Green Diamonds and Mitts

Make that mitt - only one (anyone see a pattern here?). Seriously, now that we have some serious winter weather, my hands get cold around the house from time to time, and my right hand gets cold a lot when I'm mousing around on the computer. Carol made mitts, I've seen patterns for them, and a light bulb went off - "Aha, I need mitts!" I found Anns' Delicato pattern, which is pretty and would give me a chance to try out more lace knitting skills, a yarn that I haven't used yet, AND get warm hands. So I've done it. Here's the mouse hand mitt:

And NO, this time I did not copy the Yarn Harlot. I had purchased and downloaded my pattern, pulled the yarn out of stash, gotten the needles at the ready. It was only then that I saw Stephanie's post with her tale of knitting her alpaca Delicato mitt.

On to green diamonds. They're done. All 16 of them. Now to combine them with the blue ones and move onward to get this quilt top completed.

Tomorrow I must spin more of this:

in order to unload the spindle so I can take it with me for the weekend. I'm going again to the John C. Campbell Folk School for this fun weekend class on hand spindling.

And then a quick visit with Denise. I have Christmas treats for Sadie, Lucas and Oreo but due to a last minute change of plans, I wasn't able to see them at Christmas.

Some quick notes about the mitt. I think on the second one I'm going to use a plain K2P2 rib on the thumb, and not the fancy rib. Also at the top of the body, I'll use the fancy rib only on the top, and plain rib on the palm side. I got 8.5 stitches per inch instead of 8, but it fits perfectly, as I wanted it snug. I used Lucy Neatby's modified conventional bind off, which is comfortable enough, but if I want to spread my hand, it's slightly binding. I think I will try a different bind off on the second mitt, too.

Weekend's Work

I finished Joy's quilt:

I had it quilted by our friend and neighbor Maggie Porter. I made and sewed the binding on over the weekend, and it's ready to mail to David's mother by the end of this week. Her birthday is Feb. 7th.

I also got half of a very fun cardigan completed:

It's Babies and Bears Sweater for Grownups (scroll all the way to the bottom of the page if you follow the link) and this is my left half. This pattern from Cottage Creations is fun because of the unusual shaping - it begins at the garter stitch cuff, knit in the round. Then the sleeve is stockinette in the round, and the body is worked mostly in garter stitch. I saw Jane's version of this at The Yarn Patch last week and just had to make it, being the garter stitch fan that I am. I think I should have used one size larger needle for the garter - this may be a tad on the small side (re width), but the sleeves fit perfectly! It's wool and rather than rip, I'm going to hope for the miracle of blocking if it's necessary. And I'll definitely make this again.

Tagged, Too!

Carol tagged me.

Now I have to : Open the nearest book to page 123, type 6-8 lines of the book, tag three others. Here goes:

"The Nhambiquara intrigued Roosevelt, and he enjoyed their company, but he would not let his guard down around them. He had heard vivid tales of their brutality toward the Pareci in Utiarity, and he had spent a night watching them dance in Jurena....."

It's from The River of Doubt by Candice Millard. And it wasn't the closest book, but it was the closest one that had 123 pages and wasn't a craft or quilt book. So I cheated a bit. Makes me want to find out what Teddy saw that makes him wary of those people!

And now I'm tagging HollyMay, Kari, and Nan.

And in keeping with something or other, here's a kitty photo for Friday:

Terry helps with the laundry.

As Promised.....

The granddaughters!

Gillian was 6 on Jan. 4th.

Here she is at the party, along with her maternal grandmother (aka David's ex).

Tinkerbell HAD to be on the cake!

Annabelle still seldom smiles when I take her picture, but she's a happy, busy baby and a joy to be around. She and Gillian are best friends. Here she is with Grandpa (no, the shirt isn't too small - she has recently discovered her belly button and likes to check on it now and then).

The Oklahoma Road

Lookee here, I finished some things on our trip! (I've been back about a week, but had some technical difficulties last week, plus catching up and getting reorganized.)

First up, a completed Sandra's first annual New Year's sock. Just one, though. Second, a looooong black Sock for Soldiers (leg machine knitted by Barb). Just one, though. Progress on Scott's sock - just one, though. Hmmm, I haven't knitted on socks for a week - second sock syndrome setting in? Well, I just needed a break.

I also finished this diagonal scarf, knitted with Plymouth's Boku. It's a lot like Noro Silk Garden, but more evenly spun. I love how this turned out. I just donated it to the Red Scarf project.

During my sock break, I took the first of two lace knitting lessons with Jane Sunderman at my LYS, The Yarn Patch. Jane makes beautiful lace shawls and is a fun and patient teacher. My lesson project, a lace scarf from Fiber Trends Lacy Accents.

And since David's mom doesn't know about my blog, I can show you her birthday present, which I took to the quilter today. Her birthday is in Feb. and I saw this kit at Oklahoma Quiltworks. Had to do it!

Tomorrow, the granddaughters!

(PS - if some of these links don't work, I apologize. Ever since I downloaded a Windows update, some strange things have been happening that I don't understand. Two of these links checked out just fine, but the Red Scarf and Socks for Soldiers just wouldn't let me go there from the link.)

New Year's Tradition

I'm starting a new tradition. I'm going to begin a pair of socks for myself on the first day of the year. That's easy. The second part is that I must finish the pair before the year is over. Now let's see if I can pull that off! Here's 2007's entry, the first annual Sandra's New Year's socks:



Yes, yes, I KNOW they're a shameless knock-off of Stephanie's socks (see her Dec 2, 2006 entry). Hers were just so appealing that I had to make a pair for myself. I graphed my own design, though. It's similar to hers, but I didn't actually copy it. The black yarn is Knit Picks Essential, and the pastel is Fleece Artist Merino in the Easter Egg colorway.

I'm kinda liking this black with variegated thing. I think I may try this again! But first I'll finish these.

Here are all of my girls, sleeping it off. They must have had a secret kitty new year's party after we went to bed last night.

See y'all when I return from the family visit to Oklahoma.