Who's Got Buttons for EFA?

A site called Cute As a Button, that's who, er where I found these buttons, with trees on them. They have lots of buttons from all the major (and some minor) places. Knitters need buttons, so this is a good resource for them.
Sleeves are 3/4 done; that is 1 sleeve is all finished and the other is more than half-done. I'll be pinning the finished one in place to be certain that I like the sleeve length, since the sleeve cap is so shallow on this design. Stay tuned for pictures.

Houston, We Have a Body

Now while sleeves are knitted, must decide on buttons. Suggestions welcome.....

Blocking the Back to EFA Jacket

Here is my weenie blocking board, with the EFA back folded over a rolled-up towel (if I get a crease at the top, I'll steam it or spray it and repin) and pinned to the measurements. To be sure they are correct, I overlayed the front and checked. Nothing like checking 2 different ways, just like a scientific experiment in lab! I set this up last evening, and it feels dry this morning!
My house must be the only dry spot in NJ these days - work was partly canceled Monday due to flooding on roads and DD#1's college was closed for 3 days. So she went to work at the vet hospital, only to have to evacuate herself and the animals to higher ground! That entire town is still under 4 feet of water. And the hospital is brand-new. I don't want to be a fly on the wall when the insurance agent comes, I can tell you. But getting back to the knitting, I'll check later to be sure that the lower layer is dry too. And then nudge the top into shape if it got creased. Of course now that I can see the end of this project, the temps are supposed to zoom up for the 40's (today) to the 70's (Monday). AAAARRRRRRRGH! This was to be my spring jacket!

Ta-Da! EFA Back Finis!

Yes it is done. The back of EFA, which weighed a lot at one point, being up to around 150 sts of Aran-weight wool on the needle. Not blocked, but completed nonetheless. Later today I hope to block it, then I can put it together and do the finishing before starting on the sleeves. I left the back neck stitches live on a strand of washable wool, so I don't have to pick them up, just knit them on. Here's a close-up of the trees:

Now a break from EFA until the back is blocked out.

Meanwhile, as a dyed-in-the-wool Lord of the Rings fan, I'm announcing that the Children of Hurin came out today. My DDs have offered it to me as an early birthday present. And in a wild coincidence, I found this sock yarn and pattern. So of course I bought the yarn:

and the pattern. And it turns out that the designer, Laura Andersson, is a scientist turned knitting designer, as well as fellow LOTR fan. Maybe someday I'll leave the lab too, and become a full-time knitter. One can dream.....

A Toe-Up Attempt

You are looking at the toe of a future sock, in case you couldn't tell. A toe made not with a figure-8 cast-on or with a Turkish cast-on but with short-row shaping and no wrapping. Yes, this toe was made by casting on half the final number of stitches onto waste yarn (a provisional cast-on: knit a few rows with waste yarn then connect the real yarn and you are done). The toe shaping comes from Pegg Thomas of Twin Willows Farm; it's in her 2-needle sock pattern, which is how I learned to knit socks in December of 2006 (seems like I've knitting socks forever!). When I switched to magic loop on 1 circ, I realized that the toe could be adapted to this method. Here's proof! I casted on the circ and knitted back and forth to create the toe as I did here. then put all stitches on my long size 3 circ (yarn is Filatura di Crosa 501 in Lilac with Cebelia cotton for reinforcing) and continued the pattern as written. The pattern may be found here. As these are for DD#2, I had her try them on. She is very picky but these meet with her approval (whew).
As for Twisted Flower, they will be made of that lovely eau de Nil green FdC 501 for DD#1 (also picky, but in a different way). She wears not clogs, so I shall do a normal heel in heel stitch for her, makes the pattern easier to adjust to my gauge.
And the waving lace socks? I'm wearing them today; here they are:


The denim blues hat is done; I really like the way the variegations made thick stripes. Do you agree?

Next hat will be of Baruffa Maratona (why did they discontinue it? WHY???) and I'm using a neat pattern I found in my Barbara Walker Treasury #1, the little shell ribbing. DH thinks it's cute but soemthing masculine enough for him to wear on a vest (he's not a knitted hat kind of guy, more of a Scottish tweed cap guy). The color is a light royal blue, I'd call it.

Almost done with the back to EFA, then block and assemble. I'm excited, so excited I'm going to end this post and go knit it!

Waving Lace, Waiving Twisted Flower (for now)

OK, I wimped out again on the Twisted Flower sock! If the charge is that I crave instant, well, fast gratification, I'm guilty. Truth be told, my gauge is going to be very different from the 9 sts/in the pattern calls for. I can compensate in part by doing 1 fewer flower repeats; since I'm giving them to DD#1 (who wears not clogs), I can make a standard heel stitch heel flap. But really, what with wrestling with EFA, work, Passover, and everything else, I just wanted some relaxing and mindless knitting of an evening. If you haven't tried this pattern by Evelyn A. Clark, please do. It's in the Spring 2004 issue of Interweave Knits (and maybe sold as a separate pattern through their website). It's easy to memorize, relaxing, easy to convert to magic loop (or 2 circs).
On the charity front, I completed this hat out of Cascade 220 wool donated for the Ships Project from a fellow Knitters Review member:

The pattern is mine, just sets of 3 st mock cables offset by 3 st clusters of moss st, after 2 1/2 inches of 1x1 ribbing. Did the mock cable every 5th row. Since it was knitted on 2 needles, I crocheted it closed using a slip stitch. Now I'm in the midst of this one:

Pretty denim blues yarn; it's Plymouth Encore wool and acrylic blend. I bought it from a Knitswap member for her fundraising project. When I told her what I was going to do with the 2 skeins, she kindly sent me 2 more in forest green. This hat is just 2x2 ribbing that segues into baby cables, and you can see that it's being knit by the magic loop method (size 7 circs and they are the Inox made in Mexico).

On the EFA front, rather, back, I've completed the charted section (yay!!) and have in reality started the armhole dec, although the pictures don't show it yet.

Close-up of the trees in the middle:

And here's how I'm going to block this section: I'm going to fold it in half, stuffing some socks along the fold (so it won't create a crease - in theory), then pin it to the correct dimensions on my weeny blocking board. This should work because, see the fruit tree in the middle? It's not part of either front. So I should be able to stuff something in back of that part, because it comes from extra stitches for the most part. The 2 ends of the back correspond to the left and right fronts. So I'll pin through both layers but not through the middle section, except for 1 pin at top and 1 at bottom. If I wind up with a little ridge, I can spray it and pin it to dry afterwards. Or steam it with the iron. The back will come out slightly wider than the 2 fronts, but I figure that when I add the button and buttonhole bands, more width will be added to the fronts anyway. Once I know what the final width of the back is, I can modify the bands accordingly. And then do the collar last. Wish me luck!

Me, a Knitting Guru?

While surfing around for fun (and new yarn; disclaimer!) I came across a knitting quiz on Tweezle's blog. Which I took, and now I'm laughing at the results. Me, who wouldn't dream of knitting in the round 4 months ago, who has yet to cut a steek and still has "fear of Fair Isle" a knitting guru? See if the quiz fits other knitters; take it for fun and share the results.

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!








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On that merry note, I'll say Happy Passover to everyone; I'll be offline for a bit. The cooking is actually done (lots to be said for starting that chore yesterday) and now I can go and relax a bit. With my knitting of course!