Gloves/Mitts

Yarn I Got for a Christmas Project

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

I wish they would quit changing things on WordPress, this took an hour to get the pictures almost where I wanted them because creating the one choice I usually use, made them way to big and very long with no way to make them smaller. Ugh!

Anyway, my mind is un-fogged and I can think straight again and knitting on the blanket again, I’ll put a picture up of my progress in a few days or a week. I was very sick for 3 weeks in Jan, with some ugly respiratory virus’, RSV and influenza A, not at the same time (thank goodness!) but as I was almost over one I got sick with the other, very nasty critters.

The first picture is from some extra cold air that came down from Canada in Jan. Yes that is frost on the inside of the metal plate on my sliding glass door inside my apt. If I’d get some heavy thermal drapes that might not happen or if it did, I wouldn’t see it :P. I’m not a cold weather girl, but here I am anyway. sigh.

The second picture is the yarn I ordered before Christmas but didn’t get to start the Christmas gifts I wanted to do, partly because I was sick with a cold (this has been an ugly winter for getting sick for everyone I know!!) and wasn’t up to it. But now I can tell you what I got them for. I bought some patterns from Arne & Carlos and the Christmas tree decorations with the knitting Christmas ball color work ornaments was one of them. I will need to buy more of this yarn as I go. There are 24 ornaments in this pattern for $7, but just before Christmas they are 1/2 off. I’m really not into color work, but these aren’t very big and maybe I’ll decide I like it better than I did years ago. I haven’t started working on any yet, they will still be gifts, but I have a blanket and a couple of hats and a pair of fingerless mitts to finish first. All this sick stuff reset my brain and now that I feel human again, my knitting mojo is back. But this year I will have a little less time to knit because the new calling I now have in my church is much busier than the calling I had before. Especially while I figure out what I’m doing and get use to it!!! Having a little anxiety over the change and that is normal for me with change :P, but the knitting should help with that!

New Project and New Needles

/ LDSVenus / 6 Comments

I should have started these fingerless mitts earlier, but in my defense I was trying to discretely get her hand size before starting and finally decided I just needed to take my best guess and get it started, it’s for Christmas :P. These are the Na Ceithir Duil by Liz Corke on Ravelry, they are a paid for pattern. Sorry it wouldn’t let me make a link, hmmm. The last two years I’ve been working on a set with the dandelion pattern. 1st year was a turban style head band to cover the ears for walking in the fall and spring, 2nd year (last year) was a cowl, and this year are fingerless mitts. I won’t be doing the colors just white (I just needed the pattern so I didn’t have to do all the math for the pattern with how many stitches, math isn’t my thing), as the other items I knitted were all white, so it will match. I’m using a different weight and kind of yarn because this pattern is for a fingering weight yarn and so to keep her hands warmer I chose a Stroll wool blend from Knit Picks. I’m using 9″ ChiaoGoo red lace circular needles.

I have a special project planned for family Christmas gifts this year. Some kinds of knitting I don’t do because I’m not a fan, love looking at it but not knitting it, however these are smaller objects and so darn cute that I bought the pattern and bit the bullet and ordered some double pointed needles (my favorite needles are the Knitter’s Pride Karbonz because they are light weight carbon with metal tips) and I’m not a fan of the double pointed needles either (this pattern gets too small for the 9″ circulars and it’s too clumsy for my favorite Flexi Flips, I must be crazy!) I had to order the yarn (expensive) and I’ll post about the project when the yarn comes in, so until then it’s a secret :). I will be making these every year for a while as the pattern has 24 versions and everyone will get the same one in order each year, so I didn’t mind spending the money on the Karbonz (also expensive) because I didn’t have any double pointed needles in the right size (because I don’t like using them :P). Crossing my fingers this won’t be more of a chore than an enjoyment. You’ll see what I mean :P. The yarn probably won’t be in for a couple of weeks, the yarn shop had to order it.

Cooler weather is finally here, tho they are saying we will get back in to the 50’s this week into the beginning of next week, and maybe little snow next Wed and Thursday with lower 40’s and upper 30’s. Fall’s finally here in time for winter, sigh.

A FO!! One Down and Several to Go

/ LDSVenus

Well these have been on my needles for about 6 months, sheesh. The winter was hard on me this year, was hard to focus on things and get them done. These are the Te Ara Fingerless Mitts by Rachel Cooper, they are a free Ravelry download. I used left over yarn from the Daisy Rectangular Wedding Shawl I made and a size 3 9″ ChiaoGoo circular needle, which is a size smaller than called for because I knit a little looser with Combined Continental knitting. But because the yarn was a very lightweight fingering, not quite a lace weight, if I use this yarn for another pair I will go down one more size. They look small but they have a lot of stretch. I used a lavender acid dye, Jaquard, to achieve the color. I hope she will enjoy them this fall and winter :).

Working on the baby sweater now, my friend’s baby is due next month, then since I now have some brain to wrap around things I will work on a hat a friend sent me because I told her to send it to me and I would be happy to finish it for her. I will get to work with musk ox yarn!!! It’s very soft. I will have to look at the pattern and figure out where she left off.

Hope everyone is enjoying this very weird weather, better than snow and below zero weather for sure, but this hot and cold stuff is annoying. It was on the cool side for quite a while (not complaining, I can handle 50’s and 60’s, just means a long sleeve shirt and some people are wearing shorts in that weather here :P) but we have had a lot of rain and for the past several days it has been in the lower 80’s and the humidity is stifling!! I turned on my air conditioning. But Thursday another cold front is coming through and we will be back in the lower to middle 60’s and lower 70’s. LOL, and I can turn my air off again. I’ll just enjoy it, because before you know it summer will be here soon with 90’s and stifling humidity, life in the midwest.

Finishing Some and Casting on All the Things!

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Spring has finally brought back my knitting and spinning mojo!

First my finished spinning project that has been on my wheel for about 10 months? I finished the wool/alpaca singles I was spinning and plyed them. Well you can’t really call it finished because now it will become something haha, I will be knitting that into a hat for a family member who moved to AZ and complained this past winter it was cold HAHAHAHA, I’m laughing because I live in the Midwest which is where she grew up too, Cold My Foot! sigh. I dyed the yarn lavender, and it will become the Snowtracks Cap by Timothy Peters, free download. My yarn is not dk but a light sport weight so I will knit the medium size instead of the small that I usually do for her. Hopefully it will fit :P.

2nd, Knitting, I am working on the Ara Fingerless Mitts, free Ravelry download. One is done except the thumb and I’m at the start of the design on the 2nd one. Should have those done this week, yeah!! They are only 3 1/2 months late :P. I am using left over yarn from the wedding shawl I knit last fall I am using a ChaoGoo size 3 9″ needle and I always have to go down a needle size because I knit a little loosely, the combination continental knitting style seems to do that, but because that yarn is a light fingering I would use a size 2 needle next time if I make them again.

Next I started another hat to donate to the homeless shelter this next fall. I like knitting them, they are a mindless comforting knit when I need to unwind and think about things, or just not think at all, so not only am I doing good I’m also finding comfort in them. I’m using I love this yarn and my new Knitters Pride Ginger Special interchangeable needle set, size 5 needle with a 16″ cord. These needles are so nice to knit with, not as grabby as bamboo but not as slippery as metal. I love these sets!

Next I’m also working on a long term project that I have had on my needles for a couple of years, eventually it will get done and I will probably give it away and then start another, it is just for something to knit when I need some mindless knitting that has pretty colors to pick my spirits up, is just a long skinny diagonal scarf. We all need those mindless knits. I’m using a bamboo size 5 needle 12″ and Yarn Bee, Glowing, in purple multi from Hobby Lobby.

Finally I have started another baby sweater using Hobby Lobby, Yarn Bee, Soft and Sleek, in Neutral Stripe and a Knitters Pride Karbonz size 5 needle 16″ for the neck and ChaoGoo size 5 needle 9″ for the cuffs and KnitPiks Radiant (wooden) needle size 7 16″ for the body and ChaoGoo Bamboo size 7 needle 9″ for the sleeves. After I get past the yoke the body and sleeves are mindless knitting too. There must be a theme here!

I generally do not have so many things going at once I usually find it stressful to have so many things on the back burner, but I just want to knit all the things!!

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful Spring, it’s been warm and cooler, warm and cooler, rainy and sunny etc, but it’s not COLD!! The birds are out and singing, lawn mowers are humming, the grass is green and leaves and flowers are budding and the Spring smells are amazing! Gotta love it!!

Last 2 Promised Hats New Stitch Markers and a Birthday Gift

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

Ok, I lied, I said I was not going to buy any more new stitch markers or progress keepers for a while.  “But mom they followed me home can I keep them?”  Actually I replaced the Dallas Cowboys progress keeper and bought another set of the hearts stitch markers and progress keeper, because I love it so much, and yes I have one already, but I wanted to use it and couldn’t remember where I put the old one, they will both be well loved :).  I got these from AdoreKnit and she threw in a surprise, the fox progress keeper.  I mentioned I was looking for one as “hat jewelry” for a young family member I had just knit a hat for because she wanted a fox on it and I didn’t see one in her on line shop.  I was beyond ecstatic when I saw that in my order when it came in today!!  She really is such a sweet person, you should check out her shop.

The blue hat above is the hat for the younger of my family members, who was very excited to get the Dallas Cowboys color hat and star to adorn his hat.  The other hat showing was to be for his older sister but she really liked another hat I had knit earlier so the other one became hers and this one will go in the charity pile.  She was very excited to get the fox progress keeper to put on it, I will add that to the pictures when I remember to get a picture of it on the hat.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see “hat jewelry” become a thing for school age children. 🙂

Lastly, yeah I had a birthday this past week.  Celebrating the anniversary of my 29th birthday and that is all you are getting out of me :P.  I can’t be older than my dad who is 29 every year, can I?  I belong to a group who does Harry Potter knitting and my name was drawn on her quarterly prize drawing (which just happened to be on my birthday woot woot).  I got gifted a pattern of my choice, and what I chose was the Baa-ble Mittens and Cowl set , I already had the hat pattern, which is a free pattern, but the accessories were not. So for my birthday I was able to complete the set, how cool is that!!!  Hope everyone has a great week coming up.

Te Ara Fingerless Mitts Finished

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

2nd pair of Te Ara Fingerless Mitts

Finished!  I was so excited to get the picture taken that I put the mitts on the wrong side of each other, sigh, the thumbs should be facing each other, oh well, at least I didn’t forget to take it :).  Altho’ I think they turned out nicely and they match my friend’s 3 color cowl, I really am not a big fan of changing colors, and that is why I rarely knit color work.  When you knit with the large blocks of color there are so many ends to weave in (tho you can’t really call this color work because it’s just changing colors after large blocks of color), but it just reminds me that color work is not really my thing.  I can do it, and I admire the color work others do, just don’t enjoy knitting it myself :P.   I do love knitting textures and lace work  :).