Starting the Sweater

After finishing the second beanie, I immediately began working on eldest nephew's sweater. 

A refresher for those of you who weren't around a month ago: when I visited brother and family in Ohio, I asked them if they wanted me to knit/crochet them anything for Christmas. I got a list. I searched patterns. I immediately began working on a beanie that I already had yarn for. And I ordered yarn online for the sweater. 

It took a little over a week to get the yarn I ordered. (I got notification that they had tried to deliver the yarn and I wasn't home. Although, ahem, that came on a day when I was home all day.) When the yarn finally arrived, I set it aside as I was working on a second beanie. 

I started the sweater on July 30th. 

Decent progress thus far. This is the back. I'm about halfway through. (Eldest nephew is tall, so I'm making this a bit longer than is called for.) The pattern is called When Harry Met Lucy, via Knitty. It's a fairly straightforward cabled pullover. Nothing I can't handle. 

It's a bulky yarn, so it works up quicker. It's getting to the point where it'll be on my lap, so it may get set aside due to heat. We'll see. I'd very much like to get the back completely finished by the end of the month. 

I'd very much like to finish it in time for Christmas, but we'll see. I still have this week before school officially begins. Our district is starting later this year, for some odd reason. I don't seem to knit as much when I'm working, but unlike the dragon pattern, this one doesn't require special attention. At least, it doesn't until I make a stupid mistake. (I haven't done so yet, but it happens.) 

Now I have time to plot out what I'll work on next. Or concurrently. I might need breaks from this sweater, so it'll be a good idea to have a couple other things on the needles. 

A Finished Penguin

I've been hinting at the penguin for a couple weeks now. I managed to finish him on Saturday: 

I'm not 100% satisfied, however. If it wasn't already December, I'd totally made another one, fixing the little things that I'm not quite completely happy with. 

But as of now, I can get all of the stuff together and get it mailed off this week. And basically my Christmas presents are all complete. 

The pattern is another One Dog Woof creation (and you can find the blog post with the pattern here). She's the one who designed the jellyfish and the unicorn gift card holder and the shark. 

When eldest nephew requested a penguin for Christmas, I went online looking for penguins. I found seven patterns I thought came out cute. I sent him the pictures. He picked this one. And it wasn't until he had picked it that I looked more closely at whose pattern it was. 

Weird coincidence? Who knows. But now it's all done but for the wrapping and mailing and gifting.

How are your holiday preparations coming along? 

Finishing Up Christmas Knitting

My Christmas knitting is almost at an end. I just finished up the last pair of ugly slippers... 

Since I never showed these off as I was knitting them, these are the pair that I finished before the green... 

And a shot of all four complete... 

Although, not quite. They'll require a bit more finishing before they're ready to be mailed off. I have yet to attach soles to the bottom so that one doesn't slip on slippery floors when one is wearing them. And the twins requested dinosaurs. A little sewing, that's all. 

And I'm doing a little designing. A walking purse... 

I still have a couple pieces to finish, and then assembly. I may write up the pattern eventually. 

And then HapkidoKid's 13th birthday was the day after Christmas. His birthday scarf is in progress... 

So, I have a few projects still. But, I'm closer to the end of them all than the beginning. Not too bad. 

(Ideally I would have had everything finished in time for Christmas. But I'm good with only being a month or so late. I'm better off than last year.)

A Star Wars Request

On Christmas Eve, I asked my nephew what he wanted me to make him for his birthday. Or if he wanted me to make something for him. Or if he'd rather I bought him something.

Figuring out what a soon-to-be 11-year-old boy wants... Yeah, I've no clue. And rather than knit something he'd hate, it's just easier to let him pick.

Or so I thought.

Because he had just the thing. "An X-Wing Fighter on a beanie."

Um, okay. Time to do some internet research.

Luckily, Ravelry had just the thing. (I won't post the picture here due to copyright concerns, but I encourage you to follow the link to see the picture.)

From the link on that project page, I was able to find the colorwork chart. I could do this. Probably.

On Christmas day, I showed the picture to see if the X-Wing met with his approval. It did. As did the whole beanie. Could I replicate that?

Um, sure. I guess so.

Time to look for the other charts... Which took a while. I found a Rebel Insignia (again, copyright concerns; the chart is the third from the bottom of the page) and a set of crossed lightsabers (3rd chart down). Bonus, the second link also had another X-Wing Fighter that I liked a bit better (6 charts below the crossed lightsabers).

New Year's Day (6 days after his birthday) I cast on. Soon, I had the typical rats' nest of various strands of different color yarns that typifies colorwork...

Which devolved rather quickly...

And a couple things became clear. My plan wasn't going to work. And the colorwork wasn't quite working. So, after three days of work, it was time to cut my losses...

And start over...

(No, I didn't rip that all out. Yet. Too fiddly for the moment. I may toss it, or I may try to recover the yarn when I have a day to just sit and untangle.)

On the bright side, my next attempt is going to be simpler than the first. But the colorwork (and the rats' nest on the back side) will likely be worse.

Which means I won't be replicating the beanie he saw. (I'd have to use a much finer yarn for more stitches per inch.) But I think that'll be okay. I hope. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

A Twinkie Conversation

A couple weeks ago, I picked up my niece and eldest nephew from the archery range. As we headed out to my car, the topic of bacon came up.

Bacon? Yep. Not sure why. I think nephew started it. Because niece is not a fan, and she said so. And nephew talked about chocolate covered bacon.

Which made me think of fair food. You know, deep fried everything? Deep fried bacon. Deep fried ice cream. Deep fried Twinkies.

Nephew: "What's a Twinkie?"

The eldest nephew is seven. Niece is twelve. Niece and I looked at each other, flabbergasted.

So, we described the snack cake known as "Twinkie" to nephew. He dismissed us pretty quickly. He knew what that was. (Although, he has a tendency to claim knowledge that he doesn't have, so whether or not he knew what we were talking about is debatable.)

By this time we had loaded up, were in the car, and I was pulling out. I mentioned how Hostess had gone bankrupt and how Twinkies were no more (note: this was just before they came back, although I was aware they were coming back and said something about it).

At this point, niece was amazed. She had not heard about the demise of the Twinkie.

I'm not sure whether I'm troubled or impressed. Troubled that a thing I thought was ubiquitous isn't. Impressed that Twinkies aren't a day to day occurrence in their home. I guess I'm a bit of both.