Mitered Square Knitting

I've read the excited and energetic posts on Mason Dixon Knitting about mitered squares, but I didn't understand the fascination until I knit my first one today. OMGosh! It flies off the needles because there's a double decrease every other row. I get it now!

This pattern is in Jan Eaton's 200 Knitted Blocks, but I just grabbed three colors that seemed like they'd work well together and waded in.

The single unit worked in worsted weight is about 4". I'm going to make four and sew them together to make a trivet. I took the picture into PhotoShop and rotated and pasted the quarter-units to see how it'll look.

That was fun too. I could get lost in these things, oh the possibilities!

Pasttimes

I came down with a head cold Christmas Eve day. Blargh. I've been in my glider a good part of every day, just trying to find low-energy things to pass the time.

I've got three knitting projects going, a book, a Kindle read, my laptop for Scrabble online and a stack of magazines. Despite the variety, there's still a certain boredom that comes in when one is sick. I've been gradually working my way through a LARGE collection of back issues of Threads magazines from the late 1980s and early '90s. That's been a lot of fun and I've learned a bunch of interesting stuff about knitting. I bookmark the project or technique and then take it to the laptop and research it more or make notes.

This plus so many cups of tea I feel awash, and naps of course, lots of naps.

Christmas Quilt Gifts

Gifts from my son. Hooray!

Shoreline thread collection.
505 Spray fabric adhesive.

I like this basting spray the best for it's low odor, it goes a long way and seems to wash out completely.

Merry Christmas to All!

Snowberry by Leslie

ETA: I gifted this to Frank and I for Christmas. The gift tag said, "From the Roberts house elf." He chuckled, "Who is that, I wonder?" "Open it and you'll see." When he saw the quilt I asked if he remembered it. "No. Should I?" I checked my blog and found I'd started it in 2012. I had no idea it had waited that long for the right quilting.

I pieced the binding too, it just seemed to ask for it. I was pleased to find many of the fabrics used still in my collection. Aged to perfection.

Reducing Knitter's Hand Pain

I've been plunking along on the Atwood cardigan since spring, two rows in the morning, two rows at night. It makes for slow going on garment knitting, but more than that and my right index finger shouts at me in pain. I struggled to finish the right front and wondered if it was the difficult rick-rack stitch the cardigan used, so I put it down and knitted Mom's slipper socks. Much better!

Rick Rack Stitch, July 2017

Rick Rack stitch, November 2017

Once the slippers were done, I started on the sleeve. I swatched several rib stitches similar to the rick-rack stitch and found that the mistake rib stitch looked close enough to be an acceptable alternative. I asked DH if he'd be okay with the fronts and back in rick-rack stitch and the sleeves in mistake rib stitch and he said it would fine. Back in the saddle!

Mistake Rib Stitch, December 2017

But then my thumb started to give me trouble. Please don't tell me I have to give up knitting?! I was excited to read Carson Dermer's book Knitting Comfortably, The Ergonomics of Hand Knitting. The author suggested using square needles instead of round, so I bought a set from Amazon.
 

Wowie Zow! I've never been so impressed with how much difference the right tool for the job can make. I'm knitting like a pup again. No more counting rows, with my eye on the clock to make sure I don't overdo.

I will still have to tackle the rick-rack stitch on the second front, but I'm hopeful that the cubic needles with help with that too.