What I made, by Sharon

  The second item in Romi Hill's Acts of Kindness Oddments Knitdown subscription is a hat knit with two strands of mohair and an 8ply background. Perfect, I love using up bits and pieces of left over yarn. The pattern uses a simple and not tight tubular cast on. One I appear to have failed with before, but it worked here. Can't explain it. The hat took two nights to knit, one at knit night, and I'm always too busy talking to make much progress at knit night! It's lovely pattern, and a really great way to use up leftovers. I was going to make two, but I think I left the yarn at the pub! Not important, since I'm going back next week, so if they have it they will give it back, and if they don't, I guess that's one way to destash! 

You may remember the Great Oddments Knitdown by Romi Hill.  Over the last 12 months she has, as promised, delivered 16 lovely patterns, of which I have, so far knit six of them, so it's been a successful project. One of the fun things about this project is that some of the patterns are not things I would necessarily have thought of to knit - there are beaded pulse warmers , a pincushion and a bath set . This last one caught my interest. I've never knitted washcloths for myself, but I thought it might be fun, more from a process point of view than because I needed a hand knitted lace washcloth. I cast on the washcloth on Sunday, and after a couple of hours in the sun on Elise's balcony with a glass of wine, I had this lovely scrap of lace. It was so satisfying to knit lace that I started queuing some serious lace shawls. I also knit the matching soap sack, just because I could. I've filled it with those itty bitty ends of soap that I did't know what to do...

So, Elise had a birthday. By coincidence, she  asked me a couple of weeks ago to make her some mitts, so I made Romi Hill's Gingerbread mitts.Like the rest of the Great Oddments patterns these were quick, easy, look amazing and were fun to knit. And Elise loves them, so its a win all round.

I finished Leon's mitts and have nothing but happy things to say about both the yarn and the pattern , which is was the next Great Oddments Knitdown  pattern, by Romi Hill.. I did make a couple of tiny little changes to this wonderful Romi Hill pattern: I knit them cuff up, I added a thumb gusset, I cast on one less repeat and I used a different cast on and cast off from the one specified in the pattern. So, some functional changes, but they look like the design, they match the hat, and I'm so, so happy with them.

As usual on a Wednesday, except it's Thursday already - I'm doing Yarnalong with Ginny.        This week I'm still enjoying what I'm knitting, reading and listening to. I'm still listening to The Woman in White ,   I'm about two thirds of the way through and it is very dramatic.   I'm reading Final Empire , which is the first of the Mistborne Trilogy by Brendan Sanderson.   It's an epic fantasy trilogy and I'm really enjoying it. It's been a long while since I read a really great, fantasy novel. I've only just started this, but I'm already finding it hard to put down.   I'm knitting Romi Hill's Great Oddments knitdown Gnarled Entling mitts , out of handspun , to match the hat I made Leon. . Loving this, although I have made some changes to the pattern.   And that's it for this week. Pop over to Ginny's blog and check out what she, and everyone else is knitting and reading this week.  

Remember Romi Hill's Great Oddments Knitdown Gnarled Entling Headband? I decided to turn the headband into a hat for Leon's winter set. So, I knit up the headband, picked up stitches around the edge and the knit the top of the hat, using Elizabeth Zimmermann's decreases for the crown.     And I LOVE IT. I'm so happy with how this handspun is knitting up, it feels really structurally sound, but its still soft. The possum gives it an amazing halo, which I think goes really well with the soft waves of the pattern.   Right, now off to the pub to cast on the matching mitts.

I've been spinning away on bobbin four for Leon's winter set, and I finished it today. This is no great achievement, since as you can see, this bobbin is less than half full. Also, I'm on leave for two weeks, and my intention is to spin every day, even if it's only for a few minutes.   Yesterday Romi Hill released her latest Oddments patterns, which are a headband/earwarmer and some mitts . I think they will work very well with this handspun for Leon's winter set. my intention is to add a top to the earwarmer, to make it into a beanie, use the stitch pattern to make a scarf and knit the mitts, at least, as written.

A week or so ago, Romi Hill announced that she was launching another ebook subscription, The Great Oddments Knitdown . Since I am both trying to reduce my stash, and I'm in love with pretty much everything Romi designs, I was in. The first pattern was released in Saturday, and I had absolutely nothing on the needles. (I actually haven't seamed Spice Road, but that's because I've discovered I've stuffed up the shoulders, and a small amount of reknitting is required.) Saturday was not my happiest day. I ruined a suit by cutting one trouser leg too short when hemming - such a rookie error. Roadworks were happening on the street directly outside my house, and I dropped a dozen eggs - some of them survived, but it was pretty symptomatic of my day. So, when the pattern was released, I cast on immediately. The first pattern is a beanie, with a giant pompom. this makes me very happy, because I currently do not have a single hat with a pompom. On Saturday I got through th...