some like it hot

I put that sh*t on everything

If a beer bottle can have a sweater, then why not a hot sauce bottle? This week I'm shopping for an extra large bottle of Frank's Red Hot - ideally about twice the size of the bottle shown. And as soon as I have that I can cast on a Team Canada hockey jersey adapting this pattern to fit. The actual logo looked too fussy and detailed to work in miniature so I opted to order an embroidered badge instead. It should work, right?

Hopefully it does work, because the plan is to make a second sweater - a South African rugby sweater - for a bottle of Jalapeno pepper sauce. His and hers, as it were.

But as I ponder this I can't help but wonder .... is it a hockey sweater? or a hockey jersey? There's a heated debate about just this dilemma. I'm leaning towards "sweater" myself.

finished object Friday

a prickly pair

Hurray! They're done! And done right on time for a finished object Friday! The second Conwy sock is finished, ends woven in and none too soon. Not a fun knit at all thanks to an overspun yarn with way too much twist and a prickly pair of socks as a result :(

It's a shame because the colourway is so nice; puts me in mind of a certain Rugby team set to play a neighbouring rival team on the weekend. Here in Canada the game starts at 1am thanks to the time difference ... so should we put on a pot of strong coffee to stay up to watch it? Or should we nap a few hours before, set the alarm and wake for the few hours to watch it? Why was this kind of thing so much easier when we were teenagers?

If you have a few minutes they'd be well spent looking at the variety of finished object posts from Tami's Amis and celebrate with them. After all, the Australian bloggers might not feel like celebrating after the game this weekend. Go Springboks!

Conwy progress

to the gusset and beyond!

The bright sunshine fooled me this morning; it's a chilly 7° C out there! Definitely fall and definitely sock weather! With the heel turn complete and the gusset decreases well underway, this second Conwy sock is headed towards the final stretch. With a quiet day at work I may be able to finish this today or tomorrow. And won't that be a relief?!

I'm still quite distressed about this yarn. My Mom - and probably every other Mom - used to say "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all." Good words of advice when posting to online forums. But after much debate I decided to ignore that tried and true advice; I went ahead with a negative comment in the yarn database in Ravelry. After my experience I feel obliged post a warning. The colourways are lovely and perhaps it's a good choice for lace projects, but I wish someone had warned me against choosing it for socks. Oh well, lesson learned.

Once these socks are off the needles I can cast on my second Dalarna sock in this yarn; now that's a pleasure to knit.

a few more

it's beginning to look
a lot like Christmas ...

With my countdown timer in the sidebar it's impossible to ignore how quickly Christmas will be upon us ... particularly if you're planning a handmade Christmas. And with that in mind I decided to get a move on with more Christmas bags.

The first few were done in an inky blue, largely because that's one of my favourite colours, but now it's time to make some up in more traditional Christmas colours, starting with green. This first green bag features a very simple snowflake motif with a peerie bordering pattern on either side. Today? A Norwegian Star pattern. It's a bit more involved but it's worth it for the dramatic effect.

For a while I considered knitting these bags for sale at craft shows, but at my current pace I can't see getting enough versions, sizes and colours done in time. At this rate, I might be able to get this together in time for Christmas next year! No worries though, it's ideal transit knitting - simple patterns in stockinette knitted in the round. And that suits me just fine.

felted mittens

before felting ...

After running them three times through the hot water/heavily soiled cycle of my top loading machine, the mitts have felted to about 80% of the size at which I originally knit them. Does that sound right? I thought they'd get much smaller than that. After washing and felting I laid them flat to dry. Should I have thrown them in the dryer?

The finished felted mitts fit me - I have extra large hands with really long fingers - but I can't imagine that they'd fit anyone else. And to be honest, even for me the thumbs could have been a half inch shorter. I'm also a bit undecided about the mitten tops; they could be a little less pointy, I think.

 ... and after

Now that they're done I can't help but wonder what the point was of ribbed cuffs. The stretchy effect of the ribbing is completely lost after felting. But don't get the wrong idea ... I really like these mitts. They're incredibly warm - the perfect accessory when waiting on the train platform at -15° in February! And I love the way felting has blurred and softened the colour transitions.

With this little project I've accomplished a few things:

• I've learned something new - felting
• I've done some stash-busting
• I've finished one more thing in my queue

Now, back to socks!

Come Blog Along Pattern 03 Post 03

too much twist!

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

Even after reskeining and washing this yarn has too much twist. At least once every round I have to stop to untangle; it's not doing a thing for my tension! Look at the photo, then try to imagine knitting with a working yarn that's all twisted up on itself like that! It's a shame because it's making the knitting of these socks unpleasant indeed. Grrrrrr.

That's the bad news. The good news is that while I've been avoiding knitting these socks I've accomplished a great deal on other fronts. Over the last couple of weeks I've knit thirty blanket squares for Knit-A-Square and crocheted four small squares for Kate's Blanket. Not to mention cleaning and organizing my yarn cupboard and sneaking in a few small stash-busting projects. But my Conwy Sock avoidance mood is over; I'm determined to finish this second sock in the next few days and be done with it. Who knows, maybe all that twist will make these socks really, really durable!

one crazy large mitt

There's no mistaking Noro, is there? Crazy colours, thick and thin, unprocessed texture and lots of vm ... yup, it's Noro alright. With the assortment of oddball scraps leftover from a sweater I made a couple of years ago, I making felted mittens.

btw, if you were wondering, the mitred squares are done and I just couldn't bear to post one more picture of those squares. I think we've all seen and heard enough of them, haven't we? Just one thing though. Can you believe it's cheaper to pack thirty 8x8" squares to ship by Canada Post as a parcel to South Africa than it is to pack four 6x6" squares as a parcel to ship to North Carolina?! Seems crazy to me!

The first mitten knit up in almost no time; I cast on yesterday early evening and bound off the thumb this morning. The finished mitt before felting is crazy large -  14" from the top of the fingers to the bottom of the cuff! The pattern describes felting the mitts in the washing machine in hot water and a pillow case and, I have to confess, this is the part that makes me nervous. But these are oddball scraps so what's the worst that can happen? Omitting the pillow case and clogging the washing machine with wool fuzz necessitating a costly service call .. that would be the worst thing. It's kind of exciting too! Because if it works, and if it's easier than I think, there are so many cute felted slipper projects to look at.

Apparently I'll still have a small amount of yarn left. Felted Catnip toys?