I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

Last week, I made my way through the smog to the Jitterbug Coffee Hop where we celebrated the anniversary of our Tuesday night Stitch ‘N Bitch group.  Like it has for several years, the celebration included a no-obligation swap.  This year, the theme was cowls.  If you brought a cowl, you went home with a different one.  I was the lucky recipient of this little green number contributed by Laurie.

It’s knit from Malabrigo worsted so it’s fabulously soft.  Although it clashes horribly with my winter coat, I’ve worn it every day since the swap.  Love it.

My cowl contribution landed in the hands of Eileen and, happily, it matched her coat perfectly. Seriously, can an off-white cowl not match a person’s coat?

The pattern for the cowl I made for Eileen is now available as a free download on Ravelry.  As I mention on the Ravelry project page, I had a hard time finding a pattern that was exactly what I had in mind for my cowl.  There are similar patterns available but the cables either crossed too closely or too far apart.  And the cables were either too sparse or too crowded.   As Goldilocks would say, “This one is neither too hot nor too cold. It’s just right.”

And the best part . . . I worked up three sets of instructions for three different weights of yarn.  So shop the stash and cast on!

Well, I chose to head south, of course.  And, I have to say, it’s been nice to breathe relatively clean air the last two days.  Look, you can actually see the sky!

For those of you who asked, during the winter Salt Lake City often experiences something called a temperature inversion.  Basically, for reasons I don’t fully understand, the air near the ground becomes cooler than the air above. (The temperature is actually higher at the ski resorts than it is in the valley.) This traps pollution near the valley floor and it doesn’t clear out until we get a storm. Because we haven’t had a storm in weeks, the Salt Lake Valley is filled with polluted air that’s just sitting over the entire city. Yuck.

I live above the valley, near the foothills, and I usually escape the worst of the gunk. But the layer of smog has been rising rapidly and it finally overtook my house. So I escaped to the land of casinos and shopping.

But even where there’s sun and air, a girl can still enjoy knitting a thrummed mitten.

My crocheted Red Scarf is done and, you know what?  I like it!  Trust me, I would never send a scarf off to OFA unless it was something I’d wear myself.

Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool
Hook: K (6.5mm)
Pattern: Work a 155-stitch chain foundation. Working back and forth lengthwise, sc in the back loop only until it’s wide enough.
Ravelry: Link to project page.

I soaked it in some Eucalan and then blocked it out to the finished measurements of 7″ x 70″

The stitch pattern reminds me of The Corrugator scarf.

I just need to make a tag, attach a fast-food gift card, and send it on it’s way. yay!

It’s been bitterly cold here the last few days. So cold, in fact, that my daughter actually asked if I had some mittens she could wear while driving to school.

More than two years ago, I made a pair of Mitered Mittens from yarn I dyed with tumeric. In September 2007, I blogged that they just needed the ends woven in. Guess what? December 2009 and I still hadn’t woven in the ends. They’ve been sitting on a corner of my desk FOR.TWO.YEARS!

Well, the ends are woven in now.  But when I turned the mittens inside out, I discovered that tumeric is not light fast. 

Here’s a post showing what the yarn looked like after it was dyed.

And here’s a post with a photo of the in-progress mitten.

Here’s what the mittens look like now:

Aaah, the power of the sun.