Fingerless Gloves continued

If you've been watching the news this week you'll be aware of the polar vortex that has hit our country. (If you're unlucky you might even be experiencing it.) Monday our high was somewhere around -10 with windchill hovering between -40 and -50. I never thought 10 degrees would be warm, but after that it really is. Unfortunately all of this cold has pretty much frozen my joints and made knitting extremely painful. The green sweater hasn't seen any love this week.

Before Christmas I cast on for these gloves. Progress has been somewhat slow since my knitting attention has been devoted to other projects. I finished the first glove last week and have cast on for the second glove. I've tried a couple of rows this week, but even simple things like this are still to hard to do right now. Thankfully the weather is predicted to be in the 30s-40s this weekend so I should be able to do some knitting later this week.

I love how delicate these cables look. I think that I will be able to make both wristlets from one 50g skein of yarn so I might make a matching hat or cowl. This yarn is way to pretty to leave buried in the stash (plus the stash is in need of serious reduction.)

Out of Exile

I really need to learn not to put off the parts of projects that I dread the most. I finished all of the pieces for the brown blob at the beginning of December and only had the button band left. Hating button bands I worked on these yummy alpaca mitttens for my sister. 

Bella's Mittens Misti Alpaca in Chunky: camelback

For my mom I decided to make another Dragonfly Wings shawl. She's allergic to wool so I used Deborah Norville's Serenity Garden Yarn. It's 100% Dralon Microfiber (whatever that is.) I've read a lot of reviews about this yarn splitting, and I could see how that would be an issue, but I didn't really have any problems with it. I don't like it as much as some of the other yarns I use, but it is a nice option for when I can't use wool.

I was really happy with the stripes that the yarn made. It looks great with this shawl.

Dragonfly Wings Deborah Norville Serenity Garden: Hibiscus

Finally I couldn't put off the button band any long so on December 21 I finally did my seams and cast on the button band. (I should point out that I was celebrating Christmas with my family on December 23 so I had a mere 2 days to finish this sweater.) I knew I would be cutting it close with the amount of yarn I had left, but I was hopeful I could finish it. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn with 4 rounds left to go on my button band. I quickly ran to the store, but not surprisingly Wal-mart doesn't have a good selection of yarn. I tried running to Ben Franklin but they only had some nasty acrylic brown stuff that I didn't think would go well with the Knit Picks Wool of the Andes I'd used on the rest of the sweater. I thought about an IOU, but the yarn I need won't be available until the end of January. Some quick thinking and faster knitting and by the end of the night I had a hat.

Ramstar Falls Hat Homespun

I'll order more yarn the next time I place a KnitPicks order and will finish the brown blob for Christmas 2014. This brings me to the title of today's post. Last year after Christmas I cast on for the Fogarty Creek Blazer. I finished both sleeve and a few inches on the body of the sweater when I felt the urge to knit lace. I managed to resist the urge for a while, but as spring turned to summer the idea of knitting a heavy wool sweater became less and less desirable. Finally when I couldn't tolerate it any more the green sweater was banished to the stash box. Banished feels like a harsh term since the sweater didn't really do anything wrong, but since I've completed five projects, countless socks, and all but the button band on another sweater banishment is probably the right term. Lately our high has been hovering somewhere in the single digits with windchill pushing the temperature to -30 some days it's the perfect time to be working on a heavy wool sweater. I finished the back through waist chart and am making good progress on the charts leading up to the armscye. 

Baby Sweater

My quilt guild hosts a work night once a month and it is such a great time to get advice and work on big projects. Last night I was able to get the Modern Quilt top basted. I'm absolutely in love with basting spray. It still took two hours to get everything smooth, but my fingers aren't in pain from opening hundreds of safety pins and dreading the part where I remove all of those pins during the quilting process. Today I'm hoping to get all of the quilting finished and attach the binding. We'll see if I still love the basting spray when I'm done.

There are no quilting pictures to share today, but since one of my best friends received her baby shower gift in the mail (incidentally she also gave birth to her son this week) I get to share this cute baby sweater I made for him.

I was hoping that April would be snow free (haha) so I knit this sweater sized for a one year old. He should get lots of use out of this sweater next winter, and with this size he'll fit into it during most of the cold season. I love how it just has two buttons at the top. It should make dressing time really easy, and won't get in the way when he's moving around. I'm hoping that he uses this often enough that there's nothing left for his siblings to inherit. I'm a firm believer in the idea that knits should be well loved and replaced with new knits when they wear out.

If you're wondering the pattern is Jonah's Hoodie and is knit in Lion's Baby First in Sea Sprite. (My pictures show the yarn as a little more blue than it really is.)