A flurry of FOs

(Incidentally, an FO is a finished object. A girl wrote in to the Ample Knitters group the other day and asked us what the heck that meant, because the explanation Google had given her wasn't very nice at all. I laughed really hard, not because the dear heart didn't know, but because with that explanation we all must've seemed like total assholes!)

Anyhow, I'm finally reunited with my camera, so I thought I'd take a few pictures and pop 'em on here so it's kind of like a knitblog and whatnot. Well, and as evidence that I do, on occasion, finish things...

This, is a bear. I did not knit the bear, but I did make its sweater. However, the sweater was supposed to fit my five-year-old God daughter, who is already like seven feet tall or something like that. Um, perhaps not. It does, however, look quite fetching on the bear.
Materials: Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Worsted in Bittersweet, less than one skein, plus a little bear button that you can't see here. Oh, and a bear, au Target
Pattern:Anthropologie Inspired Capelet from Craftster, which is a super-simple raglan shrug, except worked in worsted on size 9 needles. Note: this pattern alteration will not downsize it from smallish adult to tallish child, it will downsize it to "bear"
Cost: I dunno. What's a skein of LL run these days?


This is a crocheted baby blanket for my any-day-now niece, Annaliese, which I should mail to her mother (my cousin) before the kid is in college (and probably before I email her the link to this blog, too...). This is notable because it was my very first big crochet project! Having eschewed crochet for years because it made no sense/I couldn't get it to work/it was ugly/stupid/I was sixty years too young for it/excuse of the week because I couldn't do it, I finally got the hang of it (thanks, Joyce!), and now, I apparently can't stop. Note the fancy shell border, which is very difficult and complicated and arose out of me randomly piping up during Sunday knitting at the coffee shop, "how the hell do I border this thing, anyway?" Seriously, very easy. Yarn: Four balls of Encore Colorspun in Color 7512, one ball of Encore worsted in cream, on a J hook
Pattern: a giant square of sc, surrounded by a shell stitch border that lines up well enough.
Cost: Um...I think it would've been about $25? But I still got paid in yarn at this point, so, really, who knows.



This IS NOT A THONG. Which, until it actually resembled something like shawl size, everyone who picked it up asked me, "Is this a crocheted thong??" Which, no, it isn't. It's a shawl. What's funny about that is that it's a thank you gift for the adorable little old lady who heads up, and was my supervisor when I was a therapist in, Loyola's Sexual Dysfunction Clinic this year. But, alas, it's a shawl.
Yarn: One skein (ish - a little bit less) of Handmaiden Sea Silk in, um, that color.
Pattern: Yeah, not so much. I kind of just alternated single crochet, double crochet, treble crochet, and half-double crochet stitches, in rows, as I felt like it. I increased two stitches per row initially, then decided that was growing too fast, so I dropped it to one increase per row. And then of course I topped it off with the "isn't this new thing I learned just the coolest?!" shell stitch, and sc'd the rest of the border.
Cost: Oh, hell, I don't remember. Why do I keep putting this in here?


This thing is the Multiple Cottons Bathmat mentioned of yore. C'est finit, except for all those pesky yarn ends and the fact that it needs badly to be blocked so that it is an actual rectangle instead of, um, that. But it's ready for travel, at least, and will go nicely with my flamingo shower curtain.
Yarn: You know, I'm not entirely certain? The pink is Frog Tree, 2 skeins, and the green is one skein of Cotton Fleece by Brown Sheep in Peridot. The white...eh...I was originally thinking it was Touche, but you know, I think it's actually Frog Tree, again, 2 skeins.
Pattern: Cast on, I don't remember, so, enough stitches onto size 11 needles using two strands. Knit five rows. Leave in basket for three or four months. Frog three rows, work crochet bind off. Sc with J hook into theoretical rectangle, changing one strand when you get bored, until you run out of yarn.

And since that's probably all the FOs you're going to get for a loooooooong time, how about one UFO?

These would be socks. Well, the first sock, actually. A sock, one of two, in theory, for my dad. They match one of his flannel shirts, so he thinks they'd be a good Christmas present. Which explains why I'm obsessively knitting them in May...?


Anyway, that's the cuff and leg. Note the lovely stripeage. Ooooh. Aaaaah. The yarn is Austerman Step, which I'm loving. I'm using size 2 needles, which Sarah seems to think is some sort of sock sacrilege, but, I'm pleased enough with the density. They're quite stretchy, too. Yes, that's Magic Loop I'm doing. Which, you know, just isn't all that magical, but it's simplicity is part of why I like it. I think it's a whole lot less complex and fumbly that the two circs thing. Personally. Myself. Is alls I'm saying. Don't lynch me.

Can't say there's a pattern here, but I cast on 80 stitches, ribbed until I could stand to rib no more (which lasted about an inch), and then worked mindlessly until I had 8 inches of sock, and then began the heel. Sarah also talked me into the lovely Eye of Partridge Heel, or as I am prone to calling it, the Partridge Family Heel. Here are the beginnings of same.

That's the knitting update, kids. Possibly a flurry, definitely not a blizzard. But considering that the stash is all packed and most of it isn't arriving down South until August anyway (not to mention my impending 80-hour work weeks), that might be the biggest FO-fest you get for a long time....