A Yarn Gift

On Wednesday night, I arrived home to a package from Jen, from the International Tote Exchange III. In it, there was a skein of Malabrigo in a dark purple colorway. The yarn is so beautiful and soft, I just had to start something with it. I went through a few books, looking for a small project, and came across a pair of gloves in the One Skein book that I had been wanting to make. That same night, I cast on for them. I haven't had much time at home to knit, and these don't make very good commuter knitting, so last night I worked on them for about an hour, getting 1 finger and most of another knitted. I'm very pleased with the way this yarn is feeling as it is knitted. Its also much stronger than I thought it might be. I've often had singles, like this, break too easily. However, I had to go find some scissors to cut the yarn at the end of the first finger! This was a very pleasant surprise. (The color is much deeper than seen here. The flash washed it out some.)

Huskies Sock

Since beginning the Huskies sock on the 4th, I've knit the toe and most of the foot. Only one more inch to go, before starting the heel. I'm looking forward to the stitch being a little different as I work a short-row heel. I am doing the entire sock in stockinette, which gets a little boring after a while. However, it makes for great commuter knitting, since I can either look out the window (and knit by touch) or watch what I'm knitting, taking time to admire the way the colors are pooling. It has been a fun knit and is going a little more quickly than I thought that it might. The sock will be about 10 inches in diameter and about 11 inches in length. I split the yarn into 2 equally weighted balls so that I can just knit until I run out of yarn on the cuff. I'm hoping I have enough yarn to make it as long as the foot, but doubt that. Instead, I'll make it as long as possible by not using a hem for the cuff and using ribbing, instead.

One FO, 2 new UFOs

This weekend, I did manage to finish the Blue & White socks. I stayed up a little late, last night to get the ends woven in, but they look great!

On Friday night, I finished all but the hood on my cardigan, and for that I only have about 11 inches left to finish knitting. I'm excited to see this project almost done, as it will make a great Spring jacket. Our weather is warming up, after the snow last week, and so it is feeling like Spring, again. This will be some good motivation to finish the sweater.

I started 2 new projects this weekend. On Saturday, I went to my LYS to return the extra 2 hanks of yarn from the cardigan, and ended up exchanging them for some of Elisabeth Lasvold's Hempathy. I'm going to make the Green Gable for my mom for her birthday, in June. I finished off one of the six skeins of yarn on Sunday afternoon. Its looking good. She saw me working on it, and absolutely loved the soft hand to the fabric and the lace at the front neckline. I asked her a few questions about the style, which she answered as though the sweater was for me, but with an answer like, "If it was me, I'd..." This was perfect!! Then, she had a favorite sweater drying in the bathroom, so I measured it for length and width at the underarm. Green Gable should be very easy to knit to those specifications. I really want to make a new favorite for her.Finally, I started the Huskies socks. I am using my favorite pattern, Wendy's Generic Toe Up Socks, which I have re-calculated the number of stitches to fit a foot that is 11 inches instead of 8. I finished the toe, as seen here, and then worked another 1/2 inch or so on my way into work, this morning. The yarn is so soft and squishy. These socks would be hard to give away, if they would fit me. Of course, they won't, though as they will be way to big!

Shawl Begun

I started the Civil War Shawl, yesterday. I knit to row 45, this week's assignment. It felt like a quick knit, which I love. I started out with a size 5 needle, but that was way, way to big for this lace weight yarn. I went down to a size 2. Now, it looks great.

Before I could get started, I had to finish a few more stitch markers. I needed 15, and only had 12. (There are 16 repeats, but I use 1 plastic coiless safety pin for the start of the round.) These little flowers were fun to make, especially since no 2 are exactly alike. I do plan to make 16 more, so that once I get up to the point where there are 32 pattern repeats, I'll have one to mark the beginning of each repeat.

I also had some time to work on my cardigan. (Still no pic, but maybe soon!) I have a little over half the sleeve decreases done. This is one project that I really want to finish. With our recent bout of cold weather, it will be a great layering sweater, or once it warms up, will work well for a casual, spring jacket. The colors are working out perfectly, and whenever I knit on it in public, people always make positive comments about the pink/purple with the brown.

Off and on for most of the day, yesterday, we had snow! It almost never snows in the Seattle area, but here it is almost March and its coming down, again. I love to watch it, and like the sound of the silence that is so easy on the ears. My dh took our cats outside (normally they are indoor only pets) so they could experience the cold, wet, white stuff! I don't think that either of them liked that

too well!

Over night, we had 3 1/2 inches come down. See?