The New Socks?

Have gloves become the new socks?? I was beginning to think so when having finished these




I immediately started Julia Mueller's Entangled Stitches. But not before sewing in the yarn ends and patching the little hole at the base of the fingers.





Just a few details....

My Cashmere Gold Rings are knitted from Susan Chang's Picot Edged Cashmere Gloves pattern in Skein Queen's Opulent (100% Cashmere), colour Gold Rings on 3.25mm circular needle. I started 25th November, finished 27th November although the ends have only been sewn in today. The Opulent is rated 4ply -sport but knits up really fast and worked very well with no mods to the pattern which is written for dk. Oh - I might have adjusted the lengths of the fingers, I can't remember now. And I put a little bead motif on the back of my gloves.

Julia Mueller's Entangled Stitches pattern is worked almost entirely from charts. Not a problem once I'd worked out how to enlarge the pdfs and realised that for easy reading I needed to colour the different chart elements.
The instructions are very clear and well charted but it's still not exactly quick. I started on 28th November and finished 11th December. The gorgeous yarn is Unicorn from Fyberspates, my November colour choice from the Unicorn club.
And now finished



My enthusiasm has been fanned by joining the Crafty Yarners gloves kal and I've already planned the next pair - Karen Neal's Hand Painted Gloves. I've knitted several pairs of her mittens - which seems to be the term for fingerless, or truncated finger gloves - and although the pattern is a little bit fiddley it's exciting seeing each new section.


More Toys

Little Ted



and frogs


He is Laura Long's Frog Prince - just waiting for his crown.






And these last two little cuties are Ribbit by Susan B Anderson for Spud and Chloe. One of them is stuffed with a tennis ball and should bounce but I think the yarn I used was too absorbent or the tennis ball perhaps should have been one of those really bounce balls. It was agreat pattern and so effective.

Excuses

I know I'm only looking after two grandchildren for two days of the week but it seems to impinge on each day either side too what with recovering and catching up with what I would otherwise have done on the child minding days. You can't imagine when you're thirty five but believe me it's far more exhausting when you're sixty five.

So, they're not excuses. Just reasons.

And part of my knitting is such that I can't post pictures just yet. But here are a few of what I've been doing.

These are knitted from Ysolda Teague's Mousie pattern





The larger ones (the two on their own) are 12cm from nose to tail, 3mm needles, Cashsoft DK and the smaller ones 9cm long, knitted in sock weight yarn on 2.25mm needles. The only mod was to knit the legs separately instead of picking up stitches and I decided the ears looked better attached upside down with a small pleat to make them more rounded.

Dolls
I've been wanting to knit one of these lovely AK traditions knitted dolls for over a year now, ever since their adverts started appearing in UK knitting magazines. They are gorgeous but very expensive. And then there's the postage - they are in Australia. And it has proved very difficult to contact them. Anyway, I'm happy with the dolls pattern I've ended up with. Its a mixture of Laura Long's Polly from Knitted Toy Tales, Jane Greenhowe and Tracy Chapman(Toys to Knit)




I knitted the smaller dolly in Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Soft, slightly finer than the pattern said, so dolly was slightly smaller but that doesn't matter. 3mm cicular, magic loop colour Blush and she is 14" tall.
And the bigger one - 20" tall- is Rowan Pure Life Organic Wool dk. 2 balls 3mm circular needles, magic loop.

I've knitted quite a few clothes for the smaller one and she loves them


but have yet to make the big one's wardrobe. And they need names.

As the little one's wardrobe began to take shape I noticed some eerie similarities with my own wardrobe. Quite extensive. Seemingly random colours. And random sizes. And each item is ok-ish but sadly none really goes with any other. So I reconsidered buying an AK kit but- you know what I like most of all about those dolls? It isn't the doll itself but the clothes. And not just the clothes, it's the colours. So a trip to John Lewis and a few hours later I'd chosen a basket of yarns that really look good together, based on those ak colour schemes.

I'm looking forward to dressing big dolly as soon as I've got a bit of time although she is very pleased to have shoes.

Twisted Stitches

I'm really loving working twisted stitch patterns so imagine how excited I was to find this book. What a fantastic resource!! There are 174 traditional Austrian stitch patterns and instructions for garments including stockings, sweaters and vests.

No, I haven't had time to use the book yet but these socks are definitely in the spirit.



They are the Bavarian Twisted Stitch socks from Cat Bordhi's "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles"with modifications to magic loop, toe-up and short row heels.



I used Dye Studio's "Unicorn" yarn, colour Starlight. It's the first time I've used this and I certainly wasn't disappointed although I think the stitch definition may have been even better with BFL.

I can't tell you Unicorn's composition because I don't know, in fact it's a secret until the end of the year. When you buy a skein - either from Natural Dye Studio or Fyberspates - you get a clue and in December if you can solve all the clues and sort out an anagram of the first letters of all the answers you end up with the compostion. And you can win an enormous prize....

Wel,l I've collected all the riddles so far but don't have the answers yet. Not by a long way. But it's fun.