Yippee!! They are done

The Big Black (Boring) Socks are done! I can't even remember when I started them, but I kept on them and I have finished. I did have to force myself to take them with me so that any time I wanted to knit while I was out and about that is what I should work on, and it paid off! And best yet, my Hubby will have nice warm toes for the winter. He desperately needed them, his other good pair (not handmade) wore a hole through, and he needed a new pair.

Note the yellow toes. The last pair of socks I made for him had 12" legs before the heel and took 4 skeins of yarn. I only had 3 skeins of black, so I told him he needed to pick a different color for the toes. He picked yellow. I thought at first they would be his Shocker (Wichita State) socks, but that is just the color he wanted. It was very rewarding to get to the yellow and know that I was almost done however. The black yarn is Wildfoote and the yellow is Jawoll.

I was also working on my August socks of the month for Twist. These are the Sake socks made out of Panda Silk. They are supposed to be geisha socks, but I don't own flip flops, so I have no need for a split toe. Also, I love the yarn and wanted them to be a bit longer, so I made the legs 6" long.The twisted stitches give it a beautiful texture! They are light and soft and very enjoyable to wear, especially on an unusually warm fall day!And, not to neglect the sewing... Debbie and I found this beautiful fabric for a Needle Nook Fabrics customer and put together this ensemble for Debbie.

The gown is a camisole, Kwik Sew 2930 lengthened, and the robe is a combination of Kwik Sew 3257 lengthened for the body, 2923 for the cap of the sleeve, and 3162 shortened to 3/4th length for the rest of the sleeves. The gown is out of nylon Lycra swimwear and the lace is a stretch lace.

As you can see, I did manage to get a lot accomplished this first week of winter sports. Now it is on to more socks, and I think I need to start a hat or two ... only time will tell!

Mittens !

Twist yarn shop has begun a new knitting club of the month ... Mittens! Knittamittamo is the latest craze, and of course I had to join in on all the fun! The club started in September with the Very Cabley Mittens using Cascade Cloud 9 yarn. The yarn combines Merino wool and Angora. It is super soft and was a fun fast knit.As Jen of NuttyIrishmanKnits had suggested. I knit the cuff on size 4 (3.5 mm) needles and changed to size 6 (4.0 mm) needles for the hands. I am totally thrilled with how they turned out. Super soft and fuzzy!October brought about the Genmaicha by Kirsten Kapur. They are beautiful cabled fingerless gloves. The yarn for the month was Plymouth Happy Feet. This was another fun pair of mittens to make. I really love how beautiful they are, and I can function with keeping my hands warm. Sometimes it is cold in the basement at the computer, and I can wear these and they really help me stay warm. The best part is I can still knit with them on.
I still have a full skein of yarn left, so I am going to make a cabled hat to go with it named Shedir. I love the pattern, and it should be a good challenge as well.

November is bringing a bit of colorwork to the mittens. Bird in Hand by Kate Gilbert. I am planning on using Cascade 220 in a dark purple with grey for the contrast color. Should be a lot of fun. Also a fun, colorful challenge.

My Other First Sweater

So my Big One's sweater was not actually the first sweater that I have started. The first sweater I ever started was a raglan t-shirt knit from the top down. It is the Neck Down shaped T-shirt # 233 from Knitting Pure and Simple made out of O-wool Balance. I started it in April, and then I had other things happen or call to me, and it rested from time to time. It had humble beginnings.

Then I got to the point where it was supposed to begin decreasing for waist shaping. I had one, okay well two, big fears. I was not sure it was going to fit nicely over my rather large chest without pulling funny. At this point, I determined that some bust shaping of some sort was going to need to happen. So, not knowing what to do, I took a break from the sweater. Then I discovered Bust Dart Math from Knitting Daily! Okay, so I now had a plan and was going to put in bust darts instead of the waist shaping, because that would also create the waist shaping. Here are the results of the darts. It was fitting nicely.

After I got the bust darts in, I discovered one big problem. I had gotten it over the bust nicely, but now it was shorter in the front than in the back. Now I needed to do some short rows in the front to even it out. That took a lot of trial and error. I learned a lot, but I did it! I finished my sweater. I was even able to wear it at least once before it gets too cold again!

It fits nicely, I learned A LOT! I can now say, I have made my own adult sweater, curves and all! Now that was a lovely accomplishment!