FO: Ellie

Back in November my friend Taryn asked me to knit a pair of mitts for her.  Now, there are some things you should know about my friend Taryn -- she's a girly girl.  But she does not like fussy things.  She has a gothic style.  But she loves sparkles.  And above all, Taryn loves My Little Pony.  I pointed her to a few etsy shops I knew were reliable, and told her to pick out what she wanted and have it sent to me.  She ended up selecting a skein of Gnome Acres in the Berties Bott's colorway.  A skein of laceweight at that.

After a lot of pattern deliberation, the Yarn Harlot blogged about a pair of mitts she received a kit for at one of her knitting retreats.  The Ellie mitts are written for fingering weight, so I decided to wind the skein into two balls and knit them double.  I also went down a needle size and knit the smallest size because Taryn's wrists are smaller than mine (and I wear a child's watch with ease).

The resulting project was chronicled here as I fought with dropped stitches, tangles, and yarn barf that resulted in cutting one of the two strands and painstakingly winding it back on itself.  But the end result is lovely.  The buttons are the last of my stash from my trip to the NYC garment district back in 2009.  I guess this means a return trip is in order.

Ellie is a sweet little pattern.  The instructions are very clear and it is quite customizable, which is always an added bonus.  Lately I have been touting the value of paid patterns.  This pattern is no exception, and I am pleased to say that the end result was very well received.

Find more splendid FOs over at Tami's Amis!

Yarn Conspiracies

Thank you everyone for all of your lovely comments on Shipwreck Cove.  Since finishing the sweater I have returned to one of my favorite more economic yarns of choice.  Laceweight.

I am knitting a pair of Ellie mitts for a friend out of this lovely Gnome Acres laceweight in the Bertie's Botts colorway.  Because this is a fingering weight pattern I am knitting this sparkly laceweight double -- which is easier said than done.

I showed these to you in December when I first cast them on, and then they kind of disappeared into the WIP pile.  This is no doing of mine, I swear.  It was yet another one of those evil yarn plots, working to make sure I no longer have any interest in knitting with laceweight.  First it was this epic yarn barf that resulted in having to actually cut one of the strands and spend an hour detangling.  And now?  This.

I know, that dropped stitch doesn't look like much.  But there is at least one full hour in this.  Granted, picking up stitches with a migraine is not the best plan in the world, but I swear that yarn is out to get me.

Postcards From The Couch

There has been something going around the office.  Some people have had flue like symptoms, some people have one night of physical illness and then are fine.  Me, I've had this crazy congestion for over a week that makes it hard to do anything but sleep when not at work (and sometimes even at work).  Every night I come home planning all the things I want to do.  I'm going to bake, I'm going to work out, I'm going to blast through some of my obligation kitting.  And then I get home and find myself asleep on the couch several hours later.

And then, because you know knitting has a sense of humor, this happened.

Oh yes, that is yarn barf.  On one of the two strands of lace weight I am using to knit these mitts decided to turn itself inside out.  And boy but is that a tangle.  Because I'm holding two strands together I am pretty sure I will have to cut the yarn to find the end of the snarl.

This was so frustrating that yesterday I decided to knit selfishly and picked up my Slope once again.  I have seemed up the side with the drop shoulder sleeve and am knitting the rest of the way down the cuff.  Maybe it will actually get cold by the time I finish.  In the meantime I overcame my congestion and managed to make my new favorite peanut butter chocolate cupcakes.

Yum.

Sparkled Progress

I finished my sleeve!  I did!  I also made it through the first episode of Damages season four and I was really unimpressed.  Is it just me or is there just no way to recap the shocking magic of who killed her fiance or is she really going to pull the trigger?  I can only hope that the magical world of litigation will strike our household soon.  Though if I could be spared the personal blood shed, that would be wonderful.

But I get myself sidetracked.  There is a completed sleeve drying here on the floor.  It has been drying for well over 24 hours.  I was thinking about wearing this sweater on Friday but thanks to this scary warm weather not only is my head getting congested but nothing will dry.  Nothing.  It is seriously like the middle of April around here.  So I have not been able to seam any of it, let alone complete the drop shoulder.

Because of this and because I have been very uncharacteristically dedicated to my sweater and only my sweater, I was at a bit of a loss as to what to knit last night.  Usually I save my tv knitting time for something that requires a bit more detailed thought.  So I ended up pulling out a pair of mitts that I need to finish up for a friend.  Honestly, though, this skein of Gnome Acres sparkly lace weight she sent to me is so decadent that I'm not sure I want to give it back.

This gorgeous yarn will one day grow up to be Ellie.  Yes, the ones the Yarn Harlot raved about. I am knitting the smallest size on size US 1 needles with the yarn held double (my friend has very slender hands). Sadly I am not very far because halfway through watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Cogsworth (dude, that movie is a total who's who of 2004) I discovered that I was decreasing incorrectly, so I had to rip the whole thing completely out and start over.  Have you ever tried to rip out laceweight held double?  I ended up with two balls of yarn leading into a third ball of yarn that then led to my needles.  It was insanity, but I managed to recoup most of my losses by the end of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (A little under two hours for those keeping score at home).

Instead of pondering what crazy thing I will watch on Netflix next, why not head over to Tami's Amis and check out what everyone else has been knitting.  They are almost guaranteed to be less cinematic.