My Family Calender

Each year my family creates a calendar. It's been a tradition for about 12 years and I really enjoy the results. I come from a family of 12 children and it's a perfect arrangement to create a calendar. We added Mom & Dad so we have 13 families participating (12 months + 1 cover).

I just shared a few images from the months I have done over the years.

Knitting Out Loud

I really enjoy having a lot of knitting books. It's one of my passions to collect good books about knitting. I recently discovered a new company that is producing knitting books on compact disc. Knitting Out Loud has limited number of knitting books available in an audio format. I rather enjoyed the History of Hand Knitting and The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. My local library did not own the audio version of these books (yet) and being impatient, I purchased them through Knit Picks.

I am glad to have listened to these books and have a renewed interest in looking closely at the books so I can see the illustrations and patterns.



I do enjoy your comments.

Special Gloves Redux version 2

Yep, these are the gloves that need to be P E R F E C T. At least they need to be in my mind. These were a Christmas gift for 2008. I didn't get the fingers correct on the left glove and I had an in person fitting and got the fingers right. But the ribbing at the bottom of both gloves is not tight enough. So, I set off to fix them. Little did I know there would be a knitting lesson in my adventure.



D, I'm working on them and they will be finished this week. I thank you for your patience and look forward to the picture of you showing them off. You'll smile, won't you? I've seen your smile, D. It's a good one and the world needs to see it. Or the 5 people who read my blog regularly.

Previous posts about these gloves can be found here and here. Yes, I do wear the same sweater that's in two of these videos. It's a zipper cardigan that is cabled and delightful. Yes, I have another cardigan in my knitting queue that I'll be working on this year. The yarn isn't as heavy and the finished sweater will be great!

Baby Snuggie

Ugh. knitSB couldn't help himself and bought on of these. It was on SALE! *face palm*

I knit another baby hat out of Rowan Calmer. I'm rather fond of the inside of the hat for it's reverse stockinette row when I changed colors. I'll be using this design feature the next time I knit another baby hat. Or a hat for me. I have enjoyed the simple design of this hat. It knits up quickly on a size 5 needle. K2P2 rib is not the fastest knitting for me in the round but the stretch of the pattern is quite pleasing.




The idea of knitting a plain round in the new color comes from an Elizabeth Zimmermann book when she's talking about knitting some socks with replaceable soles. The stretch of the K2P2 rib was not impacted at all.

Finished Object: Fidget 2009

Woo hoo! Another finished object in 2009. I knit the fidget for Jaime's Mom using Rowan Big Wool on a size 11 needle. This is the second Fidget that I've knit. The first fidget I knit was for me that I blogged about almost a year ago. It's interesting how time repeats echoes itself. My hat is off to the lady at One Sheep Hill for putting this quick knit pattern together.




please note: I was wrong. I knit my Fidget out of Manos given to me by Kay in New Mexico, not Malabrigo.

Christmas Stocking Repair: STAT

A friend of my niece asked my sister if she knew anyone who could repair some moth damaged Christmas stockings. My sister is an exceptional knitter. She thought that I might be able to help. My niece seems to think that I'm a "master knitter." Now that's funny. I'm by no means highly skilled at knitting and dislike knitting repair. This is the second knitting repair I've done in the last week. I hope this isn't a trend.

Here's a picture of the repaired Christmas stockings.

I used Patons Classic Wool Merino in a natural color.

Calmer Baby Hat

I was glad to be invited to a baby shower that happens this week. I do like to provide a hand knit item to welcome the baby to the world.


This knit was quick. Knit out of Rowan Calmer on a size 5 nylon 16" needle.
I simply cast-on 80 sts and knit in a K2P2 rib until I was almost out of yarn. I did an elastic bind off to create a straight top for the hat. When I changed colors, I knit a plan round to avoid the purl bumps showing up. I thought they would be very distracting. Each time I changed colors, I knit a plain row. This does NOT interfere with the stretch of the hat at all. I topped the hat with a blanket stitch in the green.


This is my sister holding her granddaughter, Quinn. The hat is cute, but not as cute as my great-niece Quinn.
Here's a picture of the hat in progress. I do think that Quinn likes to be photographed, don't you?

View from the back door

View from the back door
Originally uploaded by knittingbrow

This picture was taken on Saturday 1/10/09.
We visited my sister this weekend and drove through a winter warning to get there. Overnight about 4 inches of snow fell. More continued to fall but didn't get to the expected 9 inches. I enjoyed the knitting time and the conversation.

I started and completed a baby hat. I worked on #1's Medusa Hat and a pair of socks. I even did some repair on some Christmas Stockings. I'll share some photos/videos during this week.

Make it an incredible week!

I repaired a sweater!

It's a cotton sweater a co-worker asked if I knew what she could do to fix it. I like a knitting challenge and offered to take it home and see what I could do. I searched in my stash and found some cotton yarn in the right texture and close in color. Can you see where I did the repair?

I was pleased with the results. :)

So was she. In fact, she brought me some gifts as thanks. I thought that was really nice for about 15 minutes of work.

Separated at Birth?

During our trip to the Hoover Dam, knitSB commented that part of the Dam looked like a dalek.What do you think? Separated at Birth?



Dalek
Originally uploaded by murky

Knitting Time

It is easier for me to want to knit bigger projects during winter. Sweaters and blankets are items that took up much of my knitting thoughts the first 5 years of my winter knitting time. I still like to work on these items in the winter, my thoughts now are more towards completing my current works in progress.

I have been wondering about the criteria I will use to cull unwanted projects. This is my current plan. When I come across an unfinished object I will pause and look at the project and determine the progress. Are all the pieces together? Does the pattern reflect where I stopped?Is the yarn with the project? Is this an item that I still would love to have? Am I enjoying the knitting? I think these are good questions for me to ask.

How do you handle you UFOs?

Thank you for your comments about our cat, Hunter. She was a great cat. Now knitSB and I will seriously consider addind a dog to our home. This would require a significant change in how we spend our time. I'll update you as we explore options.

Chris from Briar Rose. I need your foot length for the pair of fun house socks. Send me that via email at knittingbrow (aT) gmail (d0t)com.

Knitting resolutions...care to sure yours?

Day Two of being sick

I've not been feeling well the last two days. I called in sick on Monday and left work early on tuesday. It started with stomach problems on Sunday and kicked in on Sunday night with the sniffles and the sick day high blood sugars. Today was the second full day of that adventure. I am not a good sick patient. In fact, leaving me alone to sleep is probably your best option. Just ask knitSB. I didn't go to my weekly KIP (knitting in public) tonight.

Our 17 year old cat Hunter died over night. She was a lovely cat and a great mouser. You probably knew that by her name, didn't you.

The shawl was well-received by my boss today. The colors are perfect for her. The special gloves were delivered and need a little snugging up in the cuff. I'm thinking some elastic should do the trick, don't you?

I was able to knit two repeats on #1's Medusa hat. That means I only have one more repeat before I start knitting the turning section. This is the fourth section that needs knitted. Once I join all the sections I have the extra long ends to bring to the front and knit into two-stitch I-cord. This will take some time. Two concerns that I have and am preparing for are: 1 the hat will be too big. My guage has been a challenge because I'm mixing 6 different yarns of different fibers, weights and companies. I'm pleased with how it is looking and am ready to knit an inner skull cap to help it fit better. 2. the little i-cords are to look like little snakes, as the name implies. I hope to be able to get them knitted so they look right without distracting from the overall design. I left extra tails to ensure I have enough yarn for them.

I will take pictures before I put it together. You need to see this :). I haven't been able to find a picture of thecompleted hat outside of the book. I don't believe that I could be the first person to knit the Medusa hat from Handpaint Country.

BTW: the EPS class that I was to teach at the LYS was canceled due to low registration.

Artfibers Shawl 2009

I give you the second FO for 2009.
Knit using Mojo and Houdini from Artfibers in San Francisco. I just found out that the San Francisco shop is closing in a couple of weeks. They will reopen in the East Bay Area. They are running a sale.

This is a simple triangle shawl. Cast-on 3 sts, k1, kf/b, k1. Turn work. k1, kf/b k to the end. Continue in this fashion until shawl is the size you want or you run out of yarn. My stretchy bind off was found here as the 6th entry.

Special Gloves finished (again)

From my previous post, you saw that I was knitting some gloves for D. They were delivered before Christmas to a great reception from her father.

Unfortunately one glove didn't fit. I was able to do a special fitting when the family came to see me so I could get a more accurate understanding of how poorly fitting they were. All five fingers needed additional knitted length which I completed tonight. I'm certain they will fit and keep two hands warm. I've asked for a good picture of D wearing the gloves. Apparently girls her age don't smile, at all. :)

My knitting for the next twelve months will be focused on completion. I have far too many projects that have been cast on and then tossed aside because the next new project took my interest away from the other. This sort of thing happens a lot in my life. You'll see more videos of my projects and completion posted on the blog.

I will not list the complete list of pending projects here because I'm afraid that there are so many I'll get overwhelmed.

Next up for finishing are two fidgets. They needblocked and buttonss. That won't take too long but it is a detail in completion that gets to me. I never really liked hemming the clothes I sewed. I don't mind sewing on the buttons once the right buttons are found. More about buttons later.