Busy Bee...

I have been busy :o) over the last week or so and lots of things are starting to come together...

Jane of Janes Probably Knitting and I had been discussing between ourselves about the distaste for knitting gloves, mainly due to all that itty bitty knitting of fingers.... so we decided we would have a glove along together to gee each other on into getting the gloves knit....

I started a pair of fair isle gloves for a Christmas present... the Hand Painted Gloves by Karendipity but despite having done 2 pairs of her Mitts I couldn't get on with these so as life is too short for projects your not enjoying I frogged them last Friday.

Now knowing Jane is knitter supreme and quick too... I thought I'd better come up with something quick, as otherwise she would have finished her 2nd Selbuvotter mitten (scroll past the fibre) and have completed her gloves too....

Anyway I decided (foolishly perhaps) that I would do my own simple fair isle glove; it would have plain cuff, fingers & thumb (I didn't want to be bald for Christmas & I have other things to do) and there would be no purling involved except in the rib (read that as no left handed purling with contrast colour!)

So armed with several basic glove patterns and Shelia McGregors book The Complete Book of Traditional Fair Isle Knitting... I actually came up with a fair isle glove pattern... I still can't believe I have and I keep picking up the glove and showing my husband and saying look I've done this I can't believe it! (it's wearing a bit thin now ;o) )

So here it is.... I still have the RH one to do... but I'm going to type the pattern up 1st and then follow my instructions and if successful I will put it up as freebie for people....

This leads me nicely onto something that Natalie of The Yarn Yard has set up which is called p/hop (pennies per hour of pleasure) you can read more about it here, but In a nut shell it allows you to freely make a donation (it's not compulsory & isn't attached to the patterns when you download) large or small for free patterns that you use and the money is going to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Moving on to completed objects. I want to make my friend a pair of slipper socks for Christmas, so I bought the moccasin soles (Regia) & I used some of my handpsun that was too thick for socks but were perfect for this.

I followed the pattern that came with the moccasin soles (size 40/41) but followed the pattern for 42/44 as I thought I'd got size 43 soles (don't ask me how). As you can see the upper stops a bit short and I don't like it but they are OK for me and as I've discovered they're great for spinning in... I can't spin in my stocking feet as they slip on the treadles. and am conscious that the wood on the Rose is quite soft and easily dented, so with these I don't have to worry about grit and such likes getting embedded into my treadles from my shoes and marking them and they keep my feet warm too :o)) so a happy mistake and useful too....

I've also completed another 2 pairs of Christmas socks....
Kaffe Fassett Landscape - Earth


Regia Jupiter - Camouflage

and to finish off a bit of bright colour to brighten up November.... This is Sunny Side from Spunky Eclectic... it will become sock yarn ;o)

More Finished Objects :o)

Many thanks for all the kind comments about the stole.... I did enjoy knitting it which does help


Anyway here are a couple of finished items for you.... more socks for the gallery (along with lace I enjoy knitting socks). These are a Christmas gift for my friend Janet.


Kaffe Fassett's Landscape in "Caribbean"

Very nice colours and I quite like stripes that aren't always regular.... I could have lived without the Olive green and brown in there but who am I to criticize Kaffe Fassett's colour sense?????

The only thing I did find with these colours was that sometimes when I was knitting when I was a bit on the tired side I did find the colours a bit 'strong' on the eyes.... I have my eye on the "Fire" colourway for myself at some future date though.....

On the sock knitting front I am on with the 2nd sock of the Trekking pair in the Autumn colours and I am well on with the 1st sock of the Lana Grossa "Magico" pair, quite enjoying doing the pattern as I've never knit it before but not my colours; I'm not keen on greys and browns mixed together....

I finished the baby bolero on Sunday after picking up 333 stitches and knitting for 11 rows and sweating all the way if I had enough yarn...

I had two balls of Patons Fairytale 4ply in Sugar Spun (215m per 50g) and the pattern was for Sirdar Snuggly 4ply (226m per 50g). I was going to do something when Sarah was born back in February and I never quite got the enthusiasm to start but then realised that I had no more of this yarn so would have to make something quick if I was still going to use the yarn.

I found this sirdar pattern in a sale... 2 balls of 4ply for either 6 - 12 months or the 1 - 2 years size... yes you can guess which size I picked can't you? Being ever practical, yes the 1 - 2 years size!!!! so bearing in mind I had 32m less than stated I embarked....

It wasn't until after doing the back and both sleeves together that I realised I may not have enough yarn..... anyway I managed to get the back, 1 sleeve and 1 front out of the 1st ball with ohhh 1m left.... there was hope...

I finished the 2nd front, theoretically I should have enough yarn but when you pick up 333 stitches and every time you knit a row the ball seems to shrink dramatically I sweated a bit and thought well it's a picot edge, push come to shove I can always finish the last couple of rows & cast off in another caolour as you won't see it..... but I didn't need to phew!!!! in fact I think there's about 10m left, what was I worrying about? Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing???....

Anyway here it is...

On the lace knitting front I have done 3.5 repeats of the first pattern of the Honeybee stole... I'll post a photo in a day or too, apart form socks for Christmas that's my only knitting on the needles at the moment I'm being good ;o)