FO #26

Clogs for my wee one:



The boring stuff:
Children's Fiber Trends Clogs, size small.
Knit in Araucania Nature Wool, shade 22.
Started 8/27, finished 8/28.

FO #25. Clog-a saga.

Ugh. Clogs. Love the pattern, but the felting process was really, really frustrating.

The knitting? Went great.



They were pretty comfy, and fit me rather well unfelted.



But these were the kids' clogs, silly! Wonder who they'll fit??



Well, after over two freaking hours of agitation in my washer, they shrunk enough but grrr.....still have visible stitches. I slept on it, got up, and threw them in the dryer for an hour.



I'm gonna just call this a learning experience -- it got me familiar with the pattern, which is very cool. My daughter likes them, and doesn't care that you can see the stitches. So whatever.



The boring stuff:
Children's Fiber Trends Clogs, size large.
Knit in Marr Haven wool.
Pattern mods: well, I did dink with this and that's probably part of my problem. The wool is supposedly worsted weight but it really knits to a bulky gauge. So I didn't double it like the pattern told me to. Actually, I did at first, then frogged because it was sooooo tight that I could barely knit it. Sigh. I really thought this yarn would felt like a dream. WOTA or 220 next time!
Started 8/24, finished 8/25.

FO #24

Done except for the button on the back! ;)



The boring stuff:
Thinking Dress from Miss Bea's Rainy Day, size 2-3 years.
Knit in Catalina Baby Pima (60% baby alpaca, 40% pima cotton), color 636.
Bought 2 skeins (436 yards) and had quite a bit of yarn left over -- maybe 75 yards.
Pattern mods: Knit in the round to the armhole shaping. Completed front and back flat. If I could do it again, I'd do a reverse stockinette background for the cable instead of garter as the pattern called for. It kinda screwed me up.
Started knitting 8/6, finished knitting 8/12, finished seaming/edging (lol) 8/21.

What was I thinking?

I'm knitting another poncho...sample to the left in "on the needles." It's rather mind-numbing. Luckily I have four months to complete it, so I can do a quadrant a month then put it aside. There are actually two matching ponchos...one for my goddaughter, and one for her American Girl doll. The latter? A piece of cake. The former? Let's just say I'm offering it up for the Protestant souls in purgatory. ;)

I finished the knitting portion of my Thinking Dress last Friday. True to form, I haven't touched it since -- I don't know what my prob is because there are only two tiny shoulder seams then some edging to knit. This weekend. For sure. Really.

times they are a-changin'

I love to drive -- always have. I used to do nine hours road trips by myself -- no problem. And my husband hates driving, so we're a good match that way. But suddenly the idea of being a passenger is strangely appealing to me. We're going on a day trip today...had to laugh at this exchange just a few minutes ago:

Me: "Soooo, what are the plans for driving today?"
DH: "Do you mean, am I going to drive so you can knit?"

Hee.

I'm skeeered

Well, I was. This is some skeery stuff...



As I kept knitting around, I'd notice two places that didn't look quite right. I finally realized (duh) that they were dropped stitches, and the further I got into the project, the more they bothered me. So I decided to put my magnet idea to the true test, and ladder down to fix them. Twenty rows! Twice! Eeek!

But all's well that ends well...I'm feeling geekily brave and accomplished...and the magnet thing worked great. I have a stash of rare earth magnets (the super powerful ones) and realized that they would be a great alternative to pinching below the error to make sure I didn't undo more stitches than I wanted to. I put one magnet on the back of the work and one on the front...works like a charm!!

next...

I started the Thinking Dress from Miss Bea's Rainy Day last night. For some odd reason the BB6 live feeds were comin' through for free, so I got in some good knitting time, listening on my headphones and taking a break to recap occasionally.

I'm using Catalina Baby Pima, which is one of the most wonderful yarns I've ever knitted with. If I could afford it, and there were more colors available, I think I would knit everything, from now on, with this yarn.



I had to dink with the hue and saturation in Photoshop to try and get the color to look remotely like it does in person. It's the loveliest berry color...not at all as pinkish as my camera would lead one to believe.

What to do?

I am in love with this yarn, but I keep starting things then frogging them. I'm totally stumped as to what to make with it. (201 yards of each color.)



Lesson learned. This happens every time I buy yarn without a project in mind. Drives me crazy!

FO #23

The boring stuff:
Rainy Day Sweater from Miss Bea's Rainy Day, size 1-2 years.
Knit in Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine, color 16 (lilac).
Bought 4 skeins (440m) and had yarn left over.
Pattern mods: Used US6 needles for the whole thing. Forget that 3 rows of seed stitch onUS3s stuff. Knitted the border first and picked up stitches, knit in the round to the armhole shaping. Completed front and back flat, seamed shoulder, knit collar, seamed other shoulder. Picked up stitches arounf armhole opening and knit sleeves in the round on two circs (following pattern in reverse).
Started knitting 7/23, finished knitting 8/1, finished seaming (lol) 8/5.

woo!

1. Sleeves are done -- all that's left is the trim. I've even woven all of my ends in.

2. New justification for buying yarn! Christmas presents!! I just ordered some stunning wool from MCY to knit a bag for a hard-to-buy-for friend for Christmas. It's so beautiful! And no guilt...actually I'm patting myself on the back for thinking about Christmas presents in August. Hee. Check out the gorgeous colorway.