Historian Mittens: a preview

Oh my gosh, I'm back and I'm knitting. I've been away from the blog for a while, but it's so hard to knit stuff in the summer. I'm thinking about fun summertime things, like swimming and picnics ( I did not much of either this summer, sadly), and I just can't get the urge to pick up my needles and do something.

However, I finally did something! I made some mittens (OK, fingerless gloves, but mittens sounds cuter) for my boyfriend. They're pretty basic, and I'm writing up a pattern, but you know me, so there may or may not be a pattern for this.

Spring Ahead Scarf - Pattern

  

Springtime is just around the corner!  The weather is getting warmer, the days are nice and sunny now.  Soon, you'll be tossing aside your winter wool for something lighter.  Why not try a light, air scarf made from a wool and cotton mix?  Perfect for when the sunshine is a' shining, but that wind is still cold.

Yarn:

3 balls of Rowan Wool Cotton (clearly, I haven't finished my own scarf, so the amount might change slightly)

Needles:

size 6 straight needles, American

Pattern:

CO 40

R1: knit

R2: K2, YO, *S1-K2tog-PSSO, YO2,  repeat from * 7 more times, S1-K2tog-PSSO, YO, K2

R3: P2, K1, *P2, Knit one twisted stitch, K1, repeat from *7 more times, P2, K1, P2

R4: K2, P2, *Slip 1, K1, Knit into slipped stitch, P2, repeat from *7 times, Slip 1, K1, Knit into slipped stitch, P1, K2

R5:  P2, K1, *P2, K2, repeat from * 7 more times, P2, K1, P2

Repeat rows 2-5 until you have a scarf the desired length you want it.  Finish on R2, knit the next row, then bind off.  Weave in all edges.

Mistakes?  Mishappens?  Did I count wrong?  Please!  Post in the comments so I can work it out!  Thanks!

Show me your skeins!

   

Hello, Good Looking!  My wonderful boyfriend bought me a gift certificate to to my favorite yarn store here in Philadelphia (Rosie's Yarn Cellar.  It is packed to the gills with all kinds of yarn) for my birthday.  The two shots above are my spoils from said certificate.  I got two kinds of Rowan yarn.  That yellow in the corner is the Rowan Wool Cotton (50% merino wool, 50% cotton).  I'm planning on making all of that into a spring scarf for myself.  I was thinking some kind of feather and fan pattern, but now I'm thinking about some kind of simple lace pattern so it's nice and airy.

That thick purple is the Cashsoft Aran (57% extra fine merino, 33% acrylic microfibre, 10% cashmere).  It's seriously the softest yarn I have ever used.  And I am using it!  There used to be two skeins, but I've already knitted it up into something.  Want to see a sneak peak?  OK, here's a quick little photo.  Yes, there will be another free pattern coming out of this!  And I totally promise this time (yes, yes, I know I'm due on some beret patterns)!

Fingerless gloves!  In a quick and easy lace pattern!  Perfect for the winter into spring weather which should be around the corner sooner or later!

 

elf feet are neat

I whipped these little booties up in one night! Look how cute they are! They are a great example of my 'sylvan' crafting style! And, if anyone who knows me in real life is reading this, stop worrying! They are not for my future bundle of joy; my womb is as empty as my plate after a pie eating contest (which would be very very empty). A wonderful couple I know is having a baby girl, and I just had to make something for them. The future-mommy is an artist and very whimsical herself, so I figured her future-baby needed to start her wardrobe off right!
If you want to knit these yourself, I took the pattern from the baby booties from Stitch N Bitch 2, and just knitted a few extra rows to make them booties. A little felting action (plus some needle felting) and you've got toadstool booties!

a word on crafting

i am really taken by the word sylvan. any and every time i can use it, i do. it's just a sweet little word to describe the styles of crafting i like. it's earthy and woodsy and seems like i should have little gnomes playing against my toes at i knit.
above you'll see an example of my sylvan crafting. it's just a little mushroom that i whipped up. i'm thinking of making a few more and then arranging them as a center piece for my coffee table for the summer.
cute?

christmas gifts and winter crafting

Nothing makes me feel crafty than chilly weather. I just want to stay inside and create something in my (very very cold) apartment, with a nice cup of hot tea and maybe (OK, definitely) some cookies. Lucky for me, the few days before Christmas was nice and chilly, so I could get a good amount of crafting done. So, let's end 2008 with a bang and overwhelm this post with some photos!

Here we have the tea and the crafts as talked about above! They're mittens from the selbuvotter book everyone loves. I used fancy shmancy Norwegian wool (a departure from my normal o-wool for mittens) and tiny size 1 needles. My fingers ached a little, but it was so worth it. They came out wonderful and my grandma (g-ma as i like to call her) loved them!

Crafty drinking! I made up a big bottle of cordial to warm us up during the wintery months. You can find the recipe in my flickr set right here.

Let's finish up with these coasters. Made not by me, but by my mom. A great use for all that christmas fabric everyone buys two days after the holiday and then forgets about. They're cute, simple, and not over powering like some christmasy things I've seen (have you ever been to the Christmas Tree Store? That place looks like Santa and Jack Frost vomited all over the New Years Baby).

autumn knits

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is some place they want to be, enjoying family, friends, or maybe just some microwaved turkey and Tivo'd episodes of Pushing Daisies (I love that show! It's so sweet and cute and clever, like an adorable puppy).

Today, I'm thankful for taking an early train to New Jersey to spend the day with family (and boyfriend). I am also thankful for my parents having some high speed internet so I can finally update some knitting projects.

For this autumn, I knitted myself a pair of fingerless gloves (well, they have fingers, just short ones) from a Purl Bee pattern. I went cheap, and picked up some Rowan wool instead of using cashmere. Also, because I knit giant loopy stitches, I used much tinier needles (0 for the cuff, 2 for the body, 1 for the finger ribbing). They turned out so cute, I made a matching scarf (not pictured....yet).

Look how cute they are just sitting there! I loved the Purl Bee colors so much, I was glad Rowan had the same colors available in their wool yarn. I should have taken an up close picture of the buttons, which were also cute. They came from a large bag of buttons I picked up at a thrift store (for about $2, i think). It was filled with so many vintage buttons (and I do mean vintage, there were a lot of mother of pearl buttons that were handmade).

craft wish list

here a list of things I want to craft up this coming winter (gosh, we're on winter already??)

1. Fruit and Herbal winter cordial
2. Felted Mushrooms from The Purl Bee
3. Norwegian socks from Folk Socks
4. Maybe more mushroom themed things....
5. Christmas cookies
6. Mittens (even if I said I never wanted to knit them again)
7. That adorable felted wool lamb from Martha Stewart magazine

Also, isn't weird everyone loves that word 'fraulein' now? When i first learned it in German class (waaay back in 7th grade), I thought it was the worst word ever to describe a woman. Now, everyone finds it so cute and adorable (but only in lower case). Even I'm beginning to think it's cute! I should have taken German instead of all those French classes I suffered through (I could never handle all those s's being silent).

the issue with crafty blogs..

For the .2 people that might actually read this, I am writing to say, "I'm sorry."
Clearly, I suck at blogging. I can't even squeak out a post a month, how lazy pants is that? The problem is, if I don't have photographs of my knits and crafts, I feel like you (the reader) would just be bored with me. Hell, I know that if I see a blog with no pictures, I'm sailing my browser someplace else.
So again, I appologize for being a sucky blog writer. And I will try and get something posted before 2009.

OK, so I lied about the beret's. Maybe one day they will come out of hiding and be posted. At least one should, right?


anyway, to entertain you, here's a case I hand-sewed for my DS lite:

Adorable!