Progress, and things off the needles!

Well, it's been a bit of time, but life's been busy over the last few days.

I'm not feeling so great today, thank goodness it's a slower day.  I was supposed to have a volunteer meeting today, but I let them know I won't be able to come (I don't think running to the bathroom every few minutes would make me that productive).

On the plus side, feeling like crap means I'll just stay home and knit today.

But even over the last few days, I've been productive with my knitting.

1) The Christmas Mittens are a wonderfully simple pattern, and I got mitten number one finished on the bus and during a volunteer photo shoot. (I did, I found, have to go up to 3.5 mm needles for the right tension, but that's ok.)

It seems like this picture is better indicative of the true colour, even though it was taken at night with a camera flash.  Weird. . . .

I've since added the thumb, sewn in the ends, and started in on mitten two.  (And one of the complete non-knitters at my volunteering asked me in surprise if I was knitting with the tapestry needle while I was sewing in ends at the photo shoot.  I laughed and explained that 'no, this is just for sewing it together.  She told me that made a lot more sense, and we both laughed.)

Also, the Fall Lake Slippers are finally done!  The tubular cast-off takes a while, but it's worth it for the stretchy edge.

No new picture there, since I gave the second one to my roommate pretty much the moment it was done.  But I think you folks can get the idea.

That's it for the moment, more to come when I feel better.

Slipper Love and Christmas Knitting Update

Well, it's hard to have second-slipper syndrome when the slipper is really well loved.

My roommate took the finished Fall Lake Slipper and is wearing it mis-matched with her remaining old slipper -- she loves it that much.  Apparently it's really nice and warm.

 It's really heartening to see a knitted gift so well received.  And she's not pestering me for the mate, either. . . though when I was uninspired when my knitting tonight, I asked her what I should work on, and she grinned and told me I should work on her slipper.   But I consider that funny, not pestering.  Besides, I did ask.

Beyond the slippers, the Christmas Knitting is progressing nicely.  There's not yet pictures of everything, but, I'll share the pictures I do have.

1) The Pine Cone Mittens:

These are turning out better then I'd hoped, considering that they were a complete stash-dive and I wasn't sure how the yarn would turn out.   There's more ribbing done now then the picture shows.

2) The Mini-Dalek Coffee Cozy:

This is easily my most complicated Christmas Gift, but it's a nice challenge.  I do find I can only take so much of the bobbles, though, before I need a break from this.   Also, it was a real trick getting the gauge right, since I'm scaling down the pattern.  Basically, I took the dimensions my giftee gave me (about the size of a water-glass), and then did some swatches to see what stitches-per-inch would give me that finished size.

Didn't -quite- work as easily as that, but I got it sorted out in the end.


3) The Dragon Rider Gloves:

I was surprised by this pattern, since there's no ribbing around the edge of the cuffs, just a band of ribbing on the palm.  Also, there's some typos in the pattern before the thumb gusset, which make things kind of confusing.  If it weren't for Ravelry, I probably would be a lot more frustrated with these then I am.

So for once, the Christmas Knitting is actually kind of under control.  It's keeping me busy, yes, but I don't feel overwhelmed by it.

Second Slipper Syndrome

So laptop is working again.  This is actually really good news, as I'm back on my own machine and I have all my pictures.

 But despite my increased knitting, I've been neglecting my Fall Lake Slippers. Though they don't have a specific set deadline, I've been asked to have them finished for when the weather starts to get cold, which is has.

And yet, I can't find the impetus to work on the second slipper.  First one is done, finished:

But the second one is completely unappealing to knit, despite that they knit up really fast in the bulky yarn.

Well, maybe when I get a few more things off of my needles, I'll get inspiration for these again.

Tubular Cast-Off Tutorial

Hello all!

When it comes to casting off, I usually have the problem of my cast-off being -way- too tight for my project.   This is ok, or at least tolerable, on a sleeve, or something that will be seamed.

It -sucks- for any edge that needs the elasticity.  The only reason my Freestyle Shawl (an older project) didn't suffer from this is because it was knit on a bigger needle size, and even then, the cast off edge is far tighter then I would like.

So, since the Fall Lake Slippers are knit toe-up, and I was really worrying about that cuff.  Would my cast-off make the cuff just too darn tight?

But then I learned about a technique called Tubular Cast-Off. It's a touch more time-consuming, but it's worth it if you don't want a tight bind-off edge.  The pattern actually contains a really nice tutorial on this. 

From my internet research, there seem to be several ways of doing this, but I'm going to show you the one I like -- and the one that the pattern specifies.

(P. S.:  I'm still perfecting taking camera pictures of my work in a way that doesn't come out blurry.  I'd like to think I'm getting better, but I do know they're still not the greatest pictures.)



 Start by doing at least one row of k1 p1 ribbing before your bind off row.

Then, measure across your work (or around if you're working in the round), and cut a tail of yarn four times longer then your measurement.  Thread that through a tapestry needle.

 In this photo, I've already done part of the cast off, but that's ok, there's no set-up required for this, other then the previous row of ribbing.



Step one is to pass the tapestry needle through the first stitch on your needle as if to knit, slip the first stitch off of the needle.

Now, pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch on your needle as if to purl.  Leave this stitch on the needle.

Next, keeping the yarn in front, pass the tapestry needle through the first stitch on the needle as if to purl and slip this stitch off of the needle.

Now, bring the yarn behind (not over the needle, you don't want a yarn-over here), and insert the tapestry needle between the first and second stitches on the needle, going from back to front.

The last step is to pass the needle, once again, through the second stitch on the needle as if to knit.

And that is that!  Repeat this until all the stitches have been cast off, pull the tail through the last stitch, if necessary, and weave in the end.

As a note, this is actually a variant on grafting (aka kitchener stitch), so you'll see a lot of online tutorials asking you to split your work onto two needles.  I like this method because you don't have to do that, but if you find that works better for you, then by all means.

This is a slower method then the typical cable cast-off, and it does mean that if you don't cut a long enough tail of yarn you could be in trouble.  Also, because it does use the k1 p1 ribbing, it might not work for something like a shawl edge.  But for things like cuffs (I'm betting this will see a lot of use when I try out toe-up socks!), it's actually really nice.

Slippers that look like slippers!

My other big project has been trying to finish up the Fall Lake Slippers. 

Since my roommate's slippers kind of died, she's asked for new ones.  I don't mind obliging. 

Anyway, slipper number one is almost done (I'm about half-way through the last repeat).

With the bulky-weight yarn they knit up quite quickly, which is nice when I want a quick-gratification project.   Once this is finished, I just have to whip-stitch it to the sole and it will be done.   Then it'll be onto slipper number two!

Project Update -- September 16th

Well, it's been a busy knitting week, but there are only a few big things of note:

1) I finished the soles on the Fall Lake Slippers and started into the slipper foot proper.

I'll sew in the ends later.

While I'm quite happy with the pattern in general, I do have to say that the pfb back stitch is -hard-!  I'm discovering that purling through the back loop, in general, is just really fiddly to get the needle into place.

2) An update on the Pyjama shorts.

I finished the left leg during a Role-Playing session.  Haven't cast on the right leg yet.

Yes, the bottom curls a lot, there's actually a purled fold line there, the bottom of the leg is folded up and seamed. 


3) Finally, though there's no picture, I've started the increases for the sleeve on the Cable Sweater.  The sweater's taking a while, but hey, I'm ok with that.  It's a slow but steady project, and I'm actually quite enjoying it.  I'm a little worried I might run out of yarn, but I'll deal with that if it actually looks like I will.

Fuzzy Knitting Helpers.

Well, this was supposed to be a general update on my other knitting projects.

But it appears to have been taken over by the cats!

First is my Spring Coat (which with a bit of knitting luck might be finished in time for deep Fall, I'll have to see).  I finished the body to the underarms and started the sleeve.


But this is what happened when I put the body aside and went to find my double-pointed needles for the sleeve. . .

She was quite content about this!

Secondly, I was winding the yarn for the Fall Lake Slippers, and I had the other fuzzy helper decided to 'help' unwind the skein.

She really does like Briggs and Little, it seems!

The sole I'm knitting up is from an older slipper pattern that I already have, and it's done with the yarn held double.  Well, bulky yarn held double on 4.5 mm needles is a pretty tight knit.  I'm glad I'm only working the sole with doubled yarn.

Finally, I won 5 dollars over PayPal from a contest I entered months ago.  I'd always intended to pick up a pattern over Ravelry with it (because there's not much else I would spend 5 dollars online for), and decided on the Fairview Scarf.  I intend to do it in Tanis Fiber Arts Silver Label.  Yes, Silver Label is no longer being distributed, (but you can still order it directly from Tanis Fiber Arts), but last I checked the Purple Purl still had some in stock.

Slipper Knitting

Well, first off, I want to say a big 'Thank You' to my readers -- I just passed 1000 page views!

Thank you!


With that out of the way, I started yet another project this morning -- and it's not even a Christmas project.

What -am- I thinking?

Actually, I know exactly what I'm thinking.

My roommate put in a request for a new pair of slippers.  The reason for this is because her old slippers were dying.

Well, they're now -dead-.  They got tossed before I got a picture, but the sole on one slipper was only hanging by a thread, they were both fraying and dying.

I was hoping her slippers would last long enough that I could do some Christmas knitting.  But no, no luck.

When she first asked for new slippers, (back when her slippers had just started to die) I had her pick colour and pattern.

She picked Briggs and Little Atlantic in Scarlet (which was part of this big Briggs and Little order)

And for pattern she picked the Fall Lake Slippers.  It's one of the rare times I purchase patterns on Ravelry, but there wasn't anything else comparable that she or I liked.

Thing is, I don't have slipper soles handy or readily available.  But I do have an older Patons Slipper Pattern that uses a knitted sole.  So I'm just going to use that sole and join it to these slippers.  Shouldn't be too much of an issue, I hope.

So, currently, there's two skeins of "Scarlet" out to be wound on my new swift.  I'm hoping these knit up pretty quick.