Off to the beach

We are going away for a week, to the lovely shores of lovely Lake Huron.

We shall take a kite and a telescope to look at the moon and a lot of yarn. I hope to bring back a finished hat or two.

I hope the weather will be as good as it was a few years ago when we were there!

See you in August!

And another thing

I was looking through dishcloth patterns recently, because I had signed up for a swap and wanted to see lots of options. I came across the Optical Illusion cloth and just had to whip one up.

Some people do the blocks in stripes, but I think ye olde quilting way of doing it with light, medium and dark colours works just great, even in knitting.

My dark colour yarn, on closer inspection, was too thick and would have messed up my tension, so I improvised with the two colours I had (rather than going upstairs and rummaging around. I was on a roll).

So there you are, an optical illusion dishcloth! Kinda cute, non?

The written pattern is a bit funny, but it's garter stitch and slanted, so I'm sure most people can figure it out... I did every odd row plain knit, and every even row "decrease at one end and increase at the other." For numbers, just knit until you can pick up the number of stitches you need for the next block. It's sort of Log Cabin style, but the last block is seamed to the cast-on of the first block. Clear as mud, right?

Green scarf made of bits

Once upon a time, as you may have heard, I went to the Textile Museum's sale. I got some dishcloth cotton and some puffball yarn and some other nice-ish stuff. I picked up three balls of Paton's Cotton Top, which is sort of boucle/lumpy cotton, along with some green teeny cotton in three partial balls.

This is a pretty radical adaptation of a scarf from Vogue Knitting from a year or two ago.  The original scarf was wool, and double this width, and very long! You start with some diamonds on the end, then pick up stitches along the side and knit the leaf pattern up. The original says to knit two pieces like this and join them in the middle, but that idea fell by the wayside with me.

You can't really tell there is a leaf pattern there, can you?

I ran out of the greens and so just carried on in the ecru. No more green, no more leaves!

I made the second half in garter stitch, with a bit of stocking stitch up the middle just for fun. Three-needle-bind-off'd the ends and lo! A cowl.

It will be not too warm, but just warm enough, for the fall, I think! It can be a hood, or snug around the neck, or just a long, goofy thing around the neck! (It looks divine over a nightgown, too.)

And a squash leaf for you. Just a bit of a squash leaf.

Puff-balls

Once upon at time, I picked up this ball of yarn at the Textile Museum's sale. It is a string with puff-balls along it! 

I've seen yarn like this where the string was hard and unpleasantly like kite-string, but this was okay. I might have something to say about the colour choices here, though. The blues I like, but that beige adds nothing good, I'd say.

I knit this up once before using 15 mm needles, and it looked like a crazy spiderweb. There were thoughts of using it for a doll blanket, but no doll with any style would take it... So, I ripped it out and redid it the other day on 9 mms. And all the puff-balls lined up super neatly! Knitting on 10 stitches in garter stitch, I get 6 balls per side. Boom, boom, boom, all in a row.

I am still not totally sure what to do with the ends, but I'll hide them somehow and it is a scarf for a small person, and it is weird and fun. Weird, for sure.

I have been thinking about my Olympic knitting as well. The games open on a Friday, and we leave town on the Saturday. Friday afternoon Elaine comes home from camp. So, perhaps that evening I'll be busy, but I mean to have everything sorted and packed so that I can just sit and knit and watch the opening ceremonies for a bit, doncha think? Oh, and wash Elaine's camp clothes to get ready to go away the next morning...

I had some little pink baby yarn that I wanted to use for a hat, and it has disappeared. I have set aside two bags all made up with yarn, needles and patterns, so that is good.  I am not planning a whole 17 days' worth of knitting at once, but I have 3 or 4 hats set up and that will last me my week's holiday and beyond.

I have also noticed a ton of yarn in my closet that I need to either turn into something or get rid of. Honestly. Must make Arthur a new laptop case! Must make shawls and gloves and sweaters! Must knit faster!! Must not waste a day knitting puff-balls??

Secret knitting

I did a bit of secret knitting recently. Not secret from you, of course, but from one person somewhere in New York state. I am doing a dishcloth swap in a group on Ravelry. Pretty minimal: a dishcloth and a postcard. The turnaround time is pretty fast, but, it's just a dishcloth! So, I whipped up this beauty and sent it off the other day.

This is the Lizard Ridge cloth. I made a block of this for my blanket last year and this time, I am pleased to report, all my Wrap & Turn stitches look pretty good!

Gold cotton leftover from the Teacher Trekkie washcloth -- Oh, my, did I ever tell you about that? I made Elaine's teacher a Baby Trekkie for an end-of-year gift, but neglected to take a picture of it. He loved it. He is a big geek, so both my kids loved him when they had him. Elaine did a report on the connections between Canada and Star Trek. More fun than the Olympics, for sure!

Anyways! The other yarn is some Sugar 'n' Cream that I got at the Textile Museum's More Than a Yardage Sale in May. No label.

I am using Google Chrome for this now. I used to use Firefox, but Blogger told me not to do that anymore... This is okay. I haven't found anything that's actually better or worse. Which is fine with me!

Training begins

The end of July will bring that international competition, and I will knit. I said at the beginning of the year that I would knit 12 hats this year. I have made 4, and I should be able to do at least 8 during the 17 days of the games.

I already have a bunch of yarn, of course.

Here's a plain beanie that uses Magpie, and I have enough for 2 hats, I think.

Whoa, more than two, indeed!

Then there's a "sweet baby cap" in quite light yarn.  I can do a couple of those, I'd say!

This is the cashmere blend I used for a scarf long ago. It would make a divine baby hat. There are also a few balls of sock yarn that could be put to use here.

One called Vegemot in DK. At least one! Leftover tweed from the Harry Potter sweaters of 2006 should make a fine hat.

 Jacques Cousteau, but not in cotton. I think red Cascade 220!

Tychus, long admired. Needs somewhat bigger yarn, but I think I can manage. Maybe I'll hold a couple of strands together, or dig a bit deeper in the stash.

And of course, I have a ton of books and patterns.
I always love a countdown.

So, now you know. I have some time left for training and clearing the decks of other stuff. I hope I have enough time to finish Botticelli's edging! Because I'll really need a wool sweater in August... No, I won't, but I really need to get it done!