I've been holding out on you

I've been knitting, just not showing. I thought it was about time, since this is, after all, a blog focused on knitting.

First up is
Gust

I love Anne's designs. Knitting this has almost been like an zen exercise. Peaceful and engaging at the same time. The yarn is Jade Saphire Mongolian Cashmere. Colorway is Caribbean Mist. I had forgotten that was the name of the colorway until I checked just now. Quite appropriate, don't you think? Size 4 U.S. needles, Crystal Palace, straights.

Here it is pinned out a bit.

Next up for show is what is, I hope, the last Clapotis I'll knit.

I love the pattern but there's a limit as to how many times I want to knit the same thing. This is the one that I knit as a help to my two friends who wanted me to show them how to knit the pattern.

Here is an art shot of the three of them at the beginning



Here is my finished project

The yarn is Blue Heron and it has a little metallic thread running through it. Here it is up close and personal. I'm not wild about the yarn. It's pretty but I prefer knitting with natural fibers. This Blue Heron is rayon. It's soft, though, and is going to be given to my sister in law who is sensitive to wool.

And last, my personal favorite. These are Kate Gilbert's Bird in Hand Mittens This was the first time I've knitted a braid. Also, I taught myself how to weave the floats while I knitted. I am very proud of that achievement. Here's proof of my new weaving abilities

You might notice that these mittens have no thumbs. I have a fear of knitting thumbs so I'm getting my courage up here. I wanted to go ahead and post about them, though because I plan on getting them in the mail immediately upon completion. They're going to lovely goddaughter LBelle in Boston.

I dearly wish that I had done a better job of hiding the waste yarn that the thumb stitches are on. Please excuse. I just wanted to get this up on the blog.

On a non knitting note, I went back to the doctor today for my ears. She poked a hole in each ear drum and drained some of the fluid. It did give me some relief but I'm still having a lot of pressure and now add to that the not so great having a hole poked in my ear drum.
I go back next week for extensive allergy testing and the possibility of having tubes put in my ears. There is the possibility of a surgery that I can't pronounce, let alone spell.

The doctor told me, in the nicest way, that I should have had tubes put in my ears when I was a child. Had that happened, I might not be suffering the hearing loss that I have now. I spent about ten minutes going from anger to feeling sorry for myself back to anger. I'm over it. Time to move on.