The Captain finds a new port.

So long, fair Blogger. I'm leaving you for a sunnier, shinier spot on the interwebs.

My musings on knitting, fiction, and grad school will be reported here from now on.

FO: Excequered hat

I love this hat! I made this hat just before Christmas and wore the hell out of it all through winter. I think it's my favorite hat I've ever made.

Yarn - gray and black DK weight Checkheaton country 8 play

Needle - size 3 circulars

Pattern - I made this up as I went along, mostly. I worked it bottom up, doubleknitting in a checkered pattern. At the crown, where the decreases started, I broke up the pattern (a la this scarf i'll never, ever finish) and bound off. Then, I picked up about a third of the stitches along the front bottom edge and made a short row pocket for the brim (I used the brim cut out and trimmed down from an old, cheap hat I bought at Forever 21 a million years ago). I think what I like best is that it's very nearly reversible.

So, that's it. You're up to speed. I also made a sweater and a half for myself that I may never wear (I have a problem with this. I'm trying to be much more realistic in terms of making the kinds of sweaters I actually where instead of the kinds of sweaters I wish I wore because I like making them) and a pair of mittens for Dani which were excellent but which were given to her before I took pictures of them.

FO: Cobblestone Pullover for Jon

Jon's second handknit sweater! This one he seems to like especially, which is excellent.

Yarn - Manos del Uruguay kettle-dyed in navy and brown. I loved this yarn, loved the hell out of it. And I bought enough to make myself a sweater, then couldn't bring myself to because ultimately it would have been a waste of yarn. I don't wear these colors much and I don't wear big mottled sweater no matter how pretty. So I gave up the ghost and made it for Jon instead.

Needles - size 8 addi turbo circulars I think

Pattern - more or less directly from the cobblestone pattern, but with added length in the torso and arms.

FO: Extra Simple Mitts

I made these after winter was mostly over. Because my coat pockets are warm enough and this winter was suspiciously mild, I actually more or less got away without having a good pair of mitts this year. But, my apartment is still kind of cold and my desk is right next to the window, so I worked on these on and off for awhile and still where them in the mornings when my hands are chilly.

Yarn - don't remember. Extremely fine rose-colored lace weight yarn which I think has some substantial silk content to it.

Needles - size 0 addi turbos. These took awhile.

Pattern - none. I made these up as I went along. Aside from the ribbing at the cuffs and the tops, it's all stockinette. I didn't do a gusset (my hands are shaped kind of funny), I just separated enough stitches to make a thumb and used the leftovers to make the part for the fingers.

FO: Modified Froot Loop socks

Yarn - more Spunky Eclectic sock club yarn, but I don't remember the name of the colorway.

Needles - size 1 addi turbo circulars

Pattern - modified version of Froot Loop socks from Knitty, worked toe up with a short row heel. I started them as the pattern specified, but it pulled the fabric too tight across my foot, so I pulled it out and started again, this time only working the loop sections and dropping the twisted ones.

FO: Plain Ribbed Socks

Yarn - another from the Spunky Eclectic sock club (my favorite so far). colorway called Istanbul Sunset. Very thin, fine yarn.

Needles - size 0 addi turbo circulars (like I said, very fine gauge yarn)

Pattern - just a simple 2x2 rib. Really, truly nothing fancy. I started these socks three or four times with fancyish patterns and it never looked quite right - either the pattern overwhelmed the colors or the colors overwhelemed the pattern and neither way looked quite right. So I just did a rib instead.

They were worked toe up (casting on 32sts and increasing to 72 sts) with a short row heel (everything wrapped but center 13 sts). The 2x2 rib was worked as set for about 50 rounds, then I started calf shaping by making 1 purl stitch in between the two already set purl stitches of every 3rd repeat of the rib pattern (you can see it if you look closely at the second picture above). the next 9 rounds were worked as established. I did this two more times, so that by the end all purl sections had three stitches instead of two.

FO: Monkey socks for me

Yarn - I honestly don't have a clue. bought it a long time ago to make socks for someone else online, proceeded to mangle it into a Gordion knot, and then shoved it in the back of my yarn cabinet to hide from the shame and failure of it. Grabbed it this Christmas and determined there was just enough to make a short pair of socks with it.

Needles - I believe size 1 addi turbo circulars

Pattern - Monkeys from Knitty. I made a pair for Tamar before, now I have a pair for me. Worked them toe up with a short row heel so technically the monkey stitch pattern is upside down.

FO: Los Pequeñeos Relojes de Arena socks

Yarn - Sometime last year just after I went on that blogging hiatus, I joined the Spunky Eclectic Sock Yarn Club. It's excellent. This was the November (or maybe October?) colorway called Ribbons. Very squishy.

Needles - size 3 addi turbo circulars

Pattern - Los Pequeñeos Relojes de Arena socks done toe up with short row heel. Pattern was fun, quick to memorize, if a little tricky. Definitely more intricate than it looks, but it's set me on a rib-based sock kick that just won't quit.

Sorry about the delay, folks.

Over the last year, this blog has shifted from just knitting, to knitting plus fiction writing exploits, to mostly exploits in fiction with a few pieces of knitting thrown in. And for the last six months, there's been no updates at all.

But that doesn't mean nothing has happened. I have a six month-long backlog of knitting projects to report on and much progress has been made on the grad school front. And I'm still writing - and now Jon and I have a more legitimate website where we're writing about writing.

So here's the deal: I'm going to bring this blog up to speed in terms of knitting and then (because I've gotten the go-ahead from Jon about this) I'm going to phase this blog out and post my occasional knitting updates on the mostly-writing blog. It's a little through the looking glass but it beats trying to manage two different blogs which the last six months has shown I'm not able to do with anything like consistency.