Continuing the Parade of Finished Objects

This is turning out to be the year of honoring friends with knitted gifts. Yes, and I did say friends and not just their children! So, kids-this may be the year I make you happy with legos because I'm saving the weird and crafty goodness for your moms this time around.

This one I had planned a year ago and it just didn't get done-or even begun. The story begins with the amazing store, Paxton Gate. Who sells this amazing ($124) item that one of my best friends fell in love with on a visit. Now (spending the amount of time on the computer that I do looking at weird things) I happened to know that the item was created from this pattern, that is all of $4. I knew what I must do-I bought the pattern right away and then sat on it-and did nothing. After incubating my plan for a full year I knit this very poorly and gave it to her full of love!

Yes, its a bit of a poor job. (I realize my Chinese side really comes out in these posts where I first dis everything I do and then show it to you anyways.) I didn't enjoy beginning at the bottom with 6 stitches in the round on size 3 dpns. It wasn't pretty and I started over a lot and still totally screwed it up but declared it good enough! It is a rat butt after all and the yarn is very hair like so won't it all just look round and fuzzy once I stuff it? Good Enough is totally my knitting mantra.

It was my first attempt at needle felting, which was fun and this was an easy thing to begin with-felting little blobs. Can do! I did end up removing the first organs that seemed too 2-dimensional (see above) and beefed them up a bit (see below). Its not anatomically accurate but I tried to allude to certain organs, a heart? For sure. A lung? Maybe that weird purple thing could be it, who knows? Our rat might have been a victim of vivisection before its posthumous dissection and so could be missing some crucial stuff. I guess my shoddy representation of rat anatomy is what I get for walking out of our 10th grade biology class. I'll just never know what it all that gunk really looks like.

I enjoyed looking at all the Lab Rat projects over on ravelry. A lot of folks seem to have loose interpretations of rodent anatomy and the results are all pretty cool. Although I could stand to practice some of these knitting techniques again I did enjoy the end product quite a bit-Happy Birthday Court!

Lets talk F.O.s

This was a recent F.O. for my mother-in-law's birthday. Her birthday is conveniently located 2 months after Christmas and so this year I didn't feel the need to crunch in a pair of holiday socks when I can make birthday socks that are still season appropriate.

These were economically done with Patons Kroy sock yarn. I generally avoid superwash yarns but something came over me in the store when I decided to make 4 pairs of socks this winter. I had just pushed my way through a very large monochromatic pair of socks on size 0 needles when I saw this cheap and exciting 3 ply with so many colors and still with a self striping scheme. I bought 6 balls and made 3 more pairs of socks. The self striping pattern turns out to be rather wishy washy, a subtle color change which I got tired of. My favorite part of the sock was where I ran out of yarn on the first ball and had to join in the new one. Now there is the color change I was looking for.

I followed my usual go to sock pattern: Cat Bordhi's "Simple Sock in Three Sizes" from Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. I always knit my socks on two circulars. I knit these on my size 3 addi turbos. They are a little big on my foot but hopefully fit the recipient who wears about a size larger shoe than I do.

There are no pattern modifications except to the toe. I always do a rounded toe with evenly spaced decreases down to the end rather than decrease along the two edges of the sock and then grafting the last 8 stitches. I never do that part very prettily and why would you kitchener stitch when you don't need to?

Here they are wrapped back up in the yarn wrapper, washing instructions included. I did think folks might like a washable sock, not that I mind hand washing hand knit socks. Doesn't it look like I might have bought them at REI?

I am starting to feel overwhelmed by all the projects out there that I want to make (darn you ravelry!) and so I might try to focus on what I've actually been able to complete this year. There is only so much time but I am actually able to get a good amount of simple knitting done. I feel like I should step back and look at what I have been able to do and not just the pile of U.F.O.s awaiting me. So be on the lookout for more posts where I pat myself on the back and show you the things I've recently finished!