Really, I AM a Fast Knitter

You'd never think so, given how long it takes me to finish projects, but I can knit at a decent speed. It's the little things that slow me down. Like, starting other projects. Designing my own but not keeping notes....

According to this handy blog, I had almost the front done (scroll down, it's after the MP3 issue) in late May, 2007 (from yarn bought August 2006), but ran into an issue with the neckline. I'm not sure when I did the back, but probably before I had done the front (so it would help with planning the neck line). It sat in my basket, just needing the shoulders seamed and the sleeves picked up and knit down, for the longest time. I toyed with the idea of doing the sleeves on the KnitSmart, but if you drop a stitch, you CANNOT see it! Finally, back in March, I got back to it, praying it would still fit Lucy!

The yarn is Bernat LuLu---something I had always wanted to buy for my own LuLu. It's very soft---it looks like Sirdar Snowflake, but feels MUCH softer. You need to use larger needles for it but it knits up airy and loose/stretchy. In reading back in that other post about the front, I see that I had planned to add a hood! That would certainly let Lucy know which is the front and back easily, LOL. She also doesn't care when it's inside out.

I still have 3+ balls left (almost 4 balls, and there might be another 4 ball bag of it downstairs). I could make one for Megan, but really, I've had enough of LuLu. It's nice and all, but once is enough. If it would work better on the machine I'd whip up some blankets, but I'm not sure it'd be worth the hassle of dropped stitches. If anyone likes this yarn, let me know if you'd like some more :)

Updates

Surprised by my mitten find, Rob decided to go back to where he thought he lost a glove and take another look. Sure enough, it was there! However, I will admit to this: I cleaned out the boxes of mitts/hats/scarves, and put together all the matching mitts. There were a few odd ones, which I kept in a bag for a couple weeks (a month or two?). Finally, I knew I'd never find the other red fleece one (my kids had never even worn them; they were hand me downs), so I THREW it out. Uh huh. Guess what I noticed one day last week in the basement? Uh huh.

On another positive find note....Years ago Rob gave me gold hoop earrings, a twisted rope design. Subtle, classic elegance. I wore them all the time, with all sorts of outfits. After being at my parents just before New Year's, I had a shower, and my scrubby cloth got caught in one earring. After my shower I noticed I had only one earring!! We searched down the vent, all over, etc, but it was gone (we thought maybe it flung into the toilet). I was really upset. He gave me new earrings for Valentine's Day, and I REALLY appreciated that as he's not a jewellry-buying type of guy. But they weren't the same :(

This past Friday my parents came to help me re-decorate the bedroom to surprise Rob....and guess what my Dad found on their lawn? Yup, my precious earring!!

So, I can still say that I never really lose things :)



Anyway...more knitting....
This is a machine knit version of the Cameron Cap that I made earlier this winter. I used the same Sean's Sheep Armytage wool as the hat I loved before Christmas. I don't know why the above picture is so bizarre, but the next one is fine. I still have issues with the fact this pattern assumes your ears are located exactly at the 9 and 3:00 positions. Other earflap hats have the flaps moved just slightly to the back. I like the idea/concept of the hat but not the fit. I also changed a little to try to fix this, but wound up with some strange puckering of the bottom of the earflap, out over the knitted hem. When laid flat, it looked like this:


Mmmm....that looks a lot like the top of a FiberTrends felted clog. Although the moving in off sts every 4th row as you decrease up the top of the clog would be annoying, could you not knit the top and soles separately and then join? (The soles are garter stitch, with lots of increasing; not practical on the machine).

Another hat and fingerless gloves in Wooloomooloo (Sean's Sheep). You can't see the gold strand in the photo above, but you can below. The set was made with just two balls, only a few inches left I think. To do that, I made the gloves first because they are very similiar to the turquoise ones I made already so I knew fairly closely how much yarn to use up. They could be a smidge longer over the fingers, if I had had a third ball. I find it hard to fold back the 2x2 ribbing; there's not enough and it's cast off a little snug so it wouldn't flare. The hat I started at the top; it had a couple rough starts and ended up with 7 increases across the rounds instead of 8, LOL. It's a 1x1 rib. Here is one of the Thorpe earflap hats I made. I had to ask on Freecycle for some yarn to do the crochet edge and braids. I couldn't find the same yarn (Patons Portage; discontinued ages ago), so I rigged up some black Homespun (the lady thought), with fine strands of baby yarn in lilac and purple. It blended in quite fine. The Portage is one strand charcoal, one strand that changes from white to lilac to violet.
I forgot I had this wighead in the basement. Meg does NOT like it, LOL. But it sure is easier to photograph than setting the self-timer or asking Lucy to do it :)

Fashion Help

The problem with getting 'old' is that fashion starts repeating itself, and sometimes, you just don't want it too. I see alot of tank tops this winter, worn layered over blouses and t-shirts. I've already done this fashion years ago (okay, a little more than 2 decades ago, gulp). So whenever I try to layer a tank top over something, I feel that I'm either wearing a shirt under the tank because I forgot some personal hygiene that morning, or because my wardrobe is so sad that I'm trying to wear summer clothes in the winter. Anyone have any hints or tips or similiar issues?

But I would really love to wear my Lotus Blossom tank, and this W tank. I'm not overly in love with this though. Remember the great dye misfortune and how this was supposed to be shades of brown? I think I would have really preferred that. The green doesn't 'go' with anything I have. I don't think I can make pants to go with it, I don't wear skirts enough.... it just doens't quite look like I envisioned (I really wanted to be the skinny model in the pattern pictures). If I ever find a better yarn in the right gauge, I might try it again. Or, maybe I should not have a short 5 year old take the picture? Maybe it's the triple chins that are bothering me more than the actual tank top? LOL.

I actually had this all finished and wearable early last fall; that's how you know for sure I'm not in love with it; I hesitated on blogging about it for so long!

No Kittens in this House!

I often say that I never actually lose things. They might get misplaced....often for very long periods of time, but rarely is something gone for good. I was just beginning to think that my plum stripey mittens were gone for good though. I half expected to see someone around town wearing some cozy plum mitts, LOL.

Then, on April 1st---April Fool's Day---I parked in my usual parking spot about a block from the school. The snow was finally melting back from the curbs. As I was getting Megan out of the truck, I noticed something plum coloured in the snow. At first I thought it might be my other tipless glove (the ones that got lost at Wal-Mart), but I quickly realized it was my mitt. I looked around but couldn't find the other one. I got the kids, and had Huey look around. He is VERY good at spotting things (unless you say "Look at the giant white cruise ship on the small blue lake" LOL). He noticed that there was a mitt inside the mitt in the snow! They were very much stuck to the icey snow. We tried again on Tuesday to get them out. The snow had melted all around the mitts, but thanks to the wonders of wool, they were stuck to a patch of ice, LOL. On Thursday, Huey was the only one wearing winter boots, and he was able to kick the ice blob free from the dirt. I've left the mitts on the front porch, but the ice hasn't melted off of them yet (it's shady). I think a gentle wash and they will be good as new. We had some snow today, but hopefully that is it!!

To my non-family knitter friends.....click on the link to my other blog to see what Megan did!