It's December 23rd, and my Christmas knitting is (almost) done

Behold. One pair of (unfelted, unsewn - that's todays project) Felted Clogs.

This brings the list to:

Person A - done
Person B - done
Person C - done
Person D - done
Person E - done
Person F - done
Person G - done
Person H - done
Person I - still not done, but this one isn't due in the States until mid-January, so I've still got some breathing room there.

Now the only people left to knit for are my poor neglected daughters' heads. The Nemo hat is on the ribbing finally.

This is the last time I knit a hat for anyone in fingering weight yarn...

I can manage to do it, I've also got this lovely stuff for a hat for Devil.

It's pink, so the chances she'll actually wear it seem pretty decent.

How's your Christmas knitting going?

I love mittens

At least mittens for little people.

Look at the little fin - so cute!

Pattern: Nemo Mittens by Sigurlaug Eva Stefansdottir (both Ravelry links)
Yarn: KnitPicks Essential, dyed by yours truly. I used 4 gr white, 3 gr black, and ~10 gr orange (works out to approximately 19/14/46 yds respectively of fingering weight yarn)
Needles: US 1/2.00 mm
Gauge: 8 sts/11 rows per inch
Finished circumference/length: 5 inches/5.25 inches (cuff to pointy tip)
Comments/mods: The "only" modification I made was to switch yarn and needle size. The pattern calls for sport weight/size 2.5 (3.0 mm) needles for a 4-6 year old size, but I had fingering weight, so size 1 it was. I probably could have gotten away with US 2/2.75 mm ok, but this gauge will be a bit warmer perhaps.

These were so fast! Done, with fins added and ends woven in after three evenings work. Love it. I hope Boo loves them as well, although I'm not sure what she thinks about mittens...

The yarn for these was recycled from some KnitPicks Essential that I dyed for some socks for my sister-in-law about three years ago. It was my first dyeing experience, so I used Kool Aid and ended up with a range of reds, pink, and purple. I took the largest ball of leftovers (41 g of red) and overdyed it with some yellow Jacquard Acid dye in the hopes that it would end up kind of orange. Some pink (5 g) got overdyed with black. I also had a full skein of Bare waiting around, so I knew I could dye more if needed.

Soaked the yarn, and then put both into my handy dandy crock pot for the dyeing.

The pink to black went into a glass jar in the middle while the red to orange was carefully arranged around the outside.

A few hours later, they were all done. The pink-to-black transition went very well, but the red-to-orange still looked really red. I rinsed them out and discovered that the red was bleeding. Quite a bit in fact. Bleeding enough that I got a bit concerned about what Walrus' socks had done to the rest of her laundry (sorry B!). But...I rinsed until I got sick and tired of rinsing, and then hung it up to dry.

I was concerned that it was going to end up too red, but I think it's alright. The mittens are awfully cute though. So cute that I think Boo will need a matching Nemo hat...

WIPs and a 2 hr FO

I seem to be on a bit of a straight needle kick recently. Usually I prefer circulars for everything that aren't socks (DPNs all the way for those), but my two active WIPs are both on straights. What's up with that?

Haiku, in Wiltons dyed Lion Brand Fishermans Wool, for Boo

Rivulet, in some handspun yarn that will show up in the blog on Friday

Last night apparently, I was in need of instant gratification. One skein of superwash BFL handspun, bulky weight, some size 10 circulars and DPNs, and one viewing of Pan's Labyrinth later, I had a new hat.

Technically I suppose, it's not quite a finished object, since it still needs a button, but how can you miss with a hat that takes one movie to finish?

Pattern: Robin's Egg Blue Hat by Rachel Iufer
Yarn: one skein (of two) of Superwash BFL handspun (blogged about here), less then 120 yds. The skein was 122 yds, and I've got a good bit left.
Needles: US size 10/6 mm circulars/DPNs
Comments/mods: a lovely, quick pattern that is perfect for handspun. I had a bit of a neuronal misfiring (aka brain cramp) with part of the directions, but in the end decided to trust the designer and follow the directions (sometimes I over think more then a little bit!). It turned out beautifully, and the yarn is so soft that I suspect I will wear this every day I can over the winter.

Now I need to find a good button. Think there are any button stores in London?

Alliejay is not the only one with hat issues

A few weeks ago, one of my knitnight buddies finished a hat* on a Thursday evening a few weeks back and tried it on. She has now learned how terrible an experience that can be, since the reaction was "That looks like a foreskin." (Nice girls we are, really. Come join us!)

I have the long lost sibling of The Foreskin Hat. Allow me to introduce you to The Condom Hat:

Or The Booby Hat. Whichever you prefer.

Oh dear. This is the second iteration of My So-Called Hat, and it's not really going according to plan. I started the seaming, took a look, stopped and said to Ironman, "What does this look like to you?" You can guess the rest.

Riiiiiiiiip. Thankfully not much reworking was required.

Pattern: My So-Called Hat by Becky Herrick
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted, in Bobby Blue, less then one skein
Needles: Initially US 7/4.5 mm, but US 8/5.0 mm were the way to go.
Start/finish: I started the initial incarnation over the Christmas holidays (12/27) and finished with Version 2.1 on 2/9/09. If I had worked on it more devotedly, it would have been much faster (Version 1.0 was done in 2 days if that gives you a better idea of how long this hat could take).
Comments/mods: I may be the only person in the Knit-verse who has not made My So-Called Scarf, so I had lots of fun with the stitch pattern. For Version 2.1 I cast on 134 stitches (2 more then called for in the pattern) so I could work a 1-stitch stockinette selvedge to make for smoother seaming at the end. There was also a mistake in the original pattern that called for working a turning row and then starting with the wrong side pattern row. This would result in a hat that has the right side showing on the brim and the wrong side showing on the rest of the hat. So I started with the right side pattern row and it came out fine.

To de-condomize the top, I ripped back to the second-to-last set of decrease (I think I had ~30 stitches) and worked p2tog all the way across on the wrong side. At that point I had in the neighborhood of the right number of stitches, so I just broke off a long tail of yarn, threaded it through the live stitches, and used the end to mattress stitch the seam.

Voila!

Yikes! The iMac cam is no good for nightime photos. The true color is somewhere in between these two.

So now I have one new warm blue item to wear next week. Manon has a body but no arms. If no one talks to me on Thursday night I might be able to get them done by Saturday, but I suspect I will be knitting sleeves on the plane. Hopefully my fellow first class** passengers won't be too worried about my terrorist tendencies.

* She has now fixed the problem and has a lovely beret. And a new pair of socks!

**I have never flown real first class in my entire life, and I am disturbingly excited about it. Now everyone think happy, buoyant thoughts for oil prices so this move actually comes through, 'kay? Thanks!

The Christmas presents

Here they are, in all their glory. Some of these have been blogged previously, but in the interests of not having a pages-long post, I've included more notes on the Flickr pages for those of you who are interested.

Ironman's socks

Crofter's Cowl #1

Brambler for Nana

Socks originally meant for Ironman, but reallocated to my lovely brother-in-law, who had no problems with the color

Diamond Waffle socks for my brother

Red Velvet handspun for my SIL

Another Crofter's Cowl for Koala

Sunflower hat for Mermaid

Not pictured are the Jacques Cousteau hat I made for my Dad (maybe someone will email me a picture perhaps?), and the super-secret project for Aquaphilic that will be going in the mail tomorrow. Just in time for her birthday. And no, it's not yarn this year.

Here's the last Christmas present, and it's not one that I made. This is one that my mother made for Ironman and me, to go with the beautiful cherry bed he made about four years ago.

This is the Mariner's Compass quilt* that she's been working on for the last while. It is absolutely gorgeous. She wanted to make us a quilt, and asked for colors. I said "blues and purples", and this is what she came back with. It is truly stunning, and I can't wait for it to arrive and get put on the bed (even if the edges aren't yet done).

So that's it for the Christmas knitting. Up next will be some thoughts about projects for 2009. 

* Many of the pictures in this post were taken with my Christmas present. Hooray for Ironman!