Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Yarn Contest!

No, not by me :( I read a fun knitting blog, "A Blog of My Own" and Toni is having a little yarn giveaway. You get extra points for blogging about the contest and linking to her! I enjoy her blog because she mostly sticks to knitting, and is a real life knitter--not someone who spends hours knitting, or writes knitting books, or going on book tours, etc. She could be your neighbour and you probably wouldn't know it. So, go enter her contest!

Hectic!

There's been so many little things going on since we got home! I have so much I want to write on this blog (and on the other one---for trip pictures, click on "Tracy's Non-Knitting Blog" in the side links). I never have time to sit and write a long post with everything I want to write, so I tend to not even try to right a short one. But I will right now.
This is superwash merino that I got in the boo boo bin at the Sweet Sheep's booth at the K-W Knitter's Fair. $3. For some reason, I had a really hard time getting a good photo of the colour. It's not purple at all.This colour is much better. I guess it just didn't want an artistic shot in the garden with same coloured flowers.So, I bought the wool on Sept. 13, and I started working on gloves on October 9. That's pretty quick, for me! There were a few false starts as I worked on getting the right number of sts and the right needles. I thought the yarn was a little finer than it is, but I ended up using 40st and 4mm needles (I think), which is the same as when I make mittens out of worsted weight yarn. I wanted a criss-cross pattern, like the Shedir (http://www.knitty.com/) hat, or like BrooklynTweed's "Koolhaus" hat, but I ended up using the motif I think I linked to in the last post. I wasn't sure what to do with the thumb gusset, so I just did all the increasing in purl sts. When I got up to the fingers, I tried to make the pattern blend like I had for the cuffs, but when there's only 12 sts, a k1, p3 rib just doesn't look like much. I ended up fiddling quite a bit, and getting the fingers in a 1x1 rib. I think the mitts would look better if they had been fingerless, so the pattern would have extended right up to the knuckles, but I wanted fingers. I also wanted the fingers a little longer, but it's alright.
I really love the wool. The purple bits don't bother me too much, even though they clustered in a few spots. Sort of looks like my pen exploded in my purse, LOL. I have about 1/2 the ball left over. I'd like a matching hat but highly doubt there's enough (there was no yardage). I'm thinking I might actually make a Calorimetry---you know, that wide ribbed headband/ear warmer from http://www.knitty.com/ a while ago....
I had the gloves just awaiting finishing when we left for the cruise. Of the three projects I took, this one---the one requiring the least amount of work---was the only one that I could work on without a major issue. More on that later!























Thursday, November 06, 2008

So Much to Do!

I really want to write a nice, long knitterly post, with glorious pictures and technical details.


However, I'm running around like mad, getting ready for Lucy's birthday (Friday) and then Rob and I leave on Saturday for a cruise. We get back really late Sun. Nov 16, and the next day is Meg's birthday, and you better believe she knows all about birthdays now! LOL.

So here are a few teasers, of things I'm working on:


Heartland Lace Shawl from Evelyn Clark; on her website--FREE!! Jaggerspun 50-50 Wool-Silk laceweight, 3.5mm needles, many more pattern repeats than the pattern says, and re-worked edging.

Black stole on Singer 327, Card 3, EON out of work, 78-0-79, 1L in work, 1R out-or work, T10, 3 rows tuck, one row stockinette, up to row 632 and I'll keep going till I run out of time. Mystery cone identified by a handwritten sticker "T-3". Doesn't feel very good, but I wanted black and that's what I had.

Sweet Sheep Superwash Merino, DK? From BooBooBin at K-W Knitter's Fair---$3!! There are dark purple spots, and some very pale spots, but I love it. Tipless gloves in a lattice pattern like "Claudia Hat". I really like the Shefir hat from Knitty's Breast Cancer Awareness issue, and Koolhaas from Brooklyntweed, and this is similiar. They are almost done, and it's about 23C/73F outside today!!!!!!!