A 4-Thumb Night

With as much snow as we've had here in Southeastern Pa this past month, I've been trapped in the house surprisingly often.  This has forced me to read a great many books as well as watch some interesting Netflix shows, play with my camera and knit.  So far this week alone I've knit three pairs of mittens.  I showed a pair yesterday for Valentines Day but hadn't done the thumbs on the other two pairs.  Thumbs tend to be so fiddly that I put them off and then what happens but you've got a bunch of that kind of work to do all piling up.  Argh... the life of a snowbound knitter!

As we settled in last night to watch the first episode of the second season of House of Cards I forced myself to knit those thumbs.  I whipped out three thumbs in an hour, a thumb every 20 minutes seems reasonable but is actually sort of slow as it's just not much knit fabric.  With picking up, knitting-in-the-round on a very few stitches and then the decreases and finishing in the threads, it just takes awhile.  On top of all that I had to wait to complete thumb four as we watched a foreign film (Haute Cuisine).  I couldn't fiddly about with a thumb while reading the subtitles.  I guess I'm a good knitter just not a great knitter.

These mittens were knit using Elizabeth's Pattern, size 7 needles and Andes 100% wool yarn.  We are planning on sending these mittens to the Maine Mitten Project unless something more urgent arises.  These photos are pre-wash and blocking.  Knitting buddies, stop giving me the Edvard Munch Scream look, I know, I'll go do it now!

Just Enough Ruffles

Another scarf finished...if I keep this up all my Christmas presents will be knit before summer!  This is the Just Enough Ruffles scarf knit in Manos Silk Blend.  I can't say enough nice stuff about both this pattern and this yarn.  The yarn is soft, floats through your fingers, feels great and it really warm.  The pattern is fun; you cast on a lot of stitches, knit in short rows for awhile creating the curve that hugs your neck and then you increase like crazy and cast-off just before you want to give up on the darn thing and some how all those increases becoming charming ruffles.  Just enough for a not so girlie-girl like me.

I don't usually model my own work but with my daughter off to college...who else?!?  I ran outside between raindrops and did a quick session in front of the camera.  I needed to pop a little flash in my face to open up my eyes but come on, ya'll came to see the knitting!
Micheala - I've now shown my mad modeling skillz...come on girl, I need to see you!

January Green Socks...Finished!

Hi All,
I finished my Green, January socks. I worked in the tails last night and photographed them today. They still need to be washed and blocked but I was so excited that I had to post my finished socks. This pair was as plain as I could make them. I used my standard toe-up sock pattern (Pat Shorten, "Topsy Turvy: Toe Up Socks!, Cast On, Summer 2003, p. 69). This pattern came to life after I knit up several pairs of Kim Salzar's great pattern. I started making slight changes to make me happy and then I taught a class and had to write up the pattern.

I've included a detail of the figure-of-eight toe:

(I've stuffed the toe with a wash tag to get it to look "normal")

The turned heel:

(That's a lacrosse ball filling out my heel...I do long for a human foot...)


Finally, I used Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind-off, recommended by Cat Bordhi in her YouTube video. Sorry EZ but I will NEVER go back to the sewn cast-off, it's stretchy but not nearly so perfect as Jeny's bind-off!

Well it's time to wash, block and wear these puppies...Yeah, for hand knit socks!!

Guess what color we choose for February...Pat