FO: Demyx Fingerless Gloves

I don't really know where May disappeared to. I only ended up completing one knitting project and getting two others halfway or more. For months I'd be nagging my friend Rachel to fix the charts to her gloves she designed so that I could test knit them for her. I'd fallen in love with them the first time I saw them. Well she did... right before I had college exams. :(

Well, exams were over the 4th of May. So I made my gloves and I love them. It's also the first time I did partial fingers. Now nothing is stopping me from making my own gloves this winter.

Pattern: Accompanist's Fingerless Gloves

Yarn: KnitPicks Palette in Blue Note Heather

Needle: 2.75mm

Mods: Knit to pattern. Rae did hers in two colors for the cuff, I did mine in a single color.

The inspiration for these? Demyx from Kingdom Hearts. <3

No more hats!

I'm calling it quits on my goal of 52 hats in a year. Maybe some other year I'll get it done, just not this one. Working on hats has become... a chore. Knitting is never supposed to be a chore. It's not like I'm going to stop making hats for the rest of the year. I'm just... not going to set a goal and make myself reach it. I realized that I needed to rethink what I was doing when I had two hats that were just killing me. The first one kept hurting me hands and the one after that was so utterly boring I wanted to do anything but work on it.

On a happier note, I'm crocheting a shawl! It's coming along pretty quickly and looks great. This one is actually for a friend, but I think I'll end up making another for me.

FO: SKA March Socks!

They're done! SKA (Sock Knitters Anonymous) has a mystery sock KAL every other month. Sometimes I join in, other times I don't. This time I did and I'm so glad I decided to. The socks turned out absolutely beautiful. I don't ever want to take them off.

Pattern: SKA March Mystery Sock

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed in Auburn

Needle: 2.25mm

Mods: N/A

Fingerless Mitts!

I finished two pairs of fingerless mitts in March. One pair was for me and another was for someone I got to spoil in a swap. My pair was originally for her but with a deadline looming, I stopped working on them in favor of a quicker pair.

Pattern: Serpentine Mitts by Miriam L. Felton

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet in colorway 16

Needle: 2.25mm

Mods: 3" 2x2 ribbing for the cuff, instead of 4"

Pattern: Susie's Reading Mitts by Janelle Masters

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Wool/Cotton

Needle: 3.5mm

Mods: I only did the picot edging for the cuff, instead of also for the knuckles too.

HatHatHat~

March was almost a utter fail month in terms of knitting. I did finished 3 hats and get a pair of socks sort of close to the heels. I also nearly finished two pairs of fingerless mitts. But, this post is about hats:

Bold means Not Pictured; Italics means gift.

1: Eyelet Ridge Hat
2: Windy City Hat
3: Tangled Mom Hat #1
4: Godric’s Hollow Graveyard Hat
5: WeeCorgi Baby Hat
6: The not-girly-manly-MAN!hat
7: The totally-girly-womanly-LADY!Hat
8: Divine Hat

I'm so behind. I wanted to do a hat per week. It is not the beginning of March, it is the beginning of April. So I'm 4 behind. I'm going to try and get at least 5 done this month. I need to do one more a month, if not two, so I can catch up.

(Psst. Justin if you're reading this, I need a picture of your hat!)

FO: Test Knit socks!

I'm so happy. I finished the socks I was test knitting for a friend. They're really comfy and cozy. And a perfect fit! When I'm knitting a pair of socks or such for myself or anyone else, the thing I worry most about is fit. I get frustrated if what I'm knitting doesn't turn out to be a perfect fit. Because then I either have to give what I spent time on to someone else or redo it. This time, it came out right!

Pattern: English Breakfast Tea Socks

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed in Ivy

Needle: 2.5mm

Project page

Yarn Packages! :D

Today was a package happy day. One of my friends wanted to know a colorway in Chroma that I'd like, since I'd ordered myself a skein of Midwinter already. I'd ordered yarn from a woman on Rav who was selling skeins of a Knit Picks yarn in a colorway that was now discontinued. Another package I was expecting was coming from the UK. A friend had yarn she was willing to send me and she also send chocolate!! All three of these packages arrived today. So of course I had to take pictures.

Mmm. Yarn from across the ocean, chocolate, and a postcard! No idea what I'll make with it yet.

The skeins of KnitPicks Tonal in Royalty that I'd been expecting. Now I can make my cousin's shawl and not worry about having any left for me! :)

Knit Picks Chroma fingering in Galapagos. 2 skeins is about 800 yards and is enough to make just about any shawl I'd want! I think I already know which one too.

Test Knitting

One of my favorite things to do in the world of knitting is test knit patterns for designers. Sometimes that even means that I get a paid pattern for free. In February, two of my friends came up with patterns that needed to be test knitted. One was a hat like the one Hermione wears in the graveyard scene of Deathly Hallows part 1. The other was a pair of socks.

The socks aren't finished yet. I've only finished the first one tonight. I'm really hoping that now that I've finished one I can speed knit through the other one. That's the way my socks are usually knit - I do the first one and because I want the second one so badly, I speed through it.

Here's the hat I finished a couple weeks ago. As I told the designer, it needs to be a bit longer. I'll probably go back eventually and add some length to the body of the hat.

Monthly Plan: February

Charms: Umbreon Plushie

DADA: Ventus Shawl

Herbology: Irish Breakfast Tea Socks

Potions: Pichu Plushie

Astronomy: Riku Gloves

HoM: Snapdragon Tam

CoMC: Godric’s Hollow Graveyard Hat

Detention: Chroma scarf or Aquitaine Pullover

OWL: Seraphim Shawl - 75%

Quidditch: TangledMom hat

I have no idea how much of this I will actually get done, I'm hoping 6 classes and my OWL to 75% or so. February is a few days shorter so once the classes I've already got on the needles (Ventus, Riku, Godric's Hollow hat) I need to get it to 50% so I know I'll have a chance to finish. The other thing I must finish this month are the socks. They're a test knit for a friend and perfect for St. Patrick's day socks.

January Summary

In January, I knit (or crocheted) a total of 7 things. 3 small bags, 3 hats, and a cozy for my PSP. I also started a scarf out of the skein of Chroma I ordered with my last KP order. I knew I wanted to make a scarf out of it so I got a skein of Choma Worsted in Midwinter. The scarf is about half done. It'll get done soon enough so I can block it and wear it.

6 HPKCHC classes:

Choma scarf:

You'll notice the third bag is missing. I need to do 2 things before I post it, take a better picture and mail it out today to the one it goes to.

Free Pattern: Drawstring PSP Cozy

This pattern is a pattern I came up when I couldn't find many PSP cozies on Raverly. See, I have a few portable game systems and never felt the need to have a cozy for them, until now. My DS and GameboyAdvance both close, keeping the screens protected. The PSP doesn't so it needed a way to keep the screen from getting scratched.

Materials:

2.5mm needles

Fingering weight yarn

Small crochet hook

Stitch marker to mark beginning of round

Using Judy's Magic Cast on, CO 24 sts (48 total) and knit one round.

Start working in 3x1 rib. Continue for the length you want the cozy to be.

Work an eyelet row: (k2tog, yo, k2).

Work in 3x1 rib for another inch or so. BO.

Taking the crochet hook, chain a length of desired drawstring. Weave through eyelet row.

Weave in all ends and enjoy!

It only took me a few hours over a couple evening to knit this up. The pattern can be easily adapted for another weight yarn and would go even quicker. :)

2 of 52 Hats done

Finally got around to taking a picture of my second hat. I almost had a third done but it was way too big for my head and I wanted it for me. Ah well. I have a different one in progress now and will have a fourth one started soon.

Pattern: Point Lobos Hat

Yarn: Unknown Handspun - One ply and wool

Needle: 5mm

Project page

Pattern: Windy City Hat

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in DK Country blue

Needle: 4.5mm

Project page

Knit Picks Chroma

Knit Pick's new yarn Chroma comes in both fingering and worsted. It is a single ply yarn with 396 yards in a skein of fingering, 198 in a skein of worsted. It's $8.99 per skein.

Ever since Chroma was released, I've been itching to try it out. I probably won't use it for socks since it is single-ply but it would be great for things like scarves, hats, shawls, etc. The colorways I really like are listed below, my favorite one in bold.

Pegasus

Galapagos

Pool Party

Regency

Midwinter

U-Pick

Finished: Cozy & Pouches

So far in January I've finished five things. I'm going to wait and do my finished hats later, when I finally get around to taking a picture of the second one. The first thing I made this month was a self-designed cozy for my PSP that I got for Christmas from my Dad. The second and third were two pouches from the same pattern. I love quick little crochet patterns that can be done in a half an hour or so.

Pattern: N/A

Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks Stripes in Krazy Stripes

Needle: 2.5mm

Project page link

Pattern: One Hundred Yen Pouch

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Burgundy

Hook: 5mm

Project page link

Pattern: One Hundred Yen Pouch

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Lavender

Hook: 4.5mm

Project page link

Monthly Plan: January

January Plan

Flying: Accompanist’s Fingerless Gloves
Herbology: PSP cozy
DADA: Eagle’s Flight
Charms: HP Fair Isle Pouch
HoM: Odessa
Divination: Gretel

Detention: therealkarity’s advent socks

OWL - Charms: Seraphim Shawl

I'm going to try and get as much of this done as I can before the 10th - that's when I go back to school. At some point I'll need to do two hats that aren't on the list so I can end January with four hats complete. Am I crazy? Quite possibly.

2011 Plans

I'm probably out of my mind for doing this, but I've decided to challenge myself to complete certain knitting goals in 2011. Knitting to a deadline helps me much more than just knitting. There are four challenges I decided to do this year. The last one is the biggest and the others can be added into it. The first three are hats, shawls, and socks.

52 Hats - a hat per week in 2011

11 Shawls in 2011 - what it sounds like

12 in 2011 - sock club for me and Sparky

The last one listed, 12 in 2011, is the one I'm using for a sock club Sparky and I decided to do. We want to do a pair of socks a month and it works perfectly for that. Now, the last challenge is 111 projects in 2011. Yes, 111. Which means that everything I do in 2011 will be working towards that goal. Each time I talk about my FOs in 2011, I'll probably include a counter for how many I've done so far.

Damson: Finished!

I'm quite happy with myself - my very first shawl is finished! It's not the first one I've started, but I did finish it. I blocked it as best I could while at my brother's. I might re-block it later to open up the lace a little more. This shawl is also my very first Ysolda project.

Pattern: Damson

Needle: 4mm

Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss in Winter Night - 440 yards

Damson makes for an easy first shawl. It is knit in garter until you reach the chart and the 2 rows of edging are really easy.

15 Days left!

Wizard's Chess. We all remember Harry and Ron playing it in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone. But that's not the game I'm talking about. The game of Wizard's Chess I'm talking about involves knitting. And WIPs. In HPKCHC, Wizard's Chess is a game where up to a total of 10 points, you can work on a few WIPs. Instead of just a 'finish all the WIPs you can' it gives a little more focus. Which is nice. The points are tallied like this: Pawn (1 pt), Rook (2 pts), Knight (4 pts), and Queen/King (5 pts).

My first WIP is my pair of advent socks. A knight. I get a clue for the socks every weekend. Clue 3 came out last night because the designer's midnight is my 6pm. (yay Germany!) I'm still working on clue 1.

Second WIP is Damson, a rook. I have about 30ish or so rows left to finish. And then all it needs is some blocking. My goals for both Damson and the socks is to have them finished and wearable by Christmas Eve morning.

Last WIP is my Traveling Woman shawl. Another knight. I don't have an exact size to aim for with this one. It's easy to increase the size of TW with the first chart. So to finish I need to do as many more chart A repeats as it will take to make me happy. And then I can do the finishing chart. And be done.

These three WIPs get me my ten points. I have more than three to finish, if I'm lucky, I can finish 5. That will get my remaining WIP count down to two. Yay!

17 Days left!

I figured out last night that acrylic, at least Red Heart, really hurts my hands. To the point where every time I knit with it, it shot pain through my right hand. I'm not going to knit with something that hurts my hands. So I'm pretty much all done working with Red Heart. I'm also taking a break from all acrylic for awhile. Wool makes my hands (and me!) happy. The good news is that this happened after I finished the presents I needed to get done.

Finished:
Fun Fur Scarf
Midnight Blue Beanie
Present for Mom

WIPs (for me):
Aquitine Pullover
Traveling Woman
Damson
Advent Socks

My goal for December now is to try and get three of the four listed completed. So, everything but the sweater. I want to try and get Damson and my advent socks finished before Christmas. In enough time to block Damson so I can wear the two of them on Christmas Eve.

24 Days left!

There are 24 days left until Christmas. And I'm so not ready. There are presents left to do. Not just for family but for me too. I have plans what I want to wear to the family gathering on both the 24th and the 25th. Namely my shawl but I'd also like to wear a beret too. December will be the month where I focus on the things that I need to do and my WIPs. Here's the list of each.

Need to do:
Fun Fur Scarf
Midnight Blue Beanie
Present for Mom
Scarf/Hat/Mitten set in both green and black

WIPs:
Aquitine Pullover
Traveling Woman
Damson
Accompanist's Gloves
Advent Socks
One Row Scarf
Gretel

My goal of December is to finish four things for me and all of what I have to do. The need to do list is easy, once I focus. It's hard sometimes, because I'd be happier just knitting what I want to. On the list of WIPs, the ones in italics are the ones I'd like to finish before the new year. If I finish more, great! If I have to pick two, it'll be Damson and the socks.