knitting like a fiend

First, some wee pictures of stuff I've finished recently:





I really am pretty pleased with how the rainbow mitts turned out. I think I'm going to cast on another pair today (because I need some reasonably mobile knitting to take to choir concerts) with an eye to them being Christmas presents. Now is the time for Christmas knitting to begin in earnest, or it would be if the yarn I ordered would show up. Ok, that's mean, I do expect some of it today, and then I can get started on the Big Project, a sweater for my mom.

On the other hand, I could take my purple gloves to the concerts. That would be pretty mobile. No! It should be giftie time, right? Right.

remember books?

The Endpaper Mitts, as some of you may know, finish up with a tubular bind-off. This being the digital age, I looked online in a couple of places to find out how to do it, and they all turned out looking just dreadful. So in a fit of desperation I turned to the book I should have turned to in the first place, The Knitting Answer Book, by Margaret Radcliffe.

I think I've mentioned this book before, but not for a while. Dude, this book rocks. It's not very big, so you can take it with you, and it has really terrific, clear instructions for, well, every knitting thing I haven't been able to figure out otherwise. Needless to say, the tubular bind-off instructions were excellent, and the tops of my mitts look great. I wish I'd thought to look in the book when I couldn't figure out the tubular cast-on from online sources, but oh well, I'm planning to make another pair of the mitts, so I have another chance to learn.

The tubular bind-off looks pretty awesome in the 1x1 rib, by the way. I highly recommend it, and I'm not usually a fan of sewn bind-offs.

glubs.

Or, rather, fingerless mitt-thingies. :)

First off, my friend loved the purple-and-green (with matching motif) mitts. Yay! Apparently they will go very well with her coat.

I've also started a pair of Endpaper Mitts for another friend, one who has been having a difficult time of it lately. I asked her what she likes in knitwear, and she suggested red, or rainbows. Ha! I have contrived to do both, and I kind of love them.



Sure, they'd do better with a bit more contrast between the red and the rainbow, but they will do their job well anyhow. That's a little Trekking XXL in #100, and some Knit Picks Palette in Pimento. Or maybe Lipstick. I don't remember. Oops. I am hoping to have enough of the Trekking left that I can do a pair with black instead of the red. And then either keep them for myself (though, as we know, I really don't need any more mitts) or make someone's Christmas (or Random Present Day) merry.

As for my socks, I only need to do the cuff on the second one, but I have had a migraine for two days, and it's really slowed my life down. I think I'm better now. I'd better be. I will be so cranky if I feel like crap again tomorrow.

Socktober!

Usually I am not a joiner, but I cannot resist the hilarious punny good time that is Socktoberfest. Or maybe I just like knitting socks, and will leap at any excuse. Whichever. Here's what I've been up to, at the expense of various other projects that I should be finishing:

A pair of nice warm thick worsted weight socks, done with size 4 needles. No cold will be getting these puppies! I started them in the middle of last week, when it was all kinds of cold. I finished them on Friday or Saturday, when it was around 75 and sunny, so yeah, haven't worn them yet. I dig them, though!



Orange socks! Oh, how I love the orange. The pattern is Scylla, if anyone's wondering. It's doing pretty well at staving off any horrible pooling, although the second sock seems to have all the bright bits of color on the sole and all the drabber bits on the front. 'Drabber' being a term I use loosely because it's still plenty bright.



I've also been wanting to do some sort of colorwork sock, but really, I should finish my grey shawl--I just have to do the crocheted edging, dammit!--and knit up the last quarter of the heinous woolly undershorts I've been threatening to make forever. Oh, and my purple gloves. Yeah. I don't even know where they are. Ooops . . .

I am a genius.

Not.

Ages and ages ago (by which I mean July, or perhaps August) I started on a pair of purple and green stripey mitts (yes, like blue and white ones) for a friend of mine who adores purple and lime green. I got the first one finished, all except the thumb, and about half of the second one, before children's theater and other madness intervened.

So then a couple of days ago I found the bag they were in, and was all, oh hey, I should finish these! And I was very careful to look at the thumb gusset and do them both the same, and to count how many rows I had above the thumb before the colorwork motif happened.

You see where this is going, right?

One of these things is not like the other . . .



Clever me, putting the wrist motif at the top there on the first one, and not bothering to check for the second.

Now, if I were making these for myself, I'd probably just leave it, because I'm not so much with the caring that things match, but I don't know how my friend feels about it. And anyway, I do like the 'wrist' motif a lot better. And I only have to pull out a few rows, and I knit 2-color stuff pretty fast, so it should take me all of 20 minutes to fix it.

I'm still pretty annoyed with myself.

a photographed item!

A hat! A Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, to be precise. I've wanted to make one of these forever, and lo, I needed to make a thank-you hat for a friend, so she's getting one.



I haven't blocked it out to slouchiness: I think it looks super cute the way it is, and I also think this sort of shape is more what's in this year. I admit to loving it so much that I might have to make one for myself, which would be ok since my friend and I do not live in the same state. :)

I hope she likes it as much as I do!

(Oh, and the knitting is finished on the Equinox shawl. Now I'm slogging my way through the crochet bind-off. Good God, it's taking forever. And the next chunk of Battlestar Galactica is not yet ready at the library! Aiee!)

almost there . . .

Battlestar Galactica has really helped with the grey shawl. I am now on the very last clue! Only six or so rows to go!

I am a little bit peeved that I got almost the whole way to the end before seriously screwing up--and since I wasn't about to rip out four rows of 300+ stitches, one of the motifs is not quite like the others anymore. This makes me cranky. No, what makes me cranky is that I couldn't figure out how to fix it. (The mess-up was of the dropped-stitch-in-a-decrease-section variety.) Usually I can fix anything, and this has made me cranky about my knitting skills.

Oh well. The shawl still looks pretty good, and I'm mostly enjoying Battlestar Galactica, though I could really do without all the prophecy crap. Particularly because when they mention the Arrow of Apollo and the Tomb of Athena, all I can think about is the flagon with the dragon and the brew that is true, and then I start wondering when Danny Kaye will show up and if he will be a Cylon, and that's a little bit awkward.

Anyway! I am looking forward to seeing how big the shawl will actually be--looks like not very, that's what I get for using 'laceweight'--and am also knitting a hat as a thank-you for a friend. It's fun! I haven't knit with big needles for a while. It goes so quickly!