Button Back Mitts

Wednesday night, I heard rumors of approaching snow and was quite skeptical. I’ve heard these tales before but this one actually turned out to be true. When I looked out the window Thursday morning, snow was falling at a lovely diagonal. The flakes were so heavy that they didn’t land. They plopped. Dry snow this was not. Still, it’s snow and I took the opportunity to get some photos of knitwear in it’s natural environment.

Button Back Mitts by Cosette Cornelius-Bates

Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) 

Dates: December 29, 2012 - January 17, 2013

@Ravelry

This is another pattern that’s been sitting in the queue for ages. I finally decided to cast on for them the last time it got cold and didn’t have anything wooly or long enough to cover my fingers. Putting these mitts on instantaneously warms my hands. I’d like to think that it’s because I’m using my own wonderful 3-ply handspun (it debuted as the sea a few months back) but it’s probably just the thicker than normal layer of wool. Either way, still great. 

The mitts are also extra special because this is the first time I’ve really knit with my own handspun. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I worried about the gauge. I worried about the stitches being too open where the yarn was thin. I worried about the stitches being too bulky and bulging where the yarn was thick. I worried about running out of yarn since this was the only skein I had. Eventually, I just put those anxieties on the shelf and knit a swatch. I picked the needle size that gave me a nice fabric and got to work.  I kept an eye out for problems and tried on the mitts frequently. Know what I found? Perfectly good yarn that knit up evenly and at a consistent gauge. There were no open spots or bulging stitches. There were no breaks. There was just a good, solid yarn that I would love to knit with again. Handspun, I’m officially and unapologetically in love.

Back to the mitts. The fact that I could knit them long enough to cover my fingers and fold back the extra fabric when it wasn’t needed is what made me queue these mitts to begin with. Cute buttons don’t hurt either. To get the best coverage and the most out of the yarn, I knit the mitts from the fingers down and completely reversed the pattern. Used the same numbers though. 

While I was photographing the mitts, the snow was already starting to melt and turn to slush. See you next time, snow. I’ll be waiting with handspun mitts.

Needles and Wool

Normally, whenever needles and wool come up in the same sentence, knitting is the first thing that comes to mind. I carry around knitting in my purse. There is an untold number of slightly finished project sitting around my house. Don’t even get me started about yarn. It’s safe to say that I have knitting on the brain. So, at 2013’s first fiber guild meeting, I was presently surprised to learn about a different crafty combination of needles and wool - needle felting. 

To needle felt, you really only need 3 things: a foam pad, wool roving, and a needle. It’s that simple but you can’t use just any needle. The necessary needle definitely isn’t a knitting needle or sewing needle but a thin piece of metal with barbs and a sharp point at one end. Once you have a small ball of roving and the foam pad to work on, just start stabbing. It’s vicious. It’s cathartic. It’s occasionally a bloody experience if you spear one of your fingers.  When the original ball is compacted, add more fiber, keep stabbing, and slowly sculpt the wool to it’s final shape. Then you can add color, embellishments, and numerous details.

I got to experiment with needle felting by making a heart shaped pincushion. Other guild members made hearts that looked sculpted and delicate. My heart looks like one of those chalky, valentine candies that I eat every year because they are inescapable. I’m tempted to add some sort of abbreviated and completely inappropriate message. 

Repeatedly stabbing a defenseless ball of wool was pretty fun. Plus, I only pricked my fingers a few times and didn’t draw any blood. It was really interesting to watch wool transform from something soft and fluffy to compact and solid. The finished heart is still soft and definitely wooly but very different from the cushy yarn I’m used to working with. FYI, sculpting wool is definitely harder than it looks. The felting process is easy but requires patience, an eye for detail, and practice. It’s not that different from knitting after all.

When I left the meeting, I knew I had fun but wasn’t sure if I wanted to try needle felting again. The heart’s been on on my desk and I keep coming up with all these things I could make. Cool, geeky things. Plus, I’ve got lots of roving leftover from finished skeins of handspun. Looks like I’ll be getting some felting needles soon. 

Incremental January: Week 3

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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De-cluttering continues. Clothes, books, shoes, and yarn have been sorted and rearranged. There are bags of stuff sitting by the door just waiting to be donated or traded-in. I’ve even cleaned out my car. Still, there’s a lot to do and the work continues.

This week, I’m still going to be focusing on the space around me but I’m also going to work on cleaning up the digital space. This week isn’t just about freeing up space on my hard drive. This week is about getting back my time, cutting out distractions, and saving my attention for the things that really need it. The 10+ emails in my inbox every morning trying to sell me stuff are not worth my time. So, this week I am going to:

• Edit account settings to reduce the amount of email various sites send me every day.
• Unsubscribe from newsletters that I’m just not excited about anymore.
• Clean up my RSS feeds. Blogs and comics that don’t hold my attention? Gone. Sites that post more 3-5 times a day? Bye-bye. Etsy shops I’m not fond of anymore? (Yes, Etsy shops have RSS feeds).  Deleted. My wallet is already sighing with relief. 
• Stop emails from social networks saying that someone has commented/pinned/tagged whatever I’ve posted. It‘s just distracting and hides the important stuff in my inbox. I’m already going to the site whether I get an email or not. 
• Delete bookmarks to sites that are no longer relevant or dead.
• Delete blurry and unusable photos. Must make room for the good ones. 
• Uninstall programs that I will never use and forgot about because I found something better.

Now if I could just stop checking my email or Ravelry or Reddit every time I get bored, I’d have a lot more time on my hands.

Fili & Kili

Internet, meet Fili the Mouse. He moved in rather recently and has become my new desk buddy. I’ve since learned that he likes Hawaiian pizza, zombie movies, and long books. He’s also quite fond of knitting and the occasional Sci-Fi reference. I think we’re going to get along just fine.

One of his habits is storing things away in his pot and rummaging around for them later. That pot must be larger on the inside than the outside because I’ve seen him pull out huge wheels of cheese, boxes of crackers, and then pull out  numerous skeins of handspun yarn. Really have to find out who makes his pots.

This is is Fili’s friend, Kili. Kili doesn’t have a beard or even a mustache but greatly admires them both. The pair likes to go on adventures though they’re generally home before dark. I’m pretty sure they’re saving up for backpacks and a good camp stove for a journey to Lonely Mountain. Hope they don’t run into any trolls and keep an eye out for dragons.

Fili’s pattern and yarn related details can be found here.

Double Meow

Now that both of these frisky felines have gone to their new homes, I can finally introduce them to you. First up is the daring Ninja Cat with his glowing green eyes and stealthy paws. Second, is the striped and inquisitive Bumblebee. It was hard to let them go since they both looked so cute lounging on the furniture.

I knit them both with the same yarns, the same needle, and from the same heavily-modified pattern. The only difference was that I made Bumblebee with stripes. Even though I’ve been knitting for years,  I still find it amazing how small changes can drastically affect the finished object. Ninja Cat grew to be short and round while Bumblebee turned out tall and narrow. Both are stuffed with a few pebbles at the bottom to help them sit up. See the pattern, yarns, needle, and modifications on the public Ravelry page.

One of the neighborhood cats stopped by for a visit and just had to check out the newcomers. After the initial stare down, Ninja Cat and Bumblebee were deemed worthy of her attention. Then she had a fine time knocking them over. They mostly landed on their feet.

Incremental January

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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After taking a break through December and enjoying the holidays, I’m ready to get back to work. There are things to do, butts to kick, and yarn that won’t knit it itself. 2013 has arrived and I’m going to make it a year to remember. In order to do that, I need to start now and make daily, regular process. None of this waiting to the last minute stuff or running around like a headless chicken. 

The Too Long, Didn’t Read Version: Start now. Finish stuff. Be awesome. 

My theme for 2013 was to approach life with bold enthusiasm and there are a few things I need to clear up first to make that easier. Okay, make that a multitude of things. January's Incremental Project is to de-clutter and clean up my own little space in the world. It’s not really a skill - like spinning yarn or sketching - but it will make those things and daily life easier. If everything has a place, I won’t have to wander the house looking for a pair of scissors or spend 10 minutes trying to find my favorite shirt. That whole “Bold Enthusiasm” thing is much easier when I don’t waste my energy trying to find random object x. 

Yesterday, there was cleaning and scrubbing and vacuuming. This week there will be sorting, bagging, and dropping off/trading in all that stuff I don’t have a place for anymore. I might even tackle a closet but I’ll probably put that off until next week. Wish me luck.

Another Year, Another Blanket

I love knitting blankets. I love casting on a few stitches at the center and slowly multiplying them to hundreds upon hundreds of stitches at the border. I love watching blankets grow from the size of a hat to something I could snuggle up under. So, as a Christmas gift to myself, I took a swan dive into the stash and came up with 4 skeins of Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool for the Norma Blanket. The pattern had been tempting me since it was released and seeing a friend’s finished blanket pushed me over the edge. 

I’ve been adding rows every few days and the lacy goodness is slowly growing. It’s bigger than the crown of a hat but not large enough to cover my lap or fill up a whole circular needle. I’m in no hurry though and completely enjoying this bit of selfish knitting. I’ll be back to knitting things for others soon enough. 

Anyone else enjoying a break from knitting for others?

2013

Hello, my fellow time travelers, and welcome to 2013! I’m quite happy to have seen 2012 out the door and I’m looking forward to kicking off the new year right. Last year, I had a few resolutions which, to be completely honest, I’ve completely forgotten about. Haven’t even bothered to look them up but they’re probably a mixed bag of success and failure. Instead of a long, blown out list of resolutions, I’m going with a theme this year all thanks to a lowly fortune cookie. Normally, I don’t put much stock into the prophetic power of fortune cookies. It’s much more fun to go around the table reading their innards aloud and tacking “between the sheets” on the end. More laughs that way. A few weeks ago at lunch, my fortune cookie’s advice was:

Approach all areas of life with a bold enthusiasm this year. 

After the reading and the necessary wink, I slipped the fortune into my pocket where it somehow survived the trip back home to my desk. I found it while cleaning out the drawers on December 30th and decided 2013 could use a bit of bold enthusiasm. 

I still have a few goals in mind - toning up, practicing yoga, designing more knitting patterns, saving up for a spinning wheel, etc - all of which could benefit from a bit of enthusiasm but I’m more interested in changing my mindset for the better rather than solely focusing on a disjointed set of resolutions. If I do it right, my goals will fall in nicely no matter the amount of work.  Time for me to hit the ground running. 

Anyone else running with a theme this year or a few resolutions? Good luck!

Small Knitting

I took a slightly different approach to gift knitting this year. The list was shorter. The gifts were smaller. The last minute requests were filed away for a later date. Not rushing to KNIT ALL THE THINGS saved my bacon this year. Plus, not every gift I give has to be something I knitted. I had my list and, aside from some mid-game additions, stuck to it. I wish I could say I started early too but that didn’t happen. I just went small and that’s worth celebrating.

Definitely the tiniest thing I knit was a cosy for my Dad’s iPod. It’s a previous generation and there was next to no chance of finding a case for it. A few quick sketches and 13.6 yards of Knit Picks Comfy Sport later, the case was made.

Washcloths made an appearance this year too. The cream cloth is Grandmother’s Favorite in Knit Picks Dishie. I increased to 50 sts before starting the decreases to compensate for the smaller gauge.  The purple cloth is All Washed Up by Jill Arnush in Sugar’n Cream (Country Mauve). I can’t wait to knit the pattern for myself in kitchen towel size. It’s easy, memorizable, and reversible. What’s not to like?

Also on the small list: the annual ornament, two ribbed hats, and two not yet mentioned goodies. I’m not sure if I go small again next year or just start early. What I do know is that I’m not loathing the gift knitting or working on IOU’s which are both good things.

Whirled Purple

Normally, when I write about my homespun, it’s sitting within petting distance on my desk. I pick up the yarn, poke it, bounce it up and down in my hands, and even nuzzle it on occasion. None of that’s happening this time because I shipped off this skein to be a Christmas present to the lovely Christen -  knitter, crocheter, and photographer extraordinaire. She has a weakness for lace, shawls, fine yarn, and the color purple. I am all to happy to oblige her in all of these things and spun the yarn, the first handspun I’ve ever gifted, with her in mind from beginning to end. It’ll be funny if she knits (or crochets) with my handspun before I do.

I finished the yarn just in time to mail it off for Christmas but only because I used a hair dryer to speed up the drying. 89g of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Roving (Amethyst Heather) turned into 292 yds of fingering - sport weight yarn. The singles were spun on a 22g spindle from Dawning Dreams and plied on 2.2 oz Schacht Hi-Lo spindle. A number of movies and podcasts made the process move pretty quickly but I’m ready to spin colors that aren’t purple now. Grey and yellow are on top of the list.

Cheers!

I cut things a little close this year but the annual ornament tradition continues. 2009 saw a stocking, 2010 had mittens, and 2011 got a stocking hat. 2012 gets a cuddly and portly house complete with doors, windows, our initials, the year, and a smoking chimney. The ornament has a high profile spot on the tree and makes me smile every time I walk past. 

I hope you’re enjoying the holidays with lots of food, good company, and piles of finished gifts. Cheers!

Done

Something amazing has happened. All of my Christmas knitting, at least all the stuff I had to make for other people, is finished. In the 6 years since I learned to knit, this is the first time I haven’t had to give out IOU’s or show off stitches still on the needles. Bonus, today isn’t even the end of the world.

To celebrate I’m giving in to the urge to cast on something fun for myself and completely without a deadline. Over a year ago I bought a kit to make Mousie by Ysolda Teague and it’s been sitting in my stash until today. I’ve got grand weekend plans of doing as little as possible, knitting a cute mouse, and enjoying good company. 

If you’re still in the throes of holiday knitting, I wish you speedy needles, tangle-free yarn, and errata free patterns. Good luck. I’m cheering for you.  

Lists = Good

My love for lists is no secret. To-do lists, grocery lists, and check lists have all served me well over the years. Now that there’s only a week until Christmas, the handy list is keeping me sane. This weekend, I was able to cross 3 things off the to-make list. Awesome. This great and powerful list also tells me there’s only 3 things left to make which is great since the list seems so much longer in my head. 

Another thing that’s keeping me sane on the knitting front is ignoring all those last minute requests. I’m just filing them away as future gift ideas and not worrying about them in the slightest.  Less stress and more sleep that way.

Also keeping the stress down is knowing how much I’ve already accomplished. These 2 hats were added to the list late in the game but finished with time to spare. Never underestimate the strength of simple hats, nice yarn, and manly colors. Add in some entertaining movies to stave off boredom and you’re good to go. 

Pattern: Squared Away Ribbed Watch Cap by Oftroy

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash - Grey (900) and Navy (854)

Needles: US 6 (4 mm)

Dates: Dec 5 - 16, 2012

@Ravelry

This is the second and third time I’ve knit this pattern and seems to be my default guy hat. It’s simple but the squared decreases add a nice touch. It’s good travel knitting and good tv knitting which is great since 9” of ribbing gets tiresome pretty quickly. Totally worth it though.

Origami Stars

Now that my Christmas cards are in the mail and winging their ways across the States, it’s time to show off the goodness inside: origami ornaments. I like to make ornaments every year for the tree and add them as special touches with friends’ gifts. This year, I’m taking a break from knitted leaves, birds, stockings, mittens, and pom-poms for origami. There’s no lack of holiday knitting around here and origami is a nice change. The ornaments are much faster to fold than to knit, easy to make, and just the right size to mail to friends across the country.

There are tons of instructions for origami stars across the internet and I fell for the Robin Star by Maria Sinayskaya. This video helped clear up some of the more complicated parts of the folding and assembly. I used 3” foil origami paper and the completed stars came out 4” across. The only thing I changed was to tuck the “triangle”, that is normally folded behind all layers, under the last layer to hide the paper’s wrong side.  Once all the stars were folded, a hole punch (an awl would work too) and some craft thread quickly turned the bunch into ornaments. 

After folding 20 of these stars I have a few tips :

1. Don’t wait to the last minute. The stars are quick to make but won’t just appear in your hands. I made mine over the course of a week. 
2. Assembly line the process. Once I’d picked the paper for a particular star, I worked the same fold on all the pieces before moving to the next step. Seemed to make the whole process go a lot faster.
3. Practice first. Before I started using the small, foil squares, I practiced making the stars from larger paper. I was able to memorize the steps and make sure the process wasn’t too finicky before making the real thing.

Incremental 5K: Week 9 & December

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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How is it December already? My internal clock says it should still be October or the beginning of November at the latest. It seems like I should be just starting my 5K training instead of in Week 9 and not having all that much to show for it. Last week, I should have gone out running 3 days a week. The weather was wonderful and the park nearby but I spent the entire week sick. Again. My lungs were trying to climb up out of my chest any way they could. Didn’t succeed though. So, here it is, week 9 of my training, the supposed end date, and I’m no where close to being able to run a 5K. Am I frustrated? Yes. Am I giving up? No. Assuming the weather cooperates this week and leaves my lungs alone, I’m going back to my laps. 

I’m going to keep pounding the pavement and working towards running a 5K in December but not as an Incremental Project. It’ll be a nice goal to keep running in the background but I have a larger goal in sight. January 2013 really isn’t as far away as it seems and there’s a lot I want to take care of before the year is out. So, my Incremental Project for December is to finish projects, tie up loose ends, and start planning for next year. Weekly posting on this topic will probably be slim but, rest assured, I’ll be hard at work. 2013 is going to be awesome and I want to be ready for it. 

Store Singles on Chopsticks

I love chopsticks. Have for years and I’ve got quite the collection now. I have chopsticks made of wood, plastic, metal, and ceramic. I have lacquered chopsticks, orange chopsticks, and red chopsticks. The collection has chopsticks that say Happy Birthday, that are inlayed with Mother of Pearl, and others that are decorated with ukiyo-e samurai. I took a selection of these off to college with me. Based on the look on my roommate’s face, you’d think eating fruit cups with chopsticks was weird or something. Also part of the collection are several sets of plain, black chopsticks. They sat in the silverware drawer for years and I always picked more decorative pairs instead. Well, I found a much better use for those plain jane chopsticks: storing singles.

A chopstick and the shaft of a spindle aren’t that different. The two share similar and compatible lengths and diameters. Both have been sanded, perhaps finished with paint or stain, and are smooth to the touch. A finished cop - the mass of single wrapped around the shaft - slides easily without snags or tangles along both. A chopstick is more durable than a straw and can even be used as part of an improvised lazy kate. As a bonus, chopsticks are fairly cheap and come in a range of styles so you can afford to pair up all your spindles with a few sets.

To transfer, all you have to do is slide the cop off the spindle and on to the chopstick. If the spindle has a tapered shaft, slide the cop onto a straw first and then the chopstick so that the diameters match. With the chopstick full of proto-yarn, the spindle is free and clear for more spinning.

A Happy Diversion

I have grudgingly come to terms with the fact that Christmas and all the deadlines associated with it are less than a month away. All of my knitting, spinning, and general crafty time has been dominated by holiday making. My needles are full. My spindle is heavy. My hands keep cranking out ornaments. As all consuming as it is, I’d rather be working on all this now when I’ve still got some time to spare than waiting till the last minute. Still, my brain rebels every once and awhile and I make something for myself just to take the edge off of the ever looming deadlines. 

Say hello, again, to the little robin cross stitch. He’s not an amorphous blob this time and actually looks like a bird. No name yet but he’s been great at keeping my hands busy during audiobook and podcast sessions. Best of all, no deadline. If I finish him in December, great. If he doesn’t end up on the wall until January, that’s great too. So, if you’re like me and already feeling a bit burned out by the holidays, do something fun for yourself before diving back into the mess. A happy diversion really helps.

Incremental 5K: Week 8

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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Simply put, last week’s 5k training was golden. The weather saw fit to be warm and sunny. The park wasn’t too crowded and I made good time. I saw this really weird looking spider. The fact that I only noticed him because he mysteriously appeared on my hand isn’t important. I followed all the prompts from my training app without too much grumbling. Plus, my headphones managed to stay in my ears most of the time. The best part though was that I finally noticed some progress. After spending 3 miles walking/running, I was sore and thirsty but not completely winded. All the cardio seems to be paying off. Let’s hope the trend continues this week.

Pattern: Keep It Simple Hat

Another Thanksgiving has passed and I hope you had a great day even if it was just another Thursday. Now, Black Friday is upon us. As someone who has worked retail on this frenetic day, there is no way that I am venturing anywhere near a mall or major shopping center today. I might not even leave the house which sounds like a great idea to me. While I’m here, have a hat...pattern.

The Keep It Simple (KIS) Hat is a slouchy hat with a garter brim and simple Fair Isle stripes. It’s meant to be a match for the Keep It Simple Mitts which I designed way back in November 2010. I can’t believe it’s taken me 2 years complete the set. This hat follows all the guidelines I set for those mitts: a simple pattern in worsted weight yarn, a little color work to keep things interesting, a nice use for all those leftover bits, and a quick, attractive knit. I knit the larger size in just 3 days.

The first pair of mitts, I knit as a gift but this first hat is all mine. I’ve already put it to good use on a few  cold, windy days. Thanks to all the different colors, it’s a great match to all of my coats and a large percentage of my hoodies. I love the versatility.

The Keep It Simple Hat

Worsted Weight Yarn; Main Color(140, 160 yds), Contrast Color (9, 12 yds) per stripe

Shown in: 

Valley Yarns Stockbridge (Main); (Contrast) Patons Classic Wool, Knit Picks Swish, and Knit Picks Merino Style

Sizes: Small (20”) and Medium (22”)

Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) 36" circular for Magic Loop or Double Points & 16” Circular

Gauge: 20 sts = 4” in stockinette

Download

@Ravelry

Thanksgiving 2012

A few day ago I bought a magazine and a kit to cross stitch a cute, little Robin in a round felt frame. With an audio book for company, I’ve worked on it intermediately starting with the pink, then the red, and, next, grey and white. I know it looks like an amorphous blob right now but every stitch makes the small bird perched on a branch more visible. With a little patience, dedication, many more stitches, and some blood - the needle has a taste for my blood, I’m sure of it - there will be an adorable Robin decorating my walls.

This Thanksgiving, which is traditionally a time of reflection, family, and stuffing oneself with food; I’m thankful for my family and friends along with the goodness that is yarn, the internet, burritos, and a cosy knitting nook. What’s near the top of the list though, is the chance to start fresh. I’ll be taking a lot of small steps which, like the Robin, will look like an wiggly blob at first but eventually turn into something great. I’ve got patience, dedication, and people to back me up. Hopefully, I’ll keep all of my blood.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving or Thursday, where ever you be. If you’re working “Black Friday” on Thanksgiving, from someone who’s gone hoarse working the registers at 1AM, I wish you patience, caffeine, and a powerful 1000 yard stare.