Happy VD

As a Valentine's Day present to you, dear reader, I'm inundating your Bloglines or Google Reader with lots of posts (OK, just two). In this post, I wanted to showcase a recently finished object and the progress being made on a couple of WIPs.

First up: the Little Gems Mitts. I finished these while traveling to visit my friend, Kate, in St. Louis a few weekends ago. These were my sixth pair of fingerless mitts to knit, according to Ravelry, but they are the seventh pair to be a part of my life. I bought my very first pair of fingerless mitts during a school trip to St. Louis many moons ago. In honor of that seemingly life-changing event, Kate and I took a drive-by pilgrimage to Union Station, location of the historic sale. Here's the camera-phone picture to prove it. But while that original pair are buried deep in a closet at my parents' house, my new Little Gems Mitts are out and about in full force. We've even had a couple of unseasonably cool days here in Nola, so I've been enjoying them.


I used the Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift called for in the pattern and really loved it. I'm glad I have so many lovely shades of green left over to make something else.


The first WIP is my brother's work sock. I've finished the first one and have started the second one. Here's a couple of shots of the first one. I'm using Nancy Bush's "Gentleman's Half Hose" pattern from the Knitting Vintage Socks book and Koigu Premium Merino in brown.




Finally, I've been plodding along on the Turkish cape. Stranding five colors while purling is definitely a challenge but not as difficult as I originally anticipated. I'm actually coming along pretty quickly with this knit—but maybe that's also because I love the pattern and the bright, bold colors.

La buona sorella

So I made it a week before I broke my resolution. But it's not entirely my fault. I had grand plans of posting this weekend, but when I went to upload new photos to flickr, I got this message:

"flickr is having a massage."

Go figure.

Anyhow, I haven't started the Turkish cape yet because of a small mishap with needle sizes. But after some begging and pleading at my LYS for an exchange, that's all taken care of. I should be casting on sometime soon. In the meantime, I've been working on a present I promised my brother. He was the only one in my family who didn't get a true handmade item for Christmas, so I told him he could choose his own present for an after-Christmas treat. He decided he wanted some socks he could wear with his work shoes (read: business cas...) So I went to my LYS, and after begging and pleading to exchange my Turkish cape needles, I purchased my first Koigu. Four hanks of Premium Merino—these are going to be some expensive socks!



They're coming along fine so far. These pictures were taken last Friday when I had just barely started, and flickr was "having a massage," but I've turned the first heel (not nearly as stressful as anticipated), and am well into the foot now. The first one should be finished in the next day or so. Then I hope I can keep myself motivated to finish the second one sometime before next Christmas! (The pattern is Nancy Bush's "Gentleman's Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern" from Knitting Vintage Socks.)