In Progress: Corporate Synergy Gray Glovelets

I'm working on a solution to my freezing fingers at work. Now that it's winter, it's been a little warmer in the office, so my deadline for these is closer to April, when they'll start cranking the AC.

Since they're office accessories, and the yarn I want to use happens to be gray (Jo Sharp calls it "opal" - see below), I decided they're "corporate gray," like so many suits at so many meetings.

Also, I am infatuated with cable knits, and I like the idea of the pattern having a collaboration theme, which works well for a cable pattern. In this pattern, there are two cables which come together from opposite sides of the mitt, twist a bit, and then part again. It reminds me of a lot of my projects at work: I find someone with whom to collaborate - often from a completely different part of the organization - we work together and do great things, and when the project is over, we go our separate ways. As for the title, well, I'm working on my career evaluation package, so my head is full of buzz words. And the more buzzwords, the better, right? ;)

I had some left-over hanks of gorgeous Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran that I had bought on sale from Webs and used in a couple projects for my tiny baby daughter. It's 85% wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere and it feels like a warm, cozy dream. Webs no longer sells Jo Sharp yarns (this was a long, long time ago that I bought it), and Jo Sharp apparently no longer makes Silkroad Aran in Opal. I'd look for an alpaca/wool blend with a similar gauge, if I were going to do this again.

This is the second time I'll have made the left glove. Last time, there were some things I realized I could have done better, and by the time I got into the right glove, I couldn't stop thinking about how this could be so much better. So I frogged what I had done on the right, and re-started. That first left mitt is a lost cause, but I'll keep it around in case I need to steal its yarn (though I should have plenty).

When I land on a pattern I'm happy with, I'll post here and on Ravelry, where you can find my other original pattern, too. I'm making myself finish this and the shawl from hell (not my pattern, for the record) before I start on anything else, so it should be done soon-ish.

The Answer is Socks... And Rain

Today was cool and rainy. A perfect day for knitting and a movie. I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with Thing One and worked on her socks.

I'm having to adjust the pattern - apparently I counted wrong on my gauge swatch (you know, the one I didn't do - I just started knitting the socks and stopped after a while and counted stitches and rows). There's no way that sock isn't going to be too long if I do 30 rounds of increases like I'm supposed to... but even so, I'm having ton of fun.

I've decided to make socks for everyone! Thing Two and DH and me. DH says he doesn't care about the pattern - I had been thinking of doing something with cables for him - but since he doesn't care, I'll stick with the plain old socks like I'm making for the Things. DH's feet tend to get hot, but these will be winter socks, so they need to be a little warm. I chose the Naiad in Espresso Roast. I figure the 70% Superwash merino will make them warm, the 10% nylon will keep them tough, and the 20% Bamboo will help wick moisture away. I hope. I bet he loves it, but i do hope it looks a little more brown than the gray that's in the picture.


Thing Two has a serious passion for red and black. I had originally thought the Ruby, Ruby Dragon sock would be best for the color, but I wasn't sure the yarn, 100% Merino, would be as durable as in the Djinni Sock, which has nylon mixed in for durability, so that's what we landed on. Thing Two put some serious holes in the last pair of socks I knitted him.

For myself, I chose the Crack In The Wall in Djinni. I know it'll be just like Thing One's socks, and I like the way it feels. Also, I love the colors. And, there's the thing about it being Djinni sock yarn for Djinn. And I'm pretty darn sure the color name is a reference to Dr. Who, which I also completely dig. I'm thinking some kind of lace. Just a little bit. Probably, I'll pick a pattern from one of the books a friend recently gave me, or from my favorite lace stitchionary. I'm so completely psyched. ... but I have got to get back into my spinning, too, because I have got some awesome roving and new bobbins, and the beginning of an excellent support net.

Flower Pot

My wonderful mother-in-law has sent on at least one occasion (and I think it's been twice, now) a lovely arrangement of plants which usually survives under my tender care for, oh, 6 or 7 weeks. They're lovely. They bring me joy and they're so green and happy-looking in their decorative basket, and I kill them so quickly.

I even managed to kill the cacti I had for my office.

That's ok - soon, we won't be allowed to have flowers or plants on our desks, anyway. They're changing the rules, or deciding to enforce existing rules, or something.

So, I was thinking, I could knit a flower/plant arrangement. They're unkillable, and if I do it right, I can avoid so much as dusting it for at least a year. I could do a leaf or a blossom per week and work on my longer projects between. I would arrange them in a decorative basket. I would use florists wire or a straightened coat-hanger in the stems, depending on the stem. This could end up really awesome.

And there are a GAJILLION patterns out there for flowers and leaves. I could do this. Really. I could see them in all different yarns and colors and textures... maybe even some felted.