Eleven Stitches

Wee Tiny

Today I finished a wee little glove. It was modeled after the traced right hand of a little girl I'll call Ayda.  Ayda's mom found my Glittens blog post through some internet searching, and she sent me an e-mail.  Ayda has Symbrachydactyly, and she was born with tiny little fingertips in place of the last three fingers on her left hand. Ayda is getting along very well, but her mother has been thinking ahead to gloves for this winter.  She wants something that is comfortable and that "looks right". 

Also, Ayda loves pink!  Ayda's mother sent me a tracing of Ayda's hands.  I planned for the gloves to be about the same size as the traced drawings.  I hope that by having no negative ease, the gloves will stretch to fit as Ayda's hands get bigger.

I used Dale Baby Ull yarn, since it's superwash and very soft.  And even on size US 0 needles, this glove took me very little time to knit!  I hope to have the left one finished up soon, and off to Ayda before the weather turns cold.

Ocean Toes

Flush with victory, I needed to cast on for a new project.  One restriction: the project needed to be NOT ORANGE!  (I love orange, but whew, that was a lot of orange in the last project.)  The solution?  I cast on for the second of my Ocean Toes socks in a nice blue-y purple color.

Pattern: Ocean Toes Socks by Cat Bordhi in New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Yarn: Koigu in P722
Needles: US 2
Time to Knit: Aug 21 - 24 for the second sock, and about a year for both socks!

I had a lot of fun knitting these socks.  The new architecture and the many different charts kept the socks interesting throughout.  About the time I started to get bored with the pattern, it changed into something a little different.  And knit on size 2 needles, they knit up quickly!

I documented the architecture pretty thoroughly in my first post about these socks, so I won't go into it so much here.  I noticed that I wrote that post exactly a year ago today.  Fitting, huh?

PS.  The socks *are* the same size.  The one on the right is just scrunched down a bit.  Why does that always happen?

The Thrill of Victory

I'm happy to show you my Olympic Sweater!  I'm so happy with the outcome, and I'm thrilled that I was able to complete it on time (early, even)!

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Briar Rose Fibers' Grandma's Blessing
Needles: US 4 circulars and DPNs
Time to Knit: August 8 - 22

I had been putting off knitting this sweater for a long time because I thought that sportweight yarn would take forever to knit up.  I thought it would be a good Olympic challenge, and I imagined having to explain why I actually just got bronze or silver because I hadn't finished the sweater in time.  But seriously, the knitting went by so quickly!

I'm glad that I decided to make 3/4 length sleeves.  That, and the fact that it's a cardigan, make for a very versatile sweater.

Whitney guessed correctly that the motif would become Olympic Rings.  This was very appropriate because I admired the motifs she added in her Tour de Gansey sweater, and that was partly the inspiration for this design detail.

Also, aren't those buttons great? 

I finished the knitting on Thursday, and I sewed on the buttons on Friday.  It was nice to finish up without stressing about time!

Remember how I had to add a steek to the back to take out some bulk?  I can tell where it is in this picture if I look for it, but I'm guessing that most people wouldn't notice.

So to recap: Yay!

First Finish Line

My first Olympic project is finished!  I count it as a huge success.

Pattern: Butterick 5209, View B
Fabric: From Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Collection

This is essentially a halter dress with a back and sleeves added to it.  I love the shape and fit of the dress, as halter styles and V-necks usually look good on me.  I think that if I did make the halter version of this dress, however, I'd have to make some adjustments.  The neck comes up a little high in the back.  It looks nice on this dress, but it wouldn't be very "secure" in a halter style.

The pattern was pretty straightforward, which is a little bit unusual for a retro Butterick pattern! The only difficulties I ran into was with the lining.  The bodice is fully lined, and it was a little tricky getting everything folded around correctly.  It worked out.

Again this dress is my new favorite; it surpasses some of my previous favorites I've raved about before :)  I feel so pretty in it!

So the easier of my Olympic projects is completely finished!  My sweater is blocking right now, and I'll have a post about it after I sew on some buttons!

Triathalete?

Boy, we sure are having a lazy weekend.  Inside all day, cooking easy things and spending almost all of our time in front of the TV.  Our house kind of goes on lockdown during the Olympics!  We have TiVo, and we record all of the NBC coverage, and we watch a LOT of it.  We're a little behind-- please don't tell me anything about Saturday night's or Sunday's coverage!  In fact, I probably won't check my e-mail again until I know how Michael Phelps did in his last race.

All of this time watching the Olympics has really made my Olympic project go by quickly.  I started the yoke yesterday, and things are well in hand for a gold medal finish.

I made the sleeves 3/4th length because I was worried about running out of yarn, and I think it would also make the sweater a little less warm.  I want to be able to throw this on a lot, and some of my previous sweaters are too warm for all-the-time wear.

It now looks like I have plenty of yarn, which allowed me to do a stranted motif on the yoke instead of a striped one.  Can you tell what it's going to be?

I have the pieces cut out for the dress I'm sewing, but I haven't gotten further on it yet.  Since I have next week off, I'm planning to sew while David's at work.

I found that I needed to add a third project to the Olympic effort. Even though the needles are nice and the gauge is friendly, I am having problems with hurting my left wrist from knitting so much!  I want to still be able to do something while watching Olympic coverage, so I picked up a cross stitch package.  This one.

I'm not making it a goal to finish this before Sunday, but it's a great project to switch in every once and awhile. (It is freaking David out to see me not knitting.  He keeps reminding me that I should knit!) The cross stitch is entertaining enough, and it has a Chinese theme to it!  It's been keeping my wrists healthy, which is the biggest thing.

I hope all of your Olympic projects are going well (if you're competing), and that week two is as good for you as week one was for me!

No one said gold would be easy...

We've really been enjoying watching the Olympic Games. The opening ceremony was spectacular, and so many of the events have been exciting so far!  I do like a good reason to stay in my PJs and knit all day, too ;)

I had one setback with my Olympic sweater.  For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea for the sweater to have some positive ease (where the unstretched sweater is bigger than I am), but in practice it looked like it would not be flattering.  I think the thinner yarn really looks better with a little bit of negative ease.

In all, I wanted to get rid of about 24 stitches, which is a little less than 4 inches. I thought about ripping back, but that's a lot of work to lose, and I'm on a deadline.  I decided to steek up the back to remove half of those stiches, and then to turn the sweater into a cardigan eventually (I had been considering this anyway), and get rid of the remaining 12 stitches when I steek the front.

Since I hadn't marked the steek section at all before, I drew down the line of stitches I wanted to machine sew with a line of chalk.  I think this yarn is superwash, so I didn't want to take any chances with crochet reinforcement.

After I machine stitched over the chalk lines and cut the sweater apart, I seamed it back up.  It looks really good in my opinion, with the only really noticeable section in the ribbing.

I've finished about 10 inches of the body, and I usually knit about 15.5 - 16 inches before going on to the yoke.  I think I'm on pretty good track so far!

Olympic Training

I've been thinking about my Olympic Knitting for a while now. I wasn't sure if I wanted to participate, but since David and I are avid Olympic spectators, I knew I would have a lot of Olympic TiVo time ahead of me.

During the winter Olympics in 2006, I had just learned to knit. I had not heard of knit blogs, so I didn't know about the Knitting Olympics! I finished up my second ever scarf (knit in Rowan tweed in purple and brown), and I started and finished my first hat.

I considered several projects for this time around. I could knit up my Kauni yarn, but that would require charts and colorwork; I want to be able to watch the screen most of the time. I could try to finish up all of my single socks, but I've been on more of a sweater and vest kick recently (simple socks notwithstanding). I could try to finish up my ancient WIP sweaters, but there's kind of a reason they're ancient WIPs, and I don't feel like doing them!

I decided instead to knit a sweater out of sportweight Briar Rose yarn that I bought at Rhinebeck last year. Crazy? I have no idea if this is a reasonable goal, but I'm not afraid of failure! It also would be really cool if I could do it :)

I'm planning on a simple bottom-up yoked sweater. I'm not sure if the yoke will be stranded or striped. I'll have to see how much of the orange yarn I have when I get to that point! I've got some ideas that I think will be fun for either option.

I was a little bit relieved when I liked the fabric better from US 4 needles versus US 3s. That extra bit of quickness will help me out. It's measuring up at 6.5 stitches/inch.

While I'm at it, I'm also planning on sewing an Olympic dress. In coordinating colors, of course. (OK, that was really a coincidence, but once I made the connection it was a definite.)

Did I mention that I've got a week of vacation during the second week of the Olympics� That should help out a great deal!

Simple Socks Again

I've been finishing up my purse socks more quickly since I have a little time to knit during my lunch breaks. This pair was actually started before I began blogging (!) and you can see evidence of my first sock in my third blog post.

Pattern: Basic 2x2 toe-up ribbed sock with Wendy's toe-up gusset heel (PDF link)
Yarn: Collinette Jitterbug in Castagna
Needles: US 2
Time to Knit: January 2007 - August 1, 2008

I fell in love with this yarn at my LYS.  It's difficult to capture the colors-- lavender, olive, grey, burgundy, a hint of pink sometimes.  It changes with the light.  I found it mesmerizing (I still do), and the simple pattern didn't bother me with such beautiful colors to show for it.

I enjoyed using the toe-up gusset.  It's another nice alternative to a short row heel (although it doesn't preserve striping) and it fits comfortably.

I'm almost finished with my next pair of purse socks, and I might have them done before Olympic Knitting begins!  (More on that in the next post!)