Evolution

So, the Desert Raglan became the Desert Seamless Set-in Sleeve Sweater at the last possible minute. The Pattern is from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting workshop, and is the same as all of her other seamless sweaters, until the body and sleeve joining.

It is finished, and drying right now. Since I haven't seen the Sun all week I gave up on trying to get a better photo than this, but perhaps soon.

Speaking of projects that change directions at the last possible minute (or at least long after they have started) I found new inspiration for an old project. I made many squares out of Classic Elite Sand- an aran weight cotton boucle- a long time ago, and had planned to someday make more, and eventually join them to make a blanket.

All of the squares had been knit from the center out, and I left all the edge stitches live, as I thought that I may want to use a 3 needle bind off, or even the kitchener stitch to join them. I have decided instead to join them with decreasing squares.

I have just started the first one, but I do like the way it is turning out. I shouldn't spend much time on this, as I have holiday knitting to get to, and even after the holidays it will not be main focus, but I do at least feel as if this blanket has finally found it's direction, and will some day be finished.

I also have the first of the thrummed mittens nearly complete. I think I have made my thrums too thick. Can you see how puffed up this mitten looks? I know that the fleece will felt and matt itself down as the mittens are worn, but I think there still may be too much of it here. I think I will make the next one with thinner thrums, and then decide what to do about this one.

Little Bits of Progress

It seems that my knitting time has been nearly non-existent for the past few weeks, and to top it off I [have gone completely insane and] decided to break my personal rule of NO Hand knitted Holiday Gifts this year. So, I have a whole bunch of knitted and crocheted items in various states of progress. A whole bunch of items that, 6 weeks from now, I will be ripping my hair out over! Here's one of them:

I have started the thrummed mittens for my nieces. I have to say that they are slow moving, but really fun to work on. I am very excited at the thought of how wonderful the finished item will be.

I am using the basic mitten pattern from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, and Adrian Bizila's "How I do thrums" tutorial from Hello Yarn.

I know I am going to need a pair of these for myself....someday!

There are several other gifts that I can't share right now. I did however make some quickie dishcloth gifts that I can share. The honeycomb looking cloth is Hakucho's Circle Cloth made in Peaches & Creme burgundy, and light sage. I wasn't sure about the colour combination when I first started, but I really liked the way it turned out.

The other cloth is my own Crocheted Ridges Cloth. Instead of using the Peaches & Creme yarn I designed the cloth for I used the Country Cabled Cotton. It's a lighter weight yarn, but I worked it at the same gauge, and I just love the results. The picture does not show it as clearly as I would like, but the cloth has almost a lacy look to it. Very different than my previous version, and I have a renewed interest in the stitch pattern.

I have made some progress on the Desert raglan. It is not in a great state to be photographed right now, so it will have to wait. However, I will be starting the shoulder shaping today and I'm thinking I may not make it a raglan after all. More on that soon, I hope!

In the design world I have much going on, but very little to report. A new free knitted bookmark pattern has been posted at the Pisgah website. The Garden Trellis bookmark has two simple variations. It a quick, fun knit. This pattern has actually been around forever, and was almost forgotten about until recently. So, it is here just in time for quick holiday gift additions. If you are giving any books for holiday gifts think of one of these bookmarks made in Dazzling Diamonds as a way to add a little glitz to the presentation!

So, it seems like I am over-due for a blog post, but really I haven't had much to talk about. There has not been much time for knitting the past few weeks.

I have slowly been working on the roll-edged raglan. I was concerned about the different types of stripes on the sleeves and body. Here's a picture of the two side by side, and I like it. The worries are gone.

I did have a couple evenings last week when I stayed over a friends house, and I knew I would have a little time to actually concentrate on my knitting there. [She had just had surgery, and I was staying there in case she needed anything in the middle of the night.] So, I pulled out my mother's shawl that I haven't touched in months.

If you have forgotten about it entirely you can find some earlier information here.

I have it stretched over my red fiber scale here, and you can begin to see the pattern emerging. So, it's not looking so much like a hair net anymore. I had originally planned to knit this to 4' square, and then add a wide border to make it 5' square. I'm now thinking that will make it too large for my mother, who is not quite 5' tall. I may have to get out the calculator and re-think this one!




I also have a new plan in the works. I'm thinking I will make my nieces some thrummed mittens with the yarn I dyed with the berries they picked for me. I almost started a pair last night, but realized I wanted some roving in bright colours to use for the thrums.

So, the roving is steaming up now! Perhaps this weekend I will get to a pair.