Sidetrack for Colorwork!

There are so many projects that I should be doing.   Ravelry, as usual, is my undoing.   I saw the pattern for the Candyland Mittens and had to do it.   A Depth of Field gift card expedited things as I did not have to look in what I already have.  That task is daunting.....too daunting many days.

The mittens have a two color rib cuff.  I love the look but find it very slow and deliberate knitting.   As I have had a lot on my mind lately, that is not a bad thing.   The cuff of the first mitten is done.  I am into the colorwork and loving it.   This is a labor for those moments when the world needs to go

away.....

My colorwork can always use practice.  I have started to experiment with holding both yarns in the same hand.    I like it most of the time.   With more practice, I will have a better idea of things.   As usual, I am signed up for a Craftsy class to improve these skills.   Have I started it?   Not yet.  Soon.  soon.

Etsy is nearly as dangerous as Pintrest.   Somehow I got hooked into the LittleFrenchKnits shop that has patterns for babies.  The patterns all look delicate and very sweet.   I invested.  I want to try them.  I want to do it now.  I will, however, finish a few things that need to be done.   The photographs are really lovely....you know you want to check out the patterns there.

There is a special baby, now approaching toddler age, in Colorado that I want to make something for as his parents are special people.   Berocco Comfort has a really squishably lovable rabbit doll with a companion carrot.  I have the pattern.  I have the yarn.   Now I need to finish the seed stitch throw so I can start that.

One thing January in Minnesota is good for is...KNITTING!

The Throw Grows

The seed stitch continues.....

I am nearly through the second of three balls of marble chunky.   I have what is left of the second ball showing so that the mileage can be gauged.   This has been, so far, a really pleasant knitting experience.

This yarn yearned to be seed stitch.   Nothing else would do.   Happy yarn makes a happy throw.    The color striping effect would have been "too busy" with any of my other ideas.

Who knows?   With the long weekend, maybe I will make headway into the third ball!

Seed Stitch....It Really Isn't Boring

Seed stitch.....I used to think it was as interesting as watching the grass grow.  Over the past few weeks I have grown to appreciate it as I have never done before.

This started with the need to make a cowl for a friend fairly quickly.   My friend Dottie is very petite and somewhat frail.   She gets really cold.  Last winter, I have her a cowl I had made with some leftover yarn.  She loved it...and this fall asked for another.    I picked up some Encore Chunky in a really cheerful red.    For a long time, I looked at different cowl patterns.  I could not settle on anything.   The Gaptastic Cowl kept coming to mind.  She did not want that large a cowl so I

Encore Chunky Cowl in Seed Stitch

improvised!   I cast on until I liked the length of what I was doing and counted to make sure that I had an uneven number of stitches.   I did the first round in a purl stitch and the second in a knit...then I shifted to the seed stitch.   I knit until I was close to the end of a second skein of yarn as the length was in the neighborhood of what I thought would work for Dottie.  I did the last row and the bind off in a garter stitch to match the ends.  The picture is awful but shows what it looks like....

As I am journeying though the stash, I went looking for yarn for another project in my personal yarn store.   I did not find what I was looking for (and wonder where I put that) but found three skeins of James C. Brett's Marble Chunky.  That is nearly one thousand yards combined.   I decided to continue my fun with the seed stitch.   I swatched.   I nearly always swatch.   This will grow up to be a throw.    The recipe I am using is simple but, with the variegation of the yarn, really nice.

The recipe for the throw....Cast on on uneven number of stitches.    Knit the first two rows.   Next row...and all rows until the last one...  K1, *K1,P1*, K1.    Knit the last row.  Bind off with a knit stitch.  

So far I am liking this a lot.  I will have a picture of the progress in a day or so.   I am using size 10 or 10.5 needles.   So far, the first skein has given me seventeen inches.   Dare I hope for 20????