I managed to finish the pumpkin’s body (except the BO) on the morning bus ride yesterday. Afternoon bus ride consisted of the bindoff, immediately followed by the cast on for the leafy bits. so I dig into the fresh ball of Leaf Green Paton’s wool, pull out a glob of yarn, find an end, and. wtf? the end has another end about 3″ away. mildly disturbing, but I put it aside and continue to cast on (remind me that I hate i-cord) for the leafy-stem bit. make it through the 2nd round of increases before I get to my car. get home, pull out the knitting (in the front hall. on the floor. this has become a new knitting spot for me - I started the blue curly-q scarf in this same area.) continue on with the leaf til I get to a point where the glob of yarn refuses to pull smoothly, so stop to detangle. I find ANOTHER 3″ bit AND a longer short bit (maybe a yard? not really knittable, whatever it’s length). What is up with this yarn?!?!?!? (this is the second time I’ve had this in a ball of Paton’s. we are now 2 for 5. though I didn’t use much of two of those other balls, so maybe my odds will get worse?)

a tip for making the vine: cast on REALLY loose (I cast on over one needle. way too tight for working 3 sts in one. so I pulled it off and cast on over two needles. still a little tight, but much better than the first go.)

so, here’s where we’re at so far (in the story):

Pumpkin in pieces

Pumpkin pre-felted

I stuffed the pumpkin with 3 plastic grocery bags, like the directions said. Like a fellow pumpkin knitter, the bags stayed in for about 3 seconds. At least I knew that was a possibility.

The stem bit felted really quick - I pulled it out after about 6-8 minutes (or whatever the numbers on the machine mean) and it was nicely felted. not so for the vine (why not? same yarn) or the pumpkin. so I reset the machine for 16 (or whatever the max is) and left it for a bit. went back and checked it a bit later - finally some progress on the orange (wasn’t sure how it would felt, being ancient mothproofed thrift shop yarn and all). so I tossed it back in and let the machine do it’s thing (wash, rinse, spin. the whole thing). went back to get it after Grey’s Anatomy (ooh, what a great episode!) and it looked beautiously felted. well a littly fuzzy (mohairy), but felted. which made me happy. so I stuffed it and shaped it and cinched the top a bit to make it keep it’s shape.

and here’s what we’ve got (with wool for scale):
(still drying, so the top isn’t sewed on, and the vine will hang once the stem is dry and stops falling over.)

this side

the other side

from above

Specs:
small Pumpkin. pattern available at knitty.
Needles: size 10 1/2 US bamboo dpns.
Yarn: Kool-aid dyed thrift shop wool and Paton’s Merino in Leaf Green
Started: Sunday
Finished: Thursday

My first (finished) felting project.

First things first:
Eli’s sweater.

Kashka didn’t think you should see it before it was finished. (I’m not sure why her tail looks so fat.)

This was taken yesterday morning (after Kashka got out of the way). Between two bus trips and downtown lunch knitting, I managed to finish that second sleeve. (of course, I realized one row from the end of the ribbing on sleeve 2 that I forgot to switch to the smaller dpns. I chose not to rip it out, cuz I doubt it’ll make a difference). Yeah, so envision this with two complete sleeves. I still need to add the ‘button’ band, so it’s not yet a FO. (I think I’m still gonna go with the snaps like I’d planned.)

Next up… the socks.

Note how pretty the yarn looks in the ball. then note how it looks knit-up. I wasn’t sure what to expect while knitting. I kind of like it though.

a close-up of the cuff.
I fought with the provisional cast-on for the ‘forethought’ heel three times. It’s not cooperating. I’ll be working a ‘normal’ heel (I’m thinking Eye of Partridge again, like on Lilin’s sock) when it’s finished being in time out (which will be as soon as I work out the math/stitch pattern for the heel).

And lastly, the pumpkin:

this is how it looks while being knit

and this is how it looks cinched shut. looks rather like a hat.

The pics were taken after the last of the increase rows. I worked on it a bit this morning’s bus ride, and I think I’m about to start the decreases. (I’d be farther, but I started swatching for one of the holiday gifts. Wool-ease on size 5s. egads, that’s some tight knitting. I think I’m gonna try it on 6s and see if I still get gauge. or I’ll just fake it. ;) )

(and, on the off chance anyone wonders, the ‘platforms’ in the sock & pumpkin photos are wooden bowls currently found in Target’s Dollar Spot. I like them. I think I need more.)

Friday night I poked into a new yarn shop that I learned about from Shelly: Yarn Garden, 300 East Main Street, Anoka, MN 55303. They’ve been open for about two weeks - Friday was their opening with the ribbon cutting and all. (They’re open til 6pm on Fridays. I forgot the little card with the rest of their info at home, so I’ll post that later). It’s a small shop in a building that used to be a post office (I think) with lots of other cute shops (that were closed when I got there). Plenty of parking behind the building. They have a nice selection of yarn - I don’t remember seeing an over-abundance of the frou-frou yarns (the fun furs, etc). Lots of wool, mohair blends, etc. Anywho, if you’re in the area, go check it out. (If you’re on Main St by Riverdale in Coon Rapids, it’s about a 5-10 min drive from the Target/Michael’s/etc.)

onto the WIPs…
Eli’s sweater still has one sleeve. I finally started working on sleeve #2 on the bus ride this morning.
The socks-in-progress are giving me fits. I’ve finished the cuff on the first one and attempted the provisional cast-on (the crochet variety) late Friday night (when I should have been sleeping pre-feis). It was a big pain in the butt. I gave up after two attempts and went to bed. I also moved the stitches not being used onto some spare yarn in the hopes that getting the unused needle out of the way would make things easier on the next attempt. We’ll see how that goes.

and the new project:
Pumpkins! I decided to make it in the round, cuz well, knitting up 7 little pieces and sewing them together didn’t seem like too much fun. so in the round we go. I’m using some stitch markers from the swap I did ages ago (wow, those come in handy!). I started it last night and attempted to work on it while watching The Village. (ok, so I’m a bit behind on movies) Lesson learned: don’t try to count rows while watching a movie you’ve never seen before. at any rate, I rescued myself (aka stopped knitting til I could sort it out properly) before I missed an increase round. I’m about halfway thru the body of the pumpkin.

oh, and I also got my KnitPicks order this weekend: Bare Superwash, Bare Merino Sock, Size 8 Options tips and a 40″ cord. The Superwash is getting dyed for mittens, the Merino Sock is going to be self-stiped dyeing attempt #2 (let’s hope I’ve learned how to not tangle the giant skein this time), and I decided I wanted to test the needles before buying the whole set. so I chose size 8. the problem: nothing I’m knitting right now is on size 8s. I’m going nuts. I’m thinking I might start a new project just so I can use them.

in non-knitting news, the feis (dance competition) this weekend went well. until I was heading to my car. and I fell down a couple stairs between the skyway and parking ramp. ouch. I have bruises. it hurts when I move. thankfully, the bruise on my left ring finger is going away - my needle rests right there and knitting was a bit painful at times last night.

ETA: for Nancy and others who are curious, the pumpkin is being made from this, because there were a few weak spots (moths? in mothproof thrift shop wool? I dunno. but I don’t trust it on it’s own so think hope felting will make it more secure) with Paton’s Wool in Leaf Green that I bought from Michael’s after visiting the new shop, cuz it was on sale (and I’m feeling too lazy to dye the light green thrift shop yarn a more leafy shade).

the socks are progressing nicely. I’ve been knitting them on the bus the last couple days, and am almost done with the leg on the first one.

some details/thoughts/notes for myself:
Yarn: Emu Superwash Double Knit. I think it’s color 218. at any rate it’s very rainbow-y. each bit of color is about 1″-2″, so the socks are a definite explosion of color. (ah, found a color card.)
Needles: Addi dpns size 3. the really short (4″?) ones used for gloves. I love this length of needle. wouldn’t mind a slightly pointier tip for working the k2tog’s and ssk’s though.
Stitch Pattern: Welt Fantastic from Sensational Knit Socks (Chevron section). (the pattern written starts with 3 garter ridges, then the stitch pattern starts with 2 more. I skipped the extra two and went straight to the chevron-bits
Heel planned: the “Forethought” heel explained in that section’s pattern. It’ll be fun to try a new technique. (though I’m not looking forward to the extra kitchener. it’ll be good practice though, right? right?)
Foot thoughts: I’m waffling between leaving the foot plain or working the pattern without the garter ridges

even though it’s not supposed to. I started the arm of Eli’s sweater on the bus ride home Friday and made it to the first decrease (and spent way too much time untangling the yarn barf from the yarn ends that are too long). Saturday was spent knitting the sleeve while watching HP2. I had to hunt down more extras so I could justify finishing the ribbing. (what were they thinking putting the deleted scenes on the 2nd disk? make me pause the knitting to switch discs. *sigh*) so I finished the sleeve on the toddler sized 2 sweater and tried it on my arm. and it fits my forearm. I think this bodes well for it actually fitting him over clothes and all.

I’ve also been swatching for Amelia’s socks this weekend and started knitting it yesterday between dance classes. I didn’t get very far - I spent too much time chatting.