That's February done then.

Ta-da!



I managed to make my way through all the February projects with time to spare! I finished the last of the work last night. I didn't need the leap-day afterall, but it's given me time to blog about it in the same month I finished them, so that's nice.

First, the Double Knitting Pad

This was worked up with double stranded Cascade 220 superwash. I originally cast on wider than the pattern called for, but worked it shorter, because I realized I wouldn't have enough time to finish everything for the month if I worked it up as long as I wanted to. So, in the end it ended up the dimensions the pattern called for, but worked sideways instead of longways.

Double knitting is a fun trick, but knitting in the round is MUCH easier. I managed to make my way through with only 3 spots where I didn't slip the stitches properly. They didn't effect the look of project, so I didn't bother to rip back. I'm sure the baby who ends up with it won't mind.

It's very squooshy. I think it'll make a great tummy pad, and the wool is machine washable, so it can get as much drool as the baby can dish out.

Next we have the shawl:

This was knit up in Valley Yarns 8/2 Merino Cashmere. It was all on one cone and still had the machine oil on it, but after I finished and washed it, the yarn didn't fluff up much. If anything, it shrank a bit in the water and I had to really stretch it to get it back to size. It didn't felt at all, it just relaxed in on itself. I was worried that I'd run out of yarn on the cone, so I stopped when the pattern told me to, even though I thought it might be a bit small on my wide shoulders. And, it is. but it's still warm and I love it and if I never do wear it as a shawl, it will make a nice lapghan or baby blanket.
She didn't give directions for the lace pattern she used in the book, so I just picked out a simple diamond lace pattern. With the simplicity of the pattern and the tweediness of the yarn, it looks very rustic to me. When I put it on, I feel like I should be coercing a couple of children into my candy house to take a look at my stove. *cackle*

Ahem... Moving on... Next was the Baby Sweater on Two Needles:

Worked up in a sport-weight wool/alpaca blend, I think this is my favorite project of the month. Love. It. It's a yoke-down sweater and the only seams to sew at the end are the sleeves. Brilliant. The lace pattern was really simple and this was a super-fast knit. It'd be a great gift if you know a mom who is into vintage baby gear.

Finally, the longies:


I wanted to knit these in the same yarn as the sweater, but the directions called for 3 oz and I only had 2 5/8 or something like that. In the end, it would have been enough, but there was no way to know that at the time. One thing that has been frustrating about this Knitter's Almanac project so far has been that she is so vague about yarn requirements. I'm so used to dealing with yardages that getting it in ounces is making me a bit batty.

Back to the matter at hand, though, these were also very fast. In the book, they have feet. I left the feet off, because not all babies have tiny feet (like all the babies in my family) and since I'm note sure if I'm donating these yet, I didn't want someone to end up with them and have them be an annoyance to the baby wearing them. Still, the pattern went very fast as it was all stockinette in the round, but there was enough shaping involved to keep it interesting. I'd definitely do these again.

Like I said, I finished it all Thursday night, which meant that Thursday night and today I was able to work on the January Aran Sweater some more:

I'm 16 rounds into it at this point and you can really see the patterns emerging. The 5-stitch cable is really cool. It seems to lie flatter than a 4- or 8-stitch cable. I'm not in love with the yarn, but I'm glad to finally have a use for it. It should be very warm when it's done.

Tomorrow, I'll start swatching for the Chainmail Sweater, which is the project for March. I'll be using the SWTC Optimum DK that Jenny gave me a while back. I have juuuust enough of the silver and plenty of the other two colors. I'm so glad to have a use for this stuff, because it is so heavenly to work with.


Ooooh, the smooshy goodness. I am having a hard time not casting on for this baby right now... Must work on January sweater some more... Must resist.... optim... wool...

Shawl? Check!

The shawl finised and is currently blocked out on our living room floor. I'm having a heck of a time keeping the girls off of it. Kai is old enough to have a healthy fear of touching something that's being blocked, but Abby is still learning.

I'm not sure now, post-blocking, if it was the exact same yarn as that Yarn Harlot entry that Jenny saw. It didn't seem to bloom as much, and while it lost some of it's dye in the soak, it didn't fade nearly as much as hers seemed to. But, I dunno, the color differences may be accounted for by photography. I wasn't able to get a before shot of the shawl, because I can't find the camera. An after shot is going to have to wait a while, too, I guess.

I'm not positive, but I think that it's going to be a touch too small for me to wear without fiddling with it a lot. I'm not a big shawl wearer in general, so I don't think I'll have the patience for one that needs to be adjusted all the time. It is, however, a good size for a baby blanket, so if it does turn out to be less than comfortable, I'm sure I could gift it away no problem. This assessment was pre-blocking, though, so it might be a bit looser on the other end.

It's funny how the oil wasn't all that apparent to me when I was knitting with it, but the second I put it in the soaking water, it got VERY slick. I can't really assess the softness at this point, either. Still waiting for it to dry.

Last night, I cast on for the baby sweater on 2 needles. I'm knitting it according to her pattern except that I'm only planning on putting on the top 3 buttons, so I only need to worry about that many button holes. I've knit the garter stitch top and one repeat of the pattern. I'm using some DK weight wool/alpaca blend that I've had for ages. It's creamsicle colored! Sa-weet! It's part of the wool mom bought at Webs ages ago that was packaged for sale in Russia, so I have no idea what the "real" brand is, but it's very soft and I love it to bits. I'm glad to finally have a use for it. I've tried trading it away before, because I was sad to see it sitting there unused for so long, but I don't think anyone was willing to take a change on yarn when they don't know it's true origin and can't touch it in person.

I'm thinking there is no way I'm going to get this sweater and the longies done by the end of the month. It's just too much knitting. Next month is a sweater, but I believe it calls for worsted weight yarn and March has 31 days, so I may be ok. If not, later in the summer, things slow down a bit. I'm still aiming to get it all done!

Lizzie, why you play me like that?

Progress on the Knitter's Almanac front.

I'm 8 rounds in to the January sweater. Last night, I cast off the baby pad. This morning I moved on to the second February project, which is a lace shawl.

Oh, shawl... you shall be conquered yet.

Elizabeth Zimmerman is... how shall we say it... a litle vague? After writing about Shetland wool and how it comes in many different sizes, she then offers up a pattern for a shawl, calling for 10 oz of Shetland wool that knits to 4 stitches to the inch when knit loosely on size 5-8 needles.

A-what now?

Could she possibly be more vague?!

I poked around online a bit and came up with nothing, so I posted for help on the LiveJournal knitting community and Cynthia pointed me to Ravelry (dur) where a woman had made several different versions of the same shawl using lots of different yarns. Seeing that made it ok for me to not freak about the yarn so much and I started stash diving.

I pulled out some DK cotton in a very, very bright blue-green and some loverly alpaca that I didn't have enough of in one color, but I could do stripes of brown, green and purple. Neither one of those options really floated my boat, so I made my way to the office where I've stashed all my to-destash yarns. I found a cone of 80/20 merino/cashmere blend in a dk-ish 2-ply. I'd bought it a long time ago from Webs when my mom sent me a gift card for Christmas one year. It was on major-can't-pass-up markdown, so I got a cone of it. It's a very rich brown with flecks of orange and barker brown in it. I loved the color, loved the fiber, and it was on sale, so I ordered it.

And then it arrived. Hrm. It wasn't what I was expecting. It was coarser than I thought, and the plies weren't wound very tight. I was enough of a nice-yarn noob to not realize that it had been created for weaving and machine knitting. Once it's washed, it should soften up quite a bit. However, once I learned that tidbit, I wasn't really in the mood to knit with it anymore. And so it's sat in the stash for at least 3 years at this point.

When I saw it this morning, little bells went off and I knew it was going to become this shawl. I sat down with some DPNs to get started. I did a gauge swatch on 8's and it was slightly below what it called for, so I grabbed some 9's and jumped in.

It begins with a crochet cast on that has you make a loop and then pull up additional loops through that first loop and leave them on the hook. You transfer them all on to your DPNs and start knitting from there. You only start with 8 stitches. Divided up on 4 DPNs. I tell you, it is a miracle I didn't impale myself during the first 4 rounds. After that, the flailing needles settled into a square and I could carry on without risk of bodily injury. At 64 stitches, I can transfer them to a 16" circ, but I'm only at 56 so far. Close.

I need to stop at that point, though, because another vaguary of Madame Liz is that she tells you to just pick a lace pattern, make sure it's centered in the 4 panels, and start in on it. So before I can go much farther, I need to settle on a lace pattern, too. I suppose I could go a few more inches without one, but I do like the look of the sample in the book where it starts from almost the center. Thank goodness for stitch guides.

This year of the Knitter's Almanac may be my undoing.