a thousand knit objects

The socks I mentioned a while back are still “on the needles” but I did finish the first sock before the color repeat. I know you’ve been losing sleep over that.

I haven’t been posting pictures of the things I have completed, but I’ve been working. In April I picked up a copy of One-Skein Wonders with a birthday giftcard to Amazon.com (thanks, Brother!) and after a trip to the yarn store (thanks, Mom!) I started one-skein-wondering. Are you ready?

First we have a bookmark, my first completed laceweight project on size zero needles, sent to my literary agent when I had to mail her a copy of The Guardian.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is a shawl knit on size 300000 needles (er, I think 19s; it felt like knitting with hot dogs) which the description in the book claims “are worn tied around the waist by dancers in Wisconsin.” Or something like that. I am neither a dancer nor a Wisconsonian, but if any readers are, please feel free to chime in.

This is going into the “donate” pile because it will work as a shawl OR a scarf…

and it will also work wrapped around the head if the recipient doesn’t have a hat. Or doesn’t have a warm enough hat. Boston. Winter. Homeless. Not a nice combination. I made this with Noro Iro, a yarn which inexplicably gave me a headache.

Next up we have two Noro Silk Garden projects which caused me to fall absolutely in love with Silk Garden. (And I have one skein of it left!) First is one mentioned as the designer’s “favorite hat” (sorry, I haven’t looked up whose) and it’s pretty neat. Ignore my daughter’s eyeroll as she models for me. She’s gotten used to putting down her book and trudging downstairs when I call, “Kiddo2, I need to borrow your head!”

It has these cute little topknots too. Again, this is for the donate pile. I only hope it will be warm enough.

Second hat is a mock cable pattern and required me to make my first four attempts at doing a “french knot” and the discovery of four different failure modes for french knots. Fortunately I tried a fifth time, and then I “got” it.

Again for the donate pile. Kiddo#3 wanted a chance to model it too, but since it’s a woman’s hat, he found a stand-in:

And finally, this one’s for me. The beading isn’t the best, but it looks nice when it’s actually on.

Aurora Kidsilk Haze in cream, with white and silver beads, done on size 10 needles. It’s a very simple pattern (yarnover at the ends, garter stitch in between) and it worked up pretty nicely. The yarn feels like knitting with a cloud. And it looks cute.