Christmas Knitting

Right now, this is my desk.

There's a red knit elephant (Elijah number 5), on hold, but eventually to be given to baby Ruby. There's the turquoise cotton washcloth I just finished for grandma, sitting on top of the Noro striped hat and cowl I made for Mom. There's an unfinished hat for grandpa and an unfinished hat for dad. Plus a mini sock for our Christmas tree that I need to remember to pack.

Usually I love knitting for other people. Who am I kidding, I still love knitting for other people. But this year, I started my Christmas knitting on December 9th, aka Much Too Late. And this year, for the first time, my Christmas knitting includes a sweater. See, I'm pretty modest with the list of people I knit gifts for. My mom, my dad, my sister, and my grandparents about covers it. So I'm okay. But I have a lot of knitting to do, augmented by the fact that we're visiting my grandparents before Christmas, so the deadline's even sooner for them. Which is why I'm not using the brilliant plan I had to make grandpa a hat that uses the tweed leftover from his scarf last year as a stripe. Because said yarn is in Wisconsin and I am not. So I went to Downtown Yarns, which I continue to love, and bought some yarn. And I'm making him a really basic mostly stockinette hat with some gray/beige/black/white handpainted merino from Punta Yarns. Which is nice, and will work for him, but is not the perfect matches the scarf from last year hat. Oh well. What can you do? And the plan was to make grandma two washcloths, but so far I only have one, so the plan might turn into 1 washcloth and a soap sack. And then Kaylee's sweater, which I'm loving and is going very very quickly, thank god. I have about an inch left on the body and then the sleeves. And I'm done with mom's hat and cowl set, which turned out lovely, and have a tolerable start on dad's extra-long to actual cover his ears hat. But I've come up with all sorts of wonderful selfish knitting ideas, and I want to start them, but I can't. After finishing my first pair of socks last week, I've become entirely enamored of the idea of handknit socks. I've decided that my knitting goal for 2009 is to make myself a baker's dozen of handknit socks, in rainbow colors. Red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yello-green, green, blue-green, blue, light blue, blue-violet, purple and red-purple socks. That's the plan. I'm starting with a pair of Flickers in Sundara Grass, but I'm not working on them until I am done with these presents. Nor am I starting the entrelac beret in Ravenclaw colors of Madeline Tosh Worsted, which Downtown Yarns now carries. (Ink and Violin. Even the names are perfect for Ravenclaw. Yes, I'm a dork.) Instead, I am knitting a lot of hats. For my relatives. And I'm excited about them. The punta is working up into a really nice manly blend of colors and I love the darkside stitch pattern, which I'm using for dad's hat. The fabric is so squooshy, and I'm excited about figuring how to make the decreases line up right. Plus, despite the fact that I would have liked another stripe on Mom's cowl, the colors are great and she'll love them. And I love sweaters. There's nothing more satisfying than knitting a sweater. But right now, what I really want to do is wind up the Mad Tosh.

Swallowtail

I blocked my Swallowtail Shawl today, and boy is it beautiful. Blocking is such an amazing thing. It was pretty before, but now the lace is so open, and the nubs really pop.It was a really fun pattern, too. And surprisingly quick. I'd had this idea that shawls took forever, but they really don't. Especially not this one, cuz it's little. I'll probably end up wearing it more as a scarf than as a shawl. My Blocking wasn't perfect, but I can live with that. I can always re-block if it starts to bug me.
After this little beauty, I'm totally on a lace kick. Everything I'm queuing of late is lace, lace, lace. I even bought two more sizes of Addi Laces needles for it, because I loved them so much on this. There's pointy and the stitches never once slipped. It was pretty glorious.
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Buscando Azul
Needles: Addi Lace size 4, 24 inch circs.
Modifications: None. I knew it was going to come out little, but I'd never knit with Mal lace before, and didn't want to chance running out, so I didn't add any extra repeats, but seeing the amount of yarn I had left over, I definitely could have.
Started: July 2008
Finished: July 2008, four days later
What made it even cooler, is that everything I used for it, I got from my awesome Mal Swap buddy, Lori. She sent me a lovely Magic Yarn Ball, full of all sorts of delightful goodies, including the yarn, pattern and needles. She did such a fantastic job picking out goodies for me, and I was definitely excited to cast on for it, that I knit the whole thing up in a jiffy.
In addition to the yarn, pattern and needles for this shawl, she sent some Lion Wool Prints, an emory board, a little yellow bear tape measure, a set of mini natural soaps, a magic washcloth, two rubber stamps, one of which has a quote from Antony and Cleopatra on it, an aromatherapy patch, incense matches, a soak sample in Aqua, which I haven't tried yet, delicious tangerine hand cream, an Eat Sleep Knit ruler, and Eat Sleep Knit Lotto card, which I won a skein of smooshy on, and the most beautiful stitch markers ever, that she made herself. They have little green beads and crystals on them and they are so so pretty. I adore them and use them every chance I get. Plus, it was a set of thirteen that she sent, with one contrasting one, so I'll always have plenty of them. Really, I couldn't be happier with them. The whole swap, my first ever, was pretty cool. I had such a fun time putting everything together, and waiting for mine to get there, plus I got such an awesome, thoughtful package. The whole thing was great.
Thank you Lori!

I have an angel.

I have Sundara Angel. The sweetest, kindest woman just sent me two gorgeous skeins of Sundara sock yarn, in black over violet, my very favorite colorway. They are stunning and make me incredibly happy. And I had a lovely time messaging back and forth with her beforehand, too. She's from Wisconsin, and a Brewer fan and has seen some Shakespeare! Pretty cool. But the yarn's really the story. I love it. I've never seen any more beautiful. And she wrapped it too, in coordinating paper.

It's so pretty. I just want to look at it forever and ever.


But, since I have two skeins of it (which was a surprise. I was only expecting one) I can make something more than just a pair of gloves, as I'd been planning. Now, I think it's going to be a tank top, so everyone can see it's glory, and I can wear it right next to my skin. I'm so excited to start knitting with it.
Not only that, I also got a skein of silk lace in Granite Falls in the mail today, too, so it was a double day of Sundara. I'm on such a lace kick these days, after my Swallowtail (which will be blogged about one of these days), so I'm extra excited to knit with it. I want to make more shawls!

So now, I have three, beautiful, lovely skeins of Sundara, whereas yesterday I had none. This is so exciting.

I love knitters. I love that people pass on such kindness, and such beautiful things.

Mrs. Darcy Modifications

Because people seem to be interested, here are the modifications I used to make my seamless, bottom up, seven button, semi-raglan version of Mrs. Darcy, a wonderful pattern by Mary Weaver.

Mrs. Darcy Modifications
by Riah Werner

Gauge was 4.5 st/inch, and the sweater wound up having a bust measurement of approximately 38 inches.

Instructions:
CO 171 st.

Throughout the following, maintain a five stitch border of garter stitch on each side, and work a buttonhole every ten rows:

K 7 rows.
Work 19 rows St st.
Work 25 rows twisted rib. (I purled into the backs of stitches on the wrong side as well as knitting into the backs of stitches on the right side.)
Work 19 rows St st.

You should by now have worked 70 rows and have 7 buttonholes.

Begin neckline decreases:
For each RS decrease row, k 5, ssk, k to last 7 st, k2tog, k5.
For each WS decrease row, you want your decreases to look the same from the front side as your RS decreases. What I did was k 5, p2tog, p to last 7 st, p2tog, k5, and then when I got to whichever decrease looked wonky on the RS, I fixed it so it slanted the right way before moving on. There's probably a simpler way to get symmetrical WS decreases, but I don't know what it is. Anyway, the goal is to have all of the decreases on the right edge leaning to the left and all of the decreases on the left edge of the piece slanting to the right, to make a nice, smooth decrease line, just within the five stitch garter border.

Decrease 1 st each side for the next 5 rows.
Decrease 1 st each side every other row 8 times.
Decrease 1 st each side.
Work 3 rows even.

At this point, it comes time to join the sleeves, so put aside the body of the sweater and knit the sleeves. You should have 143 sts.

Sleeves:
CO 47 st. Knit the first and last stitches together to join in the round, joglessly.

Work 40 rnds twisted rib.
Work 12 rnds St st.

For each increase rnd, K1, M1L, K to the last st in the rnd, M1R, K1.
Work increase round every 12th round 6 times.
(So, work the increase round, and then knit 11 rnds even 6 times, for a total of 58 sts.)

K the first five st of the next round, and set sleeve aside. Make another sleeve, identical to the first.

Join Sleeves:
Row 1: K 25, PM, place next 10 sts on scrap yarn, K 48 sts of one sleeve, PM place last 10 sleeve sts on scrap yarn, K 73 sts from body of sweater, PM, place next 10 sts on scrap yarn, K 48 sts of 2nd sleeve, PM, place next 10 st on scrap yarn, K 25 sts of sweater body.
You should now have 5 sts of border, 20 sts of right front, 48 sts of right sleeve, 73 sts of back, 48 sts of left sleeve, 20 sts of left front and 5 sts of border, with place markers between each section (except between the border and the front sections).
2 and all even rows, until otherwise stated: K 5 sts, P to last 5 sts, K 5 sts.
3:Decrease at the neck and on both sides of the markers at the armhole. K5, ssk, *K to 2 sts before marker, K2tog, sl marker, ssk* repeat until last marker, K to last 7 sts, K2tog, K 5.
5: Decrease at both sides of the armhole markers. *K to 2 sts before marker, K2tog, sl marker, ssk* repat until last marker, K to end.
7: Repeat row 3.
9: Repeat row 5.
11: Repeat row 3.
13: Repeat row 5.
15: Repeat row 5.
17: K to 1st marker, sl marker, ssk, K to 2 st before 2nd marker, k2tog, sl marker, ssk, k to 2 st before 3rd marker, k2tog, sl marker, ssk, k to 2 st before 4th marker, k2tog, sl marker, k to end.
19: Decrease inside the arm markers only. K to 1st marker, sl marker, ssk, k to 2 sts before 2nd marker, k2tog, k to 3rd marker, sl marker, ssk, k to 2 st before 4th marker, k2tog, sl marker, k to end.
21: Repeat row 19.
23: Repeat row 19.
25: Repeat row 19.
27: Repeat row 19.
29: Repeat row 19.
31: K to 1st marker, sl marker, ssk twice, k to 4 sts before 2nd marker, k2tog twice, k to 3rd marker, ssk twice, k to 4 st before 4th marker, k2tog twice, k to end.
32: K 5, p to 1st marker, sl marker, p2tog, p to 2 st before 2nd marker, p2tog, sl marker, p to 3rd marker, sl marker, p2tog, p to 2 st before 4th marker, p2tog, sl marker, p to last 5 st, k to end.
33: Repeat row 31.
34: Repeat row 32.
35: K to 1st marker, sl marker, ssk twice, k2tog twice, sl marker, k to 3rd marker, ssk twice, k2tog twice, sl marker, k to end.
36: Repeat row 32.
37: K 14, k2tog, ssk, k to 18 st from end, k2tog, ssk, k 14.
38: Place first 5 st on scrap yarn, p to last 5 st, place last 5 sts on scrap yarn.

Shoulders:
Place first ten st on a dpn. Place next ten sts on a dpn. Work three needle BO. Repeat for the other shoulder, with the last 10 sts and next to last 10 sts in the row.

PU 4 sts at the shoulders on each side. Place these sts on the needle with the stitches from the back (which are still live and on the needle).

Neckline Edging:
Work the five sts on one of the dpns in garter stitch, knitting the band together with the live stitches at the top of the back as follows.
1: K 4, K final st together with next stitch from the back.
2:K one st from the back together with first st on dpn, k 4.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until there are no more back stitches left.
Graft the 5 sts on dpn together with the 5 sts on the other dpn.

Graft armpit seams. Work 2 rows of single crochet at the bottom edge, remembering to ch1 at the end of the first row before turning. If there are any funny little holes by the armpits seams or at the top of the shoudlers, sew them up when you weave in your ends.

Notes on adjustments:
When figuring out how many stitches to cast on, I thought of the sweater in five sections, 5 sts for the garter stitch edge on each side, 38 sts for each front sections and 85 sts for the back, which came to a total of 171 st, which at my gauge of 4.5 stitches to the inch gave me a finished sweater of 38 inches, my bust measurement. After the neck decreases, when it was time to join the arms, there were 20 stitches for each front section and 75 for the back, with the same five stitch garter edging on each side. The sleeve wound up the way they are because I wanted to work them seamlessly in the round, but with the look of set-in sleeves, rather than raglan ones, so they wound up a kind of funny hybrid, which I'm quite happy with.

If you have any questions about these mods or if anything doesn't make sense, PM me on Ravelry or send me an email at wakenda@gmail.com. Also, if you wind up making a sweater with them, I'd love to hear about it, so let me know.

Gretel

I finished my Gretel yesterday, and she's quite pretty, although I didn't think I would have enough yarn to make the slouchy version, as I was hoping to, so I settled for the regular. Looking at the yarn I have left over, I probably made the right choice.

The most interesting thing about Gretel is that I can wear her either as a beanie or a snood, depending on what I feel like. She works both ways, which means I'll probably skip the blocking, which would put her more firmly in the snood camp. Now I like snoods, but I made the band slightly too loose for it to stay on my head without lots of bobbypin assistance, so no blocking. The next Gretel I'll make'll be the slouchy kind. I think it I make it on 5s and 7s instead of fat 6s and 8s, I can squeeze a slouchy out of Malabrigo. Possibly the Sealing Wax.

The pattern was fun, as all of Ysolda's are, and I'm glad I finally got around to making myself one of these, which I've wanted to do for ages. It's one of those patterns where I needed to find yarn that was perfect, so I kept putting it off and putting it off until finally I decided that it was going to be done in the Emerald and if it wasn't perfect, I could just make another until it was.

Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Emerald, a bit under one skein
Needles: Fat 6 dpns (4.25 mm), US 8 16 inch Addi Turbo, US 8 Clover Takumi DPNs
Modifications: None
Started: June 2008
Finished June 2008

Evangelines

I finished my Evangelines yesterday, and they are lovely. I'm so happy with my knitting these days.

These were definitely an exercise in finicky perfectionism, though. Every time I decided something was not quite right about the pattern, I figured out how to make it better and then fixed it. The ribbing in the pattern as written doesn't line up with the cables, so I ripped back and adjusted it. The pattern has you use the same cable for both gloves, but I wanted them to be symmetrical, so I tweaked it. 3/4 of the way through the second glove, I decided that the cable should only be framed by two purl stitches, rather than three, so I dropped the stitches all the way down and reworked them back up as knit stitches with a crochet hook. Then I decided that the cable on the right glove would be better suited to being the left glove, so I ripped back to the thumb hole and put it on the other side. Then, the thumbs were too tight, so I ripped them out and made them 14 stitches instead of twelve. And even with all the fixing, I still loved making them. It's an interesting cable, and the yarn works beautifully with it. Plus the back of the gloves are just a little bit stripy, which is fun.

I made most of them on the flight out to Colorado. I love that the Madison airport security people never ever give me trouble about my needles. Especially because this time I had an entire week worth's of projects in my carry on. I brought a bunch of little projects. These, my daisy stitch armwarmers I started, the Rose armwarmers that I'll be making in Silky, Gretel, and then my Cherie Amour, which I'm restarting. The armwarmers are going faster than I expected them too. I'm about half done with the second daisy stitch one, which is surprising, because the first one took me forever. And, just in case that's not enough, I bought more yarn off of Eat.Sleep.Knit. God I love that site. They got in a new shipment of Malabrigo, and they carry Shibui Knits now, so I'm finally gonna get to try it, which I am super excited about.

Pattern: Evangeline by Michelle Szeghalmi
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Applewood, a bit under one skein
Needles: US 7 Brittany DPNs
Modifications: I adjusted the placement of the ribbing, framed the cables with two purl stitches instead of three, and made the cables symmetrical.
Started: June 2008
Finished: June 2008

Elijah!

He is so cute! I love him oodles and oodles.He's all floppy and adorable. And now that he's got eyes, he's all finished. If I were to make him again, I would probably stuff him a bit fuller, but as it is I find his floppiness quite lovable. I was originally planning on making him as a gift for a to be determined recipient, but I think I might keep him and make baby clothes for the babies who might have gotten him.


All in all, the pattern (as with all of Ysolda's designs) was really lovely. Clear and easy to follow. There's a lot of picked up stitches, and occasionally it got a little bit finicky (sock size dpns made a big difference here), but no seams and no sewing on pieces. He was fun and quick to make. I'm quite happy.


He even reads my blog!


Pattern: Elijah by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Babyboo in Bright Aqua, just over 1 skein
Needles: US 2 1/2 Crystal Palace Bamboo dpns
Started: May 2008
Finished: June 2008

Mrs. Darcy

So after this languished on my needles twice when I tried to knit it flat, I decided to work it out to knit seamlessly and it totally flew by, despite the fact that I was working out the numbers as I went along. But now it's done and it's beautiful.


I'm particularly happy with the shoulders. I knit the sleeves in the round, and joined them as if it had been a bottom up raglan, but then only decreased on one side to keep the look of set in shoulders. And it worked.


I also knit the neck edging onto the top of the back so I didn't have to seam anything at all when I was done. A bit of grafting, underneath the arms and when I connected the two sides of the neck edging and a three needle bind off for the shoulders, but nothing else.


Pattern: Mrs. Darcy Cardigan by Mary Weaver
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted in Mulberry, 5 skeins
Needles: Size 9 24 inch Addi Turbos
Modifications: A gazillion. I don't think I kept a single number the same as the original pattern. They're all laid out here.
Started: January 2008, but frogged and restarted June 2008
Finished June 2008

Yarn!

I just got a box of yarn in the mail!


I ordered it on Sunday night, it was mailed on Monday morning, and it got here today. It's all Malabrigo, from Eat.Sleep.Knit, and I love it. I have four skeins of Loro Barranquero, to make a Cherie Amour, five skeins of worsted in various colors (Applewood, Sealing Wax, Glazed Carrot, Jewel Blue and Emerald) and my first ever skein of silky, in Evening Violet. I don't quite know what I'm going to do with all of it, but I'm excited to play with it. I think the Applewood will probably turn into the Evangelines I've been meaning to make forever, and the Emerald will probably become a Gretel.


And I got fun stuff for buying over a mile of yarn. There's a shawl pattern, cards of all the yarn that Eat.Sleep.Knit carries, two buttons and a little purple ruler. Plus a Yarn Lotto card that I enjoyed scratching, even though I didn't win anything on it. I'd never bough yarn off the internet before, and it was very exciting. It was like getting presents in the mail, and since I used Grandma's birthday money to get it, I suppose that's actually kind of true. I throughly stalked all of the colors I was considering on Ravelry first, to see what they might look like knitted up, and it was much fun. Really, the whole thing was delightful and I highly recommend the store.


Also, I finally devised an effective way of keeping my yarn still while I wind it into a ball, since I don't have a swift and ballwinder. If I loop the yarn around two cans of tomatoes, I can keep it from tangling. The 28-oz cans are both heavy enough to stay still and short enough that it's not too cumbersome to lift the yarn over them. I'm really very pleased, because for the first time winding my yarn into balls myself isn't a hassle.

I've also been knitting oodles and oodles. I'm nearly done with my first cardigan and I'm well into the hat I started yesterday. I love how much knitting time I have now that it's summer!

The London Knitting Round Up.

So, I've been back in the US for a couple weeks now, and I did a horrible job of keeping this updated with all my London knitting, but I did an awful lot of it while I was there. And I visited quite a few yarn stores too.

Final Count of FOs: 12
Final Count of WiPs: 4
Balls of Yarn Bought and Knit: 15
Balls of Yarn Brought Home Unknit: 12
Yarn Stores Visited: 6

It was good. I made eight hats, one bag, a shrug, a cowl and a sweater. FO posts about them will come. For now, be patient.

The Troll Hat.

So, while looking around Ravelry for a hat pattern for my Point Five yesterday, I was suprised by how few patterns there were for super bulky yarn. So I've decided to give you the pattern I improvised, in case you don't feel like thinking. Hence, the Troll hat, a really simple hat in super bulky thick and thin yarn. At first this hat didn't have a name, but the point at the top reminds me of the trolls' heads in Jan Brett's books, which I read as a child. And it seems to me that if a troll is going to make a hat, it would come out all lumpy and bumpy. I used Colinette Point 5 in Frangipani, a really fun Welsh yarn, but I would imagine another super bulky thick and thin yarn would work as well, although it should be noted that I used all 54 yards to make the hat and the pom pom.

The Troll Hat
by Riah Werner


Materials:
1 skein Colinette Point 5 (100% Wool, 100 grams/54 yards/50 meters)
Size 13 (9 mm) 16-inch circular needle
size 10.5 (6.5 mm) double pointed needles

Gauge:
I can't quite figure out how to get an accurate measurement with this yarn, but it works out to 2.25 st to the inch in stockinette with the bigger needles. The finished size of the hat is 21.5 inches.

Instructions:

CO 48 sts. Join, being careful not to twist sts. Work in stockinette st for 5 inches.

Begin decreases, switching to dpns when necessary.

Row 1: [K2tog, k 11] 4 x.

Row 2: [K2tog, k 10] 4 x.
Row 3: [K2tog, k 9] 4 x.
Row 4: [K2tog, k 8] 4 x.
Row 5: [K2tog, k 7] 4 x.
Row 6: [K2tog, k 6] 4 x.
Row 7: [K2tog, k 5] 4 x.
Row 8: [K2tog, k 4] 4 x.
Row 9: [K2tog, k 3] 4 x.
Row 10: [K2tog, k 2] 4 x.
Row 11: [K2tog, k 1] 4 x.
Row 12: [K2tog] 4x.

K 1 rnd.
BO.

Make a pom pom with the remaining yarn and attach to the top of the hat.

Stress Knitting + a Foreign Country = Lots of Hats

So, I've actually been knitting bunches here, in part because it's more stressful than I think I want to admit to myself. First, I made myself another charcoal Foliage, to replace the one I'd lost over Winter Break.

And then I found a pattern for the Limulidae hat in I Knit's newsletter and thought it would be perfect in the bulky turquoise mohair, which was making such a poor wisp. So I made one. And now I have two balls of the yarn leftover and no idea what to make with them.

And then I improvised a hat out of the Colinette Point Five, which I picked up because I wanted to get some British yarn when I'm here, and it's from Wales. I originally intended to make another Fourteen out of it, because it reminds me a bit of Aquarella, and that had worked so well the first time, but the yarn changed color too quickly and the thick and thin variations were too extreme to look good in the Brioche stitch. I tried a little bit of one by one ribbing, but I decided that that was too boring, so I improvised a super simple hat pattern that actually works with the yarn.

As a bit of a side note, I liked Loop in Islington, where I got the yarn. It was a charming little store and they didn't make me feel uncomfortable when I stayed there for ages even though the place was tiny, and they let me spread all of their Point Five out on the floor to see what colorway I liked best, and were generally friendly, but not too pushy and were totally willing to help me figure out what the American sizes I need were in metric. But I didn't love their selection of yarn. They had circular addi turbos, which had been proving troublesome to find in Madison, and nice buttons, but they didn't have any basic, colorful worsteds I felt like getting. And I do most of what I do in basic worsteds. But it is in walking distance, so if I need one of the things they carry, or have a sudden craving to do lots of knitting in many variations of greys and beiges and muted colors, then I would definitely go back.

Now on to the WIPs. I've been knitting the "February" fetchings, but I have realized that I have nowhere near enough yarn to finish them, so this is a bit of a dilemma. I either need to make them shorter or add another color of yarn or find some more Goldenrod Lamb's Pride here. We'll see what I wind up doing. But I think I like the patterns in the color particularly well. It reminds me of Twelfth Night, and is my not terribly inspired knitalong/readalong project for the Bardolatrists group on Ravelry. So I think I might hold off on finishing them until I get more of the yarn, but we'll see.

And then there's my V neck sweater from Fitted Knits. I've never done a top down raglan before, and I love it. There's such a feeling of completeness in knowing that as I knit something, I know exactly what it's going to wind up being. Although, transferring stitches so I can try the thing on as I go is a major pain. But I like it and it's been going so quickly, and I'm just a couple of rounds from being done with the body, because I want a longer sweater than the pattern calls for. And then onto the sleeves, which I'm pretty sure I'm going to knit in the round, because since they're already attached to the body, I see no reason why seaming them would be beneficial. The fabric that the Malabrigo is making is so lovely and soft and warm. I can absolutely see why everyone loves this yarn so much. I can't wait to wear this thing. I think that's part of the reason why I'm knitting it so quickly. I've never before been so impatient to get to the final product as I am with this sweater.

And now I'm starting to run out of the stash that I brought with me. There's still the Mrs. Darcy, which has been put on the back burner in favor of the Malabrigo V neck, and I probably will have an extra ball leftover once I'm done with that. And I've only used two and a half balls on the body of the V neck and I have five total, so unless I make monster sleeves from hell, there will be leftovers of that too. And I have the two orphaned balls of turquoise mohair, and a bit of leftover Donegal tweed, which is probably too little to do much with and then some green Lamb's Pride Worsted. And then, of course there's the Kid Silk for when I feel like making the Ice Queen, sans beads. So at the rate I'm knitting, I'll just have to get more yarn here. Tee hee. I still need something to make a Gretel with, and yarn for my next pairs of armwarmers. I'm looking forward to visiting more yarn stores here, because it gives me something to do where I can actually meet British people on terms that are not freakishly awkward. Tomorrow after studio, I think I'm actually going to go to my first knitting group, at a pub by Trafalgar Square, and while I've never been to such a thing before, I'm looking forward to it.

Knitting in London.

I'm in London for the semester, and I absolutely brought more yarn than I probably ought to've with me. I got my knitting needles onto the plane without any questions being asked, as always, but getting them on the flight home will probably be more of a problem, if not an impossibility, because I hear Heathrow is very strict about them. Anyways, on the plane I started the least wispy wisp ever, which some bulky turquoise mohair. I think it's probably the wrong yarn for the design, and even though I cast on 8 stitches fewer than it called for, I think it's still too wide. I'll probably frog it and either make another wisp with fewer stitches, or another pattern altogether. I was thinking a cables scarf might be nice.
I've also joined a mitten a month along on ravelry, but I'm planning on making fingerless mitts instead of real mittens. My navy cabled armwarmers are January.

However, I was impatient, so I started on February already. I brought three half balls of leftovers with me for these, and I'm gonna see if I have enough yarn. I'm starting with a pair of Fetchings in the yarn leftover from the beehive hat. If it looks like I'm not gonna have enough to finish the mitts, I'll just convert it into a bright yellow cabled sleeve for my camera. I've also learned how to cable in back without a cable needle. Now I just need to learn to reverse it for the other mitt. I've been just leaving this out on my desk and knitting a round or two at a time, when I'm waiting for little stuff, and I really like having a project like that.
And then there's everyone's lovely Mrs. Darcy. It felt so good to pick her up again last night. I love how this yarn looks knit up, especially in the twisted rib. I'm changing the numbers around to fit my arms, which are much fatter than those of the girl who designed it, so hopefully it will come out right. Set in sleeves still kind of scare me, even though the article in Interweave Knits really helped clear it up.
I think one of these days I'm gonna head out to I Knit London, or another yarn store around here, and see what it's like and how different it is. I'd really like to meet some British knitters and maybe join a knitting group for while I'm here, but I don't know if I'm gonna have time for it. Our schedule at RADA is intense. We put up three plays in twelve weeks, which is freakishly quick, especially considering there's a presentation before that of monologues and sonnets and stuff, so each play gets something like three weeks spent on it. I've been wearing my Fourteen all the time, and it's perfect for the weather here.

Now all I need is a hat, so I might put down Mrs. Darcy for a while and make myself another charcoal Foliage, just like the one I lost.

A trip to Door County earns a trip to the yarn store.

Visiting my grandparents is always a challenge because my mother gets exceptionally irritable whenever we do. This time, we had to spend an hour and a half fixing the ice dams in our gutter before we could leave, and on the ride up, I needed to be the one to talk to the repairpeople on the phone. But once the journey was underway, it was an extremely nice trip.

I spent most of the ride up finishing Grandpa's "Christmas" scarf.

Grandma absolutely loved hers.

As soon as I gave it to her, she put it on and went to show it off to the other ladies in her nursing home. It was so cute, everytime we'd get home, she'd take it off and very carefully lay it out on the back of her chair so everyone would see it when they came in to her room.


On the way home, I made a Calorimetry headband, out of the leftover Berroco Foliage from my first attempt at Grandpa's scarf. I don't love it, but it made the trip home much more enjoyable.


And, because I was so lovely on the trip and helping Mom with the ice dams, I got quadruple bonus points, which translated into a trip to the yarns store, where I got tons of gorgeous, gorgeous yarn.

I have six skeins of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Mulberry and three black velvet buttons for the Mrs. Darcy Cardigan, a skein of absolutely stunning Malabrigo Arabella for a Fourteen neckwarmer, some sparkly Kidsilk Night for an Ice Queen Cowl and five skeins of wonderfully soft, creamy Malabrigo Worsted, which will turn into some sort of hat and scarf, I just haven't decided what yet. I am so unbelievably excited to make things with this stuff. And as a bonus I got a new pair of size 5 double pointed needles. Yay! The Knitting Tree has totally become my favorite yarn store. At Lakeside, the ladies always look at me like I don't know what I doing just because I'm not 65, but at the Knitting Tree, everyone's been lovely.