KnittingNutter

Spring is busy Birthday season Chez Zanatta. Thank goodness for my new-found love for socks. I would never have been able to find the time to fulfill my (self-imposed) need to give only knitted things to my friends and family.

So, apart from sewing together the sweater that has now dried (project for tonight), I have the following projects to start:

- Socks for Johna (our much-loved nanny who we share with another family). I actually cheated and have started on the socks already, despite the fact that I promised myself that I would finish my sister's sweater first... I can't help myself. This needs to be completed by March 27.
- A vest for my brother's 30th Birthday - to be completed my mid-April to be sent by mail to Europe.
- I'm donating a knitted sweater to the highest bidder for a local charity and the yarn arrived last week, so that comes after my brother's vest.
- A knitted soft toy for my nephew - his Birthday is in late May. Any fun suggestions? I have some dark green, brown and grey soft wool yarn - so endless possibilities.
- A Norwegian-style sweater for myself - yes, I've indulged in buying a pattern and wool for myself, but the project keeps slipping. It's fun to give away knitted presents...
- A purple cardigan for my daughter's Birthday - early July.

Phew, I get exhausted just looking at this list. Do you think I'll make all the projects on time?

I did it, I did it, I did it, yeah!... in total Dora the Explora plagiarism (Dora who rocks my three year old daughter's world), I have completed the sweater. I trudged through the blogging, I wallowed in the boredom of sewing the pieces together and tonight I finished the collar. And here it is:

Monday, this will make the trip via mail across the Atlantic in time for my sister's birthday. Onto those socks for Johna. Thanks Jeanne for the suggested patterns from knitty.com.

The sweater for my sister is on its way in the mail and, with that project finished, I've gone into a flurry of activities. My enthusiasm for starting projects far outreaches that of finishing projects... I'm sure I'm not the only one.

First, the surprise move. I dug out a WIP from the back of the closet - called cardigan for myself ala 2005. Yes, it's been sitting pretty that long, waiting to morph into a cardigan by magic. Unfortunately, no magician has been to visit, so I blocked the pieces this weekend. I like simple garments, so I'm convinced that I will wear this until it wears thin on the elbows and I have to patch them:

Onto my socks. I love this simple pattern and the yarn I'm using is simply delicious. I've read quite a few of you sock blogs out there and hear you are also using Memories from Knit Picks. As a beginner sock knitter, I have to say, I love the softness and the colours. I'm working on the second sock for the birthday present for our nanny:

And there's more. I told you it's easier to start projects. I've started working on the back for the vest that I'm sending to my brother for his birthday. You can't really see it well on this photo, but there are ridges travelling down the back. I'm knitting this with the last of my Emu yarn from my stash in a delicious chocolate brown:

I'm on track, but have no progress pictures. Turning the heel on the second sock for our nanny's birthday present and am halfway through the back of the vest for my brother.

And now I'm starting to fall into the "new patterns trap" - gotta keep focused or I'll never finish on time.... but check out these knitty patterns. I saw this pattern on quite a few blogs and I can't wait to get started on this lace scarf: http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring05/PATTbranchingout.html. It's simply exquisite and this will be my first attempt at lace knitting.

Jeanne suggested any of Cookie A's patterns on knitty.com and I am warming to the idea of launching myself into more complex sock knitting. Thanks Jeanne.

Oh no, I'm spinning out of control.

Knitting disaster has struck. I think the recent blocking successes have gone to my head, because I decided to block a log cabin blanket. This is a blanket from the "Mason-Dixon Knitting" book and is called Modern Log Cabin. It took me hours upon hours and then more hours to knit it. This is how it's supposed to look:

And this is the disaster that came off my needles:

My daughter is trying to display my utter dismay at my inability of knitting consistent garter stitches. I don't think acting is in her future:

I can't understand how this happened. I picked up the right amount of stitches throughout the project.

I've already resigned myself to the fact that I have to redo the borders. That can be fixed. I'm not sure I can fix this, though. The whole blanket is completed warped and I'm not sure I can stretch it to a perfect square - gah, what do I do? Any words of wisdom?

In further knitting news, I made a big counting mistake on my brother's vest. I'm at the armhole stage of the back piece and instead of reducing one stitch either end for 10 rows, I for some unexplainable reason reduced stitches for 20 rows - sigh! That was yesterday and I went to bed feeling like a big knitting failure.

Today is looking brighter. I've picked up the 10 rows and am making progress on the back of the vest. And I finished the socks. They're made from Knit Picks' Memories - Redwood Forest. I simply love these colours.

I've given up. Blocking the log cabin blanket did not work. For some inexplicable reason, the larger squares are a lot bigger than they should and stretching the final corner simply ripped up the pins that were holding the rest of the blanket in place. So, it's official, I'm not a fearless knitter anymore. I can't climb this mountain - Mason-Dixon got the better of me...

I'm taking solace in the fact that the vest is turning out great. OK, so it's the second time I'm knitting it (the first time I knit the same pattern cardigan for hubby). But check it out - the colour is great and the cable is nice and even...

I'm racing through this project as I'm starting to think about the next couple. I want to knit my nephew a cuddly toy, so any suggestions for a fun soft toy for a boisterous boy that's turning four would be greatly appreciated. And after that I really have to get going on the sweater I have agreed to knit for the person who bid the highest for the local charity. The yarn arrived last week, so I have no excuses now.

And all I really want to do is knit one of the fun new sock patterns from the Spring issue of knitty... Perhaps I'll follow many of you out there - lots of WIPs at the same time. You know who you are - I read your blogs.

I'm following in the footsteps of other knitters - many of you who are doing great things that I could only aspire to. Yes, I'm digging into the stash and am starting new projects before finishing off my previous project. Last night I got tucked into this cute sweater:

(It's extremely hard to take pictures of laminated paper - sorry about the flash.)
Most of the sweater is st st throughout - a definite TV-watching knitter project. But the sleeves have these adorable leaf lace patterns, so I just had to start with those. Here's my third attempt and I'm finally getting it:

It's so nice to get a break from the vest. I like knitting it, but second time round I'm starting to feel like I could knit it in my sleep.

Hmmm, what project shall I start tonight. Perhaps the diamante socks from knitty? I'm on a roll now. Focus on starting projects and they will finish themselves... right?!

With reckless abandonment and no consideration for planned design, I've decided to knit my own socks from my own design - a design that I'm creating on the fly. As this is the fourth pair of socks I've ever made, I know this is pure folly and I'll probably get halfway down the sock and find I've made a huge design mistake.

However, nothing ventured nothing gained. So, here's what I'm doing. I wanted to give the sock some colour variation and texture, so I started with a ribbed inch in dark blue at the top and then squares in one solid colour:

And then I thought I'd add a band of pattern - still in squares:

And here's my choice of colours - I know, very conservative...

What's the odds of me finishing two socks in this unplanned way? Probably next to none, but I'll call it a learning experience, grow a little wiser and, at the end of it, have even more respect for the pro designers.

Otherwise, I'm nearly finished with the right front half of the vest for my brother, which is good, because I need the 4.5 mm needles for the ivory sweater. Having lots of WIPs drains on the resources...

Oh boy, I got so mad yesterday and it was one of these situation where you couldn't shout at anyone. And I really wanted to. My 3 year old daughter came home with scratches on her face and neck yesterday. She'd got in a fight over a toy with another little girl and there was some pushing on both ends and then the other girl took it one step further and decided to draw blood...

A night's sleep has put some perspective on the situation and all parents dealt with the event in a grown-up fashion, so it's all behind us now. But last night, all I could do was turn to my knitting for some therapy. So I have lots to show.

First, I finished the front right panel of the vest and blocked it... ta da... I hope my brother (the lucky recipient) will love the chocolate brown colour as much as I do:

And I also finished the first arm on the ivory leaf-lace sweater:

Initially I thought: "Ivory, that will be one boring sweater", but the woman who chose the colour has a better sense of fashion than I do. I think it'll turn into a beautiful classic...

Tonight I'm starting the pattern part of my basket weave socks. I'm going to try something a bit unconventional and it'll either be brilliant ("why didn't I think of that?") or the worst idea ever ("no wonder noone else has tried this"). I'm going to continue the basket weave and AT THE SAME TIME knit a thee-coloured patterns that repeats across 15 stiches. Today, I'm thinking this is a fun and different pattern. We'll see what I think tomorrow.

My respect for pattern designers is now insurmountable. My sock design has gone through two renditions and tonight I'm going to try a third design. The first idea of continuing the basket weave and at the same time a multicoloured pattern that repeats over 15 stitches went the way of "no wonder no one has thought of this before - it looks awful". It just looked too ugly on the purl stitches.

So, I thought, let's do multi-couloured squares across two stiches within the basket weave pattern. Same problem - too ugly across the purled stitches.

So tonight I will get this right... I hope. Multicoloured pattern for 16 rows in st st and then continue the basket weave across the rest of the sock.

I've finished the back of the white sweater. Good thing I'm hooked on reality TV as knitting 47 cm of st st is a bit of a chore. And the front piece looks the same... sigh. As a reward for finishing these pieces I get to knit another lace sleave, though.