Not Your Normal Thursday

My apologies for not sharing Knit Group stories with you today.   Mind you,  I was MIA last week too so this makes two weeks in a row.  I sense withdrawal symptoms amongst my readers.   Last week  it was the weather/flu combo that  kept me away.  This week, my absence  is for more exciting reasons.   I am off to Montreal for a weekend.

Sis, I and Baby Sis are going to hop on a train and head to Montreal to visit Baby Sis's daughter, my niece.   Last January, she took a job transfer to Montreal and is now a proud and happy  Montrealer with a horrific accent to her French. 

Month's end is Sunday.  I will still be in Montreal.  I know you are wondering if my goal of having Hippie Blue finished has been  accomplished.  Bets anyone? 

The answer is almost.  Although  tradition  has it that close only counts in horseshoes and  hand grenades, I am  happy with my progress.  The trip  to sleeve island was done on a speed boat this time.  I knit sleeve number one on a circular needle, simply pulling out the excess cable as the sleeve narrowed.  Much faster than knitting it with double points.  Sleeve number one is done

 

 and number two has been started.

This sweater looks lovely.  I am very happy with it.  With bust darts, waist shaping and hip room, it has a beautiful shape.  Let's hope it is the correct fit.  I see this niece on December 13 for our family Christmas get together and the sweater will be presented then.  Fingers crossed.  Unless knitting of course.  

Storm Productivity

It has been a long time since I have had  as high a knitting productivity level as I had last week.  It seems that stormy weather can greatly heighten my  knitting output.  In addition to the two and a half hats I mentioned in yesterday 's post, I also knit two scarves.

Washed out colour due to no flash.

 

Machine knit them,  mind you.  But machine knitting, for me at least, happens so infrequently that I begin from the beginning each time I use the machine.  Remind me again how  I cast on/ short row/ create lace.

 Last week, I decided to resurrect my machine and spend a couple of stormy afternoons using  some stash yarn and knitting  a few scarves. I had managed to acquire several patterns for machine knit scarves and wanted to try them out. In the end, I discarded all the new patterns as being too much work. I can't see the point of fussing for hours/days with a machine knit piece.    Isn't it the object of machine knitting  to be able to complete pieces faster  and with less frustration than hand knitting? 

Instead I returned to a lace, scarf pattern that I have knit previously.

 

 It is easy and fast.  I knit two of them last week with each one taking  about an hour to knit.  I made one slightly wider and experimented with a different bind off.  That new bind off  isn't as nice as it could be,  so that one is mine.  The other one, narrower but more perfectly knit,  will be gifted.  I know just the red head to wear this colour. 

Fun For $2.

A knitter can only stand so much  same same.  Last week during the storm and the flu, I took a break from knitting  the Blue Hippie and turned my attention instead to hats. Inspiration for this switch, came from its usual source - ravelry  - where I came across this $2.00 pattern  from CHICknits. 

Why it is called the H2O Hat, I do not know.  I think I would have called it the One Hour hat.  Or the Pie Hat, as in easy-as-pie.  Knit with either bulky yarn or three stands of KW held together and only 23 rows,  it knits up fast!  

Waiting for the storm to pass and the headache to subside, I knit two hats and started a third.

The first two are knit with three stands of bits & bobs of stash stuff  held together while the one on the needles is Knitca Wool Slub.  Such fun.  While the pattern calls for knitting this flat and sewing a seam up the back, I couldn't  see the point of that.  Mine are knit in the round.  Even more fun.

My goal now is to have a box full of these in various colour combinations to take to the family Chirstmas get together and let the young ladies go at it.