WIP Wednesday - Dragon Mitts

Just a brief post today as there's not much to say about this one.
Almost done with the dragon mitts for my nephew. I just need to sew them up once they've dried :)

FO: See Saw Shrug

Finished this with a week to spare before handing it over to my sister. Just as well - then it'll have time to dry properly :) My sister's buying some purple ribbon for the eye-lets. I would never have thought of purple and red together myself until she suggested it, but my niece has inherited her mothers unerring sense of fashion, and I just know it'll look great!

(Is it just me, or does this look like a cartoon monster of some kind? I can just imagine it with eyes and mouth and arms spread out wide, but can't remember which monster it is that it reminds me of!)

WIP Wednesday - Wingspan

Only another 5.5 hexipuffs to go! I'm really excited about that :) I've recently moved to another location at work, so instead of having a 30 minute bike-commute each way, I now have a 45 minute bus-commute each way, meaning I can knit on the way! I've gotten 1-2 done each day doing that, so now I can definitely see the end of the tunnel!

Fortunately it means I can knit other things at home with a free conscience, so I've started Wingspan for a dear friend of mine. Her birthday isn't until the end of October, so there should be plenty of time to finish :)
The only problem is that while I love the feel of the yarn, I'm not entirely sure I like the way the colours knit up. I change my mind every 5 minutes.

Opinions? Other patterns you think the yarn would be better suited for?


For more WIPs, check out Tami's Amis.

FO Friday - Dragon hat... again ;-)

I know this is half-way cheating as I've shown you this FO once already, but this is just too good not to be shared :) Last weekend I visited my sister and her family, and had of course brought my nephew his dragon hat. He immediately put it on, so I asked him if I could take a picture, and this is how he posed.
:-)

I am making him these gloves with the rest of the yarn, and then it's up to his mother to sew the rest of the costume ;)

WIP Wednesdays - See Saw Shrug

Only another 5 hexipuffs knitted since last Wednesday - I'm slacking off... On the other hand, that means I only have another 15 to go, so I can also see the light at the end of the tunnel! Which is good, as I've promised my friend to have the rug finished by November 3rd - should be plenty of time, as long as I don't slack off completely ;)

I've gotten quite a bit further on the See Saw shrug though. Last week I'd only just gotten the ruff on the right sleeve done. This time I'm almost through the back!
(it's a bit hard to tell, but it's knitted in one piece, sleeve-back-sleeve. I'm just about to start the second sleeve)
I'll be seeing my sister again on September 14th, which ought to give me plenty of time to finish.

Since I'm on the subject - a few knitting anecdotes to bug you with ;)
* My church had a lunch meeting Sunday before last. I'd brought my knitting to get another hexipuff done during the meeting. I'd finished one and was casting on for the next one, when one of the leading ladies in the congregation suddenly noticed what I was doing. She's in her 70s and has probably been knitting for 60+ years. She saw me casting on for the magic loop and exclaimed, "Maria, what ARE you doing?" Apparently she had never seen that way of casting on before ;) I explained what I was doing and how it was supposed to work and she seemed to accept it as being a proper method and not just me not knowing any better ;)

* Mum hadn't seen that way of casting on before either and hadn't heard of the magic loop technique. Since she's been knitting for my entire life I felt just as chuffed when I discovered I knew something about knitting that she didn't, as I did when I was able to answer a computer question my dad had ;)

* Thursday evening as I was knitting the see saw shrug, I discovered I had made a mistake a few rows down. I'd switched to stockingette stitch for the back, and had accidentally knitted where I should have purled (or purled where I should have knitted... can't remember which). It was only 10 stitches, and a couple of rows down, so instead of ripping it down, I figured I'd try the "dropped stitch" technique. It worked like a charm :-D I dropped the stitches down three rows (one at a time! didn't dare try several at once without a life-line), turned it around and brought it back up again. My pride when I discovered I couldn't tell the difference from the "knitted" stitches was palpable... and I didn't have anybody to share it with!!! DH had no clue of the feat I'd just accomplished, so I had to tell him "I just did a good thing!" in order to get acknowledgement. Really not the same as telling people who actually understands ;)

* Sunday afternoon I joined a knitting event closeby. I had a great time, and will definitely be showing up again. At the event some of the others started talking about different ways of making a purl stitch. I listened with great interest because the tension of my purl stitches is noticeably different from that of my knit stitches. It doesn't matter much when knitting an entire piece flat, but if I knit parts in the round and parts flat, the difference shows - even after blocking and agitating (at least in some yarns). One of the others mentioned that she had the same problem, so she'd taught herself how to knit backwards! Meaning that when knitting flat, she never turned the needles, she just switched the yarn from her left hand to her right and 'knit' backwards! Of course I had to try that, so when I arrived home that evening, I picked up the shrug and spent the remainder of the evening trying to get my hands to cooporate when knitting backwards! It was extremely frustrating at first, as I couldn't work up any kind of speed, so it was painfully slow, but even after the first row of knitting backwards, I could SEE the difference, and it definitely looked a lot better. I'm still nowhere near as fast when knitting backwards as when knitting forwards, and getting the tension of the string right is still an issue, but I can definitely see improvements, so I'm going to keep trying.

But it's funny, really... since I'm left-handed, one would think that knitting left-to-right would be easier for me than knitting right-to-left ;)

... and then it struck me that I'm learning the first step necessary for knitting fair isle (knitting with the yarn in the wrong hand), and I suddenly paled a bit... ;) but, but, but... this! (Although that would involve me getting up my nerve to try my hand at steeking as well, and I'm not sure I'm anywhere NEAR that! :-O )

As always, I'm playing along at Tami's Amis.

WIP Wednesday - See Saw Shrug

Yet another Wednesday, yet another WIP post :)

I'm still knitting the hexipuffs - last count put me at 60! Only another 20 to go :) They're not terribly interesting to take photos of at the moment though, so instead I'll give you my newest cast-on.

Once again I'm knitting for a niebling, this time it's the See Saw Shrug for one of my nieces.
I haven't come that far yet - in fact, I've only just come past the eye-lets on the first sleave, but it's knitting up nicely, and I think I'll enjoy the project :)

FO Friday - Dragon Hat

I think it's turned out pretty darn cute! Hopefully my nephew will like it too :) I'm going to go see my sister and her family next weekend, and will bring it to him then.

(Sorry about the light - it was the best I could do that early in the morning :) )

Such a quick knit too! Don't think it took me more than 3-4 hours to do all in all :)