RSVP with Mittens!

It's that moment we've all been waiting for!  The Wedding Mittens are FINITO!

Pattern: Wedding Mittens by Jorid Linvik
Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Merino 2005 (Purple- I can't find a link!) and Knit Picks Bare- Superwash Fingering Weight
Needles: US 3
Thoughts: If I were a smarter/less lazy knitting, I would have figured out a way to do a gusset on these mittens.  A gusset just provides a nicer thumb than picking up the stitches.  The lack of gusset wouldn't stop me from knitting the pattern or any of Jorid's patterns again.  (She wrote the failed Doggy mittens pattern too... I might pick those back up again...)

These mittens are for my friend Erica, who is marrying Scott (hence the "E" and "S" initials in the hand), this January.

I've been wanting to knit these mittens for awhile and when Erica announced a winter wedding, it seemed like the right thing to send her.  I'll be sending her these along with our RSVP... we are coming Erica- it better not be too cold!!!  The purple is hopefully close to Erica's chosen wedding colors.

If you're like me, I always like to see the inside of stranded knitting- and so I've taken a few shots for you with the inside/outside view.  I'm getting better and better at faire isle mittens, and almost feel ready to bite off a project with more than 2 colors.  ALMOST.  (Let's not be crazy/over-confident now!)

Also off the needles for 2012 is the purple hat project.

Pattern: Various- although most are from the Sensational Knit Socks book by Charlene Schurch.  You can look on this link to my Ravlery page, that hopefully better outlines what hat is what pattern.
Yarn: 2 balls of Bernat Baby Softee in "soft lilac"
Needles: US 6
Thoughts: I actually had enough yarn to knit 14 hats, well 13 full hats- I had to add some white striping to the final hat in order to get me through.  It's great to have all of this out of my stash!

The goal for 2013 is to knit 12 more hats, this time in pinks, to bust the pink Bernat Softee out of the stash.  I'll set my minimum to 12, but I have enough stash to probably knit more than that.  Rules will be similar, no hat can be the same.  (Stitch pattern CAN be the same, but color scheme can't.)

With those two projects off the needles, I'm hoping to close out my year by finishing up the Balearique socks, started so long ago.  I've picked up those again and this is my progress so far.

Can you imagine people?  I might be starting off January 2013 with a clean slate.... a year of exciting, new projects to knit.  So tell me- what should I cast on to start my new year?

Frozen

You would think by my last post that I have spent the last 7 days furiously completing my mittens, and they would be fresh off the blocking pins in order for me to model and brag about here.

You'd, unfortunately, be wrong.

It's been a rough week over here at Chateau Nennie.  My little guy spent the better part of Wed night showing us the contents of his tummy.  Then on Thursday night my big guy, spared me the visual, but offered up repeated sacrifices to the Porcelain Gods.  Thankfully big guy needed 24 hours and was doing much better, I cannot say the same for little guy- who just kept getting sick.  SEVEN DAYS LATER I feel confident in saying "he's getting better"- but he's not 100% yet.

And so, as it goes with sick kids, I didn't do much other than hold him close and pray that he'd get better.  When he was sleeping, so was I.  Knit wise, I was basically frozen- I couldn't bring myself to knit even when there was quiet time... I couldn't concentrate.

Yesterday was the first day where, (knock on wood) his tummy seems to be settling down and I felt free to pick up my needles after he went to bed.  I'm pretty close...

BUT- I had to implement a new rule to stay on track for the hat goal.  Before each thumb is knit, I have to knit a hat.  So, once this blog post is done, a new hat is going on the needles and I'm going to curl up with a cup of tea and my audiobook and enjoy a little "me" time... because that's been less of a priority this last week.

Hopefully there will be some more FO's to show you before the end of 2012.... or the end of the world, if you believe those silly Mayans.

A Conversation With Myself

Brain: You're overdue for a blog post.

Heart: I WANT TO KNIT!

Brain: Yes, but it's been a week and you should update your progress.

Heart: I WANT TO KNIT AND NOT WASTE A SINGLE SECOND OF THAT TIME WRITING.

Brain: Can you just do something short at least?

Heart: I WANT TO KNIT ALL THE MITTENS IN THE WORLD!

Brain: You're not being rational.

Heart: That's your job sucker !!

Brain: How about a compromise? A short update using your iPhone ap?

Heart: Make it snappy... Must. Knit. Mittens.

Brain: happy now!?

Sucess! Glorious Success!

I will dispense with the niceties and get right to the meat of this post.  I HAVE SO MANY FINISHED THINGS TO SHOW YOU!  O. M. G.!!

(*as always, you can click on the Ravelry page to see more photos... you just need to be a member)

Thing 1: Diamond Cable Blanket

Pattern: Diamond Cable Blanket by Nancy Hearne
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Greenland Colorway 3501
Needles: US 8
Notes: There is absolutely nothing wrong with this pattern- just for whatever reason, (blanket ennui?) I just found this painfully dull to knit.  Lovely results- BORED. CITY.  I may have cast on less stitches and increased on row 1 of the pattern in order to have a less ruffly border- but otherwise everything turned out exactly as I expected it to.

This lovely specimen is off to my husband's best friend from high school, who welcomed a little boy named Elias, a few weeks earlier than expected.  The day I cast off this blanket, Elias was born- so I say that was some pretty swell timing!  (Thanks also to the MiL who helped with the whole blocking thing!)

Thing 2: Victory Mittens

Pattern: Fightin' Words by Annie Watts
Yarn: Koigu Premium Merino in Yellow (125122) and Blue (232950)
Needles: US 2.5
Notes: These were really cute and knit up REALLY fast.  I need to remember to "relax" when I knit mittens.  I knit these quite tight and even after a good blocking, they're "snug" to a hand.  Also I didn't love the different cuff she had me knit.  If I were to knit these again, I'd stick to good 'ole 2x2 ribbing.

These were intended for a friend of mine running a 10K... or was it half marathon?  I can't remember.  The point is, they were intended for her and the run, which are long past.  I'm not sure they'll fit her hands though- or if she would even like finger-less mittens.  So, I might sort of offer them to her, with the promise of attempting to knit a bigger size if they don't fit.  I guess we'll see.

Thing 3: Smitten Mittens Part 2 (THREE THINGS!  Can you believe it?  I hardly can!)

Pattern: Emma's Mittens by Minh Hoang (Ravelry download only)
Yarn: Jubilee Alpaca (remember when I bought this so long ago?)
Needles: Cuff- US 5, Mitten- US 6
Notes: I knit these for my sister who lost the original pair.  I made some changes to include a gusset- I've made that link available here.  I have told sister that there are replacing these.  These are pure and precious alpaca.  Blood or no blood- I will make her suffer should she lose these.  (I'm mostly joking... I'd be serious if this was cashmere!

So what am I doing with my unfinished object free time?  Mittens.  I am obsessed.  OBSESSED with mittens.  I want to knit ALL THE MITTENS. (From a blanket obsession to a mitten obsession... it's a good thing KNITTING is my choice drug!)  There was a scene from "That 70's Show" that basically sums up my mitten obsession.  I found it for you:

(Context: Donna suspects Eric of cheating when she finds panties in his car... this is a fantasy she has about confronting him about it.)

People- I am Eric... except replace PANTIES... with MITTENS.  GLORIOUS MITTENS!  I want to roll around in my sock yarn and make mittens.

And so... without a guilty conscience I cast on a lovely "wedding mitten" for a friend of mine getting married in January.  I thought she should have some lovely mittens and I've been wanting to knit this pattern for awhile.  I bought yarn... I cast on... and three days later I had this...

... a nearly finished mitten.  That is when I stopped LYING to myself and admitted that once again, I have pulled the tension tighter than a lady's face in Los Angeles (did you see what I did there?)- and there was NO WAY this mitten would fit a hand.  No matter how much I kept telling myself that my friend had "slender" hands.  Slender hands yes.... hands the size of toothpicks NO.  So a frogging I did go.

I've cast on again with bigger needles and have already admitted to myself that I need the smaller needles back and just need to repeat to myself OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN- R E L A X.  So yes- more mittens are on the horizon.

(I also knit on the sock one morning this last week and made a hat- but this post is already epic in length, so I will save boasting on that for another time.)

Also- today is my baby's birthday.  He is the BIG ONE YEAR.  I'm not really sure where the time went, but OMG, I can't believe how fast it went.  

But now I must get back to my mittens (and to my child... haha).  It feels so good to have the freedom to knit what I want again.  

Thumb Week

Nope.  I haven't blocked the blanket.  Maybe tomorrow?

Instead of focusing on the "what should be done" let's focus on what I'm going to do this week?

TWO MITTENS... who just need thumbs.

This week's goal is simple.  KNIT THE THUMBS.

I kind of hate knitting thumbs on mittens.  It's small work and piddly, with all of those needles in there.  I really need to just let it go because there really is such a SMALL amount of knitting involved to get myself over the finish line on both of these projects and it frees me up to knit something else.  Like socks... or potentially more mittens.

I had a chance to wear my Paris mittens the last few weeks (boo early cold snap!) and I'm so enamored and proud of them, I just want to knit more.  This time for a different coat- so um... more mittens are probably in our future.  (At least it's not blankets?)

Just About There

I will kill any and all suspense- the blanket is OFF the needles!  (And none too soon, literally the day after I cast OFF- baby arrived... early!)  I am allowing myself to feel just the teensiest amount of relief. There is still the task  of blocking... which as we know, tends to be another procrastinate thing for me.   But- I allowed myself to indulge in the relief that the blanket was done.  First of all- I knit two more hats.  (8 down, 4 to go!)

I was going to move on to the socks next, but I got a call from sister, distraught about having lost those mittens I made back in April.  (Here)  She apparently lost them in a cab- and even went as far as to call the cab company and have them search their lost and found.  Since sister is so upset - I am knitting her another pair... in ALPACA.  In that yarn I was so deeply in love with when I bought it in Saskatoon SO LONG ago.

Here are Emma's mittens... AGAIN.  I am kicking myself with this pattern.  I made modifications the first time- modifications I wrote down.  Modifications I threw out, thinking "I probably won't make them again".  I am KICKING myself that I threw out my mod's... because I'm starting over by scratch and trying to remember what I did.  I think I'm on track so far- and I've got a thumb gusset to prove it.

The one downside to this lovely alpaca is that it's fuzzy and it blurs the pattern a lot more than the original.  But, I've decided that's the price sister will pay for losing original mitts.  If sister loses ALPACA mittens- there might be a battle.

Once I'm down to the thumbs on these- I'm thinking about having "thumb week" where I knit the thumbs for these mittens and the cute victory mittens that I haven't forgotten- just procrastinated.  (And yes, the socks too- I will knit those socks eventually.)

I'm trying to keep myself from having a large "unfinished object" pile like last year.  I would love to kick off January this year with a fun project and nothing in my head that I need to finish first.

All of this rambling is really that, rambling.  Because before I get ahead of myself I'm going to keep breathing ENORMOUS sighs of relief that the vampire blanket is finally OFF the needles and I can knit fun things again!

Vampire Project

*Sigh*

This blanket is eating my SOUL.  It is sucking every last ounce of joy and love of knitting RIGHT. OUT. OF. ME.  There have been nights when I couldn't even bring myself to pick it up, and because it felt too guilty to start something new, I just didn't knit.  At. all.

This project is the equivalent of a vampire in knitting.

Before we send hate mail to the designer- I need to say it.  This isn't her fault.  There is absolutely no reason for me to have thought I would have been this bored by a project.  It has cables and different stitches in different sections- it's not boring.  I have to refer to the pattern regularly.  For whatever reason this seems to be my "Waterloo".  (It's okay if you sing the ABBA song in your head when you see that word, I do too.)  I just can't seem to get past it.  It literally feels like I've been knitting this project forever.

I did try a side project- a brief distraction of cute to try and get me over the hump- but not even this little Newborn Pumpkin set could excite me.

Pattern: Hat is the hat from the Wee Leafy Baby Set by Pamela Wynne and the Mittens are Easy Summer Baby Mittens by Urszula Tanouye and the leaves are from the Hat pattern.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino

(I just HAVE to knit little babies due in and around the October 31 pumpkin hats.  HAVE TO.  I cannot help myself.)

Even this cute little project cannot seem to illicit much joy, because I knew I had the blanket to return to.  I need to get this beast off my needles- before it completely makes me hate knitting.  Did you gasp?  I gasp even typing it... but I'm this LOW.  I don't even know if cashmere can save me at this point.  Send "knit fast" vibes and prayers for knitting time so I can get past this project and back on track again.

Ennui

You can always tell when I'm not particularly "stoked" about a project, because I  find it particularly hard to blog about.  I don't have much to say about my current project except that it's still happening.

I am a little over half way with the Diamond Cable Blanket but I feel nothing for it.  The pattern isn't particularly boring- but for whatever reason I am BORED. STIFF. and just rather "meh" about the whole thing.

*YAWN*

I don't even know what to say beyond this.  I am only half way done and I will be knitting this for longer still.  My maternity leave is quickly coming to an end and so the free time is also going to cease to exsist shortly... and with it my knitting time.  So- brace yourselves for a long ride with this project.

I also started another wee pumpkin hat, as there's another baby arriving around Halloween this year, and I just feel like it's my duty to make sure it has a cute pumpkin hat.  (It's also for my boss, and quite frankly, the suck up points probably won't hurt.)

But again- *yawn*

I'm not used to feeling a certain amount of "ennui" with my knitting.  I'm usually gung-ho, especially when it comes to cables, but right now I can't seem to muster much excitement for anything.  I'm not entirely sure why- because I find myself desperate to squeeze in a few hours of knitting time but then getting those few precious moments and feeling rather "blah" about the whole thing.  Maybe I just need to hurry up and get this blanket OFF the needles so that I can allow myself to feel inspired again.

Have I officially hit my "blanket saturation" point?  Is this the blanket that finally breaks me to STOP KNITTING BLANKETS!?  I might be there... someone remind me of this post when I threaten to knit another baby blanket.

It's a Blanket... Again

Well, I threatened it in my last post and I'm not one for idle threats- I started another blanket.  It dawned on my suddenly last week, my mat leave is ending in the middle of October.  (O. M. G. how did that go by so quickly!?)  And, while I'm planning a part time return (hopefully), it still means knitting time is going to start disappearing, as Parker will be napping at daycare while I slave away in the salt mines instead of sneaking in a few blissful rows.  (*takes a moment to sob*)  Given that I wanted to make a lovely cable blanket for a friend due in November, I needed to capitalize on the time remaining.  So, this is me capitalizing.

I wanted something superwash and I also wanted something immediately so I packed up the baby and we went over to Pudding Yarn to squish and feel yarns and pick out something nice.  There were two options, Cascade 220 (which is always great) or this lovely, squishy yarn they had- a Superwash Merino (Cascade Greenland).  The price difference was considerable, and I felt somewhat guilty so I called the husband for his input.  (It's for his good friend...)  God bless him- he said "Buy what will make you happy" and I didn't hesitate- this is going to be the "Diamond Cable Travel Blanket" in Greenland.

This is one of those patterns that requires a little brain power.... I need to be thinking while I knit this.  I've already made one cable cross error (BAD ME) that I've decided to let go and not go back and fix.  (I don't think it's too obvious.)  I have to tell you though- this yarn is DREAMY to knit with.  It has such a delightful "sproing" to it and it just jumps around the needle.  I'm so excited to knit with this- hopefully that means progress is going to move quickly.

It also means that other projects are sort of being neglected.  I know, I just pulled myself out of a unfinished object hole, but I guess I'm going to dive back in.  (oops)  I did also complete two more baby hats- but the photos of those aren't particularly special so check out my Rav page if you're one of those people who simply must see.  

The good news is that, so far, this is the only blanket I have planned for the fall- so hopefully once it's off the needles we'll be back to small projects and more variety on the blog!  Now, to go back to concentrating intently on knitting!

Catching Up

As I said in my last post- things were a little busy in that last part of August.  We left for a little California sunshine on Aug 22, and I don't really like to announce our vacations on the blog... especially since a 1/3 of my house was already boxed up- that's like doing have the work for a thief!  I took a little knitting with me on the trip...

These will be the Belarique socks by (Spilly Jane Knits)- and (surprise?) they're going to be for my dad, for Christmas... I think.  Now that wee Parker isn't as "wee" as he used to be, travelling with him was quite different.  I managed to only knit a cuff on my entire vacation... but I'll take the win!

We got back to Calgary on Aug 30 in the evening.  We took posession of our new house on Aug 31, and with the tremendous help from our parents, we moved and unpacked my kitchen that day.  (As well as packed the rest of the house.)  On Sept 1, our movers showed up and we moved in.  From that point on it was a flurry of unpacking, organizing and reveling in our new space.  One FAB perk to the new space?  I have a knitting cabinet all to myself... for all my knitting/crafting supplies.  I love it so much!

So, yes, that left me with very little knitting time.  The good news is that things are slowly coming back to normal and I even finished knitting a hat last night!

Yes, that would be my first "knitting related news"- I've decided to knit 12 hats again.  I had refrained from committing earlier in the year because I didn't know how much time I'd have to devote to charity with the baby... but now that we have a schedule (MOMMY WIN!) I can absolutely squeeze a few hats in here and there.  I've decided to bust some acrylic stash- and set a few boundaries.  All of the hats will be purple (to stash down what I have) but they all must be in a different stitch pattern.  No stitch patterns the same!  I've completed 4 so far...  (I have until Dec 31 to finish)

Also on the "to finish" pile are the "Victory Mittens"- that just need thumbs, so I should hopefully get those off the needles soon.

With the air cooler, I think it's safe to say that fall is soon returning.  (I'm actually cheering for a frost right now as I have a wasp situation in my backyard, rendering it un-useable at the moment.  I am assured that once we have a frost, the wasps will be gone.  So, COME ON FROST... and then go away for a long time.)  There's another baby (not me this time!) due in November which I'd like to knit a blanket for- so I think it's time to put an end to my "hiatus" on the big projects and begin planning that.  Plus, I still want to make MITTENS like a fiend, so there are probably going to be a few more of those showing up.

I'm feeling excited for fall- it's primo knitting time! (PLUS- I have a FIREPLACE and is there anything more quaint and cosy than curling up next to a fireplace and knitting?!  I think not!!)