The Year in Stitches: 2008 Edition

The yearly list of Finished Objects! Comments are in italics and I've tried to include links to photos on flickr.

• Noro Socks these already have holes in them :( - Flickr


• Frog Prince - Flickr


• Sky Master Noro Socks these also already have holes in them and one sock is way too short - Flickr


• Tangled Yoke Cardigan I accidentally felted this one and will probably knit another - Flickr


• Over the Knee Stockings - Flickr


• Flower Power Bellatrix Socks - Flickr


• Sublime Passion Flower Tank - Flickr


• Jasmine - Flickr


• Georgie's Jacques Cousteau hat - Flickr


• Halvsies for K I think I'll make this pattern available at some point in 2009 - Flickr


• Ridges and Ribs Socks for Lucille She wasn't expecting these at all! :) - Flickr


• Katelynn's Dairy Hat - Flickr


• Puff Daddy for Rebecca - Flickr


• Puff Daddy for Sarah - Flickr


• Red Sox Socks for Beth - Flickr


• Lori's Flap Top Mittens - Flickr


• Feather and Fan Cowl - Flickr

I was hoping to get that snowboarding hat done by the time the ball dropped last night, but I ran out of yarn and was kind of far away from finishing it anyway (I've got at least two more repeats to do before the decreases).

2009 started on a good foot though, as I managed to drink and knit at the same exact moment. It was somewhat awkward, but I proved to myself that it was possible. A photo exists on a cell phone belonging to some guy named Joe. If he posts that to facebook (I so hope he does!) I'll share it!

2009 starts off with a mystery gift for Illanna and her fiancé, the Hemlock Ring Blanket, Jeanie, the Cabled snowboarding hat and the Koi needlepoint project that's so close to being done I can taste it! My mother also bought me a sewing machine for Christmas, so hopefully you'll be seeing some nifty projects coming forth from that as well. I'm so itching to give it a go!

Happy New Year!!

I Know Why They Call it the Hemlock Ring Blanket

Because it makes you want to drink Hemlock like Socrates.


What is this, you ask? It's the stitch count for the 8 different sections once i got to the second to last repeat of the pattern. As you can see, it's off by a bit. Four of those sections had the same number of stitches, but not one section had the same number of stitches it was supposed to have. This occurred the Saturday before Christmas. So I started tinking back. I didn't know how far I was going to have to go, and since my markers were all in the right spot, I figured that tinking was the best option.


I put the Hemlock Ring Blanket on a bit of a timeout and while I was tinking I made myself a cowl.


It's from Knit 2 Together. I absolutely love it. It's knit out of Malabrigo Worsted and it's the warmest thing. I could live in it for life. I might have to knit a couple more of them so I can wear it with each coat (I just bought a new bright orange snow jacket for when Stan and I go snowboarding in January).

Finishing the cowl gave me enough motivation to get back to the Hemlock Ring. In total, I tinked back 36 rows I think. Here's what my diagram looked like after the fact:


So, I moved inward every time I got back to a row that was right before a decrease row. Good thing I only had to tink back that much, otherwise I'd have to re-do the chart. You'll see there are three sections in the middle that are circled. They're all off by only one stitch so I said to myself "fuckit, I'm just going to fudge that one part." Fudge it I did, and I think it turned out ok. I've been on the right stitch count now for quite a while and I'm almost back to where I was when I noticed things were awry.



In the meantime, I've gotten a little antsy. I realized that now that I have this bright orange snowboarding jacket, I need a hat that will match. Something about light blue and sparkles doesn't seem like it will go well with the orangeness. So I stopped by Knit One, Purl Too in Wakefield, RI when I was home and scored some Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL to knit up into a hat. I found a Lucky 7 hat pattern on Ravelry and cast on. I've got two repeats out of 8 done, and while I was hoping to get it done yesterday on the ride from RI to NY, dawn was way too late and I didn't get a chance to. So I'm still chugging along on it.


So that's all I've got now. I'll leave you with some photos of the Red Sox Socks I knit for Beth. I've given them to her for Christmas so it's safe to post them! I'll probably post some sort of 2008 wrap up soon. It's the best way for me to keep track of what I knit every year. Then I can re-set the status bars on the sidebar.

Nightmares

Last night (or this morning actually) I dreamed that my brother was borrowing a vest I had knitted out of twinkle. He was going to wear it to work and I was devastated that he was going to get it all sweaty and dirty and maybe the yarn was going to be cut (he works at a golf course). I was yelling at him not to take it. I screamed at the top of my lungs. But he took it anyway, and then I saw him driving off wearing it over a wife beater. My mom came in to see what the trouble was and I was crying and upset and she took his side! Her head was shaved too, which I found rather odd in the dream (in a "when did she find the time to do that?" and "why would she do that" kind of way).

That was the first of three anxiety dreams I had this morning...it was odd.

I'm Made of Awesome

That's my "OMG Do you know what this means" face!

What does it mean? It means:

I'M DONE WITH ALL MY CHRISTMAS KNITTING!

That's what it means!!



They're the Urban Necessity gloves (Ravelry link) from old school MagKnits (the designer is offering the pattern on her website). I used size 8 needles and Misti Alpaca Chunky. I have a whole hank and a quite a bit of a cake left (I bought three skeins) and I'll probably use that to make a cowl out of.

I hated this pattern. It had nothing to do with anything. I just don't like knitting gloves and mittens. They turned out quite well though and I don't think you can tell how much I hated knitting them. I should mention that the pattern was quite easy to follow.

So this is the status (I just like showing that things have been crossed off, I'm not trying to gloat really):

• Socks for Stan's Mom
• Dairy Queen Hat for Stan's Niece
• Jacques Cousteau hat for Stan's Nephew
• Half Socks for my brother's girlfriend
• "Almost A Mystery" project for Beth
• Flap mittens for my boss
• Puff Daddy for Cousin Sarah
• Puff Daddy for Cousin Rebecca

Jenn vs. Christmas
Jenn: 8 Christmas: 2

JENN WINS CHRISTMAS!

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So what am I going to do with myself? Well, I'm preparing myself mentally for knitting with the luscious Malabrigo I picked up back in October. I'll be turning it into a nifty little Bog Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around. I've been waiting so patiently to get done with all my Christmas knitting so I could get around to this project. Now I'll just make myself wait a bit longer until I can get the Hemlock Ring blanket to a nice size.

I took the Hemlonck Ring Blanket workshop at The Point. I'm way far away from being close to even halfway done with it, but I think it's coming quite nicely.







I wasn't sure if the marled colors were going to show off the design of the blanket, but I think it's turning out ok. I really couldn't decide if I wanted to knit it in grey or if i wanted to knit it in brown, so I decided to knit with a color-way that had it all.