Back from Battle

Well hello there. Anybody miss me? I feel as though I've missed two blog posts and I've never been away for that long before. I've been wrestling my demons with the usual result that I want to cut off contact with the world. But here I am, crawling out of my cave which is a good thing.

Of course I've been knitting, but progress seems slow. I've finished up one of the traveling socks.

I've got to get a daylight picture for you, because the diamond design is quite pretty and travels to a nice point on the foot. That might be difficult since we're well into winter weather here in London Ontario, with grey clouds either looming in the sky or being swept briskly along by strong winds. October extended summer with warm temperatures and sunny days, but November is getting us back for it.

My mother's Christmas present is all done.

These are based on Selbuvotter NHM #7, but I changed the cuff design and the thumb. I'm particularly pleased with the thumb because I just knit it up on the fly, basing it on what's on the cuff. It seems very elegant to me. Mom should be well pleased with these. The Selbuvotter design is very dramatic in white and black.

I've also finished up one of Dad's gloves for Christmas:

This is Annemor #7 from Selbuvotter. I know it's supposed to be a reindeer, but doesn't that look like a Canadian moose on the hand? Love it!

My dad used to go moose hunting every fall when I was a kid. Mostly he brought back squirrels and grouse, but I know he had a soft spot for the moose. I think he went mostly to have an excuse to hang out with his buddies in the woods.

When I mentioned I might make him gloves for Christmas, my Dad noted that mittens would be easier so of course I had to do gloves. The pattern was wonky when it came to the fingers so I made it up. The pinky needs about 5 more stitches than what is called for in the pattern. Three I increased on the back of the hand, and the other two I cast on in addition to the two the pattern calls for. It doesn't really matter so much because you'd never notice it when the glove is on. The main idea is to continue the palm pattern up into the fingers, and have an even number of stitches between the front and back.

I really like how my parent's mitts and gloves are similar yet different. They belong together. Finally, I got all three from two skeins of Shelridge Farms soft touch. Whoop!

Obviously fighting my demons hasn't curbed my enthusiasm for knitting. Here's to you demons!