Finished!

The stocking is done!


Sunday I finished the foot and toe. Then began the task of weaving in the ends. I continued weaving in ends today, and then did the hanging loop. Having looked at the other stocking she provided me with, I decided to pick up 3 stitches and cast on another 3. I tried doing an I-Cord, but it did not look right. So I started over, picking up three stitches. Then I turned it around and picked up another three stitches, one in between each of the other stitches I had already picked up. This worked much better for making the I-Cord loop. Once I had a decent length, I grafted it back to the edge of the stocking, going through the front and back loops (1 and 6 together, 2 and 5 together, 3 and 4 together).

Starting Over

Last Tuesday night (Christmas), I decided I was not happy with the stocking, so I completely frogged it and started over. I went down a needle size and decided to carry no more than two colors in a row, which meant I would have to do a lot of duplicate stitch.

Tuesday:



Wednesday:



Thursday:



Friday:



Friday I did not accomplish much. I had a funeral to attend out of town, and while I took the stuff with me to work on before the funeral started, I left the chart at home, so I pretty much just did what duplicate stitch I could.

Saturday:



Saturday I finished the duplicate stitch. If I do another of these stockings again, I may try to carry three colors in a row just to avoid having to do as much duplicate stitch. I also managed to turn the heel.

Now I am shaping the toe and hoping to finish it this evening. I am not looking forward to weaving in all the ends, but I hope it will not take too long.

Another New Project

A while back I got in contact with a woman who wanted a stocking made for a new member of the family. It has been tradition to do a stocking for each family member, but she does not knit, and all she had was a chart for the cat.

With both of us being busy, and the weather not being terribly cooperative, I did manage to get the chart and a finished stocking this week. She had sent me pictures of another stocking, so I had already tried reconstructing the chart from that, but having the actual chart was better. However, I still did the chart on my computer.

For the actual stocking, I just took a basic stocking pattern I had and modified it so it would match the finished one she provided. The one she provided appears to have been worked back and forth so the person could do intarsia, but I am knitting in the round, carrying the other yarns around. I find this makes the stocking a little sturdier.

I started Thursday night and got this far:



Friday I made some progress:



Today so far:

Plaid Afghan

Since I finished the fifth strip of the cabled afghan, I decided to work on the plaid afghan some this evening. I only have one strip so far, and I decided it was not long enough, so I am adding another pattern repeat before finishing off the strip. I am using double yarn on size 15 needles, so it knits up pretty quickly.

Cabled Afghan

I finished the Celtic Cable panel Friday, and yesterday I managed to sew three of the panels together.



I have not decided which panel I will do next, but I think it will either be the Ripple and Rock or Hollow Oak Cable.

Ice Storm

Monday night I started watching the closings and cancellations for the next day. When I saw USD 501 (Topeka Public Schools) announced it was closing the next day, I knew it was not good. USD 501 typically does not close unless it is really bad out. I think they even announced before the other school districts in town (at least as far as I could tell), which really concerned me.

Tuesday I woke up early and started watching to see if the State of Kansas and the Shawnee County District Court would be open for business. The State announced shortly after 6:00 a.m., but nothing on the court for a while. I actually was starting to get dressed when they finally announced the court was closed as well. I put my sweats back on, went out and sprayed my car with ice and frost shield, then I came back inside and went back to bed.

I did not lose power, so I consider myself fortunate. My parents lost power Tuesday night, but they were lucky enough to get it back last night. Westar Energy is saying it could be 7 to 10 days before power is fully restored. Manhattan (about an hour west of here) was hit much harder, as was Brown County (north of here). One of my friends lives in Kansas City, and she said that her front yard looked like a tornado had hit.

I did go out and take pictures of the ice on the trees.








Today it warmed up enough for ice to start melting.




It is definitely one of life's ironies that something so beautiful can be so dangerous.

Arctic Landscape Bag

I recently started the Arctic Landscape Bag by Billie Marxmiller. After having to frog it four times, I have finally made a little progress:



I have started the textured part of the pattern, and I am not thrilled with how it is working out as it is throwing the slanting off. I am seriously considering doing the whole bag in stockinette at this point.

Felted Mittens

The mittens are done!




Now to let the paint dry :)

The Unfinished Object

I started the Lismore sweater by Alice Starmore in 1995 and worked on it for quite a while. I had heard of someone doing sleeves on smaller needles, and I tried that with this one--something I should not have done. If I ever get around finishing this, I will have to frog the sleeve and redo it. I am almost tempted to frog the entire thing and start over, but it is already steeked where I did the sleeve.