August Already?

It's hard to believe how quickly the summer can get away from you! Especially when you start to think about holiday knitting. You see, hen you're a slow, easily-distracted knitter like myself, you have to start your holiday knitting early. I've got some of mine finished, believe it or not. Still have a few things to do, but not many. I stopped on my holiday knitting to make a "Regular Guy Beanie" for a young distant cousin of mine who was fascinated by my knitting during a recent family visit. Since I made a beanie for him, I also had to make one for his younger brother. Which meant that I needed to make something for their sister as well. Both beanies are completed, and I've finished about a mitten and a half. I should be able to finish those up this week. Speaking of mittens, have you discovered the Cloisonee pattern by the Yarn Harlot? It works up pretty quickly, and I love that it looks more complicated than it really is. :-) I'd started a "Bigger on the Inside" shawl for myself, but laid it aside to get these little "cousin projects" finished. Then I have another UFO that I promised a friend some time ago. I really need to finish that up before going back to my shawl. But I wanna work on my shawl. It has little TARDISes (TARDIi?) On it and is just the thing for a Whovian like myself. So many projects, so little time!

Cloisonee Completed!

Oh, what a fun project this was!  I will definitely knit this one again, just with a different yarn.  I love the way that the cuff looks so intricate, but the look is accomplished with an easy-to-learn stitch.  I'm so glad that I tried it, and so glad that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee wrote a pattern that was so easy to follow.  I'm currently trying to finish up some of my many UFOs; if not for that I'd cast on another pair of these this evening!

Loving Cloisonee, But Not The Yarn

I adore the Cloisonee pattern....I mean ADORE it!  The cuff makes it look like a really tricky knit, but it's easy to read, just challenging enough to keep me awake, and the finished product is just lovely.

But the yarn I'm using......well......I keep trying to think of a gentle way to say this, but for the first time I feel like Knit Picks really let me down.

I wish I'd started this project back when I bought the yarn (about a year ago), because if I had, I would have sent Knit Picks a whiny e-mail and they probably would have done something about it.  (Because their customer service has always been awesome.)

But, I waited so long that I wouldn't feel right about asking them for a refund now.  The yarn is lovely to hold, soft and comfortable in your hands.  But the number of breaks in it is just unspeakable.  They're not complete breaks, usually 3 out of 4 plys.  Just enough that I have to unknit enough stitches to leave myself enough of a tail to weave in, cut the remaining thread holding the yarn together, and start with a fresh length.

I've grumped and growled so much trying to get my second mitten knitted because of the gazillion ends I'm going to have to weave in when I'm finished with it.  Not to mention that I've unknit nearly as much as I've knit just because of the icky yarn.

Knit Picks' Swish Worsted?  Never again.  Lesson learned.  :-(

A New Set of Mittens

We've had some truly weird weather in my little corner of the world in the past few weeks.  There have been temperature swings from one day to the next of 35 degrees F.  It's nuts.  One morning this week I left the apartment to go to work carrying a light jacket over my arm.  It was in the 60's and the air had a tropical sticky feel.  By that afternoon I was wishing I'd carried a much heavier jacket to the office....and a hat.....and a scarf.....and MITTENS!!

The next day involved bundling up to the max before going outside.  I poked around in my "scarf and mitten" drawer and was mortified to find that all my hand-knit mittens were in dreadful condition.  It's unbelievable; I'm a KNITTER and I don't own a decent pair of MITTENS??

So when I awoke this morning and looked in my UFO basket beside the recliner (I always knit for a little while on Saturday mornings.  It helps me get ready to face my household drudgery and keeps my downstairs neighbor from hating me for vacuuming and doing laundry too early on a weekend.  *LOL*), I thought "So maybe I need to knit mittens for myself instead of working on this stuff this morning."

I'd purchased the Yarn Harlot's "Cloisonee" pattern a year ago along with some Knit Picks "Swish" worsted specifically intended for knitting myself mittens, but for some reason had never knitted them.  So today is the day.

I admit to a bit of trepidation; I've never knit a pattern by a knitter as accomplished as Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.  I hope I have enough skills.  I'm getting ready to cast on, so wish me luck!