Basically, aside from the knitting Meetups that I conduct once or twice a month, I haven’t knit at all since May. I can’t even contemplate working with yarn when it’s over 90 degrees, and it has only dropped under that for maybe a week since late spring. I want to finish my awesomely pretty sweater, though, so I may suck it up and get going again soon. We shall see.

I was just zipping along with my Heather Hoodie, feeling inordinantly proud of myself and my first sweater. I’d even cleverly translated it into being worked in the round, since Nicole and seaming are not BFFs. So just when I thought that I’d need to borrow a hand to give myself as many pats on the back as I deserved, I realized that I hadn’t set aside stitches for my armholes. Oh. Hell. No.

So I had a couple of options. The first was to frog, just the thought of which made my girlnads shrivel up. The next possibility was to steek. And I’ve wanted to steek for so long!!! But I knew that this would be a dicier option, since I hadn’t included any extra stitches for a steek, so anything I would cut would technically be something that I probably wanted to keep. I went to my LYS and asked how I’d do a crochet steek, since I don’t 1) own a sewing machine or 2) know how to use one. Their suggestion was that I frog back to the point where I would have put in the armholes. I could see how this would be a reasonable and safe course of action to take, but once I explained that I preferred to try steeking, they gamely looked on youtube to see if they could find anything to help me.

The good news is that we found a video (although I’ve never been able to find that one again; humbug), and the bad news is that I think we misunderstood it. So I crocheted just one leg of the knit stitch that would form the edge of the steek. That didn’t seem exactly right to me, and I was unwilling to cut until I was as sure as possible that I was doing the right thing, so I put that aside and went back the evil socks. I finished those, and the final post will be up in a day or two (or whenever I’m over the 4.5 hours of end-weaving I did).

I had seen Eunny Jang’s steeking chronicles before,  but they didn’t make sense to me until I actually had a swatch, some contrasting yarn, and a crochet hook in front of me. I also found Jared Flood’s largely visual explanation of steeking quite useful.

My swatch, with the two crocheted lines of stitches

The first time I did this, I did it wrong. I know, you thought I’d do it perfectly right from the gate. Not so. The first time I crocheted my two sets of stitches, I left a leg of a knit stitch in between. Why? I no longer know, but it made sense four hours ago.

Even that provided acceptable results.

Look, not connected, and not unraveled!

I just hated the fact that I’d unnecessarily burned a stitch. So I tried it again.

Second set of crocheted stitches.

This time, there was no knit stitch between the two lines of crochet. Pulling apart the two sides looked like some sort of obscene grimace. Needless to say, I loved this.

Say cheese!

You can see the purl bumps in between the crocheted stitches. This is what is cut.

Not that I’m an expert or anything, but I am now gaining confidence in my ability to crochet steek. I’m still looking for a way to shore up my cast on and bound off edges, as those are tricksy to secure. Both Jang and Flood mentioned this, so I know that there is an acceptable solution out there, and since the fabric of my sweater is bulky, I am not opposed to just adding to the bulk by putting in a million securing stitches. It all gets folded under anyway (or so I’ve heard, I haven’t gotten up to that yet)!

It’s late and I’m tired, so cutting into my actual sweater isn’t a good idea at all, but I’m glad that I now have a better idea about what I’m going to be doing.

My Heather Hoodie is actually coming out okay. I’ll admit it; I’ve impressed myself. Except for an early hiccup where I didn’t reverse the cables when the pattern changed, it’s been smooth sailing with this one.

Here’s a photo of the back section, isn’t it lovely? Anyways, I realized that I actually have no idea how to do this thing. The cabling is easy as pie, but I’m not sure what will happen when I get to armholes and such. I’ve already bought my buttons, which are so awesome that I am not posting a picture of them until they’re in the sweater (probably). I don’t want to lose my momentum on this one, but I also don’t want to mess it up. I have enlisted the aid of several awesome Ravelers, who I hope will come to my rescue. I’ll keep posting my progress with this one.

It is, in fact, a sweater. Here is my dirty red sweater of guilt (guilt, because I should be finishing those socks). Please note the totally awesome cables that I am doing without cable needles (thanks to Grumperina, who rocks, although I won the most darling set at the LYS holiday swap).

I’ve decided that it’s not procrastination if you’re knitting something else while avoiding the original item.

Up with cables!

Down with boring patterns!

Down with excessive striping!

Since we’ve already determined that my head is not massive, I needed a better-fitting hat. I really enjoyed the ginormous hat I made, so I set out to make another one that actually did fit me. It was pretty fun, and I finished in two days. I added a pom-pom (I’ve had a maker for years, and the video linked here showed me how to use it) and braided the sides, instead of doing an i-cord. I also carried the colors up the side, instead of changing and breaking colors throughout.

I think that the next time I make this hat, I won’t make the earflaps so large. Other than that, I love the way it came out!

Which is a pity, since this hat that I knit is pretty much giant-sized. I think I must not have been paying attention when I made it. I was hanging out with a friend and we were laughing at her cat and enjoying the day. Maybe that’s why I managed to cast on an exra 20 stitches without noticing. Anyway, this hat is pretty cool, despite the fact that it could cover the national debt. I was going to give it to my older nephew, whose head is rather…large, but he’s a little sensitive about his massive cabeza, so I’ll figure out something else to do with it.

It looks okay from this angle

And then you see how much there is to this hat

Although this hat was far too large for me, I learned a couple of nifty lessons whilst making it. 1) I learned how to do an i-cord. As usual, I found a youtube tutorial that explained things to me. 2) I learned a cool way to change colors. It’s called the overcast method, and I think goodness that I found it!

I got off to a good start with the Baby Chalice Blanket for my friend, and made pretty steady progress in the weeks leading up to her baby shower. Then a crazy, act-of-god-type thing happened that derailed me for a bit, and meant that I didn’t finish the blanket until approximately two hours before the shower!! Luckily, it came out okay (Figure A), but obviously I wasn’t going to give it to my friend unblocked. I wrapped it, and let her cuddle it at the baby shower, before whisking it away with me to be blocked and prettified.

Figure A - Unblocked and bunched

Then, I was so proud of myself for having finished and blocked it that I basically sat on it for weeks. Then, when I was ready to send it, I caught the cold from hell, and I was laid up for the better part of two weeks. I actually wanted to knit then, but was so gross that the thought of knitting anything was disgusting to me; I didn’t want for me or anybody else to come into contact with my sickness germs, and I knew that no amount of washing would ever make me feel good about anything I’d knit during this time. So then I was feeling better and finally sent the blanket to be blocked, which took longer than I was given to expect (I am not the only procrastiknitter I know).

Figure B - Blocked, but on a desk & wrapping paper

Finally, it was all done (Figure B), but I’d started a pair of booties at the meeting of my knitting group, and decided to throw them in the box, as well. So of course, there was nothing to do but to finish the booties and then block them (Figure C). Then I got delayed by the storm from hell, but I finally, FINALLY mailed the package out today. I thought that I was going to be in time for the baby’s due date, but it turns out that Baby A’s sense of time is very much like my own, and he is actually several days overdue. Ooops! It looks like my blanket is going to be arriving pretty much the same time he does, since my friend was induced today.

Figure C

I have finished more objects this month (3) than I have in some entire calendar seasons. Yes, that is sad. If you count the things I’ve finished since December, then the number goes up to 5. That’s some major productivity, if I do say so myself. And I’m nearly done with the second baby blanket that I’m working on and I have to knit Satanski some stuff before his birthday in two weeks, so…yeah, I’m totally on a roll. I’ll do posts on the things that I’ve finished lately, and show my progress with the current blanket.

I’ve inspired myself so much that I am going to try to finish all of my remaining UFOs before the end of 2010. Ambitious, I know. We’ll see how that goes.

I don’t visit knitting blogs a lot, unless I’m looking at a post related to a specific item or technique. Today, though, I was looking through Ravelry profiles and decided to visit the knitblog maintained by a friend from college because I was fascinated by the post’s title: A Scarf for Haiti. And that’s how I learned about HeartsforHaiti, an Etsy store where craftsters donate all of the items, and all proceeds (minus Etsy and Paypal fees) go to Doctors Without Borders. What a great idea!

A friend of mine had emailed me this morning to suggest that we get together this weekend and knit a spiral scarf, and I always work better with a specific goal/recipient in mind, so now I can make this scarf and donate it to this shop. Also, now I can buy something nice for myself and know that I’m supporting a good cause while doing it. Win all around!

I’m making the best of an annoying situation with my Clematis yarn. This picture is from my flash-less phone, and therefore sucks, but here is what the blanket is looking like these days:

Clearly, there are multiple hues at work here. Boo! Hiss!