For ages I'd been planning to make myself a felted French press cozy, but it was not a happy project. I couldn't figure out quite what I wanted it to look like, and while I was deciding I lost my original gauge swatch. I was worried about making the opening at the top too small, since you never know quite how felting will change the finished product, and it wound up a bit too big. So do you know what I did? I took a purple felted flower I'd had lying around since 2010, cut out its center, and hot-glued that sucker to the top of the cozy. In the picture you see my pale yellow French press cozy in my pale yellow kitchen. This might be the first project I figured out entirely on my own, without leaning on anybody else's pattern at all, and I am pleased with it despite its imperfections. It also makes an awesome hat, according to my children.
When I posted about my lost knitting mojo, I mentioned the frustrations of these socks I'd been making for my mother. I spent the whole first sock wondering why I couldn't memorize the 8-row chart. Near the cuff (this is a toe-up sock) it dawned on me: there were multiple mistakes in the chart, places where the purl symbol had been omitted. There wasn't some mysterious pattern of knits and purls that I couldn't manage to penetrate; there was sloppy editing! I made the second sock the right way, and memorized the chart in a trice. The difference is minor enough that only an eagle-eyed knitter would notice. I don't think my mother will have many eagle-eyed knitters near her feet. And really, if they complain that her socks offend their aquiline eyes, I'll tell them to take it up with the Knitty tech editor.
My friend Amanda requested purple yarn when I offered to make her a pair of socks, but she said I should pick whatever pattern appealed to me. I made the Errant Socks from the second Mason-Dixon Knitting book. I'm pleased with the finished project, even though they were long and slow. Well, the first sock was long and slow. The second one I banged out in less than ten days. I took the finished first sock to coffee and doughnuts last week, and Amanda seemed very pleased. She marched around in one shoe and one purple sock, waving her foot in the air and saying, "Look at my purple sock!" I hope she is equally pleased with the second.
\
Tonight I wove in the ends on my rabbit hole project. It was so much fun. I pared down the scale of the pattern a bit, after reading lots of Rav comments about how enormous the finished product was. I think I'll make a second out of laceweight, using leftovers from these two projects together with a skein of cream merino/silk. I'll call it a Creamsicle shawl, I think. I have a few other pictures that give a better idea of its slightly unusual shape; I'll get them into my Rav notebook tomorrow for anyone who's curious. (I'm mostgladly on Rav, if you'd like to be friends there.) I'm not sure exactly how to wear it. I keep coming back to something that looks like a caterpillar-striped version of a Girl Scout's badge sash, but I can't think that's really a good look.
Recent Comments