OUR Christmas Tree 2022

Finished!

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Cute little stormtrooper head

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Decided to go with evergreen PWN snow capped pine tree look

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Always the ugliest part. Early assembly.

Leaves way too concentrated but I just need to see square inches that I'd done so far. Going to probably tear apart and resew with plain panels later.

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You may or may not notice, but I have left the top of the top piece with a hole so that over the holidays we can choose to either change toppers or what not. I will have to make a super long panel (like over a foot and a half long) and make a base spine winding-y and then graft in the little branches I made. This is just going to be too packed/crowded. 

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I guess I forgot to take pictures but the spine/wrap panel did end up bein almost 2 ft long. You can sort of see it now, how much it extended the height of the tree and made it less SQUASHED because I didn't have to sew the panels to each other. A main tree that I sewed panels onto instead. 

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Apparently I also didn't take pictures of the stuffing. After stuffing, I had to "plug" the bottom. Stuffed it, then sewed the bottom flat avoiding the tree feet.

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After the tree itself was packed and good to go, I cut and sewed a circular panel (poked holes through and sewed ring/spacers around the feet holes) and then tuck the edges in.

Star! (Hubby's Job)

We went with a taeguk design!

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Little presents! With bows!

Sofi Nordic sweater for me

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New yarn bowl delivered!

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Observe my failure to k1 round in between pattern rounds.....%&!@

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Dec 17 at the same time I realized I had to convert the argyle sweater into a vest, I decided the pink work had sat for too long and the line probably settled/stretched out so it was the wrong gauge anyway and decided to do it over.

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Most of the way through 50g ball # 2 out of 16

Impromptu row marker

Remember to edit your charts with good ol microsoft paint kids

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Picked sofi nordic sweater and sirdar yarn for this year's sweater for me. 

Argyle Sweater (Now Vest)

It shrank in the wash :(((((

But then it stretched out with proper treatment

But the arms are too skinny :(((((

I guess I have enough to try again.

I have 9 balls left and about a third of a hat completed and the first attempt completed.

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Little multicolor canoe. The finger ladders seem a little too intense for this kind of slim intarsia.

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Feed with spools! More long term wooden canoe in progress

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It was all for nothing. Realized my original CO was for a swester, not a vest. Had to start from ground up with separate front and back ugh. Using the gable vest stch measurements.

Cannibalized much of the old one but since it had full stockinette sides until armholes ran out of main color slack faster and had to stop canibalizing that one for now.

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Trial: decided to print an argyle template. Was tired of scribbles in my knitting notebook.

Especially with this kind of thing I like to fill out boxes rather than read a written pattern. 

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Grey tails fed through to the bottom. It's kind of what I was thinking anyway but the work wasn't tall enough to really work.

Mis-decided on the gauge. I just went by number of stitches and that was not the right thing to do. 121 sts front and back, three large diamonds of 41 (19 per side). Probably should have narrowed the argyle panel but didn't want it to get weirdly skinny.

I am on maybe fourth juniper moon DK ball, maybe 2/3 of tan, and 1/3 of contrast sage green.

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Almost done with first row of diamonds

Hubby helped me cut a cardboard feeding panel/ladder. It was really hard to figure out a set up. 

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I really had to think about shoulder construction. A set in sleeve would required decreasing over the pattern. A raglan would disrupt where the front and back meet. So then I realized I could do a pattern within the margins of the shoulder construction. It would make the argyle skinnier but solve the problem. Also depending on how you do it it looks MUCH less like a power ranger LOL

So I decided to go with a narrower than full body argyle with classic set in sleeve construction or whatever the hell 

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 I actually know how many balls I bought this time. I bought 16 DK Juniper Moon Findley. The first 50g ball was just exactly enough for the three inches of bottom rib. 

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I measured and calculated for generic vest and then compared to Peter Easy and copied the google image as best as I cared to.

Hulk Trash

 Update Dec 17 in the midst of christmas knitting/crochet, this is the best little bucket I have ever made. Do it. You won't regret it.

To collect the scraps that pile up like rats on my side table as I work

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"That's my secret....."

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"I'M ALWAYS ANGRY" 

V-Neck Vest for Dad

Done!

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Cable V-Neck Pullover Pattern pattern from freevintageknitting.com.

Beginning in the round mistakes are so, so easy to correct and yes, the sooner the better. Don't get mad. Get glad.

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Tip#1 When you didn't cast on enough

I was short stitches. So I reknit the missing stitches (9 or something) with a different length, stuck them next to each other, and sew!

After a while, if you carefully examine the way the "ribs" of knitting cross horizontally, I sort of wedge the tail I am sewing to imitate the natural horizontal ribbing.

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Tip#2 They're wrong. Don't join the loop right away

Using the above method, nowadays, I rarely close the loop before moving on. Basically I never join first for anything I'm doing with a circular larger than 16" or on DPN that's got a really awkward amount (like hella small. Like 12 or 6). I knit as a flat piece, then to close the loop, I stick them next to each other and sewed those ends together, too!

When you DO join, just make sure all the stitches are either pointing out of the circle or towards the circle. It doesn't matter which way. They just have to not cross over each other. You can see in the picture below my preference of having the work pointing inwards, so the needle faces you and the work faces away.

After: Ends sewn together. Will weave in tails.

Before: Ends placed next to each other, long tails for sewing

Tip #3 Do not hesitate to rewrite patterns so that you can understand them.

This is the pattern as is, an absolute nightmare.

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This is the pattern as I rewrote it. Might still be a nightmare for anyone not me.

I could not imagine working this pattern while reading the original chart. Nobody does that. Nobody. At least not me.

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That Must Be Merino in Hobby Lobby's proprietary Yarn Bee line is actually pretty ok. Lighter, can't debate the wool-ness. Really will not felt well at all, but eh whatever. They usually have the 30% off on yarn.

I got the 7 skeins that were on the shelf. I somehow always time it to NOT get the 30% off.

Cooking

 

Yoke Sweater For Brother

My brother got it in the mail

Done!

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Look at this shriveled up orange lol or a buddha's hand. Somehow, for the first time in my life, I have exactly the right amount of yarn. I used my last gold (was that 4? 5? Hate how i can never keep track), used 1 grey, and using the other grey.

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I carefully pivoted to grey top. Had just enough and then a bunch of failed cast ons I kept for sewing ends.

Comin together! One decrease with pattern on yoke. Classic northern style. Fair isle has that nice element of really easy to see the row you're on and make mistakes but the fact that it's one complete wrap tallest row to bottom row all around makes it so much easier to keep height of design repeat since you're not trying to pay attention to a 4 row pattern, or a 8 row pattern, etc. It's a complete collar design. 

I do not remember when but I did use up the last chunk of yarn. I am on Ball/Skein #4.

I will just have to weigh it after. Since the colors are from the same line, just different dyes.

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Join was very interesting. Matching up inner corner of sleeve/body was interesting. Just was too loose. But I didn't expect k2tog, k1psso to look like this. I guess I'll go back and resew the arm joint.

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Magic loop arm!

Ball/Skein #3 started! This picture was surprisingly hard to take. 

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After Ball/Skein #2

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Ball/Skein #1

Using 50% merino. Didn't realize until later it was part spandex or something. :( Yarn bee must be merino. Was on clearance and I got like 15 skeins for $1.07 to $2.00 each. SCORE. Got mostly this gold and the two grey there were.

Made this Lasse Yoke Sweater on garnstudio, but only with two colors to keep it easy.

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Tip#1 no frog fo u

I personally hate calling tearing out rows "frogging" and I also think it's a terrible technique. Cut the thread neatly. Set aside. Directly pick up and attach to the work you've just done/done over and knit with slack directly from the messed up piece as it was when it was set aside. Yarn goes directly from a worked state into another worked state and if it's part of a project, you will already be using the same tension, needle, gauge, everything. Ripping it up in between worked state is a terrible use of emotions, time, money, everything. Be nice to yourself and your things. It is normal to paint over when painting, etc.

Tip #2 separate the loop

When you are using magic loop you still have to separate a few chunks of stitches as if they were on separate DPNs. The only difference is you are working with fewer pointy objects. A bit weird not having something to push outward from my stomach since I have an infamous "one long crunch" when I sit down on the couch and knit over an evening.