Cold Hands Need Lots of Love

Today, let's get up close and personal with one of my old FOs. I thought about it because I knit them when it was warm and didn't need them, and now that it's cold, they live next to my computer, where I tend to get very cold hands.



It's the embroidery detail from the thumb of my Knucks.

Recycled

I'm in a hurry because I have to go to work soon, and I forgot to do this in a leisurely fashion last night....so from the early days, some still-pretty the second time around pron.

Hand-dyed KP Palette

I Never Got the Hang of Mondays

We stayed up late last night in preparation for the midnight release party tonight....and at 8:15 this morning the phone rings. It's our landlady, asking us to move our car because there's a big snowstorm coming. Normally she wouldn't call us to remind us--that would get silly--but this has been a winter so far devoid of serious snow, and she was also trying to determine the owner of a mystery car. It wasn't us, but I still had to wake up hubby to move the car, which did not please him. He'd stayed up even later than I had.

So I tried desperately to go back to sleep, but part of me, I'm sure, was afraid of oversleeping and being late to work, as it's my first day back in four months. It's a silly fear, as I don't work until one, and with the exception of one time when I was very, very sick and slept for 38 hours straight, I have never slept in until one in the afternoon.

I finally stop trying to sleep, and I look out the window, and instead of seeing piles of snow, I see this:



What a way to start a Monday. My first thought, being the geek that I am, was hoping the storm wasn't going to be so bad that we couldn't go pick up our games tonight!

Finished and Free: Elisha

Project Specs:

* Pattern: mine!
* Original Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Potluck Worsted and Fiesta Gelato in Alaska
* Size: Body 8" x 6.5", Handles 5" high
* Yardage: ??
* Needles: Size 7
* Gauge: 4.5 sts/inch in garter st

Both yarns were sitting in my stash, saying, what to do, what to do. The CTH was from a grab bag sale, I have no idea what colorway it's closest to. The Gelato was an impulse buy a few years ago that I never really found anything appropriate for; I'd been using bits and pieces of it for trim, but as I only got a single skein, I didn't really have enough for much on its own.

Enter my love of mosaic knitting. I don't own a single book on it; one of my random 70's era craft "dictionaries" has a few stitch patterns, and two of them are mosaics. But I figured out the "rules" of designing them and went to town. This stitch pattern took me about five minutes of fiddling with a pencil and some graph paper, then I grabbed the yarns and cast on.

I've actually been designing and knitting bags out of my stash all this last week; I've got three in a basket so far. This is the third, I'll get back to showing off the first and second later. Though I think #3 is stealing their thunder.

Part of me would like to figure out how to market my patterns online and actually make some money...but not today, I just got my old job back and I start on Monday, so I don't want to dive into something I know nothing about, like online business, when I suddenly have less time on my hands. Not to mention that Tuesday is the release of WoW's The Burning Crusade...I'm such a geek, the store we pre-ordered from is having a midnight release party on Monday, so we're going, and we're going to stay up as late as we can playing to get the jump on everyone who won't get theirs til Tuesday!

That said, this pattern's a freebie. Also, to sell this I'd actually have to figure out the yardage and make better charts than MS Paint allows me...who wants to do fiddly stuff like that? *snark*

(And before anyone points out the repetitive info below, it's so that someone could copy/paste just the pattern section and still have the gauge, etc. :P )


ELISHA the bag

Gauge: 4.5 sts/inch in garter st
Needles: US 7, or whatever achieves the listed gauge
Yardage estimate: definitely less than 250 yds each of MC and CC. I'm not sure how much less, though.

Notes: The two edge stitches are selvedge stitches and must always be worked, knit on the RS and purl on the WS. They are never to be slipped as part of the stitch pattern.

The stitch pattern is presented in chart form. Each line of the chart represents two rows of knitting (one RS, one WS). The column on the right indicates which color is used for working that line. Knit (or purl) each stitch shown in that color and slip the stitches shown in the other color. On the RS, slip stitch wyib, on the WS, slip wyif.

In case of confusion, remember, the WS rows are identical to the previous RS rows; you should only purl stitches of the same color from the row before.

The two charts are the same; I made the first in color, then realized some might find it easier to work from black and white, so I included both.

And for the straps; my BO is consistently loose, so I chose to have that edge be the outer edge of the strap. If you tend to bind off tightly and your BO edge is shorter than your CO edge, use it as the inner edge when sewing on the straps. Just make sure you attach them both the same way, and with the RS facing!

Charts



Body

Using long-tail cast on, CO 44 sts with MC. K 2 rows.

Join CC and begin working chart, remembering to always work the two edge stitches in st st. The chart is repeated three times across the body.

Continue following the charted pattern until you have worked the full chart four times (28 rows each, total of 112 rows).

Break off CC. With MC, k 3 rows. With WS facing, BO all sts.

Straps (Make 2)

Using long-tail cast on, CO 50 sts with MC. K 2 rows.

Join CC and K 2 rows. Break CC.

With MC, K 1 row. With WS facing, BO all sts.


Finishing

Gently wash and block pieces. Much like fair isle, mosaic knitting lies flatter and looks nicer after blocking.

Fold the body in half, matching CO edge to BO edge. Sew side seams.

Sew end of the straps approx. 2" in from outer edges on both sides, following the notes for orientation.

Oooh! Shiny!

Mystery WIP Pron for your viewing pleasure!

Lazy Me!

It's been a busy week, and I had meant to post between last YPF and today, but, as you see, that didn't happen.

I am running out of pretty yarn to exploit for blog ratings, and I was actually considering dropping the ring. Good thing Turtlegirl gave a pep talk this week!

I was right when I said that I would get a lot of knitting done over my holiday weekend--I have more than five blocks' worth of Lizard Ridge done now. One panel of four blocks is on hold; since I have 18 balls of yarn, I know I will have more than a 4x4 afghan's worth, but not sure if I can squeeze 5x4 out of it. I'll knit four panels of four and leave them on hold, then go back and add evenly to them.

Enough talking; more money shots.