Glanalaw - delighting in pure song

It's been one of those weeks.  You know the feeling.  When everything seems to take just a little extra effort... and doesn't seem worth the extra effort.  When you hit "snooze" on your alarm... more than once.  When you lie in bed wondering whether it would really be such a horrible thing if you just went back to sleep and skipped everything that day.  When you seriously consider cutting class (and it's not even because you haven't done the homework.) For me, this feeling usually only lasts a day.  But this whole week has been like this for me.  I'm blaming part of it on the weather - it had been cool, crisp, and autumnal, but suddenly on Monday it was 80 and sticky again.  Now it's cool and raining and I feel less mentally foggy -- although physically I'm not so great.  I actually did  skip school and sleep all morning, since when I woke up at 6 this morning my head felt like someone had been thumping it with a small hammer all night...

I finished another pair of mitts from Becky's Time on My Hands , this time the "Sun Dial" pattern.  These were so quick and easy to knit!  The heavier yarn and simple rib (with an easy cable on the thumb) meant these were a good bus project as I didn't have to constantly look at a pattern. I did make a few changes.  The thumbs as knitted were way too long for my hands (which is really odd, because I have long hands!  Maybe my thumbs are just short?) so I ended up taking out the last element of the cable pattern (the last 5 rounds, I think).  I also decreased two stitches from the thumb as they were rather loose as well.  Possibly my gauge was off - I didn't check, but I don't want to say it's the pattern's fault! They're really comfortable and the yarn I used - a Debbie Bliss merino DK weight - is incredibly soft.  I had a guy at school ask me if I could make him a pair - "Only not pink of course!" - so I think the design appeals...

I made this hat last week in about three days.  I wanted something to wear to David's graduation that had "gold" in it since his platoon's colour was gold.  But I don't really wear yellow so I had to get creative. This used two shades of KnitPicks "Palette" yarn .  I don't know exactly which shades anymore since they were from my stash and the ball bands have gone awol.  The blue is left over from some socks I knitted back in the summer (which I need to post about, and put up on etsy, but I haven't photographed them yet!) I did a turned hem at the bottom.  The inside of the band is a soft tencel-blend yarn, also from the stash.  I knew I didn't have enough of the blue sock yarn to line the ear band and the yellow wasn't soft enough, so I improvised.  I made up the stripes and colour work as I went along (I did mention this was a very hasty project, right?) The whole hat would have benefited from a little more time and thought, es...

I'm a little bit obsessed with this song right now.  It's lovely and soothing. (If you like this, you can download the album this comes from here:  http://noisetrade.com/andrewrippsampler.  ("Forever After Love" is my favourite on the album though.)

I finished another bus project:  a pair of cotton-blend hand-knit socks.   A delightful wavy pattern, in cool ocean colours suitable for men or women. They're listed in my etsy shop .  Go check them out!

I don't know if it has ever come up on this blog, but I really enjoy reading.  Mostly fiction, and especially fantasy.  And, for the last many years, especially the books of Robin McKinley .  She's been publishing since before my parents were married, but I first discovered her books in eighth grade when I pulled "Beauty" off the shelf. I was immediately hooked.  I discovered that my mum had a copy of "Rose Daughter" also, and I thought it was fascinating the way the same author could take the same fairy tale and turn it into two completely different books.  (Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favourite fairy tales, which probably contributed to my love of McKinley.) Then I went looking for more.  I found and devoured The Blue Sword.  (This is still the one I go back to again and again.)  I read The Hero and the Crown.  I read Spindle's End and wasn't sure if I liked the ending.  I got The Outlaws of Sherwood from the l...

Back in December I had the pleasure of test-knitting  a sweater pattern  for  Becky Herrick  (my version  here  - and my goodness, I hadn't realized how much my hair has grown since then!)  Now, Becky has a new e-book out called  Time on My Hands , full of patterns for mittens, gloves, and lots of fingerless mitts.  I think they're all lovely designs and I couldn't make up my mind which to start with, so eventually I decided I'd just begin at the beginning.  So these are the "Morningtide" fingerless mitts.  Becky arranged the book by hour, associating each pattern with a time of day.  These are the ones for 6 AM, although I did not either wear or photograph them quite that early! The colourwork is quite simple and fairly easy to memorize.  I loved how the striped thumb grows out of the main pattern and gives that little bit of contrast.  I'm attempting to work through my massive stash, and I'd like to see if I ca...