I haven’t been knitting much this last week. It’s a little like after a really good workout you feel like spending the week week camped out on the couch eating potato chips and feel completely validated doing so. Because that workout was so hard and you deserve a of rest day or five. Well that describes the first few days after the mittens where done, but now it’s evolved into that huge question I assume all knitters face, “WHAT NEXT?” Continue reading
Category Archives: Knitting
ah-ha! Suck it – I finished the mittens
& celabrating a year in good company
Remember my goal to finish those Raven mittens? Well I did it! Late Saturday evening, sitting next to a fire, tucked away safely in a cabin next to a stormy Lake Superior. Which was throwing 5ft (and much larger down the coast) waves against the rocks for three days straight. This lake never fails to amaze me with it’s power and beauty. Me and my partner (the new owner of the mittens) were there for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. We spent an exciting Saturday up in Grand Marais, MN watching huge waves crash against the shore, climbing over rocks and taking in the late fall colors. We where also rained on a little. And our nights where spent lounging next to a fire with cheap wine, wondering if a cereal killer was watching us from the dark woods and watching bad cable TV. Continue reading
putting some pressure on myself
I promised myself last night that if I can finish the Norse Raven mittens by saturday, I can start another project or two if I even if I haven’t finished anything else.
I’m finding I really like doing color work, specially in this style. With it’s pointy tips and checker patterns. (Sorry for the lousy phone pic.)
I started the 2nd one last saturday, so a mitten in a week seems doable. Even though it took me several months the finish the first. Continue reading
and the right side wins – or why graphing would have been a good idea
So only a couple more rows in and I have decided it. The right side is better.
It lays better, and the left side made it’s border look funny and well you probably couldn’t tell from the photos any way. See, just knitting my two options till I decided was a completely rational idea. So here it is now, with almost 2 leafs done. The DNA’s twist are working nicely, they don’t add and extra increases I have to find a way to hide either.
And I’m thinking, it’s coming along nicely, what a nice treat for something I’m just making up as I go.
the repercussions of avoiding test swatches
I have been very slowly knitting & designing a lace shawl w/beads. Affectionally nick named the man-thong. I like complicated patterns, so the plan is, as I get bored of knitting one element of the pattern, I will add another. But I have no real plan for any of this. So I’m really just making it up as I go. Which is fine till I decide something really isn’t working for me. Do I rip out till the starting point or make a mistake?
No not me, I have a crochet hook.
Or my current problem, if I can’t decide between two different designs? Well why not try both? One on each side. Then I’ll go a few rounds and compare.
Then the loosing side will again suffer the crochet hook of correction. Continue reading
what’s another word for loincloth
So I have started knitting what I hope to be a lovely lacy mo-hair shawl.
I’m just using Patons lace yarn, which isn’t super pricey and knit’s rather nicely. But will hold up better with frogging a few times better than the reeeeally nice dark gray alpaca I bought.
I’m also working beads into it. I love knitting with beads. I have no idea why, it’s a pain in the rear really. I have to hook each one on a tiny crochet hook and place it on the right stitch in the pattern. I’ve done it before by stringing them on the yarn ahead of time, but the mo-hairs fuzz gets stuck in the beads and bunches up. Not pretty. Continue reading