First ’08 FOs

Wow, three posts in three days! Perhaps I have turned over a new leaf, or maybe not, we shall see.

I present my last FO of ’07. One mitten. I bought the kit for this, Peace Fleece Child’s Rainbow Mittens, over Thanksgiving and as soon as I told Bunny about them he started to ask if they were done. I told him I would start them after Christmas, and on the 26th he asked about them.

They were a quick knit, and lots of fun. The thumb ended up too tight so I ripped it, picked up more stitches and finished it off. One done.

Then I knit the second one…My first FO of ’08.

Notice anything? Yeah, when I finished the first one Bunny admitted that he had to curl his fingers at the ends. Whoops! So I knitted the second one longer. Once it was done, and deemed the correct length, I set to work fixing the first one.

I picked up one side of each stitch on a long circ and then went to town frogging the end of the mitten.

That was fun and having the needle there worked great. I was able to knit right off that needle, make the mittens match and whew, mittens.

Bunny loves them. He has worn them every cold day even before I got a chance to wash them. After I did wash them he loved them even more. That Peace Fleece really gets softer!

We have had some trials trying to get a string so they wouldn’t get lost, but have settled on a ribbon that was machine stitched together. Maybe someday I will manage a photo of them in use.

I have also finished a Toddler Umbrella Hat and one dishcloth. The hat was already gifted and the mom loved it. The dishcloth is the first of a bunch I need to knit as part of a prize for the school auction.

It’s all about the math, dude!

I spend a rather relaxing week-end knitting on a Tomten (Ravelry link)for Bunny. I’m liking the Peace Fleece more and more. From my swatch I did some math to figure out how many stitches to cast on. I measured a sweatshirt Bunny has to get a size, 33″ around the hem. My post washing gauge was 30 stitches in 6.5 inches (about 4.6 stitches per inch) multiplying by 33 and then rounding up (always round up when knitting for a growing child) to get a multiple of 8 I ended up with 160 for my magic cast on number.

I cast on the 160 and was knitting merrily along. I measured my swatch again, as well as the sweatshirt and decided that 45 ridges would give me the correct length. Last night I looked at what was left of my first ball of yarn, and what I had knit, and hit the panic mode! Clearly I was not going to have enough yarn…

I considered turning it into a problem for my students (and I still may) but I went to work figuring out how much yarn I would need. In case you, like me, like this sort of thing here’s my thinking.

I have knit 160 stitches x 15 ridges and used about 3/4 of a skein

That means 4,800 stitches (160 x 15 x 2) is 3/4 of a skein, so 1,600 stitches in 1/4 of a skein, or 6,400 stitches per skein.

So, how many stitches in my tomten?

Body before the break for sleeves: 160 x 45 x 2 (stitches, ridges, rows per ridge) = 14,400

Body above the break for sleeves (using the fact that the pattern calls for 40 ridges before the sleeve and 28 after and I am using 45 before I figured I should do 32 after): 80 x 32 x 2 = 5,120

Sleeves (again I used proportions from the pattrn and my numbers to get): 2 x 65 x 63 x 2 = 16,380

Hood (more proportions): 100 x 32 x 2 = 6400

Adding them all up: 14,400 + 5,120 + 16380 + 6400 = 42,300

42,300 stitches/6,400 stitches per skein = 6.6 skeins

I have 4 skeins, so I figure I better order at least 3 more and I’m thinking 4 just to be safe… I can always make more mittens!

Lost

It is with great sadness that I announce the loss of my Cicada Mary socks… They were to be Bloody Mary socks knitted in Yarn Pirate Cicada. I had them and was knitting away at Bunny’s Tae Kwon Do class on Wednesday. We went from Tae Kwon Do to the car, drove to another parking lot, got out, went to a restaurant and ate, got back in the car and drove home. When we arrived at home my socks (knit two at a time, past the heel turn) in the cute fabric bag I got from Gwen my SP10 were not in the car.

B returned to the parking lots later, no luck. I have asked at Tae Kwon Do as well as most of the surrounding businesses and the restaurant. They are gone… I am sad. I really liked that yarn, I really liked that bag, I had spent a TON of time knitting on size 0 needles. I spent yesterday, when it was clear they were really gone, drowning my sorrows in fried fish and non-diet soda…

Then swatched for something new! A tomten for Bunny. I also looked through all my sock yarn and made a tentative choice of a new sock project… so loss, but the knitting goes on.

And if you happen to be in Arlington, VA and find a small bag of knitting, could you let me know?

For your spare time

Since I haven’t managed to photograph any knitting (but boy are the Peace Fleece mittens soft now that they have been washed!) I thought I would provide some entertainment.

First another photo from Disney. I hadn’t ever seen Jiminy out and about so it was fun to get to see him “in person.”

First, be sure to check out Knitterati! I got an iPod for Christmas and have loved have the portable Nina.

Primary elections coming up in your state? Try Glassbooth to figure out who you should vote for.

Want to feed hungry people and feel good about your own brilliance all at the same time? Check out Free Rice.

Still more free time?

Try Pop Now!

Or play with Some Sand.

One obsession at a time…

I know my blogging has been sporadic, I have realized something about myself. I can only have one Internet based obsession at a time. In mid-November when I decided to take Bunny to Disney at the beginning of Christmas break I switched all my web surfing time to things Disney. Not that there is much I don’t know about Disney, but I wanted to make sure I had all the up-to-date info. I found out some useful things, including the way to get the most AMAZING snack ever. At any rate, I gave up almost completely on reading knitting blogs. I had over 7,000 unread on my bloglines when we returned from our trip.

Just because I wasn’t reading or writing about knitting, I was actually knitting. I finished Bunny’s top down raglan and managed to blog about that, I knit four dish cloths for gifts, and I started a scarf that was supposed to be a gift.

Christmas arrived and I found my way again! Over the Christmas break I knit Bunny a pair of Peace Fleece Mittens and I have knitted a large baby hat since back in school. I’m working on posts on each of those that will hopefully appear in the next few days.

My parents arrived to celebrate Christmas with us on the 29th. On the 27th I realized that the Omo scarf I was knitting for mom was not going to get done. Who was I kidding, it was about 5 inches long at the time. I cut my losses and went shopping. Instead of a hand knit lace scarf she got a book on weaving traditions in Peru. Good enough.

I have caught up on some of my blogs (down to about 4,000 unread) and and clearly trying to regain momentum in regular blogging. I’m back working on some socks and am getting ready to start either a color-work hat for B or a sweater “with a zipper and a hood” for Bunny. Of course, thoughts of a Spring Break trip are dancing in my head, but perhaps I will pick something there aren’t numerous web sites about!