Eleven Stitches

Knitting Gold

I finished my Olympic sweater yesterday!

Pattern: Audrey in Unst by Gudrun Johnston
Yarn: Impulse of Delight Bluefaced Bliss in Red Tulip
Needles: US 4, 5, and 3
Time to Knit: February 12 - 25
Modifications: I added 12 rows before the waist shaping to lengthen the sweater a little.  Other than that, I knit it as written!

I love this sweater!  It fits really well, and I think it will get a lot of use.  The pattern was probably the most well-written sweater pattern I've ever used.  It was clear, clever, and included a lot of nice little details.

I love the yarn I used as well!  It reads red, but if you look closely you can see hints of orange and pink.  The dyer, who lives in Whistler, has been putting local Olympic updates on her blog, and it's been fun to knit with her yarn while reading her posts!

I wanted to use some of the vintage buttons I bought last fall, but I didn't have enough of any one type.  Instead, I alternated two sets of buttons.  I'm not completely sold on the look, but I'll give a try for a while.  Buttons are easy to change if I find something better.

Oh, and congratulations to (blogless) Kelly!  She was the random winner on my blogiversary post.  Some pretty yarn will make its way to you soon.  Thanks Kelly (and everyone else!) for stopping in here.

A Projected Winner

So far, so great with my Olympic sweater.

I finished the body of the sweater last night, and I've got gold in my sights!  Also, I predict that this sweater is a winner as well.  It fits very well, and it will probably fit even better when I have button bands instead of safety pins holding the fronts together!  Yays all around.

Olympic Goals

The Olympics begin tonight!  This year I'm planning to be a tri-athlete.  First of all, is the knitting.

I'm planning to knit Audrey in Unst.  The yarn was dyed by Ruth at Impulse of Delight, who happens to live in Whistler, British Columbia, the location of one of the Olympic Venues.  I've read great things about this pattern, and I think the yarn will suit it perfectly.

The next two projects are dependent on how my country (USA) fares in the Olympics.  For every medal (any color) won by USA, I'll join two hexagons together for my hexagon quilt. 

And for every gold medal won by USA, I'll crochet another round on my Giant Granny Square Blanket. The rounds are getting pretty long now, so this isn't an insubstantial challenge!

 

I have to admit, I'm feeling a little conflicted going into this.  Given my recent sweater problems, I've really been into knitting socks and mittens recently.  I'm not sure how I feel about starting a sweater, but it's such a perfect fit for these particular Olympics. I'll give it my best try, and I'll switch things up if necessary.  To me knitting, and the Knitting Olympics, are all about having fun.

Snow, Socks, and Celebration

I apologize to those of you who don't have snow right now, and who might be a little tired of hearing about it.  The rest of us are a little preoccupied with it, and cannot seem to stop talking about it.  But there's just so much of it!

 

David and I both have had two days off from work, and we've had a very cozy time.  We did take some time to play in the snow, but mostly have been inside working on puzzles and knitting.

This snowman is especially well outfitted.  He has a hand-knit hat and scarf!

Because of the snow, I finished up a pair of socks!

Pattern: My own
Yarn: The March Hare Fingering Superwash Merino in Glacier
Needles: US 1 DPNs
Time to Knit: January 1, 2010 to February 10, 2010

Ann has been raving about this yarn, so I picked some up at Rhinebeck last year.  It was delightful to work with!  The color is gorgeous, and it's very soft.

I'm especially happy with the cuff of these socks.  I wanted a picot-type look, but I didn't want to do all of the work to get a picot edge!

To do this, I cast on twice the number of stitches, knit one round, and then did a lot of decreases on the next round.  I think it's cute, and it was fun and easy to do. It also makes for an especially stretchy edge to the sock.

And finally, today my blog is three.  A lot has changed in knit blog land over the past three years; many people have moved over to using Ravelry or Flickr.  I'm glad that I'm still here, and that you are here with me. To celebrate, I'll send a little something to a random commenter on today's post.  Happy knitting!

February Quilt Blocks

My Flickr friends Chawne, Jocelyn, and I started a Virtual Quilting Bee this year.  We have 13 participants, and each month we make 2 blocks for one particular person.  That person picks the fabrics, the design inspiration, and all of us make our own versions. The month that everyone makes blocks for me isn't until December, so I've got some time to decide what I want!

Jocelyn is looking for a sampler-like quilt, and she asked for one traditional block and one improvised block.  Here's what I came up with.

 

The improvised block features some hexagon trees.  The hexagons I used are tiny; they're only 3/4 inch per side! 

The traditional block is from the book, 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars.  This happens to be the Connecticut star, chosen simply because I like it.

 

I did actually run out of the blue on the last point in the star, and I thought it would be fun to pop a little pink into the block.

If you're curious what everyone else is making, you can see photos in our Flickr pool, One Shiny Bee.  I think this will be a fun project for 2010!