just another raveller

Spring in Western New York has been recalcitrant and angry, like a spoiled child. We had snow in mid April, lots of high winds and rain. The Forsythia has just now come into it's prime and the lovely Red Bud trees haven't even bloomed yet. Some people say that their tulips are blooming. I don't know about that. I should be ashamed to post this photo, but this is what my vegetable patch looks like. It's awash with weeds, but you can just see the Rhubarb poking up. I've decided that the Rhubarb is the most important thing. I've been extremely busy at work, and it leaves me little energy to do much but knit in the evenings. I finished the Storm Water Shawl (2 skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk) and found a fellow to model it. I finally knit myself a top that fits, though I'm having a hard time getting a good photo. This is Reid in purple. I managed to make a little logo, but it doesn't look good embiggened. Too little time, too little energy. I'm still on ...

I fell in love with the honeycomb pattern on those last mittens and went on to knit a matching hat with the remaining yarn. I started by typing "honeycomb" into the pattern search on Ravelry to see what others had done. I admired Mesi by Finnish knitter Suvia Simola. Here's a Flickr link to a photo. I really liked it but I wasn't sure it would suit me. I decided that I would just start knitting and see where it went. Maybe I'd try for a tam shape. A flat top in a solid blue would provide some good negative space. Anything to avoid the pin head look of a head hugging tuque. The honey comb stitch pattern has a multiple of six stitches. After some swatching of the Malabrigo worsted, I decided to cast on 102 stitches. I knit an inch and a half of twisted rib and contemplated increasing. I knew that I didn't want a tight hat that made my head like a pin, but how would I incorporate sufficient increases into the structured honeycomb pattern? I began by increasi...

Those honeycomb mittens in the last post? Well, they're not really purple. The background is blue-green like a northern sea on a sunny day. I'm going to make a hat now. I'll try to make it a tam, but we'll see.

It's still Winter in Western New York. A lot of the white stuff melted in the last 2 days but as of tomorrow, it's back to the deep freeze. Nevertheless, Spring is in the air. Somehow. Somewhere. I think that for me, the rest of this season will pass very quickly. I find myself with two jobs, coming home stunned at the end of the day. Knitting continues. I had just time to snap this photo of a baby blanket that I knit for a co-worker before giving it to her. I used the charts and math from Sharon Miller's Cobweb Crepe pattern, but I made a smaller center and left off the edging. I think it's just right for a pram blanket for a little baby (Lamb's Pride Superwash Worsted on 4mm needles) I've knit one of a pair of the Honeycomb mittens from Homespun Handknit . It was easy and yet fun to watch the little windows accumulate on the needles. Like the blanket above, if you look around you'll find many similar patterns for what is basically the same item. This pat...

Here are my January socks. I just finished them and am posting in the 11th (or is it the 12th hour?). The yarn is Regia, Kaffe Fasset something or other. The labels are around here somewhere. I really, really like the idea of having 12 pairs of hand knit socks at the end of the year. Knitting one pair of plain socks per month can't be too difficult. .

Here is my first pair of stranded mittens: NHM#7 from Terry Shea's book, Selbuvotter . I've done sweater yokes before, but mittens are trickier and I'll tell you why. Maintaining the same tension over both mittens is more difficult than I thought it would be. No, I lie - I didn't even think about it beforehand. It wasn't until I finished the second mitten and put them side by side, that I noticed that the right one was significantly larger than the left. You can see it in the second picture. In addition to the tension issue, I started carrying the yarn differently and I moved from a 2 mm to a 2.5 mm earlier on for the second mitten. That's why the checkboard at the beginning of the cuff is bigger on the right mitten. In the first picture the mittens are artfully arranged to hide the problem. Frankly, my dear... I was out in Fairport today and discovered a neat little shop called Craft Bits and Pieces, located in the mall above the Fairport Public Library. It...

Let's see. I've been struggling with a nasty bug all week and it's left me a little empty headed. I have, however, managed to knit a Norwegian mitten. Voila. If it weren't for this little mitten, I'd have no sense of accomplishment at all. None whatsoever. The second one should go faster. The yarn is Classic Elite Fresco (60% wool, 30% alpaca, 10% angora). I used US 1 - 2.25 mm and US 0 - 2.0 mm needles. I used the smaller needles on the cuff and on the thumb. What else did I do? Lost internet for several days, nipping in the bud a dangerous addiction to Mahjong . Thanks go to Frontier, our phone company. Mended my daughter's fingerless mittens that she loves. Must have done laundry. Yes. Made more chicken soup with feet in it. Knitted myself plain gloves. Now I'd like to knit an exciting Norwegian pair, but next on the menu is Maya Poffenberger's Japanese Wave Mittens (Ravelry link). Here's the photo from the project page. I think that a couple o...