Happy After Christmas!

Happy-After-Christmas, Not-Quite-New-Year's!

I figured since the year is drawing to a close, I better post something before my readership completely dwindles to the occassional accidental tourist.

I hope everyone had a lovely christmas, filled with lots of tasty eats, good company and nicely wrapped presents. Here at Through the Back Loop we had a busy but enjoyable holiday and are dreading a return to real life. I could definitely get used to leading a life of leisure gentle reader. Though I've been enjoying my time off, it hasn't all been leisurely. I'm a knitter. It's christmas. I knit like a house on fire. I delivered my Unbloggable Project to Miss J. and was happy that they were a) a surprise and b) well received. Nobody knits for a knitter - which is too bad really, because nobody appreciates knitting more. I think she and her mitts will be very happy together. Too bad I forgot to take some pictures of them. Ah well, next time.

The mittens you see here in all their geometric glory are the second Unbloggable Project. They haven't been delivered yet, but Mammals knows about them already (okay, okay, she was there when I picked out the yarn and we're knitting buddies. Plus she knows me well enough to know that golden yellow, rusty orange and navy are not quite my favourite palette). The pattern is from Charlene Schurch's Mostly Mittens. I heart this book. I desperately want a copy of this book and have been stalking it on Chapter's website. Temporarily Unavailable to Order is not what I want to see people. Just saying. I knit them on 2.25mm bamboo dpns and used Sisu. I haven't read any overly complementary reviews of this yarn and was expecting the worst. Overall, not a bad experience. Yes, it is a little on the splitty side, but other than that, not bad. It comes in a pretty wide range of colours and is affordable. I'm not sure that I would use it for socks as the yarn did develop a bit of a halo after I washed it by hand. I think the fuzzy factor would be even more pronounced if washed by machine and would make the item look worn out before it's time. However, these are mittens and I think they'll have an easier time of things than a pair of socks would. I'd use the yarn again and will definately knit more mittens from this book in the future.

It wasn't all socializing and relaxing between delivering gifts. Things were accomplished. The christmas knitting list grew (again) and 2 more pairs of socks were added to the queue. I'm happy to say that 1 sock from each pair is finished and the recipients, who are out of the country until mid January, will come home to some nice wooly socks after their South American adventure. One pair is knit is a delightful swamp green (another pair of man socks) and the other is from Trekking XXL, colour 105. I chose the Yarrow Ribbed Sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. That pattern held 2 new elements for me - the German heel and the French Toe. I liked both, especially the decorative stiches along the edge of the heel flap and gusset.

I also managed to knit myself a pair of mittens from Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea. Another fabulous book. The patterns are visually interesting and addictive to knit while the history is informative, well written and approachable. I highy recommend it for any fancy mitten lovers out there. Traditionally worked in black and white, for my own pair of NHM#9, I used a grapey-purple alpaca in a fingering weight and some natural cream coloured alpaca, both held double throughout, knit on 2.75mm dpns. The result was a pair of warm, thick mittens that I love. Next time I would use smaller needles and a single strand of each yarn for a pair of thinner, less bulky mitts. Love this book.

I know that as New Year's approaches, resolutions are the big thing. Well gentle reader I too have soem resolutions and here they are in no particular order: post more regularly, practice active stash enhancement whenever the opportunity presents itself (we'll leave the restraint to other, more mature knitters), post on other knitblogs in the hopes that they might visit mine and finally, I resolve to knit more. Not just for myself, but for other folks as well. So far the knitted gifts have gone over well, even my BF liked his man socks and requested another pair ("But just in grey, just like the first pair").Besides, if I didn't give stuff away, I'd be up to my ears in all things knit.

Happy New Year's everybody and happy knitting.

Holy Hiatus!

Well, I guess that I can't complain about other bloggers falling behind considering how long it's been since I last posted anything. Sheesh - where does the time go?

I last left you with Stan, the birthday robot. My birthday has since come and gone and was pretty good as birthdays go. The BF's parents gave me a generous discoutn to my local yarn store and I have put it to good use. Mammals and I had a good time browsing the aisles and touching everything we could get our hands on. LK has some lovely new baby llama that has got to be some of the softest yarn I have ever felt. Needless to say, I want it. Piles of it. Enough of to roll around on in various stages of undress. Yes, it really is that soft. Go feel some, you'll understand. I picked up some Cascade 220 in a lively turquoise to knit myself this sweater and some Sisu in some earthy tones to knit my final Unbloggable Project and finally a ball of plain ol' navy Pattons Classic Merino, which I combined with some left over Pattons in another shade, to make this hat for my mom. Yarn bucks - one of the best gifts ever. The pattern is Center Square from Knitty. It was a quick knit - I whipped it up last night, though I did modify it a bit. I knit it as directed on 8mm needles, but wasn't happy with the way the ribbing turned out. At this point I had already finished the darn thing and was not about to rip it out and start over. I did what any sensible knitter would do - I cut the ribbing off. I snipped off the offending ribbing, picked up the live stitches and reknit it on a 6mm circ. I'm still not in love, as I like my ribbing tightly knit, but it's miles better than it was before. The pattern notes are right, the hat does fit snuggly, but I think the combination of knitting with the doubled yarn and he colour stranding will go a long way in keeping out the winter wind - a good thing as my mother informed me that she needs a decent hat for "walking the dogs, my ears are cold." This should do the trick.

I started these socks over the weekend when the temperatures dipped both inside and out. The heat was off in our apartment for most of the long weekend and boy howdy my toes were chilly. I figured patterned woolly socks were the answer. I've had this skein Opal 6-fach in the stash for a while and felt it that it was about time that it saw the light of day. I'm knitting it up in Cat Bordhi's Woven Ridge sock pattern from her book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I originally intended it for the BF's feet but was informed that it "wasn't his favourite." That is code for "I hate it. You knit me anything out of that and I'll burn it while you stand there crying." I know these things. So it rested, waiting for it's turn. I don't hate it and I like the pattern. Another bonus? Using it up means that there's more room in the stash for more sock yarn. Happiness may well be measured in sock yarn.

I'm about to plunge into my last Unbloggable Proejct of the christmas season, but I've got those socks and the turquoise sweater on the horizon to give me some blog fodder for the next little while. Now it's off to knit while I watch cheezy crime dramas on tv. Happy knitting!

Meet Stan

Greetings gentle reader! It feels like ages since I last posted. I've been diligently beavering away on the Grey Man Socks and one of the Unbloggable projects. There's really only so much one can write about GMS and the other is a secret - which leaves me precious little to blog about. So instead of writing about my knitting, I'll write about someone else's.

Meet Stan. Created by the lovely Mammals, Stan is an early gift for my birthday. I love him! He's green, he's knit and he's a robot - what's not to love? Mammals has knit a few of these nifty robots and I was pretty excited to get one - in my colour no less. I felt pretty special as Stan was accompanied by a pan of tasty, tasty Rice Krispie squares. Delicious. So far, it's been a great birthday and it's not officially until sunday. Some days, it's good to be me.

In other knitting related news, I got to meet Miss. J's new baby girl Frances Ophelia. Cute, cute, cute. And so little. It's not until you get to hold a new baby that you realize how small they really are. Needless to say, no knitting was accomplished. When little Frances gets a bit bigger, she'll have an enviable wardrobe of lovely knitted goods. Miss J. has made some fabulous little sweaters and I wish that I had taken some photos of the baby and her knits. I was distracted, what can I say?

Well, a quick post, short on content. I apologize and will try to tackle a project that I can actually share with you. Hope all is well out there in KnitLand. Happy knitting!

Grey Man Socks

I am dying, absolutley dying to post about my unbloggable projects, but I can't. I want to, but I won't. I will say that I am really happy with what I've managed to knit up so far -thank you L.K. Yarns for the technical help( I love those ladies, they're always so nice to me.) and I can't wait to share the photos and all my trials and tribulations. I will just say that Tvåändsstickning- that's Scandinavian double-ended knitting for you - is a frustrating endeavor to undertake when on a bit of a schedule. I will revisit it, but not when I feel pressured to get things done by a certain date (you know, like christmas).

Since I can't write about my favourite WIP, I will share with you the glories of knitting Grey Man Socks. I know, calm yourselves, it is exciting stuff.

My Beloved requested man socks for christmas; "hey, you could make me socks for christmas. Not fancy ones though, you like to make fancy socks, I just want plain guy socks. Grey ones." Awesome. Grey socks for big guy feet. Bring it. So, being the loving girlfriend that I am, I dutifully took myself to my favourite LYS (see above) and bought 3 balls of Phildar Preface in Gris Moyen. I bought 3 balls in an olive green too. It's not like this man ever asks me to knit anything for him (which is good, because after last year's 3 hat I-don't-like-any-of-them episode, I mostly gave up). I had a hard time finding a suitably plain sock pattern and ended up using a the 3-Ply Ribbed Sock pattern from a vintage Beehive pattern book my mom found at Value Village for 69 cents. The pattern is just like it sounds, ribbed. The book itself is kind of neat and the pattern is easy to follow and fits the criterion to a T. The yarn is hard to get excited about, not that it's bad, it's just a study-ish sort of slightly heathered sock yarn and doesn't set my heart to fluttering like some other brands do. No slight to Phildar, but not every yarn can be a Fleece Artist yarn.

Let's see, what else is there to write about? I've been missing my weekly knitting and lunch with with Miss J., but she's been busy with her brand new baby girl Frances. I am so happy for Miss J. and can't wait to meet little Frances. I forsee very little knitting getting accomplished, what with all the baby cuteness to distract me. Happy knitting!

It's Fall, it must be migrating. . .

It's crisp, it's cool, it's Fall. It's baking season. I decided that I whip up a batch of lemon-poppyseed muffins. I dug out the classic Muffins and More, readied my ingredients and pulled out my mixer (best christmas gift ever). I looked in the bowl and what do I find nestled next to the beater? A small ball of black yarn. Does yarn migrate? If so, where does yarn go for the winter?

In my last post (which seems ages ago), I declared that I would attempt to cable. I have been hesitant to try cables, it looked so hard, so complex and well, so cable-y. I figured that there must be some sort of secret, a trick that one could learn after being admitted to the elite Cable Club. Turns out I was wrong on all counts. Cables are not so hard after all - I say this as if one pair of socks makes me an expert. I knit up a pair (okay, really I've knit 1 and 3/4 pair. I'm going to finish that bad boy off tonight if it kills me.) in aKoigu Premium Merino semi-solid. For once the photo actually reflects the yarn's colour. I bought this yarn in Charlestown, South Carolina at the fabulous Knit. What a great store - bursting with yarn, lots of delicious yarns in every flavour of fibre. If you're ever in the neighborhood, I suggest you ditch your friends or family and spend the afternoon - that's what I did. Anywho, I really like this yarn. It seems that whenever I post, I've just knit with a new-to-me yarn and this is another one. I love the semi-solidness of it and the sproingy texture. Yes, I said sproingy. I was saving this yarn for me, but I decided to let it go as it's a colour I know my mom will like. I've got no quibbles or complaints except for the fact that although it's a Canadian product, I can't buy it locally and their website leaves a little something to be desired, hence no link. But those are minor issues and I'm looking forward to knitting with it again (which is good as I have three skeins of a nice navy semi-solid waiting in the stash).

The pattern for these lovelies is the Uptown Book Sock from Interweave Knits 25 Favorite Socks, originally published in the Winter 2003 issue. Everytime I flipped through that book (which I love) I would say to myself, "Man, those are nice socks, someday, if I ever larn to cable, I'm gonna make those." Mission accomplished. An easy to memorize eight row repeat, nice short row heel and a kitchener stitch toe make a nice sock. I will definitely make another pair if these, but for myself. I think they'll look pretty good in her Birkenstocks and will be more practical than a pair of lace socks (for which more than one hint was dropped).

The moment that the final sock is off the needles is the moment that the core of my christmas knitting is finished. Sweet. This is not to say that there isn't more, oh no gentle reader, the auxilary backup list is by no means short. Aside from the recently requested socks for the Beloved, in plain grey and olive green (sigh), we're into the unbloggable projects. This means that I'll have to get creative with the posting for the near future - or start something for myself - which will break my new rule of no new projects, but a girl has to write about something. Until next time knitters.

Making Progress

Just a quick post today to show off a pair of completed Christmas socks. These are the Simple Socks with a Slant form Cat Bordhi's latest book (I am obsessed with that book). I originally intended a pair of Roza's socks for the BF's sister, but let's face it, big yarn on big needles for little feet equals a faster finish. I learned a few new things form making these, and that always makes me happy. I can now perform Judy's Magic Cast-On without aide or instruction (sorry to J. for the repeated demos!) and can knit a decent toe up sock without holes along the heel. Sweet. They make a nice home for cold feet.
Next up? A pair of socks for my mom. She wanted lace or cables, I opted for the wavy cables of the Uptown Boot Sock from Interweave Knits 25 Favourite Socks. This is my first attempt at knitting cables so let's hope for the best!