knitting in the dark

Introducing the newest member of my family:

I’ve been desiring another pair of wristwarmers/fingerless mitts for the cold theatres I work in (I wear my Endpaper Mitts nearly constantly)… and this Classic Elite Alpaca Sox will be perfect! This yarn is lovely and soft and grey goes with nearly everything in my wardrobe.

I’ve been quiet in the works-in-progress department because I’ve been working on and quite frustrated with a skein of Anne that I bought earlier this summer in Boston and have been attempting to find a good stitch pattern that avoids creating a lavender spiral up a green sock; there is just SO much more lavender in the skein than I thought! I’ve been through three versions and have now taken it off the needles and have cast on for Rainbow Socks in the Kaffe Fassett Regia I bought from The Loopy Ewe last month…

I ordered yarn for the Henry scarf in the new Knitty – a half-pound cone of Louet Gems Fingering in Indigo.

It is a gorgeous blue the color of a twilight sky and I’ve spent almost a week now swatching it.

I don’t generally spend a lot of time with swatches so who’d have guessed that I’d spend a week swatching for a scarf!?! The thing is: Louet doesn’t have a lot of stretch and I want to make sure I find the proper balance of being close to the pattern gauge (it’s knit from side to side and therefore you cast on A LOT of stitches) and creating a dense, sturdy-looking fabric – it is a scarf for a boy after all (and no mom, not a boyfriend).

I think I’ve found the proper needle sizes (3.25 and 4mm, which feel giant compared to my 2mm sock needles), but I have to go buy longer circular needles in those sizes as I’ve been testing on straights and now find I don’t have circulars in the desired sizes.

I hope to be done by the end of the month as I plan on giving it as a birthday present November 7^th; good thing I’m mostly done with Christmas presents already…!

I first started these mittens in February when my mother came to visit - it was cold and we wanted new mittens. So instead of buying new mittens like a normal person, we bought yarn for new mittens!

pattern: Lucy Neatby’s Fiesta Mittens (ravelry: Fiesta Mittens)

size: medium-ish

yarn: KPM and KPPPM in lavender and a purple/brown variegated

needles: as always, 2mm INOX dpns

started: 8 February

finished: photos taken 10 September (though they could still use a light blocking)

notes: I used a provisional cast on and started with the main part of the mitten instead of the cuff. When finished with the main part of both mittens I then went back and did K1tbl, P1 ribbing until the cuffs were close to the desired length and finished them off with a few rows of the contrast yarn. Also, I used an afterthought thumb as I didn’t like the way the pattern thumb rotated the “seam” on the mitten to the back of my hand.

It really very difficult to take pictures of one’s self wearing mittens - so no action shots this time. I think I may have taken more pictures and posted about this project more times than any other in the last year; past posts and photos: here and here and here. And with this post they have been put away in the drawer of winter accessories to wait for colder weather…

Welcome Socktober! And exactly one year since I started this here little knitting blog - but I’m planning on celebrating some different (and later) milestone (100 posts, perhaps?) because I’m too busy with work to think about it right now. Without further ado, I present:

pattern: Jaywalkers (again)

yarn: Trekking Pro Natura in… um… blue? (sorry for the ravelry link)

needles: 2mm INOX dpns

started: perhaps towards the end of August?

finished: the pictures were taken 10 September

This pair is a bit tight going over my heel while taking them on and off, but they’ll loosen up a bit like the last pair of Jaywalkers I made. I think I’m done with this pattern after two pairs. I can see why so many people are addicted to it, but there are lots of great sock patterns out there and if I don’t find one I like for a particular yarn, I should just make another up!

I liked knitting the Pro Natura; it was a bit splitty at times, but it has a nice sheen. I’m a little concerned about the wear because I tend to be a little tough on my knit socks and there’s no nylon-type content, but the bamboo fibers should help.

As a side note: I frequently say that I’m hard on my hand-knit socks, but I’m not sure that’s actually true. I wear them as I wear normal socks (in shoes, etc) but perhaps more frequently, machine wash on the delicate cycle in cold water, and hang to dry. And yesterday the Yarn Pirate admitted to machine washing and drying her hand-knit socks (as does my mother and my friends for whom I knit socks). Does anyone actually hand wash?

My box from The Loopy Ewe turned up a few days after I posted about my missing packages! In it was two skeins of the Regia Kaffe Fassett collection in the Landscape Storm colorway… and it is even better in person than on the screen! I’m not one to order yarn off the internets without seeing it (and mostly touching it) in person first, but I sure am glad I made an exception:

I have a few ideas for this yarn - it’ll probably end up as Rainbow Socks, but there’s a lot of catching up to do before I can start a new project.

I am just so so glad the box showed up as I have more yarn on the way as we speak…!