Pattern: Daybreak by Stephen West
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in African Violet and Tiziano Red
Recipient: My mom

My mom loves the color red, so I knew I had to use this color to make something for her. I picked Daybreak because she isn’t really a lace shawl person, and I liked the shallow, more scarf-like shape.

She really seemed to like it!

This was a really fun and fast project (it only took eight days for the medium size). The slip stitch detail spices up an otherwise simple stripe pattern to make something much more interesting.

And as I said, I really like the shape. It works as a shawlette, but I think my mom would use it more as a scarf.

Malabrigo Sock is my favorite yarn of 2009. It’s so soft and comes in such wonderful colors.

Pattern: We Call Them Pirates
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa 501
Recipient: My sister Caroline

At first, I followed the pattern and the hat came out too short. I needed to add a fourth row of skulls.

I mess up my knitting and do surgery on it all the time. In fact, I think that the trademark of a confident knitter is less in the actual knitting, and more in the willingness to tinker and rework things. But I had never fixed colorwork before and I was really nervous about it for some reason. I threaded a sock needle through the top row of the third row of skulls…

and RIPPED!

And it was totally fine. I added another row of skulls, no problem, and finished it up. It turned out great! I think I smell a pair of Pirate Mittens in her future!

I knit a baby blanket in two weeks!

Pattern: Op Art, Knitty Fall 2008
Yarn: Queensland Collection, Bebe Cotsoy, in colors I call raspberry and lime, 5 skeins each
Size: 40 in square
Dates: November 26, 2009 to December 10, 2009

I made it for my friend Kate’s baby Elsie Rose who was born two weeks ago Saturday.  I hope she likes it!  I think she will.  The Bebe Cotsoy is incredibly soft, and I think the garter ridges will provide a pleasing texture for her to run her little fingers over.

I’m pleased with the way the wrong side looks too.  I don’t think the difference is all that noticeable, especially to a non-knitter.

I finished the blanket with a four-stitch i-cord bind off to stabilize the corners and I think it makes a very neat finish. It took forever, of course, but it was worth it.

Speaking of taking forever, my one complaint about this pattern is that it gets tedious at the end. The last few rounds were like 700 stitches each. But still, totally worth it.

Tomorrow it will go in the mail with some of my favorite books from childhood. I hope she likes it!

Hooray! I completed a sweater in the month of November!

Pattern: O W L S by Kate Davies
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted, 6 skeins
Buttons: An assortment from Colchester Mill Fabrics
Dates: November 2, 2009-November 29, 2009

I am very, very pleased with how this turned out. I love everything about it. The color is perfect for owls. The buttons sort of glow in the light, which reminds me of what animal eyes actually look like. I am especially pleased with how the short rows shaped the neck. You can see below how much higher the back is than the front.

I think this is the closest I’ve ever come to replicating the type of crewneck that you would actually see on a store-bought sweater.

Modifications: Since the pattern is written for bulky yarn and I used worsted, all of the math had to be re-done.  This was a good thing though, since it allowed me to make sure that everything was symmetrical. I also did less-extreme waist shaping and moved it to the sides, since I don’t particularly like calling attention to my waist area.

Hooray!  I love it!

Pattern: Inga Hat by Sheila MacDonald. It is true that following the pattern as written produces an awfully long hat, but I like awfully long hats.
Yarn: Cascade 220 in dark purple and light blue, a scrap of Ella Rae Classic in bright purple left over from my first crochet scarf

The top of this pattern is quite pointy, so I decided to celebrate the pointiness with a tassel. I think it pulls it all together.

This was the most complicated colorwork chart I’ve ever followed, and I was proud of myself for doing that. My issue was not with following the chart, it was maintaining even tension while holding the light blue in my left hand.

As you can see in this pre-blocking photo, my tension was somewhat uneven. I definitely think I’m improving though, and I am quite happy with how this turned out. I don’t think people are really going to get close enough to my head to notice the few wonky stitches.

I got so caught up in the fiber fest frenzy of the last couple of weeks that I forgot to show you the Flora Hat I finished before Rhinebeck.

Pattern:  Flora Hat from tentenknits/Margaux Pena
Yarn:  Jo Sharp Silk Road DK Tweed, about half a skein of blue and half a skein of green.

I knit this to match my knucks and it worked perfectly!

Mods:  I decided to to a square top to the hat, I forget why.  I ran out of the blue, so the very top is green.  I didn’t like having a random green square up there, so I made little tendrils like I did on the knucks.  It’s a design element!  ;)

I enjoyed the pattern, and it inspired me to make some more stranded hats to practice the technique.  Currently on the needles: Inga.

Is that…? Could it be…?

Yes, I’ve finally finished Serrano!

Pattern: Serrano, by Laura Chau (Knitty, Fall 2006)
Yarn:  Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Mill End from ebay (color close to Loden)

Please excuse the pictures, it was getting dark but I really wanted to get it in for Finish or Frog Friday. After two years in sweater purgatory, it is finally finished!

Good God, what a saga this has been.  I started it in April 2007, when we were still living in Boston.  In September 2007 I declared that we were in the home stretch.  Ha! I had intended to finish it in 2008, but I didn’t.   So here we are, nearing the end of 2009.

I’ve had two main problems, the first of which was the sleeve caps.   They just aren’t as rounded as most sleeve caps, they’re pointy.   As a result, the shoulder area did not fit well at all.   I’ve re-blocked it, and while it still isn’t perfect, it is much better than it was and certainly good enough.

In March I declared an intention to actually finish this. Later that month, I noted that I was having a hard time figuring out how to close it. And indeed, it took me another seven months to figure it out.  The original Serrano was made from Schaefer Anne, which is just not as stretchy or “sproingy” as Cherry Tree Hill Supersock. CTH is very stretchy, so the whole hook-and-eye tape thing was not working out. It just didn’t hang right with a non-stretchy closure along the whole front opening.

I finally found the right closure at Sit-n-Knit.

I’m really happy with the way the closure works with the finished sweater.

It took so long to do the pattern that I don’t really remember what, if any, mods I did. I do know, however, that I did a more cropped shape without the waste shaping. My gauge with the CTH was coming in smaller than the pattern was written for, so I basically followed the directions for a larger size and the gauge made it my size. That would have messed up the waist shaping, of course, so I just omitted it. I think it worked out.

I love the lace pattern, and I am very happy that it is finally finished.  I met the designer Laura/Cosmicpluto at Rhinebeck, which reminded me that I really ought to finish Serrano.  The best part is, I finished it just in time to wear it to Stitches East which is hitting my hometown THIS WEEKEND!  I’m sure I’ll have many more FO pictures after this weekend.

Let me know if you’ll be there.  I would love to meet you!

I finished the knitting for Dotty a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to let Fiona give the finish product a review before I posted about it.

This project is kitty approved!

Pattern: Dotty Cat Bed by Kelp/Kelly Porpiglia
Yarn: Cascade 220 in purple, green, and gray

She’s a small kitty (5.2 lbs when we found her, maybe 7-8 lbs now) so I only cast on 192 stitches.

It fits her perfectly!

She’s also really taken to it, which delights me. I put it next to our bed, so she’d have a nice place to sleep. She had been trying to sleep at our feet, but we would kick her accidentally so it wasn’t a good situation. This is much better, and she’s actually started going to her Dotty bed of her own accord.

I think it also really helps that she can use it as a place to sit while she watches birds out the window.

I messed up on the pattern a little bit, so it’s more like squares than like dots, but Fiona doesn’t care.

I think we’re both really happy with how it turned out!

As a law student, I try to live frugally.   We keep our house really cold.   I’m also up late typing or studying a lot, and last winter I kept wishing for fingerless gloves to wear while typing.

Pattern:  Knucks, Knitty, Summer 2006
Yarn:  Jo Sharp Silk Road DK Tweed, about half a skein of blue and less than a quarter of a skein of green.

I should have made these earlier!  They are exactly what I wanted and I can still type quite easily with them on.

For the embroidery, I did very simple tendril designs, so they match the Flora I’m almost done with.  I think the simple rustic design works well with the rustic yarn.

I’m sure I’ll get a TON of use out of these this winter!

Happy dance!

Seraphim is done!

Pattern:  Seraphim by Miriam Felton
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock, Tiziano Red, approx 1.5 skeins

I love how it turned out!

Not that I’m any good at wearing shawls.

It’s the largest shawl I’ve ever made at just a touch over 80 inches across the top.

My love of Malabrigo Sock as a lace yarn continues unabated. I love how crisp the stitches look, and how the shawls turn out warm yet light.

I chose this color because the YOs before the feathers start remind me of sparks drifting up from a campfire, so I had intended this to be my Fire entry for project spectrum. I missed the deadline, but oh well.

I don’t usually wear this color, I’m more drawn to cool colors. Also, this is my mom’s favorite color, so stuff this color feels like it should be hers rather than mine. It looks good on me too though, I think. And as a bonus, I have a skein and a half of this color left over so I can make something for her!

Thank you to Miriam Felton for a beautiful and well-written pattern!