Sweater Girl Goes Extreme

I'm generally a sweater knitter, but with Christmas I turned to the extremities. Socks, mittens, hats, they all go faster than a sweater. That meant knitting a couple of little things for friends and family and, since I had to knit those by a deadline, knitting small things for myself as well during my selfish moments.

First I crocheted this hat for a book review I wrote over at Black Purl Magazine. It's the Soon Come hat from Get Your Crochet On! made in Encore and some leftover Patons SWS.



I knit these gloves for my friend Angel in Korea. They are the Convertible Mittens from the fall issue of Knit.1 . I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca in a very subtly heathered teal tweed. Check the errata on Knit.1's site!



I had been wondering why all mittens weren't made with a flap so your fingers could do their work. I discovered why as soon as I tried one on. Duh, the flap lets cold air in. So I added a button to try to keep the flap closed as much as possible. If I was good at adding zippers that probably would have been the best at keeping out the cold, though I bet the metal would have conducted the cold to the hand all too well, too.



I also lengthened the flap (even more than the corrected version on the errata page has) and lengthened the thumb. Hope she likes them. The yarn makes a great feeling fabric. I wish all the time I didn't find alpaca itchy. I can knit with it no problem, but wearing it gives me the itchies.

Also for a coworker whose b-day it was just a few days before Christmas, I made the Robin's Egg Blue Hat in chocolate in Patons Shetland Chunky. Very quick knit.



The button was one I had leftover from a headband I had been intending to make forever. I wanted a headband that I could wear with my afro puff and also one that buttoned so I wouldn't have to pull it off and on. So I made a simple ribbed band using Nashua Cilantro, which I absolutely love (the yarn, I mean).





Do you all think this pattern is worth writing up? Someone showed a lot of interest in it at knit night. I thought I wouldn't bother at first because it's so simple, but she was a beginning knitter and couldn't see how to make it. But I'm not sure how worthwhile it is for people who don't have afro puffs. Maybe I will write it up anyway.

Also I finally finished the socks I was knitting for my stepfather. Wow. Those socks took a long time. A looooong time. But he really liked the socks I made him last year, so hopefully he'll like these, too. Like? I take that back. He better LOVE these socks, as long as it took me to make them. I started these socks in . . . late July, I think. They took forever.



No, no, "love" is too mild a word for the depth of gratitude I expect for these giganto socks. It had better be passion. Lust. I'm talking Thinking Of Having an Affair With These Socks type love. I mean, Planning to Cheat on My Mother type love. For real, it should be a Mother Walks In The Room and Finds Stepfather And Socks In Bed kind of thing. I mean Got My Mother Checking The Cell Phone Bill's Call List For Suspicious Calls type emotion. Even to Planning on Running Away With The Socks and Growing Old And Gray Together type passion. Folks In Divorce Court, Socks Called To the Witness Stand, Family Members Blaming Me For Breaking Up A 20-Year Marriage type love. Only when it has reached this point will I say, "I guess he sufficiently appreciates the work I put in on these socks."

So now that I'm done with xmas knitting (almost; daddy's sweater didn't get finished in time), time to get back to my own stuff.

I'm in Magknits!

This is so exciting, I'm in December 2007's Magknits for my pattern Excuses! I've made a lot of excuses during my life, but this is by far the best one (haha, I have been waiting months to say that line!) Scroll down past the pictures to read how to adjust the pattern.

I'd like to be able to say that I won't forget you all now that I've become an international superstar, but I'd just be raising false hopes. Just kidding, just kidding. I will happily sign a printout of the pattern for each and every one of you, with the certainty that you will lay it next to your pillows at night. Okay, let me stop. Hahaha, I promise I haven't been drinking (but that doesn't mean I won't start soon). :)

Okay, seriously, I'm really excited. It's my first time. No, no, don't speak, just hold me. (What is going on with me today? I think I haven't had enough to eat. Yeah, that's it.) My first time having a pattern published, that is. Oh, no, that's a lie, I do have a fingerless glove pattern in the Pattern a Day knitting calender for 2008. But this is a little different. I didn't even know that it would be in this month's issue, but got a congratulatory email on Ravelry (btw, y'all, I'm on Ravelry as "mwedzi". Please find me!).

Some additional shots:

It took me forever to get this shot, even though it's dark, so somebody's going to see it!:





And so you can see the shape flat:



Another shot that was hard to get. It is surprisingly difficult to get action shots of knits.



Oh, and a couple more notes about sizing that got edited out of the final copy.

For bigger busts (C and up): The pattern has severe decreases to go from bust to underbust, so it is designed to cup your breasts. I designed this pattern specifically because I was tired of knits only doing side waste shaping and ignoring booby shaping. But if you are larger on top, choose the size that corresponds to your bust size and knit that size to the point of the bust decreases. If your arms don't get as big (relatively) as your breasts, stop the decreases for the arms when you reach the number of stitches for the sleeves of the next smallest size. Then start the bust decreases 1/2" earlier than called for in the pattern and do enough decreases to get to the number required for the next smallest size. Continue the pattern as written for the next smallest size.

If you don't want as much negative ease: Simply choose the next size up. The pattern has 3" of negative bust ease. Notice, (clever me), that the sizes are also done in 3" increments. So if you want a sweater that simply skims your body, just go up to the next size (so that you knit your actual bust measurement, not the "to fit" measurement).



Okay, I have to go eat now, or give myself a tranquilizer, or something.