DROPs and Mittens

The days are just flying by lately. This fall has been one of the busiest I can remember, so forgive me if posting is a little unpredictable. I'm down to the final few weeks of student teaching, so hopefully I can stay strong and get everything done and then things will calm down a bit.

This fall has also been a strange one weather wise - two weekends so far in October with 80 degree temperatures?! It sure isn't helping me keep on track with the beautiful Drops Jacket. So far I've finished the back and one front and I'm about half way with the second front piece.



This was supposed to be my quick, easy knit to keep me warm. Now, since the air is keeping me warm all by itself, I've gotten a bit lazy.


I will finish this beauty, but it might take a blast of cold air to get me back on track...


In other news, I got my partner for the Mitten Exchange! I'm super excited about this swap and my partner's color preferences and the prospect for a very nice package in the near future. So excited, that I cast on pretty much immediately and quite a bit to show for it.




This is mitten number one (of course), using the Mittens from Lapland pattern from Folk Mittens by Marcia Lewandowski (a beautiful book if you're looking for interesting mittens). I'm using Cascade 220 and size 2 DPNs, but it's turning out to be quick, pretty easy, and so interesting because the color patterns change so frequently. The only thing that is slowing me down a bit are the rounds where all three colors are used. I haven't figured out an efficient way to hold all three yarns yet. Any suggestions?

And to my Mitten Pal - I'm so glad you're as excited about this project as I am and that I could oblige with the color choices! That's so cool that we have things in common - I hope a lot of us in the swap will make some friends! Anyway, I would have to say my favorite artist is Cezanne because of all the advances he made for modern art, but I'm also a pretty big fan of Andy Warhol, Edward Hopper, Neil Jenney, and Dana Schutz. Feel free to email me if you have anymore questions!

A Day Off

Today's Columbus Day for those in the U.S., so I celebrated by having a day off of school, sleeping in, watching some trashy court shows on TV, knitting, eating a warm lunch for once, reading, knitting, and cleaning (not much progress with the cleaning, so I'll spare you the photos from it).



The Easy Flame Lace Scarf is coming along, though to you it doesn't look much different than before. I promise it's longer. I'm loving the pattern and the yarn (Laceweight Malabrigo) since the pattern is ridiculously easy and yarn feels like butter, but the Susan Bates metal needles I'm using are holding me back. After awhile of knitting it all just feels tight and metallic - yuck. I'm not sure why this happens after knitting for some time (maybe I just don't notice it at first?), but I'm taking some breaks and trying to get through it.



And I love this stuff so much that I bought another couple of skeins. I'm not sure yet if I'll make more Easy Flames or not, but they sure are pretty to look at, no?

Too Hot to Knit

While it seems like fall has come to the rest of the country, the Midwest is still definitely in summer. I suppose that gives me some time to finish up the jacket, but the piles of wool are just too much right now.

I found this instead:











Have a great rest of the weekend!

Easy Peasy

Tuesday and Wednesday were busy and hard. A bad day followed by a busy day of picking up the pieces. Nothing too dramatic or interesting, but they didn't leave any room for blogging or even knitting (and I think I'm pretty good at finding the spare moment to knit!).

But today was better. School is going well and I'm really excited about what is happening and what will happen.

The Easy Flame Scarf is exciting as well:



I'm loving the pattern and just how easy it really is, and the laceweight Malabrigo is amazing, but these tiny needles and yarn sure are making this thing last awhile. I can't wait for it to be done because I know it'll be beautiful, but the Drops jacket is carrying me away with it's quickness.

The days are getting shorter all the time, but this weekend promises to almost set a record for high temperatures, so I'll try to stick with the scarf for now. A nice little scarf is much better quasi summer knitting than a huge pile of chunky yarn anyway. Even if I could finish that sucker in a couple of hours if I tried. I'll try not to think about it as I toil away.

Knit Faster, Fall is Coming

Today was just one of those days. It rained all night, was still dark and cloudy when I left for work, and was cold enough that I felt unprepared in my little fine gauge store bought cardigan (that secretly, or not so secretly is a little too small for me now). Just one of those days.

What's the remedy? The jacket that's sweeping blogland, finally reaching home sweet home right here. That's right, the Drops jacket!


I finished the whole back today, which is awesome and definitely a bit of a boost. Who says knitting has to take forever?



I'm sorry about the horrible pictures. The shorter days and generally rainy-ness along with a camera shy sweater make for frustrating photo shoots. I ordered the "true navy" colorway of Laines du Nord Soft Light, but this is the blackest navy I have ever seen. Definitely much darker than the picture online. Not a huge deal as I think I look okay in black (maybe even better than yellow, wink wink), just not what I was expecting.

The sweater might be done by the end of the week, which would rock my socks and keep me prepared for the next cold front, so hopefully I'll have some better photos soon. Cross your fingers!