Knitting In Public

Brrr. Temps have been in the -20 range and I’m beginning to think I need to replace my windows!

We’ve had some fun this week with cold weather experiments:

I blew bubbles one morning… I had heard that they would freeze and then sink (something about cold air being heavier) and then the bubbles with shatter instead of pop as they do in warm temps. Well, it must not have been quite cold enough, as I took leftover wedding bubbles out for my experiment. The bubbles continued to float - although you could tell they were freezing as they turned cloudy. I did have one tear - so the bubble was a soap film and the air escaped, but it did not shatter.

On another equally cold day, Dave took a cup of boiling water outside and threw it into the air - it immediately turned to steam and vaporized! Pretty fun stuff and I’ll put up videos next time if we get this deep cold weather again this year!

I have been knitting quite a bit, even though business has picked up some more and I’m trying to get the books done for the accountant, etc. so I don’t have as much knitting time as I’d like. I decided on a scarf from Michelle’s hand-dyed yarn:

Pattern: One Row Handspun scarf by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot)

Size 11 needles

18 stitches, knit until I ran out of yarn.

I found these wonderful mittens in the new issue of Knotions:

Pattern: Magic Mirror Mittens by Kristel Nyberg

Modeled by the lovely Ms. A

Yarn: Old Schaffhauser wool I bought at LeeWards eons ago - on sale for $1/skein! Looks like this might have been a tad heavier than I thought - these mittens turned out fairly large.

Needles: Size 3 (3.25 mm)

I altered the pattern slightly as I thought the end of the cables at the top portion of the “mirror” was a bit pointy. I was surprised at how long these mittens are, too…. the mirror cable portion actually starts well below the wrist!

I also decided that I would knit a pair of fingerless mitts to wear when I was working on the computer. My hands (and feet!) get so cold as I am right next to the windows. We had lots of help from Shawn & Doug and the visiting Chris A. and they managed to put plastic seal on my windows which has helped tremendously, but I still occasionally need something on my hands.

Pattern: Delicato Mitts by Anne Hanson

Yarn: KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud, Raspberry  - used double  (less than 1 skein!)

Needles: Size 2 (2.75 mm)

I made some slight adjustments - the pattern called for some rounds of stockinette on the thumb before starting the rib, and I just did the rib from the pick up of stitches for the thumb. I also made the mitt with less ribbing at the finger edge. (I guess I must have shorter hands than the designer!) They definitely make my hands warmer!

Notice the *lovely* painted nails…. We had a “girls day out” when Molly was in town for Christmas - Jenny, Fran, Molly and I all had manicures and then went to lunch together at the Olive Garden!

I’ve also been working on a surprise, (late) Christmas present for Anne (not knitting, and I can’t post it yet), as well as getting ready for the launch of the Knitters’ Guild blog and year-long community service project. One of the patterns will be this:

Pattern: Twining Trees by Sarah Bradberry

Altered pattern slightly by removing 2 rows from trunk area and three stitches from each side, so that I could get it to be 8″ x 8″ (the size for the project, instead of the roughly 9″ x 9″ square as written).

Size 7 needles

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease, Oatmeal, less than 1 skein

I’m working on several items now, including afghan squares from the Great American Aran Afghan series from Knitters Magazine. I finished 3 quite some time ago, and the 4th has been in my UFO pile for a very long time. I’ve picked it up again and hope to finish one square every month, in addition to at least one 8″ x 8″  square for the Knitters’ Guild project. Inbetween, I’ll be working on those projects for future grandbabies, and whatever else strikes my fancy!

I leave you with the photos from Christmas time - we had some more fun with the funky glasses (I bought two new pair) and the Christmas tree lights:

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.