I started my newest design a while ago. And I'm in love with how it's turning out, but I've chosen to knit it up with DK weight cotton from my stash, I'm about 2 inches from being done with everything but a ribbed band and I can't stand to knit with the cotton any longer. It has zero elasticity, so knitting lace with it is a chore and hard on the fingers. Once the lace is done, however, the rest should go really really quickly, so I need to just persevere.
I decided that I needed to learn a new knitting technique, so I'm tackling the Log Cabin blanket. It's actually one of the most therapeutic knits I've ever done. Stockinette stitch throughout, which you would think would get old, but it just doesn't. I'm making it in Detroit Lions colors for Brett as he won't wear knitted stuff but he loves afghans, so here we go! I have no idea how big I plan to make it. I bought 10 skeins of yarn for it, and I'm holding it double strand. Each square of color is about 1 1/2 inches wide and I'm currently on the 1st side of the 5th square. This will be the 3rd square of blue, I've yet to use up a whole skein of blue, and I've got 3 more skeins to go through! Not to mention the silver, black and white ones. I'll probably knit until it's either big enough to cover the back of the couch or I run out of blue, which ever comes first. Or maybe I'll just knit until I'm out of blue anyway. Call it stash busting.
I put the adult sized Twiggy to the side for the moment. I don't know why as the wool is beautiful in color and touch, but, I just kind of lost interest. For the moment anyway.
Need to finish Matty's sock. The toe is done and I'm through the first cable. Maybe I'll attempt it as my travel knitting. It's smaller than everything else I have going, so it should be easy enough to knit to Dublin and on the drive to Kokomo.
On a sad note. Kay of Mason-Dixon just lost her husband to illness. I feel a connection with these wonderful women b/c they blog like Theresa and I blog. Sisters living far apart, connected by their love for knitting and each other. A couple days ago I started knitting the Jane Austen Dress from the book Knitting Outside the Lines by Mason-Dixon, hoping to get it done before we come home Saturday. The hardest part of this pattern has been the ruffle. 229 CO sts, Moss st for 11 rows. Sounds simple, right? Took for-frickin-ever. 2 days of knitting. I think I've developed a tick over the amount of time it took to knit 11 rows of moss st. Anyway, one evening of knitting past the ruffle, I'm almost done with the right back (it's knit in one flat piece divided across to make right back, arm hole, front, armhole, left back).
I stuck all Hazel's knitwear in the wash and with Woolite, put it on the hand wash setting. Crossed my fingers, said a little prayer, and walked away. Worked like a charm. Clean sweaters and no washing mishaps! YAY!
I made myself a sock for my keychain sock blocker. I love this little thing. Fell asleep mid-sock, so it probably would have taken an hour TOPS if I had worked on it straight. This is remanents of my Artyarns Ultramerino 4 from my neckband. The picture doesn't do the sock justice. I was thinking of maybe taking this pattern on the plane...can you imagine how many little socks I could make in 8 hours if they'd let me? I like the verigated yarn b/c it looks like stripes on this tiny thing!
So I attended that Big Bag knit class back in February and learned to make Mitered squares. This was what I came up with . It looked vaguely like a pink poppy., so I made the sides green moss stitch grass and then the handle is a poppy stem and bud. Not fully happy with it, but it's fun for what it is. I'm going to sew the lining in when I get to mom and dad's and it just needs a zipper put in and it should be done! (BTW, I don't know why this is in blue and underlined, and it won't let me change it.)
Hope you're hanging in there and I can't wait to see your sock!Hugs
Carli
