Bella Knitting

Comfort Knitting

Laura

There is something about comfort food that is so, well comforting. Our whole family has been sick, really sick, since the middle of September. It’s a long non-blog worthy story but involves an old house and toxic mold. Anyway, we have found as we banded together that it was the little things that made us smile; that extra hug, a warm towel from the dryer, and the quintessential chicken soup, warm chocolate chip cookies for the kids, and for me hot oatmeal with raisins and a touch of brown sugar melting on top.

So when I was blessed with my first clear head yesterday, I knew I wanted to knit with something soft and comforting. Nothing too small, my eyes are not quite focusing yet; something quick so I could feel the satisfaction of knitting again after ten long weeks without (not that I was counting or anything). I found the perfect yarn for my purposes, Cascade Venezia. It’s super soft merino and silk is warm and cozy in my hands and it’s nice and chunky at a 3.5 stitches per inch.

With the holidays approaching our thoughts have turned toward the ski season. So I’m designing a hat that reminds me of those fabulous pictures taken the day after a big storm. You know, the ones with majestic mountain slopes, bright blue skies, loads of fresh snow and a single set of ski tracks swishing back and forth through the fluffy white powder. I also decided to try a few of Sarah’s absolutely fabulous tutorials so I started with a provisional cable cast on and will finish up later with an i-cord bind off. I’ve got a few tricks in mind for the top of the hat too. Let’s see how it goes - I'm kind of winging it.

So now I have my comfort knitting, a cup of hot tea, my two Velcro dogs warming my toes and cyber friends to share it all with. It’s a nice day.

Under Construction

Sarah

One of my favorite things about knitting is the infinite variety of ways in which garments can be constructed. Socks are especially fun to experiment with, because if a particular method of construction turns out to be less than fun or doesn't fit well, it's not a huge investment of time and energy.

For my brother's Christmas socks, I decided to try something new: a resoleable sock, specifically, the Two-Yarn Resoleable Socks from the Interweave "Favorite Socks" book. Happily, the pattern was written for worsted-weight yarn, which I wanted to use anyway -- my brother lives in San Francisco and likes to go snowboarding in Tahoe in the winter, so he can put thick warm house socks to good use.

So far, I've almost completed the top of the first sock. When that's done, I'll be using the contrast-color yarn to pick up a looooot of stitches to knit the heel, sole, and toe. I just hope the leg of the sock will be big enough to fit my brother (who has what are affectionately known as "cankles" -- ankles not much smaller than his calves) I also hope that he will wear these enough that they will actually, at some point, need to be re-soled!

Diversionary Tactics

Sarah

I really, really need to work on that important project for school. It's due Thursday. So what have I been doing? Housework. Knitting. Searching the closets for a bunch of old FO's, photographing them, and entering them into Ravelry. I even busted out the tripod and camera remote (you can see it in my hand there) so I could take pictures of myself actually wearing this stuff. Good time management skills, huh?

To be honest, I have been working on the project in increments...just not as much as I should have been. Like right now, I'm blogging instead of homework-ing, so sorry for the quickie post, but I've really got to get back to it! (Aside from the occasional quick break to check email, log into Ravelry, or read a few blogs. Because everyone needs a little break now and then, right?)

Entropy

Sarah

Do you ever get to the point at which you have so many projects on the needles and in your head that you are completely stymied, and just have to go and do something else for a few days? That's where I'm at right now. I haven't knit much this week, and I think it would be fair to say that I've actually done a negative amount of knitting, since I finally frogged the long-abandoned Dollar and a Half Cardigan. (It just wasn't working out.)

At the same time, it's a little past the middle of the semester, so I've got a big project looming closer and closer on the horizon, which I think I will do well on, but is a heavy weight on my mind nonetheless. Also, Measure just got his first tooth (which is awesome) but the second one is not here yet and is obviously causing him some discomfort (which is not awesome). It's not that life's bad, it's just that there's a lot going on, and there really just aren't enough hours in the day. (Daylight hours, anyway.) I woke up around 3:30 last night (well, this morning, but you know what I mean), unable to sleep because I kept thinking about this, that, and the other thing on my "to do" list, so I went out to the kitchen and washed dishes and cleaned up for half an hour, just because it was such a readily available mindless activity.

Entropy may be kicking my butt, but at least I have clean spoons.