This, my friends, is what is known as a Very Silly Picture. This is me, dancing like a fool, at Winterlude this past February. Friend Patrick, who is a very good photographer indeed, took the shot while I was being ridiculous in the park for the amusement of those around me. Fortunately, more people were looking at the ice sculptures than at me, or I might have been photographed whilst blushing bright red.

The great part about this picture, at least for the purposes of this blog, is that I am covered in handknits. The Winterlude Hat(tm), the Stripey Striped Scarf, the Fleeps… and, though you can’t see them, I believe I was wearing handknit socks at the time. And the picture wasn’t taken to show off any of those things. No, it’s just a candid shot of me, wearing lots of things I knit myself. And one thing I spun and then knit, which shows up surprisingly well in pictures even if the contrast is a little dim in person.

I’d like to have enough handknit (or crocheted) stuff that all my friends’ photo albums have pictures of me wearing stuff I made myself. It would also count if I learned to sew and was photographed wearing clothing I’d sewn. That’s next on the list – once the craft room is set up, I’ll have a place for the sewing machine and can re-familiarize myself with its ways. I have a simple skirt in my wardrobe that I’d love to be able to duplicate. After that, who knows where my skills might branch out?

Wildcard – Embellish the story
Embellishments come in all types and forms. Some are more than purely decorative and form a practical function – pretty buttons are as much part of holding a garment together as mere decoration, and some are just there to give a piece an extra ‘something’. Blog about an embellishment, be it a zipper, amigurumi eyes or applique patch which you are either saving to use or have in the past used to decorate a project with. Write about whether you are a very minimalist kind of knitter with classic lines and timeless plain knits or whether you love all the bells and whistles or sticking sewing and otherwise attaching decoration to your pieces.

Although Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2011 is technically over, I thought it would be fun to do the wildcard post anyway!

The best embellishment work I’ve done to date was attaching little snappish magnets to the tops and cuffs of the Fleep-Tops I made for Michael. My own Fleeps flap; he requested that his could button or snap back out of the way. It took several tries to get the snaps just right, as does most of the embellishment work I attempt. For example, it took several tries before I successfully crocheted buttons onto a sweater, not to mention the one where Pirate-Husband had to help me seam a pair of Blu babypants after I’d tried and failed multiple times to get the orange seam-yarn to show up properly.

Once I’d gotten the basic idea, though, it wasn’t terribly difficult to sew on the felt and then sew on the little snaps. (Who am I kidding? It was a pain in the butt. I had to do it over and over again to get it right.) They look really, really good subtly embedded into the cuffs… and they work really, really well, because they’re incredibly strong little magnets. They work *so* well, in fact, that I’m almost afraid of them pulling out the fabric even with the felt reinforcements. My next pair of Fleeps will have snaps of their own, and then I will no longer have flapping Fleeps.

I’m not really much of one for actually *doing* the embellishing or accessorizing, but I do appreciate the finished look of a project with trim or an edging, and I can really appreciate it when an embellishment is both beautiful and functional, like a crocheted button or a perfectly set snap.

Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now?
Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

How has one of your past knits lived up to wear. Maybe an item has become lost. Maybe you spent weeks knitting your giant-footed dad a pair of socks in bright pink and green stripes which he then ‘lost’. If you have knit items to donate to a good cause, you could reflect on the was in which you hope that item is still doing good for its owner or the cause it was made to support.

People often ask me if I wear out my handknit socks. “You must have put so much work into them,” they say, a concerned look creeping into their eyes, “and then you walk on them. I wear out my socks so fast. Is it even worth it to knit socks?” The funny thing is that I have not yet worn out a pair of my socks, not even the first pair that I finished in 2006. Admittedly, I don’t wear those often as they don’t fit perfectly. But still. Even the socks I wear more often are still going strong. One pair has perhaps felted more than the others, but the fabric itself is still solid.

The Fleeps, on the other hand, I finished in January of 2009 and they are the knitted items I wear most often. (ETA: The Fleeps, or Fleep-Tops, are actually flip-top glove/mittens. The tips of my thumbs, forefingers, and middle fingers are exposed for things like tying shoes and signing receipts, and the other two fingers are fully closed. They are the best glove/mittens in the world, probably because I took the time to completely custom-fit them. You can see the Ravelry project page here.) They’ve seen three winters now (and I do wear them into early spring) and just before going to Winterlude in February I noticed that the tops of some of the half-fingers had started to wear out to the point of unraveling. Fortunately, the thin spots were easy enough to fix with duplicate stitching, but I’m thinking that it might be almost time to knit a new pair of Fleeps for myself. As a side note, wow, my hair was short in that picture! It’s now well past my shoulders and back into “long hair” territory.

What would be the use of knitting something like socks or gloves, only to have them sit on a shelf looking pretty? I make my knitwear to be worn, to be used, and I know that eventually it will wear out past the point of repair.

Anyway, the Fleeps are without a doubt my favourite thing I’ve ever knitted. I like my hats, and scarves, and socks. But I love my Fleeps, and I can’t imagine ever not having a pair. This is why knitting is great – a storebought item may be discontinued, but as long as there’s yarn, I can always make more Fleeps! I already have the yarn for the next pair in my stash, in a deep dark green tweed colourway. (I also need a new winter coat, so I hope to find one that goes with deep dark green gloves.)

Once again, I visited my sworn-sister the Knitting Ninja (along with a bunch of other friends) in her hometown of Ottawa for the annual Winterlude festivities. In addition to the usual things we do there – eat stew at the cook-off, drink lots of beer, buy fancy cheeses and make a meal of them, watch the Super Bowl – we visited two yarn stores.

Our first stop was the new Yarns Etc., where I acquired a skein of Cascade Heritage Paints in the understated blues and grays “Thunder” colourway. Understated blues and grays… if you’ve been following along for a while, you may have guessed that this is going to be socks for Michael. (And if you haven’t, now you know!) I have no idea when I’m going to get to them, and first he has to tell me where the last pair of socks could fit better, but eventually there will be a new pair of plain ribbed socks for him.

Since it was within blocks of our hotel, we walked down to Yarn Forward. Last year I’d gotten two skeins of Lang Merino 120, a smooth DK weight superwash yarn, in black. This year I supplemented them with three more skeins, one each of cream, green, and blue-ish. The colours aren’t exactly wintery, but somehow they remind me of winter. Blue and green are more springlike, but with the cream in there they make me think of ice. So I’m thinking of designing a Winterlude-inspired hat and armwarmers set to be my very first for-sale patterns.

To that end, I wandered around the ice sculptures in Confederation Park looking at, and sneaking pictures of, people’s hats. There was lots of inspiration to be found, since of course in February in Ottawa it’s cold enough for nearly everyone to be wearing a hat, and many of them are hand-knit.

Many of them also have earflaps, which was my motivation last year to knit the hat that I didn’t want to buy. I finished sewing the lining into my Winterlude Hat(tm) just a day before leaving, and got the cords in with some help from Pirate-Husband, and was quite pleased with how warm it was while I traipsed around Ottawa. There are a couple of things that I would change, if I were to be making it again: first, I’d make the earflaps wider. They are wider than my ears, but still let wind in unless I tied the cords under my chin. And second, I’d make the lining a teensy bit larger, because it felt as if the hat kept riding up on my head unless I tied the cords under my chin. So third, I’d make the cords a couple of inches longer, because it was hard to tie them while wearing gloves. Even without those things, I absolutely love my new hat. Wearing something made of yarn I spun myself is so gratifying! The polar fleece lining kept me from having a terrible case of hat hair, which is definitely a good thing. (I know I’m squinty in this picture. It was very bright out.)

Speaking of gloves, there’s another finger to repair on my Fleeps. They still kept my hands warm, though I can definitely feel that they’re getting thin. Maybe I can wear them for another year, but then it will be time to make another pair for myself. Meanwhile, Michael’s new Fleeps made their debut and did their job wonderfully. He says he’s going to show them off to everyone, and I totally believe him. The magnet-snaps that I sewed in are seriously awesome. My next pair will definitely have those included.

Last weekend I finally sewed the magnetic snaps to Michael’s gloves, but there were problems… First I sewed the snaps directly to the gloves. That seemed fine while I was doing it, but in reality when I tested them, there was too much pull on the knitted fabric. So I added wool felt reinforcements to the wrist snaps, but because I haven’t got an instinctive feel for sewing the way I do for knitting, I put them on the outside of the cuffs, between the snaps and the knitting (and then I took a picture, so you can see here how wrong I was).

When I showed Pirate-Husband, as I probably should have done the first time around, he told me the right way to do it would be to use bigger pieces of wool and put them on the insides of the cuffs, sandwiching the knitting between the felt and the snap. I borrowed an x-acto knife from him and I’ve finally got them right… just one day before deadline. WHEW.

Not only do the snaps work better, and I’ve less fear of them pulling out of the knitting, but they look much better too, now that the felt is on the inside. I’m so pleased with the way these came out – and now that I know how best to attach the snaps, I may add some to my own Fleeps! Unfortunately, mine are getting to be a little thin. I might get another season out of them, but then it will be time to knit a second pair for myself. Maybe I’ll hold off on the snaps until then; after all, my Fleeps have been flopping for a couple of years now… and just last night, I found that the top of one finger was wearing dangerously thin. I’ve reinforced it with leftover yarn and all is well again! People often ask me if I’ve worn through any of the socks I’ve knit (I haven’t), but no one ever asks me about these. I wonder why not – they see so much more use.

Aubrey M. Tinyfierce lost her fight with FIP yesterday. In the end, her fierce was just too tiny for a disease which is inevitably fatal. To say that we’ll miss her terribly is an understatement. At least for now, her picture will stay in the banner of my Etsy shop, which should be opening for business in the next couple of months. If I can’t do it to support her any more, I can still do it in her memory – and to build up a fund for Floyd T. Underfoot, should he happen to get sick. Right now we’re grateful that he’s healthy as a horse, sleek and energetic.

Friend Stef came over yesterday to keep me company and help distract me from thinking about Aubrey too much. I showed her the Winterlude Hat ™ which I’d blocked over a perfectly-sized ceramic bowl¹, and she fell in love with its awesomeness. Then, because she has more sewing experience than I do, she helped me pin the fleece lining for the hat. It went much more smoothly for having an extra pair of hands involved. We had a good time chatting about craftsy things while I began sewing it up. I’m so close to being done with it and I can’t wait to try it out when I get to Canada in a week and a half.

While I’ve got the sewing box out, I need to sew the magnet-snaps into Michael’s Fleeps. And on the subject of projects which are really, really close to completion, I’m within a few stripes of the toe on the second Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey Jaywalker. I’ve been working on it here and there while I wait for things like car maintenance and allergy shots. The other day I pulled it out to knit a few stripes and was actually surprised to discover that it’s almost finished!

I didn’t get much done on the blanket this past weekend, but I plan to work a couple of hexagons in tonight. And soon, if I’m feeling tired of crochet and want to get back to knitting, I can start on the pink and purple sweaters for the twin niecelets.

________________________________________________________________
1. Which shall be my hat-blocking bowl forevermore, when it’s not serving its usual role as a fruit dish.

We had our family holiday celebration on Monday at my brother and sister-in-law’s place, and I finally got to give Dad his hat. It fits him perfectly, and he said that it is exactly the hat he wanted! Hooray! Now that I know his size, I told him, I can keep him in hats for as long as he wants. He mentioned a hat with notches over the ears to fit his headset when he flies. I’ll have to see about making something like that, perhaps for next Chanukah. Dad was kind enough to model it for me and even to lend me his camera to take pictures, since I’d (of course) forgotten mine.

Speaking of cameras, I’ve been thinking about getting a new one. Not another point & shoot, like the one I currently have (a Canon SD850IS), because – well, because my next mobile phone will have a really good small camera built right into it – no, I’m envying a DSLR, with which I can take much better pictures. It’s almost silly to think about it now because I don’t have the money to buy a camera, but maybe someday soon I will. Pirate-Husband thinks it’s silly of me to want such a thing. He is convinced that I will buy an expensive camera, take twenty pictures, and get tired of it. I’m not sure I see myself hiking all over the countryside hauling a camera with me, true, but I’d certainly take lots more pictures of stuff indoors, like kittens and dinners and knitting.

In other news, I got a package from Thailand in the mail. It makes the world seem very small, to be able to buy things from the other side of the planet with a few clicks of the mouse, and have them show up at my door less than two weeks later. What was inside the package, you might ask? (And why did I buy from an Etsy seller in Thailand? Because I couldn’t find the same things for a better price more locally. I looked. But 20 sets of snaps for $12, including shipping, is about as good as it gets.)

Twenty sets of ultra-thin, surprisingly strong, magnetic snaps. They are the kind of closures that are sewn on, rather than clipped through fabric. This seemed to be a wise decision for attaching a magnetic snap to the mitten-tops and wrist cuffs of Fleep-Top gloves. The kind of magnet that’s clipped through would leave a very cold metal circle on the inside of the cuff. I’m actually concerned that they are *too* strong, that unsnapping them will put more stress on the yarn than it can take, and that the gloves will have a shortened lifespan as a result. Perhaps I should reinforce the place where the snaps are sewn on with a piece of fabric on the inside.

My own Fleeps have never had anything to hold the top back when it’s not in use, and I’ve never had a problem with them flopping about… but Michael requested that I do something for his gloves, and so I shall. And if the magnetic snaps are as awesome as I think they will be, it’s fairly likely that I’ll add them to my gloves, too.

I’d mentioned that the first two Fleeps had come out slightly different in size, but the more I looked at them the more I realized just how different they were. I tried to quell the thoughts of reknitting, but when Michael tried them on a few weeks ago, I knew instantly that I’d have to make one glove over.

He said I’m crazy, that if he wanted two identical gloves he would have bought them in a store. (Isn’t he nice?) I say it’s not crazy; the whole point of custom knitting is so that things fit exactly as they should. What good is it if one glove fits perfectly and one is so big that it might have been made for someone else?

How far off could it have been, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you, although it’s kind of embarrassing… one glove was 3/4″ longer than the other, and about 1/2″ wider. That is some serious difference. And it’s totally unacceptable. So really, the decision to reknit wasn’t a difficult one at all.

The sizing difference has to be a matter of gauge/tension, because each of the gloves has the same number of stitches (I counted to be sure) and the same number of rows. Maybe I was hurrying more when I knit the second one, and it came out tighter, and thus fits perfectly? Obviously I should hurry when I reknit the first one to get the same gauge. Or maybe I accidentally knit the first one on US 4/3.5mm needles instead of US 3/3.25mm? We’ll never know.

I began to knit the next (would that be the third, or the first?) glove, making sure to pull my stitches tight. After the cuff I could see that my gauge was much more in line with the second glove that had fit properly. Hooray! I kept measuring as I worked my way up the hand, just to be sure. And it came out just fine!

I had enough yarn left in the ball to knit a third glove and one mitten-top, and unraveling the first glove gave me enough recovered yarn to knit the second mitten-top. Unraveling was an adventure as I’d woven the half-million (okay, ten) yarn ends in very carefully. I also had yarn left over from my own pair of Fleeps that could have filled in, if I didn’t have enough, but it worked out just fine. And the cut-off fingers will make wonderful felted toys for the kittens.

The second mitten-top was finished in a frantic burst of knitting on Thanksgiving morning, and I held my breath when Michael tried on the gloves Friday night. But woo! They fit perfectly! Then he gave them right back to me to put on some sort of fleep-top holding device. I ordered little sew-on magnets that are shaped like snaps but don’t actually snap; if those turn out to be somehow wrong then I’ll sew on a button and a loop.

He still says I’m crazy – and a perfectionist, too – but I feel lots better about having made gloves that fit right. Would you have done differently?

Due Date …… Project
10/3 ………… Angie’s gifts
11/1 ………… Second Fleep, hand section
12/1 ………… Mom’s sock #2
12/1 ………… Dad’s hat
1/1 ….………. Gift for Janis’s baby boy
2/1 ………….. Fleep Restraints for Mitten Tops, awaiting magnets
2/1 ………….. Jacob Hat
3/1 ………….. Twins’ sweaters
4/15 …….….. Gift for Gwen’s baby

Yesterday I was so tired when I got home that Pirate-Husband suggested that I should take a night off from knitting. “You’ve told me,” he said, “that when you’re tired you shouldn’t knit.”

“No,” I mumbled through a fog, “I can knit on something stockinette. I could, really. I could.” But I didn’t. He made dinner and we watched television with the cats draped across our laps, and then we both went to bed early. Not a productive evening, but a very comfortable one.

I’ve made progress on Michael’s Fleeps, but it will take a minor miracle to have them finished before I see him on Friday. There’s a lot to do tonight that isn’t knitting, like packing for Thanksgiving in New York, but maybe I can find a few moments. And I’m sure that Grandma won’t mind if I knit while we talk about everything under the sun. So, maybe! Fingers crossed.

Both of my socks-in-progress will be coming with me on the trip, too. Pirate-Husband pointed out, “We’ll be taking your car, there’s plenty of room for knitting,” and also commented “I know you love to start new projects, but I think you should finish the current socks first.” He is, of course, right on all three counts.

As for new projects, there is a LOT of baby knitting coming up. We will know the twins’ sexes tomorrow, so I’ll finally be able to buy the yarn for their sweaters. I am going to bring the KnitPicks catalog to New York with me, so that my sister-in-law can pick out exactly which colours she prefers. And my friend Gwen has just announced that she’s expecting her third, due in the end of May! I’m not yet sure what I’ll knit for her. Another sweater? A little toy? I’ll come up with something good.

Due Date …… Project
10/3 ………… Angie’s gifts
11/1 ………… Second Fleep, hand section
12/1 ………… Mom’s sock #2
12/1 ………… Dad’s hat
1/1 ….………. Gift for Janis’s baby boy
2/1 ………….. Mitten tops and thumb caps on Fleeps (almost done!)
2/1 ………….. Jacob Hat
3/1 ………….. Twins’ sweaters
4/15 ….……. Gift for Gwen’s baby

Three weeks ahead of schedule, I’ve finished the second of the Fleep-Tops’ hands. Either my tension was much tighter as I was working on the second glove, or the first one was stretched out from all the trying-on – the second seems slightly smaller than the first. I’m sure it will stretch and can be blocked out to match the other one.

This gives me six weeks to finish Mom’s sock and Dad’s hat. Plenty of time. No worries at all. I wound up the Cascade 220 into a neat yarncake and worked up a small gauge swatch, since I can’t find any of the notes that I took five years ago when I knit Pirate-Husband’s hat. Grr, frustrating! At least I wrote down that I used a US 6 (4mm) needle, or I’d probably have been swatching on a US 7 (4.5mm). I measured 5.5 stitches to the inch, did the math, and cast on 116 stitches. Since Dad requested a smooth hat with a ribbed brim, I’ll be using the same Basic Hat Formula that I’ve knit up several times before.

The stitch marker I’m using came from a cat-themed set of markers I received in a holiday gift swap a few years ago. It’s an adorable pink cat with an articulated tail. I’d nearly forgotten about the set but I’m glad to have a chance to use it now! This is the kind of thing I’d probably never buy for myself, but getting it in a gift swap was really cool.

Due Date …… Project
10/3 ………… Angie’s gifts
11/1 ………… Second Fleep, hand section
12/1 ………… Mom’s sock #2
12/1 ………… Dad’s hat
1/1 ….………. Gift for Janis’s baby boy
2/1 ………….. Mitten tops and thumb caps on Fleeps
2/1 ………….. Jacob Hat
3/1 ………….. Twins’ sweaters

P.S. I had to add three words to my spell-checker’s dictionary for this post: Fleep, grr, and swatching. I think I say all three of these things often enough that they can be in my dictionary!

Saturday morning found me hurrying to finish the heel flap and turn on Mom’s second sock so that I could bring it with me to my parents’ house, where we went in the afternoon to meet my second cousins once removed, who were visiting from England. It was wonderful to finally meet them! So wonderful, in fact, that I got caught up in conversing and completely forgot that I was supposed to be knitting while we talked, even though I had managed to get into the gusset before we drove down to their house. Mom tried on her first sock, and *whew* – it fit perfectly.

Dad’s asked me if I can make him a hat in charcoal gray – a standard toque or watch cap, with a turned-up brim. I’m going to see if I can get that done in time to be his Chanukah present. The due date list has been shifted around to accommodate for the hat and also to account for babies who aren’t going to be born until Spring. I’ve been told that I won’t need to have the twins’ sweaters in time for their birth, since I’m making them in a size for *next* winter, but I’m still going to aim to finish them in advance.

I did get to work on the sock a little more over the weekend, but most of my knitting time was aimed directly at the second of Michael’s Fleep-Tops. I’m knitting both hand sections first, leaving off the mitten tops and thumb caps until I can measure their placement on his hands. By knitting as fast as I could until bedtime, I managed to finish the ribbed cuff and knit the hand section to the base of the thumb opening. The second glove needed no measuring since I’d taken careful notes on the first one, so it goes along much faster. I’m sure the fingers will be just as fiddly, of course.

Due Date …… Project
10/3 ………… Angie’s gifts
11/1 ………… Second Fleep, hand section
12/1 ………… Mom’s sock #2
12/1 ………… Dad’s hat
1/1 ….………. Gift for Janis’s baby boy
2/1 ………….. Mitten tops and thumb caps on Fleeps
2/1 ………….. Jacob Hat
3/1 ………….. Twins’ sweaters

I have a confession to make: I love lists. I love writing lists. I especially love writing lists on paper, putting line-items in order, and then re-writing the list in my neatest handwriting on a fresh sheet of paper. It makes me feel better about everything I have to do, helps me to see that my queue isn’t life-threatening. And it really isn’t! I’m feeling a lot better now, though I know I’ll have to be fairly disciplined in order to get everything done on time.

The cats are headed to the vet on Saturday to be spayed and neutered, and due to a bloodwork requirement we won’t get them back until Monday. The boarding is free, at least, but I feel a little bad about leaving them all weekend. On the other hand, that totally frees up two whole days for knitting without kitten assistance. (And cleaning the house, I suppose. These things have to be done.)

This weekend I can finish up Angie’s baby shower gifts and get started on the one for Janis. (Hey Janis, do you want it to be a surprise, or shall I blog about it as I go?) If I am vigilant about knitting some every day, and if I account for the usual life-craziness and procrastination, I can expect it to take about a month.

That leaves me with one sock for Mom, which I can’t start until she tries on the first sock, and the glove part of the second Fleep for Michael. If I can get all of that done by Thanksgiving, I can spend December on the twins’ sweaters – but I can’t even buy yarn for them until I know if they’re boys, girls, or one of each, so I’m just not going to think about it until I get that piece of news. And then I can spend January on the colourwork hat of the Jacob yarn I spun, and putting mitten-tops on the Fleeps.

So, for my own records and your amusement, here is my list of projects and their deadlines. I will probably certainly without a doubt look back on this list and laugh, next year…

Due Date …… Project
10/3 ………… Angie’s gifts
11/1 ………… Second Fleep, hand section
12/1 ………… Mom’s sock #2
1/1 ……….…. Gift for Janis
2/1 ………….. Twins’ sweaters
2/1 ………….. Mitten tops and thumb caps on Fleeps
2/1 ………….. Jacob Hat

Is that realistic? Am I crazy?

On Saturday, Michael and I went to Maker Faire. It was pretty freaking awesome. We saw some really cool stuff – self replicating 3D printers, the Egg-Bot in action, and a fully functional lifesize game of Mousetrap. Not to mention the ArcAttack performance! We went wandering through the vendors and I was tempted (without any arm-twisting at all, really) into buying a 4+ ounce braid of locally sourced and hand-dyed merino top in deep blues and greens. I haven’t taken a picture of it yet, but as soon as the sun comes out I will.

I knit while I was riding the train, and it made the trip go by super-fast. On the way to New York, I finished off the fingers on the first Fleep-Top and got started on the Gnome Baby hat (link to pattern page on Ravelry). I held my breath when Michael tried on the glove, but there was nothing to worry about. It fits perfectly, and all the fingers are the right length. Whew! On the train ride home, I came close to finishing the baby hat. I’m already into the decreases which will form the point. (That red should be much more red. It’s not easy to get a good picture of such a saturated colour while on a moving train!)

Cascade Fixation is a funny yarn to knit with, but I’m not yet sure if that’s good funny or bad funny. It doesn’t hurt my hands like most cotton yarns do, but I find it difficult to keep an even tension due to the elastic content. I don’t want to pull too tightly on it, but I have to be extra careful of my tension between needles or I’ll get ladders. It’s great for baby clothes since it’s not rough or scratchy, and the elastic will certainly help keep the hat and booties on the baby rather than on the floor… but I think I’d rather knit with wool.

My sister-in-law has asked me to hold off on knitting for the twins until she finds out if they’ll be boys, girls, or one of each. She’d like to colour-code her babies, and so that project has been put on the back burner for a few more weeks. So far, the leading pattern is the Presto Chango – I really like the idea of having swappable front panels in which I can try different stitch patterns. Even with this delay, I have renewed confidence that I’ll be able to finish all my gift knits by their deadlines. Working up most of a hat in just a few hours has reminded me of how fast a baby-project goes.

Almost home, waiting at Metro Center for the train. I’m fascinated by the shapes of the concrete in the metro stations. That must be a good thing, since I had to wait twenty minutes for my train to come along…

After yesterday’s post I was linked to two more baby sweater patterns that have made the list of potentials!

The first is Five Fruits (Ravelry link). This is an adorable striped sweater in colours that remind me of my 1980s childhood: a Lifesavers rainbow. For anyone who doesn’t have a Ravelry account, you can see a picture of the sweater here. It has buttons running along one shoulder, to make it easy to get over a baby’s gigantic noggin without having a giant saggy neckline. And it’s knit from the top down in one piece, which means no seaming!

And the second, which might now be at the top of the running, is the Presto Chango sweater. This clever construction for a baby sweater has interchangeable front panels. When it’s all buttoned up, it looks like a pullover – but when there’s the inevitable baby mess, only the front panel needs to be changed out. And, I could try out different stitch patterns on the front panels! Two sweaters and four front panels would be come out to about eight or nine skeins of Swish Worsted, the yarn I plan to use regardless of what sweater I end up knitting.

In other news of knitting for babies, friend Angie is having her baby shower in mid-October, so it’s time to get started on her gifts! Perhaps I can crank them out on the eight hours of trainride that I have scheduled for this weekend. I’m going to the Maker Faire in New York, and I am so excited about it! Anna Hrachovec will be doing a demo there from her book of patterns for adorable knitted toys. Most cute little toys, called amigurumi, are crocheted, but she’s one of the few designers who makes patterns for knitted amigurumi.

In the world of non-baby knits, I’ve gotten a few fingers done on the first of Michael’s Fleep-Tops. Tonight I’ll finish the rest of the fingers and then this weekend he can try the glove on, without the mitten top, to be sure it fits. I’ll mark the placement of the mitten while it’s on his hand. The second glove should go a lot faster once I know my measurements and row counts are correct.

Lots of knitting for other people going on lately – the Fleeps, gifts for four separate babies, and Mom’s socks. Once these are all done, I can get back to knitting for myself! Fortunately, I know that everyone who’s getting a knitted gift from me will thoroughly appreciate the work that goes into them. Otherwise, I’d just be ordering gifts for them all, and be done with it.

Last week, Pirate-Husband and I went to visit my parents for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. My brother, sister-in-law, and the nieceling were also there, so we had nice festive family meals together. I was thrilled to hear the happy news that I’m going to be an aunt again in April! Yesterday, my brother called me and said that not only are they expecting Baby #2, but also Baby #3. That’s right, she’s pregnant with twins. I am so happy and excited for them!

Of course, I want to knit something for each baby. So I’ve gone back to my current projects with a frenzy! I want to get some things finished before I begin working on the baby knits. Last night I sat down and worked on Mom’s sock, and finished the first one before it got to be bedtime. My sock blockers are too big for her socks, so I refolded a wire hanger into a foot-shape. Not that the socks need blocking at all, but they’ll photograph much better if they’re stretched a little to show off the ribbing.

My sworn-brother Michael came to visit over Labor Day weekend, and I made him try on the Fleep-Tops that I’ve been working on for him. I’m glad I did, because they were still a few rounds too short for his hands. I’m going to add those rounds and the fingers before the next time I see him, so that he can try on a finished glove. I’ll have to determine where to put the mitten part while the gloves are on his hands, or they might end up in the wrong place. Customized knitwear for people who live far away, what fun – but they will be done in time for Winterlude, I swear it. I have to come up with some way of marking his Fleeps as separate from mine. Sure, they’re slightly larger, but they’re made of the same colour yarn, and they’ll be easy to confuse. Maybe I will put a little stripe into the mitten tops for him.

I’m just past the gusset decreases and into the foot of the first Timey-Wimey Jaywalker, and very near the toe of the second Sibling Sock, so I’ve swapped them out: the Jaywalkers are going to become my traveling sock and I’m cranking away on the Sibling sock right now, hoping to finish it (and the pair!) tonight. Pirate-Husband and I are going to be at a party from tomorrow morning into Monday afternoon, so I should be able to put a few more inches onto the Jaywalkers then. One of the goals of the gathering is to fell three large trees, something I’m just not physically up to right now, so I plan to knit and watch stronger people swing axes and wield chainsaws.

The math to convert my Fleep-Tops to a larger size for Michael was giving me fits. I mis-read my notes, then I mis-judged, and then I mis-calculated, but eventually figured out what to do. The numbers should all be right now, but there’s only so far I can go before I’ll want him to try them on for perfect sizing. Once I have the first one done, the second will be much faster.

Happy news: I just found out that my friend Angie is pregnant with her first! She’s only seven weeks along, but I’m already planning out what to knit for her. I ordered the yarn from WEBS this morning, and downloaded some patterns from Ravelry. Knitting babyclothes is total instant gratification!

Last night I gave in to further temptation and started a new project – the second pair of Fleep-Tops, slightly larger than my pair. I struggled with my notes and the math for a little while until I realized that I was making it much more difficult than it really needed to be: mine were sized down from the smallest size, but these can be knit following the small size of the pattern. I’m using Cigar from Knitty, and then I’ll add mitten-tops a la Gnomittens.

There’s a method to my madness. I don’t need to start a new project now… but these are for Michael, and he’s visiting this weekend, so I can conveniently try them on the live model, instead of guessing at the size and hoping to get it right.

I’ve got the cuff done (right size! woo!) and now it’s on to the gussets. Hopefully I don’t have to make too many edits and adjustments. Maybe this will be something I only knit on when he’s visiting… as long as I can get them done before next February.

P.S. He didn’t sucker me into anything. It was all the yarn. I could hear it calling me from upstairs. *sigh*

I wasn’t too happy to hear that one of my favourite yarns, Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, was being discontinued. It’s the yarn I used to knit the Fleep-Tops, and I just knew that I would want another pair – and my swornbrother Michael kept eyeing them enviously, too. When I was in Canada this past February, I was able to find some in “Cedar,” a deep green colourway, but Michael only wanted black or dark gray. So I happily kept the green for myself, thus ensuring that my next winter coat will have to be something that goes well with dark green, and went on a quest for “Night,” the colourway I’d used for the original pair.

Apparently, the “Night” colourway was discontinued two years ago, but after some serious web-searching, I finally found two skeins for a great price at the Red Bird Knits moving sale. What a deal! Of course I bought them right away, before anyone else could. I will have to size my pattern notes up to fit his larger hands, but that shouldn’t be too difficult at all, and I’m sort of looking forward to the challenge of it.

In looking around the web, it seems as if the yarn isn’t actually being discontinued, just no longer shipped to America and Canada. There are plenty of colourways listed on Jo Sharp’s site and no mention that it’s going out of production. Does anyone have anything further about this?

Last weekend, while my house in Virginia was buried in more than two feet of snow, I went to Canada. Ironically, the weather there was beautiful and clear, if really cold. It was even too cold for me to want to skate on the canal. Instead, my sworn-sister the Ninja and I, along with our friend Amy, took an afternoon to visit yarn stores.

Our first stop was Wool N’ Things in Orleans, where I was thrilled to find some of the discontinued Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, the same yarn that I used to knit my Fleep-Tops. I picked up two skeins in Cedar, a gorgeous dark green with red and yellow flecks. They’ll probably become another pair of Fleeps, as backup for when my first pair inevitably wears out. The green totally doesn’t match my dark blue winter coat, but it’s time for a new coat anyway. Perhaps something in green, or preferably black. Black goes with everything.

Then we headed over to Yarn Forward in Ottawa proper, where I bought two skeins of this super-soft (and superwash!) Lang Merino DK in a gray so dark it’s almost black. My first thought was that it might make a pair of Fleeps for Michael, but he wanted something thicker and tweedier, so I’m going to use it for a pair of classy office armwarmers for myself and pick up some Rowan Felted Tweed in as black as it comes for him. Not that I mind being able to use this pettably soft stuff for myself, not at all! I am thinking about making something like these Cafe au Lait Mitts from SnapperKnits, or perhaps I will come up with my own pattern for them.

I did have a disappointment this year: My old Stellar Toque, now over four years old, may be nearing retirement. It’s gotten stretched out and too large, and lets the wind through to my ears. I am thinking that before next Winterlude, I will knit a colourwork hat with earflaps and line it with fleece. We saw many of them in the Byward Market when we were there for the Stew Cook-Off on Friday, and I was seriously tempted to buy one – but why buy what I can knit? Pirate-Husband suggested that I could salvage the Stellar Toque by knitting earflaps onto it and lining it with fleece, instead of making a whole new hat. I could also felt it a little to shrink it and make it more windproof.

Today I actually left the office on my lunch break, which almost never happens. I decided to walk over to Home Goods to buy bread pans, and because it was cold outside I put on my beloved Fleep-Tops. I was fleeping the tops over when the man riding the elevator with me commented, “Those are really clever!”

“Thank you, I made them myself!” said I, and demonstrated how they fleeped. “I figure that no matter what you’re doing, you really only need three fingertips, right?”

He looked impressed and said “You have the best of both worlds with those!” Had it been a longer elevator ride, he might have asked me to make him a pair. As it was, we got down to the lobby, I grinned and wished him a nice day, and we went in opposite directions.

Totally made my day, I tell you.