Recent projects

Christmas didn't bring me much in the way of knitting presents, but that's probably because the family isn't used to me being a hardcore knitter yet. I shall have to educate them in the types of yarn to get, steer them in the way of interesting books and magazine subscriptions, and show them where to get gift vouchers for the shops online and offline that I use. I did get a pattern for 4 different types of hats, along with 200 grams of acrylic yarn from my sister-in-law and her family. The yarn comes in 2 100 skein balls of magenta and dark blue, so I can't really fault the colour. I just wish I wasn't such a yarn snob. I like working with expensive yarn and acrylic is frankly not inspiring.

I'm definitely beginning to develop tastes for knitting. Give me cottons, silks, alpacas - I've got some sugar cane fiber I can't wait to use - but there are some yarns I'm not terribly fond of. I'm currently working with a wool-acrylic mix, which isn't too bad, but isn't top notch either. I bought it because it was soft, and then when I started working with it realised it was wool. Checked the label, and it was mostly wool. Freaked, because I'm using it to make armwarmers for myself and wool usually makes me itch something rotten. Rubbed it on my skin, and am hoping the acrylic might actually help prevent the itchniess.

Armwarmers aren't the only things I've been working on. I finished Adrian's fingerless gloves, getting the left one done with far fewer holes and much quicker. While certainly not my finest work, I'm very pleased with the results, and my husband is happy with warmer hands.

After the gloves, I made a hat for myself. I had some yarn left over from making a scarf, and wanted to make a matching hat (more or less.) The pattern was easy enough, even if the row ended up being 143 stitches long on DPNs. I put them on 5 instead of 4 and made do pretty well. It turned out nice.

Still delaying on the Concerto. I think I have a mental block against it - me and long projects don't seem to work very well. I'm hoping that will change, as there's a lot of big things I want to make.