I finished my first thrummed mitten and I'm about halfway through the second one. Sadly, I'm going to run out of yarn. I'm not sure why. I did use a different pattern, but I compared with the Fleece Artist pattern that the kit was for and they were pretty similar. Same gauge, same number of sts, etc. I'm thinking that I have enough yarn to make it most of the way up my fingers, but not enough to close the mitten or knit the thumb. Another skein of the BFL Aran costs over $30 to that's not an option.
I did notice that the cuffs on these are rather long though. It wouldn't be terrible to make them shorter... except that I don't want to unknit all of my work and start again. I've never really tried un-knitting from the CO edge, so I'm not even sure if that's possible but I suppose it's worth looking into.
Too bad, because I loved the first mitten so much I was wearing it all around and hugging it. I really want these to work because they're so warm and fuzzy.
I used to love stuffed animals when I was small. Like really, really love. I had a huge collection, and I still even have a few that I saved and stored in the basement. But I rarely see a stuffed animal anymore that I really NEED. I just don't have the room, and they end up being dust catchers. Of course, when I do find one that I love it's always something totally adorable and totally unaffordable.
I finished my Wicked sweater and my Liesl cardigan last night. I spent forever weaving in ends (Wicked was knit from frogged yarn, so there were lots of ends). I guess technically Liesl still needs it's 2 buttons sewn on and a blocking, but I'm calling it done until I can dig out the buttons. Which means that I'm ready to start my thrummed mittens!
I've divided the roving into two equal parts, and chosen a pattern. I think today I'll do gauge swatching and start ripping the roving into thrums. We'll see if I get any further than that.
vicki, are you ready to start too?
I saw these cute little things today in another blog I read, and I loved them so much I had to share. Here's a link to the rest of the pictures. I'm especially loving the winter scene, although the pink flowery teacup matches my favorite dessert plates and I'm sort of jealous of it.
Today I was reading Ysolda Teague's blog, and I fell in love with her way of displaying buttons.
I love buttons. Whenever I'm in need and get to go through the button stash, it's like Christmas morning, and every button is a fun surprise. I have a wall space behind my sewing desk that would be perfect for such a project, and then I could look at my favorite buttons every day! I'm totally going to have to do this. I'll just need to find some of those little plastic bags, because I'm bad and take buttons off their cards sometimes. I'll probably also need little clips of some sort. Wouldn't it be cute if I could find mini-clothes pins?
vicki and I decided that we were going to do a mini knit-along, since we both have the Fleece Artist Thrum Mittens kits (mine is a sort of kettle-dyed turquoise yarn with turquoise, plum and lime thrums), so here's my pre-starting post.
I'm actually going to take my kit to my friend's house tonight, so I can weigh the roving and divide it in half since I don't have a scale. I've read on Ravelry that others are running out of roving before they finish, and that'll be ok as long as I don't use all the matching colors on one side. I have some similar colored roving so I can add a bit more if needed. I just don't want it all in one spot at the end of the second mitten.
I'm also thinking about using a different pattern from the one in the kit. People don't seem to love it. I bought this cute Kalamazoo Knits pattern at a local yarn show, but found them on etsy to share. I sort of love the purl bumps, so I'm thinking that I'll do those. Same amount of yarn and same size needles, so I think it'll work ok. The BFL Aran is a bit thicker than a regular worsted like the pattern calls for, but the pattern has a bunch of sizes, so if my gauge is too far off I can just knit a different size. Besides, the K'zoo Knits pattern calls for 5 sts = 1 inch, and the Fleece Artist patterns calls for 6 sts - inch, and my hands would probably be happier knitting the fatter yarn at less sts per inch anyway.
There's also a pattern in the Winter 06 issue of Interweave with longer ribbed cuffs, which I guess is an option if the other pattern doesn't work out. And I found a thrum faq by Yarn Harlot, which will probably be helpful since I've never knit anything thrummed before.
Hopefully it works out that we can both start in a couple of days (the joy of a two person knit-along is that we can start whenever we want). I'm almost finished with my Liesl sweater, and I think that I'll have enough turquoise Malabrigo leftover to do a matching hat/scarf to go with the mittens for maximum warmth.
The weekend of the 16th, I went to the Michigan Fiber Festival with a friend of mine. Then I never blogged about it because I wanted to wait until I got good pictures of my haul. But then I never took pictures because my camera batteries are dead and I keep forgetting to recharge them. I'm very lazy with the blogging I guess. Finally I realized that if I didn't say something now, I'd never remember to say anything at all, so here's another post with no pictures. Feel free to hate me and stop reading. I'd totally understand.
Anyway, the festival was a lot smaller than last year. Last year we went for one day and barely saw everything, so this year we rented a room and stayed both days, only to discover that we had plenty of time the first day afterall. It worked out ok anyway. We were able to come back on Sunday for things we had waffled about the first day, and it also gave us an excuse to visit the Bell's brewery and have a tasty meal Saturday evening.
I bought: a skein of Socks The Rock Mediumweight in the Rook-y colorway (for a sock project TBD), a skein of Hand Maiden Casbah (mmm cashmere) in a dark red/purple colorway (likely for Pyewacket socks), a skein of Briar Rose alpaca laceweight in a dark blue/green/purple colorway (the bigger version of Laminaria), and a Fleece Artist Thrum Mitten kit with nearly solid turquoise yarn and lime, plum, and blue thrums - oh so soft BFL yarn and merino roving. There were so many great color choices that I could barely decide.
I also got fiber: about 8 ounces of a mostly hot pink superwash merino roving from Yarn Hallow, some superwash merino in dark greens, and a pink merino/tencel blend.
And the highlight of my trip was that I got to spend some time talking with a woman who owns an alpaca farm about my dream of owning alpacas. And then I bought 8 ounces of black alpaca fiber, and 3 of a dark chocolate brown. It's uncarded, so I get to try my carders for the first time. Oh, and it's also the softest fiber I've ever felt in my life. Seriously, if I had the money, I'd have bought the entire trashbag and just rolled around in it. And, for extra cuteness, she wrote the name of each alpaca on the bag of it's fleece so that I can know who I'm working with later. :)
Sadly, I've already got 4 projects on the needles, so I can't let myself enjoy any of my spoils until I get something finished first. Woe is me.
I saw my sister yesterday, and she mentioned that her kids are all in love with something that I knit a couple of years ago for one of the nieces. She said that if I was looking for something to make for them this year for Christmas, a round of those hats would certainly be welcome.
And would this be the pricey, beaded angora lace number that I slaved away on last year? Nope. It's a Hello Kitty hat (white hat with ears and a red bow) knitted with crappy Jiffy acrylic yarn. Figures. :)
There's no written pattern and no Ravelry page yet, so I'm going to have to link to Marnie MacLean's blog in order to show this off, but she has come up with the most awesome set of baby gifts ever. Stuffed monster and matching hat (3rd pic down). Everyone I know already had a baby, so there aren't any new ones coming for awhile sadly. Who will I make this for?
