FO: Fern Glade, and the New Year

pattern: Fern Glade
designer: Megan Marshall
origins: Knitty
yarn: Manos Silk Blend (300M)
needles: US 4 and 6, circs

I don't think I have ever begun knitting a zine pattern the same season it was released. But I clearly have now, and I love this hat-- a rare thing to hear from someone who doesn't love hats as a rule. The pattern was an easy repeat over several rows, very intuitive to pick up. The silk blend shows off the texture very well, I think.

Of course, recently it's been too warm to wear hats, so it's been warming my dresser drawer.

Tomorrow's February first. I can't stand New Year's resolutions (they're so... annual), but I have been thinking about the fate of this blog. I've had a series of small crises over the past half year, and it's shown, in the ration of knits to posts. I'd like it also to be about more than "Hey knitters, see these pretty things I made?" but it's hard to make it more than that when you a) suffer from a surfeit of hobbies and b)don't have the time, hobbies aside, to sit down and work out a longterm plan.

I'll take suggestions. If I can't come up with a long term plan, I'll probably quit the blog (well, not entirely, as there's a couple free patterns available on it), just because I hate seeing things languish and fizzle. But we'll see. I think I'm motivated.

Persephone Gloves: the continued saga

This is a better picture of the Persephone gloves I finished up earlier this month-- cable-wise, at the least. Just sayin.'

FO: Persephone

I don't know if this is what you'd call a very good shot of the cables, but it was the best I was able to do with dark yarn and limited lighting-- one of the few downsides of winter. I suppose I could invest in a better camera. Or I could just wait for sunny days. Not that I'm likely to get either soon, what with the streets being so icy that I would probably not survive a walk to the camera shop.

So the photo's a little quirky, but I'm sharing it anyway, because I adore these gloves.



Pattern: Persephone Cable Fingerless Mitts
Designer: SmarieK
Origin: http://smariek.blogspot.com
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine, heathered blue
Needles: US 2

The cable pattern was easy to memorize but unique enough to still be a fun knit, and visually interesting besides. I did not actually follow the glove pattern: I winged that as I went, as I'm wont to do, just because the formatting of the pattern was a little overly long and I didn't want to waste paper. But it has more or less the same effect, just a different style of gusset.

The Ultra Alpaca Fine was also a pleasure to work with. It had a wonderful texture and a durability that many non-sock laceweights lack, but which is perfectly suited to gloves.

FO: Celtic Cable

It's been dark around here. Dark, dark, dark-- although I expect it will be lightening at least a little bit, soon, what with the incoming solstice.

It's also been cold around here, or at least cold as passes for cold in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest. There's frost sometimes. And cold fog. And people wear water-repudiating gear. Usually I would be a muddle of jackets and scarves by now, but my body has taken an abrupt swerve toward being overheated all the time. So all my winterweight sweaters and scarves are sitting in a corner, being much neglected.

Including this one.



Pattern: Celtic Cable Neckwarmer
Designer: Lindsay Henricks
Origin: Storm Moon Knits
Yarn: Lush (Classic Elite)
Needles: US 6

It is, sadly, a bit too snug around the neck for me to wear about right now. But it's also soft, warm, and the cable zigged and zagged while being knit without actually taking much of my concentration, allowing me to do other things simultaneously. It's quite a cute pattern, and the chart's well-executed. The yarn will eventually, with substantial petting, nearly full itself, which is exactly what I want it to do (it gets even softer then).

Sooner or later I'll feel cold. And then I can wear it.

The buttons are etched faux mother-of-pearl. Unfortunately I can't seem to get a shot of them that does justice, but they were a better fit than the dark, hand-carved scrap wood ones I'd planned on using. I'm going to snip one off and resew it-- the row of buttons is a bit crooked, but I don't think you can tell here. Don't say anything if you can. I already know.

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

It's not that I haven't been knitting; it's that I've been knitting sweaters and want pictures of them being modeled on someone, and my friends all are a)too tall to fit my knits and b)bad at photography. This leaves me to my own terrible devices until I decide to knit something quick and simple.



Like this.

Pattern: Shag
Designer: Lynne Barr
Source: Knitting New Scarves (free pattern from book)
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Chunky, color 4, 3 skeins
Needles: 10.5 US

Trust me when I say that this was a quick and easy project. It's just garter rectangles, knit all in one piece with stitches picked up. I knit it during a movie marathon this weekend with friends, after a few froggings to get the rectangles to the desirable width and height. The yarn, being so bulky, is very warm-- a good January/February scarf. I think I should probably find a button and do a little buttonhole loop to keep it tied shut, as it is too short to wrap.

FO: Buttoned Necklet

Knit Buttoned Necklet
Designer: Lee Burrows
Needles: US 6
Yarn: Manos Silk Garden

My mom came to visit last week, and we stopped in at the store I work at on our way to dinner (delicious Thai food). I should know better than to propagate this sort of behavior, because one of the shop samples immediately caught her eye, and then she found some yarn to match it... and here's the result.



It's an eensy little thing, about 20" or fifty cm long. It still needs buttons, but I'm leaving those to my mother.

FO: Kiehkuralapaset

Kiehkuralapaset/Swirly Mittens (chart)
Designer: AnneL
Origin: Kultalankaa/Golden Thread
Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift in Old Rose and Black (1 skein each)
Needles: US2, dpns

The Technical
The charts for this were nice and clear; the rest of it is my own number crunching. I worked a row in Old Rose for the cast-on before switching to black for the ribbing, and switched again to Old Rose for the bind-off. For the thumb gussets, I worked m1 increases in alternating colors until they reached the height I wanted, then bound off and continued. It makes for a very sturdy gusset, a little like knit armor. I worked different segments of the chart on each glove, so the spirals are 100% different from each other.

The Fluff
My knitting is not always practical. I mean, sure, socks and sweaters are imminently useful things. Even gag gifts have a use... the expression I'm awarded after handing someone a bacon scarf can keep me coasting happily for days-- it's like therapy in a tiny knitted package.

Occasionally I want to do things that don't have uses; that's to say, I will love every moment of knitting them but never, ever wear them, and never, ever gift them, because I know no one who will wear them. This means these knits will lurk in my closet, which I'm rather afraid of because that will soon mean knitted items will lurk in the 250 or so square feet of the rest of my living space. Elaborate traditional raglans are one of them. Scratchy colorwork gloves in Latvian or Scandinavian traditions are another one... a major one. They're tiny, right? So knitting lots of them can't do anyone harm-- they weigh a lot less than a sweater!

Except that I live in a temperate climate. And even when it is ostensibly cold out, I stick to gloves.

These are my compromise. They fulfilled that colorwork itch (I try to imagine what kind of colorwork I'd wear on a regular basis and my horrible sense of color combos comes up with... grey on black?). I cut them off just at the knuckles instead of knitting up the entire chart for a traditional mitten shape, so they're perfect for drab but not harsh days, and for typing in on very cold days. The chart is awesome-- kind of punkish modern in these colors. Chic. And I tailored them so they fit my hands like, well, gloves.

I think they and I will get along well.