Archive for the ‘FO’ Category
So I abandoned the hat as a gift idea for the new baby, and decided to get rid of some of the stash sock yarn I had on hand and make a Monkey from the Itty Bitty Toys book. I love the patter, but I cannot believe this yarn. This poor monkey is fairly hideous.
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| From Baby Stuff |
Seriously – this is a face that ONLY a baby could love…
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| From Baby Stuff |
While I was working on that, I was listening to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off, and found out about a scrap-eating project called the Traveler’s Life Afghan, which is a blanket made with every bit of scrap yarn left over from finished projects. Each row knit into the blanket is a different scrap of yarn. It’s a very cool idea! I spent much of Saturday going through all of my scraps of yarn and updating Ravelry. Then I went to Fuzzy Wuzzy yarns with some friends and knit, and bought the needles I needed to start it. When I got home, I started to put the yarn in chronological order (thanks to my Ravelry project list for keeping track of it), and Tux would NOT LEAVE IT ALONE! This is after much subduing and picking up..
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| From Misc Pics |
She decided that she loved the Cashmerino more than anything.
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| From Misc Pics |
She was also a fan of the Misti Alpaca.
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| From Misc Pics |
More to come on my other project that I resurrected from the depths. 
Hi there! Yeah, it’s been a while, but I have a *really* good excuse! Ready?
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| From Misc Pics |
This happened.
Yeah, Miss Abby Never-getting-married-never-having-children Jamaca is now Abby Wife-step-mother-of-two-mom-to-be Dryer. You may take a moment to tell me that you told me so. I’ll try not to block you out.
So, moving on! After three months of Why-do-they-call-it-morning-sickness-when-it-happens-all-day fun, I’ve finally started to find my motivation to do something other than fall asleep on the couch before 8pm. Seriously, I didn’t have the energy to eat or drink, let alone knit. It was quite horrible. But now, I’m getting back to normal (thank you, modern science and 2nd trimester!)
So, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I have only finished 4 things THIS YEAR. (Does my yarn know that it’s almost April? I won’t tell if you won’t!) First, I’ll show you the most adorable thing that has ever been made by human hands (if I do say so myself) This was mostly knit in 2011, but I finally got around to finishing the flowers and sewing on the buttons sometime in early March.
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| From 2012 FOs |
I am totally in love with this thing, and really hope that the recipient gets a lot of use out of it. (and to the recipient’s grandmother, I’d love a modeled shot for the blog!)
I also tried to make a hat to match the dress, but as the title of this post says, I have a problem with hats.
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| From 2012 FOs |
I think the hat is about as big as the skirt. It fits ME. This kid will be wearing this hat WAY after knitted bonnets aren’t cool anymore. whoops.
Then I finished another hat. This one I made specifically for me, so you’d think that it would fit me, right? Wrong. I refer to it as my silk alpaca bucket, because it looks like a bucket on my head. (although it is warm, so Chicago Winter doesn’t win as many battles against my ears)
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| From 2012 FOs |
Now here’s my most embarrassing hat failure so far. A friend of mine recently had a baby, and I tried to design a hat for him (before I knew it was a him). I tried to pick a gender-neutral-but-still-cool yarn, so I pulled out my shibui sock yarn and picked up my favorite knitpicks needles. I looked up a few patterns to see how many to cast on, and added a few, because the last baby hat I made (other than the purple one) looked like this.
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| From Baby Stuff |
Yeah, that poor child had a red ring around his head for a while after that particular outing. I wanted to avoid such head trauma for this child, so I made it a little loose… or so I thought.
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| From 2012 FOs |
Yup, that’s a baby hat. On my head. And it’s loose. This goes quite a bit beyond ”loose-fitting baby hat”…
This wouldn’t be too embarrassing, but the truth is, due to my aforementioned ‘condition’, it took THREE MONTHS to make this hat. Seriously. THREE MONTHS to make a hat that HAS NO CHANCE OF FITTING THE RECIPIENT FOR AT LEAST A DECADE.
Yeah, awesome.
I’m working on a pair of socks now for Ed… I constantly check the size on his foot, so I know those will fit. Based on my current 2012 speed, he’ll have socks sometime in 2013. Woo!
Since my last post, many things have happened. First, I quit my job. I got a very good offer at another company, and after much soul-searching, and career planning, I decided to take it. Today is my last day here. (sadness)
However, since I was leaving, I had to make sure that I lived up to my promise of making a hat for a co-worker who has been very supportive of all my knitting adventures. He is very happy with it, and even likes to wear it inside out sometimes!
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| From Hats |
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| From Hats |
I also finally got around to making the fishie hat to go with my butterfly hat. Unfortunately, it didn’t come out as big as I had anticipated (largely due to me strangling the yarn in the back, creating ‘waves’ on the front)
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| From Hats |
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| From Hats |
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| From Hats |
I now only have two things on the needles, and both are big. One is the train scarf that, because it is a scarf, NEVER ENDS! I am almost halfway done with the second (and final) passenger car, then I need to do the caboose, then I’m DONE! (although I’m not sure that will ever happen…)
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| From Train Scarf |
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| From Train Scarf |
I also put my sweater back on the needles. The length wasn’t right, and I have PLENTY of yarn left over, so I’m going to keep at it until I run out of yarn.
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| From Fun with Sweaters |
Jason has asked for fingerless mitts, so I think that will be my next ‘travel’ project… we’ll see!
So when I went to California, I had presents with me for my two nieces and one nephew.
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| From Misc Pics |
Also, I finished the hat for Ashur.
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| From Baby Stuff |
I was spending some quality time with my niece, and she was writing on her newly-acquired paper-sized white-board. Out of the blue, she asked “How you spell the word please?” I encouraged her to sound it out, and then realized that it is a difficult word to sound out and spell correctly, so I told her it was spelled “PLEE- AY-ZEE” and we worked through the proper spelling. She wouldn’t show me what she was writing, though – so that added a challenge.
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| From Misc Pics |
A few minutes later, she proudly turned the white board over so that I could see her writing
Will you please mack me sumpin?
I said “Sure! What would you like?” She said she wanted a really REALLY long scarf. I’m fairly certain everyone here knows how I feel about scarves. They NEVER. END. …and a really REALLY long scarf really REALLY never ends! Nevertheless, she is my niece, and I will make what she wants… So we started talking colors. We reviewed the colors of the purses that I made for her last birthday, and she said she wanted a dark pink.
About 10 minutes later, she said “Or you could make me a hat like Ashur’s! Then we could be TWINS!”
And so… Dear Morgan… this is almost on its way to you!
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| From Hats |
Right after I figure out what kind of embellishment to put on it. What do you guys think of this button-thing?
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| From Hats |
I *finally* finished the fingerless gloves – now known as my fingerless lovelies, because they are so pretty!
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| From Adventures in Lace |
I couldn’t be happier with them. They are warm, pretty, and I can wear them in the office when the air conditioner would otherwise make me freeze.
The older boy saw them and wants a pair (no lace in his though). The younger one will want a pair too… I better get crackin’!
So I’ve been doing a lot of writing (although not here) and a lot of working (also not here), but I’ve also been doing a fair bit of knitting.
I finished Ashur’s hat, using some scrap cashmerino wool for the top. He didn’t mind
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| From Baby Stuff |
I flew to California for a family visit, and managed to get in some good Train knitting on the Plane. I’m now almost done with the first passenger car, and I’m getting very excited about it!
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| From Train Scarf |
While I was in California, my sister-in-law asked for a hat, and after much debate about ‘good yarn’ and ‘yarn stores’, I agreed to *try* JoAnn Fabrics (I’m a bit of a yarn-store snob). I found out that Lion Brand Yarn makes Cashmerino! After the store, I cast on as soon as we were in the car, and 4 hours later, Natalie had a hat.
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| From Hats |
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| From Hats |
I also finished a bonnet and pair of booties for a friend of a friend who had a baby girl.
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| From Baby Stuff |
I’m still working on my fingerless gloves. Every time I think I’m close and try them on, I realize that they are NOT done.
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| From Adventures in Lace |
However, sometimes, I need some simple knitting, and my shrug-bolero-thingie just wasn’t long enough… so I ripped out the cast-on edge and I’m gonna at least finish another skein of yarn before I decide what to do with it.
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| From Fun with Sweaters |
So I had all kinds of good intentions with blogging about this sweater. There were all kinds of “entertaining” pitfalls, tangles, dropped stitches, new techniques, etc.
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| From Fun with Sweaters |
Like this lovely knot that loved to visit every time I pulled the knitting out!
Or like when I forgot to do an increase for the shoulder, and had to rip back two rows of stitches, and then pick them all up… yeah, that sucked… but the picture didn’t really show what truly happened, and by the time I was near a computer again, the pain had receded, and I was excited to be near the sleeves.
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| From Fun with Sweaters |
The stars show the increase stitches. See the missing star? No you don’t… because it’s MISSING!
Then I was going to show off what the sweater looked like when the sleeves were separated… but I was so excited to have made so much progress, I just kept on going.
Then I was going to show what two skeins of yarn looked like in partial-sweater form… but I was so excited, I kept knitting…
Then I was going to blog about how important edging was… to avoid curling… with the added bonus of how to do icord edging… but before I knew what was going on, I was almost a third of the way through the edging…
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| From Fun with Sweaters |
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| From Fun with Sweaters |
And then all of the sudden, I woke up, the sweater was done, and I was wearing it to work!
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| From Fun with Sweaters |
How do these things happen?
All in all, I have officially shoved my ‘never make a sweater’ foot in my mouth… and I can’t wait to start another one. Maybe the next one will be a longer one….
So, I know I haven’t really posted a lot lately, and my paltry excuses for posting I’ve done this month have been a little ‘phoned in’… but I have LOTS to share today… so bare with me.
First, FOs… Finished Objects.
The Mobius Cowl… Finished it outside Starbucks on Friday two weeks ago, washed and blocked it on Saturday – it was finally dry and ready to give to my mom on Monday… Still need a modeled shot, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out – and I’m still fascinated by the construction of it – from the inside out, with a twist… amazing.
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| From Warm Stuff |
Second Swiffer Thingy… Even though my own mother mocked me heartily regarding my genius creation… the woolen, reusable duster… she decided that she must have one. Since she did get me a dishwasher and a stove last weekend, I made a duster for her. Now she will be constantly reminded of her foolish mockery of my genius as she sweeps dust bunnies out of her home.
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| From Oddities |
Now for WIPS… Works in Progress
Heirloom Blanket… the story of this blanket deserves its own post, which I will get to soon. Suffice to say, this blanket is very special. So special that I have decided to take up crocheting again just to finish it.
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| From Misc Pics |
Train Scarf... I had to take a train to Springfield. It was a 2.5 hour train ride, followed by a 1.5 hour bus ride. I thought it would be funny to work on the train while riding a train. I finally finished the engine car, and I’m working on the coal car. I think the train may be the only place that this scarf can be worked on – so few distractions…. I may need to figure out how to take more trains for long rides in order to get this done…
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| From Train Scarf |
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| From Train Scarf |
Meret Scarf… This one is inching by… I’m ready for it to be done, but it isn’t ready yet… It’s my purse project… so it will get done eventually…
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| From Warm Stuff |
I finished the Swiffer last night, and dusted the base of a table that had slowly gotten lighter and lighter over time. The table is now the dark-wood color that I so fondly remember.
Moral of the story? The Wool Swiffer Cover WORKS!
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| From Oddities |
…and it doesn’t look too shabby if you ask me!
Two points for creativity, and one point for stashbusting!
okay, enough about Ashur… He’s adorable and all, but I have no new news about him… so back to our regularly scheduled Knitting program…
Socks.
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| From Socks |
Are done.
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| From Socks |
I was noticing that the pattern for the ankle was a bit tight, and I was afraid that it wouldn’t fit on my leg. That, and the fact that I wanted to show off when I went out with some friends on Saturday night, made me bind them off a few (5) inches early, and call them ankle socks.
I like them, they are soft, and comfy (once you go through the exercise of getting them onto your foot, which is a challenge) …but I’m not sure that I EVER want to make socks out of fingering weight yarn EVER again. It. Takes. So. Long. and I’m not even sure they feel all that different from store-bought – at least on *my* feet. <ducking to avoid the projectile dpns from sock knitters around the world…>
My dearest husband is excited that I’m done with my socks, because he thinks that it means that I’m going to start his second pair of (black) socks right away. They are worsted weight, and the yarn is a nice tweedy-black yarn, but I’m not really all that up to socks right now… so he’ll have to wait a week or two before I get started.
Here’s what I’ve got on the needles right now…
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| From Warm Stuff |
a scarf to match a hat that I made for Christmas. This one is on it’s “third time’s a charm” iteration, as I figure out how to get it to look the way I’m envisioning. I think we might have it… And do you see how adorable those stitch markers are? Ladybugs!!
Then…
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| From Warm Stuff |
my first Mobius Cowl. This is the most fascinating thing I’ve ever made… It’s one of those things that I have a ‘vision’ for, but won’t actually get to see if I succeeded until it’s off the needles. Remember the ruffle scarf physics? Kind of like that… but with softer malabrigo, and a much bigger project. :-)
