Squirelly Socks

I got my squirrel socks done a couple of days ago. The recipient seems to like them and has worn them three or four times since I gave them to her. These were a fun, easy and quick knit. They are a basic cuff down sock (60 sts on 2.75mm needles) with a short row heel. I worked the squirrel pattern, from Squirrelly Swedish Mittens, into the top and the toe. I used Patons Kroy 4 ply sock yarn; not the softest stuff but a perfectly fine yarn to knit socks out of.

In other knitting news, my bird mittens are nearly done. I have finished knitting both, though I think I may rip out and reknit the thumb on one. I wasn't catching the yarn on long floats the first time round and I find the thumb a bit tricky to put on because of this. Once the thumb is reknit it will just be a matter of tucking in ends, sewing up the picot edging and putting the final details on the bird. Then they will get a good washing and blocking and will be ready to go. And after they are in the mail I will be able to get back to working on my Raven shawl.

Merry Christmas

I think I am finally over my cold. I am using only slightly more than the average person's number of kleenexs per day. The cold really did knock my knitting schedule off course, though. I am, in fact, still working on Christmas knitting.

By tomorrow evening I'm hoping to have these socks finished for Ken's sister. They are a basic top down sock with short row heel, but I jazzed them up using the squirrel motif from the Squirrelly Swedish Mittens. I'm really happy with how they are turning out and I'm just hoping to have the second one done in time.

I'm also hoping to get these mittens finished and in the mail. They will be a late Christmas present but I think the receivee will forgive me.

Good mail

I'm still not feeling 100% but I think I have recovered my will to knit. I'm slowly working away at the lovely Irtfa'a and I have now cast on for one of the wonderful Bird in Hand mittens. I'm not sure all of my planned knitting will be done by Christmas but at least now I'm felling that it might be finished someday. This cold really seemed to target my knitting energy and I'll be glad to see the last of it.

Just in time to cheer me up and help me along the road to recovery I received this wonderful yarn in the mail.

It is a lovely sock yarn from Perchance to Knit. What makes it particularly nice is that I won it thanks to Ravelry's Sock Knitter's Anonymous group. Every month they have a challenge and so far I've managed to complete a pair of socks for each challenge. When time is up they randomly draw from among the finished entries and prizes are sent out. My Highland knee socks and a random number generator won me this great skein of yarn. It is and 80/20 merino/cashmere mix so I'll have to find a really nice pair of socks to knit it into.

'snot much knitting

I've got a bit of a cold and it is really interfering with my knitting. It started out as a sore throat and lack of energy and now it has added runny nose to its repertoire. I've been spending most of my time laying around the house which one might think would lead to a lot of knitting getting done. The problem is that while I think I feel up to knitting I do not feel up to all of the work that goes into casting on for a new project. I should be working away at a hat, a pair of mittens and two pairs of socks but I can't organize myself enough to cast on for any of them. The only thing I have started is my Irtfa'a shawl, which means I'm spending my time feeling stuffed up and out of it and working on a complex lace shawl. I seem to be capable of following the instructions but it is taking me forever to identify where I have made mistakes.

Maybe tonight I will be able to work myself up to casting on for nice simple sock that goes better with congestion. Wish me luck and a speedy recovery.

Reveal

I feel like I'm coming down with a cold and I have no real energy to knit. I am slowly working my way through a gauge swatch for my Irtfa'a shawl but that's about it. I don't usually knit gauge swatches for lace but this time I really want the shawl to come out the 'right' size.

Since I have no new work to show you pictures of I will content myself with showing you a colour photo of the "black and white" socks. The bright orange was going to be a dead give away that these were for my mother, who reads my blog and occasionally leaves snarky comments. Hi mom.



I would show a picture of the grey and red project, which was indeed the Anemoi mittens, but I forgot to take a picture of them all finished and looking like mittens. I guess I got a bit too much into being mysterious.

Finished in time

Well I'm back from my short and early Christmas trip home. I didn't knit as much as I might have; I was too busy visiting to have much focus for other things. I did, however, do enough knitting to get the presents done that I needed.

This is my favorite of my last minute finished gifts. I designed this monster hat for my nephew. It is a basic top down hat made of Debbie Bliss DK merino and some other left overs (you might recognize the green from my sweater and the white from the balaclava). I did a picot edge and made the brim two layers thick because I am a huge fan of warm ears.

I also got a picture of my brother wearing his gift with his son's gift. I think they go well together.

That didn't take long

No sooner have I said that I want to keep blogging everyday then I don't blog for two days straight. My excuse for not blogging on Sunday was that I didn't really knit on Sunday due to the presence of a bunch of papers I had to have marked by Monday noon. The reason I didn't blog yesterday was that I had too much knitting to do (and also packing of knitting).

Despite the snowy windy weather I made it to the London Knitter's monthly meeting and happily sat around with the other brave souls knitting away. Since part of the point of the group is to hang out and talk and drink beer, I left my colour work mitten at home and opted to work on the purlple hat (I love that typo so much I just can't help using it). It was a good choice and now I am nearly finished it. Hurray.

Purlple hat

Last night I cast on the cuff for my second Selbuvotter mitten. Today, though, I needed something more portable to work on while I did some pre-travel laundry so I finally cast on for my nephew's hat. Last year his favorite colours were orange and yellow but this year they are purple and pink. I found a really nice royal purple Debbie Bliss merino dk which ought to be soft enough for a kid's winter hat.

I'm knitting from the top down because I always find that I want to fiddle with the ribbing on hats once they are finished and can be tried on properly. I'm actually planning to do a garter stitch band instead of ribbing because I liked the effect on the balaclava.

I have had a strong desire to knit a monster hat, so I am also planning on adding some horns to the sides of the hat. To keep it from looking more Viking than monster I think I will also add a green yarn Mohawk. It should be a fun and crazy winter hat.

In other 'news', November is now over and I managed to post every day (though not always to the right blog). I didn't find it terribly difficult and so I'm going to keep trying to post once a day. Since this month will have some traveling I can't promise that I will manage every single day, but it will be my goal to come as close as possible. Since I've still got a bunch of projects lined up for gifts it shouldn't get too boring.