Knitting revival

I’ve had a knitting revival these past few weeks.  It could be that the early December snow inspired me to think about warm weather accessories, but it probably is because a few weeks ago I got together with some friends to knit and that felt nice.  We hadn’t done that in a while.

I’ll try not to mind the fact that I had to rip out what I spent a couple of hours that night knitting.  (It was a pair of house slippers that I knew were going horribly wrong but I thought I could save.  In the end, my perfectionist ways won out and I knew I could never live with their mistakes.  I’ll reknit them again sometime.)  Shortly thereafter though, I bought some Noro Silk Garden yarn to make the Striped Noro Scarf above.  And I love it so much that I want to gaze at it again and again.  It’s a thing of beauty, if I do say so myself.

Knitting this scarf has been both good and sad.  It’s good because I’m giving it to someone for Christmas and she loves colour and I hope she is really going to like it.  (She doesn’t read this blog, so I think I’m safe mentioning it here today.)  The sad thing is that as I was knitting it I realized that I really wanted it for myself! (Has that ever happened to you with a Christmas present?)  It was tough to let it go.

So I’m going to knit one for myself in January!

May all the gifts you receive this Christmas be as lovely as those you are excited to give to others.  Merry Christmas!

 

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It’s a wrap

This must be the week for finishing off knitting projects that have been languishing in my knitting bag for a while. I finally finished this little wrap cardigan for Chelsea and I hope it still fits! It is another item which proves that I hate doing the finishing details on knitting. I got all the pieces completed for this cardigan the week before Chelsea was born – in February – and it’s been sitting around ever since waiting to be sewn together and have the buttons put on. Sheesh! Where is the little elf that does all the finishing for me when I need him?

The yarn is the Sirdar Snuggly DK which is a really nice soft yarn to use for baby sweaters. Love the oh so modern wrap style.

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For the unborn

I finally finished knitting the above baby blanket (it hasn’t been blocked yet so forgive its not-quite-a-rectangle appearance) and have no idea who I’m going to give it to. Well I have an inkling but am waiting to see if my friend’s “baby-to-be” is going to be a girl. Chelsea doesn’t need another blanket, so this one is for gifting. It only took me 9 months to make it! I lost interest in it for a while (right at the picking up stitches part) and then had to force myself to finish it. I really like the looping pattern of it which was made by knitting into the row below.

Someday soon I hope it will make a tiny baby girl nice and cozy in her car seat!

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There has always only ever been one

Some time ago, I signed up for a toe-up sock knitting class at a local yarn shop. I was all excited – it was the first time I was going to knit socks! Even though I was a new knitter, I was assured by the shop employees that the class would be fine for my skill level.

Boy, were they wrong.

It turned out to be the only time I ever almost actually started crying in class, and it was about knitting socks, for goodness sakes! I just couldn’t seem to get what the teacher was talking about, and she didn’t have a clue as to how to explain herself well enough so that I got it. (She kept saying “Don’t you see?” – and I didn’t!) The little how-to book she had published that went along with the class didn’t help either. I got so frustrated that I felt myself on the verge of tears, which frustrated me even more! I almost got up and walked out of the class and never knit socks again.

Well I didn’t get up and leave – I stayed in the class over the weeks that it ran – but the result was that I only ever knit one sock of that pair. And I really did never knit socks again. (Or ‘sock’ again, since I never knit two socks to begin with…) Once the class was over, I put that mate-less sock in my sock drawer (far at the back) and left it there to languish. Until today. For some reason I remembered it, and pulled it out to photograph it for you.

Here it is, all lonely in it’s ‘one-ness’:

So now the sock has been remembered and brought out into the light of day. But the question is, should I knit its sister? Or quit while I’m ahead? Maybe this sock can be unraveled and have a new life as something else which would be much less stressful for me to knit! But in actuality, even though this sock was a bear to knit, it actually does fit my foot quite well. And I still have the other ball of yarn. And two of these socks might be cosy on my feet this coming winter. Sigh. Looks like I have another project for my needles soon. I’ll try to hold back the tears this time around too!

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Just a little hat

I’ve finished knitting the rolled-edge winter hat for Chelsea…so cute! I would still like to make an earflap hat for her for the winter too, though. She actually wore a winter hat briefly the other day (the same ‘handle’ pattern as above, but a different colour – I made it a few months ago) and she ended up pulling it off her head a couple of times quite easily. It seems that I’m going to have to make something with a little tie around the chin so our Houdini can’t get out of it!

But first I started this scarf for her to wear when she’s a bit older:

It’s my first time doing cables and in the beginning my knitting was so tight! But I seem to be getting the hang of it and it’s going quite fast now.

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