FOs: Hoodie and Amy Gloves

I had all four wisdom teeth removed on Friday, and these photos were taken on Monday, which is why it looks like I suddenly gained a lot of weight in my face.  (The swelling on the left side has gone down more than the right, so I'm still a bit swollen and lopsided.  I also have to rinse with warm salt-water every time I eat.  I don't like eating enough to make myself do that too often.  On the upside, I have progressed to eating soup with a soup spoon, rather than a tea-spoon!)

I'm told it's a perfect fit on the recipient.  Not so good on me but very snuggly.

Puffy face.

I dyed my hair purplish post-exams, but it's already starting to fade.  I might get it done properly next time I get my hair cut - my hair is quite dark, so if I do it myself I have to go for something dark enough to show up, and it'd be nice to go for something brighter.  Maybe red!

This is the ribbed border of the hood.  The ribbed pattern is one I hadn't come across before (p1k1 on the purl side, k the knit side).  It's simple, but a little different, and I like it.

I've mentioned the hoodie and it's details in other posts, but I'm a fan of giving credit where it's due!  The pattern is most Skully, but I used Under the Hoodie, both from the first Stitch 'n' Bitch book to work out how to make the hood.  The pocket is the result of my own foostering.  James C. Brett chunky acrylic yarn on 6.5mm needles, yup yup.

I finally finished my Amy gloves!  I didn't have much to do for my first week in the lab, but I did have my own desk, so I spent a lot of free time knitting while I read papers for my mod project proposal.

 I've already chronicled my misfortunes with these gloves, but there was one yet to come after I left off last time.  While read-knitting, I didn't pay proper attention and got most of the way through a second left glove.  It was a better fit than the first one though, so I finished it, frogged the first one and re-knit it as a right glove while watching films with a giant puffy face.

Here is the pattern...

Here is the colour.

The pattern is does it every bother you that your life doesn't make [any] sense?, and the yarn is Debbie Bliss Rialto.  I have a lot left over, though not enough to make a pair for my mum who's very taken with them.

I need to improve at accessorising, if only because I can't wear anything I've made for myself until the weather gets colder.

wips and project wantings.

I have a habit of only posting FOs here, mostly because I forget to take photos of anything I'm doing.  I'm working on a few different things at the moment, though, so between that and exams it will take a while for anything to get finished.

So here are some wips!  Crummy photo quality as the photos were taken on my laptop and the light here is good for studying but not so good for webcam.

A friend asked for a jumper with big pockets and a hood.  I couldn't find a pattern I liked, so this is a bit of an amalgamation.  The main body is the Skully (best pattern for knocking out a quick big comfy jumper) from the first Stitch 'n' Bitch book, and the I'm basing the hood on Under The Hoodie in the same book.  It's a bulky acrylic yarn on 6.5mm needles.  Everything else I'm working on uses smaller needled and finer wool, so it's nice to have this to take a break, and be able to see results faster.

Another goddamn Grumpasaurus, this time for my brother's girlfriend's sister.  This one has kind of been put on the back-burner as she's gone home, and I've made so many, and my brother has asked for more for other friends...  DK merino wool (I have two skeins of this colour in my stash and I don't know where it came from) on ... 2.75mm needles, I think.  I much prefer using two sets of circs for knitting in the round, but didn't have the right size, so I started off being kind of lazy and only distributing stitches on two DPNs, and then.. didn't incorporate the third.  It's more sac-like on circs or with the third needle.

I am also making a SECRET THING, but it's for my boyfriend who reads this, so I can't post pictures.  It's a pity, it looks cooler than the others even unfinished.

My sister has requested a jumper like the one I made for myself, so on Friday we met up for lunch and then went to This Is Knit (best shop best shop) for wool-shopping.  She doesn't knit (she tried a rectangle once but it kind of turned into a triangle), so there was some explanation of wool weights required, and then some time of "Does this blue look kind of purple to you?  I don't want it to be purple.  This blue is kind of grey, I'm not sure cool colours suit me.  What do you think of this?  Wait, is this the same as the blue I just said was too purple?  I'll go with this one.  Actually, I like this pink."  So we left the proud owners of Louisa Harding Ianthe.  Is nice wool, fun to touch.

My craft-related feelings at the minute are split pretty evenly between "Yay, lots of projects!" and "Oh god, so many hours of stockinette."  It would be nice to take a break from it with projects that call for more interesting techniques, but I do feel bad putting my own projects before someone else's request.  The two biggish projects I'd like to make for myself at the moment aren't really any respite in that regard, a top which looks like mostly stockinette and the Tom Baker-era Doctor Who scarf, which is nothing but garter stitch.  I'm also tempted to make Under The Hoodie from above, but again, hours of stockinette, and I'm trying to reduce the amount of non-machine-washable clothes I make.  Maybe if I find something nice in acrylic.

More interesting projects I would like to make are this lace hat (how do I pay for things on Ravelry?  Do I have to set up a PayPal or something?  But it's only 70cent!  Hassle of that, etc., and that is why I probably will intend to make this indefinitely) and these mitts (yes another Doctor Who pattern, but I am a geek and the wardrobe department clearly know their business.  Also I like cables and fingerless gloves).  They're both small enough projects to make a nice break, I think.

In other news I haven't had a haircut in three months, have passed the point of being a Westie and am now turning into a mop.

The big snuggly jumper I've planned for so long.

I finally got around to making it! A yarn shop in town was selling giant (200g) balls of chunky wool for €6, and I was already having a wool-shopping day, so I picked it up. I used the Skully Stitch 'n' Bitch book, minus the intarsia. I started it at the end of August, and finished it last weekend. I didn't realise how stripy the wool would turn out, and it's bigger than I intended (though I had deliberately made it longer than the pattern said to), but I'm happy with it, and now I can still make the other jumper I had in my head another time.