Round up

Hello!

It feels like it has been ages since I blogged about any knitting content, when really it has only been a week, strange! I think it is because it has been a very busy week for me, and I have only managed a couple of little posts about the holidays. Well it is time for knitting content.

First up! The Bella's Mitten's for my sister's christmas present were finally finished today. I finished the main body yesterday evening but couldn't bring myself to fiddle with the DPN's for the thumb until this afternoon. My sister doesn't like modeling things for me so I only managed to take a picture of one what with holding the camera with my other hand, but here it is:

I really like them I have to say, if she doesn't wear them I might just steal them back, they are really smooshy and warm because I held two strands of the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino together. I like the colour too, purple is my favorite colour but it doesn't really suit me, it is just the right colour for my sister though so I hope she enjoys co-ordinating them with her outfits.

All I have to do now is finish the scarf. I decided to stop doing the scarf so that I could use what was left after knitting the mittens at the end of the scarf and get a bit of extra length out of it. Well it turns out there is quite a bit left so I should get a fair few repeats extra and I am rather glad that I wont have little bits left in my stash.

So:

Pattern Name: Bella's Mittens

Yarn Used: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in 013, around 3.5 balls, maybe a little less.

Needle Size: 5 mm, 100 cm circular, magic looped.

Problems: The yarn became a bit splitty when I was doing the decreases, I think this was a combo of juggling two strands and my knitting getting a bit tight, the needles just kept going through.

Modifications: I chose to do the moss stitch palm pattern again as that is how the originals are Tonia likes things to be correct.

Skills Learnt: I magic looped this, and this is the first project I have done that on, I did a trial swatch a while ago but haven't used the technique throughout a project yet, it was much more enjoyable than managing the DPN's. I had also never held two strands together before and although it wasn't particularly enjoyable it was torturous either.

Knit Again? If you look back through the blog I am actually half way through a pair for myself!

Score: 7/10 I liked these but the little things that frustrated me made me bring the score down.

Now for a few things I have acquired. As presents I got a couple of knitterly things. Two more Harmony stitch dictionaries (I only need the edging one now, which is on order) so that I can start getting creative with colourwork, which is something I haven't done yet, and try out some more cables.

I also got the Cath Kidston 'Sew!' book which has some great things to make in it and even comes with the fabric to make a little shoulder bag.

I only got this one skein of wool for christmas, though I did get money to spend on more. I had been wanting to try out Noro but it's price and my lack of creativity had always stopped me from getting some, Mum jumped in though so now I can see if I can find something that will make the colours knit up nicely, I am thinking maybe the Noro Hat or maybe a shawlette so that I can really show off the colours. It is the sock weight Kureyon and a lot of shawl patterns seem to work with a skein of sock yarn so I shall hunt. I have a couple of other sock yarns at the moment too (and two more to come in the post, stay tuned) so I wont be detracting from my sock knitting abilities by doing this and I want to make this into something more then socks as it was a christmas present, and is therefore special.

I have recently signed up for something on Ravelry called the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup, basically you sign up for a term, get sorted into houses and then take classes, each class has a requirement for homework and your homework is a project which you propose and then finish within the time frame for points. Points obviously win your house points. I am a big harry potter fan and so I am looking forward to this, I literally can't wait to be sorted. I am hoping that this will be something to keep me from losing my mind now I am job hunting again too. Hopefully I will be able to make my skein of Noro into one of my class projects.

A couple of other things that arrived via the postie are these lovely balls of yarniness:

These came from Loop, that fab shop in Islington which I rave on about quite a lot, on top is a skein of Malabrigo Worsted in Ravelry Red to go with the Blue Graphite colourway I already have which I am going to use in my first ever colourwork project. I am planning on making these Herringbone Mittens only without the pom-poms (I am not fond of pom-poms, see Koolhaas hat for why, a crime against knitting my Dad made me commit there, he did like his hat on Christmas Day though!)

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get a Blue Duffle Coat with red toggles and red tartan lining. I have been after a blue duffle coat for a very long time, I have Paddington bear calendars and always wanted one. I have also always wanted red wellies and this year Santa brought me some red Hunter wellies for christmas, well a red and blue outfit requires red and blue mittens, so I finally decided what I would do with the blue Malabrigo I had bought. The colours match my coat perfectly, a really dark navy and a really bright red. I am waiting to cast on though to see if it will fit into my HPKCHC projects!

This next yarn is some very nice Cascade 220 in Chocolate. Another yarn I have never used before and one lots of people talk about so I am looking forward to using it.

A couple of weeks ago I said I was going to knit these French Press Slippers for my Mum's birthday, well this is the yarn for them, It will be my first felting project so I have been reading up on hand felting as I don't trust my washing machine. The needles I need are on order and now it is just a matter of waiting until the post gets back to normal after the holidays.

Hopefully I will have a Bella's scarf FO post soon, I am looking forward to getting back to not present knitting, and an update on recently ordered things next week, especially something winging its way over from the U. S. of A. which I am a little excited about!