I finished up Jerry’s fingerless mitts yesterday, and after a good blocking, they look great and he loves them. This kid has been asking for fingerless mitts for ages, and I am glad he finally has a pair.

For a few days this week I wondered why I was doing this again, wondered if I even wanted to be doing it, wondered if I would finish. But with just a few hours of dedicated knitting time (and some choice documentaries on Netlix Instant*) I am confident I can pull this challenge off and confident the Giants will win.

*Page One and Exit Through the Gift Shop, both good

Maggie has half a pair of mitts, almost, and then I just need to knit a pair for myself. I can totally do this.

Yay Giants!

It was 29 degrees out at the bus stop this morning! I brought the wool basket down, gathered some of the recently finished knits and everyone bundled up against the cold. The newest item being worn was the Noro Scarf that I was working on a few days ago. I blocked it yesterday, and because my room gets super warm with the door closed at night, it was dry this morning!

More info about the Scarf for Jerry on Ravelry. When Jerry comes home today I’ll have to weigh the yarn to see how much was used. The yarn was a gift and already wound into balls, so I’m not sure of the exact yardage. If I had to guess it would be maybe 3 skeins?

Jerry is also wearing his new Asheboro Hat.  The mittens are the Girdwood Mittens in Cascade 220 knit in the Big Kid size. Remember the Girdwood Mittens? The pattern comes in all sizes and would be a quick knit for Christmas gifts! Just sayin!

If you’re wondering about the way he’s posing in this picture, he was being a robot. It has something to do with Looney Tunes I think.

And now for Maggie’s ensemble! She beats Jerry by one point because she is wearing a hand knit coat!

The coat is the recently completed Tomten. Yesterday was a cold morning, too, so I put her Tomten out where she could see it and told her it was cold. I don’t want to force her to wear the knitting, but I want to make sure she remembers that it’s an option. And yesterday she chose to wear the knitted coat! I was so happy.

Like Jerry, Maggie (doing robot moves) is also wearing Girdwood Mittens and her Asheboro Hat.  Her mittens are undocumented on the blog and Ravelry because they were a Girdwood prototype. She loves them, but the mittens are…imperfect. Luckily for us Maggie is like the honey badger. She don’t give a shit that her mittens don’t match.

The scarf that Maggie is wearing is a simple lengthwise garter stitch scarf knit with glorious Baby Alpaca Grande. On Raverly, it says I finished this almost exactly 2 years ago! Imagine that.

So maybe Maggie is not technically all wooled up, but partially alpaca-ed up. Even better!

I was reminded this morning that the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid came out today. Every two weeks I get a Photojojo Time Capsule. I don’t even remember when I signed up for that email, but it’s fun to see what I was up to a year ago. Today’s time capsule included a photo of Jerry from November 9th, 2010 with the new book I had bought for him. Below is another shot from that day.

From one year ago.

I made sure he still wanted the book, and went to the store to get the new one today. He’s already finished reading it, of course. They’re simple books and I guess he’s a pretty fast reader. But this series will always have a special place in my heart because it made him a reader. Instead of forcing him to read, now we’ve got to force him to put the book down and go to bed at bedtime.

In my Time Capsule there was also a picture of my purple Fiddlehead Mittens!

I love these so hard! They’re not mine anymore, but they belong to a knitter’s daughter so I can only assume they’re loved and respected.

In terms of current knitting, I’m working on another hat pattern. It requires a needle that I can’t find, so it’s on hold until I can either a) find the needle or b) get myself to the yarn store. How much you wanna bet I’ll end up at the yarn store tomorrow? I also have some background knitting; knitting that requires absolutely no attention whatsoever. Usually my background knitting is socks but I accidentally cast on for a scarf the other day, so I’ll knit on it until it’s done. The yarn is Noro Iro and was a gift from the knitter who’s daughter is the owner of the Fiddleheads.

The scarf has 20 stitches and I’m working in 1×1 ribbing, slipping the first stitch knitwise on every row. I’m technically making it for Jerry, who may or may not wear a scarf, I have no idea. But if it snows we’ll be ready!

I showed Jerry the hat when he came home from school yesterday and he asked if he could keep it for himself. So much meaning bundled up in that one request! Mostly the fact that he likes it makes me a very happy Mom and Knitter. The hat fits him and me both, so I was kinda thinking it would be mine, but it’s already his seeing as he wore it to school today. I took these pictures in the glorious daylight as we waited for the bus to arrive. They usually play tag and today was no different.

Maggie was headed to her very first fieldtrip, and she was over the moon. As she ran to the bus, I told her to remember everything so she could tell me all about it. I know I’ll get an earful, as usual. She’ll be home soon with the full report, and I can’t wait.  When she gets here I’ll get to show her the hat I knit her; the same as Jerry’s but her size and different colors. Hope it fits! Then, as I write up the pattern and have it tested by my trusty tester, do I dare knit a third for myself? One can’t have too many hats, I say.

Although he missed “strengthen” on his spelling test today, this boy had a great week at school. So good, in fact, that he earned the title Student of the Week for next week. It involves sitting alone at a special desk. Yay Jerry!

I’ve been taking more frequent pictures of the kids, trying to get a good one of the both of them for Christmas cards. I like these from today, but I still haven’t taken the perfect shot yet. I’m running out of time!

As the kids wind down tonight in front of the television, I am sitting here contemplating how much a polaroid effect from picnik can make an admittedly awful photo bearable. I am also contemplating this whole NaBloPoMo thing, or in layman’s terms, a blog post each day of November. I’ve never been one to blog that frequently, but with two kids in school now things are different. I’m knitting regularly again, getting ready to go back to school, and now seems as good a time as any for a challenge. Consider yourself warned. Also consider this post #1 and picture #1. Because if I am going to try a post a day, I might as well have a photo from that day attached. Wish me luck!

I am seriously on fire with the socks. To be honest, I have been watching seasons 1-3 of Fringe on my computer (bought the instant videos on Amazon) and that leaves me with a lot of time for knitting that I can put on autopilot.

Do I even need to tell you what pattern I’m using? It is, again, Judy Gibson’s You’re Putting Me On Toe Up Sock pattern. And since I have a certain way that I do all the things in the pattern, I thought I’d give you some more details.

The Toe

I use a figure-8 cast on for the toe. It’s a little tricky when you first learn it, but it’s also really cool. I learned it first when I knit HelloYarn’s Top Down Bonnet for Maggie way back when (Oh my, that link has a picture of Maggie from 2007! You must click it!).

I’ve refined the way I knit the cast on. Here’s what I do. I loop the yarn around the needles (using two needles). Then I knit across each needle (now I’m using three needles). Most instructions will have you begin the increases on the next round, while also dividing the stitches between four needles. I do those things on separate rounds. First, I knit one round and divide the stitches evenly between four needles (so I am actually using five needles). Then on the next round I begin the increases. I find the work is less fiddly when I do it this way, and that makes me a happier knitter.

For the toe, I use a KFB increase. When the work is so tiny and fiddly at the beginning, the KFB is the easiest for me to handle, and it’s relatively quick. Here’s how I do it:

Needle 1: KFB, k to end of needle.
Needle 2: K to last 2 sts, KFB, K1.
Needle 3: Same as Needle 1.
Needle 4: Same as Needle 2.

The Bind Off

Getting a loose bind off at the top edge of a toe-up sock is crucial. I use the same one every time, and like Grumperina, the first time I used it was on the cast off edge of my Leaf Lace Shawl (again with the old knits! 2007!).  I don’t know what Evelyn Clark calls this bind off, but I’ve seen something called a Russian Bind Off that is very similar.  What I do differently is that I don’t slip stitches back to the left hand needle.

I described the bind off like this in the pattern for my toe up Celery Socks:

K1, *K1, insert L needle tip into the front of the 2 sts from left to right and knit them together from this position.* Repeat between *s until 1 st remains. Cut yarn and fasten off.

It is easy and effective. You need not change to a larger needle, either. If anything, you work this cast off just as tight as any other stitch. It’s naturally Very Stretchy!

The yarn I used for these socks is Cascade Heritage 150 and I loooooove it. It’s technically sport weight, but it’s on the thin side if you ask me. But the socks are cushy. I went back to the yarn store where I bought the yarn, to buy more, and they didn’t have any. And instead of the yarn being sold out because it was super popular, I think they didn’t restock it because nobody was really crazy about it. Oh, well.

Best part of these socks? Jerry loves them! He’s been wearing them around the house, and that makes this knitter very happy, indeed.

More info about pattern and yarn for these socks on Ravelry.

Since I wasn’t finished with Fringe when I finished these socks, I started another pair. Trekking XXL (one of my favorite sock yarns!) in pumpkiny colors!

I finished two Christmas knitting projects, and totally failed on two others. But it’s not bringing me down, because it’s Christmas! And Christmas with an eight year old and a four year old is Very Fun. You can not imagine the excitement. We’ll probably go to the mall today, which is a crazy tradition but a tradition nonetheless.

I hope you have a very special Christmas, full of peace, joy, family, friends, good music, yummy food, knitting time, cookies, and all that you ever wished for.

The snow is gone for now, but the high today is only 32, and with the wind it’s mighty cold out there. Now we just need to work on getting some proper winter coats and snow boots for these kids.

*Actually, Maggie was born in March of ’06, and I remember sitting outside with her when she was a few days old because it was in the 70s. It’s mostly hot here, but it can be wintry, too!

I have this funny idea that silhouettes are an essential part of childhood.  I think that when I was in grade school we made them as gifts for Mother’s Day or something. I know my friend Mandy R. (one of the Crafty Mandy’s — I’m the other one) made them.  Two things have kept me from making these sooner. 1) I’m usually knitting, and other crafts have been pushed to the very back burner and 2) I don’t like buying craft supplies that will only get used once.

But then I joined Pinterest, and clicked though a pin one day to find that making a silhouette could be really, really simple. I even had all the supplies, including spray adhesive and black paint! I had to hunt around to find oval frames, but I eventually found them at Hobby Lobby and they were 50% off (looks like that is an in-store only sale).

I started with these pictures of the kids, and then followed the easy steps exactly as outlined in the tutorial. The frames I used are 8×10, and I printed out each picture on one sheet of 8.5×11″ cardstock. To get the heads to be the right size, I actually put the pictures into a Word document and adjusted them until they were the size I thought would work.  A bit of trial and error was all it took, and I figured that if I printed them out and the size wasn’t right, I’d only have to print them again.

I’m very pleased with how they came out. So pleased, in fact, that even though I considered wrapping them up for Gerald for Christmas, I decided to leave them out and enjoy them immediately.

I put the frames on the mantle for now, but I think I’ll hang them on the wall. For posterity and all that. This one moment, in a frame, preserved forever and ever, and hung on a wall. I’m a happy mommy.