OFF the Needles

Knitters often write about projects that are "OTN", "On the Needles". Well, this has been a week for me to get projects OFF the needles, either because they were done, like the double-knitted socks (which I've already worn and thrown in the laundry), or because I was done, like this red doily.



This is the doily from Judy Gibson's "Circular Feather-and-Fan Cloth" page. It is supposed to have more rounds of the little groups of three yarnovers, but -- I just got tired of the RED! So I cast it off and put the needles away.

I'm working on a pair of mittens for my husband. Last year I made mittens for our son, and mittens for myself, and somehow never any for him! So this year, he gets a pair of purple mittens (his choice) which I hope he won't ruin stacking firewood. I am sorry, yarn snobs, they are purple acrylic. Caron Violet Tones 601, to be specific, the same yarn I knitted Knitty's "Hallowig" out of.

In truth, I find the squeaks of horror over my using acrylic pretty amusing. I know my husband, and he's not going to treat his mittens with kid gloves. (Oh, you know what I mean.) So they will need to be washed. And yes, I've heard of superwash wool, but I live in SW Outer Nowhere, where the "LYS" is Wal-Mart. I literally could not find purple Lion Brand Wool-Ease in three stores I checked in. At that point, the squeaks of horror were mine!

I still have the purple, lace-experiment scarf going. I should finish that one: on size 11 needles, it will probably take fewer knitting hours than the mittens.

What else is OTN? Um, my miser's purse, that's been set aside in favor of winter/Christmas knitting and tatting. The hat I started, first crown-down, then brim-up, and I am still unsure of it. It might be getting frogged A-gain. My lace ball, but I now have a nice new set of Susan Bates size 2 needles, which do not have annoying chipped coating on the points like the Boye ones. So I will probably try to work in a repeat or two of that.

Probably other stuff if I rooted around and looked! And now I better go do some of that knitting!