Pattern: Nabbed from the Easy Ripple Afghan
Yarn: Lots of leftovers that I wanted to use up, plus a few colors (teal, yellow, purple) to brighten it up a bit
Hook size: H/5.0mm
Time to finish: Just under two months, amazing!

This pattern lives up to its name! I cruised to a quick and easy finish on my stripey ripple blanket last week during a cold spell. There has been snow, snow and more snow around here and just when I thought things were warning up, it DUMPED again on Saturday night.* It has been a great winter, and while I know I want things to warm up and get ready for spring, I would be happy spending a few more weekends wrapped up in my cozy blanket on the couch.

I have caught the crochet bug, and I'm even learning how to read patterns now. Knitting will always be number one for me, but crochet is pretty addictive as well. Things are only going up from here!

*Although it is possible that my idea of a dumping has changed just a bit.

Posted by Molly at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been thinking about this month's (and next) theme, FIRE, for a while now. I'm afraid of fire in a big way (thanks mom, for that story about your best friend burning the house down with the easy bake oven), so imagine my joy when I came to Japan and found a ceramic gas heater (read: open flame) in my apartment. It always made me nervous, but I continued to use it, cautiously, for three years. After setting fire to my pajamas one fateful morning last February, I decided enough was enough, and this year I hardly use it at all. This means lots of hot water bottles, blankets, layered clothing and hot tea, but living without a heater is not so bad. I am helping the environment, I remind myself, when it gets teeth-chatteringly cold. Sometimes I turn it on when guests come over, because most of my friends think I am crazy for living at such freezing temperatures. Plus, it is not as scary when someone else is around.

I'm not a candle person or a campfire-type and I can't even use a lighter, but I LOVE the colors for these two months. And despite my lack of posting lately, I have been doing a lot of knitting on projects both old and new. It's just that sometimes I can't bear to give up a cozy spot on the couch for the ice-cold spot on the floor near my computer. The good news is, this place is starting to warm up!

Posted by Molly at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I had this great idea that I would be able to finish a pair of fingerless gloves on my 10-day trip to Australia. It is particularly cold in my apartment these days and my hands often get so cold that I can't knit. Something had to be done, so I used the leftovers from some endpaper mitts to start a pair in a "simpler" herringbone pattern for myself. But turns out my gauge was slightly off. So I fiddled with some stitches and was all set. I did a little bit of knitting on the trip, but I kept feeling carsick or I wanted to enjoy the scenery. Then I forgot to increase for the thumb soon enough and, oh hey, something looks funky with the pattern in a few places. Maybe I did some bad math? This is not very uncommon in my knitting. Things always seem to be just slightly off! I'm not really sure worth it to do all the fiddling necessary to save these when I just need to keep my hands warm. I have to address the issue this weekend... to rip or not to rip? I'd better go fill my hot water bottle while I think about it.

It made my week when this picture arrived from my good friend and recipient of my first endpaper mitts (in the same colorway as above). They fit well and she loved them, yay! And even enough to get her coworker to take a picture of them for my blog (she's not even a knitter or a blogger of any kind). Talk about friendship!

Speaking of friends, here is some birthday yarn from my pal on this side of the world. It's Nature Spun worsted that I want to use for Bird in the Hand Mittens, one of these days. Thanks, Lauren!!

That's my random update for tonight. It's been a long time coming and not much to it. But I'm at the start of a long weekend with nothing but time to relax and recoup from my busy start to the year. So maybe things will start picking up around here again.

Posted by Molly at 05:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)