Almost There!

I got in some great knitting time this past week and weekend, so some great progress was made...

The Denmark socks are finished!

Pattern: Denmark from Knitting on the Road
Yarn: Henry's Attic Kona - hand dyed by me
Mods: Made the leg about 3" longer than called for as I had a ton of yarn

These are beautiful, cozy, soft socks. I love everything about them! For a simple 4 row repeat that I had memorized by the third or so time through, it creates such beautiful texture. All Hail Nancy Bush!

Urban Aran got some sewing and knitting time as well.

The collar is finished (modified in the same way Diana did hers) and it came out great. I have both sleeves done, though I have to block one and re-do the top 5 rows of the other - somehow I got my cable rows mixed up. But, I'm hoping to be doing lots of seaming over the next few nights! I measured for the zipper and it looks like I need one about 10" long. So, that is something else I'll have to go hunting for.

My best friend's little girl is having her 4th birthday party next weekend, so I was looking for a quick, stash-busting knit to bring. A hat was the first thing I thought of.

Cute, no? Unfortunately, it fits me perfectly. I am horrible at hat sizing. Even using the formula in The Handy Book of Patterns it still is wrong. Very frustrating. I may just make her mittens....but, on the up side, I got a new, super soft hat!

The hydroponic garden is growing right along. It's been about 2 1/2 weeks and they are almost real lettuces!

It will be nice when we can have an actual salad from it!

With Project Spectrum in full swing, I've been eying my blue stash yarns to see what will come of them. It's great timing. Denmark is done, Urban is very close to done. A perfect time to start something else!

I have 7 skeins of Araucania that I got at Stitches this year for a steal. It's a pretty teal/blue color. The light blue I got at Webs a year or so ago for even less. I have 20 skeins of it (about 2300 yd!)! A hoodie maybe? I had Mariah in mind for the light blue, but I may have been swayed over to the Patons Hoodie after seeing Lolly start hers....guess a browse through the pattern books is slated for this week! Any good suggestions? They are both worsted, about 20 sts/4".

The weather has finally taken a winter turn. Luckily, my immediate area was spared the rage of the ice storm of yesterday, but places only about 1/2 hour away were hit pretty hard. They are saying we should have a high of (gulp) 12 degrees tomorrow. Break out the winter wear.

Saved!

Bethe to the rescue! She has very generously offered to relieve my knitting stress by offering up her skein and leftovers of Cork! She also got it at Webs, so odds are it will be the same dyelot. Once again, I am in awe of the generosity and breadth of compassion in the knitblog world. We are an amazing bunch! I hope I can help someone out of a similar bind one day! Thanks again Bethe!!!!

In a knitting and football filled weekend (Go Pats!) I got quite a bit of knitting done. Denmark the first is complete, and I have cast on for the second.

It fits perfectly and is squishy soft. The Kona yarn knits up really nice and is super soft. The entire heel and foot were knit Saturday afternoon. Socks go nice and fast on #3 needles! I'm already thinking ahead to which pattern to tackle next. My sister loves my handknit socks, and I know she'd like a thinner pair to wear with some of her other shoes (though she loves the DNA socks and gets bunches of comments at work on them!), so those may be next. The yellow CTH I got a while back has her name all over it!

The Urban Aran also made lots of progress. I'm done with the front up to the armholes. I think I am going to make it a half-zip pullover instead of a full zippered cardigan. I'll get much more wear out of it. So, I measured some of the zippers in my fleece pullovers to see if there was a standard length. Seems like 6" was pretty common. It also seemed like most of the zippers start at the same point as the armhole. So, I plan on measuring the back to see how long it is from armhole to top and see if a 6" zipper will be long enough. If not, I know there are a few places out there you can order custom lengths, but I'd love to find a pre-made one locally. The color shouldn't be too hard to match. The half zip should give the sweater a little interest and make it just a little different from all the rest. I did find one pattern for a kids half zip pullover in Vogue Knitting Quick Knits - they used a 6" and it was for older kids with a finished chest measurement on the sweater of 42" (not sure what child would need a sweater that big!) which is actually a touch bigger than what mine should turn out to be.

Any good tips for making the area to install the zipper better? The center column of the sweater is 2 purl stitches, so I'll be splitting it right down the middle and having one on each side. I also plan on slipping the first stitch of every row to give a cleaner edge.

After the front, all that remains is one lonely sleeve. Then, I have to start thinking about a sweater for Project Spectrum - version 2.0 starts in February! Lucky for me, I have a sweaters worth of very pretty light blue yarn just waiting! Now, to find a pattern.....

The Numbers

Before any good knitting content, I have to say one thing about the weather here in Massachusetts over the next day or so - WOW!

Check out tomorrow. Yep - low 60's! And, per the weather people around here, there is no snow in sight for the next week or so. I really have to say, I am very happy with what the weather gods have given us for a winter so far this year. I also know, that being in New England, payback will be, well, not so good.

Now for the good stuff. The first sleeve of the Urban Aran is blocking, so I took the oppertunity to weigh it before it got soaked for blocking. Here is what I found.

Back - 5.4 oz
Sleeve - 3.5 oz
Remaining Yarn - 9 oz

Is this going to be a close one or what???? I'm not worried about seaming as I can do that with another similar colored yarn, but I am worried about the collar. I'm not sure if I should put out a search for another ball or two of this discontinued yarn (Rowan Cork in Mousse) or just wait and see. (If anyone has any laying around, you could pipe up now and make my stress level decrease a bit...) So, taunting the knitting gods just a bit more, I started the front last night. I'm undecided as to what to do as far as the top half goes. I was thinking of doing a half-zip pullover as I'm not much of a full cardi wearer, but that means researching to find existing patterns with one so I can have some kind of guideline as far as knitting it. I have a while to think about that though - at least 10" of knitting!

Denmark is coming right along. I'm ready to start the heel (following NB's instructions to the letter on this one!) and the more I knit it, the more I just really like this simple, pretty pattern.

We have a light load at the kennel this weekend, so I'm hoping for a bunch of knitting time.

Our little hydroponic garden is coming right along.

Now that the little sprouts have poked through, they are growing fast! It will be neat to have fresh salad greens at our disposal all winter long!

A New Year

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe that 2006 is already over - it went by so fast! I do vaguely remember July, but other than that, it seems like a blur. I'm hoping I remember more of 2007.

Lots of stuff to blog about today - I had a visit from Sarah and her adorable dog Murphy last week. They came over for a hike around our local Army Corps of Engineers dam - it was a great day weather-wise - no wind, not too cold and sunny. The dogs had a blast running full tilt through the woods, mud and jumping trees. They even took a little swim in the cold water. I am sadly pictureless as I forgot my camera, but I'm hoping some of Sarah's shots come out and I can "borrow" them....It was pretty uneventful except for some lack of balance on my part resulting in cold, wet feet, and Tucker's ode to Ashley's dog Bailey. We'll just say he got a nice, long bath that night. Everyone, dog and human, had a great time.

Sarah gifted me some great, soft, fuzzy fetching mitts - they are so soft and cuddly - I'm wearing them now in my freezing cold office. Speaking of gifts - we did our family Hannukah celebration over the weekend. Since we usually can't get together during the holiday, we just celebrate when we can. There were gifts galore for everyone.... As you can see, our clan uses only the best wrapping paper. It's kind of a tradition to use newspaper in our house - as kids, my parents used the comics to wrap gifts. It was colorful, readily available and best of all cheap! Now, we add recyclable to the list as well. I got lots of great gifts including some incredible sneakers I have been lusting after for a while now. They will be perfect for wet agility trials in the spring! Another standout gift was an ingenuiTEA infuser from adagio teas. The same one Erin raves about here. It is a pretty slick device - throw in the loose tea, brew and place it over your mug to dispense it. Cleans up easy too....I've had quite a bit of tea already this week!

The dogs were not left out of the gifts either - we got them a cushy new bed for cuddling in on those cold (if they ever come) winter nights. Otis really loves the big bolsters along the back.

My mother in law gave us an adorable clock - it just makes me smile every time I look at it! She also gave us a really neat countertop hydroponic grower - you can grow lettuce, tomatoes, chili's and strawberries with these neat little pods. I stupidly didn't write down the brand name, so no linky for now.

It was a wonderful holiday season - lots of friends, good times and even some knitting!

Mamluke is complete!

Pattern: Mamluke Socks from Folk Socks (can't get enough of that Nancy Bush!)
Yarn: Regia Silk - used a little less than one 50gm ball of each color
Time to Completion: 15 days (!!!!!)
Mods: Added one pattern repeat (10 sts) so they would fit.

They actually fit really well, though I made the floats on the instep pattern much looser on the second sock, and it doesn't pull as much. I haven't done anything with the ribbing as of yet. A few tries out in the "real world" and I'll see if I want to take Kelly's suggestion and rip out the existing ribbing, then just knit up from the sock and make it longer. They are purty though - huh? Honestly, I never thought I could knit such pretty fair isle!

The sock needles didn't remain naked for long though. "Denmark" from Knitting on the Road has been one of my favorites for a while. With an empty slot in my sock knitting bag, I started it on Sunday.

I'm using the Henry's Attic Kona that I dyed up a while back. Love the color, loving the pattern. On #3's this will be a quick knit!Urban Aran also got some needle time.

The back is done and blocking, and the first sleeve is about 7" in. The grand plan is to finish the sleeve, then weigh it along with the back and compare it to the amount of yarn I have left. I really like how it's knitting up so far though!

Still no snow here, though we did get barely a dusting a few days ago. The temperatures are supposed to go up to 50 or so this week, so winter weather has yet to make a real appearance here.