little cat feet

It rains, and it fogs, and it mists, and it threatens to snow but hasn't quite yet.

So I knit.

Some of these are holiday presents, and some are just for me. I'm not saying which is which, just in case a recipient happens to read my blog.

These are the "English Dales Mittens" from Folk Mittens by Marcia Lewandowski. I'm still on a quest to get rid of my wool remnants in order to make more room, and these helped quite nicely. The pink is from Snow Sky, and the white and purple that peeks out at the bottom are actually from Crichton, if you can believe that. The cuffs have a double layer of knitting, which makes them stiff enough to stand up by themselves. When worn, they flare just enough for coat sleeves to fit underneath comfortably. I cannibalized the fair isle mitten from my last post because it turned out so small, and these were a nice solution.

I've been in love with the railway socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush for years now. I finally knitted a pair, using Scheepjes sock yarn and using up some scraps from my New England socks for the stripes. I'm already thinking of other color combinations for heels and toes, since I have so many tiny leftover balls of sock yarn, and I like those hidden stripes.

I also finally finished the Alpine Lace scarf from Victorian Lace Today. The Crystal Palace lace yarn washed and blocked beautifully. The minute it hit the water it opened up all by itself, and blocking only consisted of a few careful pins to keep the edges straight. I discovered that the way the pattern is written, the scarf will not be symmetrical on its ends, so I knitted one extra pattern repeat of the leaves before beginning the garter stitch. If you knit this you might want to do the same - I think it would look rather funny to only have 2.5 diamonds at one end, and 3 at the other.

Next week - more mittens, a sweater, socks...maybe sunshine, too?

finishing

After packing, moving, and then unpacking all my worldly possessions, only one question remains:

Where did I put the darning needle?

I did manage to finish the Railroad socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. One sock still needs its ends woven in, and until that happens they are both waiting for their turn in the wash. I also slogged through all 37 repeats on the Alpine lace scarf from Victorian Lace Today and then discovered that I had so much yarn left I might as well do a few more. That one is also waiting for a few ends to be woven in, and then a good blocking.The gray knitting and the gray weather started to get to me, so I found some scrap wool and started one of the mittens from Folk Mittens. I've just gotten past the thumb. Moving into an old farmhouse (read: there are only 2 closets) made me realize just how much space my yarn takes up. I'm going to try and knit up as much as possible and then tackle the quilting fabric I bought recently. The space situation is bad enough that I won't be buying any more supplies until everything I currently have is gone. Luckily, I have enough brightly colored mitten wool and skeins of lace to not make this too much of a chore.

And the bread is an Irish American soda bread from The Joy of Cooking. Most heartily recommended, particularly as toast.