Friday, November 2, 2007

Still life with knitting

Yes, things have been busy! And the computer means work to me these days, so it's hard to bring myself back to it in my downtime. That means fewer posts, but I've got lots of good things stored up to share sometime soon.

Now that the cool weather is here, I'm drawn back into knitting (rather than blogging or gardening) when I have a little free time. The thing is about our cute new house, it's cold! Coming from the north I'm used to lots of insulation to keep the cold out and the warm in, but I noticed one day as I stood at the top of the basement stairs that I could hear outdoor sounds as if they were indoor sounds. Hmm, why is that lawn mower so darn loud? Did I leave the window open? Nope, there's that unfinished spot in plaster where the upper stairs meet the wall where I can see the outside siding from the inside. Huh, that's funny, shouldn't there be something in the space between the plaster and the siding? Like, uh, fluffy warm stuff?

I suppose it's a good thing, considering what you read these days about indoor air pollution. No indoor air problems here! Cuz our indoor air is just like the outdoor air!

So, instead of turning up the global warming with the furnace, I've decided to knit my way through our stay in this house. First things first, I gotta keep my hands warm. I don't know about you, but my hands get so cold when I type even when the rest of me is warm. My lovely husband (I'm pleased to introduce www.billkirkpatrick.net) would tell me to put on a hat. I just might do that. But first, I'll treat the immediate symptoms with "Fetching," these lovely fingerless gloves, pattern by Cheryl Niamath and available at www.knitty.com.

Love them I do. The first one I knit was huge, the second one I knit was more reasonably sized, and so I undid the first and remade it and it's the best of the three. Part of me was tempted to "revise" the second one too but I couldn't face it. Besides, my hands were cold! Not wanting to repeat my earlier mistake with the capelet, I bought two 50g balls of Classic Yarns Cashsoft Aran (57% merino, 33% microfiber, 10% cashmere). I used just over 1 ball (although I might have been able to make it with only one if I'd knit a bit tighter from the get go). No worries, I've got a plan for the left overs (although it's not a hat, maybe I should make a matching little set for working at home on the computer...).

See, didn't I tell you the house was cute? I forgive it for being so cold since it's so cute and since it drives me to knit. What's the bad here, really?