Finally January!

So after being around plus 10*C for the earlier part of the week and being under a heavy rainfall warning, yesterday it snowed and today it is -17*C, -30*C with the wind chill, and it finally feels like January!

Kindly Sheep Mittens!

A project I finished awhile ago but haven't posted about yet, mostly because I haven't gotten any photos of them yet today, but it is snowing big, fat, fluffy snow today, so walking home through it I decided it was a good day to finally get some pictures of these mittens.

A view from my balcony this afternoon (really only 1/2 the snow shows up in this picture...):

So the mittens.

These are from a great pattern from Knitty (Fall 2009) that was written for a dk weight handspun, but the yarn I fell in love with for them is Fresco by Classic Elite, it's a fingering weight wool, alpaca, angora blend that is so soft!

The pattern is for wrist warmers and a cropped mitten that then hooks onto the wrist warmers and both have the same cable pattern.

I modified them a bit, adding a repeat to the cable motif on both the mittens and the wrist warmers to make them longer because of gauge issues.

I love them so much, the double layering means that your hands stay really warm, although there's still just a single layer at the top so I've been scheming about how to make that better.

Also I'm having some problems with the hooks, especially on the back of the hand staying hooked, I'm contemplating whether to move them further down the cuff (and out of line with the ones on the palm side) or tighten the hooks up with pliers. Leaning towards the pliers at this point because it requires less effort...

I also wish that I had picked a slightly lighter colour for the mitt part because in the dark yarn the cable pattern gets mostly lost, it's there, but the effect is very subtle, whereas on the wrist warmers the cable pattern stands out and is really pretty.

I apologize for the blurry pictures, but the camera refused to focus too well very quickly and the longer I continued trying the same shot the more the pictures became like this:

Something wrong with the camera? I think so!

Anyways, since I finished those not much knitting going on here, been busy with the back to school, new job, messy apartment things.

I've tried a couple socks, one cobbled together from leftovers and the 'More Sensational Socks' book and another that I'm trying to design, but all efforts so far have been failures which kind of makes trying again less appealing.

But I do have a sweater picked out for the Knitting Olympics, so I'm just waiting to get started on that! (should swatch first, maybe I'll go do that!)

Now Available for Sale!!

The Pink Promise Socks are now available for sale on Ravelry, I am so excited!!

If you want to knit a cute pair of socks and support a great cause you can get your very own copy of the pattern by clicking on this button right here:

Pink Promise Socks finished!

The Pink Promise socks have been finished and will hopefully be up for sale in the next little while.

All proceeds from this pattern will go to benefit the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

This is a toe-up sock pattern featuring ribbon detailing in cables up the sides and on the heel flap. It features a short row toe, a toe-up heel flap with gusset and a lace ribbon detail around the ankle.

Hopefully this works and the pattern will be available here shortly. If not, it will be available through Ravelry as soon as I get my designer pattern store working.

Designing

So, it's been awhile. I'm not going to bother updating you on everything that's happened since I last posted since I promised I would do that last time and never got to it.

I am posting here though for a specific reason. I'm in the process of designing a pair of socks. I was driven to do this thanks to the Sock Knitter's Anonymous group on Ravelry. They have a monthly challenge that I've been joining in on for a while and this month's challenge is a man's sock, a holiday stocking, a design by Jeannie Cartmel or Socks for a Cause.

Now I haven't mentioned this here before but I come from a family that's been fairly affected by breast cancer. Both of my grandmothers have had it in the past and one is currently undergoing treatment for a recurrence.

So I thought, what better to knit than a sock that benefits breast cancer, both for the SKA challenge and since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But I'd already knit a couple of the breast cancer supporting socks out there and the rest don't really appeal to me, so I've dove in and I am currently designing a pair of socks!

That's what I have so far, and I do have the rest of the pattern written out and tested on a mini prototype sock, but I just want to get past the heel flap before I send it out to test knitters.

Thanks to some helpful suggestions on Ravelry I've decided to name them Pink Promise Socks.

As soon as I get the pattern finished and the test knitting done, I'm going to be posting it for sale here and hopefully on Ravelry and all the proceeds from the Pink Promise Socks will be going to support the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, so stay tuned!