Weekend knitting report

Well! I've been knitting! But not much blogging. The last two weekends have involved travelling, and this weekend involved some day trips.

I have completed, and even blocked, my Monochrome mittens. I'd like to get some nice photos of them, all finished, to blog their final monochromosity.

I have a bad habit of starting projects, and then abandoning them. Surely I'm unique in this! The ones that get abandoned often don't even make it to the blog or to ravelry, they're that neglected. Maybe I'm just not sure enough about them. One such project was a hat that was slated to use up the yarn leftover from the Strawberry Kiwi mittens. I looked up an i-cord cast on, and got to work. My enthusiasm faded somewhere around 90 stitches. That cast on has been sitting in my bedroom for over six months. This week, I picked it up, and progressed on it. It's nearly done, just needs some finishing touches.

I've also started another Knit First, Dye Later pair of longies. It's been done before. But I want to do it again.

Baby socks!

They're just like another pair I made.



They are made from the last of the Dusky Aurora Dream in Color yarn, using the Sky Sock pattern from New Pathways.

I started them last March, when the baby's grandparents were visiting me. I didn't quite manage to finish them before the folks left, and the socks languished. I pulled them out and finished them up last week, before going to a family wedding.

I asked to hold the baby they were made for, my grand-nephew, who is now 7 months old. I wandered off, and tried the socks on him in secret. They did indeed fit, with just a little room to spare, so I went ahead and gifted them to the parents.

Dream in Color Classy is wonderful. I want an endless collection of it.

Airplane knitting

My last order from The Loopy Ewe came with a cute little red sock kit. Paired with my plastic double points, it seemed like the perfect airplane knitting.



It was a fairly short flight, only 1 hour 35 minutes in the air. The weekend was a busy one, with many family wedding activities. I only had a wee bit of knitting time. I finished the red sock. That was the sum total of the entire weekend's knitting. But it's cute!

Little odds and ends

Today I picked my first butternut squash. I've been waiting for it to get as big as the squashes I buy at the store, but today I just went ahead and picked it. I cut it up, and noticed right away it didn't look like I expected inside. I rationalised that it must be really not big enough, and tossed it in the oven.

A few minutes later, I thought some more. That really didn't look right. I went back outside and checked the tags on my plants. No wonder it didn't look like a squash inside. It's a golden zucchini! The other squash plant, the one that hasn't had a single fruit yet, is the butternut squash. I hurried and took the pan back out of the oven, and cut it up and roasted it with olive oil and garlic. I won't let the others get so big, now that I know they're zucchinis.



I don't pay much attention to Twitter, but I do have the Yarn Harlot's twits on my blog reader. They're fairly interesting/educational/entertaining. In a Twitter sort of way. Today she twitted:

I wish I could magic a dress for this wedding. I hate all my clothes.

It was like she stole it, right from my brain. I only have tonight and tomorrow night before I depart for a well-anticipated family wedding. This is enough time to be sure the laundry is done before I leave, but not enough to create or discover anything new and wedding-appropriate. If I'd had any sewing time in the last month, I might have actually magicked myself a new skirt, but all I've done is launder the fabric.

I do have my airplane knitting all picked out.

Monochrome Uno, rambling with pictures

Long long ago, when I first became a dedicated knitter, I knit some mittens without a pattern. They were top-down, and very cute.

First mittens, 2004

Second mittens, 2004*

More recently, with many pairs of mittens under my belt, I have attempted to do a top-down mitten, and have been unhappy with the results. This hasn't stopped me from perservering. This monochromatic pair I started last winter/spring was definitely going to be top-down. And to prepare, I started out by knitting the various parts that needed to be added--the thumb and the insert--before knitting the main mitten, so they could all be assembled as I knit along.

Then I had troubles getting the exact mitten I was happy with. I only pulled it back out last week, and finally got a pattern that worked for me. But it turns out that the mitten that worked not only had the wrong number of stitches to match up to the insert, but with its 2-colour work, the mitten was way smaller than the insert. This troubled me dearly.

The solution was suggested when my knitting coworker offered the idea of knitting the insert on a smaller needle. That's when I realised I didn't even need to use the exact yarn. And based on my own previous post, I realised I had the perfect yarn. So I pulled out the monochrome sock yarn and knit a new insert. I'm sure the relative sizes don't show well in the following picture, but the lower insert, made from the same yarn, is way too big, and the upper insert is perfect.

Then, since I had changed my pattern, the thumb I had knit wasn't right. So I used the old thumb as my ball of yarn to knit a new thumb.


Last night I finished the ribbings, and today I wove in the last of the ends. One monochrome mitten, complete! (the following picture is three shots of the same mitten, all shtuck together)

*Little story about these rainbow mittens. I was knitting them five years ago at a school event. A little girl in kindergarten came to see what I was doing. She was very enchanted with the rainbow mittens unfolding on my needles, and went to ask her mom to make her some. When her mom said no, she couldn't make rainbow mittens, the little girl sobbed like her heart was broken. That little girl is now ten, studying ballet with my daughter, and would be mortified if I told that story to her.

Monochromatic works in progress

I have finished one St. Peter Port Stripe sock, though I made the toe rounder than the instructions recommended. The fit is a little awkward. Yet I knit on. Well, I did. But last night I decided I had to progress on a pair of mittens I started months ago--I have no clue when. I ripped them out yet again and finally got a pattern I liked. Just today I probably ripped them out 6 times, although not every time was all the way back to the beginning. Hopefully my notes will be sufficient for mitten #2.


These projects are so lacking in colour! The balls of yarn amuse me, such a monochromatic heap.


While I knit in shades of grey, my Dream in Colour is calling my name. (Mom? Dad? If you've infiltrated this blog, stop reading now. okay?) Amy asked what I'm knitting with it. I have two balls of Smooshy earmarked for parental Christmas socks, pattern as yet undetermined. Then there are 2 balls of Classy, a worsted weight, because I love having Classy sitting around to play with. I'm thinking mittens. Or a hat. Or baby socks, mittens, and hat. Or.....

Loopy Acquisitions

Friday 12:28pm: submit order for Dream in Color at The Loopy Ewe.
Friday 1:22pm: The Loopy Ewe ships my Dream in Color.
Monday mail delivery: My yarn arrives! squeeeeee!

What I have here is Christmas knitting. Maybe I'll get started on it before December.