Not Quite

The Bug's sweater seems to be taking Forever. Working in the round is always that way. I guess it really isn't taking all of that long considering there won't be any sewing up at the end. I finished the first sleeve today and she wanted to try it on. After I took this picture we had to have a 20 minute conversation about how she did need the other sleeve, and no she couldn't eat yogurt in the sweater I hadn't even finished yet.

Lovely close up of the stitch pattern. It's mostly a 2x2x2x3 rib, which takes some getting used to. The pattern calls the cabling braiding. It doesn't use a cable needle you just knit into the second stitch on the left needle, then the first and pull them both off. Pretty neat. I'd wanted to have this done by the new year. Not for any reason I just like to set goals for myself. Falling short on this one. Ah well.

Birthday Cake

This is the cake we made yesterday for Yeshua's (Jesus to you not in the know) birthday. Vegan Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Chocolate icing. Heavenly.
And this is that mystery holiday project I was talking about last month. A sleeveless hoodie for my best friend back in Virginia, I refuse to call it a vest, I'm anti the sweater vest. You say sweater vest and it can't be good. Sleeveless hoodie. It's from a Paton's booklet that I can't find right now... Using a yarn that is now discontinued, which was almost a disaster, note the white draw strings. But it fits! Wooo! It's scary making a sweater, sleeveless or otherwise, for someone over 1,000miles away.

Pink Woods

Finally I have the right length needle to make the bug's sweater. My size six was too long for working such a little sweater in the round. This is a really crummy picture of it. Looks like I can't do ribbing. sad. It's Sherwood, as I think I mentioned before. Looks a lot better when there is sufficient light. But around here there is only enough light when it is bitterly cold. So this is all you get for now.

Slow Simple Sock

Most of the sock knitting happens while I'm reading to The Bug. She loves stories and being read to. We recently decided to see The Tale of Desperaux for our Chanukah movie this year. Then we decided to read the book first. Reading a picture book and knitting a sock is easy enough. But reading a regular book and knitting is beyond me. Thus, this simple, plain knit sock is taking much longer than expected. Ah well.

This morning

I finished a sock for Mr. Gnome.

This is Flatura Di Crosa Maxime. My mom got it in Italy last summer. It's really soft, though a bit splitty. Mr. Gnome wasn't too sure about stripey socks. Until I started knitting them, I think he was sold on them this morning when he tried on this one lonely sock. These are his colors, green and browns.

Then I made eggnog pancakes.

They didn't taste much like eggnog, but where very fluffy.

Texture

Here is the back of the Texture Cardigan blocking. I like it. I like the leaves at the bottom. I like the kind of cables. I even like the bobbles. Crazy. This uses two yarns. The blue is Cleckheaton Country, I got it when a store nearish by closed. Closed, because she wanted to be with her family not because it wasn't doing well. I didn't know what to do with the yarn when I bought it. It's DK weight and not enough for a sweater. Then I saw this pattern in the VogueKnitting and realized all I needed was a complimenting yarn. Knitty Couture had their one year anniversary sale and I grabbed some Rowan Felted Tweed (though this seems to be the least tweedy tweed I've ever seen) in what I thought was a matching color. For some reason at the store the yarn looked more blue and in my head the first yarn was a much lighter blue. When I got home I wondered if it would work. I held them up together; it wasn't what I'd had in mind but maybe..... Well what you see is what I got. I like it. I wouldn't normal wear gray, but I always wear blue. I think it looks pretty neat. Yay, for mistakes!

Gingerbread

Mr. Gnome and The Bug have wanted to make a Gingerbread House. They've been talking about it for a good month. I had plans of making the cookie dough and using these templates I have. Then at Mr. Gnome's work party he got a Gingerbread Tree Kit in the white elephant exchange. Well, that makes my life a little easier without having to buy a pre-made sort of thing that I usually can't bring myself to buy because I can just make it.

I think they had just as much fun with the kit as they would have with a home made house.

Easy Come, Easy Go

I made those fingerless gloves for The Bug. Enjoy the picture, for it is all you will ever see of them. She lost them later that day, the first time out with them. Sigh... guess that means she wasn't going to keep them on anyway.

The Blahs

I've been kind of blah about my knitting lately. I still enjoy the doing of it just not feeling that something else.

I cast on for the Bug's sweater; Sherwood. But I need a shorter circular and just haven't made it to the LYS. Being too cold to walk to stuff stinks! So it's been just sitting there.

Needing something I started a sweater for myself. Texture from the Fall '08 Vogue Knitting.

I like it I really do. But... I don't know... I love the colors and how the two yarns are working together. I like the, well, texture of the fabric. And it's always cool when working from a chart clicks. It's knit up on 10s so it's coming along fairly quickly. So what's my problem?

I think I just need an immediate gratification knit. This usually means fingerless gloves. But even those aren't striking anything with me. I think mostly because my stash fingerless glove yarn isn't striking me. Maybe I'll make the gloves some fingerless gloves. She can't where the long ones under long sleeve shirts. hmmmmm.....

Little Red Hoodie

I started this hoodie back in April. I'd finished the sleeves and back. Apparently back in April I had some issues with rulers. I made the front to match the back, not measuring with a ruler just with the back. When it was all said and done I put it on and it was a bit short. I measured and somehow 2 inches were missing on the arms and body. Odd. Now I'm short so the body isn't really a big deal as long as I'm not wearing super low riding pants, and I don't. The sleeves, well, I'm calling them 3/4 and some. Which is fine really, means I don't need to push them up when cleaning, cooking, or all those other times I'm pushing up my sleeves. It fits around, which is an improvement from past experiences. I am happy.

Last night I made the Bug a Snail. Which sounds cooler if I use her real name. The body is some Paton's something cotton and the shell is from the Mardi Gras Monkey Socks. I love Mochimochi's patterns, they are so whimsical and cute. I've been wanting to make something forever. Starting small.

We got the Monkeys!

The Mardi Gras Monkeys are done. Oh what joy.

The pattern was so easy and quick. I had it memorized after the first repeat. The yarn was neat with colors I don't usually use. I'm happy!