Finished Projects - At Last!!!

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I finished knitting the second fingerless mitt of the pair I started last week. Jeez....it doesn't really match up at all. They're similar, but not a total match. The one mitt ends with a bit of blue...the other with a bit of pink. I decided to go ahead and try making a THIRD mitt....this time, using my second skein of the same color, same dye lot yarn. I was determined to get a matching pair!!!

Surprise, surprise! The third mitt had even MORE diverse colors with much more of the blue coming through . Ugh! All right...this mitt won't match EITHER of the first two mitts, but perhaps I can work out a second mitt from this skein? Certainly it would HAVE matched ONE of the three!!! Right???

Well, that was not to be either. It too had no repeats of the color sequence....just like the previous skein - ARGH!!!! It also had a long streak of solid grey. UGH!!!! The second pair was even worse!!! I even spliced the yarn at one point on the second pair to try to make them match up a bit better. It improved, but was definitely not perfect.

Here's what the four mitts look like - close, but definitely NOT identical!!! The pair on the right definitely looked more like they belonged together than the others. Next time, I'll REALLY check out the yarn BEFORE I knit.....or perhaps stick to yarns where I KNOW there are the expected color repeats.


In the end, I decided that this pair was the best and sent them to my swap partner. I REALLY wanted them to match! Oh, well...at least they're somewhat similar and have the same color tones. Sigh. I think the buttons definitely add to it - I LOVE shell buttons and the glistening mother of pearl colors blend well with the pinkish lavenders and greys in the yarn.

I FINALLY sewed the piping onto the pillow I made about a year and a half ago. I hate finishing. It was all I could do to stitch the pillow shut when I finished....and the piping just had to wait until I was ready to deal with it - LOL! I used the linen stitch for the body of the pillow - it's my favorite stitch pattern for pillows. It is a bit tedious, but I really like the look and durability of the stitch. I made my own piping using two strands of Merino that repeated colors that are in the pillow. The photos really don't show the piping, but you can catch a few glimpses of it along the top and side edges. (Pillow front - left, pillow back - right)









Right now, I'm gearing up for the next round of "Nerd Wars" on Ravelry. I'm planning my dissertation and getting ready to knit my way throught the challenges! I'm hoping to be back on Team Bazinga!!! (Fingers crossed!)