banging out the knits

i finished up a few WIPs last week.  i was quite the busy knitting beaver - i hope this means my mojo is restored!

winchester mitts.  knit with kollage yarns 1/2-n-1/2, a 50/50 wool and milk fiber blend.  incredibly soft, nice to work with.  these were knit with size US 3 dpns.  the lace pattern was easy to remember and they were a quick knit.

i didn't care for the thumb gusset - the pattern called for an additional 7 stitches picked up for a total of 24 stitches - it made the thumb very loose and big for me.  if i knit these again (and i hope i do, these would make awesome gift mitts) i would omit those extra stitches and just knit up the 17 stitches in the gusset.  

i took an intro to fair isle knitting class at KDO this year and the project we worked on was a headband.  we were to pick 3 colors in a dk weight yarn.  i knit the band on size 3 and 5 16" circs.  i had to learn to knit with a strand of yarn in each hand (dominant color/purling color in the dominant - my right - hand, second color in the left hand).  i got the swing of knitting two handed until i hit the row of a 5/5 stitches in the middle of the band.  basically, in a row where there are long stretches of same color stitches (in this case, 5 orange/5 pink), i had to "catch" the opposing color while knitting the other, to keep the floats smooth and neat.  i had a pickle of a time doing this that morning (plus i was tired, hungry and eager to drive to the mannings to try out wheels) so i abandoned my project for several weeks.

i wanted to get started on a fair isle tam kit i got at KDO but knew i couldn't until i completed my class project.  so i eked out a row here and there, messed up the chart in the middle becos i forgot that when knitting in the round, charts are always read from right to left in every row.   i finally finished it this week.  i should give it a blocking becos the ends want to flip up.  the band is also big - not sure if it's my gauge (heh), the yarn or the fact that it's supposed to be big.  the colors are garish (the yarn was cheap, can't complain) and if anything, petunia will prolly nick it to wear herself.

rav details here.  all yarn details are there was well.


two years ago i knit petunia the sophie poncho with a skein of cascade yarns baby alpaca chunky that i received in a swap.  it sat unworn during this time becos it was too big on petunia's small shoulders.  i unearthed it a couple months ago and, to my dismay, it was still too big and also on the short side.  i decided to frog it and recycle the yarn.

ribbit!


wiggles eyeing the cake of soft smushy yarn!


i looked at the projects knitters used this yarn for, and there were several feather and fan cloches featured.  i like feather and fan and thought it would make a lovely hat.  holy hanna is it a nice pattern.  i also knocked this off in a day.  woo!

details are raveled here.  the pattern called for size US 10 needles, but since mine are occupied at the moment with a shawl, i used my size US 9 circus and magic looped the hat.  i also used stitch markers to mark off the stitch pattern (ask me why - i wished i did this when i made my mom's feather and fan afghan years ago).


i'm slowly working my way through my WIPs - currently plodding through the $100 shawl.  it's a PITA to knit, but i would love to knock it off for christmas.