31 October 2006

Stockings

At some point early in my knitting career, I came upon this site. It's been in the back of my mind for a while, and I found it again today. I thought there was more information on the clocks, but I seem to have been wrong. I think I'm going to have to try this some day, especially after buying the Vogue Knitting with all the sock patterns a month or so ago. Did you see those embroidered stockings? I am a sucker for decorative embroidery.

And here is some more information on period stockings. What about a clock from a stitch dictionary? I think my Vogue Knitting Book has a couple of very decorative cable and bobble patterns that might be amazing on a stocking. Crazy, no?

'Nother repeat

I am back to where I was when disaster struck Clapotis! Completed a repeat and dropped the stitch without too much incident, thank goodness. It's weird to go back to this laceweight after knitting up the sweater, scarf, and hat with Eljido. Clapotis is almost 40" long at this point, and I've done seven repeats of the straight section. My plan is for the piece to be about 60" long, so, mathematically, that means I have to do three or four more repeats. It will be interesting to see if it works out that way.

I can see why people do this pattern more than once. It's interesting yet not terribly difficult. And it's quite variable, depending on your yarn choice. And everybody's doing it!

30 October 2006

DD FOs

The wrap sweater is complete - just needs washing and blocking. Since I only used a smidge of the third skein, I decided to make some accessories for DD: 2x2 rib scarf and a 1x1 rib brim hat using the Maggie's Hats pattern from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. The hat pushed me to the fourth skein (out of four - I wasn't sure how much I'd need for the sweater since I didn't have a pattern when I ordered). The Shells colorway will look nice with the little lady's dark brown faux shearling coat.

So, should I make some mittens for her or some lace-up wrist warmers for me? For the mittens I'd alter the mitten pattern in Weekend Knits (the one with the long stockinette wrist as opposed to some sort of ribbing to keep them in place), as I did last year with some Shocking Malabrigo. The lace-ups would be from Alterknits, though I have that Atacama I bought for Fetching. How many pair of wrist warmers does a girl need?

27 October 2006

Oh, cute!

'Nother cute pattern. I found this capelet clicking my way through a few blogs. I might need one of these. Oh, future projects!

Super cute gift idea

Found this on Craft's blog. Perhaps I could combine this with the certificate for a knitted item of your choice.

Holiday countdown

Christmas is less than two months away! And I've only made two holiday gifts so far. And neither one is for DH or DD. Sigh. There have been a couple of requests for hats - something more windproof than the Blizzard toppers from a few years back, when I first learned to knit. Of course that means the hats will have to be at a finer gauge (or felted), which will take longer. But that's part of the fun.

Guess I should make up a list (thanks, FlyLady for the help!) of who should get knitted gifts.

One member of the knitlist said she's going to give out gift certificates for knitted items (hat, scarf, mittens, socks) so the recipient can choose from a few different items something he or she would truly like. I think she was even going to include some yarn/color choices. I might run with that idea.

Or everyone could just get hats. Sort of like getting a new Weasley sweater every year.

I did start a 2x2 ribbed scarf for DD with some of the leftover Shells yarn last night. Over the weekend when we geared up to go to the beach, she made this cute hand motion indicating she wanted to put on a scarf. I often wear a light shawl (pashmina-style) as a scarf, but I'm not sure I'd even done that when she motioned for her own scarf. So, of course, I have to make her a scarf. What a mindless project! A nice respite from Clapotis, which I didn't touch last night (DDog had a tick, so DH and I had to put in some teamwork to remove and then try to remove the mouthparts, but our vet friend says not to worry about them, which is good because our attempted surgery was unsuccessful). I'm a little nervous about the stitch count OTN. We'll see. It's such a beautiful thing so far.

26 October 2006

Clapotis: Back OTN

So, one of the helpful ladies in my Knit Night group suggested just pulling back up the dropped twisted stitch. And I really tried. But then the patience ran out. So, today at Knitting Lunch I wove a piece of floss through the stitches back one repeat of the pattern (successfully for the most part, though I had a string of stitches that ended up on the floss one row below), sort of like creating a lifeline in lacework, only after the fact. And then I ripped. Scary. But now she's back OTN, and I just have to figure out where I really am and replace my stitch markers. Keep your fingers crossed.

I don't think I'll have this problem again (since I won't try to work on this project in a high-stress environment again), but the lifeline notion is fab.

I did pick up my Haiku cardigan for a little while last night, after I seamed up DD's sweater, and that yarn is just so luscious.