Doesn't this just make you want to smile?
Stats: hand spun yarn from South African Fine top. Colorway: autumn Purchased from The Vildish Twist on Etsy. Spun to about a fingering/sport weight on a Schacht/Reeves wheel. Room for improvement in evenness, but I'm quite pleased with the results.
Another little project from Everyday Crochet by Doris Chan. Stats: Valley yarn Longmeadow - 60% cotton/40% microfiber acrylic. Size I crochet hook.
It has taken me a while to get used to the directions in the pattern. There is a lot of flipping back and forth necessary, which makes it hard to know what you need to do next (at least for me). However, after working a couple of patterns from the book I feel that I have a handle on Doris' methods -- well worth the effort needed, I think.
Stats: Schacht-Reeves 30" Saxony, cherry wood, double-drive, double treadle.
And thanks to spinning pal Margaret (who spent considerable time getting her up and running, because I am an idiot who could not properly thread the drive band) I am now able to produce some fairly nice yarn on her --
(Hand dyed roving from The Vildish Twist, Etsy)
And there's finished knitting too!
What's that you ask? Three mittens? Perhaps I should say I decided to knit a spare for that inevitable time when one goes missing, but the truth is my first effort in finishing up the pair resulted in two LEFT mittens. Ouch, that hurt! So, I knit a third. What's that you say? It's not the same color as the first two? Why no, no it's not. For some reason the idea of knitting a third mitten exactly the same as the other two (well, except for that thumb thing) made that little forehead vein start to throb, so I decided to make the third in the colors that came up next in the Kauni yarn (which has l-o-n-g color runs, for those who have not yet seen it).
See, the cuff of the third mitten picks up from the color on the tip of the second. Wild and crazy, free-spirited, right? Or maybe just nuts, but a fourth mitten is not in my immediate future.
...You didn't think it would be a sweater, did you?
I really don't do a lot of household type knitting (or crocheting) but I was leafing through Mason Dixon's Knitting Outside the Lines and saw this knitted towel. Now, I wash my hands quite a lot while cooking, and hesitate to use the same towel I use for dishes (cross contamination) or paper towels (expense, eco-unfriendly) for hand drying, so this little items seemed a good solution for my dilemma. Small size, sufficiently different from the dish towel to avoid "which one do I use" confusion, and quick to make. Problem solved!
And speaking of Knitting Outside the Lines -- I bought the book solely for the pea coat pattern (Yank) by Bonne Marie Burns. I'd really like to knit that one -- maybe a bit shorter than shown. Since I have no yarn that will suit (I know, I can't believe it either) it will have to wait a bit.
Meanwhile, there's a construction job to finish. Here's a peek:
Pattern from Interweave Knits Fall 2008 -- knit in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky, some trim in Lamb's Pride Worsted. Knitting a heavily cabled garment in bulky yarn reminded me just how much I LOVE working with finer weight yarns!
