Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Not Really Back in the Habit of Blogging . . . .

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. . . but steadily working on a project that is long overdue. Mitten #1 of Chevron #3 is done, except for the thumb. I'll knit the thumbs one after another the rest is finished. I'm still really pleased with this color combo, and I like that the tip ends up black (like my heart). Of course, before I knit the thumb on this mitten or the other one, there's a little bit of cleaning up to do:


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Just a couple of ends. Maybe L_____ would prefer to weave in the ends herself, once we're sure they fit? It's interesting that on the inside, the mitten looks a lot different below the thumb (which was finished a long time ago) than above the thumb, where I stopped carrying the yarn across more than 3 stitches. I wish that the top looked as neat as the bottom on the inside, but I'm confident that L____ won't be snagging her fingers on any long floats up there.

I'm not expecting to have much time to blog (or do anything else) over the next month, but will check in when I can (if I've got anything to show / say).


Thursday, September 16, 2010

Sat on Their Park Bench Like Bookends

Knitting at Safeco


A really busy summer has morphed into a really busy fall! I am trying to get back into some regular routines--regular running, planned lunches and regular knitting have made some progress since Labor Day. Most of the knitting that I did over the summer was on sweaters, but I've realized that there are a lot of projects I abandoned in the spring that it's time to pick up again. Fitting other things into the routine (knit night & yoga) are next on the list, because both have been subject to fits and starts over the past three or four (or five?) months. And blogging, too, but that's sort of a follow on to the other things--I need to squeeze time in to blog, and I have to have something to blog about. It seems like I usually have one or the other, but rarely both at once. And of course fall is the busiest time of year at work, super crazy busy, which is why I'm looking for order, I suppose.

Anway, I've picked up some old friends and have been working on them! On the left, the second Yarrow sock, which has been almost-to-the-heel for a really long time. Very predictably, reaching the heel was enough to set it aside. The pattern is a really nice looking but simple rib that was my go-to project when I needed to NOT have to pay attention. Once I was close to the heel, it stopped serving that purpose. But the heel was turned last weekend, and now as long as I mildly watch the gusset decreases, it's a no-brainer until the toe, so it's once again a good take-along project.

On the right is a mitten that I started last December for a friend's birthday that it looks like I never blogged about. It's the third pair of Chevron Love (Rav Link) that I've started, and I set them aside for something else and then winter was over and I'm just getting back to them. It would be nice if I had them done for her next birthday (end of October), because I really meant to have them done by the end of 2009. The pattern is easy to knit and I've knit a couple of inches since starting them up again, so I'm trying to work on them a little every day so that they don't fall off of my radar again.

The first two pair of Chevron Love mittens that I've started are also not finished. The Appliance mittens are really, really almost done, but I need to reknit the top of the second mitten because it ended up being noticably different than the first one--I started the decreases in the wrong spot. They are earmarked for a friend who will need them weather-wise in the next couple of months, so I'm planning to transfer the Chevron #3 momentum to the Appliance mittens for an evening soon (maybe this weekend--it could happen). The Metropolis mittens are languishing because I need to rework the color sequence, and since they are probably for me, they are pretty low priority overall. I ran across them when looking for another project last week, and I still don't like the color scheme, so I'm glad I didn't soldier on with them.

With all of this good work on older projects, I did start a new project--a pair of socks. Will blog about them once I have a decent photo . . .