maggistitches

Half a Vest

Gesta back
Originally uploaded by maggistitches

Wow, that was quick! According to the date I added Gesta to my list over there, I finished the back of this Noro vest in just two weeks. The interesting thing will be seeing how the stripes unfurl in a second skein of this Kochoran.

In case you don't yet have access to Ravelry, I'll note that initially I tried for a custom fit by knitting the Medium on US10s instead of 10.5s, hoping to get it smaller than 38”. I was thinking that the Small at 34” would be too tight. Also, I began my initial cast-on in the round. But I soon found that this yarn is too big for 10s, and the pattern's no fun for knitting in the round with its preponderance of purls. After reading a lot of other Ravelers’ notes, I decided to take a chance on knitting the Small. It looks like this will be fine ~

A Sock for Me, A Sock for B

I wanted an easy sock but I thought this yarn needed a little more than plain stockinette, so I inserted two rows of seed st in a Fibonacci sequence. After I finished the first sock for me, I made one for Little B without the patterning. I think the yarn stripes more nicely on the smaller sock. These balls of Knit Picks Essential were actually “seconds” and on sale but I don’t recall exactly what was supposedly wonky about them. I haven’t knit socks on US2s in a while and mine is a 56-st cast-on; I finished it in less than two weeks! Quite the contrast to the 76-st mansocks I’m in year two of knitting (but I am on the second one).

Heil Paints a Quilt

Remember my friend Heilbron, the one who lit a fire in my quilter a year ago? She's still fast at it, and brought two lovely pieced tops to S&B 10 days ago. One was a variation on a log cabin that I'm going to have to try (but that's not why I failed to photograph it). Thew other was this amazing landscape (click for the big image):

She made this as part of a "blessing way," to which guests were asked to bring a piece of fabric (maybe a fat quarter?) that would be stitched into a quilt for the forthcoming new baby. I don't think she's ever done anything like it, so free form and painterly. It blew us all away!

Wee C helped

Brooke's doll quilt
Originally uploaded by maggistitches

. . . me make this little quilt for her best friend last weekend while Little B napped. She arranged the strips that were on the ironing board from the baby quilt, the Advent calendar and the ART180 cookbook-matching pot holders. I forgot to measure, but guess it's around 12 x18 inches. I stitched my favorite free-motion loops on the verticals, then "wrote" Brooke's name in cursive across the horizontal portion. I couldn't remember exactly how to write a K because my handwriting is more print-based, but the recipient is a first grader so maybe she doesn't know either!

The O-Sweater

That designation could be for the Other sweater, of the two I finished in December, but it's also the O-Wool sweater,with which I am utterly pleased, and not only because I am wearing it in the same season in which it's completed, a rare thing for this knitter.

Thanks to Stewart and Melanie at the Yarn Lounge for this photo, which they took a few weeks ago and posted on the shop blog yesterday for FO Friday. I did, of course, purchase the Vermont Organic Fiber Company O-Wool Classic at the shop when they were hosting a Vermont Organic Fiber mini-trunk show and pushing organic yarn for a discount. The red sample of this particular sweater caught my eye, but I chose to be really green and go for the green. Since it is knit on US9s and pretty lacy, I finished it in record time. I like it a lot; the only thing I'll note is that the yarn had a lot of VM in it, and I became wary of pulling it out of the long-staple plies.

I've only made about a dozen sweaters. And this is the first one outside of the Bonne Marie/ChicKnits triumvirate that fits me well. Maybe I've learned something!

Once a Poncho

Yes, like so many knitters, I made myself a poncho in 2004. Designed it, even. Sparked it a bit at the family-reunion campfire. Wore it but found it impractical. But what to do with all that fancy (and relatively expensive) ribbon yarn?

For a year I subscribed to Vogue Knitting, and when I saw this pattern last summer, I realized the Tartelette would work nicely, just as well as the Colinette ribbon the pattern spec'd.

The results are so-so, but I've worn this outfit twice already. I'm just not sure I'd wear it with anything other than this 10-year-old velour dress (which I had in mind to revive with the sweater). The twisted part is a little wonky, and I think I should've knit it a bit larger, but them's the breaks!

Happy New Year!

And here's to better blogging, as I missed December altogether and only posted twice each of the two prior months. I did have major work-related events of several days' duration each in November and December, but that's only an excuse for my exhaustion. I was doing all kinds of stitching, but just failed to report it in a timely fashion.
Today is Day 12 of our holiday break, and I gotta hand it to you stay-at-home moms ~ especially the unpartnered ones. Other than three shopping excursions of less than an hour's duration each, I have been with my wonderful children the entire time. And my marvelous brother (who spelled me those escapes) much of it, thankfully.
This was our first Christmas to begin new traditions away from our departed parents, as last year we were just returned from China and didn't know which end was up. For starters I made an Advent calendar:

The purchased fabric panel provided all I needed as far as the front; I supplemented batting, back and binding. The girls enjoyed it mightily and I completed it right at the beginning of December, filling the numbered pockets with pairs of candy canes, chocolates, pens, notepads and ornaments. Next year we will do as my friend with twins, and let one girl have the first day (odds) and the other the last (evens).
Caroline and I went to see The Nutcracker one afternoon while Little B napped at her sitter's. We figure she can come along when she is four or five, but not next year. I can only hope that when our next performance rolls around, the Wee C finds a new favorite character, as this year she was pining for "the bad brother" who broke Clara's gift.

We went to church at four on Christmas Eve, then went to the girls' godparents for dinner, where their eldest reported Santa's progress via the NORAD site every 10 minutes. They were quick to bed and reasonable to rise; we called Uncle Charles before going downstairs to discover what Santa had brought, and he arrived with another Santa gift or two as well as his own. I made French toast for breakfast and served smoked salmon for lunch, then we joined another family for Christmas dinner as we had last year.

Back to the stitches. All fall I couldn't stop making those little doll quilts, so I gifted three to the girls Little B spends her days with:

Today Caroline & I collaborated on one for her best friend, but I have to attach the binding. A future post! I also made the cookbook-matching potholders I alluded to in an earlier post, but neglected to photograph any of the four. Maybe I can get Frances to bring hers to S&B next week. . .

I finished the Bermuda Chevron I started in September just in time to give it to B's sitter. She loved it. The 36-stitch narrow version I found on Ravelry ended up well over six feet long with just two skeins of Koigu.

Back to school and work tomorrow, so I'm going to stop for now. Believe it or not, I also have two new sweaters to report on, but I am waiting to download the photo of one of them, taken at the LYS where I got the yarn and pattern. They've been on holiday too ~

MM's Sonnet

MM's Sonnet
Originally uploaded by maggistitches

Machine-pieced and -quilted, using a charm pack of the plaids from April Cornell's Sonnet line for Moda, this baby gift measures 45" square. Each block is two squares and a rectangle, the latter from the same floral, with the border in another colorway. The back is one more floral with the green for its background. I quilted squares on the diagonal, not all of them alike, then did freeform zig-zag along the same angles across the border. We met the new baby, Mary Marshall, just after her first Christmas last Friday. Although I did not vet the colors with the mom or the nursery, it was a hit! Yea!