Tree of Life

My other main project in May was also a present, for two friends who were getting married over Memorial Day weekend. They are both lifelong fantasy/sci-fi nerds (like me, and most of the people I hang out with), and were having a Middle Earth-themed wedding. I thought something knitted with a cabled Tree of Life motif would be a perfect gift for them.

I picked Nicky Epstein's Tree of Life Afghan, which is a free pattern available through Lion Brand. Rather than doing a whole blanket, I wanted to use just one tree motif on a pillow. Many other people have done the same, and I used some of their projects as inspiration, especially Karen1959 and franconia.

I first mentioned this project back back in March, when I started making a prototype so that I would know what I was doing. I'm not really a fan of that kind of preliminary work, but at that point, I had never knitted cables or a pillow so I decided the practice was worth it. I didn't actually go through making an entire practice pillow, which I should have done - in hindsight, I could have left a little more selvage for sewing together the front and back panels. I'm very happy with how it turned out, though!

I used Berroco Comfort again for this project, so that the pillow would be easy to clean (they have a couple of messy kitties). The front panel is the tree motif surrounded by a two-inch border of seed stitch, and the back panels are plain seed stitch, overlapping in the middle - more notes on my Ravelry project page if you're interested.

Elephant blankies

It's been quiet on my blog again, partly because in May, most of my projects were presents (and partly because I'm lazy). But now that all the presents have been given away, I have quite a few posts to catch up on.

Two of my friends from grad school had babies within a few weeks of each other this spring, and I thought it would be nice to make them matching presents. Since I'm not that confident with baby sizing, I wanted to avoid sweaters, and I get the impression that most booties don't stay on that well. I was searching for something cute and cuddly, that the babies wouldn't instantly grow out of - and look what I found!

The pattern is Grace - Elephant Comfort Blanket by Dedri Uys and is available for free on Ravelry. I would happily have paid for it, though, because it's detailed and well written. The construction of the head and ears is slightly complicated, but every stitch is explained, and the result is super cute! The only change I made was to crochet a few more decreasing rounds at the back of the elephant heads before sewing them on to the blankets, to help keep the stuffing secure inside. I also sewed on black pieces of felt for the eyes rather than using safety eyes. I think opinion is mixed on whether safety eyes are really baby-safe, but I didn't want to take any chances.

I used Berroco Comfort DK in alternating colors, and each blankie took about one and a half skeins, which makes this a very affordable project!

Both babies have received their elephants now and I've enjoyed seeing the pictures of them with their new buddies. I hope they can enjoy them for several years.

Glorious cables

I finished these a while ago, but it took me almost as long to photograph them as it did to make them. It's really hard to photograph mitts in a way that looks natural, especially on your own hands! This picture will have to do for now, because I wanted to finally do a finished-object post about these guys.

These are from the Glorious Cabled Mitts pattern by Karen Adams, in The Fibre Co. Canopy Fingering. It's an excellent pattern, and while I like the yarn a lot, I would rather make this project again with some kind of sock yarn. The stitch definition is not bad with the Canopy Fingering, but I think the cables could pop even more. And it's such a pretty that the more the cables stand out, the better.

I haven't yet suffered from Second Sock Syndrome, but I struggled with Second Mitt Syndrome when I was making these. Although I didn't spend much time actually working on them, it took me more than three weeks to finish up, and most of that time was just dawdling around about starting the second one. That middle section, where the whole thing is cables, is a little overwhelming. But, in the end, it's worth it!

Since then, I've been working on a handful of different projects, all with deadlines and/or intended as gifts, so that's been keeping me busy. I have some more FO's, but they need to get to their recipients before I can post them here.

Chicago

I recently spent the weekend in Chicago and wanted to share some of my photos from the trip. It was my first time visiting the city, and I hope it will be the first of several visits, because I liked it and there was a lot that I didn't get the chance to see. (And the food was so good. I want to go back and eat all the food.) I did do my essentials, though: art museum, dinosaur fossils and/or an aquarium, donuts, and yarn.

The Art Institute of Chicago has been on my list of museums to visit since my high school art history classes, and it didn't disappoint. I loved seeing Seurat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte in person - the experience of seeing a famous painting in real life is exciting, but it's even better when the painting is not just iconic but a personal favorite.

We also visited The Field Museum and saw Sue the T-Rex and her dino friends. Then the next day, we went to Shedd Aquarium, which is a great aquarium and they have belugas! One of my favorite animals! Even better, they have a baby beluga. I don't think I've ever seen a baby in real life. So cute! I really need to get around to making PlanetJune's beluga pattern that's been languishing forever in my queue.

For my donut trip, I chose Firecakes, where I had the most perfect chocolate glazed donut I've ever seen (sadly, no pictures, I ate it too quickly). For my yarn store, I went to Loopy Yarns in the South Loop. They had a nice selection, and I picked up a skein of Miss Babs Yummy sock yarn in the Swan Princess colorway, which is a dark purple with blue-gray-greens in it. So pretty:

Definitely a good trip! Chicago is only about an hour away from here by plane, so it's a nice long-weekend destination, and I hope I can go back soon.

Wind it up

Recently I've been in one of those moods where I feel like I need to pause and get organized before I can accomplish anything. I kind of want to knit, or crochet, or work on my photo albums, but then I get aggravated because I'm trying to work from a tangled skein or find just the right scrap of paper in the middle of a messy heap. For my photo album supplies, I recently ordered some paper organizers that were a little pricey, but hopefully will make my life easier. And for my yarn:

Yesterday, all I wanted to do was tidy up my leftover odds and ends. Most of these were in hand-wound balls already, but I decided they would be easier to use if I rewound them as center-pull balls. Plus, it's a bit better for the yarn, since it's not under as much tension that way. I found this tutorial, and spent my afternoon and evening winding yarn around a toilet paper tube. And now I feel much better about everything.

The real inspiration for this exercise was that I want to start some new projects, and none of the yarn for them is wound yet. I don't feel ready yet to invest in a swift and ball winder, and I wanted to try out hand-wound center-pull skeins, so I practiced first... on everything. Now I want to actually start those projects, but the yarn still isn't wound, and I'm a little tired of winding at this point. Oops.

WIP Wednesday: cables and charts

Glorious Cabled Mitts by Karen Adams caught my eye on Ravelry before I even knew how to knit, and it's been in my queue for a while, waiting for me to feel ready to tackle cables. Learning new techniques is one of my knitting goals now that I feel pretty comfortable with the basics, and now that I've tried cabling on my secret rough-draft project, it was time to cast on the mitts.

I'm using The Fibre Co. Canopy Fingering in Plum, using a US 1 needle. This combination is mostly due to my stubbornness. The pattern calls for a light fingering, which the Canopy Fingering is not, and for a US 0 needle, which I translate to "at least US 1". Since the yarn is a little heavy for this pattern, I feel like I should have used a US 0, but I don't have one and didn't want to go buy one. Or, since I wanted to use the needles I had, I could have bought a more appropriate yarn, but I really wanted to use the Canopy Fingering. Conclusion: I'm knitting stupidly tight, again, because I'm worried about the mitts turning out too big.

Now that I've gotten as far as the thumb gusset increases, I think the fit is fine for me. All those cables are driving me nuts, though, and I would like to do them without a cable needle, but it's too tricky. Not only are my stitches too tight and tiny, but the yarn is a little fuzzy and splitty, so it's hard to get it all back on the needle.

Whining aside, I really like this pattern. I'll probably make it again, using different yarn - these mitts might make nice gifts.

In the spirit of trying different things, I also picked out a pattern from this amigurumi book that I bought in Japan last November. Japanese patterns are given as charts, which is nice if you can't read Japanese, but I'm not a huge fan of charts. It's going pretty well, though, and I can definitely see the advantage of charts. They make me a little dizzy, but it's easier to visualize what you're doing and where to put your increases and decreases, than it is when you're trying to mentally transfer written instructions into a three-dimensional object.

I'm making the tanuki, which is the little guy in the third row down, second column from the right on the book's cover. As you can see, I've got about half of his bits and pieces done. I'm not super thrilled with how he's turning out, but again, this is because I'm using yarn that doesn't feel quite right for the project. I don't really have the appropriate colors, and this brown is a little too "blah" for him. I actually really want to make the maneki neko (the waving cats), and I do have yarn that works for them, but I thought I should do a warm-up project first. Not a great idea, since this guy will probably go into hibernation soon. Still, it's nice to get this book out and actually use it, not just let it sit around as a souvenir.

Check out more work-in-progress posts at Tami's Amis!

Daffodil socks

My Daffodil socks are done! I'm happy with them, especially because of the bright and spring-timey colorway (Lucky Ewe from GnomeAcres). Despite the calendar saying it's April now, we're still getting snow here, and there are not really any leaves or flowers or anything yet. So, at least I have nice socks.

As I mentioned in my WIP Wednesday post about them, I used a US 1 1/2 needle, and I think they turned out just a teeny bit too tight. They're perfectly comfortable, but because I'm the one that made them and I know what I would do differently, I can't keep myself from thinking about that when I put them on. Hopefully I'll forget about that issue soon and just enjoy them!

I'm also happy with the pattern I used, Jeck by Regina Satta. The columns of slipped stitches add just enough texture without fighting with the colors, I think.

My collection of hand-knitted socks is slowly growing, now that I have three finished pairs. I already have my next two sock projects planned out, but first I think I want to take a little break and cast on something different. Come back for WIP Wednesday to see what I've got going :)