New WIP

Christmas is coming so I figure I better get the present knitting going now or forget about it. I have started a pair of stranded socks for the son-in-law.

The pattern is from the book Socks Socks Socks and called Bob's Socks. However, these will be Frank's socks. The above picture is how they looked this morning when I got up. I decided to spend the morning working on them. About 2 hours and several rows later I discovered I made a HUGE mistake in the very first row I'd knit this morning. I had to take it all out. So now it sits on the coffee table where I glare at it. No progress today. I will give it another go after I'm done writing this.

Our weather has been good. It cooled off to perfect temps of upper sixties and low seventies. We even got a couple days of rain that knocked all the smoke out of the air. It's been very nice. We had frost earlier in the week, so summer is over. The leaves are turning already.

Sweet Hubby is doing well in school. He's enjoying it too. This week he made a robot move. He was very very excited about it. He's enjoying the homework and he's been "hired" to work on a research project too. He'll get undergrad wages (don't know what that is yet) for about 10 hours work a week.

He has also been told they are arranging to give him a teaching fellowship, which is kind of like a scholarship, but he will have to teach a class or two. It's not a lot of money, but it will come in handy. The fellowship also includes free tuition, so that is good.

I got a new knitting book, Lithuanian Knitting.

It's a neat book. It's half about the history and importance of knitting in Lithuania, and half patterns for mittens, gloves, and socks. I did not get this from Amazon. I went there looking for it first, but the price was over $3000! Um, no. Nuh huh. No way, no how.

That is a ridiculous price. Not paying it. I found it on Schoolhouse Press's web site for $34.99. Much better price.

Some day I'm gonna be knitting like a Lithuanian.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday 2/14/2018

Happy Valentines day! 

I'm doing a WIP Wednesday post today. First we have the entrelac baby cardigan. I've finished the back and working on the left front. It's going very nicely.

I am at the place where I start decreasing for the neckline. It's the weirdest way of decreasing. Starting on the right side, you're supposed to knit across to the last 3 sts, then bind them off, cut the yarn, then retie it on and knit the next row. Why didn't they stop on a wrong side row and start with the bind off? It's kind of a stupid way of doing it, adding 2 unecessary ends to weave in. I'm not doing it like that cuz it's too ridiculous. I'm gonna do it my way. Sometimes I wonder just what the designer was on when they wrote their pattern.

Last night I finished the 9th character in MiniStarTrek.

This is Mudd from the episode "Mudd's Women". The next character will be one of those women.

UPS delivered a new knitting book to me this morning.

It's a wonderful book with lots of seed stitch patterns. I love seed stitch. I love the way the author has combined it with colorwork knitting. I want to make a scarf for an aquaintance using one of the patterns in this book. I need to acquire some black and grey yarn. Something that feels luxurious, but won't break our quickly depleting bank account. Hmm..maybe bamboo?

The snow fairy whomped us last night. We got about 6 inches. It stopped snowing about noon today. I'm hoping that will be the last snow storm of the season, but I know it's still February. It's still a long way to spring.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Mukluks for Susie

In the last few years of my fathers life, my cousin Susie took care of him like he was her own father. She did it because I lived so far away and she loved my father (and me) so very much, and he loved her. I will forever be grateful for all the love she gave him.

In one of my trips back (northern Michigan) during the last few months of his life she and I went shopping together and she pointed out some Mukluks and told me that our grandmother used to make them when she was a kid and how much she loved them. I didn't know about this. It surprised me. She talked about how she wished she had a pair of them now.

Mukluks are a type of slipper. They're basically knit thick long socks with leather soles sewn to the bottom. They usually feature Native American stitch patterns in them because they are a Native American invention. After daddy passed away, I wanted to make her a pair to thank her, in a very small and inadequate way, for all she did for daddy and me. I found a cool pattern on Ravelry and for the last 2 years I've been struggling to make them. They looked like crap and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. This fall, though, when I was working on the funky socks for the son-in-law, I finally learned what my problem was and how to fix it. Of course, right after I got the Christmas knitting done, I got back to those Mukluks and I've finished them. They are finally the quality of workmanship I expect from myself.

Pattern: Kamchatka: Knitted Mukluk Slipper Socks by Erssie

Size: Medium

Yarns: Berroco Vintage
Content: 50% Wool/40% Acrylic/10% Nylon
Colors: Indigo, Black Current, Red, Cracked Pepper, Mocha, Butter Cream

Needles: Circular size 7

Started: December 9, 2017
Finished: January 29, 2017

Comments: This is an advanced skill pattern. So knit accordingly. I should note that the original pattern has a lizard under the eagle. I substituted a traditional snowflake because I didn't think Susie would like lizards on her slippers. This is the chart I used for the snowflake.

I have been asked several times where I got the slipper soles. I ordered them from Paradise Fibers. Here's a tip for sewing the soles to the slippers: stuff the foot part with something (I used paper towels). It's a lot easier to sew them on that way.

The antibiotics I'm taking are working. I am SO relieved! I feel so much better. The coughing has almost stopped completely, the fever is finally gone, my nose has stopped running, and my plugged ears have opened up some. I'm starting to feel normal again.

Yesterday morning it started snowing here and it's not stopped yet. We've got about 10 inches of new snow so far. The wind blew all day yesterday too, so it's been drifting.

Here is a pic from the cruise that I took with the new camera.

John DeLancie ("Q" in TNG and Voyager) was taking questions from everyone and answering them. (He was just a few feet from me.) It was the evening of the big costume ball. It was supposed to be out by the pool, but it was raining and cold out so they moved us into Thirteen Forward. He answered questions while we waited for the band to get set up inside. The room was so full no one could have danced if they wanted to.

By the way, Mr. DeLancie is an incredibly nice man. Not anything like the character he played in Star Trek. He really showed his appreciation to the fans too. I frequently saw him on deck walking around taking selfies with folks.

Well, I need to figure out what knitting project I'm going to start next. Of course, it will be stranded mittens. It's just picking a pattern. I've got so many of them. If you are into stranded colorwork, especially in mittens, I would highly recommend these books.

Mittens of Latvia: 178 Traditional Designs to Knit by Maruta Grasmane

and Selbuvotter by Anne Bårdsgård

I bought both of these before the cruise.

Thankfully, Mittens of Latvia is now available in English (I have the Latvian version too. It was available a couple years or so ago.). It's chock full of the most amazing mitten patterns. The book is about the history and traditions of mitten knitting in Latvia. All the mittens in the book are charts of actual mittens from a museum. The book is divided into chapters featuring mittens from each area of Latvia. They each had unique aspects incorporated into their mittens. It's very interesting. They are an important part of the Latvian culture.

Selbuvotter is in Norwegian, so I can't read it. However, it is still useful to me because it has literally hundreds of pattern charts. Like the Latvian book, it is about the mitten knitting traditions of Norway and all the patterns have been charted from mittens in a museum. There are some very cool pictures in the book too. I love the cover pic of all those beautiful black and white mittens. I am hoping that eventually they will publish it in English so I can read it.

Selbuvotter is difficult to obtain. It's available at Schoolhouse Press right now. When I was looking to buy mine, they were out of them and didn't know when they'd be getting more, so I ordered it direct from the museum in Norway. That turned out to be an expensive way of doing it because they didn't accept credit cards so I had to do a very pricey wire transfer, but I'm so happy with the book I'm just glad to have it. Even at the price I ended up paying, it is worth every penny to me.

Well, that is it for today.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Next Years Knitting Challenge

Each year I like to set myself some kind of goal, or theme for my knitting. This year was supposed to be the year of sweaters for me. I have one finished, and one more than halfway done, so I consider it a success.

One of the things I've been thinking about getting into for quite some time is colorwork mittens in the style of Latvia/Estonia/Norway. I've decided 2015 will be the year of colorwork mittens. Over the last few months I have obtained some awesome books on the subject. They aren't in English, exactly, but the patterns are easy to figure out, and wonderful. Many of them come from mittens in various museums. Each book does have an English translation of some of the information written in the book. So I can learn from them.

I was reading Suur kindaraamat last night and found it to be very interesting. In Estonia, mittens have always been very important to their culture. Girls were taught to knit mittens very early in life and would knit dozens of pairs that they saved for their wedding day to give to the wedding guests. She also would knit a pair of white ones for her groom. After marriage, they would knit mittens for their funeral, not to be put on themselves, but for the attendees and the officiants of said funeral. An Estonian woman would knit hundreds of pairs of mittens over her lifetime for herself, her family, and her community. I find that fascinating.

I started this mitten earlier this month. I have made some progress on it.

It got shoved aside to finish the Christmas knitting. That's done as of last night. HURRAY! (No pics until after Christmas though.) So it's back to it I go, and the moose sweater too, of course. I might not get hundreds done, but I expect it to be a very interesting knitting year. I've already learned how to knit braids. They're super easy, and so decorative!

I am so glad to have the Christmas knitting done. The Christmas shopping is done too. Just need to wrap everything up. I'm gonna work on that this weekend.

We got a little bit of snow this week, but mostly, when there's been precipitation, it's been rain.

I haven't beaded in ages. I'm missing it terribly. I need to make some time to get back to it.

Live long and prosper. \\//

It's Green Now

Had a good weekend. On Saturday Ruth and I went into Spokane Valley and visited Hobby Lobby, Joann's Fabric and Craft, and Barnes and Noble. I was somewhat disappointed in Hobby Lobby. We went there in search of sport weight washable yarn in navy blue, or denim. I would have been happy with that. No such luck. They didn't have much of anything in sport weight, unless you want baby yarn, which I didn't. I did find and purchase some white, black, and brown sport weight acrylic which I intend to turn into Knit Wits projects.

I didn't find anything I wanted at Joann's. All they had was baby yarn in sport weight. All in all, a rather frustrating endeavor.

I did find something I wanted at Barnes and Noble though.

Showcase 500 Beaded Jewelry contains wonderful photos of 500 beaded jewelry projects made by beaders all over the world, some famous, some not. No patterns. Just pictures. Looking at them gets my creative juices flowing, though, and inspires me.

The Japanese Beadwork book has some very intriguing and beautiful projects in it that I hope to make some day. Sonoko Nozue uses lots of crystals in her work. Very sparkly. I like sparkly.

After returning home, we had a Star Trek TOS marathon the rest of the evening.

Our mailbox has been getting more and more beat up looking. Well, it has been hit by several cars over the years-before they took the curve out of the road in front of our house. And paint doesn't last forever. The black paint was peeling off in huge chunks, so I decided on Sunday I was gonna spruce it up. My plan was to try and bang some of the dents out, scrape the loose paint off with a wire brush and some sand paper, then spray paint it dark green and paint the address numbers on with lime green glitter paint. Sweet Hubby decided he was gonna help me. It was one of those situations where I appreciated that he wanted to help, but at the same time he was frustrating the heck out of me.  It didn't go at all the way I wanted. He made it so much more complicated, and, of course, had to use power tools. Urg.

Couldn't get the dent above the flag out.

The green glitter paint ended up on the pole instead of the mailbox. Don't ask. It'll just make me frustrated again. I drove into Coeur d'Alene to visit Home Depot to buy some reflective mailbox stickers for the numbers instead. It was just sooooo much less hassle. (Don't ask!) The important thing is by the end of the day the mailbox was spruced up all nice and green. It looks almost brand new!

After taking the pic of the mailbox above, Cable came over and asked me to take a picture of her too.

Isn't that a happy face? She has the most wonderful smiles. Have I mentioned she's herding the kittens? It's so funny. I've been leaving the back door open in the evenings to cool the house. Occasionally one, or both, of the kittens will go out the door and down the steps. She dashes out and herds them right back into the house. She's very gentle about it, bumping them with her nose to get them to go where she wants them to.

Last week I'd ordered some yarn from Knitivity. A couple of his Blog Reader Specials. It arrived on Saturday. I don't need them. Not even sure what I'm gonna make with them. I certainly didn't need anymore purple sock yarn, and yet....

I also got these matching skeins of Lace weight yarn. Mine!

That's my weekend, in a nutshell. Now for some kitten cuteness.

Merino hangin' on the back of the couch. They are growing so fast!

When we first brought them home I could hold both of them in one hand. Now it's one hand apiece, and they hang over from both ends. Cashmere was snoozing on top the cat tree.

He is quite the little jumper and climber. Quite a bit more advanced than Merino.

Merino decided to join Cashmere in the nap fest.

Squee overload! 

They are learning their names, and come when I call 'here kitty kitty'. They are also learning what 'NO' means, and they've been introduced to the squirt bottle which emits water only if they get up on the dining room table or kitchen counter. They are pretty smart little boys so they're learning the rules fairly quickly.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Cute as a Button Mitts

Cute as a Button Mitts

Pattern: Cute as a Button Fingerless Mitts by Lisa Hoffman (made for KnitWits)
Size: Ladies Medium

Yarn: Loops and Threads Snuggly Wuggly Baby Sport in soft lilac/sport weight.
Content: 100% acrylic

Needles: Addi Turbo Lace Circular size 5.

Cast on: August 13, 2012
Completed: September 3, 2012

Comments: This pattern is aptly named and easy to knit. It's fairly well written. The thumb gusset is a little weird, but they feel comfortable when worn. The buttons are antique plastic from my button stash.

Palm side.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The FedEx truck came by this morning and delivered a book I ordered from Amazon that I've been waiting for awhile to be released. This is Beautiful Beaded Ropes by Jill Wiseman.

It features some very pretty beaded ropes. It's well written with beautiful photographs. There's a chapter for each type of bead stitch, such as right angle weave, 

Right Angle Weave stitch

netting, 

Netting stitch

peyote stitch, spiral rope stitch, herringbone, etc. It has some beautiful patterns that I'm dyin' to try out. I'm very happy with it. It was worth the wait.

I had a fairly nice weekend. We ended it by going to a movie and dinner afterwards. We saw the new Bourne Legacy movie. Not much plot, but lots of action. It's basically one long chase scene. My husband seemed to enjoy it a great deal.

We went to Red Lobster for dinner. Ruth wanted to try the All You Can Eat Shrimp. She loves shrimp. I don't like seafood, so I had steak. Sweet Hubby had some kind of fish. Snapper, I think. I enjoyed my meal immensely even if I did have to see my daughter eating sea bugs. (Ick!)

Tomorrow I have Knit Wits. I will finally be unloading all the fair entries on Jan (our fearless leader). I've also got a few bags of yarn I bought a week before the fair stuff started. I went into Rathdrum Drug to refill a prescription. They had a substantial quantity of Red Heart Supersaver yarn in a few select colors on clearance for cheap. I bought it all for Knit Wits. They gave me an extra 15% discount since I was going to be giving it as a charitable donation.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Random Ramblings

We had an awesome weekend weather-wise. It was sunny and warm both days. I spent a good deal of time outside. I did a bit of beading, knitting, puttering in the yard, reading, and playing with the dog. It was quite relaxing.

I bound off the last stitch on the first Stacked Olives fingerless mitt. Still need to weave in my ends.

I worked on the writing of the pattern too. Now I need to knit the second mitt, and get some test knitters.

Sunday it was 79 degrees at my house! I repaired the Market Umbrella out on the deck. It broke the last time I used it last year. It was a fairly easy fix, so there was no sense tossing it and buying a new one, but It took some time. After I was done (and feeling very smart) I opened it up and set up some beading on the table. I beaded for a little while working on an amulet bag for the May beading challenge of the Seadbeadersters group. It's our choice for pattern, so I'm doing one that features an African technique that I've not done before. I will take pictures later.

That evening we went over to Dan and Sue's for the first official family barbecue of the season. T'was awesome. Cable and Tripper played hard for 3 hours. They were exhausted when we headed home. I had trouble getting her out of bed Monday morning.

Keeping cool in the shade.

Yesterday it was 82 degrees. A little too hot. Ordinarily, I would see that as a wonderful temperature, but just 4 days ago we were still getting frost in the morning. To go from that to 82 makes it feel more like 102. I'll adjust eventually. In the meantime, I've taken out the tank tops and shorts.

I have been enjoying the new deck furniture. In the late afternoon it is shaded by the house.

Around 5pm I sat out there in that shade reading a novel and enjoying the cool breeze while sipping ice tea. I finally cooled off and actually fell asleep for a bit. Very pleasant.

Some time ago I think I mentioned I was planning to make one of Laura McCabes necklaces from her book Embellished Beadweaving. It's actually the cover necklace. If y'all remember, I spent all the money I earned working at the fair on the beads for this baby. However, I was having a hard time finding the Keishi pearls required. They need to be flat, or cupped, and center drilled. That center drilled part was the kicker. I couldn't find anything local so I decided to substitute some round ones. However, the more I thought about it, the less I liked that idea. I needed the Keishi pearls for the necklace to look how I want.

I went online. Laura sells them on her web site, but she wants a LOT of money for them, so I went on a quest to find some for less money.  It took me 7 months but I finally found some.

I had no idea it would be so hard to find them, but I did at Beaded Impressions, for $17 a strand, I got exactly what I wanted. They arrived in the mail last week. HURRAY! Now I can start that necklace.

Which reminds me, I've had my eye on a 4pc set of luggage on Amazon for quite some time. I have a big black suitcase that looks just like all the other black suitcases, so it's hard for me to identify it when it comes down the baggage conveyor belt at the airport. I wanted purple luggage (natch!). Well, that luggage went on sale a couple weeks ago, so I ordered it. It was a great deal!

It arrived last week. I am extremely pleased with it. Very good quality luggage, and, it's PURPLE! I shouldn't have any trouble finding it now. What's more, that little bag there in front makes a perfect knitting bag. So I have a knitting bag that matches the suitcases. I will be traveling in style. Now, I need to go on a trip to try it out.

Today the day has started sunny and very warm. There are clouds on the horizon though. I've got Rathdrum Knitalong to attend. So I guess I'll sign off and get ready to go.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Weekend Yarn Acquisition

So, how was your weekend? Mine was good. On Saturday the local spinning group had their annual Spin-In, which my daughter and I dropped by for just a bit to peruse the market. I wasn't able to spend the whole day there like I usually do. I got to say hello to my friends and I found a booth of sock yarn that was hard on my bank account. I bought 4 skeins of it. All of it is from Raven Ridge Fiber Arts, hand painted, and feels and looks incredible.

This colorway is called Peacock and it's 438 yards of scrumptious Superwash Merino Wool/Silk blend. It has a wonderful sheen to it. Lots of blues, purples, and a dash of teal.

Peacock

This one is called Pine Bark. It is also 438 yds of Superwash Merino/Silk blend. I'd never seen this mix of colors in one skein before. A sort of dusty pink, light eggplant, moss green, browns, and a dash of grey.

Pine Bark

This one is also called Pine Bark. However, it is browner shades of the same colors as in the skein above. It's 365 yds of a Superwash Merino/Tencel blend. The Tencel really makes it shiny. The yarn above and this one show how different fibers take dyes differently.

Pine Bark

This one is another 438 skein of Superwash Merino/Silk blend. I was drawn to the silk blends like a moth to the flame. It's called Mountain Blue Bird and is different shades of blue from Indigo to Turquoise
.

Mountain Bluebird

I do not know what I'm going to make with these. For now I'm just petting them and extremely happy to have them in my stash.

Speaking of stash, there is another yarn acquisition I wanted to share with you. A couple weeks ago I bought another one of my friend Ray's Blog Reader Special sock yarns.

Blog Reader Special 2012-0066

I think it's a wonderful blend of greens, purples, and browns. It reminds me of artichoke hearts. I was happy to buy it off his hands.

On Sunday we had a beautiful day! Sunshine, blue sky, and it got up into the 50's. I had to sit out on the deck and knit. I worked on the February Lady Sweater. Here's where I'm at so far.

In the evening we went and saw the new movie John Carter. It was excellent! Unfortunately, because of the way Disney marketed this movie, it is a flop. Very few people have gone to see it. Originally it was going to be called John Carter of Mars but the marketing execs decided the title was too geeky and probably wouldn't appeal to non-geeky people. So they took the Mars part off, which is a real shame because I know that's why people aren't going to see it. If you think about it, the biggest hit movies are geeky. Star Wars, Transformers, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, etc. The Geeks rule the world right now. Apparently they forgot that.

The other reason I think it's a flop is because no one really knows what it's about. They don't know it's based on a classic Sci-Fi series written in the early 1900's by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The movie is based on The Princess of Mars, the first of a series of novels about a civil war vet who accidentally gets transported to Mars, meets, and falls in love with a Princess, and saves the day. The special effects are awesome. The CGI was so good I couldn't tell where it ended and the real began. I loved the Martian aliens. It was fun to watch from start to finish. I wish it had been a hit. Then there could have been a sequel, or 2, or 5 because there's 5 books in the series. Last night I bought them for my Nook. I read the first one when I was in elementary school (I've always been a Sci-Fi geek) but I never read the rest. Time to get around to doing that.

While I was getting the John Carter of Mars series for my Nook I downloaded a collection of the Tarzan novels, also by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He wrote 25 books in that series. I got the whole collection for $3.99. What a deal! I looked on Amazon and they have the same collection for Kindle.

Before I read either of those, I need to read the books I bought before them. I ran across the sequels for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in paper back and bought them both. I've been reading Bone Walker and finally finished it yesterday morning, so I can start The Girl Who Played With Fire. Wow, I've got a lot of reading lined up.

Last, but not least, these are some flowers I bought for myself. I got them at Costco. They have brightened up the whole house. Especially today. It's been dark and snowing all day long.

Live long and prosper.\\//

Simple Woman's Daybook for November 27, 2011

FOR TODAY

November 27, 2011


Outside my window...
The sky is dark and grey. The trees have lost their leaves for the winter, and all is quiet out there. I see frost on my car. The cold has returned.

I am thinking...
that I wish I could enjoy my sleep as well as my grandkitty Lindy.

I am thankful for...
my house. It may be small, but it's warm and cozy and keeps me sheltered from all the nasty weather.

From the kitchen...
UGH. It's a mess. Dishes weren't done last night.

I am wearing...
I am being lazy this morning. I am wearing my black nightshirt with the lace trim around the neck, and my new leopard print fuzzy robe. I bought the robe to wear after my surgery cuz my purple fuzzy robe is looking kind of raggedy. I'll get dressed after I'm done writing and posting this.

I am creating...
Still working on the Wheat Rib sock pattern. I think I will make a tutorial on how to do the stitch pattern for the beginner knitters out there who might have some difficulty with it. I am also working on the Owling mitts, the snowman cross stitch, and Luis the seahorse. I've started a new knitting project. A cowl for a Christmas present. I'm thinking about taking it on the plane when we fly to Maui next weekend. It's one of those projects that would be perfect for a plane ride.

I am going...
to Maui! We leave next friday. We're driving over to Seattle on friday, spending the night at a hotel across the street from the Sea-Tac airport, then boarding our plane to Maui early the next morning. I can hardly wait. Temps have been in the 70's and 80's there all this past week.

I am reading...
I finished Invisible last night. It was kind of a disappointment to me. There were aspects of the plot I didn't like. The author uses this mystery novel to proselytize the Christian religion. Not what I read a mystery novel for. Other than that, it was fairly entertaining though I almost didn't finish it, but I wanted to know who killed the murder victim. This book was a freebie for my Nook. I'm glad I didn't have to waste money on it.

Now I've started Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason, another murder mystery. It was a Nook freebie too. I've not read anything by this author either. I figured since it was free I'd give her a try.

I am hearing...
a train going by. We live near some railroad tracks. Trains go by fairly often. Sometimes as often as every 10 minutes depending on the time of day. The track is a main line to Canada. Most of the time I don't even hear them when I'm inside the house. I've become used to them.

Around the house...
it's looking pretty good. I've been putting up Christmas decorations this weekend. Ruth and I got the tree done yesterday. I've put out some of my silk flower arrangements I've made with poinsettias and whatnot.

One of my favorite things...
is tinsel garland. I've acquired quite a collection of it. Some of it is quite fancy.  I think I'll see if I can get Ruth to help me put them up today. I like to put them around all the doorways in the house. It really makes things festive when they're up.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Packing, packing, packing! It's all that's left to do before the trip. I also plan to go to Rathdrum Knitalong on Tuesday, and Yarnies on Wednesday. I have my blood test on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday I've got an appointment with my surgeon for a check up. This one will determine if I can swim in Maui or not. I hope he says yes.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...
My lovely tree for 2011.

Live long and prosper. \\//

If you want to join The Simple Woman's Daybook, click here.

Mitts are Done

Happy weekend! I have a FO. I finished the fingerless mitts for the class on Thursday. I've only got a pic of one at the moment, because the other is at the shop-hopefully on display by now.

Easy Ribbed Fingerless Mitts

Pattern: Modification of Maine Morning Mitts  by Clara Parkes
Size: Womans
Yarn: Wisdom Yarns Poem in color #578
Content: 100% Wool 
Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 7.
Cast on: October 6, 2010
Bound off: October 7, 2010

Comments: My modification version is better than the pattern. But I'm biased. I do not particularly care for the Poems yarn. It's nice enough to work with, fairly even in size as you knit, soft to the touch (way better than Noro Kureyon), but it is easily pulled apart. At one point my project was laying on the table. I pulled on the yarn to draw it closer to me and it broke (the yarn, not the table). So, don't use it for something that you want to last awhile.

~~~~~~~~~~

I started a second sweater last night. I know the first one isn't completely done yet, but it is at the point where I won't be wanting to KIP with it. It stays home now. I want to make another Christmas gift sweater, so I thought I better get it going. I won't say who it's for, cuz I want it to be a surprise, and that person reads my blog occasionally. I've chosen the February Lady Sweater pattern, which is a style that looks really great on the receiver of  this gift. I'm using a superwash wool in a bright teal color.


I have exciting news! Being a Monica Ferris fan, I lurk over on her blog regularly. This week she had a blog contest and I won it! I couldn't believe it when I got her email. She is sending me an autographed copy of her latest book, Blackwork. Is that cool?


Live long and prosper. \\//