Woven Fingerless Gloves



Woven Fingerless Gloves
Pattern from book "Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders"
Yarn:  Jojoland "Melody" superwashwool (fingering weight)





What a super fun knit.  I had these done in a little over a week and I loved that I could actually memorize the pattern, which is rare for me!  If the woven pattern does look familiar, I recently used the same textured pattern in a coffee cup cozy. I can see myself making this pattern over and over.  The gloves fit me perfectly!



Glove #1 had great color variation



Glove #2 had very little color variation.  Great pattern just not the best choice of yarn for this project.  Gloves fit great and I love them despite the color flaws. 



Cashmere Coffee Cup Cosy

I mentioned the website called http://www.knitpurlhunter.com/ in my last post. She has a cute coffee cup cosy pattern on that site available for free.  I started to make the cup cosy but after several rows, I discovered a mistake in my knitting (whoops...I missed some of the twisted stitches)... so I frogged it. It was not the end of the world; I was not happy with my yarn in that pattern.  But I do want to make the cup cosy on that website some day.

I ended up improvising the cup cosy pictured above. The yarn is Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in fingering weight. The colorway is "Butterfly Kisses" and it's a left over from a shawl I made earlier in the year called "Ginkgo Shoulderette Shawl".  The yarn is yummy... it is soft and plump and contains cashmere.  I was tickled that I could eeek out yet another little project using this yarn.  Too good to go to waste!

Here are some notes on how to make this Coffee Cup Cosy.

• Using US Size 2 1/2 (3.0 mm needle) double pointed needles, cast on 56 stitches. Join to knit in the round.
• k2,p2 ribbing for 7 rounds.
• Follow chart for basket weave "woven stitch" (chart below is from Sock Yarn One Skein Wonder book).
• Work Rows 1 through 8 of chart a total of 4 times (fewer or more times for a shorter or longer cup cosy; end with a Row 4 or a Row 8).
• k2,p2 ribbing for 7 rounds
• Bind off loosely in pattern (knit the knits, purl the purls).



Striped Infinity Scarf



I am making a rather boring simple cardigan sweater for myself in black yarn (a cotton/acrylic blend from my Mom's stash called Sierra Pacific Lil' Grins).  But... Oh My!!!! BooorrRRRiiinnnggg to knit!   I should have added some lace or cables... something, anything to make it more interesting to knit! The sweater will be great (I hope!) when it's all done but I took a bit of a break from the boring black thing to knit a colorful scarf.  The pattern is called Striped Infinity Scarf (pattern link is HERE).  I used my yarn called "Zauberball" in the colorway called "Durch die Blumen" (translates to "through the flowers"). When I saw the yarn, I thought... "Watermelon!"

I was worried I did not like this scarf. I actually tried to give it away to my local yarn shop owner but she declined, stating she makes scarves but does not wear them because she gets too warm.  Despite my disappointment with the way my scarf turned out (I couldn't figure out HOW to wear it!), I asked my son to take some photos of me in my scarf to post on Ravely. When I tripled the scarf around my neck, I loved it!

Wrapped around my neck three times.  Love, Love, LOVE it!

This pattern is on a very nice website called http://www.knitpurlhunter.com/ 
Lots of GREAT patterns (some are free and some are for purchase). 
Check out the site for some great designs!

Happy Easter

Easter brings back fond memories for me. Really, all holidays do. My mom always made holidays extra special. I will always say my mom made the BEST Christmas stockings and the BEST Easter baskets. Always a chocolate bunny and always a stuffed plush toy... a duck, a bunny... in fact I still have one. Meet Chuck Duck. As you can see he is well loved. He plays a lullaby if you wind him up.

Chuck Duck

I have lots of memories of our entire family of five sitting around the dining room table decorating eggs. I remember still decorating eggs as a teenager. Mmmmm, I can smell the vinegar in the dye. On Easter morning, we had traditional Easter Egg Hunts and I can just just about smell the bright green, dew covered grass and flower blossoms on apple and plum trees. I can picture some old family photos of me and my sister posing in our matching Easter dresses, sewn by our mom. Throughout the day on Easter, when ever someone wanted to eat a hard boiled egg, one family member would challenge another family to a war or duel. You face off with your opponent, each with an egg firmly in your hand, and aggressively tap your egg against your opponent's egg, and if you egg shell stayed intact... well then... you were the "winner".

One of my very favorite Easter Holidays was a weekend where we knew we were going to be away for the holiday. My parents put me on the telephone with the "Easter Bunny" so we could tell him we would be gone for Easter. We asked him to come to our home a week early and he did! (Turns out the Easter Bunny was our neighbor Tom). On Easter Weekend, our family went snow skiing (we lived in California at the time). I was the youngest in our family so while others were skiing, I went to day care. For Easter, the kids in day care were piled into the back of a snow cat... you know, like a tractor used to groom the ski slopes... I remember it being like the back of a pick up truck... like a hay ride in the snow. We were taken up the mountain to a grove of pine trees where we hunted for eggs in the snow. When we went to the ski slopes in California, it was always sunny and pretty. Yes, that is my favorite Easter memory indeed.

I hope you had a nice Easter Holiday. This year, my husband and son have spent a bit of time driving to and from tennis matches about 1 1/2 hours away from our house... Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon, which has given me considerable time to work on a few knitting projects. Here's a sneak peek...

A pattern called "Striped Infinity Scarf" knit up in Zauberball  sock yarn in the colorway:  "Durch die Blumen"

English Translation: Through the Flowers



A small cotton blanket called "Serenity"

The Emporer's New Mitts

Do you recall the story of the Emporer and his new clothes?  I do.
A clever gal on Ravelry created a similar "pattern" and made it available for free on Ravelry today. So far, over 275 Ravelry members have already completd the project.  Apparently this is a magically quick knit. If you are looking for a good chuckle, read more about this pattern.  Also, I HIGHLY recommend you check out the completed projects and read what folks have to say about this project.

The pattern link is here:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-emperors-new-mitts

Cheerful "Cable My Big Toe" Socks are Complete!

I cannot believe I forgot to show off my latest socks!  These are my cheerful new socks. The pattern is called "Cable My Big Toe" and it's found in the "Sock Yarn: One Skein Wonders Book" that I got awhile back. This was my second effort with this pattern. On the first go around I could not adjust to the small needles and the number of stitches in each round.  The socks are knit on US size 1 (2.25 mm) needles and there are 72 stitches per round.  While that is a small, tight knit and a lot of stitches, it creates a very nice fabric and a terriffic fitting sock on my feet.  It's not that easy to see but there is a cleft between the big toe and the remaining toes so one can wear these socks with flip flops (when I was growing up, we called these sandals "thongs").  I love my socks!  I actually wore them to my knitting group with my flip flops last Thursday. I felt a little silly but I LOVED showing off my latest socks!  I can see myself making these socks again.