Sunday, September 15, 2013

Birthday Weekend and FO: Northlady Mittens

Scott celebrated his 29th (!) birthday this weekend!

Festivities were plentiful in the apartment, with banners, balloons, confetti, cards, and streamers that the kittens enjoyed trying to tear down.

Instead of baking a cake, I decided to try a tasty Blueberry Tart recipe (thank you, Pinterest) that turned out really well (and of course, now I can't find the link to the recipe).  Crazy rich and custardy, but really tasty!  I had enough for three little tarts, which will definitely last us a couple days.  You have to eat them in shifts.

I even went so far as to make little breakfast quiches in the morning for us- egg inside of a buttery pastry crust, with a little seasoning for fun.  Excellent breakfast surprise!  Super easy to throw together.  Next time, I plan on sauteing some mushrooms, garlic, and perhaps even throwing some ham in there to add a little extra oomph.  SO tasty!
It was pretty rainy and gross the last couple of days, so I took advantage of the oven being on to finish a little drying job that was taking a long time.

And Voila!  The Northlady Mittens are blocked, dried, and ready to be wrapped!

Pattern: Northman Mittens by David Schulz
Yarn: A white and a teal in trusty ol' Cascade 220.  The teal is actually left over from my Cable Love Sweater.
Time Period: August 14th-September 15th, 2013

Mods: The mittens are supposed to be double-layered, but the needles I used knit them to be a perfect fit without the second layer.  I'll be knitting one more pair before Christmas, and I'll definitely be going up at least one needle size so I can get that second layer on the inside.
Worst Part: Not much, really.  I'm not a big fan of the edging, so next time around I'm going to see if there's a better-looking mod I can do.

Best Part: Feeling more and more comfortable with fair isle.  The whole doing fair-isle-til-I-drop attack has really helped me feel comfortable with it.  I love the colors together, too!
Now that I've done a couple of slightly more hardcore fair isle projects, I've got plans.  I'm going to finish my Dad's Dale of Norway sweater (come hell or high water!), and set my sights on one of two more difficult fair isle projects for my after-Christmas knit.  This blanket in particular looks fantastically difficult, and I would love getting my butt kicked at the same time!

1 comment:

Mark said...

So the obstacles for knitting my Dale of Norway are Hell & High Water! I'd have thought knitting atop a fjord-like cliff as you've often done would avoid both! Then again, knitting while climbing probably requires less complex stuff. Will you be able to finish before Norway hosts the Winter Olympics again? I may want to wear it there! I'm glad to see you have not given up on it. It may become your greatest lifetime achievement!