OK, the recipient has received so now I can talk about THE gloves.

The Cafe du Monde Gloves from Hand Jive Knits, done in Ella Rae Lace Merino #140 (Blue/Green/Brown) and trimmed in #08 (Taupe). I think they came out rather well.



The yarn was a dream to work with, no trouble with fraying or splitting. Once I figured out what the heck I was doing with the eyelet trim the pattern was really very simple and straightforward.

I think I may end up knitting a pair for myself.

So I just finished up a couple Christmas gifts...from 2011. It's March.  I managed to get almost nearly done but the drive just left me when it came to the finishing bits (I understand that isn't uncommon). But I ended up working up a couple of really cute hats while I was procrastinating.

The Dotted Riobbed Cap by Le Tissier Designs, and then a simple slouchy thing of my own design, worked up in a Noro color that had a lot of bubblegum pink in it (still not sure what I was thinking when I bought it, but I love how it came out...)

                 

How cool is this...

   

Can you read the note in the picture below?
"Mary Sillers Robinson of Moore County made this linen cloth by growing the flax,  processing it's fibers, spinning them into thread, and weaving the fabric. ca 1776" - holy cow.

Ok, falling behind on my posting again!  I finished a second pair of socks, just need to weave in the ends and take a picture or two and get them up there. I've interrupted a couple of shawl projects to work on a gift for someone, but I should at least get the pattern info up here, maybe this weekend...maybe.

BUT for my darling Auntie - these are the gloves that I am hoping to make for you! Cafe Du Monde Gloves from Hand Jive Knits. Aren't they just!



I couldn't quite find those colors but I did find these...



I think they'll work very well, but if not - I have another excuse to go to the yarn store.

Darn it

So Mom and I took a first rate weaving class from Pamela through The Recycled Lamb recently and that was extremely cool! Very different activity than knitting and yet still has a lot of the same neat features working since you're still working with yarn.

So the first project was a  simple scarf with the warp done in a solid color and the weft done in Noro, I think it was Silk Garden but I need to figure out what I did with the tag for it.

The second project was a table runner done in cotton, the only real requirement was that we have striping in the warp, and some of the projects folks came up with were just stunning!

A bit trickier than the scarf because I wanted a striped pattern in the weft and didn't remember to measure the cloth as I worked my along so I ended up not having quite enough room at the end to repeat the pattern correctly, but the warp pattern had a certain randomness built into it so I fudged the end and it came out OK. I'll have to ask the hubbie to take some pitcures of the finished work, and maybe I cna sneak over a get some photos of Mom's too.

I'm pretty certain I'll go back sometime, rent a loom and try a couple more projects, only right now I have several knitting things on my plate that I want to focus on first...

Oops, been while since I’ve spoken up! One very cool project I finished since my last blogging was to knit up three Luscious Cabled Cowls from Sweater Babe in three different colors of Berroco Sundae Yarn (Marmalade, Pretzel and Poppy Seed) and boy are they super Luscious!  Unfortunately I neglected to get pictures before sending them off to their intended recipients; maybe one of them will take a picture and send it back so I can post it. Otherwise I’m just going to have to make another…which come to think of it would be OK actually. I have 3 full skeins of Marmalade, and something like ½ a skein left of each of the colors I worked with. I also picked up some Araucania Coliumo Multi (Color #1) that I thought would make a lighter, more ‘casual’ cowl for myself perhaps.

I also finished my first socks (yeah!) from KnitPicks.com Cocktail Socks Kit.  I didn’t gauge at all since I really just wanted to see if I could do it; so they’re a bit too ‘floppy’ and the heels don’t match – but they are unmistakably sock-like! 

I think I need to try again only about 2 needle sizes smaller…

So now I can posat them!  Here's couple of cowls I knit up from the Abby Cowl by Amy Singer  from the Knitty site . Very knifty pattern, I think I'll use it again only do a larger needle so it's a lacier cowl, just to see what happens 

                       

The orange-y one is knitted with Done Roving's Chili Pepper Burn, the second is done with Berroco's Ultra Alpaca in Flannery Red.
                           

Somewhere in there I knit up a couple quick scarves using Yarn Demon's Rainy Day Scarf pattern
- very fun easy to learn pattern done in Malibrigo's worsted Taureg and chunky merrino Charrua.

Apparently these all were a hit with the recipients which just makes this whole knitting thing that much cooler! I've gotten ahold of a fingerless glove pattern from PatternFish  and a sock kit from KnitPicks which I'm trying to hike up my skirt and dig into this week.

And then I just have to find time to finish the Anthemion wrap by Miriam Felton which I'm less then 40 rows into but does give me a little more confidence that I can maybe tackle socks and gloves.

This one is loosely inspired by several of the hats in Hip Knit Hats, I just like the idea of using rows of purling to create some edging

And this yarn reminds me of an afghan that we used to have from one of my grandmothers. The yarn striped on it's own, I just knit round and round.

here's a couple where I was messing around with stripes, the blue/brown one originally had a design in white but I didn't leave enough 'float' to the yarn and the white part ended up becoming a constricting band. So I took it out and redid the bottom 4 inches. The orange one I had to add a few inches too as well because I stopped too soon.

     

Alrighty, my darling hubbie took some pictures of some of the hats I've knit over the last year. So here's a couple.

Here's the second hat I finished, a 'Boyfriend Beanie'. I've been trying to keep notes on the yarn I use but this one got away from me. I still have quite a bit left so I think the label will be at the bottom of something, somwhere. I was really cool to watch the stripping appear as I worked up.

This hat a knit up from the leftover yarn from my first scarf, I think it's maybe my 3rd or 4th hat. It's the Mari hat from Hip Knit Hats, only I used needles a bit too large so it's kinda on the floppy side (as mentioned previously)