Honeycombs, swaps, and swallowtails

My mom's birthday was last Monday. I had decided to knit her a little something in order to keep off the chill when she's downstairs in sewing land, where there's no heat. (The basement is still unfinished.) I thought a nice wristwarmer and Calorimetry set would keep her warm. I used one skein of Lion Brand Wool in a purple-pink-orange sort of colorway; it had just enough yardage for the set.

I don't have any photos right now, but I'll give you my basic pattern for the wristwarmers. I used US 8 DPNs with the worsted weight wool. I started by casting on 42 stitches, using the alternate cable cast on (found at the bottom of the linked page). After 1 1/4 inches of 1x1 rib, I switched to a modified honeycomb cable.

1. C2F, *C2B, C2F* around.
2. Knit around.
3. Knit around.
4. C2B, *C2F, C2B* around.

It wasn't exactly even over the 42 stiches, as it's a 4-stitch repeat, but you couldn't really tell. After that, I did 4 or 5 rows of 2x1 ribbing, so it would pull in a little closer. I bound off in pattern, knitting the knits and purling the purls, and it was done. Were I to do it again, I think I'd make the stitches divisible by 4 to keep the honeycomb even.


Here you can see the chart over 12 stitches, created with VisiKnit.

Other than that, I've joined Secret Pal 8 on the Knitty board, and have been claimed by my upstream pal. I've also claimed my downstream pal. I've got some very good ideas for packages to send, so I just have to start getting them together.

I also joined a couple of other swaps on Craftster: Hogwarts Houses and Gaiman. I've got my partner for the Gaiman swap, and so have begun to work on rustling up some projects for that. Fyberduck, the busiest girl in the universe, is organizing the Hogwarts Houses swap, and will be sending our partners in the beginning of February. I've signed up as a Ravenclaw. I've also realized that my kindred spirit in the Harry Potter world is Luna Lovegood, because she's quite quirky and ... interesting. (I can't wait to see how she's portrayed in the upcoming release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.)

Oh, I almost forgot: Tim Gunn and Kate Moloney will soon be releasing a book, A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style. And now I think I'll get ready to go develop some film, and start a Swallowtail Shawl (inspired by this one) while I'm at it.

Edit: I've knit through one full repeat (of the requisite fourteen) of the second chart, and am thoroughly enjoying the pattern. I had wanted to start knitting lace more actively this year, but didn't expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did, sitting at the Hy-Vee Starbucks drinking a caramel macchiato (tall's enough, thanks) and watching people.