I have a lot of pictures in my blog file and I’m going to wander through them, so this could be a rather disturbing look at my stream of consciousness. Uppermost in my mind is the Women’s Wine Dinner at Panevino last night, which was hugely enjoyable thanks to the company of 15 other knitters and 2 very congenial non-knitters. We just had a great time!
Janet has added a mitten class to her busy holiday schedule, and I recommend you add it too! Mittens are fast, interesting to make, and don’t take much yarn. They’re practical gifts, and you really can never have too many. Janet wrote up a basic pattern and made this cute pair from one skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino Chunky:
then she added some simple twists and made this pair from one skein of 128 Superwash:
Soft, cozy, practical and quick! Once you learn the basic mittens, they’re a blank canvas for any stitchwork you like. There are three sessions in the class, starting on Wednesday, December 4, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
I hope you’ll pop in and then stay awhile the weekend after Thanksgiving. We’ll be having some refreshments in the back room, some giveaways and drawings, a sample sale, and maybe a contest or two. We’ll be closed Monday – Friday that week, then open regular hours Saturday and Sunday.
I was debating what to do with Mimi the mink yarn last week. Beth Blair was the tiebreaker and the hat won so I started it and love how it’s coming out. The lace layer is done (not blocked) and I’ve started on the striped layer:
I love the halo that comes out almost immediately on this yarn. The experience is very similar to working with cashmere, if you’ve been lucky enough to do that! The yarn is dry-feeling, without much spring to it, but flows very pleasantly through your fingers and wraps lovingly around the needle. Even without blocking, the stitches are nicely lined up and well-defined, then that little fuzz blurs and yums things up considerably. I confess that I didn’t do the tubular cast-on as recommended in the pattern. Tubular anything is very trendy right now, but I was a little tired when I started the hat and kept getting out of rhythm and said many bad things, then just cast on regularly and went on my merry way. It’s fine.
We got in some Scarf-in-a-Scarf kits last week from HPKY. They contain lovely hand-dyed yarn in beautiful colorways, instructions for simple scarves, either knitted or crocheted, and a dyed-to-match silk scarf. Knit (or crochet) the scarf, building in some openings as you go, then you can thread the silk scarf through the openings in various ways to make different styles. Janet knit one up in a few days (she’s fast, that girl!) and we had fun messing around with it:
The kits make a nice gift for you or another knitter, and the finished pieces are wonderful, versatile accessories.
It has been a while since I’ve deliberately bought a furry novelty yarn, but I bought a little bitty-bit of Trendsetter’s La Furla (I just like saying the name!) and made a cute infinity scarf from it held together with a plain bulky yarn. Deb Hawk is modeling it wrapped twice and looks adorable as usual. Quickety-quick to make!
My design project is progressing but I’m working on the body – back and forth in stockinette stitch for quite a long time so I’m having to wake myself up with other projects, like the hat above, the fur cowl, the orange cowl I’m making in superbulky DeAire on size 15 needles, some knitted fir trees stuffed with fiber-fill, and I still can’t stop thinking about other things I want to make or yarns I want to use for something, like this combination of Maxima extrafine merino and fancy, fuzzy Dune, which look like they were dyed to go with each other. They need to be in the same project, but what? And the better question – when?
Knitting ADD. I need more hands, more time, less sleep, fewer puppies? Speaking of which:
Stay cozy, folks!
