It Was Late Last Year…

I finished this stocking in the eleventh hour last year for the holidays. I then had to write up the pattern, so it wasn’t posted until December 28th. Now that there are many holiday events in the wings and people are greasing up their needles for the holiday knitting marathon, I thought I might remind you of this free pattern available.

It’s relatively simple, with a bit of lace knit, then stitches picked up and knit for the body of the stocking. I chose to step out of the usual holiday colors and use my two favorite colors instead since I had never had a stocking that I picked out myself before. But, even though it is called a non-traditional stocking, it can be as traditional as you wish it to be depending upon the colors you choose to use.

The pattern (along with a quick and easy lace scarf pattern and soon to be joined by the nano cozy) is available at http://designedlykristi.com/freebies/knittingpatterns/index.html

If you wish to link to the pattern, please link to that page and not the PDF file. If you do link to the PDF file you will find it broken at some point as I periodically go in and change the location to prevent bandwidth theft. Thank you!

Oh, also, if you’ve made this stocking or end up making this stocking, please send me a photo or point me to your blog! I’d love to put up a gallery of knits of *any* of my patterns. See the e-mail link in the upper right.

Still sick, no knitting or spinning, hence the semi-historical post today…

Tuesdays are for Spinning!

I like big bobbins, I cannot lie…

Sorry, I couldn’t resist! That front bobbin is holding 325 yds of sock weight merino/silk/alpaca…

I *love* this yarn! It’s shiny and fuzzy and soft. It’s lovely! I think it will become a pair of gloves for DH, along with the back bobbin’s contents of 68 yds of black wool/alpaca…

Then, because I’ m a big lemming and if a handful of you bloggers jumped off a cliff, I would follow…

Please leave a shout out with your blog if you have one and I’ll be sure to come visit. I’m lying low today trying to recuperate. It seemed yesterday was a bug as I spiked a rather high fever last night and had to skip SnB. But the fever has broke, but I’m still a bit sluggish and tired today. So, I’m just hanging out in bed with my laptop and some DVDs and such so I have plenty of time to blog surf…

Blech!

Just a note to myself - do not deviate so drastically from your normal dietary intake. Yesterday we ingested two different forms of meat substitute, as well as more than my usual dairy (though non-fat or low fat). I feel disgusting! And, the lingering smell of last night’s dinner is NOT helping.

You can’t transmit stomach bugs over the Internet can you? I’ve read of stomach bugs on a lot of blogs recently, but I know of no one locally who has had one. Really, I don’t think it is a stomach bug. I do think it was yesterday’s drastic dietary deviation. But, I’m wondering how long before I’m back to normal? I’m tired of being cold and feeling icky! I have things to do, like knit and spin!

Speaking of knitting and spinning - have nearly 400 yds of yarn drying on the mantel right now. One skein of which is 325 yds! It’s so thick I have a fan running on it because it just wasn’t making much drying progress. I really need to rig up a bit better drying situation that does not involve the bathroom or the living room mantel. Of course, if we had the pilot light lit the yarn would dry in quick order I’m sure…

I also spent some of DH’s writing time knitting. My body in general is really prone to muscle spasms right now so I can’t do any marathon knitting, but over the weekend I managed to get to the thumb on mitten one! Wheeee! I’m *really* liking the pattern. That said, I really need to figure out the best way to tension the yarn in my left hand. I tried it the same way I tension it in my right and it just doesn’t flow through at all, but a couple of other ways I did it had it too loose. I suppose in time it will come to me. I think I was knitting for 3 months or so before I stopped holding the yarn in my right fist as a way of tensioning. Talk about cramps in the hand!

I think I’ve picked out the intarsia pattern for my grandpa’s hat. I’m “borrowing” part of it from a mitten in Folk Mittens. I figure with the relatively large gauge required of that alpaca that if it looks good on the cuff of a mitten it should look good on a hat. Now, to get mom to do her awesome sleuthing work to find out what size hat grandpa wears. I’m guessing if I can find that out I can look at a few different mail order places to get a good idea of his circumference. I think of him as having a small head, but he’s of strong nordic stock so it could be an optical illusion. On the other hand, he is bald so he has to hair to increase his head circumference either… DH on the other hand, if he were bald, his head circumference would probably go down by 3 inches!

Well, I think I’m going to curl up under a blanket in the basement (away from the smells of last night’s dinner) and watch a movie or two you guys recommended over the wekend, or perhaps some shows I’ve fallen behind on that are sitting on the TiVo awaiting my watching.

Bright Side…

Even though I’m home alone yet again, I’m trying to look at the bright side…

- Oversized Sock Monkey Flannel PJs
- Homemade carmels cooling in the kitchen (from my aunts recipe so famous she isn’t allowed into any house during the holiday season without a tin of them in hand)
- Finished spinning the singles of some lovely alpaca/merino/silk fiber that is gorgeous! I want to ply it right away, but I know I’ll be happier if I let the second bobbin sit… *sigh*

I’m debating whether I want to brave the high winds and CSU football game day traffic to see if I can locate a second-hand slow cooker (or just another crock that will fit our current one would be even better). It is seriously windy which isn’t good for my allergies and then on game day they reroute traffice right past our street making it literally a 20 minute affair just to get 1/2 mile to the nearest main drag street. However, I’ve got cabin fever and am getting incredibly bored with myself. I’m just antsy and wanting to get out of the house. Even when DH is here he’s too busy with the novel writing that he could just as well not be here. He’s set himself a ridiculous goal of 12,000 words this weekend! *sigh* Next year, I think I’ll spend the entire month of November in MN with my family!

My mom and grandmother always said only boring people get bored. It’s not that I don’t have things I could be doing. I could work on another one of those tote bags, or my mittens, or spin some more singles so I have a ton of plying to do tomorrow, or wash up the caramel making pot and go another round with the stove and make the sesame toffee. Although many of those things are a little rough on my body for where I’m at pain level-wise at the moment.

There are some movies I’d like to see but most of them DH wants to see as well which means I’ve been forbidden to watch them without him… Anyone have any good girly movies to recommend I go rent to get me through the rest of this weekend month? I’m totally open to movie suggestions!

Mittens from Halland Commence

Well, I’m sloooooow at stranded knitting. But, it’s not going too bad. I ended up going with to the write-in and knitting while listening to a book on my Nano. They did a 30 minute challenge to see how many words they could each write and my smart ass husband asked me how many stitches I made. I seriously didn’t keep track, but I’d say at most, I probably completed 3 rows, but probably more like only 2. That’s only 100-150 stitches per 30 minutes… Slooooooow….

But, I’m new to it more or less. I’m liking this pattern because aside from the initial block you rarely have more than three stitches of one color in a row so you are fine just floating over three stitches. It doesn’t catch on my rings or anything. I’m also spot on gauge-wise, though I’m not positive if my floats are quite loose enough or not. Though I was able to pull the cuff over my hand onto my wrist so I suspect I’m okay. Plus, it should loosen up a tad when I block it I guess.

I have the initials done as well…

I think I’ll follow Heather‘s example and put them on the inside of the wrist instead, as I love the design on the cuffs and think that is better for showing off to the public than my initials. Especially considering my initials suck for making 5 sts high by 3 sts wide letters - KRS! It sucks! I’ll do the date on the other mitten though I will probably just do either 2005 or 1105. I’m leaning towards 1105 since it’ll be easier to squish the ones in there and not have to expand the box. Plus, the 2 has got to be nearly as sucky as the K!

I’m glad I found a project that I’m looking forward to working on. Almost to the point that it is the only thing I want to work on today. That said, there is a pair of flannel PJs that I really want from Target but ours doesn’t have my size (well, I might be able to wear the size they have in, but I like oversized PJs) so I’m going to Loveland to check out their Target. And, yes, I checked online and they are out and it says nothing about being backordered or restocked etc. And, I *must* have these PJs. Mom and Amber say so! :-)