Besides the box going to Pine Ridge, I've finished a few things for us at home, too.
Starting with one skein of Malabrigo Rios -- I'd set the skein aside along with a simple "learn to knit" keyhole scarf pattern put out by a local knit shop, thinking I was going to be teaching someone to knit. That someone didn't show up and didn't show up and didn't show up to knitting, so I went ahead and knit the scarf myself. It starts out with a square of garter stitch, then garter and stockinette ridges, then ribbing, then the keyhole, then more garter stitch. I made it a little longer than the pattern suggested, and I think it could be longer still:
There was still half a skein of Rios left over, and I'd been thinking about making a
Calorimetry for some time now. After weighing the yarn left, I figured I had about enough. And sure enough, I did.
I used the number of stitches called for in the pattern and knit it pretty tight on US size 7 needles, and it's still a leeeeetle bit looser than I would have liked. The designer must be a fantastically tight knitter. But it'll do. It's got plenty of holes created by turning without wrapping, so the button can slip into any of them and loosen or tighten as needed. Others have cast on fewer stitches to make it smaller. I made this in hopes of doing some beach walking sometime soon, now that spring break is upon us.
Hubby benefitted from my brain-numb evenings after a long day of teaching. He'd been wearing a woolen cloth scarf that was a bit too short to fend off the winter chill, and requested a scarf if ever I were weaving one again. I pulled out a skein of Poems sock yarn that had been lurking in my stash for some time. It's got long color runs like Noro, though this skein was monochrome in shades of blue. It's a single, a bit thick and thin, and a bit loosely spun in parts and a tendency to fuzz, which made it less than desirable as sock yarn and an absolute bear to weave with as warp. I was casting about wondering, "Is there something I could spray on this that washes out? Something that would control the fuzz and strengthen the yarn temporarily? Something like, oh, like hairspray, maybe." Well, yeah, there is something like hairspray. It's called... hairspray. Liberal applications, and using an empty shuttle to beat in the warm instead of abrading it more with the heddle, got me through the project at last. After washing, the fabric fulled to make a lightweight fabric that was warm. You'd think there was mohair in this, the way it fulls and fluffs, and the way the warp strands kept trying to weld themselves together every time I moved the heddle. I had to keep a wide-toothed comb handy to gently comb and separate the strands. Sheesh, I think I'll pass on that yarn if I ever encounter it again. Soft and nice in the finished product, but a pain to work with.
Here 'tis just as a scarf. I like how the looooong color runs give it subtle stripes.
And here 'tis being worn. It was a long time before he took it off again.
Finally, I was in a swap with the Selfish Knitters and Crocheters, in celebration of Pi Day (March 14... you know, 3/14... 3.14... yeah, we're nerdy that way). Since there must be something pie-like in the box going out, and since every kitchen can benefit from kitschy potholders, I dug some Vanna's Choice acrylic out of my acrylic drawer and made a pair of cherry pie potholders using the
Freshly Baked Potholder pattern that I found via Ravelry.
Looks like fun, huh? They're double-thickness, too. The back is the "crust," and the top is the "filling." If I fiddle with it and make smaller bobbles, maybe I could make blueberry pies, too.
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