Stash Busting Like Whoa

Completed:

Felted Mohair Ballet Slippers from Felted Knits
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes 4 skeins (about 2 skeins leftover) in Fern and Mulled Wine, and less than half a skein of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Sage and Medieval Red, respectively
Source: KnitPicks and stash
Needles: Addi Turbo 24" US Size 13 circular, Susan Bates 29" US Size 11 circular
Modifications: None other than yarn substitution


I really learned my lesson with these slippers: putting a pair of jeans in the washer with them speeds up the felting process considerably. It took two times to felt the slippers for my mom (the red ones) but only once for my grandmother's (the green ones). However, it worked out for the best because my mom has smaller feet and needed that second felting to get them smaller. (My felting obsession has been refueled by the purchase of the special issue of Felt put out by Interweave).

Completed:

Sleeveless Tuxedo Shirt from the Summer 2007 issue of Interweave Knits

(Sorry about that lower photo, it makes my eyes hurt, but it shows the placket in pretty good detail. It's not that wonky-shaped in real life, I don't know why it looks like that).

Yarn: Less than one cone of Brown Sheep Cotton Fine in Twilight Green

Source: Stash

Needles: Susan Bates 24" circular US Size 2, Crystal Palace bamboo US Size 2 straight

Modifications: Gauge adjustment, yarn substitution (woo-hoo for stash busting!), knit in the round instead of separately and then seamed, added 2" in length, added waist shaping.

Awkward bathroom mirror shot, but you can see that it fits like a dream.

You can see the true colors better here.

I have finally completed the Treeline Cardigan from the Purl Bee. The worst part is that I have had the knitting finished for a few weeks, and I even dyed the cotton snap tape (my closure of choice) before I went on vacation. I was nervous that it wouldn't work so I put it off, but Friday I bit the bullet and pinned and hand-sewed the tape on. It took me all the way through the 1954 version of Sabrina and the better part of an hour-long episode of the fabulous show Mad Men to finish it (I went up and down both sides of the snap tape to make sure it was secured properly). Anyway, it was worth it. I have a beautiful sweater that fits perfectly and doesn't make me look like a gorilla and I learned some interesting new techniques.

Pattern: Treeline Striped Cardigan from the Purl Bee

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay, 4 skeins each light brown and light blue

Source: Stash and one skein of brown was from Knit New London

Needles: Clover 8" (yes, 8") circular US Size 8, Addi Turbo 32" circular US Size 8

Modifications: Added enough stitches to adjust pattern for 42" chest (the original pattern only goes up to 38"), left off some repeats for the button band, added 3.5" to the length, added 1.5" to the arm length, maybe a few other changes here and there (I kind of just did them as I went along).

I'm almost done Leo's Christmas sweater. I got both sleeves done on Friday at the open mic at the Bridge Cafe, and I even read one of my poems! Exciting for me, since I never read my stuff. I'll post that next week, hopefully along with lots of other finished projects. Next up, something for me: Fiber Trends' Landscape Shawl in the excellent organic Irish wool I bought a few weeks ago.

Baby Love and Christmas in July

Tomorrow my mom and I are going to a baby shower for her friend's daughter, who used to baby-sit me. The top picture is a corner of the blanket I made, the Estonian Lullaby pattern from Fiber Trends. I also made a baby bonnet and booties and a sweater (the sweater is going to be from my mom), but my computer and/or camera is being weird and won't load the pictures.
I am so close to finishing the Treeline Striped Cardigan from the Purl Bee (although I may need to run to Knit New London, my new favorite knitting store, for one more skein of Manos del Uruguay wool in quail), but the cat has bogarted it and doesn't seem to have any intentions of giving it up. I don't have the heart to move him so I'll work on my grandfather's Classic Socks (a birthday present) for now.
This brings me to my next idea. For the past few Christmases (and birthdays, and this past Mother's Day, and most other gift-giving occasions) I've driven myself crazy with making presents for people. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy making the presents, I think it is more meaningful and they appreciate my gifts, it's usually cheaper than buying presents and I hate the mall. I have great reasons for making presents. It's the methodology that's questionable. I'm always up late the night before the Big Day, up early that morning, and hidden away during most of the day (sometimes even during the celebration) trying to finish presents. Every year I say, "It's going to be different this year," without actually doing much to change anything. Last year I did a little bit more planning, which was good, but I still gave people half a pair of socks (not very useful) and partially knitted bits still on the needles (which led to jokes like, "So I have to finish it myself?") and then on Christmas I spent the rest of the day (and two weeks afterward) finishing them. Not fun.
I read somewhere that Victorian women also made all of their Christmas presents, but they realized how much time it would take and so they started in July. That's what I'm doing this year. This makes sense on so many levels: I have eight birthdays between now and December 25 to make presents for on top of Christmas presents, I'll be living at home in the fall and so knitting presents for my mom and dad would be tricky and involve lots of hiding in my room, it will save me money at Christmas by spreading out the spending, I'll have time to fix mistakes and block and even wrap the presents. My plan is to only work on these presents for the month of July, except for Saturday and Sunday (I'll be at home, but I'll still try to work on presents for those I don't live with) and the last week of July. That's our family vacation, and nearly everyone I'm making presents for will be there. So I'll push to get most of it done before then, and as a reward I'm thinking I will let myself order the yarn for one of the cute summer tops in the summer issue of Interweave Knits (I have priced out several of them with KnitPicks yarn...very affordable, very dangerous...)
Progress so far: two birthday presents on the needles, and I've purchased yarn for another present. I have also planned out most of my other presents. Christmas in July will be fun...right?

She spins and knits

The first yarn is unknown pencil roving, probably about 4 oz, that I spun and then plied on my drop spindle (was that ever tedious). The second is the first 2 oz of Corriedale that you might recognize from the previous post from The Sheep Shed that I got at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival in the "Summer Fields" colorway. I still have two more ounces to spin. I was going to ply it, but I'm kind of in love with the single and it's pretty thick (in some places; it's spun thick-and-thin, not purposely. oh, the joys of beginning spinning ;)

Then we have the re-knit Manos del Uruguay hat. I re-knit it because I used different needles than the pattern suggested, and of course it didn't turn out the way I wanted. I am thoroughly impressed with my two color pompom (no one tells you how to do that; it took me three or four tries).

Pattern: Kim's Hats, from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (on the third page of the pattern, the last hat on the right is my hat, in the same two colors even. I had a skein of the blue on hand and I loved the contrast with the tomato-y red)

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay, one skein light blue and maybe 25 yards of the tomato-y red

Source: Patternworks Yarn Shop (the blue was snagged at the giant summer sale a few years ago)

Needles: Addi Turbo Size 9 16" circular, Clover Bamboo Size 9 dpns

Modifications: None

On a humbler note, remember how excited I was that my Manos stashing finally paid off in the form of the Treeline Striped Cardigan? Well, I have been smited for my hubris. I only had three skeins of the light brown, not four (although I could swear that I had a fourth--however, in my Manos stash there is a charcoal grey that sometimes gets confused for the brown--since they're hand-dyed). I have finished both sleeves and the body, and I just knit the body and sleeves together (I've learned some new techniques and the construction is very clever) and I have run out of the brown. I went to the small but fabulous Pearl's Yarn Shop in downtown Manchester today to get more, but my particular brown was nowhere in sight. I'll check the Elegant Ewe and there's always the Internet, but I swear this is the last time I gloat about having enough yarn or about my stashing actually being productive. It's a bad habit and I'm going to quit.

For a happy ending, the trip to Pearl's was very productive. I picked up Fiber Trends' Estonian Lullabies baby blanket pattern and some Dreambaby DK in a lovely light green. I'm making it for my mom's friend's daughter, who used to babysit me. The shower is June 30th, so I'm getting started on it tonight.

Whoops

So it's been awhile since the last post. This whole end-of-my-college-career thing is a lot more time consuming than I had anticipated. I've also spent a lot of time being antsy about graduate school financial aid (I haven't heard from anyone yet). Oh, there has been knitting, crocheting (!), and sewing (there's this whole graduation dress idea that I think is going to end very, very badly) but I don't feel like I'm getting anything done.
I did get done with working at the yarn store last Sunday. It's a little sad. I'm going to miss spending Sundays with Susan (although I won't miss getting up early), and the loss of the 40% discount is wrenching, but after three years of snobby novice tourists, being yelled at for not having a yarn in stock or not being able to magically fix things I'm ready for a break.
The in-progress pictures are pretty boring, so I'll just list what I'm working on:
Chanson en Crochet (from Wrap Style) (that's the crocheting)
Wrist warmers (from Hollywood Knits) (commissioned by someone my mom works with)
A fifties style graduation dress (actually there are two, because I'm making a practice one with cheap fabric) (yes, I am aware that graduation is less than three weeks away and that my sewing skills leave something to be desired but my stubbornness to wear a dress that I made under my gown is currently overriding both of these facts)
and still, the Treeline Striped Cardigan

But first:
A new poem and a chapbook manuscript for poetry workshop
and maybe some of the pile of other school work I have to do...

Why yes

That is Hillary Clinton with Beth and myself in Manchester, NH. (The angry looking man in the background is Secret Service. I don't know what we did to make him mad.)

And a little teaser...



The first sleeve of the Treeline Striped Cardigan from the Purl Bee. The yarn is Manos del Uruguay and it is amazing. It is also expensive by my poor college student standards, so I buy skeins here and there and hoard it but rarely knit with it. Well, my hoarding paid off because I have almost enough yarn for the sweater. One of its many attributes is that it is hand-dyed, so there are no dye lots to worry about. The beauty of this pattern is that the stripes are all very thin, so variations in dying are pretty well hidden (otherwise I would have to knit a couple of rows from one ball, a couple of rows from another ball, and so on, to hide the variation).
So, a little bit of homework, and then more knitting.