November blues

In this part of the world, November is the worst month of the year. Grey skies and so little light. Of course December has even less day-light but at least the Christmas lights are out and somehow with the busy social calendar that comes with December it doesn’t feel so bad. January is the new year and also feels kind of better, but November… This year has been grey and greyer and on the plus site, slightly warmer than usual. That is until this weekend since today snow has been falling and suddenly it is cold and real winter. It is not snow that will keep, probably it will be gone by tomorrow but still. My husband is travelling today for work, so not so good either to have this weather.

But the mittens are in use, so that is good, and I am wearing the cardigan that I just finished. A nice warm cardigan with lace. Woolly (Extra fine merino by Sublime) and soft, just what is needed for a cold day like today. I didn’t change much of the pattern, made it longer as it was pretty short, but no other changes. The lace is pretty easy to remember, easy enough for a commute anyways.

I have more winter knitting lined up, a fast Cowl for S. A nice modern stranded knitted pattern Fusuma. I am subbing silky wool for the original yarn and some small gauge issues aside (row gauge is off but not the sts gauge) it is working pretty neatly. This will be a warm cowl, double “double fabric…. Let’s see if we get a cold winter after all….

 

 

A handful

 

So the new set of mittens is done….This was quite fun and yes I hav written it all down. But before I bring it out in the world I do want to make another pair, of the bigger one, different wool and colours, just more experimenting with needle size and such…I am happy with them but they are slightly tight. I guess knitting with three colours did that as the cuff is a bit more relaxed. So just playing around to get it right is what is needed. I am kind of happy that I am not a cookbook writer, as I think for refining a recipe eating weeks on end small variations on a dish would make me grumpy, but two sets of mittens I can face…..

A bit of work

 

I love stockinette, but every now and then one needs to set themselves a challenge. So these mittens are that for now, own design for my youngest…. I like knitting mittens, they are small and easy to transport while knitting, so normally a good project for in the bus to/from work. But these, not so much so, so not a good design in that sense at all. But they are rewarding as they proceed, quite slowly. On thing will be true, they will be warm, with basically three layers as many of the rows contain three colours and the stranding is quite dense. The colour pattern comes from 150 Scandinavian Motifs, quite a nice little stitch-pattern book. The wool is pure Shetland, 2 ply jumperweight from Jamieson & Smith. Perfect wool for this kind of thing! The colours are spring-like which just fits M very well. I have the hope to develop these in a pattern, with using different weights yarn to obtain different sized gloves, hope fully that will work out nicely as well.

In the bus I am still knitting, a bit more cumbersome to carry around, a cardigan, but an easy lace repeat and quite a bit of stockinette make up for the “bulk”.