pepperknit

Let’s start with the knitting—this is, at its core, a knitting blog after all.

The total here might look paltry . . . and, well, it is! Seven? That’s it? Really? Did I forget to tag something and put it in the set? Hm . . . I know that the scarf took me no more than a week, the cowl something like 2 days. . . . What was I doing with my time?

Oh, that’s right: “secret” projects. More on those in a bit.

Probably the most satisfying thing I did this year was really invest my time in crocheting. I’ve always known how to crochet, but I mostly ignored the craft—sure, in 08 I made Dhoby, the monkey, but that felt like an exception, not the rule. But this year I started working at Crochet Today part time, and it only made sense that I would suddenly want only to crochet, being surrounded by it all day long. Still mostly just small projects, but fun ones!

But this mosaic doesn’t even address all the things I crocheted this year . . . yes, more secrets. (Revealed below.)

I sewed this year too—seems I average one sewn project a year these days, though I buy more fabric than gets used. I foresee more sewing in 2010, definitely.

oh, and

But one major reason my productivity is seemingly small is that I was involved in quite a few projects I kept secret. Two projects went to Caro and Stitchy for their “bookbookbook.” Several others are my own designs-in-progress, which need some srs TLC in the coming year.

Three were patterns for Crochet Today (under my real name; still working to figure out how to best link that to Minty). But only 2 are out yet:

And the coolest secret project I worked on was to make the white backgrounds for this video demonstrating the tabs function in Google Chrome OS! I didn’t make the first white bg you see, but I did the second and third—and I did them both in one painful, RSI-inducing day. I’m still not clear who of my readers suggested me to the production company, but a big “thank you!” because that was one of the more fun things I’ve been involved with.

So in some ways it doesn’t look like much, but in others this year was a big one for me, craft wise. I’ve got lots of creative mojo gearing up for 2010: I think it’s going to be great!

Back in Vestvember, I got very zealous and started three vests. Two I finished during the month of November, but as the third was a Christmas present for Dad, I moved a bit slower on it. I brought it with me to Norway and worked on it in plain sight of the recipient :)

I finished up the knitting on Wednesday in the evening and eagerly soaked it to get it fully blocked. Since I was using yarn reclaimed from an old WIP, it was all blumpy and messy looking. I was anxious to get it dry right away, so I ran it through mom’s dryer on “no heat” for 30 minutes. But after 30 minutes nothing was happening, so we changed the cycle to “warm” for 20. The yarn was Cascade 220 Superwash bought a long time ago, so I figured it would do it good—superwash always grows so much and often benefits from some dryer time, right?

NO.

The damn thing felted up. Not, perhaps, as much as it could have—there’s still the lovely cable pattern visible—but it felted nonetheless. I shrieked and cried, and mom and i each grabbed one side of the sweater and pulled and pulled and pulled. We got it a bit longer.

I told dad he’d be squeezing into it come the 25th no matter what, though, and he did! We even got some tiny snowflakes falling for our photo shoot on the deck.

Dr. G’s Memory Vest (rav | pattern)
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash (though perhaps that is debatable)
Needles: US 8
Started: November 11
Finished: December 23
Notes: I only worked the pattern on the front, so I worked the back as a size x-small and the front as a size small. Honestly, the gauge was a bit open on 8s with this yarn (since Cascade isn’t really a true worsted weight), so the felting has resulted in a really great looking sweater. If only it fit better!

It’s a bit tight to get on and off at the neck, and the armholes are on the tight side; we may just cut them open to allow for some room. It’s snugger than intended but the fact that it still fits has me concerned that the unfelted version might have been big anyway! Honestly, given how nice the fabric looks I’d recommend making a size or two larger and felting it intentionally.

It’s best reserved for only the coldest of winter days here in Norway, anyway. But I think that’s every day.

Merry Christmas all! I’m here in Norway celebrating with my parents. It’s been freezing and snowy pretty much every day. But I suppose that’s a lot more Christmassy feeling than what we had the last time we were together for the holiday.

Merry Christmas!

I’m not sure if I believed that it was going to work, despite all assurances that it would.

When people told me it was no sweat—really—to take scissors to my knitting, I nodded and shrugged like I was well versed in this technique and had no concern.

But the truth is, I’d done a whole lot of reading about steeking, understood the theory and concept thoroughly, and seen loads of friends do it, but I hadn’t yet done it, I was scared out of my mind.

But I dove into the Deep-V Argyle Vest anyway.

And guys, it is no sweat—really—to take scissors to your very feltable 100% wool sweater.

I’m lucky, though: JulieFrick let me give it a whirl first on the adorable Grows Like a Weeds that she knit for her boys.

But back to my knitting—that’s why you’re here, right? My totally perfect argyle vest? The one that’s super warm and yet still comfortable and I am totally in love with?

Deep-V Argyle Vest (pattern | my rav page)
Yarn: Ella Rae Classic, in blue and gray (3 balls of blue and 2 of gray)
Needles: US Size 4. I bought Hiya Hiya steels, and they were nice! Cheap, and they come with a cute locking stitch marker
Started: November 9 (swatching), started knitting for reals on November 12
Finished: The knitting was done on November 18. This is the first time I’ve taken notice of the fact that I actually knit the colorwork part in just 6 days. Dang. I finally got around to steeking on November 21, and it was blocked and dry on November 29. (Basically, I took forever to finish the finishing.)

Notes: So, the pattern is the Deep-V Argyle but I honestly think a super-deep-v looks, well, silly on most people, especially those like me who are not overly well endowed. But what’s great about this pattern is that the entire thing is charted, so you can just redraw your own outline and go from there. So that’s what I did, and in the end I probably did something that was closest to the 36″ size, but I cut the number of rows below the waist shaping and cut out rows in the armholes, too (my row gauge was slightly off). In some ways I didn’t knit the pattern at all—it’s as if I took the argyle chart and just drew my own sweater on it! The detailed and reassuring information in the pattern about steeking was really helpful, though.

And it was no sweat, I swear.