Happy New Year y'all

I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2009.

A new love

Once the holiday knitting ridiculousness was over with, I immediately took the opportunity to cast on some items for myself. One is already off the needles, and the other is moving along.

In the approximately 40 hrs we were in Boston, I managed to fall down and swipe my credit card on the way to the floor at Windsor Button. The previous week at WHMU, someone had brought along her recently acquired skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn, and someone else was knitting a hat out of Malabrigo worsted, so it's not surprising perhaps that I came away with this

Malabrigo sock in "Stonechat"

and this.

Worsted in "Bobby Blue". Poor thing, I didn't even get a picture of it still in the skein

Swoon. This is my maiden voyage with Malabrigo, and, while I'd never knit a sweater with it because the pilling would make me insane, it is going to be a gorgeous, soft, cushy hat. And a scarf someday when I find the right pattern for the sock weight. In the meantime, I'm enjoying working with it immensely. But don't worry, the girls are still getting fed. Occasionally.

FO: Ironman's Christmas socks

Pattern: Spiraling Coriolis by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Trekking XXL colorway #76, 1 skein
Needles: US 1/2.25 Harmony double points
Gauge: 9 sts/12 row per inch
Comments: I did the same pattern that I did for my July SAM socks, but widened the spiraling band to include a cable. I worked the cable over 7 stitches (p1, k2, p1, k2, p1), crossing every 8 rows. I crossed the cables towards the top of the sock, so they go in opposite directions on the two socks.

Again, lovely colors from the folks at Zitron. They looked a lot redder in the skein then in the finished socks, but the striping is pretty subtle (always a good thing with items for Himself).

I always get a smaller gauge with Trekking XXL then with other sock yarns - it's definitely on the thinner side - but it makes a nice fabric that wears well. I made a pair of entrelac socks for Ironman out of the same yarn a couple of years ago that are going strong (must write up that pattern sometime).

So this concludes this year's Sock a Month extravaganza. I think I only missed one month, and one month was a total cheater. I'm hoping to keep up the streak in 2009, but may have to resort to either knitting socks just for myself or for people with smallish feet - there's been a lot of very small stitches this year!

FO: Rose Garden Mitts

So named because the colors of the yarn could have been inspired by nothing else.

Pattern: Mahayana Flying gloves
Yarn: Artyarns Supermerino, 104 yds/50 g - I used maybe a skein and a half
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 12/19-12/23 (I didn't quite finish these in the allotted 24 hr time frame (shock and horror, I know), but they were done very quickly. The second mitt took about 3 hrs start to finish)
Comments/modifications: These were a lovely quick pattern, and the gorgeous yarn made it all the better. The stitch pattern (which looks waaaay more complicated then it actually is) breaks up variegated yarns amazingly well (as evidenced by these examples) and it was great fun to see how the colors would stack up. I knit the pattern pretty much as given, although I had to increase the number of stitches - I used 37 stitches for the repeat instead of 31. To compensate for the larger size, I also worked the palm stockinette section over 15 stitches instead of 12, which necessitated starting in the middle of the stitch repeat after the palm. It wasn't too complicated once I got going.

I also worked 4 rows on the thumb and then 5 rows of ribbing - it comes up basically to the base of my thumbnail.

So, in summary: gorgeous yarn + great quick pattern = toasty warm hands. And these worked up so quickly that I suspect I will be knitting more of them for last minute presents. Not that I would ever have any reason to need a last minute present mind you.

Ahhhh...

It's the last friday before Christmas, and I am sitting in the living room of my parents house with a cup of tea and my knitting. The snow is coming down, and Boston is predicted to get anywhere from 8-12 inches. The girls are wired beyond belief, and my goal is to turn this

into a pair of these before we head up to Vermont tomorrow afternoon to go skiing. Life is good.