Pattern: Saartje's Bootees by Saartje de Bruijn
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock in "Brights"
Yardage: way less than 1 skein
Needles: pair of 2.00 mm dpn's (full size straights just seemed enormous)

A belated "Happy Valentine's Day" to you all. I thought this would be a good time to share these. They were made for a Miss Leah (daughter of a friend) who joined the world on 30 July 2008.

They were a little fiddly to do (and involved much frogging) but only because I didn't read the instructions very well the first time and didn't bother to pay attention to what I was doing the second time. They are totally worth it anyway and I know I will be making them again sometime. They have got to be the most impossibly cute thing I have ever made and I can only imagine how they might look when actually on a baby.

I hope Miss Leah likes them.

 

 

Pattern: Cabled Fingerless by Kimberly Gintar
Yarn: Socks That Rock Heavyweight in Rose Quartz
Yardage: way less than 1 skein
Needles: 3.00 mm dpn's

I'm glad I swatched for these because I ended up dropping down an entire millimetre. They fit beautifully and are just right warmth-wize. I love the little braid running up the back and the way ti grows out of, and then back into, the ribbing. It took me three tires to get the second mitt to match the first; I kept miscounting my rows and had the thumb gusset in the wrong place.

I've been wearing these pretty steadily since I finished them on Thursday. Our apartment is very cold because of the weather and that extra bit of warmth makes everything more comfortable. I thought they might come too far up my fingers to wear for knitting but they're perfect and equally wonderful at the keyboard or the wheel. I'll be bringing these to work with me on Monday - my desk at work is even colder than at home.

...or "All the things I was going to blog about but didn't get to and then the power went out."

The highlight of my weekend was certainly Erin lending me a spinning wheel. It's the Ashford Traditional and is great fun to play with. It takes a bit more co-ordination than my hand spindles but I can spin a lot more stuff. This is especially exciting since I was thinking of asking my family to help me buy a wheel for my birthday and it is wonderful to be able to try one out before making an investment.

By the way, spinning wheels make the most incredibly relaxing whirring noise. It's lovely to listen to and even better to make.

Besides Zeke's bed I've been working on another little knitting project. This will be one of two Cabled Fingerless mitts. The yarn is Socks That Rock Heavyweight in Rose Quartz and feels so beautiful to work with. I love to see all the tiny variations in the pink. Watching the cable emerge is magic - a couple of little twists in what looks like the wrong places and you end up with a braid. I can't wait to wear these; they manage to be feminine and substantial at the same time.

I've been sewing too. Just before Christmas I discovered that a bunch of the wrapping cloths I had stored away were not fat quarters but quarter metres and not very handy for wrapping. After Christmas I decided to take all these bits (leftover from making our stockings I think) and make a quilt top. I pieced for almost two days straight and came up with a crazy quilt style middle but didn't have any fabric to make borders. A couple of weeks ago I was at the quilt shop and picked out enough fabric for borders, binding and backing (I think) as well as some batting to sandwich in the middle.

On Sunday I finished off my top and couldn't be more pleased. I had enough left over from making the centre to add a skinny pieced border and managed to do mitred corners (which were not very hard but extremely fiddly). When I held up the top to show Rob the sun shone through it and illuminated all the pieces like a glass window. I'm looking forward to starting the quilting next weekend.