carnation green

Happy 2008! We started the new year in our bed and/or dog crates. Only some of us woke up to bark at midnight at the gunshots and fireworks!
<---Please accept this flower as a token of my affection for you. Have a great year. :) This is the last swatch here, folks....well, a small part of it. I made a pair of mitts out of this yarn, and the ruffles I came up with just reminded me of those green carnations folks give out on St. Paddy's Day. See the resemblance? This yarn is Pear Tree 4 ply, an Australian Merino that knits on size #3(3.25mm) at 25 sts to 4 inches. It is far more than a baby yarn. Soft, with tiny wisps of slightly contrasting darker wool as colorful (but not bumpy) texture, I saw it as perfect for mitts, socks, scarves, and other adult fine wool delights. I'd definitely knit more of this! The good news is that it's now available in a 100 gram skein, meaning you can produce that whole pair of mitts or socks with just one skein.

Other adventures around here? I wove my first little square thingee, from those looms I showed in another photo. Not really a napkin, I'm thinking. Not so much. At 5 inches square, the worsted weight yarn produced a very loose weave. My little square is sitting on the dining room table drying while I try to decide what it can be. So far? I'm stumped.

My handspun v-neck zip up cardigan has undergone a transformation. The silk scarf idea, while nice, didn't work out. I found the only matching/contrasting yarn in my whole stash (took it off etsy, as a matter of fact) and dove in, with the professor egging me on. I now own a zip up cardigan with a huge deep garter stitch shawl collar, complete with a little bit of a middy tie to take the collar weight off the zip. No photo yet to show you, but well, imagination is a great thing. I used lots of short rows and got great curves going. It was the first time I designed my own shawl collar with short rows and those collar curves are downright sexy, as knitting goes.

That's all the crafty bits from here. I'll see what other posts I can squeeze in while on my travels... Oh, must address this from the comments: I'll skip the wheel chair rides, I think I can manage it since I'm swinging my mile long dog walk again. It's tiring, but I can do it. I'm also lucky to have direct flights this time, so no racing through the airport. Besides. I'm turning 35 on Saturday. That seems old enough. I generally like every chance to celebrate getting older...(the alternative stinks!) but the wheelchair concept might take some getting used to!