toddler hat

I thought making a toddler hat would be a quick, stress-free project. I had to count the 360 stitches about fifteen times and rip out about four long-tail cast-on attempts. I thought this looked kind of big for a kid’s hat but kept going because I knew there were two consecutive rows of K2togs coming up followed by a K8, K2tog. I assumed the hat would ruffle down to the correct size once I got to the part where I knit straight for 4 inches. I struggled through the first row, which I was sure was all K2togs. It took me ages! About halfway through I looked at the pattern and discovered that my memory is not to be trusted. The two rows of K2tog are supposed to come after a round of plain knitting. But I had such a hard time getting the right number of stitches on the damn needle that I kept struggling on, planning out how I could fudge things so the hat still turned out right. It was useless. After a while, I realized that the hat was not going to shrink down to the right size and I frogged the whole thing. After a tiny gauge swatch and some recalculations, I cast on 324 stitches and knit to the point you see in the picture.

When I took the photo, I realized how little yarn I have left. Was I making the hat too big? With the adjustments I made to the pattern, there should be more yarn, not less. The pattern called for one ball of Knit Picks Shine. I bought Shine Worsted which seemed like the right one, but the pattern designer must have chosen a different weight. Or my gauge is way off. (I showed my friend my WIP and he assures me it will fit Ella’s head.) Either way, I called Knit Picks and they’re sending me another ball of the yarn in my lot number--how lucky am I?!? *sigh of relief*

shawl done!

I finished knitting the shawl! After I block it, I'll share my experience with knitting the border and weaving in all those ends.

Shawl: the end is very near

Two days ago I didn’t think it was possible to finish the shawl by the end of the month. After a few days of knitting, there are only FOUR rows left until the “fishtail points” border. Woohoo--I can't wait to block it!

I'm loving the blanket

My wireless card is still broken so I’m using my husband’s laptop to update my podcasts. I’m not sure if it’s the settings, a problem with iTunes, or just me, but I can’t get Cast-On’s new shows to go on my iPod. I tried to listen to one of them on the computer while I cleaned but it just wasn’t the same. I have re-listened to episode 1, episode 1.5, and episode 2 though—-how strange to hear the show just starting out! The first two don’t have the theme song, but by episode 2, it’s not too different than it is now.

Stash enhancement. I haven’t had a FO in months (which kills me) so I decided to make a toddler hat. I don’t personally know any toddlers so I’m resorting to making something for a friend’s niece. Since Knit Picks has free shipping on orders over $40, I also bought some Swish Superwash to make myself a pullover. I really have to stop buying yarn. I think it’s my way of compensating for how little actual knitting I’m doing lately. Very dangerous indeed.

I’ve got about 30 inches of the baby blanket done. Since my lifelines worked on the shawl--I successfully pulled one out--I did one on the blanket, too. I’ve been working on it for almost 3 months and would completely freak out if I dropped a stitch and saw it unravel down 2+ feet. Or if the interchangeable needles disconnected and I lost a huge chunk of it. So far, this is the project I’m most proud of. I love the yarn and I think the pattern is beautiful. Since I’ve put it aside so often, every stitch is careful and correct. The baby blanket is perfect and I hope my friends like it as much as I do.

lifelines

My shawl is now about 22 inches long, unstretched. I'm up to row 118 and each row takes forever. Last month I noticed a wayward hole (miscounted so a YO and knit stitch swapped places) and realized that I should really be using lifelines. When I first saw the mistake, I knew I had three options: leave it alone, rip back and fix it (1.5 pattern repeats), or try to close the hole up with some leftover alpaca. I've chosen the last option because I couldn't bring myself to undo all of that work and because I didn't think I'd be able to do a good job if I tried (all of those increases and decreases were a disaster waiting to happen). From what I'd heard, a lifeline would have allowed me to frog without the fear of destroying my whole shawl. This sounds good to me and I am trying to do a lifeline every couple of inches.

In my fuzzy understanding of the procedure, I was tempted to knit a row with a piece of string as if it were a second piece of yarn but I quickly realized that I'd have trouble slipping the string out when I was through. So far I've done three lifelines and hopefully I'm doing it right. I wait until I have a row without any incs or decs--in this pattern, that would be after a row of purls--and then I use a tapestry needle and some crochet thread* as shown in this picture. I slip the needle through the active loops and then use extra care on the next row so I don't knit into the thread. For the first lifeline, I made the mistake of including the stitch marker and it wasn't until I had to slip the marker on the next round that I realized it was a problem. I cut the thread, freed the marker, and tied the sting back together.

I should be able to pull the thread out when I'm done but I haven't tried it yet. I have to admit that I panicked for a minute before I realized that it wasn't a big deal. Anyway, I'm very excited to be moving along this quickly with the shawl and I'm already thinking about the magical transformation it'll undergo when I block it. I'm glad I have the piece I started out with; I'll definitely experiment with that before I block the FO.

Some useful tips for making lifelines:
1. Cut the string longer than you think it needs to be
2. Pick a color you can see (it's pretty cool to see where the thread lays in the knitted fabic and it helps you understand the sts)
3. If you're using circs, it's easier to fit the tapestry needle through the loop along the cord than it is along the needle
4. Do not put the tapestry needle through stitch markers


*You might be wondering why I have crochet thread handy. It's kind of a cute story, actually. About two years ago when I decided to learn how to knit, I had absolutely no clue what it involved. I went to a store, randomly selected some (ridiculously long) straight needles, a skein of Red Heart yarn, and some pretty pastel Aunt Lydia's classic crochet thread. I had no idea if I used yarn or thread with the knitting needles--what a rookie I was! When I brought all of these things to the lady who eventually taught me to knit, I think she was a little amused. ;)

flu shot - no knitting today

I tried to knit at lunch and couldn't. My arm muscle was too sore from the vaccine I got this morning so after one row, I took out my book and read. I did do some knitting last night while I watched the election results; I knitted an extention for my just-too-short pink hat and attached it. The finished result was rather interesting (okay, I didn't particularly care for it) and while it still fits my head, it's a little tight. Of course my mistake was in weaving the pieces together as if they were shoulder seams. I looked in The Knitting Answer Book to make sure the seam would be invisible but I failed to notice how stretchy the end result would be. Any suggestions for a stretchy horizontal seam to use in these situations??

Money is a little tight this Christmas so I'm thinking of knitting some hats to give along with store-bought presents. I know my mom and mother-in-law will appreciate them, but I'm not so sure about everyone else. My sister and her husband (now newlyweds!) still use the knitted plastic bag holder I made for their housewarming present last year--and I think they actually like it--but I don't know if they appreciate how much effort went into knitting those pesky elastics into each end of the tube. Hats are quick, useful, and fit into the time table I now have (what with my vow to finish the shawl by the end of this month ;) and I intentionally make my hats a little loose so they don't smoosh your hairstyle...something I know my sister and MIL will like! I might do something else entirely or only give knitted presents to a couple of people. We shall see. I'm not too into Christmas this year because I know I'll be surrounded by boxes in December.

My first business trip & a yarn crawl

I just got back from the NYLA conference in Saratoga. I left on Wednesday (my birthday) and came back last night. It's in the same state so I was a little surprised that it took me 7 hours to get there and 8 hours to get back! I had a nice time with my two co-workers and was able to meet up with an old grad school friend. It was a good experience and I came back excited to get some new things implemented at my library.

Do any of you read Unshelved? It's a comic strip that takes place in a library and I love it. I get it emailed to me every day and I was thrilled to see the writers booked for the convention's farewell luncheon. They were wonderful and I highly recommend that you check out their work (see link above).

Saratoga also has a *fabulous* yarn shop that I visited a whopping three times while I was there. My co-workers, both knitters, knew about the shop and brought me there. I fell madly in love. I mean, look at the beautiful yarn in the window! Need a closer look? Here you go:
I walked in and the yarn fumes got to me. I didn't want to leave. I just happened to be in the market for yarn for my mother's Christmas (or birthday?) scarf and the woman who worked there was lovely. She pointed me towards a few options and left me to browse. I selected some Frog Tree yarn for my mom; it's a nice purplish color that's hard to explain and it will look nice with gray, black, or beige. It's soft so I think she'll like it. I also happened to stumble upon a solid brass knitting needle/stitch gauge shaped like a sheep--and it measures 0000 (1.25mm) needles, which is exactly what I need since I always use smaller needles than suggested. The librarians I was with wanted to go eat lunch so I had to leave the store before I found sock yarn to go with the pattern I purchased.

Later on, I snuck back to the store to buy sock yarn. I chose two balls of Plymoth Yarn Baby Alpaca DK, which is a little soft for the intended purpose but will be a nice Fall color for my Saratoga Socks. ;) Oh yeah, I also bought some Mountain Colors Twizzle yarn for a...scarf (?) for, um, someone. It's very unlike me to buy yarn without a reason, but I couldn't resist the beautiful red ($19) skein of handpainted yarn. *sigh*

My co-workers wanted to go in again (their 2nd, my 3rd time) and I refused to take off my gloves. It was simply too risky to touch any more yarn in that lovely store and I'm sure my husband is glad I managed to keep the credit card in my purse that time. hehe.

I really should have been able to knit for many hours over those few days I was away, but I read most of the way there and on the LIRR portion of my trip home. On Saturday, I knitted for the entire four-hour Amtrak ride (and I managed a few feather and fan repeats in the hotel room) so I've made some good progress on the baby blanket. I'm happy about that because my friend is now officially two months pregnant. I'm glad I got a head start on the project because it's taking me forever.

Here are my purchases:

This is what will be keeping me busy through Saturday

The Lost Mother, the Flower Petal Shawl (row 80!), The History of Love, and the Feather and Fan baby blanket. I'll be at my very first real conference.