Handknits to the Rescue

My mother had a minor procedure done on her head the first week I was home for Christmas break. She was perfectly fine afterward except for the fact that the stitches/recovery stipulated that she could not wash her hair for a few days.

We had church to attend. She couldn't shampoo her hair.

What to do? What to do?

What she decided to do was ask me ahead of time to bring all my berets home with me.

Sunday morning she picked out her outfit, we found an appropriate beret, and styled her up beautifully. No one at church had any idea that the decision was anything but an aesthetic one.

Handknits save the day yet again!

Commissions and Crunches

In addition to knitting projects for my own enjoyment, I completed several commission projects this semester as well.

HeeBee Beret:
One of my Resident Assistants, HeeBee, really liked the berets that I had made for myself. She asked if I could make her one in purples and greys. Berets being nearly as fast as beanies, I agreed. I made it out of KnitPicks Imagination in Arabian Nights. She really liked it, and received a ton of compliments!

Flame Beret {Photo Pending}:
One of the people who really liked HeeBee's beret was her really good friend Flame. Flame asked if I would make her a beret as well. She picked a yarn that I had in the stash. It was a jewel tone variegated Hacho from Mirasol Peru. (The yarn has been discontinued...so I bought scads of it in various colors on clearance at Knit This Purl That...LOVE THIS YARN!!!) Flame is classically beautiful in an old Hollywood sort of way. She looked great in the beret.

Dr. and Mrs. Boss Socks:
As previously blogged, Dr. Boss commissioned a couple of pairs of socks. Things got a little hairy with both pairs because I was using a self striping yarn. I am a little uptight, and had determined that the stripes on both pairs had to match perfectly. It was a bit of a headache, but worth it in the end. Overall Mrs. Dr. Boss's socks were a breeze. Lovely football knitting. Lovely airplane knitting as well. Dr. Boss's socks, on the other hand, not as joyous.(Note to self: Man Socks take FOREVER. I thought I would never finish those boogers.) I was very concerned that I was going to run out of yarn. In the end both pairs turned out beautifully, and were appreciated by their recipients.


A Capella Beanie and Scarf {Photo Pending}:
Sister has a really good friend that I met when I was visiting out there. SNC was heading up to Chicago for a Straight No Chaser concert...I think it is about the 1000th she has gone to. Chicago = Cold. SNC knew I knit (how could she not, I was doing it constantly while I was there) and asked if I could make her a plum hat and scarf. I took a pattern that I have been developing (The Hypothetical Beanie) and converted it into a scarf pattern, and made the matching beanie. I really liked the way they turned out. Hopefully SNC did as well.

A Couple of the projects I made for others can only be called Crunches! They were last minute, looming deadline, oh no I totally need to get these done NOW!!!

Wedding Knitting {No Photo, Cause They Are Gifts}:
BFF's younger sister is getting married this next week. I had asked her months ago what her kitchen colors were so that I could knit her dishcloths. But...then I kept postponing making them. Fast forward to last week. One of my residents goes to church with BFF's parents in Houston, and had agreed to act as my own personal UPS truck. She was going to take BFF's Christmas presents home with her at the end of the semester...WHOOPS! I had less than a week to get the wedding dishcloths done! Ack! Luckily they are quick knits...I made up 2 Movie Theater Dishcloths I...finishing them the night before they had to leave town! That was cutting it a wee bit close. I hope she likes them!

Argyle Beanie:
Argyle, one of my fellow RDs, is spending part of the winter break in Washington, D.C. It gets quite cold there, and Argyle does NOT like being cold. We were standing in the main office discussing holiday plans, when he turned to me and asked me if I had any spare beanies in my gift stash, and if so how much they cost. I told him that I certainly did, and quoted him a price. He pulled out the cash and said he wanted a grey or black one. I took the cash and went back to my apartment, where to my horror I realized that the grey beanie I thought was in the stash had actually been used as an emergency birthday gift a month or so earlier. OH NO! I took money under false pretenses! Luckily for me, I had dark grey yarn languishing in my stash. I cast on a version of the Knox beanie on a Thursday afternoon, and finished it before bed that night. It was a close call though...

Completions

I have been VERY productive this semester, as mentioned previously. Here are a few of the things I have finished. (This is not a complete rundown, since some of the projects were commissions, which I will talk about tomorrow, or are Christmas gifts, which I will show you after the holiday!)

Three Towers:
A few months ago I was ordering yarn from KnitPicks and needed to spend another $3 in order to get free shipping...so I ordered a ball of Swish DK Yarn in Merriwether...a color they don't seem to have anymore. When it arrived, I realized that it was almost the same color as Sister's eyes, and decided use it to make a beret for her. I had come across a stitch pattern that looked like the Eiffel Tower. Since Sister and I visited Paris together, I thought it would be fun to try and incorporate that into my standard beret. The result? The Three Towers.

Grimm Scarf:
I had initially hoped to submit the pattern for my blood and shadows scarf to KnitPicks. Who knows? I still might. In order to do so, I needed to knit a version of it out of one of their yarns. I bought a skein of the Imagination Hand Painted Sock Yarn in Wicked Witch. I also decided that the scarf pattern needed a new name. Since the original scarf was made as an homage to vampire literature, I knew I wanted a name that was dark. At the same time, I wanted to tie the name into the fantasy nature of the yarn colourways. How handy that some of the best fairy tales were written by the Brothers Grimm. I finished the scarf while I was in Kentucky a few weeks ago.

Shrug:
I made myself a shrug out of KnitPicks Shamrock yarn in Campbell. I LOVED working with this yarn. The color changes in it kept the knitting interesting, even though the pattern was the single most brainless project I think I have ever done! The pattern was the free Lion Brand Stockinette Shrug. I've linked to it, but it may require a membership to view. It is a REALLY easy pattern. You knit a really long rectangle with ribbing at each end, and then seam up the sides. It is crazy. And I think it is very flattering. (Also, it is very warm...being Shetland wool and all...)

Clementine Cardi:
I sort of almost finished this one. But I am still mad at it. No pictures until I get to Washington.

Colton Scarf:
After I finished the Baby^3 Blanket, I had odd amounts of the various yarns left over. What to do? What to do? And then it hit me...make a version of the scarf that goes with everything! I did a 2x2 ribbed scarf, changing yarns at random points throughout. It came out beautifully. I'm giving it to BFF for Christmas so that she can match the baby! (I'm pretty sure she doesn't read the blog, so I feel perfectly safe posting it here...)I think that this is a really great way to use up the stash as well. I have lots of little teeny tiny scrap balls that are just begging to be scarfed up!

What do Berets and Breasts Have in Common?

I finished the Avignon beret last night...sort of.

I was watching Project Runway again last week, and inspiration hit. So rather than work on the plethora of started or planned projects I have piling up, I decided to freelance through my stash!

Unfortunately, once I had cast off, I noticed that the beret had developed a bit of...well...a nipple. Where the ribbing joined in the decreases, a lovely little peak had formed. Not exactly an attractive feature in a hat.

Frustrated, I set it aside. I have often found it helpful to sleep on this sort of problem rather than immediately starting to freak out. (Freaking out seems to be my first and natural inclination! Dreaming Me came up with two solutions:

• frog it back to where the bulge begins and tinker with the decreases
• try to block it out

Blocking wins. Blocking is, ostensibly, an easier solution. I tried to use a dinner plate...but that wasn't working, so I switched the beret over to an upside down mixing bowl. Now I am waiting for it to dry. If this doesn't work, we'll move on to the more work intensive and obnoxious solution of frogging. Ugh.

(On the plus side, I used up the rest of the yarn from Twilight's birthday beret. I feel a little twinge of satisfaction every time I use stash yarn instead of making a purchase. Its like my own personal Knitters' DARE program...just say no to non-essential yarn shopping!)

Brulee

I love creme brulee.

I love that hard burned layer of sugar atop the rich-fattening-no-redeeming-value-weight-watchers-doesn't-make-points-high-enough-for-it custard.

Also, it is French.

So, naturally, when I decided to make myself a properly sized beret out of the 100% sugar cane yarn I purchased in FL, I decided to name it after this paragon of desserts.

This time I stuck to a pattern that I knew worked for my head, my personal fashion outlook, and the gauge of yarn I was using. (My favorite beret pattern is out of the Hollywood Knit Cafe book. It has divine, yet simple, decorative decreases.)

The yarn is "Sugar Rush" by Queensland Connection. It is uber soft, and uber silky. It is similar to a bamboo yarn in texture...which makes sense since I suppose sugar cane and bamboo are fairly similar plants. The one drawback was that the silky softness made for VERY slippery yarn. I switched needles halfway through from my standard metal Susan Boyles to bamboo circulars. The bamboo was able to get a better grip on the yarn, but managed to not snag it in any way.

The beret is beautiful, and I am very excited to have it to wear to the upcoming "Bongos+Beatniks+Berets" open mic poetry night I am hosting at the library.

(BTW...if you are ever in Orange County, CA you should go to Yves' Bistro for the BEST creme brulee you have ever eaten in your entire life. Or, if you don't like creme brulee...in which case you are clearly some sort of alien...at least try the Nouille Roulet entree. It's my favorite.)

I Need a Big Headed Friend!

I have been wanting to make myself another beret for a while. I made one for just about everyone I knew. I even had the yarn picked out...Misti Alpaca Suri & Silk in coral.

At first I intended to do my standard go-to beret pattern...from Suzan Misher's Knit Cafe book. Then I found a new pattern, a cool pattern, a very very me pattern...

It was free from SockPixie, and was based on the Elizabeth Zimmerman February Sweater...which I had made for myself.

Perfect! I thought. I dubbed it the Beret Pour Moi (beret for ME).I checked my gauge, I cast on, I knit. The beret seemed to be getting a bit big...but I kept double checking my gauge and measurements...they were correct, so surely it would work out. Granted, I had made a change (a ribbed band instead of i-cord), but not one that should have had great grevious impact on the finished product. I just figured that somehow working it on two circulars was making it appear larger than normal...like side mirrors on a car.

I finished it while I was in Florida, but was promptly sidetracked by the Knitting Olympics, and didn't get around to weaving in ends/trying it on till last weekend.


IT IS HUGE!!!

Beautiful, but huge.

I reexamined the pictures on SockPixie's blog. The one pictured is huge, or at least huge for how I wear my berets, but the artsy angle she photographed it at hid this from me.

So, now I either need to find a big headed friend willing to wear a bright orange beret, or resign myself to wearing it as a slightly poufy ski cap.

(BTW, I have cast on a second beret for myself...using my old and normal pattern and the black sugar cane yarn. I may get a wearable beret for myself yet!)

Packing...?

I have actually finished my knitting to-do list for Christmas. With two days to spare!

This leaves me with an interesting quandary...I no longer have any projects that I have to do...so what projects do I want to do?

I am heading to WA as we speak to be with the family. I needed to take at least 3 projects, one of each type:

1. Purse Project: Beret Pour Moi, which doesn't require a pattern, but does require attention.

2. Brain-free Project: Les Tuileries...which just keeps going and going and going

3. Pattern Project: Martinelli Sweater...I have the goal of completing it by New Years.

(I am also taking my Rivendell socks...they are small and portable, but totally require a chart. I figure they will be good for the car trip to my aunt's for Christmas, or the plane trip home.)

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Postings

For a brief moment of extreme cuteness:



Psych texted me the above photo of Angel yesterday morning...she is all decked out in her Envy Hat and carrying her Birthday Bangle Bag. I had an appropriate moment of reveling in the cuteness, and then went on with my day.

My day included redeeming my birthday pedicure gift certificate from Psych's family. I went to the nail salon, which was surprisingly busy for a Friday at 3! There were 6 other customers there. I sat awkwardly in the chair, wondering what I was supposed to be doing while my feet were being mucked about with. My choices appeared limited to watching a Vietnamese soap opera or reading trashy gossip magazines. I decided to do neither. I reached in my purse and pulled out a blue Envy Hat to work on. Knitting while getting my feet massaged is my new definition of bliss. (Also, since this hat is being commissioned, and the pedicure was free...I was essentially getting paid to have my toes painted...just saying.)

Anyway, by the end of the day I had hats on the brain. It has FINALLY gotten slightly chilly. It even sprinkled a bit yesterday. So I pulled out the tub-o-scarves (which also contains my hats), and started rummaging. I found my alpaca beret and decided on a whim to wear it to church. (We are having a gospel meeting this weekend.)

When I got to services, I was greeted by Angel. She started giggling and announcing that we matched. (This announcement was accompanied by her pounding herself on her head, in case I hadn't seen she was still wearing her hat.) Yet another moment of extreme cuteness:

B1's Birthday Beret

B1's birthday beret is finally finished! And only 3 months after her actual birthday! Actually, it isn't as bad as it sounds. We didn't get a chance to buy the yarn for it until the convention a couple weeks ago. So, it has actually only taken me 2 weeks to make. That's amazing considering the end of quarter projects and everything that I've had going on.

She wanted it done before her trip to FL. It is done before her trip to FL. That's all that matters.

As to the particulars: I made "Le Slouch." It's a great pattern that I got off Wendy Bernard's blog. It is one of her freebies, and is actually amazing to make. It is well written, very stylish, fairly easy, and fun. I appreciated that a lot of it was "brain-free" knitting...knit seed stitch in the round for 4 inches or so, for example. This made it great for American Idol night or school lectures.

The yarn was purchased, as I mentioned earlier, when we went to the Stitches West Convention. It is Full Thread Ahead's 100% Merino Jewels DK in Garnet. It had a great color and feel, but not the right weight, so I actually knit with two strands held together at once. The only tricky bit was after I had used all of the first 2 balls, since the whole thing only took three. I had to divide the last one in half, kind of a pain...but worth it.

B1 had asked for a beret a la Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown. I think that I was able to deliver that. The beret is slouchier than I had originally intended (even though I quit knitting after 5 inches instead of the 6 in the pattern), but she was happy, so I am happy.

Itty Bitty Knitty

I am apparently over at Preach and Psych's house often enough that their kids (Wiz, Spaz, and Angel) are totally over me. I am there so often that I even have an assigned seat on their living room floor. It doesn't matter whether I am there for Idol Night, Monday night Bible Study, the Oscars, or just cause, I always sit on the floor to the left of the fireplace, with my back against the wall. And I am almost always knitting. Angel doesn't even come look at me anymore, she just toddles around and occasionally throws a ball at my head.

A few weeks ago I noticed Wiz staring at me. Actually, to be more correct, he was staring at my hands. I could just tell what he was thinking. It was something along the lines of, "Hey, that doesn't look too hard. I bet I could do that!" So, I offered to show him how. I was working on Broseph's scarf at the time. Seeing as how he is their cousin and lives with them, I figured he wouldn't mind. Wiz ended up knitting a few stitches, proving to himself that he could do it, then he lost interest and went back to whatever tv show we had on at the time.

Well, last night was American Idol night, and so I found myself in my spot on the floor working on B1's birthday beret. Psych took Angel upstairs to bed, but Wiz and Spaz were allowed to stay downstairs for a while. (Which was good since I had brought ice cream cake over for them!)This time it was Spaz that was staring at me. All of a sudden he scooted over next to me and just kind of looked at me. I asked him if he wanted to try knitting. He nodded, and I had him crawl into my lap. With great concentration, he knit a stitch. The beret is seed stitch, and I was not about to teach him the difference between knitting and purling. We ended up knitting for a while, him in my lap, and alternating stitches. He did the knits, and I did the purls. It was, I kid you not, one of the sweetest things I have ever done. Blondie even snapped a couple pictures for me.

Eventually he lost interest and went back to his pillow. Still, several times throughout the night he came back to do a couple more stitches. At one point he rummaged around in my bag trying to find something he could do by himself. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything to give him. All I had on me was a lace scarf and my sweater.

After a few minutes of him rummaging, and Wiz watching us knit, I asked the boys if they would like me to bring them stuff to make their own scarves. They both nodded. Wiz, to be exact, actually said "That would be cool." So, next Tuesday I will bring 2 sets of small needles (I think I have some red heart kid's 8's and 9's somewhere), and a skein of blue yarn for Spaz, and a skein of green yarn for Wiz. I will probably go ahead and cast on for them both, and maybe even knit the first two rows or so, before I get there. Then, before we turn idol on, I will show them the knit stitch and set them free. Between Jester, Blondie, and I (all who will by that point be able to knit), we should be able to help them out. Even if they never finish the scarves, or if they only work on them when I am there, its OK. I am just excited that they were excited about it.

Stitches West 2009

I went to a YARN convention yesterday with B1. It was SOOOOOOOO exciting. There was literally an entire convention center filled with yarn, books, needles, and knitters. It was like a little slice of heaven here on earth.

Frankly, my ability to talk non-knitters into going to these sorts of things astounds me. (Since, technically, I talked 2 into going. Berkeley was originally going to go with me, but then she ended up having meetings she couldn't get out of.)

B1 was suitably impressed, but confided to me that I don't exactly look "knitterish"...there were some interesting folks out and about that day. In fact, after looking at one particularly enthusiastic knitter, B1 told me that if she ever caught me dressing that way she would either disown me as a friend or lock me up somewhere. I appreciated the sentiment.

Most importantly: I completely behaved myself. I bought the yarn for B1's birthday beret...which technically doesn't count as a purchase since I have had that yarn bought and paid for mentally since her birthday in December. I also shopped for buttons for a cardigan I am working on, but didn't find any I liked.

The only other thing that I bought was a pattern, Silken Scabbard by Stitch Divas. (...and believe me this was tough since everything was so pretty, and soft, and tempting...) We walked around a corner, and I saw this sweater on a mannequin and my jaw literally dropped. I was even more excited when I looked at the pattern and saw it was a top-down, in the round, seamless construction. While the sample was knit in cashmere (mmmm...cashmere), and mine will not be for financial reasons, I still think whatever silk/wool blend I choose will make for a sumptious and gorgeous garment. I just have to finish several other things before I start, or even buy yarn, for this one.

Parade of Berets

I have been on a beret binge.

First, I made one for Blondie. She has been so great ever since I moved here, truly like a sister. I told her I would make something for her, and so we went to the yarn shop. We originally planned on a scarf, but she was drawn to some alpaca wool that told her it wanted to be a beret. (She had some scarves already, but no beret.) Sadly, she has been camera shy so far...her's is deep purple and similar to Kirsten Dunst's in Elizabethtown.

Next up was my friend Berkeley, who is finishing her master's degree in engineering. I felt that she needed a congratulatory present...especially since she is 1/3 or my new rock band...but what to get her? While we were at Disneyland a few weeks ago with Blondie and Mama Liszt, she noticed the prevalence of berets. She mentioned that she would love to have one, and I pointed out that I could make that possible as her grad present. When we got back to our neck of the woods, I drove her over to Knit This, Purl That. She was noticeably overwhelmed by the variety and sheer volume of choices. She selected a lovely dk wool in variegated rainbow colors. Very South American/ethnic/Berkeley vibe yarn. So, using a pattern that I had previously used from Knit Cafe, I whipped up a beret for Berkeley.

Finally, Jester. Her birthday party was actually the night Berkeley, Blondie, and I returned from Disneyland. I had TOTALLY not had time to go shopping, the poster I planned on getting her had to be ordered online, and I was flummoxed. Then, I remembered what I was doing for Berkeley, and wrote a note on Jester's birthday card. It promised her a trip to the yarn store, a hat/scarf/or wrist warmers, and coffee. She chose a chunky merino wool blend in shades of magenta and red. She also wanted a beret. I ended up adjusting the Knit Cafe pattern to suit a much larger gauge. (In fact, I had to frog most of it when I was nearly done, and re-knit the whole thing, otherwise Jester would have been channeling Strawberry Shortcake! it was HUGE!!!)

The ironic thing is that I finished Jester's beret before I had had a chance to give Berkeley her's, so they were delivered the same Sunday morning. I ended up wearing my alpaca/silk beret to church that night, so that we could be the Beret Triplets! (Blondie was out of town, or we would have been quadruplets!)

So...Who is next? Anybody else feel the need to beret it up? Or, perhaps a more appropriate way of putting it: Voulez-vous un beret?