I did some stuff (and took lots of pictures)

I am pleased to report that the haunting spectre of the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky is almost gone from my life. I finally knit it up into some things that were not immediately frogged.
You may remember that I had 6 bedevilled skeins of it. About 3.5 became this scarf:
I had an idea that I was going to do a very thick scarf with all 6 skeins that would be full of many fancy cables. But then for some reason when I got out my Barbara Walker books to find some cable patterns, I found myself gravitating towards this simple yet pretty knit-purl stitch pattern called seaweed. Maybe because I'm lazy. But I think it turned out nicely.

The coolest part of it is, it looks different on both sides but in a good, either one could be presentable kind of way. Ignore the color in these pictures, the yarn is really much more of a nice olive green than the bird poo grey that my camera wants to show you.
Here's the "front":

And the "back":How do those knitted columns come out all wavey like that when there are no increases or decreases in the pattern? It's a mystery to me.
I haven't blocked it for fear of losing the cool waviness. I think it looks kind of nice in its bunchy way right now, I can't decide. I also can't decide if I am going to keep it or if it will end up as a Christmas present.

Then, with the leftovers I started these:
Comfy footy-type house socks that will be for my SP9 secret pal. She lives in Minnesota. I figure her feet must be freezing. I might be slightly more tempted to keep these for myself if it weren't currently 85 degrees here in San Francisco.
Unfortunately, at the end of all this industrious Superchunky knitting I'm still going to have about 1 skein left. And being a super-anal type I can't just get rid of it, so I guess their spectre will still sort of haunt me.

Also, I finished 1 Pomatomus! Hooray!

Here's the fly in my socky ointment however:
Why is the grafting sticking up like that? In my vast experience of having knitted 6 entire other socks besides this one, I haven't had that happen to me. It looks pretty funky. Did I pull the kitchener stitches too tight? Any advice?

But wait! I have more to show you!
Many, many more sock yarns have come into my life recently.
Brown Sheep Wildfoote sock yarn in Bark Cloth (what the heck is a bark cloth?):
This is for my secret pal, who professes to like autumnal colors best of all. This yarn is a little more orangey-rusty-red than is showing up here. I'm glad that this stuff gets to pass through my house on its way to her so I can feel it first.

I caved and bought some more Cherry Tree Hill Supersock mill ends from this ebay seller:
The auction ended at an incredibly low price though: $23 for 15 oz! Damn! I think some of this might find its way to my secret pal, and maybe the rest will become another Clapotis for my mother, although potentially not in time for Christmas, I have so many other things lined up ahead of it, and I'm a slow knitter.

I won a contest over at the Yarn Pirate's and she sent me some neat Opal yarn:
I'm excited to see what kind of stripey patterns will emerge as it is knitted.

And finally, I bought myself some Louet Gems Pearl sock yarn, just because I've been wanting to try it out:
Such pretty soft buttery yellow and white plied goodness. Reminds me of sweet corn.

Me me me!

I'm getting sick of knitting things for other people. And I'm nowhere near close to done with my planned Christmas present knitting. I'm also getting really sick of knitting things in boy colors. The cheery respite of the baby booties has long faded away.
So I decided, screw everybody else, I'm making something for me! Me me me!
Voila un demi Pomatomus:
This is more of the Cherry Tree Hill mill end. I am knitting from both ends of the ball as I was getting some horrific green pooling (or flashing? what is the difference between pooling and flashing?) in icky spirals all around the leg of the sock. I think it's mostly better now. Although there are still more patches of green then I would like.

I am generally of the mind that variegated sock yarns are best suited to really plain patterns, as the changes in colors tend to obscure any cool stitch patterns, to my eye at least. But Pomatomus seems to be the sort of exception to this rule. I've seen some awesome Pomatomi in variegated yarn that still really highlight the neat stitch pattern (Cookie's original one from the pattern being the prime example, of course) but I've also seen some in variegated yarn that, in my humble opinion, are hard to identify as Pomatomus because of the colors. So I was a bit apprehensive about starting this project out. I don't think it's the best example of Pomatomus-colorway combination I've seen, but I think the stitch pattern is still noticeable enough.

Remember this?
It's my Clapotis, knit from what is purportedly the same mill end yarn. It came as several skeins of varying sizes that all looked like they were pretty much the same colorway, but I realized a few inches into the sock that the skein I'm using for it seems kind of different. It's all emerald green, magenta, and purple. Where are all the cool light blues and pretty rusty browns from my lovely Clapotis? Nowhere to be seen. It's not a big deal, the colors are still nice, but I'm kind of concerned that the other sock is going to end up looking really different, since the current skein is not big enough for 2 socks.
Twisted ribbing is neat.

Secret Pal 9 questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I like almost all natural fibers. I've mostly knit with animal fibers in the past but am interested in trying some cotton or bamboo or others. I'm not crazy about mohair or alpaca if it's too fuzzy, those stray fuzzy guard hairs kind of drive my skin nuts. I'm also not a big fan of novelty yarns.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a needle roll that used to belong to my grandmother, although I mostly use Denises and DPNs, so the Denises have their own case and the DPNs are currently just loose in a drawer.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I learned how to knit in high school but only did it very sporadically until just a few years ago. A friend in high school taught me how to knit. I would consider my level intermediate, I guess.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
No.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
I like woodsy or green scents, or lavendar, or a lot of other florals.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I do have a sweet tooth! I love most kinds of chocolate.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I've done a little bit of yarn dyeing but it's not really something I want to get too into right now, living in a small apartment. I also like printmaking and sometimes sewing. I don't spin.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I like bluegrass, jazz, folk, rock, I think my computer can play MP3s.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I like blues and greens. Not a huge fan of most pinks and neon colors.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I live with my fiance and our 2 cats.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I wear scarves occasionally, hats and gloves even more occasionally, and ponchos never. I live in San Francisco so it's doesn't often get cold enough to necessitate scarves/hats/gloves.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I've just recently started knitting socks and I think those are fun! I also like knitting lacey scarves or other interesting stitch patterns.

13. What are you knitting right now?
2 pairs of socks and a sweater for my fiance. I'm about to start a Picovoli, one of these days.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I mostly use Denises so circular, and I like metal DPNs for socks (I have a bunch of the Knitpicks DPNs). I've been meaning to try magic loop for socks but haven't gotten around to buying long circulars yet. Not so crazy about bamboo (it always seems to snag the yarn).

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Yes.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Hmm, I have a mohair sweater that I started in high school, so over 10 years ago, but it is never going to be finished as I realized that I hate mohair.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas! For the crafts and presents.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Old postcards, and yarn, obviously.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I have a subscription to Interweave, and to Vogue Knitting that is just ending. I'd love to try magic loop with long Addi turbos. I'm always coveting various sock yarns, like Socks that Rock, or Knitpicks Gloss, or Lorna's Laces. I'm currently looking for more solid color machine washable sock yarn. I would love to get a copy of a Gathering of Lace, or other good lace patterns (although I'm not so fond of triangular or circular shawls, I kind of feel like they belong on 90 yr old ladies). And I'd definitely love to get my hands on a copy of Jess Hutchisons's Unusual Toys for you to Knit and Enjoy, but that's probably wishful thinking.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I'd like to try Magic Loop for socks, toe-up socks, more complicated cables (I've done some very simple cables).

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yes I'm a sock knitter. I wear size 9.5. I think my foot is like 8" around? I'm not sure.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
May 13.

Arr, thar be some booty!

I'm a bit late for Talk Like a Pirate day. But look, booties!
Some of J's friends had a baby girl a few weeks ago, and despite the fact that I really don't know them that well (although they are lovely people) I was so overcome with the urge to knit little cutesy girly baby things that I had to make little Annika some booties for her wittle tootsies! The impetus for this project also partly being that I have been slaving away on some very manly, and hence kind of boring, projects. One being J's sweater (which is about twice as far along as the last picture I posted of it, but what's the point of posting more, the front looks just like the back, boooooring), the other being a mystery Christmas project so even if I wasn't bored with it I still couldn't post any more pictures in the risk of revealing the secret. I was just looking through my closet the other day and thinking that all my clothes are brightly colored (mostly blues and greens) and I should really aquire some more neutral colored clothes, but now I'm thinking I'll have to buy them instead of knitting them, because apparently brown colored things don't hold my attention very well.

Anyway here's some info about yon baby booties.
Pattern was a freebie found here. I have to say this pattern kind of sucks, in that there is no gauge mentioned but it doesn't call for a specific kind of yarn, just DK cotton. But I guess you get what you pay for. It was partly for this reason and partly because I was being picky and indecisive that I ended up making 7 bottoms and almost 4 tops to wind up with 2 useable ones of each. The rosette pattern was another freebie, but a totally non-sucky one. Incredibly simple and took about 5 minutes to make each but I think they turned out really cute.
The yarn for these were from some totally random skeins that I think I got in a dollar bin at a yarn store in Seattle ages ago, actually I think it might have been a bin of bags of skeins for a dollar, so these skeins were probably like 20 cents each, go cheap knitting! The blue is a superwash wool and the pink is 50/50 wool/acrylic. I'm not sure how often baby booties need to be washed, probably depends on how much the baby in question likes to stick her be-bootied foot in her mouth, but I figured machine washable baby items were definitely the way to go.
The booty part was knitted on US size 5s and the rosettes on US size 3s.

Here's Paddington being a helpful model again:

Off the wagon

Remember when I said someone should take my credit card away? I wasn't joking. Why do I feel compelled to purchase yarn at rates ten times faster than I can knit it up? But look how pretty!I went a little nuts when knithappens had a big sale at the end of August.

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Buck's Bar. I don't know what Buck's Bar means, but oh how I love it.
What is this strange hold that sock yarn has taken on me? Fleece Artist Merino in Parrot. Tropical bird colors for my feet!
A big ol' pile of Noro Cash Iroha for the Hourglass Sweater that I have been threatening to make for months. It's really much more of a violet-ish color in person. Unfortunately, I ordered ten skeins but the store only sent me 9, I hope this doesn't mean they are out. I was planning on making the size that calls for 9 skeins but it seems like everyone that makes this sweater is running really short on yarn, I was even nervous about getting through with 10.I was thinking of making the Hourglass with a contrast color trim, ala this one. I have this 2 skeins of this baby blue stuff, that I think is some kind of wool-silk blend. It was originally knitted into some ill-fated wrist warmers that are just too big and look silly. So I think it will be happier to take its place as part of a sweater. If I can get enough yarn, that is.

Clapotis

Clapotis is done! This was such a quick, mindless knit, but so cool looking at the end! And of course dropping stitches on purpose is always fun. My denises came unjoined from the cord a few times during the knitting process and my scrambling to keep all those dropped stitches from unravelling seemed kind of funny, when I was purposefully dropping other ones.

I went a little nuts with the pictures since I actually made the effort and braved the passerbys' gawkings to go out to the front porch to get good light, so I have several non-fuzzy pictures instead of my usual 1 or 2 out of 30 or so.

Anyway here it is blocking (doubled up):

Pretty pretty colors (there are several knots in the finished product, one of which you can see here, which is entirely my fault, somehow I ended up making several huge snarls out of my center-pull ball and just broke the yarn instead of dealing with it):

Modeled by the porch railing:And the chair:

And by me!Specs:
yarn - Cherry Tree Hill Merino Supersock - a mill end, so I don't know what the name of the colorway is. I love the colors in this yarn - especially all the blues. And I think Clapotis is the perfect pattern for a variegated yarn, since any pooling is made much less obvious by the big stripes of dropped stitches. The yarn itself is very soft and smooth and lightweight, I think this is the lightest scarf I've made yet.
needles - Denise size 5s

I've started one of my Christmas projects already. Here's a glimpse that hopefully doesn't reveal what it's going to be, since the recepient may be lurking:
Mmm pumpkin. This is Knitpicks Essential in Pumpkin, the color really reminds me more of pumpkin pie filling. Mmmmm...

Prezzies!

J's family was here this weekend. His mom has quickly figured out that the way to my heart is through lots of fiberous presents. She's a smart one! (Just in case she's reading this, I would like her even if she didn't give me stuff. But it sure doesn't hurt.)

Self-striping sock yarn (wool blend on the left, cotton on the right):
Despite all the sock yarn I have managed to quickly accumulate in the short time since I started knitting socks, I didn't yet have any self-patterning stuff. Goody!

These ones are alpaca-silk laceweight blends:
The blue stuff is Alpaca with a Twist Fino (and such a lovely rich bluey color) and the white is handspun by J's mum herself.

Now I need some good ideas for lacey projects.

My own mom was also here this weekend (although SHE didn't bring me any presents, harumph! Just kidding Mom. Thanks for the gift of life and all.). She suddenly decided she needed to start knitting something, even though she eschewed knitting decades ago, so I gave her a leftover skein of Knitpicks Sierra bulky blue yarn and some size 10 1/2s (that I think actually originally belonged to her mother, how quaint) and she was off and running. Apparently knitting is like riding a bike, I didn't need to remind her how to do anything. She was so cute!

(Update on the bridesmaids' dresses - several family members and a mild panic attack have combined to convince me that retail is my friend. You will hear no more from me of trying to create my entire wedding from scratch, promise. I'll leave that kind of thing to Martha Stewart and her thousands of employees.)

Dressing down

After making that last dress, that was purportedly a mock-up for potential bridesmaid dresses, I decided that it wasn't at all the right kind of bridesmaid dress pattern. And then I saw this Vogue pattern, below, which reminded me of some cute dresses by J. Crew and Thread.

So I made another mock-up. Now, some of you might remember that part of the point of this whole thing was the saving money aspect of it, and now I've probably spent at least $60 on these two "mock-up" dresses, and am not any closer to having a single actual bridesmaid dress. Although I do own a cute duro-style dress of my own making now, at least. This second mock-up I made in Sienna's size (the fact that I made the first dress in my own size, despite the fact that none of the bridesmaids are the same size as me, ought to be a clue that I really had only selfish motivations behind that first creation), and again sacrificing work and sleep, managed to finish it in a few short days before flying out to Chicago to see Sienna over this last weekend. I am proud to relate that the dress looked awesome on her! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, and I think a good chunk of this awesomeness may be due to her ginormous ta-tas, as it doesn't look so good on me:


Bleh.

Up-close of the neato cotton fabric print of the mock-up:
Oh, and that pale green somewhat baggy somewhat cowl of the last post now has a new home with Sienna, and as predicted, it looked much better on her than on me. All of that under-arm bagginess was magically taken up by her, guess what, ample ta-tas.
I'm starting to get a little weirded out by the number of times I have talked about Sienna's bosom on this blog, which is supposedly about knitting, not about Sienna or her various body parts. Also, all evidence to the contrary, I swear that I'm straight. No more boob-talk, I promise! All posts from here on out will be strictly G-rated good ol' fashioned fiberous fun.

In case you thought I had forsaken knitting for bridesmaid dress mock-ups, here's evidence that Clapotis is Clapotising along.

And I also just broke my moratorium on no yarn buying in August by ordering a ton of Noro Cash Iroha, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, and Fleece Artist Merino Sock. Well, it's almost September, right? Maybe if the yarn doesn't show up until September it doesn't count as buying it in August, yeah, that's it.

Somewhat undecided

After months of complaining I have finished the Somewhat Cowl (pattern by Wendy over at Knit and Tonic). I think I realized after a few inches into it that it was going to come out too big on the top. I know she actually published a revised pattern since a lot of people were having this problem, but by that point it was already too big. And then I realized not too long after that, that I was having to put a blanket between the sweater and my legs while knitting it, since the alpaca yarn was itching me too much. So the chances of me wearing this sweater seemed slim from the get-go. Since I wasn't so crazy about the yarn, it seemed pointless to frog it and re-make it smaller. Great logic, right? It's so much better to have an itchy sweater that doesn't fit than an itchy sweater that does. So it languished on the shelf unfinished for a long time. Then I had the idea that maybe I could give it to someone who is a little bigger than me on the top, which is when I thought of the aforementioned large-knockered bridesmaids. So I picked it up again with the idea of giving it to Sienna, which gave me new motiviation to finish it, since I'm going to see her in Chicago next week.

But now that it's done, it doesn't seem quite so bad as I was expecting. I took several pictures of myself wearing it this morning to try to demonstrate the bagginess of the top part, and was having a hard time getting this bagginess to show up in a picture, which made me think, maybe it's really not so big after all, if it seems to look OK in the picture. So now I'm blocking it to see if I can make the itchiness go away too. Anyway here it is:

See, it doesn't look so bad there, does it? It does kind of make me look like I have no waist, which is unfortunate since I have giant hips and my waist is really much smaller than those hips, I swear, but this sweater kind of makes me look much more tree-trunk shaped.

I do actually have pictures that show the bagginess a little more than that one, but blogger is insisting on turning them all sideways when I try to upload them and I don't know how to fix it, so I just deleted them all. You'll have to take my word for it.

So I'm still undecided about this sweater - I think I'll end up giving it to Sienna since I said I would, and it would probably look cuter on her anyway, and then I'll have an excuse to make another one for myself that actually fits with Knitpicks Shine. I've seen a few versions in this yarn and I think it looks delicious.

cheating

Do you ever feel like you are cheating on a work in progress if you start something else before finishing it? Something snazzier, more exciting, faster? Sure, it won't keep you warm and comfortable the way that long-sleeved stockinette pullover will, but look how many yarn-overs and twisted stitches! I felt like I was cheating on J's sweater when I made those turquoise socks, and the minute I finished those I felt remorse for ignoring the sweater, so I faithfully knit another inch or so of that mind-numbing K4 P2, until I was lured away by the call of the Clapotis. But the last few days I've been cheating on knitting altogether. The first episodes of Project Runway have convinced me that if all those contestents can sew a besequined outfit for an ice-skating poodle, or whatever they were doing, in just 24 hours, I can surely complete a simple dress with detailed instructions in the comfort of my own home. And I did! After putting the first few bits aside a few weeks ago when I got to the point where I would have to get the iron out to continue (yes, I am incredibly lazy), I picked it back up on Sunday, and with the minor sacrifices of sleep, work, and bathing, I have just completed it. Here it is, hot off the presses (I even figured out how to use the self-timer on my camera, so I don't have to subject you to the bathroom mirror pictures).