Is it spring yet?
Something the Yarn Harlot wrote the other day really resonated with me. Seems she was having trouble dealing with a gray knitting project in the middle of a cold, snowy winter and decided instead to cast on something cheerful and bright - right away.
These cabled mittens were getting to me too, so I finished them. And wow, am I glad I did. Now, my catsitter will get her mittens before the winter ends, and I am done knitting gray things right now.
They're the Aran Mittens from "Folk Mittens" by Marcia Lewandowski. They took one skein of Cascade 220 Heathers (I think it's 8011) and about six feet of a very closely matching Lamb's Pride in gray to finish off less than an inch of the second thumb. Grr.
See, yesterday, I had to take my guitar to get fixed, even though I knew I was coming down with a cold, because the Fool and I have a gig in Indianapolis next weekend, and I need a guitar pickup that works. The guy I take my guitar to is about a half hour west of my house. I figured I'd need some more yarn - I had a hunch - so I was going to go to the yarn store I got the original skein at, about 15 minutes east of my house and in the same general direction as the Fool's train station. So I put all the knitting materials I thought I would need in my backpack, dropped the Fool off, found a coffeehouse, bought a giant cup of tea, and settled down to finish the mitten thumbs and wait for the yarn store to open. I finished the mitten thumbs, and moved on to my next project, which was grafting a sock toe. But I forgot a yarn needle at home. And I was starting to feel pretty lousy and the yarn store was nowhere near open, so I decided to go drop off my guitar, and continue in that general direction to another well-stocked yarn store that I knew sold Cascade 220. Which I did. And they did, just not the right color. By then, I was so determined to finish the dang mitten that I bought the Lamb's Pride (suspecting I had a similar skein at home but not wishing to chance it) and a skein of sock yarn, because I was definitely feeling sick by then, and my defenses were down. So anyway. Six feet of yarn is all I needed to finish the dumb mitten.
Here's a closeup of the fancy cabling on the back of the hand. I made a couple changes to the design. I continued the twisty cable from the cuff up the back of the mitten, rather than switching to honeycomb cable because I don't find honeycomb cables all that much fun to knit, and because I thought it looked better. And I did the palms of the mittens in plain stockinette, rather than reverse stockinette with some traveling stitches that looked like leaf veining, which I just couldn't get to work out right.
And here is the yarn I'm choosing my next project from depending on which pairs of circular needles are available.
These cabled mittens were getting to me too, so I finished them. And wow, am I glad I did. Now, my catsitter will get her mittens before the winter ends, and I am done knitting gray things right now.
They're the Aran Mittens from "Folk Mittens" by Marcia Lewandowski. They took one skein of Cascade 220 Heathers (I think it's 8011) and about six feet of a very closely matching Lamb's Pride in gray to finish off less than an inch of the second thumb. Grr.
See, yesterday, I had to take my guitar to get fixed, even though I knew I was coming down with a cold, because the Fool and I have a gig in Indianapolis next weekend, and I need a guitar pickup that works. The guy I take my guitar to is about a half hour west of my house. I figured I'd need some more yarn - I had a hunch - so I was going to go to the yarn store I got the original skein at, about 15 minutes east of my house and in the same general direction as the Fool's train station. So I put all the knitting materials I thought I would need in my backpack, dropped the Fool off, found a coffeehouse, bought a giant cup of tea, and settled down to finish the mitten thumbs and wait for the yarn store to open. I finished the mitten thumbs, and moved on to my next project, which was grafting a sock toe. But I forgot a yarn needle at home. And I was starting to feel pretty lousy and the yarn store was nowhere near open, so I decided to go drop off my guitar, and continue in that general direction to another well-stocked yarn store that I knew sold Cascade 220. Which I did. And they did, just not the right color. By then, I was so determined to finish the dang mitten that I bought the Lamb's Pride (suspecting I had a similar skein at home but not wishing to chance it) and a skein of sock yarn, because I was definitely feeling sick by then, and my defenses were down. So anyway. Six feet of yarn is all I needed to finish the dumb mitten.
Here's a closeup of the fancy cabling on the back of the hand. I made a couple changes to the design. I continued the twisty cable from the cuff up the back of the mitten, rather than switching to honeycomb cable because I don't find honeycomb cables all that much fun to knit, and because I thought it looked better. And I did the palms of the mittens in plain stockinette, rather than reverse stockinette with some traveling stitches that looked like leaf veining, which I just couldn't get to work out right.
And here is the yarn I'm choosing my next project from depending on which pairs of circular needles are available.
Comments
I abandoned a black lace project for similar reasons.
Nice yarny acquisitions!