.  I hope baby Walter likes it!

Finished!

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket, Brooklyn Tweed
Yarn: Cascade Eco+ 1.5 hanks
Needles: Knitpicks Options Harmony, #10
Dates: March 1, 2008 - April 12, 2008

I really enjoyed making this.  It had the perfect mix of interesting pattern rounds and mindless plain rounds.  I did the whole chart, so mine is bigger than most.  The bind off took forever, but I think it looks neat and it was worth it.  The only problem was maneuvering the huge number of stitches around the needle.  It was especially difficult because the rippled edge caused the stitches to exert some pressure on the cable.  I killed two Options cables trying to get the stitches around.

Once again, I am amazed at the miracle of blocking lace. Here it is, fresh off the needles. I can’t decide if this is “slime mold phase” or “dog’s breakfast phase” but either way it’s ugly. My shoe is in the frame for scale.

But then I blocked it, and the beautiful pattern revealed itself. 

While this pattern was fun, it wasn’t really “bloggable.”  First of all, it was a surprise, and the recipient checks the blog every so often.  So even if she wouldn’t have known it was for her, I felt a little weird talking about it publicly.  I can talk about it now because the package is with some trusted couriers who have probably already given it to the recipient.  (Hopefully they took pictures when they delivered it.)  Secondly, it was a boring project to write about.  The one post I did about it was the only one in recent memory that went six days without a single comment.  (No, I wasn’t offended ).  But seriously, there wasn’t much to look at and there wasn’t much to say.  It was a fun, relatively easy project that didn’t look like anything special until the very end.  But now that I’m done, I’ll say this: its popularity is well-deserved and I highly recommend it.

Whoa, hello out there!  Long time no see.  You didn’t think I forgot about you, did you?  Well, maybe I did, just a little.  Hemlock Ring is not a photogenic project, so I’ve been knitting away but not really photographing it.  I’m nearing the end on that though, so I’ll have updates soon. 

Anyway, without further ado, here is my stash.  It really falls into four main categories:

Plain yarn, enough for a sweater:

From left to right, we have Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky in teal, Filatura Di Crosa 501 in Pink and Magenta, and Debbie Bliss Merino DK in Aubergine.  I also have Jo Sharp DK somewhere, the same amount and color that I used for Glasgow Lace.  I’m pretty sure I got all of this at Webs’s tent sales.  The teal is in use on Tailored Scallops, is basically in hibernation until next fall.  I used a little bit of the pink for Elijah.  The magenta is quite bright, so I need to find something simple to make with it.  I really love the color of the Debbie Bliss Merino DK, but I hear it pills so I haven’t decided what to do with it yet.

Plain yarn, not enough for a sweater:

This is mostly Cascade 220, mostly intended for things like hats, felted bags, and other small items. I have enough of the Valley Yarns Northampton in green and gray to make a vest, so I will swatch and see if it works for the Deep V Argyle vest.

Noro:

It’s pretty clear that I have a thing for Noro. I have vague plans for all of this yarn, actually. For instance, there is that sweater design project that I told you about awhile back. I won’t be working on it for awhile though, because I’m not working for clothing for myself until I see how this fitness plan turns out. (I’ve lost 11 pounds! Woo!) That pink and orange color in the upper right needs to be something for my sister, and I’m still figuring out what, exactly.

Cherry Tree Hill:

About a year and a half ago I went a little nuts with ebay and Cherry Tree Hill mill ends. I put one to good use with Serranoand I’m trying to figure out how to use the others.  The mauve and teal on the right is enough for a simple, light pullover.  You can see that I’ve started to wind the stuff in the center of the photo.  That was a gift from my wonderful Secret Pal Jody about a year ago.  I’ve been calling it “spruce” in my head because it is a mix of spruce green and brown.  I think that my next project will be to use that for some sort of shawl, maybe Tuscany or Shetland Triangle.

 Well, there you have it.  I didn’t show anything currently in use on a secret project, nor my oddball bin which is lost in the basement somewhere.  Man, that’s a lot of yarn.

I’ve always thought that the finished Hemlock Ring Blanket looks a bit like a sea creature or a microbe.  Now that I’m actually working on it, it definitely reminds me of a creature with a wacky, complicated life cycle.

Here it is in the urchin phase.

And here it is in the anemone phase.

The true color is closer to the bottom photo, but difficult to capture.  I’m loving this pattern so far!

Today, March 1, we awoke to yet more snow.  I can’t wait for spring to come.

I finished the design project that I’ve been alluding to, but I decided not to submit it yet.  It doesn’t really feel finished to me.  I want to make a variation on it and submit them both, like I did with Foliage.  I’m a teensy bit sick of the pattern, even though it’s my own, so I won’t start another quite yet.

I did start something new though.

This is the very beginning of the Hemlock Ring Blanket.  It is intended for a special someone whose birthday is in April, so I’ll have to be relatively monogamous on it. That’s fine with me though, a big purple flower is the perfect thing to work on while waiting for spring.

I’m relieved to hear that many of you don’t really like socks either.  Now I know that I’m not alone.  As much as I love sweaters, I won’t be working on those for awhile either.  I have declared a moratorium on all new clothes for myself, actually.  My weight has been creeping up steadily for several years.  That was fine when I was growing and I was a teenager, but it needs to stop.  A couple of days after my 25th birthday I had a record-breaking weigh-in that convinced me that I need to change my habits.  Since my goal is to establish a healthy lifestyle, not achieve a certain size, I’m not sure what size I’ll settle at.  I’m quite sure it won’t be this one, though.  So until I do settle somewhere, I’m not going to start any sweaters for myself.  Wish me luck.  It’s a new beginning.

On the same day that I presented Ms. Redjeans I also gave my mom some socks that I’ve been working on here and there for a wicked long time.  Since these socks have taken so long, I decided to give them their own post. 

For the top portion of the sock, I used a cable rib pattern from Ann Budd’s Diagonal Cross-Rib Socks.  The yarn is a red and gray Cherry Tree Hill mill end that I got on ebay about a year ago. I bought it because my mom’s favorite color is red, and red and gray are the colors of the high school she teaches at.

I like these socks, I really do.  At least, I like the way they’ve turned out.  But I think I have to be honest with myself, and with you, dear readers.

I don’t really like knitting socks.

This is not a bombshell on the level of that time Grumperina said that she doesn’t like knitting sweaters.  But I share some of her concerns.  She asks “Somehow I feel like I’m not a ‘complete’ knitter unless I’m cranking out sweaters. Do you ever feel that?”  I know what she means.  I love sweaters of course, but I’m really not a fan of socks and I feel like a lesser knitter for that.  So many people crank out cute socks, and there are tons of great patterns.  Heck, I even posted a couple of sock patterns that I really like.  In general though, they’re not my cup of tea and I can’t even really explain why.  I hope you forgive me. 

Pattern: Mr. Greenjeans, Amy Swenson, Knitty Fall 2007
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay, Flame
Dates: September 2007 to February 2008

I love this pattern, and I love that this yarn finally found a good home. I forget when and where I bought it, but it called my mom’s name and demanded that I make something for her. The problem was deciding what, exactly. My second post ever on this blog focused on plans for this yarn, and I had already had it for awhile at that point. It was a struggle to find a good pattern because my mom doesn’t like to be too warm, so a cozy pullover was out. I started with a vest, but it didn’t turn out. Then I thought Rosedale, but I didn’t have enough yarn. When I saw Mr. Greenjeans I knew it was perfect. Because of the deep V neck it uses less yarn than other cardigans. Because it is knit from the top down I could have just stopped when I ran out of yarn for a cropped look.

As it happens, I decided to buy more yarn and make it a little longer than called for. My mom likes longer sweaters more than cropped ones. Since I bought the yarn more than two years ago, I had been nervous about buying more yarn. But the concept of “dyelots” is rather loose with Manos anyway, and it matched the other skeins to the extent that any of the skeins matched each other at all. I used two balls at once, switching every second row. I think I was successful in avoiding pooling and dyelot stripes.

I modified the pattern slightly, mostly to accommodate the thick-and-thin nature of the yarn. I decided that the cables didn’t look right so I did a garter rib instead. For the button band I decided to go with garter stitch, because I like the look of rustic yarn in garter stitch.  I’m not alone, apparently, and this post inspired me.

This was a very fun and easy project. The only reason it took so long is that I used it as my relaxing “zombie knitting” project. If I had really put my mind to it I could have finished it in a couple of weeks. My goal was to give it to my mom on her birthday in an almost-finished state so I could check the fit and finish it accordingly. It fits very nicely, so I’m glad I did it that way. Best of all, my mom loves it too!

The recent kerfuffle about whether a blog is more like a tea party or a house party got me thinking about blogging in general and my own blogging goals.  I enjoy blogging and I enjoy designing, but unfortunately those goals have been at odds lately.  It wasn’t a huge problem with quick projects like socks and hats.  I designed those and knit them on the side, and my blog didn’t suffer too badly for lack of content.  With big projects like blankets and sweaters, however, the relative silence is pretty noticeable.  We’ve all seen blogs go down hill when their writers switch from public knitting to secret designing.  I don’t want that to happen here, I enjoy blogging too much. 

My two favorite blogging Ruths have been a real inspiration lately.  Ruth S. of Knitting on Impulse recently revealed a beautiful sweater with interesting construction that she’d been giving us glimpses of for months.  Ruth H. of Ruthless Knitting has shown us the full design process of several sweaters over the last few months, Tokyo Top most recently.  Blogging and designing can be excellent companions when one is willing to actually show the designs in progress. 

With that in mind, I’ve decided to share one of the sweaters that I’m working on.  This is not the secret project I mentioned last week, which to be honest is in Slog mode.

Those of you who have known me for awhile know that I am a huge fan of Noro.  The big challenge of designing with Noro is getting it to do something other than orderly horizontal stripes.  Not that there is anything wrong with horizontal stripes, but they’ve been done.  I wanted something more interesting.

This is fitting the bill so far.  What you’re looking at is the back of a sweater that will one day hopefully look something like this:

It will have a scoop neck, and the stripes will be diagonal. There will be raglan sleeves, and the seams will be formed by grafting the body to the sleeves. I started in the center bottom with two balls of yarn going, and added stitches every other right side row until it was as wide as I wanted it to be. Then I turned the corner by decreasing instead of increasing. It is not perfectly square yet, but I’m confident that a good blocking will make it work.

I decided to knit the back in one piece, twisting the two strands on the wrong side of the work. I could have knit the pieces separately and then seamed them, but this method allows the piece to stretch very evenly while a seam would not have. It looks very neat, even from the wrong side.

I feel a bit exposed showing you this, after keeping it a secret.  I hope it works out!

Whew!  Now that Super Tuesday is over I can take my eyes off the news for long enough to do some blogging. Before we return to knitting though, let me show you a picture I took of Obama on Monday at the (Hartford Civic) XL Center. There were 16,000+ people at the event, and I’ve never seen anything like it.

Anyway, I’ve been chipping away at several projects lately, all easy stuff that I can do while watching TV. I haven’t made much progress on my Endpaper Mitts because I really have to look at what I’m doing. The good news is, I’ve made great progress on a project that I can’t tell you about yet. Hopefully you’ll be able to see it soon, but here is a little teaser:

I’m also just about done with that Ms. Redjeans for my mom, and I’ll be able to give it to her the next time I see her.

Finally, I’m also moving along on an Everlasting Bagstopper that I started for my sister way back in August or something. I’ll also try to give it to her the next time I see her:

It looks like I’ll be able to check off at least three of my goals for the year by the end of February!

Everyone else out there was right.

Endpaper Mitts are a lot of fun! I am completely in love with them.

I’m using Knit Picks Palette in Cream and Tidepool Heather. Like everyone else I tend to think Knit Picks colors are a bit much, but the Tidepool is really nice.

The individual hairs are teal and gold, so mixed together they read as a bright blue-green. It is also softer than I would have thought, given that it’s Knit Picks and pure wool. I like this yarn a lot more than I had expected to.  These are a great project to improve stranding skills, because they’re so small, and go so fast, that I’m not really worried that I’ll mess them up.  It’s hardly an investment at all, but it’s really good practice.  Good times.