Every year I do the same thing- the weather gets cold and I start knitting. The other night we had snow flurries (this is a big deal in Nashville, they practically closed the interstates), and last night the temperature was in the teens. We're not cut out for that kind of cold down here! You northerners and your insulation and snowplows, thinking we are just wimps below the Mason-Dixon line. That's not quite it. Everybody freaks out because no one knows how to drive in snow, houses are built to get rid of heat, not save it, and you just don't find the winter clothes here that you would in, say, Quebec. We're ill-equipped.
Anyway, I have been knitting like a fiend. Last February I went up to Massachusetts to visit my mom, and while I was there I got some gorgeous super soft merino/angora blend yarn. I started a scarf while I was there. It's in moss stitch with a border and it is soft and soooo pretty. But I put it down in April when the weather got warmer and I started sewing, and never got back to it until about 3 weeks ago and now it is done. For some reason I made it about 7 feet long, but long wrappable scarves are really in now, right? Right.
Once that was finished I needed a little project, something not so long and tedious as a scarf. So I found some odds and ends and started making sleeves for paper cups. At the office we've just recently changed from styrofoam to paper coffee cups, and this will protect my hands from burning and also keep coffee warmer longer. And they're environmentally friendly because you don't have to use a cardboard sleeve or double cups. And they make super wrist bands as well! I think I'll be giving these to a bunch of people at work because they knit up fast and they'll be a good Christmas present with a Starbucks gift card.
OBSERVE the cables on that yellow sleeve! I've never done them before and they were SO much easier to do than I ever expected. I'm going to be playing with them a lot more from now on.
And finally, since the weather is colder and I don't have any gloves that I like (gloves make my fingers cold because they're kept separate and then it feels like I have orphan fingers), I decided to try a pattern
for fingerless gloves. I finished the first one last night and I started the second one this morning. This is an angora/tencel blend yarn that is really soft, but I don't know how warm this particular pair will be (the pattern has weird increases for the hand and I used a light colored yarn to see them better). Next time I might do them in something heavier. Although I'm wearing the one that is finished as I type, and I have to tell you this thing is pretty toasty. I have 4 or 5 different patterns for these so maybe I'll just whip up another pair that look a little more finished at the top and bottom. I like garter stitch just fine (knit knit knit) but I found a pattern with some ribbing at the top and bottom and around the thumb, and that sounds like either a good challenge or a way to drive me crazy. We'll see which one it is.
1 comment:
Those cup sleeves are SO CUTE! I used to knit scarves and such when I lived in VA, but it's too hot here for that. The sleeves would be great, though. And great job on the cable knit!
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