46,980 Stitches + 135 cast on + 135 bind off stitches

Yikes!!!

This is the first time I've ever counted the stitches in something I've made, and I don't think I'll do it again...and certainly not before I begin a project. I was just curious.

This is my second Mountain Colors throw in the Northern Lights colorway. I gave the first to older daughter when Elizabeth was born five weeks early, but this one is for me! I love it. It's made of five different fibers in the colorway, alternating four rows of each one with four rows of mohair. It takes a long time to knit, but this one didn't take me as long as the last one did.

THIS time I used some common sense. Before I started the first throw, I had gotten a cool hint from another knitter: to keep a ball of yarn from rolling around, put it in an empty cube box of tissue. Problem solved! So since one is good, six must be even better. I put each of the six balls of yarn (one of the fibers is used double) in its own cube. Big mistake! The throw looked like an octopus missing two limbs and all the yarns kept twisting around each other, annoying me no end.

Do NOT try this at home!

The Short-Attention Span Knitter

That would be me. For awhile, I've been knitting socks, scarves, a chicken and other mostly quick projects. This is my latest:

Surprise! It's a scarf!

I made it using Rowan Cocoon yarn, emerald color. I love, love, love this yarn. It's heavier than worsted weight so I used a size 10.5 needle. It took three skeins, and it has ribbing, seed and garter stitches in it.

The reason it took so little time to knit this (just over a week-and that's a little time for me) is that the lace project and the loopy Shaun the Sheep tea cozy are in time out. The lace project has been very, very bad and may be in time out for a very, very long time. Shaun the sheep is just annoying me a bit, so he may come out of time out sooner. We'll see...

So now I have started the second of my Mountain Colors throw. I made the previous one and gave it to older daughter, but this one is for ME!

If It Happens and I Don't Blog About It

did it really happen?

And another question, first posed (to my knowledge) by Barb Cooper's husband, when he saw the new swift she had bought in order to roll her yarn into balls: Why doesn't yarn come in balls to begin with?

Good question. Does anyone know the answer? I just spent a fair amount of time winding Mountain Colors yarns into balls in order to begin knitting a throw. I'm not complaining or whining. I'm fortunate in that I own a ball winder and swift (birthday gifts). It just seems as if it would be a logical thing for yarn companies to sell the yarn in balls, ready for knitters to use, but very often they don't. I'll ask the owner of my LYS at tonight's knit night and report back if she knows the answer.

This is the second throw I've made from these gorgeous yarns. The first I gave to older daughter for her to use in the middle of the nights when she is up with her new daughter, born five weeks early in October.

This one is for me!

Second Ruana

When I knit older daughter's ruana, I ran out of mohair at the very end of it (Shh...don't tell hokgardner) and had to get creative to finish it because the yarn color had been discontinued. The LYS shop owner called around to local shops and checked out her internet sources but couldn't find any more of the color. In spite of that problem, the ruana turned out just fine, and apparently older daughter didn't notice anything unusual about it. (Shh.........)

I have the same amount of yarn this time, since I bought all the yarn for both ruanas many, many months ago. In order to solve the problem before it occurs, I am randomly knitting in mohair I have left from the Mountain Colors mixed fiber throw I made recently. The colorway is much closer than it appears to be in this photo, and I hope it will work out ok.

But if the combination does look sort of odd, I'll do what my knitting guru always suggests and call it a "design element."

Finished!

Finally, but it IS late. This is a ruana I knit for older daughter. It was supposed to be finished before baby E was born, but she decided to arrive five weeks early. It seemed to me to be the perfect garment for someone who is and then is not pregnant. It is made from three skeins of Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn (wool) and four skeins of Filatura Di Crosa yarn (mostly mohair). It is really, really easy to make - just three panels, two with cables on them. I think it could have an almost unlimited range of options: more cables, no cables, inserts of different lace patterns. The two front panels are kept on holders, then joined on one needle to knit the back directly from the live stitches. No sewing needed. It did require that I learn a new way to repair mistakes, and that was a plus also.

H says that it is perfect for Austin winters. So I put this in the success column. :-)

Another F O

Last year I bought a Mountain Colors Mixed Fibers Throw kit, and finally, just before I went to Austin, I finished it. It sort of "hibernated" during the summer months. It was just too heavy and warm and fuzzy for knitting during Georgia's summer heat and humidity, air-conditioning not withstanding.

When I realized that I was going to Austin a month earlier than I had expected because Elizabeth had been born early, I tried to think of a frivolous but luxurious gift for older daughter. Having her baby five weeks early was stressful for her and I wanted to give her something she wouldn't have expected. I wracked my brain as I knitted away finishing this throw. And then I thought, "Duh. Why not the throw itself?" It's made of all sorts of textures of wool and mohair and it is wonderfully soft. The colorway is called Northern Lights and it's beautiful. (The colors don't really show up well in the photos.)

Anyway, I carried it to Austin and gave it to H. She and Elizabeth can snuggle into it during cold winter nights when Elizabeth wants to be awake to eat or to just hang out with her mom.

And now I'm going to order another kit to make one for me!