Oldies Are Goodies
I blocked my reknit Polka Dot Stole shortly after my last post and the magic never fails! I am in love with lace all over again. Here is this summer's pride and joy (meant to be last summer's but so what!).
I have put off using my new Knit Picks yarn to do this month's Snowdrift mittens. I'm looking for an old pattern for 4-ply weight yarn that uses thumb increases because I'm not fond of the peasant thumb, although it is easier to knit in an allover pattern. But I plan to incorporate an increased thumb when I get around to knitting Snowdrifts. In order to have quick mitts for this month I reviewed the free patterns I have saved on my computer. I saw some Clara Parkes fingerless mitts she named Je Suis Jolie after the brand of angora yarn she used, and I remembered that I had some small balls of angora that I inherited from my aunt's stash. (She was a beautiful knitter and worked in a yarn store in the eighties, but died of cancer eighteen years ago. Now that yarn is mellow!) I used them all up in these mitts, color blocked by necessity. The combination reminds me of rainbow sherbet. Parkes' pattern includes an optional rolled, ruffled rose, but I decided to go with a flatter flower. I used the little Buttercup design from Nicki Epstein's Knitted Flowers. These mitts will go in the basket for gifting. They're not masterpieces of knitting, but the peach is Georges Picaud 100% French angora and is wonderfully soft. The rose yarn is a Scheepjeswool lambswool and angora blend, still nice and soft but it doesn't compare to the peach and the white.
My other new/old project is a sleeveless top that I loved in last summer's Rowan magazine 41. The stash yarn that I had earmarked for this is Bernat's Club Classic, a cotton and acrylic blend. I bought it when our Woolco closed when WalMart bought them out to move into Canada. How many years has that been? I have a bunch of this yarn still, enough in navy and mauve for two long sleeve sweaters, and four balls each in cream and brown for baby/toddler cardigans. The pattern called for 8 balls of DK cotton, but with the extra yardage in the blended yarn I may not even need six balls. The back is done; it is filled in up high to the back neck. I'm just starting the fifth ball to do the top of the left front - not much knitting there since it's scooped with narrow shoulders - but the neck border includes ties that hang down a way at the center front and I'm not sure how much yarn that will take, along with the armhole borders.
When I get this done, I'll be ready if summer ever comes. Just like the boys in their new summer sun hats.
(I only had one child; I'm learning now how much harder it is to get a good picture of two children together. By the time we got a more natural smile from Bub to replace his fake grimace, the Dude had managed to knock his hat over his eyes. And by the time we got that straightened out, Bub was gone again.)








































