Epic

Once in awhile a project will come along that calls out to you. You want to knit it and it means something. (For some people, this happens a lot.) For me, (in this particular case) it came last December at a fiber swap. There was a stack of magazines that didn't belong to anyone and anyone could take them if they would be interested. I found an old copy of Interweave Knits from before I was really into the knitting scene and (Winter 2004) and flipped through it to see if I would like any of the patterns. I did!

There was a pattern for knee-high socks that called for a reasonable amount of yarn. I say reasonable only because knee-high socks, which I was somewhat interested in knitting for some time, usually call for about 600 yards of yarn. I don't usually have anything in stash that actually has 600 yards and while I wanted to knit knee-high socks, I didn't want to go out and buy yarn just for them. The pattern was simply called Lace Knee-Highs but had a lovely Embossed leaves lace running down the entire leg. The foot was plain. I took the magazine home and thought about it.

If I knit them, I wanted to continue the pattern down the foot, I thought. Plus, I would have to find some wonderful yarn, I mean, this was an EPIC project, right?

Later, I realized that some beautiful roving I had ordered for my birthday from a lovely little etsy shop (click at your own risk, there's lots of lovely stuff over there!), had spun up to be a wonderful 2-ply and was 490 yards or so. The pattern called for 480 yards. I had been conservative in my estimate, and what could be more decadent and special than knee-high socks knit of handspun?

Nothing

I did decide to do the feet plain as written mainly because a)It was a horrible pain even trying to chart the foot and b)I wanted to show off the lovely yarn.

I ended up knitting the feet very, very quickly because I wasn't sure if I would run out of yarn. I didn't but it was close. Like close, close. Like, less than 6 inches of yarn remaining close. Yeah, I mean it when I say close.

Ah, I'm going to go relax with my lovely socks now.

As long as we're finishing things...

Let's talk about the guy I'm married to.
First off, he's a major nerd. (I may have nerdish tendencies myself so that's okay) but he is a Nerd with a capital N.

This his him watching the Vikings in the playoffs game:

Isn't he cute? Please ignore our hideous couch ok.

Anyway, as a part of his super nerdy status, he loves comic books and especially superheroes. I had purchased some green sock yarn, expecting to use it for a specific project. I didn't (because it didn't actually match the yarn that I bought with it) and so I had this green yarn lying around that was BRIGHT green. Like grass green. Now, I like green quite a bit but this was too green for me. Hubby needed socks so I asked him if he would maybe wear socks knit with the green yarn. His reply? I'm glad you asked. (Pretend you asked)

"Can they be Green Lantern Socks?"

I decided that I could probably make that work so I started off on my sock knitting. Now, understand that my hubby has size 13 feet! I knit these on....ones. Yeah, I am insane and ended up staring at this green yarn WAAAAAAAAAY longer than I wanted to. As a result, I couldn't even contemplate how I would duplicate stitch the Green Lantern pattern on for quite awhile. Then he started asking me. The things we won't do for the people we love. *sigh*

Finally, I decided to crochet the Green Lantern Symbols and stitch them on because I was afraid I wouldn't get the right shape if I used duplicate stitch. So, here they are in all their green glory.

One pair of Green Lantern socks. For those who are gluttons for punishment, here's a close-up.

The Specs:
The Yarn: Knit Picks Essential Sock Yarn in Grass (Yarn is now called Stroll) and Kroy Socks in Whitecap. Looks like the changed the name of the color to Muslin or maybe they don't have Whitecap anymore?
The Needles: US Size 1 Dpns and Size E Crochet Hook (3.50mm)
The Pattern: I just made a generic green sock and made up the crocheted Green Lantern Symbol. If anyone is interested, I did write down the directions for the symbol, I just don't know if anyone wants to actually make a Green Lantern Symbol.
Notes: AHHHHH! The green.

I may or may not have mentioned that I made a local fiber friend. She's very awesome and has an etsy store. As such, sometimes when I watch her children, I get to get paid in fiber. Yes, that's right, for watching her adorable children, I was given this:

Isn't it pretty? Just what a girl needs in March in Minnesota. (This is what I was giving myself 5 minute spinning breaks to spin too by the way)
I spun it into two bobbins of singles:

I apologize for the extremely crappy picture. The colors on the left are pretty much accurate though.
Then, I was even patient enough to let it sit on the bobbin and rest overnight but yesterday I plied it into this:

Isn't it gorgeous? Its so not the colors I would normally wear but I may have to knit some socks out of it anyway. Its about 366 yards. I washed it today and it's drying right now. Let's see if I can resist casting it on all weekend shall we?

Olympic Gold

When I joined the Knitting Olympics I didn't have much of a plan. I had some black yarn that I had purchased at our Spinning Guild's most recent Stash Swap/Sale. It was beautiful. Knitpicks Andean Silk in Pitch. I had 1300 yards and I wanted a cardigan. Understand that I am of the school that believes that black goes with EVERYTHING. I have one black cardigan. A crappy thing that is very thin and doesn't fit well from a retail store. I have worn that thing all over the place. I love a black cardigan. I thought, 1300 yards should be plenty to knit a cardigan right? Right. Even for a "lady" of my size.

Then I got the beautiful yarn home and started looking at patterns. Nothing too fancy because it is in black, it would be hard to see, nothing too plain either because it would be boring to work on.

I considered the February Lady Sweater for which I would have ample yardage but I already have one on the needles. (As a matter of fact I wanted to finish it before the Olympics but time got away from me.)

I dug and dug and dug. I wanted something long-sleeved. I wanted pretty. Not too plain. I had a needle size picked out (I even swatched!) there just wasn't anything. (I also kinda didn't want to buy a pattern since money has been a bit pinched lately as we awaited our new vehicle.)

Finally I settled on Hey Teach! The sleeves were all wrong and as it turned out, my gauge was off. That meant (ugh!!!) math.

I forged ahead. Then I went to my parents to help with their fish fry and ended up staying an extra 2 days. I didn't bring it with me. I had to wait to cast on. I didn't cast on until....Tuesday, February 16! My time was even shorter.

I ended up bored of dark-colored yarn and I struggled to stay focused. I battled with myself.
Self, if you knit 5 more rows you can knit one round of your cute knitting bag, self, if you knit 10 more rows, you can spin for five minutes. And I set a timer for the 5 minutes. It was torture. Every other project called out to me, especially once I reached the sleeves. They were modified to be plain stockinette sleeves, long sleeves. A majorly boring pain to knit but you know what?

It was all worth it.

I love my new cardigan. I love it so much that I took about 10 pictures of it in the snow and then forced my (ever so cooperative) hubby to take many, many pictures of me in it.


I have spared you all from the awful ones. Ansel Adams he is not.

Here it is, my beautiful Olympic sweater, pictured here on Saturday February 27. That's right, I finished a day early. Now, I shall proudly put up my Gold Medal in the sidebar for all to see.

The Stats:
The Pattern: Hey Teach from Knitty
The Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk in Pitch about 1100 yards or so.
The Needles: Size 7
The Size: Due to my strange gauge issues, since I am a 48" bust, I ended up knitting a 43" bust size
The Notes: GOLD!
I picture this as my go-to sweater for the coming forever.

Love it, envy it. (haha)

These photos were taken at my parents house where I was doing this:

Knitting by the fire. Ah yes, bliss.