Happy New Year and Woolly Wednesday too!

Ah, the calendar nearly caught me out! Between Christmas and New Year I always lose track of what day it is, so on Monday I was thinking when is the first Wednesday of January only to look up at the calendar and realise it was the 1st. So it's a very Happy New Year Woolly Wednesday today. I wish everyone a wonderful year full of woolly inspiration and adventures.

So since my last WW post I was knitting some little Harry Potter character dolls for my daughter for Christmas and am pleased to show you the finished dolls which were my aim - Harry, Ron and Hermione. I have since Christmas cast on for Hagrid, and Dumbledore is planned, Dobby ... you get the picture - I could be knitting these on and off for a while!

 

I finished these around the 19th/20th December so was looking for something else to knit. Recently I've found on cold days that my hands get a little cold when knitting or crocheting so I had an idea brewing about some fingerless mitts to wear when knitting. I have worn handwarmers before but they slip and move and made the palms of my hand too warm. So I pondered and even got a pencil and paper out to sketch an idea.

So the idea was to knit some very close fitting fingerless mitts, with a short finger bit for the base of my fingers, a gusset for my thumb and casting off to have a "hole" on the palm of my hand.

I cast on from the cuff, and tried them on as I went along to check they were close fitting so they wouldn't move about too much whilst knitting. Knit in the round until the gusset for the thumb, rejoined in the round and then cast off a number of stitches for the palm. Re-joined in the round for the base of the fingers and then seperated the stitches and knit each finger bit in the round.

Sound weird? Probably look a bit odd too, but they absolutely fitted the inspiration! They fit perfectly, don't slip around and keep the parts of my hand that were cold warmer but without the palm of my hand getting too hot and potentially sweaty. Having the majority of the finger still uncovered and the palm uncovered means I can feel the yarn, the needles and the work in progress. Perfect!

These kept me busy to Christmas with everything else going on. I finished the 2nd one just after Christmas as I had a sudden urge to knit something else on Christmas Eve!

So Christmas Eve, no wrapping to be done, just time to sit and relax with a glass of mulled wine, I grabbed my project bag (which had the mitts in it) and decided I wanted to start something new. So I picked out my Rainbow yarn that I spun a few months ago - 1 ply of Masham rainbow dyed fibre, 1 ply of Tussah Silk rainbow dyed fibre. I totally love this yarn and have been desperate to knit with it. So I looked through some patterns I had saved and cast on a reasonably plain shawl/scarf with it - didn't want to go for anything with a pattern as it would have got lost in all the colour runs. Knitted on and off for a few days and here is the result.

It needs blocking which will fan out the sections, however I am contemplating just blocking the body and leaving the edges wavy as I like how they look. We shall see how it goes.

After a gap not spinning, and oh how I missed it, I have been spinning various shades of green that I started a while ago. These are for a Sheep Heid hat for my husband for Christmas. Yes I know it's late but he got an IOU wrapped up and knew it wasn't going to be ready. Something to look forward to . I have plied and wound some of the shades ready to cast on, it may even have been cast on by the time I click publish.

Other bits of spinning have been going on too, and more this week. These skeins I spun a little before Christmas, and they are now giftwrapped for a friends birthday today!

Lots more spinning and knitting for 2014. No resolutions as I don't make any, but I will say I shall be having fun with my wheels, needles, hooks and weaving tools over the next 12 months and look forward to sharing this space with you.

Have a wonderful 2014 x