FOs: SIFfing Gloves

I just finished another smallish project and realized I'm woefully behind on posting my FOs on my blog. I'm pretty good about updating my Projects page on Ravelry, but tend to lag on the blog due to the necessary formatting (does anyone else have issues with getting pictures into the right place in Blogger? I have to drag each one down from the top of the page) and the necessity of adding insightful commentary (or not :). But I do enjoy the blogging once I get around to it.

So, let me present my most tardy FO - completed April 12. I finally finished my half-finger gloves (SIFfing gloves), which were basically started towards the beginning of my first trimester and finished at the end of it. Yes, I was a slow knitter, but thankfully I've picked up the pace! I'm still tired when I get home from work, but have plenty of energy to knit while watching TV :DHere they are showing off the almost-clean stovetop. Hey, it was raining, I was in search of decent light!
Pattern: Serpentine Mitts from Mimknits.com, with my own modification to create the partial fingers (will give directions below). Size 7", though my gauge was a little big. They have a lot of stretch due to the ribbing...
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Seduction (50% merino, 50% tencel), less than one skein (a smidge over half, I think). Loved it! Not itchy at all (well, my wool-sensitive husband says he can tell it's wool, but he tried them on and it didn't drive him crazy...), soft, not splitty, great stitch definition... I'll have to procure some more at some point. This was from the BMFA destashing sale last fall - cheap due to some black dye splotches in the pink, though they were much more evident in the second glove than the first, and even so not too apparent. I'm guessing I will use the rest of the yarn for baby booties or something, though it's probably too girly for the Bip (but I know several folks having girls!)
Here's an outdoor, blurry (not enough light for no flash + one'handed photography - it was raining!) closeup of the cabling and fingers. You can see the dark splotchies in the center light stripe. Here are the details of my mods:

a) made the left and right thumbs symmetric by placing the left thumb before the final purls at the end of the round (rather than immediately at the end of the round) - this was for size 7".

b) crossed the center cable the opposite way for the left glove (because I am a geek!)

c) obviously, the half-fingers. For these, I just continued the ribbing up until the length seemed right to start the pinky. I then set aside 12 stitches from the pinky side (having figured out how to divide it up so it was ~symmetric about the fingers and had an even # of stitches on top and bottom) and knit a couple more rounds on the rest, casting on 2 stitches at pinky/ring boundary. Then I divided up the remaining stitches into groups of 12 - 6 from the top, 6 from the bottom. I had found by swatching that 16 is an ideal number of stitches (in rib) for any finger but the pinky, so added 2 between each (either casting on or picking up the already-cast-on from the neighboring finger), except for the pointer, where I picked up 4 from the 2 cast on next to the middle finger.

OK, I hope that makes sense! I had to fudge the ribbing some, but made sure to continue the ribs from the front and back of the palm. I was happy with how they came out - hey, this pattern modification stuff isn't that hard!

Oh, and I have a funny story associated with this FO - I actually finished the second glove while Andy and I were in the audience at a funky theater downtown for a taping of the radio variety show Live Wire. They had Ursula K. LeGuin on talking about her new book! Anyway, I finished them in the first half of the show, and then wore them up to the inevitable bathroom queue during intermission. What do you know, a woman about 3 people in front of me asked if they were handknit, then, studying them, asked if the yarn was Socks that Rock (BMFA's main socks line). What a guess! Turns out she works at Dublin Bay Knitting Co., a yarn store downtown which we had visited earlier in the day! (it's just down the street from a cafe with the yummiest gelato... so when we are free after dinner in Portland I like to wander by.). I was amazed that she recognized the yarn type, even in a professional capacity. I guess I haven't reached that level of Knitting Zen yet :)

FOs on the docket for writing up - my Eponymous birthday tote from KT's pattern, a stuffed monkey-donkey-thing for my cousin's new baby, and (just finished tonight) a pair of pants for a coworker's baby expected any week now. See, I have been getting stuff done!

Catching up

Wow, I have continued to be blog-negligent. The funny thing is, I've actually been getting a reasonable amount of knitting done... but let me hit the non knitting highlights first. We had our 20-week ultrasound and found out that... (drumroll please).... the Bip is a boy! We would have been thrilled either way, but it really makes the fact of "baby" in four months feel much more tangible. We're still getting used to saying "he" and starting to think of names...

Here's a set of pics of Mr. Bip; bottom left you see him doing baby yoga with his leg out. At one point he was playing with his toes - so flexible!

Then last week we headed to Boston for a lovely 5-day weekend visiting family. We went with the Somervillians to a sheep-shearing festival and had a lovely time. The nieces were entranced by the animals, and my SIL got a large share of a black-sheep fleece for a steal! We met up briefly with some Boston-area-Ravelers who ooh'd and aah'd over the hand-spun and/or handknit the girls were wearing (made by SIL, of course!)My parents threw a great party with my aunt, cousins and cousins' kids, as well as the Somervillians. These family parties are so much fun, as the adults chat and the kids tear through the family room which contains 30 years worth of toys from my and my brother's childhoods. It's amazing to think that in a year, the Bip will be part of that! (though probably not tearing through things quite yet...). Here's a pic of the younger generation making silly faces for the camera :D

Anyway, I have a few smallish FOs to show off, but in the interests of getting to bed on time I'll save that for a separate post. And those on Ravelry have already seen them, since it is easier to just post the pics there without commentary :). (reminder, I'm Parallel on Ravelry)

Oh, and in the interest of documentation, here's a pic of me (and Andy) at 20w5d along. Now that I'm firmly into the second trimester and have some energy back and am mostly not nauseated, I actually feel less pregnant (except when Bip is moving - then it's either pregnant or "posessed by alien"!), so it's surprising to me to see my belly looking so big in pictures!