more finished things

I'm a big fan of Erica Lueder's patterns on Ravelry. Many of them are "fan" oriented ones, many taking inspiration from the Harry Potter books. But they're mostly good, standard patterns with enough about them that's interesting so that you don't get bored with them.

I have made numerous (four, I think, now, which is a lot of times for me to repeat a pattern) versions of Hermione's Everyday Socks. But it's just a good pattern - it's not hard, it's easy to memorize the purl-dot stitch pattern BUT it is less boring than just plain stockinette. And the little bit of texture means there are a lot of multicolored yarns it looks good with, because the purling can break up pooling a little bit....

This is the most recent pair. I don't remember the exact brand of yarn but the colorway is called "Mineral." It's a very nice yarn - soft and knits up well. (I *think* I might have bought it at Quixotic Fibers, I don't know).



The feet look smallish in that photo, but they stretch in length. (And anyway, my feet aren't that big - I wear a 7 1/2 US in dress shoes).

Here they are on.



These took a while for me to finish - I'm pretty sure I started them on Christmas break but other projects over the months grabbed my attention and I also didn't spend as much time knitting this spring.

Another pattern by the same writer - and using the same stitch pattern - is Hermione's everyday mitts.

I have to admit: if I am knitting a small gift for someone, nine times out of ten it will be mitts. Why? Because they're FAST - I knit these up in about a day and a half (dk weight yarn, so slightly faster to knit than fingering is). And a lot of the patterns have enough stretch or give that you don't have to have exact measurements (socks are not good if they are too short or too long). Hats seem to take longer to knit....and don't even breathe a word about sweaters; I can't think of anyone I would knit a sweater as a gift for (other than maybe someone's greatly-loved dog, because dogs are small and are less fussy about fit)

But mitts. Mitts are good. The only bad thing about mitts is when you live in Oklahoma you can only wear them for maybe 1/3 of the year without them being too warm. So I will have to put these away (they are alpaca wool, so they are especially warm) until October or so...



It's the same knit-purl pattern, but in the thicker (and softer, and less-tightly-twisted) yarn, it looks quite different.

But again, this is what I think of as a good design because it's simple (elegant, maybe, is a better word, simple sounds pejorative - it's simple in the way some of the Shaker designs were simple), easily memorized, and fits well when knit up.

Here's a non-flash photo, trying to show the texture better. (I know it's dark, I tried bumping the ISO but my old camera can only do so much.)



But yeah. 10/10, would knit again.

****

I joked on Twitter last night that I was confirmed as "Pony trash*" because I had ordered the last two of the Mane Six in "reboot" form that I didn't have. ("Reboot" - they have redesigned the brushable ponies to be smaller, cuter, and I think the quality of the dollyhair they use on the manes and tails is a bit better. Fans/collectors seem to be of mixed opinions but I think I like the reboots simply because they are ridiculously cute. And they are more "dynamic" in their poses: they are not all just standing flat on all four feet)

I said I was "Pony trash but not Pony stan**" and I kinda think I need that as a tagline somewhere where a tagline would go.

(* and **: as I understand it, from context, "(something) trash" is when you are deeply a fan of it, and maybe bordering on being a bit uncritical in your fandom, where as "(something) stan" means you are uncritical of the thing you love to the point of wanting to fight people over criticisms of it. I thought originally "somethingstan" was a glancing joke about the "-stan" nations of the world, some of which are allegedly strong suppressors of free speech, but apparently it actually comes from an Eminem song that I've never heard.)

But anyway. I now have all the single-serve versions of the reboots. (I kind of want Reboot Celestia, too, but I'd have to buy a "play pack" with her and Fluttershy at this point. Maybe at some point they'll package her singly.



They all come with a tiny accessory: Rainbow has her Wonderbolts goggles, Pinkie has a cupcake, Rarity her eyeglasses, Fluttershy a tiny cute chipmunk friend, Twilight has her crown, Applejack has (guess what?) a basket of apples, Cheerilee a book, and Lyra (who is shown on the back of her package making what look distinctly like "bedroom eyes" at her "best friend" Bon Bon) has some kind of a soft drink with a straw in it. (Apparently in one of the episodes she was shown drinking one).

(Both Twilight and Applejack were "add-on items" - stuff sold less-expensively on Amazon (I think they were less than $5 each) if you buy more stuff. I was getting a couple books*** so I was able to add them on. Lyra was more, Amazon tends to do that "what the market will bear" stuff, especially through third-party sellers, but Lyra wasn't MUCH more)

Will they make others? Who knows? I kind of want there to be a Bon Bon so Lyra isn't all alone and I would love for a CMC set that matched these, but I never know what the toymakers will make.

Here are some more atmospheric, but no-flash shots (I have problems with flash washing things out; I really probably need to make a "light box" or something for photographing stuff) to show more of the close-in detail:






(*** The books were the other John Bude book that the British Crime Library has republished - "Scarweather" - and a new book I've seen highly praised, called "How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog)" which is about those famous experiments in Soviet Russia (carried out under cover of being "fur breeding experiments" so as not to rouse the suspicion of the anti-genetics, anti-evolution Lysenkoists) where they selectively bred the least vicious silver foxes over generations, and got more behaviorally-tractable animals BUT ALSO saw some of the typical "domestic dog" traits like floppy ears and spotty coats somehow getting carried along. I just started reading it and one observation that caught my attention: "We are, after all, domesticated apes." Well, yes, I suppose, if you consider neoteny and all that.....I also now find myself thinking of that Connie Willis short story about the minister who wanted to baptize an orangutan.)