I'm back after my tryptophan coma

I hope you all had a happy turkey day! My mom and her friend Allison came up from California and we had such a nice time. It was really fun to have our first holiday dinner in our new house. Despite my absence from my blog, I did do some knitting. I was just too busy entertaining to take any pictures.

Since I last posted, I started knitting the ruffles scarf and then ripped it all out. With the baby cashmerino it was looking much too much like a corkscrew and it didn't have any of the flowiness that the one pictured in the book did. So after a few more swatches I finally settled on this stitch pattern.I didn't think I would ever decide on a pattern that I liked but I'm over half done with this scarf and I think it's a keeper. I don't know I was being so picky.

I've also been working on my fog sweater. I really like it now that it's not just ribbing. It's going to be really warm, which is good because it's super cold here! It might snow tonight. I kind of hope it does. I don't have to do anything tomorrow and it would be nice to see snow out the window. I just walked outside barefoot and now my toes feel like icicles.
I'm almost done with Mike's flame sweater. I keep getting distracted and can't seem to finish. He's gone this evening so I think I'll work on it. I really am close to finishing and I do want to get it done.

Still Knitting

Since I last posted a few things have happened. My car got broken into last Tuesday. We were at a bar and came out to find my window smashed. It was pretty upsetting but luckily nothing of mine was stolen. My friend's briefcase was in the car and that's all they took. He didn't have anything too valuable in the briefcase but some personal things that can't be replaced like a scarf his grandma had knitted for him. (Even my break in is knitting related!) My car still has glass in it- the window broke into a million pieces! The window is fixed now but I hated spending the money to do it. It sucks to spend money because someone else comitted a crime! It shouldn't come out of MY pocket but it did.

In other news, I bought some lovely baby cashmerino in a pretty soft pink color and started knitting gloves from the book Handknit Holidays.
The picture is so pretty and I thought they'd be great for my stepmom who is very classy and likes nice things. I got about halfway done with the 1st glove and decided to frog it and find a new idea. I tried it on and it was really loose around my wrist. Gloves should be more snug. I thought about starting over with fewer stitches around the cuff but I was also scared they wouldn't fit her hand because they were knitting up to be not very stretchy. I didn't want to guess on the finger lengths and then have them not fit. I got cold feet (or cold fingers?) and scrapped the idea. It was a hard decision because I want to make my stepmom something nice and had the gloves worked, they would have been perfect. Oh well. My new idea is to make her the ruffles scarf from Scarf Style out of the baby cashmerino. I'm a few inches into it but haven't really committed yet.
That's all for today. I should have pics of my finished flame sweater soon. Well, as soon as I finish sewing it up.

My socks are done!

Ta da! Here is my very first pair of knitted socks! I was happy to have finished the 1st one but a complete pair is much more exciting. I wore them for a few minutes last night but then put them away because they're a Christmas present. I will miss them but (hopefully) they will be loved my my mother in law. It's exciting to finish projects. Now the only thing I'm knitting is a sweater for myself. Mike's flame sweater needs blocking and then it'll be done. I might just have to start something new.

Here's the info on my socks:

Pattern: Dublin Bay Socks- a free pattern found online. I have a link to it on my sidebar.

Yarn: Lorna's Laces shepherd sock. The colorway is called watercolor. This was my first time using this yarn and it feels really nice! It's 4-ply, though, and can be splitty.

Knit for: Diane, my mother-in-law since she often buys me cute socks.

Changes I made: I decreased a few extra stitches so the foot was 4 stitches smaller then the pattern called for. I tried them on when I'd knit the "correct" number and they felt loose around my foot. They feel perfect now so I only hope Diane's feet are the same as mine!

What I learned: How to knit a sock! It was easier than I imagined and much quicker than I thought knitting on size 1 needles would be. I need to make another pair, this time for me.

Gyrid is all finished!!

I finally finished my gyrid top! Here it is! I didn;t mean to not show my face in the pictures but I was using the self-timer and that one happened to be the best picture of the shirt but I didn't have it lined up right to get my face.
The finishing was the hardest part because a lot went wrong! Nothing I couldn't fix, though. I seamed the sides and knitted the neckline a few nights ago and then tried it on, expecting it to be fabulous and was very disappointed to see that it bunched a lot around the bottom of the waist. It was pretty bad. That was the biggest problem and it was totally my fault too. I discovered after I had knitted a fair amount of the front that there was an error in the pattern and instead of knitting for 3 inches before starting the waist shaping, I should have only knitted 1 1/4 inches. I didn't want to start over, naturally, so I assumed it wouldn't really matter only to discover that it really did matter. So, when I thought I was done I had to go back and rip out the first 15 rows on each piece, and reknit the bottom edge. The result is that it's about an inch shorter than it was originally but it's okay. I also had to knit the neckline 3 times because it was too bunchy and scratchy and then it was bound off too tightly and didn't stretch enough but I finally got it right!

Here are the details:

Pattern: Gyrid from Elsebeth Lavold's book 'The Viking Knits Collection'
Yarn: Silky wool (actually the same yarn the pattern was written for- that hardly ever happens!)
Knit for: My lovely mother
Changes I made: I made the armholes 1 inch shorter that the pattern was written and added 1" to the body to keep it the same length. I also knit the bottom edge and neckline with size 5 needles instead of size 4. I picked up way more stitches around the neckline than the pattern called for because it was too bunchy with the 'correct' number of stitches. Finally, I added a cable detail on the back because it was too boring for my taste. The cable pattern was from the same pattern book.
Lessons learned: Look for errata BEFORE starting a project! That was a hard lesson. Because of my error I unravelled from the cast-on edge for the 1st time. I learned that it's much more tedious but less difficult than I had thought it would be.

That's all, folks! I hope my mom appreciates it come Christmas!

Off to the coast!

I'm off to the coast this evening! My church home community is going on a retreat in Lincoln City. It'll be windy and rainy but that's fine with me. That'll just leave more time to sit inside, knit and hang out with friends. I'll be bringing Dublin Bay sock #2 (cast on yesterday morning) and my new project! I just got my order of knitpicks yarn in a pretty gray color (called fog, perfect for a weekend at the coast!) so of course I had to cast on and start knitting. I'm making this sweater my Adrienne Vittadini.
It's beautiful but I'm making some changes. I'm eliminating the eyelets to make it warmer. I'm also knitting it in the round and am making the ribbed section at the bottom a little shorter and so far, I've just about finished knitting it (the ribbing that is). I haven't forgotten the flame sweater. I ran out of yarn (again!) and haven't been able to get to the store to buy more. It's close to completion, though.
Have a good weekend everyone!

Happy All Saints Day

Socktoberfest is officially over and I have 1 sock to show for it! Being my very first sock ever (a knitting milestone!) I am pretty happy. I actually didn't finish sewing the toe until today but that's close enough for me. Here is sock #1. It's a little loose around my ankle but it doesn't matter because it's not for me. Hopefully my mother in law's ankle is a little bigger than mine but if not, it's still super comfy! These are going to be hard to give away.

I hope you all had a great Halloween yesterday! I handed out candy to trick-or-treaters and it was fun- my first halloween in our new house. Here's a picture of the pumpkins we carved.

As promised a whie ago, here's Phoebe minus a lot of fur. She doesn't really hold still so it was hard to get a non-blurry shot.While I'm showing off my pets, here's a picture Mike took. It's a rare occurance because my cats hate each other. Well, it's really just one that hates the other but we rarely see them both in the same place at the same time. Here they are, though, both sleeping on my bed. The top one is Ramona and the bottom kitty is Gatsby.