Weekend Project

I have been busy working on finishing the Mona Lisa.  The goal is to have the picture completely finished before 2016 and it looks like I'm going to make the deadline.  I am stitching morning and night but the end is in sight.  Only two and half more pages to stitch and most of that is black (Mona Lisa's dress) so that will go very quickly.  Mona Lisa is not yet finished and I am already planning and setting up my next project.  That's what it's like to be me!  My next project is every bit as challenging as the Mona Lisa.  I have really enjoyed watching a famous work of art slowly come to life as I stitched so I just had to stitch my favorite painting-Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhone. The colors are beautiful shades of blue, green and violet.  Starry Night is a Scarlett Quince pattern and uses a lot of blended colors.

Only two and half pages left!

This weekend I took a break from the Mona Lisa to knit a pair of mitts (finger-less gloves).  Last year I decided that these would be very useful to wear indoors or to layer under mittens. While I have several patterns for mitts with beading and fancy stitches, I just wanted a plain pair.  Webs (yarn.com) had a suitable pdf pattern on their website.  I chose to knit Valley Yarns Essential Mitts.  The pattern is easy and suitable for a beginner.  The M1L and M1R stitches (make one left, make one right) might be confusing but You Tube has an excellent tutorial.  My mitts were knit in Madeline Tosh DK merino wool in the Fathom color.  I was able to knit both mitts in a weekend which would make them suitable for a gift or stocking stuffer.

Finished Mitts

Now that the mitts are finished I am already planning my next knitting projects.  I can't wait for my Malabrigo Rastita yarn to arrive from Jimmy Beans Wool so I can start knitting the Odonata hat that was featured on Malabrigo's blog.  The pattern is available from Owl and Cat Designs on Ravelry.

In a few days I will also start working on a ballet wrap sweater.  Now that it's getting colder outside, the Yoga studio is so cold.  After pricing sweaters for Yoga and running jackets at a local sporting good store, I decided to knit my own sweater.  I stopped by Michaels to buy some yarn.  I chose Patons Classic Wool in deep purple.  The total cost of the wool was about $25, much better than the $90 price tag at the sporting goods store.  I am in the process of re-writing the hand knit instructions to instructions for the knitting machine.  The sweater has seed stitch ribbing which I will knit by hand.