Looking up
Pattern: Merletto Mitts (free on Ravelry)
Yarn: Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, in Tropical Ginger (less than 1 skein)
Needles: Size 2 DPNs
Date Finished: December 26, 2009
I still haven’t finished anything in 2010, but this is my last FO of 2009.
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The yarn used is absolutely fantastic (hence the picture-heavy post). One skein goes fairly far, and it would look great stranded with some solid color. Yum! It’s superwash, so it doesn’t felt, but does tend to pill a lot with wear. I need to grab my defuzzer! |
| The combination of cables with lace is absolutely brilliant. True, I love admiring the smooth color variation on the stockinette palms. However, the color blends are unobtrusive to the stitch pattern on the back of the hand, and the entwined cables and the bevels of the chevron lace give even more interest to the gloves. |  |
| These are absolutely great when I’m waiting for the bus in mild January weather, as I can read (currently, The Count of Monte Cristo – there’s a special place in my heart for Alexandre Dumas) and flip pages easily, all while allowing myself a little extra warmth. Even though I wouldn’t wear them in below-freezing weather, they are a good thing to keep in my bag and slip on when I go outside these days. |  |
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And not to mention how much they cheer me up! Color therapy is fantastic in winter, which is supposedly why my rainbow scarf (fleece, not knit, unfortunately) and these fingerless gloves have become among my favorite items to wear. Life is just a little bit better with soft, warm, bright accessories. |
| As you can see, the gloves are “fraternal twins,” but the combination of colors is so distinct that there is no doubt of them being a pair. At one point in the skein, I hit a huge patch of red (I was 3/4 done with the mitt and it was still not transitioning), so I unwound and cut some of it out. Thankfully, I still had yarn to spare — even if the color-matching where I picked up for the thumbs isn’t precise. |  |
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I leave you with one last shot of the beautiful colors and wish everyone a happy end-of-January. I only have one WIP on the needles (another pair of gloves, which likely won’t be finished in time for me to wear them), but the quarter is in full swing, so I believe you’ll be seeing more Old FO posts from me for a while. |
After a brief interlude…
Pattern: My own, modified from a stitch pattern
Yarn: Vanna’s Choice, in Eggplant (leftover <half skein)
Needles: Size 6 DPNs
Date Finished: December 21, 2009
I am very sorry for my prolonged absences recently. Two whole weeks of Winter Quarter have already gone by, and winter break seems so long ago. My first midterm is looming just around the corner, and there are still countless things to do.
I have devoted this three-day weekend to sorting out my life: applying to scholarships, summer programs, getting my resume sorted out… it’s quite overwhelming! As you can imagine, between this and homework homework homework, I haven’t had much time to knit or catch up on your blogs. I’m sorry!
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This cowl was made because I had a tight ball of the Eggplant left over from two hats, and of course a cowl would resolve the problem. I found this fantastically geometric pattern in a book, and decided to adapt it a bit. I could draw up a chart if enough people request it — just ask! |
| Strangely enough, as this project was bouncing around in my head, I wore several outfits where a purple cowl would have come in handy. However, this dude hasn’t gotten much use since I finished him. I received a fantastic deep purple coat for Christmas, and I’m still not wearing the cowl… clearly, this needs to change. |  |
Long overdue
Pattern: Short Row Rib
Yarn: Lion Brand Yarn Homespun, in Autumn Harvest (1 skein)
Needles: Size 6 circular
Date Finished: December 16, 2009
Modifications: None!
It is strange that I am knitting faster than I am blogging. Despite finishing this scarf over two weeks ago, only today did I take photos of it…
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This yarn was actually a birthday gift from dear friend J about a year and a half ago. I admired the colors, but the skein sat in my stash for quite a while because I could not figure out what to do with it! You see, the texture of the strand produces uneven and ill-defined stitches, so any fancy pattern I could think of would have been obscured. Until, of course, I discovered this pattern. |
| The bias is a perfect way to show off the subtle color variations, and the rib adds just the right amount of overall texture. It is a good pattern for difficult yarns.
However, I would not knit this yarn again. The colors are indeed lovely and play with each other with fantastic variation, and the singles (the yarn is spun with a thick single of the multi-colored and a thin single of teal thread) are soft. Lion Brand could have done better to remove the teal thread, creating a nice single-ply, but alas… |
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| I don’t mean to complain so much. I do love this scarf (even though the lack of smile in the photo at right is probably a poor indication). It is soft, colorful, and very interesting. I usually do not like knitting scarves, but the short-row pattern was interesting and easy to memorize. Most importantly, it was modular — there were very distinct sections, so I was easily able to tell myself to complete one such piece per day and soon have a completed scarf. |  |
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Surprisingly enough, photographing this project was not as difficult as I expected. Even though the yarn is quite shiny, the colors still show up vibrantly. Perhaps it is the lack of bright light in my room, but the yarn turned out to be photogenic after all! |
Project on Ravelry • Photos on flickr • All Short-Row Rib Scarf Posts
So much to catch up on…
The above is the reason why I have essentially disappeared over the past few days. Two friends (M and D — M is a math/computer science major and D is a math/computer engineering major. M actually reads this blog — hi!) and I decided to write up an LED Matrix. For now, it can display the alphabet; but we plan to make it scroll one day.
In other news…
Yeah. Sometimes there is no more yarn and only choice is to unravel. I’m sort of disappointed, because I really liked the gray and white together. I’ll have to rethink this — either choose different colors, buy some gray somewhere, or just come to peace with my lack of yarn.
I have about three FOs and one WIP to share with you! Until then, Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas!
I thought I’d wish all of you a Merry Christmas today by sharing the card I made for my family. I don’t think I did a bad job, seeing as it was my first time with the quilled paper technique.
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I would like to thank all of my readers… nine people commented on my last post! I was pretty excited. Even if you just stop by and don’t say hello, thank you for reading. Have a safe and happy Holiday season, whatever you may celebrate.
I will be posting much more over the next few days, so hang tight! Love, Milda (: |
[[old FO]] Penguin time!
Pattern: Pasha Penguin
Yarn: Navy/White/Yelow wool scraps
Needles: Size 2 straights
Date Finished: September 24th, 2007
Modifications: None
Hey! Sorry for being completely gone even after my finals are over. I have been through half a whirlwind of social activities (this is strange for me, trust me), and the rest is yet to come.
I am trying to catch up on blog comments now, and I have a new finished scarf waiting to be photographed, but whilst I get all this energy out of my system, y’all get to see this old guy.
Let’s pretend that the above photo isn’t grainy and out of focus, and pretend that the rug looks like snow, hmmm?
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The day after I finished this dude, I brought him to school and everyone loved him. Er, please ignore the twisted stitches. This was before I realized that I was purling through the back loop. Oops.
This project was really fun to do, and was one of the first things I noticed on knitty before learning to knit. I loved seeing how the short-rows transformed him into a 3d being. Very cool. |
Progress… knitting or degree?
Sometimes, you want to knit something colorful…
Other times, you want to knit something more toned down…
And yet other times, you have to put down what you want to knit and pick up what you have to study for.
Have a nice weekend, everyone. I’ll see you all when my last final for the quarter is over on Wednesday morning.
This has to be my favorite hat ever.
Pattern: Robin’s Egg Blue Hat
Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Taos, in Cacao Menta (under 1 skein)
Needles: Size 6 dpns
Date Finished: November 28, 2009
Modifications: Gauge: Cast on 100 sts for brim, down to 90 for main part, twining
I call this Speckled Egg hat instead of Robin’s Egg because, really, the colors are more Wren’s- or Finch’s- or Sparrow’s- egg like …
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This hat is so pretty! I love Taos. Even though it’s a splitty yarn, it’s so soft! Single ply yarns are, of course, a wonder to work up, but a gamble on how the fabric feels. In this case, the yarn is soft soft soft. The colors are pretty too. I didn’t have one giant button, so I opted for the cluster of three. Aren’t they lovely? The small one is opalescent, just as the blue one is. |
| The yarn does tend to fuzz, but that just creates a really soft-looking hat. And look! I finally managed to take a photo of myself that I love. Clearly, this hat has good mojo. (Speaking of taking photos, I know that I finished this little project over a week ago. I just hadn’t gotten around to photographing until today… I hope it was worth the wait!) You may notice that this hat does not have “uniform” stripes – that is because I twined it! The LYS where I bought this skein had an example of a twined hat in the Taos, and I fell in love with the effect. The yarn got very very very tangled, though! |  |
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Of course, there is the obligatory crown-shaping photo. I really like how the twining created this spiral-starburst deal. Totally unexpected, and totally amazing. It’s details like this that definitely make this hat the favorite of the ones I’ve made (or owned)  |
Project on Ravelry • Photos on flickr • All Speckled Egg posts
Photos in bad light…
Pattern: Springtime in Philadelphia
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette, in Tidepool Heather (almost 1 skein)
Needles: Size 2 dpns
Date Finished: November 21, 2009
Modifications: skk for left-leaning decrease
I had a grand old plan for taking photos on campus during the day. It was lovely and foggy, which could have worked in my favor. Unfortunately, I could not find my tripod, so you get some badly taken photos of me in my room. Woe.
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As a whole, I am satisfied with this hat. Of course, the KnitPicks yarn is fabulous as always (you may recognize that this hat is actually made from a skein left over from the Kingdom Gloves). Even though it took forever to make between my studies, the result was worth it. The pattern was well-written and easy to follow, and the subtle leaf/petal pattern is truly fabulous. I did not change needle size as written, but that is only because I do not possess very many needles. I am not displeased with the edge, however, so thumbing my nose at the pattern may be excused this time. |
| Can you tell I love awkward photos? The color of this yarn is hard to capture on camera, especially under artificial lighting. I think the photo directly above this paragraph does the best job.
I also loved how beautifully Palette blocks. The stitches turned out so even! Are you familiar with how crooked SSK looks? Blocking fixed it. Of course, blocking also took care of that blob-like shape I’ve blogged about previously. I am slowly learning that I should block absolutely everything. All of these projects have shown nothing but improvement |
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Project on Ravelry • Photos on flickr • All Springtime in Philadelphia posts
