FO Friday: Oh Wait, it's Sunday

Wow! I have a great many lame excuses for my three week long hiatus. To name a few, my sister left for college two weeks ago, I've been spending plenty of time nurturing a newfound love of the Disney Musical Newsies and the music found within it (I'd say this mild obsession has started to tone down a bit, but considering I'm listening to Seize the Day as I type, I know that's not really true), and I started high school a week ago (I'm homeschooled, so high school isn't all that big a deal, but it is an awful lot harder than what I was doing in the past few years).

Though I haven't found time to blog, I have found plenty of time to knit, and I have a few new projects to show you. Tonight, I present a pair of fingerless mitts that I finished just the other day.

Though it took me a few weeks total to knit these Owlie Mitts, the time actually spent knitting them was pretty short. The pattern, Owl Wrist Warmers, had been on my mental to-do list since well before last Christmas, but I've only now gotten around to knitting them. They were easy while the color work kept them exciting, and they've inspired me to do more colorwork projects (such as Bláithín by Kate Davies. Just kidding, I think steeks are a little more than I can handle with Christmas just around the corner). 

For these mitts, I used Knitpicks Palette in Alfalfa for the main color, and random scraps of other yarn for the contrasting colors. As I'm not in possession of US2 DPNs, I used US1s and tried to knit loosely- I wasn't too concerned about gauge with a project like this. Because of this, the mitts were slightly different in size when I finished them, but blocking sorted this out, and helped to straighten out some of the imperfect color work. 

That's all I have to say about that! For those of you who had given this blog up for dead, I hope you will come running back screaming about miracles, and if you happen to be new, please know that it is extremely abnormal for me to go on long breaks like this! I'll be back tomorrow (hopefully) with more stories of my adventures while on blogging break! 

An FO and some colorwork

this picture is slightly off-center but I'm way too lazy to take another one

I finished my Hitchhiker. I finished it yesterday afternoon, with exactly 18 inches of yarn leftover. I was really getting nervous as I bound off, but thankfully it turned out okay. I was able to complete a total of 38 teeth, which was more than I expected. I was worried about not having enough yarn- I only had 400 yards, but it's actually the perfect size and I wouldn't really want it any bigger. The yarn I used is Western Sky Knits Aspen Sock with Nylon in the colorway 'Lucy'.

baa!

As I cast off, I was thinking about my next project. I was deciding between doing what I should do and finish up a few WIPs, or doing what I wanted to do and starting something new. Naturally I chose the latter. The project of choice was Baby Lamb Cuffs, which I began after supper (which I made). I knit the first mitt while watching Merlin (I watched a lot of Merlin), and today I'm working on the second one.

The first one I did using the stranded colorwork technique, and as you can tell from the picture my tension was quite terrible. For the second mitt, I'm using Intarsia, and it's already looking much neater. I'm probably going to remake the first mitt, just because I won't be able to stand having one neat lamb and one messy lamb.

I'll be back tomorrow with a spinning update!

p.s. Sorry about not blogging for almost a week- I was too busy knitting! I'll be better this week.

Beorn

I am knitting my first sweater. I'm following the pattern Oh My Bear! by Tiny Owl Knits. I started on February first but I didn't have the right needle size so my gauge was off, so I put it on hold till I got the right size. I started again yesterday, and I'm about 13 rows into the colorwork chart. I am loving this project, but the intarsia knitting gets incredibly tangled every single row. And I'm pretty sure my gauge is off for the bear face, but it'll all end up all right and if it doesn't, then I can rip it out and start again. 

I'm obviously going to name mine Beorn, for the giant person in The Hobbit who turns into a bear. Another thing I misremembered from the book, I thought Beorn was Radagast and that Beorn lived in Mirkwood. I was so confused. 

That's it for me tonight- I have to get to bed. Knowing me, that'll happen in an hour or so and not right now, but I'm not going to spend that time writing a novella of a post. 

Look At All The Tardises

Just look at them. They're so amazing. 3 Type 40 Tardises (or is it Tardisi?), all on different items of craftiness. 

I don't think I ever mentioned the Doctor Who knitting bag I received for my birthday (never did get around to that post, did I?), beautifully made by my wonderful sister-in-law Augustine, and possibly the most amazing present I got. 

Today I made my first decorated hexiflat. Well, maybe not the first; some might count the stripy one and the cabled one as decorated. But this one is special. 

I like to just stand back and admire its nerdiness. On Ravelry, there are lots and lots (and lots and lots) of charts for the hexipuffs, and an entire category entitled "All Of Time And Space". And might I add that it has even more charts that "The Hogwarts Express" category. 

Speaking of hexis, I might as well give and update. I've finished fifteen, five above this month's quota. And it's only the 24th. 

There are only 14 pictured here; I knit another while I was waiting for the computer to be free. 

Okay. I'm done rambling about little hexagons now, by force rather than choice because I have to go do the dishes. In the words of my friend (and The Doctor), Toodle pip! 

All A Bit Harry Potter

I think that it's in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that the Christmas trees are decorated with live golden owls. Of course, this may be in all the books that include Christmas at Hogwarts, but I read the Goblet of Fire most recently so that's probably just what I remember.

Well now our Christmas tree has a little owl, though when I made it I was not thinking in the slightest of Harry Potter. I was probably thinking more along the lines of The Hobbit (which I haven't seen yet but am hoping to either before or shortly after Christmas) or Merlin, or possible Artemis Fowl, the audio book of which I was listening to while I knit. He's sort of supposed to be a barn owl- you know, the ones with the heart shaped faces, but heaven knows I'm terrible when it comes to knitting fair isle hearts. They always turn out sort of wonky.

The exciting thing about this owl is that it gave me the excuse to learn to graft stitches, i.e. take two unfinished edges of knitting and graft them together so it looks like a continues knit stitch. I tried and sort of failed to snap a good picture depicting this, but I rather liked the one I took anyway.

If you can see, where the green ribbon is sticking out of his head is where there would be an ugly seam had I not grafted the stitches. 

I used sport weight yarn and US2 needles, and I used the magic loop method (just so that the knitters who want to make an exact replica of this owl know what to do). I'll also put the chart for the heart on my ravelry project page hopefully tomorrow. 

Fair Isle Hamster Pattern

I give you the pattern for Hamster Humphrey. If you spot any problems, please notify me and I will do my best to fix them.

What you will need:
Small amounts of worsted weight yarn in main color and three contrasts, and black for eyes
US Size 8 knitting needles
Crochet hook or tapestry needle (for seams)
Small amount of stuffing, or yarn scraps
You could also change the yarn weight and needle size for a smaller or larger hamster. Or you could use a larger needle size and felt Hamster Humphrey, as this was what I made Hamster Humphrey for anyway. But you don't have to if you don't want to.

Abreviations:
kfb: knit into the front and back of the stitch
k2tog: knit two together
p2tog: purl two together
k: knit
p: purl
CO: cast on

Pattern begins here:                                      
CO 8 stitches
Row 1: kfb across (16 stitches)
Row 2: P
Row 3: kfb across (32 stitches)
Rows 4-12: fair isle chart (starts on a purl row)
Row 13: k
Row 14: p2tog across (16 stitches)
Row 15: k2tog across (8 stitches)
Row 16: p
Row 17: k2tog across (4 stitches)
Row 18: p
Row 19: k2tog across (2 stitches)
Break yarn and pull through both stitches

Felting: (optional) put hamster in the washing machine with a regular load of wash, set it to 'hot' and check on it every ten minutes or so.

Assembly: Sew up the seam at the bottom. Stuff the hamster and sew up both ends. Embroider on two eyes.

Finished hamster is about 4 inches long and 2.5 inches tall.

Hamster Humphrey

A few days ago, I was wondering what would happen if I felted a fair isle something. Originally I was going to knit up another fair isle mouse but decided to create my own fair isle mouse. I casted on, knit a few rows, and when it started to look more like a hamster, I decided to create my own fair isle hamster. 

Tada! I give you Hamster Humphrey. Humphrey because it was the first name I thought of that started with an 'H' that wasn't Huey, and there's already a Hamster Huey. 

I felted Hamster Humphrey and didn't get too much of a result. I believe the cause to be US size 8 needles and worsted/ bulky weight yarn. My subconscious must have realized that it wouldn't have worked out too well if the stitches were tight, but oh no, I refused to listen.  And so I ended up with a Hamster Humphrey slightly fuzzier and still in great need of a diet. 

Luckily, I saved the chart I made, so I can recreate Hamster Humphrey on bigger needles if need be. 

I will be posting the pattern in the next day or two, both here and on Ravelry. I just need to figure out all the increases/decreases.