Torture in the form of lace weight yarn...

So y'all remember the Citron I was working on last year? The Citron has loads of issues. I missed pattern repeats, had weird yarn snags and generally I didn't give it the attention it deserved. After the last mistake of cutting one of the pattern repeats short I just stuffed it into my yarn box to hangout in the naughty corner for awhile until I felt like dealing with it again. Well, it's that time again.

I pulled it out of the box the other night and studied on it and thought maybe I could thread a lifeline so I would only need to rip out the last pattern repeat. But the fact that it was lace weight and there were rows with increases and decreases and I couldn't tell which was which I quickly gave up on that thought. The fact that I couldn't even remember where I was in the pattern didn't really help much either. So with a heavy heart I frogged it. It was being knit with Malabrigo Lace so I wasn't about to let that languish in my yarn stash forever.

Once I finish my last hat for my Christmas knitting I may try again with the Citron in January and really give it the old college try. It's such a pretty little shawl and the yarn is a magnificent shade of blue. It must be knit, just not while riding the T in Boston.


Until then, I'm working on a cute honey comb pattern hat and I think I'll knit myself up a Star Cross Slouchy Beret or a Jane.  In some Malabrigo worsted that I have sitting around pleading to be knit into something warm and cozy for myself. I also have plans to make Kevin a Christopher in Pats colors in January. So I've got plenty of plans for knitting and I don't think I'm going to lose any steam anytime soon. It's going to be a productive winter!

Minor Gripes

So I'm normally the type of knitter that hates screwing up. I'm not talking about minor things like stitch counting being off by one or two  since I can fudge that with making new stitches. Or even repeating a row too many. As long as it doesn't effect the over all look of the knitted item I leave it alone. But if there's an epic screw up like missing a pattern repeat or screwing up a heel gusset or anything that involved ripping out and starting over I usually just opt to throw the project into some dark corner and forget about it. I HATE do overs. It's strange, since I knit because I enjoy it you'd think that just reknitting the same project is the same as any other knitting but it's not. It just annoys me and makes me hate that project. I guess I'm more into the results rather than the process.

The point to this post is that I'm working on another pair of Bella's Mittens for one of my nieces (I don't like just giving gift cards as gifts so I'm knitting up some quick projects to add to the gift cards). I thought I was almost finished with my 2nd mitten last night. I had gotten as far as closing up the top and weaving in the ends and was ready to start the thumb. I tried it on just to make sure it fit and it was SHORT. Like a good two pattern repeats short. It was dwarf mitten compared to the first one. I have no idea how that happened or how I completely missed it when I was knitting it (and trying it on!). So I got annoyed and shoved it into my miscellaneous box of knitting and went to go wind up some yarn for the rest of my Christmas knitting.

I got through 3 skeins of cascade 220 (that's quickly becoming my go to worsted weight yarn, it's warm and comes in great colors and it's cheap!) and finally calmed down enough to look at the midget mitten again. I had to cheat and snip the top open because I couldn't figure out how to pull my yarn end out and then I had to rip back pretty much the entire hand to the thumb stitches after trying and failing to pick up my stitches 3 times without dropping any. I'm most of the way through the hand again, fortunately for me this is a super fast knit, but it still doesn't look completely right. I'm still not sure where I came up short so I'm adding an extra pattern repeat to make it long enough. If I'm unhappy with it after I finish it I might wind up keeping these for myself and just doing two hats cause I'll be damned if I'm going to reknit this stupid mitten a 3rd time. I'm not that dedicated.

I'm also trying to decide on what hat pattern I want to use. It'd be for a teenage girl. I don't think they're into berets but I could be wrong. I keep going back to the same patterns I've already done and it feels repetitive. I'm drawing a blank so I'm definitely open to suggestions. It needs to be for worsted weight and I've got 3 pretty bold colors to choose from.

In other news, I got my latest shipment yesterday from The Loopy Ewe and I'm an official Loopy Groupie. They sent me a neat little tote with a calendar,  some free yarn and a sock pattern! They're probably my favorite place to order yarn from and have definitely cemented themselves as my go to online yarn shop. I highly recommend them to anyone!

Baby Knits

I've got a friend having a baby at the beginning of the year. I knew I wanted to knit up something for her for the baby, but it kept getting pushed aside for Christmas knitting. Well she invited us out to dinner last night so when I got up in the morning I decided I wanted to have something to give her since I only get to see her every few weeks and wanted to make sure she got something before the baby came. I cast on for the hat around 10:00am yesterday and around 5:15pm I finished up the last mitten. I was a knitting machine yesterday. Though I did manage to go to the gym and color my hair too. All in all,  a good Saturday.



The hat is Cabled Baby Hat and the mittens are just Baby Mitts. Anna might wind up being the recipient of all sorts of neat baby things in the future now that I know just how quick baby stuff is to knit. It's perfect for getting that instant gratification feeling and for getting a knitting fix when I'm not really interested in diving into something complicated or time consuming.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is done.






The yarn I knit it with isn't as drapey as the yarn in the pattern but it is warm and cozy. I did it one repeat short, I got impatient, but I like it fine as is. This one will probably be a keeper for me.

Now I'm stuck. I really want to cast on for another hat, but the yarn I want to use is yarn I want to keep for myself but I feel like I should keep knitting things to give away but I can't really think of anything to give to anyone I haven't  knit for that would appreciate it. I could knit something for Mom, but I've already given her a hat and mittens and I don't really have the patience for a scarf.

Decisions, decisions.

Pictures!

Pictures! Proof that I really have been knitting all of these things I've said I knit! First up, Bella's Mittens. I mostly did this pattern because I had this yarn and wasn't quite sure what it would look good as. I didn't think it'd work as a hat, it needed to be smaller. So I did mittens. I basically did the pattern as written but I had to add a few extra repeats of the horse shoe cable to make them long enough for my hands since I was using smaller yarn.



If you look closely you can probably tell that I knit one longer than the other. It was the second mitten and I'm not exactly sure where I went wrong but somehow it came out maybe about a half inch longer. Nobody but me really notices though.


Second up, Hermione's Cable and Eyelet Hat. This is probably for Kev's Mom. It's really, really cozy. I definitely want to make one for myself at some point.





After finishing this up last night I cast on for Elizabeth. I bought some Lion Brand Alpine Wool bulky yarn at Joanne's the other day with a gift card I got last Christmas. It was more or less the only yarn there that tripped my trigger. I thought of making Shroom with that but I think I'd really like to have some Spud and Chole Outer to knit that with. But Elizabeth is going swimmingly. I'm about a 1/3 of the way through it right now. Bulky Yarn + Hats = Instant Gratification. (I'm thinking part of the reason I got so burned out was small yarn + tedious socks = OMG I don't want to knit!) I know, I love having handmade socks. And I'm proud of them. But I can't get over my need for instant gratification. I'll have to learn how to stagger my projects better.

Pictures of the other mittens and Star Crossed will come after Christmas once they've made it to their rightful owners.

Fin!

I finished Hermione's Cable hat. It fits my head beautifully! It actually covers my ears completely which is a nice change considering I suffer from a severe case of short hat syndrome.

I think this will be Kev's Mom's present, but I'm still undecided. I've got yarn that's calling to be made into a hat and if I can find the right pattern and whip another one up she might get it.

Either way, I think I'll be making one of these for myself in some lovely purple Cascade I got in my last shipment from the Loopy Ewe.

I'm on fire.

Seriously y'all, there's smoke comin' off my needles. Since my last update I've finished the Bella Mittens, a Star Crossed Slouchy Beret (in some luscious Malabrigo) and I'm halfway through Hermione's Cable & Eyelet Hat (and I just cast on for that hat today!). My hands are actually starting to cramp up a little from all this knitting. But Christmas is coming soon and there's no rest for the procrastinator.

I've decided to keep the mittens, and I know who the Star Crossed is going to, but I'm undecided on Hermione's hat. I was going to give it to Kev's Mom, but he made a fuss about how she asked for a matching hat for her mittens. I don't have enough yarn to do a matching hat, so I was doing a beige one that sort of goes with the roving I used for the thrum's in her mittens but now I have my doubts. I could order some more yarn to make the hat. But beige is a neutral and goes with anything... Thoughts? Stories? Good jokes?

If Hermione's hat doesn't go to Kev's Mom then I might give it to one of my nieces. It's cute, right? Teenage girls like Harry Potter, yeah? Anyway, I've enjoyed this knitting I've been getting done. It's nice to be motivated and inspired again. I did take some pictures but I'm not sure how many will get posted before Christmas. Can't be giving away too many secrets!