Pans & Needles

Tag Archives: gift knits

11:39 am - November 16, 2012 -

Tentatively on schedule

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I say that despite not getting by sister’s Christmas socks finished on the weekend (I didn’t even knit on them over the weekend, if we’re being honest). Nonetheless, it’s mid-November and the most time-consuming item (at least, what I think will be most time-consuming) is finished. Oh sure, I still have fair isle mittens, hats and a not-yet-designed tea cozy, but I’m not worried. In my head, that all seems doable and straightforward. I’m going to miss working on these socks, though.

I’ll have real photos after Christmas. Promise.

I’m placing an embargo on shots of the finished items until after they’re gifted, so while I’ll post some photos as the knitting progresses, the finished shots will be a little vague. Even though you can’t see them properly, know that I am totally happy with these socks. I’ll post details below, but I just want to give a shout-out to indigodragonfly, whose Merino Silk 4-ply sock was the perfect substitute for the A Verb for Keeping Warm Metamorphosis yarn the pattern called for. The indigodragonfly has a higher silk content and is slightly lighter weight, but it was perfect for Cookie A.’s pattern.

Colourway: Don’t You Have an Elsewhere to Be? (Cordelia)

Also, second sock syndrome? Not over here. I’m not sure why, since these socks are basically a repeat of the same 12-row chart from top to bottom, but honestly, I think I just enjoyed the yarn so much that watching the same shapes come out of it never got boring. I can’t decide if that’s sad or not, but maybe I don’t care? I can tell you that I seriously want a pair of these socks in this yarn for myself, but that will have to wait until after the New Year (and after L’s birthday).

Are you embarking on Christmas knitting this year? How’s it going? I feel like it’s early enough to be optimistic and still be enjoying the whole process, so for heaven’s sakes let’s engage in a little of that before the manic must-finish stress rolls in. (There’s no way that’s just me.)

Details
Pattern: Daphne by Cookie A.
Yarn: Merino Silk 4-ply sock by indigodragonfly in Don’t You Have an Elsewhere to Be? (Cordelia)
Needles: 2.75 mm bamboo dpns
Modifications: Not many to be honest. I made the largest size (we are a family of big feet), but instead of using te sport weight wool called for, I used a fingering weight. I don’t think it really made much of a difference. Other than that, I used Cat Bordhi’s hungry stitch ssk method for both the gusset decreases and the toe shaping. The biggest change, I guess, was that to get the right length in the foot before starting the toe, I ended after row 6 in my final chart repeat (that’s the half-way point). It worked out fine and I don’t think it looks weird. Each repeat for me was 1 inch, so it was easy to calculate. I also have yarn left over (enough to do surprise toes on a future pair of socks, or work in as stripes somewhere), so considering I made the largest size for size-10 feet, that’s pretty awesome yardage. It’s ravelled here.

Categories: finished, Knitting Tags: , , , ,
10:49 am - October 24, 2012 -

Pumpkin Hat

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No, not a hat for a pumpkin. I’m clearing this up because yesterday, a woman came into the shop looking for needles with which to knit a pumpkin hat. When I said I had just knit one too, she laughed and said, “No, not a pumpkin-shaped hat, a hat for a pumpkin.” Since that’s maybe a thing, I thought I would clarify.

Anyway, pumpkin hats. I have been planning to knit one for Baby Roud (who was born on Oct. 2 and is a little girl and just adorable) ever since, well, before she was born. I think babies should have funny hats, because it’s funny, and pumpkins in the fall are pretty cute without delving into the range of potentially tacky or overly embarrassing. I looked around for a while to find the right pattern, and eventually settled on this one: Kürbis Baby Hat by Natalja (kürbis being German for pumpkin, apparently).

I changed the pattern a little, to make it smaller for a newborn (I cast on 10 fewer stitches and knit it on smaller needles) and after a few hours I had an adorable little pumpkin hat.

It’s the curved stem that really gets me.

It is quite little, although it stretches, so I donated the original to the shop and I’m making a second, which will go to the baby. This time, I’m going to work the recommended number of stitches (10 more than last time), but stick with the tighter gauge. Honestly, it’s so quick and so cute, I think every baby I know is going to get one from now on.

Details
Pattern: Kürbis Baby Hat by Natalja
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa Zara in colourways 1928 (green) and 1939 (orange)
Needles: 2.75 mm for rolled brim, 3.25 mm for the rest
Modifications: For the first hat, I cast on 65 stitches, increasing to 70. I also purled a row to stop the brim from curling, which turned out to be unnecessary. For hat two, I cast on 75 stitches, which I will increase to 80. I won’t bother with the purl row, and when it comes to the decreases, I’ll make them all k2tog, since the ssks look messy. Photos of Pumpkin Hat 2 to come.

Category: Knitting Tags: , ,
2:49 pm - October 16, 2012 -

Wedding Mittens

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On Sunday, I got a front-row seat (well, I was standing, but you know what I mean) to watch two of our very dear friends get married. It was wonderful. You know how sometimes you get the feeling that a moment couldn’t be any more perfect, that everything is right and nothing could be added to make it any better? Yeah, that was Carmen and Sam’s wedding.

Yes, their wedding had an ice cream truck. Amazing, right?

We were worried it was going to rain, and it did rain a little in the morning, but it was over before we had to head to the church, and the light was perfectly flat for the photos, and everything was lush (thanks to the rain) and everyone was happy and beautiful. Truly, a perfect day.

Anyway, remember those mittens I was knitting? Well, I totally got them done in time. I finished them last Wednesday, giving them a good three days to block and dry – I spent the night before the wedding in the hotel with Carmen, which is when I wanted to give them to her. I didn’t post photos last week because I didn’t want to risk spoiling the surprise, but now that she has them I can show you how they turned out.

I had to take photos on kind of an overcast day. Nonetheless, they look okay.

I’m really pleased. They fit perfectly (thank goodness) and after a little swish in some water, they smoothed right out. The yarn also bloomed every so slightly, making them softer and filling out all the stitches. The recharted tops look pretty natural (although I’d do the palm side a little differently if I were doing them again), and all in all I think they were a pretty good gift.

Details
Pattern: Mittens with a Red Thread by Annemor Sundbo
Yarn: Cascade 220 Sport in Silver Grey (1946) and Royal Purple (803) – I used almost the entire skein of purple, but have almost half of the grey leftover.
Needles: 2.75 mm ChiaoGoo Knit Lace Red
Modifications: Probably the biggest mod was recharting the top of the mitten to add an extra half-inch to the overall length. I also chose to knit these entirely in magic loop (including the thumb), because it was easier to follow the chart when the palm stitches were on one needles and the back of the hand stitches were on the other. Otherwise, I pretty much followed the pattern as written – the only red thread I used was to hold my thumb stitches. I thought that was fair. (They are ravelled here.)

Categories: finished, Knitting Tags: , , ,
10:34 am - September 28, 2012 -

In a tight spot

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You know that moment in knitting when you realize something is wrong, and you get annoyed, and then you realize that to fix it will require drastic measures and you get really annoyed? That’s where I am. And, I’m sorry to say, it’s with the mittens.

I still love these mittens. I love their colourwork, and their dotted border, and the way the design combines both geometrics and floral elements. I love all those things. What I don’t love is that they are going to be an inch too short. Yes, you read that right. Last night, I started the decreases for the lovely pointy top these mittens are destined to have, and then I thought I should measure. As they stand now, before decreases, the length of the hand is 5 inches. I need it to be 7 inches. It seemed unlikely I’d be decreasing for 2 inches, but I thought, you know, maybe? So I counted by row gauge (something I obviously should have done sooner) and discovered that I’m getting about 10 rows to an inch. Fine. Then I counted the number of rows left in the charted pattern: 14 – so, approximately 1.5 inches. That leaves me a half inch short, and that’s just enough to be uncomfortable.

If these were normal mittens, I would just slow down the decreases, but I’m not sure that approach will work here, since it’s so neatly charted.

This means, if I go the slower-decreases route, that I will have to rechart the friggin’ thing.

Then it occurred to me, though, that this pattern offers gauges for both men and women. I’m doing the women’s version (tighter gauge), but even with a bigger gauge, men’s hands are much larger, so I thought maybe the pattern had directions to take that into account. Er, not really. This is the advice: “Continue in charted pattern to top of mitten. The length of the mitten can be adjusted for either a woman’s or man’s size. Have the person who will wear the mitten try it on to make sure it fits.” Less than helpful, right? I mean, it doesn’t say where I should go about adding length, although clearly I should have paid more attention to this issue to begin with.

So, this still leaves me with a problem. I need to, somehow, add an additional five or six rows to this mitten. If this had occurred to me at the beginning (why didn’t it occur to me!?) I would have added five rows to the bottom, right after the ribbing. This is half the hight of one repeat of the palm pattern, and would have blended easily enough into the front. But, I really, really don’t want to rip this all the way back, which is, I suppose, Option 1.

Option 2 is to try recharting the top so that I decrease on every-other round for five or six rounds (which ever works out better in the chart) and hope it doesn’t look stupid on the front. If possible, I’d like to maintain how tidy the pal looks, with the tip of the diamond in the tip of the hand, but maybe that’s not possible? (I will try very hard; these are a gift, after all).

Option 3, is a sort of compromise: Rip back to the top of the first flower, add two more “empty” rows between them, knit back up to the top, decrease slightly slower, hope that buys me enough space.

What do you think?

**Edited to add: Independent of this post, L just called to suggest Option 3. Apparently my dilemma has been weighing on his mind too!**

– – –

Now, a note on something about these mittens that is going well (if you still trust my judgement after this). After the last post, Anastasia asked if I had any tips on maintaining tension. I read up on this quite a bit before I started knitting these. One great resource was Knitting With Two Colours by Meg Swansen and Amy Detjen, especially the part about yarn dominance.

In my past forays with stranded colourwork, I didn’t think it mattered which colour was held below and which was held above, so I switched it up. Turns out that’s not such a good idea. Especially if you’re holding your yarn in two hands, it’s important to maintain the order. For me, that means grey is always in my left hand (making it the dominant, popping colour) and the purple is always in my right hand.

The other thing I noticed was that I had to be really careful about tugging my yarn. I’m used to knitting English, which is tighter than continental. That means, I’m always tempted to pull my purple sections tighter than I can knit my grey ones. For me to achieve a more or less even tension, I’ve had to let the purple loosen up a bit. I also make sure to pull out my floats a little bit, keeping them looser than I think they should be, just so they don’t pull the fabric in.

Anastasia, does that make sense? As far as rhythm goes, you’ll get it after a few rows. The nice thing about stranded colourwork is that even if your fabric is a little less tight than usual, it’s double-thick, so it’s still warm and opaque.

Category: Knitting Tags: , , ,
1:31 pm - September 24, 2012 -

Fair Isle is a good gift

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So, after all that antsy-ness about the shawl, I have yet to cast it on. I was going to. But then I looked at a calendar and realized that I’m entering into a time crunch. The thing is, friends of ours are getting married in three weeks. I’m the bridesmaid, L is the groomsman, our friends are lovely people, so I wanted to knit the bride a little something. I thought about a shawl, or a hat, or a cowl, and then, way back in June, decided that what would be a really nice, useful, and pretty gift would be a pair of Norwegian fair isle mittens from the book L gave me for my birthday (I’m knitting “Mittens with a Red Thread,” but without the red thread).

I got in touch with the groom to make sure I went with the right colours, I bought the yarn, heck, I even swatched! And then, well, then I did nothing. Or, rather, I went away to Nova Scotia and knit half a pair of Jaywalkers. Then I knit a baby sweater.

I am teaching this little cardigan at EweKnit, so I had to knit up a shop sample. Cute, right?

That’s not nothing, but neither is is mittens. Anyway, I was starting to feel some pre-wedding panic last week (my dress needs alterations) and, in the midst of that, I realized I hadn’t started the mittens. I cast on and started the rib on Thursday night, and was half-way through the first motif by last night.

This is kind of a crapy photo since it’s overcast today, but you get the idea.

This is by no means fast, but it’s certainly faster than I was expecting. And honestly, I’m pretty pleased by how they’re turning out. I’m knitting them in a magic loop, because after a few rounds on dpns I realized it made much, much more sense to keep the palm stitches on one side and the back of the hand stitches on the other. I’m also knitting these two-handed. Remember when I learned continental knitting? Well, I must admit that I haven’t practiced since, but I sure am glad to be using it now.

Palm plus ribbing. The red yarn there is holding my thumb stitches. You can especially see the dpn vs magic loop difference here. I’m hoping it will block out…

I’m holding the grey in my left hand and the purple in my right and it is going well. My tension is even, my floats are long enough to stretch without being so long they’ll snag fingers, and I’ve only had to tink back a couple of times. That, though, was due to my trouble reading the minuscule chart. I have a system now, but back at the beginning, it was tough.

I’m hoping to have this one (minus the thumb) done by the end of the week. Am I crazy?

Category: Knitting Tags: , , ,
12:00 am - August 19, 2012 -

Tiny garment at top speed

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Dan and Jess. You can’t see it, because Jess is wearing a black shirt and sitting in a black chair, but she is very pregnant. It totally suits her.

See these happy people? These are my friends Jess and Dan, and they are expecting their first baby (gender unknown). Last week, Jess’s sister e-mailed to say she was planning a baby shower for Jess, for Saturday – a week and a half away. Jess is 32 weeks along, so I knew the baby was coming, I just didn’t know the shower was going to be so soon. Obviously, I decided to knit something, confident that despite the fact that the store opening was imminent (it was great, and there’s a post forthcoming), and that I work full time, and that I had freelance work to do, I could do it all.

I looked at a ton of patterns – I wanted a cardigan, not too fussy, and easy to knit here and there – and after considering this one, this one, and this one (which I think is more unisex than “boy”), I settled on the the Garter Stitch Baby Kimono, which is cute, all garter stitch, and a little stylish (also, thousands of people have knit it, and they can’t all be wrong, right?). After a false start with the yarn (I originally chose a very variegated yarn, before getting scared and trading it for something more subtle) I cast on. That was last Tuesday, Aug. 7 (and I literally only managed to cast on that day. Baby steps, as they say).

By Sunday, I had the better part of the body knit, and I was feeling pretty smug about how everything was going. I mean, look at this! The shower is a week away and I’m mere rows away from separating for the fronts and back!

Sunday. (Somehow, the fact that it took me six days to reach this point didn’t worry me.)

Also, check out these buttonholes. I am beyond proud. I find that yarn-over buttonholes (which the pattern calls for) can be a little messy and hard to find (especially in garter stitch), and if you’re dressing a squirming baby, you don’t want to be struggling with their sweater. These are very neat (as in tidy and interesting), and I found the tutorial here. I will probably make all my embedded buttonholes like this now.

Just look at how smooth and easy to see they are!

Anyway, that was Monday. By mid-afternoon on Thursday I was only here. I got the shoulders kitchenered together and a couple of rows into the first little sleeve and then had to go to the opening party.

Kind of funny looking, right?

By midnight on Friday (the night before the shower) I was barely into the second arm, and totally exhausted from a week of late nights, early mornings, and entirely full days.

Midnight on Friday (Saturday?). I am now getting worried. Also tired.

I stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish the sleeve, soak the sweater, and lie it down on a towel to block. In my head, I was all It has all night to dry, it’ll be fine.Of course, “all night” actually just meant five hours, so when I got up on Saturday morning to weave in the ends and sew on the buttons, it was still wet. I sewed it all up anyway, drinking in the smell of damp wool as if it were just as good and heartening as coffee.

Saturday, 2 a.m. The shower is now less than 12 hours away.

It dried on the way to the shower (a two-hour drive away), because I laid it on a tea towel on the back shelf thing in my rental car. Here it is, not quite dry, but very much finished in time.

Saturday, 10 a.m. It isn’t dry, but it’s a finished sweater, albeit a tiny one.

It made the top of one of the gift stacks, and was passed around to all the relatives. It’s my first baby sweater and was the only handknit there. Jess was thrilled.

Folded and on top of the pile. I know I shouldn’t read anything into that, but I am anyway.

When I wasn’t frantically trying to knit this in between doing a million other things, I had time to really think about what I was doing. This is the first thing I’ve knit for someone outside my family (I count L as family), and that was a big deal. My family will forgive small mistakes, appreciate it because it came from me, and because they have an understanding of the work that goes into knitting, and while I know Jess gets hard work, I was feeling an extra push to be perfect.

This was a sweater for a baby being born into a family I care a lot about. It will keep him/her warm and cozy and cuddly, and possibly do the same for a future sibling. It’s a physical representation of love, and I wanted them to see that. Jess and I haven’t seen each other in over a year (jobs, addresses, etc. always seemed to interfere), so I wanted this to also show her how much I value her friendship, even when we’re out of touch, and how much I care about her family. That’s a lot of work for a little sweater, but I think I did okay. I hope it fits.

Details:
Pattern: Garter Stitch Baby Kimono
Yarn: Koigu KPM in colourway 1180 (somewhere between ruby and ripe raspberry)
Needles: Addi Turbos, size 3mm
Modifications: A bunch, but nothing crazy. It’s ravelled here, in case you want to make one just like it.

I loved knitting this. Garter stitch is wonderfully squishy and warm and perfect for a little wee newborn. I also like how easy it is to alter this pattern – a little double-breasted version would also be adorable, and totally easy to mod up; I also want to try a DK or worsted-weight version, which would definitely have been faster. The yarn was a great choice because not only did I not get tired of looking at it, but it was soft enough on my hand for me to know it’ll be nice on a baby, but also tightly enough spun that I know it will last to be handed down (assuming more kids come along down the road).

Categories: finished, Knitting Tags: , , , , , ,
1:06 pm - February 15, 2012 -

A Trio of Socks

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From left to right, three pairs of hand-knitted socks, in chronological order. These are all based on the same pattern, with a few variations. (The pair on the right looks skinny because of the rib, but I assure you it stretches out nicely).

The grey and purple pair (knit with Berroco Vintage) were the first pair of socks I ever knit. They took me almost six months to knit – well, two weeks for the first sock, and then I got distracted and then summer came – but they came out pretty well all things considered.

The middle pair, knit on Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Label DK weight 100% superwash merino, which, let me just say, is a gorgeous yarn to knit with. I used olive and sand and got that pair finished in a week over the Christmas holidays. They turned out much better than my first pair (go figure) and are both warm and light-weight. The pattern is pretty basic, but look at how nicely it shows off the hand-painted yarn. Gorgeous.

Tanis Fiber Arts in Olive

Tanis Fiber Arts in Olive

The third pair are for my mom. They’re also knit with the other half of my Tanis Fibre Arts yarn, but with a 2×1 rib down the leg, because my mom found the leg on the green pair a little too tight. I went back and forth about knitting the heels in olive as well, but was worried I wouldn’t have enough; as it turns out, though, I certainly would have, so that’s something to keep in mind if you plan to knit these socks.

Tanis Fiber Arts in Sand

Tanis Fiber Arts in Sand

So, here are the basic details:

Boot Sock
(This assumes you have some knowledge of sock knitting, if that is not the case, e-mail me for a more detailed pattern)

These were knit on 3.75 mm needles, using worsted weight yarn. For the grey pair I cast on 40 stitches, for the olive pair 46 and for the sand pair 48. The cuff is 8 rows of 1×1 rib, after which I just knit until the leg was 7-inches long. Divide, knit 17 rows, and turn the heel as follows (written out for 40-stitch cast on, thus 20-stitch heel):

Row 1 – sl 1, k 10, ssk, k 1, turn
Row 2 – sl 1, p 3, p2tog, p 1, turn
Row 3 – sl 1, k 4, ssk, k1, turn
Row 4 – sl 1, p 5, p2tog, p 1, turn
Row 5 – sl 1, k 6, ssk, k 1, turn
Row 6 – sl 1, p7, p2tog, p 1, turn
Row 7 – sl 1, k 8, ssk, k1, turn
Row 8 – sl 1, p 9, p2tog, p2tog, turn

Pick up 12 stitches along both sides of the heel flap and work the following decrease rounds until you’re back to your original number of stitches:

Round 1:
Needle 1 – k to within 3 sts of the end of the needle, k2tog, k 1
Needle 2 – knit
Needle 3 – k 1, ssk, knit to the end of the needle
Round 2: Knit

The middle of your round is now in the middle of the heel.Knit up foot until you’re 3 inches from the total length (to measure gauge length, measure your foot on a piece of paper and then add 1/4 inch). Decrease for toe as follows:

Round 1:
Needle 1 – k to within 3 sts of the end of the needle, k2tog, k 1
Needle 2 – k1, ssk, k to within 3 sts from end of needle, k2tog, k1
Needle 3 – k 1, ssk, knit to the end of the needle
Round 2: Knit
Knit these two rounds until you’ve decreased half the stitches (that is, there are 20 remaining). Now work only round 1 until a total of 8 stitches are left. Break yarn and, using a darning needle, thread tail through remaining stitches and pull tight. Weave in ends.

Categories: Knitting, Patterns Tags: , , ,