Knits of Christmases Past

(note to self: add pictures later!)

A complete and uncondensed list of old Christmas presents that I owe people:

1. Sweater for Mom (Christmas, 2007 or 8).
Progress: Back is finished, both fronts are about an inch from binding off.
Still to do: Little side panels, both sleeves, side hood, blocking and sewing up.
Why the hell did this take me so long? Couple reasons:
A) This is my first-ever sweater
B) It's made with sportweight yarn
C) Look at these cables! OMG
How much longer should this take: I've estimated that I can knit about 4" of cable panel and the side stockinette in about 4 hours, so maybe 20 hours for the sleeves, a couple of hours for the side panels (which are in stockinette), so this should be done by Christmas this year!

2. Handwarmers for Alice (Christmas, 2009).
Progress: Not even started yet. Lame ist Erin.
Why the hell did this take me so long? I wanted to finish Mom's cowl first. I just did, so onwards and upwards!
How much longer should this take: Mom's handwarmers took I think about 10 hours total.

3. Anubii for Liz, Katie and Diana (Christmas, 2009)
Progress: I have three headless dolls. They are really creepy.
How much longer? Not much. I have to do the heads and then the accessories.

4. Socks for Littlest Sis (birthday, 2010)
Progress: Turned the heel for the first sock, tried to resume the lace all around, failed miserably, threw the sock into the corner and pouted. This was in September.
How much longer? No idea. Fortunately, Littlest Sis likes short socks. I need to make more socks for Littlest Sis.

Sockity sock sock sock

I have completed stuff. I have no pictures, though. Sadness!

I have finished:

*socks for Littlest Sis. Basic cuff-down socks, made from Lion Brand Magic Stripes (ravelry link). Started them in April when I needed a portable project, finished Saturday night in Door County. Easy-peasy.

*slippers for Alice. I gave them to her, she opened them and exclaimed, then I noticed: I hadn't woven the ends in! Oops! I used two skeins of Noro Kochoran but left out the gray stuff.

*Mother's Day socks for (who else) Mom.

Hopefully I'll have pictures soon, so at the very least I can prove to the world that I have actually done stuff other than play Sims (just a scooch addictive) this month. I asked Mom and Alice and Littlest Sis to take pictures of their feet, and they gave me That Look. Next time, take pictures /first/.

Next stop:
Littlest Sis's birthday. If I'd been thinking, I'd've held her socks back, but whatever. I don't know if she reads this (Little Sis reads this, so if Littlest Sis doesn't, she's by default not my favorite sister), so I won't say much.

How the heck did it get to be June, anyways?

*steps up to the microphone*

Err, hi. This is Dubious. I used to have a blog here. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been doing secret stuff, both knitting-related and non-knitting-related. I can't say much, but if aliens land in the next two weeks and try to conquer Wisconsin (but not Illinois; the aliens don't particularly want Illinois).... Yeah. Sorry in advance.

Heh heh.

I've been working mostly on presents. Yeah, I'm still not done with '08 Christmas presents (although why hurry and finish a wool sweater, just to give it to Mom in July?). Next year, everyone's getting a iTunes card. Presents - done in 10 minutes.

Tuesdays are for....

Tuesdays are for spinning, so I spun. I spun poorly, but I spun. This is approximately 40 grams (I'm guessing: there's a bit that I deemed too poor to blog about) of merino from http://jacinta11.etsy.com in the Victorian Rose colorway. Totally gorgeous. It's still drying in the bathroom and I haven't done any measuring yet, but I'm guessing it's super-duper bulky weight and maybe 15-20 yards.

Mother's Day socks are going well. There will be no picture, since my phone is all the way across the room and I am lazy, but I frogged and redid it in a 3x1 rib. I saw that it was good, and I continued to the second sock, where I currently am (btw, I am aware that Mother's Day was last Sunday). I'm heading down to see Mummy Dearest this weekend, so I hope I'll have it done by then!

Where have all the flowers gone?

I'm not sure just where April went. It was the beginning of April, I blink, and now it's the end of April. So what have I been doing? Good question.

I've been learning Continental knitting. Not my original idea, I confess. Lil' Sis is learning Continental, and my thought process was something along the lines of "Anything you can do I can do better!" So I'm learning. You'd think it'd be easier since I'm actually left-handed, but it's not.

I'll give you a pictorial demonstration:

Socks for Kelly, pattern here, yarn Lion Brand Magic Stripes. Line 1: A few hours of TV. Line 2: Watching The Producers. Line 3: A few hours of TV. Line 4: The time the boss was late to work and I couldn't get in the office. The rest: I don't know, maybe TEN HOURS!!!

Of course, this isn't the only thing I've been working on this month. I also have this:

I swear to God, this yarn hates me. Pattern is a basic cobbled-together sock pattern, yarn is Plymouth Sockotta. Cotton blend. I've never made cotton-blend socks before and I never will again. Sweet zombie Jesus, I have never had such problems with gauge before. First I do a basic stockinette gauge and get 7 sts/in on #2 needles, exactly what the label suggests.

So I think about making Pomatomus socks. I go down a needle size, make another stockinette swatch to get 8 sts/in as the pattern likes. Then I swatch in the pattern stitch. I need 12 sts/in, I get 9.6 sts/in. I go down another needle size, get a little closer to gauge in the pattern stitch, but I'm off in the stockinette swatch. Way off. Like tiny little swatch, like a baby blanket for a flea.

Okay, so maybe Pomatomus aren't the way to go. I cast on for a basic sock, knit for a bit, then think, "Hey, this is a little small." I measure. 8 sts/in, on the same needles as my very first swatch.

My conclusion: This is truly an wicked yarn. If I flick holy water at it, little green clouds of pure evil emanate from its skein. Maybe I shouldn't make Mother's Day socks out of it...

The sound of silence

Katrina's stockings are done, and drying on my fancy-pants sock blockers that I made out of some of Dad's hangers. Me, I don't have any wire hangers. I read "Mommy Dearest" in my formative years, and- well, I don't have any wire hangers. I'd model them on myself, except I am very short and stumpy and the stockings were made for someone who's neither short nor stumpy. When the first one was finished, I tried it on. It flattered neither the stocking nor the wearer. I'll tell Katrina to model them for me. :)

Also, I finally have a picture of Mom's sweater:


Why yes, it is a little washed out. In real life, the sweater and the stockings are just about the same color. I'm hoping to get this done by Mother's day, just in time for summer. Because who wouldn't want to wear a wool sweater in the summertime?

Giant Sucking Noise

About a year and a half ago, I bought a pair of Clover wooden 10 1/2 DPNs. Before this, I was firmly on the cheap metal needle bandwagon and I only got the Clovers because I had some chunky yarn that I wanted to knit up NOW (or rather, THEN) and I couldn't find metal ones that size. And they were awesome. They were everything people say about wooden needles: warm in my hands, and the knitting flew.

The only problem? Somewhere in my vicinity there is a giant black hole that only eats wooden 10 1/2 DPNs. My sock yarn that's been sitting for two years? Still there, begging to be knit (but that's a different problem). My collection of crochet hooks? All there, even the teeny thread crochet ones. My gauges and tape measures and seam rippers? All present and accounted for. The size 00 needles? A little bent, but otherwise intact. My nice wooden 10 1/2 DPNs? Gone gone gone.

Seriously. I've bought three more packages of those suckers, plus made some out of dowels I found in the garage once when I was feeling particularly desperate. Probably 30 needles. I am currently in possesion of 3 of them, and oneof them has been chewed on, presumably by one of Mom's pets.

Grah.