First, a big cheer for antibiotics. I am finally feeling genuinely better (not 100%, but better). That was two and a half weeks of sick, which was of course just enough time to make absolutely sure that everyone else got sick, including my little boys, my husband, my mother who came for Thanksgiving, and who knows how many acquaintances and passersby. (Sorry everyone!)

Next, a cheer for a finished project. In the last few days I managed to finish the Kureyon hat, my easy knitting project for my convalescence. I'm not sure who this is for yet, but it does fit my own head very nicely. I'm positive that the recipient will want a matching pair of mittens. (Wink, wink.)

Finally, a little cheer for native, which I think I am finally ready to pick up again. I had been worried about the size, but after her visit, my mother assured me that she wanted oversized, so I am determined now to rescue this project from UFO-dom.

Well, I made a thumb gusset at least! I went ahead and finished the first mitten (except for the thumb, of course) and cast on for the second. I want to have them looking almost all done so I can't back out and leave them unfinished. I'm using Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns again. I really like this book! Although the patterns are basic, they are really nice looking. And the charts are so easy to follow. What a great resource. Put it on your wishlist today! I think I'll go add some thumbs to mine....

Hey, much ado about knitting is working on the same mittens as me (but kiddie size). Neato! Elsewhere in the Knitblog Ring, through the back loop is like my doppelgänger or something. She just completed the bear hat from Double Knits, which I made back in October, and her other fo's are all on my baby wish list. Beautiful stuff. And lookie, I got a button!

And now the teaser... mittens, b.t. (before thumbs).

Here's one thumb done. I'm not sure about how the colors came out, but the thumb itself is a-ok. As you can tell from the last picture, I couldn't get the colors on the two mittens to match up perfectly. The new skein that I bought for the second mitten didn't start at the same point as the old leftover skein I used for the first mitten and then it just didn't have as much of the purple stripe as the other one. I managed to adjust everything so that the tops of the mittens were similar. I figured that's what people see most, so if I could match that up, it might look nicer. I tried to get a unique color for the thumb, but I think I didn't get as much of it in as I wanted, so I'm considering redoing it, just to get more of the lighter color on the thumb. Too much??

And further proof that through the back loop is my alter ego: Daria mentions that she's been contemplating the aran sweaters from Double Knits and I just happen to have taken some pics of my boys yesterday while they were wearing their aran sweaters to show you all today. Here's the only picture I could get of them together in one place!

All done with the hat and mittens set. Looks pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Kinda sad to part with them, but working with that yarn again made me want to wear my new year's sweater from last year a lot more. And I have concluded that it is even better than I remember. It was only the second sweater I made and I'm ebarrassed to say that it was much more successful than some of the later ones.

Alrighty, bring on the next project! I did a bit of swatching for the vest for my husband. That Rowan wool cotton is absolutely amazing, so soft and smooth - it's like buttah! But before I can get to the brown buttah, I've got the baby mutssjaals to make. So this weekend, I'll be swatching the Cascade 220 and mathing up the pattern. Fun.

After a few days break from knitting, my 1x1ribbing-finger injury was pretty much gone, so I picked up the second mutssjaal and went to work on the scarf part. My husband got the Lord of the Rings DVD for Christmas, which he just HAD to watch last night, so I got a LOT of knitting done on it then. Before I knew it, I had finished the knitting on mutssjaal #2! Now I've got four days to weave in those ends to get this project completed before the new year.

But I hate just weaving in ends. My fingers get restless for actual knitting. I don't want to pick up one of my older big projects just yet or start something else big, lest I get distracted and forget to finish the mutssjaals. What to do?? In answer to my question, some beautiful Phildar yarn arrived today from Becky, which I had my eye on for a quick little hat for myself. After the hat for my mom (yes, the Kureyon hat was for my mom) and these hats for the boys, I've been thinking, hey where's MY new hat? One new year's hat, coming up!

And don't forget: new year's fantastic fiber voyage right here in Boston next week! (Go check out Kerrie's tour today.)

Happy New Year, everyone!!

My new year's goal was to finish up all my recent projects so that I can now get back to the older projects I've still got on the needles. And the results...

Newly completed:

• my blue hat: Finished the quick little hat for myself in a jiffy and I love it. Lookie! The yarn is so soft and it feels so warm and snuggly on. I've named this project 'my blue hat' in honor of Becky (my blue house), who managed to find me what were practically the last skeins in all of France of this now discontinued color! Yea for Becky!
  
• mutssjaals: I finished weaving in the ends over the last few days. Obligatory cute pictures:

 

Old, but not forgotten:

• native, now in progress since Spring 2002. My mother is getting anxious to wear this and I'm excited to see what leftovers I might have of the Rowan Handknit DK Cotton.
  
• elizabeth III, in progress since Fall 2001. I have reknit the front and back (again!) and still need to rip out the sleeves, reknit them, sew it all up again, and pray!
  
• dale bug sweaters, in progress since Fall 2002. I was doing well on the first of these when Christmas knitting interrupted me. I'm looking forward to getting back to these and to try out the steeking with my new sewing machine.

Wishing you all a wonderful new year filled with many successful projects!

I love that episode from Seinfeld where the woman in the next bathroom stall won't give Elaine a single square of toilet paper. You can't spare a square?! Come on, fellow knitters, you can spare a square for Becky's super cool swatch project. Here are some of mine in the works.

I'm using all seasons cotton leftovers from my summer tanks and since I'm a big dummy and can't figure out how many stitches I'd need to get 6x6 in. with a fancy stitch pattern, I'm just doing mine kinda plain. Every blanket needs some plain patches to set off the others though, right? So there's another reason to make squares: just think of how your swatches will really "pop" next to mine!

All weekend long.

It all started when I took the boys to the library for the first time on Friday. They're still not ready for following a story book, but I wanted to introduce them to the library and see if it might be some place we can go on rainy days, etc. While the boys played (together!) with one of those little toys where you push beads along loopy tracks, I read them a cute little book called The Teeny Tiny Teacher. Everything in the story is teeny tiny this and teeny tiny that and I had such a blast saying teeny tiny over and over that it sort of stuck.

Teeny tiny knitting couldn't be far behind. First, I knit this teeny tiny mousie for Wendy's new charity mouse-a-thon project.

I used the yarn in a pouch that someone brought in to Knitsmiths a few weeks ago. It's wool and I've only got the one teeny tiny pouch, so what else am I going to do with it but make lots of teeny tiny mice?!

Then in the car, in the dark, on the way back from visiting friends I knit a teeny tiny swatch for the Phildar top. It's teeny tiny cause I hate to swatch and so stopped just as soon as I could convince myself that I got my teeny tiny gauge (3.5mm needles - eeeeeek!). I'm so proud of how nicely it came out considering I couldn't see anything.

And then there's the teeny tiny tank. Front's done.

And teeny tiny it is. With only the already blocked back piece to compare it to, the front looked even teeny tinier. But I was able to block it out to a similar size as the back. Keep your fingers crossed for a not too teeny tiny tank tomorrow!

Go drive the kitties wild!

Who would have thought that I'd be making scarves? I'd pretty much written off knitting accessories (socks, hats, scarves) because I would simply prefer to make a proper sweater. That is until the plan to knit chemo caps was born. Several caps later (and more still in the planning stages) and now my mother has me knitting scarves for a child she sponsors in the Ukraine through the Crimean Women's Humanitarian League of America.

Here's the first one all done. I used "Joel's Scarf" pattern from Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch (I just got the Purl book, by the way - thanks, ma!) and some bulky Sandnes yarn that was in the sale bin at my LYS. I'll also be making garter stitch scarves for his sisters. I think there are four of them. I've picked out several skeins of Lamb's Pride Superwash in various girly colors for theirs.

I wonder if there's anyone who could get me knitting socks again? I'll tell ya, though, that's gonna be much harder!

Can't let the finishing fiesta peter out, so here's a reason to celebrate: another finished scarf for my scarf project.

I'm using five skeins of Lamb's Pride superwash bulky in five girly colors to make three (I hope!) scarves. The first is the simple color block scarf above. Next up are a couple of sideways garter stitch scarves. I'm enjoying working at this gauge (3 st./in.) and the yarn is quite nice, although the white is a bit thinner than the other colors. I am totally digging the fringe, though. I love attaching it. I love how it looks. What a difference a few pieces of yarn (intentionally) hanging off the end can make!

We'll kick off this week's finishing fiesta with the last two scarves for the scarf project.

This garter stitch scarf thing is fun! And these sideways scarves are my favorite. I love the look of the stripes going the length of the scarf. But the best part is that there are no ends to weave in. Woo hoo! Simply wrap the ends into some fringe and voila, no finishing a-tall. Too bad I can't do fringe at the seams of all my sweaters! (It would work well for a poncho though, right Kimberly?)

After attaching the fringes, I have barely a foot left over of each color. I just scraped three scarves out of the five skeins that I had. I so enjoy not having extra yarn left over. It's like doing the extra credit problem - okay, this time make three scarves, but don't have any yarn left over. Bonus points for me!

Tis the season for presents, right? I had to do it. I got tired of making calmer caps and having to give them away, so I finally made one for myself.

I used some Phildar Sport Laine I had in my stash (thanks, Becky!), which is aran weight wool so despite the lace patterning this hat should keep my head pretty warm.

It seems like at some point in the history of my being cold, I decided that all of my own winter hats, scarves, gloves should be this blue color (exhibit a: my blue hat). I have to admit to being lazy fashion girl with only two pairs of shoes and one hat/scarf set! But with a small stash of pale blue yarn, I can always make myself a little something new that still matches everything I've already got. It's a great excuse for me to pick up lovely blue yarn whenever I see it. And a couple of skeins will do in a pinch for a stocking stuffer for me (hint, hint - tee hee).

I can't bucket. I'm loving watching all the fuzzy, furry and fabulous bucket hats being knitted all around our little blog world (like here and here and of course here), but I have to admit to being a bucket bozo. I so want to have a bucket hat, but I have a very low fiddliness threshhold and simply cannot bear to do all that picking up of stitches and knitting little pieces and parts. This is why I do not knit socks. Still, I can't stand not having a bucket hat in my wardrobe, so I picked up some yarn to make this pattern from the Fall 2003 issue of Interweave Knits (by local designer Rebecca Harris!).

Can I knit it now? Can I? Can I? I should focus on my holiday gift-knits, shouldn't I? Shouldn't I?

I started teaching another beginning knitting class this week and thought that would be the perfect occassion to start a new little project. In order to demonstrate, you gotta be knitting something, right? And I couldn't really bring my big projects in to carry around, so...

I love to start new projects!

This will be a neck warmer for me. After finishing the neck warmer for my aunt, my neck started feeling suspiciously cold. Hmmm... why not make a neck warmer for myself? I gotta be knitting something. Plus it'll make a nice follow-up pattern for my beginners for their leftover yarn.

Speaking of beginning knitters, look who picked up the needles for the first time this week!

Amidst all the ripping last week, I finished my neckwarmer. As usual, I had to add some stripes. But now it matches my winter coat just perfectly. Pattern, anyone??

And I guess we're not done ripping after all. I found another project in my wip basket that needed a good frogging - the cowl that I started knitting as a Christmas gift. I had second thoughts about using up so much of this fabulous alpaca and decided to save the yarn for something else.

And spotted elsewhere in rip-city: Carrie (who ripped several projects last week) was knitting away Sunday at Knitsmiths with some beautiful homespun yarn reclaimed from an old project. And several more rippers have joined the list over the weekend. Check out all the projects Stacy is planning on ripping!

What'cha gonna do when your momma won't wear hats? I made my mom a hat and mitten set last Christmas that she's never taken out of the box. But, ma, it's soooo cold! She said she might wear something larger and looser, so I started on a big hat with the Rowanspun Chunky I got out of the stash box. Will she like it? Stay tuned next week...

And what'cha gonna do when your new yarn just keeps calling to you? The chickie masala peace fleece simply won't wait. So I swatched it up and searched through all my patterns to find something to knit now. And we're off!

Speaking of handknits that aren't getting worn... remember the brown butter vest I knit for my husband last year? Yup, it has yet to make it out of the closet. I love this vest and would wear it myself, but it's way too long and baggy. So, it will seed the pile for the next rip-along. If I ever make it through the ten projects I'm currently working on or have waiting in the wings, I'll frog it and make the women's hooded version of this vest for myself with the recycled yarn (and the two balls I had left over and have never used!).

So what have we learned? Hubby is not a vest person and mom is not a hat person. Still not convinced about that second revelation, I finished my mom's new big hat during her weekend visit. She says she'll wear it. We'll see (and, no, she did not remember to bring the first hat and mitten set back).

I ran out of the green Rowanspun Chunky yarn, which didn't match my mother's black gloves anyway, so I added a touch of black on the crown and around the ribbing. I used Rowan's new Yorkshire Tweed, which has the exact same color flecks in it as the Rowanspun and so coordinates very nicely.

Speaking of Yorkshire Tweed. Remember the lace pattern that I swatched up last week from the Jess sweater in that book? Fellow Knitsmith Carrie thought the pattern looked similar to one of her rip-along projects, which was a sweater from a vintage Rowan book. Well, compare for yourself. A Yorkshire Fable, circa 2003 and Rowan No. 4, circa 1988. Busted! Glad Carrie brought in the "original", because I really love the cardigan version from the old Rowan book. Don't you?

I got practically no knitting done this Sunday at Knitsmiths. Those girls are just too much fun! We talked, laughed, leafed through pattern books, and shared tips and opinions. What a great group.

I don't think Kerstin (left) knit a stitch either! And isn't that Sandy silly? Hey look, there's new Knitsmith Lisa (on the right) from counry turtle knitting. And since I owe Sandy a good picture, here are the North Shore Knitbloggers, Sandy and Lisa, not knitting. I kid! Sandy was working on her Plaid mittens (that's Rowan Plaid). I must have started coveting her extra skein of Plaid a little too loudly -- "I want Plaid mittens too!" --, because she gave it to me. How sweet! So, once I got home, I started knitting:

Check out the Knitsmiths' page for pics of what other Knitsmiths can do when they actually knit!

My top secret contribution in Johanna's Men-along....

Wait, are those socks?? Why yes, they are. But aren't you always saying that you hate knitting socks?? Why yes, I am. Let me 'splain. These socks were a surprise anniversary gift for my husband, pretty much the only person I'd be willing to pick up those annoying double-pointed needles for. Luckily, he likes really warm, bulky socks so I got to use US6s and (here's the best part) Rowan Magpie yarn! I knit the socks in secret for a couple of weeks at Knitsmiths (see Dava's post about my socks-in-progress) and the whole way on our recent knitbloggers' trip to Halcyon in Maine.

In another moment of double-pointed madness, I let Sandy talk me into knitting a pair of mittens. Give me a free ball of yarn, and I'll do anything!

I couldn't find a pattern in my books that matched the large gauge of the Rowan Plaid, so I altered the basic mitten pattern from Ann Budd's book to suit my needs. Got some bulky yarn and want to make mittens? Here you go! Got any other gauged yarn and want to make mittens, gloves, hats, socks, a vest, a sweater? Get her book!

I was feeling a little uninspired about knitting yesterday and went upstairs to switch active projects, when I realized that all of my current projects are simple, solid-color stockinette stitch. Ugh. Chickie, although beautiful, is getting boring. And I can't even think about those miles of straight knitting on the sweatpants right now. Somebody help me - I'm stuck in stockinette! At least the yarns are interesting: Peace Fleece, soft Homespun and the bumpy blue Giboulees. And then there's my gorgeous Karabella Brushed Alpaca splurge yarn. Oooh, yummy! Knitting doldrums over.

This yarn is so fluffy, it's like roving. I absolutely love it! Since it's a very chunky knit (US15s), I was hoping that I could get a hat out of one ball (yeah, I'm knitting it flat, since I don't have any short US15 circs and I don't mind seaming). But a check of the ball band set me right: 35yds! To paraphrase Roy Scheider - "you're gonna need a bigger ball". Another $15 later and all I can say is that this hat had better be fabulous with a $30 price tag!

But wait, here's a free fluffy cure for the knitting doldrums: Knitties from GGH yarns.

They're e-cards you can send to your knit-buds with wacky little knitted critters on them. Strange idea, but thankfully amusing enough to help me over my sticker shock and through my stockinette stint.

I finished my $30 brushed alpaca hat. I love it. It's soft and fluffy and has big stitches. Too cool! Unfortunately, it's not really cool outside anymore. Harumpff. Next winter, I guess. As predicted by Vanessa, I've got about 3/4 of the second skein left. Maybe I can use it to trim some gloves or a scarf, so I'll have a complete set in time for it to get cold again. And as we all could have predicted, there is now some new bulky, beautiful alpaca in the store. Am I a sucker for alpaca or what? Please don't let me buy any more.

And that's what dishcloths are made of.

Melissa recently made some afghan squares with some left over Kitchen Cotton, using Mason-Dixon Kay's log cabin design. I'm so swiping that idea! I'd wanted to make some of the little flower washcloths from Weekend Knitting for my great aunts. Yes, the aunts I made the hotties for! But then I saw fellow Knitsmith Joann making one with double-pointed needles and five separate petals, it seemed a little 'fiddly-dee, not-for-me' (hers came out great by the way). So I thought, hey, I like the log cabin design, it looks fun, I don't mind picking up stitches as much as knitting separate little pieces and the Sugar n' Cream would make washcloths you could actually use (don't quite see the aunts washing up with beautiful chenille flowers). So, the boys and I went to ACMoore and picked out these colors.

And now I can join another knitalong!

And speaking of nice knitalongs, I've already received a nice comment and a fun little e-card from my Secret Knitting Pal. What a great program that Sandy set up! The boys enjoyed the little animated card too. So thanks to my secret pal out there, whoever you are!

With little pink flowsies all in a row. I spiked the knitting needles with a little miracle grow and I'm almost done with the back of Daisy. It'll need a severe blocking when it's done though. If the piece isn't stretched across the sofa arm it looks more like a wadded up washcloth than a sweater back!

Hey, speaking of washcloths, I finished the first sugar 'n cream log cabin washcloth! It's so cool.

Presents going out.

I finished up the sugar 'n cream washcloths for my great aunts. Hope they like them! I've still got enough yarn left to make about four more (as long as I start alternating which color goes in the center).

Presents coming in.

My secret pal sent me this cute little sheep, along with a funny card and some yummy Dora the Explorer chocolate for the boys (that's pronounced D-O-R-A around here - spelling it out is the only way to prevent the boys from thinking it's Dora time on tv. Seems like I've spelled D-O-R-A so many times that I can't even say the name anymore! Me to my husband: "How about the boys watch a little D-O-R-A while you get the P-I-Z-Z-A?" Me to my husband yesterday: "Oh look, my secret pal sent the boys some D-O-R-A C-H-O-C-O-L-ah, you know!"). Thanks, for the laugh, secret pal!

(Hey, knitalongers, have you seen the latest finished knitalong projects? Be sure to check out Carrie's and Jessica's fun sweatpants, Erica's gorgeous Banff and Becky's fabulous poncho. And the first nearly-finished spring fling project I've seen: Sharlene's tank. And did you see the Smooch tank over at Oliewogs blog? Wowza! Beautiful knits, ladies!)

I know we're spring flinging, but there's snow out here and hubby's feet are cold. So yes, I'm knitting more big, bulky socks. I taught a sock class at my LYS recently, and it's got me knitting socks again. And I'm liking it. Plus, they're Peace Fleece. I couldn't resist. There's so much Peace Fleece around blogland these days (my chickie masala, Mary's grass roots, Sandy's zarya fog, Kerstin's moscow magic pink, Erica's samantha-katya pink...), I figured I needed more. For these socks I'm using negotiation grey (don't you just love these names?!). Check out the cool label that was on one of the skeins.

Make socks not war.

Finished hubby's peace fleece socks. He slipped them on as soon as I was done. They're perfect for keeping his feet warm on our cold floor.

For anyone interested in making similar socks, I used Peace Fleece and US7 needles. I follow the numbers from a Reynolds pattern called Ragg Socks, written for Candide yarn at 4 st/in. I do 1x1 ribbing for the top inch and then switch to 3x1 ribbing for the leg. I like to continue the 3x1 ribbing over the top of the foot as well. To line this up well, I find it's best to start the 3x1 ribbing with 1knit and 1purl (the round will end with 2knits). That way the split for the heel is more centered over the ribbing than if you started with 3knits.

Happy peaceful sock knitting, man.

Memorial Day's almost upon us, the unofficial begin of summer, time for a check on the spring flingers!

Marg posted a picture of her spring fling top, which she wore at her daughter's wedding. Lovely! And Dava just finished a beautiful pink purse, which totally says spring to me! Poor Jon seems to have had a small edging accident while working on his polka purl dot top. Go send him your sympathies. Hey, Lynn just finished a version of my spring fling tank. It's exciting to see it done in another yarn. And she'll kill me for pointing it out, but Amy also made a "fuzzy green thing". I think it looks great, but she wasn't convinced. Elsewhere in knit-along-land, Sarah has finished the back of her linen drape tank. Oh yeah, summer's almost here!

Despite all the warm weather knitting that's been going on, it hasn't been all that warm here in Boston. My feet are cold. Remember my old "swift", um, slippers? Well, they have suddenly given up the ghost. So I've decided to make myself a new pair. Crochet myself a new pair, to be specific. The turkish slippers from Simple Crochet looked so pretty and simple is in the title, so I'm game!

And I'm not the only one who's been knitting warm recently. Blog-reader Melanie sent me a picture of the mittens she made from my plaid mitten pattern. Yay, Melanie - they look great! But I have to admit, I hope it'll be a while before you get a chance to wear 'em.

Come on summer!

Don't know how many of you out there have, like me, been subjected to one too many viewings of the Blue's Clues "Love Day" episode. All the clues are related to Cinderella. And since Joe has stopped drawing the clues, they draw themselves and sing what they are. This all means that I have been walking around the house for a week singing "I'm a glass slipper." (Much more catchy than the first clue: "I'm a mop.")

Well, I'm no Cinderella, but I do have a slipper.

One crochet slipper almost done. I've still got do a crochet edging around the opening. More crochet - surprise, surprise. I'm enjoying the crochet, though, and I like this pattern a lot. The only change I made was to shorten the front of the slipper, making the opening wider. This is my attempt to eek out two slippers with only 3 1/2 skeins (and not 4) of the Handknit DK called for. As usual the color I have has been discontinued. Surprise, surprise.

Can you hear it? "I'm a crochet slipper."

Crochet slippers all done! Since I just scraped by on the blue yarn, I trimmed them in a contrast color. Then I bought some padded insoles like the pattern calls for (Dr. Scholls, thank you very much!). I couldn't wait until I had the insoles and wore the slippers a few times without them. Ouchie. And I had the crochet pattern on the bottom of my foot. So note to self: you gotta have the insoles. I decided however, not to cover the insoles in felt like the pattern suggested. I think the slippers are lovely enough as they are and I didn't want this becoming some sort of out-of-control craft project! I did sew the insoles in place though so they don't slip around while I'm wearing the slippers.

These slippers are really comfy and surprisingly un-slippery on the hardwood floors. I love them! I wish I wore slippers more, so I could justify making a second pair.

Crochet: I'm hooked!

I'm knitting scarves.

Seems ridiculous to knit a wool scarf in the middle of the summer, doesn't it? Well, here's why. I'm teaching my beginner's knitting class again and some of the students had expressed interest in knittng scarves to match the hats we're working on. I wanted to be able to give them patterns that they could easily follow and that were written for just their gauge. So I'm knitting and writing up a few simple, fun scarf patterns.

I've already finished one of those neat keyhole scarves.

It matches my blue hat, so I guess I'm all set for winter. Five months early. (Light summer knits may be more seasonable, but a little worsted weight wool on US8's is a nice break from those fine gauged cottons!)

I'll be adding these beginner's patterns to my free patterns page eventually. But not today. This weekend is Boys' Birthday - Phase Two: Grandma's Visit. "Mo pwesents!"