Skip to main content

Been Knitting!

I know what a silly title for a post, sure I have been knitting, I am always knit.  But now with much of the Xmas knitting pressure off I am working on some fun stuff.  (There is still a second ¨O¨ scarf to complete before the end of the year.  I´m pretty sure I can get it done [she says with her fingers crossed]).

While at the farm a few weeks ago one of my sister-in-laws and her daughter, my niece, visited a local craft fair where the wife of one of my nephews was showing her handiwork.  She makes wall hanging from pallets and other scrap wood.  Here´s a part of her display.




While at that craft fair my niece spied a pair of boot cuffs she liked and was considering purchasing them.  However, I stepped in and stopped her by saying I could knit her a pair if she could wait until January to get them.  First we had to agree on a pattern.  Julie Tarsha´s Thermal Boot Cuffs from Ravelry hit the mark.  These cuffs are worn near the knee and the waffle stitch makes them thick and warm all perfect for Minnesota winters.  Second there was a matter of what colour to make them.  My niece wanted a neutral colour so we decided on two tones of tan I had in my stash.  (Can´t give you the name because the labels had been removed.)  And I do have one done.

One cuff done.  Getting decent pictures when the days are so short is a problem for me.

But I seem to be having a bout of startitis again.  It is about this time every year when I want to start several projects all at the same time and seem to struggle to focus on completing any one of them.  All this is an explanation why I also started a pair of fingerless gloves.  The simplicity of Stephanie Sun´s, Commuter Fingerless Mittens (also from Ravelry) captured my attention.  Click on the link above to see the cable running up the back of the hand and the ribbed upper cuff that folds down and is held in place with a button.  I am making them with the last ball of Remix from Berroco in the colour Bittersweet.  This yarn is 100% recycled and contains nylon, cotton, acrylic, silk and linen.  These gloves are perfect for the mild winters here in the Pactific Northwest.

So of course, before I finished both cuffs for my niece, I knit up one of the fingerless gloves.  Here is the right-hand already completed.

Wow, that silver nail polish really shows up, but then so does the cable.

Ever try to take a photo with your left hand?  Oh, the sacrifices made for these pictures.
It is now time for discipline.  The second boot cuff is currently two-thirds complete and it will be finished before I let myself start the second fingerless glove.  If I don´t stop this startitis in its tracks there will be far too many things to finish (and not start) in the new year when startitis really takes over.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms.  (BTW

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing.  I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away.  Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close.  Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening.  As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend.  Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration.  I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting.  It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008.  (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.)  See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles.  And what about the yarn?  It is truly ex-bulky.  It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space.  Or how about the longest piece of finger knitting that measured 4,321.4 m