WiP Wednesday

Am I in under the wire? YES!

OK, so the rep weave mug mats came off the loom last week. The next warp is chained and ready to go on the loom. I’m cautiously optimistic that might happen before April.


I think I told you last week that I was waiting for some replacement carpet warp to finish that warp. I eeked out Color B by the hair of my chinny chin chin.


Yeah. I’ll be using the yellow as my skinny warp, thankyouverymuch. I am now somewhat skeptical of weaving kits. Harrumph.

So I worked the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival on Friday and Sunday last week. In between, our crochet teacher, Sandy, worked the store with me on Saturday. So I busted out my long-snoozing crochet afghan and got Sandy to get my back on the right track. My edges are still wonky, but they’re improving and that’s what this project is all about.


The Miss Babs socks are making progress and are still on my Signature DPNs. They may go back to my Hiya Hiya circs for Tuesday’s plane trip. I haven’t decided yet.


And, finally, Cristi has left me in the dust in our Distelfink KAL, but hopefully I’ll catch up soon. Here’s where I am. Yeah, it’s just a row or two different from last week’s pic. I’ll get there. Eventually.


Hope you’re having a great week!

Twice as Nice

A little less than a year ago, I decided to tackle a pair of Northman Mittens as my Knitting Olympics project. They were a resounding success.

So much of a success that I almost immediately decided that I needed to knit a “reverse colorway” pair with the leftovers.


I cast on during the Family Reunion trip between Christmas and New Year’s. And then discovered that my gauge was WAY off. So I ripped out and started again with a larger needle. Totally worth it.


The pattern is so intuitive and well-written that I would recommend it for anyone, even fair isle beginners. With the dark blue on the beginning cuff, it’s difficult to see the braid at the start. Sorry about that, but it was really freakin’ cold out on Saturday when I was taking these pictures.


Having now knit this pattern twice, I still won’t rule out doing it again. These mittens have made me a big fan of Ultra Alpaca, and in a surprising change of events, a new devotee of Blue Sky Alpaca’s Brushed Suri.


When I finished my Knitting Olympics pair and shared my blog posts with David, the designer, he suggested lining The Sequel with the Brushed Suri. I finished these mittens at Hurricane Knitters on Wednesday night, and it was unanimous. If you put on the old pair first, they were very nice (lined with Blue Sky Melange). But then you put on the new pair with the Brushed Suri liners and …


… Heaven. Seriously. I can’t even tell you how nice they feel. And I’d say I only used about ¾ of the skein. Yes, I have seriously small hands, but still. Plenty in a single skein of the Brushed Suri for two liners.


Again, the little details really make these mittens. The colorwork on the thumb flows perfectly with both the front and back of the mittens, as you see above.


Now, my biggest problem is going to be deciding which pair to wear!

Northman Mittens, The Sequel

Pattern: Northman Mittens by David Schulz (Ravelry paid download)
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Navy and Light Blue
Blue Sky Alpacas Brushed Suri in Acai
Quantity: Leftovers of the Ultra Alpaca with enough left over that I wasn’t nervous about running out. Roughly ¾ skein of the Brushed Suri
Needles: US 5/3.75mm throughout. Magic Looped with KnitPicks Options
Started: 27 Dec 2010, ripped and re-started 5 Jan 2011
Finished: 19 January 2011
Mods: None. The pattern remains perfect.

WiP Wednesday

We spent a goodly chunk of Tuesday evening plotting some home improvement, so I do not quite have a finished pair of Northman Mittens, The Sequel to show you. I’m just a liner-thumb away from being finished. So close, yet so far away!


I knit a round on the Musique socks, but that’s hardly worthy of new photo. I would have knit more on Saturday, but I couldn’t tear my attention away from the game. They’ll jump up a rung or so in the near future.

I will show you the next project to get back into the rotation. It’s a test knit I did for the wonderful and talented Susan Pandorf, and it’s a garter mosaic scarf. This un-named pattern could be part of her LOTR series, at least that’s CelticQueen’s guess. It has a really cool knit edging, then you drop stitches for the fringe and pick up and knit the mosaic. I’m one repeat in on the body of the scarf. And yes, I got Susan’s permission before I gave you this peek. It will most likely replace my Northman’s Mittens in the rotation.


I got one more mug rug done on the loom. I’m definitely improving and have high hopes that I’ll be cooking with gas when it’s time to do my rep weave placemats.


I’m doing better with writing deadlines vs. free time this week, but there is certainly still room for improvement. Here’s hoping I keep getting better at balancing my time. I’m lucky to be in a position that the freelancing is working and I’d like to keep this system going.

And maybe, next week, I’ll have a little quilting to show you!

WiP Wednesday

Northman Mittens, The Sequel are zipping right along. After taking the picture last week, I frogged the entire first mitten and started over on a US 5. Much better, although I’ll certainly be doing some stretching during the blocking process!


As you can see, I’m into the decrease section atop the second mitten. If I time-manage well today, I could be blocking by this evening. Fingers crossed!

However, because my time management kinda sucks lately, the loom is still sitting patiently in a corner waiting for the next project.


Maybe I can get it warped on Sunday. I can hope!

WiP Wednesday

With 2010 in the rear-view mirror (wrap-up post to come tomorrow. It’s already pre-posted, linked to the hilt and scheduled to appear in this spot tomorrow morning), here’s a little peek at what I’ve been working on.

Hubster and I plan to take down the Christmas tree on Sunday (first tree pick-up in our neighborhood isn’t until the 15th, so there’s no rush), and I already have a warp measured and chained, all ready to go on the loom once it’s out of the corner.


It’s a kit for Mug Rugs I got from the Yarn Barn of Kansas in order to participate in a rep weave Group Weave-A-Long as part of the Warped Weavers group on Ravelry. Oh, and if you have no idea what rep weave is, it will create a warp faced fabric (you can’t see the weft – left-to-right – yarn at all, just the lengthwise warp threads that are very densely sett). Eh, it will make more sense once you start seeing in-progress photos. I’m planning a set of placemats once I finish the mug mats.

In other news, there has been a little more knitting!


The first of Northman Mitten Pair #2 is coming along nicely. I split for the thumb last night and if not for this pesky freelancing gig (I kid. It’s a great turn of events and I have no complaints other than my own time management) I’d be zipping right along.

Sadly, when I flipped the mitten right-side out for its photo shoot this morning, I noticed it was really snug. So as pretty as this looks, it’s headed for the frog pond. Oh well. I’ll start it over tonight at knit night!

O Canada

First of all, my WiP Wednesday post seems to have been skipped by several friendly neighborhood feed readers. Including the one I use. So if you want to see what my Northman Mittens looked like two days ago, go here and check it out.

Meanwhile, you guys know that Roxanne at Zen Yarn Garden is my very favorite yarn pusher. Since she lives in the host country of the current Olympics, I figured showing you a little more of her yarn would be a good mid-Games post.

After I got my December Cashmere a la Carte shipment and saw the spoiler photos of the “cool” color, I decided I could find a little room in the yarn budget for the other color in this yarn.


Once again, it’s Roxanne’s “Serenity Worsted” base, which is 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere ant 10% nylon. It’s a double skein, 400 yards.


Again, cashmere content, so very yummy. Colorway name is Ice Blue. No clue what I’m going to make with it. But again, something that will go next to the skin.


I got some good work done on the mittens at Hurricane Knitters on Wednesday night, and yesterday (Thursday) was a total wash. Since taking these pictures, I’ve gotten to where the decreases are scheduled to begin. But I’m second-guessing whether or not that will make an appropriately-sized mitten. (ETA: Lifelines are good. I’ll forge along and see what happens)

So at the mid-point of Day 7 of the Games, here’s where I stand:



I’m really behind. I’m going to lose Wednesday night, Thursday night and all of next weekend (the last two days of the Games) If I can get some good work done tonight and Sunday, I’ll probably be OK. I’m also wondering if, although I’m getting gauge, I’m knitting too small. GAH.

Well, back to the grindstone. Have a great weekend!

Red, White and Blue!

In about 72 hours, the Vancouver Olympics will be officially underway. And I now have the perfect hat to show my support for Team USA during the Games.

I was inspired by hats like this and this that I saw on a TV stand-up done atop the Green Monster during the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway on New Year’s Day. I actually thought that the orange/Flyers Colored (gag) hat in the second link was Red/White/Blue on first look. Once I realized it was in Flyers colors (gag) and specifically a Winter Classic hat, I gave up and found a different pattern.

Once I saw Tiennie’s Norwegian Star Very Warm Hat I (Ravelry link), I knew precisely what I wanted to do with the Berroco Pure Merino that I got on clearance at Bloomin Yarns.

Meet my Hybrid Hat

Once again, Derf is a fantastic knitwear model!

I called it a Hybrid because it’s a 50/50 combo between Tiennie’s Norwegian Star Earflap hat and Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Very Warm Hat.

Three cheers for self-photography!

When I knit this again … and I will knit it again. I’ve already procured another hat’s worth of Pure Merino because that yarn is really awesome … I’m going to make a few modifications, but I’m still very happy with the original.



Oh yeah! It’s reversible! It’s also a little too tall and flares a bit at the bottom, which I’m not thrilled about. I started the hat with Judy’s Magic Cast-On, then knit in each direction from there. Sadly, when I was about an inch into the hat, I realized that I had inadvertently done JMCO in ecru, not the white I had intended. I wound up un-picking the JMCO and doing a knit a row-purl a row-knit a row turn in white before starting with the navy side of the hat. I should have skipped the second knit row (or used the correct yarn to cast on), as I think that mistake contributes to the slight bell-shape of the hat.

But all in all? I’m really happy with it and it’s very warm. Win!

Hybrid Hat

Pattern: Combo of the Norwegian Star Earflap Hat by Tiennie
and Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Very Warm Hat
Yarn: Berrocco Pure Merino
Colors: Peacoat, Simply Red, Snow Bunny
Yardage: 1.5 skeins (184 yards) each of the Red and Navy.
About ¾ of the skein (60-ish yards) of white
Needles: US 8/5.0mm 16” KA bamboo needles
Started: 28 January 2010
Finished: 31 January 2010
Mods: I tried to use JMCO to start the hats, and that would have worked great. I’ll do it in the correct color when I knit this hat again!

BTW: This is my 500th post. Thanks for reading!

Warm Paws

I had been wanting to try colorwork for quite a while. When I started browsing the “Critter Comforts” section in the Winter 2008 Twist Collective, I was pretty sure I had found a great first colorwork project. I think I was right.

Michelle at Bloomin is responsible for those pansies. NOT me.

I started these mittens just before Thanksgiving. They also feature my first-ever knitted hem! I did a provisional cast-on for both mittens, it only unzipped properly on the second mitten, thanks to a Lucy Neatby YouTube video.

They had several stops-and-starts between other projects. They were my Super Bowl project, and I had to tink about two rounds that I knit (incorrectly) during the last minute of the game. But that's OK. I'll take it.

Thanks to CelticQueen for modeling my mittens, since it’s very hard to take pictures of your own hands.

I got a little confused with the decrease instructions on the chart for the mittens. You have to “steal a stitch” from the previous half-round each time you do a double decrease. I figured it out, but not before a few false starts on decreases for the first mitten.

I like the checkerboard pattern on the underside of the thumbs, showing here.

I did do a gauge swatch, but I wound up tighter than I should have been anyway. As a result, they are just barely big enough for my small paws. I’m hoping these mittens loosen up a bit with a good soaking/blocking, but if they don’t they might be a gift for my sister-in-law. And that’s OK too.

Postwar Mittens

Pattern: Postwar Mittens by Mary Ann Stephens
Source: Twist Collective, Winter 2008
Size: one size
Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull in blue, black and white
Source: Bloomin Yarns
Needles: US 2/2.75mm Hiya Hiya (2-16” circs)
Started: 23 November 2008
Finished: 16 May 2009
Mods: None
Ravelry Project Link