My little Penny

We adopted a sweet little Shih Tzu about 2.5 years ago and named her Penelope Ann. Who knew it was possible to love her so much in such a short time... We had to put Penny to sleep on Tuesday and I miss her little feet pitter-pattering on the floor, her little smooshed-nose noises, her eyes looking up at us, and her one-of-a-kind personality. It's hard to write in a few sentences how much she meant to me. She was such a good girl, my furry daughter, and I miss her already.

FO: Flower Washcloth

Pattern: "Reverse-Bloom Flower Washcloth" by Cindy Taylor
Source: Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick (also available here)
Started: December 13, 2009
Finished: December 23, 2009
Size: about 10.5" from side to side
Yarn: 1 skein of Tivoli Cotton Chenille (99 yards yds per 50g ball; 100% Cotton) in color #232 - Maroon
Needles: US #6

I got this yarn years ages ago from a friend and co-worker but didn’t know what to do with it until I saw this pattern. This project was fun to knit but much bigger than I thought it would be (which is okay by me).

I didn’t enjoy the yarn so much though. It snapped on row 17 out of 21--and it wasn't that my tension was too tight. I tied a knot and buried it in the purl side of the washcloth and think it turned out fine. It's just for me so there's no need for perfection.

You knit the petals then join them in the round and decrease down to the center of the flower. After knitting the 5th petal, I didn’t break the yarn; I just started knitting in the round right away, leaving a couple less ends to weave in.

FO: French Press Slippers

Pattern: French Press Felted Slippers by Melynda Bernardi
Started: December 18, 2009
Finished & Felted: December 20, 2009 (around lunch)
Flaps & buttons sewn on: December 23, 2009 (dry in the p.m., thank God)
Gifted: Christmas Eve
Yarn: 2.75 skeins of Elann Peruvian Highland Wool (109 yards yds per 50g ball; 100% Highland Wool) in color #2010, "Raspberry"
Size: Women's 5/6
Needles: US #15

I knitted these for my sister and gave them to her on Christmas Eve afternoon. She seemed to really like them when she opened them and I was so relieved that they mostly fit her--one slipper is perfect while the other is just a little bigger. She told me she wore them all day on Christmas and her husband's family really liked them. It makes me so happy that she's happy with them!

I read that they only take 90 minutes to make but I didn’t find that to be the case. They were more of a “weekend knit” for me, quick but still time-consuming. It took me a couple of days to knit them, most of Sunday morning to sew them together, about 45 minutes in the laundry room to felt them, three full days to dry them, and then the flap and buttons still needed to be sewn on. They were fun to knit and the color is really pretty in person; I'm happy with how they turned out, even though they aren't perfectly symmetrical, and would like to knit another pair.

[I really need to get better about deadlines though. I cut it close again, mostly because they took so long to dry. I learned from the baby sweater though, and dried them on the dining room's radiator with the curtain trapping the heat in around them. I'm not sure if they would have dried otherwise...]

I had to pilfer buttons from another knit because not having buttons the day before gifting something counts as a “knitting emergency.” With my sprained foot and the pushy last-minute shoppers, I couldn't make it to the button stores or craft stores. Sharon is going to puffy paint the bottoms herself to make them grippy.

Knitting mojo is back

I've finished off several projects in quick succession and started working on more. Here are some updates:

I've been working on Muir again. Today at lunch I got interrupted and made another mistake; there is now an extra stitch and it totally killed my momentum.

I'm thinking that I might make it a "Muir Scarf" and stop after the 6th pattern repeat (instead of the 13th). That would make the finished dimensions about 22" wide x 40" long. Would that look weird? I'm thinking that it could be folded in half for extra warmth, which would make it 11" x 40". It's killing me that this lovely project has been on the needles for two years.

In other project news, I dug out a beautiful sock that's been OTN since the summer. I think it will be my car knitting for the Christmas travels. Also, I'm going to knit my co-worker a retirement present. I bought yarn and chose a pattern--more details on that after I swatch and get started, just in case I change my mind (which we all know I never do.)

I got some knitting goodies that I never blogged about.

1. Jared Flood's Made in Brooklyn pattern book. I'm trying to decide if I want to make one of the Beaumont hats or one of the sweaters (Stilwell or Redhook). Or maybe the Bridgewater shawl? Hmm. I'd like to say here that I usually don't see the point of short-sleeved sweaters, but really like the one in this book. He calls it a tunic so maybe that will help me like it better. ETA: This was an early Christmas present :)


2. Last month I bought these --> handy stitch markers after reading about them on Franklin Habit's blog. I couldn't decide which I wanted so bought both--and they fit different needle sizes so it's not a waste of money!


3. I finally, after a few years of waiting, bought The Color Scheme Bible by Anna Starmer. We borrowed this book from our local library when we first bought our house and ever since, I've wished I had it when buying yarn! The book is separated by color family, then pairs various main colors with accent colors and complementary colors, and gives ideas about how to use the colors to the best effect. I'm going to bring it with me next time I go to the yarn store for a project that needs more than one shade.

FO: Black Hat

Pattern: Silk Garden Beanie
Started: November 26, 2009
Finished: December 17, 2009
Yarn: less than 2 skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted (110 yards yds per 50g ball; 100% Superwash Merino Wool) in Black
Gauge & Needles: 4 sts/inch (with yarn held double) on US #9 dpns
Modifications: Knit with two strands of yarn as one which led to different gauge/stitch count than pattern. I was otherwise true to the pattern.

I knitted up a plain black hat around this time in 2005 and wore the poor thing until the end of last season. I just loved it--it didn't smoosh my hair and was really warm. I tried to recreate it this year and think I succeeded. I love this hat!

Here's my old post. (Hey, look, "just in time for snow" again!)

Yarn

My little Penny seems to be doing a bit better.* To celebrate, I bought myself some yarn over on Elann!

I'm going to make French Press slippers in "Raspberry" Peruvian Highland Wool - these will be a Christmas gift, if the yarn arrives in time and my knitting mojo returns.

I'm also going to make the Leaf Lace Scarf in "Cypress" Peruvian Baby Lace Merino - this will be a co-worker's retirement gift.


*She's been very sick lately and we went to the vet again yesterday. We're trying some steroids as a last hope and today Penny seems much more like herself. Christmas miracle? I really hope so; I love that little peanut so much.

ETA: Penelope Ann was indeed our Christmas miracle and our favorite present. (see more recent post)

FO: Baby Sophisticate

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate
Started: November 21, 2009
Finished & Gifted: December 6, 2009
Size: 0-3 months
Yarn: 4+ skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted (110 yards yds per 50g ball; 100% Superwash Merino Wool) in the "Clematis Heather" colorway
Gauge: 15 sts/inch (with yarn held double) on US #8 needles for the body, buttonband, and collar. #10.5 DPNs for the sleeves.
Modifications: Knit with two strands of yarn as one in order to get gauge! Other modifications included shortening the length of the body & sleeves. Details below.

I knitted this little cardigan for my friend Ellie, who I met in graduate school and worked with in my first official-librarian job. (She's a knitter, too.) I hope she and her husband like it--I know she'll appreciate that it can be thrown in the washing machine!

The pattern calls for aran-weight yarn and I had a lot of trouble getting gauge. I did a lot of swatching (yes, I know!) and could not for the life of me get 15 sts/in. I looked on Ravelry and no one else seemed to be having this trouble. Before going out to buy new yarn I tried one last swatch--this time while holding two strands of yarn as one. It worked! This is a pretty important detail and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it on their blogs or project pages. I wonder if it's just me...

People were saying that you could knit this project in a weekend but I didn't find that to be the case. I brought the project with me for a long car ride the weekend before Thanksgiving and worked on it at lunch almost every day. I finished knitting Baby Sophisticate on Friday night, washed it, and put it out to dry. I planned to sew the buttons on on Saturday, wrap it, and go to my sister-in-law's Christmas party but the knitting gods weren't having any of that. I checked on the sweater on Saturday and it was still wet. I put it in the dryer on low for a while and laid it back out to dry overnight. Ha! Sunday morning I put it in the dryer again, sewed the buttons on, put it back in the dryer, and brought it along unwrapped for the drive to NJ. I placed it under the vent in my car and ended up wrapping it in the parking garage...still a little soggy. Oh well. I liked the way it turned out and really hope it fits! (I get very nervous when gifting knits.)

Notes in case I want to knit this again:

• I wish I had noticed that the designer didn't want us to break the yarn when splitting for the body. When I got to the first armhole, I automatically cut the yarn and joined it again for the back sts. When I got to the second armhole I realized I wasn't supposed to do that and just knitted the last back stitch really tightly with the first front side stitch. On the way back, I made sure that stitch was tight and joined the other side with the back in the same way. It all seems to have worked out nicely. In the end, sewing the underarm holes was the only real finishing to do.


• I shortened the length of the sweater/sleeves and really hope it fits the intended baby. The Yarn Harlot has mentioned that baby arms never seem to fit in baby sweater sleeves and, sure enough, when I knitted her Daisy pattern for my nephew, the sleeves fit him perfectly; I tried to match that pattern's dimensions when knitting Baby Sophisticate. That means that I made the length of this top-down sweater 4.5" from underarm to bottom (instead of 6") then did the trim. I also shortened the sleeve lengths to 4.5" so the cuffs won't have to be rolled. We shall see if this was a good move--I really hope I did the right thing!


• I had to join a new ball of yarn to finish off the bottom trim, but skipped the sleeve instructions so I could just use that live stitch to pick up for the button band and collar. It worked great.


• As for yarn, buy lots extra! I only bought 3 skeins of yarn because I figured I'd have plenty based on the pattern. I didn't count on having to hold the yarn double... I used just over two balls on the body of the sweater and had to divide up the remaining ball to finish up the rest. This was very optimistic of me and, as I was making the collar, I realized how little yarn I had left and ordered 2 more skeins. Amazingly Knit Picks had 2 more balls in the same dye lot. Someone up there was looking out for me! ;)


• Don't try to dry a sweater in your chilly finished basement!

(By the way, the hat I gave to my vet was originally intended for Ellie. I was going to make a hat and mitten set but then changed my mind after I saw the little hat all knitted up.)