novamade

finishes and starts

 
Hey there, Happy  New Year!  I hope 2010 is treating you all well, thus far.  My back went out just before Christmas (if you see it, please do send it back my way), so productivity was low; but, thanks to the power of pain management, sedation was high.  I hope the holidays had you merry.

 
I am loathe to throw all of the projects I finished at the end of the year in one post; but, that is exactly what I am going to do, because spreading them out now seems silly.  I did, indeed, finish Special K's vest (I am sure you were all wondering).

 
I am not going to lie, I hated knitting this thing.  I loved the yarn, butt he stitch pattern, I think, is completely lost.  It was not the prescribed yarn, but the one suggested was tweed too.  The pattern came from the Queensland Collection Book 9 pattern book, the designs are by Jane Ellison; and, there are, perhaps, some of the most interesting knit designs for men in this little gem of a book.  The pattern I knit is called Adam.  The book has tons of amazing sweater patterns, and that is why I bought the book...but Special K was all about the vests.  He picked out two other vests from the book.  Why do I even bother?

I also knit some socks.  Just plain and simple stockinette socks.  I made them for charity, which is a first for me.  I am not a selfish knitter by any means, I just usually have a particular recipient in mind. 

 
The Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock yarn was probably the first sock yarn I ever purchased, which means I have had it for years.  Years, people.  So I knit it.

 
And then I made some Christmas stockings. 

I actually started them in 2008 right after Christmas, I sewed the tops  on and stitched names in last year (2009!)... on Christmas Eve...while heavily medicated (the stitching leaves much to be desired, as you can probably imagine; but, I anticipate having to make new stockings for everyone when the boys start to either 1) think the fabric of the current stockings are uncool, or 2) think calling the 'rents "Mommy and Daddy" is totally gauche instead opting for "Mom or Dad" are dropping parental titles entirely and just refer to us by first names, as Little Sir is fond of doing now.  No, really.  He is.  

 

The stockings are the only things I actually made for Christmas this year, and I am okay with that .

So those were my finishes.  I have a lot of starts, but we will save my crafting starts for later.  Here is a teaser though.

 
I am pleased to report that last evening, at approximately 7:15 EST (or 1915, if you prefer), Little Mister took his first independent steps.  Four of them.  In a shocking turn of events his motivation had nothing to do with food; but instead, the boy was trying to get to his brother and a laundry basket.  Whatever works.  Jill guessed the exact day and will get to choose her prize.  Happy kick off to 2010, friends!

 

what'cha doin'?

 
There's really not a whole lot to see here; but, I was finding my blog silence a little sad, so I thought I'd drop in.  I am in the midst of various and sundry projects in progress and have nothing in the way of finished articles of brilliance to share.  And since there was a time when people who read knitting and craft blogs liked to read about what other knitters (and crafters) were working or how knits were holding up, I thought, "I could do that."

A long time ago, when he was wee, I knit Little Sir a hat to warm his noggin. 

 
This picture is 2.5 years old!!

It was a little big; but, it did its job.  When we got the first big chill in Connecticut earlier this week, we were scrambling around to find things to stay warm and we found his old hat again.  My first thought was to use it on Little Mister's head; but, Sir was having none of it.  It was his and he was going to wear it.  Surprisingly, it fits.  Actually, it fits much better now and he is super excited about it.

He is convinced that his yellow mittens work with the hat as a natty ensemble.  I don't like to argue with him, so I just agreed.

Of course, this means that Little mister is a bit on the hatless side right now.  This makes him sad. I need to do something about his hat situation; but, it would mean covering up his curls, which I am loathe to do.

 
Aside from digging through winter wear to find knits that don't exist (since it takes me forever to finish anything these days), I have been slogging away on my Babette Blanket which got stalled due to yarn shortages. 

 
I grossly underestimated the amount of yarn a crocheted blanket would require.  I think I read somewhere that a crocheted blanket takes 30% more yarn than one that is knit.  I can see why some many crocheters love acrylic, because seriously, I have had to put in two more orders for wool and you know, the natural fibers, they are not inexpensive.

 
I am a little obsessed with crochet right now.  Aside from the amount of yarn required, it's so efficient.  If you are measuring efficiency by time and not resources, I suppose.  The economy of movement required is pretty thrilling too.

 
I am still knitting too, of course.  I started a pair of socks for charity. 

 
It's a plain old stockinette sock.  I am not in love with the way it's turning out, which is probably for the best.  If I liked it too much there would be danger in not wanting to offer it up for charitable purposes.

And then I am still knitting the vest I have spent an inordinate amount of time working on.  You'd think I was knitting a man's sweater for Pete's sake.  Thank goodness for two-hour line waits for flu shots, I guess.

 
So that's what I am about right now, what about you? What'cha doin'?

in style

A good classic vest never goes out of style.  This is what some of the arbiters of style are saying (there are a lot of vests in many fall lines, I guess).   I am not one who tends to follow fashion to be honest.  My criteria for clothing usually follows this priority list of questions: 1) Is it in season (you never can tell given the piles that my clothes live in); and, 2) is it clean?    The purchase of said clothes usually follows this inquiring criteria: 1) Does it fit; and, 2) Does is cost less than a (cheap) bicycle?  Yeah, that is pretty much it. I should probably care more about, if not fashion, the way I look in the clothes I am wearing.  But frankly, that requires a lot more thinking than I am capable of most mornings, so I just stick with basics that can be swapped out endlessly.  I think most people favor the "fill your closet with basics" philosophy, but what do I know?

This vest started off as a Seda Vest (see Heidi's, it looks fab) for my mom (the maternal unit loves vests); but, it just wasn't working.  I knew I liked the look of the Leftovers Vest, and when I say look, I mean the structure.  I like stripey goodness as much as the next person, but there was just too much of it going on in the modeled pictures on Knitty for me, though I like the idea of using up your leftover bits and bobs on a project.  After thinking about it some more, I realized that there was no reason that I couldn't knit the vest in one color, so that is what I did.

There is nothing leftover about this vest at all.  And I guess you could say that it was (technically) a stash buster.  It's also a piece that can mix and matched with alot of other clothes.

I was going for something that could be worn with many things, and that would give the recipient a little warmth.  But mostly, I wanted to knit something I knew my friend would like.  You see, this is a Christmas present.  If I am going to knit a Christmas gift for someone, I need to make sure that it is something that the recipient is going to want and enjoy.  Our time is valuable kids, don't knit for ingrates.

This knit is for a "girl" in her 30s who has decided to further her education by going back to school.  For some reason, solid v-neck vests make me think of libraries and books (the students, they spend loads of time in libraries...or, at least, they are supposed to), what about you?

I like the way the vest came out, I think it looks great (if I do say so myself, and I do), I hope my friend does too.  She is probably reading this post, actually.  Hey, friend, come Christmas, just be suprised, 'kay?

(Not so) Leftovers Vest
Pattern:  Leftovers by Alison Hansel on Knitty
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, Black Cherry Heather, 6.3 Skeins
Needles: Bamboo Circs & DPNs, US 6,7 & 8
Modifications: Yarns sub, went with the monochromatic variation

This is an easy pattern to knit, it's a vest and not a sweater, afterall.  I shouldn't downplay the vest so much, it's a sleeveless sweater, really.  But this vest was pretty easy.  Knit in the round until you hit the armholes and then knit back and forth, culminating in the knitting of the v-neck before some shoulder joins, easy peasy.  There is also some shaping to be curve friendly, because not everyone likes wearing a box.  I really like the look of the neck.

Doubling up on the yarn for the ribbing in the bottom of the vest and in the neck is brilliance itself.  It gives the vest a little weight and bulk (but not too much), and also scores high on the aesthetics-meter (well, mine anyway).

I can be a little critical of Knit Picks yarn sometimes, but I think the Wool of the Andes line is pretty fantastic (and really, the price is pretty awesome too).  I have knit a few things with it and have never had any problems (it's 100% wool, I think it's hard to mess that up, right?). I knit Special K's Seamless Hybrid out of the WotA and he wears it when it's cold (we live in New England, so that's a lot) and it looks like it did right after I blocked it, so it may be at least one line that I will buy if the occasion presents itself.

This was a fun little modeling of an FO shoot, my friend JJ got to see how ridiculous I am about pictures, thank J!  File this knit away in the done file, time to move on to the next knit or two on hiatus.