I found for her daughter the lovely Peapod Baby Sweater pattern from IK. 10 days later, it was all done.
Specs:
Yarn: I subbed Rowan Cashcotton DK for the Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere. One benefit is that 50g is a huge amount more yardage, so what would’ve been a $40 sweater–on sale–was instead a $15 sweater, and left me with enough yarn left over for a pair of Fetching (yes I know it’s cotton, but they’ll be so pretty and mmmm mmmm soft, even if they are completely useless).

Needles: OMG I got gauge with the recommended size 5 needles. I *never* get gauge with the recommended needles.

Modifications: None on purpose. I did the 12 month size so the baby would have room to grow into it. My first attempt at the buttonhole row somehow left me with the correct number of sts but no buttonhole. I didn’t notice until about 5 rows later, so all my buttons are above where they should be. I actually like the effect of having a button in the collar: it makes the sweater look more like a little baby Nehru Jacket.  This should not be a Good Thing™ but it is.

The Best Part: The amazingly sweet snail buttons I used.

I was also going to do the hat that goes along with, but for the first time ever, I actually twisted the piece when I joined in the round. My gauge was also scarily off in the round (usually my gauge flat is pretty similar to in the round). So, I decided that since my coworker didn’t know I was going to make a hat I didn’t *have* to make a hat.  Sometimes it’s good to be a quitter.

Says we, “Etienne, what are you doing?”

quoth Etienne, “Knitting.”

I’m getting that boy a pair of 35s and some polar weight yarn.

For Shannon and Walker’s wedding present, butter_mint, alarelkinn and I made separate presents for the bride and groom. For Walker, we designed a scarf in binary. We used a quote by Carl Jung, “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”

 butter_mint decided how wide she wanted the scarf to be, and then we decided that the scarf should be between 4 and 6 feet long. butter_mint  made a swatch. I multiplied her average sts/inch by how many inches wide the scarf was supposed to be to figure out how many sts were going to be in a row.  I counted up the 1s and 0s in the quote to figure out how many sts I needed to use in the scarf. then I divided the number of 1s and 0s by sts in a row to get the number of rows it would make, and then divided the number of rows by the number of rows per inch in the gauge swatch to figure out how long the scarf would be. My first calculations ended up with a 2 foot scarf. So, I decided to try making each 1 be a column of 2 knits and each 0 be a column of 2 purls. That was still too short–so I tried making each 1 be a 2×2 block of Ks, etc. That was too long. So then I tried adding a 2 sts wide garter border on each side. That worked fine. Having 1s and 0s be 2 sts in a column also meant that on the WS rows, all one has to do is knit the knits and purl the purls. Then I graphed the RS rows and butter_mint knitted it up.

That’s the bride hiding behind the scarf.

For Shannon, I made Josephine from Knitty, which she had requested when I was starting to learn how to knit. Josephine was my first cable project, my first sweater, my first shortrows (in some places it shows), and my first real seaming (I had to seam a tiny bit for the pocket creature).

Shannon was so excited by the sheer geekiness of the groom’s present that I decided to geekify her present a bit, and I modified the DNA scarf to make the belt for Josephine.

Finally, about 2 weeks after the wedding was the Shannon’s birthday (how annoying, huh?). I had promised her some Mrs. Beetons for her birthday with yarn she had picked out.

The top bell was knitted up on size 3 DPNs using Trendsetter Super Kid Seta 70% Mohair 30% Seta Silk, and the bottom bell was knitted up on size 5 DPNs using Mountain Colors Mountain Goat 55% Mohair 45% wool. I don’t remember the colorway. I hate hate hate working with Mohair by itself, especially with the beaded cast on, so it’s really too bad that I’ve already bought the yarn for 2 more sets of these for friends and 2 more sets of these for me. I do like how they come out, though.

I wasn’t able to get the beaded cast on to work for me easily until about my 4th attempt. Did I mention what a pain I find that to be? Not a pain enough that I’ll forego it–just enough that I’ll bitch about it.

The color is more accurate in this picture, and you can see the beaded cast on, sorta:
 

After spending 2 days camped out at my parents’, writing 11 papers (most of them short), I borrowed Nomi’s computer from Saturday afternoon ’til this evening to write my last 3 papers. Of course, my laptop returned from Dell tonight, now that my papers are all done.

Turned in my last paper tonight. I still need to email the people that might end up being on my thesis committee and let them know I’ll be in contact next year. There was a mix up on how to fill out my card for my leave, so I need to fix that up later this week.

Other than those minor things, I’m done with school for a year.

I’ve been thinking about medical school again. I’d be an awesome doctor.

But I don’t think I want to sacrifice what I’d need to in order to go through med school and residency.

But I’d be an awesome doctor.

But. . . .

I used KnitPicks Sock Landscapes (or Memories? I don’t recall) in Yukon, to match his eyes. I fastened the loop with Saturn buttons, and let me tell you, it was difficult to get the planet to agree to hang out on my dad’s hands, but I managed:

out of Silky Wool, like the pattern calls for. I really loved the drape of this yarn once I washed and blocked it. I’ve decided, though, that I’m not going to do anymore lace until I’m not in class. Even though this was probably the fastest knit I had, it took me forever just because I couldn’t find time when I didn’t have to pay attention to something else.

Bea made a matching scarf. The pattern was mostly taken from Nona Knits, but I altered it a bit. It’s made out of Rowan Cotton Braid, which Bea HATED knitting with, but I didn’t mind. Seattle does get wet, but it doesn’t get all that cold, and I think this hat will be fine. The pattern isn’t very visible, but we were going for the suggestion of water, so I think it’s ok. This is also the project that reminded me that I cast on very tightly, and need to compensate appropriately.

These are for my 2.5 year old nephew (from SnBN). I haven’t seen him in over 6 months, so I’m going to enclose a note offering to redo them bigger if necessary. Also, he has excema and I’m hoping the Mission Falls 1824 wool won’t irritate it, but I’m going to be looking for synthetic yarns that will keep his little mitts warm in Detroit, if I have to redo them. The French knots did not work for me until I found a really poor description of how to do them in open weave fabric and then continued fiddling with them for another 15 minutes. In the end, though, I figured it out enough that I replaced the googly eyes with french knots, since I’d rather my nephew eat yarn than googly eyes.

I am still working on my mom’s clap (there is no good way to say that, ok, I guess i could say clapotis instead), since she’s the only person I’m going to see on Christmas proper.

I am asking everyone that I am gifting knitted presents to to take pictures of them wearing it for me.

I have a couple of other non christmas FOs here, including a feather lace hat where the yarn did a really neat pooling effect that I love, and more detailed pics of the broadstreet mitts and the wavy hat.

x-posted to

I came home and the next door neighbor’s house was gone. I had heard a rumor that it was going to get knocked down to have two townhouses built on the oversized lot. But it’s been months since I heard that, and yesterday it still had curtains. It’s not upsetting or anything, just weird.

My new camera came. I haven’t had a chance to put it through its paces yet. The nice thing is that my palm pilot and my camera can share the same SD card, so broke me doesn’t have to buy a new one.

Mom also came over and we figured out our itinerary for the week we have together in Costa Rica. We’re going to hike through rain forests and waterfalls. yee!

Does anyone wanna come to my house and switch around the lights, feed my cats, change the litter, and have my cats shun you? This would be when I’m in Costa Rica.

I am officially a yarn whore. Jaeger and Rowan were discontinuing some of their yarns, and well, sale. And well, free pattern and besides, I need to knit myself a sweater, and um, also, I might need some raspberry, blue, and cream merino. For something. Someday. Oh, and then, Mission Falls is going out of business, and the yarn is on sale, and I need the mittens patterns so I can resize them for my nephew and um, I better get a few extra colors in case I don’t like the combination I was originally going to get, and um, oh yeah, Bea and I have to go in together for the knitpicks order because if we spend more than $30, hey, free shipping!

I made my grandma’s recipe for persimmon pudding with lemon sauce. It’s funny, I’ve been buying lemon curd and thinking that I need to learn how to make it. Lo and behold! My grandma’s lemon sauce, which I’ve been making for years, IS lemon curd.

Y’know how, when you’re depressed, sometimes you lose your bearings and start to feel like you’ve only ever been depressed? Well, it occurred to me yesterday that, while I have always been a procrastinator, I have not always procrastinated as much as I have in the last year. Part of it is that, while I love learning in school, I hate the papers and exams and proving that I’ve learned what I’ve learned. I have an amazing amount of ambivalence/resentment about that. Something clicked a couple of days ago, though, and I’ve been getting my homework done early, instead of 30 min before they’re due; cleaning at least the most annoying bits of my house; working out; writing people I’m supposed to write (still have to write my Grandma, though); starting my tape reviews on ; knitting, and still having some amount of a social life. It’s nice. I wish I could figure out what changed so I could keep it from changing back.

Hey Lyss, I need to see Renu on Monday, too, but I’m giving you first dibs on when you want to see me, and then I’ll fit Renu around your schedule.

Hrmm, I like to make my life complicated sometimes

The colors wouldn’t have to be rainbowy or anything; they could be in the same family–

Would just have to make sure my gene sequence didn’t end up coding for cancerous proteins.

www.twosheep.com/helix/

It’s DNA!!!!! ! ELEVENTY! 1!

I love DNA. It makes me go.

So, I have this pattern, it’s lacey and each rep of the lacey is 11 stitches. The pattern calls for cast on 90 stitches–so 2 stiches are left over when I do a round of the lacey. If I continue in the pattern–which I believe is what the pattern calls for–I end up adding a stitch every other row. So, should I just knit the last two stitches, always? Should I K2tog to get rid of the last two stitches or k3tog somewhere that already calls for a k2tog? I’ve already started the thing twice, so I don’t really want to frog it again. I’d rather fix the problem and move on.

So, I have 8 rows of brim and then the lacey pattern starts:
round 9: K1 *YO, K2, SSK, K2tog, K2, YO, K1* Repeat from * *, end with YO
Round 10: knit
Round 11: *YO, K2, SSK, K2tog, K2, YO, K1* Repeat from * *, end with K1
Round 12: Knit

Repeat rounds 9-12 for 6.5″

Can anyone figure out if it’s me or the pattern and how to fix it? The way I’m doing it, it’s the last YO, uncountered by a SSk or whatever, that adds a stitch.

ETA: It’s me, I was doing my YOs wrong.

Because of the lot in the first item,  

15″ single pointed sizes
10.5, metal
10, wood
10, metal bent
3, metal

12″ single pointed sizes
2, metal
5, metal

10″ single pointed sizes
10, metal
6, metal

Double pointed
0, metal, a little rusty 8.5″
9, red plastic 6.5″

So if you want any of ‘em, just let me know. I’m super excited about all my keen new knitting stuff

Oh yeah, , The Seatac Ghettofab
stitchers meets at the Borders in Seatac around 7-7:30 every thursday.
Think we may be able to make some of those?