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I made some headway on the purple mittens yesterday while watching a classic movie - From Here to Eternity
This scene might explain while I only managed to knit a little bit
Here's the close up of the special effect
I am really enamored of this pattern - Newfoundland Mitts Revisited. Maybe you'll want to make a pair, too.
Remember my quest for a pattern for the Earflap Hat? Everyone was so helpful sending me links and pointing me in the right direction. Lin W was so kind that she even mailed me the Fall 2007 KnitSimple magazine whose cover featured an Earflap Hat with the bonus note that it knits up in two hours!
As if that weren't enough to put a smile on my face, Lin also included a gift for my tree. Look - it's a lovely lace angel
Thanks Lin. I am so grateful. Now I have to start knitting my cap. We've got our January Boy Scout winter campout coming up soon and it will be the perfect accessory to keep me warm.
Many of you mentioned that you really couldn't get a good feel for the hat from the picture. Fair point. Here's a better picture of the hats on the floor. They have ear flaps (but the hat is all knit in one piece) and the cute little twisted yarn cords on the top and at each ear flap.
BF thinks they're called Peruvian Ski Caps so I'm going to google that now and see what turns up. If you have any good ideas for patterns - please let me know. They're so cute and the possibilities are endless.
It's a cold rainy morning and BF needed a ride to the train station. It's only 5:45 a.m. and I have a chill so I grabbed my Adrienne Vittadini K2, P2 ribbed scarf from about 2 years ago en route to the train station and snapped this sleepy-eyed pre-dawn photo
P.S OK - You didn't really want to see a picture of me - so here's a re-take of just the scarf. It definitely did the trick to cut the chill.
I think I hear my coffee calling me.
I took Primogeniture and the Boy Scouts on a campout in the Berkshires this weekend. We pitched our tents on a farm and this was the view from our campsite.
If you were in the Rhinebeck area this weekend you know it was cold. With temperatures like these, it was time to show off the handknit gear.
I'm not kidding. That was the temperature when I started my car in the morning. Brrr. Good thing we had the proper gear for cold weather camping.
I kept my head warm by wearing my head band handknit by fellow blogger, knitter and scout leader Jane. In these chilly temperatures it was the perfect thing to wear under my Koigu handknit cap.
Then I covered it up and was nice and toasty warm with my double layer of head gear.
Yes. I'm already thinking about some sort of Fair Isle handknit hat with our Boy Scout Troop logo knit into the pattern. Since my list of WIPs and UFOs is so large, I think I'd better keep to the current list for now. Perhaps later. I'm sure the entire Troop would like to wear handknit hats made by their beloved Scoutmaster, don't you think? I did manage to keep my tootsies warm by wearing my hand knit socks.
I tried to knit some socks on this campout, but I brought a lace pattern that required my full attention, so my attempt to knit only resulted in the need to rip out further back than before the campout. I guess you might call it negative knitting progress.
We all had a great time on this fun campout and ate really well. We grilled London Broil, baked sliced sweet potatoes in tin foil, cooked some broccoli and finished it up with apple pie tortillas.
Here's the London Broil - cooked to perfection!
And here's a picture of the apple pie tortilla ready to be baked on the grill.
Just place one large tortilla on a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Add a pat of butter. Slice up one apple. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Wrap the tortilla like a burrito and then seal it in the foil. Wrap the entire foiled apple pie tortilla in a second layer of foil and place on the BBQ grill. Heat until the apples are tender. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! Camping never tasted so good.
I finally finished the 5th Chemo Cap for BF's co-worker. It's made out of Rowan Damask with 88 sts cast on with US size 3 circular needles.
Here are all five hats ready to be wrapped.
Voila!
I hope they bring a smile to her face and help her on to a speedy recovery!
I finished this fourth chemo cap in a luxurious new yarn at Knitting Central called Nashua by Naturaal Focus - Ecologie Cotton. It was a joy to knit up on US Size 3 needles in a basket weave pattern.
Unfortunately, my shoulder is still acting up from too much knitting, so I've had to give it a rest. This is the only FO for the entire week. The good news is that my computer and all my files are restored. Yippy! I was so worried that everything was gone forever.
I'm on a roll! This simple stockinette roll brimmed cap was quick and easy.
It was made with Gedrifra Maroko and knit on US Size 5 needles in plain stockinette.
Canada was very productive for the Chemo Cap of the Day plan. I finished the SWTC ribbed watch cap. I like the way it turned out. It's so soft and I think the colorway gives it an interesting look.
We're back home. I have to tell you that my computer caught a nasty virus and I'm on tenterhooks waiting to hear back from the IT folks about its prognosis. My entire life is on my computer and I discovered that I had not properly backed up my data, much to my chagrin. Please say some prayers for me, my computer and my data. We need all the help we can get!
Since I couldn't blog, I decided to to get out and treat myself to the Tuesday Knitting Club at my LYS - Knitting Central. Susan, Joanne, Susan, Mary, Sophia and others were there and we had a lovely time chatting and knitting. Cynthia and Danni were there, too. It was great to catch up with everyone.
I managed to finish the black chemo cap that I was also working on during the Canada trip. Here's a close-up of the textured cap
It's a slanted seed stitch knit-in-the-round with 89 stitches (repeat of K2, P1) +2 on US Size 5 40" Turbo Addi's. Once you've got the pattern going, it automatically creates the slanted seed stitch. Since there is one less stitch than needed for the 3 repeat, every time you start the new round you are automatically creating the interesting texture.
BF and I tried to go to a knitting store in Trois Rivieres. Unfortunately, there wasn't one. The concierge sent us to an upholstery store as it had sewing supplies. To be specific, it had sewing supplies if you were going to reupholster your sofa by yourself. There was nothing that even remotely resembled knitting, so we went down the road to the Wal-Mart and I purchased some Red Heart Luster Sheen acrylic yarn. I knit up a swatch for a lacy chemo cap during the time trials of the Alara Racing Team.
Here are the Alara Mazda MX5 racing cars ready to go.
Here's my speedy swatch of the Luster Sheen. It's a bit tight on this US Size 1 needle that I had handy. I also tried the US Size 5 (which is the recommended size per the label) but I will probably need a US Size 3 in order to get the best gauge for myself. I am amazed at how soft this yarn is. It doesn't really feel like your average acrylic. It has more of a microfiber feel. Have you used this yarn before? What did you think? How did it hold up?
Kate wrote to me and asked me if I might be able to help her figure out a cable pattern for a scarf she found at a store. I thought this would be an easy-sit-down-and-knit sort of solution. Boy was I wrong!
The best I can tell from the picture, it's a 36 st scarf with a K8, P4 repeat. As you can tell from my swatch, I wasn't getting the crossovers to go in the right direction. I am really out of practice with cables. I didn't see anything in the Stitchionary II - Cables to help me out with this one. Do any of you know of a pattern that might help Kate?
While we were home in Iowa for Christmas, we went ice skating with the cousins. Gracie, Conor and Pierce went skating for the first time ever and are bound to be naturals on the ice. Look at Gracie wearing her Fruity Pebbles hat with her brand new skates.
After the fact, I made some pink pom-pons to go on the toes of her brand new ice-skates. Gracie is All Pink All The Time!
My sister Ellen and her daughter Gracie were the recipients of the pink ruffly scarves. Gracie, at 3, was a bit too excited about the toys to stop and pose for a picture, but I managed to get a close-up of Ellen.
Leave it to a twelve-year old to turn the pink proliferation ruffle scarf into a slinky.
I have a video, but I want Primogeniture to still talk to me during his high school years, so I'll refrain from posting it to You Tube. You understand.
Remember this scarf I made with Rowan Summer Tweed for CB way back in April when BF and I visited him? Well I finished it and presented it to him during my visit this time. Here he is in Notting Hill just outside Electric where we had brunch. Yeah! Another completed project. There is still hope for me.
When BF and I went to London, we stayed with our friend CB. He was such a good sport and accompanied us up and down and all around the town, to include knitting at Liberty. He mentioned that he needed a scarf to truly fit into the London society, so we went to the wool section of Liberty and he picked out a lovely color of Rowan Summer Tweed in Denim #529. I had hoped to have the scarf finished in a few short days, but that's exactly when my shoulder started acting up. I picked it up and am making some progress on the forgotton scarf, albeit very slowly.
I used 4.5 mm needles (I really have to post their metric size since I bought these needles in London) and cast on 31 sts. The pattern is mistake rib - so you can use any odd number stitches. I happened to use a 4 repeat plus 3 sts. *(K2, P2) repeat from * across to last 3 sts, K2, P1. Repeat this for every row until your scarf measure the desired length. Block scarf. Add fringe if desired.
I fixed the errors and finished knitting up the Classic Elite Cashmere Opera Scarf with 2 skeins in green and US Size 19 straight needles.
Now I just need to block it and wear it. I think it will be perfect for the spring. Just in time for tomorrow's snow storm. They're saying we'll get 4-8 inches of snow (It was easier to make the scarf into a four than an eight).
I decided to make the Opera Scarf by Deb Peterson for Blue Sky Alpaca with the green toned Classic Elite Obsession 8-ply cashmere I bought at Knitting Central. It's knitting up quite nicely on size US 19 needles. The size 15s didn't accentuate the lacework design well enough, so I decided to bump it up a notch.
I have to go back and rip out a few rows as I missed a yarn over. Sally at Knitting Central said that if you ever mess up on lacework, it's almost always a yarn over somewhere. Yup. She was right.
I did it! I finally did it! Not only did I finish knitting my co-worker's cable scarf from Vogue Knitting on the Go - Scarves Two, but I actually gave it to her. Here she is in the office at work today modeling her new acquisition, just in time for the wintry mix that was forecast for the NYC area. Imagine this scarf with her mink hat from Russia in a matching color. OK, the scarf was really created to match the hat... not vice versa.
