Silent Night, Earth Hour Night

Saturday, March 29, 2008 from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm was Earth Hour. What a blissful hour that was. The kids loved that “camping” feeling. We sat at our dining table with flashlights for bathroom runs and candles in essential house hold places and had a family game of Gulo Gulo (Latin for wolverine).

This is a fabulous family game for kids of all ages. Even my 3.5 year old can understand the instructions. Everybody chooses a wolverine and tries to steal eggs from a nest without setting off the alarm (egg on the pole). Such a simple yet effective device – pure genius. The kids usually beat the adults because their tiny fingers are much more adept at grabbing the eggs from the nest. I’m lucky that my long nails (claws) provide me with a fighting chance against the young’uns. My 6’4”, 310 pound husband with his proportionately sized paws usually loses. (We didn’t have the lights on; it was the flash of my camera that illuminated this so well).

The kids didn’t want to turn on the lights afterward because they were having so much fun but it was bedtime and we had already let them stay up late to enjoy Earth Hour. We definitely plan to do this more often.

Lacy Diamond Wrist Warmer Pattern

As I was driving to work one day, I noticed that as my hands reach up to my steering wheel, my jacket sleeve goes down leaving my wrist area exposed and feeling somewhat chilly. That’s what prompted me to make these wrist warmers. I used the left over Mirasol (shade 309) I had from my fingerless glove project . I tailored these wrist warmers so they would taper to the narrowest part of my wrist instead of being a cylindrical cuff. The finished circumference at the narrowest part is 6” to fit my 6.5” wrist. This is not tight at all because of the amount of stretch the yarn has.

I took a lace diamond pattern from the Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches, Volume 1, p.67 and modified it slightly.

Where it says “sl 1, k1, psso”, I use a ssk (slip slip knit); it’s a personal preference. I also knit the wrist warmers in the round on double pointed needles so all the purl rows became knit rows. Since the Mirasol is such a loud yarn, you don’t see the lacy diamond as well. I’m still happy with the outcome of my little project. The pattern follows below.

Gauge: 25 sts / 38 rows = 4” on 4 mm needles knit in the round in pattern

Pattern Notes: PM = place marker (I use a marker to mark the 16 stitch pattern section; the pattern has a 16 round repeat so I work 32 rounds)
yo = yarn over
ssk = slip slip knit
k2tog = knit 2 together
sl 1 = slip 1 stitch knitwise
psso = pass slipped stitch over

Directions: Cast on 44 sts. Join and work in the round on 4 mm double pointed needles.

Work in K2, P2 rib for 2 rounds. Start panel pattern.

Round 1: K14; PM, k5, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k5, PM; K14
Rounds 2, 6, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20, 24, 26, 30, 32: Knit.
Round 3: K14; k3, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k4; K14
Round 4: K12, ssk; k16; k2tog, k12 (42 stitches in round)
Round 5: K13; k2, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k3; k13
Round 7: K13; k1, k2tog, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k2; k13
Round 9: K13; k2tog, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k1; k13
Round 10: K11, ssk; k16; k2tog, k11 (40 stitches in round)
Round 11: K12; k2, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, k2tog, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, k2tog; k12
Round 13: K12; k3, yo, ssk, k2, yo, sl 1, k2tog, psso, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, k2; k12
Round 15: K12; k4, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k3; k12
Round 16: K10, ssk; k16; k2tog, k10 (38 stitches in round)
Round 17: K11; k5, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k5; K11
Round 19: K11; k3, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k4; K11
Round 21: K11; k2, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k3; k11
Round 22: K9, ssk; k16; k2tog, k9 (36 stitches in round)
Round 23: K10; k1, k2tog, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k2; k10
Round 25: K10; k2tog, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k1; k10
Round 27: K10; k2, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, k2tog, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, k2tog; k10
Round 28: K8, ssk; k16; k2tog, k8 (34 stitches in round)
Round 29: K9; k3, yo, ssk, k2, yo, sl 1, k2tog, psso, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, k2; k9
Round 31: K9; k4, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k3; k9

Work in K2, P2 rib for 1 round (you will end in k2 because of the number of stitches, i.e. you will have 4 knit stitches together, 2 at the beginning of the round and 2 at the end of the round). Cast off in ribbing. Work second cuff identically.

Happy knitting!

Pink and Purple Monstrosity

I went back to one of my UFOs (unfinished objects). I dubbed it the Pink and Purple Monstrosity because it was to be a cacophony on oddballs of pink and purple yarns of various gauges and textures from my stash (okay, I went and bought a few more balls to aid the balance of colour)

shaped into a work of art. I love mitred squares!

Do you think Fran is really short for Frankenstein?

This project got started so I could use a new pair of pink, 5.5 mm, KNITLITE knitting needles I had received for Christmas from my mother-in-law. This was my experiment with knitting with pure feeling “free” from thought, patterns, and gauge considerations. Okay, so it wasn’t totally “free” because the anal, planning engineer that I am couldn’t let go of her controlling tendencies and went and bought more yarn to balance colour. It was initially supposed to be a shawl for me but the kids have convinced me that we need it as an afghan more; they love to snuggle up to it.

Moebius Scarf Complete

Here we have a very happy Dora wearing her new moebius scarf. I’m very pleased with the results.

I now find myself at that awful point at the intersection of EUPHORIA at the successful completion of a project and ANGST wondering what to do next. Hmm, is it time to start that cross-stitch project? Finish that first quilt I started 7 years ago? (I finished my second quilt in about a year and started my third quilt about 2.5 years ago) It’s not that I don’t have enough UFOs (unfinished objects) or backlog of projects I want to start, but they’re all pretty big and/or intense. Small quick projects would definitely give me better weekly blog material. And then there’s the designs I’m working on which means I’m not knitting the backlogged projects if I’m designing. Lastly, there’s the day job which pays the bills. If only I didn’t need to sleep; then maybe I could get things done in a decent amount of time.

Mastering the Moebius

It got ‘slightly’ easier to move stitches around the needle to more I knit but it was still difficult because you are using only one needle and I had two cable connectors in there which have a “grabby” tendency. I am glad I that I did attempt and succeed at using this method, but I want to make rapid progress on this project so I need to modify my methodology.

I am now using three cable needles, two holding the moebius ring (half a ring each) and the third to knit with. It’s working very well and I’m now making rapid progress. The three 4.5 mm circular needles are: one regular circular 32” in length, one Denise circular which still has a connector joining a 16” and a 9” cable, another Denise circular which still has a connector joining a 12” and 14” cable. The Denise kit on comes with two needle tips of each size, but that’s really all I need. Only one tip, the one you are actively knitting with, determines the gauge so that end is 4.5 mm and the other end I’ve made 4 mm so it’s easier to slide the stitches off the needle (that was a Cat Bordhi tip).

At this rate, I’m hoping to have the scarf finished by next week-end.

Dragon Scarf Complete!

A long week-end in February! Family Day is Monday, February 18 – rejoice! We really needed this after last week-end. We were too busy with my son’s birthday party going on for knitting (or much of anything else) to have any presence.

I pleased to announce that I have finally completed my son’s Dragon Scarf! I’m very happy with the results. You will notice the lovely blue tuft of hair which my son wanted his dragon scarf to have. It’s Bernat’s Disco.
You will also notice two slits above the hair. I was trying to come up with something that would make it easy for a child to fasten and unfasten a scarf. Buttons can be tricky as well as long ties. With two slits there, he can slide the tail of the dragon through. It didn’t work as well as I had planned though. Apparently, it comes undone a little too easily for him now. I told him to just pull it through a little further so the scales could lock it in place. We’ll see how it goes.
I thought it would be nice if the dragon had glowing eyes that stood out. I used some yellow yarn in a satin stitch and red beads for the pupils. The puffs of smoke are just four strands of white yarn I fringed through two holes I made for nostrils.
On to a Moebius Scarf for my mother-in-law and hopefully some more knitting time.

Conquering Moebius

I’m proud to say that I have succeeded in doing the Moebius cast on from Cat Bordhi’s book, A Treasury of Magical Knitting. Not only that, I have knit one complete row. It was hard as all hell but it has been quite a learning experience. Cat's instructions were spot on; the trouble was me.
I received my pink Denise Interchangeable needle set on January 22 and my fingers had been itching since then to try something, but what to try? Contemplating it while knitting my son’s dragon scarf, dreaming about it at night, can you tell I’m a little knitting obsessed? Okay, finally settled on a golden colour Décor with 4.5 mm needles. If I had been smart and thought about it, I would have put a smaller needle on the left hand side as the book and website suggested to make sliding stitches off the needle easier but in my haste, I of course wasn’t thinking logically. Another thing I did which made this more difficult was that I made my needle length 58” instead of 47” (the book suggests 47-60). The finished garment I’m attempting will be ~48” in circumference; some might now see my problem. I am now reminded of one of the reasons I never liked using a circular; my garment circumference is smaller than my needle circumference and I had extra cable to push and shove my knitting over to get to knit it. Once again, in my haste, I was not reasoning too well. Given that this was my first attempt too, if I had cast on and knit a bit more loosely, that might also have helped. I’m hoping that as I keep knitting (your work actually expands in between the cable ring; you are essentially knitting from the spine of the moebius outward), the extra material in between will allow me to shift my stitches on the needle more easily.

Oh well, live and learn. For now, back to finishing my son’s dragon scarf.