Finished Mittens

I've finished the mittens for the Ravelympics 2010. Here they are:





I'm surprised at how easy they were to make. The first time around they were quite difficult proabably because I'd never knit them up before and the yarn was sport weight. I'm very pleased with them. I've already had requests from DH for a pair for himself.

We'll see.

2010 Ravelympics

After getting nudged in the ribs one too many times by one of my sisters, I have finally relented and decided to replace the fingerless gloves I made for her more than 3 years ago. Naturally, I can't seem to locate the pattern that I used so this time I'll be using the pattern from Knit Picks called the Men's Convertible Fingerless Gloves. This is what they look like:



I'm not crazy about the picture, but you get the idea.
Hers will be black although I'm not sure if I'm going to sew a snap on or a button.

The best thing about this whole project is that I will be participating in the 2010 Ravelympics with these gloves. Now that the Winter Olympics will be starting tomorrow night in Vancouver, BC., knitters from all over will be knitting during the 2 weeks during the events. The point of it is to start the same time as the Olympics start, which for me will be 9 pm, EST. You have 12 days in which to finish the project, and the people at Ravelry.com have even set up names for the different events. For instance, my event is being called the 'Mitten Moguls'. Hopefully I can finish them up in the allotted time. The easiest part is knitting up the palms. Knitting up the thumb and fingers can get a little hairy. I'm just glad the gloves will be one color and not a pattern. Doing that on a thumb I have found to be tricky.

So,everybody plays, everybody wins. My sister gets her gloves, I get her off my back and personal satisfaction that I've created something for a loved one. I just hope this time she doesn't lose them 'cause no way am I making these again for her!

Just a short update on the Autumn Rose Pullover pattern. I called KnitPicks yesterday and after speaking to someone who understood knitting terms ( the first person I spoke to didn't seem to comprehend the words "pattern" and "fair isle") I was told they would get the information to me the next day. Happily I can report they did call me back today and although I wasn't home to talk to the person, they left a message telling me that the fair isle pattern is arranged in the same order as it is on the website page. So, in other words, the webpage says, "C1, C2" and so on down the line until it comes to C11, which is the last color. Whichever color pattern you choose, be it the aquatic or original pattern, you know what the next color is just by looking at the name of the color next to C1 or C2, etc. etc. I hope this makes sense. I just wish they would put that somewhere on the page. So, needless to say, I'm very happy about this development. I can't wait to get started!

Sweater for the New Year

The other day I received my order of KnitPicks yarn so that I could knit the Autumn Rose sweater. I chose the blue colorway since they did not have a purple one. I could probably make it up but I just don't feel like thinking about it.
Here is the colorway:



Isn't that just lovely? I've always like the combination of blues and greens and 2 shades of brown are thrown into that. It's just great.

Unfortunately the people at KnitPicks do not supply charts for all the different colorways they have made up. Therefore if you want to knit this sweater just as they have it, you have to make it up yourself or scour the net to see if someone else has done the work for you. Can I just say there are many intrepid dedicated knitters out there who sacrifice their time doing that! As I've been searching through the many blogs and websites for charts I have come across so many variations of color for this one sweater. It's wonderful to see so many creative women out there.

My annoyance at KnitPicks was starting to increase when I realized that they probably don't supply the chart that goes with the colorways they suggest because they want their customers to get their creative juices flowing and see what they come up with. It's either that or there is some kind of copyright law I'm not privy to and that is why they don't supply the charts.

Anyway, I found a color combination that will work for me. Stacey of Stacey's Stash has her colors listed on her blog and her substitutions. I will be working with those to see if they work for me. I think they will.

update

Since today is the last day of 2009, and we are just a few hours away from the start of the new year, I thought maybe I should write on my blog. I was reminded by my DH and my DS-I-L that I have not touched this blog in a long time. They were quite correct. I looked at the last time I left a post and I was surprised to see that it will be almost a year in late January. Does anyone think it's time for me to post something, anything? YEAH! I think so.

Update on Inishmore: I finally finished it earlier this year. I believe my Ravelry page has more on this. There are pics on it that I took shortly after I finished it. I think it looks great on him, despite the different dyelots. Unfortunately, we don't know what the heck happened to it. We can't find it anywhere. It's really a strange situation.

In other news, this year I got to go to Cape Ann/Gloucester, Mass. to my first knitting retreat outside of NY. I had a wonderful time and what was even better was that my DH got to go with me. Don't get me wrong, I love my little guys, but every now and then we need a break from them. I ended up missing them incredible amounts. Still, it was a good retreat.

Looking back, I feel I didn't knit very much this year. I lost some of my enthusiasm for it. Although this was a good thing for my elbow, it wasn't such a good thing for my stash since I really didn't use it up so much. Speaking of stash... my DH finished my knitting room! We had a small room, about 10'x12', in the attic and my wonderful DH practically replastered the whole thing. Understand that I live in a house built circa 1850 and the room had never really been used as a living space. So for about 160 years there had never been a drop of paint on its walls and they were quite fragile. This was even more evident after we had the roof redone and after all the pounding by hammers on the roof, the ceiling in the little room was falling in at one spot. After DH was done with it, it looked SO much better. It's been painted and most of my knitterly-type things are there. It is the stash's new home. When I can/remember I will put pictures up.

I have picked up the needles since coming back from Stitches East which took place in October. I sort of made up a pattern for a vest I made. It was really more colorwork than anything else. It is yet to be blocked and therefore is upstairs in the Knitting Room. I used some "orphans" hanks from Countrywool I had bought about a year ago. I attempted to make it work, and although I don't think it came out very well, DH thinks it works.

I recently joined the lovely ladies from Countrywool (my LYS) and made an Icelandic Hat. I finished it!



This is my older DS modeling the hat. He won't wear it since it's purple. At least I know what size to knit for him.

So, here is my New Year wish for everyone. I wish for all who happen to come across my blog and for those who don't a very happy, loving, and peaceful New Year.
Abrasos para todos.

So, it's been ages since I wrote anything in this blog but that doesn't mean I've been an idle knitter! (got a big grin on my face). Yes, I've been horribly slow with DH's sweater; I'm on the second sleeve (yay!). Oh, I almost forgot. I hope everyone's holiday season was an especially good one. I got one of my favorite things: a knitting retreat! This time I'll be going up to the shore in Massachusetts. I'm very excited about it.

Getting back to knitting... The past Sunday, the 25th, I went to a mitten class at my favorite LYS, Countrywool. I made these:


And here's another view:

These are for DS #2. My little guy keeps losing or misplacing his gloves so I thought with the leftover yarn I had from DS#1 Nordic sweater I'd make mittens. I've been knitting up I-cord to attach the 2 together but I'm not sure if that's really going to work well with the mittens. They were a snap to make, too. I suspect that they knit up quickly since I had little hands to cover but when I compare the amount of time I knit a hat recently, all in all it was one of the fastest projects I've done. Instant gratification, well, sort of.
The weather people are calling for a bad snowstorm starting much later today so I'm off to do some shopping. Keep on knitting!

I'm Done with This Sweater...

Hey, am I on a roll here or what? 2 posts in 1 month? Will wonders never cease?
Anyway, I've completed my DS's Nordic sweater yesterday. I haven't blocked it yet but aside from that it is finished! Woohoo! The sweater looks good on the kid, just the sleeves are a little too long. That's ok though. He can just flip up the cuffs and Voila! Perfect fitting sweater. He's growing like a weed anyway so at least it will last him a while. It's not like his jeans that we bought in August and now they're not long enough for him. Unfortunately, I can't elongate it, not like you could on a girl's jeans where you could put a little lace on the hem and BAM! Pants will last a few more months. When someone comes out with butch-y lace, call me. I've got lots of pants I can use it on (like that will ever happen.)
Here's DS's sweater:

On to other news...
Since I am now finished with DS's sweater, I can concentrate once again on DH's long awaited (and long suffering) Inishmore. Currently I'm almost done with one sleeve. I just have to knit up the saddle shoulder part and I'll be finished with it. Yes, I still need to do the other one but since now all my time and effort will be focused on Inishmore, I'm confident it will be finished before the year is through (well, ok, maybe it's more like 95% confident it will be finished but whose counting?). And here it is:



Yes, from the picture it's obvious to me that you can tell that different dyelots are being used. Thankfully, when looking at it in person you can't really tell. Thank goodness for small miracles.

My next project will be a Philosopher's wool cardigan. I got the kit at Rhinebeck and since I had been lusting after the sweater for so long (at least 8 years) I saw it and said to myself, " Gotta have it!" The rest is history. More on this later...

Obama Wins!!!

I have avoided saying anything political even though I have definite ideas about it. So, with that said, thank goodness he won! The alternative was just too, too, scary. All I can say is that the future looks brighter already. I'm so glad that people who would have voted Republican decided that Obama was the guy to lead the country for the next 4 years and also that people who didn't vote previously did this time.
That's all I have to say (excuse me while I do my happy dance!!!).

Virtual Yarns - Designs

In case anyone doesn't know what Inishmore looks like ( it being the sweater my DH has been waiting patiently for for 2 years) that is it. Hopefully I linked it correctly. This business of linking pages together and whatnot is more like a crap shoot to me. If it happens, yay me. If it doesn't, oh well, I'll figure it out later or something.

BTW- This picture is from the Virtual Yarns.com website.

Been away for a while....

Yes, it's been a while since I've added to my blog. Since then, I have finished knitting Giselle, but I'm not really happy with it. I overestimated on the sleeve length so I have to go back and fix that problem. Luckily I know how to do that thanks to Claudia at Countrywool. I had to do the same to one of DH's sweaters so now I'm fearless about ripping out knitting and putting the sleeves back together the way they should.

Now I'm working on Inishmore again and have successfully finished the front of the sweater. I happen to be have a major difficulty with the sweater now because I don't think I'll have enough of the Rowan Magpie Aran to finish it up. I wrote up my dilemma on Knitter's Review and one person came up with the idea of seeing if anyone on Ravelry had any in their stash. I took a look and sure enough, some people did. I even emailed a woman in Norway to see if she still had the yarn in her stash! I'm pretty desperate. Apparently, Rowan has come out with a yarn that allegedly is alot like Magpie called Pure Wool Aran. It looks like they have the color I want (Misty which in Rowanspeak is light grey). Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a single yarn shop in my area which carries it. I hesitate to order any since I don't know if the colors truly match. I'm not really sure what to do and I would really like to finish the sweater. DH has been extremely patient with me. I think he's been waiting for almost 2 years for me to finish. Of course, my tendinitis certainly did not help the situation. The sweater is heavily cabled so I couldn't work on it for long stretches (which I know I shouldn't do anyway!) without feeling a little pain in my elbow where the scar from the operation is. Oh well. If push comes to shove and I can't find any Magpie Aran, I guess I'll just have to turn Inishmore into a vest. I REALLY don't want to have to do that. I think it would be a crime.