Project 14: South Sea Mermaid Socks

These socks are finally finished and they are just lovely!





Close-up of the lace, twisted stitch ribbing at the top, and the picot bind-off.




The socks are toe-up, and I quite like this heel's construction.



Yarn: Alina Shea Creations Crescent Moon (100% superwash merino wool, a sproingy 2-ply), in a Dreamer's Little Secrets colorway called South Seas

Pattern: Mermaidia, a free toe-up sock pattern written for magic loop

Needles: Knit Picks nickle-plated size 1 (2.25mm) 40" circular needle

288 yards

Rav page

Mods: I only did seven repeats of the lace on the leg so that I could still get the socks on!

I learned an important lesson with these socks and my 111 in 2011 challenge - don't count the project until it is DONE done, not just pretty much done.  The socks were cast off and the yarn clipped and I put them aside to work on other things for a bit.  When I got back to the socks, the yarn tail had been cut about half an inch from the last stitch, leaving not enough of a tail to weave in and secure the top of the sock!  I guess it had to be the kids.  So, I had to rip back the entire picot bind-off and half a round of ribbing to then bind-off again to have enough of a yarn tail to finish.  All this while amassing a pile of projects behind me which now will need to be posted in an avalanche.... ah, oh well, lesson learned!

WIP Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Busy day!!



Blanket squares sent from all around the world and I'm making them into a blanket on the left.  On the right, from the top down we have the Mermaidia socks that were finished and then became unfinished and now have since been finished again (grrrrrr), Celeste Shawl (I'm about to insert a lifeline and rip back a repeat (grrrr!!!), and the lehmus-huivi shawl (Leafy Lehmus on the sidebar there) which is my joy right now. :D

Goodnight!

Project 13: Itty Bitty Quiddy

Knitting with your own handspun is a transcendent experience.

I enjoyed every second of knitting up this little sweater, using my Hurley Yellow handspun yarn.  I made it for a little fun challenge on Ravelry to make a team of four and have each team member make part of a miniature Quidditch uniform.  My team, consisting of two Slytherins, a Ravenclaw, and I, a Hufflepuff, made a Gryffindor-esque uniform.  It was just for fun, but this month's Potions prompt is for making something to sneak a love potion, and I'm sure it could be done in a tiny sweater!





Pattern: Heavily modified from Zimmer-Minis (free pattern)

Yarn: Hurley Yellow Handspun, my own handspun, blogged here

Needles: Size 7 (aluminum) and 8 (bamboo) double pointed needles

Roughly 20 yards

Rav page

Mods: I used much heavier yarn, so everything was scaled down yet again from a pattern for a miniature sweater.  An adventure!

This month's Potions assignment is to craft something that will disguise or hide a love potion, and Defense Against the Dark Arts involves knowing what's in a love potion that would take you down.  So for DADA I dyed some yarn (to be posted later!) and my dye will have a cunning disguise.

Project 12: Hurley Yellow Handspun

I finally finished up this spinning project that I started way back in November!



This is Younger Yarn Superwash roving in the Hurley colorway.  I used bits of this fiber for learning different techniques, so some went into a 2-ply that I used an Andean bracelent technique to ply back in November:



Some went into the chain-ply practice from the spinning class I took last November, with some mixed in red fiber from my neighbor in order to see what I was doing a bit easier:



And finally I spun the rest of the roving up into singles, which I got around to chain plying during the Super Bowl.  Since the yarn was ridiculously overtwisted I ran it back through the wheel using my biggest whorl (4.5:1, same as plying) to try to correct it a bit.  I think it actually came out about right!!





96g
pre-washed = 113.66 yards



The fiber:

Nerd Wars!

I mentioned that I signed up for another crafting game on Ravelry, Nerd Wars.  The game runs through February, March, and April, and their three-month crafting prompts are called dissertations.

Competitors interested in taking part will post a proposalfor their project. The project should be expected to take a solid three months, like a cable-knit sweater or 3 pairs of socks, or spinning 1200 yards of 3-ply yarn or something.

I wrote my dissertation proposal in the scientific category:

Scientific
This category focuses on challenges of scientific knowledge.Samples: Complete a project that demonstrates some type of circuitry
Complete a project that demonstrates DNA, in structure, the letters, or double helix.

Wish me luck!

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Rav handle: needlesnswiffers
Team Dumbledore's Army
Summary of the project: complete three lace shawlettes
Patterns:
Emily Shawl in Alina Shea Creations Grassy Feet in Summer Fun



Lehmus-huivi in Left Coast Yarns Merino/Nylon 80/20 blend in Forbidden Forrest



Dane Shawl in Plymouth Yarn Zino in color 8



I intend to knit the three shawls as written until/unless I run out of yarn.

Category: Scientific.  This is a study in botany.  These three lace shawls all exhibit leaf motifs and have three different construction methods.  My experiment is designed to explore how the leaves react to growth in the three different directions.  Figure 4 illustrates the three shawls and the shading indicates the direction of work, from the cast-on at the lightest portion to the bind-off at the darkest portion.



Time justification: I am not very experienced at lace shawls, so I will be building a valuable skillset which takes time and mental energy.  To tell you a little about my life, I am a stay-at-home-parent to two little boys who are ages 3 and 1.  My family requires good food, clean clothes, and a passing attempt at cleaning the house once in a while.  I also spend several hours each day on administrative tasks concerning another group on Ravelry.  So, projects that move swiftly can be done with my eyes closed, are easy to pick up and throw down to mitigate the latest crisis in real life or online, and have easy-to-memorize patterns.  Otherwise, my time to sit and ponder lace charts is limited and fraught with peril.

Project 11: Patchwork Square #34

I'm really enjoying these squares!!

Pattern: Square #34, V Stitch, from 63 Easy-To-Crochet Pattern Stitches

Yarn: Red Heart Giant, aran

Needles: Size I/5.50mm crochet hook

Yards: 45.2 yards by weight

Ravelry page (for the whole project)

Mods: none!

Mittens on the run

Not a very thorough or prompt edition of WIP Wednesday, I'm afraid, but the mom portion of life has kept me extra busy lately.

In addition to these Camilla mitts, which are coming along nicely despite a wacky gauge issue, I submitted a dissertation proposal in another game on Ravelry - Nerd Wars. I'll post it here when I can. My first portion of it, which of course I'll also turn in for the House Cup, is a free shawl pattern originally in Finnish called Lehmus-huivi. I'm totally in love with my yarn/pattern combo and watching it unfold!

But for now, parked in the car with a sleeping baby outside the doctor's office where my husband and other child are, I'm charging ahead on Camilla and hoping for a return of good health.

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