Vacation's Over

But, man, was it eventful. I'll spare you the play-by-play of my Christmas trip home as that kind of thing is never nearly as interesting to anyone else as it is to you. Lots of knitterly things happened, though, so I'll try and break this post down into easily digestable nuggets.

Part I: In Which The Gifts Reach Their Intended Owners
The bevy of hand-knitted gifts I passed out this year were very well received indeed. I've grown kind of attached to the, so it was sad to see them go.

I barely made it home from the airport before Leila (my sister) insisted that I give her the much anticipated cat hat. Even though it was the day before her birthday, I caved, and she proceeded to take a bajillion pictures in it and took it off only for sleeping. Isn't she photogenic? She's the only one in the family who is.
Sam demanded her bag the same day. So she got her Christmas present early, but was so enthusiastic about it that I was unable to stay strong and say no. In fact, all three bags were huge hits all around, and each recipient was totally convinced that hers was a perfect match and the coolest, which made me feel all warm inside.
My mama loved her Clapotis, too. Even though I made fun of the colorway I'd picked for her and described it as reminiscent of cat vomit.
Here's Mandy's bag, which was another big hit. I did submit the pattern for publication at Knitty, but it wasn't selected. Oh well, I'll put the pattern up here as soon as I get a chance, so no harm done. I also heard from Dani, who got the purple armwarmers I mailed her, that her family was in love with them. So it all balances out in terms of my ego.

Part II: In Which The Author Spreads the Joy of Knitting Like an Infectious Disease
One of my favorite things about knitting is the immediate sense of community and camaraderie it gives you. I remember feeling suddenly plugged into this whole awesome network of people, even though all I'd managed to was a terrible acrylic garter stitch scarf with so many dropped stitches not even a hobo would wear it. So, I find myself wanting to teach anyone and everyone how to knit. I continued my personal quest to convert my entire social network into knitters one person at a time over Christmas with mixed results.

This is Lisa. She's awesome, and one of two people I still talk to from high school. She was down in Texas for Christmas on break from Sarah Lawrence. I taught her to knit last January, and even made her a fancy schmancy knitting handbook, but her lack of adequate knitting partners has stalled her. But she's got potential. In this picture, she's rifling through my (totally uninteresting and cash strapped) wallet. Just before this, she was pretending to knit my sock for me.




Underneath her is Jon, my boyfriend, who's modeled several goodies for this site. I've tried teaching him to knit a couple of times, convinced that he'd love it and we'd curl up by the fireplace we don't have and knit each other heartfelt scarves. Other people have tried too. Our friend Van plopped him down over Thaksgiving with a ball of yarn and some needles, resulting in the worst swatch ever. But, alas, I don't think it is meant to be. He says he doesn't understand string and his hands are too big. He may be right, but I don't think I'm quite ready to give up the ghost yet.


But, Sam and Leila took to knitting like ducks to water! I brought the remaining of the apple green Malabrigo leftover from the Glaistig hat and armwarmers down with me and taught them how to make a totally uninterested square of stockinette fabric. I foolishly assumed that these would just be wonky first-timer swatches that would languish in a bag somewhere having fulfilled their purpose as a learning experience. I totally underestimated them. Leila has plans to sew buttons onto hers to make it into a kicky neckgaurd/choker thing
and Sam had me sew the ends of her completed swatch together and is pictured sporting it as a headband. She was really excited about it at the time, so I'm not really sure why she looks like someone ran over her dog in that picture.

Sam got even more ambitious and after a quick and somewhat ill-fated trip to Wal-Mart (I had gone in search of a Mac compatible computer game, but it was in vain) where she picked up some needles, cheap yarn, and the goofiest learn-to-knit book ever, started a snazzy ribbed scarf eventually destined for her boyfriend.

I am brimming with pride.






Part III: In Which Cpt. Knitpicky is Reunited with Her Knitting Crew

After Christmas, I flew up to New York to spend a few days with my awesome friends. True to form, we spent New Year's Eve holed up in Dani's house on Long Island playing board games. We're basically all set to join the AARP.

The tall one banging the pot lids together is Tamar, my Other. The short one in the hat banging her pot against my pot is Dani, my soul twin. These are two of my very favorite people, and nutured my love of knitting last year. Dani taught me how! Mad props to her.


I know I said I wouldn't babble on about non-knitting related things that aren't of any interest to anyone other than me, but we played this awesome game called Ticket to Ride. The object of the game is to build a railroad system connecting various European cities. It sounds simple, and starts off slow, but quickly gets really intense and vicious. Jon's grinning because he won this game. He drove up to New York from Maryland.




And, of course, Tamar, Dani, and I hit a yarn store. How could we not? We picked Dani up from the Jamaica train station in this really strange section of New York, and went to Smiley's Yarn Store. It had a decent selection of mostly acrylic stuff that wasn't terribly offensive, but the really weird thing was that it only accepted cash. The blue yarn is Paton's Up Country that I'm going to use to make a scarf for Jon's mom with. The pink yarn is Lane Cervinia sock yarn that Tamar picked out. I'm going to make her socks and she's going to knit me a pair of armwarmers with yarn I picked out in return. I'm psyched. We went back to Tamar's apartment and fell into the old knitting groove.

Part IV: In Which The Lonliness of Long-Distance Travel is Used to Produce Socks

Aren't they lovely? I started the cable twist socks on the flight home, and made the entire leg during the flight! They went really, really fast, and I think I finished them in four days. On Christmas, no less. And the best thing? I was able to crack the fit barrier. I finally made myself a pair of socks that fit properly and was to long in the foot or too wide. I can wear them with shoes!
Yarn - 1 skein of handpainted Zen Yarn Garden sportweight yarn (100% superwash merino, 260 yards) in the Blueberry Swirl colorway. It was a total impulse buy from Kpixie, and totally worth it. The colors are gorgeous and muted and flow into each other in a most attractive way.
Pattern - Hello Yarn's Cable Twist socks. I really made no major pattern adjustments. I cast on 49 stitches instead of 56 stitches to go down a size, and I kind of made up the toe and heel as I went along. Oh! And if you look closely at the bottom picture, you'll see that I picked the gusset stitches the pretty way. Grumperina's right, it really does look better. I really enjoyed this pattern. It was simply enough to zone out, but not boring, because I'm a sucker for twisted stitches. I think it shows off the yarn really well.
Needles - I worked the socks using Magic Loop (what else?) on size 3 addi turbos.

I also made a pair of Jaywalkers! I've had this yarn lying around since September, and I've been dying to use it. I started these at home, finished the first on the plane ride to New York, and finished the second on the drive back to Michigan.


I took this picture of the sunset somewhere along I-80 in Pennsylvania on the way back as I was knitting them. The sky matched the yarn perfectly! Coincidence? I think not.
Yarn - All Things Heather sock weight yarn (100% superwash merino, 330 yards) in Zenith, also from Kpixie. This yarn is awesome. The colors are so vibrant and the yarn is so bouncy. It striped perfectly on the leg in the zig-zag pattern stitch, but there's a bit of awkward pooling happening on the instep of one of them (it's happening on the sole of the other one, but that's conveniently hidden), and I'm not sure if it had to do with the tension changing because the sole is knit in stockinette or because the pattern calls for extra decreases in the gusset, resulting in fewer stitches being worked for the foot than for the leg, or some combination of both. But, I don't care. I love them just the way they are.
Pattern - The ubiquitous Jaywalkers by Grumperina. Again, I basically improvised the toe and heel, but other than that I made no changes. And they fit perfectly, just as well as the cable twist socks! This is such an addictive pattern, so I see why so many people out there in knitblogland have made three or four pairs. If I knit these again, I'll pick up a set of size 0 needles to make the ribbing fit better.
Needles - I used a 29" Susan Bates quicksilver size 1 circular. Nothing fancy, but not quite as nice as working on the Addis. The needles are also pointier than Addis and I have this weird little habit of pushing the tip of the needle down when I'm knitting, resulting in a teensy callous on my left index finger.

So that catches you up. Now that the semester's starting back up, I'll be taking refuge in knitting and blogging once again. And of course it helps that I have cable internet and don't have to deal with dial-up like I do at home.

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.

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!).