Itty bitty and cute

Berroco has released their new Christmas ornament freebie, Minutia '14. I love little bitty things and these are their cutest yet.

Latest in my library

Both of my newest knitting books are Scandinavian and published by Trafalgar Square Books (not in London, but Vermont).

First is Viking Knits & Ancient Ornaments by Elsebeth Lavold. The designs are what Lavold calls interlace patterns. Think of gorgeous, super-complex cables. There are photographs and sketches of her inspirations. Amid Viking pieces are bits of stone made by Mayans, Roman mosaics, carvings from Nigeria, and lots more. There are patterns for some really beautiful and challenging sweaters. I have no immediate plans to make something from this book, but I expect that I will. Lavold's book Viking Patterns for Knitting is coming out in paperback next year. I've already got it on order at Amazon. Maybe I'll start with that one.

The other book is Norwegian Knits with a Twist by Arne & Carlos. I enjoyed the previous Arne & Carlos books that I have, so I knew I'd like this one. The book explains the various parts of a traditional Scandinavian sweater. It's the kind with bands of patterns and then most of the body is one color with single stitches of a contrasting color on it. I learned that the single stitches are known as lice. Somehow, I think I could've lived my life happily without that particular piece of information. The patterns are based on the traditional sweater but with the twist from the title. Light and dark switch their usual places. Sweater designs appear on hats, pillows, rugs, socks, and even a teddy bear. That last one is probably what will get me first.

Hippo Birdie 2 Me

My name is Paula and I'm a senior citizen. Words like pension and Medicare and social security are actual things that relate to my life. I'm having a bit of a problem facing this fact. Therefore, I bought myself a leather motorcycle jacket for my birthday today. I didn't buy a motorcycle. That would be completely insane. I'm sure that the first time I tried to climb on one, it would fall on top of me. I'd need one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" necklaces. (That, by the way, is something that's becoming not funny all of a sudden). Anyway, I decided that I needed a hat to go with the jacket. I found a braid of mystery fiber (I think it is wool) in shades of blue and have been spinning it. That's the blue in the picture below.

The other yarns are clue #2 in the Kaffe Fassett KAL. It's the same as clue #1 only with different colors. Bummer. I hope the squares aren't all stripes done on the diagonal. The good thing is that the rest of the yarn for the afghan has arrived. A couple of the colors are a different dye lot from the first batch. I can't see a difference between the dye lots. Even if I could, it wouldn't matter. It's highly unlikely that I'll run so low on yarn that knitting from two different lots would even touch each other.

D'oh!

I miscalculated the yarn for the Kaffe Fassett knitalong. I hate it when I do things like that. I wanted to finish the first set of squares, so I found some fingering yarn that was very close to the correct color. I knit with it doubled and it worked out. Additional yarn has been ordered so the rest of the afghan should be okay. Here's square 1: