Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Quick Knits and Cat Communication


Lately, I've been working on complicated pieces that involved a lot of colorwork or shaping. While it's interesting to learn new skills and rewarding when I (eventually) finish a piece like that I've been feeling a craving for some quick knits. I find winter is the one time of year I get to display some of my handiwork and if I didn't start soon these would be destined for next season!



These mittens were made from a pattern in Ann Budd's The Handy Book of Patterns. This book is a great resource as it gives you charts to make any basic project such as hats or even sweaters in many gauges of yarn. The only modification I made was to cast on more stitches for the thumb than was indicated so it wasn't too tight. I managed to whip these up in just 4 days starting on a Saturday and binding off the thumbs at knitting group on Wednesday.

I used yarn I had in my stash from Brooks Farm. I'm having trouble figuring out which yarn it was but it appears to be a wool/mohair blend and is on the chunky side. I made a pair of these mittens from a similar pattern a couple years ago but my downfall was leaving tails that were too short and I ended up busting open the thumbs after a couple of wears. This time I learned my lesson and left generously long tails to wind in several times.



Remember that day last week when it was sudddenly about 10 degrees out? JF begged me to whip him up a quick hat the night before, even threatening to buy a hat which at this point would be sacrilege! I felt a little guilty as the '48' hat I had started for him has been sitting around unworked on since I made a mistake in the chart and have been too fed up to take out 2 rows of 130 stitches each in 3 color intarsia!



This hat was completed in one night of speed knitting using Lion Brand Thick 'n Quick. JF had bought a ball of this to use as a trim on a sweater he's been working on we figured there was enough to spare. The edging is a 2x2 seed stitch pattern. It looks nice but isn't as effective as ribbing in terms of conforming to the head. JF added the pom-pom on top which I think is a nice touch.



Finally our very quiet cat has gotten creative in finding ways to communicate with us. The other day she ate her wet food in the shape of a backwards "C." This could mean many things...cat, Cosette, Christmas....or is our kitty just dyslexic??



"No, dummy, I was trying to say put down the yarn and play with me...or at least give me some yarn to play with too!"

6 comments:

Sarah said...

And now that you whipped up the hat and mittens, its spring like weather out there. Did you jinx the winter? Can't wait to be back in a couple of weeks - and this time it will be to stay! See you soon!

CAT said...

Hey it looks like you're doing mittens too!

NH Knitting Mama said...

I really like the mittens... those are totally my colors!

Carol said...

Maybe you should take Kitty to a Cat Whisperer.

Anonymous said...

Wow! You're like the Speedy Gonzalez of knitters!

aruni said...

love those mittens! i wanted to do some more winter knits but have become more realistic about time constraints, so i'm looking ahead to the spring!