Christmas Spirit

You know what gives me the Christmas spirit? Finshed objects! That's what! Like these socks:

Yep! The Red Herring socks are done! Although they're actually aqua, but whatever.

Yarn - Dale of Norway Baby Ull (100% wool, 180 yards), 1 skein in black, 2 skeins in blue (color 6714). It's really soft an springy, and it's superwash, which is an added bonus. My only complaint is that I kept snagging my needles on it and separating the plies.
Needles - size 2 32" addi turbos, for the magic loop-in'
Pattern - Red Herring from Knitty. I followed the pattern pretty closely, but because I have bizarrely long, narrow feet, I added a few more decreases to the foot to make it more snug.

Guess what? More finished objects:

Leila's Brainwash bag is complete! All that was left was to add straps, line it, and add a closure. By the way, that's my boyfriend modelling the bag, not my sister.
Yarn - 1 skein each of Lopi (100% wool, 110 yards) in black and white. I like this yarn to make random bulky things like bags and it's good for felting. It's too rough to make wearable things, though, and it sheds all over creation like a cat. So, I shaved the bag to try to get rid of all the wispies. Which felt really weird when I was doing it.
Needles - 24" size 11 bamboo circulars
Pattern - I used the charts from the Brainwash Bag pattern, but I adapted it to be worked in the round. I didn't felt it, either. I was planning to, but then I got scared of some horrible felting-gone-wrong fiasco messing up the communal washers in my apartment building and chickened out. The final dimensions are 14" long x 10" wide instead of 10" x 10".


Last but not least, I've been working on some swatches the last couple of days. My other, Tamar, started a leftovers blanket last year that's been in my possesion forever, and I haven't added to it yet. And I'd feel like a total jerk if I didn't do anything to it before I see her next week, so I made a bunch of swatches. Hopefully, I'll start swatching for real and I can just start adding those.






So, tomorrow morning I head back to Texas to celebrate Christmas with my family. Which will be nice because I don't see them that often, what with my living in Michigan. I'm going to start a new pair of socks (maybe these cable twist ones) on my flight tomorrow using this sport weight handspun I've had lying around for awhile. After Christmas, I'm flying to New York to visit my friends Dani (who got the purple armwarmers), Tamar, and Carly. And then back to the grind.



A word of warning, though: my family only has dial-up so I may not be able to post until I get back.

The dust has settled

Hallelujah! Finals are over, and even though I have to do pilot testing and data coding over Christmas break, I don't have any tests, or papers, or classes to go to until January! I have survived my first semester at grad school. Cheers to me.

So, how much knitting have I gotten done? Not too terribly much. I'm about halfway done with the second of the Red Herring socks, which is exciting. I really love this pattern, though as you can see in the photo, I did occasionally butcher the stranded pattern. But, it doesn't bother me enought to take it out, so I guess that's cool. I've noticed that I'm actually kind of a half-assed knitter when it comes to myself, and can deal with messed up stitches and decreases that aren't mirrored. But knitting for other people makes me a perfectionist. Weird, huh?






I also started designing a sweater for myself. Here's the sketchy schematic-y thing of it. I'm envisioning it as a kicky little bolero/cocoon shrug thing, all cozy and warm and fitted with a little shawl collar. I'm pretty excited about it.

I'm using Malabrigo yarn in Bobby Blue, which is really gorgeous. My Other bought it for me in New York months and months ago and I haven't been able to think of the right thing to do with it until now. I'm working it in a really basic twisted stitch pattern based on braided cables. If you look closely at the picture underneath the sketch, you can kind of see the wee little twisty braids. I like the texture, but it eats yarn like nobody's business.


The last picture shows you how far along I am. I'm attempting to knit it all in one peice because I hate seaming, so I'm using the raglan decreases from the top-down all-in-the-round sweater pattern here. But, I am knitting it flat since it's supposed to flare open in the front. I figured it was either knit it flat and shape it as I go (sensible), or knit it in the round and steek the bejesus out of it to beat it into the right shape (totally, utterly foolish). Anyway, I'm just past the armholes, so there's not much to show just yet.

And I have completely finished Sam's bag! I've washed all three bags and blocked them, but hers was the first to dry out, so it was the first to get lined and strapped and the like. Isn't it pretty? The final measurements are 10" wide x 12" long x 1" deep. I made it in the round and used the slip-stitch pattern from Via Diagonale. I made the flap by continuing the slip-stitch pattern for half the stitches flat. Today I sewed on the strap (a 1" wide, 6 ' long peice of black cotton twill), lined it with about 1/2 yard of pink cotton, and sewed on a big button to close it. I braided three strands of Lopi and sewed it to the inside of the flap to make a button loop. You know what I like best about it? The way the color shifts on the flap and the bag match up perfectly.
Yarn - 1 skein Noro Big Kuryeon (100% wool, 176 yards) in colorway 18 (purple/navy) and 1 skein Lopi (100% wool, 110 yards) in black. I ended up with about 1/2 a skein of each left.
Needles - size 11 bamboo circulars
Pattern - I used a simple common-sense bag pattern in the Via Diagonale slip-stitch pattern: knit in the round until your work is an inch or so longer than what you want the finished bag to be, turn it inside out and work a three-needle bind off, and make a gusset (described beautifully here). I prefer to sew straps on rather than knit them, especially if the bag isn't going to be felted, since knitted fabric stretches so much, and I definetly advise lining bags. It makes them prettier, and more durable. And if it's a colorwork bag like this one, you won't be catching your keys on the floats every six seconds. Pretty damn simple.

Update

The end of the semester pressure-cooker is turned all the way up, so there's little time for knitting and even less for blogging. Nonetheless, I valiantly march onward. Here I am finishing up the Point Five scarf instead of submitting an IRB... proving procrastination can be productive after all. It is all done and wearable, and I'll post final pictures and details about it after the finals dust has cleared.



In the meantime, I've started a pair of Red Herring socks from the last issue of Knitty in turquoise and black. I knit about 1/2 inch or so whenever I need a break from my more pressing academic pursuits. I'm finding that although I do it very, very slowly, stranded colorwork can be really satisfying. Still hate intarsia though.

I'm free!

Guess what.....I finished the Christmas knitting! Isn't it amazing? I finished Mandy's bag this morning (although, technically, I still have to block and line the bags I've made and then I'll be totally finished with the christmas knitting. But, whatever). In fact, Mandy's bag turned out so well that I'm seriously considering submitting it to Knitty to be published. Which means that i'm not allowed to post pictures of it on the web until it's been accepted (or more likely) rejected. But here's a taste to hold you over:


Here's the final count of completed Christmas knitting:

• 3 pairs of socks
• 3 pairs of armwarmers
• 3 bags
• 2 hats
• 1 shawl

Not bad! And how to celebrate the end of my holiday servitude? With a super-fast super-bulky scarf, because its been snowing all day and I want to have something of my own as quickly as possible. Huzzah!


At least, these first 6 inches or so look warm and comfy.

Retail therapy and a FO jumpstart

Today was a good day! I found a winning cocktail of FO's and shopping to help prop up my waning academic abilities. I went yarn shopping and thrifting with a couple of girls from my area who knit and wear old, smelly clothes (just like me!) today, which was a much-needed break. I hadn't realized how long it had been since I'd looked foward to some sort of social outing, which is kind of frightening. So, it got me out of the house, away from the books, and all pumped on retail adrenaline.
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I ended up buying more sock yarn, of course. I bought two skeins of Claudia's Handpainted in the passion fruit colorway (in the blue shoes), which is amazing. The big blue hanks are Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the purple mountain colorway (appropriately pictured in the purple heels). They're gigantic skeins, and one is easily enough for a standard pair of socks, but I got ambitious and I'm planning on making super-long kneesocks with them. I got the cute blue and purple shoes, along with some skirts and a sweater, and the thrift store. The damage? $75 at the yarn store, $20 at the thrift store. Good haul.


After getting home and seeing Mr. Man off (he's gone to Oberlin, our alma mater, for the weekend to be a better activist than I and see our friends who are still wee undergrads), I spent the night alternately working on various psychological measures and papers and his armwarmers. Now, I'm finished with the reading I had to do and the armwarmers. I feel productive.
Yarn - about a skein of Malabrigo (100% merino, 215 yards) in apple green
Needles - Clover bamboo size 9 dpn's.
Pattern - some weird love-child of Fetching and Glaistig. The structure and shaping of the armwarmers are based on the Fetching pattern, but done in the cable pattern of Glaistig. I ended up doing three cable repeats total with an extra ten rows of 1 x 1 ribbing for the fingers, with the thumb being placed on the row just after the 5th cable turn. The thumb was made with five rows of 1 x 1 ribbing.

Only one more present to go!

Home Stretch

So, the semester is winding down and I'm definitely starting to feel the pinch of it. My last final and paper is due just under two weeks from now, along with two completed IRB's (or, research propoals for those of you not in the psychology loop), and a set of measure to use for pilot testing when I go home for Christmas. I've got a decent head start on the research stuff, and I'm planning for the paper in plenty of time, but I'm still in a very nose-to-the-grindstonish kind of mindset.


But....guess what else is winding down?! That's right! The damned Christmas knitting! I've only got 1 1/2 projects left and then I'm free to finally knit something for myself. As you can see, the first of the Glaistig armwarmers for He of the Big Fat Hands is essentially done. All that's left is to do is weave in the ends. I'll roll the other skein of Malabrigo into a ball and cast on for the mate tonight.


And look what came in the mail today! The yarn for Mandy's bag in the colors she asked for! I think I'm going to make a stranded two-color cabled bag, with pink as the background and the cables in green. I suspect that this won't take very long to finish since I've been using knitting to take breaks between all the academic stuff.

Thanksgiving 2006.....

Or, as it shall be heretofore referred to as, that weekend of many pies and completed knitting! Can you think of a better combination? I can't.

My boyfriend and I drove to our friend Van's on Wednesday because Chicago is way closer to Ann Arbor than Houston is. And man, I had no idea what I was getting into. Turns out, everyone but me was an accomplished chef, so I ended up peeling lots and lots of eggs. But the many tasty dishes were totally worth it!

Van also failed to mention that Friday was designated Egg Nog and Pie Day! Which I was, perhaps, more grateful for than Thanksgiving proper. Look at these babies....who could possibly resist them?

As alluded to above, I made great strides in demolishing my Christmas Knitting List of Doom. I finished the first purple armwarmer on the ride there, the second on Thursday, the first black one on Friday, and the second one on Saturday. I was literally walking from room to room while knitting for the sheer unencumbered joy of it! The purple ones are for Dani in Minnesota and the black ones are for Jennie in Indiana, and will hopefully be mailed off to them this week.
Yarn - 2 skeins Artyarns Supermerino (100% Merino, 107 yards) in color 237 for the purple ones and 2 skeins Noro Cash Iroha (%40 silk/ %30 lambswool/ %20 cashmere(!!)/ %10 nylon, 99 yards) in black for the (obviously) black pair.
Needles - I did both pairs using the magic loop method. I did the 1 x 1 ribbing on size 3 addi turbos and the rest of them on size 5 addi turbos. And then I used them to teach Van, who's been knitting far longer than myself, how to knit in the round.
Pattern - a slightly modified version of Fetching. I added ribbing and an extra cable repeat to the fingers of both sets, and an extra cable repeat to the cuff of the purple ones.


I also made this hat for my silly boyfriend! It turned out beautifully, if incredibly bright. I also think the color brings out his ruddiness and makes him look even more knackered on egg nog than he actually was in this picture.
Yarn - 1/2 skein of Malabrigo yarn (100% merino, 215 yards) in apple green (although I've never seen an apple quite that green)
Needles - el cheapo 16" bamboo circular size 9's that I've knitted a million hats on. Only, I forgot dpns, so decreasing the crown was a really sadistic form of knitting torture, let me tell you. Lesson? Always carry dpns. Always.
Pattern - Glaistig from The Anticraft. I followed the pattern to the letter, except that I skipped the eyelet row and corresponding hat band because it was a bit too girly for Mr. Man. I also went up a needle size and it fit his melon head perfectly.


On the way home, I cast on and knit about half of this bag for my sister. I hadn't planned on making her a bag, but Mandy decided on colors I didn't have in my stash, and I brought this along in case I finished all the other projects I had with me, which was aparently a good call. I finished it when I got home while watching Desperate Houswives.
Yarn - 1 skein Lopi (100% Icelandic wool, 110 yards) each in black and white.
Needles - 24" bamboo circular size 11, which is why I finished it so fast
Pattern - The Brainwash Bag adapted to be knit in the round.

So, what's left of the Christmas knitting? Not much!

• Mandy's bag, to be done in pastel green and pink. After which I will block, line, and sew straps onto all the bags.
  
• Tamar the Other's socks, to be done in January.
• A pair of armwarmers to match Jon's irradiated apple green hat. I'm knitting them to bide time until the yarn for Mandy's bag gets here. Here's a sneak peek of those:
  

The ever-expanding stash

Why is it that I end up buying more yarn for myself during the knitting-for-others holiday months than I do at any other time of year? Does this happen to anyone else, or am I just a freak? As you can see from the picture above, there are quite a few projects I'd like to start for me and me alone. I think that I've got 4 pairs of socks, a pair of felted slippers, 2 scarves, and 2 sweaters on the queue so far. And almost all of this yarn has been purchased within the last four months....which is about the same time that I started knitting presents for other people.......coincidence?

To put this in perspective, I think I only bought 5 or 6 skeins of yarn to make presents with, and at least 3 of those were on sale. Everything else was stuff I already had in my stash or yarn that people picked out and bought for themselves and then gave to me with specific items in mind.

I hope that when I eventually finish the Christmas knitting and get to knit thing for myself that I'll use up this laundry basket of yarn before getting distracted and adding to it. There's something about buying yarn and planning projects for the future that makes the act of knitting stuff you may not like for other people (especially people who don't knit and therefore may not fully appreciate the hard work and dangerous nature of knitting) more bearable, I guess. Apparently, self-denial is not my strong suit.

In any case, I'll get a decent amount of car-trip knitting done this weekend on the way to and back from Chicago for thaksgiving, and will hopefully make great strides towards finishing the last few presents.

Fever Dream

Ok. I'm not gonna lie, I'm fairly certain that I'm feverish. So, if this post seems a bit scattered and nonsensical, that's why.

Now that the pesky disclaimer's out of the way, let's get down to business! First, I realized today that my cats are now completely incapable of surviving in the wild. Not that I was about to drop them alone in the woods somehwere with only a book of matches and a tarp like they do with those super-rugged survival people or anything. But look at Mittens! Lolling about with her vulnerable belly exposed with a devil-may-care attitude. It's like they've turned into dodo birds, with no concept of fear or understanding that predators could be after them. If only we could all be so lucky, right?


I, on the other hand, am totally swamped with work. and when I say swamped, I mean swamped! I currently have four, count 'em, four projects in the works. I'm designing what will turn into my master's thesis, working on a qualitative data set with my advisor, designing a correlational study with another professor for a book chapter (yay! I'll finally have something real on my CV!), and finally, trying to pull together a couple of studies to beef up my undregraduate honors thesis and make it possibly publishable. We'll see how that goes. So, basically, all the stress and constant pressure has me feeling and looking like this picture: all bug-eyed and confused. I'm going to visit my friend in Chicago for Thanksgiving, and I'm determined to finish all the work than needs to be done by next week today and tomorrow so that all I have to do this weekend is knit, eat turkey, and sleep. Rest and recharge, if you will.


Of course, I know that the few of you out there reading this blog probably weren't attracted by the almost-psychologist part as you were the fiber-arts part. Well, last night, I cracked under the pressure mentioned above and rebelliously refused to do any sort of academic work and instead knitted this nifty little case for my fancy new digital camera. I used a little bit of pink and black Lopi yarn I had lying around and worked it in the slip-stitch pattern I used for Sam's bag. This was actually a very practical thing to make because the camera's been laying on the coffee table and the cats keep playing with the little string/handle thing and pulling it onto the floor (which, thank god, is carpeted.....but still).

The picture on the left is the yarn for the projects I have yet to knit into people's Christmas presents. I was going to include a picture of all the yarn I have that's slated for projects only for me, but I just bought some more online, and I'll wait to take it until it's arrived. The big gray mass is Henry's Attic Alpaca Tweed that will be made into a matching scarf and mittens set for my boyfriend (although it is very likely that he won't get the entire set until his birthday in February). The bright green Malabrigo yarn underneath it is going to be made into a hat for him. The white and black Lopi to the left of the alpaca will turn into a bag for Mandy, Sam's sister. The black ball and skein (Cash Iroha) and the purple skeins (Artyarns Supermerino) just above it at the bottom of the picture will be made into armwarmers for my exiled friends. The picture on the right is a closeup of the Supermerino. It's gorgeous! All purple with subtley shifting shades. I think I'll miss it when it's gone. Hopefully some of this will be converted into wearable objects by the time I get back from Chicago.

One down, 5 to go....

I finished knitting Sam's bag! Sam is my little sister's best friend, who I adore, and who is basically my other little sister. It's a slip-stitch pattern, so the fabric is kind of stiff and it needs to be stretched to it's final size and blocked into shape. I also need to line it, sew in some straps, and stick on some buttons to close the flap. I'll post all the yarn and pattern information when that's all said and done, so you can see it in it's full glory. In the meantime, here's a closeup to tide you over:

See? Lovely! Here's the (final, I hope) list of Christmas knitting that has yet to be done:

• A pair of purple cabled armwarmers for my purple-loving bestest buddy who's currently exiled in Minnesota, and therefore in dire need of warmth.
• Another bag for Sam's sister Mandy, though I'm not exactly sure what it should be.
• A bright green cabled hat for my goofy boyfriend.
• Probably something for my other bestest buddy who's exiled in Indiana, but I'm still not sure what it will be.
• And, finally, a pair of socks for my other. Luckily, these won't be made until January when I'll let her pick out the yarn while I'm visiting her in New York. She'll be making me a pair of armwarmers in return (she is the armwarmer queen!).

One of these cats is not like the others...

The cat hat is completed! I had my crazy boyfriend (who bought me a brand new digital camera for our anniversary! hooray!) model it because my head is way smaller than my younger sister's. She's got a ginormous melon head, and I still have to buy glasses from the kid's section of Eyemasters. Meanwhile, both cats snuck into the picture. Fatty McFatterson there in the back had some crazy dealyed reaction to the flash and almost a full minute after the picture was taken bolted like someone was about to set him on fire.
Yarn - 1 skein each of Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria (116 yards, 100% cotton) in black, white, and rose. This yarn is incredibly soft, but really nubbly, which means it has zero stitch definition.
Needles - el cheapo 16" size 7 circulars and dpns. I added the pink band to the bottom afterward because it wasn't quite long enough using a set of 40" size 5 addi turbos.
Pattern - My own!

Car Trips

This weekend, I went to the wedding of my boyfriend's brother. Well, actually, he's my fiancee, but we're not getting married anytime soon, so I always forget. Is that terrible?

Anyway, the wedding was wonderful, but the trip itself was kind of stressful. I had, of course, an alarming amount of class work to do (Read a bajillion articles! Write in-depth analyses of all of them! Sacrifice your life to the gods of academia!) so I was stressed out about losing 18 hours of valuable work time to driving. And, of course, there's always the awkwardness of hanging out with your significant other's family.

The obvious upside of not being able to work in the car, though, is being able to knit. 9 hours of straight knitting! How luxurious! My intrepid boyfriend drove the entire trip, there and back, by himself because our car is a stick and I can't drive one to save my life. He keeps offering to take me out for a training drive, but our apartment is situated between to gradual inclines and the prospect of rolling back and hitting another vehicle or small child is terrifying enough to keep me out of the driver's seat.


On the ride there, I managed to finish the second of my stepdad's cabled socks! I think they turned out splendidly, and if they weren't three sizes too big, I'd be sorely tempted to keep them for myself.
Yarn - Exactly 1 skein of Louet Sales' Opal Gems in teal (225 yards, 100% merino). I am inordinately proud of the fact that I managed to guestimate how much yarn these two socks would take within 10 or so yards.
Needles - my trusty size 3 addi turbos
Pattern - a slightly modified version of Cookie's BFF cabled socks.




On the way back, I cast on and knit about half of this cat hat for my sister. I made her one last year, but she lost it and requested another one. It's a pretty brainless project with only the most basic of intarsia for the cat stripes, which is nice for knitting in the car after dark. More pictures when it's finished!





So, until the next time I get a moment to catch my breath and knit something, adieu.

A new city, a new blog, a new set of Christmas knitting

So, here I am, almost a year to the day after I first learned to knit withmy very own, brand-spankin' new knitting blog. My plan is that it shall be awesome.

And who am I? I am a brand-new grad student in the University of Michigan's psychology Ph.D. program. I moved away from my comfortable nest of friends and knitting companions in Ohio and I've been feeling a tad bit lonesome out here by myself. All I have for company is my big goofy boyfriend and our two cats, Mittens (the littly gray one) and Jonnikins McFattington (the orange one), whom we call Fatty for short.

In general terms, I'm a huge dork, which I have come to accept and treasure. Need proof? I enjoy statistics...a lot. I titled my blog Captian Knitpicky because my compulsive rationality soemtimes gets me into trouble. I once went off on how much the space-time incosistencies in the Chronicles of Narnia bother me, to which a friend of mine responded, "That's ridiculous. You're the most illogically logical person I have ever met." Which, I think, makes me nitpicky. Add a K and you get a nerdy pun!

Anyway, this blog is supposed to focus on knitting. I have tackled the Christmas list, because I am too poor to buy proper presents. Knitted gifts would be acceptable, except that most of the people I knit for live in Texas, and my family keeps the air conditioner on even in December. Here are the things I have already completed:

A Clapotis for my mom. I used about 3 1/2 skeins of Katia Ingunea Print in color 5652 and knitted it on size 7 needles. I started on a really awful pair of pink plastic ones, but I lost one at some oint in an airport coming back from my friend's wedding and finished them on wooden ones. Honestly, how do you lose a 14 inch knitting needle without noticing it?



Also, a pair of socks for my mom. Although, technically they were for her birthday. But whatever. I used 2 skeins of Artyarns Supermerino in color 105 on 40" size 3 addi turbos. You can't really tell, but I used a traveling eyelet pattern that looks really nifty. The pattern is my own, although this is certainly not the first time someone has used traveling eyelets.





Here's a pair of socks I knitted for my boyfriend. I knitted them on my size 3 addi turbos and used 1 skein of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in Amish and another in Black Watch because he demanded that the socks be complementary, not matching. So, I chose a basic rib with stripes based on the Fibonacci sequence. See? I told you I was a dork. Anyway, the colors overwhelmed the stripes, and they turned out looking suspiciously like a Cosby sweater.

Here's what I have yet to knit:

• the second cabled sock for my stepdad (one down, one to go)
• felted bags for my sister and her best friend and her best friend's sister, who are like sisters to me
• fingerless gloves for my boyfriend
• socks for my Other (see I Heart Huckabees)
• felted slippers for my bestest buddy

Wish me luck.