Major Knitter

Mom's Cabled Mitts

I went to my LYS - Westport Yarns - last month and bought the yarn with the suggested pattern Mom's Cabled Mitts by Jessica Jensen.  After a false start last month, I started over again this week.  I was nearly finished, but the mitt wasn't tall enough for my women's extra large hands.

Normally, I would pull out my handy kitchen scale at this point and weigh the right mitt and weigh the remaining yarn and see if I had enough to make them a little longer.  Unfortunately, my scale is on the fritz (Read that to mean that it's time to change the batteries and I can't figure out how to open the battery pack).  So instead, I'm doing this the old fashioned way.  I put the nearly finished mitt on a spare set of needles and went back to the skein, and cast on for the left mitt from the opposite end of the skein.

And I'm being extra careful to count meticulously so that the mitts match.  And I actually remembered to place the thumb on the left side for the left mitt so I won't be stuck with two right handed mitts.  

Stay tuned to see how this old-fashioned method of yarn usage works.  

Busy Little Beaver

I've been so busy cleaning up with my latest design project.  I can't tell you all the details, but let me give you a little hint of what it might entail.

I love diving into a new design project and getting totally caught up in the excitement.

I can't wait to finish this project and share it with you.

 

Doctor Who

Kudos to those of you who correctly guessed that my mystery knitting was a Dr. Who scarf.  You were correct.

I've completed approximately one quarter of the scarf.  Originally I was going to follow the pattern on the left, but after finishing half of this, I realized it would be a short scarf - short at least in terms of a Dr. Who scarf which normally measures somewhere between 9-12 feet in length depending upon which season you're watching.  Now I'm going to make the really long scarf (or at least as long as my yarn stash allows).  That means that I've switches to the layout of the pattern on the right.

Primogeniture is quite pleased with the progress.  I love that he wants a hand knit scarf - more so that he wants a Dr. Who scarf.  Hopefully I can finish it and get it to him before this Northeast winter thaws and he'll be able to wear it this winter.

So, for my 20-year old son, I leave you with this quote from the show.

“Some people live more in 20 years than others do in 80. It’s not the time that matters, it’s the person.”

— The Doctor, Season 3, Episode 6

Halfway Home

A little of this, a little of that, and before you know it, you're halfway home.

Slowly but surely this blanket is growing.  It's nearly halfway done.  

 

Darned Lace!

I was ready to show you yet another row of hearts today.  Truly I was.  I was nearly halfway through the fourth row of hearts when I made the mistake of taking this project to my knitting group this morning.

I know better than to bring a lace project to a social knitting environment.

But I was cocky.

 

I took it anyway.  And sure enough, I dropped my knitting, right at the point of the lace, and the YOs snagged and I had to rip out all my progress on the fourth row.  I did manage to knit a bit this afternoon - and I'm basically at the exact same spot I was when I woke up this morning - despite the fact that I worked on this WIP for several hours.

Sigh.

So instead of showing you knitting progress, I share with you my lesson learned.  Don't get cocky.  Unless you're really a disciplined knitter - leave your lacework at home when it's time for social knitting.  Take something that you can knit on autopilot.  You'll be glad you did.

I Left My Heart

I have always loved this song and since there's a song for everything, I'm singing it quite a bit as I knit up my latest project.

 

I'm making The Sweetheart blanket.  A friend of mine is having her very first grandchild and I wanted to make something extra special. 

Details:

• Six skeins Malabrigos Rios in natural un-dyed
• US Size 6 stilleto circular needles - perfect for the lacework
• Easy Knit Baby Blankets Collection 2 (CH24) by Bev Galeskas.

 

Ask and You Shall Receive

I received a request to show a picture of the finished heart blanket.  Unfortunately, I cannot comply.  You see, I haven't finished this project.  In fact, I haven't knit any more swatches in quite awhile.  But at least I can show you all the swatches I have completed so far.

I need more the of the multi-heart swatches as I only have four completed.  I'm not sure which other pattern I want to incorporate.  I'll look through the book and see what else catches my eye.  I think the next series of swatches will be a little less busy - but not completely solid.  

I'm working on a few other blankets right now, so this is not on the top of the list, but it is in the queue - so there is hope.  Thanks for asking.  It's not forgotten - just in a time out.

 

 

Seeing Stripes

Thanks for everyone's encouragement.  I went ahead and kept knitting more striped swatches to tie together my hearts blanket.  I finished seven striped swatches.  Now I have A LOT of weaving in to do.  The weaving in of all these loose ends takes almost as long as the actual knitting.  But I think it's worth it.

The colors are a little muted in this picture since I snapped the photograph at night.  But you get the idea.

Now I'm working on more of the fair isle heart swatches.  Each swatch only has four colors - but has the same effect of uniting the color scheme into one blanket.

I'm not a fan of fair isle knit flat.  It's awkward and the stitches are uneven.  I hope it will block out nicely.  These fair isle swatches knit up very slowly.  Each one takes nearly an entire day.  But I do like the overall effect, so it's worth it.  I would like at least four of these fair isle heart swatches.  We'll see if I'm up to knitting any more than that.

Progress - Finally

After all those false starts, I finally got my Boy Scout fleur-de-lis blanket underway.  I've been watching my new Amazon Prime live stream feature on the big TV (instead of on my computer) so I was able to knit an entire panel of fleur-de-lis while watching one of my favorites - Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit - the BBC production starring the titular Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen.

And I can happily present to you one quarter of my Boy Scout blanket.

Even unblocked you can really see the fleur-de-lis pop in this panel blanket.  I have three more panels to knit so I'll have to find another BBC series to watch so I can finish the entire blanket while being thoroughly entertained.  Any suggestions?

Nine. 9. Nove. Nueve. Neuf.

I feel like a Sesame Street character.  I can count to nine.

 

What's up with the number nine?

You probably don't want to know.

I know I said I was done with the penguins... but how can I resist those cute little creations.  So yes, I see more Penguin Poppers in my future.