The Sleeving!

So apparently, I was under the impression that this pattern only had directions for short sleeves.  I knew that I wanted long sleeves and figured I could just wing it.  I've knit enough long sleeved sweaters that I know the general idea by now.  

Once I actually got to the point of knitting the sleeves I looked at the pattern (always a good idea) and there, under the short sleeved directions, were directions for long sleeves!  So, long story short, I didn't have to figure anything out after all.  I will need to try the whole thing on soon to see how much longer I need to knit, but I have to do that with every sweater I knit.

In non-knitting news, at almost 11 months old, apparently Obi is old enough to get the kitty discipline.  Mr. Noodle has started slapping at Obi's beak, WITH CLAWS OUT, very slowly.  So, I think Mr. Noodle has the general idea, but doing it as slowly as he is, it really doesn't matter that the claws are out.  On the other hand, Obi is clearly understanding Mr. Noodle's intent and will back away when the paw of justice is coming at him, and breaks eye contact to look away.  It's still a pretty weird relationship to watch though.

Have a great weekend!

Socks Finished, Socks Begun

I have finished my Winter Dudes Socks.  These were a fun pair of socks to knit and I tried a new-to-me heel (short rows with a gusset) and toe (star toe)!  The stranded color work was all on the leg of the sock, so once I got through that, the rest of the socks went pretty quickly.  There were some long stretches of colors and I had to twist my strands to keep the floats from getting too long, but I just worked slowly through those parts and made sure to keep the stitches on my right needle as spread out as I possibly could.

I used Cascade Heritage Sock in 5629 Citron (green), 5607 Red, and 5618 Snow.  I'm thrilled with my new Christmas socks and I know they'll be fun to wear!

As soon as I finished weaving in the ends on the Winter Dudes, I cast on for the Zwergenaufstand socks by the same designer.  Zwergenaufstand means "A Fuss About Nothing" according to the Google.  I don't speak German.  I'm using Malabrigo Ultimate Sock in Magenta and Natural.  I prewashed both skeins - the Magenta to get rid of any extra dye, and the Natural because I washed the Magenta.  These have an all over geometric design with only minimal long color stretches that need anchored floats (I've only found one round so far), and a cute little hidden gnome on the heel.  This designer has some other, similar sock designs with little hidden surprises on the heel as well. 

Socks!

I've finished my first Winter Dudes sock.  I'm through the colorwork and about to start the heel shaping for the second sock.  You can see the trees on the first sock.  There's an additional chart with this pattern without the trees.  It has more gnomes (wearing backpacks!) instead.  I went with the trees because I am making Christmas socks, but the all-gnomes design is also cute.

Now that I'm through the colorwork, the rest of the sock should go pretty quickly.  This pattern has a heel I've never worked before.  It's a short row heel, but there are little gussets on the side which should give me a better fit for my high arches than just a regular short row heel does.  I'm looking forward to testing these!

Success!

I finished the body of my Sammensat T, learned to do a Chinese Waitress Bind Off (perfectly matches the Chinese Waitress Cast On, which I already know and love), and I gave the sweater a little steam block.  The edges are laying flat and not rolling!  Last time I blogged about this sweater I wasn't sure what the edges would do, but it seems like I'm OK and won't have to add an extra edging to keep them from rolling.  (I had narrowed it down to a simple crochet edging or an I-cord edging if I had needed it.)

I'm now ready to start the sleeves, which will probably be long sleeves.  (The pattern has short sleeves, but I think I should be able to fix that easily.

Have a great weekend!

A New Blanket

I have started another blanket, but unlike the two I already have in progress, this one is knit.  Eat.Sleep.Knit brought back the long term Craft-A-Long blanket project again this year, and initially I wasn't going to participate (seeing as I already have two blankets going, even if I haven't touched either of them in a while), but then I realized that I already had the Nectar blanket pattern, and I was pretty sure I had most of the yarn I'd need already in stash.  It was like it was meant to be!

I went stash diving and pulled out all my Malabrigo Rios leftovers and realized that yes, I could practically get a blanket without buying anything.  I'm using Pines (which is what I've started with on the hexagons above), Holly Hock, and Purple Mystery for the centers of the hexagons, and I'm framing them with Whale's Road, which I also plan to use as the border.  If I make a smallish blanket, I won't use up all of my center, more solid yarns, but if I use up more of those yarns, I'll probably need more Whale's Road to border the whole thing.  I've clearly got some decisions to make!

At this point, I'll just make some hexagons and see how many I have when I start to get tired of them.

Oh, and in case you're wondering my two Blankets-In-Progress are the Battenburg Blanket and the Mystical Lanterns Blanket.

Winter Sunrise

Back in December, I started knitting a pullover.  I was hoping to have it finished by now, but things happened and I'm still working on it.  This is the Sammensat T pullover and I'm knitting it in Malabrigo Arroyo in Rosalinda.  I'm going to make either 3/4 length or long sleeves, but right now I'm at a place in the body where I need to try it on to check the body length.

The original pattern uses a mostly cotton yarn and I'm using 100% superwash wool.  The pattern is written for practically no edgings, just a good blocking at the neck, hem, and cuffs.  I'm not sure that will work in this yarn and I won't know until I get it finished and blocked (or at least finish the body and block the neck and hem edges at that point), so right now I have no idea how my edges will be finished.  My back up plan, if everything rolls on me, is to do a simple crochet edge, as narrow as I can get away with since the minimal edges were something that I liked about the design.

So to sum up, I'm knitting a pullover and have no idea how much farther I have to go on the body (until I try it on), I have no idea what my edges will look like exactly (until I have blocked them), and I don't have concrete directions for the sleeves beyond the short sleeve length written in the pattern.  This sweater is kind of a metaphor for my life right now - I kind of have a plan, but I'm basically winging it and I have no idea if any of it is going to work.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!  We're supposed to get some rain, so we'll probably spend the weekend alternating between lazing around in pajamas and cleaning up Obi's feet!