Making an Exit

 

I've just got a second to pop in, but I wanted to show my progress!  I'm past the halfway point of the back on the sleeve/back/sleeve section.  I always use a row counter when I knit and I kept really good notes on the left sleeve and first half of the back so I should just be able to backtrack and have a matching second half of the back and right sleeve.  Right?  Let's just all say yes, it's going to work out just fine.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Hexipuff Day!

It's time to show off the new hexipuffs!   Seven, bright, new hexipuffs for the collection!  I've been making white ones and I clearly need to weave in some ends.  I'll get the ends woven in before I toss them into the bag.  I've got to replenish my stuffing bag that goes in the hexipuff bag - I'm almost out.  It's amazing how little stuffing each of these guys takes.  If I'm counting right, I think this makes 63 hexipuffs total.  I've got a long way to go!

What Once Was Ravi...

 

...is now becoming a different cardi.  I chose the Retreating Sweater to make with my Ravi yarn (I have four skeins of the Socks That Rock Mediumweight, so 1600+ yards - more than enough).  The sleeves and back of the sweater are knit first, then you do a bit of seaming, pick up stitches, work down, and Bob's your uncle - you have a sweater!  This is the first sleeve.  I think - Caleb helped me with the measuring bit and I'm going to try it on first before I assume I'm starting the back.  It's not that I don't trust my son's measuring abilities, but I don't really trust my son's measuring abilities.  You understand, I'm sure.

Christmas Knitting

 

I got some more Christmas knitting done over the weekend (I've already knit the pair of socks).  This is The Boy Hat, a free pattern, knit in Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in the Terrarium colorway.  This colorway really reminds me of camo so I thought it would be a perfect gift for someone on my Christmas list.  I figured this out when I was using it (in the Tosh DK base) in the Neat Ripple blanket. The Vintage is a little heavier weight yarn than the Tosh DK, with more twist to it, but it's still very soft.

The pattern is extremely well written and knits up very quickly.  I started it in the late afternoon Saturday, stopped for dinner and had it finished up, ends woven in and everything long before bedtime that night.  Great TV knitting and since most males (at least the ones in this house) seem to prefer simple designs, perfect for the purpose.

BTW, if you're on my Christmas list and want something knitted, let me know what you've got in mind soon!

Sometimes You Need a Redo

Remember Ravi?  Cute Cardigan, in garter stitch, 3/4 sleeves, shaped hem?  Well, Ravi is no more.  I love the look of the design and there are no problems with the pattern, I just wasn't wanting to work on it.  When that happens, I know its time to take a serious look at the project, because something is bugging me.  With Ravi, I was afraid it wouldn't work for my wardrobe.

The suggested yarn for the pattern is Socks That Rock Mediumweight which I was using.  It's a sport weight yarn but because it's designed for socks, it has a lot of twist and is a very dense yarn.  I wasn't quite through my first skein of it yet, but the part I had knitted just felt heavy.  This was exacerbated  with the garter stitch - garter stitch compresses in the vertical direction and it's not a flat fabric - it has horizontal ridges.  It almost works like something corrugated and will trap body heat accordingly.  I could tell that with the density of the yarn and the texture of the garter stitch, this would be one warm sweater.  I love warm sweaters and yes, there are times when you can wear warm sweaters in Texas.  I don't see much use for warm sweaters with 3/4 length sleeves though. If I need a warm sweater, I want long sleeves.  I know I could have knit long sleeves, but the 3/4 length sleeves just seemed perfect for Ravi.  I didn't want to change that.  So once I admitted all this to myself, it was off to the frog pond with Ravi.  I might try again at some point with a less dense yarn, but for now, I'm moving on.

I've already chosen and started a new pattern with the yarn and this will be much more suited to what I can wear here.  I'll give you a peek of the new project later this week.  Oh, and I mentioned spinning over the weekend in Friday's post.  Max was unfortunately in full Wrecking Ball mode over the weekend so I chose not to spin - thought it was safer for everyone involved.  Maybe sometime this week I can get out the wheel.  He's got to sleep sometime (other than at night, which he still does, all night long, under the covers, sideways).

I'm Back!

 

Things should be back to normal around here now - or as normal as they ever are!  I'll show you what I was working on towards the end of the year.  In the meantime, I finished my Cladonia shawl!  This was my Knit Something of the Month project for September and it clearly needs a good blocking, but the knitting is all done.

This was a great pattern - the stripes were easy and made great TV knitting and they ended just at the point where I was getting tired of them.  Then the lace required just enough concentration that I didn't notice how long the rows were.  The picot bind off took a while, but being easily amused, I couldn't stop looking at the color changes.  (The yarns I used were Loopy Solids Series in Navy and Socks That Rock Lightweight in Maia.)

Have a great weekend!  I feel like spinning this weekend!

Best Laid Plans And All...

 

Remember how I was going to get a lot of knitting done over the weekend so I could start something new?  Well, this is all the knitting that happened.  Less than two inches on the body of Ravi.  There was a lot of lazy happening over the weekend and it was a nice weekend, but there wasn't much knitting.  It probably doesn't help that garter stitch doesn't grow quickly in the vertical direction either.  Here it is though - a weekend's worth of knitting!

Blogging may be sporadic this week because I'm finishing up a stealth project right now.  I'd like it finished this week, but I can't show it to you until the end of the year.  That means I may not have time to feed the blog regularly.  Once I have something to show on the blog, I'll be back though.

Onto the Lace!

I've just gotten started with the lace section of Cladonia, my Knit Something of the Month project for September!  As you can see, the lace is in the navy and then I'll do the picot edging at the end in the multicolored yarn.  I feel like this is moving along pretty quickly and these first few rows of the lace that I did last night really flew along.

Today is drizzly and cool so it's definitely inspiring me for warm, snuggly knitting.  I keep finding myself wanting to cast on something new, but I know that if I have too many things on the needles, nothing will get done.  I'm trying to be good and work on what I have going (which is really plenty to work on), but there's yarn in my stash all matched with great patterns that are crying out to be knit up.  Maybe if I really work hard on my WIP's over the weekend I can start something new next week?  I'll give it a try and see how long I can ignore the siren call of New Projects!  Have a great weekend!

Hexipuffs

 

Just swinging by the blog to show you the week's new hexipuffs!  I realize this is quite possibly one of the most boring blog posts ever (look - more hexipuffs!), but it keeps me going on them when I really wanted to bring Cladonia to the gym yesterday instead of working hexipuffs.  They are fun to knit and they really freak people out when they make the mistake of asking what I'm knitting.  They just kind of back away slowly and you can see them thinking of the sheer number of these silly little things I'll have to make for a blanket.  I love freaking people out with knitting, don't you?

Maximus Takes Over the Blog

Normally when Mommy does this blog thing, I am asleep.  After all, I have already woken up with her and entertained all of my humans while they eat breakfast.  I slap Logan around a bit and when Mommy takes the Caleb to school, I settle in for a little nap.  The last couple of mornings have been different around here - the Caleb is doing something called "Euphonium Practice" in the morning.  (Mommy helped me spell that, but only because I don't have opposable thumbs so dictionaries are difficult - I could have totally done it myself with thumbs.)

Whatever this Euphonium thing is, it's not actually here yet, Caleb is practicing with something called the mouthpiece.  It makes funny noises.  Mommy says it sounds like an elephant with gas.  I'm pretty sure this mouthpiece thing is about to die so I'm hanging out with the Caleb so I can gnaw on it as soon as it keels over.  Logan has tried several times to rescue Caleb from the mouthpiece so Mommy puts up the child gate so Logan can't tackle Caleb while he practices.  Everyone around here seems very excited about the mouthpiece so I can't imagine how excited they'll be when the whole Euphonium comes home.  Apparently we're going to be doing this every morning now because when the alarm goes off for Mommy and Me, it's going off earlier.  (Daddy has his own alarm, but I don't have to get up with him because he sometimes works funny hours.  I get up with Mommy.)  Now we get up and have extra time for the Euphonium Practice.

This morning I'm still awake because Mommy went for a run.  I love it when Mommy runs because I can help her stretch out.  I roll around and purr and show her how to do her stretches because everyone knows cats are way better at this stuff than humans.  After supervising the Euphonium Practice and then showing Mommy how to stretch, I think I've done enough today.  I'm going to go get a nap so I can help my humans some more later this afternoon!  I don't know how they got anything done without me!

Ravi, Beyond the Yoke!

I've gotten Ravi's entire yoke knitted now and I've picked up stitches and started to work down the sweater!  I've been wanting to get past the yoke on this sweater and start working the body.  I think the body will move quickly (like all top down sweaters seem to) and I'm looking forward to getting this knitted.  Hopefully you'll be seeing some progress on this over the next couple of weeks.  On the next row, I'll be separating the sleeve stitches from the body!

Stripy, Stripy Goodness

 

I'm still striping on my Cladonia!  The stripes are great TV knitting because you don't really have to pay attention that much.  I do love the way the multi colored yarn is working with the navy blue and it's fun to see how the colors change across the row.  (Yes, I am easily amused, why do you ask?)  The weather changed here over the weekend and it actually cooled off a little bit.  We're only supposed to be in the low 90's over the next couple of weeks for highs and we actually have a few days where we stay in the 80's.  This of course makes me think of Fall knitting, warm snuggly sweaters, and finishing up an afghan or two.  It's not actually cool enough to wear these things yet, but I did wear jeans the other day, for the first time in months.  I'm hoping for an actual Fall and Winter this year!

Quadrature for Smaug

The mysterious blue ball of yarn in yesterday's photo?  It's part of this:

The pattern is Quadrature for Korrigan and I knit it in Cascade 220 Superwash in Sapphire Heather.  I used size 7's (4.5mm) and used 4 skeins (3 + a few yards of the fourth to complete the bind off) of yarn.  It's just under 36 inches square so it should work well for a car seat blanket, a stroller blanket or any of the thousands of other times you need a blanket on a baby that isn't huge.  This is for a friend who is actually a beginning knitter - my Mom and I taught her to knit.  Yes, the baby is a boy.  I didn't want to blog it in progress because even though she doesn't read the blog regularly, I didn't want to chance it.  Her baby shower is tomorrow though so I thought I'd show you today.  Great pattern and I'm really happy with how it knitted up.  I think it is a nice blanket for a boy. 

As for the name, well  I don't know for sure what they're going to name him, but the parents are HUGE LOTR fans, so I'm thinking there's a pretty good chance he'll be Smaug.  I mean, why not?

The View From My Knitting

 

I was knitting the other afternoon before it was time to pick Caleb up and the house was quiet and so were the boys and I just had to get a picture to share with you!  Tomorrow I'll show you what that blue yarn became!

September Knit Something of the Month

I skipped my Knit Something of the Month in August because of the Ravellenic Games and the last project of Camp Loopy, but now I'm back with September!  This is the start of Cladonia done in Socks That Rock Lightweight in Maia and The Loopy Ewe Solid Series in Navy.  The lace section will be in Navy with the picot edging in Maia.  There actually isn't any navy in the Maia, but I decided that all the colors in Maia would work with Navy, so that's what I chose to go with it.  I don't wear a lot of navy but I do have a little bit and I don't have a navy blue shawl so I thought it was time to do something about it.  This should also work with anything (but black) that I pair with jeans and I live in jeans when the weather cools off.  Fun start to the shawl and now that I've got a handle on the stripes and what happens where, this section should be good TV knitting.

Hexipuffs Again

 

I did eight more hexipuffs over the weekend because I just wanted something brainless and easy to work on.  I also sorted my hexipuff yarn, restocked the stuffing bag that rides around with my hexipuffs and counted how many I had.

See this bag?  There are 48 hexipuffs in this Ziploc bag right now.  I'll do two more sometime this week and then start another bag.  50 hexipuffs per bag doesn't squish them and it will make them easier to count when I start getting enough to actually start putting them together. It's also a Max/Logan/dust proof storage solution and as long as Caleb doesn't ever see it, I should be fine.  I feel like I'm actually starting to get somewhere with this project!