The phone is working again, the gift is knit and in the stocking, the gloves are missing only 3.5 fingers, the gifts for my family have been sent and received, the gifts for R's family are being bought today, the apartment is decorated and we have no Christmas stress.
Easy Peaceful Holidays to you! I'll be back in January.
There is progress knitting the gloves an the gift. There are only fingers and thumbs left to knit on the gloves and little under half on the gift.
This is how the glove looks right before beginning the fingers. I've put the thumb and pinky stitches on waste yarn (cotton thread) and knit a few rounds to extend the palm for the longest fingers.
Ursus is especially cute when he sleeps.
Yesterday I went to knitting_in_sthlm meeting for the first time. I met some new people, practiced Swedish and learned new words. Like nystan – ball of yarn. I also learned from Myra how to wind a center pull nystan without nostepinde (nystapinne). I was working on a Christmas gift I can't disclose here because he reads this blog. Fun was had by all and I'm definitely going back.
I still haven't firmly decided what to do with the Arrowhead Lace sock. Though I'm favoring the option of another color toe, I have to decide whether I'll spin the yarn myself or try to find something from stash.
Meanwhile I've been working on Fortissima gloves.
I've reached the pinky on the right glove and am knitting the thumb gusset on the left one. When I reach the time to begin the fingers on left glove, I'll continue with the right glove to the same point. Then all that remains are fingers. Lots of them.
The color sequence in the ball I use for the left glove was off by almost one repeat. The yarn begun with the tail end of green. I had knit the whole 2"/5cm cuff before I decided I wouldn't be able to live with that big a difference after all. So I picked a spot in the tail end of the blue, cut the yarn and cast on again. I'm pleased with the result, there is a two-round difference between the gloves, but it is fine with me. Yarn like this is not supposed to match perfectly anyway.
This weekend was very eventful. We were catsitting for R's brother and SIL. Ursus was first scared out of his wits. He kept hissing, spitting and growling, although in the end he did that only when he was cornered. Poor Freddy tried to play but all his attempts met this treatment.
There was very little knitting because my nerves were on the edge listening for fights and I ran out of yarn.
This is how much I have left. Now I have a dilemma. Should I use some other yarn to finish the toes or rip the whole thing out or undo the cast on, rip two inches and knit 1" ribbing?
This sock has been put on hold because I can't decide.
The December/January pattern for Six Sox Knitalong was revealed on Wednesday. Hmmm... Beads. I don't want to have socks with beads and nobody I know wants to have socks with beads. So what do I do?
Enter the assorted Pony beads I bought for my braids, some leftover bulky acrylic yarn, big dpns and a small crochet hook. Voilà! A Beaded Christmas Stocking. As I need two stockings, it will fulfill the requirement of a pair too. Problem solved. Since I did not have enough beads of any one color, I had to get creative with colors. I like how the red and green crosses form two garlands around the stocking.
I cast on 40 stitches, knit 4 rounds of 2x2 rib, 11 rounds of stockinette and used a 2.5mm crochet hook to attach the beads.
The crochet hook method instructions have been posted to the list and on various blogs, but I'm going to repeat them for future reference. This method is very simple. You put a bead on the hook, pull a stitch from the left needle through the bead, replace the stitch to the needle and knit it. Done. In essence you are adding the bead to the round below the one you're knitting, so you have to take that into account when calculating row gauge.
When the bead pattern was done I knit 20 rounds, made a square heel without gussets (knit 12 rows of heel flap instead of 20), picked up 7 sts on either side of the heel, knit another 15 rounds and made a round toe.
Now I just need to make another and call it a pair. The other one is going to be gray with black and white beads, because I don't have enough white yarn or the red and green beads left. They are going to be fraternal, but since when Christmas stockings had to match?
There has also been knitting. I could not resist the fabulous yarn I've received from my Nordic secret friends.
The ragg Norwegian sockyarn from Anita is perfect for Little Arrowhead Lace Sock by Nancy Bush.
The Fortissima Colori Socka Color from Dorthe becomes a pair of gloves instead of socks. The colors are gorgous. Unfortunately I miscalculated and had to rip quite a bit so you have to wait a little to see more of them.
Today we went to St. Eriksplan to get a more RAM for me and a graphics card for R. On the way we passed a yarn store I hadn't been to before. Of course this store had to be checked out. I managed to walk out with no more than two skeins of this berry-colored sockyarn. It was very difficult to get colors true to the yarn with electric light or flash. This is the best I could do.
Ursus is growing, he is bigger every day. He is still the same sweet kitten, though. Photo is taken without flash.
Today is my first blogiversary. A year ago I decided to start keeping a public diary and I'm quite surprised I'm still at it. When I was a teen I begun to keep diaries many times, but I always quit a few months in. I think it's the readers and the community that make the difference.
In honor of the blogiversary there is a new look to the main and archive pages. I've decided to keep the photo albums as they are, for a time being. I hope the difference is not too jarring.
I thank all of you, for reading, e-mails, commenting and linking. Without you, it would not have lasted this long.
