2009: Posting More On The Darn Blog!

Hello! (...hello, hello, hello, echo...)

Didn't really get into the swing of updating there in 2008, like I meant to. So my goal this year is modest - way modest. Once a month. I can manage at least once a month, right? Even if I only put up a few pictures and type up what I've managed to knit.

So, I don't have any pictures for today. I really have to get on that. I mean, I have them, but they're on the camera and my desktop computer is all the way upstairs, and I'm lazy... I'll try to add them later. I know, a knitting blog is useless without photos!

This is what I've done so far this year:

Georgian Lace Cap, which is a free pattern from knitpicks.com. Their suggestion for yarn is "Comfy", a cotton/acrylic blend, but I had some of Hobby Lobby's new yarn line, "I Love This..." in wool. It was a birthday gift for a friend, in a cream-coloured white ("Winter White") to hopefully match one of her stylish coats!

A practice version of the Fishtrap Lace Scarf from Arctic Lace by Donna Druchunas. I didn't knit it side-to-side like in the book, as I was actually just knitting my fifty-millionth swatch of the pattern. For some reason whenever I came back to the start, my diagonal eyelets would just be off, by one stitch, even though i was following the chart correctly. It turns out there does in fact exist errata for the pattern, so it wasn't just me! Anyhow, once I finally got the pattern right (almost, I was missing a stitch on one side, but I still made it work) and figured out a way to memorise it (it's a 6-st pattern: the y.o is 1, k2tog is 2, 3-5 knit, and 6 is knit through the back loop), I couldn't bear to stop knitting, so I kept going until I had a length I liked. This one is in "I Love This Wool" in Stonewash and will be a late Christmas gift for an acquaintance.

And my latest work, a pair of mittens in Knitpicks "Wool of the Andes", pewter. (I still have quite a stash from when I bought enough to make a sweater that never happened.) I didn't have a basic mitten pattern on hand, so I googled about and found a basic men's mitten pattern on Knit With KT. My difficulty here was adapting her instructions to fit my gauge. I think I managed it - I mean, they're quite serviceable mittens - but I think it's one thing where chunky yarn might not quite cut it, sort of like socks, where a fingering up to worsted weight will do the job better. Like, the mitten is fine, but it doesn't look very elegant. I knitted them for a friend who has to walk outside a lot, and hopefully he's not as sensitive to bumps and ridges on the inside of knitted items as I am. Everyone who has tried them on and looked at them say they're just fine, but I'm all Princess and the Pea with this stuff, so I think it's just my personal sensitivities creating a bias there.

This week, as long as I'm suitably thrifty, I get a trip to the LYS to buy yarn for more belated Christmas gifts - but the recipients know about them, and even went with me to the LYS to look at yarn, so they know what they're in for. One of them is getting the Fishtrap Lace Scarf, in grey - I'll ask for advice on what kind of yarn, as I want a nice drape (it's more accessory than neckwarmer), and the other is Broadstreet from Knitty, and I'm looking at plum, perhaps in a tweed. I can't wait to go - visiting the LYS is a little bit like going to church. I approach each shelf with a reverent hush and can almost hear the heavenly chorus when I touch something new and pretty. It's magical.

Off to work for me.