Furious Needles

The last few weeks have been really busy. I'm wrapping up my work-from-home job (one more day), watching the Little One walk around the house and soothing the many many tumbles she has, and knitting like a mad woman. I wasn't going to knit for many people for Christmas but dragging
Little One around feral holiday shoppers doesn't really sound that great. I busted out a pair of Evangeline in a day. Knit in Malabrigo Worsted these guys take very little yarn, I think the pattern calls for 80 yards, and knit up soo quick. I do an extra repeat of the cable pattern to make them a tad longer so I'm guessing ~100 yards total. I'm not sure of the color I got it as a partial skein from a swap at my knitting group.


I also knit up a Theory Shawlette which is incredibly soft and beautiful. I'm already thinking about one for me! The cast on and subsequent 4 to 5 rows are a big huge pain in the rear but totally worth it. The cast on (backwards loop) makes a very nice finished edge to work from. I love the garter short rows in the Silky Malabrigo, they're so sproingy and texturey and everything garter should be. Oh, and the color is Plum Blossom. Pretty!
Last night I cast on for the Bodhi Mittens (and Fingerless Mitts) for me! Despite the number of mitts I've knit they all seem to have disappeared. Gifted? Lost? Dunno. We got the new Malabrigo Twist yarn at the shop recently and I thought it would be perfect for these. The pattern is pretty straightforward. I like the elongated stitches that make the flowery-looking things. The yarn is awesome and has great stitch definition. I finished up all but the thumb of the first one last night. My only issue is that the first one is fairly long. I'm not going to frog back but if I knit these again I would stop at a pattern row 8, just after a fancy stitch pattern row, and work either stockinette or seed stitch for a couple of rows before binding off. I don't mind the stockinette rolling at the fingers but I think seed stitch (which is on the cuff of the palm side) would make a more finished-looking edge. The color is Sealing Wax.

Caricia

My mini Caricia worked up beautifully and quickly and I have quite a bit of yarn left over. Blocking pictures never quite do it for me but they do show the pattern wonderfully. I really like that the upper border edging is knit as you go so there isn't any funky picking up or anything when you think you are finished. When you're done, you're done. Another fantastic thing about this is that the yarn did not rub off on my hands as I worked with it. I think that may be a first for me and my love of uber dark blues and it's a really really good thing. This is a mini shawl - just large enough to wrap around my neck and loop bandana-style to wear under my coat. I like this size, it gives all of the satisfaction of knitting lace triangles without the wearability issues of a larger shawl. If I use my knitting time to knit lace then I really want it to be wearable and not languish in the closet waiting for a "nice" enough reason to wear it. Plus it's a good size to use up all of that sock yarn stash that seems to be multiplying on its own. Isn't there some type of math equation that shows a correlation between the breeding rate of rabbits and the rate that sock stash seems to grow? If not, there should be, because even when I don't buy sock yarn for a while I go to my stash and I swear there's more of it. Really.