Cat Photobombed my Knitting

Or some such. I set down the hat I am knitting for my hubby as today is Get All The Things Done Day. I went back to pick it up to do a few more stitches while waiting for the laundry to dry. And found this:

Normally Elvis licks wool and felts it. For some reason this yarn was deemed worthy of sleeping on without correction as to texture. (red arrow points to knitting in question)

I am approx 8.5 inches into the hat. No point in posting another picture of the WIP as it is a boring stockinette hat. I guess I should thank Elvis for giving me a photo op?

Ciao

Fingernail Friday

Hat Knitting

My mittens are on hold. Hubby asked specifically for a hat. A very particular hat. So we went to the yarn store and he picked out the yarn:

At least it isn't black yarn!

I had to do some digging around to figure out how to get what he wanted. Specifically, an all-stockinette hat. With an edge that doesn't roll. I opted to go with a reversible hat design. Basically, you do a provisional cast on, knit one hat, then undo the provisional cast on, knit another hat from those stitches and then push the one hat into the other hat.

All in fingering weight yarn. Yah, it's taking a while. Although it is good tv knitting.

The provisional cast on was a pain. I didn't want to do the crochet chain one. I've done it before and detested undoing the chain. So I did a looped provisional cast on. The fist time I thought I'd be smart and do it onto a circular needle so I wouldn't have to pick up stitches. That just made the whole cast on waaaaaay too tight. So I did it with waste yarn. (the blue yarn above). In retrospect, maybe if I had tried it with a longer circular it would have worked. Either way, it's cast on.

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire....

Warning:this post contains nuts and references to nuts. Do not continue if you cannot handle references to your nuts. Yes I am 12 in my head sometimes......

This is the time of year when a woman's thoughts turn naturally to...nuts. No, get your mind out of the gutter. Chestnuts. Roasting chestnuts to be exact. Roasting chestnuts is an activity I remember doing with my parents as a small child. Mom would peel them for me since they were hot. As an adult, I still have trouble peeling them. My sister blames it on my fingernails. I blame it on the chestnuts!

I had always roasted the chestnuts in a frying pan. with a lid. Every so often you would have to open one to see if they were done. This was a major pain. Recently my sister told me about an easier way she had discovered on the intartubes. This method makes them MUCH easier to peel.

I will now share it with you.

Step 1. Cut an 'X' in the shell of your nut.(snerk) A small paring knife works fine. I prefer one with a slightly 'hooky' tip like this:

Step 2: dunk your nuts (giggle) in a bowlful of water. Turn on oven to 425F

Step 3:When the oven is preheated, fish your nuts out of the water (tee hee) and put em on a cookie sheet. I like to lay em cut side down.

Step 4: Set the timer to 20 minutes and walk away. I am afraid I did not take a picture of this step. Use your imagination

Step 5: When the oven timer tells you that 20 minutes has elapsed, take your nuts out of the oven. (snicker) They should look something like this:

Step 6: You need to peel your nuts while they are hot. (that's what she said) Do so. I find a cutting board is helpful. Sometimes if you give them a smart slap with the palm of your hand they peel easier. Sometimes they don't and you have to pry. This step is significantly easier because of the soak them in water trick.

Step 7: EAT!!

And the Holidays have begun!

They ugly but cute!

Knitted Mittens for Me!

I decided I needed new mittens for me. After perusing various patterns, I decided on Brier Twist as it is a flip-top mitten which will come in handy. (Handy. Get it? heh heh. I crack me up)

The first one is almost done. Thumb not finished , ends not woven in and there is something funky going on where the one side of the flip top meets the mitten. However I am confident that I can fix all that. Want to see a picture of my not quite finished mitt? Of course you do. You are a knitter! (I suspect. However if you are just popping by for the hell of it, welcome!)

Same mitten, flipped open:

The cuff is a bit longer than the pattern calls for, I wanted it that way, I hate scraping ice on the car and getting cold bits on my delicate skin.

This is just the first one. I still have to cast on the second! SMS anyone? (second mitten syndrome. related to Second Sock syndrome)

Ciao

Fingernail Friday!

Winter Snow and Rain

I guess I was lucky the winter weather held off as long as it did. Today I went out to sweep the snow off my car and found this:

Yup, freezing rain UNDER the snow. Blech

Ciao

Fast Christmas Knit

This was a VERY fast Christmas knit. 6 days start to finish.

Pattern: Spiral Knit Tube Sock

Yarn: Bernat Satin Solids

As the pattern name says, it is a tube sock, no heel to turn. Thus it is good tv knitting. Since the pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, it is a pretty substantial sock. I am planning on giving this pair to a friend of mine as "Slipper Socks". I am also thinking I may make myself a pair too.

The hubby said they 'look fancy' so I think I'm safe in saying that simplicity does not detract form the pretty.

Ciao

Fingernail Friday

Christmas Knitting

Almost done the Christmas knitting! last dishtowel:

pattern:Chinese Waves Dishcloth

Only instead of a dishcloth, I made it bigger for a small towel.

One more Christmas knit to go!

Ciao

MOAR YARNZ

i have been remiss. I have more yarn I bought while I was in Italy and haven't shown it to you yet. Here is the next lot of interesting yarn:

It is very thick ribbon yarn with a 'traintrack' along one edge. I'm not even sure how to knit this, it was just interesting. I think you knit it through the traintrack part.

Here's a better picture of the yarn:

I'm thinking this may become a poncho or similar.

Another One!

Another dishtowel complete! That leaves me one to finish before Giftmas comes. I think I can, I think I can.....

This is the Double Bump Dishcloth pattern, but done over 47 stitches and longer so that it is a dishtowel instead. Yarn is Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Ombre. ie self-striping

Ciao

Happy All Hallow's Eve!

Knitting and Yarn!

Still knitting here. This is for the Giftmas box:

Another cotton dishtowel. Just plain stockinette with a garter edge.

And now for another taste of Italian yarn!

This yarn is microfibre. It is sooooooo soft! And nubbly, as you may guess from looking at it. I was thinking maybe a slouchy hat and an infinity scarf.

Ciao

New Yarn!

Before I went to Italy, I went to a yarn store that shall remain nameless. They did not have what I wanted. They tried to sell me something else. Were quite pushy about it, actually. I tried to escape gracefuly by saying, "Well, I'm going to Italy in a week, I'll see if I can find it there and if not, I'll be back..." The woman looked down her nose at me and said "It is getting VERY difficult to find GOOD yarn stores in Italy, you know." Uh huh.

I'll spread the funky yarns over a few posts so you don't get bored, folks.

First up, Louisiana from Lana Gatto:

This is VERY thick yarn:

Basically roving in a net tube. I got 2 skeins of it and am thinking an infinity type scarf for it. The yarnshop lady said that most people work it with their hands, they don't bother with a knitting needle. I can see why!

As my last post indicated, I was on vacation. So, I will be presenting, over the next few posts, a selection of pictures from my trip. I was in northern Italy where they grow rice. ie around Milan. The mosquitoes are fierce. As a result there are many efforts at killing them from wall plug-ins to electrified tennis rackets to sweep through the air and zap em. While poking around in stores near Turin I found a flyswatter.

please note the target:

My aunt actually managed to kill a mosquito with this. She did not, alas, score any points.....

Seaside Piccies

The radio silence has been due to me being on vacation. In Italy. Where the vistas included things such as this:

Not much knitting occurred during this time, but it was oh so nice!

Colourwork-I'm Going In

I saw this on the Yarn Harlot's blog and loved it. So I went to Ravelry and looked at all the lovely projects people made. I thought to myself, "I haven't really done colourwork, this looks intriguing". Then I went stash diving and found some yarn that would work! (shocking, I know). Clearly the Fates were with me. Then I swatched. (another shock, I'm sure). The pattern is Catkin by Carina Spencer.


I'm glad I did swatch, as a couple of the stitches are different. Also, there are spots on the chart where the symbol(s) go over 3 or more stitches. Took a few minutes for my brain to realize that I wasn't looking for ONE symbol on the legend, I was looking for 2 or 3 grouped together. Otherwise it went pretty smoothly.

Colourwork ahoy!

Lazy Katy Tuch/Shawl is Done

This was a pretty quick knit. It took me awhile only because I was working madly on the Ice Cream Blanket.

Project Details:

Pattern: Lazy Katy Tuch/Shawl
Yarn: Smooshy by Dream in Colr
Colourway: Lipstick Lava
Yardage required: 301 yards
Final size: 54" x 22"at the longest widest point







This is really more of a scarf than a shawl. The unusual shape makes it hard to drape over the shoulders effectively.

Other Project

Having finally finished the Epic blanket knit, I can now work on my Lazy Katy tuch/shawl guilt free. I've started on the edging.

At Long Last

The lighting was horrendous today, I will try for better pics another day, but I am too excited to hold out! Ta DA!!!!!!

And a closer up:



And even a pic of the back for those of you who like to look at the finishing on things (and the heavens know there was A LOT of finishing involved in this project):




DONE. Whew, that was more work than I want to contemplate doing any time soon.......

Continuing On

The seaming is complete! Whew. Here's proof:



Um, yeah, Elvis decided this would be a good spot.....

Edit: this isn't finished yet! Still working on the border...

Fingernail Friday

Not so much knitting as....

seaming! and seaming and seaming...it never seems to end! But I have gotten thus far:

Landon Bay

Checked out the Landon Bay hiking trails. These trails were a bit more 'rustic'. In other words, they were more what I would picture as a hiking trail. Ups and downs, rocks to go around and over etc. The trailhead was marked nicely:

A pic of the trail:

See? Rocks and trees and stuff! The trail lead to a nice view of the bay:

and a little bridge along the edge of the bay:


All in all, a very nice place to take a hike!