Jump Start on Christmas

Welp... I've finished one of the 2 pairs of mittens I wanted to make for Christmas this year!  Say hello to ELLY....

Pattern: Elly Mittens by JennyPenny
Yarn: Grey: Filatura Di Crosa Zarina 1914, White: Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer "white", Red: Little Knits Sockulent #4 (This stuff is proving to be GREAT mitten yarn!)
Needles: US 1.5
Notes: I love the little "twinkle" that the glimmer adds to the mitten.  So cute.  The only thing I altered about this pattern was that I knit in a thumb gusset (and charted it out myself) so that there was a better feel to the thumb.  I have found I have never really been satisifed by the "after thought" thumb and decided, especially since it was a gift, that I wanted to have a nice, comfortable fit.  These are for one of Parker's preschool teachers for Christmas.

 

Here's the chart for the gusset.  Red dots are "M1" (make 1 increases- I use left and right bar increases).  I started the gusset 8 rows after the last red row.

The pattern is the same on the outside and inside of the hand- it makes it an easy knit but I must admit I sort of like the palm to have something different.  Oh well... c'est la vie.

With Elly done and the weather being a little less "warm" these days I actually managed to decide on a sweater pattern to knit AND even cast it on.  This has an I cord cast on, which is a total pain to cast on with, but DAMN if doesn't make a nice clean cast on.  It's worth the pain... trust me.  This is 206 stitches ready to go...

I even knit the circular swatch as suggested, just to be sure my gauge will be spot on.  And, thankfully it looks like all signs point to "GET GOIN'".

I won't give it away on what the pattern is yet... all will be revealed in time, but I must admit I'm excited to get into this one.  This will be the first time I do steeks and well... there's going to be wine when it comes time to take the scissors to it!  (YES!  SCISSORS... TO CUT INTO YOUR KNITTING ON PURPOSE.... I practically faint at the thought.)

I also manged to do another charity blanket that was calling for "this and that" in the stash.  I think (hope) this will be the last of those blankets that show up for awhile.  I've knit a TONNE of them this summer and I need to get back to focusing on what I want to knit and accomplish.

Looking ahead to the fall I want to make up the sweater, another pair of mittens and two hat and bootie sets for expectant moms in Parker's preschool class.  This should be an interesting place to visit while I try and crank those out!  I hate to see summer go, but I must admit, as a knitter, a little part of me LOVES fall knitting.

Yay Summer

This is me right now "YAY SUMMER!"... but it also means knitting suffers at the hands of other more summery past times.  Which means, this blog sort of suffers on content while I'm busy soaking up enough vitamin D to get me through the rather long, cold Canadian winters.

*ugh* I just thought about winter... in August.  I have cursed us haven't I?

Now that I am no longer suffering at the hands of the Tickled Purple blanket I have managed to squeak out some progress on the projects that aren't completed here.

A quick trip to Kelowna for a wedding over the long weekend meant that the travelling sock progressed a little bit...

... that's probably a good thing since more sock yarn showed up last week- which I didn't really need.  But I have a Felici problem and there's no known cure for it.  (But at least one of these colorways will likely be perfect for travelling sock for next year.)

The mitten has also seen a lot more progress and I'm hoping that it will be finished before the end of this month.  (Especially since I have to knit another one yet to stay ahead of Christmas teacher knitting...)

And, as if that wasn't enough, I also started a Saskatchewan Roughrider themed blanket for WCOBB.  Because, you can apparently take the girl out of Saskatchewan but not the Saskatchewan out of the girl.



There's another charity blanket here now that is doing an excellent job eating up scraps of acrylic yarn and then there should be a break for a bit on those for now.

At some point I'd really like to knit another baby hat for a preschool mom (due in October) and would also like to figure out a sweater to knit for the fall- but who wants to look at sweaters when it's +30 out?  Not me.  So for now, I'm just going to try and squeeze some knitting in and amongst all this sunshine and desire to soak up the rays.

Hope your summers are going as well as mine... even if it means your knitting progress is suffering a little.  :-)