bits and pieces
I finished crazy orange sock #1:
It's the teeniest bit snug, so when I get around to finishing the pair, they will probably go to this fine gal, whose feet are slightly smaller than mine. Orange isn't really her favorite color, but I bet she won't mind hiding them under her vegan boots.
Unfortunately, it's hard for me to knit anything with tiny slippery needles at the moment. This is because about a week ago I got in a bit of a tussle with the new cheese grater. The cheese grater won. I'll spare you details, but the injury on my right pinky finger still requires that I wear a small band-aid, right in a spot that is apparently crucial for gripping yarn, because finishing up the orange sock above was a rather slow, aggravating process of constantly dropping my DPNs on the floor and finding new ways to wrap yarn around my fingers for even tension. Who knew pinky fingers were so important? (Kidding, obviously.)
As it turns out, though, knitting thicker, stickier yarn with an injured pinky finger isn't such a big deal. So last night I started something new. You may (or may not) recall that in November, we visited a local orchard for a bunch of the season's last apples, and while there I found myself smitten with a group of Black Welsh Mountain ram lambs. I bought this yarn...
...which comes from Black Welsh Mountain sheep raised at that orchard, and was even milled locally at Blackberry Ridge Mills in Mt. Horeb. To be honest, it's not terrific yarn. It's rustic and a little rough and sheds a bit and the color, a natural black, is sort of dull. But it's cool that it came from sheep raised with love (I talked to the owner quite a while about her sheep), and it's not branded or distributed or anything, so no one will have a sweater like this except me and possibly any other knitter who happens upon the yarn cupboard in the orchard's shop. I had to think about a pattern to use. The yarn is too dark for any kind of stitch pattern show up, and it's too rustic (I know I keep using that word, but it's appropriate, somehow) for anything with distinctive style. In other words, this is no frills yarn and it requires a no frills pattern.
Then yesterday, as I was mulling about what project to knit during the orange sock hiatus, it hit me: the garter yoke cardigan from knit.1 a few issues back. And thanks to my incurable habit of collecting pattern books and magazines, I had it handy!
When this is done, I envision wearing it with faded, worn jeans and big black boots (neither of which I actually own, alas). In fact, I often envision myself exhibiting a better sense of style than in actuality. But that's another topic for another day.
It's the teeniest bit snug, so when I get around to finishing the pair, they will probably go to this fine gal, whose feet are slightly smaller than mine. Orange isn't really her favorite color, but I bet she won't mind hiding them under her vegan boots.
Unfortunately, it's hard for me to knit anything with tiny slippery needles at the moment. This is because about a week ago I got in a bit of a tussle with the new cheese grater. The cheese grater won. I'll spare you details, but the injury on my right pinky finger still requires that I wear a small band-aid, right in a spot that is apparently crucial for gripping yarn, because finishing up the orange sock above was a rather slow, aggravating process of constantly dropping my DPNs on the floor and finding new ways to wrap yarn around my fingers for even tension. Who knew pinky fingers were so important? (Kidding, obviously.)
As it turns out, though, knitting thicker, stickier yarn with an injured pinky finger isn't such a big deal. So last night I started something new. You may (or may not) recall that in November, we visited a local orchard for a bunch of the season's last apples, and while there I found myself smitten with a group of Black Welsh Mountain ram lambs. I bought this yarn...
...which comes from Black Welsh Mountain sheep raised at that orchard, and was even milled locally at Blackberry Ridge Mills in Mt. Horeb. To be honest, it's not terrific yarn. It's rustic and a little rough and sheds a bit and the color, a natural black, is sort of dull. But it's cool that it came from sheep raised with love (I talked to the owner quite a while about her sheep), and it's not branded or distributed or anything, so no one will have a sweater like this except me and possibly any other knitter who happens upon the yarn cupboard in the orchard's shop. I had to think about a pattern to use. The yarn is too dark for any kind of stitch pattern show up, and it's too rustic (I know I keep using that word, but it's appropriate, somehow) for anything with distinctive style. In other words, this is no frills yarn and it requires a no frills pattern.
Then yesterday, as I was mulling about what project to knit during the orange sock hiatus, it hit me: the garter yoke cardigan from knit.1 a few issues back. And thanks to my incurable habit of collecting pattern books and magazines, I had it handy!
When this is done, I envision wearing it with faded, worn jeans and big black boots (neither of which I actually own, alas). In fact, I often envision myself exhibiting a better sense of style than in actuality. But that's another topic for another day.
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Dee Anna