Slow Going

I've had way too many distractions lately keeping me from my knitting but I've made a little progress on my glove. I have to admit my interest is waning a bit. I'm really trying to get this first glove finished by tomorrow - just in time for the first day of May (and a possible record high temp. of 90 degrees!) It's a little difficult to keep my interest up when I know I won't be getting much use out of them until November.

I did finally get the extra yarn I needed to finish my latest entrelac bag and that's what I'm really itching to work on. Maybe after I finish the first glove, I'll take a little break from them to finish the bag. After all, I started it first!

Guage Shock

That's what I've been experiencing, trying to adjust to knitting on size 1 needles after using size 10's for the last several weeks. In fact I seriously doubt I've ever knit anything before with less than size five needles. I think I actually winced a little when I first picked up the needles in my LYS. (It's not like I already had this size.)

I dutifully knit up a swatch to check my guage which also served to give me a little practice with the tiny needles and yarn. Come to think of it, I can't even remember the last time I did that - knitting up a swatch. When I took up knitting again a couple of years ago, I decided to start with quick, easy projects like scarves. After a few of those I jumped right into felting. Hardly the sort of knitting that requires a guage check. But gloves - obviously I need to try to get it right.

Anyway I'm happy to be working on something that requires nice even tension. I was afraid that the projects I was working on before were allowing me to be a "sloppy" knitter. Maybe all that knitting I did, not having to worry about being so precise, really just allowed me to get the feel for knitting again after taking a break for so many years. In any case I think it's good to push myself to try new things and conquer my knitting fears. This time it's the tiny guage. Next time, who knows? Maybe a really big, involved project like a sweater. We'll see.

Yarn Shortage

Now I see why most people have multiple knitting projects going. Because they don't like to sit around twiddling their thumbs when they could be knitting. And I thought I was being so "good" and showing such restraint by making myself finish a project before starting another. (We won't get into the number of unfinished items I have tucked away from my old knitting days.) But I ran out of the turquoise yarn I need for the next row of squares in my entrelac bag. I waited until I had the opportunity to get to my LYS (which has very limited hours of operation) and got another skein. In the past I've had very good luck with different dye lots of Lamb's Pride looking virtually the same, but this time my luck ran out. The Aztec Turquoise I bought was much darker, so much so that even though it would be a few inches away from the last row, I decided that it would be just too noticeable. Aargh! I quickly went on line to see about getting some more and I ended up buying some on ebay. I'm crossing my fingers.

I also decided to line up another project so I'd have something to work on right after the bag, but as it turns out I have everything I need for it, so I'll start on it tonight. "It" is a pair of gloves, and I'm pretty psyched because I've never knit gloves before and I've always wanted to. I've also joined my first KAL, the Glove Knitting KAL which seems like a very friendly, low key kind of site. There's no time limit which is great - I sure won't be needing them anytime soon!

I chose to do the gloves in Louet Gems Merino fingering weight yarn. I really like the fact that it's machine washable, and it's even supposed to be machine dryable. The color choices were great too. I'm a sucker for teals, aquas, purples, and blues.

I have to admit I find the guage somewhat daunting. I've been knitting with size 10 needles or larger for most of my felting lately and on these gloves I'll be using size 1. That's one, single digit, no numbers after it!! I hope I know what I'm doing!

Happy Easter!

I love it when the bag you're working on gets big enough to hold a skein or two of the yarn you're working with.

This has been a fun project to work on, but I'm eager to finish it and move on. It's been cold here the last few days, so a large pile of wool sitting in my lap has been rather welcome. I'm in North Carolina though, so days with 80-90 degree temps will be here soon. Time to plan for a smaller project.

I just realized from a distance my bag looks kind of like a giant checkered Easter egg. Unintentional, I swear! Anyway, I hope this Easter finds you all happy, healthy, and with lots of time to knit!

My Little Max

Back to the turquoise yarn again. The large paws belong to my dog, Max. He had to come see what I was up to and stayed to supervise.

Isn't he a sweetie? He wasn't too sure about having his picture taken. We used to call him Little Max when he was a young puppy, but it quickly became kind of a joke as he grew so rapidly. He is a good three or four inches taller at the shoulder than the breed standard, so "Max" turned out to be a very appropriate name for him.

We actually have three German Shepherds, but Max is the closest to being my dog. When I get home from work, he makes me feel like I'm the most important person in the world. That there will never be anyone as special as me. The other two dogs we have love me but they adore my husband. They have the (mistaken) impression that he is "alpha" in our little pack because of his larger size, deeper voice, etc. Little do they know about the subtle intricacies of human relationships. Max though, he's a very smart boy.

Making It Up As I Go

I've made a bit of progress on the bag over the last few days. I decided to go with Lamb's Pride in Brite Blue for the next row of solid squares.
It's not exactly a color that's in the Manos, but I think it works well over all. I'm happy with the spring-like tone of it. I was a little concerned at first that the size might be a little too small, but now that I'm a few tiers up it seems quite generous. Of course I'll lose a lot when it's felted...but that's part of the fun (for me anyway), trying to figure out the "before" size and shape in order to get the "after" that I'm looking for. I still have to decide how tall to make it. I figured that when I got close to being done, I'd just know it. Sounds good on paper.

Just Call Me a Bag Lady

Okay, so I'm deeply into my entrelac phase now. My entrelac/felting/bag phase to be more precise. I had no sooner finished the last bag when I started to realize what I really wanted was a bag I could use for toting papers to and from work but also something that would work for carrying around knitting projects. I decided to start with a rectangular base, pick up the stitches around it and work up the bag on circular needles. I figured out the number and size of the entrelac squares I would use, made a few calculations and cast on. I'm using Lamb's Pride Worsted in Aztec Turquoise for the base the bag and for the base triangles for the entrelac.


Here's where it got really fun! I've been wanting to use this Manos since I got it - I just love these colors! (The colorway is Caribe.)

So I started working on my first round of squares with it and I'm really liking it so far.
I think I'll switch to a new solid color after the Manos - I haven't quite worked that out yet...