Eleven Stitches

Wee Tiny Things

(Alternate Title: Knitting is Useful)

One of my internship assignments it to collect 3 small objects to illustrate each letter of the alphabet (phonetically), and 20 items (4 per vowel) to illustrate short vowel words (such as cat or mug) and 16 (4 per vowel, but not e) to illustrate long vowel-silent e words (such as cake or cube). That's a total of 114 objects!

This has actually been my most fun assignment.  It turns out I love collecting tiny things, and it's nice to now have a purpose to collect them!  Most of the sounds are easy to illustrate.  But some of them... they can be pretty tough.  That's why knitting is so useful.

Q is a tough one.  There's quarter, and of course I could make a tiny quilt.  But then what?  Quail?  Quince?  Oh, how about queen?  But most chess queens require the buying of an entire set (or the ruining of an entire set that you already own), so that didn't seem like a great option.  I saw some cute little queens for sale on etsy, and that's what made me decide I could just make one.

She has a crown and a purple cape, of course.  And a pink face.  That's OK, right?

I also had a lot of trouble with U.  There's umbrella.  Easy.  And then....?  Underwear.  The rose was more of a fun knit.  It happens to illustrate long vowel o. 

And then there was X.  Now for x, we were allowed to use ending sounds instead.  So much easier.  I had a box, a six, and then I thought fox would be great.  I again searched around, but after seeing some hand made foxes I decided I could make my own.

I think he's my favorite.

Also, some of the things I own because of knitting were useful for this project.  For instance, one of my Chibi needles went into the N bag.  And here we have my swatch for Audrey in Unst, and a tiny skein of sock yarn from the Rockin' Sock Club.

Or as I like to call them, yarn and red.

I realized as I was taking photos that I did not have a tiny sock included in the S bag.  Now, S is easy to illustrate.  Get a snake, a star, and a spool and you're done.  But this sock knitter needs to have a tiny sock included in the assignment.

This assignment is finished and ready for grading.  It's too bad all of the remaining ones don't require much knitting.

Leftovers Mittens

During the Winter Olympics, I started and finished Audrey in Unst as my Olympic Knitting project.  It was a good choice.  The yarn was from Whistler, the pattern was lovely, and there was lots of stockinette knitting to do.  But although the sweater was the logical project for me to knit, in my heart I really wanted to knit some mittens.

Mittens were, of course, all wrong for the Olympics.  Having to refer to a chart is not great for Olympic watching.  They were too small in scale for the challenge, and the yarn was not from Whistler. They did serve well as a carrot, however.  Once I finished my sweater, even if the Olympics were still on, I was allowed to knit my mittens.  I'm pretty sure my sweater was finished up a little bit faster because of the promise of those mittens.

I had the yarn already.  It was leftovers from these two wonderful pairs of socks.  I had been planning to pair the leftovers together for quite a while now.  In fact, I was anxious to finish up the Glacier Wave socks so I could use the leftovers!  I also had a pattern, Heather's Mittens, in mind.  However, once I finished the sweater I actually opened up the Heather's Mittens pattern and looked at it.  It was not what I wanted.  I did not want to knit my mittens at such a tight gauge. I wanted a long cuff. Have you ever built up a pattern in your mind and then realized it's not what you imagined?  It's very disappointing, even if it is not the pattern's fault.

So, I started making the cuff I wanted to make while I figured out what I was going to do.

It's corrugated rib, with a braid, 4 rows of one-stitch stripes, and then another braid.  (I like braids, too.)  By the time I had finished the cuff, I had finally decided what I would do.  I used the chart from Heather's Mittens, but only for 3 repeats instead of four.  This meant that the middle repeat wrapped around the side of my hand.  I also made a gusseted thumb because I like them so much better than the ones that come off the palm of the mitten.  Oh, and I kind of just knit from the chart until the mittens were long enough, and then I did some tapering thing at the top and kitchenered it all together. (I did take better notes than what I just said so that the second mitten worked out the same way.)

 

I think what I'm trying to say is that I knit my own version of a mitten, and I used the chart for Heather's mittens.  Kind of.  I flipped it around for the second mitten so that way they would be mirror images of each other.

 

I love these mittens.  They're exactly what I wanted. I will happily wait until next winter to wear them.

Striped Socks

Thank you all for your kind words and sympathy!  I went to the doctor again today, and I'm allowed to use my hand again.  Albeit with some chunky bandages on three fingers.

But I can touch type!  And knit somewhat awkwardly! I actually very determinedly knit a few stitches every day since my injury, so my knitting streak is still unbroken.  I'm a stubborn person.

But anyway, here's a pretty finished object!  From before the accident!

Pattern: Standard top-down stockinette sock with a corrugated rib cuff.
Yarn: Leftovers of a Zauberball in 1536, Wollmeise 80/20 Twin in Natural.
Needles: US 1 DPNs

These socks use the leftover yarn from my Zauberball socks, striped with great effect with some natural-colored sock yarn.  I heart them.  I actually had not worn them (it's been warm!) and then I grabbed them to put on right before we left to go to the ER on Friday.  I can't say it made the trip less painful, but it did make me a tiny bit happy to peek down and see the socks a couple of times. 

Because I didn't try, the socks don't match up in color.  Also, I only had a couple of yards left over from these socks, so I probably would not have been successful anyway.  I like them mismatched.

 

It was very satisfying to use up virtually the entire skein of yarn and get two pairs of interestingly-colored socks! 

on knitting, and not

i'm pretty certain that i knit every day in 2007.  i know i did in 2008 and 2009, although i just barely remembered to do it on our first day in amsterdam. it's been a fun project for me, trying to see how long i could keep the streak going. there were some days, when i was sick and working (and work was overwhelming-- being an intern teacher is tough), that i did not want to knit. but i always talked myself into a few stitches. at least eleven stitches, actually :)

but last night i burned my hand. i was carrying tea upstairs, and i had over-filled the mug in my left hand.  the tea sloshed over my fingers. i jerked in reaction, thus causing even more to slosh over the same spot. i ended up in the ER with second-degree burns on all four fingers.

it's amazing how quickly some things can change.

fortunately, i'm not in much pain, at least for now. but i can't use my left hand right now, either. no knitting, quilting, or even driving.  capitalizing letters is also much harder with one hand :)

now i get to find out what i can do if i don't knit. read, i'm certain. we're going to a movie later. maybe i'll play some Riven... i never took the time to finish it before.  oh, and i'll blog.  because i have several things to show you that were finished up before the scalding. until then take care, and be especially careful with hot cups of tea.

Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I thought I'd show you a little green something I knit.

 

Pattern: Side Slip Cloche by Laura Irwin, from Boutique Knits
Yarn: Araucania Toconao in 507
Needles: US 5
Modifications: I skipped making the ruffle and joined the band with a 3-needle bind off.  I then sewed a crocheted flower over the seam.

 

My red version of this pattern is my favorite hat.  I like the way it fits and the way it looks when I wear it.  I got a new down coat to wear on the coldest days of winter, and it's a rich chocolate brown.  I thought a set of green accessories would complement it perfectly!  I basically wanted the same hat as my red one, but I changed the band a little so it wouldn't look exactly the same.

 

On days like today it seems like winter is finally ending!  I'll have this hat stored away for a little bit of cheer next winter.

The Remaining Events: Also Gold

It was fun to tie crocheting and hand-quilting into the Olympic mix this time around.  Especially since the amount I quilted and crocheted depended on how Team USA did!

My afghan is still in progress, but it is nine rounds bigger now.  It was fun to think about the Olympian while I was crocheting his or her round.

 

I wasn't sure what to do during the hockey game!  Should I get started on the round just in case?  These are long rounds, now!  In the end I was sad for USA, but happy for Canada and happy that I didn't have to crochet any more.

I probably should have made the hand-quilting a little more challenging.  But my country got a record-setting 37 medals, so I did have to join a lot of edges.   Here is where I am with it right now.  Not all of these were joined in the past two weeks.

I might have this quilt hanging around for the next Olympics!

All in all, it was a very satisfying Olympics for me.  They're fun to watch, and I was able to fit in so much crafting as well!  I'm adding this button to the side bar, because I earned it!