pepperknit

I started Lopi over again, this time back on the 11s. Having started and stopped this bag three times now, I’m a pro at handling the casting back on for the handle holes. In order to avoid gaping holes on either side, I wanted to incorporate a k2tog. But where to do the m1 to maintain the stitch count? If I put the m1 right next to the increases, it left a large hole in the row below. (I suppose if I’d have been thinking harder I would have gone for inc in front and back of the stitch, but it’s moot now.) So I m1 one stitch out, and k2togged the first cast on with the first of the body. It’s all smooth and looks nice, with nothing ragged or out of whack. I just know that if I had allowed an errant hole, that’d be the spot where the felting failed me.

Grumperina’s published her Tivoli T in multiple sizes via Mag Knits, renaming the piece the Picovoli. I suppose it’s really only a Picovoli if you add the option picot edge. I think mine will be picot-free.

Interestingly, the directions from before were for a finished bust of 31″ and you cast on 144 stitches. Now the finished bust of 32″ requires 136 stitches? Something isn’t computing for me here.

Amy’s comment below is right–why let good Manos go unused? I think talking it out last night on the blog helped me realize that, and I happily knit away on my version of the Lopi tote using the yarn.

The pattern calls for large needles and a gauge of 3st=1in. I looked at a book I have on felting, and it does say that you want your gauge to be rather loose, but when I did the Manos at 3/in, it looked ridiculous. I know I’ve never felted, so what do I really know about how it’s going to turn out, but I want a firm finished product, and I decided that that meant I needed a more normal gauge. So I switched from 11s to some mysterious size (Asian needles that are very old) that’s big but not so big and kind of looks like 10s to me (though they’re labled 11, I think). To maintain the general size, I increased the total stitches to 100. I also wanted the top edge to be a little fuller than the rest, so I did some garter stitch up there.

I’m beyond the handles and am just moseying along in the body of the bag. No need to think, which is quite nice.

Last night before I went to sleep I lay in bed thinking of possibilities with the bags and got very excited. THIS is the kind of feeling I’m used to when I knit. I decided that mom would get this Manos bag for Xmas and that I’d fill it with fun stuff–sort of like a stocking. Maybe I’ll try to make a matching low box for dad that he could put on his dresser to hold random things, and I’d fill his with things like golf balls and tees and a book or two. I can just picture the gifts under the tree, filled with wrapped presents.

I have no idea.

I don’t know that I’ve ever really had a big knitting block before. Usually I start planning my next project while I’m still halfway through the current one. Maybe it’s because of the blog, but I feel this urge to be more systematic about my approach. Perhaps it’s that now that I’ve discovered the whole world of knit bloggers and online resources, I’m overwhelmed with possibilities.

Or maybe it’s just that I’m bored to tears with the yarn in my stash and can’t settle on something new for which to buy yarn. I’m desperate to use up stash and get it out of sight, but . . .

One thing that caught my eye is the Lopi tote. It’s cute, it has a very sweet shape, and should knit up in no time flat. But it’s felted, something I’ve never done before (and I don’t have a washing machine). I thought it might be a nice gift for some friends for Christmas–with goodies tucked into the bags–and have been thinking about yarn to buy for it. In looking through my stash, I’ve realized that I have two skeins of midnight blue Manos that might work. But then I think, “Am I just wasting Manos?” Still, I’ve had these skeins for about 3 or 4 years; they were a gift from a nonknitting friend. It’s not a color that I see myself wearing, though it is a very attractive shade of blue. So I started the Lopi, but then felt it was silly to use Manos for it. So I stopped. And then I said, “Minty, what else are you using this Manos for?” and started again. And then just put it down and walked away.

And now I’m stuck. More to come.

When I said before that I finished the Ruffles scarf on Valentine’s Day, I wasn’t completely honest. I finished knitting the scarf then. I still had various ends to weave in–the yarn I used was a very random acquisition from Stitches years before, from a “$2/ounce” bin, and was a complete mystery yarn. There wasn’t even a tag giving the huge bundle’s weight–the woman who worked that booth and I guesstimated and she charged me $10 for it. It turned out to have a load of slubs and super-thin spots, so over the years, as I tried to make new thing after new thing out of it, it got broken up into about a thousand balls.

I’ve loved this yarn forever: It is lusciously soft. So it’s nice that I put it into a pattern that will sit against my sensitive neck.

The skinny:

• Ruffles from Scarf Style
• Size 3 needles (I don’t really remember, but I know they were either 2 or 3)
• Knit until I had no more yarn left. Can wrap around my neck twice and still hang prety low.
• Finished knitting while in the hospital with mom after her emergency appendectomy (got loads of compliments from hospital staff!)
• Finally sewed in ends in my finishing frenzy this weekend.

Brace yourself for the cuteness.

As I said before, I just love making these bootees. I’ve done another bootee pattern, also from the same book, and they were just not nearly so cute. They’re so little they fit in the palm of my hand:

I think used size 3 needles for these. No! I used size 2s. I used 3s for the main piece. Followed the pattern exactly. Not much more to say.

This morning, my boyfriend got back in touch with a friend he hasn’t seen in two years, since the friend’s wedding, and found out today that he and his wife have a 2-month-old kiddo, named Christian. So I am going to send the bootees to them. I think the full set (cardigan and bootees) would have been a little much, don’t you think?

It’s bubbling over with cuteness!

To recap:
This is the Garter Stitch Jacket from Debbie Bliss’s Quick Baby Knits.
I used size 3 Addi Turbos.
I altered the pattern by giving it shaping in the front instead of being a completely rectangular piece; I just sort of decided to start decreasing one stitch at the inside edge of each row and went all the way to the bottom, leaving a straight edge at the very bottom.
Nearly done photos are here.

I bought the buttons as a fabric outlet store on Fabric Row here in Philly. I wanted small wooden buttons, nothing cheesy or silly. I stitched them on using this cute little stitch because, well, I think it’s so dainty.

This will be a gift for Lea, my friend’s baby. I hope she can still fit into it come the wintertime; she was born in June, I believe.

While I continue to work away on the baby bootees, and the finishing of the baby cardigan still awaits, I’m trying to think about what I’m going to want to knit next.

And nothing is coming to me. I’m blank.

I’ve looked online at all sorts of sources, I’ve even been to the LYS to look at the books. Nothing really strikes me as something to make for myself. So I’m now thinking, maybe holiday presents. Maybe the ruffles scarf from Scarf Style*, which I made for myself last February.

I like it in a very thin, fingering weight, so it has a delicacy to it. I went to KnitPicks to see what options they have and this yarn’s color swatches are so vivid and close-up that I find myself backing away from the screen! So tempting . . . But who am I making them for, anyway?

*Funny anecdote about this book. . . . The book was sent to my company as an example of that kind of color printing (FM printing, I believe), along with some other books. The woman to whom they were sent gave it to me, knowing that I’m the only knitter in the office (she didn’t need the sample anymore). I assumed it was some book that had been around for a while; I had no idea that the book had just come out the summer before, nor did I know that all the bloggers were making their own Ruffles! I finished my Ruffles on the day after Valentine’s Day, sitting in the hospital with my mom, who’d had an emergency appendectomy (my dad was out of the country on business).

What some of you don’t know about me is that I really don’t like children all that much. I cannot see myself having one, or adopting one, or otherwise sharing my life with one. It’s just not for me. But as a knitter, of course, I luuurve baby items. And I love nothing more than baby bootees. These baby bootees. I’m spelling them Debbie Bliss’s way, because it is her baby bootee (this one in particular) that almost manages to spark something in me to actually have a kidlet.

(Not really, of course. But they’re so cute!)

I’ve made them before; I gave them to my friend prior to her daughter, Nina, being born:

For those, I also made little white flowers (hard to see detail with the flash) and attached them to the cuffs. I swoon, they’re so adorable.

So I’m making more baby bootees, because they’re just that awesome. I recommend this pattern, too, from Quick Baby Knits, because they’re really fast and easy. Very little seaming (just a touch). And–have I said it enough yet–very very cute!!!