NuttyIrishmanKnits

One is the Loneliest Number

Dashing by Cheryl Niamath, from Knitty Spring 2007.
Knitted in Cascade 220 Tweed, 7623.
Knitted on Crystal Palace Bamboo circs, US size 6.

Andy has been in Texas all week, and is due to arrive home this afternoon.  So it's been just me and the kiddos finishing up the last of the school year, parties, graduation, sun-burning track and field day...  you know, the typical weaving in of the end of the semester.  And I've actually gotten a bit of knitting accomplished, if you consider lone mittens and fingerless mitts as FO's.  I just started my Dashing Mitts yesterday afternoon and I gotta say, LOVE THEM!  I sort of felt like if I didn't cast on something tweedy soon I was going to go mad.  And I've got tons (tons I tell ya!) of yummy Cascade Tweed squirreled away for Andy Lee's Cobblestone, so what's one little skein?  Yummy is what it is!  I love this yarn!  I have never used it before and had some special ordered for the Cobblestone.  It is really a lovely yarn, and of course, it's Cascade, which means reasonably priced too.  This mitt took only around three hours from start to finish, and I'm really itching to get started on the second one.  I never thought I would be a fingerless mitt type o' gal, but it completely fits my personality!  I guess you never know until you try, right?



I'm knitting the smallest size of this pattern on US size 6 circulars in magic loop.  I have really small wrists and it's starting to loosen up on me as I wear it.  But if my wrists were larger, say a medium, I would definitely knit the larger size.  I'm considering steam blocking them slightly, but I really don't want to loose that great cabley texture, so the jury's still out on that one.  My plan is to finish it's mate up this afternoon and evening, and then chill out with my guy once he's had a moment to unwind.  (Yeah right!  Our kids will be all over him like white on rice.) And because of the name, Dashing, I have this mental picture of Colin Firth.  So you know what that means... yep, I'm gonna finish this knit while watching a little Pride & Prejudice.  To me, Colin remains perpetually Mr. Darcy, and 30 years old. 

And while I'm sharing partially FO's, I thought I'd show you just one more.  Only this one, I really wish I had knit myself, and really must get cracking on it's mate as well. 



This is one little lonely Monkey, as per Becca, my good friend and very patient knitting partner.  One night after we had finished teaching our knitting classes we all went to the Anchor for drinks.  And of course I opened my ginormous mouth and said, "I can totally finish a pair of socks if someone else knitted one for me!"  Hence was born the ADD Sock-Club, and as co-founding member I can truly say, it is living up to it's name!  Becca had finished my Monkey sock in two days... I have cast on once and frogged due to sizing issues.  It's still sitting in the bag to be finished.  Ooi.  Should I tell you that we are knitting Jaywalker for her and I am only about five inches into it?  Probably not... but I love the yarn she selected, and I've got to say for all my belly-aching about socks, it really is the most comfortable, albeit lonely, sock in my drawer!

Am I a Knitting Puritan?

Bird in Hand by Kate Gilbert.
Knitted in Cascade 220 wool, avocado and deep brown.
Knitted on a pair of US size 3 Addi Turbos.
Modification: After reading the braid instructions I wimped out and used my old fave, the Norwegian Braid.  I also chose to use purl rows where the pattern denoted additional braids.
Ravelers find my mitten here.

Now I know what you're thinking... this doesn't look like the Clap!  Nor does it look like Chevalier, or bloomers... I know!  It's none of the above, but it is a partially finished knit that has helped me break through my mental block of finishing all those other projects, minus Chevalier.  Chevalier had to be frogged four times (!)  in an attempt to find a suitable size for me, and sadly, I was unable to do it with the o-wool.  I hate that!  I really wanted to knit those mittens in the o-wool, it's perfect for them!  But I kept ending up with either a flimsy wanna-be (single-stranded) or a ginormous  man-mitten (double-stranded).  Even changing needles sizes didn't work.  Drat!

And my Clapotis is coming along.  I am four skeins into it using the Silk Garden.  My unrealistic goal of last weekend was a no-go, so I've moved this deadline out to Mother's Day, which I think is much more reasonable!   So the Clap should be in the mail by then, on it's way to Memphis.

And as for Annabelle's Unmentionables... all I can say is when you drop the ball, it is so nice to have a friend there to pick it up and run with it!  I am barely inching my way through this pattern right now, and Shelly blew through it with considerable gusto.  Her FO (and it's model) are so adorable that I had to show them off to you guys.  Blogger's bragging rights!

This is Miss Ainsley modeling her Unmentionables, which look awesome!  Shelly used Nashua Cilantro for these in a pretty mint green.  This yarn has such bounce to it!  And being worn by an active toddler doesn't hurt the bounce factor either!  (Ravelers can find Ainsley's Unmentionables here.)

Yesterday, while knitting from the screen**, I was listening to my favorite podcast Stash & Burn.  I don't know which episode it was (found it!),  but a question regarding "Start-itis" with was posed:

        ~do we penalize ourselves in knitting? 

And this got me to thinking, probably because I find myself in that particular boat right now.  Do I sometimes chastise myself for wanting to cast on a new project when I have several on the sticks already?  Projects that are going no where fast and I find myself MOPPING the kitchen floor instead of finishing?  Maybe this is something we can all relate to, and I'm just throwing it out there...

        ~have I begun to impose unnecessary rules on my HOBBY?

As for Bird in Hand, I've got to say, my confidence in my own stranding ability has been somewhat restored.  The Fiddleheads so threw me off my game that I seriously began to question whether or not I really understood stranded-colorwork.  But this mitten encouraged me along the way, and I'm really looking forward to working on the second.  It also doesn't hurt that Cascade smooths like a dream when blocked within an inch of it's life...

So hopefully after a bit of a self-imposed break my pace will begin to pick back up to one I'm more comfortable with and I'll have more FO's to post about!  In the meantime, it's time to hit the sticks and I'll be darned if I'm not actually looking forward to it this time!  So here's wishing you happy knitting today... Cheers!

**When we moved to Kansas my printer cable was lost, and I am therefore relegated to knitting from the screen on nearly everything.  Including Inga!  Crazy!

 

April Showers Bring November Mittens?

Fiddlehead Mittens by Adrian Bilizia
Knitted using Hello Yarn Mitten Kit, original colorway.
Knitted on US size 3 Crystal Palace Bamboo DPN's and US size 3 Addi Turbo circular, 35 inch.
Ravelers they are here.

Well they are officially finished.  Okay I'm lying, they're not.  But linings don't count and it will surely take me until October to get them finished.  But I will get them finished because these mittens really must have a liner.  My fiddleheads took a week to complete, but could have been finished in just a couple of days if my mind hadn't wandered on the last mitten.  I wrote more about that in my previous post.  But overall I am very pleased with how they turned out.  The texture of this yarn was a booger for me to get used to.  It's 2-ply and has a sort of "rope" look to it.  And it really forced me to think long and hard on blocking.  I actually re-blocked my first mitten after making Alice's mitten form.  But the colors are so rich and deep.  It's hard to describe how beautiful they are in person. 

This was my first time using any of Hello Yarn's hand-dyed yarn and I will definitely be going back for more.  This year my goal is to learn to spin, and I know that I really want to join the Fiber Club at Adrian's site.  If you are are spinner, there is plenty more about that here.  I am really looking forward to knitting this pattern again, not only in alpaca, but also in Cascade 220 heathers.  Cascade is such a reliable yarn, and loves colorwork.  This pattern is perfect for it.

And for some of you guys who didn't know it, Playtime Petit Fours has been added to the list of patterns available at Knitting Pattern Central.  All I can say is thank you and HOLY COW.  The pattern was added yesterday around noon and at my last check before bed last night I had received over 700 visitors from KPC.  That is just nuts!  So thank you guys for visiting and come back again!  There is a subscription link in the top-right sidebar if you're interested in checking back in from time to time.  Playtime Petit Fours is also a free download available on Ravelry as well.  You can just store it away in your library there... a new little feature they've recently added that I love! 

As you can tell from yesterday's post I have too many knits on the sticks right now, which means probably not much posting for the next week or so.  I am so easily distracted when I should be knitting.  So I'm thinking I'm going to step away from the love/hate relationship I have with my Mac and make significant progress on my current knits!

But in closing, let me say again how thankful I am for the loyal readers of NIK, and the new readership that continues to increase daily.  It really means a lot, and keeps this normally scatter-brained momma focused and determined in finishing all those projects!  Y'all are the best!  :-)

A Tale of Two Mittens

Fiddlehead Mittens by Adrian Bizilia;
knitted from Hello Yarn Mitten Kit, original colorway;
knitted on Crystal Palace bamboo DPN's, US size 3, smallest size.
Ravelers find my mitten here.

This is a snip-it of dialog between Alice and myself over the last couple of days.  There have been some pretty tense moments to say the least: 

I think it's too small!... my gauge is way off!... the cat just ate my yarn!!

And on and on.  But we've had such a great time knitting together!  I wondered how a cross-country KAL would work.  Three time zones mind you.  But it's worked out great, and you really get to know each other in the process.  Okay, I admit it.  I've been finding out what yarns Alice is using on all her projects.  She so thoroughly does her homework, and I'm so lazy!  It's just an added bonus that her knits always end up looking just like (or better) than the original. 

And where is Grace?  I don't know!  She's like Waldo... we're still looking for her!  I have a feeling she's in the zone and will then boom! Drop a spectacular mitten on all of us that will make us all pea green with envy!  (She has a way of doing that too!)

The Fiddlehead Mittens are to die for.  Really.  They are absolutely spectacular.  After you finish one, and it has blocked you just sort of sit there staring at it.  Stunned that an idea so beautiful could be envisioned and then executed.  Adrian is the queen.  All hail the queen!

I've still got another mitten to go.  My plan is to work on the lining for this mitten at the same time.  I really want to feel that squishy Alpaca against my hand.  And it will make the mitten so full and fuzzy!

So back to it... no time to spare!  Alice is a machine and you've got to have your running shoes double-knotted to keep up with her.  Hopefully we'll all have some finished mittens by this weekend, and some fun pictures to share with everybody!