Sheep On My Stuff

The first project of the new year: a soap saver. It was a tiny project that I did during downtime in raid. :)

The pattern is the Rainbow Soap Sack from the 2009 Knitting-Project-A-Day (Or So) Calendar. I picked that up at a bookstore today; at 50% off it seemed like quite the bargain. So far there are two patterns I'm interested in trying; this was the first, and a pair of socks for Grant will be the second.

Grant and I have often talked about having me knit us Christmas stockings. The ones we have are velour and quite plain. So in a last-minute burst of energy, I knit Grant an argyle stocking -- which required kicking him out of the downstairs for the last three or so days before Christmas so I could finish it in private. >_>

I made it out of Cascade 220, with a heathery light grey for the main portion and some really nice print/hand-dyed yarn for the red and green. I had some leftover blue and yellow for the little lines...

...which, in retrospect, and if I ever do argyle again, I'll do them in duplicate stitch; doing them as part of the pattern was an unnecessary pain in the butt! But for my first argyle project, I wanted to do it the old-fashioned way. Next time I'll save myself the work! :)

One thing I used that was really, really helpful was -- well, were; I used several -- fish-shaped yarn bobbins from Pony. I ordered mine from SpinBlessing.com, where they're now on backorder, but if you poke around you may be able to turn them up. The shape is great, and the bobbins are substantial enough not to feel like they're getting all bent out of shape as I wind yarn around them. :)

All in all, a wonderful success -- the only problem now is that I don't have a stocking of my own! But I've got an aran one in the works. :)

I did not do so well taking pictures this year! I'm afraid all I can say is that I did this hat in this yarn:

And it was lovely! :)

Here's one of my mystery projects! I knit a lovely lace shawl for my cousin Kristen. It's in the undyed equivalent of Gloss Lace from KnitPicks, and it took precisely three skeins (although I don't believe I got the recommended number of repeats out of it). The pattern is "Kimono Shawl" from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls, one of my favorite shawl books:

I had it done in plenty of time to ship, but ended up procrastinating and then bringing it with me to the wedding. I hope she liked it!

The trouble with the holiday knitting crunch time is that I can't post anything about what I'm currently knitting -- which leaves me with little to blog about. (Also, am deathly busy with knitting projects -- not so busy as to be run ragged at the edges, but busy enough to think zomg can't take the time to do a book review for the blog, must knitknitknit!)

I'll have a TON of posts I can make after Christmas, and I have a couple of catch-up posts I can do for projects I've done and given away. However, this post is just to make sure people know I'm still out here and still knitting -- and heck, let's put together a list of catch-up posts I can write in the very near future, backdated.

* 12/4: Wedding shawl!
* 12/9: Mom's Yearly Christmas Hat
* 12/11: An Argyle Stocking
* 12/16: The Cursed Ball of Yarn
* 12/18: Buy 4 Mittens, Get One Free
* 12/23: Entrelac!
* 12/25: Mystery blanket
* 12/30: Souvenir scarf
* 1/1: Ornament
* 1/6: ?
* 1/8: ?

And at some point I need to do a round-up on how the yarn totals are going. :)

I have recently become incredibly enamored of entrelac. I love the little triangles, I love knitting backwards (I'm doing that instead of turning my work), I love the interlaced look and feel, I love how variegated yarns look when knit in entrelac, and of course, I love how cute sheep are when holding entrelac-in-progress.

The only thing I'm not loving is that I'm having trouble figuring out how to calculate gauge for it. I tried a normal stockinette test swatch with the proportion of my head (56 cm) and got something that seemed like it was about five triangles too big. Then I tried cutting out those five triangles and got something that wouldn't fit a newborn. I'm working in between now. When I get it figured out, ZOMG! ENTRELAC FOR EVERYONE!!!!!! I'm thinking scarves. I'm thinking mittens. Socks. Felted and non-felted bags. Pot holders. Entrelac is good for everything!

What I'd really like, after my holiday knitting is over, is to make myself a big fluffy soft warm wool blanket. :) We'll see if I get the time to do that before winter ends. I really hope I do!

Most of the knitting I have scheduled to finish by the end of the year is done -- just two more projects to go. Unfortunately, I keep screwing the one I'm working on the hell up, thusly:

Step 1: Begin knitting.
Step 2: Knit about 40 rows.
Step 3: Realize that I'm knitting the wrong number of stitches.
Step 4: Rip out about 40 rows.
Step 5: Repeat step 1.
Step 6: Knit about 80 rows.
Step 7: Realize that I left something out around row 40.
Step 8: Repeat step 4.
Step 9: Repeat step 1.

With any luck, I have now gotten all necessary mistakes out of my system and will be able to continue without error (well, much error) from here. But sheesh. Twice?!

In other news, I picked up a copy of Knitting For Peace by Betty Christiansen recently. It's a collection of stories about charity knitting organizations, with a few patterns gathered up for some of those organizations. The point isn't the patterns, though, it's the ideas and suggestions for sending knitting to charities. It's full of great ones, and instead of giving out addresses and contact information that could be out-of-date by the time you get the book, they provide websites and email addresses that are more likely to be updated regularly or at least stick around indefinitely, as well as giving some tips on how to Google for the information you might need to track down more local charities. I'm really excited about the prospect of dovetailing my stashbusting with some charity knitting -- next year!

I love my custom sheep dearly! I especially love it when a design particularly lends itself to the vertical stripes found on a sheep. And after totally blanking on doing this for months and months and months, I have finally gotten it together and collected the directions for these sheep mods!

For a rainbow sheep,

* Cast on in purple.
* Change to blue after row 9.
* Change to green after row 13.
* Change to yellow after row 21.
* Change to orange after row 27.
* Change to red after row 33.
* Head is red.
* Face is black.
* Inner legs/tummy, hooves, tail and ears are black.

(I also sewed a small piece of gold ribbon on this one to indicate that he is a married queer sheep.)

For a Bi Pride sheep,

* Cast on in blue.
* Change to purple after row 13.
* Change to pink after row 27.
* Head is pink.
* Face is dark grey.
* Inner legs/tummy, hooves, tail, and ears are all dark grey.

Despite the simplicity of this design, this is probably my favorite sheep mod of the bunch. I adore my Bi Pride sheep! :D :D :D

How about a sheep that evokes that Jayne Hat look? A sheep like this walks down the street, you know he's not afraid of anything!

* Cast on in orange.
* Change to yellow after row 13.
* Head is yellow.
* Face is orange.
* Inner legs/tummy, hooves, ears, and tail are red.
* Make a small (I use a 3/4" pompom maker) pompom for its head.
* Optional: Instead of a red tail, make a larger (1") pompom for its tail.

You can overlap colors from the rainbow sheep to make the Jayne Hat sheep if you like, though I used a darker red for Jayne than I did for the rainbow sheep.

What about a Leather Pride Sheep?

* Cast on in black.
* Change to navy after row 5.
* Change back to black after row 9.
* Change back to navy after row 11.
* I cast off in black on rows 12 and 13, but this is nitpicky and optional.
* Change to white after row 17.
* Change back to navy after row 23.
* On rows 27 and 28, I cast on in black, but this is nitpicky and optional.
* Change back to black after row 29.
* Change back to navy after row 33.
* Change back to black after row 38.
* Finish body in black.
* Head is black.
* Face is white.
* Ears are white.
* Inner legs/tummy, hooves, and tail are black.
* For the heart, make an appropriate amount of I-cord in red, then sew on in a heart shape. It will felt down into a more heart-like shape than it looks when you sew it on, but you can shape it with your fingers once it's out of the washing machine if it needs a little more help.
* Optional: Find something to use as a collar -- I got this piece of vinyl-with-rivets ribbon from the quilting department at my local craft store. o_O (They have ones in camoflauge, too.) Or perhaps you could find a hat!

I wish to disclaim that I do not mean these sheep are the "world's finest" sheep, in that all the sheep I have made or owned are very fine sheep, and I believe the world's finest sheep are the ones in my flock, thank you!

But those of you who are comic book fans will understand the title of the post once you see this:

A pair of superheroic sheep, made as a gift. :)

I'm not much for sewing, so the costumes were rather difficult for me. And I used a nice permanent marker for the emblems on Supersheep. However, the modding (this is the FiberTrends "A Felt Flock" pattern from Bev Galeskas once again) was quite fun!

Baatman is made entirely in black, all parts. No tail, as it would interfere with the cape. Not too tough!

Supersheep, however, is cast on in blue. I switched to red for rows... I want to say 8-13, with the legs maintained in blue. Then blue for the rest of the sheep, white for the head, red for the back hooves, white for the front hooves. Ears in white. No tail, as it would interfere with the cape.

I have to say, when I started taking pictures in the window of the craft room, I didn't realize what a neat background that would give me. I really like the leaves. :)

...I was lucky enough to get to marry the love of my life. :)

In celebration, today he got a gorgeous sweater and a surprise pair of socks. :D Here are the socks:

Yarn used: Knit Picks Essential Oak Kettle-Dyed. Needle size: 2.5mm.

The pattern's improvised to be ribbed down the leg with ribbing on the top of the foot as well. I finally have his stitch/row count down (75 rounds ribbing, 60 rounds on the foot, 64 stitches), which means I can improvise in the future. I'm curious how the ribbing on the top of the foot will work out for him; I think it'll be a nice way to keep the sock snug.

And of course, the sweater!

My dashingly handsome husband in the sweater:

Yarn used: Swish DK in Merlot Heather. It took just over 13 balls, just under 14. It's knit in the smallest size. Grant normally wears a medium. It blocked just a wee bit longer than anticipated.

and a closeup of JUST the sweater:

and detail on the pattern:

I am pretty absurdly proud of the seams:

It looks great on the inside, though I don't have any pictures of that. But I would show this to any knitter in the world and be perfectly proud of my work, inside and out.

And because he loves me, he was willing to pose with a sheep to fit the theme of my knitting blog:

This is the Wondrous Woven Cabling (by Nancy Marchant) pattern from Arans & Celtics: The Best of Knitter's Magazine, and it was lovely to work! I also want to credit, as always, The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancie Wiseman. For you Ravelers:

I love you, honey! Happy 8th anniversary, and may we have as many years together as life extension technology can possibly provide us! :)