Reasons to Smile

Happy Friday, friends! It's a gloomy day, and there's a snowstorm coming, but I am trying to focus on good things today. I am convinced that there are always reasons to smile and be happy, though sometimes they can be harder to find. Today I want to share a few of them with you in the hopes that you can find some of your own.

First of all, Rainbow's mittens are done! I had a Zoom board meeting last night, and it lasted long enough that I was able to finish up the second mitten and weave in all my ends.

Obviously they still need to be felted, as you can see that they are bigger than even my hands at this point, but that will be easy enough to do. My own felted mittens could use a wash and a touch up, so I will throw both pairs in the wash at some point this weekend, and Rainbow's hands will finally be warm when she heads back to school next week.

I also reached a critical point in my combo spin: I finished spinning the last bobbin of singles on Wednesday and started plying yesterday!

This is a pretty crummy photo (see above re: gloom), but at least you can see it coming together. I anticipate that I'll fill at least two bobbins with yarn, maybe even three. Even a conservative estimate gives me about 1,500 yards of yarn from my five bags of fiber, so there is a lot of treadling in my future. In retrospect, my electric miniSpinner probably would have made sense for plying this project, but now that I've started on the Lendrum, I'm going to keep going.

Finally, we have a long weekend ahead, as all three of us are off on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And that timing is excellent, given that there's a storm coming in on Sunday that could make things very sloppy on Monday morning, so I'm happy we won't have to go anywhere. A long weekend is always a reason to smile, but this one in particular is making me extra happy. My brother and sister-in-law are taking a quick trip to see her brother's family, so Rainbow and I are dog-sitting Saturday night. We haven't seen our favorite puppy since before the holidays, I think since we had everyone over for her birthday in mid-December, so we're both looking forward to spending some extra time with him. And given that it's supposed to be very cold in the lead-up to the storm, what could be better than curling up with a puppy?

I hope you have some great reasons to smile this weekend, and if you're in the path of this storm, stay safe and warm!

Unraveled, Week 2/2022

First, I want to thank all of you for the kind comments and good wishes for Rainbow. She was able to get back to school yesterday (double-masked!) and is feeling great, other than a little bit of lingering congestion that may or may not be related. I was feeling a little gross over the weekend, mainly with sinus issues, but I started using my nasal spray again and they've resolved, so who knows. I did go back and get another PCR test yesterday -- which turned into quite an adventure when my first swab decided to jump out of the vial and I had to redo it! -- and it's currently being processed, so I hope to have results later today. [Edit: Just got results -- negative!]  The Mister has felt fine the entire time, so he's either not been infected or been asymptomatic.

It is Wednesday today, which means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers to talk about what's in progress and what I'm reading. I am still working on my sweaters (well, actively only on one sweater), but you know that old adage about how the cobbler's children have no shoes? This weekend Rainbow informed me that she has no mittens that fit her. So guess what I'm knitting?

I'm using the Snow Day Mittens pattern (Ravelry link), which I've used many times before, but I've had to go up to the women's small size. The pink here is some Knit Picks Swish Worsted and the heathered  purple is a 50% wool/50% alpaca from a sweater I frogged. I knit all of the purple part you see here during last night's Read With Us Zoom session, just to give you an idea of how quickly these work up. I've got maybe another round or two to knit before I start the decreases.

High on my list of priorities today, however, is finishing up the singles of my combo spin, because this is all I have left to be spun:

I am really excited to get to start plying and see what this mashup yarn looks like!

Reading has been challenging (in a good way) and fulfilling this past week. I finished two books:

 I had heard about Eloquent Rage on a podcast and tagged it as to read in my library app several months ago, and I finally listened to it over the course of a few days. Cooper is a writer and a professor of women's and gender studies and Africana studies, and this book (which she reads herself) is a collection of essays about identity, racism, sexism, and feminism. She is brutally honest about how she views her role as a Black woman in a patriarchal country grounded in systemic racism, and her writing is incredibly powerful. I have a feeling I'm going to need to read this again, in print, because so much of it passed by quickly on audio and I have so many things I want to highlight and take notes on. I gave it 4 stars.

I know several of you have already read and raved about How the Word Is Passed, and someone (forgive me for forgetting who!) mentioned right before the end of the year that the Kindle version was on sale, so I bought it immediately. I took my time with this one and read it slowly; Smith is a poet, which you can tell from his prose, and his writing almost begs to be read at a slower pace. In this nonfiction book, the author takes the reader along to visit a number of historical locations that have strong ties to slavery and reflects on how their legacy can be felt today, both in our society in general and in his own life as a Black man descended from enslaved people. Given his background, you'd expect to get a particular viewpoint, but I really felt that he went out of his way to try to get honest opinions and responses from the people he met during his travels, including white descendants of those who fought for the Confederacy. I had a lot of highlights in this book, but the most powerful one, I think, was the very last one:

"The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding;
it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it.
This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories."

I gave this book 4 stars.

I'm currently reading three books -- one on paper, one on audio, and one on ebook. The paper book is Braiding Sweetgrass, which is likely to be a long-term read for me. I am listening to Magpie Murders on my walks this week. It's been on my radar for a while, and when Katie mentioned how much she enjoyed it on Monday and it was available with no wait from the library, it seemed like kismet. I'm roughly a third of the way through it and am enjoying it immensely. Finally, after last night's Zoom discussion, I was inspired to read another Lauren Groff. Fates and Furies was mentioned as a favorite a couple of times, and I've been meaning to read it, so I finally borrowed it from the library and started it right before bed.

What are you working on and reading this week?

Unraveled, Week 1/2021

Good morning! I'll say this for taking a Monday off -- it's nice to wake up and have it already be the middle of the week! And because it's Wednesday, I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers to talk about what I'm knitting and reading, this time with a bit of catch-up because last week's post was more of a year-end review.

First, let's talk knitting. My first finished project of the year was one I'd hope to be my last FO of 2020, but it was not to be, mainly because I decided to spend much of my time on December 31 doing other things. It was a conscious choice that I don't regret, and it also meant that a bit of work on January 1 enabled me to start off the year with a finish.

These are a pair of Snow Day Mittens (Ravelry link) that I knit for me. I've knit several pairs of these in the past, both for Rainbow and for charity, but never managed to make myself one, so that was one of my goals last year. I used mostly Fibernymph Dye Works yarn for these -- leftover variegated Cozy (superwash Merino) from my Radiate pullover for the cuffs and a combination of Ridgetop DK (Romney/Falkland blend) and Floof (mohair/silk) for the hands -- but as you can see, it wasn't quite enough. The darker purple at the top of the hands is a wool/alpaca blend from a sweater I unraveled last year. I added it in, still holding the mohair/silk along for the ride, when it became clear that I would not have enough of the Ridgetop to knit all of both mittens. I knew I'd be cutting it very close from the beginning, so I'd already divided the Ridgetop in half to start with, and when it became clear that I'd need more yarn to finish, I added in the wool/alpaca so that I'd have enough of the Ridgetop to finish the thumbs and so that both mittens will match. While these are done in terms of knitting, they still need to be felted for them to be done done, and that will happens sometime this week. I'm going to be felting them in the dryer, and I'll be documenting the process because a couple of people have asked me how I do it.

In addition to casting on the new sweater for Rainbow, I've also started another new project that I'd intended to cast on last year but never got around to:

This is the start of my handspun Bousta Beanie (direct PDF link) using Southern Cross Fibre Scarlet Woods on BFL/silk and natural Clun Forest, I believe, from Ross Farm (it was spun from a small bag of fiber that I brought home from Rhinebeck in 2019, the leftovers from a giant bag of processed roving that we had divided up into smaller portions for the booth).

Now, on to the reading! I ended up finishing one more book on New Year's Eve to bring my 2020 total to 101 books, and I've already finished one book so far this year. Here is the last round of reviews:

Kym had recommended Girl, Woman, Other to me after our discussion of the last Read With Us book, so I'd put it on hold at the library and read it over the course of a week or so after I received it. I really enjoyed it, though it took a bit of time for me to get used to the unusual style. It's written without much punctuation, almost like a stream of consciousness, and while that bothered the editor in me at first, I soon came to like the way it seemed to push me along through the stories. The book seems like a collection of short stories focused on a group of women, but eventually it's clear that they're all interconnected -- and the ending brought that home in a way that I didn't expect and that, quite frankly, brought me to tears. I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads, but really I'd say it's closer to 4.5 stars for me.

I'd been meaning to read The Island of Sea Women for some time after I won a free Kindle copy in a Goodreads giveaway and finally got around to starting it in early December. It was an interesting story and certainly taught me quite a bit about Korean history that I didn't know before, but parts of it were a bit of a slog for me. It reminded me in many was of two earlier reads, Pachinko and The Mountains Sing, in that it details a period of great suffering and a volatile political situation and that it has gotten some good reviews, but all three fell a bit flat for me. This one, I think, could have benefited from a glossary of Korean terms; there were quite a few that were used a lot whose meaning I never was never able to figure out. I gave it 3 stars.

My last finish of 2020 was a bit of a dud. Confessions of a Curious Bookseller was an Amazon First Reads freebie for December, and I only chose it because I wanted something light and fluffy to counteract all the sad news. It was billed as "book club fiction" or some such, so I thought I'd give it a go even though it didn't have great reviews on Amazon. Although the writing wasn't bad, the main character was utterly unlikable -- and not in a dark, twisty way that can make for a great read, just in an annoying way. I joked in my review on Goodreads that a better title would have been "Delusions of a Curious Bookseller," and I only finished it because it was quick to read (and I made sure to finish it on New Year's Eve because I did NOT want it to be my first finish of 2021). I gave it 2 stars.

 My first finish of 2021 was the perfect antidote. Many of you have known about Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy fame for a while, but I've only just started listening to her podcast, What Should I Read Next?, and when she mentioned on her last episode in December that her book I'd Rather Be Reading was a Kindle deal, I snapped it up right away. It was delightful. If you're a reader who loves to talk about reading and books, then you'll love it. It's a quick read, too, at only about 120 pages, so I was able to finish it in just a few short reading sessions. An added bonus of the book is that it includes a bibliography at the end of other books about books and reading! I gave it 4 stars.

Right now, I am reading Monogamy, which I had put on hold at the library after Bonny reviewed it, and am about halfway through. I was hoping to get through a good portion of it yesterday, but I had to do actual work for much of the day (can you believe that?). I'm hoping I can finish it up today, because I just got a notification from the library app that The Splendid and the Vile is ready for me to borrow! I've set my Goodreads challenge at 65 books for this year, an increase of five over last year, and I feel like I'm already well on my way.

All the Way to Eleven

It's a special day in our house. Today, this young lady is 11 years old!

She's never been a morning person, but the promise of chocolate chip pancakes made it easier to get her out of bed this morning!

 

Obviously this birthday will be unlike any other, with a Zoom birthday party, but we're trying our best to make it as special as possible! And I've already promised that as soon as it's safe, she can invite as many people as she likes to a make-up party. For now, we'll have a quieter celebration at home with just the three of us. She'll have the dinner she chose (steak and green beans, with brownies and ice cream for dessert) and will get to open birthday as well as Chanukah presents tonight. It's not fancy, but it'll have to do.

Seeing as she's the star of the day, it seems appropriate the the FO I have to share today was knit for her:

Pattern: Fantastical Fox Mitts (Ravelry link) by Vikki Bird, size S
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted (100% superwash merino) in Allspice and White
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm)
Started/Completed: November 24/December 11

These were a fun knit and would have been pretty fast to finish had it not been for the fact that I had to knit them in secret, meaning I got maybe an hour a day to work on them in the time between when Rainbow went to bed each night and when it was bedtime for me. I think because of that constant starting and stopping, they actually took more time, in total hours, than they would have if I'd been able to sit down and focus on them exclusively for a day or so.

While this pattern is very well written and certainly very clever in its construction, I will warn you that it's very fiddly and has a lot of parts. You start with the mitten flap, which is worked top down and uses intarsia in the round (which is actually much easier than you might think). Next you work the fingerless mitt from the top down, joining the flap once you've worked a bit. The thumb opening is placed by inserting some scrap yarn and picking up for it later. The "face" is likewise picked up and knit onto the flap, and the ears (four of 'em) are worked individually in the round and sewn on. Finally the nose and eyes (buttons) are sewn on, and if you wish (and I did), you can sew a button to the back of the hand and add a loop to the top of the flap to secure it.

I'm already thinking of ways to simplify the pattern for the next time I make it (because really, how can I not make it again?). For starters, if the intarsia in the round intimidates you, it would be easy to cast on extra stitches and work the two sides of the lower part of the flap flat, then seam them. The face could be done in duplicate stitch. The ears could be picked up and knit on. And certainly embroidery could be used in place of the buttons on the face. I'm also thinking of the possibilities of using other colors and slightly different features to make the mittens look like other animals. And if cutesy isn't your thing, the pattern would be just fine to use for plain convertible mittens or mitts (it gives the option for an open thumb as well as a full thumb, and you could leave off the flap altogether if you just want a plain fingerless mitt).

I knit these with a little trepidation because it had been a full year since Rainbow had seen and loved the pattern, but I'm happy to report that she was absolutely thrilled with them! We've conveniently got a snowstorm coming tomorrow (the estimates I've seen range from 5 to 8 inches total), so it looks like she'll soon have a chance to actually use them, too!

Where the Time Has Gone

Several of you took me to task for the title of my last post. I think you all know by now that I'm not at all the type of person who slacks off from their responsibilities, but one of the downsides to having my home "office" in my bedroom and to be working from the chair where I normally sit to spin is that I see my wheel all the time and thus feel guilty when I'm not giving it attention.

The truth of the matter is that the reason I haven't been spinning as much lately is because most of my craft time has been occupied with knitting! I have three knitted gifts left to finish, and I'm not too concerned about meeting my deadlines, but I am also anxious to finish all of them so I can move on to new things for me. The top priority is the socks for my father, which seem to have some sort of black hole in them because they feel like they are taking much longer than a plain pair of socks should take.

I've actually even done a bit more since I snapped this photo this morning; the second sock now has a completed heel and I've started on the gusset decreases. Ideally I'll get this second sock finished in the next several days so that I can block them and then package them up with my mother's socks and some other things to send to my parents this weekend. The mail has been all sorts of crazy lately, and Chanukah starts Thursday night, so it would be nice if they could get their socks before the end of it. These socks should be perfect for knitting while doing other things, but the dark yarn does make things a bit tricky, especially because the yarn is a little splitty with my very sharp Addi Sock Rockets. I think part of the reason they're taking so long is because I'm getting 14 rounds per inch and I'm used to getting somewhere between 10 and 12 rounds per inch. I suppose this yarn is thinner than what I'm used to using for socks (it's 460 yards per 100 g rather than 400 yards per 100 g), but that still surprised me. I'm thankful that for my father-in-law's socks, I have a bit more time (I just have to get them done before Christmas, and we'll be delivering gifts in person).

Meanwhile, I've been madly knitting for about an hour each evening after we finally get Rainbow in bed to try to get her fox mittens finished in time. As I suspected, the second has gone much faster now that I know what I'm doing.

I expect I'll be able to at least finish the cuff of the second mitten tonight and maybe even start on the thumb. Not shown here are the four ears, which are all knit and will just have to be sewn on. The "face" of the completed mitten on the left is done as well, though it's flipping up right now, making it hard to see. It'll be sewn into place with a button. I was starting to think that I wouldn't have enough secret knitting time to get these done, but after what I got done this weekend, I'm feeling more confident. I think two to three more evenings on these should be sufficient to finish them.

One of the things I'm excited to move on to after the holiday knitting is done is a wrap using my Fibernymph Dye Works holiday mini skeins. Here are the first eight of them, enough to see the pattern that's forming:

They alternate between a semisolid and a white with speckles, with the speckles done in the colors of the semisolids on either side. That means I get a little hint of what the next semisolid will be when I open up a speckled skein, but even so I'm really enjoying the process of opening a little gift to myself each morning, even if it isn't a complete surprise. My plan is to use all the minis along with a full skein of fingering in an ADVENTuresome Wrap (Ravelry link). Lisa sent me the skein of pale gray last Friday, and I thought I'd have it Saturday or at the latest yesterday, because we live close enough that it generally takes a day for the mail to get from one of us to the other. Remember what I said about the mail being crazy? When the yarn didn't show up yesterday, I checked the tracking on it, and apparently it decided to go on a tour of the middle of Pennsylvania. Lisa lives in the mountain southeast of me. The yarn went from her to the local sorting warehouse in Warrendale, which is northwest of me. From there it went to Harrisburg (our state capital, about 2/3 of the state east of me) and then to Lancaster (even further east). Then it came back to Warrendale, and as of this morning, it's supposedly out for delivery -- though I'll only believe that when I actually have it in my hands. Is it any wonder that people didn't want to trust their ballots to the postal service?

WIPs and Reads and Minis, Oh My!

It's (already!) Wednesday (I love it when the second day of my work week is already the middle of the week!), and I'm joining up with Kat and the Unravelers today to talk about what I'm knitting and reading.

At the moment, my knitting is completely focused on holiday gifts. I am sorry to say that I am still in the middle of the first sock of the pair for my father. I swear this sock is knitting up slower than any sock I've knit before! At least I am through the gusset and somewhere in the middle of the foot, but I still have at least a couple of inches to go before I start decreasing for the toe. I never thought I would look forward to meetings, but right now I'd happily take some because it would mean dedicated sock knitting time.

One of the complications of having Rainbow home is that I can no longer work on holiday knitting for her during the day, and now that she's older, she's also going to bed later, so I am getting maybe an hour of knitting time a night. For the past week, I've been working on a pair of Fantastical Fox Mitts (Ravelry link) for her, and I'm only now approaching the end of the first one -- just the rest of the thumb and the fox's "nose" (on the flap) to go!

These have been a fun little challenge because the white on the flap is done using intarsia in the round, which I've never done before. It's actually a lot easier than I thought, just a bit fiddly because of how my stitches were arranged on the needles. Chanukah starts a week from tomorrow, so if I can keep up the current pace, I'll have the pair finished in time, even if these have to wait to be opened the last night.

One unexpected delight yesterday was remembering that on December 1 I could start opening up my holiday minis! I ordered what is essentially a yarn Advent calendar from Fibernymph Dye Works, as I have for several years (though in years past I opted for the fiber version), and once again Lisa designed the colors to blend into each other as you go through all 24 packages. Here are the minis from yesterday and today:

I have decided to use mine to knit an ADVENTuresome Wrap (Ravelry link), but just yesterday I realized that in addition to the minis, I'd also need one full skein of yarn. Lisa to the rescue (it's nice to have indie dyers who are friends!) -- I texted her asking about what color would work best so I could place an order with her, and she responded that she happened to have a spare skein in a pale gray semisolid that she'd pop in the mail to me. I'm not going to get started on my wrap until the holiday knitting is done or nearly done, so I told her there was no rush, but mail usually takes about a day to get from her house to mine, so I expect it'll be here soon.

In reading, I have finished only one book in the past week (I told you I didn't have much time last week!), but it was a good one.

I know from looking at Goodreads that a lot of you have already read and enjoyed The Great Believers, so I know I don't need to post a review to convince you to do so. I actually bought the Kindle book months ago, sometime in the summer (I actually remember doing it on my cell phone standing in our synagogue's parking lot, where we met up with my family so they could see Rainbow riding her bike), when it was a daily deal. I'd heard it was really good but honestly didn't know much about it, and I finally got around to reading it when I had a break between library holds. It's an extremely well written and heartbreaking story centered around the AIDS crisis of the '80s in Chicago. In many ways, it reads like a memoir. Highly recommend -- 4 stars from me.


I'm currently reading and trying to finish Glass Houses, the 13th book in the Gamache series -- I'm getting closer to catching up! I have about 100 pages left to go and think I've already figured out a key part of this mystery, but we'll see if I'm right. I've got about three weeks (or so my app tells me) until my next library hold comes up, so I'll be digging into one of the many books in my Kindle library next (or maybe -- gasp! -- I'll even read a real, physical book!).

I'd love to hear about what you've been knitting and reading these days in the comments!

Cross Another Off the List

The sudden change in our daily lives is meaning a lot of time at home, which isn't all that unusual for a homebody like me, but usually over the weekend we get out a bit. Obviously any plans we had before have been canceled, so now I have the perfect excuse to stay in with my knitting. Over this past weekend, that meant the perfect opportunity to finish up a project and cross another item off my 20 in 2020 list.

Pattern: Brackthaw by Faye Kennington, size medium
Yarn: Quince & Co. Finch (100% American wool) in Sage, less than one skein, and handspun Georgia "rustic wool"/silk/nylon
Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm) Addi Sock Rockets, magic loop
Started/Completed: February 13/March 14

These mittens have been on my want-to-knit list for a while, and I decided that the Woolly Thistle's annual mitten KAL was the perfect opportunity to finally do it. I'd already decided that I was going to use these two yarns for the mittens, both of which were in my FibreShare package a year ago. It felt good to use stash yarn for a pattern already in my library.

So let's talk details.

This pattern was a bit of a challenge not because it was hard but because of the level of detail. It's worked at a dense gauge -- 9 stitches per inch -- and, as you can see, has a very delicate design. Faye's pattern is very well written and easy to follow, but the charts might be a challenge if your vision isn't great. My sight is generally good, but I had to be very deliberate about keeping my place in the chart. Once I got to the second mitten, however, I found that the patterning was a little more intuitive to me, and the knitting definitely got faster as a result.

I made one modification and one error (that I could easily identify) in the knitting. As I was doing the decreases at the top of the second hand, I notice -- several rounds later -- that I'd done a decrease stitch in the wrong color. I wasn't about to rip back at that point, so I just used one of my yarn tails after I finished to duplicate stitch over the offending stitch as part of weaving that end in. I felt a little smug about it, actually, and though I know exactly where it is, I'm guessing that you can't see it, even if you enlarge the photo. The modification is likewise one that's not easy to spot: I did two additional decreases at the top of each mitten, a centered double decrease on each side (the palm and the back of the hand are separated on each side by three stitches -- white/green/white -- so I just decreased each set to one stitch). This meant that each mitten ended with a small number of stitches all in green, and that was aesthetically pleasing to me.

I generally don't block colorwork too aggressively, but these were a little lumpy because the handspun was a bit inconsistent and overall just a tad thicker than the Finch. I discovered that the top of my Knit Picks sock blockers were the perfect size and shape to stick into the hand, so after the mittens got a good soak, I stuck the blockers into them while they dried. The fabric is still not as even as it could be, but I have a feeling that as these get worn and rewashed, they will even out a bit more.

I'm completely delighted with how these turned out and now have an urge to knit more colorwork mittens -- and perhaps even design a new pair myself!

How are the rest of you coping with the new reality? It's been a long time since I had a knitting group to go to, but I'm finding that it would be really great to have one right now. Would anyone be up for a virtual knitting get-together sometime soon? I'm sure I could figure out Google Hangouts or something similar, and it would be great to be able to talk to some of you in real time while knitting. Let me know!

Finishing Streak

For a while there I felt like I was in a bit of a rut with my projects, but now the stars are all starting to align and things are starting to come off my needles! For starters, I finished my handspun socks:

Pattern: Louisette Socks by Ruth Brasch
Yarn: Handspun Fibernymph Dye Works Cheviot in Beach Wedding
Needles: 40 in. US 0 (2.0 mm) Knitter's Pride SmartStix, magic loop
Started/Completed: February 7/February 27
Mods: did my own toe and subbed a Fish Lips Kiss Heel for the heel in the pattern

These were a fun knit and, once I had the pattern memorized, a fast project as well. I definitely picked up speed on the second sock once I knew what I was doing. I can still see the mistake in the first sock (it's the one on the left in the photo, and the mistake is right at the bend of the ankle), but I don't think it's very obvious to anyone else, so it's staying in. I'm very pleased with how the yarn striped, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the Cheviot holds up in socks.

This is the first thing I'd knit with these needles, and while they weren't too bad to use, I'm not terribly impressed with them. The cable was rather a bother at times, as it would curl up on me and get in the way, and the inch markings along the cable itself were rubbing off as I worked. The markings on the needle tips, though, were definitely helpful to have (and I actually remembered to use them by the time I got to the second sock!), and the tips are good and pointy. I don't think they'll replace my favorite Addi Sock Rockets for socks, but they are a much more reasonably priced alternative.

If everything goes according to plan this evening, by the time I go to bed, I'll have another project off the needles, and it's a big one -- my Darkwater.

All that's left is that little bit of sleeve, maybe 4 inches or so. I've already put Rainbow on notice that we're having a girls' evening (the Mister has a work dinner), so that means a quick dinner so that I can get to knitting and she can get to reading a library book. If I can get in a solid two hours of knitting, I should be golden.

I'm also making noticeable progress on my Brackthaw mittens, which are now my main focus during my lunch breaks. Yesterday I finished up the thumb gusset of the first mitten, and now I'm flying up the rest of the hand.

Yes, it's dark and rainy again today. Why do you ask?

I had neglected to put my tapestry needles back into my project bag, so I made do with what I had on hand to put the thumb stitches on hold: I used the string from the tag from the Quince & Co. Finch I'm using as my waste yarn and got the stitches onto it by using it as my working yarn and pulling through each stitch I used. Was it the most efficient way to get the job done? Probably not, but it worked just fine -- and I felt rather smart as an added bonus, which is always a good thing.

Sometimes Mondays ...

are for staying home!

I think I mentioned last week that Rainbow had an extra-long weekend, with both Friday and Monday off, and I was going to be working from home on Friday. I decided to take today as a vacation day so the two of us could spend some extra quality time together, and it's been a great decision. There really is nothing quite like sleeping in on a Monday morning, especially when you're awakened by your favorite kiddo crawling into bed to snuggle with you. We did some cleaning and organizing in her room to start the day, after having a leisurely breakfast, but this afternoon we're planning on reading library books and crafting. I also figured I'd shift my regular blogging schedule this week because I had the extra time!

My current library book -- Ann Cleeves's White Nights -- is one I'd been waiting for from the library for quite a while and I was getting really impatient, so I was delighted when my hold came up on Valentine's Day. I think that my wholehearted embrace of the ebook over the last year or so is in no small part due to the fact that provided my knitting is something easy that doesn't require me to look at it, I can read while I knit. Thanks to this book and a couple of hours reading it yesterday afternoon, I'm now more than halfway done with the body of my Darkwater, which Rainbow was kind enough to take photos of me modeling (please excuse my disheveled look -- I figured there was no need for me to put on makeup or spend too much time with my hair if I'm not planning on leaving the house).

You can see that I've got a nice amount of positive ease, though if I'm honest, I'm a little worried about there being a little too much fabric in the yoke. I'm hoping that blocking (and adding sleeves) will help with the bunching, but I know it's because of my being so worried about those long floats and overcompensating by relaxing my tension. I'm sure using a thicker yarn than called for had something to do with it, too (the pattern calls for fingering worked at a DK gauge; my yarn is labeled DK but really knits up more like a sport, in my opinion). As long as it doesn't look like a potato sack on me,  I'll be happy, and honestly I wanted a slightly oversized fit anyway. It just boggles my mind a bit because I'm making the smallest size in this pattern, and while I'm smaller than I used to be, I'm not that small.

Meanwhile, when I've been in the mood for a project requiring a little more attention, I've been working on a new cast on, my Brackthaw mittens. I started these on Friday night and have worked on them for a couple of evenings. This collage shows you both the back of hand side (left) and the palm side (right) of the same mitten.

I'm using yarns that were sent to me in my FibreShare package when I participated last year. The green is Quince & Co. Finch in Sage, and the cream is handspun that came with only a small hand-written label indicating it's a blend of "Georgia rustic wool," silk, and nylon. The handspun is a bit thick and thin, which I don't mind at all, but you can see that it does mess with my tension a bit (you can see it most prominently in the corrugated ribbing at the cuff). It's always a treat to knit with handspun, and I rarely knit with handspun that's not my own, so I'm enjoying this. The dense gauge for the colorwork (9 stitches per inch) is a little hard on my hands, so I can't work on these too much, which is not a bad thing considering that the chart is also small and probably not great for my eyes, but I'm moving right along on them. I'm entering these in the Woolly Thistle Mitten KAL this year, my first time participating, and as long as I get them done by late March, I'll be fine -- of course, I'd much prefer to get them done sooner so I can wear them!

Plans for a Three-Day Weekend

It's another wet, cold day here in Western Pennsylvania. We had a snow/rain mix yesterday and are due for more of the same today. The gloom is really depressing, but today I'm not letting it put a damper on my mood because I have a three-day weekend coming up! Rainbow's school is closed tomorrow (for a teacher in-service day) and Monday (for Presidents Day), so I've arranged to work from home tomorrow and take a vacation day on Monday. All of that translates to much more knitting time! When I work from home, I can often get away with knitting because if I don't have any actual work to do, I'm good to do whatever as long as I keep an eye on my email. That works out perfectly because I set up my laptop next to my spinning chair to keep an eye on things and can knit or spin in the meantime.

One project I really hope to make a lot of progress on is my Darkwater; as of last night, I have about five inches of body done. For as much fun as the colorwork was to knit, stockinette in the round is really the perfect thing this week, as work as been busy and my brain has been absolutely fried by the time I sit down to knit in the evening.

That project bag is my current favorite sweater bag -- it's from Amy Beth of Fat Squirrel Fibers. I have several of her bags and they are all extremely well made.

I'm still working on my Louisette Socks as well. I turned the heel and have started knitting up the leg, but they don't look much different from the last time you saw them, so I will spare you from having to see another dark photo.

Right now I'm pondering mittens, mainly because my hands have been cold lately and the warmest mittens I have are actually a bit big on me. I happen to have two mitten patterns in my 20 in 2020 pattern list: the Snow Day Mittens, which I plan to make for myself to match (sort of) the pair I made for Rainbow, and Brackthaw, for which I'm planning to use yarn I received from my FibreShare partner last year. Today marks the start of the Woolly Thistle Mitten KAL, so I might actually wind  the yarn and cast on for the latter tonight. I know they won't be super fast to knit, but given that the high tomorrow is only supposed to be in the low 20s F, I'm certainly going to be motivated to get them done quickly so that I can wear them.

Whether or not you have a three-day weekend ahead to look forward to, I hope it's a good one!

With Time to Spare

I genuinely thought I might be getting myself in over my head when I set myself some pretty lofty knitting goals for this month, but it's looking more and more like I'll actually finish them. For starters, the gift for Rainbow's teacher is done and blocked!

Pattern: Sitka Spruce by Tin Can Knits
Yarn: Malabrigo Rios (100% superwash merino) in Water Green, approximately 1.23 skeins
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 7 (4.5 mm)
Started/Completed: May 4/May 28
Mods: did my left twists a bit differently than the directions

These were a fun, quick knit. My only complaint is that they seemed to come out a bit small, despite the fact that I did the beret version of the hat and the largest size of the mittens. I'll grant you that I did not swatch, because I know that I usually get the called-for gauge on size 7 needles with worsted weight yarn, so it's possible that there was a gauge issue, but going up in needle size definitely would have given me inadequate mitten fabric, so I relied on the characteristic of superwash wool to stretch when wet and gave the set a moderately aggressive blocking. I think if I were to knit the hat again, I would add an additional repeat of the pattern to add length. I think it'll be a jaunty hat as is, but it's not quite long enough to pull down over one's ears.

My only modification (if you can actually qualify it as that) is to change the execution of my left twists. The pattern calls for doing them by knitting into the back of the second stitch on the needle and then knitting the first stitch through the back loop; I knit through the first stitch normally, as I thought it would look odd to have some stitches twisted and some not, but I can see that twisting those stitches might result in a tidier twist. There is most definitely a difference in appearance between my right and left twists, so it's something I might try if I knit the set again. Actually, there's a good chance of that happening, as I think the yarn I have remaining is probably enough to knit a pair of mittens for Rainbow.

While I didn't have any issues with the pattern per se, I'm fairly certain I found a small typo in the pattern, and I'll be getting in touch with the Tin Can Knits folks about it. I also was not too fond of the way the thumb gusset was dealt with when it came time to put the thumb stitches on waste yarn; no stitches are cast on above the gusset for the hand, and instead the pattern instructs you to pick up three stitches in the small gap when you start the thumb and then decrease two of them right away. In the future, I might use an existing hand stitch for the base of the thumb gusset and then cast one on when I put the thumb stitches on waste yarn.

If you've been keeping track, the completion of this set marks the official end of the to-do list for the month, though I'm still hoping to finish up a pair of socks by the end of tomorrow. I don't think that's going to be a problem, as I've got most of the second sock already finished and will be working on it this evening. Apparently setting lofty goals can occasionally be a good thing!

Ready, Set, Dash

It's been quite a busy week, and I am very much looking forward to the long holiday weekend ahead. The weather forecast is not promising (lots of rain), giving me the perfect excuse to spend the days knitting, spinning, reading, and perhaps napping. Tomorrow also marks the start of the KnitGirllls' annual Stash Dash event, and I'll be doing my best to work my way through my yarn and fiber stash.

As far as my WIPs go, I am moving right along on my goals for the month. Last night I finished up the first Sitka Spruce mitten and started the second. The first mitten knit up very quickly, so I have no doubt the pair will be finished this weekend.

I've also managed to finish a sock, so there's a chance I'll still have a finished pair by the end of the month. I know I'll get some good knitting time in on Saturday afternoon, when we're going to see a Cirque du Soleil show.

Also on tap this weekend will be some plying and spinning. I've got a big list of things that I'm hoping to get done this summer, but I'll save that for when my brain isn't quite so fried. Have a great weekend!

I'm on Fire

When I started out this month with some pretty lofty goals, I had every intention of meeting them, but secretly I had my doubts. After all, I have a full-time job and a kid and a husband who travels for work, so my crafting time is the first thing to go when there are other priorities for my time. Because of that I'm pretty darn impressed with myself for how well things are going.

In addition to finishing up my sweater last week, I also completed the secret pattern sample (and blocked it, so it will be ready to be mailed off to the publication this weekend). I also finished up the Sitka Spruce hat for Rainbow's teacher on Sunday evening, and last night I cast on for the first of the mittens.

As if all that wasn't enough, I've decided to try to knit a pair of socks by the end of the month, too, in order to qualify for a knitalong (and keep me on track for the Box 'o Socks knitalong). So far, it's going very well:

This is Fibernymph Dye Works Squoosh 2.0, a superwash Corriedale/nylon blend, in Bring Me Orchids. It's a bit heftier than Lisa's other fingering weight yarns, so it's actually knitting up a bit faster -- the sock you see here was started on Friday, and I really only worked on it on Friday, a bit on Sunday night, and the past two days during my lunch break. Considering we have a long weekend coming up, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of finishing these.

I've already got the next pair of socks lined up thanks to the purchase and arrival of this sparkly skein of Fibernymph Dye Works Bedazzled in a colorway I've been lusting over called Impressionist Spring.

Also inside the package containing this skein was a skein of bulky weight for Rainbow that Lisa included. It made the kid's day!

The only bad knitting related thing that's happened in the past several days is that my beloved DSLR seems to be dead. There was an issue with the shutter mechanism, and my dear husband took it apart and tried to fix it, but now it only works intermittently. It would likely cost as much to have it fixed as to buy a new camera, and given that the camera is older than Rainbow, a new one is probably the route I'll go. Thank goodness for camera phones -- they do the job in a pinch!

The Mitten Factory Is Closed

It took staying up a bit late last night, but I'm happy to report that the last pair of holiday gift mittens is officially off the needles! Here's a look at the pile:

All of these were knit using Susan B. Anderson's Waiting for Winter Mittens and Fingerless Mitts pattern, with some minor modifications. I believe the original pattern has you put the thumb gusset in at the end of the round, but I put it in the middle so that the beginning of the round falls on the outside edge of the wrist/hand when the mitten is worn. I also used lifted increases rather than the m1s called for. I adjusted my needle size on some of the mittens using thicker yarn (those would be the pairs worked in Cascade Eco Wool; I went up to a US 6/4.0 mm for those), but most were knit on US 5/3.75 mm needles. The other yarns I used were Knit Picks Telemark and Merino Style (both discontinued), Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Blue Moon Fiber Arts Targhee Worsted, and Valley Yarns Amherst.

I can't promise there won't be more of these mittens, especially since I've pretty much got the pattern memorized now and I have lots of worsted leftovers that would make great mittens to donate, but I do need to take a brief break.

Finishing off that last mitten meant that I was now free to finally cast on my Gift-a-long projects! The first one to jump on the needles was a new-ish pattern called Eiswasser. I'm knitting this for Rainbow as a gift, and it's a surprise, so that means I can only work on it at work or after she's gone to bed. It's not going to be a quick knit by any stretch of the imagination (the cast on starts with 156 stitches, and that stitch count doubles once the ribbing is done to accommodate all pull-in of the cables), but I think it'll look pretty amazing.

The yarn I'm using is some Fibernymph Dye Works Bedazzled in Cake Pops that I bought several months ago with the intent to make something for Rainbow. I think the stitch count is going to be large enough that I won't really get stripes once I get to the cabled part, but that might be better because it won't obscure the stitch pattern as much.

The other GAL project I'll be starting this evening is the Dancing Leaves Cardigan I've been swatching for over the past week. I did finally get gauge on US 1.5/2.5 mm needles (yes, you read that correctly!), so it will be a very fine gauge knit and will likely take me all of the GAL period to finish, if it fact I can finish it by then. I figure that if I can limit myself to working pretty much exclusively on these two projects, I can get them done.

But who am I kidding? There's another project on the needles for when I need a break from thinking -- just a pair of plain stockinette socks in FDW Traveler (Lisa's sportweight base) in the colorway Coffee at Luke's. I cast them on after Thanksgiving dinner, thinking they'd be good to work on during the Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life marathon I had with my mom the next day.

I suppose it's probably not a bad idea to have a fairly mindless project on the needles for those times when I want to knit when Rainbow is around!

The Mitten Factory

Welcome to the mitten factory, where we make mittens all the time. You may remember that I decided last week that everyone in the immediate family was getting mittens for holiday gifts this year (excluding the Mister, who won't wear them, and Rainbow, who already has several pairs from me and gets more as she outgrows them). Two pairs were done several weeks ago, and after a good stash dig, I've got yarn for the five pairs that remain to be knit. I decided to go with the largest sizes first, as they'll take the longest. The current pair is an extra large being knit with some leftover Cascade Eco Wool on size 6 (4.0 mm) needles. I have about an inch of thumb left to knit before I can call these done.

I really love how thick this mittens are knitting up, and I'm tempted (once I've gotten all the gift knitting out of the way) to use whatever Eco Wool I have left to knit some really large mittens and felt them.

Here's the yarn I have selected for other pairs -- more Eco Wool in another shade, some deep-stash Knit Picks Telemark and Merino Style (both now discontinued), and some Valley Yarns Amherst that was in the goodie bags for Stitch and Pitch years ago.

I managed to finish my handspun shawl over the weekend -- the picot bind off took me quite a bit of time -- so that I can focus my attention on gift knitting. I still have to block it (which may just happen this evening), but it felt good to get it off my needles.

I do have one bit of stash enhancement from the weekend, and that was this beautiful skein of worsted weight from Fibernymph Dye Works that I had preordered and that Lisa was kind enough to bring to me at Indie Knit and Spin.

The colorway is called Smooth Sailing, Sunny Skies, and it was sold to benefit Hurricane Matthew relief. I didn't really need another skein of yarn, but I decided to splurge because it was for a good cause, and I'm glad I did, because I really love this colorway. I'm fairly certain I'm going to use it for a hat for me.

In light of all the gift knitting going on here, I didn't want to forget to mention that the Indie Design Gift-A-Long is happening again this year and will kick off next Tuesday (November 22) evening at 8 p.m. EST, with the sale running from November 22 through November 30. I will once again be participating as a designer, and this year I've been asked to be a mod as well, so if you're in the group, you'll likely see me around a lot.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have some mittens to knit!

One Down, Many More to Go

Given how quickly this year is flying by, I figured it would be a good idea to get an early start on holiday knitting. I still haven't made a final decision on what I'm making for everyone in the family (that's seven people, not including those I live with), but my father-in-law was fairly easy. He's a pretty plain and very practical guy, so a cozy pair of mittens and a matching hat seemed perfect. The mittens came off the needles on Tuesday.

Pattern: Waiting for Winter Mittens & Fingerless Mitts by Susan B. Anderson, size XL
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Targhee Worsted (100% Targhee) in Deep Unrelenting Gray, approximately 197 yards
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Turbos, magic loop
Started/Completed: October 11/October 18
Mods: shortened the length of the hand and thumb by about half an inch

I've knit this pattern before, and I'll knit it again (likely for another gift or two, in fact). It's well written and easy to follow, and I like the length of the cuff of these mittens especially. I really like this yarn for mittens, too. Targhee is a very bouncy wool, and the fabric is delightfully squishy worked at a dense gauge. The only modification I made was to shorten the overall length of the hand and thumb because they seemed incredibly long. I had the Mister try them on to be sure, as his hands are a little larger than mine, and I'm hoping they will work out okay for the recipient. I know that when I block them they will likely gain a little bit of room as well.

Almost as soon as the last end was woven in on the mittens, I cast on for the hat. The pattern I'm using is a free one, Two by Two, that is basically just a ribbed watchcap with a folded brim. That means pretty much just miles of 2x2 ribbing, which is easy to enough to do without having to pay close attention. I'm using what's left of the skein (which my scale tells me is about 214 yards); the pattern calls for about 200, but I figure if I'm short on yardage, I have a couple of swatches from the sweater I originally knit with this yarn that can be unraveled and used to finish off the crown. This isn't going going to be a very interesting knit to look at, as it's just ribbing for about nine and half inches before I start the crown decreases.

I'm using a size 5 (3.75 mm) needle for this, though I will fully admit I did not swatch. The pattern calls for a gauge of 22 stitches over four inches in ribbing, but I always have a hard time measuring gauge in ribbing because I'm never sure how much to stretch it, if at all. I was getting about five stitches per inch in stockinette on this mittens with a US 6, so I figure going down one needle size should be good enough. Plus the whole hat is ribbed, so it'll be nice and stretchy. And if it doesn't fit him, it will fit somebody -- I'll even happily keep it for myself!

When an Oops Becomes a Design Feature

Even though I am a perfectionist in most aspects of my life, when it comes to my knitting, most of the time I will leave a mistake if it's not blatantly obvious. I think I've become okay with this MO because my knitting and spinning time is limited so I'm reluctant to use that time to undo something unless it's going to be a real issue. I call such a small error a design feature and move on -- especially if I'm knitting a gift for a nonknitter who isn't going to know the difference.

That's certainly the case with the mittens I've been knitting for my father-in-law. I'm using Susan B. Anderson's wonderful Waiting for Winter Mittens & Fingerless Mitts pattern, which I've used several times before with great success. This is a fairly basic mitten pattern, and there's really nothing in it that's difficult to understand. Because I had made it before and because I knew that there wasn't anything complicated involved, I decided not to print out the full pattern again this time but rather to jot down the important steps and numbers for the size I'm knitting on a small scrap of paper that I could keep in the project bag. I knew that I should be finishing the thumb gusset with 17 stitches, and I'm fairly certain I was counting stitches when I was finishing up the thumb gusset and putting those stitches on scrap yarn. And yet, when I went to finish the rest of the thumb and put those stitches back on the needles, how many did I have? Not 17 but 15. Yep, I was two stitches short, and of course my this point I had already finished the hand of the mitten, so going back to fix the error would have meant unpicking the end I'd already woven in at the top and ripping back half the mitten. Sorry, that just wasn't happening.

Fortunately, with only two stitches missing, the solution was pretty easy: Instead of picking up one stitch in the gap, I picked up three. This actually turned out to work very well, as it prevented the large holes you sometimes get when you pick up stitches like this. And honestly, though the thumb gusset is two rounds short, I don't think anyone will notice. The mitten still looks perfectly fine to me, and the Mister tried it on for size just to make sure. (I also tried it on, though it's much too big/long for me, but I discovered that if I flap my hand quickly, it makes a fun sound effect that sounds like a helicopter!)

I've been spending most of my evening knitting time in the past week or so focusing on Rainbow's school sweater. We got a bit of a reprieve from the cooler temperatures this week (I think we were actually expected to break a record high here today), but I know she'll be needing it soon. I finished up the body to the yoke late last week and started the first sleeve over the weekend. That was finished last night, and the cuff of the second is done.

Rainbow slipped on the first sleeve this morning, and it seems to fit well. (She did say that the lower arm/cuff are a bit snug, but they don't look to be uncomfortably so, and I'm sure I can block out a bit more room.) Given how quickly the first sleeve knit up, I'd say it's highly likely I'll be ready to start the yoke by this weekend!

Pattern Release: Bridge Walker Mittens

Here in Western Pennsylvania, it's really started to feel like fall. It usually warms up by the afternoon, but the mornings have had a definite chill to them. At this time of year, I feel the cold most acutely in my hands. That means it's mitten weather!

Designed to coordinate with the Bridge Walker Hat, the Bridge Walker Mittens were inspired by the same metal work and feature the same colorwork motif (just scaled down a bit to fit on the mittens). They're knit in the same squishy Fibernymph Dye Works Cozy worsted weight. They're graded to three sizes -- child (teen/adult small, adult large) -- and depending on the size you make, you may be able to get a hat and a pair of mittens out of just two skeins of yarn (that's all I needed for my samples).

What you can't see in the photo above is the surprise inside the cuffs -- a cozy ribbed lining!

This lining is optional, but I highly recommend it. The ribbing not only helps the mittens to stay on by hugging your wrist, but it also helps to keep you warmer by warming up your pulse points.

I've decided that this year's gift knitting for the family is going to be lots of mittens, so you may be seeing more of these off my needles before the year is out!

Buy the individual pattern:

Buy the whole collection: