Adorability

Progress on the new baby sweater continues. I'm quite pleased both with how nice it looks (with the ends all tucked in on the front) and with how little yarn it seems to be taking up -- I had planned for three balls of Knitpicks Essential Kettle-dyed (the old 50g balls), but I think it will squeak in with just two. Sweet! And the yoke is all done with scraps, so for the price of a pair of socks, I get a baby sweater!

Meanwhile, I have discovered the joys and dangers of Etsy. It's an awesome, awesome site. The problem for me is not that I go on Etsy and order tons of handmade things, but that I go on Etsy and look at beautiful handmade things, and think, "I could make that!" Hence, the huge pile of designer fabric scraps and lots of zippers:


None of which I really need. But I did make some cute things today! Here are two little coin pouches.



I learned how to make a fully lined zippered pouch. I have not yet learned how to make it perfectly straight, but I'm getting better. I made the orange one first, and then the pink one, and I think the pink one is straighter. I also don't know how to make square top corners, and though I don't dislike these sort of "mitered" ones, I'd love to know if there is indeed a trick to squaring them.


Do I need these things? No. But they are cute. Did I spend $25 on zippers alone? Yes.

Then there's this little buttoned metrocard holder. This one I actually kind of do need, because I am constantly losing metrocards with like $40 on them. The plan is that a slightly bigger holder (that's super cute) will keep me from dropping the card in my pocket where it will slide out again. It's adorably reversible (and also definitely not square):


Also adorably reversible is this little purse for the two-year-old older sister of the baby who's getting the sock yarn sweater:




I'm a little disappointed with the strap -- it just looks kind of clunky. I also didn't really measure the buttonhole tab, and it's a little too long. But the combination of fabrics is really sweet. And the best part is this:



She loves playing with wallets and taking credit cards out of them, so I made her her own little wallet, with a few old cards of mine. So sweet!

Yes, I may have lost my mind. Adorable fish-print-induced mania!

Squee!

A last-minute socktopus for my friend's baby's birthday. They invited me to dinner on Monday night, and I knit the whole thing on Sunday (it did take longer than I thought; I was up pretty late Sunday night).


Were I to knit it again, I think I'd do paired right- and left-leaning increases and decreases for some symmetry. I'm not super fond of the way those increases swirl across the top of the head.


The thing is even cuter than I thought it would be! Those tentacles were a little fiddly to knit, but so worth it! Just look at those adorable socks.

Snow day!

No school today; it's been snowing like a mofo here in NYC. I woke up this morning (at the blissful hour of 10 am) to these views out my fire escape and living room window:




Snow days are so nice! Unfortunately, I can't just laze around the entire day, because I have 36 student papers on Hamlet to read. However, I can take a moment to report on some knitting progress and a new free pattern!


First of all, the red striped socks were finished in time for Paula to wear them home after her visit last weekend. They look great on her, and she reports that they are quite warm.


Then, the tulip yoke cardigan is all finished, and I am pleased to offer it is a free pattern, here on my website and as a Ravelry download (see previous post). Enjoy!

Hopeful yoke

School and work pressure has lifted (however temporarily), and knitting can resume! I've been working away on a new design for that sweater for my friend's granddaughter.


It's really, as all my patterns are, a variation on a theme -- the new element for me this time is the yarn, which, being a cotton blend, seems less well suited to fair isle knitting than my standby superwash wool. Therefore, the yoke pattern I cooked up is decidedly simpler than previous fair isle yokes I've done.


And it's a hopeful yoke -- those coral-colored tulips on a muddy brown ground are a wish for spring from the midst of February doldrums.



I'm working on writing it up as I go, this time in three different sizes. That's a first for me too!

Meanwhile, the red socks are one toe away from completion. My parents are going to be here tomorrow, and I'm hoping I can finish knitting right now and block overnight, so my mom can wear these puppies pronto!

As promised.

As I posted yesterday, I have a sock completed. As I look at this little number, it seems a little short -- but I am banking on my mom's having smaller feet than mine. She's visiting this weekend and I am hoping to have the pair done by then.


Meanwhile, this tasty treat arrived this morning from Knitpicks: some Shine Sport to make a fair-isle yoke sweater for my colleague's granddaughter, due in April. This seems like a lovely spring bunch of colors, don't you think?


Not a yarn bribe this time -- more of a yarn reward. It feels quite nice to get that Chaucer-paper monkey off my back.

... what's that you say? I have some mittens that I have not finished? You are right. With temperatures in the high 40s, it's hard to conceive of knitting mittens. But not to fear: cold weather will eventually return, as will my knitten-mitting mojo.

This is ynough, Grisilde myn.

Huzzah! I finished the Chaucer paper and sent it off to my prof. Only 6 weeks late, really not that bad in the scope of things. And, of course, I could not hold off on that reward yarn and have knitted a sock. The partner's on the needles, and I'll post a picture anon. I'm banking on not getting second sock syndrome, having just been through that bout of second draft syndrome.

Actually, a thought on that: the only sock I've really had second sock syndrome with was one of the only pair I've made out of non-self-striping yarn. I think that seeing those stripes stack up really keeps me knitting, and knowing exactly how many I need to knit before turning the heel also seems to make it go quicker -- kind of like the way back from someplace you've driven or walked always seems shorter than the way to it because you know exactly where you're going and how long it will take.

For what it's worth.

Next up: two stacks of short papers to grade (cake!), some medieval mysticism to read (reading! how lovely in comparison to writing!), and a baby sweater for my colleague's granddaughter to knit. More on that anon as well.

New world, new sock

I'm finally getting over my post-election exhaustion. I'm so happy to live in a country I can feel proud of again! And, heaven knows, excited at the possibility of an end to an environment of anti-intellectualism! As exciting as it is, though, I almost feel sad -- I had so much expectation and anxiety about politics in the last month, that now it's all over I don't know what to do with myself! I'll just have to fill that hole with knitting.


Here's one jaywalker sock for Sarah. I love the way these socks look on the foot, but I can't say I adored the knitting process. And I know that she is going to gripe about how hard they are to pull over her heels. Too bad. If she hates them, I'll be happy to take them, because I love them.

Specs:
Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina
Yarn: Knitpicks Felici in colorway patina
Needles: Knitpicks options size 2

Other things to feel contented about: staying on top of my grading, perfecting my scone recipe, coming closer to having an idea what I want to dissertate about, and blissful Sunday afternoons working at the coffee shop in the most delightful company...

Be still, my heart

To those poor souls who actually follow this blog: sorry for the communication blackout there! I've become quite busy of late. Grad school of course is a time-vampire, and teaching is nothing to sneeze at. I've also been spending quite a bit of time with a certain gentleman friend -- about which I will say nothing more at the moment, except that as alternatives to knitting and blogging go, it's been a very pleasant one.

Meanwhile, there has been some knitting afoot. My friend just adopted a baby, and I've been furiously working ever since I found out about it, with these adorable results:



The socks and mittens are my own design; the hat is the "Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap". A simple but ingenious pattern that yields heart-grabbing results. All done on size 2 needles, Rowan Cashsoft 4 ply.

What I've been doing instead of grading papers.

Exhibit A:


An unblocked sock. The second in my set of socks for Sarah for Christmas. This one is top-down, eye of partridge heel, very standard-issue -- but not for me, because it is only the second pair of socks I've ever made.

Nicely kitchenered toe.

Hello, world. Hello, sock.

Exhibit B:


The sleeve of my long-neglected fair isle yoke cardigan. This one has been long neglected for two very good -- and one medium good -- reasons. The medium good one is that it has a tiny gauge. The two very good ones are first, that I started knitting it before realizing that I was twisting my purl rows, and since learning this I've become a much faster knitter when doing it correctly, and it's irksome to have to keep knitting this the old (wrong) way; and second, that I made the armholes too big when I was knitting the body, and I didn't know what to do to fix this problem. I didn't want just to rapidly decrease as I started knitting them, because that would make them have a funny shape, and in my opinion the most crucial part of a sleeve is the part where it hits your shoulder -- it can make your arm look either fat or skinny. So I came up with this ingenious scheme, which I think worked awesomely. The pit:

(for some reason, this seems like an obscene angle from which to take a picture). I ascertained that there were about 10 stitches too many in the arms as I picked them up to start knitting down, so I kitchenered together four stitches from each side of the arm, leaving the last extra stitch on each side for selvedge when sewing the arms up. Here's a closer detail shot:

That kitchener stitch is executed very poorly, but it's an armpit, for cripe's sake.

Exhibit C:
A gorgeous chevron beret that is, alas, too small, I fear. This is a mid-blocking shot, and I was only able to squeeze it onto a medium-sized dinner plate -- about an inch in diameter smaller than the one on which I blocked the first chevron beret. I have plenty of Imagination yarn left over, so I can just knit a new one if it is too small, but it's a disappointment nonetheless.


Exhibit D:

The beginnings of a February Lady Sweater for my grandmother. Despite my manifold qualms, I am knitting this in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. Yes, it is already beginning to pill, but she is very picky about softness. It may not be evident in this picture, but I decided to make the yoke circular as in the original, and to start the lace pattern early instead of knitting garter to an inch before separating for the arms, because I'm knitting this as a bed jacket for her and I think that the circular, shorter yoke looks more like old-fashioned bed jackets.

Exhibit E:

I reorganized my yarn stash. I was beginning to fear moths, so I packaged it all up neatly in Ikea boxes and zipper bags and put it neatly in the bottom of one of my new bookshelves.

Pretty nice, eh? This project renders relatively obsolete my old system of organization:

I may have gotten a little obsessed in the process of putting everything in zipper bags. Here's my basket of UFOs:

All neatly piled in order of what's next to work on.

Yes, I really, really did not want to grade those papers.