FO: Hitchhiker, take two

I made another hitchiker scarf.  The first one I had gifted.  I quite liked making it.  It's fairy mindless, it's garter stitch, and it shows of wildly handpainted yarns quite nicely.

Like this skein of Wollmeise that I got in a swap.

The color was "Aspen Tree".  I loved it because it was COLORFUL, but couldn't really think of too much to do with it as I felt it was a bit busy.  Except...

It's glorious, this second hitchhiker scarf.  Wollmeise is sturdy stuff, so wearing this on a trail was no thing at all.  Plus, when I went to the pub at night, I had some class little accessory to brighten things up.

 I used up the entire skein, and it is plenty long.  It can drape, it can wrap, it can just be an awesome scarf-shawl and keep me warm, I can flip the end around and make a bandanna.  The asymmetry is fun to play with and I've worn this quite a lot already.  It's too bad- I love knitting lacy fancy shawls, but they never get any use as I feel they are too delicate or fussy to actually wear.  The big boring plain knits I wear all the time.

  Also....there's a fair bit of navy blue in there, which means I can wear this with pretty much anything in my wardrobe.

FO: Scarf and gloves. Unmatched, naturally.

Once I had gotten all the gifties sent off in early December, something remarkable happened.

I stopped knitting.

Really!  I've had no motivation or inspiration at all.  It's weird, but it's cold enough out so that I think it will hit me again any day now.  I mean, I have a few projects on the needles, but I'm chipping away at them so slowly that I can't tell if I'm progressing at all.

Soon.

I did finish two smallish projects though.

First up, a luxury gift.  Tiny they might be, but made out of the softest cashmere.

I had two skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmere in my stash forever.  The really lovely yarns tend to stick around for a while- I'll knit with all Cascade 220 down to scraps with no complaints, but I have a really hard time deciding on projects with the good stuff.  Since this yarn only has a miserable 49 yards in a skein, I was having a hard time choosing.  The only thing to make that small yardage-wise would be a hat for a baby, and I didn't know anyone currently expecting who wouldn't throw it in the washer-dryer without blinking.

Another option?  A really simple pair of fingerless gloves.  Not the most exciting thing in the world, but so soft and warm I almost kept them for myself.  

The pattern (and you barely need one) is from the Knitbot Essentials book.  They are called "70 yard mitts", but I made mine a bit longer and used every last bit of 98 yards on mine, and the police haven't showed up at my door yet.

Another gift:

I started a Hitchhiker scarf at knit night, and soon had used up an entire skein of Online Supersock.  This pattern was so simple, worked entirely in garter stitch, and everyone who saw me working on it could not believe that someone had created yarn that stripes so perfectly on its own.

It made for a perfect gift: it's a scarf, but a very unusual one, as it's asymmetrical.  I might just make some more of these if I ever get around to it. You can almost take a nap and not screw it up.

Oh, and just a bit of gloating as to what I got at a Christmas swap with my fab knitting group:

A skein of Wollmeise!  The lusted-after handpainted yarn from Germany.  I have no idea what I'll do with something this colorful, but I'm still in the stages of petting my precious.

Didn't think used to kind of be a knitting blog?