Knit Picks Cyber Monday Sale!!

Eeeeee, it's getting to be that time of year- cyber Monday sales on yarn and fabric! Knit Picks always has a really good sale, and the best (worst) part is that it lasts like a week, so once you place your initial order you can really think about everything you didn't buy the first time, and you can place your second (third) order(s) before the sale is over. In 2013, I admit to placing three different orders, two of which showed up in the mail on the same day. I was slightly embarrassed about that, but not enough to not do it again. :)

The sale starts Monday, November 14th at 6 am PST, so 8 am my time. I made a shopping list already, even though we don't know what, specifically, will be on sale. It's just so that I don't panic and either buy everything or nothing, both of which I've done before.

I'd love to make the Channel Cardigan in WofA Tweed in Brass Heather, or, if City Tweed is 50% off, I might go with that instead. So pretty. Maybe, if I knit fast, I can finish this one while it's still "winter" here in Louisiana.

I'm also thinking I'd like to make a baby blanket version of Umaro in a machine-washable yarn like Brava Bulky, maybe in Seraphim or Tranquil? Since the baby's room doesn't have things like walls yet, I haven't painted or bought anything, so my baby color palette is wide open. We're thinking of going with a nature theme for the nursery, and I think this blue-green would work well. 

I've got a bunch of other stuff on my shopping list, too, but those are the two big ones. I'm so excited! Because just what I need is a big box of yarn that I a) have no place to store in my tiny temporary apartment, and b) won't have time to knit once the baby is born, but I don't really care. It's been a YEAR and if doing a little yarn shopping will help make me feel better about life, then I'm all for it. I'd highly recommend checking out that sale! 

Getting things knitted

The flood totally messed with my design-submission schedule, so after completing those five designs I was under contract for, I've got a couple self-pubs in progress but that's it- no other magazine designs in progress. I'm using this opportunity to knit a couple things I've been wanting to, but haven't had time for. I figure that now, before the baby's born, this is the time to knit the octopus sweater, even though I won't be able to wear it this year, right?

Number one on my self-indulgent knit list was Marylebone by Bristol Ivy. I started knitting about two weeks ago and holy moly is it quick. I want to have this done so I can wear it at Christmas in the Dakotas, where it actually is cold and I might legitimately freeze to death. I've got the body and one sleeve done. Should be able to finish in a week or two. I do love bulky weight yarn and size 10 needles.

This is probably the cleverest, most interesting construction I've ever seen. The above photo is the saddle of the sleeve, traveling down the sleeve. The cables of the back and front merge to form the saddle. It's wild. I felt like a straight up magician knitting those cable turns. 

Along with Marylebone I'm working on the Star Wars Christmas sweater from my previous post. I switch off between the two based on my feelings. Colorwork and cables have pretty different mindsets. Both are coming along really well, I have to say, and I'm pleased that we'll each have a new sweater for our Christmas trip.

Before Christmas, I also really want to make Kevin's hat from Home Alone. I've had yarn for it for like a year, and it didn't get ruined in the flood- score.

To sum up.
Goals before the baby is born (or really, before Christmas):
Finish Marylebone
Finish the Fair Isle Star Wars Christmas sweater
Knit Octopus sweater
Knit the Home Alone Christmas hat

Let's do this!! I am nothing if not eternally optimistic.

Star Wars Christmas Sweater

Someone please tell me what I was thinking.

I've agreed to knit my husband a Fair Isle Star Wars Christmas sweater, with no pattern. He wants X-wings, Stormtroopers, lightsabers, and the Death Star. Must look like a tacky Christmas sweater. I'm not totally sure what I was doing when I agreed to this- I can't even drink because I'm pregnant, so we can't blame the wine.

Weird judgement aside, I think it will be pretty cool. I normally HATE bottom-up sweaters where you knit body and sleeves, then join them, but that's what I'm doing in this case. I thought about it a lot and it seemed like the best way. I'm doing a circular-yoke pullover, in keeping with the classic Fair Isle theme. I started with a sleeve because I didn't feel like swatching, and a sleeve is basically a big swatch. I'm getting 5 sts/inch, which is a nice, quick gauge, but it doesn't allow for too much detail in the motifs. I wish I could have gotten just a bit more detail in the Stormtroopers, but honestly, they look like what they are, he likes them, moving on.

Pretty desperately needs a blocking.

The body is going to be slightly trickier than the sleeves. He wants a big panel over the chest that has a fight scene with the Death Star and various space ships. There's no way to do it except with intarsia. I'm thinking that I'm going to work in the round up to the panel, split the body into front and back, cast on an extra stitch at each side for seaming, then work back and forth in intarsia. Once the panels are done, I'll seam them together, continue in the round for an inch or so, pretending the seams never happened, then join body and sleeves for the yoke. The yoke will have rebel alliance symbols along with classic Fair Isle motifs.

I'm using Cascade 220 for the main color and the light blue. The white, two grays, red, and green (for lightsabers) are Knit Picks WotA Worsted. I'm planning to duplicate stitch the lightsaber blades in afterwards because I might be nuts, but I'm not crazy. Didn't want to do any three-color rounds. I tried that with the Stormtroopers, but my gauge went all over the place, each round took for-e-ver, and it looked pretty terrible. Ripped it back and did the whole helmet in white, then duplicate stitched the gray over the top. So much faster, so much better.

Stay tuned for progress.

Halloween!

I made some new pillow covers for our couch. I don't know why this isn't a thing that's occurred to me before; new pillow covers are generally pretty quick and are a great way to bring some holiday cheer into the house. I've already got plans for fall and Christmas pillows.

I hand-appliqued some clamshells to the left one. That was not super quick, but I like how it turned out. I used mostly quilting fabrics I had in my stash (most of my quilting fabrics survived the flood- some had rust spots from the pins that were holding them to their storage boards, and some had dye damage from other fabrics, but for the most part, things were saved due to a timely washing) and a couple fat quarters I got at Joann's. The black polka dot fabric is an Etsy purchase, along with the fantastic skeletons on the right pillow. If you look really closely, a few skeletons have bowties. So cute. That pillow was really easy. Just cut two squares, sewed some orange piping around the edge, done. Insta-Halloween.

This section of the couch is less Halloween but definitely still Fall. I'm so proud of that fox. It's a paper piecing pattern I found on Craftsy. I think it was probably a bit ambitious for my first paper piecing project, but why do something if you're not going to jump in all the way, right? He's nowhere near perfect but I love him just the same. I also made that red plaid blanket out of 2 1/2 yards of fleece from Joann's, with black flannel binding around the edge. Fairly quick and easy, really cheap because the fleece was on sale for $2.50 a yard, and it perfectly plays into the red plaid thing I want to get going for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don't know why but Kevin McCallister's house from Home Alone is speaking to me this holiday season. I want everything to be red plaid.  

My jack-o-lantern wishes you a happy Halloween!

FO: Halloween Socks!

I actually finished a pair of socks! That makes an embarrassing two pairs for 2016. I think that I knitted 8 pairs in 2015, so I'm not sure what I'm doing this year, but hey, at least I have Halloween socks now. They look a bit worn because I actually got to wear them the other day- cold front, yay!

Super simple cuff-down, plain stockinette, heel flap. I used Knit Picks Stroll in Pumpkin (how appropriate) and Black, alternating stripes every five rounds. Ribbing, heel flap, and toe in Black. I used like three quarters of the skein of Black and probably less than half of the Pumpkin.

I currently have no socks on the needles. After the flood, when I lost so much of my yarn and crafting supplies, a knitter from my new knit group gave me this yarn that she dyed. (She doesn't have an etsy store, which is one of the biggest shames I've ever heard, but I'm trying to convince her.)

I'm thinking that this yarn is up next, using this pattern- I'd like to have a new pair of socks for our Christmas trip to the Midwest. You know I'll need them. It's so nice to have a to-go sock project for all the time we spend in the doctor's office waiting room these days. It feels like my ob is always running late, so I can usually get a good portion of a sock done while we sit there. And if I don't get the socks done before Christmas I can knit them on the plane. Socks (or, I suppose, mittens) are the best for plane knitting because there's less of a chance of elbowing your next-door-neighbor. I've totally done that before and people tend to not appreciate it- weird.

Whew.

This was my Saturday. So fun.

It's been about six weeks since my house flooded. I have never had a more insane part of life, including when we moved from California to Delaware. Every single day is spent running out to the house to demolish something else, replacing things that were lost, meeting with the contractor/plumber/framer/mold remediator/FEMA people, filing paperwork for the car/house/rental assistance/insurance/whatever, trying to get the apartment into livable shape, trying to find things that it turns out were actually lost, etc. It's exhausting, physically and mentally. On top of that, I'm pregnant, so it's been extra exhausting for me.

When the house flooded, I was under contract for five different magazine designs. I honestly wasn't sure I'd be able to complete any of them, but today I'm mailing off samples number 3 and 4. Number 5 is still with the sample knitter, and it's coming along splendidly, so I'm proud of myself for managing to pull this off. I have no idea how I did it. I doubt I could do it again. I'm sure it could have been done better. But it's done.

Therefore, a reward. I've been thinking about a maternity wardrobe for the fall/winter. Mostly, I don't want to buy a bunch of maternity clothes when a) we don't have a lot of disposable income, because everything is going towards replacing everything we lost in the flood (PSA: get insurance coverage for your "stuff," not just your house. 100% worth it, can't tell you how much I wish we'd had that coverage.), b) I have no storage space in this dinky temporary apartment, and c) I'm honestly not sure I want more than one kid, so I don't want a bunch of clothes that I wear for only like 4 months then never need again. I think I've come up with a decent solution: "toppers." I'm thinking that if I can get away with my normal jeans (using this trick and this trick), plus a few super basic maternity tees and tanks (in solids and stripes, maybe a simple print or two), I can jazz everything up with what I'm calling "toppers." Cardigans, blazers, vests, anything that opens in the front and can be worn that way without looking stupid- that's what I'm going for.

Photo copyright Hillary Smith Callis

I decided that because I finished most of my contract work, and because things are finally starting to feel calmer around here, and because dang it I deserve it, I cast on Hillary Smith Callis's Mielie Vest the other night. Totally fits my planned pregnancy wardrobe, PLUS I'm re-purposing a bunch of Malabrigo Worsted from a sweater I designed in, I think, 2010. The sweater was saved from the flood because it was in a big ziplock. I don't know why, but I'm glad my past self did that. I wore the sweater only once because I realized after it was done that I had done decreases for the waist, but had forgotten to increase back up for the bust. It was not comfy. (I was new to designing, so I'm not that upset with my past self.) That sweater design ultimately became Gillywater. And now, the yarn is going to be a vest. Life is a full circle and all that.

It's been the biggest mental relief to knit something from someone else's pattern, in a decently large (18 sts/4") gauge. I am SO HAPPY while making this. Everything lately has been my designs, in sport weight. So tired of that. I admit that I didn't soak the yarn after unraveling the sweater. I was impatient. I don't care. It's fine. After everything that's happened, I'm allowed to be the boss of the yarn, and if that means that I don't want to soak out the kinks then dang it I'm not going to. I'm in control of something, at least.

September Keeping Home Collection

Every month Knit Picks released a free three-piece "Keeping Home" collection for either the kitchen or bathroom, and September is my month!

all photos courtesy of Knit Picks

My collection is the Bit of Whimsy bath set, a three-piece set made up of a hand towel, a washcloth, and a washing mitt.

The hand towel features a fun, sort of unusual bubble-looking stitch pattern at the ends. You could use one color for all three rows of bubbles, or three different colors, or a pop of color in the middle like the sample.

The washcloth very helpfully reminds you to "wash" in intarsia! This is a great project to practice intarsia if a) you've never done it before, or b) you're not too familiar with it and want to try it on a small scale.

The washing mitt it pretty much a big mitten with no thumb. A loop-stitch pad is sewn onto the palm side of the mitten and will get that soap nice and sudsy. Lots of uses for this thing- wash your baby, your car, the dog, yourself, whatever. I bet kids would get a kick out of using it in the bath.

All three pieces are knitted with Knit Picks Shine Sport. You could also use Comfy Sport if you aren't into shiny yarns- not that Shine is too shiny, but if it's not your thing it's not your thing.