Big Sister

Goals

I am having a fit of startitis, but I am doing my best to not start up anything new. The same goes for my thesis. I am now setting weekly goals. Forward movement. That's what I am about these days. In that spirit, here is what I need to do before I start my next (knitting) project:

1. Finish Tulips. I started this project in January by knitting the fronts and back on the Bond. Around the beginning of February I knit on the first sleeve and sewed that side of the top. I just finished the other side and knit a few rows of garter stitch on the bottom. All that remains is yards of iCord.
2. Finish SRC. Enough said, for now.
3. Pick up and work on the Hippy Crunchy socks.
4. Start the fronts of Dad's sweater.

After that I think I am going to try a version of Carolyn using the Bond. I have two colors of Elann Peruvian Highland Wool that I started to make a raglan, zippered sweater (also with the Bond), but I think that Carolyn is much cuter. I also want to make a long, wide scarf with the gorgeous Lisa Souza BFL that I got at Stitches. I have also been dreaming about making a sweater with the red Classic Elite Lush that has been haunting my stash for about 9 months.

Even though no one asked, my goal this week for the thesis is to finish reviewing all my database records by Thursday (a.k.a. thesis day) so I can start outlining. I have at least 6 hours of work this weekend to stay on pace. I am hoping to work Tulips into this plan.

In which Miss S comes for a visit

Miss S dons a cap
Originally uploaded by Big Sister.

This weekend I got to see my niece for the first time since she was three weeks old. It was a whirlwind weekend that involved my dad's birthday, my brother's birthday, people travelling the state(s), train rides, family parties, and babies.

While the smiling and the cooing and the aggressive grabbing for the spoonful of rice cereal were all adorable, my favorite moments were spent giving her zerbits  and then looking up to see her try to make a similar sound/motion. So. cute. It will be a few months before I see her again--by then she will be a whopping 9 months old!

Oh, and I knit a hat for me that is infinitely cuter when modeled by babies as evidenced above. It is knit in Noro Kureyon in colorway who-knows-as-I-lost-the-ball-band-some-months-ago, but it's pretty with purple, orange, green, teal, raspberry, and two kinds of blue. I cast on 70 or 80 stitches (I have already forgotten!), knit for about five inches in garter stitch and did concentric decreases (my new favorite way of decreasing). If you doubt my statement about cuteness, this hat, and babies, here is more evidence in form of another little girl I saw this weekend:



Lois! So there.

P.S. Thanks to Jackie for her inspirational posts about Kureyon hats a while back. Without you this yarn would still be in my stash.

10: Basketweave scarf

Basketweave scarf
Originally uploaded by Big Sister.

Way back when I started a little project to finish my UFOs. I had meant to get through 11 projects, but after my ninth FO holiday kniting crept out from around the corner. At the time I had picked up a scarf that I started a year earlier, a baksetweave scarf inspired by a free project from the Interweave web site (bottom of the page).

I had originally intended this to be a gift for my brother, but then made another scarf that I felt was more his style. So, once again the scarf was abandoned.

Specs
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: US 8s, then 7s, then back to 8s

When I picked up this scarf up (the first time) I started knitting with the wrong size needles (US 7s when I should have been using 8s). Instead of frogging, I decided to use this as a design element and knit for a few inches on the smaller needles before switching back. I then knit the same length as wider section with the idea that the skinnier part would rest behind the neck. Ultimately, this worked but made the scarf very, very long.

When I picked up the scarf last week to finish it and give it to John's dad (not only is he the tallest person I would knit for, but it was also his b-day), I realized the only thing that I had to do was weave in ends. Six ends. Six ends are what stood between me and having this project finished. Oy. I have got to learn to finish what I started.

Go Bears!

Da Bears
Originally uploaded by Big Sister.

Specs
Yarn: Knitpicks Panache in Dusk & Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (doubled) in orange
Needles: US 9s
How to: Cast on 70 stitches, knit in the round switching colors randomly until you run out of orange. Knit for about seven inches and then double decrease every other row until the you have twelve stitches on the needles. K3Tog around. Run yarn through. Use the rest of the yarn to make an excellent pom pom!

Then watch da Bears score in the first 14 seconds of the game.

Side project

Topi
Originally uploaded by Big Sister.

If have been a little M.I.A. lately, it is because Jenny and I have been working on a little side project. Spread the word!

P.S. The hat has nothing to do with the side project, but I wanted to post it. I made this for my sister for Xmas. It is Topi knit in Pakucho Organic Cotton, approx. 2 skeins in Vicuna.

Toasty toes

River socks
Originally uploaded by Big Sister.

Remember that sock yarn stash that I showed you recently? So that enormous amount of sock yarn only tells part of the story: I had up to that point only ever knit five pairs of socks. Not a single one of those pair had been for me! I had started one pair (Hippy Crunchy socks), but stopped before turning the heel as I had read that some found the heel too shallow.

However, I am now the proud owner of handknit socks. I had started a pair of Petticoat Socks from Weekend Knitting before Christmas for one of my grandmas. The pattern was knitting up pretty stiff, so when she told me that she was having problems with her shoes being too tight I realized that the socks weren't going to work for her. I also wasn't crazy about the mixture of the lace pattern with the striping of the socks.

So, a couple of weeks ago I ripped the sock I had knit back to the picot edging and knit a plain old sock using elements from the Sell Your Sole (pdf) pattern and the Heels by the Numbers chart from Socknitters.

The specs
Yarn: Sweet Georgia Speed Demon in River
Needles: US2s
Gauge: 6 st/in

This yarn is quite lovely and warm. I really love the way that the variegation worked out--mostly blue with flashes of white and brown (that matches my Dansko Mary Janes nicely). This was my TV watching project and I finished them in about ten days. Woot! I heart socks, people. Good thing, too, since I have several pairs to go to even make a dent in my sock yarn stash.

Next up, I have another pair started and in my purse for commuting, then I plan on finishing my Hippy Crunchies. After that I am going to give into either Monkey or Embossed Leaves.

Mom & Latifa

Mom in scarf
Originally uploaded by Big Sister.

Hey, look, it's my Mom sporting her Latifa scarf! You're blog famous, ma!

I first saw the pattern for Latifa when I was a less devoted knitter. At that time, I didn't even know what Koigu was! Can you imagine? Even more baffling, my LYS didn't carry Koigu (they do now--whew!). I really wanted to make it, but was put off by not knowing of this magical Koigu and the price of main yarn (Garnstudio Silke-Tweed). Skip forward three years and I have several skeins of Koigu stashed in my sock yarn and I have discovered Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool (very similar, more readily available and a better value). So I matched up four skeins of Silky Wool with a ball of Koigu from my stash and got this:

Some observations:

• There is only so much garter stitch you can knit in one day (I'd say it's around 168 rows)
• Ruffles: hard on your hands; easy on the eyes
• Silky wool grows some, so make this scarf shorter than you think you need to unless you want an 8 foot scarf
• I ended up with a fair amount of Silky Wool leftover (75 grams, I would guess).
• This scarf is one of my favorite things that I have ever knit!

Last of the oh-sixers

Dad's scarf
Originally uploaded by Big Sister.

This post comes a little late, but I wanted to highlight the last finished object of 2006, the Seaman's Scarf.

The Specs
Yarn:Knitpicks Sierra, less than three skeins
Needles:Denise US11s
Started: December 21
Finished: December 24

Although modeled by me, this scarf was my dad's Xmas gift. It knits up fairly quickly on big needles and looks super sharp. I did make a couple of modification. First, the instructions seemed to be saying to change the rib pattern in the center panel, so that it was entirely ribbed with no garter stitch on the edges. Maybe I am wrong, but that is how I interpreted it. Then I disregarded that interpretation, kept the garter stitch edging and turned the cables into ribs. The pattern also instructed you to knit it in two pieces that would meet in the middle and be grafted together. This is where my other modification comes in. I didn't do that. I couldn't see why doing that would be necessary so I kept knitting and started the cables on the way down. They matched, so all's well that end's well.

I had been keeping a skein of Sierra in my stash for a while and was very happy with it's performance. The alpaca gives it some softness, but the wool retains enough crispness to get nice stitch definition. I sent it off to dad last week and hope it helps ward off the chill in the mornings!

Miles to go

4.14 miles
Originally uploaded by Big Sister.

In conjunction with my efforts to knit from my stash, I joined the Lime & Violet Sock Knitting Marathon. Considering that I have 4.14 miles of sock yarn in my stash, I thought I might need some motivation to get my sock knitting in gear. I would love to knit a mile of yarn, which is about six pairs of socks--or twice the number of socks that I knit last year!

While I am racking up the miles and joining collective efforts, I am also trying to up my movement quotient. To that end, I joined Runagogo and will try to walk/run 100 miles by April 1st. This week I put in 9.2 miles by choosing to walk when I could have taken the bus throughout the week and then taking a 3 mile walk today. My plan is to walk one of my bus legs everyday (weather permitting), which should yield me over 5 miles each week.

I better run--I think I hear a sock calling me!

Attack of the stash!

On New Year's Day I woke up postively giddy: I was going to organize my stash! The first step was to dump everything out on the floor (see the first picture in the nifty Pictobrowser below). From there it was an iterative process. Piles of wool, piles of silk, piles of sock yarn. I took a number of breaks to knit, watch a movie, eat, and by the next morning I had a much more manageable situation (see the second picture).

Manageable though it may be, it is a large stash. You, my knitting friends, know where this is going . . . Knit From Your Stash 2007. My basic goal is to get my stash down so that it all fits in my newly contracted yarn corner (and not in overstuffed boxes!). Ideally, I would like to get it to where there is some breathing room in each of the boxes. So, here it goes, my rules:

1. No yarn purchases until Stitches West
2. Try my hardest to knit through 30 skeins by Stitches West
3. After Stitches, no yarn purchases until I have knit another 30 skeins with the following exceptions:

• Yarn purchased with gift certificates
• Yarn for gifts that I must knit and that I absolutely do not have the yarn for
• I get one pass

To make things a bit easier on myself I gave myself a few guidelines:

1. If a project takes a partial ball to complete, that counts as a full ball. Why should I be penalized for diligently purchasing enough yarn for a project?
2. I get credit for yarn that I sell, gift (from my stash), donate, or otherwise get out of my house (i.e. leave out for local birds to cushion their nests with).
3. Remember the one skein projects!