Dear Kay,
Lightning round today. If you haven’t been paying attention, please remember that winter begins next week. All this balmy weather is just a tease. Batten the hatches! Dig up the turnips! Cover thyself! When you make all these covers for your extremities, you will have a good defense for the next three months.
For the Head
Holt by Alicia Plummer. PUFF STITCH, OK? How often do we get to try out a puff stitch?
For the Wristular Area
Morning Mist mitts by Sandrine C. A simple look here, long enough to give your poor wrists some help.
For the Foots
Sidekick Boot Socks by Kate Atherley. A new issue of Knitty is always a good tool for procrastination, and these socks instantly caught my attention. Functionality rules here: a single strand of yarn for the foot, so as to avoid the foot-cramming thing that happens when your socks are too thick. But then: a double strand for the heel and leg. These are socks designed to get you through a Toronto winter. I think exuberant colors are in order here.
Speaking of which . . .
One More for the Head
Conversationalist from The Plucky Knitter. Simple pattern, stupendously awesome colors, wow. Excellent use of pom pom. You want to make a roomful of these, really.
Wishing all a happy weekend. I’m desperately underknitted this week, feel a binge coming on.
Love,
Ann
PS Congratulations to Susan R. in Columbus, Ohio, winner of the noodly Udon Blanket kit from We Are Knitters. Wish we had a thousand to share with everybody.
The winter set (hat, scarf or cowl, gloves/mittens/mitts) are my knitting bread-and-butter – not much yarn required, short enough project that my little ADD brain can actually finish, portable for the commute, and useful as all get-out. You’re really hitting my sweet spot here!
Mother Nature is fighting back against winter this year. We are expecting 75F in central NC on Christmas Eve. Time to break out the shorts again.
Speaking from the Toronto winter here: it is still spring. Will it ever be winter? We are booked into a “ski” resort for a couple of days around New Year’s, but as yet there is no snow. We should maybe be crocheting bikini tops… But those socks do look great and the mitts even greater.
Those Plucky hats are so droolworthy. In general, I am all about the tassels, ear flaps, and pom poms (or pompons, if you prefer) for hats this year. It’s not new, but I’m eager to make this hat: http://blog.volkstricken.com/?p=44
However, will it ever be cold enough this year in the Mid-Atlantic region for such a hat?
Quel hat! Love it. I also love her wavy socks pattern here:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/undercurrent-socks-and-collar
THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD PATTERNS.
Shorts and flip flops (for a few brave souls!) in Newport, Rhode Island…60+ degrees for Christmas!!??
Crazy…but at least we don’t have to shovel! Perennials are actually sprouting in my garden! Having said that, I love the boot socks…may have to cast on in January!
Comment
I just checked the Morning Mist pattern online…it’s free for 24 hours only…Happy Holidays!
It will be in the 60s here next week–as a winter lover that makes me sad, as a priest with an eye on Christmas Eve attendance–I’m ok with those temps. But then bring on the cold and bring on the handknits.
May I add the Baa-ble? It is so adorable and knits up in no time-even for first time fair isle knitters. Lots of variety on Ravelry.
http://www.shetlandwoolweek.com/free-knitting-pattern/
That is so adorable.
Diggin the Pom poms. I may have to get a Pom Pom maker unless anyone has a good tute.
Here in Western Oregon we have had our usual winter weather: wet. We’ve had measurable precipitation every day this month, and the temperatures are our winter-normal, too, with daytime highs in the 40s. Oh, and there have been floods, slides, and road closures with that.
All of which is to say that I’ve appreciated scarves, socks and hats under raingear, and these all look good!
I put a pom Pom on a hat yesterday and I’m so underwhelmed with my Pom Pom making skills. I tied it as tightly as I could but I half expect to see it a loose pile of fluff this morning.
So enjoying your vibrant return to the blogosphere! One very humble request: if you could possibly do it, it would be wonderful if your entry windows lasted for a week: as a distractible-but-committed English teacher, I try to limit my blog-browsing to Fridays, post-school, in an effort to force myself to provide all that tough-love feedback to my students, so I usually miss the deadlines that go from, say, Sunday to Wednesday. That said, I know I have options.
*Quick* solution: check in mid-week. Reason that’s not so good: I know I wouldn’t be blog-scouring for only 15 minutes. Good-bye, paper feedback sessions!
*Quicker* solution: admit that out of 350 entries, I am not likely to win anyway, so just let the entries fly by. Reason that’s not so good: I’m a teacher, right? Hence, I am an eternal optimist: “But I *could* win!” (“But he *might* learn how to use apostrophes!”). . . .
In any case: thanks for continuing to brighten up my knitting universe with your inspiration and good cheer. Happiest of all kinds of holidays to you both!
(And, btw, I have Bowling Avenue on my ipod and listen to it quite frequently. What a pleasure!)