Birthday gift finished, washed, and sent--check! I suppose it doesn't really matter that said birthday was in October and the recipient has already seen the (mostly) completed item. It is a gift! Be glad! [I say this with tongue in cheek. The giftee loves these, loves me, and doesn't mind that they are late.]
These are the Hedgerow Mitts (
Rav link). The pattern is really easy to figure out and memorize, and looks really complicated, but isn't.
From a distance it almost looks like a cable pattern, but there isn't any cabling involved.
It is really just moving the knit and purl stitches around. Which, if you think about it, is what most of knitting is about. Just figuring out a new or fun or interesting way to do two different stitches. Manipulating them until we like the effect.
I made them rather long. They come up about two-thirds of the way to my elbow. I'm from the UP, so I know from cold. Gloves were never long enough. Between your gloves and your coat there was always a little bit of skin exposed to the cold, especially when you reached for something. There are few things colder than wind on the inside of your wrist. However, I would probably wear them like this:
Gotta scrunch them down a bit. But, like I mentioned, these were a gift, and they have been sent away to their recipient. Down here, it was in the 80s today. Up there, they got about eight inches of snow. I think she'll wear these now, for a few weeks anyway.
It feels really good to get these off the Knitting To Do list. These have been finished for a while now, and have only been needing a bath. I kind of forgot about them for a bit, and then found them under a pile in my craft room. That can happen. I wish I wasn't like this--and trust me, I'm working on it-- but I am the type of knitter that starts off with my needles on fire with a new project, only to get to the final lap. Then I lose steam. My Tiny Tea Leaves sat for almost three months without sleeves. Sleeves! The easiest part of that pattern! Must. Finish. The. Knits.
Last weekend we went to the Savannah Quilt Show. I didn't take my camera, so all my pictures are on Mike's phone (which I think has a better camera [at least pixel-wise] than my point-and-shoot). As soon as I figure out how to make that transfer happen, I'll post a few here. Just gorgeous.
Of course, there was a Marketplace. I've been wanting those lovely Ghana bolga baskets for a long time, and there was a vendor at the quilt show.
Did you know there was a baby basket? I didn't! I almost didn't get it, and now I think I should have bought at least two more. I'm not sure if the big one is going to be yarn storage or the farmer's market basket (this thing is
huge!), but the little one is perfect for a sock in progress.
How cute, right? Oh my gosh, I'm loving that cute little basket!
I still think I need more baby baskets. Right now I have four socks-in-progress. So at lease three more baskets, right? Can you imagine them all lined up on the table next to the davenport? I would love it!
