February Miscellany

Teaching has seriously cut into my knitting time, and much of what I have had time to knit has been related to classes I have taught. In December it was the felted bowls. In January and February I have taught three classes - felted slippers and mittens, first time socks, and a beginners class.

The slippers can be seen in the January photo gallery.

This mitten was a prototype done for class and I mean to make a mate for it soon. It is not quite windproof on its own, but with thinner mitts inside it should be perfect.

Yarn: Patons Classic
Needles: 7 mm
Pattern: mine; a really basic mitten with thumb gusset, knitted without a cuff and an unfelted 2x2 ribbed cuff added after felting.

I did make another pair for my daughter in the hopes that I would get my little black mitts (the ones you liked so much, Norma) back. This is what it looked like before felting. After this picture was taken I picked up at the cast on edge and worked a couple of rows in cotton waste yarn.

After felting, but before knitting the cuffs, they looked like this:

Yarn: Patons Classic
Needles: 6 mm
Pattern: Same as the green mitten except I knit the cuff in 1x1 rib.

Another factor affecting my knitting time was sore wrists and hands. I have been very busy at my day job with the mousing and clicking and keyboard shortcutting that are required to make hundreds of millions of dollars add up properly. Don't worry, my ergonomic issues are being addressed and I'm not nearly as sore as I was a couple of weeks ago. But the whole situation prompted me to knit these:

Yarn: Fleece Artist Kid Silk (50/50), 50 g for the pair (57 grams left!)
Needles: 3.25 mm
Pattern: mine; 2x2 rib with stockinette thumb gusset

They are very soft, silky, fuzzy, and cozy. They are just right to wear when I am knitting and my hands are cold.

That's it for finished objects. What's on the needles? I have been working on Sundara's Lenten Rose socks, part of the Petals Collection. Scrumptious yarn, lovely pattern, dainty heel turn...

A little too dainty, I thought, so I ripped it back and did my standard heel turn instead, and now I am a little bit past the gusset decreases. Round and round and round.

It is hard to capture the wonderful subtle shading of this yarn.

And finally, for Sandy, last Saturday's morning sky,

and for no good reason at all, a silly cat picture: sometimes he forgets to put his tongue away.