Grey Tweed Cruiser Mittens

Now that winter is here, there has been lots of snow to be shoveled from our walkway - I decided the D was in desperate need of some hand protection this year, given he has been mittenless and gloveless for about 2 years in a row now. Of two yarn choices, and he chose the Plymouth Tweed in charcoal grey, which made a nice slubby texture in the mittens.


The pattern is called Cruiser by Cailyn Meyer (free download on Ravelry) and I cast on for the size large. I made a few modifications as I went along:

• I started the afterthought thumb hole after about two pattern repeats (4" from the cuff) because I didn't like how the cuff looked when you started the hole earlier, and I left 7 stitches on scrap instead of 6.
  
• I still picked up 4 stitches on each side. With decreasing, I decreased 3 stitches every row.
  
• For the hand I had a total of 8 pattern repeats before decreasing the top, and I made my mitten a little pointier and left a total of 10 stitches at the end for grafting.

This is a really quick knit because of the aran-weight yarn. Even though I used US6 needles (to get a denser fabric), I think I started around Christmas and finished in less than a week, which is probably my record for fastest knit in 2009!

Daina Mittens

A finished project to show you! The Daina mittens are finally complete. This was my first fairisle project, and when I started them I was knitting a bit too tight, so the gauge on the two mittens are a little different. Of course, the second one fits a lot better, but I didn't have the heart to rip out all that strand work. Plus, this was the stickiest yarn (Knitpicks Palette) I have ever used and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have survived a ripping.

Pattern: Daina Mittens by Tuulia Salmela
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette in Black, cream and cloud
Needles: US2 dpns

I started these sometime in October, finished them in early December, and then they sat in my knitting pile forever waiting to have the ends woven in. It's always like that eh?

I love the picot edging...so pretty. But a pain to sew down. I avoided having to sew by just folding it over and doing k2tog when I started the mitten portion. Still, on tiny needles, it was kind of a pain.

The inside of the mitten - not bad for a first time fairisle.

And there you have it! It's nice to finally blog about some knitting again. I have another finished beret to show you so it won't be long before another post!

In other news, today is our 5th day of 'real' life in Bethlehem. D started work on Monday and moved into his shiny new office, and I helped him unpack some books and things to get settled in. We have otherwise been trying to get all our utilities and services set up, which takes a while. Yesterday we got our Lehigh ID cards, which lets me use the gym I think, and get 15% off at the school bookstore. We now have the biggest variety of insurance ever - car, tenant, life, health. Tomorrow we go to deal with the car plates and new licenses.

One of the strangest things I have experienced so far is setting up garbage and recycling service. Unlike in Toronto, waste disposal services are not provided by the city. There are a zillion little private sanitation companies, small-business style, that you set up an account with just like getting a phone or something. Ours is run by a couple who have been doing it in the neighbourhood for years. Each house can choose a different company, which is also weird - doesn't that mean there are endless garbage trucks stopping in during the week to pick up? Anyway, it makes you think twice about how much garbage you throw out, cuz it isn't cheap!! $96 for 3 months! But that's if you have 4+ bags each week. I went with the more sensible option of buying a book of 10 'bag tags' which you attach every week to your trash, and it should last about 8 weeks. I will never take Toronto garbage service for granted again!

Friday Fair Isle

Happy Friday everyone!

First of all, a big big congratulations to my talented MIL, Alison, who was recently accepted into the Deep River Valley Artisans Guild in Ontario! Congratulations! This is a big deal! It is really quite amazing what she has accomplished in one year. She has definitely moved on to being a full fledged ceramics artist now. She makes some really incredible things. I'll take pictures of her work next time I visit her, and perhaps in the near future she'll have her own website up and running! Or at least an Etsy shop of some sort!

I've started my first fair isle mitten, and it's actually not as difficult as I'd imagined. My main challenge so far is trying to knit more loosely than usual, which will probably mean that the second mitten will be totally different than the first, but what can you do. Hmm. I guess I could have gone up a needle size, but apparently I thought of that too late.

These are called Daina Mittens by Tuulia Salmela. I am loving the pattern - easy to memorize too, which is a plus. If only I had a little bit of red yarn for the little dots between the circles, but, oh well. I am really trying hard to make do with what's in the stash right now.

This Sunday we are traveling to Bethlehem, PA for the next 5 days to find ourselves a new home. We've got several appointments lined up, but I'm finding that a lot of people don't allow pets. How can they turn away a cat as cute as Gatsby?? Anyhow, I just hope that we're not still hunting by the end of our five days. Aside from apartment hunting, I'm hoping to stop by the Tuesday night knit group at UnderWired to meet some new friends, and on Thursday I'm booked for a tour at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. I can't wait to see Philly - I've heard only good things about the city.

Have a good weekend, y'all.

Wish us luck!

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year!!

It's been a while since my last entry. Hopefully you've all had a restful and enjoyable break, and are ready to face work/school (or in my case, a very messy craft room and the joy of starting job hunting). We had a really good visit filled with delicious food (as usual), skating, movies, drinks, dinners, crafts and boxing day shopping. And this time I even lugged home two huge baguettes from Fred's Bread (I know, I know, I said Ace Bakery was the best, but sometimes you just have to make do with what's nearby and available). And luckily the border crossing officials didn't look in my trunk, although I think bread is fine. They probably would have confiscated them just seeing how delicious they looked.

Now that the holidays are over, I can finally do my Christmas recap. And tomorrow, if the light is good, I'll show you the new toys I received as well as progress on some projects.

The Christmas giveaways:

Pattern: Various internet readings, stitch dictionaries & Stitch n' Bitch Nation

Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted

Needles: US 8 dpns

Basic Cabled Socks for H - I was obsessed with making labels

Four coaster sets to give away, more labels

I tried not to look ridiculous taking photos of everything I ate and drank, but here's one from Christmas day - brandy champagne cocktails. It kind of captures the bulk of how we spent the holidays. We were in a perma-celebration mode.

And here is D's mum's Christmas cake, looking very pretty and cheery (and deliciously boozy - Christmas cake has definately grown on me over the years). The flowers are made with royal icing, I think, and the flower stamens were dipped in yellow food colour. The hearts were piped onto parchment paper, dried, and the attached with thinner royal icing.

And here is my friend A, the recipient of some Knitticrafty mittens, proudly modeling them on a freezing Yorkville morning. And (so far) the only person I know to explicitly state her desire to be featured on my blog. Done! I'm not one to prevent someone from reaching their goals.

More to come!