I can knit fair isle!!!!

This is just so much fun. I can't frickn believe it! I have no idea why these sat unfinished on the needles for 3 years. Yes, you read that right: 3 years.

Here's the quick and dirty story. I started them in 2007, they were going pretty well, I was somewhere midway in the thumb gusset on the first mitt and then they just sat. And sat. And sat. When we moved last year I frogged all of the hibernating works in progress, but just couldn't bring myself to rip these. Hubby wouldn't let me either. Since then I haven't seen them, they were packed away in a box somewhere. A few weeks ago we came home from the faculty club a bit early on a Friday night, too late to watch a movie, but too early to go to bed. I didn't really have anything on the needles that met that middle of the road thought level requirement...or so I thought. I started putzing around the craft room and out popped the endpapers. Two weeks later and they were done. I was like an addict, I couldn't put them down, I was better at it then I remembered and I just zoomed along.

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts from Eunny Jang
Yarn: Louet Gems Pearl, one skein each Sandelwood and Teal, purchased from Kpixie.com
Needles: US size 2 dpns for body, size 1s for trim
Mods: Well. I added a row at each top and thumb cuff and I think that I knit the lower cuff on size 2 rather than the 1s called for in the pattern. At least that's what I did on the second one. I don't know what I did on the first one, but I can't notice a difference.

In summary. LOVE! Except I'm not a big fan of the fake purl seam thing, annoying to work and sort of pointless in my opinion.

This has created a bit of a fair isle frenzy here so there will be more to come :)

Manly Mitts - Part 2 - The Knitting

I really enjoy knitting for Hub. He always asks about how it's going, when will it be done and compliments it along the way, and sometimes I can even convince him to help me weave in the ends ;) So, the mitt request made me drop all other WIPs and go stash diving. It also was a great chance to use my new Kollage Square DPNs.

I pulled out all my "manly" sock weight yarn, and let him pick. His very discerning eye picked out some limited edition Neighborhood Fiber Company merino cashmere blend from when I was in the sock club in 2008 colorway "Raspberry Truffle":

I was pretty excited, but this yarn is luscious, but too soft wearing for socks, but at a tight gauge probably just right for mitts.

Since his request was for half fingers I also had to go pattern hunting. There are many patterns out there, but I found this one to be what I wanted in sock yarn weight so I went with it. It was also free and easy to resize for a man size hand.




Off I went to knit night and cast on. I did 74 stitches and followed the pattern exactly, having 4 extra stitches for each finger. It was a quick and enjoyable knit. Did I mention that the yarn was luscious?




Hub likes them:

All in all they were good, but a tad loose, next time I'd go with only 70 stitches for a man's size. I have about half the ball of yarn leftover, which means I could make another pair. I toyed with the idea of making a pair for my self. The yarn is soooo nice. But ultimately decided that I should keep the yarn safe and sound for when he loses one of them. The pattern is fun to knit, however and the perfect mental level for knit night, so another pair is in the works in the proper lady size.

Manly Mitts - Part 1 - The Setup

I first knit for my husband 10 years ago. I was a senior in college and just getting back into knitting, so over my winter break I knit him a scarf. A gray ribbed scarf with some Wool-ease, with an awful attempt at some fair isle that really should have been intarsia (a technique I still don't know how to do). He still wears that scarf. It's dirty and nasty and once a year I have to sneak it away from him to wash it in secret. I've knit other scarves for him, which he wears, but somehow that old, worn, ugly scarf still makes it in the rotation. For this reason, I continue to knit for him, without hesitation.

Over the years, I often have offered to make him some fingerless mitts, to which he has always replied with a little scrunched up nose, and some kind of comment like. "I don't get those", or "that seems silly", or "they're a little feminine". So, I have never made him mitts.

About a month or so ago, a friend of his was in town for a conference. A friend, from high-school, who he has not seen in 15 years, but recently reconnected with on facebook. We all went out to dinner. It was unseasonably cold as we walked from the hotel to the restaurant and the friend, being from colder climes, had not brought a hat, thinking (rightfully so) that the south should have been warmer than it was. He was remarking about how is wife would scold him since she had knit him a hat, and was at that very moment back home knitting him a new scarf. Hub proudly say, "my wife knits too, look at this scarf". Luckily he had brought along his "dress" scarf and not that old ugly gray one. The following conversation (or something really similar) ensued, between the two old friends:

F: "Wow, your wife knits too!, Isn't that great!"
H: "Yea, she just knit me a great sweater and now I'm sad I didn't wear it to show it off"
F: "You know the best hand knit ever?"
H: "What?"
F: "Fingerless gloves, they are so wonderful, I wear them all the time when I work from home and it's winter and cold"
H: "She never knit me any of those, I didn't know they could be useful"
F: "Well, I guess you wouldn't really need them here as much as I do in Vermont, but really they're the best thing in the world, really useful, even though you wouldn't think it"

I silently shook my head and promptly forgot about it.

A few days later, we were driving to campus and hub put his thoughtful voice on and said: "You know what would be really useful, a pair of fingerless gloves, you know with half fingers to keep your hands warm, but still let you drive"

I stifled my "I told you so", and said, "Yes, I know, I wear mine all the time, see...", at which point I waved my grace mitts in front of his face.

He replied: "Maybe could you make me a pair?"

*loving eye roll* "yes dear".

Yummm....

We're on a cooking kick here. We decided to start the new year off in a more organized fashion and we've been doing the "Grocery Bag" feature from Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine. This is a really great feature, we are having a lot of success with it, and I'm discovering that cooking can be fun and easy. Anyways, one of these was to make chicken pot pies. Rather than the traditional "pie" method, this recipe called for putting a layer of puff pastry on top for just an upper crust.


Well it turns out puff pastry sheets only come in a pack of two. So, not wanting to waste the 2nd sheet, or let it fall to the back of the fridge to be lost forever. I jumped on puffpastry.com in a rare-I-must-bake-something-right-this-minute mood. That spontentatiy really limits what you can make, since most puff pastry recipes require some specialized filling, which was not immediately available in my house. This was one of those baking-now-or-never emergencies, so it could have very easily failed. But, puffpastry.com came through with this result:

They are called peanut butter cups. It takes less time than the recipe implies, I didn't really measure, just threw in some chocolate chips instead of baking chocolate and skipped out on the marshmallows (I can't remember the last time I had marshmallows of any sort in my house).


I sprayed the pans with PAM before putting in the pastry, and they popped right out. I only have 12 muffin tins, so I made four giant cups with my ramekins:

So, yummy....

Cleaning up.

Going through my crafty stuff the other day I came across all the stuff that used to be in our mostly unsuccessful etsy shop. Etsy is a great venue for handmade goodies, but to be a success there you really have to have the time to self promote, talk in the forums, advertise around, etc. Being that I have a full time job, I just don't have the time to do all of that.

Anyways, I figured I'd give it one last try and reactivated all of the listings. If the don't sell this time I'm going to start wearing them myself ;)

airgirls.etsy.com

My Beau

Every year, my beau, the best husband ever, gets a sweater. He wears them, sometimes, every day. He appreciation and pride for the hand knits makes the process a joy for me. He helps me pick the yarn, the pattern and gets all excited whenever he sees me working on it. I love knitting for him. 2009 was no different, even though it was stretched to the very end of the year, he got a sweater.

He has a Cambridge Jacket, and a Cobblestone (mine), and of the two he prefers the zip up style of the jacket, so he requested his next sweater be of that style. It really is more versatile for southern life, where wool sweaters are not required in the same way as they are up north. He also went through my books and requested this for his next sweater. Those two requests being completely opposite, required some knit-mods on my part. I was feeling brave so I decided I was up to the task.

The modified Beau on my beau.

Basically, I followed the pattern for size small, but just knit the front in two pieces, adding an extra stitch at the center front (for each side), which I knit on the right side and slipped on the left side to form a nice edge where the zipper would go. Then I eliminated the bind-offs where the placket was supposed to be and incorporated those extra decreases into the neck shaping. Everything else was just the same as the pattern. There was a little ripping and fixing in the neck area, but mostly that's because I wasn't paying attention.

To put in the zipper, I followed Grumperina's directions, and added a striped grosgrain ribbon to make it look finished. I thought about putting it in the sewing machine, but in the end I chickened out on that. It's time consuming to do all that hand finishing, but well worth it.

Overall, I'm pleased with it. I think it's a little snug in the shoulders, which is something I'll have to address for the 2010 sweater, but he's happy and it's been well worn so far.

Pattern: Beau from Rowan Vintage Knits zippified.
Yarn: Filatura Lanarota Chaco, purchased at Rhinebeck in 2007. It's a standard worsted 100% wool (just under 6 balls, I still have 4 more left)
Needles: US size 5 and 7 from knitpicks harmony interchangeables (love!)
Zipper purchased from zipperstop to get the correct length.