Learning new things

In working on a couple of projects this weekend, I've had a chance to expand my skills. The entrelac pouch that I knit up for a class I'm co-teaching in November required that I learn the brioche stitch. I really enjoyed this, once I found a tutorial on the web that explained how to knit into the stitch below. The whole back of the little bag uses this stitch, and it looks quite nice. The seams of the bag had to be slip stitched, something else new. And it required a single crochet edging along the top, which I had done once, about a year ago. Luckily, when I was working on this today at The Spinning Room, both Joan and Nancy, good crocheters, were there to give me a hand. The bag is being blocked at the moment--I'll post pictures soon.

Today I started a pair of fingerless mitts (the free Maine Morning Mitts pattern from Clara Parkes), and decided, after listing to one of the Knit Picks podcasts in which Kelley extols the magic loop method, to learn this myself. A friend's mother had given me the booklet by Bev Galeskas, and I had a long cord that works with my Denise needles. It really isn't hard at all, and I am hoping it will keep me from having the ladders I sometimes get with my dpns.

I've ordered Clara's book The Knitter's Book of Yarn, and Amazon says it will be here by Thursday (as it isn't being published until Tuesday). I am really looking forward to it, and if anything catches my eye, I hope to find a suitable yarn Saturday when I am at the New York Sheep & Wool Festival.

I finished this hat, a birthday gift for a friend, last week. It's made from a skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky that I got at 30% off. I really love this pattern.