Cold Spell

Well it seems that the extreme cold spell may be coming to an end. It's been horrifically cold!

I found Harley nestled between the portable radiator and the baseboard heat! He ended up sleeping there 2 nights in a row!

I finally finished Maddy's mitts! I've decided that the Frog Tree Merino was worth the trouble. Of the three pairs of Fetching mitts that I've made, these are by far the softest and the most comfortable. They will probably be the warmest as well. I forgot to bind off using smaller needles, but the picot edge turned out just right!


I do hope Maddy will like them! I wrapped them up with some gummy bears for her Valentine gift and put it with Bird's gift--the Greek hat and gummy bears--on the bed so they'll see them when they get in from College Park. This is assuming, of course, that they are seeing straight after being in College Park. Things tend to get a little crazy over there!

Greg was waiting on the bed all evening for me! He is the only cat I know that, as the saying goes, "sleeps like a dog!" He doesn't wake up! He sleeps like a teenager!

I'm excited to be taking an entrelac class tomorrow! I hope I'll like it! I hear people either love doing it or they hate it, so we will see! I'm also excited to participate in Secret Pal 10 so I'll have to get my questionaire up tomorrow as well! Time for some shut-eye!

I love surprises!

Who doesn't love surprises! I was thrilled when my package of yarn from Ewe-Phoria Yarns came today. This is an Ebay store. Leslie hand dyes much of the yarn and she showed this skein which I fell in love with. It is 50/50 merino and silk--much like Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb only with a twist! She dyed 2 skeins in this particular colorway upon my request. They are huge skeins--over a half pound each!

I bought this yarn for the Clapotis pattern on the Knitty website.

My other treat came when I was leaving All About Yarns. I had stopped in to get a skein of Cascade 220 to contribute to my friend Dorothy who is knitting a prayer shawl for a colleague of ours at work who has cancer. As I was leaving the store, I saw that they had the spring issue of Interweave Knits which I thought didn't come out until Feb. 20. I had seen three projects from the website in that issue that I have to make: the Ribs and Lace Tank , the Clementine Shawlette , and the Cable Down Raglan . Of course we all need more projects that we will never have time to finish, but I am getting much better. I've decided that the Sea Lettuce Scarf will be a long term thing since I see very little progress on it with each session! The bulky alpaca sweater will be my next priority. Actually I have to make the Pop Up Paws for David first. I've been carrying that Suri Merino yarn around in my bag for way too long!

Maddy's mitts are almost done--just have to pick up the stitches for the thumbs! While I didn't like knitting with the Frog Tree Merino, the end result is wonderful! Of the 3 pairs of Fetching mitts I've made, these are by far the softest! I'll be curious to see how well this stuff wears! That's it! I hear Bird and Maddy in the driveway! Gotta Go!

The Final Frontier!

Snow days are wonderful things for catching up on those things that have been put off for indefinite amounts of time. Two tasks in the Knitting Universe fit this category: Blocking and Seaming! Blocking is easy--particularly since I have a large padded blocking board and a heavy duty steam iron with a separate water reservoir. I have a basket of stuff that needs to get done! I pulled out the Oat Couture Shawl that I knit last summer. This shawl was the first lace knitting I've done. I like this design because it is asymmetrical. It is a pleasure to knit because it is done on circular needles. The knitting begins at the neck edge with increases before and after the many stitch markers. I actually sought out the yarn specified in the pattern which is Classic Elite Premier, a 50/50 blend of cotton and tencel. It has the most delicious feel and is a lovely shade of lime green which just doesn't show in the photos. I couldn't find it locally, so I called a couple of Boston yarn shops since I was to leave for New England within the week. I found it at Woolrich & Co. on Harvard Square in Cambridge. That is one fabulous shop-tightly packed with loads of luxury fibers!


Here it is with the lovely Gita Maria bone shawl stick I bought at Cloverhill a few weeks ago.

The bummer is that I bought a fabulous pin specifically for this shawl at All About Yarns last summer. It had a silver wavy stick with an unusual freeform fimo bead in purple and this same shade of green. I remember putting it in the sewing room and it obviously got misplaced when I reorganized that room a few months ago.

I finally fixed the neckline of my Colinette Point Five sweater. I knit this one a couple of years ago but got frustrated when it wouldn't fit over my head! The photos of the sweater in the booklet show a wider neckline. With this sweater, you seam one shoulder then pick up a specified amount of stitches arount the neck, knit one row, then bind off. I had to rip that out and bind off on larger needles. It is still a tight squeeze getting it over my head but it looks okay. It is blocked and waiting to get stitched together. I dread that. I'm not sure whether I should stitch it in the Point 5 which is very thick, or find a coordinating worsted weight yarn to stitch it with. If I do the mattress stitch properly then the stitches won't show so worsted weight wouldn't add more thickness to the seam. That is probably the way to go.

That will be my finishing project for this weekend. I bought a nice black silk Trina Turk top with a slim fitting body and full poet type sleeves which will look great under this sweater. I like the look of the long, full silk sleeves under the shorter sweater sleeves.

Another project needing construction--my Deborah Newton Hooded Chenille topper. This was in an old issue of Threads--1991! It was one of those projects that I worked on intermittently for several years--mostly when I was at the beach or at the pool with the kids! Anyway the article in the magazine was about designing knit garments with hoods. This is knit in a thick chenille and the reverse stockinette stitch is on the outside.

The other quandry with this sweater is the button. It has one big button and finding the right one has been challenging. I'm really anal when it comes to buttons. Nothing screams "homemade" as opposed to "hand crafted" more than the wrong choice of buttons! I've been know to spend more on buttons for a garment than the fabric when sewing and the same applies to knit garments. I haven't found anything I liked in the stores so I decided to experiment with Fimo since I have such a stash of it.

I should've put a ruler in the photo to show the size of the buttoms that I made. The largest one is about 2 inches in diameter. I played with the brown Fimo and foil bits first (the ones on the left) but they didn't turn me on so I refered to instructions for creating faux stone and mixed the brown and transluscent Fimo with fine glitter. I like that look much better and I'm leaning toward using the button on the top right. I like the irregular shape of that one and the scale seems right when placing it on the sweater front.

Maddy's mitts were started last night. I am having a love-hate relationship with this Frog Tree Merino Worsted weight yarn. It has a lovely feel--incredibly soft and cushiony. It doesn't have a twist though. It is almost like roving. Since these mitts are knit on a size 6 needle to create a denser fabric, the yarn flattens and spreads on the needles and it is hard to see the individual wraps. It also pulled apart when I pulled on it to tighten up the first stitch on one of the needles--something I always do to avoid the dreaded ladder which often appears on items knit on dp's. I think it would be a dream to knit on larger needles. I bought two skeins and I think it will only take one so I have to decide whether or not to keep the extra one for a hat or to return it. You can see the structure of the yarn in the tail in the photo below.

I guess it will be back to the old grind tomorrow. I'm going to assume that school will be open. Time to get back to Maddy's mitts so I have them done when they come home tomorrow!

It's all Greek to me!

Well I finished the Greek hat and it turned out better than I expected! First of all, the challenge was what to do with all those gold yarn tails. I wove them into the hat but found that they showed through on the right side when the hat stretched so I pulled them out. I decided to knot them. I knotted two together, then took one and knotted it to the next one and so on until I got to the last one. It created a row of what looked like a vertical garter stitch or something. Typically I wouldn't do this inside a hat because I'd be afraid that the wearer would be able to feel it, but Bird has such thick hair that he would never notice! It may not be the "right" way to handle this situation, but it turned out okay.

And here's the finished product!

Harley is definitely confused! I've never known a cat to willingly go into a carrier, but he loves sleeping in the new one that I bought for Mikey. When he's not in there, then Sammy is. I guess that will change if they ever take a trip to the vet in it!

I have started Maddy's Fetching Mitts using the Frog Tree Merino that I bought last weekend. It is interesting yarn. It is one ply and loose--almost like roving. I'm used to using yarn with more of a twist. This is really soft stuff though. I think they will turn out very comfortable in this yarn!

Latest projects

So I finally finished the Fetching mitts from the Knitty website. This is my second pair. I found that the picot bind off was really loose on the first pair so I used needles two sizes smaller to bind these off. They are knit in Queensland Uruguay dk which is a blend of merino, alpaca and silk. I love them!

I started the Lucy Neatby Sea Lettuce Scarf two nights ago. This one will take awhile since it is fingering weight yarn knit on a size 4 needle. It's an interesting pattern made up of short rows which give it a flounce effect on both sides once it gets longer. It is started with a provisional cast on then knit in wedges. The provisional cast on is pulled out and the resulting live stitches are placed on the needle and it is knit across, alternating short row wedges on each side. I love the picot edges which are done every other row. The yarn is a Claudia Handpaint fingering weight merino. I love the colors.

Lastly I finished one chemo cap which I will post later.