Bondegard

Being born in a duck yard does not matter,
if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.
-Hans Christian Anderson

Apparently, I like complicated things. Systems with a lot of rules, nuances, exceptions, and many, many layers. After twenty-something odd years, I finally learned this about myself from my husband; he noticed it almost immediately. While it probably explains a lot of life, from my chosen profession to my yarn spreadsheet to the long list of sales, coupon match-ups, and recipes I take to the grocery store, it also probably explains why I knit a baby sweater with fifteen colors.

You read that correctly - fifteen, one-five. Granted, many of those colors only required a few ounces of yarn, but it does take up a considerable amount of space in the stash. Regardless, whether it is because it is complicated or because it is just so dang cute, this may be my favorite baby sweater yet.

Bondegard
Pattern: from Dale of Norway's Soft Treasures for Little Ones (apparently OOP, but snatch up a copy if you can)
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull - why mess with their color sense? in the 15 colors as called for in the pattern
Needles: US 0 and 2
Notes: No changes to the pattern. I made the 24 month size - if I'm going to do all that work, I want the baby to get a lot of wear out of it!
Best Thing About This Project: After all that knitting, I'd hate to say the buttons. But look at the buttons!

I'm counting this sweater for NaKniSweMoDo (knit 12 sweaters in 12 months, in a mishmash of Latin and blog-speak). Technically, it's not an adult sweater. It is, however 28 inches around, knit on US2 needles, and contains 15 colors. It took probably two- or three-times as much knitting as my next NaKniSweMoDo sweater, Acer, which is also finished and will appear this week. And it involved steeks. Plus, it's just so cute!

Full Disclosure

Colors, like features, follow the change of the emotions.
-Pablo Picasso

I'm glad there's so much general support for a year of just casting on whatever. In fact, there's so much support that I really felt free to start a whole month early. It's like those 13 month calendars.

Apparently I was really feeling the lack of stranded colorwork. Meet Bondegard, a ridiculous (and ridiculously cute) Dale baby sweater that involves 14 colors of yarn. (They're labeled as 15, but the pullover doesn't need color 14. If you look closely, you can see that I had to take my sharpie and label each with it's color number and the chart symbol. And we all wonder why my stash is growing . . .
Since Bondegard is a bit of a lengthy project, I went for some more immediate gratification. In fact, it's surprisingly fast - almost instant! Here are the Snowflake Socks from the Fall 2007 Interweave in KnitPicks Telemark. They're so delightful I had to pull them on before even taking the dpns out of the toe!

Good thing I'm moving along here. The yarn for the Tree Bark Pullover has arrived off back order. I'd sort of forgotten that I'd ordered not one but two options for the contrast color. For those of you not following in excruciating detail, see the linked post here. I decided to continue with the Tree Bark Pullover in Mission Falls 1824 cotton. My main color is Indigo (#404), and my options for the contrast color are Chicory (#401) and Sky (#403). Both are light blues. The Chicory is more of a slate and the Sky is more, well, sky-like. Both are pleasing with the Indigo. Any thoughts? I'm withholding judgment (and thus, casting on, since the cast on row is in the contrast color) until I can see and compare them in sunlight.

At A Loss

Blue flower, red thorns! Blue flower, red thorns! Blue flower, red thorns! Oh, this would be so much easier if I wasn't color-blind!
-Donkey in Shrek

There are no stranded colorwork projects on my needles right now. I don't know how to handle it. I'm beginning to think that this is really my favorite kind of knitting, although as soon as I say that I feel the urge to knit some cables. Regardless, I do think that stranded knitting is an important part of my balanced knitting diet.

So, what to knit next (in the colorwork way)? For the moment, I'm limiting myself to projects I can make from my stash.

• Bondegard (Rav link)
  
• Three Tams (Knitty pattern here), to match the mittens here
• Northern Lights mittens (Rav link)
• any other hats or mittens from my Ravelry queue for the knitters out there
• any special requests from my non-knitting friends and family out there
  

Or should I just hold out until December 1st, when I'll be starting my Snowflake Socks (IK link) in a burgundy and cream?

Today I'll be holding off on casting on as I join JayJay for other crafty pursuits (like sewing! and playing with the baby!). Keep your fingers crossed for sewing in a straight line!

Selbu-what?

His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work,
or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best,
or a pleasant mixture of them all.
-J.R. Tolkein

The Dale comes along! The body is done, with sleeve steeks sewn. The left sleeve is sewn in, and the right sleeve is finishing, drying, waiting to be sewn in. Picking up stitches for my crewneck collar tonight.

So, while I slog along towards the finished line (yes, knitting a collar onto an entire finished sweater is slogging . . .), let's enjoy some other Scandinavian colorwork that never got it's day on the blog. The long-time readers among you will remember how much I enjoyed going to Scandinavia.

Ah, Selbuvotter gloves. Another true love. After making 3 or 4 small and fiddly pieces for the teddy bear, I gave up on that idea and reconsidered what to do with these gorgeous skeins of natural alpaca.

So I made this pair on the left, for me. Annemor #11 (Ravelry link). And I couldn't stop. So I made Annemor #12, on the left, below (Ravelry link). And I still couldn't stop. (And the yarn just kept on going . . .) Plus, Annemor #12 never made it to the Christmas basket before my husband grabbed them off my needles and claimed them for himself. So, along came Annemor #17, on the right below (Ravelry link). And that one made it to the Christmas basket.
What's the Plural of Selbuvotter?
Patterns: as above, from Selbuvotter by Terri Shea, my favorite book of 2008
Yarn: lovely alpaca, blogged here
Needles: US 2
Notes: The patterns are almost European in the way they don't spell out everything. But the charts are clear, and they were easy to knit. What I learned between the first and second pairs was to line up the sides of the fingers.
Best Thing About This Project: The husband liking them so much he stole a pair. Now we can coordinate. Can't you just see the Christmas card? Complimentary Dale sweaters, complimentary Selbuvotter gloves. . .

I'm just tiding myself over until I can get to Norway. Although earlier today I was struck with an overwhelming desire to go to New Zealand. The source was a map of the global incidence of esophageal cancer, but I'll take my inspiration where I can get it!

Eye Candy Friday

Joy is not in things, it is in us.
-Richard Wagner

One sleeve to go!

Falling Off the Wagon

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs;
it's jolted by every pebble in the road.
-Henry Ward Beecher

. . . The stash wagon, that is.
And so it begins. (Yup, there's more on the way.) The problem with developing a passion for colorwork is that it requires so many colors. Might seem obvious, but I just ordered the yarn for the Bondegard pullover, a baby sweater that requires 15 colors of Dale Baby Ull. Yes, that's right - One-five. And it requires 2 balls of a few of those. So you know that most of them only need about 30 yards of that color, but it's absolutely integral to the design.

Why did I order them now, you might ask? There were a lot of changes to the baby ull color line in the last year, and some of the colors were discontinued. I snapped them up while I could.

And that's not all . . . a sweater's worth of yarn for my husband's second anniversary sweater is coming. Let's just say I qualified for the Webs 25% discount . . .

The stash is there for knitting, right?

Good Things Come in Pairs

Pair off in threes.

-Yogi Berra

I'm at a conference this weekend, which means a good amount of knitting time and a lot of mandatory fun. So we'll continue the review of summer fun and expect some well-along WIPs next week. I went through a baby knitting phase over the summer, completely sparked by this sweater. My college roommate's very adorable baby is a happy model of handknits (including at my wedding - I knew teaching her how to knit was a good idea!), and they're a cotton-only kind of family who also happen to like bright colors. Add in this cheerful sweater, and it was the perfect first birthday present.

But then I had a moral crisis. How could I give this sweater to the very deserving recipient of adorable handknit baby sweaters? I liked it too much. So I made another one, just by alternating the two blues.

Colorful Baby Set
Pattern: a kit from Lionbrand that I bought on clearance when the old put-up of Cotton-Ease was being discontinued
Yarn: the Cotton Ease in the kit - 5 colors (yes, I bought a lot of it when it went on clearance)
Needles: US 7
Notes: I knit it in the round up to the armholes, and knit the sleeves in the round for ease of finishing. Still a lot of ends to weave in.
Best Thing About This Project: I'm waiting for the true finished object photo - modeled. It won't be long.

We haven't even scratched the surface of my blogging backlog . . . And the knitting continues.

Mittens and Gloves, Oh My!

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged
to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela

Earthquake? What earthquake? Seriously - I had to be told that we had one. Granted, I was on call in the ICU yesterday and we had a code going on at the same time. I was a little occupied. . . Regardless, there's been a goodly bit of knitting.

I promised a parade of FOs, and here I am to deliver. For good measure, and to prove that I'm not resting on any laurels that may or may not exist, I'll throw in a UFO at the bottom for good measure.

Back in mitten month, I raided my entire stash for suitable mitten yarns and cast on for this pair. Then my colorwork frenzy was completely taken over by Salt Lake City and these fell by the wayside. I'm happy to finally add them to the Christmas pile.

Kalev's Mittens
Pattern: (rav link) from Nancy Bush's Knitting in Estonia
Yarn: KnitPicks Gloss, less than one skein each color
Needles: US 1
Notes: My two-color braid could be much much neater.
Best Thing About This Project: Finishing me got my mitten mojo back.

Remember the alpaca I was wanting to use? I had started the teddy bear from the Holiday IK, but it was a fiddly sort of project and I quickly lost interest. Until I finished those mittens. So I turned back to my alpaca, and my trusty Selbuvotter and started a special pair of . . . gloves. Aren't they lovely? And not nearly so fiddly as I feared.

The only problem is that these won't touch the quantity of alpaca that I have . . . Guess I'll have to make more pairs!

A Sleeve Conundrum

I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms

from the statues that are in all the other museums.

-Stephen Wright

Some of you with long memories may remember a distant time last month when I was on the cusp of finishing not one, but two Dale of Norway sweaters. I put up a bad dimly lit photo of a blocking sweater, mentioned in passing that the sleeves were too long, and that seemed to be the end of that.

Well, it wasn't really. I thought long and hard about my options for fixing this sweater:

1. Cut and rip and graft in any manner of ways to make the sleeves shorter.
2. Find someone with longer arms.

I went with option #2. It was obvious, really. I love the sweater. It's a cute, versatile kind of pullover that I'd been meaning to make for a while. And it was a great fun knit. But the gray kind of washed me out, I wanted to start a new project rather than rip and graft a lace pattern, and - this is the part that really made up my mind - I could think of a perfect recipient.

Meet my sister-in-law. She's very nice, a new knitter, an even newer blogger (you can check that out here and leave encouraging comments - remember your first blogging days? But please ignore the worst-ever photo of me in the world. Thank you.), and - best yet - she's a couple of inches taller than me. With the required longer arms (see below for confirmation). Plus, it just looks better on her than it did on me.

Gerbera
Pattern: From Dale of Norway Book 121 (now OOP)
Yarn: Dale of Norway Sisik (now discontinued)
Needles: US 5 and 6
Notes: I blocked the body before deciding how long it should be (important in a lace project) and neglected to do the same with the sleeves.
Best Thing About This Project: Getting to give it in person. And check out that wingspan!

A Man and His Hat

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

-Henry David Thoreau

Since we're all so excited about the impending return home of my favorite model of handknits (and do wish him a good drive cross-country, won't you), I thought today would be a lovely day to show off his new hat. Well, new as of February, anyway.

Norwegian Star Hat

Pattern: from Hats On!

Yarn: Cascade 220 in the green and Paton's Classic Merino in the natural. You will note that the colors are the inverse of the mittens here.

Needles: US 7 or 8, which turned out to be a little large

Notes: Love this book, love this pattern, don't love that somehow my knitting has loosened up over the years. This grew like crazy in the wash, so much so that I needed to do a little intentional fulling.
Best Thing About This Project: The photo below.

Guess What I Finished

Oh, well, I guess this is just going to be one of those lifetimes.
-Stephen Wright

I just had to hijack (my own) Time Machine Tuesday to bring you this:
Look what I finished!

The best part? You can get some modeled shots next week. The model is coming home.

Making Mountains

Keep love in your heart.
A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.
-Oscar Wilde

Someone must really want his sweater . . . Gosh I'm one lucky gal! And, in a timely way, I have made quite a lot of progress on Salt Lake City. I'm winging my way up the color patterning on the yoke, and falling more and more in love. See the people holding hands? The Olympic flame? This is the center back. The rest is a series of snowflakes and mountains and fun geometric patterns. If only it wasn't 300+ stitches around . . . I guess that's why the flowers are here to encourage me!

February's Other Project

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous,
unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience.
-Henry Miller

It's a good thing there's a bonus day in February this year, because I am so behind in my blogging. Here's hoping March is a little better . . . At any rate, I've gone 28 whole days without showing you my official February project.

Here's what it looked like on February 1st:Gerbera, from Dale of Norway. And now, on February 29th, it's up past the colorwork on the body, with a partial sleeve completed as well.
I bought the book several years ago for Ingeborg, but decided that I needed to warm up my skills a bit with this project first, mostly lace with a single stranded band around the middle. And several years ago, I bought the yarn (the Sisik the pattern called for). And moved it four times. This year is definitely the year for this sweater.

A Bird in the Hand

It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.
-Aesop

I actually finished these a while ago, but it took nearly two weeks to be home at the same time as some sunlight. Too bad it's already looking like spring in San Diego . . .

Bird in Hand Mittens
Pattern: Kate Gilbert's incredibly well-written Bird in Hand
Yarn: Cascade 220 - French Blue (aka Cobalt Heather) and Natural
Needles: US 2 dpns - and they came out perfectly on gauge. I was a litlte worried about their length, but most of that is actually in the cuff. The thumbs and hands are perfect.
Notes: No mods. Who could pass up a gorgeous braid?
Best Thing About This Project: Maybe I say this too often, but these are definitely my favorite mittens.

Mittens have completely captivated me this winter - so many choices, so many lovely patterns. I still have two pairs in the works, and nary a hat in sight. . . . in spite of the plaintive cries of my poor neglected husband who doesn't own a single handknit hat. Don't we all feel so sorry for him? He does.

Random Wednesday

A hotel isn't like a home, but it's better than being a houseguest.
-William Faulkner

1. I feel so very far behind on the blogging relative to the knitting. There's just been so much knitting going on.
2. Here's the project that took my whole bathtub to block. It's a gift, so we'll save the big reveal for later.
3. Like my Bird in Hand Mittens.
4. And other mittens, photos coming later. Because my Selbuvotter finally came in the mail. And I love knitting with KnitPicks Telemark. More on the way.
5. And while I'm waiting for more yarn to finish those mittens, I pulled out a whole bunch of yarn for otehr mittens. Think I'll ever stop?
6. Did you know that Lantern Moon will replace broken dpns for free? Just email them.
7. I just got my Hogwarts Swap 2 from my pal. It's awesome.
8. And also awesome, she felt bad it was late, so she sent me a Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Check out my new Socks that Rock!
9. Stay tuned for a wrap up of a very successful kniting January, and some new exciting plans for February!
   

Wacky Indeed

A picture of many colors proclaims images of many thoughts. 

-Donna A. Favors

It's a good thing I have tiny hands, or I'd be inclined to keep these mittens for myself. I am totally in love,* with the colors, the snowflakes, and the awesome twist on a very traditional mitten pattern.

Wacky Selbu Mittens

Pattern: Selbu Mittens from Folk Mittens (check for errata!) with color idea stolen from Leigh

Yarn: Noro Kureyon, about 1.5 balls for the background, and Patons Classic Merino in Winter White, about 1/2 ball for the foreground

Needles: US 3

Notes: See the errata! But now that I've figured it out, I do like the Norwegian thumb gore. It's a combination gored thumb and peasant thumb that I can see having many applications in stranded patterns, and fits better than a standard peasant thumb.

Best Thing About This Project: The wacky colors.

*Yes, I've been in love with all of my knitting lately, why do you ask?

January is for Mittens

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.
-Leonardo Da Vinci

January is for many things - you've already seen my Manos Throw, Salt Lake City sweater (more coming on this soon), and my new Bearfoot socks as a promising start to a new year of knitting. I've also bought into the premise of A Loose Knit Group (Yahoo/Ravelry), attempting to knit ahead for the holidays. There's a theme to every month, and this month it's mittens and gloves. How handy that I'm currently in the middle of a mitten-fest! The first pair of mittens was actually started even before I heard about the group.

You may recall the complaints of my poor husband who doesn't have enough handknits (or so he says) when I ripped out the Baltic Mittens he'd claimed. I promised him another pair, and sent him a long list of links for his perusal. His choice actually surprised me a bit. Turns out that he's a traditionalist. (Which I suppose makes sense given his interest in Dale sweaters . . . This could be very good.) Turns out I have a lot to learn to knit for tall people. It's a good thing he was around to try them on as I went, because I was seriously underestimating how much larger his hands are than mine. So seriously, I had to re-do one of the cuffs. But it worked - do you see how happy the recipient is?
Sedestal Mittens
Pattern: from Folk Mittens
Yarn: Cascade 220 - 1.25 skeins of the green and approx 0.2 skeins of the natural (most, but not all, of the leftovers from the Hallard Mittens
Needles: US 2 dpns
Notes: I made several modifications, all for size. I knit on US2s at a gauge of approx 7 sts/in instead of the 9 sts/in called for. This gave me the hand circumference I needed with the 80 pattern stitches. The pattern, however, makes almost no allowance for the cuff to be smaller than the hands, which didn't make sense to me. So I cut out one pattern repeat of the snowflakes and started with 70 sts and then increased for the hand. If I were to make any other mods, it would be to recongize that my row gauge changed as well, and I would have started the thumb gore a little earlier.
Best Thing About This Project: This photo - I love these mittens, but I'm not sure they qualify for my Loose Knit givne how quickly they were snatched away. So I started another pair I'd had my eye on, and am contemplating a third. Coming soon, with photos, something far less traditional. You'll love it; I promise.

And the Stockings Were Hung

'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house . . .
And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
-Clement St. Moore

What can I say? I love these, our new stockings for our first Christmas together. Our First Christmas Stockings
Pattern: Holly Stocking (Theresa) and Moose Stocking (James) from Annie's Woolens (Exceptional service, fast shipping, and a gorgeous product. Go buy some now.)
Yarn: they came as kits of Barlett's, and I think I have enough leftover to make a whole third stocking - very generous amounts
Needles: US 8 dpns. How is it that I don't have a 16" circular in US8?
Notes: The only real modification I made was to make the hanging loop out of 4 stitch i-cord instead of a crochet chain. I'm expecting them to be full! I also used the short-row heel and toe variation provided, and the yo-short rows worked great.
Best Thing About This Project: The personalization, of course. These are our stockings for many Christmases to come.

Need some new stockings? It's Christmas Eve - you still have time!

Mittens!

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

-Indira Gandhi

In spite of frogging the Baltic Mittens the other day, I do have a finished pair to show. Just in time for that San Diego chill. Or something. They do match my hat, though.
Glorious Stripey Mittens
Pattern: Basic Mittens from the Green Mountain Spinnery book
Yarn: Mountain Mohair, Green Mountain Spinnery, remnants from their remnant bin
Needles: US4 dpns
Notes: I adore the stripey-ness.
Best Thing About This Project: Wool keeps. Someday I'll get to wear them. Because they are all mine.

A Decision Point

He had mittens, Minjekawan,
Magic mittens made of deer skin;
When upon his hands he wore them,
He could smite the rocks asunder,
He could grind them into powder.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I started the Baltic Mittens (from Folk Mittens) a while back. It was an impulse project, so I started with yarn I had on hand. It's a beautiful pattern, and fun, but I just wasn't feeling so inspired to work on it. And then I figured out - It's the colors. Too . . . something. So this is getting frogged until I get some blue Heilo. It just really needs a blue. But my husband is still demanding mittens. Any nice manly mitten patterns come to mind?