Desperate Times...

...call for desperate measures.

Finishing up one slipper, after having realized I left four out of five of my 10.5 dpns at school with a friend. Solution: one dpn, one circ, and two unscrewed ends of my interchangeable needle set. Fun? No. Functional? Just barely.

Stranding!

I'm planning on waiting to post pictures of my real gift FOs when they're actually being worn on their recipients, but I got too excited about this one to hold out even until I finished making it.


I started this hat last night around 10:30, and was so excited I didn't stop until I finished the colorwork section. It's not perfect, and I know everyone and their dog Sandy has already tried stranded colorwork, but this was my first time and I love it.

Kat's Snake Scarf

The snake scarf is finished!

Funny that, by coincidence, my last two FOs have been wearable reptiles, when I've never knitted anything remotely animal-like before. :) A few days before finals, my friend Kat came up (she lives on the floor below me) and asked if I could duplicate this scarf for her. I've never tried to copy a knitted item exactly before, so I was a little afraid to do it, but it looked easy enough so I tried it out. I like the turnout.

Pattern: my own, based off of the snake scarf on Chocosho.com.
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Coal and Natural, just over 110 yds. each, and a few inches of red Cascade 220.
Needles: US6 straights
Techniques Learned: the raised center stitch decrease (last decrease method shown here), creating a pattern based off two photos
Recipient: Kat B.

Notes:
- This was a fun project, if only because I got to use my head trying to figure it out. It's pretty straightforward--stripes knitted in stockinette so they roll, with decreases at both ends to look like the head and tail.
- I had to experiment with the decreases for a while; at first I couldn't understand why the head decreases didn't look right, and then when I tried the correct decrease method on the tail end, it didn't work because I was trying to fit two extra rows in between decreases. So, on the tail end, there are simple k2togs and ssks on either side of the center stitch every 3 rows.
- Wool of the Andes isn't my favorite yarn in the world, but it's not my least favorite either. It's a nice, sturdy, reliable yarn, in my opinion. Kat picked out the colors down to the eye color, so I didn't have to worry too much about that (and I would have--choosing colors is always a killer for me).
- Weaving in ends on this sucker was a pain. But what can you do.
- I hope she likes it. Going to try to mail it out tomorrow, if possible; she's doing an internship in New York in January and really wants to show it off.

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HAND... THINGS.

A year ago, maybe, it was scarves. It was more of a coincidence then; I was branching out into greater things like lace and cables, but couldn't be bothered with the nuisances of double-pointed needles, inc/dec shaping, and picking up stitches involved with more complicated work. Sure, I knit a few hats here and there, but they weren't (and still aren't) as fun.

It's no secret that I'm currently in a torrid love affair with all wintry clothing. Ever. The first time I saw one of the outerwear Old Navy commercials involving lots of fake snow, smiling faces and cheesy voiceovers this year, I nearly melted: I could happily shop for jackets, sweaters and scarves all through the summer. The clincher, though? Hand-things.

Once described as "the sock hipster's cousin" (Fig and Plum), handwear is truly the thing: relatively quick, small, un-boring to knit, satisfying, not to mention show-off-able: while socks can take longer and are less visible, handwarmers attract attention almost immediately. The impatient braggart's paradise!

My favorite mittens to knit at the moment are the Tweedy Mittens from kpixie; so far I've made a few pairs in plain colors because they a) fit well and b) are easy to fiddle with, like I had to for my freakishly long fingers. The first ones I knit for myself, with Cascade 220 Tweed in a dark green, very quickly became Invincible and hence my favorite pair ever. Too bad it only took a few weeks for me to lose them. :(

For I-don't-even-know-how-long-now, I've been wanting to knit a pair of Broad Street Mittens for myself, and over Thanksgiving I very nearly did. I used some yarn I'd Kool-Aid-dyed a few months ago, and finished one mitten minus the thumb. It took me that long to realize that a) I didn't like the way the colors were pooling, b) the way it fit on my hand, or c) the stiffness of the fabric--I'd been careless and using a needle size too small. That's frustration. :) So that project went kaput, though aspirations for other convertible mitts remain.

I have yet to actually knit a pair of gloves, just because, while I've done it before for half-length fingers, they're intimidating and I'm terrified of the holes they make at the base. Talk about weird phobias. I'm sure I'll get around to it, though.

For the past few days, spending time idly online, I've been looking at--you guessed it--mitten, glove, and something-in-between patterns. Thrummed mittens are a concept so intriguing that I can't wait to get my hands on some roving to try it out. Corazon from the new Knitty is delightful--almost certainly a future project. Eunny's Anemoi mittens are simply awe-inspiring (but I'm going to wait a while before I try those!).

For some reason, I'd never been a fan of fingerless mitts/hobo gloves before, but recently it's all changed. It was probably Laura's Endpaper Mitts (pattern here), which basically had me jump the gun, all ready to try stranded colorwork for the first time: it's a good thing I had no suitable yarn handy, or Kat's scarf will never have finished. Then, at the mall today, others kept drawing my notice, begging for duplication: a pointelle pair I saw at American Eagle, and a cabled/seed stitch pair at Urban. When looking for the specific cable stitch online earlier (fruitlessly--I'll have to check out a book from the library later), I unveiled countless other stitch patterns that could potentially be incorporated into armwarmers. As usual, I'm terribly ambitious with very little follow-through, but it's exciting nonetheless.

Anyway, I just thought I'd take the time today to profess my undying love for all knitted hand-things. I'm still working on a striped scarf for my friend Kat, but will hopefully finish and post pictures of it soon.

Alligator Mitts

Lately I've had such little patience with my projects that the last fully finished object of mine was done about a month ago -- and that, only after about another month of putting off sewing on the eyes. Sheesh.

I knew pretty soon after receiving the book (as a secret Eid buddy gift form Uthayla last year) that I would make these cuties, but only got around to it this semester.

Pattern: Later 'Gator Mitts from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation (Debbie Stoller)

Yarn: Cascade 220 in the colors called for; I left the book at school so I'm not sure exactly which ones.
Needles: US6 DPNs
Techniques Learned: Mattress stitch, French knots

Recipient: Self

Some notes:
- The pattern worked pretty smoothly, except that I was dumb and didn't use smaller needles on the cuff like I was supposed to. So, the cuffs are huge, and I have to tuck my shirt sleeves into them if I want the mittens to stay on nicely. True, this'll probably help in terms of warmth, but it's a pain because I'm finicky about it and can't take them on and off easily with a jacket on.
- As a rule, I like my mittens to be a little snug, so these are a little roomy for my taste; on the bright side, I can easily wear another pair (or gloves) underneath.
- On the first one, Mister Mister, I bound off the upper "lip" too tightly; as a result, it curls up irritatingly. (This is his brother-slash-arch-enemy, Oh No, you're looking at.)
- I forgot: there is an error in this pattern; thankfully, I knew about it beforehand. You can find the errata here.
- I had a sort of googley-eye crisis. I originally bought two pairs (when I still had plans to make a pair for my sister) in two different sizes. I'd sewn on the bigger pair on Mister Mister upon completion, but when the time came for Oh No, I couldn't find the other anywhere. And so, after much procrastination, I just used the smaller ones. Except I was too lazy (laziness: you'll find much of it on this blog) to actually switch the originals on Mister Mister, so the brothers have different-sized eyes. Oh Well. It makes them unique.

Oh No (left) and Mister Mister.

Confirmation of Life.

I've been a negligent little blogger (if you can even call me that, seeing as I haven't actually done it yet). :( Just checking in here to say I haven't forgotten about this blog; I will post with substance soon, I promise. Many knitting plans over winter break/January term, and if there's one thing I love to ramble about, it's all the things I PLAN to do with my life.

However, a 12-hour trip of driving/flying/waiting around in airports is a little taxing, and so I sleep.