Sunday, December 14, 2014

Year of Projects 4: Stalagmite 01


KNIT. SOCK. LOVE. : BFF • Clandestine • Cusp • German Stockings • Gothic Spire • Hedera • In and Out • Lissajous • Marilinda • Mona • Monkey • Pointelle • Rhombus • Sake • Stalagmite • Stricken • Thelonious • Twisted Flower • Wedge

Admittedly there's not much to report on Stalagmite other than I've selected a yarn - Sock-Luck from Studio June Yarn in a colourway called "Wisdom". Hmmm ... not sure how wise this choice is though. The pattern is very intricate; unless the variegation plays nicely, it's not going to work. I guess I'll cast on and decide after a handful of rounds.

But I'd better not cast on until I've finished my Christmas knitting. I can't show you that: some of the people on my Christmas list read my blog! Despite my early intention not to commit to much Christmas knitting - very sensible I thought - as the clock ticks closer to Christmas, I'm plagued by all kinds of great ideas about what I could knit and for whom. It's pretty clear now that Christmas knitting will only stop when I run out of time. Somebody take these needles away from me before I make myself crazy!

Speaking of needles, I've done a little more shopping for my Christmas stocking, and it looks like I'll be test driving some Karbonz knitting needles on Christmas morning as well. Nina at Creative Yarns had nothing but good things to say about them so how could I resist? This buying my own presents things is working out awesome!

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Year of Projects 4: Pointelle 02

KNIT. SOCK. LOVE. : BFF • Clandestine • Cusp • German Stockings • Gothic Spire • Hedera • In and Out • Lissajous • Marilinda • Mona • Monkey • Pointelle • Rhombus • Sake • Stalagmite • Stricken • Thelonious • Twisted Flower • Wedge

A month since my last post! Where does the time go?! Last weekend was spent in Ottawa, helping my brother and sister-in-law into their new house. The tradespeople had been in replacing the roof, the furnace, the electrical and the hot water heater, but there was still a long list of smaller chores that needed doing. We rolled up our sleeves and they put us to work! My work has also been unending craziness, so no time to knit there either!

With being so busy,  Pointelle languished on the needles for a few weeks. But finally over the past several days I've managed to get both socks done. I knit the large size, but then decreased at the top of the heel flap to narrow it, then continued the gusset decreases to 66 sts for the feet.; they'd have been too big otherwise. If I did them again, I'd shift down a needle size or knit the smaller size altogether.

Although the pattern was very "chart-y" it was much faster and easier than it looked at first glance. The arrowhead lace pattern is quite intuitive so just glancing at the chart to start the round was all that was needed. Every other row is plain knit, so that's makes it speedy too. And surprisingly there was no purling or knitting through the back loop except of the ribbed cuff!

The yarn is Twisted MCN from Studio June Yarn. It's lovely to work with and it wears beautifully. This "Lime Light" colourway is a nice bright pop of colour!

Yesterday I did take a few minutes to put up my Smitten (a Holiday Garland) knitted decorations from a couple of years ago. Rather than stringing them on a garland I decided instead to hang them on the fridge door with magnets arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree. Cute, huh? And happily each little mitten fits two Lindor chocolate balls - one for me and one for Gavin. I bought the felt numbers off eBay from a UK seller with a CriCut machine and glued them on. Each mitten is knit from scrap yarn - some are sock yarn held double, some are DK and some are worsted.

That's about as far as I've got with holiday decorating. The fake tree's up in the hallway but it seems I got tired of most of our decorations last year and gave them to the thrift shop. As a result the effect is kind of au naturel this year. I tried to convince Gavin that having the strings of lights puddled below the tree was festive enough, but he wasn't buying it, so I did spend an evening stringing them around the tree .... or rather deeply in the branches to add to the subtlety of the decor, as it turns out.

Gavin hung the stockings in the hallway, so I've bought a few things I wanted and tucked them in my own stocking. I'm thrilled to report that I will finally own some 6" 2.25mm DPNs as of Christmas day! I'm still trying to figure out if a skein or two of Madeleine Tosh yarn would fit in there!