Healing Hand(s)

My sister recently informed me that her glovelets had a run in with a moth. The glovelets ended up with a hole in the mock cable pattern. I did my best to mend them and think I did decent enough job.

Before Picture:

After Picture:

Simple Skyp Socks

After a few assertions that "you don't make me anything," I began knitting my husband Chris, some socks. I picked the Simple Skyp sock pattern by Adrienne Ku and Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Medium weight in the colorway Manly yes, but I like it too!, which really showcases the stitches - great stitch definition! It's a lovely gray.

I decided to not pick up an extra stitch on both sides of the sock to continue with the skyp pattern. This left me with just three ribbed sections of the pattern repeat on the foot, instead of five.

STITCHES Midwest Registration

STITCHES Midwest Registrations opened today. For the first time since I've been going to STITCHES, I'll be attending classes. I booked 15 class hours! I'll be learning lots of things: how to augment existing patterns for a custom fit; to design a sweater from scratch; introductory crochet (for knitters); and various techniques for knitting in the round. While I knit with dpns and circulars, I'm particularly interested in learning how to knit with 2 circulars and the magic loop. I bought Two-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes a few months ago and I'm hoping this will give me the courage to give it a go. I've knit quite a few socks and each time I come down with second sock syndrome. That second sock just seems to take me twice as long to finish. What's equally awesome about this weekend is I'll be turning 30. The big 3-0. This is in part how I decided to accommodate the cost to go to classes. It's a present to myself. And, since I purchased classes at STITCHES, I decided I'd also partake in the WEBS (http://www.yarn.com/) anniversary sale that is going on this month and next month. I purchased:

• 2 skeins of Cascade Jewel Paints (Cherry Berry and David's Eyes)


• 4 skeins of Knit One Crochet Too Camelino (Honey)


• 2 skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool (Dark Ash)


• 3 skeins of Cascade 220 (Straw, Brown, and Charcoal Gray)


• 16 balls of Berroco Pure Merino (Storm)

I picture making owls (sweater by Kate Davies), some Amigurumi knitted toys (release the kraken!), and French Press Felted Slippers. For the slippers, I have some awesome glass buttons (picture to come), featuring red octopuses on a blue background, that I think would go really well with the Cascade 220 in the straw colorway.

Meet Henry. Henry Meet Everyone.

I started a Henry Rollins "knitted action figure" back in 2005 after going to one of his spoken word shows. I had high hopes that I could quickly make this and give it to my husband. It wasn't meant to be a gift really because I can't do deadlines. But oh my, should I have had a deadline. Without one, this thing lingered in my UFO pile for four years. I had everything knitted up within a month or so but when it came to seaming, I just didn't want to do it. I hate sewing things together, which was the very reason why I knitted the Drop-Stitch Tank in the round. My seaming skills are lacking and it's a bit obvious when looking at Henry Rollins arms. I didn't sew the shoulder seam correctly and by the time I noticed, I had already picked up stitches for his head.

He was knitted with Tahki Yarns Cotton Classic, which is kind of a crisp yarn. I think he looks pretty good.

Noro Obsession

So in total over the last month, I knit a striped scarf, a striped hat (twice - I had to reknit the striped hat after it was apparent it was too big), and a regular hat. All with Noro Silk Garden.

Curlicue Baby Blanket

Shortly after learning a close friend was expecting her first child (started on September 3), I decided I needed to knit a gift. With this in mind, I purchased 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a Khaki-ish color at Stitches Midwest. On size 4 (thought they were size 6 - oops!) needles, I cast on for the Curlicue Blanket by Skruddevutt (found on Ravelry. The yarn isn't exactly a mom's best friend but it's so unbelievably soft with it's fiber content: 55% Merino wool, 33% Microfibre, and 12% Cashmere. It's machine washable but is unfortunately dry flat and cool iron. But it can be dry cleaned.

The top and bottom border is 13 rows of garter stitch (approximately 1") and left and right border is 16 stitches of garter stitch. It's a lovely stitch pattern. Because I'm using a Sport-weight yarn, this is going to be a large project to tackle. I decided that I wanted the blanket to be at least 30" wide and 30" tall and cast on 209 stitches. This blanket, that is if I count my swatch gauge correctly, will have approximately 60,000 stitches. Crazy.

As of November 6, the blanket is 18 inches tall (over halfway there) and 30 inches wide - and it's only at 5 balls. This is by far the most intense project I've ever undertaken. It has to be comparable to knitting a sweater, right? Since it's just a square, it's not as though it looks like it's ever growing.

November 21, the blanket is 22" inches tall - 6 balls.

CO on 12/18/10 and blocked the next day. The final measurements are 36" wide and 31" tall or if one wants to place the blanket the other way 31" wide and 36" tall.

Stripey-Stripe-Stripe-Stripe

I cast-on a new Noro Striped Scarf this last weekend using the same yarn as the new Noro Striped Hat - Noro Silk Garden, 45% Silk, 45% Kid Mohair and 10% Lamb's Wool (colorway 275 and 267). The first time I made this scarf, I used size 7 needles and found that the fabric was too dense. I also cast on almost 40 stitches and found myself not liking the width over time. So, this time, I used size 9 needles and cast-on 25 stitches.