Itch Sufficiently Scratched

I'm sure you all laughed at my assertion that I could quit mosaic knitting any time I wanted to -- I think we all know there's not likely to be an end to it anytime soon! But, having completed another project last night, I think I'm ready to take a brief pause.

Pattern: Lattice Have Pie Towel by Amy Marie
Yarn: Knit Picks Dishie (100% cotton) in Pomegranate and Linen
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm)
Started/Completed: January 18/January 22
Mods: added rows to the bottom and top to even out the motif placement

This towel/cloth/whatever you want to call it was so much fun to knit that I could not put it down. I can tell that as I'm gaining more experience with mosaic knitting, I'm getting faster at it. The wonderful thing about mosaic knitting, particularly if you are used to using charts, is that you really don't need much more than the chart to knit a mosaic pattern. I can highly recommend this pattern, though, because the designer not only gives you a separate chart for each motif (so that you can put them in whatever order you like), she also gives you all three charts with the colors reversed, which is especially helpful if you're like me and have a hard time remembering to mentally reverse the colors shown in a chart.

I really can't say enough nice things about the yarn, either. It feels nicer to me than the typical big box store kitchen cotton, and it's really nice having a full 100 g skein/ball to work with. I used about half of the red and a little less than half of the linen, so theoretically I could do and exact replica of this cloth with the colors reversed if I wanted to. Though I certainly noticed hand fatigue faster with this cotton than I would with wool, I had a much easier time than I usually do when knitting dishcloths.

I'm sure there will be more mosaic knitting in the not-so-distant future, but for now, I'm taking a little break. This completed cloth will be put away for a couple of months for my sister-in-law's birthday in March, and I will be getting back to my wool projects.

Though I have not yet had a chance to write up a review on Goodreads, I finished The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell on Tuesday evening just before bed, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. It reads like a memoir, but it is a work of fiction (though if you read the author's acknowledgments at the end, you'll discover that it is, in a sense, autobiographical). Last night I just barely started reading Olive Kitteridge. I'd been waiting for it from the library, but then my mother told me that she'd wound up with two copies of it due to a snafu with her address, so she gave me the extra copy. It feels a bit strange to be reading a physical book after getting so accustomed to reading ebooks, but I'm enjoying the writing and know it will be a good read.

We have a relatively normal weekend coming up, with a little added excitement in the form of the delivery of our new washer and dryer on Saturday (oh, the things that become exciting as you get older!), and I am hoping to find time to cast on my next sweater. I've already wound the yarn and swatched, so all that's left to do is cast on!