Hood on the Road

Claire here, welcoming you to the month of December!

I hope your holiday knitting is going well, if you've taken the plunge this year. I hope you've chosen your recipients wisely as well! Gifting a knitted item is never as simple as handing the package over with a "Hope you like it!" You have to make sure your giftee knows the care requirements for the item and will fully appreciate the hours of work that went into it. Not just the knitting of the thing, but all the time spent picking the right pattern and yarn and (how agonizing!) picking a color. And after a bit of time has passed, you check in with the recipient, see how they like it, is the fit okay, have they worn it out. It's that last bit that is important - if they haven't worn the item, without prodding, in at least a month from the time of gifting, you may want to reconsider giving them another knitted gift the next time a holiday comes around. At least that's how I feel about it! You have to make sure that the giftee will really, truly, fully appreciate the time you put into this, the care and love put into each row. Especially compared to the ease of online shopping, where you can purchase something, have it gift wrapped and sent directly within the space of a few minutes, putting hours - or weeks - into a project represents a big investment. So, really, the best people to give knitted gifts to are knitters!

That's who I'm doing the bulk of my knitterly gifting for this year. Apart from a giant amigurumi Mr. Krabs (his body took a full bag of stuffing!) for my boyfriend, I am knitting for my fellow knitters - my mom, my sister, and maybe some co-authors of a certain blog. I know they will cherish the items they receive, keep them clean and safe from moths, and wear them without pestering from me.

As such, gift knitting has taken up most of my time in the last couple weeks, so I don't have a lot of pictures to show you! I did get to take the Peaks Island Hood with my on my Thanksgiving trip to visit my sister Emily in North Carolina, but was plagued with camera-forgetfullness. After a loooong bus trip down, we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with her friends in the next town over, necessitating a trip through some very windy mountain roads! We got to spend some time grooming her horse, playing with the dogs and chasing down her cats to cuddle with. Of course I had to make a stop at Earth Guild, a very cool yarn/crafting store. They have so much to look at, you could easily spend hours wandering about. In the evenings we sat in the kitchen by the wood stove, knitting and eating some more tasty pumpkin pie. I thought I would be bored by the 28" of seed stitch, but it made for good mindless knitting, and the Miski yarn is so soft and smooshy that it seemed to fly by.



This picture is a couple days old - I have completed the hood increases and am now working on the 9" between that and the hood decreases. Sadly it has to compete with something else from the trip - scores of books picked up at the Goodwill outlet! I was very excited to find three of Gladys Taber's books in the .59 cent per pound bin. I have fond memories of reading and re-reading her book Especially Dogs from the elementary school library, even though we have never owned a dog. I'm keeping the book confined to my bag to read on the train, so hopefully I can have all my gifts done on time, and a hood to wear now that it's getting properly cold out!

Snap to it!

Claire here, checking in with a progress update! I've finished my Snapdragon Mitts, so now the weather is free to get properly cold. NYC cannot make up its mind to be rainy and chilly, or to be sunny and warm - it makes deciding what to wear very frustrating. Luckily with the flip top on the mitts, I have built in AC for my hands!



The one thing that does bug me about this - okay, there are two things. The first is that with the tops buttoned up, you can't see the pretty design on the back of the hand! I know Kendra had made noises about putting the chart on the bottom of the mitt as well, since she will likely wear hers flipped most of the time. If that's still the plan, I look forward to her notes! The other thing that is slightly annoying is the positioning of the mitt top. It comes quite far over above the thumb and doesn't extend far enough over on the outside edge. I don't think it will impact the wearability of the mitts, but if I make these again, I think I will move the top over about 2 stitches.

Sadly that is the only picture I have for this post! I had attempted to start the Metro cardigan with some yarn from my stash, but my gauge was doing crazy things. Then I realized it's nearly Thanksgiving here, which means it's almost December and I should really get to work on some Christmas presents! Since my mom and sister read the blog (Hi RuthAnn and Emily!!) I can't very well post about their projects, except to say that I have started them. I am also working on a Mr. Krabs amigurumi for my boyfriend Jean, who is a big SpongeBob fan. It's going well, but there is so much single crochet!!!

Luckily for you, we're almost ready to start the next WLK2 project! We're switching things up a bit and jumping to the Peaks Island Hood, so we can all have them to wear in the dreary days of January. I've got a loooovely yarn planned for that - if only I can remember to take some pictures! If all goes according to plan, we will start this Friday and hopefully get several more posts in before the end of the year.

Snow Dragon

Claire here with a brief weekend update. It may be almost November, but NYC has skipped right on ahead to December. It started snowing early this morning, and hasn't stopped yet! This is the street outside my apartment in Brooklyn:



Cars driving by in the slush is definitely a winter sound to me, so what better time to get some serious work done on my Snapdragon mitts? I have the body of the right mitt done, save for the thumb and weaving the ends in.



I'm going to do the body of the left mitt next, then come back and do the thumb and flip tops later. Doing it this way keeps my interest in the project, instead of thinking "Yay, I'm done!" and then realizing I have to do it all over again! Strangely, I still make socks one at a time. Maybe I'll challenge myself to try the 2-at-a-time method for my next pair. How many pairs of socks do you have to knit to become a "sock knitter"? I never thought I would be one, but I have a pair in progress, and yarn for two more!


ETA: I put my mind to it and have the body of the left mitt done as well, with enough time left over to whip up a pair of Tiny Ghost earrings for Halloween!

Skipping Ahead

I know I know: You forgot I even existed. This is just a quick post to say I'm alive and well. Oh, and I finished Sonic (the Hedgehog, duh) and Veyla (minus the finishing touches) and even moved on to the Snapdragon Tam. I have to say, my internet-less days and long bus rides have been well spent. Who would've ever thought I'd be leading the pack? (For my dad and sister: A race! A race! Did I vin?)

I'll hopefully have plenty of time to go into a little more detail next week, but for right now let me just say that Veyla might be my favorite pattern ever! I can't remember a time I've actually enjoyed every part of a pattern so much (reminder: I haven't woven in ends or added buttons, so that part doesn't count). The fact that I knit it out of gorgeous Madelinetosh Eyre Light in Gossamer doesn't hurt either. I got the Eyre Light from Tangobka's stash on Rav (and used her picture below).


Signing off for now, but hopefully to return much sooner next time,
Lindsey

Absentee Knitter Knits Damson

Phew, we've been blogging for a month and I finally have a minute to join in and write a post. For those who don't know, I've been a little busy for the past month with moving ("Where to?", you might ask. Funny thing: both California and East Hampton. Yeah, it was a fun move) and starting my nannying gig. The kids are off to camp, and I have a minute to tell you about my progress on Damson, which I am not surprisingly way behind on.

While everyone else is finishing project numero dos, I'm just finishing up the would-be-garter section of Damson (that I'm doing in stockinette in hopes that my single skein of Tosh Merino Light will be enough). Based on Jess's results, I should be fine with the 420 yards of TML. The benefit of finishing last is that I don't have to be the guinea pig. Hopefully that makes up for the well-deserved tormenting I'm sure to suffer from my fellow bloggers.


So my notes on the pattern and project itself: The pattern is nice and easy. Like everyone else, my stitch count got a little off at one point. I was missing one stitch on one of the ends, so I just did an extra increase once I realized the mistake. It's not even noticeable (woohoo). My other note about my project is that I absolutely LOVE the Flashdance colorway. It seriously gorgeous and possibly the reason I'm totally fine taking my time.Who wouldn't want to drag out the time spent knitting in this stunning colorway?


So, the consolation prize for indulging me with this not-so-helpful post: a few pictures of what you're missing in East Hampton. I'll share more later, but for today here are the hydrangeas that have been keeping me sane while I haven't been able to knit. I sure hope the slideshow works! Update: Click on "Fullscreen" to view the slideshow.

The Damson Marches On!

My Damson is coming along nicely - I'm about 10 rows from starting the edging and it looks like I'll have enough yarn to finish the whole thing in TML! This presents a bit of a conundrum, however, as I've grown attached to the idea of a contrasting trim. I'm not sure I ever said it here, but my plan was to do the lacey edge with some leftover Colinette Jitterbug in the color Vincent's Apron - a sunny, mustard yellow. I think I'll stick to that for now, but if I end up not liking it, the wonderful thing about knitting is that you can rip it out if you need to!

(picture added after I've started the edging!)

I had to do just that when I was about to make the transition from the garter stitch body to the Stockinette stitch scallops. Somehow I ended up with not enough stitches, and so my yarn overs were totally out of place. Luckily a quick rip back and a few extra rows of garter got me back on track. As I got more stockinette fabric, I wasn't sure I like the sturdier feel in comparison to the squishy softness of the garter stitch body, but now I like them both and I think they're a nice contrast to each other.

I hope to finish Damson in the coming week, but lately it's had to fight for knitting time with a pair of socks for my boyfriend. The first is long done, and now I'm trying to fend off Second Second Syndrome! We'll have to see how well I manage that whole make-another-the-same-as-the-first thing with this project, since there are not one, but THREE pairs of gloves in the book!

Damson in Progress

Hello there! I figured that it was time for a progress update from at least one member of our little knitting tribe. As of this evening I've sailed through 55 rows and am loving it so far! This is my first time using TML and it is wonderful to work with - very soft and smooshy, especially on the larger needle size. I keep stopping every few rows to give it a squish and admire it!

I chose to keep the body in garter stitch and add a contrasting color for the edging to solve the yarn shortage issue. I'm about 95% sure I know what color I'm using for the edging, but the final decision will wait until I have the stockinette bit done. In some lights Graphite is a very grey-grey, but in others it has much more of a green cast to it. Either way, I'm sure it will turn out lovely!

Of course I'm going to use my Damson project bag for this little guy! Autographed by Ysolda herself at Vogue Knitting Live this past January, when Kendra and I happened to be in the right place at the right time, with exactly the right things for her to sign. The knitting gods smiled on us that day!