Such delicate colors

A few days back I went to a very large yarn shop here in Milano to leave some flyers for the new Maglia-Uncinetto website. Actually I had to pay a visit to my commercialista, someone about every Italian needs to have while, for instance, in France there are only 6,000 such professionals because the tax system is easy enough that anyone can work out how much to pay for themselves. But her office is right above this yarn shop, so I took along the flyers and left them there. Obviously, I can't possibily enter a yarn shop and leave empty-handed! I bought three discounted yarns, one I had already used to knit socks twice, once again in green, because it's not so common to get a good 100% wool sock yarn in Italy, another yarn that may be fit for socks and two hanks of a really subdued baby merino yarn.

Mondial Extrafine, subdued,
really really subdued, tones

Yup. It's a baby merino, actually an extrafine merino but it's perfect for babies and I don't personally know many people who would be superglad to knit themselves an adult garment with 3 mm needles. Baby yarn. With these colors. I guess it's no surprise that it went unsold. I honestly fell in love with it, but... Geee! In a country where most moms will not dress their babies in any other color but light pink and very light blue, this yarn is bound to go unsold. While never stopping from complain the scarce courage of Italian yarn producers, always quite a bit backwards, I am honestly apalled that anyone could think that this yarn, so bright and so thin, could ever sell.

The dyslexic knitter at work (with a touch of Britishness)

Let's talk about serious stuff. In a woman's cardi, where do the bloody buttons go? On the bloody left front or on the bloody right front?

À propos de "Julie et Julia"

Meryl Streep portraying Julia Childs
and, on the right, Julia Childs herself

I was watching the first part of Julie & Julia and it started me thinking about obsessions' salvific power. Obsession can eat you out, but they offer you a place to go back to and something to hold on when things go bad. It occurred to both the main characters in the film. It occurred me several times in the eyars since I started crocheting first and then knitting: I strted crocheting because I needed something to hang from in times of trouble, and time after time I constantly find myself going back to crocheting, knitting and spinning when I start really feeling lost and empty. Obsessions can eat you out, but then they throw you up in a new shape and consistency, one more fitting to face the world. Maybe not as clean as before, though...

The "sponge" cowl

A very easy cowl for the almost.novice knitter: it just requires knitting and purling. The model was originally created for the Milan "Homeless Night". If you decide to make this cowl, plaase consider making two and mailing the second to Assieme nelle Terre di Mezzo – via Calatafimi, 10 – 20122 Milano.
The italian version of this pattern is available on the Maglia-Uncinetto.it website.



 Materials

• Dolly Maxi, 100% superwash merino wool, 50 g = 87 m, 2 balls
• 5 mm (US 8) straight or circolar needle (for knitting back and forth)
• Scissors and tapestry needle

Tensione: 15 sts × 25 rows = 10 cm (4")

Sizes: woman – 53 cm = 23" (man – 58 cm = 25") – for both the height of the cowl is 22 cm (21").

How to

C.o. 35 with long tail method; turn.

• Row 1: Sl 1st st pwise wyf, k to end; turn. 
• Row 2: Sl 1st st pwise wyf, k4, * p1, k1 *, rep from * to * to 6 sts bef end, p1, k5; turn.

Repeat these two rows throughout until the strip is 50 (55) cm long (20/22"). B.o. all sts.
Sew up the two ends in order tu obtain a ring, wash the cowl in warm water and mild detergent, dry flat.

Ambidexterous

Not very clear, is it?
Pardon me for being a lousy photographer.

I could not help it: once Knit One Knit All was in my hands I had to cast-on something, in specific the Ambidexterous Mittens. These are basically a strip of garter stitch with minimal shaping along the two ends and with a short-rowed section in the middle that turns almost maracolously into a mitten once folded and sewn, and a mitten that can be worn two ways! I am using a ball of single-ply wool-acrilyc blend fron Campolmi that my friend pm10 gifted me years ago (bless large stashes: I was already planning where I could buy the fitting yarn when this single hank fell into my hands) wich promises to blossom a little once washed. I had to tinker around with the pattern due to my extrathin hands: I opted to decrease one stitch each side soon after the thumb trick placement, which also meant that I slightly modified the short-row pattern. I am loving it anyhow!

YAY! It arrived

And it arrived pretty fast too. More EZ designs to be inspired by and learn from.

B sides and outtakes

Look at this: it's perfently double-sided! Ooow...
You work on an even number of sts, k1, slip next stitch pwise with yarn in front on all rows. I just love it. Add garter borders on the sides and a garter border on botom and top. For the garter border c.o. half the number of sts you will be working on plus the sts for the border, in the first row of the double-sided stockinette work increases instead of slipped sts and in the last row on top k2tog throughout. Lovely, as Jamie Oliver would say.

I will need, I feel the absolute need, to test it out on single rib: single rib borders all around and this double-sided stockinette. Or maybe I ought to combine it with some stitch from Barr's book.

(The full pattern in Italian will appear sometime in the future on Maglia-Uncinetto.it: it's a baby blanket from the 1870's.)