Knotty Gloves Update

I've had this one glove finished for a few days now and have the cuff on the second one.



Before I cast on for the second glove, I decided to check how much a finished glove weighs and how much my ball of yarn weighed. A finished glove weighs 1.5oz and the ball weighed 1.0oz. Can you see the problem? It's a good thing I ordered some of the East Friesan Lamb in roving form too. It should arrive in a few weeks and I'll spin up what I need then. Until then, I'll finish with the yarn I do have.

Knotty Gloves

My poor sad, neglected blog...

I've been spinning this summer, but not so much knitting. But with the kids heading back to school, I start thinking about fall. And then thinking about winter and Christmas gifts and cold weather. And that almost always cures the knitting funk!



So today I cast on for Knotty. I'm using the East Friesian lamb I spun up this summer and I'm still just as in love with it as I was when it arrived in it's raw sheepy state. It is such a lovely smooshy yarn. I'm hoping the 80g I've got will be enough for these gloves. These will be a Christmas gift for someone who always appreciates handmade goods. The fact that these come from raw fleece to finished product will not be lost on this someone!

Somebunny special...

Excuse the seriously silly title, but someone I love asked me to make them a bunny after seeing this one that I made for my nephew for Christmas. How could I resist?



This one is made with handspun: 2oz of oatmeal colored Corriedale, 3 ply worsted weight, and a little bit of teal merino/silk, 3 ply heavy fingering weight for the dress.



I changed things for the body on this one as I wasn't entirely happy with the way I'd improvised the body for my nephew's bunny. I like this much better. I knit from the neck down. Once I got to the legs, I slipped half the sts plus 3 to a holder and knit the others in the round for one leg. The 6 sts (3 from the front, 3 from the back) were placed on a holder, while I knit the second leg. Then 6 sts were grafted together and all ends woven in.

The skirt was improvised too: cast on 50 sts, made a little picot hem, and knit up to where the bunny's waist is, did some decreases, bound off half the sts and knit the bib back and forth. Tiny 3 sts I-cords make the dress straps.

The pompom tail used up the very last bit of handspun that I'd made for this project. All that's left are the trimmings from the pompom as I used all my snipped off yarn ends and the last few yards of yarn to make it!

It's That Time of Year Again

The school year is coming to an end. Only two and a half days left! B had a great idea for teacher gifts this year. She wanted to make BIG cookies for the teachers. We spent some time Saturday making up a double batch of Snickerdoodles, a double batch of Chocolate Brownie Cookies with white and chocolate chips, and a triple batch of Ultimate Chocolate Cookies with the fun addition of Skor bits. On Sunday we baked everything. These are really big cookies. We used 1/3 of a cup of dough for each cookie and due to the differences in the doughs, they range from 4 to 5 inches in diameter.



Here they are all ready to be brought to the school; 14 pretty packs, 84 big cookies!

Last Minute Christmas Knitting

I finished the little knitted toys for my kids for Christmas. It's taken me quite some time to finish these two little projects.
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for M: Yeti (adaptation of Barbara Prime's Mini Alien)
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for B: Marisol by Rachel Borello
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I think they will both love them.
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Merry Christmas! See you in the New Year!
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More Christmas Knitting

Christmas is only a week away and I've just finished up the last knitted gift that needs to be mailed. This will get mailed out with Edward. I don't think it will make it to it's desitination before Christmas.

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Susan B. Anderson's Elefante caught my eye quite some time ago. Rather than stripes, I decided to use a solid pink. And since I can't crochet, I knitted the ears.

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I hope E loves him. Just a few more knitted things to make for my kids before Christmas.

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I love Robots

The mittens I made for my nephew for Christmas were too small. So it's back to the knitting, because I didn't want his whole family to have new mittens, but not him. This time round, I decided to modify Grace Schnebly's Love Bytes mittens.

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I didn't want to do color work on the whole mitten, so I whipped up a generic mitten, with the robot motifs intended for the cuff, placed around the bottom of the hand. These are far more plain than the pattern intends. I will definately make a pair that follows the pattern exactly - I love the larger robot motifs too. I love how these are working out, and am quite sure this pair will fit.

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A bit of Christmas Knitting

I've cast on a few Christmas projects for my neice and nephew. I found Little Cotton Rabbits bunny egg cosy pattern last easter and decided I'd make a cute little bunny for little J. This was a quick cute pattern and I love how the head shape turned out. I decided to knit this in the round and add a bottom and legs. This pattern is beautifully written, with detailed instructions and helpful photos. However my modifications made him look a bit disproportionate.

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A bit of internal soft scultping to squish and smoosh his shape and to force him into a sitting position makes him look a bit better.

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I love this pattern and would definately knit it again, but I would have to make some modifications to my modifications!

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I Finished a Pair of Mittens

I love how these mittens turned out. They are supposed to be for the gift exchange for G's work Christmas party. Although I am very tempted to keep them for myself I have decided that either I make sure I leave the party with them, or I'll have to make myself a pair!.

For the thumb:
You'll have 19 sts on a holder when you finish the hand. Tranfer these sts onto 3 dpns. Pick up 3 sts where the thumb joins the hand. Arrange the stitches so you have 8, 8, 6 stitches on your 3 dpns, the first stitch should be a knit stitch. Knit 15 rounds in k1tbl, p1 ribbing.

Decrease round 1: [k3tog through the back of the loops (k3togtbl), p1] 5 times, k1tbl, p1, 12 sts.
Decrease round 2: [k3togtbl, p1] 3 times, 6 sts

Break yarn and thread end into a darning needle. Pass the needle through each of the remaining sts and pull tight. Weave in ends.

Thanks to Eunny for the inspiration!

Back to the Knitting!

It's been a while since I've been able to find time to work on this pair of Anemoi's. I love this pattern, and can't find enough ways to say it. I can knit without looking at my hands when I'm just doing stockinette stitch, so I read the pattern with my eyes and follow with my fingers and find the rows just zipping by. I love the regular repeating patterns of the palm and thumb, how I know what it will look like as it knits up. And I love the organic swirls on the back of the hand, how after knitting along for several rounds I can look away from the pattern and see the swirls taking shape in my knitting.

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I forgot to repeat my mistake on this mitten in order to produce a matching pair. So I'll just have to carry on for three more rows once I've finished the patterned section so that they will at least be the same length.

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"What are you going to do with all that yarn you've spun?"

G asked me that question the other day and thought it would be nice if I knit something for his mom's upcoming birthday.

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So we went through my growing stash of handspun yarn and selected this for a scarf for his mom. I love how this June is for Jag scarf (scroll down to see the June scarf) turned out. Despite having almost 50 yards less than the pattern called for I still managed to get the finished size the pattern indicated! I loved this pattern. The changes from stockinette to eyelets kept it interesting and made it a quick knit. I hope G's mom will love it too.

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It's so cold I'm singing Jingle Bells

Although today is turning out nice, we've had a few mornings when it's been only 5 degrees Celcius. It's strange how cool weather turns my thoughts to knitting. No, actually, I knit all the time so the cold weather just makes me feel it's justified!

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I'm continuing with the Christmas knitting. I decided to start some Urban Neccesities (ravelry link) for my BIL. I've got one done, and am midway through the increases for the thumb gusset on the second.

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I took a brief break from knitting to make up some gift bags with fabric that I had in my stash. Yes, I also have a fabric stash. And no, it's not quite as large as my yarn stash. I'm quite happy with how these turned out.

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It's possible I might finish the Urban Neccessities before we leave for our trip... but we'll see.

Christmas in July

We'll be off in a few weeks to visit my family. It will be great to see my siblings, their spouses and my neices and nephews again. It's been two years, sigh. Fortunately I've seen my parents a bit more often than that. They were here for a visit last fall and it will be good to see them again too. So... because I hate paying postage, I'm in a flurry of Christmas knitting.

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I've already made a pair of mittens for my sister's youngest,

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but now I have a pair for her boy too.

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For my sister's oldest, I paid for her to take a drop spindle class for her birthday a month ago, and so this is for her Christmas present! This spindle is similar to the one I made for me out of a bead from Michael's and a nicely carved dowel.

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I plan to make a pair of Anemoi's for my sister and some fingerless gloves with a flap to cover the fingers for my BIL. These I won't likely get to until later, but at least I won't have to worry about the spindle getting damaged in the mail.

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