Spoiled by Ravelry

So folks, have you missed me?

I blame Ravelry and depression for keeping me from blogging. Ravelry for being, in my mind, a sufficient place to communicate what's going on in my life, and depression for making me not care whether or not it was.

Right now, I'm deep in the midst of Christmas knitting, and thinking that I'm way behind. But completed so far, we have:

Savanna's Jayne Hat

Hillorie's Monkeys

Lizzie's Pat-a-Cake Mittens


And I think that's it. Eeek!

Yay for Christmas!

I had a pretty magnificent Christmas, even if it did mean running all over creation. See this?


This is the gorgeous sock yarn that Ben picked out for me for Christmas, in addition to Lantern Moon Ebony Sox Stixx. It's the Alpaca Yarn Co.'s Paca Peds Heels and Toes in Harvest. Now, add to that the fact that my winder tried to eat the yarn, and he spent 3 hours helping me untangle it! How could I not love this man? As a reward, I'm knitting him Masonic Lodge socks in Knit Picks Essential in Pine. He picked the color. Someone was hoping the words "masonic lodge" led to some secret site, weren't they?


As my reward for not killing anyone over Christmas, I'm knitting myself these Zombies in Ironstone Yarns Sock, a line that has been discontinued and I luckily managed to adopt at the local yarn store. That may tell you what kind of patronage they get...Anyway, I love the colors!

On a Christmas related note, that hat I designed for my brother? He didn't take it off all day Christmas Day. What do you know about a 14 year old boy who appreciates things like that? Who is this guy and where did he put my apathetic brother? More importantly, can I keep him?

Christmas knitting finished!

Read the title. It says all I have to say.

A new project, a new pattern - Barbed Wire

So I just knit this hat for my brother for Christmas from a stitch pattern in Barbara Walker's Charted Knitting Design. The cable is called Toggle Knot, but I think it looks like the knots on strands of barbed wire, hence the name. Someone on Ravelry asked for a pattern, so here it is!


This hat is made up of four 3 stitch ribs and four repeats of the Toggle Knot pattern. It is very stretchy, and should fit most adult heads.

Materials:

• app. 170 yards worsted weight yarn (it might be significantly less than this, but I used a 7 oz. skein of Vanna's choice that contains 340 yards, and I didn't use half)
• size 7 or 8 16" circular needle AND/OR five dpns of the same size (dpns will be necessary for decreases
• a cable needle if desired
• a tapestry needle for finishing

Basic abbreviations required:

• di: Double increase, represented by the flower-stem image in rows 2 and 6 of the cable chart - created by knitting into the back loop, then front loop, passing the stitches onto the right needle, then using the left needle to pick up the vertical strand created by the 2 stitches and knitting it
• dd: Double decrease, represented by the ^ symbol in rows 23 and 27 of the cable chart and referred to in decrease instructions - created by slipping 2 stitches as if to knit, knit 1 stitch, pass 2 slipped stitches over the knit stitch and off the needle
  
• p2tog: Purl 2 together
• p3tog: Purl 3 together
• k2tog: Knit 2 together

Instructions:

Cast on 96 stitches (divide evenly if working on dpns - 24 to a needle) and join to work in the round.

K3, P3 to end for 10 rows.

Next 2 rows: K3, P9 to end

Next 28 rows: K3, work corresponding row of cable chart to end.

Toggle Knot chart:

The dots refer to purls, the x's refer to stitches that are not there for that line of the pattern. (My apologies for the poor chart and explanation, I will try to get up my own chart when I can, for now we'll have to use a picture of the page from Charted Knitting Design.


After completing the chart, revert to K3, P9 to end for 5 rows.

Decrease Rows (These are intuitive decreases, but here are row by row instructions for those who would like them):

Decrease Row 1: K3, P1, P2tog, P3, P2tog, P1 to end
Knit one row in pattern.

Decrease Row 2: K3, P1, P2tog, P1, P2tog, P1 to end
Knit one row in pattern.

Decrease Row 3: K3, P1, P3tog, P1 to end
Knit one row in pattern.

Decrease Row 4: K3, P3tog to end
Knit one row in pattern.

Decrease Row 5: DD, P1 to end
Knit one row in pattern

Decrease Row 6: K2tog to end

Cut yarn, leaving at least a 6" tail. Using a tapestry needle, thread yarn through live stitches twice, then secure. Weave in your cast-on tail, and ta-da, you have a hat!

Any comments on how to improve this pattern would be greatly appreciated, especially since I'm still new at this pattern stuff! You can leave them here or send them to me on Ravelry: I'm swordsandneedles.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Christmas Knitting...

For a belated jump onto the bandwagon!


So, I went to Bellevue, Kentucky while I was home for Thanksgiving and hit up a yarn store called Knit On. Amazing stuff they had there. And since I'm setting up a moratorium on yarn purchases until March, I indulged one last time. What you see above is my version of the Noro Striped Scarf done up in a slightly cheaper fashion. I'm using Noro Taiyo and Harrisville Designs Wool and Flax Blend and enjoying knitting a 1x1 rib scarf entirely too much. Don't get me wrong, there is other knitting happening, just not so much while I enjoy myself. I did finish a couple of dishcloths for my step-aunt, though.

Now to just motivate myself on the other Christmas projects instead of the scarf...

Project finally complete!

Finally I have finished my sister's Christmas socks. They are the Boyfriend Socks by slippedstitch worked on 1.5's in KnitPicks Essentials Bare (aka Confetti Socks). It's taken a while, but I am quite proud of them, and hopefully she will enjoy them! Now to figure out what my next project will be...