Small Gauge Knitting Can Be Fun!!

It's been a busy week here at the Little Dudes abode in Toronto. They continue to enjoy the good, well rounded life, complete with sleeping, eating and cuddling.

Gandalf is quite oblivious to the fact that it takes two hands to type.

Knitting has been all small gauge, all the time. I've been working on Mermaid:

"You're lying all over it...I'm telling! Mom! Gandalf's lying on Mermaid and he's playing with the yarn!"

Um, don't know if you can tell with the furry little animal draped all over Mermaid, but what you see represents the left front, back, and right underarm section. I'm now up to the first right front gusset. The end is near! And for you ladies doing an unofficial Mermaid KAL later this year - nowhere near as complicated as it may seem. The worst part will be having to weave in the stray bits at the bottom. You need to clip the main colours when changing to the medium blue for the gusset. The part I'm least looking forward to? Figuring out how that i-cord is attached on the last row of the body. You start with an i-cord on the left front, easy enough, and then you end it all with an i-cord on the last row. Still got to figure that one out...

And Laleli! Ooooo! How I love her! The colours are so vibrant, and the design so addictive. The above picture represents the first 40 or so rounds of the main pattern, and around 8 short of the completed chart. Very, very lovely... I'll say this much about Jade's designs - they are colourful, imaginative, and brilliant. Whereas her mother is more "traditional", she takes the traditional and makes her own splashy mark on it. Despite the 10 different yarn colours, I don't think this one could be classified as a true Fair Isle (Lorraine, Marina or Anne could probably say for sure); this seems to me more of a stranded design due to the lack of Fair Isle motifs.

Moving on.

What else?

Now, this is going to be difficult to photograph - but for now, that's all you need to see. 'Cause that's all there is. Fulmar! My dream Aran, finally. After having the yarn in my stash for what seems like forever, I took advantage of a Fulmar KAL that started up on the 1st of October to get her going. OK. I have a bit of a secret here. She's not as difficult as she looks. Seriously. There is nothing too complex as far as the cabling is concerned. But, I'll say this much - at 236 stitches a row (yes, 236) on 3mm needles, she won't be done in time for Christmas... And that's what makes it seem overwhelming. But, AS separates each chart, and gives you the chart sequence you need to follow. All you do is follow the charts (with my trusty Post-It notes), and that's it. There are no charts with more than 20 stitches. I always say that the best way to tackle what seems to be a complex project is to break it down into smaller bits, so that it doesn't seem so overwhelming. It's just going to be looooong knit. The ribbing? Done on 2.75mm needles, at 196 stitches a row. Took around 7 hours total.

*sigh* I loves her too...

Now, if I could only apply the same principle to lace knitting... Thanks for all your support re. the debacle that was Grace! Ugh... I don't want to even contemplate the simplest of eyelet patterns at this point.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in Canada, giving us a nice long weekend. I'm thankful for a lot in my life, and particularly happy this year that Chris came out of her surgery just fine! Yay Chris! So, if you haven't already, go pop by and say hey!

To all my Canadian friends - Happy Thanksgiving!