Pelecypoda fingerless gloves 1

It's been, well... literally since the dawning of my blog since I posted a free pattern. I had great plans to regularly post free patterns, see, but catastrophic events of my own design got in the way.

That wasn't quite meant to be a pun.

This is an effort to buck that trend. Not that it's a particularly elaborate or well-written pattern; these are just gloves I banged together during a movie marathon with a few friends. I did all the counting/rewriting afterwards. The stitch pattern is based off "small shell stitch" which you can find if you google. I've used it before but didn't actually remember how many stitches/rows the stitch is worked across. Still, I like the result. Pelecypoda (members of the shellfish family) are lacy light-weight gloves with subtle points along the bottom border.

Anyone who comes across this pattern is welcome to use it (you know the code: personal usage only, blahblahblah). Hell, if you want, write me and ask me to translate it into a real pattern. I will be obliging.

Pattern to follow, next post.

Phew.

Apparently I'm the freakish one-- my friend has no problems with the sweater. It actually fits her (sort of hung off me). Except for the sleeves, which I shortened by a few inches but evidently should have shorted a few more. Alas.

Now she wants pockets. After I get those done, I should be good to post bragging photos.

Outdone by Mariah

After a long, long haul of it, I bound off the hood for a friend's Christmas present (requested a week before... so I in no way feel guilt about finishing late. This late.) Then I sewed it up.

My god. Mariah has the largest cranium on the planet, at least when she's a siz large. I went back and measured it. No... haven't done anything wrong. At least, not according to a literal interpretation of the relevant parts of the pattern:

Row 3 [RS]: BO 13 sts, k to end.

Row 4 [WS]: BO 13 sts kwise (1 k st rem on right needle after sts bound off), k1, p to last 2 sts, k2, (This row sets the 2 st garter selvedge for the hood).
Row 5 [RS]: K2, sl1, k1, psso, k to last 4 sts, k2tog, k2. 127[161, 169, 171, 194] sts
Row 6: [WS]: Work in patt as set.

...

Next Row [WS]: K2, p41[56, 62, 63, 75], place marker, p to last 2 sts, k2.
Next Row [RS]: K to 1 st before marker, m1, k1, slip marker, k1, m1, k to end.
Next Row [WS]: Work in patt as set.
Work these 2 rows twice more.
Work even until work measures 14 inches from BO edge at front of hood.

Gauge? Same. Stitch count? Same. Length? Same. And yet it sticks out from the back of my head (me being about identical in height to my friend) as if I were a chitinous cast member off Aliens.

I’m rather displeased about all that. By the time I was knitting the hood, the whole sweater was too large to be portable, and my level of business did not converge often enough with my being at home to allow a generous overhead of time in which to work up all those long rows of stockinette. I’m tempted to tuck a few –say, 4- inches over on the inside to make the cowl shallower. Not sure what else to do short of unraveling the hood, decreasing an extra 20 stitches each side, and working it up again.

But damn it! What went wrong?

edit: and seriously, what's gone wrong with these fonts? I've tried to correct it three times and things are still showing up in two different fonts. I surrender.

Mother's Day Gift and Mega-Scarf

I did say I'd post some pictures. The less flashy (less time-intensive) ones first: look right, ladies and gentlemen all, to see the most spectacular... err... slightly saggy pre-felted beauty of a purse for my sainted mum. Offhand, I can't remember the yarn -I wound it up into balls as soon as I got my hands on it- but it was probably Cascade 220. Nice charcoal and a rich taupe. Currently measures about 12"x18"x2". Unfortunately she won't be getting it until my next visit; the familial washing machine is infinitely better suited to felting projects than the one in my building.

And allow me to present the audience with my other non-intensive recently completed project: a hulking giant scarf.


I adore mistake rib. I'd never believed *k2, p2...k2, p1 could look so fucking awesome. And yet it does, and even has the esteemed advantage of being utterly mindless. I did 95% of this scarf on the job (I'm lucky enough that one of my bosses thinks that people knitting is theurapeutic-- to her. So I knit to keep her sane).

The scarf is about 7" by 7 feet; I'd gone through my heap of scarves and realized that I didn't have any imminently practical but obscenely long scarves for thorough winter wrapping. So I remedied that with two skeins of Lionbrand worsted "mink" colored yarn, courtesy of birthday gifts from friends.

The picture's suffering a bit from a bad angle and poor lighting (although the standard for my pictures in general isn't particularly breathtakingly high); frankly, the lighting in my apartment blows and I feel silly taking photographs of scarves outdoors in May. So this will just have to cope, and be glad I cropped my face out of the thing... flourescent lighting is kinder to yarn than pale people.

WIPS

I have a crazy glut of projects that are all coming to a head. Expect waves of photos soon.


This is a fish tail. Seriously.

Because it seems I've been away...

Looks like I've been absentee for the month of April.

Well, I've been busy. Not as much with knitting as I'd like, although at least some of my spare time has gone into putting together a project notebook (because I am, at best, somewhat anal). I etched the metal plaque for the cover last week, at a friend's -we literally dropped acid on her carpet- using an art nouveau pattern ripped straight from an overpriced pillow. Eventually I'll get my hands on a drill and attach the thing to the black binder. Might take awhile. I'm filing all my projects from the start of the year onwards in the binder (my old project notes were housed in a ratty lined paper relic from my freshman year).

Yes, because I've felt ridiculously paper-crafty, I am, in fact, writing everything out with nib and inkwell. I have too many hobbies.

The other goings-on responsible for derailing my knitting plans included a family vacation. I had ambitious plans for the flight: gosh golly gee, I'll bring Pomatomus along and finish, at the very least, an entire sock!

I might have, except for the books. I travel light except in respects for keeping my brain together (tissues? lip balm? who needs those when you can pack a notebook, two books, and a WIP in your purse instead?) and I made the foolish choice of bringing two very good books indeed: Roberston Davies' "Fifth Business" and JV Jones' "Fortress of Grey Ice." Knit? I barely made my flight. Good thing there was a five-hour delay.

I cannot keep focused

Someone, teach me restraint.

I have six projects on needles right now, and justifications for all of them. 

Project #1: Well, this is the gift sweater I can only work on at home,
because it’s too big to carry when I go everywhere on foot.

Project #2: Pomatomus socks. Portable, pretty, and I need to do something
with that bright blue sock yarn.

Project #3: Nice simple mistake rib that I can mindlessly work on at work.
The boss approves.

Project #4: The former at-work project –a woven herringbone scarf my
sister demanded- but I kept forgetting to psso and would grossly snarl
up whole passages of it. Cannot work on while reading e-mail and
answering phones.

Project #5: I need to learn how to work on those 00000 needles. A hat is
a great starter project!

Project #6: Oh, but I really want to design another pair of mitts! I can’t
possibly not do that now!

I’m going to scrap the mitts for now; beyond a fetishistic urge to use the
Italian tubular cast-on, my plans for that yarn have changed too much. The
hat should technically be a small project (it’s half an inch tall, really) that I
can finish quickly.

As for the rest… sigh. I guess four on the needles isn’t as bad. It wouldn’t
bother me as much if I had a place to put the sweater other than various
chairs in my apartment.