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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Happy Three Days After Christmas!

Well, throughout the Christmas holidays...well, really beginning on the 24th...I worked on a quick scarf. I got the pattern from a lady at work last week (the week before Christmas week, that is). Since then, she's been frequently asking me if I was going to make a scarf from that pattern. She brought one in that her mom had made her a few years ago as an example. The directions sound odd, so she wanted to show me the final product.
Don't get me wrong, the pattern is super easy, but they just sound odd. As you can see to the right, this is the finished product. I finished it this evening. It didn't take long to complete either - which is always nice.

I used less than 1 ball/skein of Bernat Satin yarn (from the stash) in the sage colourway, and 5mm DPNs.

There is no name given on the instructions, aside from saying "Scarf" at the top, so I would like to name it The Tube Scarf. Why, might you ask? Well, it's because you knit the scarf on 3 DPNs. I have no idea where the pattern originated (the lady didn't say), so there could be a name for it already, as well as directions somewhere on the net. However, I'm going to be nice and include the copy of directions I have:


The Tube Scarf

Cast on 24 stitches and divide evenly on three DPNs.
Knit all around for 6 rows.
Row 7: YO, K1 all the way around (48 stitches on needles at this point)

Continue knitting all stitches until you reach desired length (approx. 20-21 inches).

Next Row: Drop 1 stitch, K1, drop 1, K1 entire way around (24 stitches on needles at this point).

Knit these 24 stitches for 6 rows.

Bind off.

Carefully pull so that the dropped stitches "fall" to the bottom of the scarf. This should cause your scarf to double in length.

Sew ends and add fringe.
Here is a closeup of the stitches after they've been pulled:
The scarf, as I said, is very easy to knit. I didn't see how dropping the stitches at the end and then pulling the scarf would cause the length to double, but it did. The only thing I can think of, is that by pulling the yarn it is stretching it which would cause it to double in length. It's simply amazing - at least to me it is. I knit for about the 20 inches, and didn't use up the entire ball of yarn...though I probably should have so I wouldn't have the remainder lying around the house.

So, aside from this scarf, I've been working on a pair of mittens for myself out of Briggs & Little yarn. I'm on the second mitten (been working on these at breaks and lunch at work), but they don't take too long. Hopefully I'll have them finished before the end of the month so I can add them to my "Finished in '08" list.
Not much else going on. Christmas was quiet, but didn't seem quite the same without Dad being here. We made it through fine though. My younger brother and his family didn't make it up because he had to work Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. They live about three hours away and didn't want to make the trip in one day, especially in case there was some bad weather - he didn't want to end up getting stuck here and not be able to make it to work. My other brother and his wife were here for supper, and Mom invited an old friend of hers and her husband. So, things went pretty well, which I'm glad for.
In case I don't get to post before New Years, I hope you all have a safe and joyous 2009 - and lots of knitting, too!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

SP13 Gift!

I got my gift from my SP13 pal, and it is awesome! Yesterday was a gloomy, foggy, heavy rainy day that started out with ice and snow everywhere, making it slushy in most places. I was afraid to drive until I hit the highway where one lane was pretty clear...though there was probably some black ice. It wasn't as bad as they had said it would be the night before. However, the temperatures quickly rose to double digits and the rain came...I don't think I've seen it rain that hard in a long time.

So, when I got home from work (no problems driving, except for the wind so that was a little difficult driving down the highway), the box waiting for me was a bright spot to the day! Thank you so much, SP for my gift!

Needless to say, I couldn't wait to open it. Here's what I got:

A nice card, a cute snowman tin with a cute kitty ornament and knitted catnip mouse (for Tinker Belle), some chocolates (yummy!), and 2 skeins (or are those called hanks...I'm never sure) of Malabrigo yarn in the Carribbean colourway! It's so gorgeous and skooshy! I have never knit with this yarn, and it's been on my wishlist. I don't know what I will make with it yet...any suggestions??

Thank you so much SP!! I love it all! And Tinker Belle...well, she absolutely LOVED the mouse. She wouldn't put it down after I gave it to her. I had to take it back momentariliy to get a picture, and she kept meowing and pawing at my arm wanting me to give it back to her. She went nuts over it! I'll close with a pic of her enjoying her new mouse.

"Puuurrrr. Meow meow meow, meeeeooww!"*
* translation: Thanks Mommy's Secret Pal, I LOVE it!"

Monday, December 01, 2008

Gettin' Ziggy With It

Late Saturday night I finished my Get Ziggy. It's for my best friend's sister's soon-to-be baby boy (due some time in December). The baby shower was yesterday, however I unfortunately couldn't go due to the ton of school work I had to do. I did take the gift (the sweater plus a couple other things) to church with me and gave it to my friend to take to the shower for me.

Forgive the terrible picture, but it was late at night and I wanted to make sure I got a couple pics before sending it off to the recipient. I had artificial light, as you can tell, so the colour is off.

The sweater was a breeze to knit - well, once I frogged back to fix the mistake I had made. I only realized after knitting the first 16 rows of the cable section. Oh well, at least I didn't have the entire thing done and notice it! Other than that mistake (my own I might add, and not the pattern), I had no problems.

I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease (recommended by someone on Ravelry) and found it knit up well. The colourway is called Lilac, but to me it looks more blue than lilac. I got some more of this yarn in a different colour to make another one of these (for a girl) at some other point. The size I knit was for 3 months, and had a little yarn left over from 2 skeins. I'll probably make another 3 month sweater in the other colourway, unless it calls for the same amount for the 6 month size...not entirely sure on that point off hand.

The pic to the right was taken with the flash and is lighter than the actual colour, but again, I was trying to take a half decent shot considering the conditions I was working with. If I had been able to, I'd have waited until the next day to take a pic of Ziggy, but that wasn't possible. The picture down below of the close-up of the cable is not an accurate colour either.

I should mention that I've neglected my blog for the past week or so due to the amount of school work I've had. We're on our last full week of classes before Christmas break (next Monday is the last day) and it's a busy one. This week consists of 2 presentations, a book talk (3 minute presentation) on a kids book, a resource binder to fill for music class, an article critique, plus an assignment. I'm looking forward to this break so I can have time when I don't have to worry about needing to get school work done.
As it is, I did some work up tonight for tomorrow's classes. I should be working on the book talk for Wednesday (we need to make a poster for it as well), but I'm not. I'm feeling tired tonight and since I did up tomorrow's homework, I thought I'd relax and go to bed early tonight. I finish class at 2:45 tomorrow afternoon, so I'll have time to work on the book talk tomorrow. I just hope it doesn't take too long to do! Wednesday will be a busy afternoon and evening as well since I have to do an article critique and finish up the presentation I have for Thursday (the presentation is a 2 person one so I'm not doing all the work).
Going to end for now and hope you are all doing well! Happy Knitting!