Friday, July 10, 2009

Phew, it's done

Finished the tea cozy (felted, steeked, buttons and i-cord applied) and gave it to Mom for her birthday. She seems genuinely pleased. (I'll post a finished picture of it later.) It is still too large for her teapot, but does look nice, really. (Glad I felted it down!)

I had her try on the stranded sweater I had been making her, to prove to both of us that it was way too big. Yeah, by about 7". She does want it to be big, but it's ridiculously big. I unraveled it to the start of the stranding and will try again with size 9 needles, and see if I can still get gauge.

The other projects going on are
  • iPod cozy. This started out as a project for using up leftover sock yarn, and was to be a cover for purse-sized tissue packs. Then I needed a cozy for my new iPod, which was being protected by a cotton ankle sock. Finished it and it works great. (I still have another ball of that yarn and will make a tissue cozy for it. Unfortunately, Ravelry has no tissue cozies written for sock yarn!)
  • Birch from Rowan. I'm definitely getting on to the end, but still have more than 10 sections between stitch markers, so even though they repeats are getting faster as I have fewer stitches, it is not really racing to the end line. No matter; I've finally memorized the pattern and can do it anywhere. Still loving the Smoke-colored Cracksilk Haze.
  • Square for a love quilt. Lovely Witt passed away and we're making a love quilt/blanket for his partner. I struggled with it and forgot the wool at home (because I couldn't bear to think about it, I think) and bought a ball of blue-green Cascade 220 Superwash at a Portland yarn store. Found a neat heart-shaped cable pattern in a Melissa Leapman book, but the swatch is already too wide and I lost my place as to which line of the pattern I was on. *sigh*
In other news, I've worn my Swallowtail nearly every day, as despite the warmer-than-usual weather most days, the house is still a bit chilly, and Mom is averse to turning on the heat or making a small fire in her woodstove. I love that the alpaca is so light yet so warm.