And There's More

Still no picture of the shawl but I do have photos of the hat and gloves I made for a gift and of the socks.

The hat and gloves were for the daughter of old friends of my husband. She has graduated from high school and will be going to university in upstate New York. Coming from the Bay Area hats and gloves are a definite requirement.



The white isn't as blindingly white as shown in the photo but that's about the best picture that I took. I had to buy three balls of yarn for this project but only completely used one ball. The yarn is machine washable merino so I will use what is left for a baby cardigan for a baby due later this year.

And here is the hat. This really was a last minute finish so I have just one photo. The evening before we left I showed finished hat to husband. He didn't like it. So then quickly took and texted pictures to my youngest friend for her opinion - she also didn't like it. This is the before photo.



I managed to removed the tassels and undo the kitchenered seam at the top without cutting any yarn. I was then able to work decreases for a more conventional hat. This is the final result.



And then there were socks. One of the challenges for May was fauna. So I cast on Wonderland Socks. They are illusion knitting with a cat. This yarn was in my stash, purchased, who knows when, for a completely different project. This pattern took exactly 50 grams of each colour. (So two more balls out of my stash :) )



And then to help my numbers, I sold some more yarn. So my yarn in is lower than my yarn out. Can I keep it that way until the San Diego Yarn Crawl?

Photographic Evidence

I promised photos a while ago and here they are. Although I have pictures of only three projects as I need to employ the services of my husband to take a photo of the shawl.

I am going to do this in order of finishing. First off the WIP list were these mittens.



I have had the pattern - Fiesta Mittens by Lucy Neatby for quite a while and even bought yarn for them on last year's San Diego Yarn Crawl. But like all good plans, I changed my mind. The white yarn - Koigu Premium Merino - was purchased for this project but the blue yarn - Jawoll Magic by Lang Yarns was left over from the socks shown here. The other yarn I did buy for this project, I swapped with a friend. So I don't have to think what to make with it now it had not been used for its original purpose. (Yes, I do know that I have to think about the yarn I got in the swap.)



I did not like the patterning on the thumbs in the original pattern so I changed their position and knitted them in one colour.

Next off the needles was a soft toy. The pattern was the very first thing I queued on Ravelry. I don't know why I queued it or why I made it but I like it and maybe a child will play with it one day. It was in my queue for so long because I didn't feel inclined to buy yarn especially to make it. Going through my leftovers one day, it clicked that the yellow yarn could be used for this. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft Baby Sport and the black yarn and stuffing were also in my stash.



The third item to show off is the tea cosy for May. Here is where I showed it in pieces. And now it is finished. I worked the tie as an I-cord rather than crochet. Two reasons - 1) it is neater; 2) I needed something easy to work on at knit group.



At the end of May, I said the finishing of the skirt might be delayed because I had to knit some gifts. This was the case and the skirt hasn't been touched but I did finish a pair of gloves and a hat for a gift and I have nearly finished the second sock. Also I need to buy some beads so that I can start working on a shawl again that has been on hold for a very long time.

Sewing Sunday

Although I have not written about it for a couple of months, I have been sewing. Bags of course. Usually I find a pattern on the internet, follow the instructions and then improve them for the next time. This is definitely the case with these two bags.

The first bag I made just because but it has turned out to be just right for some binoculars which do not have a bag or case. The problem with this bag is the zipper. I think that the blog writer photographed the bag at various stages and then wrote the instructions. The width of the bag is the same as the actual length of the zipper so the zipper teeth are in the seam this is made worse with my bag as I used a chunky zip.



The second bag, although also made just because, I hoped would work as a project bag. There are a couple of mistakes that are entirely of my own making:- despite my trying not to do this, or so I thought, the pattern on each handle faces in opposite directions; I machined the turn up edge of the lining which then meant it didn't stretch which meant it didn't quite fit the bottom of the bag. I am trying to not let this bug me and just use the bag.

When I make this bag again, and I can see my husband shaking his head as he does not understand my need to make bags, I will make the handles a bit narrower, I will place the pockets lower in the bag, and I will make side seams on both sides of the bag so I can add things in both seams if I want. With this bag I added a D-ring on the outside and a swivel hook on the inside.



And in case you are wondering, the base of the bag is a table mat.

Nature Abhors a Vacuum

Life, um I mean my stash, took an exciting turn on Monday; I sold some yarn and my stash went down by 5 balls. But yesterday it went back up to the same number as I had to buy yarn for gift knitting. Oh well, I better get knitting.

We're All Looking For A Quick Fix, But........

I was browsing the new groups on Ravelry at the weekend and one of the groups I took a closer look at was Knit N’ Fit 3-week Challenge. The idea of the group to motivate each other in reaching personal health goals in eating and exercise.

The premise sounds good so I looked at the posts made by the group leader (who is in her twenties). She starts off with a post about putting on weight and the decision to get healthy, all good so far until she mentions one plan where she lost 15 pounds in three weeks, most of that in the first 14 days. What? This is not someone who is so morbidly obese that a slight reduction in calories will result in that sort of weight loss. How limited were her calories to lose almost a pound a day, (she said most of the 15 pounds was in 14 days) and how come she wasn't losing weight after that. My guess is that her body had adjusted to the reduced calorie load because it was too low.

I then looked at her other posts and amongst these she spoke about keeping carbohydrates in moderation and in one recipe there was much more protein than carbs. Once again someone has confused all carbs with bad carbs. ie refined carbohydrates are not good therefore all carbohydrates are bad. The majority of our calories should be coming form carbohydrates but that shouldn't be white bread and sugar. In the same way as fat is essential in our diet, it shouldn't be obtained through high calorific trans fat.

What is sad about this group and the host is that she means well and it is good to motivate others for fitness and health but not when your information is just plain wrong.