Another one bites the dust

I *finally* finished my mittens I started “last year” for my friend. I made one, then I got motivated to do other things, and I finally finished a second. Of course it has the same problem many of my mittens have, that it’s too small:

but at least it’s done and a pair. I think I’ll finish a second Telaio mitten to give to her, though.

In the spirit of stashbusting, I have been looking through my stash for oddballs and needles I need, and I found a WIP from who knows when. Last year sometime I was starting socks here and there, then I got totally off of the sock bandwagon and put them all aside. (I have 4 socks OTN that I can remember, and two that I finished one sock but never cast on for the second.) So I pull out this Knit Picks Palette sock, work on it for awhile, try to make it into a fingerless glove, and decide it is just not the right size for my wrist. I (gasp) frogged it. Then I pulled out all the Palette I have including another WIP I started who knows when and got stalled on. I’m now making a top down raglan and we’ll see how it goes.

I also had one of those funny experiences the other day that you can’t share with anyone but another knitter. I saw someone wearing an Odessa hat! It’s so funny when you can identify a pattern that someone has made and you’re not at Stitches or something like that.

Now if I could identify the yarn, I would be very very proud of myself!

Warm hands

Well, not really. I didn’t have that much yarn left over from a 50-60 yard skein of Montana, but I did make two “hand warmers” that actually fit, but don’t cover the parts of my hands that actually get cold. They’re a fashion accessory, like Madonna wore, right?

Next up I’m finishing the second mitten for my friend so I can pass on the three pairs I made to a local group and be done with mittens for now. I did order the new book Knitting New Mittens and Gloves so I suppose when that comes out I’ll be back, who knows.

And of course I need to set a plan in motion for this gorgeous yarn:

Yes, that is 20 skeins. I had two of the black version given to me in a swap, and I liked the yarn, but the only place I found it was from Niki who had 20 skeins! She gave me a great deal, so how could I resist? We all know “resistance is futile” right ?

Movie knitting

As you might remember, I have been at the movie theater 5 times in the past couple of weeks:

Sweeney Todd

Juno

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Charlie Wilson’s War

The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything

and of course at the movies you need knitting, right? Stockinette knitting? So of course I had to start a new project. I actually only knit this at the last 3 movies, but it’s done! Presenting the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet:

It was funny, because of the two other groups that were with us at the Veggie Tales movie (not as bad as I might have expected), one of the moms was a knitter too! She came up to me in the beginning and said she should have brought her knitting too, and we commiserated on the need for knitting while watching a movie. Of course this was also the first time I actually lost my yarn while in the theater, but I had to chase after IM who kept running around. Got to love kids movies.

Here’s another interesting fact. You probably won’t believe this, but this “capelet” (shortened raglan, of course) was knit with two different yarns! When I was looking for a quick project to bring to the movies, I grabbed this Schoeller and Stahl Volare Mouline that I bought in Portland, and since the original was knit with 1 1/2 skeins of Rowan Polar, I thought my 3 skeins of Volare would be fine.

Uh, no. I ran out near the end, and was thinking about using a contrasting color, probably black, but wasn’t sure. I went into my stash, and lo and behold this Online Montana was almost exactly the same color!

It is nicer, actually, as it is 50% wool and 50% acrylic, while the Volare is 25% wool and 75% acrylic, but really at home and even sometimes outside I couldn’t tell the difference! Can you?

There is a very slight difference, besides materials, and that is the Montana has a stripe of orange/brown along with the red, purple and pink but it is so close! And I used up 4 balls of stash!  (Don’t ask about the destashing I helped someone out with last week … more to come on that.)  I’m working on fingerless gloves with the remaining Montana, if there is enough.

I feel so prolific this year!

So cold!

I know that once you move (back) to California you lose all your cold tolerance, but this ridiculous! It was 40 degrees this morning and I wanted to walk outside but I was too cold!

Most every afternoon I go to the park and have been knitting recently. Yesterday, however, I forgot my jacket and was freezing. I decided to use up some of the yarn I happened to have in my car. I tried to knit a neckwarmer, but in my haste I knit it way too large:

I did have a line on a job at the local racetrack, but this is ridiculous! I am able to double it up at least:

Unfortunately I didn’t finish it in time to warm myself at the park. There’s always today. Then last night while watching another thrilling episode of October Road (there have been better, but it was pretty good – I really hate the way they talk in that show – it’s very “writerly”) I finished one of the formerly fingerless gloves I started in Portland. I’ve really mastered Kitchenering on the fly (including yesterday in the chair at the eye doctor), so I didn’t really realize that I wasn’t at a Kitchenering stage – I forgot to decrease! The now mitten looks great like this:

I do enjoy that Lana Grossa Telaio more than I thought. It’s a railroad yarn that turns out to be rather solid with shiny bits. Anyway, if you look more closely at the thumb:

I really did try to take the Kitchener out and redo it, but I couldn’t because of the yarn. It does fit, though.

Finishing up a storm.

Just don’t look in my yarn closet, where my WIPs are hiding. But I have been finishing the mitten projects I’ve started in December and January. I started this one relatively recently, out of one skein of Patons Rumor. I tried to cable the cuff but gave up on the first one, otherwise I like that one the best. The second I just could not make not pointy! I kitchenered the stitches, didn’t like the finished project, but found it impossible to pull the yarn out again to re-finish. So one is pointy and one is nicer looking, with a weird cuff. Oh well.

As you might know, there hasn’t been much TV around to entertain me, except for Medium, October Road, ER and Friday Night Lights, so I’ve been watching a lot of movies on TV.  I just started this hilarious one, “Bad Medicine” starring Steve Guttenberg and definitely every 80s movie second fiddle you can think of.  I think it wil help me to finish the other two mitten WIPs I’ve got going.

Eep!

I was just updating my stash lists on LiveJournal and Ravelry, and I was beginning to think that I didn’t have any yarn left (even though I still have a closet full), but when I tallied it up on Ravelry it came up to … 612 skeins! How scary! And I’ve been actively trying to use up my stash too – I even used up 5 skeins just this year!
I finished another pair of fingerless mitts. I only had one skein of Recycled Silk so I knit from both ends and ended up with some nice sized mitts. I love the colors, and the yarn was just so fuzzy that I thought that reverse stockinette was the right way to showcase this yarn. However, they are just a bit too large! I’ll either keep wearing them or see if my friend C.Lo (she of the 6 feet and the shawl I made last year) can fit into them. It’s too bad because I really like them, even if I still don’t quite understand fingerless mitts and their uses and advantages.

I am soooo lazy.

Unfortunately OR got my lazy gene as well. Anyway, I was making mittens for my friend Lisa. I made one on the way to and from Maryland. Then I tried to make a second, but it was too small, so I made it into a fingerless mitt. Then I made a second fingerless mitt. Then I started again on the second mitten. Aargh, it is too small! I am just way too lazy to make a fifth, or even fix the 4th (and guess what – the fingerless mitts don’t match either ) plus I don’t have enough 220 yarn. I am tempted, however, to felt the larger one and try to give them to a friend’s daughter. But I don’t know many people with daughters and the one I am thinking of I made a baby blanket for 3 years ago and never saw it again. She couldn’t even drape it over the infant carrier? But I digress. Here are my poor bedraggled mittens:

(P.S. my finishing skills leave a lot to be desired as well. I don’t know why I always end up with ends poking out.)

So because I am so lazy, I ended up making a different pair for Lisa:

I made these out of one skein of this 100% wool yarn I got at Jo-Ann. They had these kits on sale (some still have them, but they aren’t on sale for some reason) for $8 – 4 skeins of yarn as well as a circular needle, crochet hook, tapestry needle and thread. It was for a felted bag but I am not fond of felting and I thought it was a great deal. I have two of these.

So for my Christmas knitting I still need to complete one mitten for Amy and two for Shivani – for 2007. How’s that for timeliness? At least the mittens aren’t taking that long to complete. I made the pink and white ones in two days.

Which reminds me – I have a secret. I should have been cleaning or doing errands, but I went to the movies twice this week. On Monday I saw “Sweeney Todd” and started the first mitten. On Tuesday I saw “Juno” and started the second mitten. I do feel guilty for seeing movies while BR is working, but I get so much knitting done

(Stash accounted for: 172 skeins)

The $43 stitch holder

I’ve been into making mittens this year (I still haven’t finished the 3 pairs I want to make for my friends, scarily enough), but my startitis combined with that pattern calls for quite a few stitch holders. I have 4 or so, and they’re currently in use.

Today I decided I was going to take a walk, and bring my knitting with me. This year I’ve finished one pair of fingerless gloves and two pairs of mittens, so last night I started another pair. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my stitch holder with me, and I was about 20 min. away from my car. Of course I couldn’t not knit the rest of the way!

I decided to stop into Vanessa’s because it was near and open. I’ve looked at their yarn before, and been underwhelmed. It strikes me as a store that started as a needlepoint store and brought knitting in when it became popular, but I’ve been told it’s been a knitting related store for years. Also, you remember that I shopped at 2 yarn stores in Maryland and didn’t buy anything recently. I also stopped at another LYS before Christmas and didn’t find anything to buy.

I did find a cute stitch holder (the typical one, but smaller than I’ve seen before) and decided to do a little shopping since I was there. First I found this gorgeous Cascade Jewel, in a red/pink color. I only bought one because I didn’t want to spend too much, but then I found the Lana Grossa Mega Fiamma. It’s actually purple, fuschia and black. And of course they’re having a sale, with many boxes of (novelty) yarn at 99 cents a skein! I bought 5 of the blue yarn just because it was cheap and I have 3 boys. In the middle of the picture is the fingerless glove I’m making out of Recycled Silk. I hope I have enough as I only have one skein.

(Stash accounted for: 165 skeins)

Ugh.

So we finally have the rain we have needed for years (I remember two years of a lot of rain since I had my kids, and that’s about it), but it is such a pain! First of all our city was officially designated a flood risk, so we were required to get flood insurance. But then we had a flood! I suppose I am exaggerating a bit, but we have this God awful covered patio that has a slanted concrete floor, and it floods, inside, if we get a lot of rain. Not to mention that our neighbors’ yard is totally flooded, and draining onto our patio. All of this was after we had to face the storm 3 times today because the kids’ camp ended early because the county closed the park/museum that it was being held at. Ugh.

I’m not even getting knitting done, because I have to drain out our patio, and organize the crap we have been storing in there for 5 years. And I’m really into it, too because last night I finished this:

The full mitten on the left I finished on the way to Maryland. Then I started a second that I thought was exactly the same, but it turns out that it is smaller, so I made it into a fingerless mitt.

I started this during “The Chipmunk Movie” on Wednesday (I really wonder why they made this movie. It was pretty bad.), then KIP it around wherever I went yesterday, ending with “The Black Dahlia” and not being able to sleep after that movie I was inspired to finish up last night. I started the second today, and then need to complete a second mitten in a larger size I guess. They’re all being made from one skein of Cascade 220. Got to love those “large” skeins.

While I was gone I was busy knitting mittens, obviously:

I was fixated on how much colder it was going to be in Maryland than California, so I decided to make mittens for everyone. I only finished two pairs. I started IM’s and then OR was following me around asking me for his “Santa mittens”. He literally went to bed, woke up and said “Are my mittens done yet?” I hadn’t started them of course. One pair I made out of GGH Goa, and one out of some Cascade yarn that OR picked out on his very own trip to the yarn store. Can you believe there were three yarn stores close to my parents’ house that I hadn’t been to?

This is not the first time OR has wanted me to buy him his own red yarn. This time he got his way, as we went to Woolwinders, about 15 min. from my parents’ house. Their selection was fine (they did have Noro Iro on sale I was tempted to buy) but their service was so good, I would definitely go back next time if I needed yarn in Maryland.

The next day I went to Fiberworks, in Ashton, and also not too far away.  This was one of those packed to the rafters yarn stores, but a lot of the yarn seemed out of control and not in its best shape.  They did have a great selection, and I found some yarn to buy, then I went up to the counter and stood there.  And stood there, while everyone there talked. I didn’t have any idea who the employees were, and didn’t want to stand there indefinitely, so I just left. I could have found something to buy anytime I visited, but I don’t think I’ll go back.

So I came home from Maryland with just one new skein – now halfway knitted into mittens. What a sad trip, yarn-wise!  I guess I did get a lot done, so that is definitely better for my yarn stash.

Year End Wrapup

I’m a bit late (I’m really dragging this week after staying up 24 hours for New Year’s Eve while travelling back from Maryland to California), but here is what I can recall of what I completed this year:

Red Scarf 2007
Red Scarf 2007b
9 squares for blanket project
Second Swap Syndrome II sock
Purple Haze socks for Sock-ret Pal
C.Lo’s shawl
Teacher scarf 1
Teacher scarf 2
Teacher scarf 3
New York City sweater 1
New York City sweater 2
Red Scarf 2008
Red Scarf 2008b
Red Scarf 2008c
Red Scarf 2008d
Red Scarf 2008e

Red shrug
yellow scarf
Yellow, Black and Rectangular shawl
camera cozy
iPod cozy
cell phone cozy
mittens for Ian
mittens for Owen
1 mitten for Amy
1 mitten for Lisa

I also started so many things:

Cascade 220 sweater

red fingerless mittens

black fingerless gloves

pink fingerless gloves

red mittens

and I’m sure I could go on. Next year I vow to get more things completed, as I have so many WIPs I’m really don’t want to even look to find out what I have to finish …