Even though the description on the pattern suggested that I would finish in 5 hours, I took my time. It actually took me five evenings to finish this project.
Front view of jacket. I used a vintage button from my mother’s collection.
Back View
It really was a delightful knit. I am so thrilled that the yarn combination created an interesting and sturdy fabric. I held two yarns together to achieve the look.
Now there are two less balls of yarn in my stash. With the ball of yellow yarn remaining, I plan to knit some baby beanies.
Anyone out there in Blogville have some patterns to suggest?
Yesterday I got to the top of my second Mary Delany sock. Today I cast it off. While technically, I am finished knitting the pair, there is a small geographical glitch.
Sock no. two hanging in the garden, clipped to a tomato cage. It looks pretty good.
One foot cozy and warm, one left out in the cold.
Sock no. 1, found under a chair in the living room of daughter’s house in Madison.
(sigh)
The fault is my own. I had pulled out the completed sock to compare to the one in progress while I was visiting our loved ones. Apparently, I failed to stuff it back into my project bag before packing up.
There’s good news on all fronts. It was found and daughter agrees to mail it to me. If the U.S. Post office fails to deliver it, I have enough yarn to knit sock no. 3.
If you have a hankering to make a pair like this, the pattern is by Kate Davies, and can be found on her Ravelry site here.
Yesterday I finished the first sock using KDDs design Mary Delaney. During a break in the rain, the sock and I took a stroll through the garden.
Pinned to a panicle of the Oakleaf Hydrangea. As you can see, the blooms are close to opening fully.
Mary Delaney on the rock edging surrounding the herbs. You see lemon thyme here. Very fragrant and excellent in chicken or fish dishes.
Hanging around with the garden peas. This variety is Sugarsnap.
Some of the paeonies haven’t bloomed yet, but buds are swollen. This stop resulted in a few surprised ants walking across the sock.
On the trellis with some clematis blooms. Notice some of the fluffy seedheads. They are fun to touch – springy, but soft as corn silk.
The sock has come to rest on my concrete statue of a garden cherub. I call him Dickon, after the character in A Secret Garden who charmed the wild animals.
I hope you were as amused as I was by this fanciful photo shoot uniting knitting and nature. When the rain starts up again, I’ll cast on sock no. 2.
Summer is on its way, and that means knitting small, portable projects. Reaching into my yarn closet, I brought out a stashbuster bag all ready to go, using Kate Davies’ sock pattern Mary Delany.
I purchased this pattern on Ravelry a few years back when KDDesigns was offering a sale. This will be my second cast- on using it. The first time I followed the pattern pretty closely, but substituted a more “manly” looking chart, since I was knitting socks for dear husband. This time I happily followed Kate’s stranded pattern of little flowers. So far, it has been a joy to work.
My yarns are acquired from three different companies. The beautiful deep tonal blue is Malabrigo Ultimate Sock in a color called Azul Profundo. I purchased it from Jimmy Beans. The aqua tonal yarn is Knitpicks Hawthorne. I’ve mislaid the band and so don’t know the colorway. And the tiny bit of red to be used in the toe and the ribbing is from Hobby Lobby. The box store briefly offered a line of wool + nylon fingering weight yarn in various colors. It turned out to be not-so-good and has since disappeared from the shelves.
Here’s my start. I cast on using the winding cast on method. It is described perfectly in Kate’s pattern, and I had no trouble at all finishing the first toe.
Yesterday while watching PBS, I managed to get most of the foot finished. It now measures 8 and 1/2 inches long.
Front of footBack of foot showing the heel increases
This pair of socks will be for ME. Wearing hand knit socks makes me feel pampered. It is a small and affordable luxury.
This piece of knitting has been in the background of my life for about three months. It is going to be a lap blanket, fashioned in the style of a log cabin block and knitted out of stash skeins.
I’ve modeled my blanket after a Garn Studio Drops design called Abstract Rainbow
The main difference between the actual pattern and my work is that I didn’t follow any instructions. I just improvised based on the look of the DROPS pattern.
So here I am so far:
I quickly used up all of my stash acrylics within the first four stripes. Stubbornly refusing to buy yarn, I cadged my friend into giving me some of her acrylic skeins in similar colorways. After using all the yarn she gave me, the blanket was still not big enough. I gritted my teeth and purchased one Hobby Lobby cream colored skein.
The blanket is now about 42 inches square and I am sitting here with the left-overs, pondering my next move.
My brain tells me that a crocheted border would allow all the leftovers to be worked in. But my gut is resisting this move. I can’t help myself; I have a prejudice against the craft of crochet.
Okay knitters, what would you do? And how big does a lap blanket have to be?
Daily Fiber 
