NoJoMo 19 in Those Public Entries

You’ve inherited a pair of magic knitting needles from your dotty Auntie Doris - unfortunately, that’s all the information you have. What happens next?

Ooh, more knitting needles! Round? Double-pointed? Are they made from carbonized bamboo? I hope so, those smell really good. And they’re magic? Okay, I want to make a sweater. Specifically, I want a fitted black turtleneck, to replace the one I have that has a hole that I keep forgetting to fix.

…Um. Now might be a good time to mention, I started knitting this year. So far, I’ve made a set of felted coasters, from a ball of green wool yarn I inherited; a scarf, two cowls, and five (5!) sets of seven days of face pads. I’m using Lily Sugar n’ Cream cotton yarn for these¹; right now, I have a variegated pink set, variegated blue, green, purple, orange, and I’m almost finished with a variegated purple set. After that, I’m going to decide between the mistletoe, psychedelic, or black and white yarn for the last set. These are going to be Christmas gifts for my family, though I don’t know if my brother or stepdad will be interested. My mom already said she wanted a set, I’m guessing my sister-in-law and nieces will want one. …Well, my older niece, they’re 14 and getting into skin care. My 7-year-old niece might not care so much. (I’ll let everyone who wants a set mix and match their own colors.)

I’m planning on starting a sushi scarf once I’m finished with the face pads. Any face pad sets that are left over, plus the scarves and cowls, I’ll use to put together an Angel Tree kit.

Oh, and I made a washcloth with a reverse ridge stitch, just to see if it would work with my method. I knit Russian/Eastern style, mostly, because it’s faster than English, and I’m still learning to purl Continental. The reverse ridge did work, but the tension is off in the middle. The needles I used were too big (5mm; the label on the yarn recommends 4.5mm, which I’m currently using for the face pads); my next washcloths will be made with smaller ones.

I’ll try to get pictures of all my knitting projects this week. I’m actually pretty pleased with them, apart from the first variegated blue face pad holder. The pattern calls for a garter stitch, which I’d been doing, but I wanted to see how the holder would look with stockinette stitch. Verdict? …Not bad, but not as sturdy as the holders that were garter stitch. So I’m going to keep the stockinette holder for my own set.

¹The pattern says to use a scrubby cotton yarn, but I think those would fall apart after a fairly short time and enough washes. Plain cotton yarn can stand up to almost anything; my grandmother had a knitted/crocheted cotton dishcloth for as long as I can remember. Given that she didn’t throw anything away unless it was falling apart, that dishcloth could have been older than me.