Behind the Curtain

Perles d'Ombre

I finished these mittens a while ago, but still don't consider them "done" since I haven't blocked them yet. It is cold and snowy though, so I'm wearing them anyway. You need bright colors on a slushy white day.

I had a lot of issues with this knitting project. I originally started with the pattern Chrysanthemums, but woah - the sizing and shape of this pattern was OFF. I had the right gauge, but do you see that image below? That was the wrist. THE WRIST. Looks more like the start of a legging.

I didn't feel like doing the math to make the mittens fit my hands, so I frogged it and tried to find something else. Truth be told, I also found the frogged pattern's colorwork mind-numbing. Pearl Chain Mittens seemed to be the perfect solution to my problem. It was a pattern that could be changed easily, if needed, and had a colorwork repetition that was easy to remember and do absent-mindedly, yet still kept my interest. 

I did some mods, like having a ribbed cuff. I like my mittens/gloves to fit tight, and really wanted a wrist I could easily put under sweaters sleeves, so colorwork ribbed it was:

Ribbed cuff mod:
CO 52 in MC, join in round. 
K2 in MC, K2 in CC repeat all the way around 
Continue with this ribbing until 3” in length

I also was knitting with a thinner yarn than suggested, so I added 12 more stitches to the chart (6 on either side), to make the mitten measure 7.5" around.

I'm almost done with the colorwork cowl I've been knitting up, but I had to take a break from it to get some work done. I hope to have that project done by next week though. I'll share the final result when it is all finished!

Heart to Heel

For Donovan's Xmas present I knit her some super fancy socks. Out of the few socks I've done so far, these were the only ones that fit the intended person well. I definitely need to up my fitting game when it comes to sock knitting!

I used Devon Clement's Love Socks pattern, which has great instruction on how to do a colorwork heart on the heels. I only did a heart on one heal because I was running low on the gray yarn and was scared I wouldn't be able to finish the sock if I worked it into the heel. Instead I did the heel in the color chaging Chroma yarn from Knit Picks.

Oh sweet sassy, how I love the effects you can get with Chroma yarns. It adds a bit of punch to this striped pattern. I used the color "Mixed Tape" for these socks, but that color is unfortunately discontinued now. This makes me very sad and if anyone knows a similar yarn, please let me know as I would love to work with colors like this again.

Tech stuff: Although the pattern says to switch to a size 0 needle for the heel turn and foot, I just stuck to the size 1 needle (mainly because I don’t own 0 dpns and just wanted to keep knitting). Donovan says the fit is good, so hopefully I did well on that front. This pattern is written nicely, although I will say that the Fluttered Bed Socks that I spoke of a few weeks ago has some great tricks to make your heel look cleaner and for rejoining for the foot. So, take a gander at that pattern and see if maybe you can improve the look of your socks from those tricks. Here is my Ravelry page for the Fluttered Bed Socks and for the Love Socks.

 

Socks to Bed

I finally got around to taking pictures of  C's birthday socks! They ended up a wee too big for him, but he enjoyed them anyway. He enjoyed them even more after he accidentally ran them through the dryer. Shockingly, they did not shrink to baby-size but got just a little tighter. This new semi-felted size now fits his feet perfectly. Thanks goodness my work didn't turn into wee felted socks!

I also knitted some bed socks for my grandmother for her Xmas present. The pattern is Fluttered, called so because the accent work looks like butterflies. I knitted this up with sparkly yarn from  The Wool Dispensary and found they looked more like moths to me. Lunar moths, in fact. So thanks to the Useful Irradiant yarn (love the name!), I was able to work my current moth obsession into my knitting.

These sock were also just a wee large on my grandmother, so I think that from now on I will be knitting most of my socks on size 0 needles rather than size 1 (as most patterns suggest), to get just a small gauge in my project. Better a wee tight than loose, especially since knits eventually stretch!

I don't have any projects on my needles right now and am unsure what I am going to knit next. I really want to use more Wool Dispensary yarn and have been eyeing their worsted weight selection. I'll need to figure this out soon as my hands are missing that lovely knitting action, especially in this cold weather!

One Day Hat

I've had the left over yarn from my bear knitting project just sitting in my yarn basket for ever. The other day when I stupidly left my best winter hat in a friend's car, I decided I needed to knit myself a good back-up hat. My co-worker told me about the Mandlebrot pattern from Knitty and I quickly cast-on that evening.

This is a pattern that can definitely be done in one day, but it took me two because I had to redo the crown. I used size 10 needles for the band of the hat and initially used size 9 dpns for the crown. (I didn't even bother with using circulars, as suggested in the pattern, as I could fit everything on dpns.) Using 9s prooved to create a teeny tiny crown, so I ripped back and redid it with size 13s. Way better fit and slouch, thankfully. I couldn't resist putting a comically large pom pom on top of the whole thing because who does't need a little smile in winter?

Winter Brights

I finished-up those two pairs of socks I've been working on, but haven't had a chance to photograph them yet (because we are too busy wearing them to warm up our cold feet). So, for now, I shall show you my recently knit leg warmers. 

The pattern is Some Cloudy Day by Tiny Owl Knits and it was a good, easy one. The lace pattern was interesting enough not to get bored with, but simple enough to zone out watching movies and such. I knit it up with Madelinetosh Marino Light in the color "Winter Wheat." It is a really lovely goldish mustard color that a photo can not do justice to. I had a lot of fun knitting with this yarn and definitely will use it in a future project. 

What is equally as awesome is that these legwarmers are LONG. The bottom part is a few inches below where my boots start and the top reaches a few inches above where my shortest (albeit, not that short) skirt ends.

I will admit that I've never been one for legwarmers until I started wearing skirts during winter. Now, I know it seems odd to wear skirts during winter, but I'm actually much warmer wearing skirts than pants during the cold months. The reason is easy layering.

With pants the layering you do is not very breathable nor is it easy to unlayer (unless you pop into the bathroom and do an undressing routine). Layering with a skirt allows breathablility (see: no sweating under your layers) once you get to your indoor location and also allows you to strip off layers without being indecent. My normal layering routine (for the bottom half) is cotton leggings or tights, socks, legwarmers, slip, wool skirt, and good tall boots. When I get to my day job, I either slouch my leg warmers below my knee or take them off all together. Other than that, the wool skirt treats me well and I don't get overheated. Best yet, when the snow gets super high (as it does in Chicago), I don't come home with wet pant legs, just boots that need a bit of a swipe with a towel.

Ever since I figure out a layering system that was comfy for me, I've never gone back to wearing pants in winter. How about you - how do you stay warm during this season?

Revamping the Home Bar

Today is all about voting and us being at our wit's end until we get the results. I thought I would lighten up the day with what we will all probably be doing while waiting for the presidential outcome: drinking.

I've had a wee home bar set-up for a while now, but was looking to upgrade it. I recently had the grand luck of finding a busted-up book cart that had outlived its life pushing around library items. I managed to finagle the cart from the street to a friend's car and then up the 3 flight of stairs to our apartment. There I rearranged like mad to get the cart to fit (sans busted wheels, of course). Thankfully, it all fit where I wanted and now looks great.

Prior to the cart I had a cheap shelving unit made for storing garage type items. It was quite unstable and I always worried I would knock everything over. I also wasn't able to prepare drinks on the shelving surface, which was a bummer. I started shopping around for home bar solutions, but I didn't really find much that fit all my needs. I not only wanted to store my liquor, but some serving plates and cook books too.

The cart without wheels basically looks like a bookcase, which was a home bar alternative I was looking at. There are oodles of bookcase to bar ideas online. For a mixed use set-up like this, I think a bookcase is the best bet for a home bar. In fact, the idea of a bar cart (wheels and all), while sexy looking, seems pretty silly to me. (If I am at a point where I'm wheeling around my liquor, I will most likely mess-up and the entire thing will come crashing down.) I think using normal furniture in a new way is how you will get a home bar that will actually be useful. All the lovely looking bar-specific furniture I found was either widely overpriced or just not practical (or both).

In my research, prior to finding this grand solution, I found a lot of home bar ideas that utilize regular home furniture. Here are some of my favorite ones to get some ideas going for your own home bar. 

Click the "source" link to view full image and read more about the set-up.
1) One section of a bookshelf reserved for your favorite liquids. I love this! My two favorite things in one place: books and booze. Source: The Kitchn

2) Mirrored cabinet. Some seriously sexy stuff right here. You can mimic this look with mirror paper (kind of like contact paper, but with a mirrored look.) Source: Bo Bedre

3) Hacked Ikea dresser as home bar. I looked into doing something similar to this, and if I didn't find my junk gem I probably would have gone this route. Source: Vanilla & Lace

4) When I first saw this image I thought it was one of those floating shelves, which would work pretty awesome for a home bar. It is actually a table that is the same color as the walls placed right over a radiator. What a great use of dead space. Source: The Kitchn

Have you seen any clever home bar set-ups? If you redo your home bar, leave a pic in the comments! I'd love to see what others are doing with their alcohol storage.

Pile on the Knitting

I've been plotting and scheming holidays gift already. I have started thinking about it so early because this year I hope to knit most of my gifts. I already have a few finished projects (two socks and a pair of mittens) that are all done and just need to be blocked. Granted, only one of those three are gifts, but it gives me the confidence that I can finish all I have planned in time for the holidays.

Here are the next few knitting projects I hope to attack this month:

Love Socks from Notes from the Something [Ravelry Link]
Shawl Collar Cowl from Purl Bee
It's a Cinch Head Wrap and Collar by Elisa McLaughlin

After being scared of knitting socks I can now see why people get addicted to making them. They are so quick and you can tune-out to a good movie if it is a basic enough repeat. After working two pairs on dpns I can also see why people work two socks at a time on a magic loop: neither of my socks are a perfect match to the other. Oops! I'm planning on making socks for most of the people on my gift list this year, so I think the next skill I need to learn is knitting two socks at a time!

The below video was helpful in getting me acquainted with the whole two socks at once method. It is parts 1-7 of Very Pink Knits tutorials all in one video. Handy cheat sheet for where to skip to for certain techniques to start the whole project off: 4:41 starts the cast-on method; 7:24 starting first row.

It definitely looks like something I'll have to practice a bit before I feel comfortable with it. I admit that after watching the first part of that video I kind of just want to stick to my dpns, but the allure of having two similarly sized socks is too much for me. I'll have to try this technique out and report back to you all.

Knit for Summer Feet

Fall weather has been teasing us lately, only to be snapped away and replaced with stickly hot weather. Although, that little taste of cool breezes was all I needed to get thinking about knitting again.

I decided to try my hand at sock knitting again. The first time I tried I was met with difficulties. It ended with me swearing that socks were devil's work. Totally not dramatic in any way...

I've been knitting-up Kate Atherly's Basic Ribbed Socks and have really been enjoying how easy they are to tune out, yet still remain interesting. I'm planning on using these as around the house socks this winter, so I decided to go with summery colors. Goodness knows that in the deariness of a Chicago winter is when you need bright crazy colors the most!

In a similar vein, I'm trying to hold on to the last bits of summer by bringing summer into the house. Unfotunately, we have a kitty who enjoys summer in in her belly, so I have to place the flowers in odd places that are not easily reached by four pawed curiosity. I keep trying to remind myself that there are still 2 weeks left of summer, but for me, the end of summer is always Renegade Fair. When that happens, it's Fall in my brain, even if mother nature doesn't agree. Come by this weekend and let's say goodbye to summer together.

 

Steeking Suspicion

Markers placed so I know where my sleeves ans steeks start and end.

Firstly, I want to thank everyone on their suggestions and input on interchangeable circular needles. You have all given me something to think about. I'm leaning toward getting a set for myself, though I want to see what projects I have lined up for this summer. If they all use needles I already own, I may just wait until next season to indulge. Or perhaps this is even something I can request as a holiday present? Hmmm...

I've started on the sleeves/arm holes of my Highland Vest (as I am calling it), but not after ripping back some. You see, this pattern calls for you to knit it flat when you reach the armpits. I went ahead and did this and then realized two things: A) I hate knitting flat on circular needles and B) My guage is very different between flat and in the round.

To be fair, I was aware about my gauge difference, I just thought I fixed it. Nope, I surely did not. So, I ripped back and did some research into steeking. I know this technique is commonly used for colorwork, but I really wanted to avoid knitting any part of the vest body flat. I did some calculations, rewrote the latter half of the pattern and have picked up the sleeves and neck using the bizarre steeking calculations I came up with. I do hope it works, but if it doesn't I can always rip back to before the steeks and redo the vest as the pattern is written. If it does work, I'll happily share my mods with you all.

1948 Westinghouse Ad

In non-knitting news this Saturday is Record Store Day! I will surely be visiting my local record shops and adding some new music to my current collection. The album I'm most looking forward to picking up is Vulture from The Hollows. I haven't heard a lick of this new album, but if it is anything like their first one, I'm sure it will be awesome. I'm also excited about the Numero Pop-up Shop happening at The Empty Bottle. Are you going out for Record Store Day? What releases are you excited about?

Knitters Choice

Knitting has pretty been all I do in my spare time lately, in the hopes to get my vest done by next month. I've been trucking along nicely, but the other day I took time to flip through a knitting shop catalog while drinking a rye on the rocks and began to consider a large purchase. See, that catalog was Knit Picks who has a fancy interchangeable circular needle system I've been eying for a while.

I like the idea of having one set with infinite possibilities for any knitting project that will come my way. I am a little turned off by the fact that their needle sizes, for the interchangeable system, do not go any smaller than a US4. I also have a fear of plunking down $90 for a huge set and then not liking the material I chose (wood or metal, I'm not keen on the acrylic ones). They do have a trial kit for $20 that I may get.

I'm aware there are other interchangeable systems out there, like this Knitter's Pride set and I think even Addi has one. (It seems that all brands don't go any smaller than a US4.) I feel a bit at a loss as to two things:
A) Is an interchangeable set needed or even worth it?
B) If so, which set is worth the $$$?

Do any of you have an interchangeable set? If so, what do you think?

Knittily yours,
Kathy