Finishing Up and Giving Up

On the rare occasion when I knit an item twice, I'm so glad that I have the terrible habit of writing in books. When I was considering which pattern to use for the workhorse cardigan I had in mind for my most recent project, I pulled out my Cottage Creations booklets and decided to try another Rambling Rows Cardigan. My scribblings reminded me which needles I used--I still knit a new swatch since even the exact same yarn in a different color can have a different gauge--how much yarn to buy, where I made modifications, and even which buttonholes I preferred.

The end result is exactly what I had in mind. Like the first one, I used Lite Lopi, which I love. This time I chose a good neutral charcoal grey. The pattern couldn't be simpler, but it's fun to see the sweater come together, almost as if by magic, as you knit square by square. The only seams are the ones that run under the arm. After you knit on the border, all that's left is to sew on two buttons and do some gentle blocking. I love it so much, I'm tempted to do it all over again in a brown or tan version, but that will have to be another time.

So, I had my cardigan spread out on the floor drying and a whole evening ahead of me without yarn in the house for a new project. The horror! (No, I do not have a stash. I buy yarn; I knit the yarn; I go buy more yarn. I know that's unusual, but that's me.) I decided to get out the dreaded Double Knit Mittens to see if I could develop a little enthusiasm for getting these bleeping things finished.

Believe it or not, I finished one! And now, I surrender. I can not and will not knit the second mitten. There is nothing wrong with the pattern--it's me. I'm not good at knitting with two yarns, and I'm finally willing to admit defeat. This mitten actually looks like I knit it with my feet. So, by photographing each side, I'm going to pretend, for just a moment, that they are a pair. Humor me.

Since I won't be able to get to a yarn store for a few days, I did dig out my box of odds and ends from old projects and cast on something to tide me over. Maybe I'll share when it's finished. It's just something silly to keep me busy.

Winter marches on, and the cold is getting to be oppressive. Usually, I try not to let the weather influence my mood What do they say? There isn't bad weather, just bad clothing. Bundle up, layer it on, and get going. This winter has been tough though. The temps have been below zero for so long that we actually feel excited to see the thermometer reach "normal" levels.

To survive, the birds that come to our feeders just keep eating. (Sound familiar?) Despite the temps, I try to stay faithful to keeping our feeders full. Since fall, I've gone through nearly 100 lbs. of bird seed, and several packages of suet. Putting up with the squirrels and rabbits is worth it when I look out my window and see the beautiful cardinals. If they can take it, so can I.

Knitting Resolution or Insanity?

Looking for a quick and mostly brainless project to work on over the hubbub of the holidays, I flipped through one of my Elizabeth Zimmermann books and decided to try the Mitered Mittens pattern from The Knitter's Almanac. The pattern seemed simple enough, and I'm always attracted to practical knitting, so I did some research on Ravelry.

I discovered two things. First, that Noro Silk Garden appeared to be the perfect choice for this pattern. The long and gradual color changes show off the mitered design. And second, that someone had managed to make an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern even better. The original pattern gives directions for an after-thought mitten, but Ravelrer Grace Ivy has written out some basic instructions for a thumb gusset.

So, away I went, and Mrs. Zimmermann, once again, did not disappoint. The knitting is easy enough to memorize (you can put the book away after your first mitten), but has just enough going on to keep you interested. And the mittens are beautiful. My only complaint was that they worked up too quickly. My first pair were finished in no time, and I still needed some vacation knitting. I grabbed some leftover yarn and whipped up two more pairs.

What's the point of this exciting story? (Yawn.) Well, in the middle of Mitered Mitten mania, I had an idea. I'm not usually one to make New Year's Resolutions. (That's what people say when they don't have the fortitude to keep New Year's Resolutions.) My idea isn't so much a resolution as a goal. What if I spent the next year--or two/three?--making a scarf for everyone in my family for their Christmas gifts? That's about fourteen scarfs. Is that just craziness or really a do-able goal? Would it be a rewarding experience? Or would I be grabbing one to hang myself with by August?

I'll have to give this some more thought. There are some other things I want to work on in the queue, and I'm in the middle of my second Rambling Rows cardigan at the moment. Maybe I'll try one scarf and see how it goes from there.

Doesn't a scarf sound like a good idea on what is going to be the coldest night of the winter--so far?

Home At Last

In my last post, I had a picture of our living room Christmas tree, but seriously, this is a great Christmas tree--basking in a 70 degree Arizona day and surrounded by orange trees. And we live in MN because...???

No, no, no. I love my home and am glad to be back after spending our New Year's vacation in Arizona. The beautiful tree in the picture is on the grounds of the Arizona Biltmore Resort where we stayed for part of our trip. Besides pines, poinsettias, and orange trees, the gardens around the Garden Sprites were a welcome break from MN snow banks. The Wright-inspired Spa and Resort is like taking a step back in time. I loved reading about their history and checking out all the photos of the old celebrities and past presidents who had visited the place.

Since many of our vacations tend to revolve around sporting events, you just know we spent New Year's Eve at the Insight Bowl where the Gophers were defeated by Kansas, but a loss is much easier to take in such a lovely location. (Besides, I'm not a UMN grad, so I was just there for the sunshine! Sorry guys.) From the game, we headed over for the Tempe block party where we shared the ringing in of 2009 with 100,000 other people while we watched fireworks and listened to Styx. (Oh boy!) It's hard to say how many miles we had walked by the time we got to bed by 2:00 the next morning. I'm too old for that kind of day.

After exploring Phoenix, we set out for Flagstaff. Having never been to Arizona--outside of the airport that is--I couldn't get over the variety of landscape and climate. As we drove in to higher elevations, we came into winter again and laughed at the excited tourists who just had to drive to the shoulder of the freeway to get out and play in the snow.

The next morning we were off to the Grand Canyon. The views along the way are gorgeous and the canyon itself is quite a sight. We did have to wonder what the park must be like during the peak season when the crowds were considerable in the middle of winter.

On our trip back to Phoenix, we wound through the road leading to Sedona. I think this was my favorite spot in the whole trip. The town itself is pretty touristy, but the drive to get there is fantastic. There were a few campgrounds and resorts along that road that would be fun to visit if we ever get back.

By this time, we were ready to start heading home, but the good people at US Air wanted us to stay a little longer. Our late Saturday flight was canceled due to a mechanical problem, and we were unable to book another flight until Monday morning. We made the best of it and spent some more time looking around Phoenix and even got to a movie. (A movie we all loved, by the way--"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.")

It's good to be home--even with the snow and cold temperatures. Life isn't quite back to "normal" since we have our college kid with us for another couple of weeks, but we'll enjoy that while we can.

Thanks to flight times, car trips, and my tendency to wake up long before the guys are ready to get going on our vacations, I finished three more Mitred Mittens while we were gone. As I was packing for this trip, I wasn't sure what to take along for a project until I found the leftover skeins of yarn from St. Brigid. I threw those in my bag with some dpns and my copy of the pattern and they turned out to be just the thing to take. The pattern is so easy to remember that I could easily pick them up on the fly and be able to knit and enjoy the scenery at the same time. After I get caught up around here, I'll finish up that fourth mitten before I get back to my Rambling Rows cardigan. While I'm knitting, I can reminisce about oranges and Christmas trees.

The Eve of the Eve of Christmas Eve

Since I have a sneaking suspicion that this might be the last time I have to just screw around on the computer for awhile before Christmas, I thought I should spend a little time updating. We are really getting winter this year. Unlike more recent Christmases, this one feels like an old-fashioned Christmas with the cold and snow. No question at all about a white Christmas. At -11 degrees, this snow isn't going anywhere for awhile. The cold is fine for now, but I hope it warms up after the hubbub of the holidays so that we can get out and enjoy some of this snow. It's tough to ski when it's below zero.

Despite the frigid temps, we did venture out last night for a nice dinner at the M&S Grill and the George Winston concert at Orchestra Hall. It was a last minute decision, but the restaurant was quiet and there we tickets available for the concert. Winston is an unbelievable musical talent. Not much for showmanship until he starts to play.

Suppose I should quit stalling and get to work. The house needs a good once-over before we get to any serious celebrations, and there are a few food dishes that I can get prepped in advance so that I can avoid spending too much time in the kitchen later in the week. Calorie counting be damned for a few days!

Merry Christmas!

Norwegian Knitting

Last night I put the finishing touches on the matching sweaters that I have been making for my little niece and nephew for one of their Christmas presents. (I still had to get them a toy. What kid wants a sweater for Christmas?) I really needed to finish them up so that I could get all my family's gifts wrapped.

This was a fun project. I haven't had the time to do much machine knitting in the last few months, and so it was good to get in the workroom and get back into it.

Now I know a lot of handknitters think that this is cheating, but it's just another way of creating something out of fiber. While the actual knitting process is much faster with machine knitting, there is lots of planning that takes place long before you ever start making the sweater pieces. This is a Dale of Norway pattern called Sirdal. The Dale patterns are great for converting to machine knitting because they have very good graphs, and they also provide the schematics for their patterns. Just like in handknitting, the whole process starts with a swatch. Once I've entered the graphed patterns into the machine and selected my yarn, I knit a rather large swatch. I include every pattern--to test if they are correct--and I also make sure that I knit quite a bit of the main pattern. The main pattern in this case is the flecked design that is between the hem and the yoke patterns. Once I have the swatch knitted and blocked, I need to decide which gauge to enter into the machine, since the gauge in the main pattern is going to be slightly different than the gauge of the more dense patterns such as the one at the yoke of this sweater. The way I figure this out is to enter the dimensions for the shape of each piece into the machine and then adjust the gauge numbers to get the correct number of stitches and rows for that size. So unlike handknitting where it's important to adjust your knitting to the gauge of the pattern, with machine knitting it's important to adjust your pattern to the gauge of the knitting.

The next step is to measure out the length of each of the different patterns in the sweater. Then I add in the measurement for the hem--either a ribbed hem or in this case, just a folded hem. Once I have that measurement, I calculate how many rows of the main pattern that I will have to knit to get the length I need for each finished piece. Throughout this process, I keep detailed notes for every project so that when I get to the actual knitting, I am able to relax and just follow my own instructions--sometimes having to tweak a few things that sounded great in theory, but didn't work out so well in practice. The notes have also come in handy later on if I ever want to make the item again. Why reinvent the wheel every time?

Once the pieces are knit, most of the assembly can also be done on the machine. The only hand work on these two sweaters, after blocking, was to take care of several yarn ends, sew up the underarm and side seams, and apply the trim and buttons on the cardigan.

I'm really pleased with the way they both turned out, and am already thinking about something I'd like to make myself as a mid-winter project. Hope the kids like them.

Those Bleepin' Lights

When I noticed that two weeks had passed since I last posted, I wondered what I had accomplished in those two weeks. Actually, plenty--just like any other mother and wife has accomplished in these harried weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I won't bore you with all the details. Except, I must share my shock and delight about a project I tackled yesterday afternoon--the dreaded outside decorations for Christmas.

Why so dreaded? First off, I'm in MN. It's cold, and there's no way to put up wreaths, garlands, and lights with mittens on, so usually by the time I'm finished, I can no longer feel my fingers, and my toes aren't in much better shape. Secondly, it's those #@)%#$%^#! lights. I test them inside and they work fine, but spend ten or fifteen minutes wrapping them around some garland on the door frame, plug them in, and nothing! Arrrgghhh! But this year, I must admit, it really was smooth sailing. Cold? Yes, but no deep snow to trudge through with a ladder. Light bulbs out? A few, but I found the spent ones right away and had replacements. And just as I was finishing up, snow started to fall. I swear I heard Charlie Brown music in the background--oh, maybe that was my iPod. The good news is that it still appears to be in working order this morning. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I've also been finishing up a few knitting projects. The Cable Guy boopies are felted, dried, and waiting for their suede soles to be delivered by the UPS guy. (Man, those things are expensive!) The matching Norwegian sweaters for my niece and nephew are just about finished--lots of ends to be finished off and some sewing that won't take long. I got the crocheted fringe on a Prayer Shawl finished just in time for the blessing Mass last Friday. Finally, I cast off and blocked the Braids and Bobbles hat, and I love it. Hats and curly hair just don't go together, but as I said before, it gets cold here, so I'm always in search of a hat that works. This might be the best candidate yet. It's warm, but doesn't fit too tightly on my head. I'll give it a test drive this week. Maybe if I have to go outside and fix some of my lights.

Boopies!

Those are slippers to the uninitiated. I'm not sure why or how we started, but everyone in my family has grown up calling slippers "boopies." It can probably be attributed to toddler-ese--that secret language of little kids that only Mommies and Daddies really understand.

I think that slippers must have been one of the first things I ever knit as a kid--no doubt out of Red Heart yarn, and I can't imagine how many pairs I have knit since. They are a prime example of the total practicality of the skill of knitting--along with hats, mittens, socks, and basic sweaters. Sure, it's fun to do frivolous knitting, but what's better than finishing a project that you know will keep someone warm during our long winters?

Most recently, I finished a super simple pair of troll-like boopies from a free pattern that I found online. It's a pattern from a Finnish blogger, Minna, and you can find it here. The yarn is Cascade 220 Paints, and I chose colorway #9922. One skein was just enough to make a pair that would fit me--about a size 6 1/2-7. It would be an easy pattern to make larger or smaller--you'll need two skeins if you plan to go any larger. Once they were stitched up, I dug through my button jar to doll them up a little.

Last night I cast-on another pair that are also from a free online pattern. Cable Guy Slippers are knit and then felted. There's a little more to this pattern--a real heel and instep, some very basic cable stitches, and a kitchner stitched toe. I've had the pattern for quite awhile, but this is the first pair I've made. For this project, I bought Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride Bulky in the colorway Kiwi. I whipped through the first skein last night and made this gigantic cuff and heel. I've had mixed results with felting slippers in the past using the House Slippers pattern from Knit 2 Together and Fiber Trends popular Felted Clogs pattern. Front load washers are not the best for felting, and I always seem to end up with a pair of slightly different sized slippers, especially with the Felted Clogs. Since these are sock-like slippers, I'm hoping for a more forgiving result.

Waiting in the wings I have some yarn for the Ribby Slipper Socks from the new Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts issue. These too, look like a quick knit--just the thing for a last minute Christmas gift. I did not splurge on the suggested Blue Sky yarns, but went for a more practical washable option instead to test the pattern.

I'm not quite sure who's going to end up with my boopie projects this Christmas, but that's the beauty of knitting boopies. No matter the results, they are bound to fit someone who will be grateful to have cozy slippers to pull on their feet when they settle down on a cold winter night.