Creativity

These are a pair of mittens for my Nana's birthday this weekend. Now, they're special to me for three reasons:
1) They're for my Nana, from me and I made them.
2) They're Rowan Soft Lux, which is my current favourite yarn.
3) I made the pattern up myself.

Yes, I did italicise that on purpose. I can't say that it was all my own work (I took and modified a cable pattern from a book, and also, ahem, 'borrowed' the shaping from another pattern) but I still feel a certain sense of achievement in that it wasn't a straightforward working through of a pattern, and therefore I feel that I am allowed to say I made it up. Put it this way, it's the closest I'm going to get to designing something - I got the logic genes, my sister got the creative ones.

Anyway, here they are:


There are a couple of errors in there, but I'm afraid that they'll just have to add to the handmade charm of the gift. I'm sure Nana won't mind a dodgy cable when her fingers are toasty warm!

Why Howies rock

Enough said.

Stash Busting 2009

I have what's known as a stubborn streak. It doesn't come out all that often, but at the moment it has chosen its course and is not permitting the purchase of yarn (or even the visiting of yarn shops). This means that I'm going to actually knit up some of the yarn that I have. I've already cast on some gorgeous pink/purple Natural Dye Studio alpaca laceweight to make the Model 1 cardigan from Sandra magazine, and have earmarked some more of my stash for 'real' projects. By real, I mean actual garments that I can have use from. Don't misunderstand me, I like mittens and hats and socks as much as most knitters, but sometimes it's nice to know that you're making something that you'll get wear from, rather than a hat that will be worn three times this winter, only to be replaced by another creation next time it goes cold. With that in mind, my current vogue is for cardigans and jumpers that can be worn in real life, at work or at home.

The only problem at the moment is that while my stubborn streak is active, my knitting mojo is somewhat intermittent, so how likely it is that my stash is knitted before the stubborn streak gives in is as yet unknown!