Year end round up of projects

This year has been a big knitting year for me. I started knitting in September of 2005. 2006 was a year of trying new things in knitting. It seems that 2007 was a year spent perfecting them. I took on the challenge of Summer of Socks. That was crazy and insane, but also a lot of fun. I really found what types of yarn that I prefer for socks, what types of colors, and what types of patterns that I like to knit. And after making over 40 socks in a three month period, I really worked on getting socks to fit well. I've also grown more confident in knitting socks that will fit other people.

During 2007, I also took on the challenge of knitting my first sweater. While it didn't come out perfect, it did fit and I know what I can do to make it better the next time I try sweater knitting.

In numbers, I completed the following in 2007:
Adult sweaters: 1
Kid sweaters: 5
Hats: 3
Scarves: 4
Mittens: 6
Shawls: 6
Socks: 74

No, that last number is not a typo. And I do want everyone to know that not all of those 74 socks were for me. Around 13 were kid sized socks for E and D. There were socks for Dwight, his mom, my sister, and my mom. Since I have plenty of socks, I'm now working on making more for the kids, my mom, and my sister. I can guarantee that there will not be that many socks knit next year. ;-)

But I have been thinking of what I will knit or sew. I do want to knit some of the projects that I have the yarn and patterns for already. That would be the Inky Dinky Spider stole, the Paisley shawl, the Irtfa'a Faroese shawl, and a sweater. For the sweater, I have the yarn and a few different patterns that will work with it. I just need to sit down and make a decision on the pattern.

In the maybe section, I would like to make some argyle socks. I know that I have a lot of hand knit socks, but argyles are completely different than anything I've done. I've never tried intarsia and that would be a challenge.

In the wishful thinking area, I would like to try out more color work. I want to try mittens or gloves. I would also like to design a lace shawl myself. I'm not sure if that will happen though. There are so many patterns that I want to knit and there is only so much time. We've already established that decision making is difficult for me. ;-)

There are also so many things that I want to sew. My yarn stash is nothing compared to my fabric stash. I need to sew more and work down the stash a bit. I want to make some quick and easy quilts for the kids' room and make some matching curtains. Now that my brother-in-law took back his huge painting, I have a big blank wall in the living room. I want to try to make a crazy quilt for that wall.

In list form, I want to attempt to do the following in 2008:

Inky Dinky Spider Stole
Paisley shawl
Irtfa'a shawl
argyle socks
twin sized quilt for E's bed
full sized quilt for D's bed
curtains to match both quilts
crazy quilt
a few dresses for E
try new handbag designs (by me)

I like making lists, but I usually don't do everything on the list. Things get changed or completely marked off. I reserve the right to change my mind and I probably will. :-D

Sock blow out

It's happened. I had my first sock blow out. It wasn't my sock, but little D. He woke me up this morning saying that he had a hole in his sock. I thought it would be a little hole, but it was huge. I darned it anyways and we'll see how comfortable that it for him. While I was working on that sock, I went ahead and reinforced the heel on the other. What yarn were those socks made out of? Fiesta Boomerang. As of now, I'm not going to knit socks for D out of the soft, squishy sock yarns. He constantly runs around all day and really puts the sock yarn to the test. This one failed. It lasted two months of being worn weekly. He has other socks made out of wool/nylon blends like Knit Picks Parade (discontinued) and Regia sport weight. Those show no signs of wear or thinning.

This has been a great week. Dwight has been home all week! We had a fun Christmas. There were plenty of presents, yummy food, and lots of time spent together. I think that Dwight is ready to go back to work. ;-) I've had a lot of time to photograph a few things that have been finished for a while now.

On the left is my Montego Bay scarf knit out of Fleece Artist's Sea Wool. I cast on 35 instead of the original 43 and knit until I ran out of yarn. This is one really long scarf, but I like it. It's thin enough that I can wrap it around my neck twice with out feeling suffocated. On the right is my Wollmeise sock yarn scarf knit in the sea foam stitch pattern. I also knit that one until I ran out of yarn. That scarf is wider, but shorter. I like both of them and it's about time that I've knit a scarf for myself.

Yes, I have knit another pair of socks for me. When I first started knitting socks, I thought that I wouldn't want the fussiness of doing the contrasting heels and toes. But after doing my pirate socks, I liked the look of it and wanted to try it again. These socks are made out of Duet sock yarn in the original weight. It's been so cold here that I haven't worn my fingering weight socks at all. So, these are a welcome pair into my sock drawer.

After I got past the heel on these socks, I realized that the yarn would go pretty far if I went beyond my usual sock height. I decided to try calf shaping again. My shaping method was pretty simple. I started increasing two stitches in the back when the leg was around 4 inches tall. After that, I increased another two stitches every inch or so. I tried the socks on a lot to make sure that they still fit correctly. I didn't know how much further my yarn would go, so I started the ribbing early and just did a wide band of it at the top of the sock. I think that helps the sock stay up. I haven't worn these around all day, so we'll see if it really works.

I have new knits waiting to be photographed. I finished D's sweater vest out of sKitches sock yarn. It's so cute! I need to get him to stand still and that might be a challenge. I've also finished a pair of mittens for E. Those are knit out of sock yarn and in a tight gauge. I hope they're warm.

For works in progress, I've started the Honeybee Stole for my mom. She's requested red and I have quite a bit of red leftover from my Chrysopolis stole. I'm about to start a pair of fingerless mitts for D. He really likes his old pair, but I want to make some with a little more covering on his fingers and out of a yarn with more wool content.

Mystic Waters

My Mystic Waters shawl is complete and it's huge! I made the full sized version because I just didn't want to leave any of the design out. It's so pretty. I love how all of the different elements just blend together. It was an easy knit, but I did have to look at the charts a lot to keep my place. This isn't a shawl where I could glance at the chart at the beginning of the row and just know what to do for the rest of the row. I don't knit many triangular shawls, but this one was so tempting and I'm glad that I decided to knit it in the end.

I used Wollmeise lace yarn that I bought from The Loopy Ewe. It's a bit thicker than what I think of as lace yarn. I would say that it's a heavy lace weight or a really fine fingering weight yarn. There is approximately 1740 yards in 300 gms. I used 260 gms for this shawl. The yarn has many plies and is very smooth. If I dropped a stitch, it had a tendency to want to ladder down a few rows immediately. I didn't find it t00 splitty. When my needles did try to split the yarn, it was a pain to try to get back to "normal." The yarn isn't the softest while knitting, but I did find the shawl very squishy feeling when it was finished. It blocked out nicely and seemed to keep most of the block after being laid out in the wet snow.

Details:
Yarn: Wollmeise lace (superwash) in Veilchen (used 260gms)
Needle: size 3 (3.75mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Blocked size: 108 inches across the top and 50 inches from the bottom tip to the neck
Start: December 5, 2007
Finish: December 14, 2007

What's next...I'm still working on the Seafoam scarf from Wollmeise sock yarn. That is my mindless knitting, so I'm not working it regularly. I started a sweater vest for D out of self striping sKnitches yarn in the Candy color. The kids were tickled that the yarn was called Candy. I have about half of the front done. I'm using the vest pattern out of Not Just Socks for Kids, but without the cables.

In other news, most of the Christmas cards have been mailed out. I'm saving one. I'll scan that for a later post. Christmas presents are all bought, but still need to be wrapped. Everyone is getting over the nasty cold that went around our house. Yay! I hope the cold germs stay away for a while.

Ugh, where's the disinfectant?

What a week it has been since my last posting. We had a great get-together/party at our house last Friday. All together, there were 6 kids between 2 and 6 years old. They managed to scatter all of the toys all over the house, but they had a lot of fun. D caught some kind of bug from one of the kids and has been sick since then, but is on the mend. Dwight caught the bug and has been sick since Monday. E has now caught the bug. I really, really hope that I'm not next.

It's been a crazy week weather wise too. We had all of that snow on D's birthday and for a few days afterwards. Then we had some warm days. Our wood stove is still going and the house was super toasty on those days. And yesterday, we got pounded with rain. There was a little flooding in town, but we're up on a hill out here.

In knitting news, I finished my Mystic Waters shawl!!! I just finished it last night. It's so pretty and waiting to be blocked. I was going to block it today. But with little ones getting sick on the floor, I don't want to risk having my shawl on the floor. Ick. I'll block it tonight when they go to bed.

I'm working on my Wollmeise sea foam scarf now. It's mindless knitting and that's probably a good project to have while taking care of the sick kiddies.

Secret of the Stole complete

It's finished! I love how it turned out. It's so different than Chrysopolis. It was a lot of fun knitting two stoles of different styles. This stole was an easy knit for me. I like the added touch of the beads and the asymmetry. To recap, here are the details:

Yarn: 94 gms of Hengyuanxiang Knitting Wool (lace weight)
Needle: size 3 Knit Picks Classic Circular
Beads: 6/0 transparent rootbeer
Hook: size 10 (used for beads)
Final size: 19 inches wide by 90 inches long
Start: October 5, 2007
Finish: December 3, 2007

Today is D's birthday. I can't believe that he's four already. He's growing up so fast. He was so excited when he woke up this morning and found the ground covered in snow. It's still snowing now 5 hours later. We went outside before lunch and had a lot of fun playing in the really wet snow. We made a snowman and D slid down the slide covered in snow. We plan on taking him out to dinner later at the restaurant of his choice. His birthday party and cake is this Friday. He can't wait until his cake. We plan on getting a yummy dessert at dinner since he won't have the cake today.

In other knitting news, I just started the Mystic Waters shawl. I'm using Wollmeise lace that I bought during one of those crazy sneak ups at The Loopy Ewe. Man, you had to be there exactly when Sheri posted the yarn or it was gone in a flash. When I saw the Veilchen color, I knew that it would be perfect for this shawl. So far, so good. The yarn is so squishy. It does feel a bit thick for lace weight yarn, but I'm still using size 3 needles. The final size of this shawl is already huge and I don't want to use larger needles.

This was my travel knitting during Thanksgiving. Now, it's portable knitting for when we go to town. This is just a basic Sea Foam stitch pattern. I'm using Wollmeise sock yarn in Granatapfel. This yarn was just too pretty for socks. I love the deep reds and the variegation in this yarn. Right now, this scarf if about half finished, but it's not high on my priority list of knits to do.

Back to Mystic Waters....