Author: mousearmy

Electric Trilobite Cowl

I have some casual hopes to get some photos that a) show this cowl on a human body-ish shape, so you can see how it’s worn and how it looks on, and b) don’t have my dog’s behind in the background (that’s kind of like, her flank, I think, but still), but those are very casual hopes right now. Holidays have me running pretty far behind where I’d like to be, but at least the year is starting out strong-ish, I guess.

Trilobite Cowl/Collar.

(Incidentally, this has an obvious scarf potential. I’m thinking about making a minor change to the eye (well, button) placement, and it may work better in a scarf. I’d need to buy new yarn, though, and I am pretty hesitant to do that. Would anybody be in on a trilobite-scarf-along?)

Outlander Background Woolworker #7 Mitts.

I’ve been working on my Outlander mitts since October, and the pattern is finally finished: you can find it here. The name is a little sardonic at the moment, since I’ve always been oddly uncomfortable referencing the occasional costume designer’s decision to use my work: it’s so exciting and so cool and there’s a sense of being really well-appreciated because the designers themselves are easy and enjoyable to work with—it’s always been a really good experience. It’s the ideal way for a shy person to be on TV.

Which is to not be, at all.

But I feel like once I slowly, gradually catch on as to why someone is making an unusually large order or wants four of x given thing (or get told), I can’t tell if it’s a secret or not. I guess since no one’s ever actually asked me to be hushed about it, I can admit to one brief brush with fame from years ago. The potential for it to be effectively self-promotional has probably faded.

Anyway, the most interesting thing about this mitt design is that they appeared very briefly in Outlander. It was a long time ago, in the first season, I think. You can see them, knit in moss green Patons Classic, on the lady to the lower left of your screen.

(Incidentally, if you do costume design, and would like to use my pieces in your work, I’m always thrilled to know, and would also not tell anyone if you asked me not to. Conversely, I’d probably tell everybody if you asked me to. So.)

October Wrap-Up.

Somebody is having some late-in-the-month focus problems.

I’m supposed to be finishing two gloves/mitts patterns; I really had strong ambitions to have something actually stripey ready in time for Halloween, when stripeyness is particularly appropriate, and I honestly do not think that is going to happen—I’ve knit those particular gloves dozens of times at this point, but I haven’t made any in the past year, so I’d need to finish the pattern, polish it up, find the DK wool I’m sure I have but apparently do not have in the DK section of the yarn box, and knit a pair—and then if that all worked out, the pattern would be ready for other people to see. And I could’ve finished the plain mitts/armwarmers, because the main work involved in those was just paring the pattern back down to one size—but then I had this Great Idea for fingerless gloves that are not basic or straightforward at all by comparison (they’d be knit flat), and I think I tried not to pursue it; you cannot get things done if you go running in every direction and don’t manage your time.

As a result of this, I am now knitting a blanket from cotton I literally found while trying to clean and organize. It is a little confusing. I am not sure I can retrace how I got here.

ANYWAY, on the up side:
1) There is basically no way I can finish a blanket by tomorrow. I don’t even like knitting with cotton, generally, which is why I was capable of having full-sized balls of it to feel guilty and weird about. This blanket would be way nicer in wool.
2) It is a pretty nice blanket all the same, and it is going to be easy to tweak the numbers for a scarf, and both of these are different enough from the base design (I was trying to use Feather as a template, but I made a lot of changes, ending up with a best-of-both hybrid between it and One Row Chevron Scarf; if you’ve bought either in the past, I think this pattern will be set up to be $1-2 or free to you). The working title is ORFCBS (one row feather chevron blanket scarf), so that’s pretty awesome and sounds very polished and professional.

Also I knit a hat

and have a finished pattern for that as well, pending some revision. It’s got two sizes, one for grownups and one for babies.

Dish Mat.

The Dish Mat knitting pattern is live! It’s pretty nice when it’s done, but to be honest, I find the braid technique a little tedious; if I want to move forward with my hilarious scarf version of this (called, obvious, Dish Mat Scarf), I’ll have to find a way to make them a little more tolerable. I’ve already got one option, so it’s looking at least somewhat promising.