Luna was my Christmas Day knitting. Though the style is a little unusual for me, I love the picture in the book: the yarn, not so much. So I knit it from two strands of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport, which I had purchased from eBay.

I like the way this turned out, but I did a couple of extra repeats of the lace pattern that I think now I did not need. The one time I wore it, it kept slipping down my arms. I think it may be because the yarn is stretchier than the Louisa Harding yarns the pattern called for, and also heavier, and so it is stretching when I wear it. I plan to rip out the extra rows and see if that fixes the problem. If not, I will try crocheting in some elastic under the top garter stitch band.

I also really like the buttons, which the friendly lady at the notions counter at Britex sold me on. They are stone or shell and very polished, and are a big step up from the plain plastic gray buttons I would have picked.

Trying to go in order of completion here! This is the Clapotis scarf pattern from Knitty—an older and very popular pattern. I modified mine to make it a bit narrower and longer. The yarn is lace weight wool from handpaintedyarn.com. There are about 850 yards on a skein: I used part of it on the Mockingbird Scarf and still had enough left for a scarf 13″ wide by 77″ long, blocked.

I don’t have a fancy name for this one because I knit it over a period of a few weeks. It was my plane knitting for Calgary and LA, and handwork for a lot of television watching. I finished it just before Christmas but it took a little while to get around to blocking it. My younger sister spotted it while I was in Calgary and claimed it, so it’s soon to be off to the Great White North.

I am just churning out projects this month! Winter came pretty much on schedule in San Francisco (it started raining just before the beginning of November, though it’s been warm again the last couple of days), and all that gray, rainy weather has me itching to knit again. My first project this winter was the Habitat hat from Brooklyn Tweed, knit from Cascade 220 wool yarn. It’s not a difficult pattern if you’ve done any sort of cable work before, though I found it was easier to read the chart after I drew a colored box around each of the cable notations so they didn’t run into each other. (I read later on Ravelry that some people had colored in the chart, which probably would have been even better.) I did screw up about 8 rows into the cabling the first time through, and had to rip it out and start over, but I was more careful the second time and had no problems. It’s been at least a decade since I did a cable knit, so I’m a bit rusty.

A few months ago I came back from Calgary with a number of skeins of Philosopher’s Wool 2-ply and 3-ply yarn leftover from various sweater kits, with the intention of experimenting with felting. My first attempt was the Sophie felted bag from MagKnits. I used 6.5mm needles and the Philosopher’s 3-ply wool, and did the shaping decreases every eight rows (instead of every 10 rows) for a shorter bag.

Of course I didn’t measure the bag dimensions before felting, or felt a swatch ahead of time, so I can’t tell you how much smaller the finished bag ended up compared to the pre-felting version. I ran the bag through the wash (in a pillowcase and with a few pairs of jeans, as the pattern suggested) twice in succession, then allowed it to dry, but I wasn’t happy with the results—it was too stretchy and the stitch detail was still evident. So I ran it through the wash another two times, and that was much better.

The finished size is 10" by 4" at the base, and 6" high. The top is about 2" narrower in each direction (8" by 2"). I lined it with leftover Prints Charming fabric from Sew U skirt number seven, and some lightweight fusible interfacing. It still needs a button and loop to keep it closed but I haven’t found the right one yet.

On the whole I’m happy with the results, but I’m not really a purse person so I don’t know what I’m going to do with it now!

Somewhere I read a suggestion for blocking lace without wires, where yarn was threaded through the yarn-overs along the edges of the piece and then pulled taut. So I tried it for the long edges of the Rabbit Tracks scarf, using some leftover cotton yarn from another project. I think it would have been easier to thread the yarn through the yarn-overs if I had done so before I soaked the scarf, but aside from that, I’m impressed with how much straighter and lacier the edges are than the edge rows on the Bias Shawl. I’m almost tempted to block the shawl again using this method.

Yesterday I finished and blocked my Bias Shawl. I was worried when I finished the knitting part that the shawl would not be long enough, as I only had about 52 inches of length (a few other people on Ravelry said they had similar problems). But I blocked it to the width in the pattern (14 inches) with pins, and then stretched it as much as I dared as I blocked the length—I winced every time I pulled it—and the finished length is about 73 inches, which is only three inches short of the pattern’s stated length.

I thought it would be purely decorative, given the open lace work, but I was testing the length earlier today after removing all the pins and it does lend a bit of warmth. It drapes nicely over the shoulders, but it also crunches up to a good scarf width (as in the photo above), so I think it could be worn either way.

We had such a quiet, pleasant weekend for Thanksgiving that I was able to start and finish the Shimmer shrug. It is a pretty quick knit, since there is no front to speak of and the back is cropped.

I messed up the lozenge pattern on the back, and I also think it’s just a touch too small through the back shoulders. If I were to knit it again – and I might – I would probably add an inch to the width in the back. Originally I had planned to wear it with a sleeveless dress, but it doesn’t cover the dress straps in the front, so I’m wearing it mostly with t-shirts. Shrugs are my favorite thing to wear at work, because they cover my arms with more warmth than just a shirt but don’t make me too warm.

The shrug used less than six balls of Elann Pegasus yarn, and I bought seven, so with the leftovers I decided to knit up the Foliage hat from the Fall 2007 issue of Knitty over a couple of evenings during the week. I did the worsted-weight yarn version, but with only two repeats of the lace pattern after finishing the crown so it’s a bit shorter:

I tested the length on Edmond (who is slightly taller than the intended recipient of this scarf) and it’s fine, so I’ll pass on the fringe. I’m a little happier with it this morning, now that it’s blocked and dried. The stitch detail is not as fuzzy as I first feared.

There is another picture here in my Flickr stream.

After five repeats of the pattern rows (around six inches), I decided the scarf was probably wide enough – or at least that I couldn’t face another 48 rows of the pattern at 15-20 minutes per row, so I’d had enough.

I’m surprised at how far off I am in comparison to the finished size of the scarf as given in the pattern, considering I was pretty much right on in the stockinette gauge. After blocking, the scarf is only 49" long – almost a foot off the 60 inches quoted – and slightly shorter than 7" wide. I assume that the pattern length came with the blocking, and it’s true mine could have been narrower and longer, but the ends flared out so badly that I ended up blocking to the width that best accommodated them and then making the rest of the scarf match. The width is good at five repeats. The cast on and cast off edges are not identical, but the tensions are similar and they don’t look mismatched.

After soaking the scarf the longer fibers in the Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere obscured the distinct herringbone pattern a bit, though the fabric is soft. I used just over five balls (109 yards/100 metres) – I only tapped the sixth ball in the bind off.

The results are mildly disheartening, given the time involved. If I were going to knit it again I would probably cast on an additional hundred or so stitches for the length. I have enough yarn left to add a fringe, which should visually add a few inches and may camouflage the flaring a bit. I’ll see what it looks like when it’s dry.

I’m now about a third of the way through the Henry scarf. In addition to my initial cast-on fiasco I’ve had to back out one other row, where I discovered about five stitches from the end of the row that I’d messed up the pattern. But that was a while ago, and I’ve gotten into a rhythm now. It takes about 15 minutes to complete each row. I’ve been doing a couple of rows each day at lunch and a couple more after work, and sometimes if Edmond and I are watching TV or a movie I’ll knit during that. At this rate I’ll be able to finish it in time for Christmas.