Half Dozen

I’ve gone to town on the Christmas balls these past two weekends, and I’m caught up on my ball-a-week schedule that I set back in mid-December.

The patterns in the group are grouped in themes. The first five comprise the chapter called It will be Christmas soon and are all snow-themed. In order, from left to right, the patterns are called Snow Crystal, Frost, Snowflakes, New Snow and Snowman.

  

  

Last night I made the first in the next section, Children’s mittens. They are all taken from motifs found in mitten patterns. The first one is the Eight-Petal Rose, and is from a pattern on a child’s mitten that the authors found in the handcraft shop of the Norwegian Handcraft Association in Kristiansand.

I’m not sure if the knitted-in beads are working quite the way I expected. Close-up, they are always a little off, either sitting above or below (usually) the stitch that’s squished through them. You can see this with the silver bead in the center in the picture of the Eight-Petal Rose ball on the right. I’m hoping that when these are on a lighted tree, they’ll provide sparkle in the right places. Close up, they kind of create a blurred, jittery effect that I hope won’t be as noticeable from a distance. Perhaps I’m thinking about this too much.

So far, the Eight-Petal Rose has been my favorite. I think it’s the balance of red and white, plus, I like symmetry. The Snowman was the first one that wasn’t symmetrical from the center of the pattern, so, despite it’s spare-ness, it took a bit more concentration. Also, there were some crazy-long floats to manage in that one.

I’m still working on the men’s sweater, although the more increases I put in, the longer it takes to get across each row. The mittens, alas, are on hiatus for right now.