Abnegation Knitting

I’ve been busy lately. I made a quick headband with a 100 yard skein of 100% wool yarn I bought off of ebay last summer.

It’s such a shame I wasn’t able to keep this. I love the pooling of the colors and the texture of the basket weave pattern. I do have two more skeins of this yarn though, I will probably be making myself one of these… 😉

Here’s a quick picture of another commission. It’s a hat for my friend Chris. I used a slip stitch  rib to create the alternating pattern. This is another I want to keep for myself. I’ve decided on a name for this one (I’ll be writing up a pattern); Stevedore. It’s the name of a knot that looks similar to the loop of slipped stitches. I’ll be posting more pictures to go with the pattern soon.

My next commission is a pair of legwarmers for a dancer friend of mine. I bought three skeins of Silky Wool XL (80% Wool 20% Silk) at 104 yards per skein. I’ll be working on size 10.5 US needles. I just hope I have enough.

Wish me luck!

A New Year

With the new year a little over a day old I decided that maybe I should think about what I wanted to different knitting-wise this year. I would like to add one square each day to the Blanket. It ,unfortunately, has been languishing in a box next to my chair for a couple months. I added a square last night while my brother and I were watching a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I’ll post pictures once in a while to show some progress. Another goal of mine for this year is to knit a weather scarf. That is, to add a row (or two perhaps) each day based on the weather. I’ve color coded ten degree increments and  will continuously add onto it. I’m imagining a sort of Doctor Who-ish scarf. Very long and very warm.

While I was on vacation  with my family I knitted up my first pair of toe-up socks. I knitted up a pair in Claudia Hand Painted yarns (100% extra fine merino wool, at 175 yards a skein I used just over one skein) with about five inch cuff in a K3 P3 ribbing. I used the universal toe-up sock pattern posted on knitty.com. I absolutely loved these socks. The pattern allows you to customize the patterns using a series of simple step by step instructions.

In the background you can see the snow. We’re expecting anywhere from  3 to 9 inches tonight and tomorrow. I’ll be glad to bundle up with my afghan and all my wips. 😉

On the plane ride home I knit a cowl from the borealis yarn. I did the entire thing (not counting swatching) while we were in the air. It kept my sanity while the baby in front of me would not stop screaming.  I know I was planning on knitting a hat but as I was reading ,on ravelry, comments about the yarn I noticed that a lot of people were saying it wouldn’t stretch and/or bounce back. In short, it had no elasticity. That turned me off from knitting a hat.

I decided on a cowl because, in this climate, sometimes a scarf just doesn’t cut it. I could wear a cowl underneath to keep any spots that the scarf doesn’t cover warm. Like tomorrow, when it’s supposed to be -3 degrees Fahrenheit. I cast on with a K2 P2 ribbing, hoping that it would lend the yarn some bounce. It did very nicely. I cast on about…. 64 stitches and just knit until it felt long enough and bound off using the YO bind off to keep it from being too tight to pull over my head. I even managed to seam it up before we began our descent.