A Knitting Weekend

It's been mighty cold outside, so I stayed in and did some hardcore knitting this weekend. Finished up the In The Pines Headband that I got off of the December 12th posting on of_Troy's blog. This was an easy knit and pretty fast, since I just carried the floats and didn't twist them in. When I tried twisting them in, they showed, so I redid it just carrying the floats. The inside of the headband is lined with ribbing that hides the floats, so the headband is really three layers thick. Front, floats, and ribbing. The green is remnants of Knit Picks Swish Superwash in Dublin and the rest is Lion Band Wool Ease.

I was going to give this as part of a gift, but it might be a bit tight for the recipient and I love it, so I am keeping it. It works as an earwarmer for me and also as a sort of cowl neck piece in place of a scarf.

So since I am not going to part with this, I decided to do another gift instead. The first time I saw these in the Holiday 2006 Interweave Knits Gifts, I knew I had to make them. So I hunted around in the stash and found colors I liked together. I used Knit Picks Andean Silk in Hollyberry for color A, the main color, Wool of the Andes in Hyacinth for color B, the blue stripes, and Andean Silk in Sangria for color C, the lighter color on the hand section.

This isn't stranded colorwork, it uses a slip stitch pattern, so I was only working with one color per row. Very fast and easy. I did the first one Saturday during the playoffs and got through most of the other one Sunday. I really like them and I will part with them...but I may just have to do another pair right off for myself. I did them 9 inches long per the pattern before starting the last striping and they are pretty long. If I do a pair for me, I may make them a tad shorter. Even with them long, at least you still have the use of your fingers if you need them. For instance, if you need to whip out a map and turn the pages.

Which I may be doing soon. Corey is going to spend two weeks in Europe soon on two separate business trips. He was thinking about flying back and forth for the three days inbetween, so he would be able to go into his office for a couple of days, but that's just nuts, even if he does have first class upgrades. So it looks like I may be flying out to spend a long weekend with him in either Germany or London. I think we are leaning towards London even though we've already been there because we have friends there we'd like to touch base with.

Hmmph. Wonder if I can get that Schaefer Miss Priss knitted up into a scarf before then.....