Sunday, 22 December 2013

The 11th hour

As I am writing this, the last of the Christmas knitting is in the sink for a quick soak before I lay it out to dry.  Not everything is completely done (there is a teeny bit of sewing and other finishing to happen after the last things have dried), but all the knitting is done.  This is very exciting for me, because Christmas is still two days away!  I actually finished early!

What is also exciting is that I can finally show this off, since it already lives in its new home.


This is an Age of Brass and Steam which I knit out of my Sweet Georgia handspun yarn.  This is a great, versatile pattern, good for any weight of yarn, and flexible enough that you can use all of your yarn.  I knit a lot of this while sitting beside the pool in Phoenix.  I didn't have a yarn scale with me, but somehow I had brought enough knitting karma with me that after I bound off, this is how much yarn I had left:

 

Okay so I was flying by the seat of my pants a bit but hey, it worked out!

It looked even better after blocking but I didn't plan picture taking very well (since there's about 15 minutes of daylight that I'm actually at home for these days), so this is the best I got before giving it away.  


It was a good knit, and excellent for handspun yarn.  I think I might be making another one for myself at some point.  You know, when I run out of other things that I want to knit for myself. *cough*

Now that my gift knitting is done for this year, I can get back to thinking about myself.  I have a number of things on the needles for myself already, but most of them are long term projects and none are looking to be finished anytime soon.  So, of course, the only solution is to start something new that will knit up quickly and easily.  I need me some instant gratification!

Good thing I have a couple of skeins of Malabrigo Rasta (bottom two skeins in the below picture) that I picked up last year.  I'm planning on making a simple seed stitch cowl out of them which will accomplish two things for me:

1. It will knit up relatively quickly and give me that satisfaction I crave of finishing a new item for myself.
2. It will help keep me  super warm in the the -30 C weather that we've been having lately.  Ridiculous!  We're exactly one day into the "official" start of Winter, and it's been as cold as January usually is for a month already!  Good thing I'm a Knitter.  Seriously.


The other two skeins in this picture, the two on the top, are some delicious merino I picked up in a teeny tiny shop on Salt Spring Island during my yarn binge in the summer.  They're a slightly different colour from the Rasta but they still go together pretty well.  Those two skeins are going to become a hat and mitten set, probably shortly after the cowl happens.  I'm thinking cables but I haven't decided on any patterns yet.

Time to go wrap some presents and wind some yarn!  My next post will be after Christmas since I won't have anything else to say until I can show off some more of this year's gifts.  I can hardly wait!!

Until then, Merry Christmas!  And remember, don't be a jerk.


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