Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I Love Hearts


Well, I'm not doing so well with my post writing goals for this month. For some crazy reason, I had five posts last February. I better get writing if I'm going to beat that this year. I don't have a mitten to show off just yet, but I'm within minutes of being finished with my second one again. I received so many encouraging comments about not giving up on it that I just couldn't call it quits!


Everything has gone well with my second try on my Icewine Mitten, except that I had to reknit the thumb twice. They took quite a lot of concentration, so I knit a couple of mindless projects this week while I was listening to Frankenstein  for the college class I'm teaching. I'm kind of proud of these hearts. I'm not all into Valentine's Day, but I do love hearts. I kind of made up the pattern. Most heart patterns I've seen seem to be knit in the round. I knit those little hearts in my middle picture in the round last year. I adjusted a  couple of patterns I stumbled upon for garter stitch hearts on Diary of a Novice Knitter's blog and  Katydid and Kid. Both patterns were cute, but I wanted my hearts to be three-dimentional with a crochet edge. I ended up basically following Katydid's pattern, but instead of using garter stitch, I used stockinette. I knit two of them and then used a picot crochet edging to sew both sides together.

They were the perfect project to work on while listening to a book. I think I've mentioned before that I've enjoyed using Craftlit to listen to books while I knit. I love the concept since it allows me to "read" books while doing my most favorite thing--knitting. I haven't taught Frankenstein before, so I wanted to be really familiar with it. Heather Ordover, Craftlit's creator, had discussed Frankenstein two years ago. She begins by discussing some knitting issues, and then discusses whatever book she's focusing on for the month or longer. She uses Librivox for the actual reading of the books. I enjoyed her discussion a lot of the time although I have to admit that she was beginning to annoy me a bit....OK, a lot!  She was sick for a good deal of her discussion of Frankenstein and although I admire her tenacity, I really didn't enjoy hearing her sputter and swallow into the microphone. I'm sorry, Heather, I hope you don't read this because I know you're well meaning, but it was starting to exasperate me. On the other hand, on good days, I  realy like her perkiness and love of knitting and books. She's a part-time English professor, so her discussions are particularly applicable for me.

8 comments:

Cloudberry said...

Those hearts are beautiful!

Tracy said...

Those hearts are too, too sweet...they are wonderful! Wishing you a very Happy Valentine's weekend :o) ((HUGS))

Tracy Batchelder said...

The picot edge is the perfect finish to the hearts!

Thimbleanna said...

Very cute hearts! And knitting and books -- the perfect combo! I like to listen to podcasts when I'm knitting on the go - although I haven't had a trip in quite awhile!

Heather said...

tee hee...it exasperated me too. A friend and I are going through and cleaning up the audio now. Sorry it didn't get cleaned up before you got there!
; )
And gorgeous hearts!
Heather

Kitty said...

The hearts are really cute- I love the frilly edging!

I'm glad you've decided to continue on with the mittens- they will be beautiful! I know it!

TheBlackSheep said...

Ooo! I loved Frankenstein. It's such a good book. I just wish it didn't get mangled by Hollywood all the time. Wish I could sit in on your classes.

The hearts are very cute, but then your decorations usually are. I need to buckle down and do some snowmen for next winter. Your blog always inspires me to try things like that

JayJay said...

Love the hearts! I think the crochet edge really adds a lot.