Hey look! It's the last week in October again!

And y'all know what that means...

This year's costume requests lean heavily towards Disney princesses - Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella to be exact. Devil and I went out fabric store hunting last week, and made it back with all the supplies we need (I hope). We'll ignore the fact that, with the exchange rate, it was over $50 worth of stuff. Yikes!

Anywho...knitting and spinning are on hiatus until these two beauties are finished. The Brits don't really do Trick or Treating, but Boo has been invited to wear her costume to nursery on Friday, so at least one has to be done by then.

FO: Flip

When last we saw this item, it was May 8th, 2008, and I was halfway through. It has actually been finished for more then a year, but has been stuck in the back of Devil's drawer wadded in to a ball. I guess knit skirts, even when done in a wool-cotton blend, are not suitable for Houston weather.

However, it is quite a bit cooler in London*, so last week when I had the opportunity to pick out her clothes for her, I choose this skirt, and she decided she quite liked it.

Pattern: Flip, by me, but it's not really a pattern so much as a knit tube with an edging added to the bottom.
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Sockotta (45% cotton/40% superwash wool/15% nylon), colorway #364
Needles: US 2/2.75 mm
Gauge: 7 st/in, row gauge?
Comments: From my notes on this project, I see that I got 8 sts/in with US 1.5s so I choose US 2s to get 7 sts/inch. I cast on 150 stitches and did a picot hemmed top edge by knitting for about an inch (8 rows), then working k2tog, yo all the way around. After the yo row I knit straight, although about halfway back down the width of the waist band I did another k2tog, yo to make a hole for a drawstring to go through.

I then knit straight, increasing 7 sts/row approximately every inch (every 7 rows, how's that for symmetry?). I knit until it looked long enough, then spent several days a little while charting the edging. I finally went with a leaf edging from BW #2, and since it was worked perpendicular to the rest of the skirt, didn't require a specific number of stitches around the bottom.

Some while later, there it was:

The nice thing about this "pattern" is that it can be done with any yarn and any needle size you want. Just figure out your gauge, cast on the number of stitches needed for the waist and get going. Increase approximately 1 inches worth of stitches every inch or so, and keep going until you get the desired length. Finish with edging or not as desired.

Finishing: I sewed the picot hem closed, including an elastic waistband to help keep it up. Then I threaded through a lovely pink ribbon to finish it off. The ribbon came out the first time it was worn and is who knows where in our as-yet-to-be unpacked stuff. Eventually I'll find it and put it back, but an i-cord drawstring would also work well.

If you end up making one of these little skirts for a small one in your life, please send me a picture or let me know . I'd love to see them!

* This may qualify as the year's grossest understatment.

FF/FO: Devil's new blanket/shawl

Offspring the first has been raking in the handknits around here recently. First a sweater, now a blanket, and coming up, a skirt? Sheesh! Boo is going to feel left out*.

A handspun, handknit shawl blanket from her Mama for Devil. A totally made up pattern, US 6 needles (4.0 mm), 4.5 sts/inch, one ball of the two we had after our dyeing/spinning experiment, and one happy little girl. What fun.

I cast on ten stitches, worked three rows in garter stitch, and then started the increases. First increases were k3, yo, k4, yo, k3, then on the wrong side, k3, p1, k4, p1, k3. After that I increased 4 stitches every right side row by yo after the first 3 stitches, before the middle 4 stitches, after the middle 4 stitches and before the last 3 stitches. Those stiches were worked in garter stitch throughout, and the new stitches were worked in stockinette.

The final dimensions were approximately 37 inches wide and 15 inches deep. Just the right size to wrap around her shoulders, although mostly she's been doing this:

Be still my heart.

* Thankfully Boo is, per usual, busy with her own thing and completely unaware that she is missing out. I'll make it up to you baby.

FO: Devil's Pink Cardi

Oh wow. A full sweater from cast-on to finished item in 2 weeks? Sign me up for more of these...OK, so I can't wear it, but hopefully the intended recipient will.

Pattern: standard top down raglan a la Barbara Walker, with YO increases on either side of the raglan seam
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, Victorian Pink, 2 skeins
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Buttons: from Joann's
Start/finish: June 3 - June 16th for the knitting, finished blocking and sewing on buttons June 18th.
Gauge: 6 sts/inch
Comments: I used the basic recipe in Knitting from the Top for a raglan cardigan. I increased every fourth row along the neck edge for the V neck until 3 stitches short of the final number I needed, when I switched to every 3rd row. It was then straight knitting until the ribbing.

For the ribbing I used Pattern #79 (Lace Rib) from Vogue Knitting Stichionary 1 (homemade chart here if you're interested. As previously mentioned, Dev picked the buttons that fit just perfectly in the YO holes of the ribbing, so for the neck band I just picked up stitches all the way around the neck, worked 6 rows of the pattern and bound off. I kept the band on the left front in solid k2, p1 ribbing to make sewing the buttons on easier.

A quick soak in cool water, a spin out in the washing machine and voila! Pink perfection. Except for those damn wonky stitches that are still there. I console myself with the knowledge that Dev will never notice.

Maybe. ;-)

FF: Grab your sunglasses

Because this stuff is retina searing:

Devil's merino handspun, 8.1 oz/229 gr, about 575 yds, 13-14 wpi (fingering weight).
Spun/plied at 12:1 on ST Lendrum.

Fiber from Yarn School, dyeing by me and Dev, spinning by me (with much "Are you done with my yarn yet?" from Herself). Dev has requested a blanket made from this stuff, so I chain plied to keep the stripes intact. I'm envisioning a garter stitch edged triangular shawl type thingie, with a central column of double YOs and YOs on each edge just inside the garter stitch border. That will give me lots of stripes and a non-curling edge. And make it something she can wrap up in as needed.

I've also finished the body of her sweater. It's quite gratifying to find that she is rather excited about it. Or at least marginally enthusiastic. I even interrupted her viewing of 101 Dalmatians to ask for input on the buttons and didn't get my head ripped off and stuffed down the stump of my neck. So she must like it!

I got the flower buttons specifically with her in mind, but to my surprise she picked the pinky red ones. Which is great because I can do the same ribbing that's on the bottom as a button band and not have to worry about buttonholes.

Here's hoping that a good blocking takes care of the wobbly stitches. Damn cotton will get me every time!