It’s Cazza’s fault I started these. She asked for suggestions for substitutions for Eunny Jang’s Endpaper Mitts pattern. I kindly helped her to look for suitable subs and then got to thinking how nice they’d be in brown and pink to match my winter coat. But I didn’t have the yarn so that wasn’t going to happen.

But the very next day was the Angel Yarns Cake Day, and I came back with this:

ALL HER FAULT!

It’s also all her fault that I learnt a whole new cast on technique today. Doesn’t she realise that I’m happily ignorant of any new cast ons there might be? I followed these instructions - the video made more sense to my ancient brain than the photos - and cast on in a tubular fashion. Drat it looking so nice and neat and professional.

The current state of the mitts is thus:

And when my hands are cozy and gorgeous, I know just who to blame!

More leg chopping action for this photo:

Pattern: Regia basic freebie sock pattern
Yarn: Posh Yarns Lucia 4ply, 70% merino/30% cashmere, Deep Water colourway, 1 x 100g skein
Modifications: The yarn was lovely to work with, but very sproingy and knitted up more loosely than other sock yarns I’ve used - and I was working with 2.00mm dpns as well. I cast on for a standard woman’s sock with 60 stitches and it was huge, so I frogged and restarted with just 56 stitches which was perfect. The gusset is gorgeous, thanks to a wise monkey whose secrets I will not reveal. Just need to block them now and make a snazzy label.

So tomorrow, the Endpaper Mitts saga begins!

Yet another finished Christmas knit!

Pattern: Bertie!
Yarn: Artesano Alpaca Inca Cloud, Steel Blue, 2 x 50g (Which is really hard to photograph accurately. The actual colour is somewhere between the two photos.)
Modifications: I used an i-cord border, taken from the Backyard Leaves scarf in Scarf Style instead of the original garter stitch edging, and omitted the garter stitch rows at the beginning and end of the scarf.

So can I finally knit something for me? Not quite. Just got some socks for my sister to finish:

Observe the gorgeousness of the gusset:

Those wise monkeys know what they’re talking about.

And then it’s time for Endpaper Mitts!

It’s gloomy as anything outside today, but I can’t wait to photograph it any longer:

Pattern: Pi Shawl from Knitter’s Almanac
Yarn: Fyberspates hand dyed laceweight - 90% wool, 10% nylon
Modifications: Apart from knitting less rounds in the final section than the original pattern specifies, none! The stitch patterns in each section and the edging are all taken from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls by Martha Waterman, which I really recommend as a source of a good selection of stitch patterns that fit easily into the shawl without having to alter stitch counts!

This is possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever knitted. It was so worth the hours spent knitting the edging which I thought would never be done. EZ invented a fantastic recipe for a shawl that could be as difficult or as easy as you want it to be. Me, I chose easy! But the delicate yarn helped to make it a bit special, and the pointy edge - my first ever “proper” edging - is divine. Did I say that the yarn was splendid? It didn’t split or do anything nasty and blocked beautifully.

Some more closeups:

And the whole thing:

This is going to be so hard to give away as a present, but if my MIL doesn’t like it, I won’t have any hesitation in taking it right back.

(cross-posted to Zimmermania)

…a hundred and forty four pins!

I think it’s dry now. I usually block on my bed, but this fellow is one big shawl, so I had to clear floor space in the spare bedroom. Who’d have thought knitting would make me do housework? If the weather cheers up today, I’ll be taking photos. Otherwise, it’ll be tomorrow.

But I’m not sitting idly twiddling my thumbs while I wait for the shawl to dry, oh no! There’s still some Christmas knitting to do.

A Bertie for my Grandma!

I have a handful of knitted scribble:

I have over 100 pins:

Off to block all 144 points of the Pi Shawl. I shall return!

So I’m merrily knitting the edging of the Pi Shawl and after I’ve knitted twenty or so repeats (or “points”), I decide to work out how many I’ll have to knit. I made it 72, so reason I can easily finish the whole edging in a week.

Today I decided to count how many points I’d done, as it looked like I’d gone well past 60 but still had quite a few stitches left. So I counted. 84. I scratched my head for a bit. And then it dawned on me.

There are 576 stitches.
There are 8 rows to the border pattern.
576 divided by 8 equals 72.

However…

For each 8 rows, I only use 4 stitches from the shawl. So I need to knit 144 repeats.

ARRRGGHH!

I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough pins for pinning out each of the 72 points of the shawl while it was blocking. I definitely don’t have enough for 144. In fact, I don’t even want to think about pinning out 144 separate points and how long THAT is going to take.

I’m up to 100 points now. If you need me, I’ll be the gibbering wreck in the corner, muttering “k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk…” to myself.

Saturday, around 9pm:

Me: (to Mr B, while waving the Pi Shawl around) “Look! It’s getting big!”
Mr B: “It’s rather long, isn’t it?”

Me: “It needs to be. I’m just going to start the edging.”
Mr B: “????”
Me: “For the shawl. It’s going to be pointy.”
Mr B: “Oh!”
Me: “????”
Mr B: “Well, I know you told me what you were knitting, but I… er… forgot. When you held it up, I thought it was just a really big hat.”
Me: “Why would I knit your mother a giant hat with holes in for Christmas?”
Mr B: “Well, she does have a lot of hair.”

So there you have it. I’m not only knitting a shawl, but a giant granny hat.

I’m almost halfway through the edging now.

The photo is slightly blurred, but there’s not much to see, really. Just lots of pointy scribble. The edging is knit sideways and then attached to the edge of the shawl on every other row, so no sewing up, except for the first and last rows.

The pattern is from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls, like the rest of the lace patterns I’ve used. It should be done and blocking by the weekend. And then only one more Christmas present to go!

* * * * *

I’ve started a gallery in Flickr for all the knitting projects I’ve completed this year. Maybe I should also have a gallery of frogged stuff. Would be interesting to see which is bigger..! Anyway, it’s in the sidebar and I’ve set it up to show three random projects from this year. Click on it to see them all. I’m slowly going through them all and filling in the yarn and pattern details. There’s probably an easier way to do this, but not sure if Blogger can do such wondrous things.

It was interesting to see just what I’ve knitted this year. There were a few projects I didn’t blog from January/February and had forgotten about until I was looking through the picture folder on my pc, which was cheering. Until I found them, I wondered why it was that I hadn’t done any knitting for almost three months. Worryingly, based on just what I have completed in the past 12 months and then looking at the size of my stash, I won’t need to buy any yarn in 2007 at all. Which of course, is just not going to happen. Don’t be silly!

from The Interesting Thoughts of Edward Monkton
This is for everyone who left a comment after my last post! Reading everyone’s messages made me realise that I’m in no way alone with feeling so much loss at the death of a pet. I’m feeling so much better now and starting to get organised with the Christmas knitting.

Firstly, one quick item for my SIL:

Pattern: Slanted Eyelet Scarf from Alchemy Yarns
Yarn: Angel Yarns Hand-dyed Silk colourway #119, 1 skein

Lovely, lovely yarn. I hadn’t knitted with silk before and at first I was a bit violent and it snapped, but once I got into the hang of it, I was whizzing across the rows. I still had a good bit left over when I cast off, but as the scarf was already as tall as me, I figured it was long enough! And the pattern was easier than falling off a log and perfect for the yarn.

I have also started my MIL’s present. In-keeping with the Zimmermania knitalong, I’m knitting her a Pi Shawl:

I’m using the basic recipe from Knitter’s Almanac and just adding my own choice of lace patterns, all of which I’ve taken from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls, because there are lots of patterns in that particular book which have the right number of row and stitch repeats to fit in nicely with the shawl requirements. Which means no increasing or decreasing and just lots of fairly mindless knitting. I haven’t chosen particularly difficult lace patterns, either. Less chance of making a mistake! I’m on the 576 stitches per round section now. I have to knit 96 rounds. Which means over fifty five thousand individual stitches. And then the border. Please send chocolate.

The yarn is Fyberspates laceweight which I bought from Ally Pally. I’ve mislaid the label and the yarn isn’t on the site at present, but I think it’s 75% wool, 25% nylon, like sock yarn.

I only have a couple more small presents to knit after I’ve finished the shawl, though, so I might be far more organised this year. Last year I was knitting hats three days before the big day!