WIP: Xmas Knitting so far

With the abrupt stop to my thrummed mitten production due to critical supply failure (I used all my roving up, had to get more, didn’t drive anywhere on Sunday due to bad road conditions) I started one of the other Christmas presents.  (I did get some more roving last night, along with two skeins of Madelaine Tosh worsted in Spicy Ginger that are beeaootiful)  My usual approach to a task list is to start to work on the largest item, or the one thing I really don’t want to do.  Get it over with, and move onto the fun items is my normal operating procedure!!  With the Christmas presents I started work on what should be the largest item, a poncho for my oldest niece.  I was also itching to start this one, and so far I’m having a blast making it.  The pattern is from Vogue Knitting on the Go, Ponchos.  I love a nice poncho, I have one at home I wear a lot, and would like to make more.  This pattern is straightforward, but with stripes and garter stitch to break up the monotony.  I also really like the colours I picked out:

It will eventually have a turtle neck at the top for a nice warm item for her to wear around their house in the winter, spring and fall as this is Calgary after all!  I got over the pain of casting on 2x 188 stitches, and now I reduce every second row, which means this will go faster and faster!  The pattern was written as two flat pieces that would be later seamed up, but we all know that is silly, so I’m knitting it in the round. 

I’m feeling pretty low stress about making gifts this year, I realize I won’t get them all done, but I hope to get done the critical ones, and the others that need to be mailed will just be sent out “later”.  In the meantime, I’m having a grand old time working on all this stuff, and I plan on knitting them one after another unless there is some other reason to work on multiple projects at once!  I still am finding the odd moment to work on Ene’s scarf (so close there) and my Bettie stockings (like plane rides and weather delays at certain airports).  Still no green buttons.

I Need Thrummed Mittens Now!!

It is very cold here in the frozen north, and it doesn’t look like its getting any warmer anytime soon.  Add to that the 2 feet of snow we had last Friday, which still hasn’t been cleared from any but the major roads.  Our bus has been 1/2 hr late the last two mornings, which means we stand out there waiting and waiting!  The morning temperatures are pretty cold, -25 oC, or -13 oF, but the wind is not there to make it colder which is nice.  We had a fairly quiet weekend, mostly due to the fact that is was challenging to get my car out of the garage, and down the street which is still full of snow.  I like my neighbourhood in that we could pack in all our plans, stay home, and just walk/trek up to the store for groceries instead.  Even this morning our bus almost got stuck in the snow, spinning wheels for awhile until it got traction again.  I did actually see a snowplow on Saturday, but it was stuck at the side of the road.

I get a kick out of the fact that in the United States the weather forecasters say “…. cold air is coming in from Canada for a cold snap…” while up in Canada they say “… cold air is coming in from the arctic for a cold snap…”.  As a result the Americans blame the Canadians for the cold weather, while we just blame the Arcticans? 

Needless to say, I really need to finish my thrummed mittens in order to keep my hands warm while waiting for the bus for so long.  I’ve finished the first mitten, and am about up to the thumb gusset on the second, but I’ve run out of roving.  I didn’t want to make them too thin, but rather nice and plump, full of insulation against the biting wind.  I’m off to find some more roving at  LYS so that I can finish these up ASAP!

Countdown to Christmas!

In only 25 days!  I can’t wait, mostly as the office is shutting down and I get a whole blissful week off of work.  Last year I had so many plans of what I was going to do, and then I ended up collapsing on the chesterfield for a week, just worn out from a fall full of work.  Instead of exercising two hours a day, we went for walks.  It didn’t help that it was frigidly cold, and exposed skin frozen in under five minutes.  I’ve already made a number of Christmas presents for my family in Ontario, but now I’m going to get going on the rest!  I fully realize that the nine items I have on my list may not get done, and I’m probably overreaching myself since I need to make three things a week for the next three weeks, but I’m looking forward to working on (almost) all these projects.

From left to right:

1) My collection of leftover Classic Wool to be transformed into felted slippers, and perhaps some felted bowls filled with goodies?

2) Red angora blend to make into a bonny tam.

3) Leftover Ultra-alpaca to make into some Turn a Square Toques

4) Thrummed mittens for my skating coach.  The more pregnant she gets, the less she can move around to keep warm, and the colder the rinks are getting!

5) Superwash fingerling to make an Estonian vest for my second cousin.  This one will be fun as I will be attempting to take a mitten pattern and transform it into a vest for a toddler.  I don’t know if this will work, but if it does it will be so cute. 

6) A striped poncho for niece the elder.  She has pretty bluey eyes!

7) A lacey shrug for niece the younger, who declared purple her favorite colour.

8 ) Bella mittens for SIL.  Time allowing I hope to make liner mittens for these with fleece material, as even though this yarn feel soft, it may be too scratchy for her. 

Wish me luck, and let the knitting begin!  I started some thrummed mittens last night, and I LOVE THEM SO MUCH ALREADY!  I figure I’ll make my pair, screw up on those, then make the other pair for my skating coach.  I’m going to need them as things are about to get colder around here…

A Weekend for Finishing Up

As the end of November is upon us, I need to finish up.  My garter stitch yoke cardigan is almost there, first sleeve is at the cuff now, next sleeve should be in process tomorrow.  Easy peasy I think, especially since all I need to do after that is sew in ends, block and find some green buttons.  I think the button finding in the button-free land of Calgary will be the hardest part!

Of the other three items on my needles, I think two more may be finished this weekend.  I also plan to sew in the zipper on the snowflake cardigan.  Who knows, next week may be a parade of FO’s!  I’m getting everything wrapped up because December will be all about Christmas presents.  I’ve got nine projects of various sizes slated to get done, and I’m heading out on Saturday to find some materials for my masterpieces!  The hard part will be not buying yarn for projects for myself, I have some projects that I’m dying to buy yarn for!  Must resist!  Or resist, and let one project through as a reward for when I’m done all the Christmas presents!!

This weekend is a big one here in Calgary, and not only because it started to snow at noon and currently the world is blanketed in white outside.  The  Grey Cup weekend is upon is, and the party is in full swing outside.  For those of you who don’t know (that would be non-Canadians, because pretty much no one outside of Canada knows about the Canadian Football league, except for those savvy enough to know that The Rock (wrestler) used to play football up here) the Grey Cup is THE BIG GAME.  Its the equivalent to whatever ends the NFL season, the Superbowl I guess.  This year Saskatchewan Roughriders are playing the Montreal Allouettes.  The Calgary Stampeders got beat last weekend by the aforementioned Roughriders.  I’ve always liked the name “Roughriders” as it sounds a bit dirty to me, almost like what you would call a roomful of ladies of the night.  It makes me giggle.  Now their colour is a nice bright green, which makes you think of what?  Watermelons you say?  Well, as a matter of fact a diehard Roughrider fan does in fact hollow out a watermelon, and wear it on their heads.  You can find a tutorial about how to do this here!   (Just so you know I’m not making this up, and I thought wearing cheese on your head was strange).  Add that to another news story today about a critical shortage of watermelons in Calgary, and the fact that grocery stores are rushing over 3000 watermelons into the city this weekend. 

At lunch today I ventured out to party central, 8th avenue and Olympic Plaza, just go get a photo of someone wearing a watermelon on their head for my dear viewers.  Also so that they would believe me.  But alas, I could not find one.  Instead I took a photograph of two dudes wearing full length buffalo coats in the snow(they looked very warm)

And this photo of a peaceful protest against violence :

I saw numerous knitted objects, funky toques, tams, Mary Maxim sweaters, Cowichan sweaters, because once the temperature drops, and the snow falls, the wool comes out of the closet for Canadians.  I just need to get my nerve up to ask more people if I can take photos of them!

I hope you have a lovely weekend everyone, and please if you are going to put a watermelon on your head,  please use all the watermelon, don’t waste!

NaKniSweMo Thursday Update!

With twelve days left in the month (until DECEMBER if you can believe it) here is a check-in on my garter yoke cardigan.

Here I am laughing due to the fact that I didn’t notice the fancy reflection in the medicine cabinet until after I took the first photo!  I then proceeded to “work it”.  I finished the waist decreases, knit about 3 inches straight, and am two repeats into the hip increases.  I estimate I’m about 2-3 inches away from the garter stitch on the bottom now (about 4-5 inches away in this photo).  Mr. J (when I showed him my awesome progress) couldn’t get over the fact that there were no sleeves yet.  He stared transfixed at the hole where sleeves should go, and asked if it was supposed to look like that.  Of course the proper response I was looking for was “Wow, that looks awesome” instead of “you forgot to put sleeves on that”.  I had to explain that you put the sleeves on after you make the body, and that there will be full length sleeves, not short sleeves, this is Calgary after all.  As he is relatively new to WIP appreciation, we’ll forgive him this one, as long as he gets it right next time.

Weekend Farmers Market with Wet Snowflakes

With the closer farmers market closing down for the season, we’ve been trekking over to the main Calgary farmers market to do our shopping.  And eat some breakfast.  And get some coffee (we can’t decide if latin passion latte or chocolate fantasy latte is better, we keep trying them in order to make up our minds.  But as I keep telling Mr. J, we all need some latin passion every once in awhile).  But while we buy organic chicken, local farm bison, fresh apples (the current favorite is honey crisp), and vegetables, this will always be my favorite place in the whole entire market:

Oh the joys of the Belgian pastry stall.  How does one decide?  This weekend we chose the lemon custard raspberry danish.  Drool. 

I spent a lot of time this weekend sewing rather than knitting, but now the snowflake sweater is ready for its zipper.

I was worried it would be too small, but sigh of relief even though it is snug, it fits me!  A nice close fit, plus all those cables mean that this is a warm sweater, which was the intention.  That’s a bit of a crappy photo, its still wet from its last bath to get the collar and zipper bands to lie flat.  I would like a nice big beefy zipper with big metal teeth instead of one with thin plastic teeth, but we’ll see what I can find.

NaKniSweMo* Prog.

*National Knit a Sweater Month.  (I had to look that up, and write it down in my notebook to remember it)

Progress Report!  This week’s progress report is brought to you by the couple of sick days I’ve taken, and the fact that we had yesterday off work for Remembrance Day:

Vroom!  I’m down to the waist decreases already.  The sweater really starts to zoom off once you separate out the sleeves.  I tried it on last evening, and I was so pleased that it fit perfectly.  The garter stitch on the shoulders stretches out nicely I think to accomodate slightly wider than average shoulder build.  I really like the green stripes, it worked out better than I had hoped. 

I feel like I’m doing so well on this, plus my other sweater is in the final “knit the zipper bands, two rows each side of the front” and almost there as well.  It is making me want to start a whole bunch of new projects, none of which I have the yarn for right now.  Its going to be challenging to work through my planned projects, and not run out to buy something new to make.  As a result I’m staying far, far, away from yarn stores until I’m ready to buy what I need to make planned presents at the end of the month.  Its only two weeks away, I’m sure I can make it until then!

Knit a Sweater in November

Or “KnSWInNO” or whatever, I was never very good with things like that.  Numbers, I can remember numbers instantly and forever, but not so good with names.  As I’m very keen to use up my sweater yarn, and get the sweaters to wear before, say March, like normal, I’ve got some high goals for the coming month.  I’d like to finish the Snowflake sweater of course, but I’d also like to knit an entire sweater!  We’ll see how I do!  I’ve swatched, cast on, frogged back, and started again a Garter Yoke Cardigan from Fall ‘08 Knit 1.  I’m currently on row 20, or halfway through the garter stitch yoke!  (I know highly  exciting). This is a pattern that in my opinion looks good on almost all the people who have made it.  Some other great variations I’ve admired are using handspun at the yoke in any bright colour, then something nice and neutral for the body. 

This is using the Selkirk I bought at Ramswool in Winnipeg in September.  So far I’m very impressed with this stuff, it feels almost exactly like when you stick your fingers into a sheeps fleece on a live sheep, it has that sproingy, crimped hair feel to it.  I guess if you’ve ever done that you will kinda know what I mean.  My swatch using the recommended needles came out perfectly on gauge, and I’m roaring away.  I really love the look of striped garter stitch, therefore the plan is to have the green/black stripes on the yoke, then at the hem and the bottom of the sleeves.  This is knit top down in an almost seamless construction, even the button band is knit as you go.  I was worried about how the two sets of short rows at the back of the neck would look in the striping, but so far its not bad.  I don’t think anyone would notice it unless they are looking for it, and its not like I’m always staring at the back of my neck.  This should turn out to be a lovely warm, hopefully go with most of my weekend outfits (jeans, cords, pj’s).  Cardigans are key for me to wear around the house as Piper does insist on “softening” my gut by kneading on it every time she sits down.  I can move the hand knit out of the way for her, then move it back once she is “done” and its okay to settle down for a nap.  I’ve got high plans to start a Tempest if I get this done before the end of the month, but well, we’ll see how it goes.  I’m still in the initial “wow, this is going so fast, and I’m doing so well”, and haven’t hit the doldrums yet.

WIP Wednesday: Slogging Along

SnowFlake Sweater:

 This is getting very, very close!  I finished the sleeves and have 3 more cable repeats on the right front before I get to the highly exciting snowflake portion.  I should probably get this finished up this week as the snowflake seems to zip along, then I need to start the sewing in and blocking portion of sweater making.  Then seaming, collar and front band knitting….

Ene’s Shawl:

 It may not look like its any bigger than the last photo, but I’m now under 265 stitches!  I’m on my second repeat of Chart #3, and I’ll probably have that done this week, onto another repeat!  Mr. J is getting good at saying “Wow, you’ve made so much progress” when really its only grown by 1-2 mm.  Then I hold it against his face and make him acknowledge how soft the alpaca lace is!  I’m hoping this is done before our first serious temperature drop!  Any day now….

Bettie Stockings:

The first sock is almost cast off!  I need to get this finished, and the second toe cast on before Saturday.  The provisional toe cast on is new to me, and I need to do it again with peace and quiet, not in public. 

Out the window:

The sun trying to break through the Chinook arch.

Charting out the Process

This week I have made a graphical representation of my works in progress, which also depicts how quickly or slowly I feel the particular project is going.  I spent a good amount of time this weekend on Ene’s shawl, which is worked from the bottom to the top, or from 375 stitches down to around 20 stitches. 

On the x axis I have “Progress from 0-100%” and on the y axis I have “Time Required” which is rather relative scale.  At the bottom would be 0, and at the top would be a perceived or real time required.  At the beginning of this shawl, it seems to take forever to make a tiny bit of progress.  Cast on 375 stitches, knit one pattern row.  Purl back.  Elapsed time, 3 hours!  Or so it seems.  It took a long time to get through the edging chart (Chart 1).  However once I got onto Chart 2, progress seemed to speed up, and the time required was less.  Now I’m on Chart 3, and the decreases have really started!!  Woohoo for decrease rows!  That means that knit 1 pattern row, purl back, takes less and less time as I keep going.  Its all downhill, nothing can stop me now.  I’ve marked my where location with a red star, definitely going downhill! 

My sweater, or any other large project, time line seems to always go like this:

On the x axis I have “Time Spent” from beginning to when the project is completely done.  On the y axis I have “Progress”.  When I first cast on, and am really excited about the new project I spent a lot of my time on it, and get tons done.  Then the shiny newness wears off a bit, and I may cast on for another small project just for “interest”.  I spend less time on the sweater, and don’t make as much progress.  But slowly the light at the end of the tunnel comes, and I get excited to finish it.  I’m all about goals, and finishing something means marking it off my list with a shiny red pen, and having a new sweater to wear.  Or is it the other way around?  Probably not, I do love my shiny red pen.  I start to spend more time on the sweater, and hurry to get it done.  Again, I’ve marked my current estimated position on the chart with a red star (red!!).  The end is in sight!  Almost at the decreases of the 2nd sleeve, and the front to finish.  (Then a collar, putting it together, sewing in a zipper etc. etc.)

And in case you were wondering, I am a big geek nerd engineer, and I love to graph things AND make spreadsheets!  Woohoo, life can be so much fun!