12.29.06
Posted in Finished Objects at 3:00 pm by Rachel
A few weeks before Christmas I asked my sister how she felt about receiving gifts that she’d never expressed any interest in, either directly or indirectly. (I had something in mind but was trying to decide whether to take the risk, given that we’d never talked about it or anything like it. In the end I decided against it, but that’s utterly irrelevent to this story, so don’t dwell on it.) She responded diplomatically, saying that she’d appreciate any gift but always prefers something that’s at least somewhat useful. As an example of something for which she had no use, she told me that she had recently been gifted a small handbag…a handbag so small that she said she could fit essentially nothing in it. Maybe a tube of lipstick. Maybe. Okay, got it — no tiny bags.
Well, of course I immediately had to make her a teeny tiny bag. I thought that for fun I’d give my sister heart failure on Christmas morning by pretending I’d completely misunderstood our conversation and thought she’d asked, specifically, for a really tiny bag. Of course when she opened it she’d see that I was just kidding, because the bag was about 1.5 inches by 2 inches. I figured she could then use it as a Christmas ornament — because quite honestly there was no other possible use for it.
Until Matt pointed out the absolutely PERFECT use for it.
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the new iPod Shuffle, but I recently acquired one and, as luck would have it, so did my sister.
On Christmas morning I did get the momentarily mortified response I was hoping for as Carrie thought she was going to have to fake liking a tiny bag due to her moronic sister’s lack of comprehension of a straightforward conversation. (This was before she saw the gift; as she was unwrapping it I was dropping hints about what I’d gotten her, based on the preferences she expressed to me, and she was definitely picking up on them. She groaned several tormented “oh nos.”A big sister never gets tired of messing with a little sister.) She laughed immediately once she saw it, though, and was actually quite enthusiastic when I demonstrated that she could use it for “Clippy,” her iPod Shuffle. I think that, of the several gifts I got her this year, this was actually the one she liked the most. She did lots of modeling with the bag, including some dancing action shots, but then declared each one “unbloggable” and forbade me to put any of them up here. I think this is a nice one, though, and if she has any objection she can get her own blog and retaliate — she has plenty of ammunition. (Oh god, I hope she doesn’t actually do that.)
Because I can already anticipate the crush of demand for the pattern, here it is:
IPOD SHUFFLE COZY
Get some leftover yarn and some needles of an appropriate size based on the weight of the yarn.
Cast on about 2 inches’ worth of stitches.
Knit for, oh, three inches, or until it looks like the right size when you fold it in half.
Cast off two stitches at the beginning of each of the next two rows, then decrease the remaining stitches at some interval that seems about right so it makes a triangle. Don’t forget to make a buttonhole in the middle of the triangle.
Sew up the sides. Sew on one of the 1,000,000,000,000 buttons you have saved from every clothing purchase you have ever made because you knew that one day you would be glad you did. Today is that day.
Crochet a chain of some logical number of inches. Secure the chain on the inside of the bag.
Insert iPod shuffle. Ignore the killjoys who point out that the Shuffle is actually designed as a clip so that it can be attached anywhere without the need for holsters and cozies. Those people are bad, bad people.
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12.27.06
Posted in Finished Objects, General at 3:02 pm by Rachel
As my sister-in-law says, happy (slightly belated) winter holiday gift giving time, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your various celebrations.
One of the best things about my Christmas was that it finally freed up some previously secretive blog content. Rather than following my normal pattern of packing it all into one post and then spending the next three weeks complaining that I have nothing to blog about, I’m going to take Minty’s oft-repeated advice to me and split things into several posts. Of course, this means that sometime around Valentine’s Day you’ll still be seeing photos with Christmas trees in the background on my blog, but that’s a small price for you to pay for a reprieve from my broken-record-like whining that I can’t think of anything to post.
The two FOs featured today were both gifted to my stepmother, Audrey. One came out very well, and I’ll get to that one in a minute. The other, a simple Christmas stocking, is rather humiliating to call my own work. First, though a very sad story:
Every year until this year, my stepmother would fill stockings for the whole family. She was very good at it — I’d always get single issues of knitting magazines, really good candy, cute earrings, etc. Because everyone else in the family is evil and black-hearted, no one ever bought Audrey any stocking gifts. Sometimes she’d buy herself a couple things, wrap them up, and put them in her own stocking so she’d have something to do while the rest of us tore through our stockings on Christmas morning. Are you getting weepy yet?
Last year Audrey put together a particularly generous stocking for my dad, and there was considerable overflow. She had stepped out of the room for a few moments before we dug into our stockings, and my dad jokingly moved some of his overflow gifts into her stocking as a way of gently poking fun at her for her excessive generosity. (I don’t know, it made sense at the time.) When Audrey returned to the room, she didn’t recognize the gifts in her stocking for what they were, and she opened them rather excitedly. All of us watched, slowly realizing in horror what was about to happen. Audrey opened the novelty Post-It notes (or whatever they were) and looked puzzled. She started to say, “How funny, I got the exact same thing for your dad,” but before she could finish the sentence it dawned on her that the items in her stocking were not, in fact, really for her.
Well, my dad’s, sister’s, stepbrother’s, and my hearts grew three sizes that day (as did our guilty consciences), and a plan was immediately hatched. Although Audrey let us know at Thanksgiving this year that she thought the time had come to stop doing stockings, we did not let this alter our plan. The four of us conspired to provide Audrey with a surprise, full-to-bursting stocking on Christmas morning this year. Turns out we did such a good job (especially my dad, who is officially on record as thinking stockings are rather silly) that we wound up with FOUR full stockings PLUS overflow. The amazing thing was that Audrey didn’t even notice this bounty until we were finally settling in to open gifts mid-morning, in spite of having walked up and down the stairs multiple times. As she headed toward the tree to collect gifts to distribute to the group, my dad demanded, “Hey, what about my stocking? I want my stocking!” I could see Audrey gearing up to feel bad and remind people that she’d decided not to do stockings this year when she saw her loot:
She was first awestruck and then ecstatic. In fact, there’s a whole series of photos that shows her evolution from speechless to what I’d describe as a gift-laden dance party, but this post is already pretty photo heavy, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
Anyway, in addition to my contribution of stuffers, I thought I’d like to contribute a handmade stocking as well. I had been looking for an excuse to try out Knitpicks’ Twirl yarn, and the basic stockings they pictured on their site for much of December called for the body in Shamrock and the trim in Twirl. I used the Audrey Stocking Extravaganza as an excuse and ordered yarn for a stocking. Not only was I very pleasantly surprised by how soft and enjoyable the Shamrock was, I loved the Twirl and want to make everything out of it forever.
The knitting of the stocking went very quickly, and I was pleased with how it came out. The embroidery of Audrey’s name on the top is an entirely different story. To be fair, trying to achieve any degree of precision while knitting into boucle yarn with a gauge of three stitches to the inch is not exactly a walk in the park, but still, I was hoping for something that didn’t suggest that I’d embroidered the stocking drunk. In the dark. With my feet.
To add to the unprofessional nature of this FO, I realized as Audrey was extracting her gifts from it that I’d totally failed to weave in the ends from the embroidery. Several long red strands emerged with her brightly wrapped packages, making it look rather as though someone had bled all over them. How festive! Audrey kindly assured me that she’d assumed they were some kind of fancy hanging mechanism (I think she was feeling charitable after having opened 50 stocking gifts). All in all, not my finest knitted gift ever.
Fortunately, I redeemed myself with Audrey’s under-the-tree present: the Liesel Scarf I started several months ago. At the time I complained that it was looking bad and was too scratchy to wear. Audrey left the following comment on that post: “That scarf (hint, hint) would look great (hint, hint) and feel less itchy over a turtleneck. And, gosh, I have some turtlenecks! I’m just sayin’.” The good news is that not only did the scarf, when blocked, wind up being quite a bit more attractive than I’d expected, but it also wound up softening up a fair amount. It still isn’t luxuriously soft, but it’s not nearly as comparable to a burlap sack as I’d feared it would be. And doesn’t Audrey wear it well over a turtleneck?
The Liesel Scarf is a great pattern, though whoever deemed it “easily memorized” (as it says in the introduction to the pattern) must be some sort of savant, because I didn’t get anywhere close to having it committed to memory until the last handful of repeats, and only then because I had several boring hours on a train and challenged myself to memorize it just to keep my brain from disintegrating from lack of activity.
Anyway, there’s nothing more fun than gifting a loved one whose generosity and thoughtfulness make her exceedingly deserving of the same in return. Merry Christmas, Audrey! (And to all my wonderful blog readers, too. I wish I could make stockings and Liesel Scarves for you all.)
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12.16.06
Posted in Finished Objects, Knitterly Fraternization at 7:10 pm by Rachel
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits Fall 2006
Yarn: Belisa Cashmere in pink (100% cashmere, 500 yards/ball), less than one ball
Needles: US size 4, 3.5 mm
Finished dimensions: 57 inches wide, 25.5 inches tall
Notes, short version: I’ll just give some abbreviated notes here and give some extended comments below, which most of you, being very busy people with very busy lives, will probably want to skip. Yep, at the end of this paragraph, you’ll just want to click on to your next web site or even shut down your computer all together. That’s what I highly recommend. Anyway, given my recent awful track record with my knitting (see my previous blog entry), this sure is a gorgeous finished object, isn’t it? Delicate, airy, and not a mistake in it. The yarn is soft (cashmere!) but feels strong, and it’s a shade of pink that falls within my very narrow range of acceptable pinks. And honestly, it took me no time at all to knit! It’s a little on the small side, but so what? It is a lovely, sweet, flawless piece of knitting. Something I haven’t seen much of in a while.
Notes, extended version: Fine, if you want to stick around and hear all the details, I supposed I should begin by telling you that I did not make this shawl. Laura made this shawl. 1800 miles away from me. Without my help. Without even having me in mind. This shawl had literally nothing to do with me.
But when Laura posted it on her blog, declaring it too small and indicating she would be frogging the whole thing to reuse the yarn, I knew that such an affront to hand-knitted artistry could not be borne. Drastic steps had to be taken. Always the quick thinker, I offered to send Laura the replacement yarn if she’d send me the finished shawl. I mean, think about it, a handmade cashmere lace shawl for the price of a ball of yarn that I knew I could purchase with a 20 percent off coupon?? Merry Christmas to ME!
She readily agreed to the trade (in fact, she called it “the best trade ever” in the cute Hello Kitty card that arrived in the package with the shawl, which is a nice bonus because making Laura happy is not something I’ve done a lot of this past year, what with my betrayal of the Sacred Order of Apathetic Sock Knitters). While it’s true that it’s a little on the small side, there are so many possible uses for a small shawl! How about a dressy scarf, as above? Wouldn’t you say it gives me a touch of elegance? Maybe even a giant heaping truckload of elegance? And I bet I’d blend right in at any 19th century ladies tea party, should I ever fall into a time machine by accident. Which could totally happen. Don’t you people watch Doctor Who?
Of course, the lace isn’t entirely practical as a scarf in this climate, and if you were to press me on it I’d be forced to admit that the time machine scenario is not altogether likely. I’d hate to let it just collect dust in the closet, though, so it’s a good thing there are so many other possible uses for a diminutive shawl! Let’s see, what else, what else…. Oh, here we go! Have you ever seen a prettier, more feminine kerchief? GREAT for keeping the hair off my face while doing housework. As soon as Laura sees this photo she’s going to be so mad she ever let that lace bandana out of her clutches.
While taking these pictures for the blog yesterday, I was just getting ready to demonstrate how the shawl makes a wonderful pocket hanky when from behind (and below) me I heard a familiar “ahem,” and I knew in a moment that my hopes of ever using this shawl for myself were lost. I turned around to see my dear old friend the penguin, standing with his wing outstretched, foot tapping in impatience, eyes on the shawl. Reluctant but resigned, I handed it over.
I am forced to admit that the shawl suits him, and he wears it well. I also think his stint on America’s Next Top Model did good things for his camera presence, although not such good things for his ego (while I drew the line at two pictures on the blog, he demanded in a tone bordering on hysteria that I post several more photos from the shoot on Flickr, because he is convinced that modeling agencies troll the site for fresh talent). Anyway, while I shall miss having use of the shawl myself, it is worth it to keep one of the more high-maintenance members of my household happy, relatively quiet, and out of my way, at least for a while. And isn’t that what the holiday season is all about?
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12.03.06
Posted in Finished Objects, Works in Progress at 5:10 pm by Rachel
Although there has not been much blogging going on here at the Lickety Knit Corporate Headquarters lately, knitting has in fact been happening. Unfortunately, the knitting has been falling into one of two categories: holiday gift knitting (and therefore not bloggable) and kill-me-now knitting.
Seriously, people, I don’t know whether it’s that my standards are too high, or that my attitude is all wrong, or that there’s some sort of knitting karma coming around to settle some kind of score (maybe I invented fun fur in a past life?), but my knitting seems to have been nothing but a series of disappointments recently.
For starters, I have been working very hard on Matt’s plain brown sweater, mostly to get it over with (the “eat the vegetables first” theory of knitting). You may recall that this sweater has already tormented me in various ways that I will catalogue and index for posterity once the damn thing is finished. However, I have made some good progress and said damn thing, against all odds, is starting to look like a sweater.
In fact, just as I was beginning to think that my persistence with this cursed sweater was being rewarded, I made the delightful discovery that the second bag of Debbie Bliss Wool Cotton is, in fact, an entirely different dye lot from the first bag. Yay! Isn’t this great?? I’m making Matt an avant-garde, modern, asymmetrical stripe sweater — just the sort of thing he wears all the time — without even trying! I could not imagine a better turn of events. I’m not sure you’ll be able to see the color contrast in this photo, but it’s there. And if you zoom in, you’ll get a good look at how I’ve handcrafted each stitch lovingly so that each one is different. It may look like tension unevenness to you, but it is actually a carefully constructed fabric designed to convey an impression of high-fashion shabbiness. Plus, poor workmanship is all the rage on the Paris runways right now. Yup.
In the event that it turns out I don’t love how the sweater looks with the yoke and one sleeve in one color and the body and other sleeve in another, I will get some brown dye and try to overdye the entire thing. Unfortunately, there’s not a damn thing I can do if it turns out that I don’t like how the wildly uneven stitches look. Small chance of that, though.
To give me a break from the artistic genius that is Matt’s sweater, I decided to whip out a couple small projects. I had a lovely skein of blue Manos in my stash, and I decided to turn it into Grumperina’s lovely Odessa hat that I’ve long admired. I adjusted the pattern slightly to accommodate the heavier-than-called-for yarn, and, to my astonishment, it came out quite nicely! It was a fun and easy pattern to knit (I left out the beads), and I was pleased to have a cute little blue hat to go with my navy coat. Imagine my joy, then, when I pulled the laundry out of the washer last week and, in with the jeans and towels, found my Odessa hat. I have absolutely no idea how it got there, unless I accidentally mistook the washer for a hatbox the last time, I, I don’t know, dropped acid or something. With great effort I managed to get it around my head for this photo, but it’ll go to charity now. Sigh.
Still, the hat had been quick to make, so I bucked myself up, dug into my stash, and cranked out another one in Lamb’s Pride worsted. (”Cranked out” actually glosses over some real problems I had while knitting the second hat, wherein I wound up trying to drop down stitches through multiple YOs and SSKs and then reconstruct a good two inches of circumference. I did this in an effort to avoid tinking back about 4 rows. In the end I’d estimate it took me about three times as long as it would have taken to tink, with astronomically more frustration involved. Well, let’s just hope it built character or something.
In a way this Odessa came out even better because the yarn is more evenly spun. I marched Matt outside and made him take a photo of me before I could inadvertently felt this one. Nice, huh? Don’t I look happy to be wearing it? At last, a successful finished object. What a feeling of accomplishment. Wait, what the hell is that??
That is a stitch that apparently I missed when I drew the yarn through (in theory) all the stitches left on the needles at the crown of the hat. It has now laddered its way down about 8 rows, through lots of K2togs, YOs, SSKs, and who knows what all. It is definitely fixable, but I can’t say I’m overly motivated to tackle it right now. Hats: you’re on notice. Moving on.
The one bright spot in all this is a lovely brioche-stitch scarf I knit out of two skeins of Misti Alpaca chunky yarn. I used size 13 needles and it took me about two days to make. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the nicest-feeling yarn I have ever knit with. As it flowed through my hands onto my needles there were times when it felt almost liquid, in a good way. It has been a while since the process of knitting itself has been so pleasurable. I wasn’t even beginning to get tired of it when I reached the end of the second skein. I love how the brioche stitch looks feminine and simple and substantial and warm. There is only one problem, and it is one that I have been obstinately ignoring and will continue to ignore: it’s a little itchy. I was stunned to discover this. I mean, to touch this yarn with your hands is like stroking an angel’s wing. It never occurred to me it might be itchy. And in fact, when I first discovered that it made my neck itch a little, I incredulously touched the scarf to every part of my body for which it was hygienic to do so. Not an itch anywhere. Therefore, I think it is perfectly appropriate that I punish my neck for being such a high-maintenance little snot. Think you’re too good for alpaca, neck? Too bad! You’ll wear that scarf and you’ll like it!
Oh, I thought of one other bright spot! I took my swatch for the Gatsby Girl Pullover into a great YS that is L to my mom (Ewe’ll Love It) when I was in New Hampshire for Thanksgiving. The owner, whose opinion I respect, took a good look at it and declared that it would be fine for the sweater. Given that she stood to make some money on the sale of replacement yarn, I trust her opinion and am going to press on with the yarn I’ve got. (I expressed my gratitude by buying Misti Alpaca and some yarn for a baby sweater. And some books. And needles. And notions. Not my finest display of will power ever.) Anyway, thank you all for your commiseration and advice. Muchly appreciated.
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