Endpapers

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.

Red Light Special – Take Two

I had long and bumpy road with my first attempt at Red Light Special.  Towards the end of that attempt I watched this video on stranded knitting with two hands, and it finally clicked.  I decided to make another Red Light Special using that technique, as practice towards my 2008 fair isle goals.

I think it turned out a lot better.

I used Knit Picks ambrosia for the liner, and it is delightfully soft. I knit the whole liner with the yarn in my left hand so I could get used to the feeling, and I’m glad I did. I’m still getting used to it, but I know it will only get easier with practice.

My tension was a lot better this time, as this photo shows. I don’t like the color scheme as much as I did on the first one, because I think the blue and green are close enough that the pattern gets a bit lost. This is a useful lesson for further projects.

In general, I’m pretty happy with it.

WEBS trip

One of my knitting buddies from college works at WEBS, and I had heard through the grapevine that there was a sample of Foliage over by the Malabrigo. Being the total dork that I am, I really wanted a picture.  I went up with my mom and my sister today, and we had a fun photo shoot with my friend the foam head.

When we were checking out, Melissa introduced herself and said that she had knit the sample Foliage, so I got a picture with her.  This is the first time I’ve seen an example in real life that I didn’t knit myself, and it was equal parts trippy and awesome.

Good times.  I’m sort of embarrassed to reveal how excited I was to see my hat at WEBS, but I was really, really excited.

Fussy

Yes, I changed my format yet again.  I liked the blue theme fine, except for one little detail.

The fact that those corners didn’t match up drove me crazy. I thought it looked sloppy and unprofessional. Not that this blog is particularly “professional” anyway, but one of my goals for the year is to improve it and gain a greater presence.

I’ve been toying with moving to my own domain so I can customize and tweak to my heart’s content. I had been seriously considering it until recently, because I would like to start offering more patterns. Now that the Ravelry pattern download system is almost done it is much less of an issue. I’d like any insight that you folks might have on making the switch away from wordpress.com to your own domain, or on WordPress blogs away from wordpress.com generally. Ruth, Mel, you run WordPress blogs right?

Obama

I was undecided in the Presidential Primary until recently, but I’m starting to really like Obama.  I made a knitting chart of his logo, and I’m going to try to knit it into a hat before our primary on Feb 5.  In honor of today’s New Hampshire primary I’m putting it up for any other knitting Obama supporters who might like it.  Feel free to use it if you want!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom’s birthday was yesterday, and the Ms. Redjeans fitting was a success. 

I’ll bind off the body where it is, add 6.5 inches to the sleeves, do the button band, and we’ll be good to go.

You’ll also notice that she’s wearing Red Light Special.  Attentive readers will recall that I started it just over a year agoin hopes of finishing it for her LAST birthday. Heh.

It took me so long because I was embarassed of how it was turning out. It isn’t horrible, but it isn’t as good as I’d like it to be. I almost didn’t give it to her, because I felt badly giving a project that I wasn’t happy with. She seemed to like it though, which was nice.

You can tell that it’s wonky in the above picture, but it was even worse before blocking.

The top motif of squares provides an interesting lesson in yarn dominance. Clearly the light gray is dominant in the bottom portion of the motif, when it looks better if the pattern color is dominant.

In the middle of that squares motif I started holding the pattern yarn in my left hand, and holding the background yarn in my right hand like I usually do. It seems to have made an improvement, even when the technique was very new to me. I’ll practice knitting with the yarn in my left hand before I start my 2008 Eunny Fair Isle Fest. I might make another Red Light Special.

Almost done with Ms. Redjeans

I’m in the home stretch for Ms. Redjeans. I will present it to my mom in the unfinished state, so I can plan the final sleeve and body lengths to her measurements. For the general size I’ve been thinking “snug on me will be good on her” but that helps me less when it comes to length.

Speaking of sleeves, I’ve awarded myself the The MacGyver Badge (Level One) for using a coffee can to corral the balls I’m using.

I subscribe to two main rules when it comes to sleeves (and socks, and mittens): 1) Never use DPNs when you can use Magic Loop and 2) the only way to ensure that they’ll match is to do them at the same time. Usually that works out fine, but when the sleeves are already attacked to the body because it’s worked top-down, things get a little funky. It’s ok though, it’s going fine, and the coffee can is helping me avoid tangles.

I’m usually proud of my even tension, and the thick and thin nature of Manos is making the finished project much lumpier than I’m used to.

It’s fine in the stockinette portion (I’m calling it “rustic”) but the cables looked TERRIBLE. So I decided to replace the cables with garter rib.

I think it matches the texture better. This will be in good shape to present to my mom on her birthday, and I’ll probably be able to finish it within a week or so after that.

Knitting Goals for 2008

When I made the list of knitting accomplishments yesterday, it made me think of my knitting goals for 2008.  I’ll save this list in a tab up top, and edit it as I check things off the list.  My goals fall into three main categories:

Finish the following projects:

• Ms. Redjeans: I will finish this soon, because it is for my mom and her birthday is this week. I’ve decided that it won’t be totally finished when I present it to her. I’ve been using myself to judge the size, but she’s a bit smaller than I am, so I’ll have her try it on to see exactly how long the body and sleeves should be.
• Socks for mom: These have been kicking around forever, and I need to finish them. I messed up the toe on one, but I fixed it finally and there is only a tiny bit left to go.
• Red Light Special: This has been kicking around for A YEAR. My tension is usually so even that I’m embarrassed by the wonky tension I’m getting with stranding. I’ll finish this, and then begin the Stranded Challenge (see below)
• Serrano: This will be tough. I’m having a hard time finishing Serrano because I’m not very good at seaming, and I want the seaming to be PERFECT. I spent so much time knitting it, and it has such potential, that it would break my heart if the crappy seams detracted from it.
• Caroline’s Bagstopper: This is a very easy pattern, but the cotton yarn is hard on my hands. If I commit to doing a couple rounds a day it wouldn’t take all that long to finish.
• Wearable Afgan/Tailored Scallops: I’ll finish it some time in 2008. I only started it in November though, so I’m not embarrassed about it yet.

Master a new skill:

I used to be decent at stranded colorwork, and I went through a big Lopi phase in college. (Exhibits: A, B, C, D). I hold the yarn differently now though, and while that generally makes me a lot faster, I’m not as good at stranded colorwork anymore. I’ve decided to work on that this year, with the help of Eunny Jang.

I want to complete the following projects in the following order:

• Endpaper Mitts
• Anemoi Mittens
• Deep V Argyle Vest
• Ivy League Vest
• Venezia

I figure that the projects increase in difficulty at a manageable rate, so it will be a good way to build my skills. I also figure that it will take more than a year to complete all of those, so I will be satisfied with myself if I have at least swatched for Venezia in the next year.

Design related Goals:

• I’d love to get into Knitty again in 2008
• I want to get up the nerve to submit to two print publications.
• Finish that submission for the other online publication that’s been on my desk for six months! I can’t tell you what it is yet, but I’ll tell you once I’ve done it.
• Manage my time better: I have a ton of design ideas percolating in my head, but I’m bad with knitting deadlines. I need to organize myself so I can work on stuff and get it submitted in the right season.  No more finishing Halloween stuff right before Halloween so it’s too late for this year and frustratingly early for next year.

What are your knitting goals for 2008?