I've been thinking of some possibilities for St. Patrick's Day socks. I really love THESE beautiful shamrock socks but I sit on my feet a lot and beaded socks probably won't work for me.









I think these socks may work instead if I find the right color green in my stash. They are the Step Dance socks from Blackberry Ridge's Elite Feet Sock Collection.



I started some mittens from the Anna Zilboorg book using Cascade 220 and size 4 dpns. I was getting 6 1/2 stitches per inch and the mittens were turning out huge. The mittens from the book really need DK weight yarn but I haven't found any DK weight yarn in the beautiful bright colors necessary for these mittens. I am going to have to re-write the pattern using 10 less stitches.



I'm off to the Academy Awards pre-show and many hours of uninterrupted knitting. Life is good.

Be prepared to be bored...







Here's the boring scarf I knit during the blackout. It is 8 stitches across, garter stitch, size 10 needles on some handspun yarn I bought on Ebay years ago. To dye the yarn I put the skein on plastic wrap, then dotted the yarn with various colors of Easter egg dye and zapped it. This technique is outlined in the Twisted Sisters Sock Book.



I'll finish the second Salsa sock tonight then I'm going to start another pair of top-down gauntlet mittens from Anna Zilboorg's Magnificent Mittens in Cascade 220. Stay tuned...

Here's the first Salsa Sock from Socks, Socks, Socks. Regia really isn't the best choice for this pattern - even with an extra pattern repeat the yarn is just too thin for size 2 dpns. I spent almost three hours working in the yarn ends because I was worried they'd come loose.

Just a quick update - we got about a foot of snow last night and the electricity has just come back on. I did come up with some "blackout knitting" - a thin garter stitch scarf out of some weird handspun handdyed yarn that I can work on in the dark.



Peaches is staying warm in her room and eating a lot to keep up her strength.

Here is the beginning of the Salsa socks from Socks, Socks, Socks just before I ripped out the heel gussets. I didn't like the way the color pattern worked there and will do something else. I think you can continue any color pattern while decreasing for a heel gusset as long as you always do the decrease stitch in the same color and you do the math to make the pattern match up properly once you're done decreasing.



I'm doing these socks in Regia which is quite a thin yarn and I added an 8 stitch pattern repeat and they're still running small. I'm also not fond of the color combo but these socks aren't for me so it doesn't matter. Once I figure out who gets these socks I'm going to duplicate stitch their initials on the heel.



Lisa asked what size my hand is. She's also going to knit some Vanalinn gloves and wants them to fit more snugly. My hands are large - long and thin - and if I'm buying gloves I'll pick a women's size large. Chris asked if the gloves are warm. Not particularly Chris but I still think I'll wear them a lot because I love how they look.



Melinda wrote in her comment, " I knitted a pair of Latvian mittens using Satakieli and sock with Koigu. IMHO, Satakieli seems to have a tighter worsted type twist like Shetland yarn while Koigu has a fluffy woolen type twist." Thanks for that good info Melinda. That must be why Schoolhouse Press recommends Satakieli for Bavarian Twisted stitches on their web site. Check out Melinda's beautiful black & white Latvian mittens HERE.



And while you're checking out inspirational knitting, Valerie finished a beautiful pair of twined mittens in her February 17 blog entry.

I often have these unrealistic fantasies about being a Shetland lace knitter. I imagine myself sitting in a serene uncluttered quiet environment listening to classical music working on the most complicated and beautiful cobweb lace bedspread with gossamer threads, uninterrupted for hours on end.



In actuality I'm usually knitting while simultaneously cooking and doing laundry, occasionally dodging a psychotic cat who jumps on my head while DH is watching shrieking sportscasters on tv and a certain female rabbit is loudly hurling herself about her room hoping we'll come in soon to play Scrabble. Unfortunately any "real" lace knitting is out for the time being and I have to content myself with small less complicated lace projects.



Sorry - it looks like I moved one of my hands while scanning for this photo.







The pattern is the Vanalinn gloves from the XRX book A Gathering of Lace. The pattern designer is, who else, Nancy Bush. The original pattern calls for 1 skein of Satakieli (a fingering weight yarn from Finland very much like Koigu) and size 0 dpns to get 8 stitches per inch. With my Nylamb (a now defunct baby/fingering weight wool/nylon yarn) I was getting 9 stitches per inch but I love the way these look a bit tighter. Any soft fingering weight yarn like Koigu would work really well.



Thank you all for your comments about these gloves. I'm having trouble seeing all the Squawkbox comments on my blog again (perhaps because I use Netscape?) so I can't respond via Squawkbox as I was doing previously but they do all come to me via email.



I'll say it again - these are REALLY easy although they look more complex! All you need to know is how to knit in the round and do a YO, K2TOG, and S,K,PSSO. The lace pattern is easily memorized, you can readily figure out what row you're on, and half the glove (the back side) is stockinette so the knitting goes even faster.







If you look at the base of the thumb on the back side you can see the YO thumb gusset increases. I guess they look okay on these lacy gloves but I've made a note on Merike's Gloves in Folk Knitting in Estonia to NOT do them that way. I prefer a M1 increase instead.

Not the greatest scan of the Vanalinn gloves but you get the general idea. I really love these gloves - the lace pattern is quite easy and simple to memorize and it is no problem to figure out where you are in the pattern. Quite a contrast to Merike's gloves which were giving me fits and taking forever. I'll definitely be making these again because I can see this pattern being quite popular with gift recipients and once you get in the groove, it really is mindless knitting.



The Brunswick Nylamb is long out of production but I bought a ton from Ebay a while back. Apparently there is another yarn called Nylamb, NOT by Brunswick, that isn't the same thing at all. I do tend to like baby yarns for colorwork and lace and buy them when I find them. For a while Elann had some Stahl Baby Merino and I use that yarn a lot as well.



Sandrine of Tricofolk in France is quite an inspiration to me. She's made the beautiful Leaf Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks which I've always dreamed of knitting. Check out these gorgeous socks HERE and HERE.



I'm not going to update the blog tomorrow but I'll be back Sunday with both gloves done.

I lied. I don't have a complete glove to show you yet but here it is in progress. I am getting 9 stitches to the inch instead of 8 with the Nylamb. You can probably tell by the color that I started these on Valentine's Day.







I've had some questions on rabbits. I have yet to hear of a single problem with rabbits and cats coexisting. My experience is that the rabbits, no matter how small they are, boss around the cats, not vice versa. I was also worried with my first rabbit because I had a cat that had hunted rabbits before coming to live with us . Not a single problem between the two.



HERE's a good article on the subject of rabbits and cats. In my experience a rabbit and a cat can bond even more closely than two cats.



House rabbits really thrive with lots of toys. There are free toys you can come up with like shredded newspaper, empty paper towel rolls, old boxes filled with hay, etc. Bunny Bytes has the most extensive selection of rabbit toys like wooden remote controls and cell phones and voodoo dolls. I recently ordered Peaches her own bunny tambourine and can't wait to see how she likes it. I'm sure I will regret buying it at 4 am when she decides to give it a whirl.

I'll have a photo of one finished Vanalinn glove (Nancy Bush, Gathering of Lace) tomorrow. I'm doing them in bright red Nylamb and they're coming out one stitch per inch smaller than the suggested gauge of 8 stitches per inch. No problem though as I think I like them this way even better - more lacy looking when I try them on.



I enjoyed the excessive goat sentimentality photos on Geane's blog. I have to counter with some excessive rabbit sentimentality photos.



Here's Peaches playing with her baby keys. Awwww...







And here's Peaches thinking she's invisible under the blanket. Of course her super-sized posterior gives her away.

KALEV'S MITTENS







These are Kalev's Mittens from Nancy Bush's Folk Knitting in Estonia with the bean blossom pattern. These were knit using size 0 dpns and one strand Nylamb and one strand Elann Peruvian cashmere blend. Because I wasn't getting gauge at all and the mittens were in danger of being too large, I chopped off 1/2 of a pattern repeat. This meant the mitten pattern didn't come to a nice point at the fingertips and that the pattern didn't match up perfectly at the row end but it was less noticeable in the colors I chose.







The two unusual techniques in this pattern were the yarnover braid above the corrugated ribbing and also the one wick double decrease used at the top of the mittens and the thumb. If you look at the tip of the thumb on this second photo you'll see it is a double decrease rather than the usual K2TOG/SSK single decreases. The one wick decrease is a pain to do (makes you wish you had another hand) and I only think it looks good on one side with distorted stitches on the opposite side (look on the right side of the fingertips on the first photo) so next time I'll omit that and do the usual decreases.



I am giving this pair to the rabbit rescuer who adopted Peaches out to us. I may make this design again using the original Tuna called for and see if I can get gauge. Nancy Bush sells the yarn for all the designs in the book at her web site Wooly West.



Geane tried this mitten but they ended up too large. Louise is working on a beautiful pair in black and white Satakieli and she reports they are also coming out large. See a photo of one in progress HERE in her November 10 entry.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL!



The knitted hearts are from Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments. This handy dandy book has a whole chapter on hearts.

I finished The Introvert Advantage and was a bit disappointed in the end. The author gives the impression that introverts are disabled or limited - that we can't get as much work done or that we need to take naps every five seconds. It is an odd ending because in the front of the book she lists famous introverts who have accomplished plenty.



Still, I think the book is very valuable reading. It has helped me understand myself and my introvert DH. Now I know why I can go and be bubbly and outgoing at a party but crash afterwards. The book also has a good section on parenting introvert children. HERE's a review of the book which talks about parenting and teaching introverts. HERE's a question and answer section with the author. HERE's another review of the book that has some of the same concerns I had about the book.



Donna sent me THIS link to a good blog entry, "An Extrovert Speaks (Quelle Surprise!)" - it is a response to the Rauch Atlantic article on introverts.



Now I'm off to organize the stash. Patterns seem to be multiplying everywhere, I can't even find the PW sock book I wanted to give away, and all the yarn seems to be escaping the yarn closet. Jack the cat and Peaches the rabbit will supervise me.

Here's my Kalev's mitten from Folk Knitting in Estonia in progress. I believe Geane previously tried this one but wasn't getting gauge. I had exactly the same issue when I swatched with Nature Spun fingering and then the Spindrift I purchased just for these mittens.



Lisa asked about the yarn and gauge I'm getting as she plans to knit these mittens also. I am making these in a small adult size and I like mittens a bit snug so I decided upon five and a half repeats of the bean blossom pattern. This means that the bean blossom pattern has two blossoms going the same way at the end of the row but this is really really hard to see so I'm fine with it. I always configure mittens so that the row end is at the outside edge of the mitten (towards the pinky) when you're wearing them so you can't see any problems with color jogs.



I am using Nylamb (the mint green color) and Peruvian cashmere yarn. They are both similar in softness and I love the colors together.



If you look at the picture of the mittens in the book, the corrugated ribbing kind of flips up the cast on edge. My adjustment was to cast on with the long tail cast on, then do 1 row of K2P2 ribbing in the purple color then do one row of K2P2 stockinette (to avoid those ugly purl bumps when you stripe ribbing) then start the corrugated ribbing. I like how it looks.



This mitten also includes the dreaded yarnover braid. It is easy to do but tough to get perfectly even since it involves tugging on a yarn after each stitch. It also doesn't come together perfectly at the end of the row which you can see a bit if you look at the left edge.

VARIOUS AND SUNDRY



If you think you might be an introvert or if you know an introvert, there's a wise and funny article called "Care & Feeding of Your Introvert" at the Atlantic Online.



Cassandra emailed me about twined knitting - she made the fingerless mitts from the Dandanell/Danielsson twined knitting book and if you go HERE and click on Knitted Things you'll see several shots of her twined mitts done in Guernsey yarn. Also, do check out her beautiful Fair Isle fingerless gloves as well.



Lisa had some links yesterday to some absolutely beautiful tams by Sheila and Vanessa. Also check out Stasia's pretty pumpkin tam from Vogue Knitting Caps & Hats Two.



Jessica had some photos of her recently remodeled kitchen and bathroom - go to her archives to her January 29 entry. I swear that is the most beautiful kitchen I've ever seen and I'm positively green with envy.



I've started on Kalev's mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia and I'll show a photo tomorrow. I had one heck of a time getting gauge with several different fingering weight yarns so I finally I decided to adapt the pattern to the gauge I was getting. They're going to be beautiful in Peruvian cashmere and Nylamb and I'm going to send them to the woman who adopted Miss Peaches out to us.



Speaking of Peaches, we decided to let her do our taxes this year. I sure hope we won't regret it.

Here's the only Poetry Mitten I'm going to do. I loved knitting it but I think the finished product was underwhelming with weird decreases at the thumb and top and the lettering is too big for the scale of the mitten. The beautiful poem is by the designer, Veronica Patterson, and reads:



When snow swirls

We begin to dream

Of dancing firelight

And hasten gaily home

Clapping hands

And words to

Warm them.





If you do make these increase your gauge greatly to get an adult sized mitten. Nature Spun fingering weight is a pretty thin fingering weight yarn and makes a rather thin mitten. I was asked my opinion of Nature Spun in the comments and yes, I do use it all the time in fingering, sport and worsted weights. I like the color range and the price but it does pill. Unfortunately it is becoming harder and harder to find, especially in the fingering weight.



I am reading the most fascinating book, The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney. While I am not sure about some of the author's conclusions, this book has really changed how I see myself and others in my life. Contrary to popular belief, being an introvert does not mean you are shy (apparently there are even shy extroverts) or self-involved or lacking in social skills. Essentially it just means how you get your energy - introverts (25% of the population) recharge with solitary and quiet pursuits and extroverts recharge from the outside world.



I think knitting, at least the way I do it, is an introvert pursuit. Give me some tiny needles and a couple of colors of yarn and a chart and minimal or no outside stimulation and in a few hours I'm full of energy.

Congratulations Amy! You won the Christmas stocking booklet! I've emailed you for your snail mail address. Thanks to everyone for signing up. I found another booklet to give away - the Philosopher's Wool sock book by the Sockguy. Give me a week or two to get some photos from it scanned and then stop back to sign up for the drawing.







Here is the first Poetry Mitten in progress. The pattern is from the Nov/Dec 1995 issue of Piecework and uses Nature Spun fingering weight and size 0 dpns. I'm pretty close to gauge and these are definitely not turning out to be adult size mittens. I'm also not sure I like how the lettering continues on the thumb gusset (making some letters slanted) but the pattern is quite fun. I really like to knit letters as they aren't boring. I plan to make the Pablo Neruda socks in Spanish from Socks, Socks, Socks in the future.







Here is yet another Bunnies & Carrots hat - the pattern is from Naked Sheep and this time I used Elann's Peruvian Highland wool. This one I made to be worn by a boy and I omitted the carrots. I like the Highland wool more than Nature Spun worsted and less than Cascade 220. I still have some Paton's Classic Wool to try - I believe the stuff I purchased from Smiley's still works out to be less expensive than the Highland wool.

In response to everyone's questions in the comments about Peaches the rabbit, we estimate she is about 12 lbs. I do think she is done growing at 1 1/2 years old although the dewlap under her chin may get larger. Actually she may lose a bit of weight now that she is not caged and gets to run around more and joyfully hurl her huge body through space at 3 am.



I just took another roll of film with her and Jack the cat together so you can get a better idea of her size. Her coloring is called agouti and is indeed the same as wild rabbits. Indoor rabbits can make good pets and use litter boxes - for more information, see if your local library has a copy of the House Rabbit Handbook: How to Live with an Urban Rabbit by Marinell Hariman, Drollery Press. It is the bible on house rabbits and is full of wonderful photos of rabbits getting into all sorts of things.



Tomorrow I'll announce the winner of the Christmas stocking booklet and show you a picture of the Piecework Poetry mittens in progress.

INTRODUCING PEACHES







Peaches was dropped off at the Durango, Colorado Humane Society when she was about 4 months old. She was spayed and adopted and then the people who adopted her returned her after only a month. Debby Widolf, the House Rabbit Society Fosterer for Four Corners Bunnies then took her and she lived with Debby and the other foster bunnies for

about a year.



Peaches is ready for her close-up.







Likes: her nightly treat of a few Cheerios, running the Bunny 500 at about 3 am, diving under her piles of soft fleece blankets, grooming her large stuffed toy bunny, and remodeling her cardboard boxes



Dislikes: the evil vacuum cleaner, the sound of people sneezing, and oddly enough, the smell of Burt's Bees Carrot Day Creme



Here's one showing her creamy white bunny belly.







Peaches is still unwilling to leave her room even though the door is open all day and our three cats walk in and out of her room. One of the most amazing things about Peaches is how clean she is. She uses her litterbox 100% of the time.







I promise I'll be taking plenty of photos of her. Snapfish, the online company I use for photo developing, has some neat photo gifts like photo calendars and mouse pads and mugs. I'm going to get a few photo gifts of Peaches and give them to Debby in gratitude for adopting Peaches out to us. I may also knit her something.

CHRISTMAS STOCKING BOOK GIVEAWAY











This is actually more of a booklet than a book but the charts are nice and big which is always appreciated. It is The Handknitted Christmas Stocking Book by Edward Myatt. Here are the projects in it:







Please leave a comment on the tagboard or in the Squawkboxtv comments or send an email if you are interested in signing up for the contest. I'll post the winner of the booklet on Thursday afternoon.





I started working on a double knit hat. Double knitting is slow going but fun nonetheless. The pattern is called Double Knit Hats by Nancy Lindberg and I got the pattern at Vintage Knits. I may have to start over because I don't think I will have enough yarn. This hat also has a modified French hem which was fun. Essentially you do the long tail cast on (a provisional one would have been easier) knit a few rows, rip out the cast on then fold and double knit the two sides together.



I may scrap the double knit hat and get started on a tam for the Tamalong on ASOFlives.

WHAT NOT TO KNIT FOR THE MAN YOU LOVE



I know how hard it is to find the right project to knit for the men in your life. Here's a few suggestions on what NOT to knit for him.







Number 1 - Not all Fair Isle is a good thing.















Number 2 - I suspect the dolman-sweater wearing man in this photo is pointing at all the passers-by who are doubled over in laughter.













Number 3 - How convenient that this vest can be unbuttoned from the bottom for extra waistline comfort. Check out the socks.













Number 4 - This one leaves me speechless.















Aren't vintage knitting patterns fun? These are all from a really nifty out-of-print book called Classic Knitting Patterns from the British Isles: Men's Hand-Knits from the 20's to the 50's by Jane Waller. Grab it if you find it used at http://www.bookfinder.com or someplace similar - there is a really neat pattern for the "Wonder-Sock... Ever New - no darning!!" and some nice fair isle and cables.



And I'm sure you'll need the patterns for the Bodybelt (to cinch in his out of control middle section) and the Bachelor's Tea Cosy. What single man today wouldn't love a hand knit tea cosy?