Gloves! Soft, fuzzy gloves!

It's not that easy to take a picture of your own hand. I did not figure out how to take a pic of both of them. Just not that ambitious. Not even ambitious enough to have subjects in all of my sentences. Or is "sentences" more proper?

These really could be called camp gloves because the pattern is by Sue and the yarn is from the 2011 knitting camp yarn swap courtesy of JPKnits (blog link on sidebar). Furthermore, the pattern is from KnitCircus, the print version, on which 2 of our campers worked. The gloves fit beautifully and I'm ready for winter.

Pattern: Offhand Gloves by Susan Iding Size small.

Yarn: Louisa Harding Kimono Angora, between sport and fingering, 70% angora, 30% merino, color #2, held double, 2.5 balls.

A few words about the yarn. It's soft. Its smooth. It's yummy. It's angora. Angora. Ahhh. Angora breathes pleasure right into my soul. I've got 2.5 balls left.

More hats.

The first I made awhile back. It doesn't fit right. It looks awesome, but the top is too tight. I'd like a do-over. I'm going to frog it. I want to replicate the look, but improve the fit. Maybe I'll use a pattern.

On the second I did use a pattern. Short Rows Sideways Hat by Kristi Porter. I whipped this baby out super fast. It was one of the quickest knits I've ever done. If using this yarn the next time I'd might subtract a few stitches to make it more beanie length or add some to make it more of a folding over length. But the way it is will be fine. It will fit a big papa bear just right if he or she has a bigger head than mine or it will fit a baby bear with the brim folded up.

A few words about this yarn. It is the same that I used in an earlier hat, but I identified it incorrectly. This is actually Zwerger Garn Opal Luftpolsterwolle.

Another Another Post

Remember the monster from the last post? I'll give you a sec to go take a look.

Sue thought it could have gone either way, so we put the action to the word. Right there at Panera in Mequon, I turned that rear into another front. I ripped it a new one. This is Gork. The other side is Brenda.

Or vice versa. If you think that was easy for the inimitable Sue, you are wrong. How she suffers for my art.

Henry almost remained armless as a design feature, but after much deliberation, the idea of arms was embraced. I learned a new skill--dreadlocks. This hair is the end (except for the purple), of the yarn that Sue and I dyed and she spun, back in the heady, but not army, days of 2006 or so.

If Mick Jagger could knit:

This sock is opk--other people's knitting. In this case it is also opd--other people's dyeing. 'Tis the work of the inimitable Sue. As bright as the colors look, they are even brighter and purer in real life, a master work of the dyepot.

An overdue credit: The monsters are take-offs of some designed by Rebecca Danger. This is her book, The Big Book of Knitted Monsters. Beth has gotten permission from Ms. Danger for us to use her designs for the shelter. We are still waiting to see if the program is a success.

So long, Brenda-Gork. Go make magic.

Another Post

Summer Fun with Teddy W.

Below is (my version of) the Oslo Walk shawl by Susanna IC from the Winter 2010 issue of Interweave Knits. It is Fearless Fibers yarn from Etsy from a little ways back. The color is raspberry, but in real life it's raspberrier. Nonetheless, this picture by the incomparable Terri Minkin shows the texture and beads off beautifully. Not only that, the angle is perfection, making me look thin and postureific. (From now on, I wish to have all my portraits made by the incomparable Terri Minkin standing on a couch.)

The first 25 rows of lace are ok. There are more than several mistakes, but the pattern has been achieved. The last 9 rows of the lace are very bollixed up. There was a jog in the lace chart that I was unable to understand or even knit rotely. Blogger is trying to tell me that "rotely" is not a word. Silly Blogger. After frogging a number of times, I had to be content with knitting that would hold together. Stitch counts, especially within pattern repeats, were out the window. Since blocking, I have found only 1 dropped stitch and only 1 instance of extreme holeyness that had to be repaired. I did my own thing on the plain section. This is a gift for the last person besides the 2 dudes that I hadn't knit for at what I guess I can now call "my old job". She is a professional soprano on the side. I am picturing her with her nordic good looks singing with the shawl artfully draped upon her good self.

Next up: Ballet School Dropout Footies by Lady Lungdoc, owner and operator of the Purl This blog. (See sidebar.)

I changed the angle of the taper to make them v-necks, rather than scoop-necks. I went down on the number of stitches cast on by 4 and changed everything to accomodate that. I was hoping to make them most invisible. It really was unnecessary and they'd fit better if I hadn't done that. I am planning for a little shrinkage in length, so that ought to help. Invisibility would have been better approached with a color of yarn more akin to the color of me. Ms. Lungdoc used normal sock yarn, but I've used Esprit, which is a knock-off of Cascade Fixation. Come to think of it, I think the toe tips actually are made of Cascade Fixation. This is not a design feature. This is an in-my-shoe so it doesn't matter if I run out of yarn feature. The other one matches.

The monster is now a faceful, nameless blob.

Awaiting deployment

The following hat will eventually go to the VA for a holiday party later this year. Some of the ladies in my Monday night knitting group are collecting warm things for the vets. The photo insists on being sideways. Will you kind of tilt your head, please? The hat is made with a yarn from Zitron that I can't seem to find on Ravelry. It's self-striping, 100% wool and 4 ply, but with an unspun, felted texture. It is almost square in cross-section. The incomparable Terri Minkin gave this to me for my knitting club. However, the students were unable knit with it because they kept breaking it. I've got enough for another hat at least.

This hat is knit top-down and I actually used a pattern: Dylan's Beanie by Wooly Wormhead. I was worried that the hat wouldn't pull in at the bottom because that's happened more than once in my career. So for the last 5 rows I twisted all the knit stitches. It pulls in just fine and probably would have anyway, but I do like the way it looks.

Wait, wait! I just remembered--my new hatstand!

It was fun going into Sally Beauty Supply and saying, "Yes, I'm looking for a head, please."

Monster

Here's a monster guy whom I am knitting for a friend's son who has been knitting for a shelter so that every child who comes in will have at least one toy or buddy or whatever. He's created a poem that goes with each one explaining that the monster is feeling lonely. He gives each one a name which goes in the poem. He's got a few of us doing this.

I had made 2 earlier ones, but this one seems the softest and most cuddly. I think it looks bigger in the picture. It's about 8.5 inches or 21.5 centimeters tall, not including legs and ears. It's an old stash yarn called Rainbow from Cascade. It's a cotton boucle with a nylon (I suppose nylon) binder thread. It's as soft as all get out. Not to worry, it will be getting a face, but I'm not done thinking about it yet.

This is for Laura, she who encouraged the blogging and then enabled it by providing the I-Phone. Thanks, hon.

The Rest of the Story of Rosa's Blanket.

First let me apologize for the unpictured and uncredited squares. Sixty different people contributed: Theresa, Terri, Lynne, Margie, Jennifer, Beth, Cherie, Diane, Lauren, Rosa, Bev, Nola, and I. We used Lion Brand Fisherman's yarn. There are 25 twelve inch (30 cm.) blocks arranged in a five by five square. Theresa and I carefully whip-stitched all the seams. But that isn't the real story.

~

The real story is a tale told mostly in pictures.

This is the square that never was. It is not in the quilt. I don't think I've ever worked as hard on a piece of knitting as on that. That's why I'm making you look at it. It is what became of the little pyramid from several posts back. It stubbornly remains lettuce despite the concerted efforts of the best minds in modern medicine knitting. I think a frog ate it. I don't want to see it ever again. It'll suck me into trying to perfect it again. Let's leave that to cooler heads.

Knitter unknown. Sorry.Knitter unknown. Knitter unknown. I knitted this one to replace the square which shall not be named.

Center gets the square. This kooky kewl square was used as the very center of the blanket. Knitted by Lauren.

Knitter unknown. Memory like a sieve, anybody?

Assembly.

Teddy was into it.

The last two sections are combined.

The first peek at it as a single piece.

Both kitties wanted to pose with it, but neither wanted to be seen posing. Here is Musette,

and you all know Teddy.

Finito.