Avast Ye!*

First of all, please join me in a moment of silence as I mourn the lost of my Shedir, which is probably in the hands of some hipster brooklyn-nite, somewhere in the depths of Williamsburg. It fell out of my jacket pocket when I was out for some drinks with friends last night, I went back for it about half an hour later, not there, no-one handed it in! I can only hope that whichever thieving bast@rd stole it whoever found it, is getting as much pleasure as I did, man I miss my shedir already. I guess I have to go shopping for more yarn now.

I finished my mitts last week, they took forever to dry in our freezing bloody cold rather cool apartment. I've been dying to take pictures of them so I can show them off. Fortunately, I managed to share them with my Spidey Pals, and now the weekend has finally rolled over and I can show them to everyone else. So, enough with the talk, talk, here are the pics and stats:



Pattern: Hello Yarn's cool, "dangerous" Pirate Mittens.
Yarn: 2 balls of Knitpicks Telemark one in Bayberry and one in Chestnut, inspired by the color combo used by Lisa with her Norwegian Mitts.
Needles: Denise's in US 5's, magic loop method.
Mods: None, the only thing I can say about the project is that I had difficulties with the fair isle initially, I ripped out that first mitt a significant number of times, but it was worth it.



One final word on fair isle [which I know really should be called "stranding", but just can't bring myself to use that term, plus "fair isle" sounds so much cooler]. I wasn't too happy with my stitches on the mitts, they looked uneven to me and not so great. When I blocked I blocked hard. I soaked them in soap-filled water, and basically beat them up in the water (not too hard, since I didn't want felted [or should I say fulled?] mittens. Once scruched of water I pinned them down on the blocking board, Mr. B. laughed and called me a Mitten collector. But I think the results were worth it.



* Apparently, pirate talk for get a load of this, me likey.

Boringly normal

Thanks again to everyone for the advice on the pirate mittens. I ripped out the mitt and started again, and now know that that extra little tug I was giving was making the puckering. I am happy to report that the mitten is coming out really well, pictures will be coming soon, once I get some actual sunlight. I did, however, take some crappy pictures of my Glittens, which you've probably seen a lot of over blogland. They were a pretty quick and relatively easy knit, and I'm pleased that I tackled something that I was always a bit dubious I could make [gloves].




Pattern: Patons Convertible mittens from leaflet # 1159.
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish Superwash in Jade.
Needles: Denises #6 and #7, using magic loop, I also used a crochet hook to pick up the stitches for the mitten, it proved to be a tricky task for me.
Adaptations: I only cast on 40 sts (48 gave me a very baggy glove), so the fingers had 2 less stitches each, leaving me with a k1, p1 in between fingers. I knit less rows for the thumb, and also adapted the decrease pattern at the top of the mitt for a more rounded (rather than pointed) top.

And now for something completely different. This 6 weird things meme has been floating around blogland forever now. And, as usual, I'm a little slow on the uptake. To be honest, I put off doing this one because I was pretty sure that there wasn't anything weird about me, certainly not blogworthy. But, I had a go at it anyway, so here you are:

1. Like some others, I have difficulty differentiating my left and right. I usually have to say "right to write" and look at my hand to remind myself. I have successfully sent people with the completely wrong directions, unintentionally, only realizing way too late.

2. When I was a kid walking home from school I would sometimes imagine that a person walking or driving by was a famous filmmaker and they would see my amazing talent by the way I walked and come dashing over to tell me that I have to star in their latest blockbuster. There are some days now that I occasionally think about being 'spotted' when I see a limo drive. [yup, I'm actually pretty embarrassed by this one].

3. I practice Reiki (just first degree). While my attunement was a very profound experience and I've seen it have amazing effects on myself and others, I'm still a doubting Thomas.

4. My middle toe on my left foot is much longer and larger than the one on my right, it happened when I was hurrying over to the TV to turn up the music for "Neighbours" (oh, I miss Ramsey St) which my baby cousin loved so much - he was so cute singing along to it. I couldn't wear shoes for a week, the toe still hurts in the cold, and turns a funny purpley colour when it's hot.

5. Apart from my first [as an adult] project, I have never used the required yarn for a knitting pattern. I just don't think that it's in me. I clearly have the desire to be different and the need to make things more complicated than need be (I'm pretty sure that I can't be the only one in this one).

6. Since I spent a huge amount of my childhood in Germany, I would grow up watching at lot of stuff in German, I loved Neverending Story, even though I didn't 'get' everything that was going on in it, I watched the German version at least 3 times before ever seeing the US version. I was actually an adult before I realized that Sesame Street was an American show!

PS: I buckled and upgraded to new blogger, once I found out that I can now label my posts I couldn't resist.
 

Progress

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who left lovely comments about "the incident". I really do appreciate all the kind words and suggestions. I'm afraid my action with the sweater will inaction at this time. I cannot face it, I don't want to disappoint any of you, but I can't pretend.

As I promised in my last post, I do have additional pictures of things I've been up to. First up is a Boyfriend Sock. One is done, knit using knitpicks superwash fingering weight, dyed by yours truly. Mr. B. liked the color, so I thought it was time for him get a new pair of socks - he was such a good boy after all.


Second up, thanks to Sandra for reviving my interest in these mitts, I've started the Pirate Mittens. I dunno though, I've ripped these out once already, and I'm trying my best to stretch out the knitting a couple of times a row the second time, but I still have puckering. What the #!@$ am I doing wrong? Suggestions gratefully received.


Finally, some spinning I did while Mr. B. was taken away from me by the in-laws. This is Multicolor Colonial Navy. 100% Corriedale Wool. From Carolina Homespun. There's only 4 ozs though, so not sure what I will make with it...