Octopus knitting

Oops! I almost forgot the obligatory photo of octopus knitting.

Who put the octopus in Octopus Knits?

I did, I did!

You may have been wondering why in the world my blog is called "Octopus Knits." Behold, the octopus -- he is finished:



OCTOPUS (my own design)
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock "Seaside" (215 yds per skein) less than 1 skein
Knitpicks Bare Superwash/Nylon Fingering Weight (462 yds per skein) less than 1/4 of a skein
US 2 double pointed needles (Susan Bates, Quicksilver)

You see, it all started with a frog:



This little guy comes with magnets in his feet, making him a great cat toy/torture device. My ever creative husband suggested I knit a similarly outfitted octopus. His thought was more legs = more feline fun, no? Additionally, this would be a blue ringed octopus because, well, because we thought it would be neat.



The octopus's limp legs sat on stitch holders for, oh, a month or two, while I considered how to make his body. Then there were the issues with the magnets I ordered. They were so tiny and strong that they just slipped right between the stitches when I tried to stick two feet together. I ended up doing a bunch of additional stitching around the magnets, which holds them in nicely but significantly diminishes their power (the cats probably prefer this anyway). Here are some shots of the octopus in action.

Taking a break from reading the Yarn Harlot's latest book:


Stalking Bug:


Attack!


Accosting Moana:


As you can see, we are easily entertained here at chez octopus.

Mountain Sky Clapotis

So I have been working on a clapotis for the last few days. I'm using a lighter weight yarn (Lanas Puras Melosa fingering weight) than is called for and US 3 needles, so it's going to be a bit smaller. The yarn is a lovely, soft handpainted merino that ripples from sky blue to cloudy silver to earthy browns and olive green -- and, unfortunately, my photos don't really do it much justice.



The colorway is called "Mountain sky." I love it! Here it is wound into a ball (can you tell I'm enamored with it?).



I am in the middle of the third repeat of the straight rows section of the pattern. The color patterning has produced a variety of neat pooling effects, which you can see here:





At this point it probably seems like everything I make is from Knitty. To alleviate that impression, I'll be blogging about some of my "pre-blog" finished objects soon, so keep an eye out for them. In the meantime, I'll leave you with another photo of my clapotis:

The forecast is chilly...

at least I kind of hope it stays sweaterish weather a while longer, so I can wear my latest FO. The pattern was easy to follow (Thanks, Stefanie! -- although, of course, I got myself into trouble a few times by misreading it), and I really like the way it turned out.



FORECAST (Knitty)
Knitpicks Wool of the Andes "Arctic Pool Heather" (110 yds per ball) ~8.5 balls
US 5, 6, and 7 Denise circulars, US 5 and 7 DPNs

Modifications: I knit the pattern as written except for the following changes: (1) I wanted to make approx. a 34 inch bust. My gauge was a little off, so I ended up using the instructions for the smallest size; (2) I lengthened the ribbed portion of the lower border on the body and switched from a US 5 to a US 6 needle halfway through to give the effect of a hip increase; (3) I started the lower border on the sleeves just below the elbow and made the sleeves a tad longer; (4) I made 3 stitch bobbles instead of 5 stitch bobbles.



This was my first top-down raglan, and I quite liked it. As I was knitting, I was a little worried that my raglan increases were looking weird, but I think they turned out OK. Also, I ended up with a hole in each armpit (I have read that most patterns have you cast on a few stitches there when you start knitting the sleeves), but I sealed them up easily with some extra yarn. Even though I don't necessarily have anything against seaming, I enjoyed finishing the knitting, sewing on the buttons -- and being done! Being able to try the sweater on during the process was also invaluable.

Hello!

I'm going to try to keep track of my knitting adventures by blogging. We'll see how this goes! Forecast, my most recent knit, is currently blocking. When it's done, I'll take some photos and post about it -- hopefully quite soon!

I know there's not much here yet, but feel free to poke around my Pre-blog finished objects in the sidebar.