Lately my schedule is such that I have almost every weekday evening alone at home. I've been plowing through audiobooks, clearing out my WIP basket, and thinking about Christmas.
Since I'm on the opposite side of the world from my family and close friends and have all this time to knit, I figure if there's ever a year to try and knit a bunch of Christmas gifts, this is it. So I've cast on a royal ton of things in the last week or so, even though I said I wouldn't start anything new until all my WIPs were finished.
Since I'm knitting gifts, of course I can't show them yet but I will talk about what I'm knitting for my immediate family, since I don't think they even know what a blog is hehehe.
Here's the deal. I've got all this Knitpicks Palette laying around (21 balls to be exact) from a kit to make a bag. I really want to make that bag at some point, but even if I cast on today there's no way I would finish it before leaving Singapore, and it would become a headache come moving time. Meanwhile, I've got six family members who live in a cold place (well, depends on your definition of cold I guess), the need to destash over the next four months, and a burning desire to knit colorful mittens.
The only rational thing I can do is try to knock out six pairs of mittens over the next two months. Right?
I'm going to take patterns from Charlene Schurch's book Mostly Mittens. First up, surprisingly, is Mitten 1 from the book. I'm not great at combining colors but here's what I came up with, if it looks awful I'll change out a color or two:
I've only knit one pair of mittens before but it was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to this megaproject. And if they don't get finished in time, oh well I'll send a gift card.
I also cast on for something to leave at my desk at work, something uncomplicated and time insensitive (I've been spending less time at the office itself lately, so I can't predict how much time I'll have for knitting at work in the coming months). I cast on for a scarf using a pattern from Nancy Marchant's book Knitting Brioche.
This stitch is called "Siemens stitch" in her book. I chose it because it combines brioche knitting, which is a new technique for me, with double knitting, which I've dabbled in before. It was great to be working them in the same piece, and I think I understand both better because of it. Both require you to slip a lot of stitches, but the brioche sections put a lot more yarn on the needle:
The resulting fabric is thick, reversible, and cozy. The yarn is Colourmart, by the way, but I'm not entering it in the current contest because I don't think I'll finish it in time.
Taking the pics for this post and the previous one were fun - I took bf to the gardens at my work on a Saturday afternoon. Don't worry - I am not a crazy workaholic, but I live so close to my work that the gardens there are the closest pretty place. The heat made us a little silly:
but it was better than staying home and taking pics in my cruddy little room.
We were not the only ones in garden.
I don't know how many of these little guys live there, but I see them all the time. They are lightning fast though, and I'm surprised bf caught a pic of one.
Since I'm on the opposite side of the world from my family and close friends and have all this time to knit, I figure if there's ever a year to try and knit a bunch of Christmas gifts, this is it. So I've cast on a royal ton of things in the last week or so, even though I said I wouldn't start anything new until all my WIPs were finished.
Since I'm knitting gifts, of course I can't show them yet but I will talk about what I'm knitting for my immediate family, since I don't think they even know what a blog is hehehe.
Here's the deal. I've got all this Knitpicks Palette laying around (21 balls to be exact) from a kit to make a bag. I really want to make that bag at some point, but even if I cast on today there's no way I would finish it before leaving Singapore, and it would become a headache come moving time. Meanwhile, I've got six family members who live in a cold place (well, depends on your definition of cold I guess), the need to destash over the next four months, and a burning desire to knit colorful mittens.
The only rational thing I can do is try to knock out six pairs of mittens over the next two months. Right?
I'm going to take patterns from Charlene Schurch's book Mostly Mittens. First up, surprisingly, is Mitten 1 from the book. I'm not great at combining colors but here's what I came up with, if it looks awful I'll change out a color or two:
I also cast on for something to leave at my desk at work, something uncomplicated and time insensitive (I've been spending less time at the office itself lately, so I can't predict how much time I'll have for knitting at work in the coming months). I cast on for a scarf using a pattern from Nancy Marchant's book Knitting Brioche.
This stitch is called "Siemens stitch" in her book. I chose it because it combines brioche knitting, which is a new technique for me, with double knitting, which I've dabbled in before. It was great to be working them in the same piece, and I think I understand both better because of it. Both require you to slip a lot of stitches, but the brioche sections put a lot more yarn on the needle:
Taking the pics for this post and the previous one were fun - I took bf to the gardens at my work on a Saturday afternoon. Don't worry - I am not a crazy workaholic, but I live so close to my work that the gardens there are the closest pretty place. The heat made us a little silly:
We were not the only ones in garden.
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