More Project Pics

My friend Christina modeling the mitts I made for Marcia Stevenson.


The mitts I made for my friend Sharon.


Pete wearing his Jayne Cobb hat.

Peanut's Blanket--Swatching Part 1

My friend Mary is expecting her first child in February. The baby looked like a peanut on the first sonogram, and the name stuck. Peanut will be getting another name once he is born, but until then, he is referred to as Peanut.

I have also had an urge to go back to designing stuff, so I decided to design a blanket for her. Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns has a couple of motifs that I will be using, and I am currently working on a swatch of a pattern from Walker's Third Treasury.

I will be using Bernat Satin for the actual blanket, but I am using Caron Simply Soft for my swatch. I know, I should use the same yarn, but oh well. Both yarns are the same weight, and both claim to have the same gauge. And frankly, swatches have been known to lie.

So far the current swatch measures 9 inches across, not including the garter stitch border. The motif starts with 40 stitches and increases to 48 then decreases back down to 40. The other two motifs require 50 and 54 stitches, so using three of this particular motif will work out nicely.

Mitts

A while ago, I made a fingerless mitt out of camo colored yarn for the hand at the pub. The hand was sort of a gag gift given to Rich Stevenson after his accident in 2007 (his hand is okay).



Well, while I was working on the fingerless mitt, my friend Tim complained that the hand got better stuff than he did, so I told him I would make him a pair of fingerless mitts. Tim did not believe me, but he was very touched when I actually did.



Being an artist, Tim had me take a few posed pictures for the blog. We of course had to get a picture with a glass of Guinness and the songbook.



And of close-up of the song:



Lyrics to The Black Velvet Band

Well, Tim really loves the mitts, and he made a remark about wanting another pair. So here he is, wearing his second pair.



About the time I finished this pair, a coworker asked if I knew where she could buy a pair. I told her I would make her a pair. I started another pair out of the left-over gray yarn. However, it was really, really cold last Saturday, and I finished that pair up at the pub. I figured Rich could use a pair, and frankly I figured the dark gray would be a good color for him, so I gave him the mitts.



Since I can get two pairs of mitts out of one skein of Lion Brand Wool-Ease, I used the left over in the natural/undyed Wool-Ease to make a pair for my coworker. I finished those last night, but I have not taken a picture yet.

I have now started on a pair for Rich's wife. Thursday I got an email from him saying he loves the gloves, that his wife was jealous and wanted them. So I wrote back and said I would make her a pair. Later I asked what color and found out she wanted either gray or black. Well, yesterday morning I went through my stash to see if I had any yarn that would work. All the other pairs have been made from Lion Brand Wool-Ease, but I did not have any in black. I did have some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Cashmere and Laines Du Nord Cashsilk. However, I am not sure what circumstances she will be wearing them in, and I figured she might want something that is machine washable. Besides, the Wool-Ease has worked really well, so I went out yesterday during my lunch hour and bought a skein of black.

All the mitts pictured are Clara Park's Maine Morning Mitts. I can generally do a pair in two or three days, and with the exception of the first pair I did for Tim and the one for the hand, all have been done two at a time, magic loop method. Once I finish Marcia's mitts, I will probably cast on a pair for myself. I have some Crystal Palace Yarns Fjord Print in 9573 Ultramarine that I purchased at Wildflower Yarns and Knitwear in Manhattan a few weeks ago.




Kennita also had some Jamieson's Shetland Heathers in a variegated blue-green colorway that I resisted purchasing. However, I may have to go back and get it for another pair. I picked up a couple of skeins of Reynolds Whiskey in teal at the Yarn Barn in Lawrence last Saturday that I may use for a pair of fingerless mitts as well.

Hats

I have been in the process of making things for friends Mona and Pete. I decided to make a hat and scarf set for my friend Mona. So far I have just made the hat, and I think the scarf will have to wait, because I really need to get serious about designing the baby blanket for my friend Mary. Anyway, I made her one of SMarieK's Utopia Hats. I knew she liked blue, so I asked what shade. She told me the color of storm clouds right before it rained, so Dark Horse Fantasy's Military Blue was the closest match I could find. I had previously made one of these hats for myself, but I decided to make hers a little longer since mine is a little short. I think it turned out pretty well.

Pete has been wanting a Jayne Cobb hat for quite some time now, so I started looking for patterns. I opted for SMarieK's Jayne Cobb Hat. I used Dark Horse Fantasy Yarn in Dark Yellow, Orange, and Cherry. I think it turned out pretty well.


Now to wash them--hope they don't shrink ;)

Lohengrin Socks

It took about three weeks, but I finished the pair of Lohengrin socks I was working on:


Another view:


I really liked this pattern, but it was a bit tricky doing it two at a time by magic loop method. I would not recommend it for a first attempt at doing two socks at a time, but other than that, I encourage people to try this pattern.

This pattern is available through Ravelry.

Misadventures in Dyeing

A while back a bunch of us in knitting group decided to try dyeing sock blanks. KnitPicks started selling socks blanks a while back, and one of us bought one to see how it was put together. Eventually a bunch of us ended up buying hanks of their bare sock yarn, and one of our members knitted up blanks on her knitting machine.

We got together to dye the blanks on October 19. We used condiment bottles to apply the dye, which worked pretty well. Since some people wanted their colors to bleed into each other, we did not add vinegar to the dye stock. I did not really want my colors to bleed and someone said something about maybe spraying the blank with vinegar before applying the dye, so I gave it a try. I did my first blank in green and gray stripes. Once I finished applying the dye, I sprayed it with more vinegar. The green part turned out okay, but the gray is a bit darker than I intended. I over-saturated the yarn too.


Jaime took this picture--thanks Jaime!

The next blank I wanted to do black and turquoise stripes. I tried to be very careful and use the dye very sparingly, but it bled all over the place, and the blank was largely black. I also managed to over-saturate this one too. I kept rinsing turquoise out of it for quite some time. The next time I do this, I definitely want vinegar added to the dye.


There are actually turquoise stripes in the black blank, but it is not terribly obvious from that picture.


Some people wanted to knit directly from the blanks, but others of us wanted to wind ours. So the next knitting group after our dye session, a few of us brought our ball-winders. Since the blanks are double knit, two us wound at the same time--except when I was filming Jaime winding both. I wanted to try soaking the black blank some more, so I did not wind mine that night. I later unraveled the blanks, wound them into balls by hand, then used the ball-winder to make pull skeins.

Twisted

On November 1, I stopped in at Settlers Farm in Wamego on the way to Manhattan. I bought two hanks of Put Your Best Sock Forward-one in a blue colorway and one in a gray. I mostly do plain old stockinette socks, but I decided I wanted to try a more complicated pattern for socks. I had originally opted to try Eunny Jang's Bayerische Socks. I love the pattern but it just did not show up well with this yarn.

I had recently found Caoua Coffe's Lohengrin Pattern on Ravelry, and I decided to try it instead. I cast on for two socks on Friday and knit some at the pub. I am not sure how many hours I have put into them so far, but I am really liking them. The pattern is much more visible than it had been on the Bayerische Socks.




I still plan to do the Bayerische Sock pattern, but I think I need to use a yarn with a tighter ply