New and Old

A new project. Yes. It's been a while since I have had the chance to play around with something new. This one has been peculating in my brain for months and has finally broken the queue and stomped to the front of the line saying "what about me!". So yesterday I cast on and had no trouble at all getting through 1 ball just to see what it was going to look like. Not much. I guess you can't see the rest of the sweater but it's all there every time I look at it. I have it on, I have lost those 20 lbs, and it looks great. Does this help? - big collar with the pattern across the Fronts which will cross, no buttonholes, attached with a stick. I haven't decided whether it will be a full sweater or a shrug. I'll see when I get there. But I can't get carried away with this. I am also knitting the second Pine Cone sock.You're right I did get carried away just for a moment there but I will do some work on this sock. I will.
-Deb

P.S. Commenters:
Samm, cables are so much fun and this one works out really well. Cables give you 'a big bang for your buck' - I had to explain this expression to a french canadian friend, so for anyone who is confused, a buck is a dollar.
Jed, I don't know if I'm going to knit the second mittlets or not. My queue of projects is getting very restless and all those project ideas have been so patient through all the hat knitting that I don't think I can put them off any longer.
I still have little piles of very hard snow in the yard but grass is trying to turn green around them. Hoorah. Today it snowed and looks lovely. It's covered up all the grayness and looks pristine again.

Little knits

Precious little knitting going on around here or should I say precious 'little knits'. It's time for small projects which can be done quickly.These are all in the same pattern. The Aran weight, on the left, was super fast to knit and is really comfy.So here we are with our three hands. The fingering (sock yarn) mittlet is being worn by my son. The longer Aran and the regular worsted mittlets are adorning my hands. They all fit both of us very nicely. Isn't ribbing great stuff?

Now I can let myself start something new. Hmm, a new sock, a sweater, maybe a shrug? And I did have one more hat idea I wanted to try. I'll have something cast on by Monday. I have all weekend to contemplate all the possibilities.

-Deb

P.S. Commenters:

I hope you enjoy the Swing Coat, Samm. Sounds like you had a fun road trip. I haven't been to the Needle Emporium yet but I try to visit a couple different stores every spring.

Teamwork

Last evening I phoned Mary, my pattern checker, for the latest set of corrections and suggestions for the hat booklet. We had a wonderful time discussing different aspects of the patterns and comparing how we would word different sections of the text. I hung up the phone to discover that we had been talking knitting text for 2 HOURS! Phew. That's a lot of "I said it this way, could I say it any clearer?" and "I need a comma where?" and "we said this here, should we say it the same way over there, or something slightly different?". This morning I went over the changes I had made and the changes Mary suggested and it's looking pretty good. Consistency is always a big issue through a booklet when you have patterns from many different people but we're that much closer now. After that I went for a long walk to clear my head.So I haven't really done any knitting today. But yesterday I ripped out the last row of this mittlet about 4 times. Argh. But now I'm finally happy with the decrease round and have cast off. So thrilled was I that I cast on another mittlet in Shelridge Farm sock wool. And it's working out well too. I'm working it with 2 circular needles which I am not particularly thrilled with. I've been knitting quite a long time and am perfectly happy knitting with double pointed needles so I find the 2 circular needle system a little, uhm, well, . . . messy. What do you do with that other needle, it just flaps around. I do see that this is a great system for newish knitters who may find knitting with 5 double pointed needles much like wrestling with a porcupine. I gave it a good shot but I'm going back to my dpn's. It's great to have a choice isn't it?

This pattern comes in 4 weights, Aran (heavy worsted), Worsted, DK and Fingering (sock) yarn. I'm going to try one more in Aran (my favourite weight, if you were wondering) with my double points and then it will be time for a photo or two. Just in time for spring.

-Deb

P.S. Commenters:

Hi Jed, I love my mug. You're right, it would be so cool to have dishes with cables on them.

Thanks for your vote for the mittlet, Samm and Priscilla. I'm liking all the wool weights I have done so far. I'm going to end up with 3 single mittlets in 3 different colours and wool weights. Should make interesting wearing.

present

Look what came to roost in my house. Is that the coolest mug ever? A friend of mine was in Florida and it jumped right off the shelf into her hand. We had just been talking about a knitting book which would be all white and how different that would be. It is now my official tea mug.

It's almost spring here, at least the snow banks are dimishing somewhat, so it seems appropriate weather to be test knitting a mittlet. Although mitts are still required outside most days we have had a couple of above freezing days which means I should have a pair of these in my coat pocket. I, of course, knit the right hand first which makes it pretty difficult to photograph with that other hand that doesn't know how to do anything at all. I have one more to knit to finalize this pattern. The weather should be perfect for them by then.

-Deb

P.S. to Commenters:

The Huggy Bear cross over sweater starts with the collar. The edges of the cross over are worked with the body as you work down. Nothing is picked up afterwards. After you cast off all you have to do is sew the 4 buttons on and you are done. Terrific eh?

Valerie, I'll pass on your comment to Bernice. This would certainly look lovely on a little girl.

Huggy Bear

Bernice Vollick has designed for Cabin Fever for several years. And now, ta da drum roll please, she has released a new pattern to http://www.patternfish.com/patterns/2577 under her own name. Congratulations Bernice.

This little Huggy Bear cardigan is knit from the top down in one piece and is terrific to knit. Wouldn't it look smashing on your special little one? She will have more patterns coming out soon. Retirement has really unleashed a knitting dynamo! If you like knits for babies and toddlers check her out her blog and see what's coming next - http://mommabearknits2.blogspot.com/ .

-Deb

Last Hat

It's starting to come together. I have finished all the hats. This is the last one.We are going to photograph the hats on their own so you can see the hats clearly. Our thinking is that the sizes go from Newborn to Large Adult so putting a person in them might lead someone to think a particular hat is only for a child or only for an adult. Then we are going to show families with hats on so you can see the range possible.

I went to a friend's house yesterday to try to ease some of my overused muscles in her hot tub. It was dark and the stars were out, it was beautiful. Still rather sore today though. Did I mention I knit 7 hats over the weekend? No photos, too busy stitchin'. Now the fun begins because it actually starts to look like a booklet. Yes!

-Deb

Colour

I'm trying to mix it up here. This is a traditional Nordic style hat in red, burgundy and black.
Which I have redone with a variegated.This is Naturally Aspire, another singles in a great colourway. http://naturallyyarnsnz.com/y_aspire8ply.htm
As you can see I am in the coloured hat section. Here is another in Cabin Fever Northern Lights chunky http://www.cabinfever.ca/CFyarn.html . It went up very quickly indeed.
And this is the original teal/green colourway. I've hung this hat up for the moment since it is a beautifully sunny day outside, even though it's -8 degrees, and I think I need a short walk down to the library and possibly a nice cup of tea.-Deb