knitting in the dark

There is a slight pause in the progress on the Fiesta Mittens - after frogging the fingertip decreases three separate times I have decided that I really need to re-knit the whole mitten as I worked it on dpns and didn’t rotate where the needles joined enough. I didn’t end up with ladders, but where the needles change between the back and the palm the stiches look a little sloppy and I’m not sure that blocking will solve the problem. Since I really enjoy wearing mittens I think I need to make these as nice as possible since I will probably wear them for years to come… and along that same line, I should probably put in a different thumb rather than doing that part of the pattern as written. It is, however, beautiful yarn and a beautiful pattern even if I’m a little frustrated by it right now:

With another full day off yesterday I did many things - including laundry and some cleaning - but what I want to show everyone is the progress I’ve made on the striped shirting quilt. I sewed all of the largest triangles together along one edge to make even bigger triangles and then pinned them all again and with another seam they will all turn into mitered-corner squares, but I’m so excited by this little progress that I couldn’t wait to share:

It’s a yummy pile of stripes (and the most beautiful weight of fabric to manipulate).

In other news: I’ve added a new “crafts” category for my posts, since I frequently do crafty things other than knitting, but not any other particular type with any regularity.

Today was my first day off in about two weeks and this is what I accomplished:

I cut 1,116 triangles out of woven blue and white stripe shirting cloth. That translates into 279 mitered corner squares which will eventually turn into a quilt similar to this one:

The recipe comes from this book: Kaffe Fassett’s PASSIONATE PATCHWORK - which I purchased for my mother years ago and she’s never made any of the quilts contained therein.

I’m going to make my version of the quilt one section wider, though, as the example is only 54″ wide and I like my quilts to hang over the sides of my bed rather than just rest on top. The extra section will leave add about 18″ to the overall width and will, therefore, hang over the sides nicely.

This is the first quilt I’ve worked on by myself and not in the company of my mother. The two quilts I made before this I did with her during school breaks - I haven’t been in school for years now but I want a new quilt. I’ve been collecting fabrics for this one for about three years; some were purchased on my trip to China in 2004 but most have been collected since then from a few choice fabric stores here in NYC. My absolute favorite fabric store in the city is B & J Fabrics (sorry purl patchwork, but at least you come in second over City Quilter, which I find annoying). B&J’s website sucks, but the selection at the store is AMAZING - and ever since they moved there’s actually space to see all the options and the help there is actually helpful and not snotty. They have a giant rack of Liberty prints, which I can hardly ever afford but I love to look at for inspiration.

And now I’m going to rummage around and see if I have a nice neutral grey or blue thread so I can start piecing!

SPALDING GRAY: STORIES LEFT TO TELL

I started a new project - even though I swore I was going to use Project Spectrum to complete lingering unfinished objects. But my mother came to visit and she just can’t resist buying me yarn (she is the QUEEN of unfinished objects). We visited loop (very clean) and Rosie’s Yarn Cellar (very messy, but in a good way) in Philadelphia and purl (not my favorite, but their selection of Koigu is unbeatable) here in NYC. I had a project in mind: Fiesta Mittens, so I was very good and kept the purchase down to two skeins of Koigu. Here’s the yarn I chose:

And the yarn my mother purchased for the same mitten pattern:

So I was very naughty and started knitting last night and the stitch pattern is very simple and really addicting:

And I love the detail on the palm side:

I suppose I could call these colors blue and grey to pretend this fits into Project Spectrum, but really it’s more lavender and brown… oh well, at least the provisional cast-on is blue!

I knit another Lucy Neatby mitten pattern about three winters ago and they have been my cold-weather hand coverings of choice ever since - these are my Paradoxical Mittens, knit in Dale Baby Ull and oh so warm:

Okay, so I have no sweetheart for Valentine’s Day, but at least I have a date! My friend Arielle and I have a plan to go see MUSIC AND LYRICS that night - I’ve had a crush on Hugh Grant for ages… it’s really the only celebrity crush I’ve ever had and won’t go away no matter what trouble he seems to get himself into.

These socks fall under a few knit-alongs: firstly, both pairs for Sock-a-Month Knitalong 3; next, the blue pair for Project Spectrum; and finally, the green pair for Green Socks KAL.

Details:

The blue striped socks are my own top-down pattern in Froehlich Wolle Blauband started the 30th of January and finished on the 2nd of February… I basically made a mini-version of the generic socks that I always knit everyone. I think they are a little bit long (3.75″ from back of heel to toe) for a baby as wee as my 7-week-old cousin, but he’ll grow into them.

The green socks are the same made-up pattern as the blue striped socks. They’re made of the leftover Trekking XXL #66 from Vince’s Birthday Socks that I made during last year’s Socktoberfest. I cast-on the first sock on the 3rd of February and finished the second sock on the 6th.

I started these on the replacement Blue Sky Alpaca dpns, but had to change over to my trusty INOX needles because the Blue Sky needles were splitting at the ends again! One even gave me a splinter - ow! Knitting shouldn’t hurt… I have emailed the lovely customer service lady again and we shall see what happens - I may just return them at this point.