Old Dog... New Tricks

I have been knitting for almost as long as I've known my husband. (10 years!) Of that time, I have been a "serious" knitter for about 6 of those years... looking to make new things and challenge myself. When I first began knitting I set one objective for myself: with every project, I had to learn something new. Be it an ssk, a k2tog or some other technique that pushes us past our comfort zone, I wanted to learn something new.

It's been harder to grab on to a new technique after you've been knitting for quite awhile, either because you have projects you like to return to (socks), or projects that you must knit (baby blankets). But every now and again I still find myself pondering over a new technique.

This summer I challeged the MiL with something neither of us had done before... toe up socks. Are you shocked? I have NEVER knitted a sock from the toe up prior to 2 Friday ago! I don't know how much success I would have had, had it not been for Cat Bordhi's videos.

We chose the famous Wendy D Johnson's toe up instructions and away we went.

First hurdle? Judy's Magic Cast On. (video link) This video is worth watching for Cat Bordhi's instruction, whether you ever intend to knit toe up socks or not. Cat's description on what to do is HILARIOUS (4:14 and beyond)... and you're certain not to forget what she's trying to show you.

That Judy. She knows WHAT the heck she's doing. And, yes, it is kind of like magic.

Next up... Wendy told me to knit the toe. So, a couple of make 1's later, my toe looked like this:

Why yes... it DOES look like a sock toe! Thanks for noticing.

The foot part was easy, it's just knitting round and round and round and round, until, as Wendy reminded me, I was 2.5 inches short of my heel.

Then I had to turn back to Cat's sage and hilarious videos once again to figure out the instructions for the short row heel wraps. (As usual, Cat cracks me up!)

It's not perfect... but I am still quite please that it looks like a heel! With the short row heel out of the way, it was more of knitting round and round and round and round... until it came time to bind off my 10 rows of ribbing.

Sometimes when you bind off in ribbing, you can lose the elasticity of the ribbing by binding off too tightly. NO MORE, with Jeny's Surpsingly Stretchy Bind Off, it's well, surprisingly stretchy. You can watch more Cat Bordhi here, and she'll show it to you in lovely video detail!

Yup. It looks like a sock!! (Yardage is light on this yarn... so these will be shorter socks.)

I had so much fun knitting this sock and learning new techniques I even immediately cast on for sock #2. Suck it second sock syndrome!

Learning toe up has opened a huge door of sock options I'd previously gazed lovingly at, but dismissed as not for me, given their construction. But I fear the toe up NO MORE and as a result, you're probably going to be seeing even more socks around here in the next while.

PS- What would I have EVER done without the internet and knitting videos? Let's not think about it, shall we?

Strong Am I With the Force

My parents recently invested in a security system for my sister, to replace the table leg with giant screw poking out of it she had, affectionately remembered as "Spike".

Yes, that's an aluminum bat, sometimes the "classics" are the best in home security. My sister, who lives alone and just feels better with this addition kicking around her house, was please that she was able to find a Spike replacement. Except, cozying up to an aluminum bat at night just isn't the warm fuzzy feeling she was looking for. So, knowing I cannot resist any requests from her regarding knitted items, she called me.

Her: "Can you make me a bat cozy?"
Me: "Huh!?"
Her: "The bat mom and dad bought me is ugly, it needs something, think you could knit it a cozy?"
Me: "Sure!"

This last week, while on her vacation, I knit my sister's baseball bat a cozy. (I tend to knit the crazinest stuff while she's on vacation!) Here's the challenge; since the bat would be used as a weapon of self defensive, I couldn't just knit it a cozy, your grandma makes for toliet paper covers. This cozy needed a certain level of "bad ass-ness" that says "DO NOT MESS WITH ME" but is also cuddly enough to sleep next to at night.

Obviously Yoda is the only answer here. (It also helps if you and your sister are MASSIVE Star Wars nerds.)

Pattern: Yoda Golf Club Cover by Tracey Rediker
Yarn: Various acrylics kicking around the leftovers in my and MiL's stashes
Needles: US size 7 DPN's
Notes: This pattern is modified to accomodate the bat. I cast on 28 stitches and periodically tried the tube on around the bat, modifying instructions to fit the bat snuggly. The bottom stretches enough to get over the top of the bat, so my sister can remove the cozy if she feels the need to really, REALLY hurt someone. (Hopefully this bat will only ever serve to look cute in her bedroom and won't be something she ever needs.)

The geek in me could not help but love this project, and while there seems to be a never ending supply of projects in various states of completetion waiting to be finished around here, I couldn't prevent myself from taking a quick time out to knit this. So- for geeks everywhere, I think it's important to remember, Strong Am I with the (knitting) Force!

New Hampshire Yarn Shopping!

Sheesh! Sorry, I’ve been an absent blogger. Stampede ended up occupying my knitting time this last week- and I was a busy girl, donning my cowboy boots and doing my part to enjoy a few corporate parties. Sadly, donning my cowboy boots meant neglecting my knitting and neglecting it even longer because we jetted off to New Hampshire to take in a wedding over the weekend. Not such a productive week on the knitting front.

On the other hand the YARN SHOPPING was divine.

Here’s the thing: New England and area is a yarn shop Mecca. If you wanted to travel around and visit stictly yarn shops? I'd tell you to look in to New England and skip everywhere else. They are EVERYWHERE. When we lived in Connecticut I was surrounded by truly awesome, large, gorgeous, fabulous, mind blowing yarn shops. (Yes those link to different shops that were close by and I'd visit frequently!) And don’t even get me started on NYC, and how often I’ve blown my vows “just to look, not buy” in Purl or School Products. Oi.

When the husband announced he was going to be golfing on Saturday morning, I immediately began mapping out yarn shops in the vicinity of Lake Winnipesaukee. 2 choices immediately popped up so I plugged them into the yahoo maps and away I went on Sat morning.

Patternworks was a dream- made even more euphoric by having a SALE while I was there. I always have the best intentions of taking pictures in the store, and then I get there and I totally chicken out. I chickend out again- but people, the store was lovely. Spacious, but not too big and crammed with lovely, lovely yarns. And the staff? Very sweet and helpful! When my eyes noticed this JoJoland Cashmere on SALE (400 yards for $18.99!)

I HAD to buy it. HAD TO. I’m pretty sure every knitter alive would disown me for leaving that kind of deal behind. Cheap Cashmere is the kind of things that only happens in fairy tales! (There are actually 2 skeins of this now, as this morning, back in Calgary, I called them and bought the last one so I had enough to make a shawl out of this.)

I also scored some lovely Regia Silk in "marine" (also on sale)- because Regia makes some perfect socks for the cold footed men in my life.

Patternworks is in a very charming building that also has a needlepoint shop and quilt store. (The nicest quilt store I have ever seen.) I was VERY greatful that I had not taken up quilting, because I would have spent EVERY. LAST. CENT. WE. HAVE. on fabric. Oh the fabrics there were so nice- they made me, a non-quilter, desperate to quilt! The selection was enough to make even the strongest willed crafter cry with joy!

After geeking out in the quilt shop and slinking around like I had stolen the cashmere (I didn’t MOM(s)- I swear I paid… it just felt like stealing with that deal!) I got back in my car and mosied on over to Lamb’s Ear’s yarns in Gilford, NH.

Lamb’s Ear is small but quaint. (That’s the unofficial motto of New England: “Small… but quaint!”) It was funny to go from MEGA selection at Patternworks, to teeny selection at Lamb's Ear. There was still some nice stuff there, but nothing I couldn’t get at home. (My unofficial yarn shopping rules- only stuff I can't get at home or on super deal.) I did, however, score some US 1 & 2 straight needles (I've had a very hard timing trying to find these) and a row counter which I was quite pleased about.

I did manage to make a little progress on the flight home on my long suffering purse sock- which really needs to be finished already!

Things should be relatively settled down now as far as my travel, which means there should be plenty of time to jump back into the knitting. There are lots of projects to look forward to in the next couple of months including; a finished Goodale sweater, 2 charity blankets I have here right now, my first toe up socks and maybe my first lace shawl. I'm hoping this summer is going to be rife with blog fodder and finished projects! Stay tuned!

The Results Are In!

I was full of anxious energy this week, dying to know what the results were for the Western Showcase this year! I even asked anyone going down to the Stampede grounds for the "sneak peek" night to keep it a surprise. Then, today at work took 40 zillion hours to get to 12:00, when I could leave and finally see the results for myself!

But, oh, it was worth the wait because I'm very pleased with the results. TWO FIRST PLACE finishes in their respective categories!

Textured Stitches (ie Cable Pattern)- Home Decor 1023

AND Stockinette & Garter Stitch- Home Decor 1033

My mother in law also did well in her category, placing SECOND in Stockinette & Garter- Accessory 1032.

Both of us are very proud of our ribbons! Sadly my pieces did not place in the overall section winners class this year, (last year's socks got 2nd in the section and a cash prize!) but the winners of those were very worthy pieces. I'd have to say in general the caliber of pieces submitted this year was higher than even last year- and so it feels so good to be deemed worthy against such stiff competition. The fierce compeitor in me is already wracking my brain to dream up submissions for next year- because I want to do better and keep pushing myself. But you'll get a brief reprieve form my obsessing for a little bit anyways.

My wee break (only "wee" as baby announcements keep tumbling in), from blanket knitting has seen some progress on Goodale.

Hey that almost looks like a sweater! It's a great project for tv watching and passing the time aimlessly. I'm hoping to be modeling it here soon.

And, I even managed to do a section (the light brown at the top) of the latest WCOBB blanket, "Dessert Before Dinner".

So yes, always a busy hive of knitting around here- but at least it's nice to know that I just might be "on to something" with this whole knitting thing! :-)

Congratulations to the many other winners this year- your submissions were great (WHOO BOY was that lace competition fierce... I pity the judges on that one), and you deserve your accolades!

Happy Stampede everyone!

Ready For My Close Up

Well... I'm ready.

Or at least I'm ready as I'll ever be. Above are my Stampede 2010 submissions for this year. I finished the blue twisted cable blanket just in the nick of time. It's out of the blocking pins TODAY, which is a relief, because I need to take it to the grounds for judging TOMORROW.

Whew! That was down to the wire.

Pattern: Textured Knots by Norah Gaughan

Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Bachelor Button

Needles: US 6 for the ribbing at the ends and US 8 for the body

Notes: It's a lovely pattern. It's classy and gorgeous! The yarn really makes the pattern pop, but I'll be honest, this blanket weighs a TONNE. I liked the yarn well enough* but if I were to knit this again, I wouldn't use this weight. The blanket is heavy. Also? If you knit this- blow up the chart on a photocopier and COLOR CODE your cables. I would never have knit this successfully without a color coded cable chart. It just makes it so much easier!

Listening To: Craft Lit's Little Women and the Scarlett Letter and Selden Edwards The Little Book.

So- with Textured Knots off the needles I gave myself a little reprieve. I should have been pulling out the various socks in progress and finishing them up.

Instead?

I fell off the wagon. (Oops!) So elated with the joy of being done the blankets, I was instantly inspired by the cute little Goodale cardigan and just decided that I deserved a pleasure project. I used my Christmas gift cards from family members (thanks Moms & Dads!) and bought this LOVELY Louisa Harding "Albero" in colorway 4. I think it's perfect for this cardigan and who knows- maybe I'll have another finished object to show off soon?

Cross your fingers for me- the projects leave for the Stampede tomorrow... we'll see how I measure up!

*Knit Picks has served me well and seen me successfully complete many projects this last year, I just wish they tried harder to prevent knots in their balls of yarns. Too many knots this time! It was frustrating and all too common.

Word of the Day: LOVELY

Pink Insanity is finished.

And OH, is it lovely.

OH OH OH OHhhhhhhh so lovely. It went from crumpled mess, to such a lovely flat project. I actually finished this blanket a long time ago- I cast off the final stitch- blocked the blanket- stood back and took it all in….

… aaaaaaaaaaaand hated it. Something was wrong. The blanket was lovely, but the ends… OH the ends were bothering me. The pattern called for a crochet border, but even the crochet border couldn’t save the ends. My issue was that the pattern just ended. The sides are lovely- with the lovely diamond lace pattern, but the ends just felt too abrupt. It’s like your eyes take in the lovely patterning and just when you’re about to exclaim “oh that is just lovely”, you stop because the ends just look unfinished and incomplete. Instead of the “oh that’s lovely” you immediately want to tell me you’re ideas on what I could do to spiff up the ends. In short, the ends needed something, otherwise the blanket just didn’t look finished.

And so I did what I do when I’m forced to decide upon something, I asked EVERY PERSON I KNOW how to fix it. There were some excellent suggestions, particularly from Sylvia in my knitting group, who suggested I pick up the stitches and knit diamonds across. Great idea, but when it came to execution, I failed. Miserably.

And then, I was overcome with madness. MADNESS I say! Because I decided the most viable solution was to undo the cast off and cast ON edges, pick up the stitches and knit in a picot border. Unraveling the cast off edge was a walk in the park- I caught the stitches and knit me a picot border to fold over and stitch. Unraveling the cast ON edge was significantly more tricky, but after some wine and chanting “you can do this, you can do this” to myself, I was able to muster the courage, CUT into the knitting and attempt the impossible.

It didn’t turn out too badly either. The stitching isn’t perfect. If I was able to add the picot at the beginning it would be smooth and beautiful- but instead I was forced t fold the stitches over and sew them down. It’s not exactly how I’d like it to look, but it does finish the blanket nicely and is a vast improvement from where I was.

So there you have it. After all that belly aching, moaning and near tears, this blanket is finished and it is just lovely. (The only thing I could say when I knit this was "lovely"… hence the over-use of that term here.)

Pattern: 0612-1 Hjertesett found in Sandes Lanett 0612 Baby 0-4 booklet
Yarn: Shepherd Baby Wool 3 Ply in Pink (0333) (6.5 skeins)
Needles: US 2.5 or 3 mm (!!!!!)
Notes: I skipped the crochet picot border and instead knit in my own picot border. If I were to do this again, I would not do the picot as an afterthought. This blanket blocks beautifully and in general is a very satisfying finished project. I did, however, have to blow up the charts to a size way bigger, or I would have gone crosseyed!
Listening To: (This is going to be a new section on the blog as I’ve discovered the joys of audio-books and Craft Lit. I thought I’d let you know what I “read” while knitting my project.) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (courtesy of Craft Lit) and The Little Book by Selden Edwards. (ha…. Apparently I like books with “Little” in the title!) Both were excellent, I love Little Women so much that I burned through that book pretty quickly. The Little Book was also excellent, although it took a few weird turns about midway through that left me going “huh?”.

Where can you see this lovely project to which my pictures do it absolutely no justice? Check out the Western Showcase at the Stampede, where I’ve entered it as one of my entries to be judged.

PS. To my husband, who had nicknamed this project my "Stampede 2012" project because he didn’t believe I could finish it. I think you owe me an apology honey!

PPS. This project took me a little over 4 months to complete! Wow. No wonder I was sick of it!

New Look... Same Old Nennie

I came to look at the blog and suddenly was hit with an overwhelming desire to update it a little. I reserve the right to wake up tomorrow and hate the whole thing and revert back to the old format. In the mean time let me know if something isn't quite right. (For example if your eyes can't read my font, in the new colors, LET ME KNOW.)

All this exciting formatting is here to cover up the fact that there isn't all that much new in my knitting world. I'm still slogging away. The pink blanket is done- but waiting a proper photo session, so nothing to tell you there. (Although YAY I like it again.)

The blue blanket is still a work in progress... I'm just a little over the half way mark.

I've decided to enter it in the Stampede this year instead of the pink sock of "meh". (Ellingtons- which have seen little in the way of progress.) I've got to take my stuff in to be judged on the 30th of June, so I need to get my butt in gear if I'm going to submit a finished entry!

In other knit news- I'm sure I drove several friends and MiL around the bend last week, obsessing over WHAT to knit on my looooong car trip to Saskatchewan this last weekend. I had originally planned to make a log cabin blanket with several odds and ends of acrylic I have in pinks. I thought it was the perfect car trip knitting since it is essentially all garter stitch. Row after blessed row of knit stitch. However the one color I needed to complete my vision didn't show up. So I flushed Log Cabin down the toliet.

This created a great conundrum because I wanted a simple small project and my brain couldn't let the garter stitch blanket idea go. SO, instead of inwardly fretting about this like a normal sane person- I basically whined to anyone with ears about my great knitting dilema about what the heck I should knit on the long road trip. Everyone kept saying "sock" and I kept fighting it.

Thankfully everyone knew what's best for me- and ultimately, I chose to knit the sock. I had planned a great photo journal where you could see the sock in progress along various roadside attractions, but forgot the general rule Husband makes on road trips- "no stopping for photos of your sock in progress". Or something along those lines. Anyways- you'll have to suffice to see what I knit there and back over the weekend instead.

This is the beginnings of the Charade (Rav link) sock. This yarn (Zen Yarn Garden In-Sock Yarns in "Passion Guava") surprised me by self striping. I was so charmed by the lovely striping effect I even decided to do an after thought heel, so I don't interrupt the loveliness of the pattern. (And I don't normally like to knit that kind of heel!!) It was perfect mindless knitting- and it thankfully entertained me on the trip.

ALL THAT AGONIZING, (literally 2 days of non-stop whining), and I ended up a cute sock anyways.

Well, I've procrastinated enough. I've spiffed up the blog, and yammered on for too long. I need to get that blanket out the door. Look for a good photo essay of the pink insanity blanket coming to a cute purple blog near you!

Lost in Slog...

Whoops… life and knitting got in the way of blogging. Plus, if I’m being honest, there really isn’t that much to show for on the knitting front. I'm in full knitting slog.

When we left off- I was full of hope and promise to finish the ends of the pink blanket. (Which I’ve gone from loving to loathing!) I undid the cast off and cast on (eek!) rows and picked up the stitches and failed with the great plan hatched at my last knitting night. After more brainstorming and an idea came to me. “PICOT”. Said the voice. “You must PICOT”. Thankfully that voice is a GENIUS and picot is in fact, the right call. Just slow going... and tedious.. and well... my ambition is rather on the “meh” end of things. My goal is to have it finished for Tuesday when I’m back at Knit night with the girls. I’m so close. I just need to be done already!

Before all this pink blanket distraction, I started a lovely little baby blanket full of delightful cables.

This is it at the half way point. Progress? Yes. I had hoped to be here telling you today that I had finished this project, especially since little Blake, who it’s going meant for, was born a bit early. But alas, the pink blanket is slowing my progress (and SUCKING MY SOUL), and well everything suffers.

Motivating me only slightly to get these done already is the rainbow sock yarn from Knit Picks- which I ordered more of, taking me up to 6 skeins. (Seemed to be the right call too… it looks like it’s close to selling out on the website!)

Aren’t the colors pretty? The yarn is soft and I’m just DYING get at this already. I’m hoping this yarn will be my first pair of toe up socks… I think the striping will be perfect and a fun way to learn this new technique. (That’s the summer challenge for the MiL and I this year… learn “toe up”.)

Anyways- I’m keeping this blog short… less blather more “get at ‘er” and I'm going to try and squeeze out the last few picot stitches. I can't wait for something new...

Might Be A Bit Longer Actually...

Pink Insanity blocked beautifully. BEAUTIFULLY... except something didn't feel right. The ends were wrong. The sides were lovely, the ends were all wrong. And the crochet didn't cut it. I couldn't put my finger on it, so I took it to the ladies at my knit group to see what they say. Sylvia saved the day. She made a suggestion that is absolutely the right one- I just have to do it. (And yay, it's not hard!) The only problem is that I'm really not that motivated to work on it. So- um... you're still waiting to see it in it's final glory. Stay tuned.

I did, however, finish Baby Manda Ruth.

Pattern: Manda Ruth by Jane Richmond (Ravelry Link)
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy in Marlin (leftovers from blanket disaster)
Needles: US 8
Notes: Cute Pattern, but I really hated the shoulder/arm increases. I know there's no real way to avoid screwing up the stitch pattern by making the increases, but it bothered the OCD in me. Other than that, the pattern is painfully simple and requires very little seaming, which is HUGE benefit.

I also finished the April Dishcloth Mystery:

Pattern: April KAL by KrisKnits
Yarn: Lily Sugar & Cream Solids in "Hot Green"
Needles: US 3
Notes: I still like not having any idea of what the pattern will be when it's done, but this design in particular didn't exactly thrill me.

Also distracting me from making a finished item out of Pink Insanity is that I got my Knit Picks order the other day and immediately was inspired. Say hello to the beginning of Twisted Knots...

You'll notice that I've highlighted all the cables a different color in the chart. I had to do this, or I would have gone cross eyed. There's a lot of cabling action going on and I knew that color coding them was going to save me some real heartache later. I already love this project. It's going to be a stunning. And since it's new and exciting, I'm already completely head first into getting it worked up.

I also got some Rainbow striping sock yarn (Felici). I don't know why, but the colors in this THRILL me. They stripe as a rainbow and the yarn is so soft and I couldn't resist and I bought 4 more skeins on Friday. I don't know why, I just wanted to be sure I didn't run out of it. I have lots of plans for this yarn- so prepare yourselves for a plethora of rainbow socks this year.

So as usual, I'm distracted away from the task at hand and you'll have to wait just a little bit longer to see the final product on Pink Insanity, but trust me, it's going to be worth the wait!

Won't Be Long Now...

"Won't be long now..." said the monkey with his tail caught in the lawnmower.

(Thanks to my dad who always used to say this... I can never hear someone say the first part of the phrase without thinking the last part.)

Progress on the pink insanity blanket is beginning to finally, FINALLY, to really churn slowly towards the finish line. It went from this crumply mess last weekend...

To looking like a blanket voodoo doll with all those blocking pins this Friday...

(Perhaps the art of blocking is in fact so you can get a little revenge on the project that has tortured you for so long? Sticking pins in the project gives a whole new meaning!!)

Do not rejoice for me just yet. There is one element on this blanket that remains. A familiar foe...

So we meet again crochet! SO WE MEET AGAIN!! Pink Insanity needs a super cute picot crochet border and so I must take up with the most hated hook and crochet me a border. *sigh* Who will win the epic battle of Jen vs. the crochet hook? Stay tuned....

Truthfully, since I seem to be putting a lot of crochet borders on my blankets these days, the actual crocheting part isn't all that daunting. It's nothing I haven't done before. It's just more the fact that I want this project DONE already- that has me feeling a little meloncholy.

Keeping me busy while the blanket is drying is the Ellington socks, which are starting to show actual progress!

I'm midway down the foot now and feeling, truthfully, a little bored. It's going to be a lovely project when it's finished. Hopefully a real show stopper. BUT, my brain just wants a mindless project. Honestly? I think it's just all the pink I'm knitting with. I want to knit with another color and just get out of this Pepto Bismal funk!

Thankfully there's another baby blanket that's sitting in the queue that is NOT pink. (Yarn is in transit to me!) Hopefully you'll be seeing my version of this real soon! Say hello to "Twisted Knots"!