One mitten down...

...one mitten to go! here's the first Sea Mineral mitten:

i'll be casting one for its mate soon...but not too soon. i have another pair of mittens i want to start!

and (yet another) detail of the cuff:

...because one can never have too many pictures of the cuff.

the wonders of a good blocking never cease to amaze me!

Mitten was here!

dear you,

mitten wants a thumb!

mitten wants to apologize for those odd shadows! mitten knows not from whence they came!

mitten inside out!

mitten has skillfully concealed mitten's ten million freaking ends! the mitten, it is crafty!

mitten awaits its mitten-mate! when, when, when?!

love,
the mitten

More mitten.

the Sea Mineral mitten continues to grow:

it's practically knitting itself now that i don't have to untangle yarns after every round! i hope to make it up to the finger decreases today.

at the last second i chose a wave motif over a starry one for the palm. there's no mistaking the oceanic feel now. besides, this leaves me open for a par of celestial-themed mittens...lots of little starry patterns on a deep field of navy...oh, this is dangerous. i have too many things on the go already!

First Glimpse.

here's a peek at the first Sea Mineral mitten so far:

not the best picture, since it's getting late and i'm losing the light. try not to look at all those ends. i'm ignoring them, for now.

colourwork is about a million times easier when you knit with both hands at the same time. i'm carrying the background yarn with my right hand and the pattern yarn with the left--this is making the pattern stitches slightly more prominent in the finished fabric.

these days i'm not as in love with these colours as i was back in April, but i am still mostly enjoying them now. ideally i had wanted to have the butter yellow as the background colour but then decided early on that the darker grey would offer better contrast and a slightly more dramatic mitten. now that i look at it being knit up i could do with another darker grey and an even lighter blue, but that's just wishful thinking. i'm too picky sometimes.

pattern-wise, i think it's working well--a wavy motif or two to go, and then we move on to the star-patterned palm. earlier today i was wondering if i should add a small fish motif to the watery portion of the design and then decided against it. simplifying the cuff slightly should be enough to ensure that i actually finish the pair. the seaweed motif will have to convey the message of sea life on its own--just picture the fishes weaving and darting between the fronds.

Waiting...

it's Friday morning and here i am, waiting for Clue 3 of Mystery Stole 3 to be released. i suspect that's why i didn't sleep as well as i could have last night...or it could've been that i was thinking of the Sea Mineral mittens that i finally started yesterday (pictures soon,) or it could've been this:


yet another colour palette for another hypothetical pair of mittens, or in this case, Magnificent Mittens. that's Knit Picks' Telemark in Delft Heather, Tidepool Heather, Garnet Heather and Burlap. sometimes colours get stuck in my brain and it's hard to do things like sleep.

on top of all this, i'm planning on casting on for Kew today, too--gotta keep that Xmas knitting on track.

EDIT: oh, now this is fun--check out my current colours of choice next to the cover of Devil Summoner (at present directly to the left of this post.) either i'm more obsessed than i ever knew or my poor neglected game is trying to tell me something.

After Clue 2.

here's the Mystery Stole in its current incarnation--i just polished off the second Clue! i'm sitting at the end of row 150 which means i'm also finally caught up for when Clue 3 is released this Friday! finishing two Clues in less than a week gives me hope that i'll be able to knit other things comfortably while still working on this stole.

another not-so-hot early evening window-shot of a stole that's becoming increasingly difficult to document:



the more i look at that central motif the more i see a spider (or at least some sort of insect.) the webby bits above the diagonal lines only seem to confirm my hypothesis, but i could be seeing what i want to see right now. fingers crossed that the Mystery Theme has something to do with Arachne, spiders and spinning. it's just a guess!

Mystery Stole 3

somehow i got sucked into Mystery Stole 3. clearly i am weak when faced with intricate, mysterious lace!

here's the stole sitting at row 55 of the first Clue:


unblocked lace never really makes for a great picture, but there's my stole--so far.

Nano Warmer, FO.

Yarn: blue heathered stuff i bought at Zeilinger's the summer before last (it reminds me of dryer lint, but then again, lots of things do.)
Needles: Clover Takumi Bamboo dpns, US 8
Pattern: Nano Warmer by Anny Purls
Started: 4 July 2007
Finished: 4 July 2007

Notes: Poddy needed a new warmer so he stays all cozy while travelling in my bag. this pattern couldn't have come my way at a better time. i really do love this yarn--i will definitely have to make another trip out to Zeilinger's this summer. the little bit of mohair mixed in lends it just the right amount of fuzziness. I finished the case off with a vintage button (i'm pretending it's Bakelite but it probably isn't,) that i sewed on with some bright orange Gütermann thread.

Fun Fact: this button (like most of the buttons that i use) was sourced from the old button tin that i played with as a little kid. who would've known that it would end up on a iPod Nano warmer years later?

Edgar, FO.

Yarn: Patons SWS in Natural Plum, two skeins
Needles: Bryspun straights, US 8
Pattern: Edgar by Silke Hupka
Started: 1 July 2007
Finished: 4 July 2007

Notes: this is the first of my Xmas knitting! i had always wanted to try the SWS and this scarf finally gave me the chance. i don't know if i'll use it again (most of the time it was like knitting with unspun fibre, which was enjoyable in its way,) but it's still shiny and pretty and makes an ideal Edgar.

i though adding more tassels would make for a dramatic, fun touch.

Fun Fact: this is my fifth Edgar! he might be the perfect gift-scarf!

Ravelling!

i am obsessed with Ravelry. i only just received my invite two days ago but believe me, this is more than enough time to learn to love this resource.

it scratches my organization itch like no other resource ever could! i love how all my projects look laid out across the page:


i love how i can queue up all the future things that i want to
knit (and thanks to that site there are an awful lot of them now):


i'm discovering patterns and re-discovering patterns virtually non-stop. it's more than a little difficult to stop looking at the thing. that actually might be the only bad thing about Ravelry--that it's so big and wonderful that it distracts one from actually knitting.

if you're already on Ravelry, please look me up! i'm spillyjane there too.