Go, Pack, Go!

Or, How I Made My Mother 3/4 of a Mother's Day Present, and She Thought It Was Funny.

In an effort to combine several of my favorite things (thriftiness, knitting, and gifting), I decided to knit my mother a pair of socks for Mother's Day this year.  (I know, I know, I've still only got half a scarf from her Christmas gift 2009.  But she doesn't know anything about that, and since she doesn't read this, she still won't know about it, giving me six more months to not work on it, and one month to feverishly look for needles and good light to knit four feet of [rather simple] lace.)

This project was thrifty because I had this yarn, named Packer's Punch, in my stash.  I purchase it from a store on Etsy-- CraftsMeowYarnDesign --last year.  (I had to check that, since I thought I had bought it two years ago.  Not bad, not bad.  Only sitting for about fourteen months before it became what it was meant to be.)

However, as I am wont to do, I got distracted.  For no obvious reason, either.  I can't tell you what I knit instead of these socks.  Well, I finished a blanket, that is true.  But, stockinette socks?  These should have been no more than two weeks, tops, even with working on other things.  And the days before Mother's Day are suddenly upon me and I have one and a half socks.  So I did what any good knitting and good daughter does:  I sent her one sock, a promise to send another, and a picture of the second sock in progress.

I had to send a picture of the sock-in-progress together with the finished sock to prove that I wasn't suffering from SSS, and that she would, indeed, see a pair of socks before too long.  Thankfully, she thought it was truly funny.  And I have already finished the other sock and sent it along.  She will probably have it on Monday.

UFO sighting

Eight years.  That is how long this blanket took to make.  During that time I:  got married, finished my degree, moved across the country, bought a house, watched my husband leave for war twice, went overseas myself twice, started the domestic adoption process, applied to a master's program, got in a master's program, and learned to stand up paddleboard.  And made dozens of other knitted items.

So, what happened here?  Well, first, I started making this for a baby shower present.  I didn't finish it in time for the shower, and then didn't finish it in time for the baby.  At that point I was about halfway to the size it is today, and I realized that it was really too wide for a baby blanket yet not really wide enough for a regular afghan.  I wasn't really sure what to do with it.  I couldn't frog it because the yarn is (gasp!) acrylic and would be really really kinky and unusable, but it had three skeins of yarn in it, and seemed like a waste to not do something with it.  So it sat.  And sat.  I moved it to two different apartments and a house. 

Then, this past winter, my grandmother ended up in a long term care home.  A month or so ago she was moved to the "I live here now" wing.  I wanted to give her something that would brighten her day whenever she saw it.  Enter Sunshine Blanket, stage left.

Gramma is a tiny woman.  She used to sit on a cushion to drive her car, until she couldn't drive any more (which was longer than my mother or her siblings wanted to let go on, but Gramma is also Irish and feisty, so no arguing).  She is the perfect size for an afghan that is too narrow for a 'regular' person.  And, also, she is in a wheelchair now much of the time, and a narrow afghan keeps yarn from getting twisted in the wheels.  So I added two more skeins of yarn to the Not Quite an Afghan, wrapped it up, and sent it on to Gramma.

She LOVES it!  I guess procrastination really does have its perks sometimes.

Raveled here.

Holiday Knitting Update

Yes, I know that it is waaaaay past time for a holiday knitting update, but since I didn't post at all in December or January, I feel that this post is justified.  So here it goes:

• Snowflake Hat
• Snowman Hat
• Cars Hat (2)
• Rosebud Hat
• Fish Hat (3?)
• Mad Bomber Hat
• Socks for Layne
• Stockings (2)
• Fetching Mitts in purple
• Gold Scarf for Mom

Not bad, actually, all things considered. 

The Gold Scarf for Mom was supposed to be a gift for last year, but didn't make it.  Brett ate part of the scarf and one of the needles.  Luckily, he only ate the yarn that was near the needle, so I only has to frog about four inches to get to some useable stitches.  However, he completely demolished the needle and I wasn't able to find another set like it.  I ended up purchasing a circular Addi Lace in the correct size, but this isn't working out so well.  While the tips of the needles are pointy, they are not quite as pointy as the now-demolished set.  Additionally, the Addis are gold.  The yarn is gold.  They are near to the exact same color.  This makes it very difficult to knit in light that is not full-on daylight.  I'm sure I'll figure it out.  I *do* have another year.  Almost.

And to finish, a cute picture of the fluffy dogs:

Holiday Knitting

I'm trying to create a mostly Handmade Holiday here, and have quite a few things in various stages of completion.  Of course, I have no pictures right now, and it is grey and rainy outside, so I don't think pictures will be coming this morning.  But for my own list-loving heart (and the hope that on January 1st, I will look at this list and have everything on it finished) here is a summary of what I hope to accomplish this month:

• Snowflake Hat
• Snowman Hat
• Cars Hat (2)
• Rosebud Hat
• Fish Hat (3?)
• Mad Bomber Hat
• Socks for Layne
• Stockings (2)
• Fetching Mitts in purple
• Gold Scarf for Mom

Now, all of these save two have been started and several only need some finishing so I don't think I am completely crazy.  Just a little crazy.  But I only have one more paper to write for class and then I will be finished with that.  I will have lots of devoted knitting time in about a week.  This looks doable.  Maybe.

And I will finish with a gratuitous Fluffy Dog Picture:

Finished!

One more project off the needles!  I give you my first pair of Toe Up Socks:

 These are the Diagonal Lace Socks by Wendy Johnson from the book Socks from the Toe Up.  It is also available--for free!-- on Ravelry.

What I learned:
*  Judy's Magic Cast On.  Love this, and it truly does seem to be magic.  Although since this is my first pair of toe-up socks, I have really no other cast on to compare it to.
*  Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.  This is awesome, and so simple. 
*  There are different ways to M1, depending on if you want a right-leaning or left-leaning increase.  Now, the pattern does not state this.  It just says to M1.  So I did, but halfway through the first toe, it looked kind of messy.  I did some Googling and figured it out, which is good because you need to increase for the heels.  I don't know why this didn't occur to me, as I know that decreases are paired, but it didn't. 
*  I kind of don't like M1s.  They are fiddly, and I am not used to the motion so I feel like I'm not really smooth at them.  I'm sure I'll get used to them, but right now they are a new skill and it usually takes me a little while to warm up to a new skill.

I also mirrored the lace pattern on the second sock, so the diagonals face opposite directions as opposed to both socks leaning one way.  Overall, I like the socks and am happy with the way they turned out.  I'm not sure if I will keep these for myself or gift them at the holidays.  It really depends on how much more knitting I get done!

Don't you love it...

...when this:

becomes this:

The yarn is Malabrigo Rios and I love the Glazed Carrot color so much that I am thinking of knitting a vest for myself in it.  I've wanted an orange vest for some time now, and this might just do the trick.  What I've been wanting is an orange puffer vest, but I think a lovely v-neck in this would actually be better than that.  However, my yarn budget has been blown for this month, so I must wait until next month and hope that my yarn store still has about five skeins of this amazing color left for me.

Trying this again

Goal: going forward, to update blog with some any frequency.  So, to start, I finish with a gratuitous cute picture of a little fluffy dog.

This is Fred, sitting on a table.  I'm not sure when this became acceptable behavior in the house, but this isn't the first time he's done it.  It isn't even the first picture I have of it.  And Fred isn't even the only dog who does it (although he is the only dog who does it on this particular table--right next to the yarn.  After his Peep's heart, I tell you.)  But here it is, Fred on a table.