Hooray for me! I finished Jamie's slippers! I actually finished them about a week ago, but I was slow in putting pictures up.
They're made out of Mission Falls cotton, which has unfortunately been discontinued. I used two strand held together to make them because the yarn itself was a little too thin. I think they turned out pretty well, and Jamie has since told me that he's going to hold off on any more requests for a while. ^_^ Which is good for me because then I can concentrate on my own projects. My progress on the Clapotis has been horribly slow. I'm still stuck in that section where you have to do 12 sets of that 12 row pattern in the 'straight' section. I think it's section 3 or something like that.
As for me, I think I will have to be horrible and not knit any gifts for anyone this year. I simply don't have the time. Work is blowing up in my face and I am finding my knitting time just keeps getting eaten up by it. Unless anyone has requests...If you request a knitted present and tell me what you want and what colour, I'm happy to do it...my brain is just too tired to try and figure out what sorts of things people might want. So, Sailors, if you're reading this at all, you are welcome to make requests! (ha ha...though I have a feeling that Moon is the only one who actually reads this)
I feel like a bad blogger. I’ve got nothing. Oh, lots of knitting has been going on, but I can’t take pictures of any of it. I have things that I’m thinking about knitting, but I can’t post about any of it. I wish I knew exactly who actually reads the blog, versus who knows about it but never bothers to check it out. If I know you in person and you read the blog, leave a comment, would ya? And sign your name if you don’t have a Blogger account so you don’t end up as anonymous. Of course, now I’m going to be sad because it’ll turn out that nobody cares about me (er, I mean, the blog). And also relieved, because then I can ramble freely (I pee freely too, remember that stupid joke? I never understood just what made it so funny, like, tee hee, you said “pee”? Don’t get it).
Anyway, I’ve got 1.5 Christmas prezzies done, and I have at least 2.5 left to go. Possibly to be amended to 3.5, but we’ll see. There’s only 9 weeks left until Christmas, I’d better get cracking (especially on the socks, socks take an age and a half). Edda also now has a back piece and one front panel, but she’s all navy blue and my camera blows so all photos would show is a couple of dark sweater-piece-shaped blobs. I swear, I don’t know how anybody ever learned to knit a sweater without having a class. There have already been near decreasing and bind-off disasters, complete with an emergency visit to the yarn store.
Want to see what I’m fantasizing about? This Tramonto shawl. Oooh, the Koigu. I’m trolling the Internet and LYS-es for colours. Silly of me to be thinking about more lace shawls when I’ve got Lotus Blossom waiting in the wings, isn’t it? Ah well. Any excuse to ogle Koigu.
I went and signed up for my very first knitting class the other day! It's 'How to knit a top-down raglan baby sweater' over at Lettuce Knit. I know, I know....I have no use for a baby sweater (except to give away), but it'll teach me all the important stuff I need to know about how to make a big-person sweater. I'm actually really excited about it. It's only 2 classes and doesn't start until December 1, but whatever. Something fun to look forward to.
Jamie's been whining about the fact that I still haven't made slippers for him. I think I'm going to have to put my other stuff on hold and make them so he won't keep bugging me and I won't feel guilty anymore (ha ha!) I think I'll start on them today...
I didn't know just how loose until I tried to knit a swatch for Edda. The pattern for the cardigan is a sort of modified brioche stitch (or so I'm told, I don't know precisely what brioche stitch is, but for the sweater there's knitting and purling on one side, and knitting and slipped stitches on the other side, and what you're left with is a sort of ribbing-like effect), and the recommended needle size was 7 mm. So I knit a swatch using 6.5 mm needles, knowing that I tend to knit loosely, but nope, my gauge was still too big. So I knit a second swatch using 6 mm needles, still no go. I had to drop down to 5.5 mm needles before getting the proper stitch gauge (good thing I've been collecting needles in all sizes, otherwise that would have made for many trips to the yarn store). Which seems like a big drop in needle size, no? Loose knitter indeed. I'm a little nervous now that the whole thing's going to turn out too small, even though my gauge appears to be ok. The row gauge is a little off now too, but that shouldn't be too hard to remedy.
