A Verdant Triptych

An integral part of my knitting addiction two years ago was the repeated making-up of this lovely Cabled Glovelets pattern by Meg White in as many different yarns as my budget would allow.  A pretty simple fingerless mitt pattern, it gives enough lee-way to add your own special touches.  For this version, mine was adding the pearly beads to the inside of the cable crosses - nice and elegant against the marvellously chunky green Iceland Madil Yarns.

verdant cosy smooshiness

Having fallen rather hard for said deliciously soft yarn, I was thankful that there was still enough left to make something else with it...  But what?  There wasn't, sadly, enough for a nice, long scarf, or I'd have made it up in a heart-beat, but there was enough for a complementing hat.  And thus the Verdant Cap was born.  Well, really it was more cobbled together from a couple of disparate patterns that would, I assured myself, fit my circumferencely-well-endowed noggin.  So really, it was brought to life, Frankenstein-wise, from bits of other hats.  A Franken-Hat, if you will.  With pearls.  And scars.  It was, after all, my first ever attempt at a hat.

verdant cranium cosiness with added mwah ahahahaaaaaah

And so, like all good stories, there was a happy ending.  Until 2 years later, when a fair maiden (no guffawing at the back, thank you) stumbled across the remnants of greeny goodness after emptying her sock wool stash all over the floor.  Yes, I know: sock wool doesn't count as stash, so really it's an oxymoron. And no, I don't know why a ball of 10-ply thick goodness was in with the 4-ply sock skeiny loveliness, either.  Yet there it was, looking for all intents and purposes like it was there just waiting to be discovered and made into something WONDERFUL.  

But this was where the trouble started, you see.  There was only 100 metres or so left of the ball.  After starting with a total of THREE BALLS OF SMOOSHY GORGEOUSNESS (MWAH HAH HAH HAAAAAAAAAAH)  What?  I'm channelling my inner Count...  I had just under a ball left and not a lot of options.  

Uncle Ravelry came to the rescue, with, not so much a pattern, but an idea... Necklets!  Neck-Warmers!  Cowlettes!  Hoodettes!  Neck-Cosies!  

Taking the cable pattern from the Cabled Glovelets; casting-on around 100 sts and knitting in the round; adding a few more k2,p2 ribs here and there to match the hat; and adding a liberal dash of pearly whiteness.

Et voilà!  The Verdant Necklet was born.  

verdant necky warmthness

And boy, is it warm!

Obsession

I am obsessed.  No, truly, I am.  I don't know if it's the cable pattern, or the chunky yarn, or... or if it's just my addictive nature coming to the fore, but I just can't stop myself...

 

denimesque cabled glovelets

I know - I KNOW!   Yet ANOTHER pair of glovelets?  Well, I saw the yarn, you see, and I knew my life would not be complete without it adorning my person in some form or other!  It's Phildar Ondiaflamme in the Islande colourway. 

I think I fell for the yarn colours because I'd been playing with the macro setting on my camera that morning and had some interesting photos of denim in close-up.  (What do you mean, I was really trying to figure out how the damn thing works and accidentally took some shots of my skirt?)  The colours - I was entranced!  Blue, yes, but also green and purple and cream...  Very pretty! 

obligatory arty-farty close-up shot

(Of course, I just happened to shoot a close-up of the cabled part with the most colours showing!  Cunning!)  I decided to go for a more in-tune coloured bead for the inside of the cables - a pretty purple faceted glass bead that picks out the purple in the yarn.

Oh, but that's not all...  I saw a hat pattern.  Just a basic watch-cap thingy with ribbing all the way up... I got to wondering, as you do, how that would look if I added a cable or two from the glovelet pattern.  Told you I was obsessed.  And maybe not just a tad crazy.  Why?  Well, 1) because I've never knit a hat before, never mind try to make one up, and 2) did I tell you I really don't suit hats?  Really, I don't - I just look silly in any and all styles.  I know this as I think over the years I've tried on every style known to man.  And beast.  (Best not to ask...)  But I just couldn't let it lie...

Fingers twitching, I finally decided to use the green Madil Iceland yarn, mainly because I am vain about having red hair and know that the green will set it off nicely!  Oh, and my green eyes!  Heh!  If I'm going to make a hat that I probably won't suit, I may as well try to get it to highlight other decent stuff instead, no?!!

woohoo - matching set

And now, I think I can safely say that I'm cabled-out...  Erm, until the next time...

Finishitis?

HUZZAH!  I've finished one of my wips!  (I know, I know... who'da thunk...!) So, without any further ado, may I present unto you my Verdant Glovelets!

 

cabled glovelets by meg white

madil yarns iceland in olive green

Woohoo!  Am I chuffed with these babies?!  I modified the pattern slightly from the Noro glovelets I made last week by doing only 6 of the 8 repeats to make up for using the chunkier yarn.  I also added a few more increases in the upper arm part to accommodate my tendency to cast-off a little on the tight side.

a decadent touch of pearl

I couldn't decide on the beading for the centre of the cables and tried out some black bugles, but they were too dark and got slightly lost in the shadows...  gold beads looks dreadfully tacky and I even contemplated gold sequins (but not for long).  I wasn't sure if the pearl beads would be a bit too big, but I think in the end it worked out.  I'm rather fond of the juxtaposition of the chunky, country cables and the refined look of the pearls. (Plastic though they be!)

silk purse? sow's ear?

And boy, are they warm!  I have enough of the yarn left to maybe make some kind of hat/beanie/whatever, but I'm not sure I'd add the pearls... then again... maybe I would... Watch this space! 

And keeping the mitten theme going, I began (yes, yes, even though I have contracted finishitis again I'm still no further in getting rid of the startitis...) some Endpaper Mitts from a marvellous (and muchly used) design by Eunny Jang.

pattern lurve: stained-glass endpapers

angels and elephants  4-ply sock in maisie

cheap black acrylic that does the job nicely

I've been wanting to do these gorgeous mitts for months, but the thought of the colour-work scared me off on more than one occasion. But when I did start, I knew what colour-scheme I wanted: black ironwork around variegated yarn to give a stained-glass effect.  I picked up enough courage the other evening to start these, and am quite pleased with the look of it!  I say 'the look of it' advisedly, because the inside resembles what can only be described as the aftermath of a yarn tornado.  Well, no, I may not actually be using an official 2-colour knitting technique... how did you guess?

But to alleviate the stress of untangling yarn and unpicking stitches I knitted-up these wee pretties:

bootees for baby r

saartje's bootees by saartje de bruijn

Baby R № 2 should be arriving any day now... in fact he's due tomorrow  eek - today.  He'll be (when he arrives) the second god-child of my DS and if he's anything like his big sister, he'll be absolutely adorable!  I can't wait to meet him at Christmas when I go home. 

But back to the endpapers... I don't think we're in Kansas any more, Toto...

V and W are for...

Viral WIPs

zombies - the return

angels & elephants 4-ply sock  yarn in maisie

It's serious.  I'm very ill.  My Startitis has flared-up quite badly this week, and I'm worried there's no cure...  I can't seem to stop starting  new knitting projects.  Then again, I can't seem to start stopping old ones, either.  My Finishitis seems to have cleared-up completely.

The yarn I'm using for the Return of the Zombie Socks has undergone a fair workout this week...  It started out as the cuff and 1st two inches of a pretty lacy sock.  Or so the pattern title informed me.  Alas, alack, it was not to be as I couldn't make out the patten when it was knitted up for love nor money, so it was frogged.  But I had balled that skein of maisie and I was determined to use it.  I tried a couple of inches of a test pattern (that shall remain nameless until it is a) announced to the world by the designer and b) actually knitted up properly by yours truly) but the yarn wasn't quite solid enough for that job either.  I needed something with a bold pattern, something a little on the weird side, something that didn't need semi-solids for the pattern to show... And then I remembered the Zombie Socks I made earlier this year.  Dropped stitches everywhere and a very clear design.  HUZZAH!  Perfetto!  Knit, knit, knit... but there was something nibbling at my conscious...

housglass socks

angels & elephants shetland sock in sea spray

This poor little Hourglass sock has been sitting on my shelf watching me start things all week.  Salty tears of abandonment would be shed if it could cry, I'm sure.  For some reason I've just not been into doing weeny cables recently...  Big chunky b*st*rds, hell yeah, but what goes around comes around, and no doubt I'll be ignoring all my lacy things next week and weaving teeny tiny cables like there's no tomorrow.

muscari socks

angels and elephants 4-ply sock in pentillie

But the hourglass socks are not the only things not getting finished, oh no... These Muscari socks are (or should I say will be) gorgeous to the nth degree.  The pattern is simple enough to memorise yet complicated enough to keep you from getting bored.  I think this pattern will also work with a more variegated yarn too, as the the rows are all different amounts of stitches each... Yes, I admit it - I nearly started these in another yarn this week, but I valiantly managed to stave-off the infection.  Kind of... instead I started another pair of Cabled Glovelets.  See?  I told you it was serious...

verdant glovelets

madil yarns iceland in olive green

Nom nom nom - this yarn is so very chunkily gorgeous and warm.  What's that you say?  They look like the ones I posted about last time...? Heh, well, yes indeed... erm... this virus is very contagious...  I have some little extras to add to these when they're finished - a touch of decadence, perhaps.  Well, you'll find out soon enough, as these babies are nearly done.  Or should be... soon...

Maybe when I've done some more to the next viral wip...

bandwagon jaywalker socks

opal sock yarn in shades of milka cow

I'm trying to decide whether these will be a disaster or not...  If they are, K, dear sister mine, you're getting them for Christmas!  Bwah hahahah haaaaaaah!  Seriously though, I'm never too sure about these kinds of variegated yarn - they are of such a Goldilocks type - sometimes too blah, sometimes too ARGH, sometimes just right...  I guess it's too early to tell at the moment, but this close the colours smack slightly of a combination Friesian and Milka cow...

I need to be thoroughly infected with Finishitis again... I have baby booties to complete, a secret something for DS, a log-cabin bag for myself, oh, and a myriad of other things...

oo - look over there - shiny...

Running the Gauntlet(s)

Once upon a time there was a little yarn shop in the middle of a medieval town. They had lots of pretty wool, but they were very dear, so Little Red Fraggle-Hood could only press her nose against the window and sigh with lust after the myriad of marvellous merino and mohair...  Then one day she saw IT.  Yarn the colour of all the berries she could think of, yarn which called out to her over and over until she had to go in, shyly proffer her next month's rent allowance, and then, finally, take two little bundles of joy home with her to make into these:

berry glovelets in noro kureyon 124

Seriously - I never buy these colours... Pinks and reds?  I like them, yes, but I never wear them, so, well... I never buy them.  But that was before I'd been drooling over a pattern by Meg White called Cabled Glovelets.  Big luscious cables, chunkily knit toastiness, all-around gorgeousness...  It needed something distinctive, something special, something beautifully coloured.  And then I saw the yarn. Noro? Scratchy, coarse Noro for next-to-the-skin snugness? Well, I’m as shocked as you are!  Even more so, in fact, because it seemed I had bought the only 2 balls of already soft and squishy Noro that exist in the world…  I know... I had to take a moment, too...  But the colours... the colours...

raspberry, bramble, redcurrant, strawberry, blackcurrant, 

cranberry, mulberry, elderberry, gooseberry...

To add an extra bit of definition I sewed some wee pink beads to the centre of each cable... I used thin, invisible plastic thread, so it took bloody ages but now at least those wee beads should stay on and not gurgle down the drain when I have to hand-wash them... 

beads of the wee and pink variety

But not content with ONE pair of mittens/gauntlets/wristlets/fingerless gloves, I made these wee Gothic ones, pattern by Robin Melanson from the book 'Knitting New Mittens & Gloves', published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang.  (A great book, by the way!)

 

channel island cast-on, no less!

(version: messy)

I couldn't for the life of me figure out the directions to make the diamond at the top, so I cabled it instead.  It looks the same as the pattern, so that's good enough for me!  I may add a little beading in the centre of the diamond at some point...

So, Mr Winter, do your worst... with my hands warm and my feet toasty (thanks to the incredibly and smooshily calescent fluffy slippers my DS sent me) I am armed (ugh - sorry about that) and ready...