Knitting success, that is. I absolutely love my "On the Wings of the Ocean Breeze" scarf that I made:
Here it is, blocked. I think for the first time since I had my stroke, there are no mistakes in it. It is light and airy, yet feels like silky water flowing over my hands. If you ever get the urge to try the Handmaiden Sea Silk (70% Silk, 30% "Plant Fiber", i.e., Seaweed), this is a really great project for it. I wish there was a "Touch" feature on my computer, so you could see how good it feels, see how delightfully it falls across the shoulders. It's wonderful.
I finally took the plunge and knit Fair Isle -- I made Muckle Mitts! Here they are, blocked:
They look good, don't they? I used Dale of Norway's Hauk with a little of the Mystery Merino that I used on my mittens. I'm not entirely happy with them, because I think the ribbing parts look pretty wonky, and I'm not sure why, but the Fair Isle parts are great, and that's what I was really worried about. The top and thumb ribbings look like some kindergartener made those parts (no offense to kindergarteners). I just couldn't tighten up enough. I probably should have used a smaller needle there ... but that would have meant going through the hassle of unscrewing the thing that holds the collet (the plastic part that houses the needle; there's a different one for each size needle), removing the collet, putting a new one in, screwing it back down again, and then inserting the smaller needle. But I see that is what I should have done. The smaller needle was used for the bottom ribbing, and it looks fine. I guess everything is just a little bit more work than I am used to, but it's worth it in the end. I had to do it the easy way and see how it looks before conceding that really, it is worth the extra effort to get it right.
I made another catnip mousie:
Catnip Mouse #8 ... I've got to start a box for containment.
It's good to have a routine, and a catnip mouse on Sunday is mine. It only takes an hour, and I feel very virtuous when I get it done.
I started a little girl's cardigan using 5 skeins of Gedifra's Fiorista Fino (88% cotton, 12% Elit Polyester; discontinued, but Webs still has some). It's a very multicolored yarn and knits up in wide-ish stripes randomly ... the colorway is not contained in one ball, either. So for example, even though I have 5 balls of color 328 dyelot 4222, there might be purple in one ball, but no purple in another ball. Wild, huh? You have to check the color numbers very carefully before starting. This little cardigan will be striped randomly and have extravagant color, but it's pretty simple otherwise. It's fun to knit so far though!
It's knit on size 5 needles for the ribbing and size 8 needles everywhere else. Should be a quick knit.
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