What we won't do for our kids :)

I turn 35 in 16 days. Pretty scary, eh?

Famous!

On the way up to Mt. Shasta for vacation, I finished up my pixie hat...kitchnered it up expertly, if I do say so myself :P, and put it on my head...only to find out it was too big, lol. Ah well, I love it regardless.

Here are a few pictures of the hat and my most recent scarf in action in the snow, lol :)







My partner got some pictures of the back and sides of my hat and one with my hat, scarf and mittens all in the shot! Of course, when I'll get a copy of it to post, who knows, lol.

Mittens ho!

So, I've never knit mittens before.

But, I'm going to the snow (as everyone knows and is tired of hearing about) and I decided I needed me some warm, bulky, squishy wool mittens. I found a knit-flat mitten pattern that looked interesting and cast on with some of my faaabulous new bulky wool yarn I got the other day. It's Plymouth Galaway Chunky in color 705...a very dark blue. I'm not usually one for blues, but this caught my eye and I thought it would make nice mittens :)

Here is the cast-on and ribbed wrist knit...going to start the thumb soon!


OoOoh! Making the thumb was totally cool :) But then, you can to crochet down the side to seam it up and well...um...I'm not a crocheter...so it's a bit wonky...but I love it anyway :)


Wonky crocheted-up thumb and some more of the hand knit...I was just all aglow :) Kept exclaiming, "I'm knitting mittens!"


Trying them on mid-hand length. Yes, my thumb curves weird. My sweetie's always making fun of my weird curly stick-out thumbs :P But the mitten fits perfectly thus far!


All the knitting is done! Now, how the heck do you do a three-needle bind-off again?


All sewn up and on my hand! Perfect fit...perfeect warmth...perfect gloves (even if the seaming is sooooo not perfect, they're still perfect to me! )


Mitten shadow puppets :)


Laid out flat and beautious on the couch :)


And because everyone loves kitties! This is Annie right before the flash interrupted her slumber and she glared at me then cleaned her toes :)


The other bulky yarn I bought on Friday :) This might become a hat? Maybe..... So soft! Bulky! Wool! Warm! Colors! Yay!




Yup. I made me some mittens :) Can you tell I'm proud? :D

Friday fondling

After a pretty tough week, I decided I needed to fondle some yarn.

I went to the LYS for which I got several gift cards at Christmas. I started walking around the smallish shop, fondling every skein in sight with the following criterion in my mind:

1) worsted weight or larger, preferrably bulky even. I have waaay too much thin yarn in my stash.

2) Wool or a significant wool blend. I don't really have that much wool and whenever I knit with it, I find it a joyous, springy experience, so I wantes some more.

3) Soft. Duh, of course that one has to be in there somewhere :P You're reading this blog, you shoudl know I'm queen of the tactile-world!

So, I fondled. I squished. I read labels on things of sufficient girth and softness to see what fiber content I was looking at. I fondled and squished some more. When my short trip around the entire store was finished, I had four skeins of yarn in my arms. Huzzah! The week's dreariness and stress forgotten, I grabbed my bag o' bulky wool and left the shop revived and ready for whatever the weekend can throw at me :)

Pictures of the yumminess tomorrow :)

Luscious garter scarf

I'm going on a vacation to Mt. Shasta in a few weeks to play in the show with my sweetie. I decided I needed a WARM scarf to wrap about my head and neck whilst pummeling said sweetie with snow balls :)

Digging through the stash, I came across a treasured skein of Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks tussah silk and merino yarn that I bought at Stitches West in February 2007. So soft! Such scrumptious colors. I knew this was my scarf. I'm a big fan of the garter stitch...it's so squishy and textured and just easy as pie, so I decided my scarf would just be plain garter stitch. This would also allow the yarn to shine, rather than a stitch pattern. It ALSO gave me the opportunity to practice knitting and purling backwards (easy as pie, really :) ) and holding the yarn in different positions while knitting. It was fun and easy and good practice.

Behold! The most luscious, soft, silky-draping plain ol' garter stitch scarf of love.