All It's Cracked Up To Be

I've been more focused on spinning lately and I am pleased to report that I finished my Gritty Knits Merino in Cracked. The braid was split lengthwise and then drafted a bit to loosen up the fibers but I spun it to be what it wanted. The singles were somewhat marled so I thought I would probably end up with a somewhat tweedy-looking yarn. I think I was right. I finished the singles Monday evening and waited until Tuesday to start plying. Since I had errands to run yesterday and it was knit night, I couldn't ignore all other responsibilities and just spin but I finished it today.

Doesn't it look wonderful? All ready to be wound into a skein and that's just what I did.

This picture it a little dark but lovely just the same. It's about 350 yards so as I predicted about a sport-weight. I really like it and I've already soaked and twacked it, it's drying now so I can knit with it as soon as the mood strikes. I'm not sure what it wants to be yet but it's probably not going to sit in stash long, I'll be knitting it soon.
I also finally finished up the baby sweater I was knitting for a friend's baby. She was due in January and I held off on finishing the last little bit but once the baby was born I finished the knitting and blocked the lovely little thing. For some reason I just set it aside though, I didn't sew the buttons on. Since I was going to see the lovely little thing and her fabulous mama at Knit night, I sewed the buttons on yesterday and whisked it off to her. I hope she loves it!

I think it turned out pretty cute! It's Gritty Knits nom in Brazil and I knit it into the Maile baby sweater. I used the free version. A few notes: I would have liked a little more info about what weight of yarn she used, I think she probably used more like a sport weight, I felt like mine was really floppy while I was knitting it but I came very close to gauge. Also, if I ever knit it again (which I might, it was mostly a very cute pattern) I would do something different with the sleeves. When she has you attach them, you hold ALL the sleeve stitches on the needles and I had a really, really difficult time with it until I got a few rows in. I would say maybe hold a few stitches on the body and the sleeve and graft them later? Up to the knitter but I really did not care for the struggle with it as written.

Not Plan

After finishing and blocking my sort of epic Holden Shawl (I have decided mine is really too big to be called a shawlette) things have been a little slow. I can't seem to get back into any of the projects I had going before and I don't really want to start something new again so I've been spinning.
I started with this braid of Merino from Gritty Knits.

I got it in the Merino of the month club awhile ago and it is not my usual colors at all but I adore it. It had browns and tans and a bit of pink and some dark, deep browny black. It was so unusual that I wanted an unusual kind of yarn. I split the braid in half lengthwise and drafted the first half. I'm just spinning it how it would like to be spun and plan to chain-ply it when I'm done with it.

I just finished the first half and it's got lots of spaces where the singles are marled because two colors came together, I think it's going to be a very unusual, almost tweedy-looking yarn. I'm enjoying a quick and fairly easy spin too, no agenda, no ultimate plan but to make pretty yarn. Sometimes it's fun to let go and not have a plan.

Picot Love

I have been trying to finish up some projects and not start new things quite so often because my UFO bin is getting a little out of hand again but every so often, you just have to listen to your quiet inner voice. Sometimes it's just not quiet at all and in this case, it shouted.
With the way my wrist had been feeling I was really trying to go easy on the knitting to let it rest but since knitting is my normal resting state, it was difficult. I finished spinning my blue laceweight and I was working on finishing the spinning on a sweater quantity of brown wool. It's turning into lovely yarn but I was thoroughly sick of looking at it and I decided I needed a new knitting project. As soon as my brain settled on the skein of handspun I had in mind, I knew it needed to be a shawl and I needed to start right away. I even tried to quiet that little voice and dug out a shawl I had been working on and tried to work on that. It would not be stilled.
I had struck upon what I thought was a great idea. Awhile ago, quite awhile now that I think about it, I had spun a skein of merino. It was chain-plied and lovely colors in almost a gradient and I had been so excited to knit it into a shawl. Then, distracted by whatever projects I had going at the time, I tucked the skein into the handspun storage area and forgot about it. When I struck on the idea of knitting it, I also struck on the perfect pattern. Holden Shawlette. I have it in my Library from back when it was free but it's been updated, improved and is now a purchase pattern.
I cast on and started knitting. My wrist started feeling better and I just kept knitting. I was getting close to starting the edge pattern and I just kept on knitting. Then I was on the edging and I still just kept on knitting. Last night, I finished.

Don't the colors look great? I had more than the called-for 400-450 yards so I kept going on the pattern.

The edging was bright blue. (I manage to run out of yarn too and finished the picot bindoff with some other blue handspun, the epic laceweight as a matter of fact. I think it matches fine and came out lovely.)

Then at 1 am I blocked it. I pinned out almost every single picot to make them look right. I pretty much hated the picots while I was knitting them. I pretty much hated them while I was pinning them but now? Now, I adore them! I think they make it look fancy and beautiful. I love the look of this shawl and the (much more subtle in person) shifts of color. I can't wait to wear it everywhere and I plan to.
I was also really surprised that it came out as a large as it did. I only had the one 4-ounce skein which was about 600 yards but it's huge. I love that about it too.
It seems like it was a pretty quick project. I started it less than 2 weeks ago and it's finished now. I didn't even really have the time to blog about it earlier. That little shouting voice in my head telling me to knit this? You were right, I'm so glad I did!

Let's Start Documenting

I finished plying my lovely blue yarn and I've forgiven it almost everything.



After washing it's pretty well-balanced and it came out to be about 850 yards. I'm pretty happy with that.

I am doing better with my wrist but I'm still going fairly easy on it so I've been focusing on doing more artwork. I've missed it so much and it's wonderful to be getting to it! I joined a group on Facebook called the Documented Life Project. (The challenges are also posted on robenmarie.com so even if you don't have Facebook, you could still participate.) The group recommends using a Moleskine yearly planner and then they provide weekly prompts. I started out using my lovely giant notebook that I use for everything but quickly found that it's not realistic to use as a planner anymore. It's gotten so stuffed full and bulky that I really can't carry it everywhere any more and so I was considering options.
Then the magic happened. Someone in the lovely Documented Life group offered to send someone a Moleskine planner that she had purchased. She didn't really go into if it was extra or if she decided to use something else but it was meant to be. She sent it to me.

It's slim and sleek and lovely. I'm very excited to get going on using it and getting caught up on the weekly prompts. I may decorate the cover, as so many lovely others have done, or I may not but I will be updating here with information about my take on the weekly prompts. I can't wait!

The Trouble with Laceweight

Spinning warms my heart and I find my lovely wheel is rarely allowed to sit empty. Even if it's just a few minutes break here and there, I love having something on the wheel to spin for a bit.
The trouble comes when you get ambitious of course. I've had a hankering to spin a lovely laceweight and I finished the first bobbin the other day. Then I spun and spun and spun and thought about how sick of this lovely bright blue semi-solid I am but I wasn't done yet so I kept slogging along. Finally, finally I finished the second bobbin.

My love for it and excitement at the prospect of something lovely and blue and possibly lacy was almost restored. I mean, check out the gauge of those singles.

That's an American Dime for scale. You can't beat it.
I'm usually not one to wait the required time to ply but I wanted lovely yarn so I forced myself to wait. This morning when I woke up for no reason at the utterly awful hour of 6 am (when you have no reason to get up that early why would you?) I could resist it's siren song no longer. I would just ply it up quick....
Anyone else see the flaw in that logic?

It's not quick. Plying laceweight takes a long time. A really, really long time. A "movie marathon" length of time. I'm ready to be done but as you can see, I'm not done. There's a long way to go and real things I would also like to get done today.
We'll see if the real life things get done. Who can resist laceweight? (I'm starting to think about exclusively spinning bulky two-ply. I don't think it will take though, this yarn will be lovely and renew my desire for lovely, tiny spinning to accompany lovely, tiny knitting.)

Experimental Confetti

This week has been weird and stressful in odd little ways. It's mostly related to personal things that I don't talk about here, so I won't. I found days slipping by with little or no knitting in them though and it meant I kept forgetting that I wanted to get a blog post up.
A couple of weeks ago I wrenched my right wrist somehow and while it's not really "injured" it is exacerbated by knitting. I'm absolutely terrified that I will do something to make it seriously injured and keep me from knitting as much as I like so when I have had free time I haven't done much knitting this week.
All the knitting I've done has gone into the hat for my Handsome Husband.

I changed the colors around on it so it would match his coat which is gray and blue with yellow piping. I think it looks pretty good and I look forward to finishing it soon. Hopefully today or tomorrow.
Since I wasn't knitting I tried to keep my mind off of it by doing other things. Spinning is okay and so I managed to finish the first bobbin of the Polwarth I'm spinning into a laceweight.

It's really beautiful and fine and I'm completely in love with it. As much as I like it though, I needed a little break from spinning so fine so I pulled out a braid of my Gritty Knits Merino of the Month

This is Confetti Experiment which is from October 2013 and I didn't have any specific plans for it so I decided to spin it into a quick two-ply sportweight that could be added to my stash for the Mitered Crosses Blanket. The braid is 5 ounces instead of 4 so I knew I could get a great amount of yardage out of it. I split the braid in half the long way then split the second half again to maximize the color changes. Technically that's a fractal spin, although I normally split the second half in thirds and only split it twice this time. Then I spun the singles onto two bobbins and plied it up.
As predicted, it spun up quickly and I ended up with something lovely.

It almost looks pastel in these pictures but there's a more rich color palette to it than pastels.

So far it looks like it will be a lovely addition to the background colors for the blanket, although it does need to be washed yet. That will happen this afternoon and hopefully it can be added to the blanket stash in a day or two when it dries.

Ravenclaw Riot!

Happy New Year! Is everyone making great New Year's resolutions? I have made a very few and none of them are very outlandish, mostly ones I've been working on awhile. Like trying to do something artistic every day. I even joined a group called the Documented Life Project that gives us weekly prompts.
Enough about that though, I'm also a brand new Harry Potter student! The Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup sorting has taken place and the new assignments are up. I participated last term (Fall 2013; September, October and November) as a NQFY or Not Quite first year. I had a blast and when the time came to sign up and be sorted again, I did and was sorted into Ravenclaw! It's very exciting and I'm greatly enjoying getting to know all my fellow Ravenclaws.
I even have a Detention all ready to turn in; the second square on my handspun Mitered Crosses blanket.

Detention is a project that was started previously and finished during the term. I can count one square as one "project" since they are made separately and to maintain your sorting status you just need to complete one start-to-finish project and turn it in for a class per month. I didn't find it difficult at all last term since it can be as simple as a dishcloth or small project. Now that I'm sorted into a house I am competing with my fellow Ravenclaws to earn points for our house towards winning the house cup so I definitely want to try to turn in as much as I can.
I had plenty of knitting time yesterday while celebrating Christmas with my in-laws and I even finished another square!

This is the third square and will be turned in for my homework on my first class, I haven't looked particularly closely at the prompts yet so I haven't decided which class. Hopefully I can get another one or two classes done since I have cast on something else too.

Yup, another double-knit hat. This time for the dear Handsome Husband. He seems to have misplaced his other hat and it's been very cold here so he needs something to keep from freezing off those ears. That plus the two pairs of socks I cast on when the Christmas knitting was done mean my hands should be plenty busy this month.

In the Midst of the Holiday Madness

It's been a lovely holiday so far. We still have one family gathering to go and a lovely meal with friends. Sadly we also have a funeral to attend this weekend but I'm going to focus on the nice things instead.
I finished one of the ruffle scarves and I've gotten back to working on the second one.

The niece who this one is for will definitely love it, the other is a teenager so it's anyone's guess. I had a lovely family party though, some highlights included the nieces and nephews with the cookies I made them.

Here is what they looked like before the little ones got their hands on them.

The best part was when the sweet-hearted little one on the left said he didn't want to eat it, he wanted his picture with it. We had to prove we had pictures so he could eat it now.

Papa helped the little one eat.

My dear Handsome husband read stories and ran up and down the hall with all of them.

I knit while my niece crocheted.

The other niece had a fancy glass for her juice (with a little help from Grandma).


I gave myself a break and started some new socks. These are a simple cabled sock, top down and knit out of some lovely bright nom yarn called Darling Clementine. I really have no idea what I will wear these with but they will be lovely and soft.
I also started some new Vesper socks.

It's Smoke on the Water and a basic toe-up sock.

Then we had a lovely light snowfall yesterday and headed for home. It's off again tonight we will stay with friends then attend the funeral tomorrow but we will be done with all these holiday celebrations in less than a week, we can make it! As lovely as they all are, they are exhausting too.

That Thing We Knitters Do

You know that thing we knitters do at Christmas (or whatever holiday you choose to celebrate)? The one where you want to wrap your loved ones in wool so they will survive the winter, understand why you knit so much, know how much you love them. So you plan and buy yarn and knit and knit and knit and by the end you're crying hot tears into the wool at 2 am because there's just no way you can finish in time? All this while still trying to do all the other things the holiday calls for like bake and decorate and wrap things?
This year, I don't. Victory is mine!

One completed pair of sport-weight socks, Knit Picks Stroll Sport in Everglade Heather which is not at all heathered to me.

One Double-knit hat so that the outside looks like this and the inside looks like this;

And two layers of lovely wool will be between the recipient's ears and the cold, cold Minnesota winter. Knit Picks Wool of the Andes one ball Coal and one ball Celestial.
I even finished the socks (which were the last thing on the needles) early enough yesterday to knit this as well;

One basic ribbed black hat for someone I had originally forgotten to add to my list and I could not think of a good gift to buy for. (I put a piece of cardboard cut to shape in it to wrap it up since ribbed hats look weird until they're on a head.) Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Coal again.
I still have a couple of small things (ruffly, evil things) to finish before next week's other Christmas celebration but today I'm doing a small bit of last-minute baking, finishing the wrapping (which I am now done with) and doing a wee little bit of cookie-decorating. We'll attend church and then have a small Christmas with just the husband and I before we travel to be with family.
Merry Christmas to you and yours from the Chez Kalkette!

Edited to Add: After the holiday I will be putting extensive project notes on my Ravelry project page to help me plan better for next year (I hope). But I won't have time today. 

Don't Let Me Add Anything Else

The Christmas knitting is coming along and I'm still holding out hope. As of these photos (which were actually taken yesterday afternoon but I got busy with other things and forgot to blog them) I had one and a half socks to knit.

And the decreases on a double-knit hat.

I actually managed to finish the first sock last night and I'm currently working on the hat so I am considering adding another hat to the queue. (I know, just beat me over the head with candy canes until I stop.)

This Gift Thing Still Remains Possible

I'm making slow but steady progress on lots of things around here. First, the stepdad socks got finished.



I can assure you they look much nicer than they appear in this photo. They will be well-loved too. I'm glad they are done, it gave me a little more time to focus on the Cool Beans socks.

Tah dah! I'm so happy with these and they fit so well that it's a good thing I genuinely love my mom or they would be staying to warm my own feet.
For those who like to see the inside;

The floats aren't too shabby. They also got blocked today. Sometimes with gift socks I don't block (the ones for my step dad won't be blocked) but I really want these to be as amazing as they are when the package is opened.
It's a good thing both of those are done because I still have.

A pair of sportweight socks, seen here while I made Caramels yesterday.
I also have a hat but it still looks like this:

To be honest, it hasn't even been designed yet. This one will be pushing it. I've got to try though. We're at a week to go. That's not all that crazy for sportweight socks and a hat right?
(Don't tell me if it is.)

Don't Get Cocky

Do you remember a few years ago when I posted the list of rules for your Christmas knitting? Anyone? Well one of them was; Don't get cocky (Number 5, I looked it up.) You would think after years of my trying to shower my loved ones with woolies I would have learned this lesson. I worked so very hard to get my Cool Beans socks caught up this week and I finally did. I was cruising along (after a minor incident where I had to rip back the heel that was not centered on the bottom side of the foot) and I was excited that they were just a few days from being done.
Last night the handsome husband and I went to the local Orchestra concert. Not just as audience members, although it would have been worth it just for that, but because our local community choir was going to sing the Hallelujah Chorus at the end. It was a beautiful concert, the local Orchestra was fabulous and we had tons of fun singing the Hallelujah Chorus. I can't say if we were great. I think we didn't suck and that's about all I can say for sure, without getting cocky. When we got home we decided it was high time to break into the Holiday movies and started watching something together. When I couldn't take working on this nightmare any longer.

Have I not mentioned this? That could be because I'm trying to avoid it at all costs. I bought a couple skeins of this ruffle yarn awhile back with the idea to make scarves for a couple of the nieces for Christmas. I have 4 nieces and only 2 are getting scarves. Hopefully they are getting scarves, if I can bring myself to finish them.
Rather than cutting the entire skein to bits in a fit of rage (Why does it keep twisting up so badly? How exactly am I supposed to grab one side if it twists like that? How do people "love" this "yarn" and get excited to make these things? Yes, I have heard some people say that.)
Anyway, I decided to work on the Bean socks for awhile, get ahead a bit. Wouldn't it be lovely and a weight off my mind if I finished them early? I knit an entire bean. Then looked at it.

It looks lovely doesn't it? That second bean on the leg? Hahaha, these will be done in plenty of time. I could maybe even add another project to my list to get done before Christmas, I could do anything. Queen of the Knitting!
Oh, wait. Weren't there supposed to be increases? Surely they start after this lovely bean I spent over an hour knitting. I dig the first sock out of the bag and examine it.

Nope. They start at the beginning of the second bean on the leg. That means the entire bean I just knit needs to be ripped. It was at that point that I stuffed them into their bag and spent the rest of the evening spinning, ignoring the Christmas Knitting Schedule (of Doom) altogether.
I seriously considered just ignoring the fact that I was knitting them at all but that would be immature. I intend to rip back this afternoon.

Returned to the Regular Schedule

This week has been a little odd. I was so far behind at the beginning, I was starting to think that sending people notes saying we wouldn't make it for Family Holiday celebrations was a good idea. I have successfully drunk enough coffee and ignored enough housework that I can safely say I am on schedule.
The lovely sample socks were finished and mailed off on their adventure. Then I turned to the other biggie on my list.
Last year I started knitting the Cool Beans socks for my mom. They were not done in time for Christmas. When I started thinking of knitting anything colorwork this year, they were glaring at me. I knit no other colorwork. I decided it was high time to get them out and finished so I started back in November. That was good because I was still on the first sock. Last week I sat down and scheduled my Christmas knitting and took a good look at them. I set an amount to knit each day to space them out so it wasn't so overwhelming.

Today I am right where I should be. I'm on schedule because the last couple of days I spent little time doing anything else. Why do I feel that?

It's the second sock. I have only to knit the six bean repeats up the leg and the ribbing and the second one is done. I have scheduled myself to knit one bean repeat per day. A completely reasonable goal.
Now maybe I can get to the wrapping of other gifts or possibly baking or something like that. Although I won't be doing the laundry. I think the washer is broken. Let's not talk about it, the thought makes me sort of woozy.

Sample Adventures

I sat down last week and tried to make a reasonable schedule for the Christmas knitting. It seemed totally do-able and while the husband was at work, I managed to stay on schedule just fine. Then the weekend happened. He was off on Saturday and Sunday (his office is always closed on Sundays but that's not my point) and managed to think he should be fed 3 times a day! All that cooking and subsequent cleaning up after the cooking seriously cut into the knitting time and I fell behind.


After taking yesterday (the whole day) and this morning to really push it and try to get caught up again, I am feeling like I could possibly be able to get caught up and keep moving it along. What made me feel like it was still possible to get caught up?
I finished the sample socks!

I really think they turned out so lovely and I even braved the ridiculous cold to take lovely photos of them.
Although they are lovely and squishy and nice I'm very happy to have finished them. Let's discuss the reasons why I'm so happy to have them finished.
1. Pressure, the yarn arrived a bit late (the fault of the Post office and winter storms, not the sender in any way) and that meant the time I thought I'd have to knit it was significantly shorter and I wanted to make sure it was done in plenty of time.
2. I cable without a cable needle. Especially with these small one over one cables it just seems silly and super slow to use a cable needle. That does not mean I cable without a cable needle well and I often get very frustrated with the stitches not wanting to cable at all.
3. I knit the first leg as directed in the pattern then the heel and almost entire foot. Then I tried on the sock and realized that the leg was not even close to the 6 inches the pattern called for. It was barely 5 inches. That meant I had to rip back, add length to the leg then reknit the heel and foot. That means I knit the second half of the first sock twice which felt sort of like knitting the first sock twice. That means that I was thoroughly done with the pattern by the time I was done with the first sock, let alone the second sock!

4. The aforementioned fortitude it took to knit the second sock and get it done means the other knitting had been put on the back burner and there's a largish deadline for that coming up in about 15 days.
They are done and absolutely beautiful though! All extra details about changes I made to the pattern and other notes can be found on my project page here. 

Whew, now they are done and I can get them mailed then back to that knitting with the largish deadline.
Have a grand adventure lovely socks and I'll see you soon!