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