Yarn

Day 13/365 – Fingerless Gloves & Beta Yarn

A few more rounds (12 or so) and my first fingerless glove will be completed! I meant to finish it before I had Nugette, but alas time has never really been on my side, there always seems like there’s so much to do and so little time to get it all done in. That being said I’ve still managed to eek out some knitting moments here and there between nursing and all the rest to get a few rounds in, and hopefully the first fingerless glove will be completed before too long so I can finally post my review of this amazing yarn I’ve been beta testing.

Day 11 – Mitered Memory Blanket

I finished my first panel of 3×3 squares for my memory blanket and am working (very slowly) on my second panel. Only 3/9 squares are done so far, but it’s not supposed to be a very fast project. Once I have a few more 3×3 panels I’ll try different joins to see which one I prefer. I’m anticipating a heavy black border around the outside and between each panel, but we’ll see what looks best. The squares are looking more uniform and are getting slightly faster for me to do now that I’ve got 12 under my belt, too. I almost wish I were doing these squares in a heavier yarn so that it would knit up faster. I do have a patter for one from knitpicks which I may end up attempting (eventually) but we’ll have to see.

In the meantime, craft on!

Day 8 – Zesty Hoisin Chili Beef

Meal two from Hello Fresh was hoisin beef, which I was really excited about. Some of my favourite flavours are right there on the plate, and unlike Chef’s Plate where I found the meals almost too small for two people, this one meal seemed gigantic. It could have easily created 4 meals for myself (but of course I shared with the husband, so it came to less than that).

It was easy to prepare, didn’t take many ingredients, and was still packed full of flavour. So far Hello Fresh is shaping up to be one of the better meal delivery services I’ve tried. I do have a basket order of Good Food coming in next week, a family member gave me a coupon for an entire free trial of food (3 meals for 2 people) and they look REALLY fancy. It’ll be interesting to compare and see how the food is. From my cousin’s description she enjoys the flavours of Good Food but the meats in Hello Fresh are incredible.

Either way, it’s great to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to food. Being pregnant and running after a 2 year old all day means that I tend to stick to simple meal plans that I know we’ll enjoy and I can whip up without too much thought. That doesn’t leave a ton of room for creativity. Trying new foods and new flavours is great. Portion size is under control since they send me all of the ingredients, and it’s cheaper than buying fresh produce where I live. I understand that the price of these services is not something everyone wants to pay for, but in my case some weeks it’s simply worth it (plus I’ve only been trying out these services when they’re on sale at a hefty discount. I paid $32 for both Hello Fresh and Chef’s Plate, and Good Food is free… you can’t really go wrong with those prices).

Day 7 – Fingerless gloves

If you ever want to knit something that impresses your friends but is actually quite simple – I highly suggest you look into cables. Cables are a really simple type of stitch that LOOK really complicated, but it’s nothing more than knitting out of order. You typically put a few stitches on a stitch keeper, move it to the front or back of your piece, and then knit the next stitches, then go back and knit the ones you put on your stitch keeper.

That’s it.

It looks complicated watching someone else to do it because you’re dealing with extra needles and/or a stitch keeper hanging out some place, but the stitch itself is simple and you can typically just ignore whatever bit you’re not working with. The overall effect is fancy and impressive. My fingerless gloves are about half way done and I’m slowly working gusset increases for the thumbs. The yarn is a merino / bamboo blend that knits up wonderfully and shows the stitches off – exactly what I was hoping for. I expect this gloves will get a lot of use (I hate full gloves that cover my fingers) and it’s the first time I’ve attempted gloves at all, so I’m pretty proud. For some reason I’ve found them more intimidating than the sweater I knit as well as socks. Probably because I have to knit them on DPN and that can be an awkward procedure (I know I could knit them on 2 circulars, or a smaller circular, or do magic loop, but I’m quite comfortable working with DPN so why not).

I’m also contemplating starting up some Christmas knits early. In specific christmas balls to go along with the Star Wars themed one I knit last year. I’d like a set of 6 (I have one), and I’d like to knit christmas balls for everyone in the family with their names and birthday on it. We’ll see how that goes (if it goes).

Nomadic Gamer