knitting in the dark

Skeins Her Way has a brilliant contest going on right now… it’s the January Finish a UFO Contest 2008!

I haven’t worked on a sock since Thanksgiving weekend… which, for me, is shocking since I tend to always have a sock going for subway knitting or whatever. Thanksgiving weekend I finished the first of (what will be) a pair of ribbed knee-highs out of Kaffe Fassett Regia.

I had originally thought I wanted to make a pair of Rainbow Socks from the yarn, but I didn’t like the way the long stripes of color were (or weren’t, as the case may be) working with the pattern:

So I ripped it all out and decided to knit it up in vanilla-style 3×1 ribbing:

With a little bit of TV time in the hotel room I completed the first of the pair, but since then I have been completely engrossed in holiday knitting and gifts and time with my parents and brother and one other project (FO post to follow soon). According to the rules of the contest, I have until February 7 to complete its mate. I think I should be able to accomplish that without too much heartache, so…

I’m giving myself an extra-credit assignment - for the Yankee Swap that my friends do here in Brooklyn I promised to make a pair of hand-knit socks or fingerless mitts out of this lovely Lisa Souza:

Our friend James walked away with that gift (he seemed pleased but was a little confused as to why they weren’t already made… silly!) and I still haven’t even taken measurements so I can start! He’s decided on socks instead of mitts - so if I measure this week I should be able to whip out another pair of socks in the next four weeks.

You know what makes writer’s block worse? When you accidentally delete the post you’re working on after you’ve been writing for a while. Oh well! This is me remaining calm…

After being unbelievably busy with work since July and then with the holidays (and, therefore, not posting as frequently as one might like), there’s A LOT to show and tell. In order to not feel entirely overwhelmed and thus never begin, I am going to start 2008 with a simple finished object post and not do a recap of my last 5 months because that would be crazy and potentially (definitely) long and boring.

So without further ado, may I present the fingerless mitts I made for my best friend for Christmas; please excuse the cell phone photos as I forgot to bring my camera when we took her to the train station for her return trip to Portland.

pattern: none

yarn: Koigu in… um… greens? (top photo is accurate colors)

needles: Prym 6” 2mm dpns (which I previously thought were INOX)

started: December 5^th (maybe)

finished: December 24^th (just in the nick of time to be unwrapped the next morning)

notes: They’re pretty much a tube with a few increases before the thumb. What else? Single-round stripes and twisted ribbing…

Happy New Year everyone!