Vespergyle

My startitis continues in the form of mittens. I dug into my stash and came up with some Knit Picks Palette from ages and ages ago and cast on these mittens, er, this mitten. I'm just about ready to start the decreases at the top of the hand. The pattern (Vespergyle Mittens) looks great but takes quite a bit of concentration and I can't seem to hit a rhythm between the pattern reading and the knitting. This is a free pattern and has been languishing in my queue for maybe two years? Since I declared a self-imposed yarn buying hiatus I've been really digging into my stash and my Ravelry queue and working up "old" projects. It makes me feel good about my stash and my awesome taste in patterns! Really! Maybe it just took a few years of honest stash acquirement to have a nice selection to match with my patterns. Maybe. But it really is fun to dig in there and use some of what I have with patterns that got passed up for newer, more exciting projects.

Smoking Needles

Things have been flying on and off my knitting needles at such a rapid pace I need some kind of cool Western cowgirl name. You know, quick on the draw like Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead.(did you know Sam Raimi directed that?!) Three finished projects this week have me feeling quite smug. Knitmeter tells me that I'm inching close to 16k yards knit this year. Boy howdy! That is a lot of knitting.

I pulled out the first Japanese knitting book I ever bought - Favorite Aran Knits - and whipped up a couple of hats. Top left is #5 cap knit in Dream in Color Classy in Blue Lagoon. This was a
partial skein left over from the Little One's February Baby Sweater. I still have 69 yards left of the skein. After digging through the stash a little I found an almost full skein of Malabrigo Worsted in Azul Profundo which is my very very favorite Malabrigo color. I cast on #1 Cap and knit away. I don't know why I don't knit with Malabrigo more often since it's like butter in my hands. It's incredibly soft and has great stitch definition. Those cables just POP on the reverse stockinette background.

I also finished up my Brandywine Shawl. This is shawl #6 for me this year. It's a pretty little thing and it was fun and easy to knit. All of the action happens up front with the first chart and then
it's just the border with acres of garter stitch in between. This thing practically flew off my size 6 lace needles. Really. As in 4 days flew off my needles. I finally cast on a more complicated project that has beads and multiple lace charts and even GASP counting! Oh my.

E is for Emergency

This week marked our first run to Urgent Care regarding the Little One. After a day in which she was cantankerous and refused to nap I had a lay-down when the Man came home from work. 15 minutes later there was a muffled, "I need help!" I sprung out of bed to see Little One bleeding from her head (quite profusely) and the Man with a soaked paper towel. I grabbed a clean towel from the cupboard pinned her down and we stopped the bleeding. Apparently she had somehow wrangled the food processor blade* out of the kitchen cabinet and fallen on it leaving a one inch gash in the center of her forehead near the hairline. I called the nurse hotline and was told to bring Little One over just in case stitches were needed. Somehow these things always happen during rush hour so we finally finally arrived at urgent care, got admitted, and a couple hours and a popsicle later the Little One had her wound cleaned and glued back together. On the whole scale of first-time emergency visits this one is not too bad.

*All bladey-type kitchen implements are now far removed from little hands. All I can think of is that after we moved we forgot to baby-proof a couple of cabinets in our haste to unpack.

Startitis Rules

The changing weather seems to be affecting my ability to focus on large projects. Small projects are leaping on and off my needles with astonishing speed. This Brandywine Shawl is growing quickly - I've already got 12 repeats of 15 completed. I'll attribute that to the amount of garter stitch in the pattern rather than my staying up all hours to work on it. This yarn is from Deep Stash (bottom of the cedar chest) and was purchased at my first Madrona several years ago. Tactile does beautiful natural dye jobs and I hope the store gets back in production. I've also got socks, bloomers for Little One, and a sweater for Little One on the needles at the moment and I'm thinking about adding something else today. Part of the casting on craziness comes from diving into my stash, seeing what I have, and wanting to knit it RIGHT NOW. If only I had an extra set of arms...

Lizard Mittens

I got an itch to cast on a small colorwork project Sunday night and dug a couple of partial skeins out of my stash. Voila! Lizard mittens! They're sized to fit a 3 to 5 year old.

Pattern: Lizard Mittens (free Ravelry pattern)
Yarn: Le Vieux Rouet Superwash Sock (blue) & Knit Picks Palette (green)
Needles: US #2 1/2
Mods: I knit these holding the yarn double so I got a nice thick mitten. It's helpful to have a bit of Selbuvotter knowledge while knitting these since the instructions are a bit brief.

PS - Thanks for all the lovely comments on my previous ranty post. It helps to know that other people have the same problems!