Thames Street Mittens

These cozy textured mittens are just the thing to show off that single skein of gorgeous variegated worsted weight wool that you just couldn’t resist at your yarn shop. The pattern motif, reminiscent of those quirky cobblestones, is created with a repeat of just one stitch that’s easy to master. Depending on your color choice, they could be a great gift for ladies or gentlemen. The mittens have a ribbed cuff and a gusset thumb, and the fingertips follow the asymmetry of your digits. 

Yarn: I used less than one skein of Mountain Colors' River Twist in a colorway called "Rock Creek." Just about any worsted weight natural fiber will probably work, keeping in mind that your fingers want to be spoiled with softness.

Needles: The cuff is knitted on US # 3 DPNs, the rest of the mittens on US # 5 DPNs. They could easily be adapted for magic loop or two circs.

Pattern: Available for $2 on Ravelry! (Buy with one click right here.)

Revive

A few months have gone by since I declared this blog dead. By far, it is not the longest amount of time that was allowed to pass in between postings. I suppose there's some irony there.

A lot has happened in my life since then, and a lot of plans have shifted. My new plan for the next few years involves moving overseas, as the Navy sends B to Japan for a year and a half. The move will happen in February. As opposed to my former plan, which was going to slash my knitting time to, well, none, the new plan is pretty likely to leave me both under- or unemployed as well as home alone for weeks on end. Therefore, knitting time galore.

Because of the expected lack of employment, I am thinking ambitiously about designing patterns and selling them through Ravelry to fill some of that income gap. Animal friends, socks, other things here and there. I have a couple of things in various stages of development already.

With that in the works, here's what I'm thinking as far as the blog goes. I still feel the same way about how Ravelry fulfills a lot of the purpose this blog used to have for me, and therefore I don't see myself bringing it back in its original sense. But I think there is some potential content pertaining to the design process, ideas, challenges, lessons learned - that sort of thing. For designing? Ravelry seems great to capture the outcome, but lacking as far as the process goes.

So? I suppose this means I'm back. I think I'll do some trimming and remodeling around here in my digital space. Time for a makeover.

Permanent UFO

Anybody still check to see if I post updates here? It's been a few days shy of a year since the last time I posted. It's not news to say that this blog has been basically abandoned. Well, now I'm making it official.

***For the foreseeable future, I have no plans to continue this blog.***


I'm not taking it offline, since I have several free patterns available here, with links from Knitting Pattern Central and other places, and I still get considerable traffic because of them. I'll even keep moderating comments and responding to any emails sent in regards to content. I won't, however, be writing new posts; and the biggest difference is that I'm going to quit feeling guilty about this negligence.

Quite frankly, I think the reason things got slack around here is Ravelry. I don't mean to disrespect Ravelry, because I think it's one of the greatest things to happen to knitting... well, since cables were invented. Looking back on it, though, it was approximately when I became a member that my blogging frequency began to collapse. It makes sense. I mean, probably the biggest reason I started the Chronicles here was to document my knitting for my own purposes. That plus a little bit of showing off, and sharing an occasional pattern with the world. Ravelry makes all that available plus so much more, and in such a more organized and useable fashion than the basic blog format. The blog became a redundant formality and didn't have much new content to offer. I go through cycles of varying degrees of diligence on Ravelry but I do try not to let my completed projects get too far behind. So if you really want to keep up with my knitting endeavors, you can find me there: my username is Caramcb. If you send me a message I will probably even friend you.


*******Edited on 11/6/11: content deleted. I wrote about a big upheaval that was coming in my life, but things changed and it no longer applies. Because of the nature of this event, it is sort of awkward for me to keep the announcement thereof as a post on this blog. It just isn't the place for rehashing all of that.

Thanks to everyone for reading. Happy knitting to all.
~Cara

Stitches West 2010

I have several posts' worth of catch-up to do, covering the last couple of months.

First, behold my haul from Stitches West 2010!

So, what have we got here... A wooden shawl pin, a drop spindle (!!), a sock needle holder, 3 buttons, a beaded stitch marker. Two balls of Jojoland Melody and a skein of Cascade Heritage for some Endpaper Mitts. Two skeins of Miss Babs superwash sock yarn - one for me and one for B. Some Abstract Fiber Mighty Sock that my mom bought for some socks she's commissioned (even though she knits, too). One skein of Wabi Sabi Lush Lace that will make one Citron shawl and potentially a second shawl, pattern T.B.D. A whole mess of Mission Falls 136 for a colorwork sweater vest I'm planning. And two lovely bunches of "top" (apparently -- I would have called it roving, but what do I know about fiber?) so that I can try out that new spindle. More on that later.

My mom and I had a blast! It's so fun to see so many knitterly artists congregated in one place, talking yarn and showing off the wonderful lovely creations they've made. (Yes it's 77 degrees inside the convention center, but dangit, I'm wearing my Aran sweater and wool socks!!)

(Yes, Stitches was 3 weeks ago. Yes, I know my blog habits are atrocious.)

Pomaire Market Bag

Pattern: Lean to the Left Bag, by Kate D'Ettore

Yarn: Araucania Pomaire Multy (cotton) - exactly 1 skein

I knitted this as part of Ravelympics 2010 "Bag Jump" event. It was a quick and easy project, at just 3 days of Olympics-watching-time. And it's hard to argue the appeal of the "green" produce/market bag, especially in a gorgeous yarn like this one. I just may have a new go-to project for last minute gift knitting.

This was also a stash-busting project. I bought the skein of Pomaire back in Jacksonville, if I remember correctly. I had no plans for the yarn, it just struck me in that way that special yarn does.

The only change I made was making it a little smaller (since I only had a single skein of the yarn in my stash), and making two shorter handles instead of one long strap. The pattern calls for afghan crochet for the handles, which was the first time I've used this technique. I enjoy the resulting fabric, it seems to be nice and strong, and looks neat as well.