or so it seems, and yet nothing really has happened - it was the second week of the school holidays, and last weekend was Easter .. so there was heading off to catch up with my Dad. We stayed for a few nights before heading home sans-cubs, yes we left the cubs with him and had a few days at home to ourselves. Bliss ... and yet I love them dearly.
Then there was the trip up and back to collect the cubs .. both had asked if they could have a few days at home just doing nothing ... and yet both had also asked to go to the movies, and shopping and play with friends. Oh this doing nothing is busy stuff indeed.
Me .. .I've been knitting, at Dads there isn't all the distractions of my own house, like a good guest I help out with hanging out washing, and dishes and meals .. but then its just being there, and conversations. And of course the knitting, lots of time for knitting, at the park watching the kids, at his house outside in the last of the autumn sun, inside watching tv and chatting ... lots of knitting time.
Which means that I'm near the end of the second mitten that will become the first of a pair, because gauge was not my friend the first time through. And this time I was a little bored with the polar bears .. so now I'm knitting owls, this pattern comes with four options, so I have plenty to play with if the owls become boring. Right now the owls look rather stern, don't they?
And since I was knitting this one as the first of a pair ... I didn't feel bound to my previous methods. This time I used a tubular cast on ... after a wee bit of fluffing around I finally decided to cast on the stitches using Judy's magic cast on, and work two rows in brown on one side of the cast on, and two rows in pink on the other side ... then fold it in half and transfer the stitches to one circular needle ready to be double knit. When I cast on I used one strand of pink and one of brown, all the pink stitches ended up on the lower needle, and all the brown on the top needle (just like the two colours in the photo tutorial on Knitty). I guess the original german twisted cast on privides a knotted edge that would wear better, but since I have never ever worn out a pair of mittens to a frayed edge around the wrist, I'm prepared to risk the tubular edge just to make it 'pretty'.
And as for the first mitten, the one that is to large .. I've been wondering if it could have a life as a fancy oven mitt?
What do you think?
Take care
na Stella
Then there was the trip up and back to collect the cubs .. both had asked if they could have a few days at home just doing nothing ... and yet both had also asked to go to the movies, and shopping and play with friends. Oh this doing nothing is busy stuff indeed.
Me .. .I've been knitting, at Dads there isn't all the distractions of my own house, like a good guest I help out with hanging out washing, and dishes and meals .. but then its just being there, and conversations. And of course the knitting, lots of time for knitting, at the park watching the kids, at his house outside in the last of the autumn sun, inside watching tv and chatting ... lots of knitting time.
Which means that I'm near the end of the second mitten that will become the first of a pair, because gauge was not my friend the first time through. And this time I was a little bored with the polar bears .. so now I'm knitting owls, this pattern comes with four options, so I have plenty to play with if the owls become boring. Right now the owls look rather stern, don't they?
And since I was knitting this one as the first of a pair ... I didn't feel bound to my previous methods. This time I used a tubular cast on ... after a wee bit of fluffing around I finally decided to cast on the stitches using Judy's magic cast on, and work two rows in brown on one side of the cast on, and two rows in pink on the other side ... then fold it in half and transfer the stitches to one circular needle ready to be double knit. When I cast on I used one strand of pink and one of brown, all the pink stitches ended up on the lower needle, and all the brown on the top needle (just like the two colours in the photo tutorial on Knitty). I guess the original german twisted cast on privides a knotted edge that would wear better, but since I have never ever worn out a pair of mittens to a frayed edge around the wrist, I'm prepared to risk the tubular edge just to make it 'pretty'.
And as for the first mitten, the one that is to large .. I've been wondering if it could have a life as a fancy oven mitt?
What do you think?
Take care
na Stella
3 comments:
I like the fancy oven mitt idea - and with double knitting, it's actually a possibility! I also love those owls - very nice.
Enjoy the last of the break - it sounds like the young cubs are making the most of their doing-nothing time :)
I do admire your ability to bound back from a gauge change, in all manner of creative ways. It is inspirational! Oven mitt or whatever, you are not letting the unexpected get you down.
Oven mitt, it is. Now you can make a flat potholder to match, and learn the potential pitfalls of flat dk. Two experiments yielding two useful items.
Post a Comment