Pressure

So, what is a girl to do when she starts being bombarded by design ideas, but has no time to knit them?  I've had two come to me in dreams.  I've designed one because I couldn't find a mitten pattern that I liked.  I was inspired by holiday decorations on the way to a friends' place yesterday and I had to sketch my idea as soon as I got there.  One of them I'm really itching to knit but I can't because I got suckered commissioned to knit another sweater for someone else by Christmas.  I know I said I wouldn't take anymore until after the holidays because I have my own family to knit for...but she was a tiny little German Grandma and she needed a wool sweater for her 5-year old grandson in Germany.  I just couldn't tell her know!  So I directed her to the wall of Cascade 220, and told her to pick out a color and buy the yarn.  Now I'm knitting a Knitting Pure & Simple pattern out of 220 Superwash Handpaint in a pretty blue/green colorway.  I'm working on the body now and hopefully I'll get to the sleeves today.  If I can finish in a few days, I'll still have time to knit for my own boys.  And maybe I can start on the really fun holiday project that's floating around in my head.

Oh, and yes...I was in the Sunday Providence Journal.  I got bum-rushed by a reporter and her cameraman who's name sounds like a Hobbit or a Star-Wars character, and next thing I know I'm in the paper.  Good thing I managed a shower that morning and put on some lipstick.

Disaster of Holiday Proportions

Today was full of disasters.  Exhibit A: Alex's chosen outfit.  It just wasn't worth fighting over.  Exhibit B: well...I'm missing a photo here because after getting my squash pie in the oven I realized that I couldn't put the pecan pie in the oven with it because they cook at different temperatures.  That's about the time that Aaron called me and said that his mom was getting dinner on the table and it was time for Alex and I to come on down.  I hadn't even started my mushroom Shepard's pie yet and told Aaron so, at which point he asked me how long it would take to cook it.  That's when I realized that I hadn't had a chance to so much as look at the recipe and when I did...I realized that I was looking at about 1 1/2 - 2 hours worth of cooking time.  For Shepard's Pie!  With no meat in it.  Really.  Thank goodness my MIL and her companion are good cooks and they think of me, because she had a really good lentil soup, and fantastic sides like mashed potatoes made with cauliflower instead of butter, butternut squash with apples, and a stuffing with mushrooms.  On the bright side, the squash pie that I made with coconut cream instead of evaporated milk came out fantastic (just a bit sweet).  Let's hope that the pecan pie with coconut oil instead of butter is equally good.

Exhibit C: again, there is no photo here because after I finished knitting the first of Dante's Christmas socks, I had him try it on only to find that not only did his feet get longer...they got wider too.  His sock was too tight.  I knit an entire sock, and had to rip it out!  That yarn is now in time out and I grabbed a different skein of his choosing to start a new pair that will fit well.  I just don't have this kind of time.  It's the holiday knitting season people!  I still have a pair of fingering weight gloves and two pairs of socks to knit (for large-footed men).  So, back to watching Julie & Julia while I knit yet another sock for The Boy, and lament the status of my poor neglected blog.

Fibonacci Cowl Pattern

Hi Folks!  I know that some of you who frequent the blog and stalk my Ravelry project page are no stranger to this finished object, but I finally decided to go ahead and write up the pattern.  It's now on Ravelry for sale, and I'm including a link on the blog for anyone those without Ravelry accounts who are interested.  This cowl is a one size fits all kind of deal.  My little guy stole mine when he was 3 and wore it all winter.  I finally knit him one of his own, and stole it back.  The pattern is a series of Fibonacci stripes which run opposite of each other.  It can be knit with 2 balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, or any other aran weight yarn with at least 99 yds a ball.  It has a simple rolled edge detail that I though looked really pretty with the stripes, and it folds up small enough to stuff into a medium sized purse if its gets too hot to wear (or a coat pocket).  I wore mine all over Rhinebeck and it worked like a charm (I was there a year ago when it was frigid!)  Feel free to join me in my cowl obsession.  Come on, you know you wanna...

The Boys after Halloween

This week has brought some really cool stuff.  First, after Aaron's insistence I went on netflix to see if we could set up streaming to the Xbox without having to upgrade our membership and found out that we could so now we've spent the last two days watching every instant watch that looks even remotely interesting.  You know, the ones that you want to watch but won't sit at the computer for long enough to do so?  Right now I'm finishing The First Power. 

Today I voted.  I also got to knit with my group for a little bit today.  I really missed those ladies.  First of all, they're just fun.  Second, they're crazy talented.  We have spinners, yarn dyers, yarn reclaimers, designers, and really fantastic knitters.  One of the girls was wearing this really pretty sweater knit from about 3 skeins of Silk Garden sock yarn.  She said she used size 7 needles and it fluffed right out after going in the wash.  It was really plain, and the colors did all the work.  I'm feeling a little bit obsessed and I want one too.  But that's going to have to wait until after I finish this sweater that I'm knitting for a friend, and then the next commissioned sweater after that, and then the Christmas knitting.  Who knows, maybe I'll get my list finished this year :)

exhaustion

Has it really been weeks since I last posted?  I guess school and work and kids just got the better of me and I was too tired to bother.  Since we last spoke, I've done some knitting but I've mostly been doing homework.  I'm on break right now and thank goodness I am because this last set of classes just about killed me.  My final projects were truly ridiculous and I'm still wiped out.  My back is so badly out of alignment that I've been having a hard time sleeping and I can feel that my collar bone is grinding when I move my left arm.  I really need to see the chiropractor but I just can't afford it right now.  I'm entrenched in a battle with my former employer and it's affecting my unemployment so the budget is really tight right now.  Luckily, I've been taking in some repairs and finishing work from the shop which helps make up a little of the difference. 

I've been commissioned to knit a sweater for a friend's husband and I've been agonizing over it.  I've knit 3 swatches and I've tried to cast on and get started but I do this thing where I feel like, if a person is paying me to knit something for them (and it's not cheap) then I want the finished item to look like it was worth the amount they paid.  I also get bored if the item is too plain.  Plain socks?...then I need the yarn to at least be a really pretty color.  Solid color yarn?...then I need a nice stitch pattern to show it off.  Giant turtle-neck pullover for a 6'2" man?...then I want to put a cabled panel down the center to break it up and make it look a little better.  That should be easy enough but I've gone over it and over it, and I've narrowed it down several times.  I've knit four-five different swatches and come up with three likely candidates.  Here's the issue.  My favorite one is harder to knit and harder on the hands.  The next one looks more like the first one and is easier on the hands but will still take more time than the last one.  The last one is fastest and simplest, (and Aaron likes that one best) but it's just boring!  So therein lies the problem.  Fast, or interesting.  Can't a girl have both!?  So I'm off to cast on and figure out what to do about this issue.  One way or another, I'm starting this sweater tonight.

The Monster Hat

the Monster Hat

Yesterday I posted about the Pumpkin Hat (which was met with much enthusiasm this morning), and a few days before that I posted about the Bunny Hat, but in between these, I knit the Monster Hat and I totally forgot to post it here.  It's a cabled hat that matches the Monster Hand-warmers that I knit a month or so ago for Alex.  I knit a seed-stitch brim, and then switched my favorite cable-rib pattern.  I wasn't too sure how I was going to handle the decreases, but I decided to push forward and see what happened.  I had 10 cable-rib repeats, so I decided to decrease every other one and see what happened.  That worked out just fine, but I still had too many stitches so I decided to start decreasing the remaining cables, and at the end I had something like 10 sts total left over.  I cut the yarn and pulled it through the remaining sts, and ended up with a perfect little star at the crown of the hat!  My first ever cabled hat without a pattern. 

pretty five-pointed star on top!

I'm thinking about knitting another one, in a larger size (or smaller) and trying to work out a pattern for this as there's been some interest on Ravelry in a pattern.  I used Cashmerino Aran for the original, but I'm looking to knit the samples in a different yarn because frankly, the Cashmerino hasn't held up very well in the hand-warmers, which is disappointing considering how expensive that yarn is.  We'll see if I ever get this done, as I've still got two projects due this week for school and I'm two weeks away from my final projects.  And let's not forget about the shop samples that I still have on deck.  Oh!, and I'm using the left over yarn from the pumpkin hat to knit the cowl that Alex asked for. 

Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere

It's the Great Pumpkin

Yesterday we took Alex to the Jack-o-lantern spectacular at the Roger Williams Zoo (which was expensive but definitely a good show).  This is just one of the 30-odd photos that Aaron took and we'll get them up on facebook later, but I thought it was a good segue to the hat that I knit for Alex.

It's the pumpkin hat from Itty-Bitty Hats.  This is one of the best baby books out there, and I seriously need to buy a copy for myself because I've knit three hats since I borrowed this one. 

the pumpkin hat from itty-bitty hats

 So the story of the hat goes like this.  I knit the bunny hat (as you know) and Alex woke up and liked it, and asked for me to knit one for him too.  Well, as he's 4...and a boy...and looks like he's 6, I decided to steer him toward a different hat.  He agreed to a pumpkin, and here it is.  I knit the hat with Berroco Comfort (worsted weight at 4 sts per inch instead of a DK at 5.5 sts per inch).  According to my trusty Ann Budd Handy Book of Patterns, his size + my gauge = 88sts, which is exactly how many stitches they say to cast on for the largest size of the hat.  With that lucky break, I was able to just follow the exact directions as written, with my only modification being how long to knit before starting the decreases (6 1/2 inches).  This hat went so fast that even Aaron noticed!

stem and leaf

 I've got plenty of the orange left over, and I had the brown left over from the monkey blanket, so I think I'll work up a quick cowl for Alex to use up the yarn.  Plus maybe if I knit one for him, I'll get mine back.

Next time, maybe I'll get photos up of the cabled hat.  It's pretty sweet if I don't say so myself...and I do.