What the world needs now ... is another ipod cozy :)

My old ipod mini still runs, but I couldn't pass up a sweet deal on a refurbed nano. It's only an upgrade for me in the sense that I've got a color screen & the nano is TINY compared to the mini. Oh Apple.

So a new ipod cozy naturally follows a new ipod, check out my improv skills:

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Disentangled Yoke

I completed my version of the Tangled Yoke cardigan on my birthday weekend. In a genius stroke of rationalization, I decided I wasn't much of a cables girl anyway (wink, wink). So I opted for a simple lace panel--Eyelet V's.

For anyone interested, I only modified the cable section--all other  elements are true to the pattern instructions. From the words: "(WS) Set up Celtic pattern ...", do this instead.

(WS) Purl across. Next row: Start eyelet lace pattern, as follows:

(key: ssk - slip 2 knitwise, return both to left needle, then k2tog through back of both loops; all other abbrev. standard)

Row 1: k, k, k2tog, yo, k, k, k, k
Row 2 (and all even): p across
Row 3: k, k2tog, yo, k, yo, ssk, k, k
Row 5: k2tog, yo, k, k, k, yo, ssk, k
Row 7,9: k across

Repeat rows 1-9 once more, then continue on with the pattern as written from "Dec row: (RS) K14 (12,10, 8, 6) ..."

I'm so happy to be done!

Now I am moving on to the Sunrise Circle Jacket ... to be continued ...

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I finished my first pair of socks, and so now I'm pretty much assured of success in all my knitting adventures. I wish I had the recipient's feet to model these. They'd look silly on me...

My first toe-up magic loop socks!

I think I may be confused about what constitutes a magic loop. I thought it was simply knitting on two circular needles, but Knit Picks' most recent email links to a tutorial where they are using only one circular needle folded in on itself. I thought I'd seen this trick once before, but then decided I must have made it up. Hmmm, so I'm not sure how I feel about magic loop -- this other approach is complicated looking enough to seem like magic, that's for sure.

At any rate, I'm so pleased to have finished the socks. Now I'm moving on to Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke Cardigan ...

Tangled Yoke Cardigan

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But still no sweater in sight. It was a fruitful vacation, though in truth I took very little time off from work. I just spent the holidays sequestered with DVDs and various knitting projects, chief among them a pair of socks on a magic loop. Oh how exciting!

I'm up to the cuffs now, so I hope I don't lose steam. I also made myself a pair of furry slippers as a brief diversion. I used a pattern for Pocketbook Slippers--called that because off the foot each one looks like a little handbag.

Hairy slippers

As a gift for a friend I tried my hand at cables for the first time, and it's true -- cables are way easier than they look. I'm so glad I made this hat; it has completely obliterated my fear of cables and opened a door to loads of exciting projects. Finished cables are insanely satisfying stacked up against how easy they are to knit. I've been sitting on all this red Cascade 220 -- now I know what to do with it!

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While I can't say that I've made much headway on this year's gifts, I certainly have been productive in the knitting sense. Four pieces of head wear (not all pictured), half a shrug and a sweater also half done just in the past couple of months--not bad. Basically all the little projects have been brief diversions--pick-me-ups!--from the lace cardigan that will likely drag on into the new year. Starting and finishing a project in a short amount of time is reeeeaaaaalllly satisfying, so it's easy to justify the knitterly tangent

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A baby hat ...

Baby beanie

... made from the same yarn as the ol' Calorimetry. Super soft! Knit in the round on size 8 DPNs, 2x2 rib. I cast on 64 stitches and knit rather loosely until it looked to be a good size for a little guy. I love this yarn -- it both hugs & gives.

And now, back to the cardigan.

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I've had quite the productive couple of weeks. I crocheted a Katamari Damacy hat for a friend who's traveling to a comic books convention in a couple weeks. I studied online pix of other people's interpretations (mainly the Mad Tea Party version) and just sort of winged it. I did lift the crown shaping from the Stitch 'n' Bitch Crochet Happy Hooker book, and even then I had to start over a couple times. I'm a novice with hooks.

Dignified

All the little nobules I completed over the weekend, and then I stuffed them with polyfill. So now I have the task of attaching the nobules to the hat ahead of me. Not exactly easy -- but not terribly difficult either. I could have tackled it this weekend, but I wanted a break so I unraveled the "Madagascar" v-neck instead because it was too small.

There's a new sweater on the needles, a top-down raglan ... again. I'm determined to get it right. So far I have completed (nearly) four sweaters for all time: #1 utter sparkly disaster, #2 Bad Penny with mods to sleeve/body lengths (wearable, WARM), #3 free-form, top-down cardigan using Noro (too large, frogged), and #4 the easy v-neck raglan using Cascade 220 in the Madagascar colorway (too small, frogged). Swatching and patience are skills/virtues I am slowly accepting as necessary for creating wearable garments.

I hope to have some FO and WIP pix up soon ... that is, if I can find my camera.

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I made Knitty's Twinkletoes for my sister for Christmas, and she loved them. My other sister (to whom I gave the bonnet) has requested a pair, too. Must get cracking so I finish them before her upcoming Spring b-day. The pictures are not so hot as they are taken by my iSight since my batteries had died in my proper camera. Hey, in a pinch, it works all right.

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Easy V-neck Raglan

Oh have I ever been slacking. I've been working my way through all the Sudoku puzzles in Brain Age on the DS, so I've really been just too, too busy.

I started a sweater on New Year's (eve I think?) and I really should have finished it by now. It's the Easy V-neck Raglan by Stephanie Japel (glampyreknits.com). A friend helped me pick out a color that wasn't green or brown, and I am really excited about wearing something so poppy-like and bold. From the pic you can see I'm nearly half finished with the first sleeve. I've actually grown quite fond of working with DPNs, but I recently got some short-length Addi Turbos that I'm sort of itching to try out. I'll wait for the next project so that the sleeves have the same gauge. I'm thinking about lengthening the waistband ribbing by a couple of inches so it's nice and long -- and fashionable ;)

I also made a lightnin' fast Calorimetry on a snow day while working from home -- 2 hours. Exhibit A:

Calorimetry

OK that's my only exhibit ... the buttons are what you want to see, right? I asked both my sisters if they wanted one. They both himmed and hawwed for about the 2 seconds it took for me to turn my head 'round, and then they got a load of the super cuteness of this pattern.

I chose two buttons instead of one since the pattern when followed to the letter turns out pretty big (as many blogging knitters have noted). I have a big round head, so it works fine for me. My sisters will require at least 10 or 20 stitches fewer at the cast on.

The yarn I used here is some I ordered from Uruguay (handpaintedyarn.com), and it is really soft to the touch. I love the colors, too -- greens and browns, of course.

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I haven't really been knitting that long -- a couple of years -- and while my technique has improved immensely my grasp of reality is shaky as ever. Luckily, I think I'm not alone in this -- it appears that a lot of knitters get all pumped up in the summer months about what they'll be knitting as gifts for the holidays, and then wind up knocking out a series of hats and scarves at the last minute if we're determined. Ah, delusions of grandeur! It's not that I'm not productive, I just wind up re-knitting or I get sidetracked ... or both.

So, yes, I'm in scramble mode at the moment. For the past week or so my living room has been strewn with yarn and sundry items for gift-making, not to mention a few WIPs and FOs. I actually had completed a cute little shrug for my sister this past summer, but it wasn't quite right. So I sat scrutinizing it for a bit trying to decide whether I'd re-do it, and if so how, or just knit something else. A hat seemed more likely to see the light of day, at least before Christmas, so I dug out that chunky handspun (posted earlier) and embarked upon a hat, a floppy beret perhaps. Pattern? Nooooo.

I knit up a square in stockinette, and then did a few rows of 1x1 ribbing. I stitched up the seam about halfway, and out of curiosity pulled it over my head to find that it was tight on the noggin. Figuring that there was no way for this to turn into the hat I had originally envisioned I turned the half-hat upside down. Now I had a sort of medieval-looking cap with full ear coverage. So with this inkling of inspiration I frogged the part I had seamed, and put the square on smaller DPNs and continued in the round. After having closed up what I thought was the top of the hat, I tried it on again flipped the top of the hat to the back of my head. Lo and behold, a fancy bonnet!

This is lab work, here, people!

My join had been a bit sloppy, so I needed some kind of finished edge to class things up. I snooped around free patterns online and found a simple knitted flower. Perfect. I twisted up a couple of cords for the ear flaps and I tell you it's divine. I am in love with this bonnet. I hope my sister loves it, too. My roommate thinks it's weird, but he concedes that if he saw a girl wearing it, he'd think it was really cute. I like blurring that line of weird & cute, so, like, um, mission accomplished!

Ladies bonnet

Bonnet rear view

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