Selfish Knitting Month

Last night I was browsing Ravelry forums when I came across a post about "Selfish Knitting Month". The concept is, all the presents are out, so January is a time to knit something for yourself. Makes sense, I thought I would join right in!

Joe gifted me a few different yarns for Christmas and I am slowly deciding what to do with each of them. For my 'selfish knitting' I started with the Ella Rae Latte. At first I was a little baffled by this yarn. The label lists the content fiber as: 30% baby alpaca, 30% milk fiber, and 40% microfiber. The yarn in single ply and so incredibly soft, but I was still interested in finding out what exactly 'milk fiber' is.


After doing some research, I learned a few interesting things about milk fiber. Milk yarn is made from milk protein fibers. You can read more about how milk fibers are derived from milk here. This website also claims that since milk fiber contains amino acids, it makes the fiber antifungal and antibacterial. Huh...who knew?


Anyway, back to the knitting.


Joe had purchased 5 balls of Ella Rae Latte in a beautiful orangish/pinkish/reddish color. Whatever color you call it, it seems to match well with my new mittens and I decided to make a complementary hat and cowl.


I had an idea in mind of what I wanted, but I couldn't really find a pattern to my exact specifications, so instead, I just put yarn on needles and started knitting. Result: slouchy hat and infinity cowl combo. I'm sure I will be living in these over the next couple months. Any selfish knitting for you?

Most Impressive Colorwork

Wish I had a little more time to write today, but unfortunately taxes, wholesaling, and general business needs seem to be taking me away from anything that even remotely resembles creativity these days...*sigh*


Since I haven't had a whole lot of creating time, I stole a picture of this hat that Joe is working on to show it off. I don't know about you, but I am quite impressed. I know there were a few comments on my mittens post from people who fear colorwork. Let this be an encouragement to you! Joe has only been knitting since early summer (when I forced him to learn to help with slipper production) and this is his very first go at stranding. I wish I would've tried it sooner, my mittens were only the second colorwork project I have ever attempted (the first being my little lamb sweater).

Joe does have a funny method of working his hat. He is purling all of the stitches and keeping the working yarn toward him... anyone else ever used/seen this method?

So if you are waiting to take the colorwork plunge, time to jump in- you'll be in good company!

Bickford Seam Video Tutorial

My big plans for this week included having these videos up a few days ago. Unfortunately, uploading video to my computer/youtube was not as easy as I expected. After a few redos, I think we're finally ready to roll! Let me know if you have any questions, hope this is helpful!














And for those of you who enjoy spacial relations- here's is a quick 'road map' of the direction of the seam:

And here you can see a portion of the seam in a different color:

Girly Mitts

Good News- my "Lonely, Partial Mitten" is no longer lonely or partial! I loved these mittens(and all the mittens from Slebuvotter) ever since I started them. I have been dying to get back to them, and I was happy to have a few free days to see them to completion.



So here's the stats:

Pattern: NHM #7 mitts with NHM #9 thumbs from Selbuvotter
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Raspberry Heather, Blossom Heather, and Golden Heather(less than 1 skein of each)
Needles: Size US 2/2.75 mm

And of course, I wouldn't leave you without the innards:

If you don't already have the book, it's a must-have! Lucky for you, it happens to be 40% off at Knit Picks right now! So throw Selbuvotter, the yarn, and the needles in your cart and you are already half way to free shipping and a totally enjoyable weekend of knitting!

Holiday Highlights

Since I left for over a week, I feel that it's only fair to catch you up on what has been filling my schedule. Here are some of my favorite moments from my week off:

Christmas Eve night spent quietly at home.

The Gosselin girl's design summit '09. Yes, my maiden name is Gosselin, and no, I don't know Jon, Kate, or any of the 8! My sisters, Mother and I went through knitting patterns, color books, and clothing catalogs to get design ideas for knitwear. We didn't accomplish all that much, but it was still a lot of fun!

'Big kid' sleep over complete with Pizza, strawberry milk, and the Princess Bride.




Best friends(who live over 1000 miles away from each other) with matching hats and mittens (crocheted by my Mother-in-Law).



The simple pleasure of playing in a big box.






Having my whole family together (I wish it could happen more often):
I did take a break from all the slipper making and managed to complete a pair of mittens for myself. I almost forgot how much I love knitting for fun! I have already been wearing them all over town...pictures tomorrow!