Whatever Lola Knits

I'm Knitting, I Promise!

And I'm even knitting socks of all things! For the first time, I am kind of in love - socks usually leave me a little cold, a little bored, they are so...small. But these are squooshy and stripy and wonderful! This is the ever-popular Charade pattern in Hazelknits Ice Cream Sundae, the custom colorway developed for Hilltop Yarn. Isn't it yummy?

I was questioning the pooling a bit but it's so lovely, and you never would have guessed from the skein that it would happen:

Ah well, it's too nice to fiddle with, I like it just the way it is.

I have also been plugging away on the last big piece of my Flutter Sleeve Cardigan - the back and left front have been done for a while, now I just need to finish the right front, the seed stitch button bands, and all of the finishing. It feels like an insurmountable task, but I think I'll actually finish the right front fairly quickly, now that I've really gotten going with it. The left front was fairly speedy through the short-row shaping under the bust and only slowed when I got to the sleeve, but that's partly because I had to concentrate so hard on not screwing up the shaping. Since I've done it once, I can match the right against the left as a visual cue, hooray!

And of course, I have another baby item still waiting to be finished - my soon-to-be-born second cousin Jackson will hopefully arrive after I've done the seaming and intended embroidery on the front of his Presto Besto sweater:

I originally wanted to knit the front panel in white and then use the world's most adorable fishbowl buttons (I have the orange fishies, but the bowl is a translucent light blue color, not colorless), so that you can see them against the knitted fabric, but then I washed everything...and that Cascade 220 Superwash bled EVERYWHERE. I rinsed and soaked and rinsed and soaked and still, the bleeding dye. So I knit the panel in blue and figure that a giant J on the front will do nicely, very boyish. (and maybe I'll go ahead with the white panel anyway, my cousin will want to be able to change them out, right?)

(You may notice that I'm getting back in the swing of blogging - thank the recent shake-up at work for that. My old-new job that I had been doing for the last 30 days has been eliminated, and my new-new job that I was mapped into will likely allow for a little more breathing room...let's hope, anyway!)

Baby Sweater with 9 pound cat for reference.

Baby Sweater with 9 pound cat for reference.
Originally uploaded by maggi.m.

Finally, another finished object! November was an extremely busy month--between new job and Thanksgiving festivities, I'm exhausted! I did manage to start and almost finish this newborn-sized baby sweater during the Thanksgiving 4-day weekend. I am still one button short and am considering lacing a ribbon through the first garter stitch row in the yoke, but otherwise will consider this Complete.

Specs:

Yarn: Webs-brand Longmeadow, a cotton-microfiber blend. 2 balls (only a few yards leftover!) at $3.50 each makes this a pretty inexpensive project...prior to buttons, that is. I spent $1.70 each on the bunny buttons, but it was well worth it.

Pattern: Lace Baby Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac. I LOVE this woman. The pattern was easy, fun and quick--only took about 5-6 combined hours of knitting and finishing!

You And Your Autumn Sweater

I have finished things! It's true, I am not always just starting projects, but I am verrrry bad at remembering to take timely photos of the things I finish. Also, our house is small, low-ceilinged and in Seattle, which means that we will have no decent natural light until next April. Enter: The Bathroom Counter! I find that the light in our bathroom is most often decent enough for these kinds of photos, and less likely to be covered with a stack of mail (dining room table), a stack of magazines (ottoman in the den) or small appliances (kitchen, all of it). Click photos for better descriptions and/or notes--this will take you to my Flickr stream.

The Petal Bib from One Skein, knit in KnitPicks Main Line--the yarn I'll never run out of.

My First Mitten! These are for Allison, my former admin.

I think I mucked up the thumb decreases, but blocking will fix that, right? RIGHT???

I know that I followed the decreases perfectly on the top of the mitten, but it still looks awfully pointy. Do they make mitten-blockers?

The Unintentionally Patriotic Hat

Winter Hat, maybe for me? The matching scarf is in my car, and I was too lazy to go get it.

Melissa Calls This My Clubfoot Sock.

Here's the yarn I bought in Spain!

You will also find photos of the yummy yarn Quincy brought back from Scandinavia for me, and some recent sock yarn purchases. Rest assured that I have purchased FAR MORE yarn than is pictured here, because who would I be without that awful yarn-bingeing streak? A shell of my former self, I'm sure.