I turned thirty on Monday and was literally showered in yarn-tastic gifts.  Actually, I received just as many wonderful non-knitting presents as knitting-related ones, but to be honest, just having all my friends and family there would have been enough.  

All the same, here are the yarn-related goodies I received:

Fantastic and soft owl cabled mittens from Sam-

As well as some BFL spinning fiber, also from Sam (and a really cool decoupaged box, too, which i will try to photograph later)-

Lovely Araucania sock yarn from Ellen –

A pretty skein of yarn picked out just for me by my five-year-old nephew Jake-

A ‘party hand’ (see Dear Die-ary #7: Running Up That Hill for the origins of the Party Hand) which entitles me to  a pair of hand-knit gloves or mittens by Caitlin-

Not Photographed:  

Some antique bobbins and quills from my in-laws, which will be put to good use, especially when I get my spinning wheel (will try to post photo later).

The Wendy Johnson Socks from the Toe-Up book from my grandparents.

Coraline on DVD from Tyler, which may not seem like it’s knitting related, but seeing as I dyed the skein of China Blue worsted they used to base the star sweater on, plus the fact that I adore this movie and will be watching it a bunch as I knit, I will include it in this list.

Coincidentally, my Three Irish Girls pre-order finally arrived – on my birthday!  I pre-ordered a skein of yarn in Zephyr, a color they created for the Sock Summit Dye For Glory Contest – alllll the way back in August!  The poor folks at 3IG were apparently overwhelmed with the sheer volume of orders received as a result of the Summit and contest, and to make up for the lag between order and delivery, they threw in many goodies!  I’d wait two months for yarn all over again, if they were as pretty as these skeins.

at last, i have finished my grandfather's christmas socks - a basic ribby pattern with a stockinette foot, which is simple and quick-knitting, if only you actually knit on it.  for some reason, i have a hard time motivating myself when it comes to socks lately - shocking, yes? but at long last, these are complete. 


yarn:  brown sheep wildfoote in desert grass
pattern:  modified version of hannah six's manly socks

also, i finished the first tweedy alpaca mitt this morning at knitting brunch.  i love the way they fit and they are soft as a cloud!  alas, these are not for me, but will be on display at the beans & bagels december craft show and available for purchase on my etsy shop.  not that i couldn't make myself a pair....and i very well might.  but first, i must finish the ambitious holiday gift knitting to-do list!

now available on my newly-updated etsy shop, i present to you a a stash-busting one-skein project you can make in a weekend!


These easy-to-knit cabled fingerless gloves are knit flat and seamed up the side. The pattern is ambidextrous - glove fits either hand, so you only have to make the same thing twice (you can even knit them two-at-a-time if you're feeling adventurous!).

Use any worsted-weight yarn you have on hand, or splurge on a skein of luxury yarn - alpaca? blue-faced leicester? you decide!


Supplies:
1 skein Classic Elite Inca Alpaca, or about 100 yds of any worsted-weight yarn
US #7 needles (straight or circular - project is worked flat and then seamed together)
Cable needle
Tapesty needle

Finished Measurements: approx. 7” palm circumference, but will accommodate up to 8” palm circumference

Gauge: 9.5 sts and 14 rows = 2” in stockinette stitch

Skills Required: Cabling, increasing, invisible seaming

i suddenly find myself with a lot on my plate - and instead of being stressed about it, i'm really excited.  today i plan to finish a baby sweater i'm knitting for tyler's boss, then finish up the new pattern i'll be releasing later this week - which will be available for sale on my etsy shop as well as on ravelry.

i still have a lot of holiday knitting to finish up, but i also need to be knitting for a craft show my pals and i will be having at beans and bagels on montrose the entire month of december.  i also have one more sweater commission that's due in time for the holidays, and then a few other commissions that can wait until the holidays are over. 

in the meantime, here are the last of the october monsters - these were for my nephews when we went out to visit over halloween.  jake named his "tongue twister."  rhys enjoyed pulling on the ears of his toy.


Jake's is the larger orange critter - Pattern by Rebecca Danger (Olivia the Audacious Monster), yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Bulky in Courage

Rhys' is the little stripey guy - Pattern also by Rebecca Danger (Albert the Absent-Minded Monster), yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Franklin's Panoptican

i made a little stuffed owl to give the people who fed and loved our cats for us while we were in portland last weekend.  Whose the Owl is happy in his new home, and has a socktopus and tapir to keep him company - will have to make one for my toy shelf when all the holiday shenanigans are done:



Pattern: KnitWhitz Bramble Softie
Yarn:  Berocco Vintage Wool (MC and Eyes), Malabrigo (beak), Shepherd Worsted (CC)
(The photo on the let was taken by my boss at work, and the photo on the right was taken with the photobooth on our computer - amazing what a difference a little light can make!)

we leave for portland at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning - and i will be wearing my lovely new turquoise sweater!  it looks great, but there are a few things that were unexpected, such as it becoming more of a swing-coat than a cardigan (i think that has everything to do with me subbing in a different weight of yarn, which gave it a different sort of drape.  interestingly, my gauge wasn't terribly off, such that i only had to add a few more increases before taking off the sleeves). 


the other big surprise was the placement of the button holes.  apparently, i misread the directions at some point, because they ended up being offset.  i'm still not clear on how i did something that crazy - this is the first time it's ever happened to me - but considering the instructions were pretty straightforward, and referred you to the same line for each buttonhole row, i can only conclude that i am insane. 


however, it was the perfect excuse to use two mismatched buttons from my vintage button stash.  the pattern recommends using hidden hook and eye closures along the rest of the cabled edgings, and i may add a few, but for now i am just going to rock the two-button sweater look. 


without further ado, here is a really terrible photo of me wearing my latest sweater.  or rather, a photo in which i think i look like crap.  why am i posting it on my blog for all to see?  perhaps it's because i'm just too lazy to take 50 more photos in hopes of getting a better one. 


yarn:  berocco peruvia (contrast color) and lamb's pride worsted (main color)
pattern: rosamund's cardigan from the fall 2009 issue of interweave

our apartment has become a monster-making work shop of late.  even if it weren't almost halloween, i think i'd still be all about the making of the monsters; this past week, i have made five monsters, in addition to working on other projects (ie, the cardigan i'm determined to have done by the time i reach portland this thursday). 
the army of penelope has been created to thank some rad people for the rad things they do.  for example, these first two are for Aleksa and Katelyn, who play cello and violin for us at live shows, and on recordings - fabulous musicians, enthusiastic band members, and all-around awesome people:



i also made a penelope for my hair stylist, Lana, who not only gave me a bitchin' hair cut and showed me that you can be lazy and still have cute hair, but also gave me a really cool drawing of hers. so i'd like to return the favor:

i recently made my first-ever dog sweater for a pal's very adorable doggie friend.  i always like to try new things, and while i was really worried about fit, it was a welcome challenge to work off of measurements that were e-mailed to me and then translate them to an pattern with only a few minor modifications.  additionally, i wanted to embellish it to give it some personality, and i thought that embroidering on some little dog bones or something might be cute.  i'm not the greatest embroiderer, and my first few attempts were laughable at best.  finally i thought i should give the duplicate stitch another chance - i've tried to use this technique before, and my results were about as bad as my pathetic attempts at embroidery.  but this time, i was determined to conquer the nefarious duplicate stitch.  armed with the instructions from kelley deal's bags that rock, i spent a little time practicing on my gauge swatch (so that's what they're for!), and the next hour and a half making my design with natural and light blue yarn. 



here's a shot i took that shows off the design better: 



pattern:  fiber trends' dandy dog coat by evelyn a. clark
yarn:  berocco vintage wool - in navy, natural, and the light blue diamond color is something i created at work with a small bit of the natural skein.

The amount of monsters i have made or plan to make this month is nearing the point of ridiculousness.  I just can't help myself, though.  This is a monster i made for a vegan pal of mine whose birthday is today.  I present to you, Albert the vegan monster: 



Albert is made out of debbie bliss cotton dk (100% cotton), black embroidery floss, and safety eyes.  As always, the pattern is by the wonderful and fabulous Rebecca Danger.

There are still many projects I can’t post about on here, but I can share the stuffed pumpkins I made for my mom’s birthday last month.  

You might recognize the fiber from many, many posts ago, when I talked about dyeing some of the natural Romney I’d purchased online and spinning it into a single to be plied with a lovely contrasting chocolate brown for a tweed-y effect.  Somewhere along the way, I got it in my head to knit with the single ply to make some stuffed, felted pumpkins, and here we are. 

If you’ve ever knit with a single-ply yarn, you know that it gives your stitches a tendency to tilt to one side.  Sometimes that can make for a charming-but-usually-unintended “design feature,” and other times it’s just annoying.  The beauty of a felted project is that it doesn’t really matter in the end, so I found someone’s free pattern and got going.  It ended up not working out very well, and there was some frustration and frogging.  Eventually, I just knit the equivalent of a large, loosely-stitched mitten with no cuff or thumb, leaving the top part open.

I left the top part open and felted both pieces by hand in a sink full of hot, soapy water.  It took a lot of agitation before they started to get a good felt on, and a few times I pulled them out to rinse under ice-cold water, which shocks the fiber and causes it to felt even more.  When they looked the right amount of felted, I gently squeezed out the remaining water and patted them with a towel.  Then I stuffed them with plastic grocery bags to dry, wound some string around them in the hopes that it would create some nice pumpkin ridges (it didn’t),  and let them dry for several days.

When I revisted them, they were nice and dry, but fairly amorphous.  I stuffed them with poly-fil, sewed the tops shut, and made i-cord stems with some leftover brown malabrigo worsted.  Then I took some leftover yarn and whip-stitched all around the pumpkin to create the pumpkin-ridge definition I had been going for and still hadn’t achieved.  Finally they looked the way I’d been imagining them!  Squee!