Surprisingly Little to do with Robots

The Robot hat continues but a new picture would not be very interesting yet so instead we'll look at something else I've been working on today.


These are from Lizbeth Upitis's Latvian Mittens. I sometime go through extreme Yarn Harlot envy, and the result of one of the my earlier periods of such was the acquisition of this book. They've really taught me that no matter how good I think I am, there is always something out there waiting to kick me in the ass.

I honestly don't think a sweater would have been this hard - the difficult thing for me is reversing the pattern in my mind so they make a mirror, and making everything happen on the same row. If I didn't have to knit them identically, it would all make so much more sense. That's why I have to do them two at a time. This also helps with my Second Sock Syndrome. I never can knit the second one if I don't do it at the same time as the first. That's when Jorah comes in so handy - he can just go down a needle size or two and make the second one. If only we had a close enough gauge that we could tag team sweaters the same way . . .

Anyway, these mittens are a gift for a friend who moved away a few months ago. They were supposed to be ready for her going away party, but that didn't really work and then they sort of got shunted to the back of the queue for a while. I'm about twenty rows from starting decreases on each one and then it's just the thumbs. Now that I remember how close I am to finishing, these are going to get a higher priority.

Too Bad They're Not Robot Cats

Last night after making that triumphant post that actually said stuff I went to go cast on and discovered that I didn't have any size 3 20" circulars, which are of course, vital to the process of knitting a hat. I ended up finishing up Zoe instead, a children's hat that I've been working on for a week or two and finished the knitting part. I think she needs a pom pom (will be a nice way to use up the rest of the yarn) and then I just need to find someone with a small enough head.

After work today trekked back to the yarn store to buy my needles and was very successful in only buying needles. There's some Manos del Uruguay that is just calling to me (handpaint red & pink is one of my all time favs) and there are one or two other small projects I keep trying to justify in my head. The girl at work who's having a baby, the little somethings I could knit for stocking presents for Jorah . . . how much I would really like some nice Bearfoot socks . . .

But I just bought needles and then came home and got cracking on the hat. I don't know if I always overestimate my knitting speed or if it's just that I feel like I have to show progress, but things seemed to be taking forever tonight.

Here's the Autobot:















And the Decepticon:

Sorry for the photo quality. My gorgeous beautiful wonderful camera is oddly broken so I'm making do with Jorah's nice camera. I like mine better.

In spite of the slowness, I'm really pretty excited. I think that's because Felted Tweed = Soft Deliciousness. I'm finding that it's doing a great job colorwork-wise as well. Not slippy, things are showing up, yet when I wrap on the back the wraps don't poke through. I'm sitting here knitting and planing a Voltron hat for myself in my head. Hm. Need to do a better job separating things in my mind. After all, just because the first thing I make with Felted Tweed is a Geek Hat, doesn't mean I can only make Geek Hats.

Robots in Disguise

At the yarns store today I bought some Rowan Felted Tweed to make my brother-in-law this Transformer's Toque from Yes I MADE that. Back in the day when I was just dating my husband I bought him a Transformer's The Movie poster about one week before BIL bought one for himself. Jorah made me watch the movie with him once in high school and I have to say I just wasn't feeling it - certainly not the way some do. But I think this will be a hit with the brother.

It's the kind of pattern I really like too - I love that it goes the extra mile and has the detail "More than meets the eye" on the inside of the band. I'm very attracted to handmades with little details like that - special secret surprises.

I've been looking for an excuse to mess around with some Felted Tweed anyway - I did the swatch for it at the store and I really loved it. Also, it's machine washable and ever since my mom made a stand for machine washable presents I've had my eyes peeled for yarns we can both like. I told my folks they could have anything knitted that they wanted as a thank you for the amazing amount of work they did getting the house ready when Jorah and I got married, and my dad's request would look great in Felted Tweed.

This also has the benefit of not being an extremely expensive Christmas present. We're quite poor this year and presents are going to have to be more modest than usual. That makes me a little crazy because I honestly love giving presents, and I feel like if I'm not going to spend much money I had better spend more time so people will still know I love them. Insane Troll Logic, I know. I have a pretty packed schedule this fall though and already so many projects in the works that I shudder to think of knitting for everyone on my Christmas list. It's just not possible this year.

But BIL gets a fancy Transformers Hat!

Testing One Two Three

So. I have a blog. Let's see how this goes.