Purple Poncho

Here is my poncho, don't mind me looking a little rough. Like I said, I have mono. In fact, I'm going back home Sunday and withdrawing from two of my classes at University for the semester. It's made using Yarn Harlot's pattern. It's on her sidebar. I made a few changes, namely I used a much thicker wool (it's Bernat Solo in "Plum") which is heavier than worsted, but I didn't think to cast on less stitches. Therefore once I had finished the third ball I went back, unpicked the collar, then worked my way up through alternating rows of eyelets and plain knitting (with decreases in the plain knitting). This made the collar the right shape and size. Also, I used as much fringing as she did but I think I'm going to have to again go painstakingly through all of that and redo it so that I only have one string in each, cause it looks a little strange and excessive right now. I think anyway. All in all a very fun project, and it broke the monotony of the days since I can no longer go to school or basically live life :P

Thrummed Mittens

Look are these finished mittens? I think they are! The first one required fixing because I had too much fleece in the first few thrummed rows, so I cut open the loops and pulled some out. But yay, they're done!

Nice to know I can still call 'em

So I was right. I have a throat infection AND mono, which means that I may get some knitting done, between sleeping and trying desperately to write my essay since I can't go to class. However, reducing the thrum thickness by half has made the mitten look much more normal so my guess is that if I remove some of the extra fleece from the thrums in the lower half they'll stop looking like I have (as my Mother so kindly pointed out) a goiter on my hand.

This is what my thrummed mitt looks like on my hand. It's bizzare looking, which I think is because the first two or three thrummed rows were when I used thrums that were the width of the roving (pencil thickness) doubled over. The top few rows, where the mitten looks more normal, are halved in thickness. I wonder if this is fixable without ripping back. Because I tell you, I ripped back on this mitten through thrum already and I do not care to do it again.

Here's the wool for my thrummed mittens. It's a little more intense a blue than the picture shows. Underneath is an IKEA catalogue. Oh how I miss my IKEA... 

I never learn...

So I haven't knit anything on my current projects...so I felt it was about time to pick up another. They're thrummed mittens! I figured they'd be perfect for those icy cold winters here in Northern Ontario. Contrary to popular belief we actually do have four seasons here: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction. In Thunder Bay Almost Winter and Construction coincide, since we've had a particularly warm Almost Winter with mostly rain instead of snow. I am confident that we will average in the -20's (Celsius) like we do every year, and I will appreciate my mittens.

Yes, yes I am behind...

I haven't touched my knitting in over a week, which is horrendous. In my defense, I need to work on my Dad's quilt (for Christmas) and my Mom's placemats (for Christmas) before I can think of what I want to do for myself. I also have a 2500 word essay due next Friday on strain markers in rocks for Structural Geology, and I think I'm getting either mono or strep.

Loverly.