Emily’s Knits

A second balanced skein! It’s not nearly as tightly plied as the first, and I (somewhat) succeeded at making a thicker yarn. I’ll wrap it to get a better measurement of weight when it’s finished drying. For now I’m pretty pleased with myself. Maybe soon I’ll get practiced enough to spin something aran weight -grin-.

I’m glad leaving this merino in hot water for a while doesn’t seem to injure it. I put the skein in a pot of hot water to finish and accidentally left it there on ’2′ for at least two episodes. Oops! I suppose I should get myself a kitchen timer and start using it.

The Baby Surprise Jacket isn’t going quite as well. I’m having some issues with counts and can’t seem to figure out what went wrong. Increases should be 4 every other row, and I’m off count by two stitches. In addition, the increases keep trying to get done on the wrong side of the work. I’ve put it away for tonight – I think when I pick it back up I’m going to have to rip out at least 6 or 8 rows before I can get back on track and I’m a little too sleepy to do that tonight.

Good night!

A quick update on the projects I’ve currently got underway.  Well, the somewhat active ones at least.

First a few things for a coworker whose wife will have a baby boy in January.

Baby Boy 5-Hour Jacket
Yarn/Yardage: Paton’s Decor, just over one ball
Needles: US7
Progress: Just have the ends left to weave in.

Baby Surprise Jacket
Yarn/Yardage: Bernat’s Baby Jaquard in blue and green
Needles: US2
Progress: Still working on the sleeves. I’ve got a way to go still but this is fun!

Sjaarte’s Booties
Yarn/Yardage: KnitPicks Felici in Aquarium
Progress: Need to weave in the ends and attach buttons.

(Can you see a theme of what I haven’t gotten around to doing yet?)

And soon I’d also like to get my Melusine finished, followed by the much-overdue Atlantis shawl for mom.

It’s going to be a busy weekend – San Francisco has lots of events going on plus I have two close friends in town. When interesting things rain they pour!

I’m wearing a shawl that I made myself in public!  I finally blocked Calypso on Saturday (my first real wet-blocking as well) and am wearing it to work today.  Pictures to come (posted already on Ravelry).  I’m so proud!

I also swatched Mystic Waters, which I’m really loving so far.  The tencel dries so quickly and looks so perfectly delicate when blocked!  I’m working on a miniature version of it (just the first 40 or 50 rows) from my Pound of Love ball as a shawl for my little sister’s American Girl dolls.  Nearly done, I have to figure out how I’m finishing off and whether I want faroese-style extended shoulders.

I finished this blanket and sent it to my brother and his girlfriend a bit ago.  Sorry for the long delay in posting pictures, I just got them off my camera.

finished blanket

finished blanket (wrong side)

a single strip

close up of fish

This afternoon I finally got the border on the Festive Fish blanket I’ve been working on!  Now I’ve only got the ends (but oh my are there so many of them) to weave back in, and I’m officially finished.  I’ve been snapping pictures, I’ll put those up when I’m done.

I’ve got 9 finished strips for Festive Fish, working on the 10th.  I’ve seamed 8 of the 9 together so far.  It looks great, but it does seem like 15 rows will be needed to give the proportions I’m looking for.  At that point it’s going to be a pretty hefty piece of fabric.  I do want it to be able to cover two people, but in comparison to most throw blankets, maybe sizing it on my Queen bed is a little big…

Hopefully being a standby inspector for tomorrow’s election will be a good chance to get some more work done.  If not, it will be a good chance to be a poll inspector, which will also be great.

Also, I finally broke down and bought myself a knitting machine Sunday morning.  I think it barely counts as such – one of the cheap Ultimate Sweater Machines from Jo-Ann.  I’m curious to see what it’s capable of.

Last night I found an interesting pattern, Pink Lemon Knits’ Atlantis Stole.  It’s intended for lace beginners, using fingering weight yarn and size 7 or 8 needles.  I think I’ll start this up in some of the Jojoland fingering weight I got for mom, and see how it comes.  If I can get it done by Christmas she can have it if she likes it.

I’ve made good progress on the Festive Fish blanket.  Despite the setbacks of losing my needles and one of the strips a few weekends ago, I’ve now finished my 6th strip.  I had originally planned on 9 more, I’m excited to get these put together and see how the length is coming along.  I have a long history of making blankets, etc way too large :)

On hint 3 of SotSiii and not even selecting yarn or beads for MS4, I’m significantly behind all the talented knitters who finished or nearly finished both this week.  I’ve downloaded all the hints for both, and look forward to possibly getting to them in the future.

The fish blanket isn’t quite going swimmingly, but it’s getting there.  I set myself a deadline of wanting to be done by Halloween, but that’s certainly a little too ambitious.

Monday night I got out my new swift and yarn baller (such an improvement over balling by hand!) and wound up one skein of the blue and teal yarn.  The colours look really neat in the ball :)

I’ve cast on the Deby Lake’s Calypso shawl, and so far I’m loving it.  The actual cast-on process was exciting – involving drink stirs and some paper clips as those were the best I could find for a second needle (long tail cast on) and stitch markers at the bar I was in.  I’m about halfway through the first section.  A little worried that I won’t have enough yarn since I was slightly over gauge even on size 5′s instead of the recommended 6′s.

On Saturday I finally finished the Charleston stole I had been working on since May.  It turned out beautifully.

I’m really a fan of the patterns in it:

I’m very pleased with the yarn I used – Ceallach Dye’s Summer Silk.  It’s somewhere between Fingering and DK, and varigated (which is always contradindicated for a lace pattern).  The varigations make the entire fabric absolutely beautiful, and the heavier weight means that the pattern is even more visible than it would be in a single-colour lace weight yarn.  It drapes comfortably, and is just warm enough to stave off air conditioning or a breeze.

Finally, I simply love this picture (the stole turned out much longer than I had expected – a result of using a heavier yarn and not removing a repeat).