Knitterly Knits

This is one of my favorite blogs. Stephanie Pearl-Mcfee, aka the Yarn Harlot, writes about knitting. How interesting could that be, you say? Very, I say. She has the best and most ridiculous sense of humor I have ever come across, while also including a lot of astute cultural criticism. She is the only person I have read who can write about knitting without being so sappy and stupid it makes me want to throw down my needles and go take up football. On top of all this, she is a fantastic knitter. She is always posting photos of her work, and every time I read her blog I am inspired to go knit so more.

That said, I have decided to write a knitting blog of my own. I've been living and breathing knitting lately, I've written some about it, talk about it incessantly, so it's time to put my wool where my mouth is and show you some photos.



















This is the best hat I have ever worn, if I do say so myself. It knit up fast, the yarn is soft, I'm happy with evenness of the colorwork, it fits like a dream, and it's super warm. The cuff folds up so there are two layers over my ears, and I can pull it down further in the event of an icy wind. It really couldn't have turned out any better. Here is a photo of the top, just so you can fully appreciate the awesomeness that is my hat.
























Moving from the top of the body to the bottom, socks!
These socks took me five months to make. Granted, I also finished about ten pieces in that length of time, but still, five months is a long time to stick with a pair of socks, especially ones that are such a huge pain in the arse.
They are mirror image of each other, which means that after I had finally gotten the hang of the pattern on the first sock (around the time I was finishing up the toe) I then had to relearn the pattern for the next sock. I am fairly confident that the second sock was trying to kill me. I knit three inches of the leg, ripped it all back, knit up to the heel, knit half the heel flap, ripped back, turned the heel, ripped it back, knit to where the pattern switches direction on the foot, ripped it back, and then in one mad dash, finished it before the sock could notice I was so close and screw things up. But it did, and somehow the second sock is significantly larger than the first, though they have the same number of stitches. Woe is me.

Lacking a sock model who would have fit into these socks, and lacking a friend willing to sacrifice part of his lazy Sunday afternoon to venture out in the cold to take photos of my feet, I had to take these myself, so the angle may be a little wonky, and you can't see the pattern as well as I would like. (Side note: one reason I love living in the country is that you can sit in the front yard in the freezing cold, strip off your boots, plop down in the leaves and photograph your feet without anyone look at you funky.)


A few months ago, a lovely lady from my church at home sent me some gorgeous handspun yarn. I love the colors, and spent quite a bit of time just holding the skein thinking about what to do with it, and then finding a pattern worthy enough. I settled on these mittens.


I love the way the colors worked with the pattern, and I'm hoping they will be very warm this winter. Thanks to Laurie!

I did not, of course, artistically arrange the leaves to the best advantage of the knitting. What kind of obsessive, former art student would do that? Sheesh.








Knitters everywhere know about peer pressure. Not to say that this scarf was forced upon me, but I did only make it because my West Bend knitting buddy told me about it, and I did buy the same yarn as she did without thinking very hard about it.
This is a mobius scarf. It is knit in one gigantic twisted loop so that you are working on only one edge, but the scarf grows in two directions at once. It's hard to explain, but it's pretty cool. I think the scarf is beautiful, but it doesn't hang well. I would like it more if it was made out a drapey yarn rather than, oh, BULKY. Silly me.










Cables!
Here's another hat I made recently, and just finished up this morning. The color is not shown to its best advantage here. It's actually quite a vibrant, lively green alpaca that was lovely to work with.
The brim looks kind of long and weird. I'm working to convince myself that the weird camera angle is making it look long and weird and not because the brim actually is kind of long and weird.











And lastly, here are some baby booties I made for a coworker of my mom's. Well, for his kid, not for him. I apparently am suffering from some sort of second sock curse, because the second one was, surprise, bigger than the first. But I figured the kid wouldn't notice. I think they're pretty cute.














What's next up on my needles? Get this--nothing! I currently have nothing going. I finished a hat this morning that I am selling to the kid who works and the market next to me, which makes me officially project-less for the first time in...a year? This must be remedied.
I'm working on designing a hat inspired by the Sea of Olives. Points if you get the reference. It's gonna be awesome. I'm also about to start a scarf for a certain someone, since Christmas is coming up disgustingly fast. Warning, family, you are all getting knitted gifts this year. Deal with it.
Thanks to all of you who have made it this far on my knitting blog, giving me the opportunity to show off/share what I have been up to.


And finally, one last photo of knitting humor. I unraveled a wool sweater, soaked the skein, and then hung it to dry. I needed to hang a weight from the end, to get the kinks out, and I was looking around for inspiration.







Misuse of fire safety equipment what?