Heavenly knitting

Last weekend it was daylight savings time. We turned our clocks forward and lost an hour. This was supposed to give us an extra hour of daylight. I don’t know about you, but this yearly transition is always difficult for me. I’m thinking “oh my gosh, I lost an hour!” “Horrors!”. “Is this some joke?” “Lord have mercy, I don’t have enough hours in a day to get all I want to done, and now I’ve lost an HOUR!”. Contemplating this is mentally and physically exhausting. Even my body seems to be exhausted. Of course, it doesn’t help, when I have a cold that has now turned into bronchitis. However, I’m feeling on the mend.

As I get older, I feel that life is getting shorter. It’s not fair that just when I have renewed my interest in NeedleCrafts, I feel I need to squeeze every chance I have into my hobby. There is just “not enough hours in a day” to do it all. Even when I try to do that, there still isn’t enough time. If one could imagine Heaven, and what it would be like, I can see myself knitting, happily enjoying all the time praising God in music and knitting. Perhaps there will be a big knitting and spinning circle among the angels happily knitting “Socks for Jesus”. Did he ever wear socks?!

In thinking about it, what would we need to knit? There would be no cold weather in Heaven, so no hats, shawls, gloves, etc. would be needed. We will already have enough adornments, so no purses, sweaters, etc., would not be needed. Perhaps we can knit up some angel wings? Maybe some lace things to outfit our “mansion”? Or perhaps some nice washcloths to shine up the streets of gold? Even better, wouldn’t it be cool to spin gold fiber into thread or yarn like in Rumplestilskin? We could add some diamond and ruby beads to embellish it. How cool is that?!!!

Over this weekend I have focusing on the Baby Sweater and the French Market Bag. I noticed that at the end of the sweater, Elizabeth’s directions say to decrease 10% of the stitches before garterstitching a 1” borderband. I am looking closer at the cuffs of the sleeves, which are gigantic. Was I supposed to decrease 10% for the cuffs, too? Perhaps. I guess I will be ripping and redoing the cuffs.

The French Market Bag is almost done. I am on the handles. Yes, it IS Ginormous (is that how you say it, gigantic and enourmous=ginourmous ;0). Of course, it is intended to be felted and will shrink. I might have to lengthen the handles, if this is the case. Wow! I cannot believe I will have two things off my needles! My mind is already contemplating what I will doing next. I am so bad!

Reviving My Mojo!

Hi there! Here I am again….with another cold. This is the pits! I am sick of being sick. As I convalesce, trying to squeeze every once of immunity out of my body to fight these things, all I can do is knit. I am thinking, perhaps its time to retire and be a homemaker again.

I’ve been trying to add a few rows in each of my projects. The French Market Bag is starting to shape up. The baby sweater will be finished soon. The Bell Curve skirt is getting longer.


I don’t know if it’s my condition that is affecting my knitting mojo (motivation) but I am struggling with it. I am in need of some new inspiration. It’s nice to see Spring coming… in the weather, in the flowers, in the trees blooming, sooo…. I need to start something new.

I subscribe to the Knitting on the Net newsletter and discovered this cute pattern for knitting little Easter Basket favors. I thought this would be nice to give my workmates with an Easter Egg filled with candies. They are very easy to knit. I cranked out about 5 of them in an hour or so. This is a great stash or scrap yarn buster as it doesn’t take much yarn to do.

I decided to join another knitalong. Web’s “Ready, Set, Knit” podcast is starting a new project……the Bird in Hand Mitten. I love two color knitting. So I jumped in and bought the pattern.

Then I read it through and tried to do a gauge swatch. I had some second thoughts thinking this project might become the Bird in “Hell” project. To get the gauge I had to use Size 1 needles. There is a reason why I do not knit many socks. This is because of the tiny needles required. My eyesight is just not as good as it used to be. I hate getting older. I had the yarn already in my stash, Knit Picks Swish DK in Hollyberry and Bare so I decided to jump in.

The first rows went well, but they are really tiny stitches. Then I came to the Braid. Oh my gosh,…..very confusing directions but I still plugged ahead and finally managed to figure it out. I can’t believe that this was all for a simple horizontal braid of chain looking embellishment. This is definitely a challenge. Here are some of my efforts…….

Instant Gratification

I think its time for me to step down from my political knitting soapbox, and think about my actual knitting rather than technique in the Eastern style. Spring is trying to show its sunny fresh side and something is happening to me. Suddenly, all I want to do is small quick projects. After finishing the Medallion Capelet, I have a need for instant gratification and satisfaction by finishing some quick projects.

I felt that my cape needed some accessories, so I used the stitch pattern from the collar to quickly make a hat to go with it. If I can manage it, I will try to make a written pattern to share it. It knit up very quickly and fit nicely. I liked it so much I started to make a green one to match my Zimmerman rib warmer.

I have an update of my Dad’s socks made with Tofutsies. I was going to frog them because the 2x2 rib was so boring, but the more I looked at them, the more I felt this would be best for him. He has had heart surgery in the past and occasionally gets swollen ankles. He also tends to get foot infections so I wanted to knit socks that would not be too tight with a little give but snug to stay on. I decided to resume them but I think I will make the ankles longer. I hope I have enough yarn. I’m almost up to the heel.

I haven’t worked on the Hemlock Blanket, but am feeling like I need to finish it and get it over with. Feather and Fan stitch is just not my cup of tea.

I was scanning Ravelry and discovered a really nice French Market Bag pattern that is felted. I thought this would be great for the Patons Classic Wool I had just ordered from Smileys Yarns. It has become my takealong knitting as it doesn’t take took much concentration.

I joined the Unraveled group in Ravelry and they are doing a Knit Along Celtic Bag tote, which is an intricately cabeled felted bag. This pattern intrigued me and gave me a challenge to make. I bought the yarn last Saturday at Unraveled in Monrovia, Lamb’s Pride Worsted in an Oatmeal color. I also took advantage of their 15% off sale on Koigu! I have always dreamed of getting some of this but it seemed so pricey. It didn’t seem as painful getting a discount, so I bought 3 skeins of Koigu in pinks, reds and purples. I haven’t yet decided what I will make with it.
Getting back to the Celtic tote, I casted on yesterday. I’m a little rusty on doing cables. Twenty years ago I made my husband a Aran vest with cables but I had forgotten a lot how to make them. I discovered a video on the Unraveled website that was very helpful in demonstrating some of the difficult stitches and had excellent techniques how to read a chart. One of those tips was to color code the different cable stitches and this has saved multitudes of frustration.