A year of knits

I’m a big fan of goals. I think having goals gives a person something to look forward to, motivation to improve, and a sense of accomplishment. Without goals, we founder and wallow. In that light, I took advantage of this New Year’s Day to put together a calendar of knit projects, entirely with stash yarn and free or already-acquired patterns (these are in addition to the To-Do stuff I’ve got set aside). I knit quite a bit; with roughly five hours a week of commuter time, knitting keeps my hands busy and is a great accompaniment to podcasts. I also enjoy more mind-consuming lace projects in the evening while watching movies or TV episodes, so my mix includes both easy and complex patterns.

(a slightly blurry pic of my planned projects)

I’m not going to be too explicit about what these projects are – some are for me, but several are for gifts next year. I will tell you there is a mix of socks, scarves, hats, shawls, mitts, and even a home decor item. Some of these projects will take just a couple of days while others will take weeks – I am not going to put them in a particular chronological order, but will instead choose from the Giant Green Bag, where each is conveniently and hermetically sealed into a kitten-resistent gallon-sized Ziplock baggie or drawstring pouch. The white bag in front contains my first project of the year.

Oh, and because I also think life should include more Extra Credit Points, I’ve got three bonus skeins of yarns in the bottom of the bag, to become scarves. I just couldn’t pass these over, and scarves do make excellent travel projects.

New to-do

I had a bit of negative progress on the red lace scarf, and charts are not train-friendly anyway, so I grabbed a fix-it project as my new commuter knitting. I am reknitting a pair of socks that turned out too big around. It only took a couple minutes to unpick the knot and cast on new toes, directly from the too-big socks.  While it’s odd to knit with ramen yarn, there is something to be said for not having to deal with balls of yarn rolling about.

I have the equivalent of a mending basket but with yarny stuff in it. I took stock of these projects this weekend, and think I need to commit to a few weeks of clearing my to-do list before I get the irrestible urge to cast on something brand new, so I’ll be working through a pile of almost-finished, and just-needs-the-ends-woven-in, and I-keep-meaning-to-fix-this projects – starting with these too-big socks that have been glaring at me for months. Right this minute, here is what I can think of that needs attention: one fully knitted gift needing toggles (had to order them online), sew clasps on my own woolie vest, seam up a granny square blanket, re-knit the heels on another pair of socks, re-knit the outer edge on a baby blanket, rip out a pair of sock toes that I can’t stand (bad yarn/pattern combo), darn a hole in a sock, and re-knit the button band on a cardigan that I’ve been unhappy with for ages and ages and don’t wear because the button band turned out so badly. I also have a couple of WIP’s that I can work on when I get tired of fixing things – the red lace scarf and a recently found half-knit shawl (it was lost for about a year. This sh0uld in no way reflect poorly on my organization skills.).

Speaking of knitting, the Yarn Harlot had a fantabulous final post on what to give a knitter for Christmas. It’s applicable to any handmade gift at any time of year, and I hope she doesn’t mind that I’m copying a bit in right here:

“Knitting may look like stuff made out of yarn, but it isn’t.  Knitting is actually a container, that your knitter has filled with time and love.  Time that they chose to give to another person, that they could have spent doing anything else in the world.  When you see a knitted object, don’t see a hat, or a sweater, or a pair of socks.  See twenty, forty, a hundred hours of your knitters life that they have decided that you, or someone else is worth.  (How much time did you spend getting their present?) Understand that far from being a thrifty or lesser way of giving a gift, things that are handmade are the most expensive objects there are.”

What do you give a knitter?

I was thinking about this last night and was getting ready to draft up a post addressing gift options for the crafty folks on your list, and lo-and-behold the Harlot beat me to it. Her post is more eloquent than mine was going to be, so I’m going to direct your attention over to today’s post, which will be followed by daily suggestions on what to give a knitter (or crocheter) for Christmas: The Yarn Harlot

Pins and needles

Here are the four strips of feedsack scraps, ready to have a solid background fabric added in between each. The strips are much longer than they appear in the picture (they are folded in half) so I think I can get a twin-size quilt out of them.

On the knitting needles, a pair of Simple Skyp socks nears the halfway point. The one on the left is ready for the foot, while the one on the right still needs the gusset.  I like how the striping yarn formed thick stripes at the back of the heels – it will do the same at the toes.

Striped Skyp

I finished a pair of gift socks yesterday and promptly cast on another – this time in Berroco Sox using the Simple Skyp Socks pattern (so named for it’s subtle  Slip, Knit, YO, PSSO pattern). With all this striping going on I wanted an uncomplicated pattern but not plain stockinette. Cast on 72 stitches, knitting per pattern from cuff down. I started one sock on DPNs and once I turned the heel I put it on a circular; when I get the second sock to the same point I will do the feet at the same time. Don’t ask my why I didn’t just cast them both on to begin with, my DPNs must have been sending out “Play with us!” vibes or something.

Orange crush

I picked up 4 ounces of merino wool / silk (80/20) at Madrona a couple months ago, in a color I never work with: orange. It’s not construction-cone orange, it’s more on the salmon side and if you look closely there are bits of yellow. The overall effect is a cheerful, sunny colorway that was fun to spin. I tried to keep the twist loose and light, since I have a tendency to over-spin.

I ended up with 169 yards of two-ply, heavy worsted / light bulky yarn (I haven’t pulled out the gauge meter yet). It’s thick and squishy, and has just a bit of sheen from the silk. Now I need to decide what to knit with it – I’m thinking a hat, but one with texture. Maybe the Wurm?

On the edge

I have decided that my Pi shawl is long enough and have begun an edge. I picked a knitted on lace from Schoolhouse Press, from the Peacock shawl (honestly, it was what I could find on the ‘net via my iphone, while watching the family play Monopoly Revolution). It is knit over 8 rows, and I’m hoping I can make it come out nicely at the corners. Stay tuned on that.

More Pi, please

See? Just on and on with the knitting of the Pi Are Square Shawl. I took this to knit night on Wednesday and I’ve got the feeling I ought to check it very carefully for errors; lace and chatting don’t usually go well together.

In the meantime, I’ve put a few more rounds on my sister’s socks and have started the sleeves on my Featherweight Cardigan. I have another cardigan planned out and the yarn is bagged with the pattern, but I successfully avoided startitis last night — which was difficult because there it was, all ready to cast on and calling to me… But no, must. finish. other. projects. first.

In other news, I went for my first “run” last night. (I use quotation marks because there was more walking than running, but I’m excited nonetheless.) I bought an app for my iPhone – the Couch to 5K – and just grabbed my headphones and hit the sidewalk after dinner. The first fifteen minutes were the hardest but I persevered and by the end I was feeling great (tired, but great). Today I have the exercise hangover, complete with sore muscles and stiffness, but I will be lacing up my sneakers again tomorrow for another “run”. I have no illusions that I will become a marathon runner, but I really need to shed some ballast and should increase my endurance if I’m going to survive another summer of softball and volleyball.

(If you aren’t familiar with the concept of couch to 5k, it is a graduated exercise plan that eases you into running by alternating walking with running over a 9-week period, so that by the end you can run 3 miles without stopping. We’ll see about that.)

Still with the Pi

It’s just a big blob of knitted fabric right now so I won’t bother taking another picture… I moved to a longer circular and am just a couple of yards away from using one entire skein of Kauni. I have a second skein standing by, colors already pulled so that there isn’t a jarring transition (the first skein is finishing in the purple so I need to continue in purple on the second skein). The wee ball of black-to-grey that I pulled from the second skein will be incorporated into the shawl later, most likely in the edging. I’m using simple lace designs because anything fancier would just get lost in the color shifts anyway, and besides – easy lace means I can do it while watching TV or reading.

I am thinking crazy thoughts this week. What kind of crazy? The kind that is encouraging me to knit my way through an Elizabeth Zimmerman book. I have all four, and have knit something from each – but I got this itch… Especially for the Knitting Around collection of patterns… With a road trip in my future, I am especially drawn to the Moccasin Socks and to the Mobius Vest. As if I don’t have enough WIPs already on the needles, I find myself contemplating the best kind of sweater wool,  how big around my son’s chest is, and what color socks my father-in-law might like to have this year.

Hopefully I can put off such an endeavor until I finish the current projects under way (two shawls, a pair of socks, two blankets, and a cardigan); plus, I have a hat “on order” to make for a friend.

Bigger pieces of pi

One of my favorite things about knitting with a color changing yarn like Kauni is, well, the color changes. When knitting something large, it is easy to get discouraged and feel like you keep knitting and knitting but make no progress; having that transition of one color to another is a nice validation that you are, in fact, making headway. Lace shawls tend to feel like they go on forever if knitting from the top down, since the rows get longer and longer, and I enjoy having something to break it up a bit.

Here’s an upside-down snapshot of my Purple Pi Are Square Shawl, as the color began to shift to gray:

I have mostly the garter front in the picture above; it was easier to spread that out than the lace part, but that also means you can’t SEE the lace part or the beads I put in. Trust me, they are in there.

And now a more recent picture, as the shawl stands now (and right side up). I have just doubled the center back stitches to 256, which means the entire shawl is something like 500 stitches  (only the center back ones have to be kept track of, really, since that’s where the all-important Pi increases occur in this pattern).

It is almost impossible to see what it is I’m knitting. The stitches are all bunched up on the circular needle, and the very u-shaped nature of the shawl makes it bunch up even more. It looks rather like I’m knitting a pouch that isn’t sewn up on one side… But, the yarn has just changed back to purple and it’s rather fun. You can see some of the beads I put into the black section – there will be more beads added to the next section, just as soon as I find a lace pattern that I like / that works with the stitch count.