Last Finished Objects for 2008

This week I finished two final projects for 2008.
Yesterday morning I finished the crochet edges around my vest from the "Quiviut Twinset" by Linda Romens, from The Natural Knitter. I loved knitting this sweater. It was so much fun, in a knitterly kind of way. It took me a little while to figure out the short rows to create the scalloping effect at the bottom, but it was worth it.

The yarn is Louet KidLin Lace Weight, which used to be called Kidlin Pixie. (No Quiviut in it at all, despite the pattern name. That's a bit beyond my budget right now.) The color is called "Smokey Grape", though the purple in it is very subtle & doesn't show much. I used somewhat less than 3 skeins, which were purchased at Kirkwood Knittery in Kirkwood, Missouri. The leftovers might be enough to make a lace cowl at some point.

I also have 6 skeins of this yarn in another dyelot, purchased at a big discount when a different Kirkwood LYS decided to sell off their yarn inventory & focus exclusively on wool rug-hooking. I cast on the matching "Quiviut Twinset" cardigan from that batch of skeins this past week, after finishing the knitting part of the vest. I wanted to finish the scallop part on the cardigan while I was still on vacation, with plenty of time to focus on it.


Yesterday afternoon was glorious & unseasonably warm, so I got unexpected knitting time in while taking the kids to the park. Because of that, I also finished the January socks this morning. Those are the socks which hadn't quite gotten done for Socktoberfest. I'm wearing the socks already, & will be wearing the vest to a New Years Party later on this evening as well.

2008 Wrap Up

I haven't been as good about keeping up with my blog this year as I have in the past. I blame Ravelry, since putting my projects there gives me less incentive to be sure they are documented here.

As much as Ravelry takes away from my blogging, though, it also helps me come up with information far more rapidly. One (of many) handy feature in Ravelry is the ability to sort projects by date completed, which makes figuring out what was completed in 2008 a whole lot easier.

2008 was the Year of the Hat & the Year of the UFO for me. I have to say that working on UFO's & knitting small things on big yarn can have an amazing effect on the number of completed items in a year. (Though the last two items I finished this year were neither pre-2008 UFO's or on bulky yarn.)

My final totals for 2008 are:

20 pairs of socks -- 14 of which were UFO's from prior years.
8 sweaters -- 1 child, 4 vest/sleeveless, & 3 with sleeves.
14 hats -- 12 of which were on bulky yarn.
5 neckwarmers
1 set fingerless mitts
1 scarf
1 shawl
& 7 squares for Warm Up America.
(8 charity items, since 1 hat was for charity.)

The 3 sweaters involving the most knitting were also UFO's from prior years.

According to Ravelry, I also have a lot fewer UFO projects on the needles right now, which was one of my big goals for 2008. I also managed to make it to more Knitting In Public events this year, though I wasn't able to participate in any classes. All in all, I have to say it was a good year, knitting-wise.

My only knitting-related regret for the year is that I haven't been able to keep up with posting on other knitter's blogs very well this year. Doing better with blogging is one of my goals for 2009, both keeping up with my own blog, & also keeping up with reading/commenting in a timely fashion.

Socktoberfest Wrap Up

My final total of UFO socks completed for Socktoberfest doesn't quite match my UFOlympics total, even with a full month to work with. Life's always more hectic after school starts -- that's my excuse. Well, that & I was not faithful to the sock projects all month; I did do other knitting too.

My last completed pair was my J.Knits "Denver" socks. This yarn came from Knitorious, though J.Knits yarn is available at several of our LYSes in the area. The first sock was knit for Summer of Socks 2007. The second sock for the pair was cast on in November of 2007, so it was about time it got finished. (May I just say that I am so glad to be nearly finished with my one-sock-at-a-time UFO's? It's much easier & faster for me to do them both at once.)

In addition to the Lime & Violet "Suede Elvis" socks, during Socktober 2008 I also finished a pair for me in Lorna's Laces "Somerset" & a gift pair for my Mother-in-law in Paton's Croy. The Lorna's Laces came from a closeout sale when an LYS went out of business last year, & the Paton's sock yarn came from Chris' Needlecraft, back when I was first experimenting with knitting socks. It feels good to knit up some of the older yarns from my stash.

I also finished the feet of my "January" socks, in Sheepaints yarn from The Loopy Ewe. Since they didn't get finished during Socktoberfest, I'm not sure when they'll be completed. I've got other projects on the front burner for November. Maybe I'll get the January socks finished by January 2009, maybe not.


I hadn't cast on any new socks yet this fall, mostly from being burned out on all the sock knitting I did during the UFOlympics. All the empty needles finally started calling me, though, so I ended up casting on two new pairs last weekend. One of those pairs has the legs mostly finished already, because that was the project I took with me walking around with my Trick-or-Treaters. This is Mountain Colors Bearfoote in "Sapphire Trail", purchased either at Kirkwood Knittery or at Knitorious, I don't remember which. Both stores carry a good supply of Mountain Colors yarn.

Sock Tips on Saturday

In one of the Socktoberfest threads over on Ravelry, someone asked me about dividing skeins in half to knit both socks at once. (Did I say that I'm participating in Socktoberfest this year? No? Well, I am.)

It occurred to me after writing a big, long post over there, that it would be a good idea to share my trick here as well.

I first heard of the idea to use a scale for dividing yarn from the “Wendy Knits” blog. Here is how I do it whenever I am dividing a skein of yarn in half.

Necessary equipment: Kitchen scale – a digital one with the ability to display in grams works best.

Nearly necessary equipment: Ball winder – definitely easier if you have your own to use for this, but would be possible to wind by hand.

Optional equipment: A swift for winding the original yarn ball, but the process works just as well to divide a ball that was wound by your LYS.

Instructions for Dividing a Skein in Half

1. Take the single wound skein of sock yarn & weigh it. Don’t just go by the number on the ball band, because sometimes it’s off by a few grams.

2. Divide that number in half. This is your target number to have each half-skein weigh when you are done.

3. Make sure your scale & ball winder are set up near each other. You will have the yarn cake still set on the scale while you are winding the second yarn cake.

4. Taking from the center of the yarn cake, begin winding a second cake from the middle of the first one. (This is so that both cakes of yarn are wound in the same direction – it wouldn’t do to have your socks be reverse color pattern from each other.) I use my non-winding arm as a yarn guide by propping my elbow near the scale, to help the yarn come up straight out of the original yarn cake.

5. Keep an eye on the scale. When it starts to read within 5-10 grams or so of your target number, stop for a little bit & double-check how much the original yarn cake weighs. I like to stop & pick the yarn ball up, let the scale go to zero, & then re-weigh so that the momentum of the winding isn’t effecting the scale’s readout.

6. Wind more slowly from this point, until you reach your target number.

7. If you want to double-check before cutting, remove the new half-sized cake from the ballwinder & weigh it before cutting the yarn. As long as both cakes are within a gram or two of each other in weight, they should have about the same amount of yarn in each.

Here is a series of pictures illustrating what I mean. I've been meaning to write this up for a while, which is why these pictures are from last Fall. I use sandwich bags to hold each of my half-skeins of yarn after I’m finished dividing them. The second picture shows how the original yarn cake looks after the middle half has been wound to the other one. This is why I contain the halves in sandwich bags – they don’t stay as neatly together once the middle is removed. Plastic bags aren’t very “green” but I do re-use them as I knit up yarn, so at least I’m not adding to the landfill.



The yarn is "English Garden" by Scarlet Fleece, purchased at the Loopy Ewe. Yes, it has been wound for a year but I have yet to actually cast these socks on. Last Fall, when I started wearing my Summer of Socks 2007 socks, I realized my sock wardrobe was sadly lacking in black/grey to wear with black jeans, so pink/green/cream yarn suddenly wasn't a priority to knit up.

This trick also works for any other need to divide yarn in half, such as for mittens or gloves.

Finished Object for Friday

Earlier this week, I finished my second set of Socktoberfest Socks.

These are my standard plain vanilla sock pattern, with 80 stitches around on size 1 DPNs. The yarn is Lime N Violet's Mermaid Sock Yarn, in the colorway "Suede Elvis", purchased at the Loopy Ewe during the big STL Raveler's Yarn Crawl on Mother's Day Weekend.

Please note -- I am working on UFO socks for Socktoberfest this year. Yes, after the UFOlympics, I still have plenty more UFO sock pairs to deal with. I have managed to resist the urge to cast on new socks, at least, so my total number of socks on the needles is going down. The first socks I finished this month had been on the needles for a year & a half, & 3 out of the 5 of my UFOlympic socks were started in 2007, so it's progress to finish one of the pairs that I started this year, that have been on-the-needles less than 6 months.


These are also a good illustration of the knitting problems that I won't bother to go back & fix. After I was already knitting the foot, I realized that the decreases had wandered over by a stitch part way down the gusset of one sock. There was no way I was going to try to rip back to it. I compensated for the shift when I did the toe of that sock, so the structural integrity of the sock was not compromised.
I doubt anyone will ever notice. In fact, I have to look really closely to figure out which side of the gusset & which sock actually had the slight mis-alignment in the decreases.

Quick Post

No Saturday Sky pictures yet. My husband & I are going to the Strange Folk Festival this morning, so hopefully I will bring back pictures from there.

This week has been nearly as busy as last week, but I have managed to squeeze in a bit of knitting. There are no new finished objects to show for it, however. I did manage to finish the gusset on my January Socks (Ravelry link) that I started much earlier this year. They are in Sheepaints yarn from the Loopy Ewe in the January colorway.

I may or may not manage another post with pictures later on this weekend, so I wanted to post a quick update while I had the chance.

Sunday Sweater & Socks (Final UFOlympics Update)

I kept working on my UFOlympics projects right down to the wire. I ended up finishing two more Works In Progress by Sunday morning.

**Project Specs**
**Yarn:** 3 skeins of Cascade Sierra yarn as part of my efforts at Stashdown 2008
**Needles:** Addi Turbo sized 8 & 9 (US)
**Pattern:** Lutea Lace Shell from Interweave Knits

**Finished:** August 23 2008
Originally started June 29th, 2008. I set this sweater aside after easy-KIP-Stockinette-in-the-Round was completed, in favor of working on my Green Mirage sweater earlier this summer. I added this to my WIPs wrestling just in case I managed to finish my other UFOlympics sweaters, since I wanted to be able to wear this sweater at least once or twice before summer is over.


**Project Specs**
**Yarn:** 1 skein of Lime & Violet Shuanmi Squared yarnin colorway Agate
**Needles:** Metal DPN's sized 0 & 1 (US)
**Pattern:** My standard plain-vanilla, with eye-of-partridge heel & 80 stitches around.


**Finished:** August 24 2008 (Finished knitting toes while watching the men's basketball gold-medal match live in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning US Central time. Kitchenered Sunday morning.)

These socks were originally started back in December of 2007. The socks are my eighth and final Finished Object for this Olympics!

I'm thrilled with how many mostly-done projects I managed to clear off my needles in the past 16 days. I guess I just needed some motivation.

Sky, Socks, and Sweater

I haven't much time to write today; I'm still madly trying to see how many more Finished Objects I can get done before the Olympics are over.

In the mean time, here are some pictures for today:

Sunday Socks

It's not often that I have Sunday Socks to follow Saturday Socks, but sitting around watching the Olympics is giving me all sorts of knitting time. I'm sure I'll pay for that later, given the state of my house, but at least I still feel like I'm accomplishing something!

Project Specs
Yarn: 2 skeins of AppleLaine Apple Pie from the Loopy Ewe
Needles: Metal DPN's sized 0 & 2 (US)
Pattern: My standard plain-vanilla, with eye-of-partridge heel & 72 stitches around.

Finished: August 17 2008 Finished knitting toes while watching swimming Saturday night. (Which was Sunday morning in China.) Kitchenered Sunday morning after watching interview with Micheal Phelps & his family. I think I'll call these my "Water Cube" socks.

These socks were originally started back on May 11th 2008. This is my fourth Finished Object for this Olympics!

Saturday Socks

No Saturday Sky for this week, but I do have a pair of Saturday Socks.



Yarn: 1 skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Moondance colorway purchased at Knitorious
Needles: Metal DPN's sized 00 & 1 (US)
Pattern: My standard plain-vanilla, with eye-of-partridge heel & 80 stitches around.




Finished: August 16 2008 (Finished knitting toes while watching men’s tennis doubles gold medal match between Switzerland & Sweden. Kitchenered after match was over.)

These socks were originally started back in Feb 10th 2008. This is my third Finished Object for this Olympics. The "UFOlympics" has been very good for my neglected projects, & for my sock wardrobe come Autumn.

Finished Objects Friday; UFOlympics Post #2

The Olympics have been good for my knitting this time around. It's hard for me to imagine that I hadn't even picked knitting back up again at the time of the last Olympics, in Winter 2006.

These socks were originally started back in October of 2007. This is my first completed FO for this Olympics!

Project Specs
Yarn: 2.1 skeins of Panda Wool
Needles: DPNs in size 00 for cuff, size 0 for basketweave, & size 1 for plain remainder of sock.
Pattern: My standard Plain-Vanilla, with basketweave on the leg. 80 stitches around for Ladies size 9 foot.

Finished: August 13 2008 (Knitting was finished during the Women’s Gymnastics Team Competition August 12th, & Kitchenered early morning of August 13th.)


Project Specs
Yarn: 6-7 skeins of Zitron Prisma Mohair blend (started multiple skeins to match stripes -- have about 2 full & 2 partial balls left, plus some odds & ends.)
Needles: Bamboo sized 8 & 9 (US)
Pattern: Women’s Side to Side Cardigan #202 by Diane Soucy from Knitting Pure & Simple


Finished: August 14 2008 (Knitting was completed & bound off during the Women’s Gymnastics All Around Competition August 14th, shown live in the USA on Thursday evening.)

This sweater was originally started back in January of 2007. This is my second completed FO for this Olympics!

Distraction

Life has been busy around here. I haven't been able to post, for various reasons, but fortunately have managed to knit enough to stay sane. The longer it is between posts, the more behind I feel. In the interests of not getting any further behind, & following the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, here is some of my recent knitting.

Socks on Sunday

Something about finishing big projects gives me momentum to get around to smaller ones, I think. Case in point; I finished two more pairs of socks this morning.



Before you get too impressed, I have to admit that one sock was the second of a pair that I started in May 2007, a full year ago. The red/orange socks were started to be my "work on at the Harry Potter book launch" socks, since the colors reminded me of Gryffendor's house colors.



The other pair was from my "Santa Claus Yarn" that showed up in my Christmas stocking this year. For those who want to know where Santa got this yarn, it's Regia in one of the Kaffe Fassett colors.





I also finished weaving in the ends for my "Amtrak Socks." I think these socks will be worn fairly often, since they go well with black slacks for work or black jeans on the weekend. In fact, maybe I'd better buy another couple balls of this yarn before it's gone. I think this color may be discontinued at the factory already. This is also Regia yarn, which isn't as soft to work with as some yarns, but softens up just fine with washing & wearing.

What's On My Needles this Wednesday

Since finishing Icarus, most of what I've been working on is socks. I got back to working on several pairs that were interrupted by the shawl knitting, as well as working a bit more on my Amtrak Socks.


The Amtrak socks, & the Regia Kaffe Fassett socks are my current "carry-around" knitting; the ones that go everywhere & get worked on while waiting in line & such.



The grey/black socks are Classic Elite Alpaca Sox, which finally have the gussets complete & will be my next set of "carry-around" socks. The black-with-colored-streaks socks are Mountain Colors Bearfoote, which are still at the gusset stage & require strong light for me to be sure the decreases are lining up with each other.


The blue-green socks & the second Lime & Violet "Spiceland" sock are both finally at the toe-decrease stage. The Lime & Violet sock had been in "time out" waiting for me to rip back 4 rows, because I overshot how long the foot should be to match the first sock. (There's a reason why I do all my socks 2-at-a-time now.)




Finally, but not on my needles, I thought this picture of Joxer was just too funny not to share.

Oak Lawn

This was a weekend full of trains, but not quite so full of yarn as I had been hoping.

Friday morning, my daughter & I got up VERY early to ride Amtrak to Chicago. At Chicago's Union Station, we turned right around & took the Metra commuter train back out to Oak Lawn. I had tickets reserved at Nana's Knitting Shop to see the Yarn Harlot at her stop in Oak Lawn, Illinois.



The Metra station is indeed just across from Nana's Knitting Shop. We stopped in briefly, but didn't stay very long, since we were still carrying our luggage. It was a couple blocks walk to the Hilton where the Yarn Harlot event was being held, & where I had reservations to spend the night.


Unfortunately, the Yarn Harlot had A.Very.Bad.Day. I was disappointed she couldn't be there, of course, but it couldn't be helped. My daughter was consoled by the promise of a trip to the hotel pool. On the way to the pool, we met some other out of town knitters who had made the trip to the Chicago area to see Stephanie. Our travel days were better than Stephanie's, though. At least we got to our destination, & had a chance to do some knitting & get together with other knitters.

One thing that this trip forced me to get done was a shawl that I had in mind ever since I bought this yarn a couple years ago. I bought two skeins of this Dyeabolical Yarn hand-dyed merino at my LYS & always had in mind to make a shawl with it. The colorway is "Dark Envy", available from Dyeabolical Yarns on Etsy or in St. Louis at Knitorious.

(The shirt says "Knitting is so DIY -- purchased from Cafe Press.)


The biggest advantage to taking the train -- Knitting Time! It's impossible to knit & drive. (Well, unless you are completely stopped in a traffic jam, but that's not driving, only frustration.) I did manage to get most of a pair of socks done over the weekend. As you can see in the first picture, I only had the cuffs done at the start of the train trip. Here is their status now.

Socks on Saturday

Besides the items I posted yesterday, I have also finished two more pairs of socks since the ones I posted in the middle of February.


For this pair, it was a matter of finishing the second sock, & then Kitchenering both of them. I started the first one all the way back last summer, for Summer of Socks 2007. The yarn is hand-dyed, bought on Etsy, in the color "The Owl", from Dharmafey of Cosmic Fibers.





This pair was knit doing both socks at once. The yarn is also hand-dyed, but purchased at one of my local yarn shops. The yarn company is Pagewood Farms, available at Kirkwood Knittery, in the colorway "Crayon."

Finished Objects Friday

I actually have several finished objects to share this Friday, given how long it's been since I've managed to put knitting content up on my blog.