Monday 28 April 2008

Too much knitting??

Well, the snow is gone again, but just before it finally melted away, this was the view from my kitchen window. I think I have too much knitting on the brain lately. It's because it's tax time you see. Maybe you can't see, but nevertheless, that is the reason. Yes, I am occasionally certifiably nuts. But can't you see the picot edge up against the fence, made by the melting snow? See, now you're nuts too!



Here though is a sure sign of spring. Ladybugs in the house. There have been butterflies outside too, drinking snow! But it is set to snow again late this week. Yuck. I think this is the slowest spring I can remember.

Scissors + Knitting


This is what happens when scissors and knitting meet. Yes, I was clearly insane. I started knitting Sally Melville's Elegant Gauntlets (from The Purl Stitch) for some easy, quick therapeutic knitting as a counterpoint to the Anemoi Mittens, which for me require intense concentration.

But then, you know how it goes. . . first the cuff is a bit too loose and then I can't decide on what contrasting colour to use for the ribbing and then the next thing you know snip snip snip!

I really love this pattern and the knitting is sooo easy. It just rips right along. You can almost do it in your sleep. I had the first gauntlet 95% complete in what probably amounted to a few hours (spread over three days of course, it's called guerrilla knitting).




This is the detail of the diamond pattern that I stuck on the middle of the hand. It's from Knit Picks Queen of Diamonds pattern.

So now I have the gauntlet unknit (is that a word?) at both ends with a total of eight dpns holding the stitches. It's a very prickly beast! I still have yet to decide on the colour for the ribbing, but now both ends of the gauntlet are going to be cast-off edges. No cast-ons remain. Weird, eh?

Monday 21 April 2008

Is this spring??

The view out my back door today. 20 cm of snow. -8 C or -20 with the windchill and no sign of any warmth in sight for at least a week. My husband is putting the snowtires back on our van.

Finished, after three years!





Yes, I have finally finished my shawl (stole, whatever) that I began in April three years ago. I have to say, I am really happy with it. It is lovely. It is warm. And it makes a cool noise when it falls to the floor and all the beads go clickety-clack.





Anemoi, still underway

Well, I have perservered. Besides, practice makes, well, better! The cuffs for Anemoi became much easier, so much so that I ripped out the first one and made a third to match the much better second.

I am now knitting both mittens at the same time on one long 120cm circular. I am using a size 3mm since I seem to knit much much tighter on this mitten than I usually do. At any rate, it seems to be going just fine, albeit very slow.

Wednesday 16 April 2008

Anemoi, trop difficile pour moi

Well, I have cast on for these. It seemed like a good way to use up the Louet Gems that I bought for a different pair of mittens but isn't, as it turns out, very suitable. The tubular cast-on was okay, but purling with my right-hand and still using my left for the main colour is NOT my idea of fun. I think after five rows that I have had enough of the corrugated rib and that although it looks really, really nice, I do not have, at this time, nearly enough patience to spend the two weeks it would take to finish the cuffs this way. Ribbit.

I'll do a different cuff and get to the fun stuff!

In other news, I did add some elastic thread to the waistband of the Perfection Pants and now they fit much better. I don't think it will last though since the thread is not very strong and pulling them over diapers requires a LOT of stretching.

Monday 14 April 2008

Soakers

I was sorting out some photos tonight and updating my Flickr gallery and I found these. These are the Perfection Pants and Curly Purly Soakers that I knit. They have been well used. The pants were knit from New Zealand Treliske Organic Merino Wool Yarn and the pink soakers are from Cascade 220. They really do work and we use them particularly at night, since most of the day when we are at home, the little ones have always just run around naked! The pants look enormous in the photo, but now they are more like capri pants! What a difference time makes, sigh.



Dizzy



Well, since we found the fish mitts (yay!) I have been able to successfully finish a pair of mittens. This is the final version of Dizzy from Mission Falls Smittens. Of course, it was done in the round and it actually has the cuff from Hena, but who cares - they are done. Except for weaving in the ends, but let's not dwell too long on that okay? They are finished. Shush.