Becky’s Knitting

In keeping with my New Year’s Eve tradition of looking both back and forward at the beginning of the year (see 2007  2006  2005), I bid 2008 goodbye and look forward to much more knitting in 2009. 

So, here’s a status report on my list of projects posted this time last year.

• Figure out the crochet edging and finish the Dale baby dress - completed and gifted
• Order Tilli Thomas yarn and finish Sahara - got the yarn, have a few rows left on the collar and a little bit left on the sleeves
• Finish at least one Chevron Scarf (I have the yarn for several)- 1 almost done, but this project was too boring for non law school knitting and required a tad bit too much concentration to do while reading, so it stalled out
• Finish swallowtail - done, but I need to block it
• Make a baby sweater for my friend Laura who is due in June (the sweater I had almost finished for her won’t work for this baby since it was a 3 month size and a wool sweater will need to be 6 month for DE weather).  She finds out at the beginning of February whether it’s a boy or girl and then I’ll pick a pattern and yarn. - Baby Brennan sweater pictured in my last post. 
• make at least one pillow with the yarn we bought on sale for pillows in our living room - planning to use this Vickie Howell pattern - still in the plans…
• Finish Hanne Falkenberg Mermaid by next winter - Not a whole lot of progress, but I am almost done with the body.  I’d love to have the chance to wear it this winter, but it is good school knitting, and I have other things I want to finish first, so if I don’t get to it, I’m ok with that.
• Pink cabled sweater for my mom - Debbie Bliss Cathay, pattern a combination of a Debbie Bliss pattern and a Louisa Harding pattern - still on hold - I’ve focused on Daniel’s sweater, and once I finish that, or get bored with it, then I’ll start my mom’s.
• Grey cabled sweater for Daniel - Silky Tweed yarn, Rowan Classic pattern - about halfway done the front.  I really enjoy working on this, but it is not good law school knitting, so it is rare when I can concentrate enough on the pattern to work on it - it will likely be several more years before I complete this
• finish Longhorn Danica scarf for my sister-in-law - ehh, just not sure I like it, permanently on hold until I decide
• dishcloths for my mom for her birthday or mother’s day - still need to get on this, I’d like to do it for Mother’s Day this year - give her two, and give her yarn to make a few more b/c she has mentioned she wants to make some
• embellish Daniel’s stocking with beads and add names to both - I never seem to be able to do this before the stockings get put away.  Maybe next year when I’m not trying to get a journal out and swamped with finals right before Christmas

And here’s what else I made this past year:

• Silky Socks
• 4 Baby Surplice Sweaters for the twins, Ethan, and Chloe’s baby
• Lost Socks for my FIL - a last minute Christmas gift
• Scandanavia Mittens - still need a post once I block them
• Unoriginal Scarf - still needs a post and desparately needs to be blocked
• Longhorn Mini-Sweaters
• Self-designed golf club covers - I had to keep these secret until the LSSK Design Contest was over, so I still owe a blog post on these

Plans for next year:

• finish Sahara - I’m close and would love to get to wear it this year
• more baby projects!  Need to do sweaters for my cousin, Daniel’s cousin, my friend Victoria, and something (probably a blanket) for my college roommate Nikki
• also need to finish the flower blanket for Baby Emma
• finish Aunt Jane’s wristwarmers - tried to get these done for Christmas, need to get them done and off soon
• BLOCK - the Swallowtail shawl, the Scandanavia mittens, and the Unoriginal Scarf
• finish Isabella
• finish Mermaid
• make a scarf to match my new pink coat
• In addition to these, I’d also like to: make Daniel’s Longhorn Scarf that I’ve been contemplating, work on the pillows I’ve been talking about for 2 years, make progress on Daniel and Mom’s sweaters

I made good progress on my projects from last year, and I hope I can do so again this year. 

Project Specs:

Pattern: Debbie Bliss’s Cable & Moss Stitch Jacket from The Baby Knits Book
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool - 7 skeins
Needle: US 7’s
For: Brennan Lee Lord
Started: June 17, 2008
Finished: August 18, 2008 

Ravelry Details

Mods:

• Worked in the round b/c I didn’t want to have to seam.  In order to do so, I cast on 2 fewer stitches and eliminated 1 stitch on the inside edge of the fronts b/c those were selvedge stitches for seaming.  I didn’t eliminate the selvedge stitches from the back, though, b/c I wanted the seed stitch pattern to flow all the way around. 
• I skipped the pocket

Thoughts: Mama & baby loved it! We had to roll the sleeves as it was WAY too big (as expected), but Brennan snuggled up, cuddled in the sweater, and then fell asleep. The yarn definitely softened up upon washing (not that it was scratchy in the first place). This will definitely fit him his second winter (maybe first with sleeves rolled it would be a heavy coat). It might even fit his third as big as it looks on his 9-week old body right now.

Note that there is errata for this pattern.  Also, from what I read before starting, the sizing is large, so I made the 12-18 month size, and was probably slightly tight on gauge.  It came out plenty big. 

You can’t tell from the pics, but the buttons have little sailboats in the exact same color as the yarn - perfect for an East Coast baby who lives very close to the ocean.  I finished this up at Laura’s house, but she didn’t mind at all and was so appreciative of the work that went into it.  It’s often rare to find a non-knitter who realizes how much time and love a knitter puts into something like this, and it made the gifting even more enjoyable.  It doesn’t hurt when it’s your oldest friend (we’ve been friends since 1st grade).  Laura was to be the recipient of this sweater, but she had a miscarriage and I never finished it.  I would’ve finished it for Brennan, but he was born in the summer and would have been way too big for the sweater before it ever got cold enough to wear it.  If she has a winter baby, I will go ahead and finish it for her.  If I remember correctly all that is left is the sleeves.  Can you tell that I know Laura loves teal?  In the meantime, I love this sweater and am very proud of it.  I only put this much effort into baby gifts for very close friends, but it was definitely worth it in this case.

As I mentioned in my socks post, I finished my silky socks.  This yarn was purchased at Borealis in St. Paul on my trip to Minnesota last May.  Great Adironack Silky Sock in the Fiesta colorway.  It’s gorgeous, and I couldn’t wait to cast on (but had to free up my dpns first).   

Here’s the sock in progress.  The colors are more accurate in the yarn pictures, but you can see how nicely it is knitting up with no pooling and beautiful variegation.  The silk gives it a gorgeous sheen, and I’m excited to get these on my feet.

Here’s an almost completed sock.

And here are the finished socks on my feet!

Silky Sock Specs:

Pattern: my basic toe-up pattern, 60 stitches
Yarn: Great Adironack Silky Sock in the Fiesta colorway
Needle: US 1’s - knit picks harmony dpns
For: me
Started: June 4, 2008
Finished: October 26, 2008 

Ravelry Details

The numbers:

• Judy’s magic cast-on 14 stitches.  Increase 4 stitches every other row until 15 stitches on each needle.
• Knit 83 rows
• Short-row heel down to 12 stitches and back up
• Knit 90 rows
• Switch to size 0 dpns and do 10 rows of twisted rib (k1tbl, p1).

Thoughts: These were mostly purse knitting, a few rows here and there.  I love the sheen of the yarn, and they aren’t as warm as my pure wool socks, which is a good thing in Texas.  They fit my feet like a glove, but I need to be careful where I wear them as I don’t want them to wear out too quickly (I end up wearing a lot of my socks around the house without shoes which can quickly lead to holes).  I REALLY like the Knit Picks harmony dpns.  I think I have finally found my preferred sock needle.  The tips are nice and pointy, the wood makes them just the tiniest bit flexible (compared to metal), they don’t kill you if you accidentally touch the point like metal (and airport security seems to mind them less cause they’re like pencils), and the tips aren’t starting to come apart and snag on my yarn the way the pony pearls did.

I have asked for another of the 6 size sock sets, because I’ve been wishing lately I had more needles for socks.  Of course, this may lead to me having several socks cast-on at the same time and slow down progress, but I have been wanting to cast on a complicated sock and couldn’t cause I needed the needles for my mindless stockinette sock.  I also asked for a second sock suitcase because since the needles are wood, I worry about them breaking, so I need to be able to keep them safe while in my bag.

I’ve been thinking about writing up my basic sock recipe.  If anyone is interested, let me know.  I may do it anyway since my mom has been talking about learning how to make socks.

Major would like y’all to know that he is still working very hard helping his mommy with Wills. 

The high yesterday in Austin was 81 degrees.  I wore flip flops.  It’s amazing what can happen in a few hours…

Yes, we actually had some flurries last night.  It cracks me up how excited people get when it snows here (Daniel and myself included).  It’s just so rare, that even a few flakes are enough for people to take take their kids outside long past their bedtimes so they can experience it.  Everyone whips out their cameras and starts calling, emailing, and texting each other. 

One thing that I found interesting was that it was raining and snowing at the same time.  There were these large snowflakes that were beautiful, but at the same time most of what was falling was rain.  There was also ice and hail.  At one point we had a nice little collection of ice pellets in our mulch. 

These pics are all from this morning, and even though it looks like snow, and is what many Austinites will call "snow," it’s really all ice on the ground.  The snowflakes all melted on impact.

Still, even for those of us who have lived in Minnesota and truly experienced the real stuff, when you live in Austin, you take what you can get and you enjoy it.  Because it’s so rare, no one complains.  And that’s why I love snow in Austin - whether it’s real snow or just "snow," everyone gets excited and has fun with it.

In other news, the finals crunch has led to lots of knitting.  I turned my seminar paper in at 11:50pm on Friday night, just in time for the midnight deadline.  I couldn’t knit while I was working on that because I had to type.  I also had handbell concerts on Thursday and Saturday which took up quite a bit of time, and I’ve been trying to get the journal ready to go to print.  I’m very excited because I SENT THE JOURNAL TO THE PRINTER yesterday!  This is the first time it has ever been submitted on time, and I am thrilled, both to have met our deadlines and to be done with this issue. 

I also found out I passed the MPRE (professional responsibility exam required to join the Texas bar) with flying colors on monday afternoon which was excellent timing for my professional responsibility final yesterday morning which I think I did fine on.  

So now that all of that is done, I can finally start studying for my Friday Wills & Estates final. Nothing like trying to learn both the common law (most states) and community property (Texas) rules in their entirety in 2 days. I would feel fine if it was open book, but having to memorize all these rules is scary.  It is, however, making for excellent knitting time. 

I finished the Baby Surplice for Daniel’s colleague. 

Project Specs:

Pattern: EZ’s Surplice Baby Jacket in Vogue Knitting Spring 2007
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy - Deep Seaflower
Needle: US 7’s
For: Chloe’s baby girl
Started: October 8, 2008
Finished: December 7, 2008 

Ravelry Details

Mods:

• Cast on 120 stitches.  Always slip the last stich and knit the first stitch through the back loop for a beautiful edge.
• Begin sleeves when 82 stitches remaining - 30 ridges (substitute 19,21 for 24,26 in the pattern)
• 26 stitches between arm markers (sleeve=28 stitches around). 
• 3 needle bind off 25 stitches. 
• 8 rows of stockinette for the cuffs.

Thoughts: This is the 4th sweater I’ve made out of this pattern in the last few months.  It knits up super quickly (the only reason it took me so long was I wasn’t really working on it very much).  It also works well with different gauge yarns, and I like that I was able to make it out of 1 skein.  I probably could have gone up to a size 8, as the garter stitch does condense, but it’s fine on the 7’s too.  I thought I could copy the numbers from the two I made out of Shepherd Worsted, but apparently the Classy did not knit up the same way at all, so I had to adjust.  I did stockinette on the cuffs instead of ribbing because I thought it looked less boyish than the ribbing- if I had had extra yarn I would’ve done a picot edge, but I used every last inch.  Even though I’ve already made 4, I imagine I will knit this pattern again as it’s great for last minute baby presents, or just those I don’t want to spend too much knitting time on, and it’s great for the budget cause I can buy 1 skein of pretty worsted weight yarn.  Moms love it because the buttons make the sizing adjustable, and I always use machine washable yarn.

I also finished the Lost socks for my FIL.

Project Specs:

Pattern: my own, using the Garter Rib stitch pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Cider Moon Glacier in Lost, contrast in Louet Gems Sport Weight in Caribou
Needle: US 4 Bryspun dpns, 3’s for the brown parts
For: my FIL Ray, size 10.5 foot
Started: November 15, 2008
Finished: December 7, 2008 

Ravelry Details

Thoughts: The fastest pair of socks I ever knit!  And I was working on other things at the same time!  These socks are very stretchy, and I probably could have cast on fewer stitches.  As it is, I only cast on 44.  It will be interesting to see if my FIL likes these as much as the fingering weight pair I made him.  I like the contrasting heels, toes, and cuffs a lot - they look fun.  I’m looking forward to having a pic of these on actual feet, because the ribbing makes them look pretty goofy off the foot.

Finally, Major would like you to know that he’s working very hard helping me study for Wills.  That’s the sleeve of Sahara that I’m working on.  And that’s the 3" binder of stuff I need to memorize by 1:30pm on Friday.

Ok, well, maybe it’s a little boring.