Olympic Success!

I finished my dress (photos later) and even got the crochet arm holes and neck opening to work (a big old first for me). Annnnddd... while making the dress (designing on the fly) I also made: three pairs of booties, 1 pair of socks, 2 little pixies, 2 small elephants, 4 small bunnies, 5 small bears, 7 snakes, 12 bean bags, 2.5 soakers, and finished one sock.

PHEW.

but the BIG news of the day is that the Fluff Factory auctions start TODAY at WAHMChicks! The charity is FIAU, an organization I am personally involved in, so these auctions mean a great deal to me.

Go and shop! new auctions listed all week long!

Check out this embroidery by Kira of Clothmopolitan:

just keep knitting, and knitting and knitting...

i couldn't bring myself to finish the dress today. i did a bunch of other odds and ends instead. Finally seaming up that baby kimono. taking photos for the auction listings, and then i made myself an elephant. I've been wanting to come up with one for a while, and while i was doing something else, the ears came to me. And I happened to have grey yarn with me. So I made one. And my kid actually played with it for more than 30 seconds. I call it a hit.

Olympic progress

The Sad State of my Sole

I was standing in the Squid's room rocking rocking rocking her on my shoulder in vain attempts to bring sleep into our home. Suddenly my big toe felt colder than the rest of my foot. Bah. The soles of my non-stripey stripey slippers have worn out. Bah. I live in these things. So I decided to whip up another sole from the tough-as-iron Peace Fleece yarn that I happened to have lying around in a shade that coordinates nicely with the kettle dyed merino I used to knit the things in the first place.



The new soles. Hmm. I'm not sure how it's working out. First of all, the Peace Fleece doesn't stretch the same way the merino does (and yes, i reblocked them after adding the new soles). So suddenly instead of the sole covering my sole, i find that it's a little too short and a little too narrow. It's kind of like i'm balancing on a small plank.



You can see the Squid's little matchy ones in the background there. Not one to be found browsing the "mom and me" racks at Laura Ashley, I made them for her because she kept stealing mine and wearing them as knee socks. I tried to offer a zillion different yarns, including the favorite color RED, but no luck. So she got matchy ones.

I'm thinking my lovely merino slippers are dead. Next time I'm going to double strand the soles, I think. It's a fun pattern to knit up (luckily). One of those where you go "what was she think...OHHHhhhhh."

Very clever, Theresa.

the knitty that never sleeps

I've been knitting my little fingers to the bone in preparation for the charity auctions coming up next week. eek!

In the meantime I'm also nearly finished my knitting olympics dress, also an auction item. i've actually put it to the side for several days which makes me realize with uncertainty that i chose an easy project. In my defense, I am simultaneously kntting a billion other things, too. Excuses, excuses.

As soon as the auctions are over I'm knitting myself a sweater.

Cute, Marie. Real cute.

Am I the only one getting my Donny Osmond references? Anyway. I finished the hideous Donny socks. they're awful. you can see how they were knitted too loose. and the purple. my word. and what was I thinking? in the middle of the Olympics? a week before the auctions? I had to finish a pair of socks that make my feet feel ooky? when i could have waited a week to finish and get credit for them for the sock-a-monthalong? yeah, ok? i did.




Because of the knitted too looseness of these socks, they are best worn scrinched down, Molly Ringwald 80s style.

Eureka part deux

Bryspun. Oh how i love thee.

I'm back on the Donny Osmond socks. It's crappy yarn, like 1963 Bernat wool/nylon ick. and it should be knit on 0s or 1s but i'm knitting it on 2s because I started and i'm not going back now. But because i was using the wrong needles, my tension is all wonky, the stitches look like garbage.

I switched to the Bryspuns (still 2s because, ahem, they don't make them any smaller) and they look lovely. Consistent, even, and i don't even think the fabric is too thin, now, though the needles themselves feel a bit thicker than the bamboo 2s.

I'm in love.

Now, please make them in smaller sizes.

Eureka

Something I have discovered: knitting a 6" circumference in garter stitch on 7" DPNs can make a girl go insane.

DPN update

Well, i got my Bryspun 5" size 2s. I do really like knitting with them. I wish they came 6" long and i REALLY wish they came in size 1.

I certainly like them a WHOLE lot better than bamboo so it's likely I'll buy more.

Now I need to find something else that comes in 1s.

I didn't really bribe her.

"Make socks for me, in this yarn."

So my daughter rifled through a yarn basket and handed me this lovely yarn. Crocus, dyed by Morwenna of Mosaic Moon. It's a gorgeous purple, brown, and white organic merino. And I was so overjoyed that she actually asked me to make her something that I dropped everything and started knitting hand-wash only merino toddler socks. What was I thinking? I was thinking "my baby wants something I made! finally!"

So of course there's not enough yarn, and we talk about options. Footies, a different colored top, etc. She chose the matching purple, and when I finished the first one and tried it on her she danced around in glee "my sock! my sock! Make the other one, mamma. Right now."

So i did. But bedtime came upon us and I promised her she could have them this morning to wear on the frigid trek to school in 40,000 feet of snow.

And I worked furiously to finish. This morning, she woke up, and while she sat on the kitchen chair munching her vitamins I showed her. "my socks! You made them!" and I put one on. she looked at it, said "i don't like this sock. take it off, mamma."

And that was that.

Casting on.

while the opening ceremony is being televised. Ok. so it's a tape. Ok. so it happened hours ago. But maybe this is my way of showing my Italian-born husband and Italian-born child that i do not operate on their clock. I operate on New York time, my friends.

NOT a good Olympic showing.

I swatched all morning. I did my calculations to adjust the pattern from 4 st/in and 6 rows/in to 3 and 5. I was primed. at exactly 2pm i cast on. I was flying. I was actually thinking "this is going to be too easy for an olympic challenge. How about I add 'plus a toy a day' to the challenge?"

Then I got the email. From Theresa. From whom I got the yarn. And the pattern. And she said...

"I've been thinking... why exactly are you doing an apron top in wool chenille?"

THUD.

Yes, i've held on to this yarn for a long time and completely forgot that it was 100% wool chenille. I thought it felt odd, but frankly, I'm so used to wool, and this is really my first chenille experiment.

but.

still.

so now here it is 10pm on day one and i am without a project.

time to think fast.

I think i'm going to make a tank dress in Inca Cotton. let's see.

Olympics tomorrow!

And like the rest of the knitting/blogging universe all I care about is casting on. I'm upping my challenge - rather than designing the top myself I'm going to modify the Little Turtle Knits apron top pattern (generously donated by Theresa for the auctions). Why? eh. i don't know. At first I thought it would save me time. But then i realized my gauge is off by like 3,000,000 stitches per inch which means a lot of math. And i never seem to successfully follow a pattern. So i think this raises my difficulty rating my a few points, for sure.

Today was a very productive knitting day, I must say. I made a bunny and a teeny weeny bear. they need faces. Then i can knit more sock.

In Search of the Perfect DPN

Ok, so I'm obsessed with sock knitting right now. I have so many other things going on and all i can think about are socks. I have a pair going at all times, and working on them is my "reward" for meeting my little goals. Finish a set of ears and you can knit on your sock for a while. I'm opposed to using bribes and rewards with my daughter to convince her to do things, but for myself? no problem.

Anyway, I currently use 7" bamboo DPNs (i have one pair in rosewood but they're 9s and not exactly for socks). I loathe bamboo. I just hate the way it feels, bends (and stays bent) gets all soggy in my mouth when i pop one in there for a sec...

So I'm questing 5" DPNs. I'm not sold on 5" because i actually like my 7"ers but they do sometimes get caught in my sleeve if i'm wearing something saggy whilst knitting.

I've been toying with Bryspun and swallow casein. What *is* swallow casein? who knows. they seem fairly interesting, however, so they're staying on my short list.

Bryspun - anyone know why i can NOT find 5" in size 1? I mean, they're made for socks, right? why not make them in sock sizes? SO i bought some 2s on ebay dirt cheap and we'll see.

Oh, I'm also considering ebony. I love my rosewood but they're not perfect. and i'm looking for perfect.

it came! it came!

my box o'yarn arrived! oh thank goodness. It was intact, down to the little bag of chocolate covered caramels. now *that* is a good mail day.

Donny Osmond's socks

So the hideous purple socks. I finished one, and am working on the instep of the other. I decided to wash and block the finished one because it was mocking me there from the shelf, and as i blocked it, it kind of grew. SO I asked my husband if he was interested in a pair of purple socks. He said (more or less) notsomuch. The sock dried, and it does, indeed, fit me. Quite nicely, actually. SO I thought nothing of it and while I was working the instep this morning over breakfast he said "I can't wait for my purple socks."

gulp.

*sigh*

Come Back, Yarn!

It's been a while. i've been preoccpied with my missing yarn. a whole huge box has gone missing. we're talking about more than a dozen skeins, many of then 8 oz skeins of delicious hand painted yarn. gone.

Also, i had a box of roving go missing. It came back, though. In the meantime i've been making everything a girl cam make and stuff with beans instead of roving. I showed the squid a bean-filled bear. I quite liked it. I thought it was cool and had fun heft. She turned it over quizacally and sayd "why'd you fill this with beans, mamma?" and without even deigning to hand it back to me she let it slip through her fingers to the floor.

*sigh*

With fear i look forward to the knitting olympics. This peachy chenille has been taunting me for far too long. I can wait to get started. In the meantime I'm trying to hustle and get other things finished for the auctions.

For the "recycled fibers" basket I made this snake:

This qualifies because it was once a dip-dyed hat. I frogged it and reused the yarn. So here we have an oddly dip-dyed snake. I stuffed him with the extra yarn, so it would be 100% recycled (plus i was out of roving at the time).