Holy Monday Batman!

I have a lot of Knitting content to throw your way today! I should save some, since I will have none tomorrow, but, what the heck. Let's have a GIANT post.

First up, some updates. SotS is going well, and I have completed clue #4. This was a fast clue, and an easy one. Easy to memorize, and fast to knit.

Mystic Waters Shawl is also completed for this week. Clue #1 was a lot of fun. I hope the trend continues!

I cast on for the Snowdrift Mittens for My Grandma. So far so good. These are my current take a long project, so I'm sure they will be slow going.

With the start of the new month in a few days, I have a few more things ready to go on the needles. My Colette Sweater for NaKniSweMo, and Corrine's socks for Socktopia. Corrine's Birthday is in November, so it is a good impetus to get them finished. I am all set to be a crazy busy chicky!

Finally, I have FO pictures for you! (I am appeasing the Yarn Overlords for my Cast-on-itis with my FO's!)

Pattern: Ladies Long Gloves from freevintageknitting.com
Yarn: Superyak from School Products, NYC
Needles: size 0 and 1 KP classic Circulars
Notes: The only changes I made to the pattern was to decrease needle sizes to fit my super tiny hands, and to kitchner the fingers closed. I have fingernails, and I hate when my gloves don't take that into account. Kitchnering seems to help the problem. I LOVE how long these gloves are. They are perfect for my 1960's winter coat. SO much so that I *almost* want it to get cold so I can wear them. Almost. (Not really. I like the moderate fall temperature.)

I like the faux cabling on this pattern. We all know how I dislike the cable monster, and avoid it when I can. At first I almost rejected this pattern out of hand because of the "cables", then I read it. No cables! Sweet! All cables should be faux. The yarn was great to work with - even with the machine oil in it. If you have never knitted with oiled yarn, you should know, it is a bit odd at first. Your hands stay nice and soft, but the yarn acts like it is made from linen. When you wash the oil out, the yarn is soft and fluffy. You should have seen the water - eww. It was grey from the oil.

umm. I think that's it! Later!

how you know you have lost your mind.

It's easy to tell, really.
You start taking pictures like these:

gloves for if I has scissors for fingers.

gloves for Nixon

gloves to keep my angry finger warm...

and my happy finger.

if I was a traffic cop.

you get the idea.
I need help.

The Secret of the Stole is coming along nicely. I should finish up my clue tonight. I hate when I can't start knitting a clue as soon as I get home the evening the clue comes out. It KILLED me that I had to wait until Monday to start this one. Along with getting home late Tuesday and today, this clue is taking extra long. Maybe I can power through it.
Mystery Waters starts today. I printed the clue, and I must say, I'm already in love. I can't wait to get this underway. I haven't even wound my yarn yet! At any rate, I won't get to start on it until Thursday anyway. I guess it is better that the yarn isn't wound. I'd feel all out of sorts because I hadn't started yet.

Hey SnB peeps! I'm throwing my winder and swift in the car tomorrow, in the hopes that Panera won't be too crazy busy. I want to wind my Mystery waters yarn. If you want to wind things, bring them along!!!

that is all.

Trevor

One glove down! One to go!

The Socktopia socks are coming along. Not quickly though, for some unknown reason. bleh.
I will persevere, and finish them up soon! I may be stalling since I don't know what my next Holiday gift to cast on will be. I want to work on Trevor's gift, but I don't know what said gift should be. Hat? Socks? (wait. no. he has huge feet.) a scarf? Trevor is a man of accessories and extreme fashion. He wears nothing straight from a store. He modifies all of his clothing to make it unique and distinctly "Trevor".* Knitting for a guy like this is HARD. A simple anything will not do. The yarn choice is important, the pattern is important, and the uniqueness and fashion savvy-ness is ultra important. I cannot knit something you could buy in a store, or something "standard".
To gauge reaction, I was showing him some of the Twinkle designs, and he was in love with the use of fat yarn, cables and tight fit. He also loves to layer on his upper body and arms. OOO, I thought. Cabled arm warmers! In a random non repeating design! But I hate to cable!!! I might have to bite the bullet for Trevor. It will be a labor of love.
That said, the man can wear a scarf! He honsetly wears accessories like no man I've ever seen. To Trevor, there is no such thing as "over accessorized". Multiple scarves, ones with prints you'ld never believe, big heavy woolen ones. You name it. But, they are all in some "magic trevor Clothing bits rotation", that produces amazing fashion results. If I tried this, people would run screaming from the crazy pin lady with too many layers on.
Since I'm on the subject, I'll keep going.
Trev also has been known to go home at lunch and change outfits to "better fit the tenor of the day", or change half an hour after work starts into the "back up outfit" he brought. He goes home between the Opening Night show and after party to change in order to "fit with the resturaunt". It's not always that extreme. Usually, he just moves peices around, and he is suddenly in something completely different, even though the pieces are the same. frankly, he'd make a great Victorian, changing 8 times a day.
He has a whole closet of Blazers. Just blazers.
Trev puts me to fashion shame. I cannot, and don't even try to compete. and he can dance. sigh.
SO what to do? I am teaching him to knit, and have no doubt that if he takes to it, in two years his name will be all over the knitting community. He is destined to be a really great designer, and I could totally see him desiging really funky knitwear.
what would you knit for this guy?

*I don't know about underwear. I've never asked, but I'd bet they are fashionable, pressed, and thrown out as soon as they look worn. Trevor is not a ratty underwear guy. But I cannot imagine anyone "fashioning up" underwear. I guess if any one would, it would be him though.

You know it's fall...

...when I knit a big heavy sweater, and it's 80F. Only 4 days ago it was almost cold, and now another warm spell. I'm totally not complaining. I love the warm! Let's keep it warm! But, it is nice to know that I have an uberwarm sweater to chase away the chill, if it ever - not that it needs to - arrives.
I finished up my Cactus Blossom sweater last night at SnB. 13 days! well, I guess 14 with today for Blocking. Not to shabby! I'm posting fished, unblocked pictures today, but I will post the finished, blocked, on my body, with details pictures as soon as it is dry.

Well, then, what am I working on? Since I am the way I am, I cast on for not one, but two projects last night. I know, right?!
Project 1 has no pictures, but I can tell you about them. My Assistant, Lesley, has a pair of rainbow leg warmers that have HUGE holes in them., She really wants to repair them, or knit new ones. Since she has been knitting the same pair of arm warmers since MAY, I doubt she will ever actually get to this project, so I am making them for her for Christmas. I'm calling them "Rainbow Brites". They are going amazingly fast. I cast on at 12:00 last night, and in less than 2 hours, am almost half way through the first one! "What do they look like?" you may ask. Well, they start with a ribbed cuff in red, then go orange, yellow, green, blue, green, yellow, orange, then red again in ribbing. OMG are they loud! She'll love them!
Project 2 is a pair of gloves for me. I bought the yarn almost a year ago, with the plan to knit elbow length gloves to go with my winter coat. It's a 1960's coat, so it only has 3/4 sleeves. I wanted a suitably vintage pattern to go along with my coat, and fabulous yarn to boot! I found the "superyak" at School products, and it is a brown/black marl. The pattern in from www.knittingvintagepatterns.com It is the "ladies long gloves" pattern. SO far so good! I washed the little bit I knit at Snb last night, as the yarn is oiled for machine knitting. I needed to see if it was going to stretch or bloom, or lord knows what. It bloomed a bit, and softened up soooo much.

I'm planning a slight pattern mod, as the cuffs are great around my forearm, but will be loose when they get closer to my wrists. The pattern has a built in decrease at the wrist, but I need to slim down a tad sooner. I plan to use the same principal as I did for my Sockapalooza socks. I'm changing to a smaller needle after 4", thereby shaping with out deceasing. Smart. I probably will use the smaller needle for the hands too, as I have small hands, and the gloves are written for "medium" hands. what ever "medium" means.
Well, that's it. Next time, finished, MODELED, sweater pics; new yarn (I know. shut up.), and Rainbow Brites!