I finished the Tiffany Mittens last night! I thought if I didn’t finish them before our trip, they would never get done as I fully intend on it being spring when we get home. As the mittens are intended for our VT LFG, she has a good month left to wear them (of course they need to get to her first!).

The above pose was arranged by our own Agent K and it is entitled, “Peace.” Agents J and B just walked by and they said “Oh, a bunny!’ So you may see into it whatever you choose!

Here is a more complete view:

I think I’ve written out all the pertinent project specs in previous posts so if you are interested just click on the Mitt/Mittens category in my sidebar. Just in case you are wondering what the heck I’m thinking, I am completely aware that they are indeed mismatched — fraternal brothers, rather than identical. I am not going losing my mind (though you can debate that amongst yourself if you wish). LFG said, “Cool! I’ll wear them!” and thusly she is now the proud owner of yet another of my finished projects! She has some way, that girl!

We are leaving tomorrow afternoon! I find myself quite perplexed at how a person such as me from a very small town in Connecticut is going to a place that looks like this:

Let’s just hope it is not as scary as Hartford, or I’m going to be in big trouble. This is only a small portion of the map of LA! I was trying to plot out some yarn stores yesterday, but I think the odds that we will get to go to any are very slim as seem to be mostly closed on Sundays and Mondays and we already have Friday and Saturday planned.

Well, I have to run — Happy last day of February!

What a whirlwind of a weekend!

This is going to be one of those this and that types posts since most of my chattings are just not related or cohesive in any way.

1.) Usually I save this type of info for last, preferring to talk about something which has an accompanying photo to display at the top of my post, but it is just so exciting I have to get it out first. It is the countdown! T- 5 to when IHA leaves for CA, T-7 to when his test begins, and T – 10 to when we leave to meet him and his test is over! (The scary part is that I also have T- 10 for when I have to decide what I’m going to do with my life before he signs up for school again! My friends and sister are urging me to act quickly so I don’t lose out before he applies to school again or something. So, please, if you have any idea of what I should be when I grow up — let me know! I’m thinking perhaps, this or this or this or this or starting one of these. This is what I used to do – many, many moons ago.)

2.) It is time to start packing! We have a lot of shopping to do. It looks like it is in the 60’s in LA at the time of year and all the spring clothes are in the stores, so we should have some luck finding some nice stuff. I just don’t know what kind of shoes to bring though. We need to dress up for the graduation ceremony, I have a very nice pair of open toe black sandals. Any thoughts on if they would be appropriate?

3.) I’m trying to knit a gift for a friend and all my attempts are just not working out so great. Everything that I make that is intended for her keeps coming out just not the right color, or the right size or not my best work. I was inspired to knit the Santa Cruz hat from February Magknits when I read Mary’s “Detour” post on Dim Sum Knitting. This is a great pattern: really quick to knit (one evening) and gobs of yarn options (perfect for knitting from the stash). I, however, came up with a hat that instead of being grown-up sized as I intended, turned out to be perfectly junior agent sized. (LFG and the little agents are really making out in my attempt to knit for this friend!) I’ll post the hat details on my Finished Projects 2007 page.

4.) The dancing socks for LFG are finished!

5.) There was some KIP-ing this weekend!

6.) One Tiffany is complete. This photo shows the thumb side – it magically blends right in with the hand!

7.) This post is taking FORever to write. Every 3.2 minutes a junior agent arrives to interrupt my train of thought. It must be some sort of conspiracy to keep me from being sane. As Knitcole would say, can you hear my sanity snapping?

8.) The rate of junior agent interruptions is increasing exponentially so, thusly, I need to blow this pop stand. Hope you all have a great day!

I wasn’t really planning on blogging today, but while I was perusing my favorite blogs on Bloglines, I saw a post from Sara at The Quacking Fiber Addict about her Dancing Socks. She is waiting to see how my socks swirl. How can I keep her waiting any longer?

Thusly, I have for you, dear Sara, a photo of how the yarn swirls and twirls:

Mine is more of a one foot salchow while hers is more like a triple axel. (That is just a quick guess, perhaps Knitcole can more closely id the swirling patterns of our sock yarns?) Here is the photo of Sara’s socks for comparison (I also think hers look a bit like sand art…)

So while I’m writing, I should give a quick Tiffany update. Encouraged by the comments from my last post, I decided to surge forward in this knitting endeavor. I changed the color plan around a bit so the tops are green and purple because you can never go wrong with green and purple, right? The two big problems now are that my knitting is bunching and I’m going to run out of the main color! (Note to anyone reading this because they searched on Merino Style and Tiffany Mittens – get 2 skeins of your main color! Of course that would not work if you don’t have a color plan before you buy the yarn. Maybe the best thing to do would be to buy the color card first…) Now I’m not sure if the bunching problem may in part be due to the smoothness of the yarn. It is indeed a bit unforgiving. I think knitting this with something woolier or tweedier would make the stitches blend better. Actually — you know I bet this mittens would look really nice in Green Mountain Spinnery’s Mountain Mohair…

Anyway, what will I do about running out of yarn? Perhaps, I will just make one Tiffany and think of it as a process activity; or, perhaps, I will knit the second one with a different color scheme like these mismatched socks. I really doubt I will order another ball of yarn though. For goodness sake, the shipping costs more than the yarn! Oh wait, I almost forgot the photo:

Vacation countdown: T – 17 days until the girls and I leave for our California vacation! Whoo hoo!!!!

Riding high on my Endpaper success, I decided to cast on for the Tiffany Mittens last night. So far, I am less than loving them…

I’m using Merino Style and while it is soft, it doesn’t have the same character as the yarn used by the designer. (Click here for a good review on Merino Style.) I also don’t think I like my color choices. Part of that was in choosing to buy yarns from the internet and part is just that I don’t really know how to pick 5 colors like that for one project. In my current plan the cool “tiffany” top of the mitten is slated for the light purple as the background and yellow as the pattern. (Maybe I should just leave out the yellow all together and just use 4 colors. BTW, the 2 colors that look blue are actually purple. These are the colors that I bought: Hollyberry, Moss, Cornflower, Iris, Crocus, and Rhubarb which is not shown above and I was actually quite shocked to see what how bright it is in real life!)

The only completed Tiffany Mitten I could find on the internet is at a blog called “SMOEK!!!” and it turned out very lovely. You can see it here. Seeing this finished mitten actually gives me some hope. I was worried that the cuff was going to be way too large. I can see from her photo that her cuff is on the larger side too and then the top of the mitten does narrow down a bit.

I was going to rip them out immediately upon writing this post, but instead, I think I will wait and think upon it and perhaps someone out there will have some ideas/suggestions/recommendations??? Please? Also if you have seen any other Tiffanys on the internet, I would love for you to leave the link or info to find the webpage in my comments. Thanks!

I can’t believe how fast the time is flying by today! I better run… Have a great weekend!

My Endpaper Mitts are done now, completely and for real!

Project Stats:

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang

Yarn: Knitpicks Palette colors blush and wood (This yarn was great for this pattern. I had tried swatching with some slipperier yarns and I was totally frustrated, but this yarn was nice and “sticky” and was really great for learning colorwork. Plus these things cost less than $4.00 to make!!! How can you really beat that for a learning experience. If I had seen this yarn in a store, I probably would not have bought it as it just isn’t all that appealing in its ball. It doesn’t have much twist which doesn’t really affect the way it knits, but it just makes it less aesthetically pleasing The biggest downside to using this yarn is that I can not wear them to work but I promised Agent J a pair of fingerless gloves and as you can see from the above photo, they fit her “like a glove.”)

Needles: US sizes 0 Britanny and 3 Chiaogoo

Date Started: January 17, 2007

Date Completed: February 7, 2007

Things I learned:

I learned about yarn dominance. I found that I really have it – I must hold the darker/main pattern color in my left hand (the one I “pick” with) or you can’t even really see the pattern. As such, I still have places in the mitts where the brown overwhelms the pink.

I learned how to do the Italian Tubular Cast On. It looks a little loose and uneven when the mitts are lying flat, but when they are being worn, it looks nice and it is very stretchy.

I learned that I really like those little tiny size 0 needles. They are sooooo cute!

I learned how to do the yarn over increase – or rather I learned when it was appropriate to use the yarn over increase.

I already knew how to do the tubular bind off – but I gained in proficiency having to do it over an extra time.

I learned that I’m really braindead and that I need to read my patterns more carefully and that I really need a vacation.

Here are the mitts in the deconstruction process so I could add the 10 rows I missed the first time:

All I did was insert the needles through each stitch making sure that the colors that were on the needles matched the chart and then I cut the top off and unwound the yarn down to the live stitches. Then I continued knitting on and all was well! Another trick for my bag.

Here’s a Caught Being Good photo:

Agents B and J pretending to be kangaroos before school because Agent B was wearing her Kangaroo sweater to school! She wore it twice this week and I’m so excited!!! I was so sure she would put it on and decide that she didn’t like it, but that is so not true! She wants to wear it everyday now!

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” –
— George Bernard Shaw

Or an evening too, right? I could have just watched TV last night, but as usual, I knitted while watching the Gilmore Girls and NCIS (I record NCIS and watch after GG). I wanted a finished object. Really. Badly. Through the magic of blogging, I can actually show you a finished object:

Finished Endpaper Mitts or not? I could just end this post here and pretend, but who wants to read about a knitter who is always perfect anyway?

What is the problem? I made the the same mistake that I always make even when I try really hard to not make that same mistake almost every time.

I don’t read the instructions as carefully when knitting the second sleeve, sock, mitt, etc…

I was even thinking that I have to be careful not to fall in the same trap again. I even held the first mitts up to the second to see if I had the right length of ribbing on the top. What do I need to get this right, a lobotomy?

When I have classes at the yarn shop, I even warn my students of this trap, and yet I fall into it time and time again. I think I know what I need to do the second time, but I miss a step or just frankly go brain dead. In this case I was supposed to follow the 10 rows of chart A one more time before the ribbing. (For those of you who have knit Endpaper Mitts – you can probably see that the cuffs are shorter, but this was intentional.)

I guess now, I will have to rip back and do those rows. At least now, I will have more experience with fixing mistakes in stranding to share at the yarn shop! I’m always worried that I will get a project help student that needs help in Fair Isle and I won’t know what to do – but now I’ll be one step closer…

I’ll post the final projects stats on Endpaper Mitts when they are complete and truly finished objects. For now, I’m off to work. Have a great day!

I leave you with this to ponder, isn’t it so true?

“It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.” –
— Douglas Adams

I’m doing it! Still working out some kinks (like how hard to pull between needles), but I’m doing it! These Endpapers are not going to beat me!

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette colors blush and wood (I think – I can’t find the labels right now…)
Needles: US sizes 0 and 3 Chiaogoo (I love these the best!)
Gauge: I’m aiming for 8 stitches per inch and I’m still getting about 9 – but I can slide it on my hand so I think I’m ok.

The sun is out (see the shadows in my photo?). I had forgotten how bright it could be! Cold but sunny – that beats warm and gloomy any day in my book. Well – I’m off for the day — to work and then to visit my dad. Hope you have a good one!