oooh, sparkly

Despite living in the land of Habu and Noro, I hardly ever buy Japanese yarn - the shops near my apartment stock mainly overpriced, acrylic fare - but I thought these were too pretty: 

above: oooh.

Span Jewel (about ¥715 for a 68 meter ball) is a nylon, acrylic, wool and polyester blend, with sequins (sequins!) and a fuzzy halo around a metallic base.

I also picked up one ball of Bacara Pur Fine (a nylon mohair wool blend?) to match - I'm really not too sure what I'm going to make with them. Something awesome, hopefully, which probably means that I'll reject about a million ideas on the grounds of not being awesome enough, which is what always happens when a ball of awesome yarn finds its way into my hands...

Simple Things

Finished! This is a beautiful pattern that looks even nicer when worn, though it did come out quite small, even with an extra repeat of the garter stitch eyelets - very much a shawlette rather than a shawl. Still, I think my mom will like it - this was my first time using yarn from the Sanguine Gryphon, and the color -  Bog Fritillary - is absolutely gorgeous.

With this shawl done, I am quite close to being done with the meager amount of Christmas knitting I set out to do this year - I don't gift a lot of knitted objects, mostly because I'm too self conscious and want them to be absolutely perfect. But my perpetually cold mother always makes a point of wearing whatever I give her (she models them for me whenever we have Skype conversations!) so she's most definitely on the list :-)

new pattern: arden

New Pattern up on Ravelry today! 

Arden is unisex elbow-length hand-warmer that uses a single skein of Malabrigo Worsted. One large cable is accented by single ribbing and smaller twisted cables, which can be easily knit without a cable needle, making Arden a fast, engaging project.

Arden is available in two sizes, a smaller size to fit an average woman’s hand and a larger size to fit an average man’s hand; the smaller size has a hand circumference of 7” and the larger size has a hand circumference of 7.5”. Both sizes of hand-warmer measures 7” around the arm, and are 15”/ 38 cm long when lying flat and un-stretched.

Two notes on fit:

• If you have small hands, you may prefer working at a tighter gauge by going down a needle size and/or using a lighter worsted weight yarn to ensure a closer fit.
• These mitts are elbow length, but it’s very easy to shorten them if that’s too long for you - some test knitters left off one repeat of the cable pattern for shorter mittens.

This pattern has been test-knit in both sizes, and includes written and charted directions.

Materials:

• 220 yards worsted weight yarn (I used Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Paris Night)
• Size 7 DPNs or size needed to achieve gauge. 
• Cable needle, tapestry needle, stitch markers.

download now!

lazy day knitting

All my other projects require much math or frogging or, horrifyingly, both, so I am ignoring them...

...  and finishing up a Simple Things shawl for my mom's Christmas present. This goes quite fast once you get to the garter stitch eyelet rows.