I’m very excited to report that I’m closing in on the grand finale of my Master Level I project. Although I’m still feeling very much the distractable hare in this race to the finish-line, I really feel like I have gotten myself back on track this week. I should be able to finish my last swatch and final question by the end of tomorrow, and Friday, I will join in the mass cast-on to kick off the 2010 Winter Olympics to begin my final hat project! Synchronize your stitches, everybody!
I’m not very good at guestimating my knitting speed, so I have only signed up for the Master Level I Hat. But since my husband is planning to have a craftalympics along with me, I might actually get quite a bit of knitting done. If I make good time in the “Hat Half-pipe”, I might just sign up for “Mitten Moguls” as well. I’ve been yearning for a good pair of new mittens, and I’ve seen some amazing fair-isle mittens out there. I might have to go for these Totoro mittens, seeing as I’m a big Studio Ghibli fan, and they are in a worsted weight yarn so I might have a shot at finishing them in time. I adore these Squirrel Mittens, and I’ve already bought the pattern, but as they are done in a fingering weight yarn and they have a knitted lining too (!), I imagine they would take me months to finish.
Jenny Cloche
Speaking of finished, I finally got pictures of my Jenny Cloche.
It is adorned with an awesome pin from my grandmother. I don’t really remember my grandma wearing a lot of jewelry, but I do remember her letting me play with her jewelry box full of fabulous costume-jewelry pins and clip-on earrings. This big snow-flake-like piece really finishes the look of this hat. But I’ll admit that it does like to snag on things with it’s pointy edges!
This was a fun pattern (you can buy it here on Ravelry), with it’s side-to-side ribbed brim and picked-up crown. It came out nice and dense and squishy due to the quality of the mystery yarn (which turned out to be Mountain Colors New 3-ply Wool). I think it’s now my warmest hat!
My final knitterly thought for the day is that I’m contemplating buying a knitting machine, with a knitting business idea in mind. In a later post, I’ll explain in more detail what knitting machines are all about, but just to start the explanation on the right foot, a knitting machine is only a machine in the sense that a spinning wheel is a machine. It’s a mechanical aid to speed your process a little, but it’s far from automated. They seem to take a lot of mechanical aptitude to get the hang of, but I helped my sister set up one that I bought for her, and I think I can handle it. Since I will be using it for a business (hopefully), I would like to get a used model that is older, but a little higher-quality. I’ll explain more when I’ve gotten one. Meanwhile, I found a quick little video that will show you how non-automated we’re talking: Knitting Machine Video
Until next time, keep those needles (or needle-beds!) clicking!
