Knitting Pharm

Naughty, knotty Koigu

That is all.

Start me up

...and I'll never finish.

The Plunge plods on.  One gal has already finished, and no, it's not me.

48 is done.

 

Cheapy Online sock yarn, fraternal on purpose.

Pair 49 is some Sea Wool anklets with an asymmetrical cable gusset.  Sock 1 is done.

Beyond that, I've got nothing.

After frogging the Posh no less than three times in the last week alone, I've come to a conclusion:  it's a very, very bad yarn and needs a time out.  It may even need a new home.  Lovely yarn, just not right for me.  I'll decide its fate when I'm not so mad at it.

It's good news, bad news in other knitting.  The good news is that I'm using old, stashed stuff.  The bad news is that I'm using said stash to start project after project!

FBS in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock.

and another in Knitpicks Shadow.

 

Speaking of Knitpicks, my Harmony circulars arrived this week, and I'm in deep, mad love with them.  They're as slick as the nickel-plated ones, but lighter and quieter.  It will be hard to resist the urge to buy tips for my Options set.

I also picked up some Risata, their new solid, to work either Bayerische or Clessidra.  Thoughts?

Head-to-toe to follow soon, as I'm off to NB for a family thing tomorrow.  Back for turkey time!

All Night Long! (all night)

Well, my friends, the time has come

To knit some hats and have some fun

Throw away the sleep still to come

Let the movies play on (play on, play on)

The Loop was great.  I arrived around 8pm and returned home around the time the sun was rising.  I crawled into bed with Amy for a couple of hours, then got back to the knitting at hand!

While at the Loop, I banged off a Center Square, two lacy hats and about half of another hat.  All were done in Knitpicks Main Line, which is super nice to work with.  It's mostly cotton, so it feels really soft and yummy, a huge bonus for an eleven hour knitting session.

All of the finished hats were left there.  #4 is below.

 

Backpack number eleventeen thousand is done, felted and adorable.

Millicent has hit the frog pond for the time being.  I love the pattern and intend to work it in full in the future.  However, I think the lace top needs a pure solid colour.  I also don't really need more knee socks, as I'm rounding the home stretch on Austermann Step knee sock #1.

The thing that drew me to the Millicent pattern in the first place was the asymmetrical rib pattern on the feet, so I think I'll work a pair just from normal sock leg point down, again in the Cherry Tree Hill Supersock.  That batch of yarn has seen way more than its share of frogging.

In the recent Lime and Violet podcast, the girls discussed an intriguing KAL:

52 pairs of socks from April 1 of this year to the same date next year.  I'm waiting for an e-mail confirming my participation, but will attempt to complete the sock challenge regardless.

Anyone else up for it?

Knitting 2, Deb 0

Frog city.

Hours of work undone.

Piles of Handmaiden meticulously rolled up.

Nothing on the needles.

No time for many details.  Suffice it to say, the misshapen blob of a circle fell to the back of my knees, and the "drapiest" part of the shaping fell into a bustle formation in the vicinity of my posterior.

That's only one of the stories.

I answered a perfectly innocent question about a recent project:  How did you make out with Tubey in Cascade 220?

My answer?  Looks good, but not the best on my body.  I don't have the heart to photograph myself in it.

WTF?  All that effort, and I don't even see fit to be photographed in it?

I don't think so.

It will make excellent clogs.

Listen to the damned yarn

Yes, yarn can talk.  Yes, you should listen.

STR: Great yarn.  Anastasia: Great pattern.

Together, not so much.

Here's the only photo, taken immediately pre-frog.  I got a couple of inches up the leg and realized the pattern was competing with the colours.  I plan to do this sock again sometime in a solid or semisolid.

I immediately cast on to do a plainer sock, then kept changing my mind about how plain the pattern should be.  Knit-frog-knit-frog.  STOP!

I'm waiting for my first installment of STR club to possibly inspire me.  Despite having nothing wearable to display my recent efforts, this is still the prettiest, best-feeling yarn I've ever worked with.

As for the 2mm needle?  Big meh.  One of my many reknits was done on a 2.5mm, and was just as nice and firm.  As an added bonus, the 2.5mm needle does not make my blood pressure soar.  Plus, the 2mm cable did finally pull from the join for good, so I think it's not meant to be.

For those inclined to work my revised Anastasia (and for my future reference), I did work up the other chart.  Here they both are:

My ILs will be gifted well for their recent (she) and upcoming (he) birthdays.  The before and after of this process will never cease to amaze me.

Before:

and after:

However, I think the best way of all to photograph and unfelted clog looks something like this:

Anna is ten months old.  Anna presses her cheek to yours when you pick her up.  Anna is delicious.

And Spring Knitty?  Not so much, although I got some feedback for a potential re-knit for Summer 2007.  I feel a bit like the kid not invited to the party, but I'm still 2 for 5.  I will be back.

More to follow, including my bastardization interpretation of yet another Knitty pattern.  Happy Monday, all!

Insta-knit gratification

Toddlers, with their lack of impulse control, need their loving parents to guide them in developing patience and social skills.

What have I done?

On Saturday, my sweet Amy asked me to knit her a pink sweater.  I went stash diving and promised her a sweater "sometime soon, pussycat".

She wore that damned sweater today.  Not a great lesson for my wee one, but damn!  What a cute sweater, and what a fun knit!

I used Needful Yarns Dubai Stretch, and I think I'll withhold photos until I decide whether to enter it in their design contest.  It's pink and girly and lacy and makes me really, really happy.

The trick now will be to preserve its condition on the off chance it is required for photography.  Methinks I'll knit a duplicate if I get the call.  I do, by the way, understand the magnitude of the aforementioned if.

In other knitting progress, the circular cardi is about halfway done.  Still love the yarn, still love the pattern, still can't believe it's up to 576 stitches to the round.  The only change I made to the Debbie Bliss pattern was to use waste yarn for the armholes, instead of casting off and then back on.  I am so bored with the massive circle, it is tempting to break things up with a sleeve or two.  The closure I have for it is the most beautiful ring and stick brooch from Perl Grey Pewterwear.  (They sell them at Baadeck Yarns, if you need one.)  They come with the sticks dyed to match the Fleece Artist colourways.  Seriously.

Hats?  Someone ask for hats?

Really awful photo of me, and yes, I am just that tired.  I couldn't even be bothered with working the end in before popping it on.  It's a plain hat done in 2 strands of Knitpicks Shimmer.  So very light and warm.

Here's another one, slightly reduced stitch count so different colour pooling.  This one's for a chemo patient who means a great deal to me.

So why is all of my laceweight finding its way into cute but decidedly un-lacy hats?

I have found my Kryptonite, my friends, and its name is lace.

I think I could do it if I wanted to.  The problem is, I don't like doing it, and I have a dozen other potential projects in my stash that I know will enjoy, will not make me swear, and will not require meticulously placed lifelines, counting, and did I mention the swearing?

Case in point:  my Knitpicks Shimmer stash.  I got a bunch last summer, when all the other kids were knitting lace.  I was going to do shawls for every woman I had ever met.  Tried a bunch of patterns, free, not free, easy, difficult.  I could do it.  I just got so BORED.  This yarn was frogged so much, I expected it to go green and slimy.

My last attempt was the Fiber Trends Flower Basket Shawl.  Great, great pattern.  It was looking fine.

The problem?  The thought of doing even one more stitch was less appealing than jabbing my Addi Turbo in my eye.

In a burst of "life is too short to knit crap that doesn't tickle me pink", I frogged what I could and pitched the rest.  And started knitting caps.

I'd be curious to hear if anyone has had such a reaction to the experience of knitting lace.

And how did this get in here?

A felted backpack?  Me?  I just don't know what I'll do when we stash of Patons Classic is depleted.  I love casting on a quick bag to keep things interesting.  However, I am committed, at least for the time being, to participating in this:

Details are here.  Sock yarn is exempt.  I like the way these people think.

Off to do some family things, and unlikely to post from the road, so that's it for me until Monday, the day I turn 35.  Thirty five.  Sounds quite grown up, doesn't it?

Ready for Christmas

Ready for it all to be over, that is.

Not to go all Scrooge McDuck on anyone's holiday, but this one's a real stinker.  The details suck, so I'll keep them to myself.  Suffice it to say, the 22 lb turkey I ordered will go into the freezer and we'll go for a do-over in the new year.

On a happy note, my kids seem to be rebounding from their viral (barfing) illness, and it seems to have limited its effects on Mr. Pharm and myself to a day apiece of feeling lousy.

How to deal?

KNIT!

Austermann socks are knit and packed up for their recipient, I just have to deliver them today.  No photos.  You've seen this sock a thousand times before.

The Monkey has a mate.  That's not nearly as dirty as it sounds.

I snagged some discontinued Opal in a great swap from a kind gal in Vancouver, and whipped up one sock in less than a day.

Another blogger recently posted photos of some fabu fingerless gloves she'd made, complete with a very neat bind-off.  It looks very similar to the grafted bind-off I have been using for my toe-up socks.  I am very curious to see her method when she posts it.

Mine is a Kitchener stitch modified to work from 1x1 rib on a single needle.  Perhaps hers is less fiddly to work!

And hey, wanna see my Supersock sweater?

Are you sure?

OK, you asked for it!

I realized the same gauge issues that affected the final stitch count also made for a too-tight neck and upper back to the sweater.  Frog Pond, anyone?

This will make lovely socks, and lots of 'em.

Happy holiday, all!

Sometimes you just have to give in...

CTH Supershitsock sweater, why must you occupy my days this way?

Quick quiz.  You are working a fine gauge sweater and you realize, through a gauge-measuring error, that it will not fit over your monstrosities rack puppies chest without fear of imminent arrest.  Do you:

1. Live in denial, continue to work well past the armholes in happy mode?
2. Rip back to where the sleeves separate from the body and add a few gusset rows to increase the measurement?
3. Rip back again when the gussets don't seem sufficient and add a few more gusset rows for good measure?
4. Decide the new, expanded gussets will pucker and look awful and still be totally insufficient?
5. Decide to finally do what you've been avoiding all along, ripping back, reincorporating the 200+ sleeve stitches and expanding the raglan portion?
6. All of the above, since you are clearly out of your ever-loving mind?

If you replied 6, you are off your rocker and your name is Deb.

Now I fear I will lack the yarn required to actually finish this baby, but I can be creative if I need to.  Contrasting sleeves, anyone?

Anyone else ready for Winter Knitty?

Gah. Blah. Grr...

Counting is not all that hard.

(Insert pharmacist joke here)

My Supersock sweater took a generous dip in the frog pond last night.  It seems that I can balance working, 2 kids and an abundant life, but I can't count stitches to the inch.

I had done my calculations based on 6 stitches to the inch.  Looks more like 6.5 to me now, maybe even 7.

No wonder I looked like a deranged pinup girl when I last tried it on.

I couldn't bear to re-incorporate the sleeve stitches (all 200+ of them) and the sleeves and armholes seemed deep enough, so I went back to the first row of the separated body.  I added a gusset of sorts by doing a kfb on either side of the side "seam" point for 6 rows.  This should give me a few extra inches and will hopefully be reasonably invisible.

If it doesn't fit after all of that, I will gift it to someone.  Someone lacking an H-cup chest.  Someone who will love it and won't swear at it like I've been doing.

Pics?  Not yet.

Off the needles, on the needles

The Pomatomus Project is done!

The details:  Cookie A's Pomatomus from Knitty's Winter 2005 issue.  Toe-up, Magic Loop on 32-inch 3mm Addi Turbo.  Yarn is Knitpicks Dancing, in the Ballet Colourway, which appears to no longer be available.

Next is a pressie for my wee pal Charlie.  Sweet little Charlie.  In a three-way tie for most delicious little boy in the world Charlie.  (I have two heart-stoppingly sweet nephews.)  Charlie is my best friend Nancy's little man.  Here he is:

Charlie turned one this past week, and for that he gets his first sweater hand-knit by Aunt Fun!

The deets:  Top-down raglan pattern from my new favourite template.  Patons Rustic (sadly, no longer available), reclaimed from two projects I opted to frog and restyle.  The beige was a sweater I knit in 1995.  The grey was a poncho I knit when pregnant with my first in 2003.

On the needles:

• A top-down raglan for myself, in a CTH Supersock mill end.  Modified from the magic worksheet, with lacy (yo) increases and a nice, long turtleneck
• Sock #1 in Austerman Step for a coworker's husband.  At work, I've become the source for spousal Christmas gifts.

To come:

• Shawl in Knitpicks Shimmer.  I started the KP Candleflame and didn't like it.  Methinks I'll do a double-stranded Clapotis.

Very cool to see so many blog hits.  Thanks for stopping by!