The light dawns
This morning I woke up waaaaay earlier then I wanted to (sidebar: why is it that I have to pull my lovely daughters out of bed at 7:20 every school morning, kicking and screaming, but on the weekends they pop out of bed of their own accord before 7:00 AM? WHY? Who have I pissed off in the godly pantheon to make this my reality? I'm really sorry, whatever I did!), and stumbled downstairs for coffee only to discover something really, really exciting.
Those right there? Real, honest-to-goodness, shadows through the skylight in the kitchen from the cherry tree in our back garden. Glory hallelujah!
Now, for many of you, shadows may not be such a big deal. But believe me, for those of us in southeastern England, it has been a loooooong time since we've seen shadows. At least shadows due to sunshine rather then lights after dark. In fact, I think the last time we had an entire day with shadows was the day I decided to wash all the handknits because spring had arrived. Hah bloody hah, weather gods.
Anyhow, the sun is out - finally - and two weeks of no experiments (the upside to having all my cells get contaminated and die - yay!) plus a daily 1000 mg of NSAIDs and a wrist splint means that my wrist has massively improved. So much so, that I finished off these lovelies last night.
Pattern: Fallberry Mitts, by the incomparable Anne Hanson of knitspot.com, published in Knitty Winter 2011.
Yarn: madeleinetosh tosh DK in "Sugarplum", less then one skein (225 yds/skein). This is the first project I've ever done in madtosh and OMG now I understand the rabid fangirls. This yarn is simply gorgeous to work with - nice twist, bouncy sproingy feel, and the colors are glorious. I may or may not be spending ludicrous amounts of time trying to decide how to justify a sweater's worth of this stuff. It is lovely.
Needles: US 2/2.75 mm bamboo double points
Start/finish: 11 April 2012 - 12 May 2012 (did the first mitt in a couple of days though, so they would have been done in a week)
Comments/mods: Disclaimer - I love Anne Hanson's patterns, both in terms of the objects she designs and the way she lays things out. This pattern was no exception - clear, concise, gorgeous pictures, the works. I like the lack of ribbing at cuff and hand, and I also really like the stockinette thumb gussets coming out of the deeply textured hand. It's a gorgeous design.
Mods? Are you kidding? I wouldn't dare on one of Anne's patterns! They are perfect as they are.
So, the scoreboard now reads:
Weeks of more-or-less-continuous rain/grey skies: 6
Full days of sun in that period: maybe 3
Finished fingerless mitts: also 3
Likelyhood I will need fingerless mitts in the next few months: hopefully miniscule, but it's Britain so summer is really just a state of mind.
Degree of difficulty in restraining myself from knitting everything in sight and totally wrecking my wrist again: 10.0 out of 10.0
That's it - I'm off to take the children and the dog for a walk in the sun. See y'all later!
Those right there? Real, honest-to-goodness, shadows through the skylight in the kitchen from the cherry tree in our back garden. Glory hallelujah!
Now, for many of you, shadows may not be such a big deal. But believe me, for those of us in southeastern England, it has been a loooooong time since we've seen shadows. At least shadows due to sunshine rather then lights after dark. In fact, I think the last time we had an entire day with shadows was the day I decided to wash all the handknits because spring had arrived. Hah bloody hah, weather gods.
Anyhow, the sun is out - finally - and two weeks of no experiments (the upside to having all my cells get contaminated and die - yay!) plus a daily 1000 mg of NSAIDs and a wrist splint means that my wrist has massively improved. So much so, that I finished off these lovelies last night.
Pattern: Fallberry Mitts, by the incomparable Anne Hanson of knitspot.com, published in Knitty Winter 2011.
Yarn: madeleinetosh tosh DK in "Sugarplum", less then one skein (225 yds/skein). This is the first project I've ever done in madtosh and OMG now I understand the rabid fangirls. This yarn is simply gorgeous to work with - nice twist, bouncy sproingy feel, and the colors are glorious. I may or may not be spending ludicrous amounts of time trying to decide how to justify a sweater's worth of this stuff. It is lovely.
Needles: US 2/2.75 mm bamboo double points
Start/finish: 11 April 2012 - 12 May 2012 (did the first mitt in a couple of days though, so they would have been done in a week)
Comments/mods: Disclaimer - I love Anne Hanson's patterns, both in terms of the objects she designs and the way she lays things out. This pattern was no exception - clear, concise, gorgeous pictures, the works. I like the lack of ribbing at cuff and hand, and I also really like the stockinette thumb gussets coming out of the deeply textured hand. It's a gorgeous design.
Mods? Are you kidding? I wouldn't dare on one of Anne's patterns! They are perfect as they are.
So, the scoreboard now reads:
Weeks of more-or-less-continuous rain/grey skies: 6
Full days of sun in that period: maybe 3
Finished fingerless mitts: also 3
Likelyhood I will need fingerless mitts in the next few months: hopefully miniscule, but it's Britain so summer is really just a state of mind.
Degree of difficulty in restraining myself from knitting everything in sight and totally wrecking my wrist again: 10.0 out of 10.0
That's it - I'm off to take the children and the dog for a walk in the sun. See y'all later!